History of Nobby's Adventures in NZ
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History of Nobby's Adventures in NZ |
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I continue to plug Steve's website: http://www.kiwidelaney.net
Logs:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
(11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20)
Thumbnails:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
(11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19)
Panoramic Photos (large merged versions of some of the above)
Books I have read whilst on this trip
(Notes taken during the journey from MK to NZ)
Six. No, a quarter to six in the morning-A long Time Ago
That's when I woke up this morning.
Five-Past Eight: Stage One begins - a coach from Milton Keynes. For some reason It can't get though the rush hour traffic and we end up at Heathrow nearly an hour late. I'll survive - there's a lot of lee-way built into any travel plan of mine.
Two PM and we're boarding the plane. This leg will take over ten hours. I'm really looking ahead to this One - The problem is, of course, that there's another trip, for another ten hours or more after that.
Arn't I the lucky one ?!
At least I got my favourite seat. Nope, not at the front - the front is for wimps who just want to get off the plane quickly. Nope, the rear seats for me, every time. You get a smidgen more room, and first dibs at dinner, You are next to the loos, not a worry on a 2 hr flight but on these ten-hour or marathons you *will* go to the too, more than once. ( The seats next to me are currently empty, Fingers crossed.. )
And who ever head of a plane crashing, tail-first into the ground?
There's still people boarding, so l could get unlucky. At the moment, howevr, I've got four seats to myself!
===
(To you techie buffs - I wrote this with a Logitech IO Pen. But my handwriting was not as clear as it should be and I'm having to re-type a lot of this. For instance, the first line of the next paragraph came out as "Terminal's logo and In still got Courses's")
Ten minutes to go and I've still got four seats. I asked, nay, probed a stewardess and she thinks I might be lucky.
Even if I am lucky on this leg - ten to one will get you three Americans filling these seats on the next leg.
Four seats!, Four! I'll be the the boy at school whose mother only packed chocolate..
Ten minutes to take-off...
Five past three.
The seatbelt lights Go off. And a pair of gazumpers have stolen two of my seats! Boo hoo!
Oh Well, you can't have everything...
Interview with Peter Jackson oooh - and some hobbits!
What a thrill!
Ten to eleven-UK time-LA time? who knows?
The chicken low-fat meal was good. But there was still cheese? The gazumped have gone to snooze-than't even I won't even try until the next plane..
Managed to read "Hollow chocolate bunnies of the Apocalypse" one of the better Bob Rankins, and "Dead Air" I really, really liked that. The lives he talks about are so divorced from nine, but there's so much you can
identify with.
I've sneaked two bars of chocolate. Still no alcohol. I'll try to keep off for as long as I can hold out.
===
11:15 UK time - hot towels all around!
00:20 UK time LAST CUPPA.
Tired.
Now what's the use of taking us off the plane, making us fill in a Visa Waiver Form (known as a "Green Form"). Queue up for 1hr 45mins. Take the green form off and make us sit down for fifteen minutes in a lounge with zero facilities! (Free crisps and black coffee, bad seats and some loos. I had twenty bucks in my pocket and there's nothing to spend it on. I can't even buy a Coke!)
03:20 UK time-back on plane. Not as much room as last time. The Expected Americans are here and elbow room is in the negative. Battery run out in the Creative Zen. Damn! My specially purchased Extra Battery is flat! I've put the earphones on anyway. Bug off and talk elsewhere will you! I WANT to sleep!!!
--Snore--
Women: Please do not congregate near sleeping people and natter about babies. If you do have to natter about babies BE QUIET!
--Snore--
URK: 14:00 UK time-we're nearing the last phase of the journey.
Actually reclining my seat was very helpful. got some sleep!
Just Munched my Lays that I got in the US. Could have taken more. Should have. Now to keep my eyes out for a drink. Managed to read a few chapters of the Eco, interesting so far.
Auckland Airport. Ah a sight for sore (and tired) eyes.
Kim's da meets me at the airport and helps me to the Domestic. It's nice to have a friendly face, even if I've never seen it before. He meets me at the "Vodafone" stall in the airport. Remind me to tell Kim that there are two "Vodafone" stalls in the airport.
Next step is the baby flight to Tauranga. And I mean baby. There are twenty two people on the plane, including the crew, and no spare seats. Why doesn't this scare me? Well, much less turbulance than the LA to NZ leg that's for sure.
The country is beautiful. The flight is only 25 mins but I wish it was longer. I will have to do some more of this when Lora comes.
The airport at Tauranga is a little airport. Baggage-Claim is on the street outside!
Kent picks me up at the airport. Friendly face I do know. Quick trip to the Car Rental for them to take my details then to the Office to check emails.
We're on the ground floor at the corner.
With a quick check of who-couldn't get into MK to work (anyone with a longer than ten-minute journey it looked like) and a quick reply to the only one of thirty or forty emails that needed one. Quick delete of ten-or-so slices of Spam (No, I don't want to see girls doing that, or boys, or donkeys; nor would I take your tablets and you, sir, can go and shove that item, well, see the first category). It's off to the apartment.
These people are nice people. Kim (at the office) is a nice person because she's been here and filled my fridge (Heineken anyone?).
Sleep. Sleep.
Make a dent in the Eco ("Baudolino"). Sleep.
Sleep.
Followed by some Sleep.
Sat 6am NZ Time. Can't sleep any longer. Must, well, do something. I know. Ring home. Lora's leaving work (Friday 5pm her time) so we have a chat about how bad there weather is (and the "usual").
Install GTA Vice City on the PC, a late, and cheap, purchase before I left the UK. Well, I havn't got my PS2 here and I need something to do between work. Forgotten how good a cinematic experience this is. Vice City is fun. And will run at 1440x900 on this widescreen laptop. Even has a widescreen mode so it should be just like being in a 80's Mob flick. Oh it is. If you haven't played it you don't know what you're missing. Maybe you have to have done the eighties, watched your share of Tubbs and Crocker, to get the game. Oh and the Lawer is pure Sean Penn.
Now it's a resonable time I need to talk to the lady downstairs about where is my car!
She shows me the car (I'd say it was a Mazda 626, but I'll read the boot later to see what they call it) and tells me how the car park gates work. I might go for a drive later in the week, but not now.
Time to walk around.
Well, My first purchase in NZ is a bottle of Diet, Vanilla-flavoured American Imperialism. Damn good. It's raining and warm. I'm getting soaked through and, well I could be happier (Lora, get on a 'plane, Now) but not by much.
I need: A hat. Some shades. Some sun-tan lotion. Some liquids. A pair of speakers for the Zen.
Mission stages 1,2, 3 and 4 accomplished (bottle of Diet American Imperialism in fridge):
I'll pass you off to a page of thumbnails now. I'll caption some more later:
Thumbnails up to Saturday 31st
Siesta at 4pm for two hours. Jetlag? Probably.
Early to bed, early to rise.
Well, I couldn't stay awake past 9pm yesterday, so I put my head down and it didn't come up until nealy 9am. Hmm, 12 hour sleeps. I may still be jetlagged. Sausage sandwiches for breakfast (diet? yeah like.). Plan for today is to spend the morning in and get out for a walk (or maybe a drive if I'm brave) this afternoon. I'd like to make it through the day without a siesta. We'll see.
Managed to get through Sunday without a siesta! But fell asleep/passed out at 9pm. Slept until just past midnight then on and off. No body partying this time, just me and the vestiges of Jet Lag.
Insist on not getting up until 8am - which, I must admit, is an hour's lie-in compared to normal - but I don't have keys to this office so can't get there early and let myself in.
