20th Aug...Been and gone...

After what seems like months of "yeah, I'm leaving on the 20th Aug" the 20th Aug has been and gone. For so long that date seemed like some unreachable point in the future while all the time it was slowly creeping up on me and well now, here I am, back in Wellington again.

I had a somewhat blutterflys in stomach Sunday and Sunday night before leaving house at 8am to get the new Pattonflyer coach to the airport from Blackrock. Don't know if anybody has used this yet but it's fab... I was at the airport in under 30 mins! It uses port tunnel which I guess accounts for speed of journey but it costs the same as the AirCoach so seems like a bargain to me!

The journey was long but uneventful. I mean, uneventful if you ignore the fact that I wanted to belt the child beside me in the lounge in Heathrow who spent 30 mins spinning a coin on a glass top table. You know when you get that slowly building up feeling where you feel like you slowly need to scream? Well that was me. The only reason I didn't move was that there were v. few couches (as opposed to armchairs) in the lounge and i was sprawled out on my couch and wanted to stay that way. Luckily his brother decided to inform him that it the noise was indeed a little irritating :-)

I haven't flown business class with Air New Zealand before and I have to admit that the seat setup is quite nice! They're more like pods that are angled in to the aisle so that every seat/pod has direct aisle access - no stepping over anybody. When you sit right back nobody can see you either which is kinda nice. There's the armchair seat part and the ottoman/mini seat across from you that you can put your feet on. When you need to go for a kip the armchair part folds out to meet the ottoman so you get a flat bed. Very nice... and also a little hard! But it was lovely and the food was really good too. As flight stopped for a couple of hours in LAX for refueling we all had to disembark and go through passport control with our US visa waiver forms (!!!) to spend duration waiting in a transit lounge. Not fun but it was grand. The fun part of the journey was saved for the end....

My flight was due to arrive in Auckland at 5:15am and I was booked on to the 7am flight to Wellington. I was thinking to myself that this wasn't alot of time to go through passport control, collect luggage, go through bio control where of course I'd have to dig out my hiking boots to show they were clean, and get to transit check in before 6am. Obviously you can check in after 6am but in that case you have to get your luggage over to the domestic terminal yourself. Anyway, my flight had been an hour late leaving Heathrow and so delayed out of LAX but we did make up time in air later and plane was on ground by 5:20am. Off I get and I promptly set into "walking with a purpose" mode. Through passport control no problems (apart from dodgy irish imitation accent of friendly passport control officer). Now to luggage. After a while the belt starts. I'm thinking, great, my luggage will be off first as I was business class. Belt goes around. People start taking luggage off. More luggage. Belt stops. Little delay. Belt restarts. More luggage... tum te tum... oh look it's 5:55am... more luggage. Oh, my bag suitcase, great. Grab that. Wait for my other case. Eventually it turns up. Next bio security queue... open two suitcases trying to find hiking boots - "they're clean honest" doesn't cut it, they have to be viewed. X-ray luggage. Get around to transit checkin at 6:10am. Get to desk. She goes through tickets bla bla bla and then comes up with "you'll have to take your luggage over to the domestic terminal yourself" to which I respond "am I going to catch the flight?" to which she responds "hmm... you'll need to hurry". No shit sherlock! There is a transit bus but only runs every 10 mins. So we now have the fantatsic site of somebody who has spent 2 days sitting on their arse on a plane suddenly running while pushing a trolley with two rather full suitcases between terminals... in the dark! I'm not a fit person at the best of times so let's just say that I made it but it wasn't a pretty site :-)

And that's about it really. Lift from airport in Wellington which was great, checked in to my favourite Welly accommodation (that's irony for those of you who don't know of the history of my first stay here) as before, and well that's it for now!

The Siblings...

I think I took more photos of myself and my siblings over last weekend than I would ordinarily take in a year! Definitely a combination of playing with my new camera ( :-) ) and the fact that I'm going away. The latter is probably what allowed me to do the first.
My brother, and Dad in I think, seemed a little put out (well not really but...) that they weren't invited along to lunch with my two sisters, myself and Mum last Sat. Don't know about anybody else but notice anything there... Mum, sisters, me...? Like maybe it was a girls lunch?! Ye gads, the poor boys are hard done by sometimes aren't they? :-) Anyway, scrumtious lunch in Avoca and picture of me with the sisters here...


I always feel relatively when standing next to the other women in my family but that isn't the case when I'm standing next to my brother... he makes me feel decidedly, well, short!

Published... or sort of...

Well seems that Schmap used my photo for their Wellington City Guide. Lots of photos were used but it's nice nonetheless. What is it that they say? Ah yes, it's the simple things in life...

www.schmap.com/wellington/tours_tour4/p=30502/i=30502_8.jpg

Food, food and more food!

