BOGOF!!!

Some of you may remember one of my early posts and my great distress at the lack of the BOGOF (or the buy one get one free) here in NZ. Well, today, I achieved it! I found a BOGOF and I made use of it AND it was on shoes. Oh yes! And they were very cheap shoes so I got two pairs of shoes for the princely sum of $10 (around about £3.50). It may turn out that they aren't the best quality in the world (ahem) but I really don't think that is the point now is it?!
You know how shoe shops give names to shoes that can appear rather peculiar (or make absolute sense depending on the day and the shoe)? Well, one of the pairs I bought today is called "Wapy Boo". Which I think is great. There was a whole series of "Boos"...Rappan Boo, Jivan Boo, Crumble Boo, Petit Boo, Gotit Boo...The list goes on and on. Although I did buy the shoes I wanted, I have to confess I was at least a little influenced by the name Wapy Boo!
I'm generally chipper today because I have been ACHIEVING. As well as the shoes, I've bought all the embroidery silks I need to finish off (when I say "finish" I really mean get beyond having only just started) the picture of the pigs (sigh, how I miss my beepling boopling guinea pigs), been to the library and acquired two new books (one that is the second in a series I read the first of a few years ago and have been very keen to read, t'other is the first in a series that has recently been recommended to me), bought a wedding present (for the wedding we are going to next weekend), bought apples (so I can make apple cake this afternoon), run the dishwasher (because it needed doing) and washed some clothes (ditto). So now I think it must be lunch time! Yum!

Summer is here at last! Quick, get inside!!

So yes, the sun is back out again today and I'm almost getting used to it being here. It hid yesterday and Sunday but we've had more days of sun than not in the last week. Which means now I'm studiously hiding indoors (as the forecast told me I should) until it gets to at least 4pm and it is safe to venture out again...
Today and yesterday have been a little peculiar. I don't feel quite at liberty to go to great lengths here as some of what I would need to say to fully explain perhaps shouldn't be in such a public realm (no, that doesn't mean it was really interesting and you'd really want to know...trust me. Dull as.). But the point is that it has left me feeling rather tiz-wozzy. All het up over nothing. This morning I got myself all in a tangle over some bagpipes (Rather a long story, best not to ask). Fortunately this particular incident was resolved for me. Phew. The distressing thing in this though is that I seem to have picked up my big bag of stress again. Which wasn't in the plan at all. The trouble is that there are rather a lot of things that aren't in the plan currently. Like where we will be living in 6 months time. What jobs we will be doing. How we will have made it from this point to that point (particularly around the 5 month point). Ugh. And thus the other things not in the plan like "picking up big bag of stress" and "fretting day and night over each possible option" seem to be squeezing themselves in through a back door.
Yesterday Husbink decided it was time to find me some challenges. An educational one, a sporty one, a crafty one, a spiritual one and a miscellaneous one. For the educational one, I am considering a night class in Maori culture and language. For the crafty one...hmm...I'm maybe going to borrow a sewing machine and attempt to make some covers for our sofas....MAYBE! The sporty one was languishing a bit as Husbink realised that actually he just had lots of sporty goals for himself and hadn't really thought of one for me...And we didn't get as far as the spiritual or miscellaneous goals. And then there is always the question of THE GOAL. What is my main aim? Snoo asked me this today too. And I kind of wonder if all these little goals (not these ones necessarily but similar sized goals) might be my big goal. For whatever reason, I don't seem to be able to beat the stress monster, at least not yet and so perhaps my goal needs to be always maintaining reasonable, achieveable goals. Not allowing the cultural need for careers and money-making and so on to over ride health needs.
I strongly suspect I'm not making any sense but it has been helpful to me to do the writing. Cheers!

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig...

