Hard at work

I'm sitting at work, planning next weeks lectures.

In theory.

In practice, I'm surfing the web for 10 minutes - and I just came across a cool site about NZ . Loads of info, even Wanganui gets a mention.

The Title Thinker-Upper Is On Strike

If I lapse into inarticulateness (is there such a word?) during this post, please forgive me. It's late on Sunday evening, and I was woken by Pookie (or 'that sodding cat' as she's affectionately known) at four o'clock this morning, so I'm feeling a bit fuzzy round the mental edges.

It's been a funny old week.

Despite it being late winter here rather than late summer, and despite the fact that no-one is away on holiday, New Zealand seems to suffer the Silly Season at the same time as the U.K. The following story made front page news in the local newspaper, The Wanganui Chronicle today. The story is reproduced without permission of any kind. So sue me.

Rescued dog returns the favour

26.08.2006

A VIGILANT rescued dog turned rescuer this week, saving a Wanganui home and her master from a potential electrical fire.

Shona Williams, of Roberts Ave, Aramoho, switched on an electrical jug in her kitchen to make a pot of tea and returned to the lounge, where she was spending an evening watching television with Tori, the family’s female Samoyed pet.

Mrs Williams became distracted and after a while Tori suddenly got up from her fireside rug and left the room. She quickly returned and with agitated body language made Mrs Williams follow her into the kitchen.

The jug had nearly boiled dry after its automatic cut-off failed leaving the kitchen full of steam.

Mrs Williams quickly disconnected the jug’s plug.

“I don’t know what might have happened if Tori had not alerted me to the problem,” Mrs Williams said.

“She made me follow her into the kitchen. There could have been a fire.”

Five-year-old Tori is a rescued dog the Williams family received two and a-half years ago.

She had been returned to her breeder by a veterinarian after her previous owner had starved her and kept her in a muddy paddock without shelter for months.

The breeder offered her to the Williams family after their previous Samoyed died of old age.

Now Tori, who is in perfect condition, is a rescuer herself.

“She’s got a very keen sense of hearing, especially earthquakes before they happen, thunder and lightning and, of course, cats outside,” Mrs Williams said.

The thing that surprises me most about this story is not the fact that the incident happened, nor the fact that things were so slow in downtown Wanganui that the newspaper editor thought the story merited front page status, (it really is VERY quiet here), but the fact that the first thing Mrs. Williams thought of doing when her dog alerted her to the fact the kitchen was full of steam, apart from to turn off the kettle, was to telephone the local newspaper offices. I mean, just how much of a drama queen must this woman be? Probably the sort of person who rings the emergency services when they've lost their keys.

Anyway, what else has been going on in the buzzing metropolis? (That's a hard word to spell when your eyes are starting to cross!) Well, I've been getting myself jabbed up with various inoculations, in preparation for my trip to South Africa. I've had a tetanus booster and a Hepatitis A shot, and I should have had the typhoid vaccine as well, but I reacted very badly to that the first time I had it, when I went to Italy as a teenager, so the doctor decided I shouldn't be given a booster. Apparently I won't need malaria tablets, which is a relief. I've heard nasty things about their side effects (although they're not as nasty as malaria, of course.)

Unfortunately, the details of the project I'm going to be working on are confidential, but I've been invited to play a leading role, and it involves a minimum of six months' full time work and an all-expenses-paid two-week trip to Cape Town. As my normal wardrobe consists exclusively of jeans, tracksuit trousers and sweatshirts, I've also splashed some cash on some new clothes. Iain and I went to Palmerston North yesterday (the nearest 'big' town) and I got togged up. Iain was amazingly patient while I tried stuff on and didn't do the 'fed up bloke' routine once. I was mightily impressed. I don't normally 'do' clothes shopping, but I actually rather enjoyed myself yesterday. If you're going to have an addiction, I think an addiction to clothes shopping is probably the best one to have. Sure, you're in debt up to your eyeballs, your family has abandoned you, you've lost your house and are sleeping rough on the street, but at least you look fabulous while your life is crashing down around you.