When I wake up/get up I see I've got an answer phone message from my Brother, wishing me well? Nope, he's shafted his PC and wants some advice. Well he's not answering his phone so he'll have to wait...
Into work for 9am. Ten minute walk in drizzle. Soothing.
We're missing three souls, but there's enough to keep me busy. Staying awake is tricky enough. Have a SKYPE chat with Lora, she's just getting ready for bed so this works out quite good. Save lots of my phone bills.
Tanya has brought in some home-made Banana Muffins! Lovely.
Now, it's still raining ourside. Everyone keeps apologising, but I think it's great. The weather seems a bit African (you know: 2pm, daily, thunderstorm/monsoon) and is good for my Britishness. Rain=Normality.
Quick trip out at lunch, (monsoon in progress) and have a quick laugh at the stu^h^h^h brave souls surfing. The waves seem a little rough to me. Stefan is interested in hanging his toes today - the sea seems ripe. Not for me (can't swim you see) but fun to watch. Grab a Subway Sub for lunch. That'll keep me going for a while. 'bout 9NZ$ for a 12". Yup me full.
Flagging a bit, the eyes are dragging down and happy to not be too pushed for results today. Get annoyed with CA's hash-up of my bestest tool ever (ERwin) and the way it's redrawing (badly) whenever I try to print a model. Mumble grumble. Install latest patch. No use. Attempt to get trial of later version - well, CA say that I can have it, they just won't tell me how :-(
Read Kents document on Struts and STXX. That's it - time to fall asleep. Ooops - 5pm, office empties and I pootle off home. Pick up a box of 100 tea bags. Should last a few days on that.
Chat to Lora before she goes to work. Continue game of Civ III.
Now Civilization , at least on the easy levels I play it on, is a little like patience. You can stop playing for weeks on end. You don't feel hurt if you lose, but that's quite rare, it's more a case of getting to the end. But you still feel a sense of accomplishment when you beat that damn machine. Much more satisfying than, say, Spider Solitaire, which either you can't win or you can't lose. Civ II was the best multi-player, manys a long time Lora and I "fought" over that. Civ II Multiplayer is a little buggier and not as much fun. When you're sitting next to each other LANned up you don't need the computer enforcing time limits on you. Where's the fun in that? Our current fave MP is Neverwinter Nights, although I was rather hurt to find that the 2nd XP doesn't work in MP. I'd have only bought one if I'd have known that.
Take some piccies outside and then update this text. Tired now. Oh nearly 9pm. I am going to try to stay up another hour or so.
In the meantime here's todays photos: Thumbnails 2nd Feb
Finally, the sun has got his hat on. Oh didn't take any photos that prove it, except you can see the one of Kim shows her in the shade.
Here's todays photos: Thumbnails 3rd Feb
Problem: Left UK/NZ power adaptor at work so I only had two hours battery and I had to make the decision as to whether to put lots of text here or to play civilization.
Well, I was coming up to Steam Power.
New starters at work today were Bryan and Mandy. They're going to do the testing that Daniel and Brendon were doing before they put on their Junior Developer hats.
Kim and Joe are back from their long weekend as is my fellow brit Steve (Sheffield Wednesday supporter) who spent a wet weekend in a Camper Van.
-- Joe is something of an authority on Camper Vans. He'll go googlie-eyed over a distant sighting of a 1973 model and spout out the 0-60 time(*) and reletive merits thereof.
(*) They only have a 0-60 time, not a 0-70 or a 0-80 :-)
Surprise! It's back to the rainy season!
I think its a conspiracy - I'm actually in Clacton and they're all just pretending to be on the other side of the world. The QE II has pulled up next to the office with only one ugly building and some fences in the way. So I'll take a picture or two of the chimney:
Well, they *say* its the QE II. Could be that it's just a fake chimney being stuck up behind a fake palm-tree in a Clacton back-street.
Quick video-conference with Big Greg at the MK office to clear up some points, had to get up early (7:30!) for that. We've got another one tomorrow and I'm going to have to get up at 7:00! Sheesh, I thought it was an easy life out here.
I managed to stay awake until nearly 10:30 last night, but had one of those 4am wake-up and not get back to sleep again. I'll try for 11:00 tonight.
Did finish Baudolino. Good book, shades of both Focaults Pendulum and Island of the Day Before although,unlike Islands, I actually liked the protagonist this time. I think that 'Pendulum is still my favourite of his novels although 'Rose comes a close second. The good thing about Eco is that you can discuss his books with virtually any European - it was the one topic of conversation that I could have with Greek people whilst working in Spain, although he'd read them in Italian and I had to settle for me meagre english translations.
>> But what translations! Hats off to the translator as much as to Eco himself. You know how you read a manual for a foreign piece of technology and you can just *tell*. Well, I think that you'd be hard put to realise that Eco's books were not from a native english speaker.
Time to go and do some Civilization. Need to halt the encroachment of those pesky Germans!
Waoh there trigger!
Time to learn how to drive. So I brave the roads at 7:30am to work. This involves the following steps
(i) work out how to get out of the car park.
(ii) drive forward 300 yards.
(iii) turn right at the roundabout (ahh, just like home(*))
(iv) drive forwards 500 yards.
(v) turn right.
(vi) drive forward 300 yards.
(vii) turn left.
(viii) drive forward 300 yards.
(ix) park.
Yes, I know that's not much in the scheme of things but, hey, a large step for Nobbykind.
Video conference with MK, virtually everyone involved over the course of it. Glad to see that MK hasn't burnt down in my absence. They could at least have *pretended* to miss me :-O
Bits and bobs being completed during the day. After lunch for me (Chinese; this time I showed Kent where it was) and a surf for him, Steve shows me where he's living. This is a bit of a drive. 12km or so I'm told, basically along the side of the ocean. He's invited me to a barbeque on Saturday afternoon so I thought I'd bully him into being my passenger. Well, half-way there we get a *new* Rolls Royce on our tail, new shape and all! Possibly the one that was on telly a little while ago (says Steve) that was the first new Roller in NZ. Mt Maunganui *is* quite an affluent area (not effluent, affluent) - the M5 quotient is quite high I can tell you.
We land at Chez Delaney and I'm blown away by the upside down house:
The lounge and kitchen are upstairs and the bedrooms downstairs. We think this is so that you geta good view of the sea. Damn! Do you get a good view of the sea.
Oh, by the way. NO RAIN! Its a sunny day! Full of Sun. Sun. Hot thing, shines in the sky? No? Not seen it before?
After the excitement of visiting Steve's house, Joe and Kim have asked me over for dinner! Woo! Result! I don't have to cook!
Joe and Kim are about a fifth of the way to Steve's house, but along the same way. I drive Kim there so i don't get lost. Kim starts dinner and Joe & Mac & I pop out to get some sour-cream (missing vital ingredient). We go for a quick stroll along the beach and watch, amazed as peopl successfully surf!. The sea is full of people. Well I suppose it is a nice warm evening. No camera on me, but I'm sure, by the end of this, you'll get bored of pictured of people surfing.
Baby Mac is trying to stand-up. I'm pretty sure she'll be standing before I leave and might actually manage a bit of the old walking stuff, you never know.
Dinner is Nachos & Chilli. Wonderful, interesting, not *that* hot (spicy) but hot enough to make me start to sweat. Have a beer and some squash and chew some fat. Pootle off home around nine (don't want it to get too dark in case I can't see the mount - I can't navigate if I can't see the mount!).
Nearly miss the only turning I could possibly miss on the journey home, luckily there is no-one to see my slamming-on of the brakes and 270degree turn. Betchew I do the same on Saturday when coming home from Steve's...