I'm feeling a little un-waffly at the moment which is unusual I know...so this may just be a bit of news for you and some pics as I've been remiss on them for a while...
We got back yesterday from a few nights away in Martinborough - just an hour away from here but over the hills so quite different landscape and weather. And a boutique wine growing region. We were in need of a bit of a break for a number of reasons and so grabbed the chance and it was very refreshing. Wednesday was lousy weather here but it got a bit better, or at least a bit warmer as we went over the hill (once we'd come down from being in the clouds again...) and we were quickly settled into our little cottage.
We had a pootle round town and spent some time in the tourist information place trying to work out what to do the next day. Then we ate cake. :) Before a snooze. Before more eating. It was a good day!
On Thursday, we were unable to believe how nice the day was and so set off for a long walk between various vineyards with too warm clothing on and not enough water. But the vineyards supplied us with bottles of water and we stayed in the shade as much as we could and mostly survived. We tasted I think 11 different wines. All very interesting, really quite a different texture and so on to northern hemisphere wines. But I'll keep my wine waffle to myself and just say it was yummy and we were happy. We had lunch at one vineyard which was very tasty and whiled away the afternoon at another, sitting under the shady rose-covered gazebo.
Generally a very good break. Until we were just about to fall asleep on the second night at which point I suddenly became allergic to something. No amount of antihistamines or nose blowing could relieve me and it wasn't until we'd been home again for about six hours that I returned to feeling normal. That wouldn't stop me going back though.
We stopped for a brief walk on the way home on Friday but with my lack of being able to breathe, I wasn't really in the zone. Pretty flowers though.



Once home, Husbink had to go to sleep cos he's on nights this weekend (starting last night) so I had to attempt to make our costumes for a fancy dress party in the evening. We had to go as something beginning with F. We went as flies. This was Husbink's idea. I was initially unimpressed but ultimately got into it...we had six legs, wings, goggles for eyes and antenna. We accept this may not have been entirely accurate but felt we needed something on our heads...sadly, there are currently no pictures of me. So one of Husbink will have to do (we gave up on having the goggles on our eyes very quickly!)





Hmm, you can't really see much of the costume can you? Hey ho...I've uploaded it now and that has sapped half my life away so I'm not going to delete it!

Catching the sun...

It is officially the worst summer in New Zealand since...well, there are various different statistics being thrown around like "coldest December since 1946", "worst summer since records began", "average December temperature 2006: 12.9C; average December temperature 2005 17.9C", "Boxing Day 2006: 14C; Boxing Day 2005: 25C". You get the idea.
Apparently it is all El Nino's fault. In an El Nino year, Australia gets extra specially dry. There are more forest fires (particularly in Victoria) that mean that we end up getting south-westerly winds straight off the antarctic rather than the balmy northerlies that should be coming off Brisbane and the like for us at this time of year. Hey ho. (Note: I can't entirely remember where I heard this. It may not be FACT. But it makes me feel better that at least there is a reason.)
So I've been in big jumpers, the heating has been on...grump! (For those in the northern hemisphere, you have to remember, this ought to be our July...)
Anyway, yesterday, the sun did come out. If had been threatening for a few days and not quite making it but yesterday turned out glorious. So glorious that, when combined with the lifted weight of a sermon out of the way following Sunday morning, I suggested to Husbink that we cycle down the river path to Petone and go to the Screaming Turtle cafe for lunch and then play on the beach.
As we were still in the grip of a southerly, the cycle there was reasonably like work but not too hard. Lunch was yummy. And then we tried to go to the beach. But it was so cold on the front that there ended up instead being some hasty re-texting of friends to arrange meeting back at our house for garden cricket instead of on the beach for sand castles and "running away".
The cycle home was fantabulous. Wind behind us we flew along the river track. Much fun. And just my kind of cycle - mostly flat but with little ups and downs so you have to work very occasionally and then get a "reward". Ah.
Unfortunately, I'm slightly paying the price today. My ankles and toes have been thoroughly eaten by some local wildlife and while I was very good and wore my hat and factor 30'd my arms, legs, neck...I forgot the little gap you get on your back between t-shirt and shorts when cycling or sitting on the front step chin wagging. So I have a little semi-circle across my back that just looks lovely...It isn't too painful as long as I continue to wear clothes that allow the area air. And the risk of getting re-burnt!
Fortunately, it isn't summer again today so I should be safe...

new year, new you?

