Aotearoa

2016

So – a New Year.  And the decline in my formulating resolutions continues.

2015 – was the year of social media, with the intention that I’d “just stop” as soon as it hit 2016.  Which was successful, but I’m considering waiving the “just stop” stipulation, as it turns out the whole fbook thing was actually quite useful – especially when visiting home.

2016 – resolutions are still in the period of gestation.
1 – review stuff.  I’ve managed to make a start on this, reviewing cafes/things on TripAdvisor & the Google.  And I’m considering a full compare/contrast piece on chocolate milks at some point, as it seems that a couple of companies in New Zealand have finally put out some decent chocolate milk.
2 – something like “do more stuff” – which is a bit of a cop-out as it seems certain I’ll be doing that anyway, with a certain influence
3 – even more of a cop-out, something like “continue the good work of previous resolutions” – which would pretty much just allow me to continue doing all the things I want to do anyway such as “don’t drink shots”, “eat one-handed whenever possible”, “don’t eat bread”, “don’t eat anything white”, “drink more red wine”, etc etc – while also providing a loophole for re-immersion into a certain “social medium”.

New Year’s Eve – was good.  Matarangi, swim at the beach, lots of kids about – then a “weatherbomb” rolled in, and the evening was spent performing the traditional and ceremonial “binge drink”, listening to a lot of HLAH, and some Darcy Clay – and at some point I was given a “bubble-bomb” – consisting of a handle of delicious champagne, with a sherry glass containing sparkling rose in the middle.  And according to photos, after that there was some dancing, some red wine with Hayden after everybody else gave up, and then some champagne all alone.

Typical New Zealand New Year's Eve

Typical New Zealand New Year’s Eve

Bubbles-in-Bubbles

Bubbles-in-Bubbles

Since then, some bullet points would be:

  • Quick visit with Lyn in Whangamata
  • Few days with Chook in Tauranga, first night of which I sprained my ankle so was forced to stay for several days
  • Playing with the niece and nephews
  • A week or so at Akarangi – few bike rides, some squash, a hangi, etc
    Akarangi Hangi

Other random observations:

  • While I’m away, headlines in the UK announce “BRITAIN is braced for its coldest winter in 53 years”, with a “brutal SNOWBOMB” on the way, etc.  To be fair – these are sourced from some of UK’s more ridiculous publications – but I’m still pretty smug about having summer in Aotearoa instead.
  • I’m hoping at some point to re-publish some of the few posts I managed to salvage from the Google’s history of the previous incarnation of this… and maybe even, when I’m bored, write some very condensed retrospective bits.

10 weeks of all-sorts

Right – it’s been a while, and a fair bit happened…

Nine Inch Nails – struggling to remember it, but I assume it was big and noisy.

New Zealand – went home, visited some people, missed out on visiting others.  Rode my new bike (photos below) – fell off it on the 2nd day… not particularly serious – but enough to require buying a new helmet and laptop screen, and feel rather sore for a few days, and bent a few bits and pieces on the bike.  Put about 3,500 km on it.  Spent some time with the niece & nephews – which was all good, even if half the time I was jetlagged, and just watching them.

Rarotonga – island time.  Riding a scooter around – didn’t fall off it.  Snorkelling.  Sun.  Just chilled.  Old Dog.  New Dog.  New New Dog.  Jigsaw puzzle.  Didn’t walk across the island.  Didn’t go fishin’.  Didn’t go divin’.  Still, it was good.

Jared & Jess got married.  My first beach wedding… everything I’d dreamed it would be.  I cut my hair short one one side, fashioned myself a good old side-to-side comb-over, complete with plenty of hair product, etc.  I was a little disappointed in the number of comments – mostly because it suggests people thought I was being serious.  Photos to come.  Oh, and next day – shaved my head… over a month later, I’m still not used to it, or happy about it.  But, it is what it is.

Back to England on the Monday – had two gigs scheduled for Thursday night.  The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, or Beth Orton.  I’d seen them both before – so I opted for Beth, as it was at the Barbican – super close, and seated – so I could easily doze off if I wanted.  Which I didn’t want, but I did anyway.  Beth, as always – pretty good.

BST festival at Hyde Park – Lucy RoseHalf Moon RunCaitlin RoseThe NationalNeil Young – the acts I managed to see… all of whom were rather good.  Although Half Moon Run seemed a lot more “bro-bro” than I would have expected.  And I drank a little more champagne in the sun than was probably good for me, and I watched most of Neil Young’s set from a nice relaxed spot where I could sit down and read my book.

And now, three weeks back – I’ve finally got “my UK bike” ready for some summer rides… battery was dead when I got back, and miscellaneous other upkeep bits to do – but hopefully this weekend, will get some miles on it, and see if my experience on “my NZ bike” has helped me get the knee down a bit lower.

2014-06-27 16.08.15
2014-06-06 11.49.09
2014-06-20 13.15.10

2013 Q2

April:

  • using my phone as my sat-nav while out on the Spectre – decided a little rain couldn’t hurt it too much, while trying to figure out where to go.  Turns out… yeah, it can.
  • visited the ‘Maori house’ at Clandon Park… some rich guy decided his souvenir of New Zealand would be a house.  To be fair – his original house wasn’t much to look at.
  • got my first flat tyre on the Spectre… came out from lunch, and yeah… noticeably flat.  Took it to the local garage, tried to get some air in there.  Bloody valve at just the wrong angle to get the nozzle on… (and I had to pay for the air, WTF?) – eventually managed to get some air in there… continued on my way.  Then, on the M25 – 60 or 70 mph… could feel it become flat again.  I’d always wondered how one could really tell by feel if a tyre goes flat.  Well… I know now that it is unmistakable.  Unmistakably scary, on a bike.  Found another garage… again struggled to get any air into the valve… eventually breaking the valve off.  And then a sad sad journey home, with the Spectre riding piggy-back on a recovery truck.  Ne’er a sadder sight.  Sent her to the garage, to get fixed up.

