More relaxed (photo heavy!)

This last week has been a little more relaxed than the previous, not so much at work (though I was able to take Friday afternoon off in lieu of the time worked on Sunday; however, when I totted up my hours for the week, even without working Friday afternoon, I was still only 20 minutes off working my contracted hours for the week anyway!), but in my non-work time, I unexpectedly found that I had more time to spare than normal.

Monday we didn't have orchestra, as we are in our 'post concert holiday' (coinciding with the school midwinter holiday when a good number of people go away skiing), so I took the opportunity to make a large batch of pumpkin curry (and washed it down with an even bigger gin to knock away the effects of the all day meeting!)

Tuesday was our Upper Hutt main Sci-Fi meeting, which was great fun. We had a round table discussion of the books we'd read and TV/Films we'd watched over the past month, and I was able to join in a bit more this month thanks to the number of sci-fi books I'd got for my birthday, plus, having been lent the fourth book in the Foundation series (Isaac Asimov), I really had to read the first three (I'd only ever read the first, and that was a very long time ago) to get myself up to speed. (the same chap who lent me the fourth has passed over the fifth, and I've devoured that one as well - twenty minutes in each direction on the train every day is sometimes not enough when the train pulls into the station at the cliffhanger point of the chapter!) We then had a discussion of series and serials within Sci-fi (using the Foundation as a starting point, as Asimov started writing it as a series for a magazine) - very interesting!

The Wednesday evening was supposed to be TKD, but, after walking 25 minutes with the wind and rain soaking my back, I got to the hall to be met by the instructor who said that the school was doing some electrical work, and there was no power! So - 25 minutes walk back again, this time with the wind and rain in my face - I was very wet when I got in!

Then Thursday, I had a text whilst at work from the hockey coach saying that as it was so wet and windy, he was cancelling training for the seconds team. As I train with the firsts as well (staying in goal the whole session), I had a lot of backwards and forwards with my contact on the firsts team, trying to find out whether there would still be a session for me to go to with them. After being reassured a number of times that it was definitely on, the training was cancelled as I was about to walk out of the door to get the train! (Could have been worse - it could have been cancelled when I got *on* the train!)

Friday was our normal evening in, and the relaxation for me was extended by having the aforementioned afternoon off. I spent some of it browsing the Wellington shops (going into the more upmarket clothes shops is a fun way of spending some time, though I wasn't so sure about the children's entertainer who was singing off-key with a slightly out of tune guitar!), and then about half an hour having a lunchtime soup whilst staring out at the harbour



Our hockey match was on Saturday this week rather than Sunday, so poor John was left to do the food shopping by himself as I headed up to Silverstream, where I was then picked up by the coach and taken all the way up the Kapiti coast to Paraparamu. The match itself was an absolute nailbiter. We took a while to get into our stride, and the opposing team managed to score (though the penalty/short corner that they were given shouldn't have been given against us, and the goal wasn't technically a goal, either (it was too high over the backboard), but we aren't allowed to complain about the ref's decisions - we'll leave that to the footballers!) reasonably early into the first half. We had so many chances to score throughout the game - it kept on skimming past, bouncing off the post, or being saved by their very able goalie - as I didn't have a huge amount to do in the second half but watch the team playing up around the opposing goal, my blood pressure kept on going up as the minutes ticked by - we couldn't afford to lose again, as our position at second in the table is only held by one point. Then, with 15 minutes to go, we equalised with a brilliant goal, and I'd resigned myself to a draw. Because it was cold, our coach was doing a lot of regular substitutions, and one of these ended up with our sweeper playing a lot further up the field than she usually did. And, with less than a minute to go before the final whistle, she managed to score - an absolute thwack of a goal, too! So - almost the opposite of last week's game, both in score-line, and in the timing of the goals, but we definitely deserved to win this won. Not many games left before the end of the season now - and our position is definitely not secure - we are one point below the team at the top of the table, and the rest of the matches have not yet been updated, so I don't know how closely the rest of the pack is snapping at our heels!