I'm not really one for the resolutions thang. I can't normally come up with anything precise enough to make it a resolution. But I do like to take the opportunity to take stock and see what might be a good thing to change, much as I do during Lent and around summer holidays.
So.
This time last year, I was very glad to see the back of 2005. It had been a not very pleasant year with the onset of the IBS and the general sinking further into OCD/phobia-ridden life was at its deepest. My resolution for 2006, were I to have called it a resolution, was to have more fun. Not in a self obsessed, pleasure seeking way but in a stopping worrying, starting appreciating the good things in life (especially Husbink), generally getting my perspective right way. And see where that has taken me!
This year, I'm not so keen to scramble out of the previous year. I did manage to "have more fun" in 2006. I've made leaps and bounds with the IBS and the phobias/OCD (to prove this point, I stuffed and roasted a chicken on New Years Eve without anything close to a meltdown. That won't mean much to some of you but others will appreciate the milestone nature of this!) But there is still ground to be made. It is still a cause for celebration when I manage to do normal people things without washing my hands. I still worry and stress more than is healthy. And thus I still have times of IBS. I still don't appreciate Husbink for all he is worth (will I ever manage that? He's worth so much!).
So I think my non-resolution for the next bit of time, be it the year or just until Lent or coming home when something else replaces it, will be to keep on the same track.
I also had some new home resolutions and hopes which have been coming together. I hoped that leaving a lot of possessions in the UK would help me lose some of the materialistic nature I'd acquired of late. (Brought on in part by the IBS: if I can't feel nice, I want nice things.) I have achieved some of that change of mindset but I have no idea whether it is a permanent change or a situational change: once I'm back with all my stuff, will I just want more?
I hoped I would find something to be passionate about again. I've certainly found a job I care about and enjoy for the first time. I think it is slowly forming what I will be passionate about but I don't know the answer yet.
I hoped I would work out what was really important to me and my life. Again, some progress but nothing really concrete yet.
And one final thing that wasn't in that original thinking but is becoming so again (thanks in part to Mad Medea's recent post) (it was something I was working on pre-IBS monster) is to work on my ethical standards once more. Be it recycling, not getting frightened by the checkout assistants who think I'm mad for bringing back my own carrier bags, buying more fair trade, buying more locally sourced produce, driving less, growing vegetables, writing letters about things that matter...
I'll keep you informed. Most likely more informed than you want to be!

Ridiculous!

So this morning I was a healthy human being. At lunch time I was a healthy human being. Around 3pm I started to sneeze...by 4pm I couldn't breathe, move around the house without the constant companionship of tissues, swallow, taste anything, think without cotton wool impeding my braing...etc etc. Normally, I find that I get some warning at the start of a cold. A sense of fuzziness, a bit of bunged up-ness, a tickly throat. Breaking me in slowly over a 12-24 hour period. Not a thirty minutes heads up you're going to be incapacitated... I took antihistamines in case it was hayfever which would be more reasonable for the rapid onset but no. I can only hope that this means it will disappear as rapidly as it started.
I have however been enjoying making use of the old wives remedy of "feed a cold, starve a fever".
As I haven't any brain, I shall stop there and not yet tell you about the lovely Christmas we had but it was grand and everyone was great and I managed to actually not be homesick at all once Christmas day got underway. Hope you all had likewise lovely Christmas times.

Parcels, presents, product placement...

