Some things never change, like me celebrating my birthday for almost a week. I feel pretty spoiled. Today heaps of Happy Birthday messages came in, reminding me that today was my true birthday because that's the time zone I was born in.
Mom wrote me yesterday, saying that she's been reading my notes here and that I write like Harlan Coben. I've never read him before. I googled him and there was actually a video clip of his upcoming book: http://www.harlancoben.com/
Jacquelyn, my only American colleague, arrived to work with the best lemon bars ever. They're pretty much my favorite dessert, although I think I say that about several desserts. I might have strongly hinted to her that they were my fav. The sorority I was in for all of 11 weeks sometimes served them and I would sneak as many as possible.
E-mails have been going back and forth between my friends and me, figuring out the details for lawn bowling. Summer is here! We're going to do the Island Bay lawn bowls again. Pretty excited for handles of beers in the sun! Hoping the weather is as good this year as least year.
Tomorrow night we're off to the bird sanctuary again to see Sirocco the head-mating kakapo. It's a rare bird that bonded with humans too much while being treated for a respiratory infection, and is now helpful in fund raising. And it mates with human's heads.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Bird Sanctuary (Zealandia)
Today we visited the bird sanctuary in Karori. We were here for the first time when we first moved here, in August 2009. We really enjoyed our visit today. There's a new cafe and visitor's centre now which are pretty nice.
We saw a bunch of cute geckos hanging out together in a terrarium. Not sure if they're native.
They have these amazing birds there, called the takahe. There's only a little over 100 left in New Zealand. They were once thought to be extinct, but around the 1940's this guy, sure that the takahe were still around because of sporadic reports of sightings, would spend this weekends and holidays tramping around the fjordland in the South Island looking for the bird. I can just imagine how excited he was to find the bird, they are really cool. This one is pretty old (18 or so, they're expected to live until around age 21).
They just walk around part of the park like pheasants. They look quite a bit like my other favourite NZ blue bird, the pukeko.
I can almost imagine how that "discoverer" of the Takahe felt. There is a bird called the "fan tail" that I thought was extinct, but I was confusing it with another bird, the huia, which is extinct. I was in a bathroom at a campground almost two years ago with my friend Erin when a fantail flew in. I got so excited, thinking, "I must tell everyone! They're alive!" But happily the the flitty pretty birds are alive and well all over, although still not too terribly common to see.
Our whole goal today was to hike from the bottom of the park, in Karori, to the wind turbine, in Brooklyn. Goal met!
The trail back to the entrance of the park was along a high, wire bird sanctuary fence. (The fence is built to keep rodents and possums out) It was over grown and difficult to avoid the sticker bushes. Apparently it is unusual to see people on the trail we were on, because people on the trail on the other side of the fence, in Brooklyn, kept giving us funny looks. Finally an older woman stopped us and asked if we were lost. :-)
On the way back to the carpark we got a sighting of a kaka.
We even got to see a tuatara.
And a baby tuatara. (It's hypothesized that tuataras were around at the same time as the dinosaurs, and stayed with New Zealand when it broke away from Australia).
We saw a bunch of cute geckos hanging out together in a terrarium. Not sure if they're native.
They have these amazing birds there, called the takahe. There's only a little over 100 left in New Zealand. They were once thought to be extinct, but around the 1940's this guy, sure that the takahe were still around because of sporadic reports of sightings, would spend this weekends and holidays tramping around the fjordland in the South Island looking for the bird. I can just imagine how excited he was to find the bird, they are really cool. This one is pretty old (18 or so, they're expected to live until around age 21).
They just walk around part of the park like pheasants. They look quite a bit like my other favourite NZ blue bird, the pukeko.
I can almost imagine how that "discoverer" of the Takahe felt. There is a bird called the "fan tail" that I thought was extinct, but I was confusing it with another bird, the huia, which is extinct. I was in a bathroom at a campground almost two years ago with my friend Erin when a fantail flew in. I got so excited, thinking, "I must tell everyone! They're alive!" But happily the the flitty pretty birds are alive and well all over, although still not too terribly common to see.
Our whole goal today was to hike from the bottom of the park, in Karori, to the wind turbine, in Brooklyn. Goal met!
