Busy doing nothing


My wheels at Leigh (thanks, George)
It's been an absolute social whirl this week mixed in with a couple of idle days.  On Thursday the weather turned very windy so it was time to venture northwards to Leigh and Goat Island to check out the snorkeling but with no intention of getting in the water.  They were quite surprised to see me at the snorkel shop and were very quick to point out that I'd be wasting my money going snorkeling as visibility was pretty grim.  I explained I was only checking them out  anyway so that was no problem.  I'd abandoned the GPS many miles before getting to Goat Island as it kept giving me bizarre instructions, some of which I followed, some of which I knew instinctively were crap.  Later examination of the GPS revealed that I had selected the wrong town and it was trying to take me to the South Island.  Still, I did see some parts of rural New Zealand I'd never seen before.  I have still yet to see a sheep, though.

On Friday night I caught up with old friends Graham & Bev & we went out to demolish a most splendid curry at Tiffin in Kingsland.  Not wishing to drive back to Orewa in the dark, I stayed the night and then took forever finding my way home on Saturday via Avondale and Piha as well as the greenstone factory shop in Kingsland (shopping tip - if you are in New Zealand, this is definitely the place to start looking if you want to buy some greenstone). Not only did they not object to my photographing their displays but they even offered to take the lid off so I wouldn't get the reflection of the lights.
Home in NC
Meanwhile I hear that North Carolina has had a spot of Christmas weather.  All round I think I'll settle for a spot of sunburn, thank you.

Beach at Goat Island

Pohutukawa at Goat Island


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where's the teapot?

Insomnia, where is thy stingalingaling? I can't really say I enjoy sleeping as I'm not there to appreciate it.  However, getting up to go to the bathroom at 2:15 and finding that my feeble brain thinks that's it for the night has a certain lack of charm, too.  So, having set myself a couple of deadlines ("If I'm not asleep by 3 a.m., I'm getting up.")  I've been up since 4:05 and what better or more traditional way of celebrating than with a pot of Typhoo.  Not a bag dunked in a mug but a proper laid out on a tray (no lace doily) pot of char complete with milk bottle, spoon and ramekin to drop the bags in when the time comes.  But somewhere hidden deep in the bowels of our expensive kitchen (thanks, Annie) lurks our big green teapot.  I can picture it in every cupboard - up front and centre in the plate cupboard, lurking with the weird half bottles of cooking tequila above the stove, everywhere.  But can I find it?  Nah.  I spread the searc...
Read more

A Last Day of Insanity

A Last Day of Insanity I start chemo at 8 a.m. tomorrow so today involved some last minute stupidity.  I'm supposed to get exercise to stop me feeling tired (they really expect me to believe that?) so I refereed three games at a soccer tournament yesterday and three more today.  I'm too miserly to buy a pedometer / Fitbit so I can only guess at how far I walk, jog, sprint, run backwards during a soccer game but it's not unreasonable to say that, as I don't really stand still much for the duration, I cover maybe 3 miles in a 1 hour game.  So now my legs ache and the muscles in them are slowly tying themselves in knots. The no-alcohol beer regime starts tomorrow and I plan to start tonight as turning up at the hospital with a hangover is generally frowned upon.  I have visions of having something like a football pump of bubbling green acid shot into my belly so I'm sure reality will be better. I'm not allowed processed meat at all (I think it's because all...
Read more

Thank you to my "support group"

The idea of a disease support group has always made me say "no thanks" and I still don't fancy the thought of sitting with a load of other people discussing symptoms.  However, I can't express how grateful I am to the people around me who are propping me up right now.  Susan, of course, is her usual unflappable, patient and understanding self, despite the crap she has to put up with at work.  To have to come home to discover that I have eaten tonight's dinner for lunch can't possibly fill her heart with joy. I enjoy the regular phone calls from Ithaca where we talk about nothing in particular.  Susan's sister Jean keeps me up to date on what's happening in Texas and shares, just a little, her own experiences with cancer.  Folks at school are, as always, curious and cheerful and put up with my actually answering the traditional greeting of "How are you?" honestly.  I feel I owe it to them to tell them I feel like crap, a bit wobbly, starving ...
Read more