I've been attempting to write a post for a few days now but failing miserably. Not wholly because of lack of time, mostly because of lack of time when I've also been in posession of my brain!
So just a quick one then to say thank you to all of you who have sent us cards and so on. Has been lovely to have that flurry of both post that isn't bills/junk and of communication with home! And what is even better is that we know of at least three things that haven't made it in time for Christmas so the flurry will continue for a little while yet. :)
And to wish you all a lovely Christmas and hope you have a marvellous time with whoever you spend it with. We are looking forward to speaking to various family members during the course of the day (and friends during the course of the week...book your skype time now!) and spending the evening with some friends and their family here. We've been more than a little busy of late (in a work-related way) and Christmas day/Boxing day is probably the best chance at some down time we've got.
The best thing about a southern hemisphere Christmas is that all our traditions are gone; we have no sense of feeling Christmassy so we can actually focus on the reason Christmas exists a little more easily. :)
Lots and lots of love to you
xxx

Lyrics

At the moment, there are two songs that I listen to a reasonable amount to which I cannot force the correct words to stay in my head. If I really, really think about it I can make myself sing the right words but if I'm just merrily driving along with the CD playing, I cannot, cannot sing the right words!
The first song is Valerie by the Zutons. The problem comes with the line "Well since I've come on home, my bodies been a mess. And I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to dress". Left to my own devices, I would sing "Well since I've come on home, my bodies been a mess. And I miss your ginger hair and the way you like to kiss". Why?! It doesn't rhyme! It doesn't make more sense! The strange thing is, Husbink also, entirely separately had this problem when he first came across the song. Anyone else?
The second song is Say Hello to the Pope by James Dean Bradfield. The title is in fact the line I have the problem with. See, I bought the album only knowing one song on it and just listened to the album a number of times through without reading the back and getting to grips with song titles. So I was getting quite confused as to put this particular song was about as the only words I thought I could pick out were "Say, who ordered the punch?" I thought it must be a song about the dangers of date rape drugs or something. Ahem.
There have been and will continue to be a great number of songs that I have similar problems with I imagine. Somehow, it makes me feel rather old and uncool...

How old am I?

Yesterday I was driving to the costume shop to organise the wise men, Mary, Joseph, the angel's wings and Herod's crown for the Christmas production at church. As I reached the end of the high street I became aware of the thud thud thud that accompanies boy racers with extra bass and giant speakers... It kept coming with me but I couldn't spy an appropriate car at all. It eventually was hurting my head so much that I shut the windows but it just got louder. By this point it was so loud that my car was shaking! As we've been having some car problems recently I was a little alarmed and thought perhaps it wasn't a barry-boy but instead was something very peculiarly wrong with my car. I was just approaching a big roundabout and feeling really quite scared cos the car was shaking and I didn't know what was going on and it was the kind of sound that was so inside your head that I was feeling disoriented and sick...when the culprit drove past me. (It was a really stupid looking car and not particularly racery at all but that is by the by). The car said on the back "If its to loud u r to old" (sic). I actually sat at the roundabout a few seconds longer than necessary letting it get away. And deciding that I quite liked my eardrums so was quite happy to be too old...
On the way home from said costume shop, I went to Pak 'n' Save to grab a few bits. And saw some outrageously cheap wine so thought I'd grab it while I was there. I reached the checkout and the girl was quite young so when she picked up the phone after putting the alcohol through I wasn't surprised. She then asked me to step to the side so that her supervisor could see me. I did. The supervisor looked skeptical. The checkout girl asked for ID. I gave her my UK photo driving licence. She said into the phone what ID I'd given her and the supervisor decided she had to come over. She looked at my licence and asked if I had my passport on me. Which I didn't. They looked back and forth between me, the ID and each other, clearly getting a little anxious. So I put them out of their misery and said I'd just take the chocolate and in-shower Veet (which is another story, very impressed, very smooth legs!) and not worry about the wine as it was a whim anyway.
And that was all fine. Until I was driving away and realised that they were attempting to claim that I looked 17. Or younger. Which just isn't believable really. Really.
The obvious conclusion to draw from this being that 17 is now too old...ahem.

Me. Apparently!

