I know life's pretty boring around here lately. There aren't any travel stories, or photographs of hobbits. All you get is some petulant whining instead. Well, get thee over to the Women's Colony, where from now on you can read my travel-related tales. There's a new post there regarding our (three-day) hiking swansong before leaving New Zealand. There are mountains, and scenery, and we
Two days after I landed back in Blighty, I was guilted into going to Eastbourne* to visit The Provincials, who were holidaying there, having timed their visit to exactly coincide with our arrival back in the UK. Those of you who have travelled non-stop for seven weeks, and know the pain of a 10-hour flight, will understand that this news was not greeted with quite the joyous raptures I believe
It's been 17 days since I returned to the UK, and in that time I've noted that some things have changed, and some have remained the same. After an absence of two and a half years, some adjustment is inevitably required, I suppose. The novelty will wear off, eventually. For the moment, I'm relaxing into the UK in the same way you might flop into a large beanbag and note that somewhere deep in the
Is anyone still out there reading this blog? Apologies for this stream of consciousness, but it's about all I can manage for the moment.I'm back in the UK, at last. There are, of course, ups and downs to any arrival back in one's home country after an absence of significant length. To compound these into enormous troughs and peaks, I've been on the road and are suffering some mild reverse
In the red corner, weighing in at 51 million people and 50,352 square miles, we have England! England has been around the world a few times, conquering vulnerable nations and dishing out abusive imperialist diatribes to all challengers. England comes complete with a Northern Hemisphere resume, including efficient internet shopping, and more old shit than you can shake a stick at. To survive a
I don't know about you, but I'm bored of hearing about camping. There's nothing interesting to say about it at this point. I'm sorry for three months of being completely boring to read! Thank you for sticking around. Gisborne to Wellington can be done in a day's drive, but it's a long day, so we cut it in the middle by visiting Havelock North. In a peculiarly British turn, Havelock is
My goodness: I forgot I had a blog! Well, life has been scintillating lately. So, on the sixth day it was still raining, and there was nothing for it but to proceed to the nearest large shopping mall and roll around in aisles of 100% cotton clothing. Whakatane has a number of things going for it, and one of them is the enormous K-mart which resides on its outskirts.When I say enormous, I speak
It was but a short drive to the Legendary Blackwater Rafting Company's HQ, where we were suited and booted ready to tackle the great underground. Is there anything more wounding to one's dignity than trying to heave your lardy bulk into a 10ml wetsuit in full view of a bunch of superslim backpackers in their early 20s?For anyone who knows anything about wetsuits and the cold, I offer you this:
On the second night, I realised I actively enjoyed the tent. It is strangely satisfying to set up camp with the practised efficiency of one who has battled with tent-poles and ground-sheets once before. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly smooth the first time we attempted it, but we had it down to a fine art by the second night.Packing up is even swifter: you pull a few poles out of the ground,
About camping: as soon as the sun rises, you're slowly roasted awake. Or maybe that's just our tent. Anyway, come 7.30am I was battling for air, and decided to emerge into the dewy morn. The inflatable mattress had bestowed an unexpected pleasure by retaining its air through the night, and so as I boinged out into the open I felt strangely refreshed.As part of the no-plan plan, Cowboy had
We had an eventful Christmas Day, the highlight of which was probably Baldy and Salma's sherry trifle, which because they made it the previous night when they were drunk, contained enough alcohol to fell a Shire Horse.So it was through the haze of a late night and the knowledge that our goal of an early start was probably unachievable, that we packed the car the next morning. We ensured that we
So much to write, so little time!You may be surprised to learn that during the festive season I shall be attending a variety of campsites across the North Island of New Zealand. I need hardly say that it was not my idea. However, I have now become accustomed to the notion, and I am even looking forward to the trip, armed as I am with a sizeable quantity of loo roll and handy camping gadgetry
It has been difficult locating my Christmas spirit this year. I've been homesick, and blazing hot sunshine and a thirteen hour time difference from old friends and ever-expanding family puts a dampener on any chance to remedy the issue. On the way home last night I was nearly reduced to tears when I saw a tiny penguin chick that was clearly ill, floating with the current in the harbour.I
It was my 31st Birthday on Sunday. I dread my birthday, now that I'm old enough to realise that with every passing year the gap between my childhood expectations about what I ought to have achieved by a certain age, and the reality of my existence, grows ever wider. I have formal 'achievements' under my belt, to be sure, but do they actually mean anything? I'm qualified up to my eyeballs, and
I saw this on Jonathan's site and I think it deserves to be spread as far and wide as possible. Highlights include the Wookie noise, and 'Nobody cares. I suggest a new strategy'. Enjoy!
I cracked and ordered the all-new re-vamped My So-Called Life DVD box set, with extras. I realise that having two box sets of exactly the same series sounds ludicrous, but I must have the commentaries and commemorative book, and $38.99 is a small price to pay. It's available on Amazon.com.
In the mid-1990s, I was an angst-ridden teenager, going through the grunge phase of my life. I had a low-life boyfriend, and my life revolved around the happenings in school. How would we buck the system today? Who was sleeping around? Who was doing drugs? Who had been in the unenviable position of arriving home at 1.30AM having thrown up half a bottle of peach schnapps, realising she'd
A friend came round and downloaded an Arcade emulator onto my computer. Suddenly, it's 1985 and blogging hasn't been invented yet.
I hope everyone had as eventful a Halloween as I did! We attended a party at the same house as last year. The costumes were outrageous, and I have decided that for reasons of privacy, I won't be posting the photographs of my colleague who went as Frankenfurter, or any of the other attendees. We somehow managed not to take any photographs of ourselves, so I will have to wait obtain some from