Holiday

We really lucked out with food this weekend. We had brunch at a nearby hotel/spa and enjoyed the best eggs benedict we've ever had -- the spinach alone was fantastic. The head chef used to be executive chef for Kauri Cliffs, a really swanky lodge. We went back to the same place the next night for their tasting menu. I've attached a picture of the surprisingly delish ostrich course.




Our town had two Italian places. The menu for LaScala's Authentic Italian featured a picture of Madonna from her Papa Don't Preach video. Underneath it read, "The area's only Italian chef."
Oblivious, Iain said, "I guess that's their chef." I was like, "Dude, that's MADONNA."

Hike shmike

We went for a hike that was supposed to be a 10k walk (roundtrip) through the bush and a mangrove swamp to this really cool waterfall - we had our bathing suits and were all psyched to hang out in some gorgeous tropical waterfall, but access to it was closed (we were gonna be bad-asses and bust our way through, but they had it totally boarded up).

We went as far as we could, and stopped off to check out these neat birds, but eventually had to turn around.

Monday morning as we drove out of town, we found an alternate entrance to the waterfall (one you could drive to). We were like, "Oh." I don't think we missed much... You couldn't even go in the water.

Treaty of Waitangi

Out hotel was down the road from the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. It's sorta like the Declaration of Independence. From nzhistory.net.nz:

The Treaty of Waitangi is New Zealand's founding document. It takes its name from the place in the Bay of Islands where it was first signed, on 6 February 1840. This day is now a public holiday in New Zealand. The Treaty is an agreement, in Maori and English, that was made between the British Crown and about 540 Maori rangatira (chiefs).


But we didn't want to spend the $12 admission fee, so we went for a hike instead.

Free Mumia? .. or not...?

I took down my Mumia post because I didn't want this to be a political blog (Obama 08!) and I forgot that when I posted the other night. I've always found the case fascinating, but so is Rock of Love and Survivor: Fans vs Faves. This blog is about New Zealand, cats, paint, booze, reality TV, and food! (but feel free to personally email me - it's a really interesting case.)

Bay of Islands

We're on vacation for the weekend in the Bay of Islands. The accompanying picture is from a tourist site and isn't a totally accurate representation (I have pictures which I'll post when we get home). It's been a bit cloudy so the water's been a little rough, but we're right off the ocean and that's incredibly cool. But enough complaining, read on - for more complaining.



Our first morning wasn't a soft awakening to the waves and local Tui birds, but rather the jarring sound of our cell phone at 5:50am. Our cell phone is a pay-as-you-go and is given out to family & our alarm company for emergencies, so a call meant one of two things: the house alarm has gone off, or someone is in the hospital or dead. It was the former (thank god). But it's the second false alarm in 4 weeks and we paid a lot for the system, so we're going to have to deal with the company when we get home. Our neighbors must hate us, and don't get us started on how it affects our cats.

I'm not who you want in an emergency: I heard the phone ringing and it just got incorporated into whatever dream I was having. I'm useless. But Iain woke right up and bounded out of bed. This initial call from the monitoring company was followed up by a $55 visit to the house to make sure everything was ok. Furious and unable to go back to sleep, Iain called the alarm company and gave them an earful.

It was a crappy start to our weekend and it made Iain very irritable. He kept complaining about stuff, which is very uncharacteristic, but I found it amusing. There was something familiar and comforting about his snarky mood. It was too hot out. This shirt is scratchy. I don't like those kayaks. Lunch was good but there wasn't enough salt. There should be a bigger coffee table in our hotel. Stop walking so fast. The waves aren't as high as they were yesterday. Hang on - the waves are too high now! Remind me - I need earplugs for going in the water. We should really do some exercise. Jeez- this hill is high!

And then I realized: in his sleep-deprived, anger-riddled state, Iain had turned into me, and was doing a very impressive job of bitching about everything.

For those who've ever wondered what it would be like to date yourself, I can honestly say it's awesome. I spent a fabulous day with myself/Iain, who complained way more than me. Every time I whined about something, myself/Iain one-upped me. That never happens! I looked so tolerant and pleasant next to myself/Iain. It was fantastic. I fantasized about our glorious second date, but alas - Iain got a good night's sleep and woke up this morning, feeling refreshed, happy and wanting to do yoga.

