You learn something new every day!

Okay, so I don't know if this is literally true but it certainly was true yesterday. What we learnt yesterday (actually we learnt a few things!) is that when your 4WD gets bogged down in sand and decides it ain't going anywhere, then letting the air out of your tyres should be enough to allow you get back in to car and drive it back to solid ground! Seriously! {well obviously a little digging of sand away from wheels helps too}

Yesterday we headed out to Owhiro Bay and did a little 4 wheel driving. On the way back there were a fair few pedestrians so we drove down on to sand (well there were plenty of other tyre marks there indicating other cars had done the same) and at one point I thought we were going to get stuck but then we started to make progress but unfortunatley not for long. Within a few minutes you could rev the engine all you wanted but the car sure as hell wasn't going anywhere! We got out of the car and I have to admit I was surprised to see how bogged down in the sand we were. We started to walk back in the hope of getting help. My biggest concern was that the car was only about 3 metres away from the water so we didn't really have much time. But totally no need to fret as as we stopped a red 4wd to ask them if they could help and it was this guy who came out with the tip about letting the air out of the tyres. We started to walk back to car and before I knew it this complete stranger was down helping us. Then I realised that other guys were walking towards us with tow ropes. There was no "hi, what's up?" (well that bit was obvious actually) or even asking if they could help, nope they just started hooking up the tow rope to tow us out. But we got air out of tyres first and then red jeep stranger jumps in and drives the Bighorn back up to hard ground. The other two take off their tow rope, jump in to their jeep and drive off... as does our helper. I couldn't get over how, within half an hour of us being stranded we were back on solid ground all thanks to three complete strangers who start helping us without actually being asked.

So there we were, safe from the water. With 4 flat tyres. Luckily there was a bicycle pump in back of jeep so, eh, well, that's how we got enough air back in the tyres to allow us to drive out and off to a service station. Certainly made for an interesting afternoon... the glass of wine with yummy mushroom gnocci in The Lido was much needed by time we got back to Wellington :)

We could always walk...

Yesterday was a lovely day with lots of sunshine and a nice little bite in the air. We were planning on going to see 4 - Vivaldi Four Seasons at 3:30pm in the Penthouse in Brooklyn. I'm thinking that I'd love to get a bit of a walk in at some that day. About 1:30 it's suggested that we could maybe walk up to the cinema. My initial reaction something along the lines of, "Oh, right, isn't that quite a long walk?" I'm informed that it's probably 30-40 mins which I have no problem with but I'm reckoning it's actually closer to an hour. So after a bit of toing and froing we check timing for the walk on google. This indicates walk is about 32 minutes so I'm cool with that.

So, we head off at 2 to allow time for some food in the Cafe there. Before long I'm down to a t-shirt as the sun was so lovely. And turns out that I'm so so wrong with the timing... we were at the cinema within 25 minutes! So that left lots of time for our lunch. During lunch there's a bit of a joke made about "imagine if all the tickets were sold out when we went to buy ours". Ha ha, like that's going to happen with a 3:30pm showing of a non-mainstream movie. As we have some time to spare we fill it by eating some seriously rich chocolate brownie and then we head out to counter to buy our tickets. Unbelievably there are only four seats left... for the front row!! I hesitate as I really don't want to sit in the front row and while that's happening some guy goes up and buys three tickets. So, there you go, you never can tell what'll sell out, can you?!

We are not happy...

I like Lyric FM. I particularly like listening to Sunday's edition of Gloria at work on a Mon morning. Unfortunately I will not be doing this for the next few weeks (how long do these Olympics go on for??) http://www.rte.ie/lyricfm/pressreleases/1220688.html

Em.. six unusual things...

Well I've been tagged by the circus controller to list six unusual facts about myself. So...

1. I find it really hard to this "write X things about me" stuff!
2. I find it quite difficult to make decisions...
3. I've been put on too much weight since moving to New Zealand
4. Most of the time I can only drink one coffee per day as any more makes my eyes sore... oh and I have to eat within hour or two if drinking caffeine (even diet coke)
5. I'm actually enjoying doing my indoor wall climbing :)
6. It's quite normal for me to be wearing 2 or 3 layers of clothing when everybody else in the room is only wearing 1.

Oh and I'll tag Sonya in the Sun now...

A Lazy Saturday...

So while the weekend started over somewhat, (read very) cold, I had a wonderful and much needed, lazy Saturday. There was a very slow start as it was bitterly cold outside and I wasn't getting out of bed until the surrounding air temperature was well past the 10 degrees that it was when I woke up!

So, a number of hours later it was up and out to brunch/lunch and some gentle browsing around town before we get the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens. Because, even though it was bitterly cold (and I was well cold) it was a lovely sunny day (at least when we headed up to gardens). At the top there was a lovely view out over the city.


