aitchbee
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "aitchbee" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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04:27 am
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Juggling Festival
Des, F and I spend Easter camping over the hill in Wainuiomata as part of the NZ Juggling Festival. I had a lot of fun there, and did more juggling than I have in a while. We bought F his first juggling prop - a diabolo - and we were lucky enough to have a couple of really talented people wander over and give him some tips. F was especially excited to see one of the guys on stage later in the evening with a "ninja diabolo" routine. Here's a picture of Des doing toothbrush-spinning limbo at the games.
We've just had a weekend in Auckland catching up with friends and family, and also going to see Split Enz. Great concert, and lovely to see everyone.
The NZ Arts Festival was on recently with a whole lot of awesome stuff. We went to see a couple of productions by Les Sept Doights de la Main. They had two shows, one called Traces with younger performers most fresh from circus school, and called La Vie one with the more experienced original members of the troupe. I can't decide which I liked more!
And here's a picture of the townhouse that we are renting at the moment.
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03:43 pm
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Moving on Tuesday
After a great year living in Petone we are moving into Kelburn, in Wellington proper on Tuesday. We've rented a place near the botanic gardens, so while we don't have any garden we have lots of green within a short stroll, and I should be able to walk to work too. The movers arrive to pack on Monday, and on Tuesday it's all go!
It's the Petone Rotary Fair today and we spend a couple of hours checking out all the stalls. Lots of stuff there, some fairground games, bouncy castles, a fire engine, lots of craft stalls supporting various charities, jams, preserves, driftwood sculptures, clothing... and it was packed too! Great to see so many people out and about on a showery day.
Tomorrow I'm doing the Round the Bays run... Never thought that I'd be running anywhere! I'll have sore legs tomorrow...
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08:26 am
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Can't believe January has already gone!
I'm sitting watching the final of the Wellington sevens on TV... Samoa just got a great goal, and NZ are looking a bit stunned! Come on boys!
After a busy December we followed up with a busy January. After being back home just a week we went to Christchurch to catch up with some old friends of mine. Poor Des didn't realise till we were there that my friends partners weren't there! He had to put up with girl talk for hours, but managed ok.
Then we put in an offer on a house, the vendors put in a ridiculous counter offer, we pulled out, and the house is still on the market a month later (ha ha). We have to be out of this house in a couple of weeks and so we are moving out of Petone and into Wellington proper. I'll really miss being out here, but I think I'll enjoy being able to walk into work.
I got to go to Sydney on a short-notice work training thing. Had the joy of having to be at the airport at 4am, arriving in Sydney and then doing a days work... Can say that by about 3pm I was losing focus a bit! I caught up with some friends for dinner - seeing the strange bird in the picture on the way. Bigger and uglier than a pigeon! Unfortunately this was all of the famed Australian bird life that I saw. After another day of meetings I had a late flight back home. Exhausting couple of days.
NZ and Samoa are even at 17-all with two minutes to play, exciting stuff!
With just seconds to go, NZ score and win the cup!
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10:27 am
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Round the East Cape
After having a wonderful time seeing all the family over christmas, and stuffing ourselves silly with the wonderful food that everyone cooked we headed off from Tauranga and went east. We stopped at the Ohope Outdoor Bookstore, a secondhand bookshop that is set up on someones front yard, with heaps of containers of books. The views along the coastal road are amazing. I had to keep stopping the car so I could get a good view as well. I loved the drive, really wished that we had a week to do it in, rather than just a few days. We stopped at a B&B for the night where they grew practically all the food they served us - bananas included! Plus fish fresh from the sea. They even had pigs... Des tried to make friends, and perhaps it was better that we weren't served sausages at breakfast.