Snoozie time! I've started the next book on my list Legacies from L E Modesitt Jr. A quick note to authors: Have simple names. Every remembers Stephen King and Tom Clancy; too many initials (and "Jr"s) make discussing your books a chore.
Ooops, don't forget todays thumbnails.
(Bank holiday tomorrow so no 'net access so there will be a lot for you to read and enjoy next time!)
Friday. Public Holiday. Drizzle. Washing.
Saturday. Steve offers to barbecue meat products.
We're looking at bacon and fillet steak with sweatcorn in a coriander and chilli butter (i think).
For Steve this is amazing, in the time I've known him he's only every cooked pasta with burnt garlic bread.
In the old Company House we'd all get our own food, to a degree. Steve would always cook for himself and John. Steve would boil some pasta, add a sauce (from a carton from Tesco) and put some garlic bread in the oven. John and Steve would start eating, and then Steve would remember the garlic bread, which by now would have been in the oven for well over the prescribed ten minutes. It would be burnt.
Once Steve didn't burn the garlic bread and we celebrated. I remember it.
So, here we are, two manic children (Isaac 2yrs and Megan 6yrs) with Steve *really cooking*. He made his own barbeque sauce and wrapped the steaks in bacon and added fresh looking herbs and stuff!
The sweat corn failed to catch light - which I'm told is supposed to happen, rather than being some homage to garlic bread.
The barbeque has a note on it to tell you that some parts of it get hot. Hmm. Thanks.
It's wonderful. A real meal. The meat is black on the outside, where the sauce has "caramelised" and red on the inside. It takes twice as long as the recipe said it should, but, hey, it tastes wonderful.
I like the way that real sweetcorn is not just one shade of yellow, but many shades from off-white to bright sunshine yellow. I suppose they dye the ones we get in England.
Then, as I'm leaving, my camera falls out of my pocket and lands on the floor. I quickly turn it on and, it turns on, but says the magic words "no memory stick". Take out and replace memory stick. Nope, still says "no memory stick". Don't let anyone see.
Drive home.
Cry.
This web site might just not be the same from here on in.
Is this the last photo of my term here?
Is this the last set of thumbnails?
Sunday. No camera. Sulk at clumisness. Stay indoors. Finish the LE Modesitt Jr.
Funnily enough, the book was about a young man with strange magic powers who leaves home and overcomes great difficulties whilst coming to grips with his magic. Makes his way home in triumph and gets the girl.
Go on - try to guess what the book was?
Strange that most of his books seem to follow the same plot, but I keep buying them and reading them. Maybe it's because they are cheerful. Maybe it gets really dark in the middle of the book, but the last few chapers are usually a pleasant release.
Monday. No camera. Sulk at clumsiness. Must go to work, 'though.
Managed to have a short meeting outside in the sun. Quite civilised. Send email to sony.co.nz explaining camera woes.
Start (yet) a(nother) game of Baldur's Gate II. Decide to play a Monk 'cos I've not gone that route before. Decide that I'll drop Nalia as soon as possible and have already dropped that nasty Yoshi. Picked up the turnip gnome. Need to think what leftfield non-evil characters I can take - maybe the padalin' could be fun for an extended time. Will give this a few days before I trash it and try another character. I've done it three times as a Mage or Mage/Fighter so I thought trying a different character could be fun. Pity I've not got a BGI save game as I'd like to get the Big Metal Unit just the once.
Oh dear, next book is Stephen Baxter's Origin. Every time I read one of his books I decide I'll never read another one. Completely different feeling to the Modesitte's, but a similar outcome - on the whole the Universe ends. A little dramatic maybe, he may be trying to be as realistic as he can. BUT DAMN DEPRESSING.
I'm hoping against all hope that, as this is the third book in the sequence, that there is some sort of happy ending for Mr Reid Malenfant. I just have a bad feeling about it already and I've only read an hour or two.
Tuesday. No camera. Sulk at clumsiness. Must go to work.
Spend day fighting WinCVS and Samba (running on RHEL 3.0) who seem locked into a "we'll see who cracks first" fight with me. Will let the UK office have a go overnight and then regress the server to a prior RH, maybe as far as 7.3 (cos that's working on that server over there).
Email back from Sony suggesting sending the camera to their repair centre in Auckland. Will try to find a tame courier tomorrow.
Finally succumb and do some ironing. I'd forgotton how much I like Ironing. (Ironic isn't it? Irony about ironing).
Lunch was quite large (a 12" Subway) so I'm just going to snack tonight.
I'm wondering whether Subway should be prosecuted for not going metric? In the UK you get prosecuted for only showing lbs and oz; Subway never give you the option of specifying a 15cm or a 30cm sub so I think they should be held accountable. Our children will think that the only thing you measure in feet is a sandwich!
No Thumbnails. I think you know why.
For the first time, I finish a Stephen Baxter and feel, well, faintly uplifted. Normally his books seem to end on such a depressing note that I say "I'll never read another book by him again". It doesn't work 'cos he's a good author, just, on the whole, a depressing one. Okay so the "Hero" dies before the end of the book, its still relatively uplifting.
Fail to get a courier sorted until Friday. So camera is finally off to the Sony Repair centre for NZ. They say that they probably won't get to look at it for three or four days, so I could be without the camera for more than another week! Yeep! And there's so many things to photograph. I've got to take some picture of everyone's knees - you don't get knees in a UK office but you do here. You should also get treated to a picture of Stefan driving home...
Steve is pleased to see that people in the UK are reading this and responding to his exploits - Lisa has obviously been showing other people at VW...
Start reading new book "The Scar" by China Meiville. S'okay so far. We'll see how it goes. Joe has started to read "Hollow Chocolate Bunnies", so I feel proud to have introduced someone else to Robert Rankin (no relation).
Steve has another go at a barbecue on Saturday. Joe and Kim (and bubbie Mackensie) are along for the ride - J&K pick me up so I take the opportunity to drink Steve's supply of Guinness. Yum-tiddlie-yum-tum-tum! The steaks are smaller than last week and he feels a bit more confident that they will cook through. Joe supplies some chicken sausages - they are pretty good. Everyone seems to emjoy the food and we retire upstairs when it starts getting cold. Then I realise that I need to take pictures of the Famous Sofas. Then I sulk a little.
See a storm off the east coast - can see the flashes of lightning, but it's too far away to hear anything. Quite impressive.
Sunday: Washing.
6pm - Power cut. Decide that the better part of valour would be to save my game of Civ and start to write up this stuff. Type. Type. Type. If the power doesn't come back on I might have to go out to eat.
Worry: Its possible that work has been hit by the power cut too. This will mean servers asleep when we get to work and all that jazz. If I'd have thought of this sooner I should have gone in and checked. Damnation.
Oh well, less than 30 mins battery left.
Monday. Don't expect to hear from anyone. Wet nasty weather here. I think Steve was going to play golf early in the morning but got rained off.
Work.
Start looking at the JNI I need to do to update our QAS interface to bring back "dataplus" sets (particularly the Electricity MPANs and Gas MNumbers). Hmm. Glad I boned up on C++ before I left. Missing API manuals. Oh well send an email to the UK and wait for tomorrow.
Tuesday. Wet nasty weather here. I think Steve was going to play golf early in the morning but got rained off.
Call from Sony - They've fixed it! Weee! 135NZDs about 50GBPs I can cope with that and give my credit card details. The nice woman tells me that they will courier it down here so it should be with me by Thursday. Weee!
One of the API manuals turns up and leaves me none the wiser. Request another API manual.
Wednesday. Wet nasty weather here. I think Steve was going to play golf early in the morning but got rained off.
