Dolphins in Akaroa

A few weeks ago Skry and I took a trip to Akaroa, about an hour and a half away from Christchurch, with a couple of friends. Here's some information about Akaroa, which I swiped from somebody else's website and am too lazy to reword:

Akaroa Township
Akaroa is Canterbury's oldest township. As well as being a former French and British colony, it also has a colourful whaling and Maori history.
The charm of this old town, together with the incredible scenery encountered en route has assured Akaroa's popularity as a unique tourist destination.
Today the township is home to 1000 people, many of who work in the tourism industry. Akaroa has superb examples of historic homes and there are approximately fifteen gardens within twenty minutes of Akaroa open to the public. The area is unique for its heritage roses and microclimates, its herb farm, streetscapes and also its historic churches.
Akaroa has a vineyard near Barry's Bay on the way to Akaroa. French Farm winery on the eastern side of the harbour is situated within the valley where the French navy established farms and orchards in the 1840s.
Akaroa has its own swimming beach with other beautiful, deserted beaches within thirty minutes at both Okains and Le Bons Bays.

We hadn't made any particular plans, but as it turned out we arrived just in time to take a harbour cruise.The cruises take about two hours and costs $65 - well worth doing if you have any interest in wildlife and pretty views. We were told to expect to see maybe one or two dolphins if we were lucky, but I think at one point we had about ten of them around the boat. The Hector's dolphins are (I think) unique to this area, and they were very playful and mobile, constantly swimming under the boat, popping up for air, and diving back down again to swim back under the boat to the other side. We didn't see any other wildlife apart from two fur seals and a couple of seagulls, but it was amazing to see so many wild dolphins up close. The weather was great too, which helped to make it a very enjoyable afternoon. I'd recommend this to anybody who's visiting the area.

The Win is Official

Look, I've got a banner that says Winner on it and everything. It must be official.

NaNoWriMo victory is mine

I've done it - I reached 50,000 words this afternoon!

The story actually ended right at the 50k word mark, which was extraordinarily well timed (and completely accidental) but it needs some serious editing. There are some parts that I know are absolute guff, and some that have been glossed over and need a lot more detail added in. Plus, my characters are rather devoid of personality at the moment and I need to go back and give them some. I reckon it'll finally end up at around the 80k word mark. Anyway, that's for another day. I'm not going to start editing right now. I'm just going to rest on my laurels for a little while - I'm a NaNoWriMo winner :-)

Novel slowing down

We are nearly at the end of Week 2 and my novel has really slowed down. I'm at 35k words, which sounds impressive, but I did the first 20k words in three days so you can see how much my pace has slowed. I'm still just as excited about my story as I was at the start, but it seems to be in the doldrums. I know where I've been, and I know where I'm ultimately going, but I can't quite see the way clear to get myself out of the current situation gracefully and believeably. I'm slogging along, writing in 400 word bursts, but the story is definitely not flowing.

My aim for this weekend was to hit the 50k goal, but after struggling all day (it's a public holiday here today so I had no work to do) I only churned out less than four thousand words, and we are going to a wedding tomorrow afternoon, so unless I get a sudden burst of inspiration on Sunday I don't think I'll meet that goal. I'll settle for 40k instead, if I can make that by Sunday evening. Let's see what happens!

Novel going well

All is quiet on the blog update front, but my novel is going well so far. I'm a week ahead of schedule and am roughly half-way through my plot, so I'm pretty pleased with my progress at this point. It's full of holes, stilted dialogue, and missing chunks of storyline, but that doesn't worry me since it's only a first draft. And on that note, I'm off to see if I can reach my daily word count!

NaNoWriMo

This year I am taking part in NaNoWriMo, the national novel writing month which is held in November every year. This is a free event which encourages people to spend one crazy month writing the first draft of a novel, which should be at least 50,000 words long.

In November 2007 Skry and I both decided to take part in this, but in retrospect our plans were doomed from the start because that was the same month that we emigrated from Ireland. Naturally we did not have the time or energy to spend a couple of hours every day writing, so neither of us finished our novels, and mine would have been pointless drivel anyway. I had no real plot nor much potential to develop one with the shallow and boring characters that I had, so there was no way that what I started with could have lasted the course.

