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More Pic-Spam!
Sep. 20th, 2009 07:33 amHome for now.
Despite being incredibly knackered, I have been awake since 6.30am. WTF, self?
( Nice )
Despite being incredibly knackered, I have been awake since 6.30am. WTF, self?
( Nice )So, uh. Hi everyone. It occurs to me that some of you are interested in my actual life, so!
( Click or skip. I offer you the choice )
( Click or skip. I offer you the choice )I have been putting pictures from Canada up on Flickr. There's quite a lot to go through, but here are a few faves so far.
( Cut to save your bandwidth )
( Cut to save your bandwidth )
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Dec. 26th, 2008 07:11 pmHey guys, guess what? It snowed heaps - we totally had an actual White Christmas. It was pretty cool, but I have to say that while the concept of snow is pretty neat, I think I would get sick of living with it. :o)
Anyways, it is Christmas Day here, and we have had a good one. We pretty much ate Christmas. We went around to my brother's around 10.30 and nibbled for hours before having a Canadian Salmon dinner. Nomnomnom. Had to go a bit easy on the booze, because I ended up having to get antibiotics. :o( (Thank goodness for travel insurance.)
On Saturday we head out (weather permitting) to Winnipeg.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
Anyways, it is Christmas Day here, and we have had a good one. We pretty much ate Christmas. We went around to my brother's around 10.30 and nibbled for hours before having a Canadian Salmon dinner. Nomnomnom. Had to go a bit easy on the booze, because I ended up having to get antibiotics. :o( (Thank goodness for travel insurance.)
On Saturday we head out (weather permitting) to Winnipeg.
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
Jetlag, thy name is Vancouver
Dec. 19th, 2008 04:10 pmAfter an epic day of transit (there was a taxi, then a bus, and a train, and another train, and an airplane, and a bus and another bus and a taxi, whew!) I am safely at my brother's apartment in Vancouver, where all the locals are freaked out because there's snow. (Hello! Canada!) In fairness, it seems to be the equivalent of suddenly having 6 inches of snow on the ground in Wellington.
Vancouver is 8 hours behind UK time, so effectively I rocked up at about 6am and then had to sleep through the day, which my system was strangely reluctant to do. (I've never had a problem lazing the day away before, why start now?) It felt like I slept a lot, but it must have been often and for about 10 minutes at a time because that was a loooong night. I think the jetlag is going to hurt this afternoon.
In the meantime I will mooch out a bit later this morning with my camera and see what I can see. And also acquire more tissues. :o( *sniffle* *cough*
Vancouver is 8 hours behind UK time, so effectively I rocked up at about 6am and then had to sleep through the day, which my system was strangely reluctant to do. (I've never had a problem lazing the day away before, why start now?) It felt like I slept a lot, but it must have been often and for about 10 minutes at a time because that was a loooong night. I think the jetlag is going to hurt this afternoon.
In the meantime I will mooch out a bit later this morning with my camera and see what I can see. And also acquire more tissues. :o( *sniffle* *cough*
So uhhhh, this year I will spend Christmas in Canada.
This is not quite as random as it sounds. Having spent 6 months wandering the deepest darkest boonies of South America my brother and his girlfriend have fetched up in Vancouver, where we have a cousin. We also have other family around Canada. I vaguely mentioned visiting him for Christmas as a possibility. Then I vaguely mentioned it to Mum in passing on the phone. She said, "Oh, what a good idea!" Then it was all off because Dad freaked out. (He is not a fan of sudden changes of plan.) Last night I got an email from Mum saying it's all on. So, yeah. Head = spinning.
Flights to Canada at Christmas? Not cheap. Still, I am all booked up, holiday is agreed with Boss and I am flying out on 18 December and getting back on 6 January. Exciting!
Now I have to make sure I have clothes suitable for extreme cold, because there is a reasonable likelihood of ending up in the middle of Canada instead of on the coast (family members are in Winnipeg and Ontario).
Also, crumble topping was definitely under-buttered and therefore dry and (funnily enough) floury. Solution? Serve with cream. Sorted.
