Drinking until 2am (after waking up at 6am the last ages with the frickin bird dawn chorus) and then coming into work for 7:30 am so you can leave at 3:30….is a recipe for disaster.

fun night though.

Definitely a full week so far… Monday – headed to the pool with Warick to learn how to roll a kayak. It’s really not easy! (well I didn’t think so anyway). Will take me at least another couple of sessions to get it.. But still, hopefully means in summer there’ll be rivers to try :).

Tuesday climbing, pretty good session really, climbing with Guilluiome (yet another Frenchy.. ;) and Florian. Was pretty happy that last week I’d flashed a route I’d been beaten off a few times, and this week they’d taken it down altogether..

Then last night headed out to the CUTC meet as per usual. Was a photography comp for the members.. I’d printed out a couple of my digital prints, and was really happy with how they came out. Unfortunately I only arrived with 5 mins before the end of the voting, so no blocks of chocolate (prizes) for me. Course if I’d been there earlier….

What else.. my friend Emma Towey is here again (Irish college friend), she’s down in dah big schmoke for a couple of days.. She’s been working in Porters Heights – a ski field – for the last couple of months.

And then this morning had a good 20 min chat with Liam a great friend from my time in Openet. Again, chatting on Skype.. excellent quality… happy days.

Well, visitors this week – old friends of the family – two wonderful people – Paddy and Jane were in town…

They’ve been touring NZ for the last month – and before that British Colombia and now heading on to the US for another couple of weeks. But in NZ they hired this huge camper van and headed all over the place. Quite a comfortable way of traveling really. They used to be my old scout leaders – and it was great being able to return some of the hospitality..

Headed out for a wee drive with them on Sat off up into the Port Hills (the hills overlooking ChCh). Had a good view from old WW2 gun emplacements out over the entrance to Littleton harbour.

That’s a pic of Paddy beside one of the gun emplacements, the ship in the distance (the d’Amico) was heading into the harbour. Huge guns…really huge – not that they’re there any more, but we saw pics!

Also saw some people up in the hills flying gliders. Looked like fun

The other excellent thing of the weekend was catching up with Mum and Dad in Uganda on MSN, so glad I got this computer now!! AND :) I tried Skype with my brother Chris. Basically it’s internet PC->PC telephone. Voice Over IP.. AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY!! Just perfectly.. it was just like a telephone call… only free. Free from NZ->Ireland. Mad. So please, anyone who wants a chat and has an internet connection – well download the software and drop me your username.. It’s incredible really. My bro was just on a dialup modem connection – and there was no lag or anything… it’s fantastic.

Go get it!!

Oh, finally… a plea ;) If anyone is feeling generous.. well.. OK, so I’m living with a Frenchman – Florian. That, in itself would be bad enough ;) ehehhe, but.. well he has this frog you see

Which we keep in a little alcove by the door, and it changes position from time to time.. it was originally smoking a cigarette, then started ploughing into the wine, then the beer.. then it felt a little sick, and now it seems to be on a healthy buzz

But…. if anyone would like to (and I Honestly Have looked for a Leprechaun over here.. but if anyone would like to send me over a little leprechaun soft-toy I’d be so grateful! (otherwise I’ll just have to order one online! :) but it would be great to have an Irish influence back in the house…

But yes, good times, good times. Called home to Ireland as my friend Viv was having a barbecue.. would be great to hang out for a couple of weeks.. but this place kinda rocks.. I’m really trying very hard not to think about what exactly I’m up to at the moment!! It’d be far too easy to just stay here…

Anyway, message of the moment –

and then plug in patrick_davey as a contact.. You will need to get a headset. I would recommend Plantronics as a good make (quite cheap too). This is the one I got.. works fine…

Manic week, Monday had to play squash was wrecked after the weekend.. we drew.. right down to the number of points each team won over the evening.. crazy. It was a semi-final, so was replayed today (Thursday) we came second (lost ;) hehe. Also got up boarding at Hutt today.. took a second lesson which was really worth while, lots more to practice. But it was very windy and icy.. not ideal conditions really.

So, pretty full week and weekend really.. Monday had squash off as it’s the end of the league.. Tuesday climbing as per usual, Wed my Aunt was in town so headed out for dinner.. yum, then off to the CUTC meet, where a tramp was organised leaving on Thursday evening.. It’s great working here and being able to just take time off when wanted.

So Thursday evening headed off on the St. James Walk. It was bucketing rain on Thursday evening, really incredibly dark and stormy weather (forked lightning too), but it cheered up. So walked 7km in on the Thursday night..

Both Friday and Sat hiked 30km each day pretty much. It was very straightforward hiking really, very flat terrain, but it was long.

My knees really don’t like going downhill with a rucksack any more… which is a little disconcerting as they used to not mind… keep thinking about heading to the Phisio on ACC.. will see about that.

There were some pretty cute views though, esp in the snow. And lots of lovely swing bridges to walk across, most of them being 1 person bridges.

The ‘summmit’ of the walk really didn’t look like one! :) It was an excellent group of people though, and funny, it was the first trip I’d been on that the kiwis outnumbered the foreigners.. 7:3.

The other thing we did see on the walk (apparently it’s something to look out for as they’re all over the place) were wild horses. So here are some wild horses… (didn’t look super wild to me, no stamping of the hooves, rearing / charging or anything)

Then on Saturday night when we got back in, headed out for mussles and fries to the Belgian themed restauraunt, washed down with nice Leffe Brun. Will totally be going there with Glynn after pool sometime.. Like for sure for sure ;)

What else, Sunday was quite lazy, slighly surprised when I got a phone call saying that our squash team got through to the semi finals and so I have to play on Monday.. which I’m not really looking forward to as I’m quite wrecked really.

Mind you, we did have an earthquake 4.3.. so that was fun.

Looking into Laser Eye surgery this week too. Well, not laser eye surgery exactly.. it’s not like I’m going to have an eye that shoots lasers.. though could be good for lining up pool shots.. hmmmm.. but will see about that, have been tempted for a long time now.