But, with both Saturday and Sunday activities taking place on Saturday, we had a nice clear day stretching in front of us, which is a real novelty at the moment. We had already arranged to Skype a friend, which was brilliant (it is just as surreal to see bright evening sunshine in the UK now as it was to see snow outside when we were basking in 25+ C heat in the middle of winter!), and I was also able to catch my aunt online just before she headed to bed.

It was a glorious day - almost springlike in feel, with clear blue skies and a sun which was warm once you got into it (though the shade was a very different matter!), and as I'd not been up to the scenic reserve since before I started work, I decided that it was the perfect day for a walk.

One of the big differences between the UK and NZ winters isn't the cold (it is actually warmer than the UK winter, but due to the lack of insulation both at home and at work, feels a lot colder), or the wind and rain (I complain about the necessity for starting to build an ark, but again, it probably isn't as bad as a typical UK November), but the trees. New Zealand does have its share of deciduous trees, which have shed their leaves:






but far more evergreens




and, even in the depths of winter, some bushes and trees are still flowering


This meant that the walk through the Reserve had a very different feel to it than going through a UK woods. Yes, it was wet and muddy


and the mini waterfalls that run through most of the lower levels were a bit fuller than they were over the summer


but otherwise there wasn't a hugely different feel to the Reserve than when I'd been walking a few months earlier. The birds were out in force, enjoying the sun as well; the Kerukeru, the Tui, the Piwikawa, the Silvereye and the Grey Warbler, all filling the air with their different songs. There wasn't the "quietened down for the winter" feel at all. In fact, the Reserve was actually busier with walkers than when I was walking over the summer - possibly because everyone was determined to get out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasted!

I made it up onto the fire break, which was actually nicer to walk on than by the end of the summer - the path wasn't as slippery underfoot thanks to the rain dampening down the dust. In fact, it was clear to see where the rain had fallen and gouged out deep ruts in the path.


The air was incredibly clear from the top of the hills, and in one direction, I could see all the way across to the Rimutakas

(sadly, the zoom on my camera isn't as good as my eyes - you will have to imagine the snow topped mountains in the distance there!)

and on the other, I could see all the way across Lower Hutt and over to Wellington


(I get to go round the curve of that bay every morning on the train)


I even managed to stop and watch a couple of Silvereyes feeding on the flowering gorse - they were very intent on what they were doing, but still managed to hide themselves away from the camera (this was the best snap they let me take!)



My round trip up the Reserve and then back down the firebreak took me about 2 1/2 hours, and I was still home before 2:00 - I had time to make some cookies for our neighbours (who had sent round a fish pie earlier in the week), and we went over there for a late afternoon chat. When we got back, I was able to make a chicken pie for supper, some jam tarts for after (with the leftover pastry and some of the jam that they sent us back with!), and still had time to watch Dr Who. A very relaxing end to the weekend!

And - as a final couple of photos before I sign off for the week - I managed to finally remember to take my camera in to work on a good day, and can give you a couple of snaps of the view that I see every day (bear in mind that the camera has issues focussing through glass)

This is the Interislander ferry coming in to port - the building in the foreground is the central train station, and you can see the Rimutakas with their snow in the distance.


This is the sunset - the sun going down behind the office sets the hills in front of it alight with a pink glow.

There are worse places to work! Though I have to admit that I jealously guard my desk that has this view - most other people in the building are not this lucky!

Busy week!

It seems like I haven't stopped since I last posted - really a week ago?

It has been a manic week - fortunately with no lasting effects from the health scare (apart from slight jitters any time my head itches!). I haven't had a chance to get the doctor's appointment sorted out - I still need to send off the forms to sign up to the surgery, but I need to give them a call before I do, to make sure that if I do sign up, they will actually be able to fit me in reasonably soon to do the allergy tests, otherwise I'll look a little further afield!

