The Hill Road

There is an infamous road near here. It is one of my favourite spots. I never miss an opportunity to drive it. Today our friends ventured on it for the first time .... perfect timing as the sun was setting over the South Island and illuminating Kapiti Coast with that magical light the occurs just before sunset.


It is a place begging for proposals, tourist photo opps, date night drives, and in this case a bit of stand up comedy.
But this is the photo that captures my world at the moment.
There is a possibility of a move in my future and it is weighing me down. I can barely look forward into the future. I just want to stay here in the home that I am building for myself. But everywhere I look, all the people I love here are eagerly looking toward their own futures.. they are growing up, shifting house, changing jobs, building families, moving on... I know that staying still won't allow me to have any extra time with them or here, because it all will change. It always does. But I am just not yet ready to shake up my world at this moment. I just want to quietly be in it for awhile, a good long while, after all it took to get myself here. But the future freaks me out so much that I can barely even experience the moment any more.

Photo phone moments

And because I can't seem to do anything coherent or sensible in my cold induced brain fog, here are some random photos from my phone camera. My real camera was broken as I took a photo of Mt Taranaki a few days ago (and one post ago). Perhaps it is time to invest in a new one. Just like I did the week before leaving Boston when I killed that camera by dropping my keys on to the screen. I am a very good technology tester, so long as you are looking to test out rugedness... phew that I mostly use a toughbook for work now!

Photo 1 - Ivy. This is the view from my work parking spot. It means a lot to me because well this is what the cover of the marketing book for my college looked liked. I didn't much like my university at times and I have a strong association with the phrase 'bait and switch' with this image. Lately I am really liking Ivy becaus I associate it with my cool job and well yes it is a weed, but it is kind of cool in a way. And I love the way the world Ivy sounds.

Photo 2 - This is my breakfast today. It was shared with lots of people who just showed up to eat with me. Yay living in the country. All the main ingredients were from my garden. My free range eggs from my birthday chickens were the core bit, then fresh green beans, tomatos, swiss chard, basic... I did toss in some store bought onions and garlic though...

Photo 3 - I love my chickens, but I don't take them camping with me.... or to rowing regattas
Photo 4 - My rowing teammates play a game called SPOT IT. It is very simple. Yell spot it and hit the person hear you if you are first to spot a yellow vehicle. It helsp that a main courier company here paints their vans yellow. I like the parking meter bouquet in front myself.
Photo 5 - This is a number 3 bus with no windows going to a bus graveyard. I may have even riden that exact bus when I used to live in the suburb the 3 bus served. I see the most interesting things driving in the middle of the day.



Photo 6 - Like seeing this old fashioned truck full of wood when I was ducking into a shop to buy a new shirt between seeing kids because the first kid spilled stuff all over me and well I didn't really wanted to meet the second kid's mother for the first time splattered with goo. Photo 7 - Yes I don't take my chooks camping with me, but I do love it when they are all waiting at my door for me to come up. It is a very sheltered spot, but I think they just want a chance to get an extra round of food.

recent adventures - dedicated to Laura, Pete and FINLEY!

This post is dedicated to my dearest friend Laura and her husband Pete who just welcomed into the world their wonderful son Finley. I hear Laura is looking for posts here while she is on Mat leave, and so I submit the following thrown together post as I nurse my cold and prepare to fly to Twizel for Rowing Nationals.

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Last weekend was Sevens weekend in Wellington. People dress up to attend the rugby matches. Anything goes, the only rule is to get a bunch of mates together and wear matching outfits. Always entertaining!I spent the weekend up in Wanganuni, about 3 hours north of here along the west coast of the North Island. It is a charming town, although it seems like most of the stores are always closed and I had the worst meal ever here the night before I left. It was nearly $20 for an all you can eat Mongonlian Grill... and well I couldn't even eat and just walked out. Oh well, live and learn.

I was there to row not eat anyways. And row we did. My fours team took 1st place and our eight didn't have a chance to race due to poor water conditions each afternoon.
Actually, I think we did more watching and sunburning than we did rowing...


As is our informal tradition, we stayed in a school hall near the river. I kept looking for the basketball hoops, but I guess basketball and school hall aren't as linked here.

I thoroughly enjoyed my new Christmas present from Traveler to pass the down time. Podcasts from NPR are a godsend when spending hours on end listening to teenagers verbally process life. I find both fascinating, but like to have a chance to alternate between the two forms. Kind of like I like switching between cooked and raw food throughout a meal.

And of course we went grocery shopping where I snapped this photo at Pak N Sav, park of their 'we save you money' campaign. Trolleys are shopping carts. Some use the word trundler as well for this thing. I just miss the bar to rest your foot on that are on American ones.
On the drive home I saw a llama on the back of a truck.. you know, as one does.

The next day I was flying back up the coastline for work. The plan was to fly over Wanganui up to New Plymouth. Unfortunately New Plymouth was covered in fog ALL DAY. So we landed in Wanganui and then were bused north. I was so glad to see this the following day because it meant the ceiling was plenty high enough for me to fly out.

Forgotten post

I started a brief post and forgot to post it 2 weeks ago.. it goes something like this.

Not much happened today.  But I did pass through a town that shares my name. I used the toliet.  It was blue.  I really liked that for some strange reason.  

Odd that it took 2 weeks to finally finish it.

Driving through Manawatu

Last week for work I drove through the area known as the Manawatu.... There is a wind farm here and its also know for its dairy farms.  

Both were very evident on this trip!  I kept pulling over sure I had a flat tire, only to realize that it was the wind.

Check out the wires on these poles - some serious wind induced curve!

And the grass silvery waving motion

And just  photos of the snow capped mountains in the distance


and of course cows....

All in all, a very long drive (3 hours each way), but I grabbed an audio book and found it to be good thinking time for me.