This year we are trying again, properly this time, and I already think that it’s going to go well. Not only do I have a proper plot (with some holes but a lot of potential), but I have also been doing some research and will be able to write with some degree of historical accuracy rather than just making everything up. In fact, the more research I do the more I think I should just abandon half my original plot and focus entirely on New Zealand in the late 1800s, because that’s where all the interesting stuff seems to be.

Of course my novel’s success is rather dependent on my ability to write it well, but NaNoWriMo doesn’t ask for polished perfection after thirty days; in fact, it positively discourages such thoughts. No editing or revising is allowed – this month is all about the word count and getting the story on paper (or screen, in most people’s cases).

Keeping up the momentum for a full month may be a problem too, I suppose. I’ve never suffered from writer’s block, but nor have I attempted anything on this scale or over this duration. The minimum that I should be writing every day is 1,667 words, which is pretty easy as far as volume goes but may be more of a challenge as far as content goes. Still, I’m really looking forward to the challenge, and have roped in as many friends and family members as possible to join us - so if you're reading this, and it sounds tempting to you, now's your chance to sign up!

On Driving

I am an embarrassment to my gender. Yes, I’m admitting it – despite all that we know about equality and ability, I let the side down by being a crap driver.

It’s not driving itself that causes me problems. I’m a careful and attentive driver (most of the time, anyway!) and haven’t experienced any problems navigating or getting myself from A to B. What gives me trouble is anything that involves spatial awareness. I just don’t know where the edges of my car start.

When I first got my licence (I was a late starter, not even taking lessons until I was in my mid-twenties), I was fresh from hours of practicing manoeuvres under the watchful eye of my instructor, Laurence, who was close to retirement age and probably hoped I was his last client. It took him months to get rid of me, and I’m sure I saw tears of relief in his eyes when I finally passed my test on the third attempt. Laurence was a great instructor with a lot of patience, and he taught me to parallel park swiftly and accurately and to reverse into spaces and around corners with no trouble at all. I finally passed my test in his little Nissan Micra, and thought that everything was done and dusted.

Sadly for me, I had failed to take into account the fact that my own car was considerably larger than Laurence’s. As soon as I was left to my own devices I dropped the ball. Laurence had shown me how to detect the edges of his car from my position in the driver’s seat, but had failed to make me understand how to transfer that knowledge to a different vehicle. Sitting in my brand-new four-door saloon rather than his dinky little hatchback, I soon foundered. In fact one of my very first solo jaunts resulted in my smashing the passenger side wing mirror as I backed through our driveway gate. 

Things soon went from bad to worse. My parallel parking skills stayed with me for a while – I distinctly remember impressing my boyfriend mightily by nipping into a very tight space on a busy shopping street with nary a pause – but it didn’t take long for me to lose confidence. The straw that broke the parking camel’s back, so to speak, was when I got trapped in the car park at Sainsbury’s supermarket. However I managed it, I pulled into a parking space at an angle, attempted to straighten up, and somehow edged myself to within inches of the car to my right. Not only could I not squeeze out my door but I could not reverse the car out of the space either – its rear end was even closer to the neighbouring car than the front end was, and I was terrified of damaging somebody else’s vehicle. So there I had to stay, for several minutes until the person who had parked nose-to-nose with me came out of the supermarket and drove off. With their space freed up, I was able to drive straight out without doing any more reversing. 

Not long after I got married, my husband and I went to visit friends. The visit was wildly successful until they waved us goodbye, at which point I reversed into their neighbour’s fence and broke it. I also punched a square-shaped hole in the back bumper, but that barely mattered because of the other scrapes it had accumulated; the broken fence, however, was an embarrassment.

That little misadventure led to what has now become something of a phobia about reversing in general and parking in particular. Because I rarely drive anywhere and the roads in New Zealand tend to be wide with lots of parking space, it’s not really an issue, but I will go out of my way to find a spot that I can just drive straight into with no manoeuvring, and then have to walk back to wherever I was actually meant to be. However, sometimes I just have to deal with what I’ve got.