In Te Araroa we had a look at the largest pohutakawa tree in the world. It was truely a monster of a tree! It's believed to be about 300 years old. We ventured out to the easternmost point in NZ to see the lighthouse that's there, perched on a clifftop, and overlooking a small island (East Island... I knew about the North Island, and the South Island, but I never knew that there was an East Island. I wonder if there's a West Island). Had a night in Tokumaru bay, camping in someone's backyard. He'd converted his garage to a dorm-room and put up an outside kitchen for campers. Not a bad way to get some extra cash in the summer! The whole East Cape felt so isolated compared to most of the other places in NZ that I've been to. There's not much for a long way.
From Tokomaru Bay we drove down to Gisborne, and on for another hour to a wee settlement called Morere where there are some hot springs. Arrived in time to make some dinner and then head for a soak once the sun was setting and the day had cooled down a bit. South again to Napier where we admired the Art Deco town centre, and became masters at spotting the ziggurat motif on the buildings. Stopped at a couple of wineries on the way back to Dannevirke and then the Tui Brewery at Mangatainoka on the way back to Wellington.
Some more photos on Flickr.
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08:56 am
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Merry Xmas!
Des and I are on the Great Xmas Roadtrip visiting family around the North Island. We spent a couple of nights in Dannevirke with Des'es Mum&John, and caught up with Des'es son F as well. Now we are in Rotorua with my Mum. My brother and his girlfriend arrived today as well, in the red kombi van they are driving around in for the summer. They've also picked up a hitch-hiker - a tiny kitten that was abandoned at a rest stop on their travel. Staying here for a few days and then heading further north to Tauranga to Des'es Dad&Devon.
The last couple of months have just flown by. Movember came and went (and I made sure that Des's entire mo was removed!). We did a day walk up in the Hutt Valley that follows the old Rimutaka railway. It used to be the only connection between Wellington and the Wairarapa. It's nice and easy going up, and then is pretty steep on the other side. The old trains used to go so slowly that the passengers used to get off and pick flowers and chase the train.
We went along to see the Wellington Phoenix (football/soccer) play David Beckham, or rather the LA Galaxy. There was a bit of football fever going in Wellington that day, lots of little Beckham fans in football jerseys around town. Was a fun night, even if the Phoenix got beaten. They really need to work on their defence! There was a really big crowd too, and great atmosphere.
Aside from that it's been Christmas shopping and trying to get a bit organised before heading off on this holiday.
Wishing everyone a happy holiday season, whether it's snowy and dark, or hot and sunny!
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06:21 am
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Mo-town Petone
During Movember (the month formerly known as November) Des is growing a Mo and I'm helping him raise some funds for prostate cancer because I'm passionate about men's health and the fight against prostate cancer. Why...
* Every year in New Zealand 2,200 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 600 die of the disease, making prostate cancer the second largest cause of male deaths, after lung cancer.
* The average life expectancy of a man in New Zealand is 4 years less than a woman.
To sponsor his Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/nz/donate, enter his registration number which is 87622 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor him by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand" clearly marking the donation as being for his Registration Number: 87622. Please mail cheques to: Movember, PO Box 87 150, Meadowbank 1742, Auckland. All donations over $5 are tax deductible.
All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand who will use the funds to create awareness, increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer, fund research and scholarship programs.
For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the detail at: Fundraising Outcomes.
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09:58 am
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Des in the daffodils
Des playing at Christchurch Museum's spring display - it detected where you walk (or rolled) and "grew" daffodils where you went.
We visited the museum when we were down for the Snow Patrol concert. My friend Kath really wanted to see the blue whale bones that she remembered as a child - but they are no longer there! How can they just pack away something as cool as those?! The museum info guy said that she could book in an appointment on a weekday for a special viewing if she was really keen. Unfortunately we were there on a weekend so whe will have to wait until next time.
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09:26 am
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Another long time since updating
This blog is turning into a monthly round up of what I've done. It's not so exciting now that all the travelling is over. Now it's October, and it's pretty hard to think that this time last year we would have been in Sienna, Italy.
Anyway, after being told by a guy at work that I'm "always going away" we've been out and about a bit away in the last month or so.
