Thanks, Cesia! x
30 July 2005
Dorset, UK....
Technology is such that nowadays, someone camping near Wareham, UK, can buy a little portable television off Ebay, wire it up to a car battery in the middle of a field, get a picture (of sorts) take a photo of it with their mobile phone and send the picture half way round the world so I know that, thankfully, Kemal has been evicted...
Thanks, Cesia! x
Thanks, Cesia! x
NZ +2: The Car and Sumner
Just in case we were all knackered, we had always planned for today to be fairly uncluttered and local. And it turned out to be just that. Because we were.
We spent the morning getting up and eating breakfast and watching BBC World and drinking coffee and eating more breakfast and looking at the itinerary we had planned. Nessie looked at the itinerary and advised tweaking it here and there. Partly because she knows NZ well now, but mainly because we had made basic numeracy hour errors in calculating times and distances. It all looks much more possible now.
Then we went to pick up the car. This has to be the bargain of the holiday so far (admittedly only two days in). It's cost us $1000 exactly, which is about 390 pounds. (Still can't find the pound sign, useless non-British keyboard!). Split between us, we are getting the luxious Toyota Something for 25 days, for 130 pounds each. Picture to follow, Thought it would be better to have it parked in front of something interesting....
To try it out and make sure we didn't crash while trying to turn left and giving way to the cars coming towards us turning right (which is about the only rule of the the road that's different from the UK), we went to Sumner (where there's a curry house called "Indian Sumner" - do you see what they did there?)
It's about 5 miles away from Christchurch and it looks like this:
And like this:
There's a big outcrop of rocks with some roughly hewn and weatherworn (and very slippery) steps to climb up. And when you do, that's the view you get.
The weather looks beautiful, and indeed it is. But it is also only 8°C.
Was tempted to write "Specific Ocean" in a kind of reverse homage to all those people I have met in teaching who, despite their degrees, say such things as "Do you want a pacific one? Are we doing that on a pacific day?" Of which there are more than you might think.
£ - found it!
We spent the morning getting up and eating breakfast and watching BBC World and drinking coffee and eating more breakfast and looking at the itinerary we had planned. Nessie looked at the itinerary and advised tweaking it here and there. Partly because she knows NZ well now, but mainly because we had made basic numeracy hour errors in calculating times and distances. It all looks much more possible now.
Then we went to pick up the car. This has to be the bargain of the holiday so far (admittedly only two days in). It's cost us $1000 exactly, which is about 390 pounds. (Still can't find the pound sign, useless non-British keyboard!). Split between us, we are getting the luxious Toyota Something for 25 days, for 130 pounds each. Picture to follow, Thought it would be better to have it parked in front of something interesting....
To try it out and make sure we didn't crash while trying to turn left and giving way to the cars coming towards us turning right (which is about the only rule of the the road that's different from the UK), we went to Sumner (where there's a curry house called "Indian Sumner" - do you see what they did there?)
It's about 5 miles away from Christchurch and it looks like this:
And like this:
There's a big outcrop of rocks with some roughly hewn and weatherworn (and very slippery) steps to climb up. And when you do, that's the view you get.
The weather looks beautiful, and indeed it is. But it is also only 8°C.
Was tempted to write "Specific Ocean" in a kind of reverse homage to all those people I have met in teaching who, despite their degrees, say such things as "Do you want a pacific one? Are we doing that on a pacific day?" Of which there are more than you might think.
£ - found it!
29 July 2005
NZ +1: Quick Dash into Christchurch
There will inevitably be some of what I write here which is more for me when I get back than it is for anyone else reading it, so apologies if parts of it seem narrative and irrelevant. They will serve as memory joggers for me when I get back... Here goes.
Settled in to Nessie's house, which is roughly here, and had showers and began to feel a bit human again.
We then went into Christchurch to have a quick look round and to buy all the things we forgot to bring with us (shaving gel) or which exploded in Lisa's suitcase (shampoo) or which were needed for the holiday journals of people who aren't 21st century enough to do it online (Pritt Stick).
We also had lunch. Here.
Discovered the New Zealand version of WHSmith which is Whitcoulls . It's actually not just the NZ version of WHSmith, it actually WHSmith with a different name. Lots of the cards and merchandise they sell is branded WHSmith. We were served today by Torina.
Also found the Christchurch Millennium Folly. It's not officially called that, but you know the kind of thing... monument or sculpture inspired by the Year 2000, not actually finished until years later, cost fourteen times as much as originally planned, no-one likes it, spoils the view of something quite nice that was already there etc... Anyone who has seen the Millennium Spire in Dublin will know what I'm getting at here...
Anyway, here's the Christchurch version...
The thing that it spoils the view of is Christchurch Cathedral. Which, if it were back in the UK, whould be called "a small church".
Oh, and we also saw this in the supermarket car park. Click on it to enlarge and read the wording.
Apparently it's totally legal here to set yourself up to openly sell (split infinitive) party drugs from the back of a van so long as they are only "herbal".
Back tomorrow.