I am so tired now I can't see straight. I really have to stop typing, and anyway, the battery on my laptop has gone onto the red, which means any minute now my computer will shut down. I'll try to make sure next time I post an entry I'm at least partially compos mentis.

Goodnight all,

Helen

Oi!

thanks to Rachel for the very cool cover design

Great excitement today - my inspection copy of Oi! (the poetry anthology I compiled for my writers' forum) arrived this morning, and it's turned out perfectly. So I've now made it available for purchase. The anthology showcases the work of eighteen poets, including me.

Here's the 'blurb' from the back cover:

Oi! is the first collection of poetry from members of the online writers’ forum The Write Idea.

This eclectic mix of poems, ranging from nonsense verse to Spenserian sonnets, from nursery rhymes to erotica, will take you from B & Q to the planet Mars, from bronze age Britain to contemporary Spain. Your travel guides include a cow, a sheep and a woolly mammoth.

Arresting? Original? Witty? Always.
Boring? Never.

Check it out here.

P.S. If you view the preview pages, don't be put off by the weird, irregularly-sized font. I think that's a deliberate ploy by Lulu to prevent people simply printing off the previews for nothing, and not buying the book!

Helen

Kiwi Quiz

How much do you know about New Zealand?
Find out with this Kiwi Quiz I've put together.
The answers are at the bottom of the post, so no peeking and no googling.
Are you ready? Get set, GO!


1. What are these called in New Zealand?...
a) fries
b) crisps
c) chips
d) waffles

2. ... and what about these?

a) gumboots
b) booties
c) wellies
d) rubbers



3. Which city is the capital of New Zealand?
a) Auckland
b) Wellington
c) Christchurch
d) Rotorua

4. What is the population of the capital city?
a) 1.2 million
b) 375,000
c) 164,000
d) 79,000

5. What is the national netball team called?
a) The All Blacks
b) The Tall Blacks
c) The All Whites
d) The Silver Ferns




6. What is the national dessert of New Zealand?
a) peach melba
b) pavlova
c) kiwi cheesecake
d) spotted dick

7. What nickname do New Zealanders use when referring to Australia?
a) God's Own
b) The Mainland
c) West Island
d) Rooland



8. Where do Kiwis buy their lottery tickets?
a) at a newsagent's
b) at a dairy
c) at a corner shop
d) at a five and dime

9. What are holiday homes called on South Island?
a) cribs
b) baches
c) barks
d) scratches


10. The flowers of which New Zealand native tree produce a honey renowned for its antibacterial properties?
a) pohutakawa
b) manuka
c) rimu
d) nikau


Answers below...



























1 c, 2 a, 3 b, 4 c, 5 d, 6 b, 7 c, 8 b, 9 a, 10 b

How did you do?

Helen

Excitement and adventure and really wild things...

...well, sort of.

the delight of drains

The Drain Man arrived on Wendesday and duly replaced our old ceramic drain, circa 1910, with a new plastic one. Hopefully that'll put an end to our drain problems for a while. Iain replaced the soil yesterday, and it was going to be my job to re-lay the paving stones today, but fortunately it's been raining all day, so I've been given a reprieve. The only other thing left to do is to dispose of the pieces of old drain. Iain favours chucking them over the fence into the stand of bamboo in the empty section nextdoor, but I've vetoed this. I quite fancy recycling them in some way. I've thought about breaking them down to use as mosaic tesserae (once we've given them a thorough wash, of course!), but I think they're going to be far too thick to break. If you've got any ideas for ways of recycling old drainpipes, please let us know!


more mad flowers

When I was blabbering on in my last post about the weird combination of things in flower in our garden, I mentioned a snowdrop and a rose. Realising you may find it hard to believe these two are flowering simultaneously, I've collected some photographic evidence. These photos were taken within minutes of each other. Weird, or what?!