Get wrong API manual. Decide to try to decipher the "c" samples that they give you. Hmm. Get our software to compile and try running the extra API routine that will give me the "missing link" from the Address software to the Data software. Get a result! Its a but bigger than I thought. I'm expecting a number "32" and get what looks like a memory address. (Damn pointers). Too late to sort out today.
Off to "The Office" with the work mates after work. Luckily it's a bar. Realising that I didn't stop at lunchtime (pointers do that to you) I decide that alcohol on an empty stomach is a bad idea and get some bowls of Chips (Fries to you foreigners). Hmm. Much better.
Three hours later and I'm quite cheerful. We've passed the "lets have a game of pool" stage and the remaining workmates are getting another round in. More bowls of chips and a small smattering of Fish Bites (like miniature South-Of-Watford-Gap Fish Cakes but actually taste of fish) I find myself tipsy and full. Stagger home in a nearly straight line. Might have to return here at some stage.
Thursday. Wet nasty weather here. I think Steve was going to play golf early in the morning but got rained off.
Pointer problem turns into a "jlong" to "long" conversion issue. Have a progasm when it finally works. Most of the NZ office have never heard the phrase before but they seem to understand. Get itchy fingers about camera and ring up Sony to chase.
Use SKYPE to talk to Gerry in MK. He thinks its amazing how simple it is to get working and he sends out a "quick everyone install this" email around the company :-)
They haven't sent it out. There appears to be a problem with the payment. They try again and promise that the camera will be with me tomorrow or Monday.
Aaaahhh!! Monday! Lora's arriving Monday and she'll get here before the camera! Oh woe is me!
Chill. Remember - you are not a salmon.
The office tennis team gets rained off.
I've started playing KOTOR. I really like the feel of it. Get to the stage where I'm fighting (and loosing) against a Sith Governer and decide to stop for the night. Quick call to the UK office (they've just got in) and arrange another discussion on Monday. Or was it Tuesday?
Friday.Wet nasty weather here. I think Steve was going to play golf early in the morning but got rained off.
We've told Steve to stop telling us that he'd going golfing in the morning...
Get some good results from the QAS software. Feel that I've probably got it working - the Electricity MPANs look right, and so do the Gas MNumbers - but I can't prove it without help from people in the UK. The data isn't up to date and doesn't have my house in it! So I can't ask Lora. Anyone reading want to send me their house number, post code and the meter numbers on their gas and electric bills I'd appreciate it.(**)
Its friday - So I visit the local chippy and have Fish And Chips. And they wrap it in Newspaper!
So not only do I get some freshly fried fish and freshly fried chips - I get some local news as well !
No camera yet. Sulk. They did say it might take 'till Monday :-(
Have lots of people who want to walk up the Mount and see the view from the top. Even Daniel who's been here two years hasn't done it yet. But I'm not going up without my camera. Well, probably not. Well I might go. But I'd hate to not get any photos if I did.
Monday. This is the "Knees" page I've been promising! (and i fixed the bug)
The camera turned up just before Lora did, so I got to take some photos of people in the office (and their knees) and some pictures of Lora's triumphant arrival.
There appeared to be major reconstruction work at the bustling airport.
I did a half-day's work. Lora slept.
Tuesday.
Half-day's work - bit of email answering in the morning and a Red Hat 3.0 Install and a Lotus Notes 6.5 Install - we're moving notes onto a new server with lotsa spare disk - so might as well get the upgrade to 6.5 done at the same time.
Lunchtime I took Lora to Bayfair and I did my first supermarket shop in NZ - at Woolworths.Nice little shopping centre. Visited KMart. I didn't buy any clothes there - honest; I remember what Tom said. Found some Boerworst which cheered Lora up and some Beef and Cheese sausages.
Why can't the provinces get Woolworths right? In Africa a Woolworths is what we'd call a Marks and Spencer, whereas in NZ it's a supermarket. Everyone should know that "Woolworths" really means "cheap tat"...
Half-a-day's work today. Fire alarm goes off at the Apartment and so Lora has to leave the flat without a key. So I take the long journey from work to home to let her back in. They give us a spare key for Lora so that she doesn't get locked out again.
Home at midday and we're out for a walk in the sun. We grab a couple of six-inchers at Subway and toddle off to eat them at the beach. My hat keeps falling off, I think I'm going to have to eat it and buy a smaller one :-( No-one told me it would be this windy. No one told me it *wouldn't*be windy but nonetheless...
We saw three types of gull. The Red-Beak, the Black-Beak and a large, juvenile, Black-Backed. Cor, I sound like I know what I'm talking about. Taking the pictures and checking against Lora's bird book when we get back home works wonders.
It's very windy, as we round onto the bay side of Maunganui we look at the boats being blown around, and the couple of windsurfers who, when actually upright, are motoring along at a fair rate of knots.
Now, Joe tells me that this next house is owned by the local plumber. I'm really hoping I don't need to call him out whilst I'm here 'cos I won't be able to afford his rates!
Oooh. A new page I've put together - the books I've read whilst I'm here.
Thursday. First of all I managed to catch Stefan as he was driving into work...
Don't get many like that in Milton Keynes.
I finished at lunchtime, hopefully for the next few weeks I can actually *be* on holiday. Lora shopped in the morning, and I met her from work whilst she was still eyeing up the shopping capabilities of Main Street. We have a few knick-knacks to take home, which I can't photograph for fear of letting our friends know what we've got them!
We snoozled for the afternoon, then decided to go our for a meal. We ended up in La Barca De Francesco, a small restaurant thay advertised itself as a "Authentic" Italian Restaurant. The chef did bear some resemblance to Mario (from the game)...
The restaurant was wonderful. The food was good and plentiful, the wines were all Italian and the chef came out and delivered the food to you. He also popped out after we'd finished and dropped a small glass of Limoncello in front of each of us. Quick alcoholic and a very good way to clear the palette. I dare anyone to complete a full Italian meal (antipasta, pasta, carne then dolce...) no chance. We skipped the pasta course and could have done with skipping the antipasta too. I'd recommend it.
Looking around the restaurant, no-one had pizza..
I finished China Miéville's "The Scar". Very good. I'll have to locate his previous couple of books. I liked the way that there was a lot of mystery, not too thickly veiled but enough for purpose, and the purpose was to keep you enthralled. A wonderfully imagined world, with a magical technological base. Ideas that would have been enough for whole books by some authors on their own, believable characters. Yup definitely on the recommended list.
(BTW: That's a E-acute in his name. If your browser didn't show it, it's my fault; sorry)
Friday Rotorua. Maori. (Kia Ora!)
When I was a lad, Kia Ora was a drink. Fruit squash in a small, plastic cup. Bought at the seaside for hot children.
Now I learn it's Maori for "hello"/"greetings"/"best wishes"/"how are you". Useful phrase.
Up early (well not much but for a holiday-day, early) and off in the car to the city of smells - Rotorua. A place where the sulphur bubbles and the geysers, well, spurt.
An intersting wander around the ground of the Maori Cultural Centre. We got to see a Kiwi (in captivity, so Lora can't tick it off) or two. Randy they were. Um. sorry, playing piggy-back.
There were sparrows coming out of our ears, a couple of Tuis, (The birds, not the beers),um a Chaffinch, some Fantails and possibly another couple of birds we didn't see very well. We'd have seen more by the Japanese were out in force and, boy can they chatter. And the few French about seemed just as bad. The German kids seemed okay, but their mum telling them off could frighten off a deaf wombat.
The ground bubbles. It smokes. It *smells*!
About fifteen klicks outside Rotorua you are hit with the smell of rotting eggs. You *do* get used to it, in general, but once you get near the mudpools and geysers you can't help but feel overpowered.