Sigh.....

The Dining Room and the Dani Shelf

The guy at the paint store saw me come in and said, "How'd you make out with that green?" I told him how it looked and he agreed to make it darker (at no charge). He wasn't even surprised to see me. While standing at the counter with my can, another customer said, "That's some green you've got there." I told him, "My entire dining room is this color right now." He gave me a horrified look and said, "You're kidding."

After Iain gave the walls another sanding and applied a coat of the darker green, he set to work on our Ikea shelf, or the "Dani shelf" since our friend Dani has one and that's where we got the idea to buy one. The Dani shelf took forever to assemble, but it's finally up and has been a huge help with our kitchen storage.

The green doesn't look much different in the pictures but believe me, it's a huge improvement. Do I sound like I'm rationalizing? No, it's darker -- really!

Please disregard the white extension cord in the picture -- it's where we have the invisible fence set up right now.

Next room: the kitchen! Thankfully there's no wallpaper to strip!

School!

Iain and I braved the bus system for the first time today and went into downtown Auckland to get my class schedule. With our bladders being non-existent, a cup of coffee in the morning before I leave is out of the question. The bus takes about 40 minutes (I think - I probably should've paid more attention).

The woman I met with is head of student affairs and she had a stack of student IDs on her desk -- I glanced at one and the birth date was 1983. I think it's safe to say that I'll be the oldest kid in class. We saw one guy who was older and spoke almost no English, so I hope he's in my class! Maybe I'll become popular through my ability to legally purchase alcohol and cigarettes.

I was very relieved to see that the class has both PCs and Macs -- I was originally told that they were all PCs, which is horrible.

I'm really excited to take the bus every day, especially because it drops me off right near Smith + Caugheys (NZ's version of Nordstrom, I think) -- I caught glimpses of Bobbi Brown and Chanel cosmetics as Iain rushed me past the windows. Being downtown will be good, I think.

I took some pictures of us on the bus but they came out really crappy, and Iain looks annoyed in most of them (see below). He's definitely had it with my constant picture taking!

He's also looking forward to school starting -- it gets me out of the house!

Invisible Fence

We're in trial period right now with an invisible fence for the cats. The cats wear the collars for a week to get used to it. We also have a small "fence" in our house. It's a circle of the same wire they use outside surrounded by white flags - the key is to get the cats to understand that White Flag + Beep = Stay Away! You're supposed to place some tuna or shrimp in the center of the circle to entice them. Their collar beeps when they approach the perimeter, then gives them a small shock if they ignore the beep and keep advancing.

Unlike the velociraptors in Jurassic Park who kept testing the fence for breaches, cats supposedly learn to just steer clear after only a few times. We'll see. Blue has been zapped 3x so far, Tama just once.

The good thing is, once it's installed we can let the boys out in the backyard. They currently howl at the windows and doors and sneak out between our legs whenever they can. We're really excited to be able to let them enjoy the backyard.

In the meantime, we keep making jokes about the size of poor Tama's collar.

Happy Birfday Kate!

If you went to Pano's, Towne, or had Mister Pizza, I don't want to know!

Our First Guests!

Iain's friend Jim and Jim's girlfriend Rachel are coming over for a BBQ. Actually, they aren't here yet but I either write in the blog or ask Iain to make me a Cosmo, and I'd prefer to be sober when they arrive (for those of you who've had one of Iain's drinks, you know what I'm talking about).

Here are some pictures. It ain't the deck on Christian Street but it's still pretty cool.

OOPS

Here's what our dining room/child's playroom looks like right now:


When Iain and I first met, I was living in a kick-ass apartment in Philly. I'd painted one of the walls a bright grass green -- I loved it. (see pictures from 2004 below)



I thought I was buying that same color yesterday in the store, but I was WRONG. I put one coat on, just in case we both liked it. Iain does. I don't. I'll have to go back to the paint store tomorrow morning and ask them to darken it, or start from scratch.

We're so sick of painting that I seriously considered leaving it, but I really can't stand it.

The Sea!

We went swimming yesterday after work -- it was gorgeous. It was the perfect thing after a day spent cooped up in a small office working (Iain) or stripping wallpaper and taking an online refresher on HTML (me). Afterwards we had dinner and watched "The Amazing Race".

