OK.. so I decided this year (don’t think I’ll ever do it again) to grow-a-mo for Movember. Basically it’s a charity organisation to raise funds for prostate cancer. Seeing as it’s reasonably likely that’s what I’ll go from I thought it might be a good idea to support.

If you feel like supporting me in this endeavor.. you can click on www.movember.com/nz/donate and, if you need it (though I think the link should work automagically) my number is 108852. You can pay online with credit card.

I will periodically post pictures.. just to really upset everyone. This is the first facial hair I’ll have ever grown. Unfortunately it has to be a mustache as a beard would be much more acceptable!

So my friend Maaike arrived into New Zealand on her round the world trip and met up with her friend Eefje who had also spent a year in Dublin (in TCD) where I met them. Eefje has a month and Maaike 3. It was lovely to see friends from back in Olde Europe. There were a few parties on over the weekend so they got to meet a few friends. First it was my x flatmates Florias party over in Sumner.

And then a Halloween party in my house. If you want to see what I went as you’ll have to check out Maaike’s Blog. Eefje went as a perfect housewife (yes, I actually own that apron) and Maaike – well.. it was all we had left :)

There were games including charades, bobbing for apples (damn that’s hard) and finally making a mummy.

Then my family & scouting friend Emma got back (with my van)… it survived 5000kms and is now off again with Maaike and Eefje. With the way oil is going I just hope it comes back with a full tank :)

It was the long weekend here, so Warick and Hannah kindly offered to take me along up to Murchison for some kayaking. On the way (no radio) we played I Spy. But this wasn’t quite your normal version… no… the word could be anything. For Example you will see in these next two pictures Hannah’s first word.

One is a zoomed in picture – and in the other you can see the relative size of the sticker (in the bottom left). The word was ‘Apple Board’.. as the sticker represented the apple board of new zealand. Warick, somehow, correctly guessed it. Perhaps you have to be that much on eachothers’ wavelength to get engaged. I’m sunk ;)

Hehe, anyway, on up to Murchison where we went kayaking on the mangles river. Lovely name isn’t it? I didn’t get mangled, but I did have a fairly bad start as I simply couldn’t get the boat I was in to roll. So I had a few swims in what was pretty cold water. I guess I really should just spend the money and invest in a wetsuit / dry jacket. Had a better time of it on Sunday as Jana and Co had arrived – and she looked after me wonderfully… no capsizes at all.

Then on Saturday evening Carole and Orla arrived – down from climbing up at Takaka. It was lovely to catch up with Carole before she headed back to Ireland (which is where she is about now I think). We took off on Sunday evening and had a pleasant couple of hours lazing in Sylvia Flats hot springs complete with a cask of wine. An excellent way to end a brilliant weekend.

geek post alert !

A friend in work – Liam pointed me to JQuery – a really neat Javascript library. Javascript is a language which internet browsers understand and you can use it to manipulate how pages look (and lots lots more).

So I decided to have a quick go at changing the way my reverse page works. Before it look a reasonable amount of PHP to do (I’m sure it could be done in fewer lines) but with JQuery it’s just:

Now that (to me) is pretty damn elegant.

It’s hard to know.. but Emma who arrived here a few weeks ago said that she had stayed in a dodgy hostel in OZ and had picked up bed bugs. OK to pick them up.. a completely different thing to bring them to New Zealand!!!

I’ve been finding small bites on my body. They don’t itch particularly but still.. not the best. So I did a reasonable amount of reading on the net and sounds like they’re hard things to get rid of. In fact most guides suggested exterminators. So I found one in ChCh.. and he’s going to come in and zap the place on Tuesday. I *really* hope it works as I just love this house so much it’d be a shame to be driven out by bedbugs! IF indeed that’s what they are. At $180 you’ve gotta hope that the treatment will work. You still have to heat all your duvets etc. as they can harbour eggs etc. I’m not sure my puny drier is up to heating anything to 40C..

I was going to treat you all to a picture of what the bites look like but decided to spare ya’ll :)

Fun and (bloody) games.