I'm getting bad at keeping this blog in any way up to date. I don't think that this will necessarily improve that but but no harm in a quick update. Our "long hot" (eh, yeah right!) summer is potentially on the way out though I'm hoping that it's actually just been in hiding for the last few weeks and is going to surprise us all by making an appearance next week and then not going anywhere for the next 2 months!
My climbing is progressing... at last! I did some good climbs last week and again this week and I've also started on a new wall... trust me when I say that I did not get very far this evening. At all. Next week maybe.
Looking busy for the next few weekends too. We've a big project going live this weekend so I'm on call which means I can't actually leave Wellington. If I am called in it won't actually be until Sunday so I'll have to see if I can do something to amuse myself on Saturday at least. Five of us are off tramping to Otaki Forks the following weekend. I've been informed that this is an easy fishing/photography weekend so hopefully even I'll manage! In the middle of the following week Dave is heading off to the Sth Island with his brother and sister and I'm flying down to Queenstown to join up with them the following Saturday and not back to Wellington until the following Wednesday night. We'll be going via Mount Cook... this will be my 3rd visit there and there'll be tears if I don't see Mt. Cook on this visit. I mean honestly, how many times does a girl have to visit a place in an effort to see the highest mountain in NZ??!!! For the Easter weekend I'm going on a 4 day tramp on Abel Tasman. The terrain is easy but I to admit that I'm a little nervous about carrying a pack for 4 days! However hopefully the weather will be nice and the sandflies on holidays... I can dream :)
The weekend just past Dave did the Karapoti Classic which is a 50km mountain bike race for people who are mad enough to enjoy cycling for 4 hrs over rough terrain and generally getting covered in mud. I was out there for a few hours before the end and the variety of mud covered people coming in was amazing. The youngest competitor was a 9 year old boy which I thought was pretty impressive! The Wellington Jazz festival was also on so on the Sat night we headed along to see the Tomasz Stanko Quartet and on the Sun evening we saw The Brad Mehldau Trio. I have to say that the latter was the one that I was really looking forward to it but was actually the former that I just loved. The musicianship of all 4 members of the group was just amazing, and the way that they interacted when performing was so subtle but so right. They whole performance had a certain quality that I haven't experienced at a concert in a long time. Highly recommended. Don't get me wrong btw, I enjoyed The Brad Mehldau Trio but, for me, it just wasn't at the same level as the Tomasz Stanko Quartet.
Book wise I'm reading Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. It took a while to get in to it but I'm really enjoying it! Mind you I still have 248 pages to go (have read 400 already)! Even with the fact that I'm slowly getting through this book and have another 7 unread books on my book shelf I still acquired a new book at the monthly Wellington bookcrossing meet up last night. Unbelievably I hadn't been since October! It literally just seemed that I had stuff on that I couldn't cancel miss on the 2nd Tues of each month from Nov to Feb inclusive. Anyway it was nice to get along last night and show my face and get some news... and an Ian Rankin book :)
Matthew (my nephew) is doing well. From what I can gather he likes his food and has a good set of lungs on him. Oh and apparently he's very difficult to wake up... a bit of my brother there I reckon!
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Real or Satire...
It's possible that myself and other women who work (I felt the phrase "working women" left me open to slagging) are responsible for the credit crunch! Not men who work, women. I'm particularly fond of this snippet "It would be ludicrous to suggest that women should be sacked purely to give men their jobs. In many cases, their jobs should be abolished as well".
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0225/1224241774267.html?via=mr
BTW, I am assuming that this is satire as opposed to serious!
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0225/1224241774267.html?via=mr
BTW, I am assuming that this is satire as opposed to serious!
Random thoughts
I'm not tramping this weekend. Dave is. It's raining outside... lots. I'm glad I'm here writing this and not out in the rain, up a mountain with a pack on my back. Off for my 90 Balinese massage soon and have bought in dinner supplies for later on. I'm settled for the evening :)
Had a fairly busy/chaotic/lots on week at the office. By yesterday afternoon I was well ready for the weekend and enjoyed a few glasses of wine following a team update meeting yest evening (i normally disappear after those but nice wine and was just in the mood for bit of a chat yest). This morning I finally caught up with my sister on Skype... Matthew was sleeping but Ciara directed the web cam towards him so I could see him. From the sounds of it I should be glad he was asleep. When he's awake he either cries or is feeding. Except for when he gets his nappy changed... apparently he likes that. Anyway, here's hoping he adds the "awake, not feeling, not crying" combo to his set up soon. He's awful cute though :)
Oh and some trivia... my most viewed, though definitely not my best, photo on flickr is this. They're cute dogs but I don't even really this photo! Oh well... Enjoy the weekend!