My husband and I own a car that has had several previous owners since its manufacture in 1994, but despite that it was in very good condition when we bought it nearly two years ago. Now it’s a sorry sight. When I had no choice but to park in a busy hospital car park I somehow drove into a wall, scraping the paint off the front left bumper. Reversing out of a small space when we went to choose carpet for our house, I hit a bollard and took most of the paint off the back right bumper. Conversely I have also (frequently) parked several feet away from whatever I’m trying to avoid, leaving me practically in the middle of the road in some cases and at wildly unsuitable angles in others. I do my best, but I just don’t know where the air stops and the car starts.

I know I’m not stupid and I’m well able to understand technical details (I’ve got an IQ of 156 and a degree in computer science), but my brain just cannot grasp the seemingly simple concept of spatial awareness. Millions of people, men and women, park their cars every day without removing half their paint in the process. So why can’t I?

Please note that this is a rhetorical question, and any helpful instructions from my male readers on what I should be doing will be read, understood, but immediately forgotten when it comes to the point where I should put them into practice. I’ve had fantastic instructions (from the trusty Laurence) already but still can’t seem to manage to get it right when I’m on the road. I’ve come to accept that my otherwise reliable brain just doesn’t do well in this area. Luckily for me, my husband is well on his way to getting his own driving licence and he already does most of the driving when we’re together. Maybe I can live without this skill.

Things New Zealand doesn't have (Part 8)

One of the benefits of living in New Zealand is that we do not have to pay any television licence fees. The television licence in the UK is expensive – currently £142.50 per year for a colour television – and it only funds the BBC, contributing to their radio, television, and internet services and to some foreign-language programmes they produce for other channels. Although the BBC does provide some quality programming (Planet Earth springs immediately to mind), the vast majority of what they broadcast is of little or no interest to me, I don’t use their radio service, and there’s little news on their web site that I couldn’t get elsewhere. When we lived in Northern Ireland we had a cable connection and almost exclusively watched cable channels, not terrestrial ones, and rarely if ever switched to BBC (I did watch the soaps on ITV and Channel 4, but neither of those channels benefit from licence fees; they rely on advertising for their revenue).

Over the last few years it has become increasingly difficult to avoid paying a television licence fee in the UK even if you do not have a television. The licensing enforcement authority, TV Licensing, apparently finds it difficult to accept that a person truly doesn’t watch one, and if there is any sort of device in the house which can receive any sort of television broadcast then you are expected to pay for a licence. It doesn’t matter if you use it or not. Oh, and the licence is not per building either, it’s per household. You’re a student with your own privately rented room in shared accommodation? You’re expected to pay your own licence for that little TV in your room, or that computer with a TV card installed. If you buy or rent a device capable of receiving a television broadcast, the dealer you buy or rent from is required to notify TV Licensing. If TV Licensing catches you without a licence when you should have one, they can impose a fine of up to £1000, force you to buy a licence at full price, and saddle you with a criminal record to boot.

The BBC has stated that a licence is not needed simply because a television receiver is owned, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the enforcers have a hard time accepting that somebody in this day and age might actually not want or need to watch television. And of course they take no account of whether you use or benefit from any of the services which are funded by licence fees; even if you only ever watch Comedy Central on Sky you’ll still be expected to cough up annually in support of Auntie Beeb.

Because of the frustration and sense of injustice that I felt whenever I had to purchase a TV licence in the UK, I am doubly pleased that New Zealand has no such thing. Channels here rely on advertising, and licence fees were abolished in 1999. Although having American-style ad breaks every few minutes is very annoying when watching broadcast programmes, we mostly use our television for watching DVDs or playing games and so the ads are less intrusive than they could be. And they’re certainly less annoying than being forced to spend our hard-earned cash on something that we neither want nor support!

Chickens

I don't have any news. Here are some gratuitous pictures of the chickens just to keep you amused.

Gardening

I only have gardening stuff to talk about at the moment. Go read my garden blog:
http://gridgarden.blogspot.com

Spring has sprung

It's not officially spring for another few days, but today has leapt straight past spring and into summer, a balmy 19c with blue skies and a fresh breeze. I spent the afternoon in the garden pottering about and am now taking a well-earned break.


The plum (or greengage or whatever it is) tree beside the chicken house is in full bloom and looking very pretty. We got tons of fruit off it last year but didn't know that it was edible, so most of it rotted. We'll make better use of it this year!