The trail back to the entrance of the park was along a high, wire bird sanctuary fence. (The fence is built to keep rodents and possums out) It was over grown and difficult to avoid the sticker bushes. Apparently it is unusual to see people on the trail we were on, because people on the trail on the other side of the fence, in Brooklyn, kept giving us funny looks. Finally an older woman stopped us and asked if we were lost. :-)
On the way back to the carpark we got a sighting of a kaka.
We even got to see a tuatara.
And a baby tuatara. (It's hypothesized that tuataras were around at the same time as the dinosaurs, and stayed with New Zealand when it broke away from Australia).
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tinsel- advanced vocabulary education
Learning some advanced vocabulary, working on my PhD in Kiwi.
My friend Anna and I are organizing the "Christmas-do" for our office (the holiday party, which is completely and totally okay to call a "Christmas" party, even though we work for a government agency for a country of heaps of atheists and agnostics.) But I digress.
Anna was discussing decorating the function room of the Indian restaurant we'll be having the party in, and saying she "might put some tinsel on the back of everyone's chair." At this point I felt the familiar-- hey, that doesn't add up. hmm. Might "tinsel" be used differently here? I had to make my Julie Confused face, say, "um, i don't know if that's the best idea, maybe we think tinsel is something different?" "why?" "Oh, you know, my idea of tinsel--- that would sorta stick to people's backs." "Huh. Well tinsel is silvery and kinda thready." "Huh, that's my 'tinsel' too. Okay, maybe we do think it is the same thing. ha ha never mind."
Anna sent me an e-mail later with a picture labelled "tinsel" which helped really clarify everything:
Ohhhhh.
I showed her a picture of "American" tinsel (which was surprisingly difficult to google image btw)-- she said she had never really used that before.
My friend Anna and I are organizing the "Christmas-do" for our office (the holiday party, which is completely and totally okay to call a "Christmas" party, even though we work for a government agency for a country of heaps of atheists and agnostics.) But I digress.
Anna was discussing decorating the function room of the Indian restaurant we'll be having the party in, and saying she "might put some tinsel on the back of everyone's chair." At this point I felt the familiar-- hey, that doesn't add up. hmm. Might "tinsel" be used differently here? I had to make my Julie Confused face, say, "um, i don't know if that's the best idea, maybe we think tinsel is something different?" "why?" "Oh, you know, my idea of tinsel--- that would sorta stick to people's backs." "Huh. Well tinsel is silvery and kinda thready." "Huh, that's my 'tinsel' too. Okay, maybe we do think it is the same thing. ha ha never mind."
Anna sent me an e-mail later with a picture labelled "tinsel" which helped really clarify everything:
Ohhhhh.
I showed her a picture of "American" tinsel (which was surprisingly difficult to google image btw)-- she said she had never really used that before.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Pumpkin Pie
Today I made pumpkin pie, with no crust. Bryce was aghast.
It turned out great, I always thought crust was a waste of calories anyway. Real whip cream helps too. (I will trade crust calories for whipped cream calories any day).
Freeeeeezing and raining today! Just last week we were having drinks in the sun. What happened, agh!
It turned out great, I always thought crust was a waste of calories anyway. Real whip cream helps too. (I will trade crust calories for whipped cream calories any day).
Freeeeeezing and raining today! Just last week we were having drinks in the sun. What happened, agh!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Blogs are tricky
I would love to update this blog more often, but I feel funny about putting people's names or pictures on here. I'm getting long past the point on my New Zealand adventure where this feels like a little vacation, like I should after over 2 years. I do feel like this is home and the things that occupy my mind are slightly deeper than the cool blue pukeko I saw on the way home. Not like I didn't have deep thoughts before of course, but I don't have much to share in regards to what has charmed me lately.
I'm proud of putting blog entries in as much as I have though--I have a journal too though that's been sorely neglected for months. Such a pain to hand write things out. Dear Prudence advises against private journals because someone will read it after you're gone-- so where's the release?? Maybe time to ignore Ms. Prudie.
Well here's my assessment of NZ-related situation, suitable for reading by wider internet viewing audience.
I am grateful for opportunity to move here, and get residency. I had no idea I'd meet so many wonderful people. I had hoped I would grow into a better person as a result of this experience and I know for sure that I'm more thoughtful. I hope to live here later, but for now I find the idea of living in the States a little exotic. As opposed to a post I made this time last year, now I'm ready to settle down in a permanent place. With a garden, dog, and puppies. Bonus points for a lemon tree. Who knows what kind of crazy ideas I'll have this time next year.