Work has been insane, preparing for a major meeting which happened today (and all went as well as could be expected). I've put in a lot of extra hours, and am hoping to be able to get some time off in lieu for it all!

The Sci-Fi group had a Mini-Convention at the weekend, which was brilliant fun - a great chance to get together and chat about anything and everything (and occasionally a bit of Sci-Fi) - a really relaxing afternoon. (and the idea of going out to Dominos and getting 20-odd boxes of pizza for lunch was just pure genius!)

We couldn't stay for the whole event, though, as we had to get back up the train tracks and out to St James' Church for our second orchestra concert. The repertoire for this was really wide ranging - as well as "The Unanswered Question" (which I moaned about a few weeks ago), we had various bits of jazz (including Gershwin, plus a solo singer), light music (including a rather fun piece called "The Parade of the Sandwich-board Men" (sadly, no links on YouTube, or anywhere else that I can find, but it's definitely worth listening out for), and a medley from "Chicago".

We also had a surprise sprung on us - at the end of the sound check, our conductor announced that we were going to add a new piece to the concert, which we had not rehearsed, and which was not in the programme.

Whilst it was originally a piano piece, he had it scored for orchestra, and was sure that we would be able to play it just fine.

This piece was 4'33".



I really enjoyed it as a piece - I'm not sure whether the audience was quite as appreciative (though they did all clap at the end!), but it made me realise how little we actually stop to listen and to think (probably the only other time we actually have that level of enforced silence when we are in a social group is during the Remembrance celebrations). Interestingly, there was very little shuffling, coughing or whispering during the performance - it really did feel still and quiet.

And, of course, the fact that we could play the piece perfectly helped! ;-)

Sunday was equally busy - our hockey game didn't go as well as it should have done, as the opposing team scored the winning goal with less than 30 seconds on the clock. A great shame as we were dominating the match for most of it, and were just unable to get past their excellent goalkeeper. It didn't help that one of our wings got sent to hospital 15 minutes before the end, either (suspected broken finger), as, understandably, our concentration was broken, and we were also a person down on the field! (I don't know whether she is ok yet, though - have to wait till Thursday). So, a moral victory (we really *should* have won!) even if we don't get the points for it! Unfortunately, the loss means that we are now firmly placed at second, with three teams tied in third place snapping at our heels! If the tournament continues through the second half in the same vein as this, then it is going to be incredibly close!

The one thing that did make the losing a little more bearable was that the weekend was absolutely gorgeous, weather-wise. The sun came out, and, once the chill of the morning had worn off, it was really warm. When I got back from the hockey match and had my shower, I ended up putting on shorts and a t-shirt to potter round the greenhouse in! I did have to put a jumper back on after about 3.00 when the sun started disappearing off the house, but for those few hours, it was just lovely. The Tui were out in force around the hockey pitch, almost drowning out the refs' whistles with their song!

The good weather isn't going to last, I know (nasty front moving down from Auckland!), but it was wonderful to have just that one weekend where we were reminded that the sun is still there and it will be bringing the Spring with it one day soon.

Testing out the NZ Health Care System

Hmmm - it has been an interesting few days! Whilst the usual bits and pieces were going on (more of which later...), I've also managed to suffer a fairly nasty allergic reaction to *something*. I have mutated from human to Klingon to doing a passable impression of Odo from Deep Space 9.


It comes to something when you can look like an extra from a sci-fi series without any sort of makeup!

After trying over the counter antihistamines (from a lovely pharmacist who really took the time to explain what she was selling me, and why it was the best one - and the fact that it was the cheapest had nothing to do with it!), and waking up the next morning with the swelling *worse* rather than better, I decided that it was probably time for me to visit a doctor.

