So, I started a post the other day. Saved it. Went back to it. Entirely re-wrote it. Entirely. And yet, it has published it under the previous date. Growl. This does not amuse me. So if you've got any interest in reading said mystery post it is UNDER "Rugby". I'm sure there must be a way round this (I don't need lectures on the subject though, ta) but I can't be bothered to look for it, I'd just like a nice big grump thank you very much. ;)
So, I know that many nations enjoy rugby and get passionate about it and all that. And when we arrived in New Zealand and were told that the national religion was rugby, we chortled gently at the wit.
However, we are now faced with being here for the rugby world cup. A world cup that by rights, the All Blacks really should win (no offence to England, Wales, Australia, other nations that at times may have been worthy...lots of offence to France...). New Zealand teams are not known for falling at the final hurdle but the All Blacks and the world cup seems to be a slight nod in that direction.
Everyday, the television tells us how many days to go to the start of the world cup (70 - it's been counting since 100). We have adverts that are just about how much we love the All Blacks (admittedly the tri-nations (with the Springboks and the Wallabies) are going at the moment too making it a little more justifiable) with a tiny weeny nod to their sponsors at the end.
Generally, sport is huge here but half the teams are still nods to the All Blacks (the Tall Blacks are the basketball team, the Black Sticks are the hockey team and the Black Caps are the cricket team. The Silver Ferns (netball) break out a bit but you know their logo has to be the same...)
We're in the midst of the America's Cup at the moment and already there are mutterings about the lower productivity of the country as people are staying up until the early hours to watch the races as they come live from Valencia. And sailing, while big, just doesn't touch rugby. I suspect we will need to plan in the same way for the world cup as we do for earthquakes - enough food and so on in the house that when everything shuts down (which is no bad thing - it happens in January anyway and is pretty cool), we won't be stranded!
(Oh, and for anyone who was feeling that we might be getting more attached to NZ than England, notice how I apologised to Australia and not to France... You can get t-shirts here that say "I support two teams, New Zealand and anyone playing Australia"...)
Normally for me a post with a title like this would involve various highly quoted lines from films such as The Princess Bride, The Holy Grail, Star Wars, The Sound of Music... but that is a different post for a different day.
At the moment, there are two lines from two films that I am enjoying very much.
First, "I know that such a legend exists because I made it up" from Miss Potter (for those who haven't seen it, it is a "lovely, gentle film" in my mum's words...).
I love the idea of just making up a legend. Making up any kind of story is something I love but the confidence and self-assurance of making up a legend is wonderful. I think I would like to make up a legend.
Second, "I realised that if I was going to save the world, it would be through cookies" from Stranger Than Fiction. When I was a child, I firmly believed that I was going to change/save the world one way or another. I mostly thought that this would involve being at least vaguely famous in some way and some sort of Nobel prize... The older I get, the more I see that if I were ever going to change the world, it would be through cookies. Or soup. Or hugs. Or chats. Or coffee. Or something like that.
Today is mine and Husbink's third anniversary. Crazy. Though not as crazy as having known each other for eight years. Surely we aren't old enough to have been in Leeds, at uni, eight years ago?!
I thought I should write something about how wonderful Husbink is (cos he is, I'd probably be in some sort of institution by now without him! (that could, of course, be as a nun!)) but well, I thought he probably speaks well enough for himself through his actions (see Beatrice) and gushing doesn't really do it for me...
Suffice to say that despite some of the hard times in the last three years (mainly my health, his shifts), they have been three fantastic years and each one better than the previous.
Here's to the next (one, three, thirty...)!
(There are other things I planned to blog about today but perhaps they shall come later)
So, living on the other side of the world we have spent the last few weeks saying "Is it Wimbledon yet?" "Have we missed it?" and feeling slightly adrift from all summery, homely roots... (yes, I gather it isn't all that summery at the moment, apologies)
I have just now turned on the BBC website to see the Henman vs Moya - LIVE - I couldn't not click on it, that isn't allowed, right? I would have been banned on return to the UK or something surely?