* Queenstown: We took Des's son F down to Queenstown for a few days for a holiday and some ski lessons. He did really well, saying "I can ski now, and it only took me 2 days to learn!"... he's getting the hang of the "pizza" (or snow plough). We didn't get to ski, but it didn't look like the snow was great anyway. Also did some other Queenstown type stuff like the gondola and the luge (also a hit with F who's into the Cars movie and enjoyed the racing). We were staying in Arrowtown which was lovely.
* Christchurch: Made a trip down with some friends to see Snow Patrol play. I really enjoyed the concert, just wished I wasn't feeling fluy! Have to say that Chch needs to sort out it's public transport system for events like this - a shuttle bus from the stadium to the central city would have gone down a treat! In the end we walked to the nearest dodgy sports pub in Addington and watched the first half of the rugby (nz v someone) before we could hail a cab.
* Wellington Phoenix: Went to see the new Wellington A-League (Australian soccer league) play at home. We saw them draw with Adelaide, but missed the game last weekend where they thrashed Perth.
* Wearable Art awards: Mum came down to visit this weekend and we took her to the World of Wearable Art awards show. Was an excellent show, more than just models coming down the runway. The costumes (art?) were amazing too, so much effort put into some of them! We had gone out to dinner beforehand at a restaurant where they had an excellent idea for dessert. Instead of offering the regular sized desserts, where I'm always stuck going "well I feel like something sweet, but I know that whatever I order is going to be massive" they had matched up small portions with a nice drink, like fruitcake with sherry, or something else with a dessert wine. Super idea!
After a couple of weeks of nearly summer weather, spring has hit back over the weekend. It's been really windy (I had wondered where Welly had got it's reputation from, now I know!). My office is on the 24th floor of an office block, and this week it has been swaying in the wind... very disconcerting!
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06:54 pm
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Busy busy!
I've had a busy month, with work as well as stuff on around Wellington, including the film festival and a few shows.
My team at work went on a couple of away days with the Auckland based part of the group. We headed on a road trip to New Plymouth to meet up for 2 days of presentations and activities. The place we stayed at was a bit more budget than even the women organising it were expecting – think of somewhere that you might have gone on school camp, with outside loo outside shower blocks! Not to mention only 4 showers for the entire team! Oh dear! But once over the initial shock the days went quite well. Some interesting talks, no scary motivational speaker of any kind, and getting to know the people from the Auckland office. Hopefully next time we'll have indoor loos...
The Wellington Film Festival has also been and gone. We went to see Animation for Kids, with a series of about 6 or 8 short films. Some whimsical, some with a message for the kids (especially heavy in the Canadian government sponsored ones). There was an excellent short about an underwater sheep farm, and a sweet one about a unicycle tall enough to reach the moon. Also saw a French film called Priceless which stars Audrey Tatou (from Amelie) as a gold-digging women on the hunt for a sugar-daddy, when she mistakes a hotel barman for her next target. Saw some digital animation shorts, a Japanese movie, a documentary about growing corn in the US, one about tea in China. The two documentaries were really good - I have been inspired to head to the local tea shop to stock up.
As well as the film festival we saw Aurelia’s Oratorio at the theatre. We saw it back in London and loved it, and it was just as good the second time around. Ian McKellan in King Lear was last weekend, and it was really great. And coming up we’ve got Circus Oz, and Snow Patrol. I’ll end up cultured out by the end of September but it’s a good time of year here! !
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11:05 am
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Some football.
This picture taken along Petone beach. It was a surprisingly still day yesterday. Paid back in full overnight when the southerly came whipping up from the south pole. Wind, rain and hail woke me up a couple of times overnight.
I went to see some football today. Not rugby as you might expect in NZ but proper soccer. Des and I joined some friends to watch the Wellington Phoenix play a pre-season game against Sydney FC. To be honest I wasn't expecting a great show but they did heaps better than I thought. They actually kicked some ass and won 3-0! Definitely felt like a proper football game as we were sitting near the Yellow Fever supporters area, and they had all the traditional chants going. Awesome!