This is not quite as random as it sounds. Having spent 6 months wandering the deepest darkest boonies of South America my brother and his girlfriend have fetched up in Vancouver, where we have a cousin. We also have other family around Canada. I vaguely mentioned visiting him for Christmas as a possibility. Then I vaguely mentioned it to Mum in passing on the phone. She said, "Oh, what a good idea!" Then it was all off because Dad freaked out. (He is not a fan of sudden changes of plan.) Last night I got an email from Mum saying it's all on. So, yeah. Head = spinning.
Flights to Canada at Christmas? Not cheap. Still, I am all booked up, holiday is agreed with Boss and I am flying out on 18 December and getting back on 6 January. Exciting!
Now I have to make sure I have clothes suitable for extreme cold, because there is a reasonable likelihood of ending up in the middle of Canada instead of on the coast (family members are in Winnipeg and Ontario).
Also, crumble topping was definitely under-buttered and therefore dry and (funnily enough) floury. Solution? Serve with cream. Sorted.
Busy busy!
Sep. 12th, 2008 02:08 pmWhew. The last couple of weeks has been a bit on the manic side.
I went to the Peak District with my friend J for 5 days. It was all very historical and literary (kind of). We went to Haddon Hall and Chatsworth and Sudbury Hall, we went to Arbor Low stone circle and Mam Tor which is a Bronze Age hill fort, we went up Stanage Edge and through Winnatt's Pass, and we went to a cotton mill.
The houses were all used for filming various adaptations of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice (and Haddon Hall was the castle in Princess Bride!). It was really busy, but pretty chilled at the same time. We did a whole lot of eating, and sitting and chatting over pots of tea as well.
Last Friday work had our twice-yearly offsite meeting. Previous offsites have included things like go-carting, this time was on a boat. We hired a largish canal boat, had our meeting and set off down the Kennett and Avon canal. With champagne. Oh yes. Drinking from lunchtime. After we got off the boat we went on to a series of bars and it was, on the whole, a fairly messy afternoon/evening although I don't think too many actual embarrassments were committed. (Not by me anyway!)
Last weekend Giffy and Eric came to stay. We went to the Fashion Museum and and an organ recital at the Abbey and to Avebury. A good time (and lots of food) was had by all.
My boss has decided that I am the Voice of the Mazda Academy. When they ring the mainline number it is me on the auto-attendant, and two of the four options lead to me, so he has decided that I should also voice the intros to our e-learning programmes. I spent an hour yesterday recording one and then got told I had to do it again today. Great joy.
J (of the Peak District trip) is coming for the weekend. We will probably eat a lot and watch Jane Eyre.
I feel like this post should be much more interesting than it is. Perhaps I will add pictures later.
I went to the Peak District with my friend J for 5 days. It was all very historical and literary (kind of). We went to Haddon Hall and Chatsworth and Sudbury Hall, we went to Arbor Low stone circle and Mam Tor which is a Bronze Age hill fort, we went up Stanage Edge and through Winnatt's Pass, and we went to a cotton mill.
The houses were all used for filming various adaptations of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice (and Haddon Hall was the castle in Princess Bride!). It was really busy, but pretty chilled at the same time. We did a whole lot of eating, and sitting and chatting over pots of tea as well.
Last Friday work had our twice-yearly offsite meeting. Previous offsites have included things like go-carting, this time was on a boat. We hired a largish canal boat, had our meeting and set off down the Kennett and Avon canal. With champagne. Oh yes. Drinking from lunchtime. After we got off the boat we went on to a series of bars and it was, on the whole, a fairly messy afternoon/evening although I don't think too many actual embarrassments were committed. (Not by me anyway!)
Last weekend Giffy and Eric came to stay. We went to the Fashion Museum and and an organ recital at the Abbey and to Avebury. A good time (and lots of food) was had by all.
My boss has decided that I am the Voice of the Mazda Academy. When they ring the mainline number it is me on the auto-attendant, and two of the four options lead to me, so he has decided that I should also voice the intros to our e-learning programmes. I spent an hour yesterday recording one and then got told I had to do it again today. Great joy.
J (of the Peak District trip) is coming for the weekend. We will probably eat a lot and watch Jane Eyre.
I feel like this post should be much more interesting than it is. Perhaps I will add pictures later.
One day I will get around to writing about Debitha and The Lovely TP's Egyptian Adventures (assuming you're interested - because why wouldn't you be?).
In the meantime there are, as always, pictures! (Theoretically speaking, you can click through from this shot.)