It appears that the ancient maoris used a combination of morris dancing and folk-singing to frighten off their neighbours. If that failed they stuck their tongue out and gave them a leaf.
Our "war party" nominated a man from Yorkshire as our chief. Unfortunately the indoor scenes of southern-hemisphere morris dancing (with sticks but no discernable bucket) were from too far back to make any sense out of them. This is my only indoor photo that took:
30 klicks outside of Maunganui, there's a sign saying "Biltong". A quick application of the brakes and sixty dollars later and Lora is a very happy bunny. We've got Biltong, Droëwors and Boerewors and, wait for it, two cans of Fanta Grape. Oh and some *real cheesy* Nik-Nacks :-)
<homer>Umm. Real Cheesie Nik-Nacks. Umm. Fanta Grape. Umm. </homer>
Back home to a cleaned flat. Time for afternoon nap soon. I definitely seem to have caught "jet lag" from Lora. Is that possible?
Feb 27 to Feb 29 - It rains. Its appears that we have a cyclone visiting. Nice cyclone. Not. Could be worse. It might have been planning to be around next week. And We've Got Plans!
Feb 28 - Joe and Kim (and Mackensie) visit for a meal (and to drop off some supplies). Five bottles of New Zealand Wine later... They are our bestest friends. Ever. Hic.
Mar 01 - The Matheson Batch. Day 1.
200 Km. Most on real roads. 20 to 30 km on a mountain road the like of which, well, I think I passed Colin McRae at some point...
Even besides the last 20k, they appear to be resurfacing New Zealand. There are resurfacing works in Mt Mauganui, there was a traffic jam getting from Maunganui to Tauranga, due to 30 meters of resurfacing. Then once we get to the coast road going up the Coramandel peninsular, they're resurfacing that too! (Let alone...)
We're a little over an hour and half on the road and Lora is getting fidgety. Her feet are playing up and she informs me that her anti-inflamatory tablets are in the drawer next to our bed at the appartments. We don't turn back, but, depending upon how her feet go, this may cut short our break.
Now a few hundred yards of resurfacing in a city, fine. But four or five miles of it, on coast roads is another matter. Especially when, well in the UK the coast road is normally a good 100 feet from the water, here you are lucky if it's 10 inches!
The journey goes well. We stop at Thames for some sandwiches and coffee from the Thermos (that J&K lent us) There are a few gulls here and I get a good picture of a red beaked gull which I didn't get back at Mt M.
Next time we stop we're just needing a break on the mountain roads. Actually I'm pretty crap at driving moutain roads and we'd built up quite a convoy behind us so I thought I'd let them get by easily. We picked a good spot. Top of a hill/mountain with good views fore and aft. Wild turkeys running around and some others I can't identify.
We have another stop a little later - Lora's seen some birds and well, I need to stretch my legs again. She's been watching a Tern follow us along the road and we are surprised to find a whole flock.
The last stage of the journey was rough on me, the car and Lora's nerves. I can't say I'm looking forward to 20km of unsurfaced moutain roads again. But there's no other way.
After locating the Matheson Batch (not an inconsiderable feat) I lug the luggage (probably why it's called such) up the stairs and nearly fall asleep on the spot.
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The Stairs |
Outside |
The View |
We have a little walk about Port Charles and decide that it's about as large a postage stamp. We spot an Oyster Catcher and some little Fantails.
As the evening wears on we are *pleased* to finally find out what's making the racket in the bushes. Some bugs come to play:
We pass out about 9pm. We didn't even finish a single bottle of wine.
Tuesday.
I'm woken the next morning by Lora tweeting. She got up early and grabber her bins and sat outside. She manages to entice one of the local Bellbirds with her whistling! She had a go at some photos of it, but I can't see it. Once I'm up she manages to get it close again and we get a couple of shots at it:
In the evening we're treated to a sight for sore eyes - the locals are out for a wander!
Well, looks like Steaks tonight. Today's meager portion of thumbnails.
Its quite wet on Tuesday. Good birding, though.
Lora has been a lot bitten, and her anti-imflamatory's are at the appartment in Mt M. So we decide that we'll travel back on the Wednesday. I spend a lot of time steeling myself for the drive.
Wednesday.
Now. I'm a driver. An up to 50,000 miles a year man. I *like* driving. I choose cars for their handling rather than straight-line speed. However, I don't like winding mountain roads. I don't like unsurfaced roads. Give me unsurfaced, winding mountain roads and my knuckles will be white as a sheet and my neck will be strained to aching. Lordie. At least it *seemed* shorter on the way back...
I must say, I'm impressed with the fuel consumption of the Mazda. The tank should do about 500Km between fills.
I did some panoramics on the way back. Now, give me a few more weeks and I'll work out how to blend the edges better..
Had to take some pictures of some cows for my sister:
And some sheep for Adam:
Back home for about 5:30. It would have been a lot quicker if it wasn't for the resurfacing works, and when we hit Mt M we found ourselves in rain and a traffic jam. Oh well.
We decide that neither of us is in the shape to cook tonight. We spot a KFC as we hit Maunganui and (after going twice round two roundabouts) discover a truely harrowing fact.
KFC NZ don't sell hot wings.
In fact, they don't sell wings at all.
No wings.
Now this may not worry too many people, except Lora's usual tipple when we have fried-chicken is, wait for it, KFC Hot Wings... Lora fails to enjoy KFC for the first time since I've met her.
They don't sell hot wings. <shake-head/>
We have a peaceful week. We know that I've got a lot of driving to do dropping her off at Auckland International on Friday, so we just pootle around.
On the 8th we have a quick trip out to see what's happ'nin' at this Cape Dutch style property that Lora saw on the way back from Port Charles. It turns out (luckily for them) to be a Winery and Restaurant.
The guy behind the counter was very knowledable and told us lots of useful things to help us. We ended up buying a half-box of '00 Pinot Noir and having a very good lunch in the Restaurant surrounded by a vineyard full of butterflies. Thoroughly recommended.
We were going to have a peek at "The Bird Gardens". However, when we found it, Lora was disappointed to see that it was full of cages of birds and not a bird sanctuary. As all good reporters do, we made our excuses and left.
Thursday. Stiles Family In Foreign-Language Hospital Drama.
I get a Text from the younger sister asking me to ring when I get a chance. I ring.
It seems that the esteemed father has broken some ribs whilst on holiday in Lanzarote. He fell down, drunk, in the Bathroom. Cue next three days in Hospital.
You think that an octogenrian would have learnt by now... Only two years ago he broke his arm falling down, drunk, in Spain. I think he just likes Spanish Hospital food. Hopefully there was something other than Bullfights on the telly, unlike last time.
Friday the 12th. Auckland, via Karangahake Gorge.
Note: They are still resurfacing New Zealand :-(
We went through the Gorge at speed (of up to 65kph!) on the way to and from Port Charles. This time we decided that we would stop and get some pictures of this marvelous natural beauty spot.
The road winds through the gorge for a few kilometers, just, as they do, feet away from the rushing water of the river (will have to find out *what* river exactly at some stage)
I tried to do both a horizontal and a vertical stitch-together, but only the vertical worked. I should pay more attention to the exposure settings.
Then it was off to Auckland. Another long drive on New Zealands finest roads (or they will be once the resurfacing is finished). A lot more fun than the run to Port Charles for a Driver but less fun for the Passenger. I made sure to buy a decent map of Auckland before we left and did my bit of pointing Lora at the map and where we will go. Its a woman thing. (Hey, I'm proof - I don't listen...)
The airport was well signposted, it was just a bit tough to get to compared to Heathrow or Gatwick - they have major motorways virtually to the runways.