Quite handy this having been tagged thing (so actually I am grateful Welsherella!) as I was fancying a little burble but I'm way to shattered to actually think of anything. I gather it is meant to be one word answers. I'll try my best but no promises...

1. Yourself: loopy
2. Your girlfriend/boyfriend: Husbink
3. Your hair?: ridiculously soft these days
4. Your mother?: organised
5. Your Father?: funny
6. Your Favorite Item: new jeans
7. Your dream last night: no idea...
8. Your Favorite drink: gewurztraminer
9. Your Dream Car: I no longer know...but little and cute
10. The Room You Are In: bedroom
12. Your fear: vomit
13. What you want to be in 10 years: happy
14. Who you hung out with last night?: Husbink...and half of church
15. What You're Not?: relaxed
16. Muffins: mincemeat (so that needs explaining...after church yesterday they had made muffins with mincemeat stirred in to the mixture. SOOOOOO yummy!)
17: One of Your Wish List Items: a purpose
18: Time: 16:17
19. The Last Thing You Did: lost very badly at uno
20. What You Are Wearing: denim skirt, pink tshirt
21. Your Favorite Weather: proper weather (i.e. beautiful or a proper storm or snow or thunder & lightening or...)
22. Your Favorite Book: Too hard (LotR was there for so long but...it would have to be a comfort book - LotR, Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons, Cold Comfort Farm, Winter Holiday, The Lion, The With & The Wardrobe, HP 1-3 (the later ones aren't comforting!!!), the Thursday Next series or the Fourth Bear - The Big Over-easy less so... ok, too much!)
23. The Last Thing You Ate: Orange & Passionfruit cereal bar (pretty gross)
24. Your Life: improving
25. Your Mood: too tired to be sure
26. Your body: peculiar
27. Who are you thinking about right now? people
29. What are you doing at the moment?: this...and considering what form of laziness my afternoon will take
30. Your summer: just starting
31. Best part of your life: adventures!

So to tag...I pick Mad Medea and Jenny

Pamperage

Yesterday, I was gifted a half day all to myself that I wasn't really expecting. I was due to be at my temp job yesterday and today but when I got there yesterday morning it became apparent that I only had half a day's worth of work and that no more would appear until today when various people were back in the office. So I left at midday and came home.
I read my book. I spent some time with God. I did some Pilates. I watched some bad telly. I sorted more pics to email to everyone (let me know if you didn't get them and want them). I did some "gentle" tidying so I could feel noble without really having done anything at all. It was fantabulous. I almost felt relaxed for a while!
Things have been a little insane here the last few weeks and I have been slightly told off by a few people in the kind of "I thought this was meant to be a year out" sort of way... I think by having plunged into a few too many things in the last few weeks it has indicated to me that I still need some time out to take care of me. But I still coped with the last few weeks much better than I would have done previously. Which is exciting!
Today was another semi-gifted afternoon but I felt I should make a bit more use of this one so have been trying to write a sermon for Sunday. I had been all prepared to say "I do really short sermons, allow less time for me than the average person" but I'm not so sure that is going to be true this time! I'm quite nervous about it (no kidding...) because I've only ever spoken at St Matthias before now. I did a testimony on Sunday morning so along with having led two services I've at least got an idea what it is like to stand up in front of this church (though I'm speaking at the evening service and all previous experience has been of the morning services). Eek. Generally. Yes. :)
So anyway, cos I got to be all relaxed yesterday and looked at lots of photos, I thought I'd just put up a couple of pics that I like from the last four months or so. So that's what the decoration is. :) (Husbink does not understand why I found Trees of Mystery quite so funny...hey ho, I guess it is like the Cardigan Arms. Or "Britney Spears, says survery". Or I'm just odd.)