Had a fairly busy/chaotic/lots on week at the office. By yesterday afternoon I was well ready for the weekend and enjoyed a few glasses of wine following a team update meeting yest evening (i normally disappear after those but nice wine and was just in the mood for bit of a chat yest). This morning I finally caught up with my sister on Skype... Matthew was sleeping but Ciara directed the web cam towards him so I could see him. From the sounds of it I should be glad he was asleep. When he's awake he either cries or is feeding. Except for when he gets his nappy changed... apparently he likes that. Anyway, here's hoping he adds the "awake, not feeling, not crying" combo to his set up soon. He's awful cute though :)
Oh and some trivia... my most viewed, though definitely not my best, photo on flickr is this. They're cute dogs but I don't even really this photo! Oh well... Enjoy the weekend!
Monday, 16 February 2009
The Tongariro Crossing
So, you might think that I was going to have a great weekend anyway what with Matthew finally putting in an appearance, but it was even better than that as apart from the fact that I got to constantly say "Have I mentioned that I have nephew?" or "Have I mentioned that I'm an Aunty?", we did the Tongariro Crossing this weekend.
For those of you who don't know, this is an alpine walk between active volcanoes (well okay they haven't exactly been particularly active in the last while but...) and it's a walk that can be done in less than 7 hrs. It's considered by many to be one of the "must do" activities for anybody visiting NZ. Because of its popularity it's always very busy in the summer (up to 2000 people per day sometimes!) but it's also walked by people wearing clothing that I would never dream of going out for such a long walk in. And it's often obvious that these people really do not understand the way that the weather can literally go from glorious clear sun to v cold and no visibility in less than half an hour in this country. It's freaky but it does. We headed out in proper tramping gear wearing proper boots and carrying plenty of water each and with extra thermal layers in our packs and water proof gear. Amazingly we passed people with tiny little packs on their backs (though that was minority) and wearing either just trainers or sandals or thin plimsols! It's one of those things, you can do it wearing that gear if there's no sudden weather change and you don't stumble and twist your ankle but it ain't recommended. Note my sturdy boots below (don't they look huge??)
Anyway the crossing itself was fantastic. We were so lucky to get a beautifully clear day which provided full visibility of Mt. Nguarhoe (Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings; as opposed to Mt Doom being its English name which is what I thought initially :) ) and fantastic views. We did the walk in 6.5 hrs with a number of breaks and numerous photos stops. It's a wonderfully barren landscape but quite captivating... walking across an inactive volcano crater is pretty cool :)
Oh and this is a photo of Soda Springs which is a short diversion off the main track after about an hour (?) of walking... not quite sure actually. Anyway they were quite lovely!
On Sunday we visited some wonderful thermal pools and had a great walk around the area where there was some fantastic geothermal activity. We had a long drive back to Welly so about midday we set back off that way. Along the way we stopped off at the army museum in Waiouru, which I have to admit I was not that enthusiastic about initially, but which was just wonderful. Very moving and quite sad (well statistics and stuff from WWI always is I think). Well worth a visit for anybody driving along the desert road.
Got home about 6:30 on Sunday evening at which point I saw the first photos of Matthew and a wonderful movie snippet that my brother in law took of my sister holding Matthew for the first time.. at which point I burst in to tears. Ridiculous to cry at something so happy, but such is life :)
For those of you who don't know, this is an alpine walk between active volcanoes (well okay they haven't exactly been particularly active in the last while but...) and it's a walk that can be done in less than 7 hrs. It's considered by many to be one of the "must do" activities for anybody visiting NZ. Because of its popularity it's always very busy in the summer (up to 2000 people per day sometimes!) but it's also walked by people wearing clothing that I would never dream of going out for such a long walk in. And it's often obvious that these people really do not understand the way that the weather can literally go from glorious clear sun to v cold and no visibility in less than half an hour in this country. It's freaky but it does. We headed out in proper tramping gear wearing proper boots and carrying plenty of water each and with extra thermal layers in our packs and water proof gear. Amazingly we passed people with tiny little packs on their backs (though that was minority) and wearing either just trainers or sandals or thin plimsols! It's one of those things, you can do it wearing that gear if there's no sudden weather change and you don't stumble and twist your ankle but it ain't recommended. Note my sturdy boots below (don't they look huge??)
Anyway the crossing itself was fantastic. We were so lucky to get a beautifully clear day which provided full visibility of Mt. Nguarhoe (Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings; as opposed to Mt Doom being its English name which is what I thought initially :) ) and fantastic views. We did the walk in 6.5 hrs with a number of breaks and numerous photos stops. It's a wonderfully barren landscape but quite captivating... walking across an inactive volcano crater is pretty cool :)
Oh and this is a photo of Soda Springs which is a short diversion off the main track after about an hour (?) of walking... not quite sure actually. Anyway they were quite lovely!