snowdrop flowering on 2nd August

rose flowering on 2nd August

work developments

I've been invited to take part in an international project, which will involve a trip to Cape Town, as well as at least six months' full-time work. It all sounds very exciting. At the moment I'm waiting for further details, but I'll keep you posted.

holiday plans

Since my last post we've booked our summer holiday. We've wanted to go to South Island ever since we first arrived in New Zealand, but the month-long tour we'd planned had to be cancelled due to work commitments. Iain's got some time off over Christmas, so we've booked the ferry for a two-week tour of South Island.

one of the Interislander ferries

We're setting off on December 27th, the day after the Boxing Day 'Cemetery Circuit' motorbike race, and returning on January 10th. We've booked the cats into a cattery, and, as we're going to be camping, it's possible that their accommodation for the fortnight will cost more than ours!

During the last few days, in order to begin to think about putting together a rough itinerary, we've asked two people who have travelled extensively on South Island which places they would recommend seeing. And they both, independently, gave us the same answer: 'All of it!'. Which was not very helpful, but nevertheless very encouraging. Given our mutual love of wild places, Iain's obsession with mountains, and my childhood dream of being Heidi, I think it's possible we may go and live on South Island at some point. So the journey won't just be a holiday, it will also give us the opportunity to look at some candidates for future places to live.


Helen

It must be spring!

It's the first of August today; the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the first of February, and it has been a beautifully warm and sunny day. It really felt as though spring had come already.

I did a tour of the garden this afternoon and couldn't believe the number of plants that are in flower at this time of year. I also noticed that none of the non-native plants seem to know what season it is. We've got snowdrops blooming at the same time as roses, for example.

Here are some of the other plants in flower at the moment.

blue daisy-type thing


bush with pink flowers


wild tree-bush with yellow blossom

And finally two I actually know the names of...

Honeysuckle

Lavender

Helen

Ski Photos Part 2

Sorry not to have posted part 2 of the ski photos earlier, but all my free time this week has been spent compiling Oi!, an anthology of poetry by members of my writers' forum, The Write Idea. I'm hoping to have it finished within the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know when it becomes available to buy, in case any of you fancy purchasing a copy (hint, hint!). ;-)

Okay, here goes.

Photos from our skiing trip

'Happy Valley' beginners' slope on Mount Ruapehu - this is where we went skiing

a view of Mount Ruapehu from the central plateau

Mount Ngauruhoe (AKA Mount Doom), Mount Ruapehu's nextdoor neighbour

Non-skiing photos (warning - may contain traces of cats)

Pookie in tree-climbing mode

Mo in fluffy mode - her hair just keeps on growing!

The dreaded trench

Drain Blokey is hopefully coming to replace the dodgy drain some time next week, and then we'll be able to start putting the patio back together. I can hardly contain the excitement. ;-)

Bye for now,

Helen

Ski Photos Part 1

Iain carves up the slopes

Helen in action

Ski Sunday

Remember Ski Sunday?* Well, we had our very own Ski Sunday yesterday.

Yesterday, on our fourth attempt, we managed make it to the Whakapapa skifield on Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand's most active volacano. Our previous attempts have been scuppered by adverse weather conditions, virulent viruses and landslides. When we got up early yesterday morning we were half expecting to hear news reports that Ruapehu had erupted during the night. Fortunately, the mountain was still intact and there wasn't even a hint of black cloud rising from it. We decided it was probably saving the show for when we got there. The road north out of Wanganui was still closed due to landslides, so we had to take the long route to get there, and the journey took three hours instead of the usual two.

Iain had never skied before, and although I had it didn't really count. It was during a trip to France with some school friends at the age of 17. Everyone else could ski, so they went on up the mountain and left me on the kiddies' slope for three hours. I probably only managed about three minutes upright.

Yesterday Iain and I had a two-hour lesson to introduce us to the basics. It was great fun, but I was a bit alarmed when our instructor said we'd finish the lesson by skiing all the way down to the bottom of the slope. It was about twenty times as far as we'd skied so far and at least three times as steep. We all fell over several times on the way down, but amazingly no-one got injured.