Unfortunately, one of the jobs that I had been putting off was signing up for a GP! It meant that at 7.30 this morning (after letting my colleagues know that I wasn't going to be in), I had to try and work out which Health Board our area of the Hutt Valley falls under, and then try to find the closest doctor to us. And then see if they had spaces. Unfortunately, unlike the NHS, you can't be certain that when you need to go to a doctor, that they will have space to see you (they are only funded for a certain number of patients - when they reach that limit, it is at their discretion as to whether to take you on).

Fortunately, the closest doctor to us also happens to be the newest, and they are only about half way to their quota.

Unfortunately (this is turning into a game of Good News/Bad News, isn't it?), what they didn't have was an appointment for today for me to actually see the doctor. So, the very helpful receptionist (who called me back five minutes after I left an answerphone message for them - the one and only time I left an answerphone message for our doctor in Bristol, it took them over a day to get back to me!) gave me a freephone number for a nurse, and also the address of a walk in centre in Wellington which I could just go to without an appointment.

After a brief chat with the nurse (who did a check that I wasn't suffering anaphylaxis), she suggested that I did go to the walk in centre (a bit of a pain given that it is a train and a bus ride away, and I wasn't especially happy with appearing in public!) so that a doctor could check that it wasn't serious.

So - off I trekked - wearing a very low brimmed hat - and made my way over to the emergency drop in centre. In NZ, you have to pay for your appointments - when you are registered, that price is reduced, but for the drop in centre, it is $83 (without any sort of benefits card). Which is the equivalent of a week's groceries for us.

Whilst this is bad news in that we could have done without the hit to the wallet (Good News - the tax office had given me over $400 refund for my overpaid taxes, so we had the money to cover it. We had also known about this system of paying for doctor's visits, so it wasn't an unpleasant surprise when I turned up at the surgery!), it was good news in that the knock on effect is that people do only go if it *is* an emergency, and the waiting room was empty when I arrived.

So I went in to see the triage nurse (when it does get full, then they see you in order of medical urgency, not waiting time, as the large notice on the wall told me), and as I walked out of her room, the doctor showed me straight in to his one - I was in and out in under half an hour, and that included the time it took to get me onto their computer system and for me to get my prescription afterwards.

The doctor was very thorough in his consultation, and concluded that I may, indeed, be allergic to *something*. What it is, though, he really couldn't say - I have now got to make a list of everything, animal, vegetable and mineral that I have come into contact with over the last 5 days or so, and use that as an elimination tool, in conjunction with my regular GP when I get that sorted out. He also prescribed me little pink pills (very cute!) which I can already feel have helped reduce the swelling.

So, overall, for a first go at the NZ Health System, I am very impressed - it is efficient and gets the job done - yes, I may have to pay for it, but for the service I got, I don't begrudge them the money.

Other news this week - we won 2-1 in our hockey - we are still hovering at the top of the league (not the very top - the teams above us also won (though the table still hasn't been updated properly, so I'm not sure whether we are second or third...). We had a great PIG SIG with Phoenix - we're still meeting new people, and I had a great long chat with a fellow Time Team enthusiast, which was great fun. We are in the final week before our concert with the orchestra - we had our first full play through of the Unanswered Question - I still don't like it, but I don't think it is going to scare the audience away as much as I'd first thought!

We also had fun at work - it being the 25th June, our CIO decided to have a Mid-Winter Christmas get together - she provided the cold meats, and each floor was given a different food to bring (we had breads and spreads, other floors provided salads, cheese and biscuits, desserts etc.). Then we all got together for an hour in our lunch-break - it was a great chance to relax and socialise with other teams who I don't normally get to meet up with. Very enjoyable, and a lovely way to celebrate being half way through the year!

Evening off...

Well - I've just been called by the hockey coach, and he has said that he isn't able to get the goalie gear to training, so I have an unexpected night in!