It's Over

Movember is over! Thank goodness!
"What is Movember?" I hear you cry!
Well, the Pom may have heard about it (I hope the Boy doesn't get involved in it...) as it started in Australia but I had never heard about it before this year...
Movember is a charity that raises awareness of men's health issues, mostly prostate cancer. And it works by a group of men (colleagues, friends, whatever) all agreeing to not shave their moustaches for the entire of November. They have to keep their chins shaved (so that it is definitely a moustache) but they can then do whatever they like...They can be sponsored but much of the point is just that they look awful so that people ask them what they think they're doing.
Husbink's work decided they would participate in Movember this year and much as I am supportive of the cause, I am so relieved it is over! I have asked his permission so here is a picture...

This was following a late shift on November 30th and the longest the Mo' managed to get. It was like Christmas come early to arrive home on Friday lunch time following my last supervision session to find the moustache gone! Ah, the relief...I am no longer considering divorce...

(The pictures are from a little cycle ride that we took last Tuesday and I haven't had the chance to show you yet. It was a grand day out.)
Well, it seems to have been a while... Things have been exceedingly manic. Doing three jobs virtually killed me last week but is going much better this week and by this time tomorrow I will have finished one of them. Halleluiah!
Also by this time tomorrow it will be December. Which is right weird. Not that the weather is good here, oh no, don't get me wrong! But it is light. Until almost 9pm. And that just isn't December. I think I shall be exceedingly confused when Christmas arrives. As it is part of my job to plan for Christmas services at church, I can't be taken wholly by surprise but I think that is about the only thing that will stop me from entirely not noticing.
The job that I lose tomorrow is supervising exams. This has been really quite a strange experience. For three hours you are in this room (be it a classroom where you are on your own with up to 25 boys or a gym where you have the support of 2-3 other supervisors but up to 130 boys) and you can't do anything except watch. And let people go to the toilet or leave the exam early. You just have to wait. Which has actually been really good for me just forcing me to have a bit or brain space for a while. Yes, I can think about things or pray but not that indepthly or lengthily. It has actually been incredibly calming. I can now also tell you many interesting facts. Since I've been counting, 7/47 boys have been left handed. Around about 1/5 of the boys is of a non-white background (mostly polynesian, some oriental, few asian, no african). About 1/6 of the boys has curly hair. And so it goes on. I've also played the "if I were fifteen, would you be my friend or would I despise you?" game. This is based purely on haircuts as they are all in uniform so there is no give away in terms of music related clothing etc as to what they might like...
Despite all this, I'm not sure I would recognise a single one of them if I passed them in the street. Or even in the school. One final thought on the oddness of supervising exams. All I want is for the three hours to be up, me to still be awake and vaguely sane. All they want is for the three hours to be up, the exam to be completed and to be vaguely sane. Despite the fact that two out of three wishes are the same, the experience of those three hours is massively different...

Bleugh

I was intending to post a comedy story today about my supreme geek-ness and how I invigilated a GCSE-level maths exam yesterday and got my knickers in a twist not being able to remember the Quadratic Formula (I was doing the exam over their shoulders...)...
But it has been such a naff few hours that I'm no longer in a position to do that. Naff is definitely the word. Nothing drastic has happened but a whole range of stupid little things that are leading to a lot of swearing in my inner monologue (and occasionally external monologue too). Ok, so the car appears to be buggered, I've lost $100 somewhere (that I got out the other day and is now not in my wallet, only the gloating little receipt with my signature there saying yes I did take it), I couldn't find anything decent for the twins birthday (what do you buy 9 year olds?) so have bought them tat and Husbink will tell me off, Husbink is at work, the bag with the tat then split and with the wind the way it is today I had to chase round the garden to retrieve said tat, the peg pot blew off the washing line as I was taking the washing down so I then had to chase round the garden for the pegs...
So like I said, nothing drastic. Nothing at all really. But it has made me miserable. I have to go out again in two hours and I'm not 100% sure I will have pulled myself together again by then.
If only I could blame it on the hormones. But I've been doing that for about six weeks now and someone might notice soon...
Hey ho

Yay Snoo!