And in a few short seconds of scanning the score, ten years worth of Wimbledons came crashing back in...I feel so close to home now!
(But as I still have this really weird pain in my chest from the surgery (they inflate you with CO2 and then it works its way out...causing much pain at times and none at others) I don't think I can keep watching...let me know the score!)
So I've been trying my hardest not to put more details than people might want to know on here about any of the surgery stuff... So I'll attempt to summarise the hospital stay without any of the ooook.
Sleeping is not easy. Despite the fact that it was a private hospital so I had a room all to myself, they curtained off the door but left it open. Meaning that Mr Not-quite-snoring-but-breathing-loud-enough-to-be-very-disturbing was still extremely audible. Later in the night he became Mr Shouting-in-my-sleep at which point I got my door closed...
I mostly did not sleep. I mostly listened to the strange NZ classical radio station. Which was very good until sometime around 2 in the morning (I think...) when it started to have bizarre stories-to-music things going on...There were two stories about dragons that I didn't quite manage to fathom (and added to the slightly hallucinatory (word?!) sensation I had going on... There was then a very swift adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. That was just rather alarming - especially the noises given to the stoats/weasels...
Probably, that is about as far as I can go without endangering the trying-not-to-gross-people-out thing. Other than to say I was very impressed with the nurses, they were great. And no, I'm not just sucking up to Welshy.
Time for more sleep
So I've made it through the "prep" for surgery and while it wasn't a walk in the park, it could have been so much worse than it was... I could share details with you but I doubt even nurse Welshy would be too keen on that!
In an odd way, it feels like the worst is over (which is silly of my, I'm aware) because tomorrow morning it is all up to other people what happens.
Husbink doesn't quite feel the same!
I've got my knitting, an mp3 player full of (mostly) soothing music, a new magazine and a few cards...I think I'll survive hospital!
I'll be back at the weekend. :)
Tonight, I have to start taking some stuff to clear out my bowel in advance of my surgery on Thursday. It isn't going to be the most fun I've ever had but neither do I expect it to be the least fun so I'm not too traumatised.
So, anyway, yesterday we had to pop into the local shopping centre (2nd largest in the country or something like that - for those from Leeds think maybe two Merrion centres, for those from Camb, think a lot smaller than the Grafton Centre...for those from neither, think as you see fit!) to do a few jobs. Husbink suggested we divide and conquer. I assumed this was due to our 3rd anniversary being next week and this being our last chance to do anything about it. So I wandered and found nothing of great interest (3rd anniversary - leather?!) and went to meet Husbink at the allotted time.
When we got back to the car he pulled out the carrier bag he'd been hiding and plucked from inside a very fluffy, mostly purple sheep. "Happy Diarrhoea Day!" he declared with glee. He thought I might need a friend in the middle of the night...and she (as he's named her Beatrice) has a squeaky left foot so I can summon Husbink with her assistance...
So this week has been a week of minor traumas and dilemmas that have served a useful role in distracting me from next week's surgery. Which is something I do quite well. Transferring panic from a big thing to lots of little things.
Thus far I have been traumatised over
And the last one has probably been the one I've stressed about least but in some ways would have been the most valid one to worry over... And this morning Husbink woke up with a horrid cold. So I'm now working on pretending I have it and trying to treat it in advance. Which is nice as it involves lots of watching DVDs (proven cure, y'know) and drinking mucho tea and so on.
I'm suspecting I may have gone mad.
Blogger won't publish my post...despite claiming that it has published...it just isn't there...so I'm seeing if I can wake it up...
Editted to add: well, it seems to be working but I am not trusting it...this may have more to do with my current state of mind than blogger's abilities...