After taking a few pics we wandered in to the Cable Car museum; I thought that this was going to be a quick 10 min wander around but I reckon we spent a good half hour in there! V interesting actually! They had a wonderful 100 year old cable car that you're able to not only touch but actually get in to. Brilliant :)




The aim after that had been to go for a stroll through the gardens but it was so so cold and then it started to rain so we ended up heading back to a warm flat where (in fairness about 4pm by this stage) where I spent the next few hours lazing stretched out on the couch inside a winter down feather sleeping with heat on full blast... and reading Dracula. Rest of the evening was well chilled will some wine, Indian take away and one of those Bourne movies (the second one) which I hadn't actually seen before... and really quite enjoyed :)

As this is possibly one of the coldest weekends I've experienced here, it was definitely a double duvet night!

Make it stop...

At the end of a relatively intense and very busy week at work I reckoned that the best way to start trying to wind down for the weekend would be to go see a silly movie, and I felt that Mamma Mia might just be the one that could achieve that.

I listen to Mark Kermode's weekly movie review podcast and I couldn't wait to hear his review of this film a while back. Needless to say he pointed out how badly directed it is, plot is non existent (my words not his), how Pierce Brosnan can't sing and Colin Firth can't dance. However, what sold this film for me was the fact that it is apparently so bad it's brilliant! So, on Fri evening we pottered along to the Penthouse to watch this. I was relatively sure that I'd end up enjoying it but I did have some concern for my movie viewing companion. So the film starts and the initial reunion scenes are excrutiatingly bad. I mean awful. Horrendous. But you know, some of the songs are amusing and after a while I'm starting to enjoy it. Then, during the song, Dancing Queen when Meryl Streep is dancing/singing across island and all the women drop their burdens and join in, I quietly hear the words "make it stop" whispered beside me. And what was my sympathetic response to this? I just started laughing uncontrollably! I tried once or twice to say something kindly to try to soothe battered ears but I couldn't get words out as I couldn't stop laughing. By the end of the scene I had tears rolling down my face!

Anyway, for anybody thinking of going to see this film, DO IT! It is truely awful and as a result very funny. It's the three blokes who make the film for me though... can't say I thought that any of the women seemed to relax in to their roles... or maybe it's just that the dialogue they had was so awful I don't know. But I highly recommend going to see Mamma Mia.

The weekend

I was pretty exhausted by the time I got Friday evening. It was a fairly intense week at the office though not necessarily a bad week. Just busy. Our company has a new office in Wellington so we had our monthly meeting there seeing it furnished for the first time and having a little drink before I left by 5:30.

I viewed a couple more apartments on Fri but thinking that I might just stay where I am for another 6 months. It's a good location and I do like my kitchen here :) Fri evening after dinner (with some gorgeous French Comte cheese :) ) we watched Borat. Admittedly Borat is not a movie I've been jumping up and down with excitement to watch but I felt I should watch 10 or so mins before continuing to diss it. Sort of ended up watching it all (bar the last 10 mins or so) but it was more in a state of "is this for real?", "surely it gets better", before I realised that, well, I just don't get it. I smiled in one or two places but I can't say that I find it particularly funny but I know that it's because, as I said, I just don't get it!

Sat morning I checked out a 2 bed house but as I'd been warned, Aro Street just doesn't really get winter sun because of the hills (well it is in Aro Valley) and it was cold in there! It looked nice in the photos which is why I went for a nose but I guess after hearing from my climbing partner that mould grew on her clothes while she lived there as the house was so damp, that I was somewhat wary going to view! Watched another couple of episodes of the Long Wary Around (while enjoying a rather delicious bottle of Ata Rangi Crimson Pinot Noir). It really is a fantastic series and the journey through Mongolia and along the Road of Bones in far Eastern Europe looks so so difficult! The bikes are holding up great as well!!

Nice chilled slow start to the day today which was lovely. Horrible forecast for the day so I made arrangements to go climbing at 4pm with Amanda in Fergs. We headed out to Jackson St in Petone and found a whole bunch of great looking cafes. Definitely heading back there. We drove out to the coast and it was lovely out there. Definitely picnic in spring/summer location. Don't get me wrong, this was not a sandy attractive beach at all (no golden sand or the likes) but the water is just beautiful there and we could see the Sth Island in the distance. Anyway the forecast was so wrong as it turned out to be a beautiful day! Not hot but relatively mild and very sunny. Could have headed off early for a walk this morning if we'd know that! But not to worry.. I headed down to Fergs a little early as I decided to buy my own climbing shoes. It's only $3 a time to rent them but as they're rented I always had to wear socks and they were a little wide. So I now own my own shoes... and didn't need to wear socks. Have to admit that they're bloody uncomfortable except for when I'm climbing. Walking between climbs not nice and I was well happy to take them off at the end of it all :)

And with them I did 5 climbs (only completed 3 of them) but one of those was a grade 15... haven't done a 15 before! Had a go on my challenge wall but it was my last climb and while I got further than before my arms, me, was just too tired to manage it (remember I haven't completed this wall before).

And now I'm having a lazy chilled Sunday evening :)