In hommage to Snoo's achievement of 50000 words in quite a bit less than a month! She'll be a famous novelist before we know it. Yay Snoo, yay!
So here's a list of Yay things for the Yay Snoo post (though not related to Snoo...)
1) The weather is good today and has been for all of three days
2) We went on a fantastico bike ride today (there was basically no up and down) and played on the beach
3) I've finished reading my first kiwi novel. It was ok. I have also been to the library to pick my second (they handily put little stickers of kiwis on the spine so you know which authors are home grown)
4) I led the church service on Sunday and it was fine
5) We've paddled in the sea for the first time this year (this should have been with point 2...)
6) We had a comedy day yesterday visiting local sites used in Lord of the Rings.
7) We have seen our first pukekos (but didn't have the camera so no more bird pictures for you at present)
8) I laughed a lot last night. It was good.
9) I'm quite healthy at the moment
I think I'll stop there cos otherwise it'll become a mission to achieve 50 yay things to go with the 50000 words...

Children in Need

Because we still have the BBC website as our homepage (and because my parents are quite comical about things like this) it has been impossible for us not to notice that it is Children in Need this weekend. Which brings on a strange feeling - not really of homesickness but more of nostalgia - nostalgia for being somewhere we'd actually recognise the people on a programme like that! Where we'd know all the names of the news readers doing their Bond tribute (sounds a little less terrifying than some of the previous offerings!). And where we'd get to see Terry and Kaplinkyplonky and understand. A few weeks ago we had an event at church of the week-long-guest-speaker variety. We had never heard of the guy but apparently he's quite famous in a Trevor McDonald sort of way. He was great and really easy to listen to and had amazing stories about people's lives and so on. So we were glad to be there but I think it was a totally different thing for us than for other people. We couldn't even pick him out of the audience before he stood up to speak. When there is so much shared "culture" (like American junk TV and soaps (with regard to Pomgirl's latest post, we don't get Eastenders here either - which surprised me considering we do get Corrie (though they refer to it as Corro...) and Emerdale. Odd)) it feels really noticeable how much isn't shared and how that is actually the more important stuff when it comes to feeling at home. What this has been developing in me is a strange attachment to the adverts on telly here. On the whole, I hate them. Loathe them. Despise the regularity of them (we watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban last night...it lasted three hours. It had 11 advert breaks.). But some of them, some of them, are hysterical. Blooming genius advertising! I won't try to explain any here, it just wouldn't work. The point is though, these more genius moments seem to have become my link (in my mind) to local culture. To being able to understand. Which is just a little strange, don't you think?

Earthquake!

Success! There was an earthquake and we felt it and survived!
Well. Sort of. (Sort of felt it, not sort of survived...)
We were in the cinema watching The Departed (at 10am. Kinda weird.) It was a slightly random film and rather longer than it needed to be but probably a good film. So anyway, it was in quite an actiony section so I didn't quite register that the cinema was shaking cos it fitted so well with that bit of the film. But Husbink looked at me in an inquisitive "did you feel that" way and I realised I had indeed just stopped shaking. However, following our "was that an earthquake?" "no, it was just gale force wind..." moment a few weeks ago, I was loathe to believe it. Until at work (this being the original work through the agency that I'm back at now for a few hours a week until Christmas) someone said "oh, there was an earthquake this morning" and the time was about right and I've since googled recent earthquakes and yes! It was there! And we were there! And we weren't asleep...
Well, it is one New Zealand experience we can tick off now any way...

Two for the price of one!

A second wee post for you today...this is because the Taupo post should have happened yesterday but blogger was mean and wouldn't put the pics on.
Anyway, more importantly is the reason for the second post. A Very Exciting Reason. The Reason being that Scouse Dangermouse and her husband Have Booked Flights! We shall have visitors! Very lovely visitors! And I'm very excited and Husbink is at work so I can't tell him so I've told you instead! Yay!

