Well, so much for that!

I have no will power, that's all there is to it.
Books are expensive in New Zealand so before leaving Ireland I bought some books to ship down and didn't I go and join the library first thing last weekend?
And what did I do today at lunchtime? Visited Borders. Not just visited I purchased.
I can't pretend that it was a spur of the moment thing... I went in to that shop with intent. The intent to buy a book. And I did.
Well, I haven't actually taken anything out of the library yet, and no, it's not like I've finished my current book, but well, what if I did finish it before I got to the library?! I mean that would be terrible. I like to plan ahead (for the important things anyway :-) ) so I felt that it would be irresponsible if I didn't have a book at hand for when I finish this one.
I mean it's not like I intend to make a habit of this or anything. I absalutely have no intention of using the voucher I got which gives me 15% off next week. Honest. I swear.. Really....

Mountaineering club this evening... off to sign up for a 1 day walk in September. Thought I'd better get a few 1 day walks in before I kill myself with a weekend tramp carrying 20kg on my back.

And for anyone interested, the wine last night with dinner was really rather delish. Can't remember winery but it was 2005 Pinot Noir from Central Otago.
And my downfall from today.... The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)

There was an eclipse here last night. I didn't actually see but one of the guys took some photos... one of which I was going to attach here but taking too long to upload. Will try again later!

Music and Wine

Longest afternoon ever today... at one point when I looked at clock and saw that it was 3pm I was genuinely taken aback that it was still so early. Not necessarily a bad day but definitely a long one. I guess that's what happens when you get hunger attack in the morning and have to go for lunch at 12:20 (I haven't succumbed to snack machine yet)!! Of course then eating that lunch (rather good falafel wrap for those of you interested) at desk while filling out numerous customs forms for my shipped goods probably didn't help.

I managed to do a mini-raid on a friend's CD collection yesterday evening (after a couple of glasses of rather nice Kim Crawford Pinot Noir in bar with work folk) which was much needed as I only managed to fit 3 CDs in to my suitcases... the other 97 or so are in shipped goods. While I wait to meet others before heading out to dinner I'm taking advantage of the time to listen to some of this music now; have very beautiful "Pilgrimate to Santiago" playing at the moment. For anybody interested it's John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monterverdi Choir...

Well I must head off now... I'll be sure to let you know if wine with dinner is good :-)

Not too exciting I'm afraid!

I guess I should apologise to any of you who are expecting to read here about the exciting activities that I got up to on my first weekend in Wellington (on this visit!)... not this weekend I'm afraid! Once I'm over the jetlag I'm sure, or at least I hope(!), I'll have something a little more of interest to report :-)

Yesterday was enjoyable enough with brunch with and then walking between different furniture stores. She needs to get herself some furniture for her new place so it was decided that either bed or sofabed needs to be one of her first essential purchases. It's great; the gir's as fussy as me when it comes to choosing a mattress! I shouldn't laugh of course as if I am lucky enough to find a bright, furnished, 2 br apartment in central wellington within my budget, the chances are I'll probably have to buy my own mattress as well... I mean the chances of getting a decent mattress in a rental property are slim (unless you're renting my home in Bray of course!). But I found a furniture shop with great bookshelves so I'm hopeful that maybe, 5 years after purchsing my own home, I may buy a bookshelf.. pity it's in Wellington and not Bray :-)

Before we finished up at the end of the evening I introduced the Ms. Furniture Shopper to a rather nice little patisserie on Cuba St where we purchased a little cake each for munching on at a later stage. I got a rather scrumptious citron tarte that was enjoyed with a nice glass of One Tree pinot noir... I did plan to put a piccie in of said citron tarte but to be honest it didn't look particularly appetizing... so I decided not to. You'll just have to use your imaginations!

Oh I joined the library here yesterday. You can take out as many books as you'd like for up to 4 weeks! Unfortunately "bestsellers" can be only taken out for a week and have a fee associated with them! Weird...

Today has been less than eventful. Charging through my book (Die Trying by Lee Child), supermarket shop (bran muffin purchase required!), natter with Eamonn, listen to last episode of The Tao of Bergerac while dozing and now I think I'll go back to my book...

Grrr...

You see this is the problem with the weather here in New Zealand. When I left for work yesterday morning I was layered up as you do down here. This involved long sleeved top, fleecey top and my nice brown puffa jacket. Last night when I got back here I realised that I'd forgotten to bring my dry cleaning (can't blame that on the weather). However, just now I've realised that I also forgot my jacket! You see it's cold in the mornings and evenings but during the day with the sun you normally need one layer less than you did setting out at the start of the day (unless there's a nice southerly blowing). And so I forgot to take jacket out of office. In Ireland that would result me in me going "holy shit" the minute I walked out in to the cold and so runnning back upstairs for jacket. Over here, it's only noticed when I think to myself, oh bit windy out there today... I'll wear my nice warm jacket. Ah yes, that would be the jacket hanging up with my dry cleaning in the office wouldn't it?!

Wind, view and instant coffee

Bit windy out there today. I can tell this without having gone out at this point based on the tree across the road from my window. While I'm in the same place as my last two visits here I'm on the other side of the building. Whereas before I had this view


on this visit I'm getting

That's the Radio New Zealand building across the road from me there; not a particularly interesting building I admit but just thought I'd mention it as I'm currently listening to a performance of Karl Jenkins' Requiem on Radio New Zealand.

I'm actally writing this as I'm waiting to meet up with a colleague who's also relocated here. She's found herself an apartment so I said I'd tag along as she does some furniture shopping. We were meant to meet at 11am but she had a bit of a late night so it's 11:30 now :-) I didn't make it along last night - couldn't be doing with that talking to people thing when I was so tired! Anyway the bit of a delay does make me grateful that I had my less than tasty instant coffee this morning... I really must buy a coffee pot today!

So now you know....

So, in an effort to keep myself distracted and awake I came across a Jane Austen characters quiz. I love Jane Austen novels and I'm certainly not going to admit to the number of times that I've read Pride & Prejudice other than saying that we're in to double digits :-) Anyway, for one of the questions I was torn between two answers so I went for quiz outcome using the two different answers that I wanted to suggest but keeping all other answers the same and, drum roll...., here are the results:


You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

or

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

All rubbish of course but so much fun. Anyway, I'll leave it to you, the discerning read to decide which if either of these characters I in anyway resemble :-)

Take the Quiz here!

Ugh...

Just a short one.. my brain is just way too fried for anything else. Trying to figure out how it's possible that if last Sat was my last full nights sleep, and I only managed abouat 5-6 hrs in total on journey over, how is it that it was gone 5am before I could go to sleep this morning?! Not impressed. Not impressed at all!!

Got up at 9, headed in to office. Had a natter with some folk, went for lunch with the mountain biking trio, went back to work (work constituted figuring out which of the 500 emails in my Inbox I needed to keep and which I could delete!) and when at 2pm my keyboad connection stopped working it all got too much for me and I left. Tried to snooze this avo but no joy :-( So, instead opened bank account, bought mobile and collected my pictures from my cousins wedding last Thurs :-)

Now trying to figure out how to make myself stay awake until 9pm and after that, how to make sure I stay asleep!!! Thoughts and suggestions on a postcard please...