In the meantime there are, as always, pictures! (Theoretically speaking, you can click through from this shot.)
Yeah, I thought you might be missing these.
From Bergen I flew to Stansted, where my flight on to Malaga was delayed by about 2 hours. Oh Stansted, you are the sucky airport of DOOM.
But eventually I made it and met up with my cousin. We then waited for my friend J (not Bergen-J, a different J) whose flight was, thankfully on time!
The Saturday was mellow and chillin' with a side order of shopping. Clothes are much cheaper in Spain than UK.
On Sunday we drove to Puerto de Santa Maria on the Atlantic coast, and from there took the ferry across to Cadiz. You may have seen the pictures. On Sunday there was time spent poolside and planning for Turkey the following week. You know, working out what we were actually going to do. Because up till then we'd pretty much gone, "Tour. Cool. Rock on." And therefore had no idea what we were doing or where we were going, which is not actually something either of us can cope with. :o)
It was a lovely weekend spent with my lovely cousin who looked after us very well.
It was however, only a weekend so you've got off lightly. Wait till I gear myself up for Turkey. I've just finished posting the Turkey pictures. There are 128 of the suckers.
From Bergen I flew to Stansted, where my flight on to Malaga was delayed by about 2 hours. Oh Stansted, you are the sucky airport of DOOM.
But eventually I made it and met up with my cousin. We then waited for my friend J (not Bergen-J, a different J) whose flight was, thankfully on time!
The Saturday was mellow and chillin' with a side order of shopping. Clothes are much cheaper in Spain than UK.
On Sunday we drove to Puerto de Santa Maria on the Atlantic coast, and from there took the ferry across to Cadiz. You may have seen the pictures. On Sunday there was time spent poolside and planning for Turkey the following week. You know, working out what we were actually going to do. Because up till then we'd pretty much gone, "Tour. Cool. Rock on." And therefore had no idea what we were doing or where we were going, which is not actually something either of us can cope with. :o)
It was a lovely weekend spent with my lovely cousin who looked after us very well.
It was however, only a weekend so you've got off lightly. Wait till I gear myself up for Turkey. I've just finished posting the Turkey pictures. There are 128 of the suckers.
Man, I just realised how far behind I am! I'll make it a big one to make up for it.
( Cut for enormity )
Tune in sometime for more exciting rambling. Or possibly some meme-age. Who knows?!? Aaah, the anticipation.
( Cut for enormity )Tune in sometime for more exciting rambling. Or possibly some meme-age. Who knows?!? Aaah, the anticipation.
Aya Sofıa defıes my vocabulary of adjectıves. Ones wıth a physıcal element lıke breath-takıng and jaw-droppıng come closest.
That ıs all for now.
That ıs all for now.
So, it seems that being short of sleep makes me semi-poetical, in a disjointed, vaguely schizoid kind of way. There follows the random ramblings of first impressions on a sleepy brain.
Copenhagen and the area around it is very flat from the air. Everthing is divided by straight, neat lines into precise, careful geometrical shapes. It is looks like a land long tamed.
At night the street lights wind around the countryside, curving, strung like fairylights from town to twinkling clump of town .
When travelling by plane, a travel pillow is your friend.
I really wish I could have taken a picture that captured the sunset from the plane. I tried but was not terribly successful. Picture fluffy grey cloud stretching out to the horizon, where the sun is already setting. The west is lit with strips of sunset colours in pastel: orange, yellow, green to darkening shades of blue. To the south a yellow crescent moon flirts with the cloud-horizon like a lady with a fan, peeking out, hiding again, peeking...
Coming in towards Bergen I see a light, like looking down on a star bright like Venus. Perception shift. The cloud clears a little and darker clouds appear aginst an evening sky looked down on, little islands on a flat pewter sea, twinkling lights, little stars, diamonds, boats on the sea in the evening.
Bergen lights wind around dark patches, wooded hills high and steep.
......
Man, I really was out of it. I have to go put my washing on, and watch Heroes now.
First lot of pictures are here. More in a week or so. (I may possibly have used my limit for the month. Oops!)
Copenhagen and the area around it is very flat from the air. Everthing is divided by straight, neat lines into precise, careful geometrical shapes. It is looks like a land long tamed.
