Summer Holiday
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last year i did exactlywhat jo did and just chilled on the couch. watched old star wars dvds, played xbox, and ate a roast chicken for lunch.
bliss.
this year was however endless relatives. that said, i also dived the poor knights, drove up to cape reinga and looked at tourists, saw joan and darby, marvelled at the far north, enjoyed a fantastic tour of pompallier house (also knicked some nectarines of their fruit trees... v.good), stayed in a cheap but great hotel in auckland, enjoyed new years with friends over dinner, and remainded (mostly) sober, visited the mount and talked business with my granddad, saw endless tracks of the central high-country, and returned to a very, very cold wellington.
ah well.
highlight? diving poor knights. we got lost on the dive and ended up swimming along a seawall that dropped from 20 to 50, then to 100m. an endless chasm of the deepest blue water you've ever seen. the most amazing sight of my life. scared the piss out of me.
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We had a friendly, family affair with ALL the kids (3) back from their respective 'other' homes; and my partners parents, her brother and his partner over. Seafood food mmmmmmmmmm. Sure, the weather wasn't what I remember from my childhood, but we had lots of fun and fellowship.
Came back to work on 3 Jan and I was, quite frankly, pleased to get back into a sane daily routine. -
... stayed in a cheap but great hotel in auckland ...
Which was, for future reference?
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This year's Xmas for me was in Vienna and very Austrian and very traditional. Each action of the evening stretched back thru family history - the decorations, the tree, the presents process (in the evening!!), the singing around the tree, the different drinks for each stage. Except, bizarrely enough the food, which was excellent but not at all xmassy. And no snow anywhere as we live through an incredibly warm european winter.
I haven't had a NZ xmas for the last 5 years. but i'm coming home to live again this month - roll on summer holidays! I'm getting ready for the culture shock :)
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The few Christmasses that I've spent away from Family have been very relaxing and without stress. I enjoy them. At the same time I enjoy my family also, although finding out that my uncle had taken my families vinyl collection to the dump (a crime against music) was something of a disappointment, ahem. There were original beatles pressings from the sixties worth over $500 each, not to mention that it was the freakin' beatles. Everything in the collection is original issue, hell there's even my old starwars soundtrack album and the first muppet show cast album. Any way there's over 500 discs buried somewhere in a council dump in Tauranga, they live in otumoetai (no acts of reprisal thank you) so check your maps and get diggin kids
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Summer finally got here. Yesterday the asphalt burned my feet, the raspberry canes scratched my leathery '80 year old Australian cattle drover' forearms all to shit, and not one of the boys who stalled their SUV at the traffic lights by Countdown was wearing a shirt, bless 'em.
Then we sat down and watch the Dr Who Christmas special. Span, if you're out there, they appear to be working on getting that Ecclestone hard edge on Tenant.
NOW we're having a summer holiday. Pity my partner's back at work.
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Just got home from the cricket at eden park. How embarrassment!
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Hmm I'm not sure how I feel about the Eccleston hard edge on good ol' Tennant, but I think it's probably time. Too fluffy for too long and it'll be too far from the fanbase maybe. Nothing wrong with a bit of bitter. Thanks for the heads-up EH :-)
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Heh, you can go back to calling me Ghet if it makes us both more comfortable... And yeah, it was subtly done and I think it worked, but then I'm a big fangrrl so I would.
And Reece? Yeah. My 'it could be worse, we could be English' mantra is starting to wear thin.
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wait and see i guess, but they have proven to be past masters at rising to an occasion when least expected but also for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory also. Never mind super 14 in a month, those boys are going to feel it.
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Currently spending my first January out of the country, in Changchun, China with my girlfriend and her parents. We went on a ten-day trip to Xi'an and Beijing just before Christmas - saw the Terracotta Army, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and so much more - ran out seven rolls of 35mm still film, two memory sticks and 5 hours of digital video all in all. So I'm sated for travel until we go skiing in Harbin later in the month.
We got back to Changchun on Christmas Eve, and had dinner with assorted cousins and family friends, but then a very quiet 25th - unwrapped a few presents and thought of home. Just a little snow on Boxing Day.
Right now the mercury's hovering around -10 degrees celsius and we had a dusting of odd, almost feathery snow the other day. I'm currently picking out worthwhile events from the Asian Winter Games which will open here this month, fretting over thesis work, and planning book reviews on Nigel Cox and Carl Shuker for Craccum (as well as reading Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, again).
Oh, and hoping for a few days in the sun when I get back to NZ in late Feb.
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Snoopy's Christmas bellowed by visiting cuzzie stretched out in the tatami room. Frozen NZ greenshell mussels from Costco and chook from the euphemistically named "Sakura Farms."
New Year in HCM City navigating the roundabout with 15 billion scooters. Controlled chaos. Dinner at 5 floored local eatery specialising in seafood. Loud, loud, loud. Empties put on the floor. Waiters tally by checking under the table and counting the empties that are around the table legs.
Next day: sick, sick, sick. Bugger! -
Would you believe - New Years eve in the Whitsunday islands: the rain that started to pour at 10pm would have ruined things, if the stomach flu and migrain hadn't already done the job. Probably caused by excessive drinking on the previous 17 days in Sydney and Brisbane.
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Delights:
1 Westmere - the people whose xmas display is formed from suitably coloured soft drink cans, arranged into a tree and at first, xmas greetings, then happy new year. Not to mention the wry comment on coca cola's co-opting of xmas' style, and on Franklin Road (and others) conspicuous consumption.
2 The chap who drives around the area in the vintage Austin seven roadster, having an obviously wonderful time (at least, when it's fine) in a car which has none of the safety measures which contemporary governments have imposed, though its top speed of I'd guess 60kph might help.
3 Sitting eating takeaways at Western Springs one evening, watching a group of Indians/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans? in a not-so-casual game of tennis ball cricket.
4 Getting to the top of Mt Albert to see the comet and joining quite a gang of friendly people also drawn to the evening sky.
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In Whitianga for 2 weeks vacation. New Zealand certainly is a beautiful place, I am struck by the bright colors and strong contrasts everytime I come back.
Weather has been good, temps warm, sea flat so we have had several days of good boating. A bit overcast today, not a bad thing, will keep us off the beach and out of the UVs which really bite you down here!! -
3 Sitting eating takeaways at Western Springs one evening, watching a group of Indians/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans? in a not-so-casual game of tennis ball cricket.
Yep, I've seen some serious games like that. I'm looking forward to those immigrant communities strengthening our player base. In theory we should see the same thing in football in a few years ...
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Yeah, I've seen what to my untrained soccer eye look like some mean as latin and asian players down at viccy park on a saturday or sunday, skills to burn.
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tell ya something ...surf life savers used to be real naff in their speedos, crew cuts, and stupid bathing caps , completete with that ridiculous tow line reel theyd run to the shore with to do a rescue..but times they have a changed . Now you see em hovering here at muriwai about knee deep at the edge of the surf,(standing by in a very solid swell) big baggy boardshorts and long sleeved sweatshirt tops - yellow and red ofcourse , with a set of flippers strapped over one shoulder and a walkie talkie and that rescue red thing over the other and generally a big messy mop of hair. Was talkiing to one of em the other day and said so what do ya do with the sweatshirt and walkie talkie if you need to do a rescue ? cooly he replied, "just give the stuff to the nearest civilian and bomb it out there." Plus alot of them surf these days in the off hours .
Like I said quite cool indeed . Now that would be a summer job worth having .
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