Over the course of the day our skiing superhero personae** revealed themselves. They are Random Flailing Man and Abject Terror Woman. It struck me that we approached the challenge of learning to ski the way we approach life in general. I'm overly cautious, overly analytical, and need time to recover after a knock. Iain's less timid, more relaxed and gets up again straight after a fall. Guess who made better progress with skiing?

There was one after-effect of skiing that we weren't prepared for. The smelly feet. After spending five hours in plastic boots that had previously been worn by hundreds of other people, our feet stank. I've washed my socks three times so far and they still smell. I'm seriously thinking of throwing them away.

We took some photos of our skiing adventure with a single use camera, and we'll post some as soon as we get them developed.

Helen

*I bet you'll have the theme tune playing in your head for days.
** The Burton crowd will know what we're on about!

Only in New Zealand

We had to smile when we spotted this story in our local newspaper The Wanganui Chronicle.

Pie Stops Traffic in Wanganui

Helen

Fun weekend

Last weekend we trooped off to Wellington for the day to see an exhibition, and catch a show.

The exhibition was a Lord of the Rings display at Te Papa museum. Very cool it was too. For the sad anoraks amongst us who've watched all the 'making of' dvds, it was amazing to see all the costumes, props and models in the flesh. The detail and quality of the set props is just incredible. They had the models of Minas Tirith, and the Two Towers as well. Minas Tirith was HUGE.

After Te Papa we went to see Stomp, the dance/drumming group who use junk and scrap metal to make sounds. I'd seen the odd tv clip of them in action, but didn't know what to expect - the first routine involved the group sweeping the stage with brooms, gradually making more and more complex sound patterns with their brushes & hobnail boots. I thought "Very clever, but an hour and 45 minutes of this is going to stretch my limited attention span to the max". 1 hour and 45 minutes later I would have gladly paid another 75 bucks to watch the whole thing again - right there and then! Hugely impressive. How they sustain the physical effort & coordination needed for the show I don't know. The drumming/dance routines were neatly mixed in with a healthy dose of comedy (no words though - throughout the whole show) and it was a truly exhilarating spectacle to watch. We left the theatre on a real high.

Stomp in action

This week was supposed to see a visit to the skifields, but I'm currently nursing the mother of all colds, and got sent home from work under strict instructions not to come back until after the weekend. Fortunately the students are on recess & I'd blitzed all my paperwork before the lergy got a full grip. Not looking good for skiing though.

Just wanted to say...

...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IAIN!

Midwinter blues

The half-finished piece I mentioned in my last post was really tedious, so I've started again from scratch.

For the last couple of weeks the weather has been thoroughly miserable, and I have to admit we’ve hibernated a bit. The house is cold, and it’s been too wet to go outside, so we’re we spending all our time in the front room, huddled around the woodburner. So June has been a bit of a washout, really.

We’ve got a few events lined up for next month, though. We’re going to see Stomp in Wellington on July 1st, and the following week is Iain’s recess, so, snow conditions permitting, that’s when we’re planning on hitting the ski slopes. In fact, Iain’s done some research into snow sports injury statistics, (geek alert!) and has concluded that snowboarding will be less risky for my dodgy knees – so we’re probably going to do that instead of skiing.

Iain brought home a snowboarding magazine the other day, and I’ve been doing my own research of sorts, into the lingua franca of the snowboarding world.

So far, I’ve managed to compile this handy phrase book:

Hey, cuz, mad skills! You are rather good, my friend.
stoked to eat pow thrilled to be boarding on powder snow
Yo, bro’, it’s dumpin’! Goodness me, old chap, it would appear to be snowing!
keep it tight work hard at it
run it ghetto don’t work too hard at it
Dope as! Excellent!
shredding heaps doing a lot of tricks

I shall have to try out some of these on our forthcoming trips to Mount Ruapehu. ;-)

Helen

Hang on in there...

...blog readers! We've not forgotten about you.