Sunday night, we sat out on our deck for a change, then tried out a neighborhood place up the road. It was just nice to put on a dress - I've been in grody shorts and tshirts all week while working on the house...

We're both exercising every day and eating healthy during the week. I like to indulge on the weekends, however. Iain usually shares this idea, but not this weekend. I ordered the pasta with bacon and vegies and enjoyed a few glasses of wine, while Iain drank diet Coke and had a salad. I know.

Invisible Fence

Blue and Tama have been looking longingly out windows and howling to be let out. They've gone from being indoor cats to LET ME OUT NOW!! cats. This isn't helped by Neighborhood Kitty taunting them from the lawn.

The Invisible Fence guys are coming over tomorrow to train us (and the cats) on their product. Last weekend we purchased cheap collars for the cats, and they've been wearing them for a few days to get used to it. Blue doesn't seem to mind his, and looks rather sporty. Tama would forget about his for a few minutes, but then he'd kick up a leg to scratch his neck and realize it was still there. He'd leap to one side as if trying to avoid it somehow, and then race out of the room. In the end, he won: he scratched and frayed the collar so badly we had to take it off. We're hoping the real collars aren't so poorly made.

Before & After

Cats and toilets -- yeah, we're really scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point.

Life is settling in, and we'll end our blog soon. Iain's back to work and my web classes begin in the next 3 weeks. Until that time, here are some earth shattering before and after shots of our toilet room and bathroom. Brace yourself!

(shots are in chronological order)

Cat Fight!

Watch fascinating footage of Blue trying to make friends with the neighborhood cat who loves our backyard.

Blue went outside, oblivious to the cat hanging out on the lawn, but as soon as he saw him, Blue ran over to say hi. It didn't go very well.

Unfortunately, I had to stop filming in case they started fighting. We're getting a quote for an Invisible Fence soon, so get ready for a turf war!

Happy Birthday Wayne!!

Local Architecture

Here are some of the local homes in our area. It's really varied: lots of traditional mixed in with really swank modern homes. I especially love the traditional Kiwi villas - they actually remind me of the Buffalo NY neighborhood I grew up in. Although I could be very happy in the green and charcoal house pictured first.









"I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" ended last night -- vile Janice Dickinson did not win, thank god. We'll miss our favorite show but the 7:30pm air time was really screwing up our schedule.

It's been a very tame week -- we're eating healthy again, exercising regularly (yawn), and working. Iain's in his office all day, and I'm stripping the dining room and painting the bathroom and toilet room. We bought a big mirror last night for the bathroom -- I'm very excited.

Speaking of healthy, we tried to buy real cranberry juice last night for making Cosmos but couldn't find any, so we got pomegranate juice instead.

Driving is still a challenge -- I feel 15 again but with less patience. Iain still has to tell me how to get everywhere which I'm sure is frustrating - Danielle suggested we get a GPS for the car which isn't such a bad idea.... if only they weren't $400-$500.

You say tomato

In addition to driving on the other side of the road AND dealing with the metric system, I'm also adjusting to the different words and pronunciations for things. This has always been an interesting part of our marriage - trying to figure out what the hell the other person means when they say a word that the person has never heard of. Thankfully, I was familiar with most of these before we got here.

serviette = disposable napkin ("May I have a few more serviettes to go with my meat & cheese pie?")
courgette = zucchini
silver beet = swiss chard
capsicum = green pepper (does it also apply to red and yellow peppers?)
bench = kitchen counter ("I left the vodka on the bench.")
tyre = tire
kerb = curb
bush = woods/forest
tramping = hiking ("Let's go tramping in the bush this weekend.")
lounge = living room
entree = appetizer
starter = appetizer
main = entree

Then there's the funky pronunciation of certain things, like Subaru is "su-BAR-u" instead of "SU-baru", and cervical is "cer-VY-kal" instead of "CER-vical". Good times. I'll ask Iain, "How come you guys say suBARu?" and he'll say, "How come you guys say SU-baru?"

I can't remember any more right now, so I'll have to come back to this topic. We're heading out for a swim before dinner at Mr. BBQ.