On Sunday we visited some wonderful thermal pools and had a great walk around the area where there was some fantastic geothermal activity. We had a long drive back to Welly so about midday we set back off that way. Along the way we stopped off at the army museum in Waiouru, which I have to admit I was not that enthusiastic about initially, but which was just wonderful. Very moving and quite sad (well statistics and stuff from WWI always is I think). Well worth a visit for anybody driving along the desert road.
Got home about 6:30 on Sunday evening at which point I saw the first photos of Matthew and a wonderful movie snippet that my brother in law took of my sister holding Matthew for the first time.. at which point I burst in to tears. Ridiculous to cry at something so happy, but such is life :)
Sunday, 15 February 2009
My Nephew
My nephew Matthew Anthony Maguire was born on Thursday 12th February 2009 in Philadelphia, USA. He is my first nephew and to say my day was made when I received a text at 8:20am Fri morning at work is to put mildly. I was practically skipping about the place. I've been away all weekend so catching up on new photos now... happy days :)
Sunday, 8 February 2009
The Long Weekend
Friday was Waitangi Day here in New Zealand so we had the day off work... which was great! Myself, Dave and Amanda did a day tramp (hike to folk outside of NZ) up to Mt Kapakapanui. Apparently there are great views from the summit (1100m) so I had my camera packed up in my day pack. As we drove to the road end I got a fairly good hint that I might not be taking any photos from the summit as I saw lots of cloud cover over the mountains. Not to worry I still brought the camera... you never know :) In typical Kiwi style the track kept switching sides of the same river which required walking through it a number of times! Thanks to gaiters and luck I guess I got nothing more than damp heels to start with and actually that was due to my splashing while trying to get across relatively fast!
I admit that I found the initial steep climb relatively tough going but at least I managed to keep going... most of the time :) After lunch at Kapakapanui Hut there was one more steep portion before we reached the top... where there was a bit of a wind and lots of mist/cloud. Definitely no views! But worth the climb anyway. After all that, it was the rather steep descent (first 600m of the 900m descent is pretty steep) that has put the muscles on the front of my thighs in to a state of shock! I was fine getting down but yesterday those muscles were a little tight but today... well today I'm not sure they're working! Well, pilates tomorrow evening so they'd better fix themselves up pretty fast.
We've had a really lovely weekend weather wise. In the low to mid twenties in Wellington here today. A few friends came up from Christchurch for the Rugby Sevens so we met up this afternoon for a relaxing lunch at the Lido and then a visit to see the Colossal Squid in Te Papa. I know that one of it's eyes is missing, but the other one is meant to be there and I couldn't see it. Oh, if you're wondering, the reason I was looking for it is that it's apparently the size of a football! After the guys left for the airport I headed back to the waterfront with my book for a bit of sun and a taste boysenberry gelato (well passionfruit is my favourite but there was none left... which is not surprising considering the queues outside Kaffee Eis all day!)
Oh, and another wonderful gift I got this weekend were two sandfly bites which I can only assume I got on Friday afternoon when I was taking off gaiters, socks and boots after the tramp. Itching is driving me nuts!!
I admit that I found the initial steep climb relatively tough going but at least I managed to keep going... most of the time :) After lunch at Kapakapanui Hut there was one more steep portion before we reached the top... where there was a bit of a wind and lots of mist/cloud. Definitely no views! But worth the climb anyway. After all that, it was the rather steep descent (first 600m of the 900m descent is pretty steep) that has put the muscles on the front of my thighs in to a state of shock! I was fine getting down but yesterday those muscles were a little tight but today... well today I'm not sure they're working! Well, pilates tomorrow evening so they'd better fix themselves up pretty fast.
We've had a really lovely weekend weather wise. In the low to mid twenties in Wellington here today. A few friends came up from Christchurch for the Rugby Sevens so we met up this afternoon for a relaxing lunch at the Lido and then a visit to see the Colossal Squid in Te Papa. I know that one of it's eyes is missing, but the other one is meant to be there and I couldn't see it. Oh, if you're wondering, the reason I was looking for it is that it's apparently the size of a football! After the guys left for the airport I headed back to the waterfront with my book for a bit of sun and a taste boysenberry gelato (well passionfruit is my favourite but there was none left... which is not surprising considering the queues outside Kaffee Eis all day!)
Oh, and another wonderful gift I got this weekend were two sandfly bites which I can only assume I got on Friday afternoon when I was taking off gaiters, socks and boots after the tramp. Itching is driving me nuts!!
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Yeah!!
It's arrived!!!
154 episodes, 112 hrs of viewing. 5 hrs of extras.
My complete The West Wing DVD box set has arrived :)
That's my TV viewing sorted for the next few months then!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