This is a good thing, as I am starting to feel very sore from my first evening at TKD in over six months. Thanks to the generosity of my parents, who have given me the money to cover the fees, I have started training again at my local TKD group. It's a great group - so far they have been very friendly and welcoming. There are a number of significant differences in UK and NZ TKD, mainly around step sparring, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of them. I'm also sure that *next* week, I won't forget all but the most basic of patterns - incredibly embarrassing! The group is small enough that Juniors and Seniors train together for an hour, and then the Seniors stay on for a second hour to continue training - 2 hours a week will help lift my fitness (sadly I can't train on their other day as orchestra clashes - exactly as it did in the UK!) I think it will be a while before I am either competition or grading ready, but that is probably a good thing, and it just feels so great to be training at all (today was the first day in ages that I didn't find myself getting wound up at work, even with bureaucracy frustrations).

We had a Sci-fi Board Gaming meeting on Saturday, with the biggest turnout since we joined. Fortunately it was in a house which could accommodate everyone - if it had been at ours, we'd have really struggled! We had three sets of games going, and it was a brilliant atmosphere.

Hockey went fantastically on Sunday - despite the hideous weather (it rained stair-rods for the whole first half) - we won 5-1, which would place us at 2nd in the league if they ever updated the league table! So all definitely to play for in our last two matches (I don't know if we have another set to go - we've not got any more scheduled, but I don't know if they get half way and then do a second draw)

Orchestra is on the downhill run to the concert - we had a good rehearsal on Monday, and, even though I'm still not confident about my ability to play a number of the pieces, I think that overall we are making a good sound (hopefully, the audience will, too!)

We are now past the Midwinter Solstice, as well as Matariki (the Maori New Year) and the days are getting longer (theoretically - I'm still mainly leaving the house in the dark and coming home in the dark, but I can't really expect to see much difference in the light levels just yet!) At work, we are having a "Mid-Winter Christmas" tomorrow, organised by our CIO. This is a pot-luck lunch (in case anyone thought we were having a free meal at the tax-payer's expense!), but should be a good get together at lunchtime, and a nice way of celebrating the turning of the year.

Another Year Older

Yup - I had my birthday middle of last week - my first Winter birthday! Fortunately, the weather, which has been lousy for about the last fortnight, cleared up spectacularly - the sky was bright blue, the sun was warm (hot enough for me to go and sit by the sea for fifteen minutes at lunchtime), and the air was so clear that I could see all the way to the Rimutakas, which are a range of bigger-than-hills, smaller-than-mountains at the far end of the Hutt Valley, and were glinting with fresh fallen snow (the road around the Rimutakas had been closed due to snow overnight). Just a shame that I didn't have the camera with me - I realised later on that it was the clearest that it had been since I'd started work! And the weather has been downhill again ever since - the gas fire is on pretty much all the time we are at home now.

There are three of us at work who have our birthdays around the same time, so we have each had a little mini-celebration, with everyone on the team bringing in things to eat. I've made good use of the building's oven, and I now make my bite-size cheese scone mixture at home, cut them out, pack them up, and then take the raw pastry to work to cook. This works really well - having the scones warm is just glorious!

As we had our Phoenix sci-fi meeting on my birthday (so the usual meal out couldn't *really* be termed as a celebration itself - that's my excuse), we also had a takeaway on Friday, which involved us going over and trying our local Indian. The CurryStar is just the other side of the train tracks, so about a ten minute walk door to door - reasonably priced for a curry house, and with a really good range of dishes (all, aside from the traditionally spicy ones, with a range of heats; mild, medium, Kiwi hot and Indian hot...). The dishes were a brilliant size, and the Peshwari Naan was so full of fruit and chopped nuts that it looked a bit like a bready mince pie! I definitely think we will be going there again...