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09:29 am
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Nelson and the Zoo
Des took me away for a surprise weekend in Nelson for my birthday last week. He managed to keep the final destination secret until we were at the airport gate, and then we were on the little plane for a short (but bumpy) hop across Cook Strait to Nelson.
The weather was absolutely lovely after all the rain and blustery days that we have had so far this winter in Wellington. Crisp clear days with lots of sunshine but very cold. We were staying in an historic cottage about 5 mins walk from the main drag. Nelson is well known for it's craftsmen, especially pottery. We went to the market on Saturday morning where there was a bit of pottery for sale, as well as some foody stuff like olive oil, smoked fish, cheeses and jams and preserves. Then there was a whole heap of other handcrafts from woodworkers to knitting, a knife maker, clothes, toys... It was really good! Aside from that we just hung out, spent some time in cafes and went out for a really nice Asian dinner at Harry's Bar. Really nice food, though the Larb wasn't as hot as we had been used to in Laos.
This weekend was more great weather, after the stormy weather that has been up and down the country during the week. We took Des's little boy to the Wellington Zoo. He rushed around from animal to animal and we followed along behind. We were in time to see Tahi the one-legged kiwi, and also fed the giraffes. But the tuatara were in hiding, and so were most of the monkeys as it was still pretty cold.
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11:29 am
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A view from my office
This is the view from my office window, on the 24th floor. Looking out on Wellington towards Mt Victoria. There's Te Papa in the middle and a bit to the right, and Oriental Bay on the left. It's fantastic on a fine day, but on a rainy one (like the last few) I can barely see the ground!
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10:34 am
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Frames made by me
It’s been a pretty quiet month really, while being kind of busy. I finished up my picture framing evening course with the result of 4 lovely framed prints! Three of the pictures were ones that I had processed in the darkroom myself, and it’s really nice to know when they’re on the wall that I’ve done the whole process from taking the picture to printing them up to sawing up the frame. They don't look too bad either, if you don’t get too close… The pictures are of Denmark Hill Station in London, an abandoned tin mine in Cornwall and Clapham common.
We’ve been doing quite a bit of juggling. There are two groups (that we know of) running in Wellington at the moment. There’s one at the dance school Te Whaea on Wednesdays and one in Kandallah on Fridays. It’s been nice to be passing in a group again, we got some nice 4 and 5 person moving patterns running last week.
And I’ve enrolled at uni again. I’m picking up some statistics papers by correspondence starting next month, just to fill in some knowledge gaps at my job. I’m slightly regretting having dropped stats after stage one as it would have been useful, but not regretting it that much really as maths and physics were more interesting.
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11:42 am
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Walking and wining in Marlborough
Des and I needed to get out of Wellington for the long weekend so we headed across to Marlborough, at the north of the South Island (some photos up on Flickr). We went on the ferry - but as foot passengers. It was great to leave the car at home and not have the stress of getting out of Wellington on a long weekend. We stayed in Picton, the small town where the ferry docks. It's fairly quiet but a pretty good base for exploring the Marlborough Sounds.
We had an afternoon visiting some of the vinyards that Marlborough is famous for - and our bags were a lot heavier on the way home with the wine that we bought. Thank goodness we didn't have the car or we'd have spent a fortune!
We also spent a day walking on the Queen Charlotte walkway. We started from Ships Cove where Captain Cook first landed on the South Island, and where he returned to visit another 5 times on his journeys. From there we walked through Resolution Bay and on to Endeavour Inlet where we finished up with a beer at Furneaux Lodge. At our lunch stop on a ridge overlooking Endeavour Inlet we were joined by a very fat weka. It wasn't a shy bird and hung out at our feet the entire time that we had food in our hands. Then moved on to some other people when we had finished eating. Near the end of the walk we passed through a stand of black beech where there were tuis, bellbirds and woodpigeons feeding, so many birds together were making a real noise! When we were on the water taxi on the way back to Picton we saw Dusky and Hectors dolphins playing behind the boat. Lovely to be back in the New Zealand nature.