The daffodils are out in full bloom at the moment too, and provide lovely splashes of colour here and there. And the tree that smells like chocolate (a boxleaf azara, I believe) is blooming again! The flowers on this are tiny yellow things, barely visible, but they smell like chocolate or cocoa butter when the sun is shining. It's just beautiful.

Things New Zealand doesn't have (Part 7)

Here's something New Zealand doesn't have, which I don't miss: pennies. And tuppences. And five-pence pieces. Not that it would be pennies here anyway, since we use dollars and cents, but there are no coins to represent anything smaller than 10c. The 1c and 2c coins were ditched in 1990 and the 5c coins in 2006:

On 31st July 2006, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand introduced a new set of smaller and lighter coins to replace the existing 10, 20 and 50 cent pieces. The 5 cent piece was phased out of circulation, while recovery of the old coinage began.

The strange thing is that prices still have odd numbers, such as $1.58 or $3.99 - you just can't pay that amount if you're using cash. Cashiers round the total up or down using a system called Swedish rounding. If you're paying with EFTPOS, credit card, or bank transfer, then you can use the exact amount.

Here are the coins we do have - 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, and $2.

Even the 10c coins rarely get used and just accumulate in my purse. From time to time I clear it out and dump the shrapnel into my piggy bank or into the vending machine at work, but other than that they don't get much use. With this being a largely cashless society, I expect it's only a matter of time before we lose the smallest denomination that we have right now.

Sunny afternoon

Four days after I posted the photo of the cold frosty morning, I walked through the same park in glorious sunshine and 16c temperatures. What a change!



I walked in to town and met Skry on his lunch break. We went for beer and burritos at a little place near his office. It was lovely to be able to sit outside in the sunshine and pretend that it's summer already.

Frosty morning

Walking through the park on my way to work, at 7.30am today. At -2c, I was glad to have my big puffy winter jacket on!

Just checking in

It's winter here. Not much going on. Cold nights, frosty mornings, sometimes blue sky and sunshine all day, sometimes rain.

I'm busy planning the garden for the next few months, and getting a tad over-excited buying seeds for flowers and salad veggies. I've never been a fan of most vegetables, but I do love tomatoes, sweet peppers, and cucumber, so if I can grow some of those and a bit of lettuce and onion I'll be very happy for as long as I can keep them alive and edible. As for flowers, if it doesn't smell great I'm unlikely to be interested. On the to-grow list are stocks (night-scented and regular), carnations, sweet peas, and various others. My previous history with growing flowers has shown mixed results, but I remain hopeful of great things in the months to come!

Things New Zealand doesn't have (Part 6)

New Zealand does not have Orange parades on July 12th (and the weeks before and after). No marching season. After way too many years being inconvenienced, irritated, angered, and prevented from exercising my right to walk or drive from A to B, this is a GREAT thing.

It made me extremely happy this weekend to realise that I'd forgotten all about it being "the 12th" until I saw people talking about it on Facebook. Hopefully I'll never need to remember again.

Midwinter Carnival

On our second evening in Dunedin we made a point of going to the Midwinter Carnival. This was a really great evening - lots of people had gone to a great effort making paper lanterns, dressing up in costume, and generally bringing a lovely fun atmosphere to the Octagon.

Skry and I went to an Irish bar called the Craic for an early dinner, and commandeered a window seat to watch out for the start of the parade. This was my view, which looked very cool in real life with the church all floodlit and just visible through the trees:



The parade got going with some dancers and a white witch / snow queen type person on stilts.



They were quickly followed by dozens and dozens people carrying all sorts of paper lanterns. It really did look lovely, especially as the authorities and local businesses had got together to switch out most of the electric lights in the area so we could appreciate the candles.





The parade was followed by entertainment from the bandstand across the way, although we couldn't see what was going on and were too lazy to walk over, and then fireworks. And amazingly the weather was just perfect, crisp and cold but not even a hint of rain despite the poor forecast beforehand.

The whole event gets a big thumbs-up from me. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, the kids were loving it, and it was just good clean fun for all the family. Up with this sort of thing.

To Dunedin

Skry and I headed to Dunedin for the weekend, about a five hour drive south of Christchurch. We didn't have any particular reason except that it is a long time since we had a break together, so why not!