Hockey has been interesting this week - I caught the ball on my knee in training after the ball was flicked at close range (I blame the coach who was telling me to run out towards the attackers!). Fortunately, after an initial "is it broken?", I was able to get an ice-gel pack on it, and, whilst it did swell up that evening, it had gone back down again by the morning, and I only have some reasonably spectacular bruising for my pains (not nearly enough given how much it hurt, but better than none at all!) It was definitely ok for me to play with on Sunday, which was a good thing, as we won 4-1. We've finally got a positive goal difference, and we are sitting at third in the league after four games (with only one point between us and the leader). Unfortunately, we haven't yet played either of the teams who are ahead of us, so we've still got a way to go!

Long Weekend

It is nice to see that New Zealand has the same tradition of public holidays as the UK - it's a long weekend here, and it has rained pretty much steadily for Sunday and Monday (so much for my plans to head back out to the reserve to see what has changed since I was last there four months ago!) We have managed to celebrate the Queen's Birthday, though - we had some of our sci-fi friends over on Saturday evening for an impromptu board gaming and socialising session, and yesterday I cooked my first roast dinner in ages (the kitchen still smells faintly of roasted chicken).

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I last wrote properly - only having a couple of nights in a week does help the time pass quickly at the very least!

As briefly mentioned, I went out to a Ceilidh the Saturday before last with some of our orchestra friends. Sadly, John wasn't able to go, as he'd fallen in the rain and taken the skin off his knee - not too badly, but enough that he wouldn't have been able to dance on it, and he decided that he'd rather go to the PIG SIG that was happening at the same time, where he wouldn't just be sat on the sidelines watching everyone else have fun. The Ceilidh itself was great fun - unlike most ones we'd been to (at birthdays or weddings), where the dancing was secondary to the celebration (and therefore the eating and the drinking), this one had the chairs laid out in a 'no nonsense' ring around the outside of the dance hall, and very few people actually sat out any of the dances. There were a good proportion of the dancers in kilts, reflecting the number of people who have Scottish ancestry. The dances themselves were a mixture of ones which I already knew, others with familiar moves, and some which were completely new. Everyone was incredibly friendly, particularly given that I'd come without a partner, and only knew a few faces around the dance floor. It did help that the first few dances were of the type where you swap partners on a very regular basis, so I got to know the faces, if not the names, of a good number of people there. It was a very enjoyable evening, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

Hockey has been interesting these last couple of weeks - we've had a very poor turnout at practice, last week because it was throwing it down with rain, and this week because we didn't have a game yesterday, and so a lot of people decided to take the night off. Whilst this is very frustrating for me in terms of teamwork (if we don't practice as a team, it makes it a lot harder to gel together in matches, it is very good when one of the people who doesn't turn up is the first team's goalkeeper - I've had two weeks of very intensive workout!

John and I went up to the Upper Hutt Sci-fi meeting on Tuesday - a new set of people to meet and get to know (although one of them is the husband of one of the flautists, and another is one of the violinists at orchestra (who very kindly gave us a lift there and back), so we didn't feel like we were stepping completely into the unknown! It was a good fun evening, if a little bit cold (the temperature on the heater didn't get above 16 all evening), and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Work has been very busy, too - I definitely feel that I've earned this day off. It's still "good" busy, but it would be nice to stop having quite so much piling up!

We've had a couple more encounters with NZ wildlife - a small hedgehog nosed its way round our lawn last week, and this week, on our way back from the shops, we spotted a praying mantis crossing our path. I'm sure that drivers going past must have thought we were very odd as we crouched down to look at the tiny insect!

Placeholder post....

Ok - it's been busy. Work and social life are getting incredibly heavy at the moment! So I hope you will forgive a lack of bloggage for this week, and I'll put up a double length one at the weekend, when not only do we have an extra day off (huzzah for the Queen's birthday) to make up for the fact that we didn't have any in May whatsoever, but I also don't have any hockey so won't be dashing out for a good chunk of Sunday...

In summary, though:
Ceilidhs = fun
Hockey = 3-3
Orchestra = mild panic as we realise we have a month till the next concert
Upper Hutt Sci-fi = more new faces and names and insanity
Income Tax IR3 tax return forms = evil