You go up highway 1 (which is, presumably the premier road in NZ) and follow the sign posts for Airport. You end up on a set of local roads for 5 to 10 Km, which turn into Highway 20 which takes you within 5 km of the airport. I dread to think how lost an American would get in this forest of lights and roundabouts.
The Kiwis are building a bit of motorway to connect the "1" to the "20" (which runs to the door, so to speak) but until that's finished you have to give yourself the chance of getting lost in minor roads when trying to get from the country's main highway to the country's main airport.
In hindsight, it would have been less aggravation to take the 30-min domestic flight from Tauranga to Auckland for both of us...
Anyway, we get to the airport with plenty of plenty of plenty of time to spare. I book in at a Motel and then we pootle to the airport proper.
Like airport.
Parking is simple. Signs are clear.
We're three hours too early for Lora to check in. I did say we'd got here in time. We trip round the shops and get the few last minute pressies that I shouldn't mention here. There is a shop with Artwork in and Lora has to drag me away before I splash out 3000NZD on an oil... (not actually likely).
We find the one decent restaurant and have a quick meal before they are inundanted with Flight Crew. Good food, but no steak knives so Lora has a sawing job with a blunt implenent - good steak 'though.
We pop up to the viewing deck to take some pictures of the 'planes. Aragorn is in, and they nicely drag him infront of the viewing deck. Poor guy! He's got a peeling nose!
Try (again) to get an upgrade to Business for Lora, but all the Business Class is full. Luckily for my bank balance, but not for Lora, so is first class.
The fifteen minute wait for Lora to check in is enough to start her foot swelling. We decide to ask for a wheelchair, undignified, but hurts less.
I'm confused why the 25NZD departure fee isn't part of the fares we've already paid, but hey, if that's what they do, that's what they do.
We sit outside, so Lora can have a nerve-steadying rare cigarette, and watch a drama starring a Cabbie and two backpackers. He's just driven the backpackers here and unloaded all their equipment (including the obligitory acoustic). The 'packers are drunk and, worse, don't have the fourty bucks for the fare. This takes them fifteen minutes of bag searching to determine. The cabbie is very good, no threats, no jumping on the guys' guitar. He just escorts them to a cashmachine and patiently waits. Poor guy.
Half-eight, Lora goes through into the departures area and we have a tearful goodbye. Big hugs all round and lots of waving as she goes through passport control.
I buy myself a couple of books from WHSmith and drive back to the Motel. I only get a little lost and I blame that on the road signs. Luckily I'm well served with Map and Nose. Following both I find the Motel and I've only gone two km out of my way.
Find ants in the kitchen, not many just twenty or so, spend some gratifying time crushing them with a tea-bag-wrapper.
Lora texts me when she takes off and I attempt to get some sleep.
My father and brother Trevor (clever) are due back from Lanzarote so I text Trevor asking if he'll pick Lora up from the Airport, along with some bestwishes for Dad - and telling Trevor *not* to Hug him from me.
Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake.
BEEP BEEP BEEP <bash>
Shower and check out. Fill up with petrol and put pedal to the metal. Call Trevor (feeling ever-so naughty phoning and driving at the same time) and arrange him picking up Lora tommorrow. Battery is low so I shout quickly at my accident-prone father.
I'm at Katikati before Lora lands at LA and texts me (she can't get a connection) I find a dirt track to stop on and call her. She's not in too bad a shape but could still be better. She didn't manage to get extra room beside her but did manage some VIP treatment.
Back at the appt, 40 mins later and I call her on the landline and, hopefully, calm her down.
Some more Thumbnails.
Wednesday 24th March
Didn't realise it was that long since the last post..
Head down at work really. Lora's back in the UK "happily" working, clearing up all the oddies that happened in her three-week absence. I'm here, designing DB changes and speccing some Swing Gui work (which I should be coding too).
I gave in at the weekend and purchased a shiny new Playstation2, NZ Model. This purchase, of course, includes an Eye Toy so I can happily dance in front of the TV with all watching me. Lordie I'm unfit - four songs and I'm knackered.
I got it because of Grand Prix issues. I was unable to watch the Malaisian GP live - although it would have been on at the convienient time of 6pm here, channel 3 decided to show it at 10:20pm. So I grabbed the PS2 and a copy of "F1 2001" (Sony's superior version not the EA one) - I was unable to find a shop with the latest version - and span around the track myself for a few trips.
Lora rang me when the real race started and talked me through the gruelling (for a Jaguar fan) first five minutes where Webber (sitting at P2) failed to start with the rest of the pack and, basically had a short and miserable GP. Adam sent me a text message when it was all over giving me the, rather expected, result. I think that we should treat Ferrari in F1 as we treated Brazil in Soccer - just give them the cup and tell them to go away and let everyone else have a chance...
So back to the PS2 -
Final Fantasy X-2 - any game that starts in a pop-concert (shakes head, smiling) weird, as ever.
Enter The Matrix - (budget) not a *bad* game - no matter what people say, it may not have Tekken-Style beat-em-upness, but that's not really what it's about - its about looking like you're good.
The Siren Project/Forbidden Siren (depending upon where you read the title) - Very creepy - like a puzzle game but with zombies - much more Silent Hill than Resident Evil but actually more like, um chess..
But everyone knows that the pick of the bunch is Eye Toy - A collection of games that you control by waving your arms around - you can look like a complete prat, and get exercise all at the same time! Just you wait 'til some people from work come round to visit; couple of beers, bit of jolly prancing, just what the doctor ordered!
I've also been reading a bit/lot.
Just got through three books. I'll leave the reviews for the books page.
On the PC - I finally finished Baldur's Gate II, Throne of Bhaal. I had to knock the difficulty down to "easy" for the last set of battles but I don't care - I've finished it. Finally. Don't know why I didn't think of dropping the difficulty down the last couple of times I'd got to the end.. Pride I suppose.
I've kicked off a new game of Neverwinter Nights, from the beginning, as a Paladin. Makes a change from a Wizard and I've got both expansions to play through. Should keep me going. I've already managed a couple of quests I haven't done on either of my previous plays. I'm tempted to try to have a multi-player with Lora, I'm just scared to open that many ports from my home Linux server to the internet. I'd also have to go into work to do it (lack of internet at appartment). Maybe next time.
Oh well. You never know, I may get up to some interesting things one day.
Oh. Only one photo - A One Year Old Mackensie (last friday):
Well, it sounded like a good idea. Go For A Drink After Work.
The bad idea was mixing Tui (The beer) with wine. In copious amounts. By all accounts I was well behaved. I just can't remember getting home.
I did, and I don't seem to have got many bruises.
But, oh my stomach! I managed to wake up nearly on time and got into the office. I booted the laptop and clicked Lora's Skype like when I realised that I couldn't focus. Just explained to Lora my predicament and then went out side and laid down on the grass.
Now, that normally works (it being a staple of my hang-over cures). After an hour or so the world still hurt, so I staggered back into the office and told them I'd take a half-day.
Got back to the appartment and went to bed. Stayed there until about half-one. Couldn't sleep, but could moan. And I could groan a bit too.
It felt good feeling so bad - I must have had a good night.
I finally went to work via the Pie Shop (Steak and Cheese pie - a Kiwi delicacy!) and got to work about half past two. I managed to stay at my desk and work for two and a half hours, with very little actual derision from my colleagues.
I've now Given Up Drinking For Ever, again.
Just managed to finish Peter F Hamilton's Pandora's Star. This is the first part of a two-volume story, (I can tell that he doesn't want to do *another* trilogy) and I really enjoyed it. Some interesting science, a decent Evil Alien, conpiracies, hippies and dudes and two-hundred year-old characters. Recommended by all good mes everywhere.