At night the street lights wind around the countryside, curving, strung like fairylights from town to twinkling clump of town .
When travelling by plane, a travel pillow is your friend.
I really wish I could have taken a picture that captured the sunset from the plane. I tried but was not terribly successful. Picture fluffy grey cloud stretching out to the horizon, where the sun is already setting. The west is lit with strips of sunset colours in pastel: orange, yellow, green to darkening shades of blue. To the south a yellow crescent moon flirts with the cloud-horizon like a lady with a fan, peeking out, hiding again, peeking...
Coming in towards Bergen I see a light, like looking down on a star bright like Venus. Perception shift. The cloud clears a little and darker clouds appear aginst an evening sky looked down on, little islands on a flat pewter sea, twinkling lights, little stars, diamonds, boats on the sea in the evening.
Bergen lights wind around dark patches, wooded hills high and steep.
......
Man, I really was out of it. I have to go put my washing on, and watch Heroes now.
First lot of pictures are here. More in a week or so. (I may possibly have used my limit for the month. Oops!)
Norway and Spain were wonderful. The only downside being the vicious and wrong-looking mosquito bites I got in Spain. I will later write about the wonderful, but right now I have to vent about the infuriating that came after. What follows is a dramatisation based on a true story:
ME: Hello pharmacist, do you have anything better for these bites than what I have already?
PHARMACIST: You have the Evil Itchy Bites of Doom! You must go to Casualty immediately. Those bites may be so poisonous that you cannot travel!
ME: Eeeep! OK.
ME: Hello workmates. I have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom. Can someone please take me to Casualty?
KIRSTY: I will take you.
ME: You are a goddess among women.
ME: Hello Nurse-at-Casualty. Apparently I have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom.
NURSE-AT-CASUALTY: You have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom that can lead to blood-poisoning. You will DIE if you do not immediately have antibiotics, which I am not sure we have.
ME: OK. Should I just call my GP?
N-A-C: We have no doctors here. But our prescribing nurse can prescribe the antibiotics. You should go to the Waiting room. There is about a one hour wait.
ME: ...ok?
ME: I so should have bought a sandwich.
KIRSTY: I will bring you one when I come back to get you.
ME: You are truly a goddess among women!
N-A-C: We have no antibiotics.
ME: So... I should just have called my GP then.
N-A-C: We did say we may not have them! I will call your GP!
N-A-C (on phone): Can I please have the number for the Riverside Surgery?
ME: I have the number.
N-A-C: I will call them!
N-A-C: You need to be at the surgery before 4.50. You must have antibiotics in the next 6 hours or you will DIE!
ME: ...OK. So if you I leave work about 4.15, I should be there in time...
N-A-C: No! You must tell your work that you are not coming back today and go to the surgery immediately, or you will DIE!
ME: ...ok?
ME: Hello, Riverside Surgery. I think you just spoke to a woman in Chippenham. Are you closing at 5, or do I have an appointment at 4.50, because she seemed to think I should get to the surgery straight away.
RECEPTIONIST: No, you have an appointment at 4.50. We cannot see you before then.
ME: OK, she just seemed to think I should get there very urgently. I think it's just a quick prescription.
RECEPTIONIST: No, you have an appointment at 4.50. We cannot see you before then and the doctor will want to see you.
ME: ...ok.
ME: Ummm, the 4.15 train is running late. I think I may be late for my appointment.
LOVELY BOSS: I will drive you. I can go home to Bristol and work from home for the rest of the afternoon.
ME: You are also a goddess among women!
ME: Hello Nice Doctor. Apparently I have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom, and must immediately have antibiotics, or I will die?
NICE DOCTOR: Nope. They're just kinda manky. You know, I could have done this over the phone and saved you the trouble.
ME: *cries*
I promise I will write about the wonderful tomorrow. There may even be pictures.
ME: Hello pharmacist, do you have anything better for these bites than what I have already?
PHARMACIST: You have the Evil Itchy Bites of Doom! You must go to Casualty immediately. Those bites may be so poisonous that you cannot travel!
ME: Eeeep! OK.
ME: Hello workmates. I have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom. Can someone please take me to Casualty?
KIRSTY: I will take you.
ME: You are a goddess among women.
ME: Hello Nurse-at-Casualty. Apparently I have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom.