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09:56 pm
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Toothless
I am a sheep and have joined Facebook:
I had an enforced long weekend after a visit to the dentist left me with 4 teeth less than I had on Thursday. Getting your wisdom teeth out is not a pleasant experience, I can now tell you that from experience. I have spent most of the weekend propped up, either in bed or on the couch watching CSI while trying to distract myself away from my swollen sore face. It was back to work today though, the swelling has mostly gone down and I only look a little bit silly with a bit of a lumpy face.
I saw a couple of movies too – Pirates 3 and Hot Fuzz. The less said about Pirates the better as it was awful! I remember the second one being a bit rubbish, but maybe it seemed better than it was when we saw it in Lithuania last year – the relief of 3 hours of being able to switch off and understand everything may have left a rosy glow! Hot Fuzz, however, was great. I really like Simon Pegg, and the whole thing was really funny.
We went along to an open home a couple of blocks from our house. I think I am going to get sick of hearing the estate agents talking about “flow”. As in “it’s got great flow from the living area through to the kitchen and then out into the garden”. Translated as “open plan kitchen/living with french doors to the back yard”. And the bedrooms were all little boxes. You could fit a double bed in each of them, but that’s about all you’d get. Des has a sharp eye for workmanship too, and he spotted loads of places where the DIY-er had just been sloppy on the finishing. Ho hum… we’re starting early so hopefully by the time our lease is up (next year!) we’ll have an idea of what sort of prices are going in our area. And who knows, we might just stumble across our dream home!
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10:00 pm
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Cheese
I am celebrating that the NZ government will finally be letting people eat nice cheese. Currently we aren't to be trusted to eat cheese made from unpasteurised milk. Apparently we aren't clever enough to avoid it when it's bad to eat it (i.e. when pregnant) as there's a chance of getting listeria.
They're letting in Roquefort for the moment, and hopefully that will mean that other types might be able to come in, and eventually that NZ cheesemakers might be able to make their own. Anyway, I'm all for "risky" and tasty cheese, and I'm really glad that it's on it's way to NZ.
And, in other cheese news, you can watch cheese mature. Just about as exciting as paint drying. Youtube also has a time-lapse of the cheese if you want something a bit more exciting than the live feed.
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10:45 am
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Hills in Hanmer
Des and I had a nice weekend down in Hanmer Springs with Greg and Heather, friends from the UK. We spent Saturday clambering up Mt Isobel. The weather was perfect though, clear blue skies, but crisp autumn air to keep you cool. The views were pretty spectacular from the top but I took pictures on my film camera so I can't flickr them. We went for a soak in the thermal pools after our walk - just the thing for weary muscles! But even with that soak I have spent the last 3 days hobbling around like an old lady!
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07:41 pm
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Jobbed up
Our house is feeling much more homey now. When we moved in we were sleeping on mattresses for the first night, then got a bed delivered the next day, but we were still sitting on the floor. Last week we got a lounge suite and some bookcases so now it's feeling like a proper house!
I've had two weeks at work now. Things have been a little slow to start with, just lots of reading to do. The rest of the team has been tied up with a deadline due next week and so haven't had much time for "mentoring" the new kid. Hopefully after this deadline has passed I'll have some actual work to do.
Even though we have been in the house for a couple of weeks now I haven't really had much time in it! The first weekend I was away at a hens weekend for an old uni friend, and Des was up in Raglan at the New Zealand Juggling Festival. Then I had to go to Christchurch the following weekend to help out at Mum's house auction. It didn't end up taking place as she was able to accept an offer before the date. But my brother had made a surprise visit from Melbourne. It was really nice to have the whole fambily at home together for the first time in about 3 years before it got sold.
Aside from filling the house with furniture we have been doing quite a bit of juggling, at two different clubs in Wellington. After 8 months off I'm still pretty rusty but Des and I are getting some good 7-club passing going.