No pictures. You lucky people.
Well, I finally finished Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. Great book. Doogy rev indeed! Lora bought me the hardback as an xmas present, I'd just started it when I left for here but I left it for her to bring (luggage space type issues) so I only got back to it a few days ago. Read it! If you're technical, read Cryptonomicon too.
Embarassing time number 3968. I sat down for my good nightly ablutions last night and the toilet seat cracked in two. Well, it holds together, but sit on it and it bites you. Try to explain welts on your buttocks when you go home to see your girlfriend after two months without her and see what happens... If I knew where to buy a replacement I'd slip out and grab one and put it back on before anyone noticed. Unfortunately I don't so I have to pop down to the front desk and 'fess up. Oh dear. They'll have to get the plumber in to do it.
Tomorrow I'm going to a VW show with Joe so I might have some better pictures for you!
Yesterday:
Joe: Kim's got the car tomorrow, so can you pick me up?
Me: Okey-dokie.
Joe: You know where it is right? McDowall Street?
Me: Yeah, no problems Joe. See you at ten.
Today:
Me: Which bu66er took down all the street signs saying "McDowall Street"?
I'd only visited Joe and Kim once before. But I'd passed the end of their road lots of times and said to myself "that's where Joe and Kim live".
Today, about ten in the morning, I passed the end of that street four times before deciding that it had to be the one - all the other streets had names and it was *about* the right place along the road...
But after that dodgy start it was a quick zip along the road to Papamoa and a couple of hours examining old VW Beetles and Combis.
It is amazing how many people walk in front of the camera just when you hit the button. Or worse:
Shed loads more pictures (good and bad) on the Thumbs page. I'll try to get Joe to caption them all, in the meantime (during the meanwhilst...) I suggest you make your own up.
Firstly, proof that I'm the clumsiest cluck on the planet.
I decide to cook some Sizzlers (A special type of pre-cooked, processed sausage with in-built cheese designed for parents and single(ish) men). I press the "hob" switch on the wall... It keeps going... Luckily I realise what was happening and remove my finger before I can electrocute myself.
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Sizzlers, sizzling, today |
A broken switch, today |
Rather than try my own hand at fixing this I was forced to visit the front desk and admit to my sheer accident-proneness...
Sunday April 18th. It is an absolutely beautiful day. So I decide to get some more pictures of the beach. I put my shorts and hat on and grab the camera and make my way down to the sea.
I actually wanted to show you some photos of this island:
And managed to get carried away - as you should be able to tell from the thumbnails(Thumbs). Lordie it was busy today, the place was heaving! Relatively speaking.
I even paddled!
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If you grab a number of the pictures I took you could build a 180degree panorama. Provided Photoshop doesn't crash your PC when you try to do it... So no panoramas on todays thumbs page.
Oh, finished "The Treason of Isengard" and so the mini review is on my nz books page.
First of all I must say that I have found one of the nicest fruit on the planet. It doesn't seem to be found in Supermarkets or Grocers. It only appears to be found on bushes in people's gardens. Kent has brought in three large bags of them. This is the Feijoa. Think I've got the spelling right now. This is a fruit, kiwi-fruit sized and shaped with a hard green skin. You slice them in two and then scoop the innerds out with a tea-spoon.
A picture to explain.
These are gorgeous. Lovely. Tasty. Sweet.
Don't try to eat the skin :-)
My Nomad has been playing up. Skipping, mixing songs up. Really jittering songs. And just plain stopping and not starting again.
I tried the built in scandisk function. I think I have a problem. What do you think?
Oh well, I've managed to grab most of the music off of it and I've tried Formatting and Reloading the OS and, well. Basically I think it's bu66ered. I'm going to have to wait until I get back to the UK and see if Dabs will replace it. Currently I'm trying to reload the operating system and it's been in "Erasing OS" mode for the last four hours. I get the feeling its not going to wake up from this one.
This is a real pity, 'cos the unit has been a godsend. This is a real pity 'cos it is going to be unable to help me on the journey home.
Ooo - ooo - ooo - I'm coming home in three weeks. Three Weeks. Just in time for the next bank holiday! Weeee!!
That means I have to wrap up all the tasks I've not performed. Such as getting a picture of a pokeko.
The Purple Guillnault (sp?) is a bird that looks very interesting. I gather than, in Africa, they are real scaredy-cats and run away at the first sign of, well, anything. So Lora's never had a good photo of one. Here they sit at the side of the road all day long. We didn't get to stop near one whilst Lora was here so I've had to find one and photograph it. Only they call it something else in NZ. So, a quick email around work and I get a few replies "yeah I've seen some" and get a few places I should be able to see one. I grab a driver (Dan the Italian) and pop out at lunchtime=.
Yep. Sitting at the side of the road. Four of 'em. The other side of a very busy road. So we park and I take a picture from over the road (and Dan's elbow)
Of course, the birds are happy enough to have cars driving two foot away. But a human ten foot away? Nope. That means they fly off into the marsh. And no I'm not following the bu66ers into the marsh. Did get one good shot 'though:
Pukekos, lounging by the side of the road
The thumbs for today is a little dull but, whatever: (thumbs16)
I'm going home soon! Next week and a bit. Brendon is also taking a six-month secondment to the UK office, so we have a joint leaving drink at the Astrolab at The Mount. It's national Naked Day. However it is far too cold so we all turn up with clothes on. We have a some of games of pool (and I win two!), some bowls of Chips (Fries to you foreigners) and a beer or fifteen. Nothing untoward seems to happen all evening, except the mystery of Mandy and Tania's fifteen minute"talks" is solved. Joe and Kim have baby sitter problems so they do the night in shifts. Poor Joe isn't feeling 100% so he takes first shift and lucky Kim gets the second shift. As Joe leaves about 7pm and Kim is finally kicked out of the pub at 1am (with a number of late time drinkers) he severely gets the short straw.
I gave up at 11pm, it's almost immoral for an Englishman to drink after 11 on a weekday - Closing Time seems to be ingrained. Plus I didn't want a repeat of the previous Night Out (see here) that I went on.
Beer of choice seems to be "Tui". Quite a good drink (if served a tad too cold for my liking) with a full flavour much more like an English Beer than a Lager.
The games of Pool cause some grief. Steve and I wanted to play UK rules. Daniel wanted to play *some* rules, and Tania and Mandy had some weird ideas they paraded as NZ rules. This nearly left us at blows for the first game. We're still not sure how much faith to put into The Rules Of Pool As Per Kiwi Girls but we attempted to play using their "missing the 8 ball forfeits the game" rule. Dan had weird ideas of what to do after a foul and, well I just wanted my "regulation" two shots whenever I could.
In a pub in the UK, on the wall next to every pool table, we have the Rules of Pool printed. I never realised how useful that was until I played pool in NZ.
Friday is very quiet at work. Nobody seems up to making much of a fuss about, well, anything. I manage to take som pictures of the new desk arrangement.
Desks seem a complicated thing to get in NZ. The company they use here sometimes sends them built, sometimes not. They sometimes send them with the legs on the wrong way round and sometimes forget to include the screws (as well as putting them together). Kim would like to order some compatable pedastals but daren't.
Everyone is jealous of the SubWay VIP card that I've been given. This entitles me to a free cookie per 6" of Sub purchased. Oh the girls at Subway'll be sad to see me go... I must gets some photos of the crew before I leave.
Kim asks me round for a meal on Friday. Well, not just me, Kent and Steve and 'Chelle (and associated sprogs). For some reason it seems that Joe will be there too.