Settled in to Nessie's house, which is roughly here, and had showers and began to feel a bit human again.
We then went into Christchurch to have a quick look round and to buy all the things we forgot to bring with us (shaving gel) or which exploded in Lisa's suitcase (shampoo) or which were needed for the holiday journals of people who aren't 21st century enough to do it online (Pritt Stick).
We also had lunch. Here.
Discovered the New Zealand version of WHSmith which is Whitcoulls . It's actually not just the NZ version of WHSmith, it actually WHSmith with a different name. Lots of the cards and merchandise they sell is branded WHSmith. We were served today by Torina.
Also found the Christchurch Millennium Folly. It's not officially called that, but you know the kind of thing... monument or sculpture inspired by the Year 2000, not actually finished until years later, cost fourteen times as much as originally planned, no-one likes it, spoils the view of something quite nice that was already there etc... Anyone who has seen the Millennium Spire in Dublin will know what I'm getting at here...
Anyway, here's the Christchurch version...
The thing that it spoils the view of is Christchurch Cathedral. Which, if it were back in the UK, whould be called "a small church".
Oh, and we also saw this in the supermarket car park. Click on it to enlarge and read the wording.
Apparently it's totally legal here to set yourself up to openly sell (split infinitive) party drugs from the back of a van so long as they are only "herbal".
Back tomorrow.
NZ +1: Nessie
This is Vanessa, who is only really Vanessa officially, so shall henceforth be referred to as Nessie. Her house (with exotic southern hemisphere plants in the garden) is our base here and this is her welcoming us with open arms.
At some point, you might even get a photo of her cat, Sam.
28 July 2005
At Singapore Changi Airport
Well, survived the 12 hour flight. Only the nine hour one to go.
The airport here is very luxurious, carpet up the walls etc. Nothing like the cramped, out-dated conditions at Heathrow.
All needed to eat so despite the offers of sushi and rice with everything, (which I promise is not a cliche at this airport), we went for Burger King. Not very exotic I know, but only equivalent of 6 pounds (no pound sign...) for 3 people. And the man on the Singapore dollars looks bloody miserable.
See you in about 12 hours. Have some photos from the flight to post, but no way of connecting camera here.... (They are now below...)
The airport here is very luxurious, carpet up the walls etc. Nothing like the cramped, out-dated conditions at Heathrow.
All needed to eat so despite the offers of sushi and rice with everything, (which I promise is not a cliche at this airport), we went for Burger King. Not very exotic I know, but only equivalent of 6 pounds (no pound sign...) for 3 people. And the man on the Singapore dollars looks bloody miserable.
See you in about 12 hours. Have some photos from the flight to post, but no way of connecting camera here.... (They are now below...)
About 10 hours into Flight 1
This is where we were....
And this is what it looked like
And this is what I was doing...
Having watched three films already, I decided to be cerebral. But I didn't finish it. I post it here only as a challenge for all teachers reading this who, like me, have time on their hands until September 1.
And this is what it looked like
And this is what I was doing...
Having watched three films already, I decided to be cerebral. But I didn't finish it. I post it here only as a challenge for all teachers reading this who, like me, have time on their hands until September 1.
27 July 2005
Countdown: NZ-0
Only 16 hours until take off, so I thought it would be a good idea to actually put one or two items in a suitcase. Still have to:
- take car to "safe house" to be looked after over the summer;
- taking advice from the BBC, work my way through my usual pre-holiday OCD list, which includes..."turn iron off, lock windows and patio doors, check iron again, don't leave TVs on standby, check patio doors, turn iron off..." etc;
- decide which books to take for the flight... having read Harry Potter and the Tedious Breize Block, I've gone for... this one, this one and this one, which is actually about New Zealand...
- (discover need to remove 90% of stuff from suitcase to get down to the Singapore Airlines Economy ("Cheap") Class baggage limit of 20kg;)
- drop a laptop into (old) work and be momentarily grateful that I don't have to see another bloody laptop for five weeks;
- have lunch at Don Beni's in Crowthorne;
- get to Crowthorne courtesy of Dave's Taxis, who have already had a coat pick-up to do in Bournemouth this morning;
- (find Harry Potter book has fallen into suitcase; remove it and all is OK.)
- worry about whether I locked the doors and, possibly, about whether I turned the iron off;
- get to Heathrow for about 7pm...
26 July 2005
Countdown: Packing not going well
Suitcase still fairly empty. Having Sky+ is proving too much of a diversion.
I won't be here to find out who gets evicted, so please text me.
Right, must do something purposeful.
Countdown: NZ-1
Just in case you wanted to know where I will be sitting for 13 hours...
(Click on the plan and I've been highlighted. Don't worry, it wasn't painful...)
25 July 2005
Countdown: NZ-2
24 July 2005
Countdown: NZ-3
After weeks of being at work in the heat, the first couple of days of the holiday do this. The British weather is acclimatising me for New Zealand.
If you want to know what the weather is like in NZ, use the link at the side. You can then gloat about how much better it is back here.
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