NURSE-AT-CASUALTY: You have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom that can lead to blood-poisoning. You will DIE if you do not immediately have antibiotics, which I am not sure we have.
ME: OK. Should I just call my GP?
N-A-C: We have no doctors here. But our prescribing nurse can prescribe the antibiotics. You should go to the Waiting room. There is about a one hour wait.
ME: ...ok?
ME: I so should have bought a sandwich.
KIRSTY: I will bring you one when I come back to get you.
ME: You are truly a goddess among women!
N-A-C: We have no antibiotics.
ME: So... I should just have called my GP then.
N-A-C: We did say we may not have them! I will call your GP!
N-A-C (on phone): Can I please have the number for the Riverside Surgery?
ME: I have the number.
N-A-C: I will call them!
N-A-C: You need to be at the surgery before 4.50. You must have antibiotics in the next 6 hours or you will DIE!
ME: ...OK. So if you I leave work about 4.15, I should be there in time...
N-A-C: No! You must tell your work that you are not coming back today and go to the surgery immediately, or you will DIE!
ME: ...ok?
ME: Hello, Riverside Surgery. I think you just spoke to a woman in Chippenham. Are you closing at 5, or do I have an appointment at 4.50, because she seemed to think I should get to the surgery straight away.
RECEPTIONIST: No, you have an appointment at 4.50. We cannot see you before then.
ME: OK, she just seemed to think I should get there very urgently. I think it's just a quick prescription.
RECEPTIONIST: No, you have an appointment at 4.50. We cannot see you before then and the doctor will want to see you.
ME: ...ok.
ME: Ummm, the 4.15 train is running late. I think I may be late for my appointment.
LOVELY BOSS: I will drive you. I can go home to Bristol and work from home for the rest of the afternoon.
ME: You are also a goddess among women!
ME: Hello Nice Doctor. Apparently I have Evil Itchy Bites of Doom, and must immediately have antibiotics, or I will die?
NICE DOCTOR: Nope. They're just kinda manky. You know, I could have done this over the phone and saved you the trouble.
ME: *cries*
I promise I will write about the wonderful tomorrow. There may even be pictures.
It's all a bit up and down at the moment.
Overall, work is insane - even more so than usual. My sort of opposite number has been seconded to the Learning and Development Team, to develop e-learning websites for us. This is great for him, as it's an area he was really keen to get into. Unfortunately that leaves me as the only person on the team who is familiar with his job. So we've had a series of temps in, and I monitor everything that both roles are responsible for, and delegate like blazes.
So let me tell you about the temps. There was the very nice but fairly ineffectual lady who (we have just discovered) did a load of data entry wrong so six weeks worth has to be done again. Or how about the girl didn't show up on Monday? Even though she had an interview with us for the position.
Actually the last couple of days have gone pretty well. Which only serves to make me afraid. Phrases like, "the calm before the storm" and "It's quiet. Too quiet" keep running through my brain. I feel very aware that I have too many things on the go all at once to keep track of them properly. A bit like when you're buildong a house of cards, and you know it's too high - even though it's not falling down yet, you know that all it will take is for someone across the room to close the door too hard and it's all over, red rover.
But what the hell. Everyone knows it's a danger and I'm doing my best. I will be mightily relieved when we've got someone in role, though!
On an entirely different note, Mr and Mrs Huggy-Buggy are coming to visit this weekend. Hurrah! It will be great to see them again. And the lovely TP (I hope I'm referring to the same person I think everyone else is referring to that way!) is heading my way very soon also.
And I have holidays coming up! Oh glorious holidays! I will spend 5 days in Bergen in Norway, where I will catch up with one of my lovely boys from Wellington and probably see fjords! (I mean that absolutely literally, so get your filthy mind out of the gutter!) Then I will pick up a different Wellington friend, Jenny, and visit my cousin in Spain for the long weekend. Then back at work for a couple of days (boy I hope they're properly staffed by then!) and then Jenny and I are doing a week-long tour of Turkey.
I be so busy! Mainlining dark chocolate before 9am is an effective (if maybe not so terribly healthy) way of coping with it all.
Dark chocolate is the way forward.