She cooks us a mean chicken curry and white rice.
Kent and I buy some wine before we go. I'm not going to drink any but it shows willing. I determine that the person we purchase from is an Aussie. He calls Kent "cobber" and me a "pom". Kent says that the clincher is that the Off License has a big Victoria Beer sign outside.
Steve's two sprogs are quite on form and Mackensie manages to smile unless she's having her photo taken.
The plan for the weekend is to join the work party due to plant some trees on the Mount. There was a fire last year that decimated a lot of the foliage on the lil'mountain and it seems like a good thing to do.
Come saturday morning I'm up early, to the sound of a monsoon. It is absolutely pisistanting it down out there. Steve rings up and suggests that its not as good an idea as it was yesterday. Having only one good pair of trousers, I agree.
So the day is a washout. And I still haven't been up the Mount yet. I need to get up the Mount before I leave. Time is ticking (I home fly in a week! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!)
Pizza hut exists here. Same colours, same packaging. However, the only culinary similarity seems to be the Super Supreme. Kiwi Pizza Hut only has two sizes of Pizza, Regular and Large as opposed to our three-tier system in the UK.
They don't have any of the Four-Cheese Feast Pizzas; so they don't do a Pepperoni Feast! Boo Hoo!
They sell Chips with the pizzas. Strange people.
They seem to think that you want a "Swirl" of barbeque sauce on your Pizza. Even if you told them you don't.
Kiwi garlic bread isn't crunchy and doesn't (can't) come with cheese on top.
But, it is nice and cheap. Regular Pizza is 8.95NZD and a Large 11.95NZD. That works out at, oh, about four quid (GBP) for a Large. Not to be sneezed at. I think that I'll be out for a Pepperoni Feast as soon as I land in the UK.
So, Saturday night is Pizza Night. On eregular Meat Lovers (similar in concept but with different toppings to a Meat Feast - but with only the one flavour of cheese, so not much like really), Garlic Bread and a 1.5L of Diet Pepsi -13.95NZD, about a fiver GBP. Good for one. I hand back the chips they've cooked me (but I didn't ask for) and take a bottle of Pepsi instead. Although the fridge is getting full of the fizzy stuff. I must remember to drink some.
I put the garlic bread in the oven for ten minutes to crisp it up, and, in homage to Steve's good work at Woughton-on-the-green, I manage to burn it. It is, however, edible.
Well, time for a play on the PC. "Sacred" an RPG in the fashion of Diablo rather than Baldur's Gate. But quite good fun. I've found a woman who gave me a small quest and keeps giving me experience points whenever I talk to her. This has made the game easier. Looking at the last couple of Dragon battles I've been in I've no idea how I'd have made it this far without an endless supply of XP.
Get miserable cos I'm going to miss the Monaco GP. Lora's going to record it (on the Sky+) and I can watch it when I get home next weekend. Shuey had better not win. I doubt I'll manage to go the whole week without hearing the result, but Monaco is always good to watch. Must do a couple of laps on the Playstation to get me in the mood.
Suggestion to GP lovers in NZ. Get the local equivalent of Sky Plus, or take every other Monday morning off work. Hmm. Good Idea.
Better go. Steak to burn. Have a peek at the week's Thumbs. Bye.
Wednesday 26th. Not Long Now.
Brendon is leaving for the UK today so he insists that I go up to the top of the The Mount with him. He seems to think that I won't take myself up. He could be right...
Hour and a half later, my legs are falling off and my camera is full. The views are amazing. Absolutely.
I make it down to the bottom, but I'm not likely to make it up the top again...
Thursday 27th. And now the end is nigh.
Those nice people got me a card! And a corkscrew (paua-shell encrusted) and a jacket (which says New Zealand on it!). Cor, they must be glad I'm going or something...
We have a couple of glasses of wine (NZ Pinot Noir) and I say nice things about them and they say nice things about me. Then we sheepishly go back to work.
Will try to do another update before I fly (Saturday night) but don't hold your breath cos I might be a bit panicked from here on in...
To all in the UK. See you soon.
To all in NZ - I've had a great time and could easily have stayed longer. I've got a pile of Estate Agent's papers in my bag...
Todays Thumbs
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Hokay. Firstly I should apologise for the bulk of this text as it was written as I flew (lordie it makes your arms ache!). Secondly, there is more information on the thumbs page as I took pictures when I wasn't writing and so the two don't overlap that much :-)
Time to go home.
Saturday. Up at 8:40. can't sleep any longer - I call Lora and raise the general excitement level of NZ + UK by a factor of ten.
Put washing on. start packing. Hmm.
Get in car & go to Bay fair to buy another bag... :-)
No suitable 'small' suitcases so 'get a carry-on type bag. Bright (ish) red. Return home, put washing in dryer. Fill bag. Look at dryer, It's still turning = more things = Re-pack. Ah! all fits!
Play until 11:00 am on the Pc ("Sacred" It has a good "rabbit" factor)
Leave appt. by 11:25 and moor off to Papamoa to Steve's place.
'Chell (Steve's wife. She's one of these people who has half a name. It's useful to me cos it means I can't confuse her and Michelle at work) has cooked a lasagne and potato wedges. Yum! kids spill drink. 'Chell spills a drink.
I spill my drink. The table wobbles, you see.
Steve drives me to Auckland - we stop at Pancake House on way. see pictures. Crepe delicious.
Airport at 4pm. Can't check in until 6 pm, so walk around buying things. Not good for the wallet.
Check-in queue opens. Get in line. Get pulled out of line to-a security check. I must look dodgy or something! They think about confiscating my present to Iain, but decide not to..
This does jump me to the front of the queue.
Panic! - Lady say's I'm 14k over my luggage allowance. The cost is exhobitant and she queries this with a colleague. Ah. US. transits gives you two pieces of Luggage rather than the amount printed on the ticket. Thank Lordie for that!
No choice of seat - I've been allocated an aisle in middle at the 'plane.
Oh well. I'll live.
Whizz though customs and buy Poison (perfume that is) for Lora & 200 Bensons for the meat man.
Grab a three-buck coffee and sit down to write this.
Time for a wander now.
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Hokay were up in the air. Wonder of wonders the Nomad jukebox has decided to work for a bit. "Just on the borders off your waking mind"...
Had a few texts with Lora & Adam before boarding-. I've got Lora well worried about her present! He He.
Ah. ELO. Just what a flying man needs.
The water feature by gate 10 at Auckland Airport: More of a stream than a pool. Very relaxing & calming - I hope my photos come out/do it justice.
Hmm. LOTR on the screen - no they arn't showing the film(s) - but it can't be long before they show the three back-to-back on the Pacific crossing!. I'm reading Sara Douglas' Axis book 3 - I don't want something that uses brain, not yet anyway.
On well. Back to reading.
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Damn! i'm astill on the "low fat meal" list. Great! The meal was brilliant! Salmon, in a tomato sauce. Finally some meal worth the effort. Couple glasses at Rosemount Shiraz/Grenache and cup of tea. What more
could a boy want?
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Breakfast. Hot towel & some veggie weirdo thing to eat. Tastes okay, but after this long, who knows?
0h - Finished Axis 3 during the, um, night and started on Darwin's Children. Most go and finish *that* now.
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4pm LA time-back on the plane. Wish me luck!
I ignored 'Lunch' or 'Dinner' or what ever it was and just went to sleep. Gave up sleep about 6.:30 BST, so I've no idea how long:-)
Reading 'Years of Rice and Salt' now. Good fun, surprisingly. Hope we get breakfast soon.
The rest in pictures
Thumbnails:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
(11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19)
Insults and Critique to : gorden@nobby.co.uk |
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