For the past two days, I have worked in a call centre (dun, dun duuuuuuuh!!). I have spoken to somewhere in the region of 300 people from all over the country about whether or not they might be owed money. The company I was working for was pretty naff - really rude, didn't give any information (like where the toilet was...) etc etc. Not what you expect as a temp, normally there are quite clear rules about the information you must give a temp blah blah so you actually know the place quite well. Anyway, it was inbound calls (there is no chance I would do the outbound calling thing unless it was for a really good cause) so not horrific and actually I quite enjoyed talking to so many people. And I hope I brightened some of their days by being friendly rather than officious.
Now I have a slightly sore throat from almost non-stop talking and a generally uncomfortable left ear from the headset. Some people worked at this place permanently. I've no idea how they survived!
So, as some of you with good memories might recall, I burbled way back here about the whole famous faces issue of moving to a different country - not having Terry or Natasha Kaplinsky or Ant & Dec...you know, just people you know on t'telly. I've just not watched an entire series of Dancing with the Stars (as they call Strictly Come Dancing here) because I didn't know any of the celebrities involved.
Anyway, this afternoon we got back from a friends birthday and I flicked the telly on a few minutes early for my daily dose of Neighbours. And there were Princes Charles, William and Harry being interviewed. Not very interesting until I realised they were being interviewed by Ant & Dec! Husbink was in a different room and was called with much squeaking of "It's Ant & Dec on t'telly! Ant & Dec on t'telly!" Sadly by the time he made it through, Neighbours had started. He was quite disappointed.
In the UK, Ant & Dec would cause us no excitement at all and as often as not (if not more so) we'd change the channel away from them. But here, where they are a rarity and no one has heard of them, it was VERY exciting! Crazy, aye?
So, Husbink and I have a tendency, particularly on long car journeys, to waste a good chunk of time on our "Top Ten..." so here is a Top Ten of our Top Tens....
The books and albums probably cause the most disagreement...
So the latest craze amongst the youf round here is to get a bed sheet, tie knots in it and whip it so that is makes a cracking noise like a gun. Round where we used to live there would be the constant sound of this all afternoon from about 3.30 until it got dark. Once you know what it is, it is ok but the first few days we thought our street had gone downhill a bit! Round here, it is a little more subdued but this afternoon we went for a stroll and ended up coming back through the park and saw two groups of kids practicing with their whips. One group were a little older and more practised and made some very impressive cracks, bouncing off the hills for an echo effect. The other group were quite young and still trying to work out how to make the noise.
So, yeah, I guess I can see why it has caught on and all that, but is it anywhere else in the world? Did it start here? Or elsewhere? Has it spread? Or do just have our own little bed of insanity?!
It seems I'm not over my listy mood yet!
In no particular order:
So most of these are out due to a lack of natural talent. Some of them are out due to the fact that I'm really not that interested any more (like the whole realisation of being scared of horses).
Strangely, writing this list has not suddenly made it clear what I want to do with the rest of my life. (Spot the person who is about to have to go back to a lot more temping and really, really doesn't want to!)
sh walk from our doostep.So Pomgirl did this a few weeks ago and as I'm feeling highly listy today, I thought I'd give it a whirl. And then I might go on to lots more lists or I might have gotten over the list writing need...
Instructions: Look at the list of books below.
• Bold the ones you’ve read.
• Italicise the ones you want to
• Don’t do anything to the ones that you aren’t interested in.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To kill a Mockingbirg (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I know this much is true (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with a Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
I wouldn't advise all the ones I've read, nor am I snubbing all the ones I've not italicised...
And I resisted putting comments next to a lot of them...
So today is the day of cleaning the old house...I have dusted, hoovered, kitchened (ahem) and ought to be bathrooming...but the super power cleaner needs time to work...
New house is lovely (though no broadband yet) - it is all cute and cottagey and we actually fill it so it feels much more like a home than the strange rattling about we've had for the last nine months. And the move? It went amazingly well! We were all shifted and half unpacked in four hours! We had mucho good helpers. :)
Much as it is tempting not to, I suspect it is time to attack the shower now...