Overall, work is insane - even more so than usual. My sort of opposite number has been seconded to the Learning and Development Team, to develop e-learning websites for us. This is great for him, as it's an area he was really keen to get into. Unfortunately that leaves me as the only person on the team who is familiar with his job. So we've had a series of temps in, and I monitor everything that both roles are responsible for, and delegate like blazes.
So let me tell you about the temps. There was the very nice but fairly ineffectual lady who (we have just discovered) did a load of data entry wrong so six weeks worth has to be done again. Or how about the girl didn't show up on Monday? Even though she had an interview with us for the position.
Actually the last couple of days have gone pretty well. Which only serves to make me afraid. Phrases like, "the calm before the storm" and "It's quiet. Too quiet" keep running through my brain. I feel very aware that I have too many things on the go all at once to keep track of them properly. A bit like when you're buildong a house of cards, and you know it's too high - even though it's not falling down yet, you know that all it will take is for someone across the room to close the door too hard and it's all over, red rover.
But what the hell. Everyone knows it's a danger and I'm doing my best. I will be mightily relieved when we've got someone in role, though!
On an entirely different note, Mr and Mrs Huggy-Buggy are coming to visit this weekend. Hurrah! It will be great to see them again. And the lovely TP (I hope I'm referring to the same person I think everyone else is referring to that way!) is heading my way very soon also.
And I have holidays coming up! Oh glorious holidays! I will spend 5 days in Bergen in Norway, where I will catch up with one of my lovely boys from Wellington and probably see fjords! (I mean that absolutely literally, so get your filthy mind out of the gutter!) Then I will pick up a different Wellington friend, Jenny, and visit my cousin in Spain for the long weekend. Then back at work for a couple of days (boy I hope they're properly staffed by then!) and then Jenny and I are doing a week-long tour of Turkey.
I be so busy! Mainlining dark chocolate before 9am is an effective (if maybe not so terribly healthy) way of coping with it all.
Dark chocolate is the way forward.
Hello my lovelies.
Fortunately I didn't get that confused at San Francisco Airport, so I made it back home OK.
If you have to have a short atop in the US, I would highly recommend trying to go through San Fran if you can manage it. Having been through LA and Houston, my expectations of my four hour stop were not high. But... they were... nice. Multiple staff members including the immigration guy, and the guy at the bag check were... nice. Pleasant. I was really quite taken aback.
I have been inspired by the lovely Sassafrassle. I am posting some ideas of things I intend to try to do this year in an effort to better myself. Hopefully posting it here will provide me some motivation to do more than talk about it. So:
- The University has a part time course on Neolithic Archeology (Yes, I'm a big geek. Don't act surprised.) which is about long barrows and such-like things and will include a field trip out to Avebury.
- Work wants to help me with stess management and time management. I will let them help me.
- The college has an Italian course in September. I want to be able to understand people when I go back to Italy. I can pretty much make myself understood, but it's awkward when you can't really tell what they're saying back.
- I will do more climbing this year. I'm not sure I managed any last year, apart from a wee scramble on a rockface at a beach in Coromandel. I am going out to Gloucester this weekend to climb with some friends, so that's a start on that one.
So, that's the plan. Keep an eye out here to read more about the giddy whirlwind of my life. :o)
Fortunately I didn't get that confused at San Francisco Airport, so I made it back home OK.
If you have to have a short atop in the US, I would highly recommend trying to go through San Fran if you can manage it. Having been through LA and Houston, my expectations of my four hour stop were not high. But... they were... nice. Multiple staff members including the immigration guy, and the guy at the bag check were... nice. Pleasant. I was really quite taken aback.
I have been inspired by the lovely Sassafrassle. I am posting some ideas of things I intend to try to do this year in an effort to better myself. Hopefully posting it here will provide me some motivation to do more than talk about it. So:
- The University has a part time course on Neolithic Archeology (Yes, I'm a big geek. Don't act surprised.) which is about long barrows and such-like things and will include a field trip out to Avebury.
- Work wants to help me with stess management and time management. I will let them help me.
- The college has an Italian course in September. I want to be able to understand people when I go back to Italy. I can pretty much make myself understood, but it's awkward when you can't really tell what they're saying back.
- I will do more climbing this year. I'm not sure I managed any last year, apart from a wee scramble on a rockface at a beach in Coromandel. I am going out to Gloucester this weekend to climb with some friends, so that's a start on that one.