I've had a half-written post on my computer for the last week, but I've been too busy to finish it. I won't make any promises I can't keep, but I'll do my best to make a proper post before the end of the weekend.

Helen

Some thoughts...

...on the changing seasons

Winter has now officially arrived in New Zealand. It’s the equivalent of the beginning of December here, and temperatures have got about as cold as they’re going to get, which means mild days (averaging around 14 degrees) and fairly cold nights (down to about 3 degrees).

Even though the weather’s mild compared to a UK winter, we are having a problem keeping warm indoors. Not only do we have no double-glazing or central heating, but our house doesn’t have any insulation either. Apparently, an uninsulated timber frame house gets even colder than an uninsulated brick house. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, bricks are better insulators, so they trap heat inside the house more effectively, and secondly, they also act a little bit like storage heaters, storing up heat during the day, and releasing it at night. Wooden weatherboard and plasterboard don’t have similar insulating and heat storing properties, which means it’s always cold in the house over the winter. During the day the temperature indoors averages around ten degrees - several degrees colder than outside, and at night it drops to close to the outdoor temperature. On the coldest nights I’ve been wearing a woolly hat in bed!

This peculiar feature of NZ houses explains a phenomenon we noticed when we were doing our tour of North Island around this time last year – the propensity of Kiwis to sit out on their front porch in the middle of winter. It makes sense to us now. They do this because it’s much warmer sitting outside than inside the house!

Having such a cold house has really made us appreciate our lovely wood burner. It kicks out loads of heat, and we can get the sitting room warm and cosy very quickly. Lighting the fire is also one household chore I never have to nag Iain about. He loves getting a fire going. Anything involving setting light to things seems to bring out the caveman in him!

...on the slippery descent into middle-age

I think my other half has finally made it over the hill. Iain had the choice last week of spending money either on a pool table or on a pressure washer. Scarily, he opted for the DIY option. I know he hit forty almost a year ago, but I think this event rather than any landmark birthday has officially signalled the start of middle age for him. It’s only a matter of time before he has his mid-life crisis, so I’m watching out for subtle signals he may be going into emotional meltdown.


This weekend is the NZ equivalent of a bank holiday weekend. It’s called Queen’s Birthday weekend. I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining why. Instead of going away, like any young, jet-setting couple would do, we took the middle aged option and decided we really ought to try to make a bit more progress in our bid to get the garden straight. We’ve tackled two of the largest beds round the front of the house. We’ve not taken any photos this time. I’m sick of taking before and after shots of flowerbeds, and anyway, knowing how apathetic you lot are at the best of times, we didn’t want to risk boring you into a coma. ;-)

...on reading habits

On average books cost 50% more in New Zealand than they do in the UK. Because of this we’ve bought very few books since we’ve been here. We had a pretty large book collection in the UK but we gave the whole lot away when we emigrated, so we’ve been making the most of the public libraries here. Lately I’ve got into the habit of only getting books from the non-fiction section. Here’s what I’ve got out at the moment:

The Little Book of Yoga Breathing: pranayama made easy – I’ve read this all the way through but I’ve not actually tried any of the breathing exercises yet. They don’t sound that easy to me.

Is Your Cat Crazy? – the adventures of a cat therapist in Georgia. Not quite as daft as you might think, but the author’s no James Herriot, although he’s trying very hard to be.

The Bloodaxe Book of Twentieth Century Poetry – Best dipped into during tea breaks. A bit too bleak for bedtime reading. The editor obviously likes being depressed.

The Runner’s World Complete Book of Running – I’ve read most of this one. After a running session a couple of weeks ago I developed cartilage pain in both knees, so I’m reluctantly giving the running a rest for a while. I really don’t want to tear my cartilage again and have to have another op. Consequently, I can’t bear to finish reading it now.