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11:25 pm
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Wairarapa and wine
We have been doing a bit of the touristy thing around Wellington with a British friend who's been staying this week. I visited Te Papa (New Zealands national museum) for the first time in about 10 years, and it's really great. Lots of fun interactive displays to indulge the part of me that likes pushing buttons and playing with things. Outstanding display goes to the "Operation Kakapo Copulation" video and the footage of a desperate male kakapo going for it with a dead penguin (voiceover: “steady on old chap”). Classy stuff!
We took Mat up to the Wairarapa wine/foody region about an hour out of Wellington for a couple of days. Had a lovely sunny day where we hired bikes in Martinborough and spent the afternoon cycling around the vineyards sampling (and purchasing) some yummy nice wines. Also stopped in at Schoc, a divine chocolate shop in Greytown.
Today we have been for a massive walk around Wellington. Right along the waterfront, and up Mount Victoria. The afternoon was perfect and the views from the top were spectacular. On one side you can see the central Wellington and the CBD, north across the harbour to Petone and Lower Hutt, and then East to Miramar and the entrance to the harbour. Just Awesome. We went to see As You Like It at an open air summer Shakespeare event in the botanic gardens. Not one of his best plays but the cast did a good job... Absolutely rubbish ending where everyone gets married and the bad guy suddenly decides to convert and become a monk. Nice example of how to wrap everything up in about 10mins flat!
In other news, we move into our new house tomorrow, and I have been offered a job! Just the paperwork to do to make it all official-like. Now the reality of only one more week of holiday left... It will be almost exactly 8 months since I last worked, there's going to be a massive shock to the system!
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10:15 am
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Getting down in Dannevirke
We had to get out of Wellington last weekend as our B&B was booked out as the Rugby 7s were in town. Our original plan was to head up the Kapiti coast but it was all booked out there as well! So we headed further afield and went to Dannevirke to visit Des'es mum, Wendy and John.
On Saturday we experienced a slice of rural NZ culture as we visited the Dannevirke A&P Show (A&P = Agricultural & Pastoral). We wandered around the sideshows, watching the local kids having a great time, walked past the stands advertising tractors, 4x4 bikes, motorbikes and all kinds of farm implements. The Produce Hall was great... competitions of knitting, sewing, handicraft, baking, vegetables, kids pikelets, kids vegetable animals... My favourite class was “Best Breadmaker Bread”!!! Unfortunately they didn't actually say which brand of breadmaker the winner had used so I couldn't go and buy it and make prizewinning bread myself!
Then we went to watch some of the horsey events. Brought back memories of childhood. Lots of boring “ponies in a circle” classes but some pretty good jumping also going on. There was also the most fun, the terrier races! Kids entered their dogs into the race where they were supposed to chase a dead rabbit being dragged along a string. “Supposed to” wasn't always how it turned out. At one stage one of the dogs headed up onto the stand to say hello to us, others were more interested in sniffing each others bums, only a few got the right idea!
The other exciting thing I did in Dannevirke was learnt a bit about woodturning! It's John's hobby and he was more than willing to let me at his lathe to have a go. I ended up with two really nice kauri bowls... they were supposed to match but they look more “similar” than proper matching. It's really hard staying focussed for hours (it took me most of Sunday to do the two bowls) while the block of wood is spinning fast and a slip of the tool and you can end up with a cut hand (I did once) or bits of bowl flying out the window (I managed to avoid this). But at the end of it I was really proud of what I had done. Here are some more photos of the process including the finished products.
We hit the shops in the Waitangi Day sales and came off a lot poorer but have ordered all the basics now that we need. Fridge, washing machine, dryer, bed & furniture for Finn, TV, DVD, and a whole lot of “stuff” to eat off, cook with and sleep under. The big stuff should arrive the day after we move in. We were out at the house today to sort out some internet connection stuff with the owner, and I just wanted to move in then! It's lovely and I can't wait till next week when we can get in there.
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