Hit another "preparing to leave for NZ" milestone today; it was my last day in the office here in Dublin. I'm off next week though I can't believe how busy the week already is. All I'd really like is a few days of having to do nothing - no packing, no sorting, no nothing!

On the upside I had two very enjoyable evenings this week where I was out with different groups of friends for going away dinners. Last night I was out with 5 friends from work for a very filling and equally very tasty meal in Montys. And it was such a lovely novelty to be sitting opposite another vegetarian... I got to taste some of her main course as well as my own. Yum!!

And earlier in the week it was Milanos where we ate in a rather chilly Milanos... they sat us under the air conditioning vent. I believe I was halfway through my pizza (Fiorentina if you're interested) before I took my coat off! I was presented with a really beautiful silver torc style bracelet. The artist/jeweller is, I think, John Mckenna (apologies if I have that wrong!). Whenever I wear it I have people asking to try it on and asking where I go it. Had I working camera I would take picture to post... but I don't so you'll have to trust me.

And I'm afraid I'm actually too tired now to make this anymore interesting to read so that's it for now :-)

HerbGarden

HerbGarden
Originally uploaded by eefajk

I've just received email informing me that one of my photos taken in the Botanical Gardens in Wellington last year has been short-listed for inclusion in the third edition of the Schmapp Wellington Guide (no I didn't submit it)! Obviously I'm well chuffed but it's odd as I don't think much of my photos from Welly 2006 but one was marked as flickr users favorite and now this. I mean even if it doesn't get chosen it's nice to have been considered :-)

Sigh...

How is it possible that today has been, well, so dreary? Rained consistently all day up until about an hour ago (16:30). And have felt yuckily sleepy all day. Possibly recovering from the trauma of doing a trial pack this morning to see what I would (and more likely, wouldn't) be able to fit in my suitcases and hence would need to ship. Then I had to unpack it all again. Oh but first I had to inventory (God I'm sick of doing inventories!) what I was going to ship for insurance purposes. Sigh... do I really need to bring those two pasta bowls? Or that lasagne dish? Do I care right now? Nope, didn't think so...

Update on the digital camera thing is that I decided to take plunge for the more expensive (i.e. moer expensive that I'd intended spending) camera after last post. Not available on pixmania. Found it on amazon.co.uk and great price. They won't ship to Ireland. Something to do with the Irish recycling charge for electronics goods. Have seen it in shops but it's another €30 dearer again so that's not happening. Of course if the camera on my phone would just decide to start working again all would be fine. Might be time to give it a gentle tap off a solid surface to see if that helps... :-)

No more apartment...

So today I said goodbye to my home of 5 years for at least the next 12 months. I have to admit that it was very odd doing that; I'm not sure that it's dawned on me that it's not my home anymore and that I'll have to get used to not sitting on my big comfy (very bad for your back) armchair and looking out glass doors at trees across the way. Thurs and Fri were a frenzy of cleaning and packing, moving, sorting. Mum came out on Thurs and did the bathroom and kitchen (incl cupboards... but not the oven!!!), windows, ledges etc and then on Fri my friend Va who's home on her holidays did all the vacuuming. Without their help I'd probably be still at it trying to get everything ready before tomorrow morning! So folks if you're reading this, a BIG thanks. And of course I'd also like to tahnk my agent and my....

Va and myself headed down to Avoca in Kilmacanogue for a late lunch yesterday afternoon and after stuffing ourselves with their scrumprious salads I was reminded that Va is a bit of a shopping fiend (well fiend might be a bit strong but she does like to have a nosey around). I don't like the clothes from Avoca actually. Honest. No, that beautiful brown skirt purchased there was not really purchased there. I'm sure of it. So what this means is that I'm really quite annoyed with Valerie as she made me break the "no more clothes shopping" embargo that I'd imposed on myself after my reckless last few weeks... did you know that Reiss had a sale on? :-)

I'm back with the folks for my remaining two weeks and I'm starting to think that it's going to be difficult for me to not pick up some of their quirkiness while I'm here... at least if what I've observed so far is anything to go by. If, Mum or Dad you are reading this, please note that I think a little bit of quirkiness is a good thing :-) And the dog is not happy with my presence. I walked in to TV room yesterday evening and there's Mum on her chair with her magazine and Dad with paper on his chair and the dog... well the dog (and she ain't bit) is spread out over the little 2 seater sofa. And she wasn't looking happy when I sat down. Not at all happy. Oh no. Oh yes, I'll be watching my back while I'm here!

No pictures yet as while I would still like a small digital camera there's so much choice out there but to get something inexpensive but that also takes decent pictures is tough :-( And one recommendation I did get is prob a bit more than i want to spend.. Then again as I write this... I mean I've already broken my no more clothes shopping embargo so...