Earlier this week I got an invitation to join a reading circle. I’d never been a member of one before, but I thought it might be fun to give it a go, so I went along and had a great time. Being in a reading circle should hopefully mean I’ll end up reading more fiction, and from a wider range of genres, than if I were left to my own devices. So far I’ve read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, which I can thoroughly recommend, and next on my list is The Palace of Tears by Alev Lytle Croutier. This one will be a bit of a departure from the sort of fiction I normally choose. Washington Post’s Book World describes it as ‘A tale of dreams, magic, forbidden passion and enchantment in 1860s Istanbul…with language as rich and evocative as frankincense. Each chapter glows like a precious pearl.’ Hmm… sounds like the sort of thing I’ll either loathe or love. At least it has the merit of being short! I’m hosting next month’s meeting, and I’ve got the delightful task of spending this month’s subs ($50) on some new books.

...on cat behaviour

Our little tabby cat, Mo, loves getting inside confined spaces, so we weren’t all that surprised when we discovered what she’d done when she found Iain’s lumberjack shirt lying on the bed yesterday. She got underneath it and made her way down the sleeve until her head couldn't go any further, then stayed there, purring.

Sorry, can't think of a snappy title

Another fortnight has flown past.

Ward Observatory

First of all, let me tell you about our visit to the observatory which Iain mentioned in our previous post. I really enjoyed it, but Iain gave the impression of being a little underwhelmed by the whole experience. Between you and me, I think he was expecting to see images to rival those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. *Insert rolly-eyed smiley here.* The observatory belongs to the Wanganui Astronomical Society, and every Friday night they open it up to the public, two or three society members manning the telescopes and talking about some of the most interesting sights to be seen at that particular time of month and time of year. I was keen to view the moon, but as it was in its fourth quarter it wasn't due to rise until much later at night, so I'll have to go back some time when it's in the correct phase.

the full moon as seen from the northern hemisphere

the full moon as seen from the southern hemisphere

The most memorable part of the evening for me was seeing Jupiter and Saturn. Saturn's rings stood out very clearly and you could see its moons, too. Jupiter looked fantastic - the red spot wasn't visible (must have been round the other side of the planet), but you could see its stripy clouds and its four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

One of the astronomers had a laser pointer, which he used to point out specific stars and constellations. It emitted a beam of very high powered laser light, which must have reached for miles, and which could apparently blind you if it shone in your eyes. I wouldn't like to have been in a light aircraft over Wanganui that night!

Anyway, enough geeky stuff.

Bushy Park

We've also been on a visit to Bushy Park Homestead and Forest, which is about a twenty minute drive from town. The house has recently been renovated, and made into a hotel and conference centre. It's set in several hectares of native forest, and is a very relaxing place to go for a walk.

We took lots of photos of the forest, but due to the very poor light conditions none of them came out very well. However, we did catch this snap of a New Zealand robin. It came up to us and started showing off, hopping around, fluffing its feathers and chirruping. It was very cute. It wasn't at all phased by Iain pointing a camera in its face, and it had lots of tags on its legs, so we think it was probably hand reared.


Other places

We've been to two 'games nights' down the local pub now, and we were the only people playing games both times. In fact we were pretty much the only people in the pub on both evenings. It was so quiet that the barman, Alex, was able to join in. We're hoping that when word gets round about the games night people will be beating down the door to get in...or something like that.

On Saturday we went to visit a fellow immigrant, Mike, in Bulls, which is about half an hour away. He cooked home-made pizza, which was absolutely delicious, and we went down the local to watch the final of the Super 14 rugby, between Wellington and Christchurch. It was held at Jade Stadium in Christchurch, and there was heavy fog, but both the match and the TV coverage went ahead, although it was often difficult to see what was going on on the pitch! I think I might be able to get into rugby, if I make a really concerted effort, but trying to watch this match certainly tested my powers of concentration.

Other Whittaker news in brief

• The trench in the patio is not getting any longer or deeper, despite Pookie's best earth-moving efforts.

• I've had another poem accepted for publication in Poetry Monthly magazine.

• We're planning a skiing trip to Mount Ruapehu in July (see the photo in the previous post). Should be interesting. We're both beginners, I'm highly accident prone and Iain is totally uncoordinated.

