Sick days

I've was sick all last week.  I mostly slept, surfed the web, and watched livestock.  I love the goats.  They can make me smile no matter what!








 

Random photos from the past weeks

I am home sick, yet again.  This year will be known for many things including recurring illness. At least it means I am getting better at making soup:


This one was particularly lovely with fresh herbs from the porch tossed in, lots of garlic, and a hand full of rocket from the porch pots.

Since I have little to do here in my bored sick stats, I thought I throw up some photos form the past few weeks.  

I am trying to get into shape which includes trying to walk more.  Unfortunetely it seems like everytime I do some really great excerice I get sick the next day.  These photos are from a walk I did to get to a party in a nearby suburb.  I have no idea why my camera put all my photos onto one image, but I rather like the collage effect.  

The  house in the bottom was my only human contact during my hour long walk.  This older man was sitting in his front window, which made me smile.  He was watching this empty suburban street on a Sunday night instead of TV.  Then he waved. I waved back.  It made my night and gave me the confidence I needed to cut through the bush walk short cut and be social at the party.

I also traveled to Napier for a whirlwind 2 days of work.  I had been feeling a bit down on myself professionally.  Just feeling like I wasn't as skilled as I wanted to be and definetely not as effective as I'd like.  There are a lot of reasons why it is hard to encourage the change I envision for my clients, as while it is only somewhat up to me, I still want to do more than I do. Here are a few photos from my Napier trip:


When I returned, the buses in Wellington were not running.  The bus company was in the middle of a lock out.  The airport flyer was still running, but traffic was very slow. I had plenty of time waiting for Trav to pick me up to watch the airport happenings.  I completely didn't realize that the Koru parking lot had bumped the airport flyer bus location.  I wonder how many people here even know about the flyer. I used to use it all the time, still do, but just not as much as when my office was at one of its stops.

 
I also got a kick out of watching this dad greet his baby.  His partner had been flying with the baby. She greated the dad and handed over the kid then proceeded to load all the luggage, car seats, and baby gear after removing a bike from the car and rearranging the seats - the dad just stood there admiring and loving his son.  About 20 minutes later they still weren't off!

We also had a chance to go see our landlord's kids in their school film production.  

It was amazing to go to a cinema filled with high schoolers and then watch a film with faces I knew already.  I had forgot that buzz of seeing a high school event where you know the participants.  Maybe that is what I loved most about the sports games, concerts, and plays -- that buzz of people gathering outside of school hours to show off what they can do.  

Tauranga

I had an opportunity to travel to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty area recently. I needed some R & R and decided to make a weekend out of it.  

Tauranga is quite different to Wellington and it really grew on me as I spent more time up there. :







I really enjoyed exploring Mount Manganui.





 
Some fellow Grovers very graciously hosted me, on very short notice, which I am immensely grateful for.  

The family I stayed with were amazing.  I also really loved the little details of home about their house from sewing supplies to kitchen timers.  They even had Cutco knives which are symbolic of my parents home town to me.
 
But one of my favourite memory blasters was this cookie cutter. I used the very same kind as a play dough implement when I was young.  

There were other interesting things to see including this animal loading area in the middle of a suburban development. 

And the random sights of travel including cranes working overhead

walking school buses

and police stations with unique architure

Last but not least here is an example of the fence buildling technology that we see everywhere, including the garden that Traveler (with occasional help from me) is building.

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.

First race

This weekend was my first rowing race. It was suppose to be yesterday but wind, rain, and stormy seas got in the way. Today was a much nicer day for it:

It was held downtown at the Wellington rowing club. Not that long ago I was photographing it to to share with Laura. I never guessed I would be playing here myself!

I am completely in love with this sport and am enjoying the challenge of learning a new set of motor skills. I also really like the calm of putting the boats together. I always liked the rituals around getting dressed for basketball - the ankle braces, uniforms, braided hair etc. Rowing takes that to another level. You have to take all the metal riggers off the sides, some of the boat bows off, load boats on to a trailer, count and tie down oars... It feels like packing for a camping trip. After the race, you do it all in reverse and wash down the equipment which adds a car wash element to it.

It also reveals abit about who on the team are volunteering go getters and who am more apt to just chill and watch others work. I was blown away by these kiwi kids in flip flops scrambling around the trailler bars loading and tieing down boats!

As for the race, our club did pretty well, however the one race I was in we came in dead last.. not that I knew at the time.

It was all I could do to watch the stroke rower and try despearately to keep up. This was only my 5th time on the water and 5 hours of rowing practice only gives you so much knowledge and confidence. I am in seat 4, counted from the front of the boat, for those of you who care:)

Other happenings

Traveler got a new window in the corner of his office. It completely changes the energy of the space for me.

We also went to Windy Lindy a few weeks ago for some swing dancing. My left ankle has been pretty touch and go the past 6 months. I wore a long dress so I could hide the ankle braces that allowed me a chance to dance a few dances.