I will take this time to document that at approximately 2:30 PM 2/10/11, Bryce promised me that one day we can have a home with a lemon tree that will be so full that lemons will be on the ground. (We passed a lemon tree on someone's front yard, on the way to a party at Josien's, that made me jealous. Who could take a lemon tree for granted so much that they would just let the lemons rot on the ground???)
I'm proud of putting blog entries in as much as I have though--I have a journal too though that's been sorely neglected for months. Such a pain to hand write things out. Dear Prudence advises against private journals because someone will read it after you're gone-- so where's the release?? Maybe time to ignore Ms. Prudie.
Well here's my assessment of NZ-related situation, suitable for reading by wider internet viewing audience.
I am grateful for opportunity to move here, and get residency. I had no idea I'd meet so many wonderful people. I had hoped I would grow into a better person as a result of this experience and I know for sure that I'm more thoughtful. I hope to live here later, but for now I find the idea of living in the States a little exotic. As opposed to a post I made this time last year, now I'm ready to settle down in a permanent place. With a garden, dog, and puppies. Bonus points for a lemon tree. Who knows what kind of crazy ideas I'll have this time next year.
I will take this time to document that at approximately 2:30 PM 2/10/11, Bryce promised me that one day we can have a home with a lemon tree that will be so full that lemons will be on the ground. (We passed a lemon tree on someone's front yard, on the way to a party at Josien's, that made me jealous. Who could take a lemon tree for granted so much that they would just let the lemons rot on the ground???)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Baking
Today I made Highlander Biscuits, nom nom nom nom
From my kiwi cookbook that Josien and Marc gave me for my birthday last year---
On a completely separate note, orcas were found in the harbour again today! And again we weren't there to see it, agh! So close!
From my kiwi cookbook that Josien and Marc gave me for my birthday last year---
On a completely separate note, orcas were found in the harbour again today! And again we weren't there to see it, agh! So close!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Mountain Biking
We went mountain biking early this morning, finally. Bryce has been itching to go for awhile. I went despite the fact that I had only ridden a bike once in the last 10 years, and 10 years ago when I did go mountain biking on Crystal Mt I got a sweet cut on my knee that I still have a scar for.
Now I can see why mountain biking could be fun. I could see that even through the rather intense fear I had on the twisty, dippy, narrow single track with a steep drop off. Some parts were wider and flatter and I could see how this could be fun exercise. But mostly during the one hour (rated 1/2 hour) ride, all I was trying to do was to get through it. The route was circular and you can't reverse directions so once you're on it you just have to keep going. Walking my bike was definitely an option I took up but it was so freakin slow and having the dad with the little girl on the attached hitch-like bike rattle past me was a little embarrassing. That little girl is going to be the biggest adrenaline junky. She was about 4 years old and went down the trail on the bike behind her dad going, whoa whoa hoa wo wo wo! Sigh! Big smile.
Here's a picture of a nice tame section of trail. The scary parts of the trail were too scary to think about stopping to take pictures. (That is I was scared I would fall off my bike if I unfurled my fingers from the handlebars).
Got some bruises and a sore butt but actually I can imagine going back mountain biking, maybe on the nice, wide, rail trail up north in Upper Hutt.
Now I can see why mountain biking could be fun. I could see that even through the rather intense fear I had on the twisty, dippy, narrow single track with a steep drop off. Some parts were wider and flatter and I could see how this could be fun exercise. But mostly during the one hour (rated 1/2 hour) ride, all I was trying to do was to get through it. The route was circular and you can't reverse directions so once you're on it you just have to keep going. Walking my bike was definitely an option I took up but it was so freakin slow and having the dad with the little girl on the attached hitch-like bike rattle past me was a little embarrassing. That little girl is going to be the biggest adrenaline junky. She was about 4 years old and went down the trail on the bike behind her dad going, whoa whoa hoa wo wo wo! Sigh! Big smile.
Here's a picture of a nice tame section of trail. The scary parts of the trail were too scary to think about stopping to take pictures. (That is I was scared I would fall off my bike if I unfurled my fingers from the handlebars).
Got some bruises and a sore butt but actually I can imagine going back mountain biking, maybe on the nice, wide, rail trail up north in Upper Hutt.
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