Our House No. 2: The Dining Room

This is an unusual room. We think it might originally have been the kitchen, partly because the current kitchen is a later addition and partly because it has an odd little cool cupboard that is built out from the side of the house, which we think probably used to be the pantry. It's quite a dark room, and in the past people have attempted to let in more light by adding two extra windows - one on the wall next to the cool cupboard, and the other on the opposite wall that divides the dining room from the hall. There is no door between the hall and the dining room; we think it was removed to let light into the room from the hall. We think the light fitting is probably original, although the fireplace certainly isn't and is hideous 70's-style faux brick with an electric mock-log fire. Yuck!






We're planning on decorating the dining room soon. It still has its original hardwood floor, so we're getting a blokey in next week to give us a quote for restoring it. We're going to add some warmth and colour to the walls, with a rich red on the wooden cladding and a light but warm shade on the top half of the walls (such as cream). Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely our budget will stretch to replacing the fireplace.

I'll sign off now, with a resolution to try to post more often.

Snowy Lumps

My students were off doing practicums today, so we were able to take advantage of a glorious morning and go for a drive around the local country lanes. We drove towards the fringes of the National Park, which is a short drive out of town, and came across a great vista.

Iain looking lost. "If only there were some landmarks around..."

Mount Taranaki

Mount Ruapehu

Normally you can easily see Mount Ruapehu from Wanganui (where they did all the Mordor stuff in LOtR - Mount Doom is just behind it), but Mount Taranaki (where the Last Samuri was shot, NZ film buffs!) spends a fair chunk of its life under clouds, however we could see them both from the same spot today.

Nestled in the hills where we stopped was this place. I think I've found my dream home. Imagine waking up to those views every morning?! It felt in a world of its own out there, but in reality was only 20-30 minutes out of the city. So you could easily commute. Wonder how much they want for it?

Iain's dream home

We're off star gazing on Friday night at the local observatory, with some folks from our quiz team - also hoping to brain wash them into playing a few board games with us. This should make up for missing Beer & Pretzels this year. :)

Good Evening All

I've not been doing anything quite as dynamic as Helen, other than being Dixon of Dock Green once a month for community patrol. Actually, we prefer to think of ourselves more like Crockett and Tubbs or Bodie and Doyle. It's not that exciting really, we just drive around in an unmarked patrol car, reporting people walking in a suspicious manner or being a bit naughty. I was tempted to leap out of the car and shout "Freeze, mother f*cker!!" to a little old lady coming out of a sweet shop, but my partner held me back. She was wearing a shifty looking hat though, so i'd have been within my rights, I reckon.

Other than that I've been steadfastly avoiding digging ditches in the patio - ably helped by the weather and tweaking my neck this morning. I'm now staggering about like Lurch, hopefully it'll wear off shortly and I'll resume my digging duties. Or maybe not.

A treatise on meteorology, plumbing and pet medication

Well, the last week has been pretty non-descript, and the weekend has been a real washout - forty-eight hours of almost constant heavy rain, which has put paid to our plans to fight the next battle in the war of attrition against the garden.

On the bright side, the bad weather has meant that Iain's not had to do any digging. Let me explain. When we called a plumber in to sort out some toilet trouble a few weeks back, he told us the pipe that connects our toilet to the main sewer needs replacing. In an effort to save some money, Iain volunteered to dig out the necessary thirty-foot trench across the patio himself. So far, there's not a whole lot of hole.