So, that's the plan. Keep an eye out here to read more about the giddy whirlwind of my life. :o)
Back online - Yay!
Dec. 9th, 2006 09:27 pmHello lovely peoples.
It is very hard to blog when you're all with the Internet Cafe access. :o( But now I am at my parents house in Hawkes Bay and can (and already have!) spend hours online. Hurrah.
Much has been written about M+S's wedding, so I'll just say that the whole thing was lovely, and the bridesmaids' dresses were much better than had been suggested. Not so much with the tiger stripe! It was great to have a chance to at least see, if not really catch up with a lot of people I hadn't seen in years.
After the wedding I had a lovely week of catching up with more people, including a friend from Bath who is also over here at the moment (oh, the randomness!).
This week I took a trip up to the Coromandel with my Mum. It was beautiful up there, and the weather was mostly fabulous. Managed to get sunburned again! Although not so badly, and in different places. Including one small but painful patch on the back of my arm where I missed with the sunblock. And my knuckles. Sunburned knuckles, for crying out loud. Bah.
But the food was oooooohhh so good. Mmmmmmm yummy food. ALthough one restaurant we went to had a function room next door where karaoke was happening. Loudly. When the kitchen staff turned their stereo up loud enough that we could hear it too, and the two musics combined we decided to have dessert elsewhere before my ears exploded in self defense. Good call too. Sticky toffee souffle with butterscotch and bourbon sauce......
Anyway, Coromandel: Stunning beaches, excellent and innovative food, and dangerously seductive jewellery shops. It's all good. I will see if I can sort out putting pics on the internet with linkage. How hard can it be?
ETA: And here they are.
The plan is to head back to Wgtn on Tuesday, and spend about a week down there before coming back up here for Christmas and then going back to my cold dark wet home. Oh well, at least there is a wine and cheese party about a week after I get back, so that will give me something to live for :o)
It is very hard to blog when you're all with the Internet Cafe access. :o( But now I am at my parents house in Hawkes Bay and can (and already have!) spend hours online. Hurrah.
Much has been written about M+S's wedding, so I'll just say that the whole thing was lovely, and the bridesmaids' dresses were much better than had been suggested. Not so much with the tiger stripe! It was great to have a chance to at least see, if not really catch up with a lot of people I hadn't seen in years.
After the wedding I had a lovely week of catching up with more people, including a friend from Bath who is also over here at the moment (oh, the randomness!).
This week I took a trip up to the Coromandel with my Mum. It was beautiful up there, and the weather was mostly fabulous. Managed to get sunburned again! Although not so badly, and in different places. Including one small but painful patch on the back of my arm where I missed with the sunblock. And my knuckles. Sunburned knuckles, for crying out loud. Bah.
But the food was oooooohhh so good. Mmmmmmm yummy food. ALthough one restaurant we went to had a function room next door where karaoke was happening. Loudly. When the kitchen staff turned their stereo up loud enough that we could hear it too, and the two musics combined we decided to have dessert elsewhere before my ears exploded in self defense. Good call too. Sticky toffee souffle with butterscotch and bourbon sauce......
Anyway, Coromandel: Stunning beaches, excellent and innovative food, and dangerously seductive jewellery shops. It's all good. I will see if I can sort out putting pics on the internet with linkage. How hard can it be?
ETA: And here they are.
The plan is to head back to Wgtn on Tuesday, and spend about a week down there before coming back up here for Christmas and then going back to my cold dark wet home. Oh well, at least there is a wine and cheese party about a week after I get back, so that will give me something to live for :o)
Well, here I am. A bit jet-lagged, but otherwise none the worse for entirely too lengthy trip. (8 hours at Tokyo aiport and 5 hours at Auckland DON'T HELP!)
Stacey's Hen's Night tonight, so will be catching up with lots of lovely people tonight. Sushi (mmm, sushi, aaaaaghlgh...) with HP tomorrow. (Will be texting you shortly!)
I saw a tui on the powerlines yesterday. It's really nice to be home.
Stacey's Hen's Night tonight, so will be catching up with lots of lovely people tonight. Sushi (mmm, sushi, aaaaaghlgh...) with HP tomorrow. (Will be texting you shortly!)
I saw a tui on the powerlines yesterday. It's really nice to be home.