Taupo and around

Well, we are back from our latest adventure. It was indeed rather more adventuresome than the Napier trip as it involved doing several things we hadn't done before. It all started a bit randomly with me being unsure if I'd got over the mystery illness properly (seems I have done...we have theories but that's all) and Husbink being post-nights (in that he finished at 7am on Friday). But considering that, the journey was good. We are still hugely enjoying driving round this country and are amazed by what is round every corner. The journey from here to Taupo includes a section called The Desert Road which was just fantastic - on Friday we drove it in low cold and rain and great atmosphoeric conditions. Today we drove it under clear blue skies and could see all the hills and mountains surrounding us as well as more fully appreciate the bleakness of the scrub land around us.
This was our first stop on the shores of Lake Taupo (note the bird!! Hmm. Maybe you can't see it actually. Ahem.):

On Saturday we did the first of two things that we've not done before and hired a sailing boat for an hour. We got a lesson from the guy running the place for about ten minutes and then we were away. It was good fun and Husbink has visions of cocktails on our yacht in the future but I'm not so sure now...I'm still in complete agony and haven't been able to walk normally since we did it! So very sore in my legs... But here is our little boat:

Saturday afternoon included a walk to the Huka Falls. Kinda more like rapids than falls but very cool and a very enjoyable walk. Near the beginning it crosses a natural hot stream that feeds the Waikato River and there were a number of people sitting in the mouth of the stream - it seemed to only take a matter of inches to move from roasty-toasty thermal spring to bloomin' freezin' Waikato River...a precarious balancing act necessary! The river itself was phenomenally clear, very beautiful. So here's a shot of the falls. It's not necessarily the most exciting picture but I think gives the best idea of what it is actually like:

We walked back via a different route which was rather harder and longer but a good walk (would have been a better cycle!) and it afforded us the only new bird spot of the weekend, a fantail. It posed for us extremely well but hidden behind a few branches so this is the best shot we have:

Sunday morning was the Craters of the Moon. Having been somewhere called Craters of the Moon previously, I was a little surprised at the un-bleakness of this place. But it was much fun anyway wandering through all the steaming craters.

Fortunately, the thermal activity around Taupo is not blessed with an abundance of sulpher so this steam was relatively fresh smelling! From one of the lookout stations, we spied Mount Doom. It wasn't actually the place used for filming Lord of the Rings but...

Mount Doom and much of Mordor was filmed in the area (yes, we have a book from last time we were here...) of the Desert Road.

Sunday afternoon was time for second not-previously-done activity and this one was much more relaxing! We went to Taupo Hot Springs and used hot pools of various temperatures and generally eased our aching legs! Very relaxing. Sadly we had seen the bank balance and didn't splash out on a massage to complete the experience. We then decided to prove to ourselves that we really can't draw by going to a scenic lookout and attempting to sketch...hmm. Can't do everything... And that was our weekend. Lovely.

Funny sort of day...

Today I have been mostly lying on the sofa watching DVDs (with a startling lack of eye candy following all the discussions here of late!). This wasn't my intended way to spend the day but a ridiculous amount of belly pain dictated otherwise. (As did Husbink and for once I listened to his doctorly advice.) We have now ruled out appendicitis (I was nearly dragged to hospital this morning) but not a lot else. It could be the usual monster of IBS but if it is it has changed shape. It could be something to do with having parted companies with the pill (no, this is not a subtle way of hinting about babies - the parting company was due to the IBS and there are no babies planned!). It could just be one of those things. We don't know. I just know it is a weird pain and I don't like it! And I know I want to go away for the weekend tomorrow as we have a four day weekend all sorted. And Husbink has decided that as it isn't appendicitis, it won't kill me so we might as well go away. Hey ho. Well, I guess it is time to go back to the sofa as it is starting to stab again. After Shrek, three episodes of Randall & Hopkirk, two episodes of Home & Away, one episode of Neighbours and starting to make my acquitance with my first Kiwi author courtesy of the library during the day, I'm not sure what I'm going to find to fill my evening!