I've had a busy week, work-wise. I've got a brand new contract from Longmans, writing extra material for the revised version of their MathsWorks scheme which will bring it in line with the latest version of the national numeracy strategy. As I sat down next to Mo on the sofa on Monday morning, ready to start tapping away on the laptop, I noticed that she had a lump about half the size of a kiwi fruit on her operation site. I took her to the vets' and came back with one stressed-out moggy and fourteen little pink antibiotic pills. I did some research on the internet on the best methods for administering pills to pets and found this:

Giving pills to cats and dogs

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CATS:

1. Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.
3. Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.
4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of 10.
5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.
6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, holding front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold cat's head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.
7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines from hearth and set to one side for glueing later.
8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with its head just visible from below spouse's armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat's mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.
9. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply band-aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap. Throw pieces of towel in garbage.
10. Retrieve cat from neighbour's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.
11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.
12. Ring fire brigade to retrieve the friggin' cat from tree across the road. Apologize to neighbour who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.
13. Tie the little **** 's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining room table. Find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Force cat's mouth open with small spanner. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down. Pray vigorously while performing all steps.
14. Consume remainder of Scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.
15. Arrange for RSPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and ring local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters left.

DOGS:

1. Wrap it in bacon.

The cat lovers amongst you will be glad to know I haven't let this cautionary tale deter me from my duties as a responsible pet owner; in fact, over the last week I've become a dab hand at administering pills to a cat. I wait until Mo is asleep, smear a little pink pill with margerine, prise the cat's mouth open, pop the pill on the back of her tongue before she realises what's happening, and then give her the margarine-y spoon to lick. So far she's swallowed the pill every time! I've also been careful to call the pills 'sweeties' when she's in earshot. Probably being over-cautious there, but you can never tell. ;-)

Iain keeps saying he's going to make a post to the blog, but the delights of the XBox 360 are keeping him away from the computer at the moment, so don't hold your breath.

Helen

A busy fortnight

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been incredibly busy over the last couple of weeks. The highlights of the last fortnight have been last weekend's stay at a marae and today's 'Round the Bridges' race.

Noho Marae

Noho marae means 'marae stay' in the Maori language. It was my first ever visit to a marae and I was quite nervous beforehand, but I needn't have worried, as I had a great time. I took a disposable camera with me, but frustratingly it didn't work, so I've not got any photos to post.

After taking part in the powhiri (formal greeting ceremony) and eating a meal together, the main event of Friday evening was the mihimihi, where every person stood up in turn and introduced themselves by giving their whakapapa (genealogy) in the Maori language. Some people (like me) simply listed their grandparents, then their parents and finally introduced themselves and said where they were from. Others gave a much longer and more detailed family tree. There must have been over eighty people in the room, and it took nearly three hours for everyone to introduce themselves, but it was a really good comprehension exercise and I amazed myself by not 'switching off' at all. Apart from the hosts and our university tutors, everyone else was a beginner, and it was great the way everyone supported the person who was speaking, especially anyone who was struggling , either with the language or with nerves from speaking in public.

On Saturday morning we learned about the history of the village, which was founded as a Christian community shortly after the First World War by a man called T.W. Ratana. Here's a link if you'd like to find out a little bit about him.

weaving flax ('borrowed' image)

After lunch we had a flax weaving workshop where we were taught how to make a simple bracelet. This was my favourite activity. I found it very relaxing.

I wish we'd looked this good!

Finally we learned a Maori song and dance about fishing for seafood which we then performed at the farewell ceremony at the end of the afternoon. In the time we had, I think I could either have learned the tune, or the words, or the dance, but trying to learn all three was a real challenge!

Round the Bridges River Run

This annual charity fundraiser is in its 29th year, and offers a choice of two courses - one 7.9 km long and the other 4.7 km. As I only started running in February I thought it safest to train for the shorter distance. At one point I thought I wouldn't make the race at all. I developed a very sore throat on Thursday night and spent most of Friday in bed, feeling really rough. I thought I'd got a throat infection and assumed I wouldn't be well enough to race today. Fortunately, it turned out it was just a cold, and by this morning I felt fine.

As you can imagine, I was thrilled to be well enough to race after I'd thought I wasn't going to be able to, and I was even more delighted to get round in 28 minutes; three minutes faster than when I ran the course in training two weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the race and I'm keen to run a proper 5k at the earliest opportunity.

about two thirds of the way round

I did it!

Hopefully the frantic pace of our lives will slow down just a little now, so I get a bit more time for posting to the blog!

Helen