Since there had been lots of snow and ice down south during the past week (and in fact the road we needed to take into Dunedin was closed for a day or two because it just wasn't passable), we expected it to be cold. That didn't stop me packing a picnic! Egg and onion rolls, peanuts, yoghurt, and a Thermos full of boiling water for our mugs of soup made for a very enjoyable break in a little spot called Glenavy.


I enjoyed the view from our picnic table.



When we got to Dunedin we headed straight for our apartment. Rather than stay in a hotel or a B&B, we booked a studio suite in the Chapel Apartments, which are build in an old church (or chapel, I suppose) about five minutes' walk from the Octagon and with private parking. They were pretty nice inside too! Pity I didn't think to take some photos before we had trashed the place :)



I'd definitely stay here again if we were back in Dunedin - the location is so convenient, and the place was very well equipped. There was even a laundry area with a washing machine and tumble dryer, and free wireless broadband. Fantastic.

Playing with rubber stamps

Since Craft2.0 I have taken a complete break from the sewing machine (despite having three projects for other people that I really need to get finished). Instead, I've been playing with cardmaking again. I love to use rubber stamps, so I used some of the proceeds from the craft fair to buy a new selection and some nice markers for colouring them.

Here are some cards made with a Penny Black cat stamp from their Critter Party set:





I love that one stamp can be used in so many different ways!

I survived Craft2.0

Craft2.0 was held in Christchurch today, and it was great! I brought along a selection of bags, purses, and jewellery [this last I had made before the last craft fair I did so was just a bonus offering for today]. Skry came with me and was my helper for the day, and did a great job fetching, carrying, helping customers, and generally being a great support for me. I couldn't do it without him!

The venue was at Our City, in an old building in Christchurch, which has lots of small rooms rather than one large one. This made for some overcrowding downstairs, apparently, but we were upstairs where there was a bit more room to breathe.


My jewellery. I could do with a more professional looking display, but it still sold pretty well.


Some pouches and purses.


More pouches and purses. The sets on the bottom right are matching pouches and wallets. I was quite astounded that they didn't sell today, because they are absolutely the nicest things that I had to offer, but I think I was sending out a, "Don't buy those," vibe because I want to keep them for myself. In particular I really didn't want the red set to go so that'll be added to my private collection tomorrow.


Ready for action, five minutes before the doors opened!


There was a constant stream of people coming through the doors for the four hours that the fair went on for, and I had a lot of customers. By the end of the day my pockets were bulging with notes and coins. Of course I didn't make a profit if you factor in how much I spend on craft stuff, but at least I'm funding my hobby!

Sew sew sew

Most of my spare time over the last couple of weeks has been spent making things for Craft 2.0, or thinking about making things, or procrastinating about making things. When it's over I probably won't want to touch my sewing machine for months!

Here are some of the things that I made yesterday and today (and sorry about the awful photography - I really do not have the energy to set up for photos after working all afternoon!). They are really cute if I do say so myself - I am half tempted to keep the light blue and cream set. The bag and coin purse are padded with fleece and lined with silk, so they feel really expensive and luxurious to touch.



Opened up so you can see the linings. The zippy pouches are lined in the same fabrics as the Teeny Tiny Wallets.


That'll do for today, I think!

A trip to the Supershed

I took a trip to the Supershed yesterday. It's like a massive garage sale - so much stuff for so little money!

This big wicker picnic basket was on sale for $7. I would have bought it if we didn't already have a picnic set.



Printers, $4 each.


Lots of computer parts!



Missing a rack for your fridge or cooker? You might find something suitable in this pile.


I think the suitcases were $2 each.


I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting a complete set of anything, but there certainly wasn't any shortage of crockery.


I bought a scanner (not sure if it works yet - I need to find a cable that fits), some old National Geographic magazines from the 1960s/70s, a couple of other magazines, a tea caddy with geese on it, a teatowel hook with a goose on it, and a new non-stick baking tray, for a grand total of $7. Due to the terrible weather we've been having lately, I only looked around indoors so I don't know what is for sale outside, but there is a large area piled high with stuff. I'll be back to check out what else is there whenever this rain stops.