May:

  • Friday 3rd, left work early – went and picked up the Spectre… good as new.  Dropped her off home, picked up my suitcase, off to Heathrow, and onwards to NZ.
  • Landing in Auckland, to a miserable raining Autumn day.  Which was still warmer than the London Spring I’d left behind.
  • A couple of days in Auckland, doing chores (renewing NZ licence, replacing NZ bank card, buying CDs, replacing pounamu cord), and hanging with Pen – letting her deal with the sharp-end of my jet-lag, so that I might be recovered when visiting family.
  • Didn’t quite work… two weeks of driving around the North Island, visiting family, and each time leaving, feeling guilty about being such miserable company, and the short time I had available for each destination.
  • Worst jet-lag ever (possibly compounded by very long/boozy night in the middle)… the night before I flew out – I was still feeling half-asleep by 8pm.. with zero ability to be sociable/chatty.  Or that’s my excuse, anyway.
  • 1 wedding – successful
  • 2 niblings’ birthdays – also successful
  • Far too many questions about “coming home” – for christmas and/or for good
  • Hugs and tearful goodbyes… how come it gets harder every time?
  • Back to England, shocked again by the cold Spring… and jet-lag
  • Flaming Lips – good, not the best Lips gig I’ve see, but an average Lips gig is still pretty bloody good

June:

Lots of boring stuff to be done…

  • Investigate UK indefinite leave to remain… I was never planning on doing that, but recently I was nearly sent to Germany to do some work.  I thought I could do that, no issues… but looking into it, maybe not.  In fact, the work I did in Spain/France a little while back… maybe not so legal.
  • Hypothetically, if I was to set up a company… need to choose a name.  And an accountancy firm.  And go through all of that.  But first… a name.
  • Need a new mobile phone, and probably a new phone number.  With all the choice regarding mobile plans, deals, etc, etc.  Too much choice, not enough variety.
  • Should probably get the Spectre given a once-over before I try taking her across Europe.  I asked the garage to do it when they fixed the tyre, but apparently forgot/misheard.  Have bought a 90-degree tyre valve adaptor… flat tyres will hopefully no longer be as disastrous.

New Year’s w/ Sun

Trip home was very very good, was well pleased with it.  In no particular order:

  • Great weather.  Got a sweet red base-tan.  40°C when I landed in Melbourne on the way back.  -1°C when I landed in London, with snow.
  • Didn’t spend enough time with family – for various reasons.  Mostly my own doing – just being dumb.  Trip to Taranaki was understandably short as I was driving sister, niece, nephew – and then had weird block in my head about “going backwards – wasting time”.  Then had weird hang-up about only spending as much time with one side of the family as I had with the other.  And then Brent went and got married, and I had to postpone visiting Mum.  Then I got sucked into Hawkes Bay – weddings, beach, sun, drinking… just general “being on holiday”.
  • Definitely should have spent more time with niece & nephew – but never sure how much help/hindrance I’m really being.  But the time I did spend there was awesome… Meiken asked me to stay instead of going back to London, which was nice as I figured she must actually kinda like me… but also tugged the heartstrings a fair bit.  Helped Cohen out with his engineering a bit… at 18 months he’s actually building towers of blocks – not just smashing them down.  Which I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it impressed me anyway.  And when I built up the nerve to hang out with Masen too (he’s the loud intimidating type), we seemed to get along well enough.  We’ll see what he really thinks when he can walk and talk.
  • New Year’s Eve on the beach.  The way it should be.  Purple Goanna’s at 10 paces.  A spot of night-swimming.  Watching the dawn.  Daiquiris.  Beach cricket.
  • New Zealand – wow.  I never really agreed when Katie talked about going back, and being surprised at how ‘small-town’ everything seems.  But this time, I did kinda get that.  But then – I guess I was in small towns.  Driving into Hastings Pak’n’Save carpark, was a moment.  But, I rather suspect driving into Scunthorpe’s Asda carpark, if it’s got one, would be a similar experience.  So yeah – no Katie, I still disagree.  Same shit, different logos.
  • Coromandel – that was certainly some stuff to show off how ‘rural’, or ‘small-town’ NZ can be.  A couple of nights in Coromandel Town – providing the social glue at a backpackers, doing some swimming, cooking and eating heaps of seafood, introducing foreign backpackers to the Swappa-Crate.  Good times.
  • Taupo – got myself a fishing license, went fishing, caught so many fish – but we only had a little boat, and they were all too big, so threw them all back.  For the taniwha to have.
  • Ate so much icecream.  Drank so much beer.  Ate so much seafood.  Ate some pies.  Ate some pig.  Drank so much wine.  How much?  Soooo much.  So much that I don’t fit any of my clothes now.  Need to spend some time exercising so I can fit in all my new suits and what-not… but still too relaxed from holiday.
  • Wedding #1: Brent married Daniela.  Who I introduced myself to with a “nice to meet you”.  Only to be reminded that it had also been nice to meet her two years ago, at Matt’s wedding, when I had in fact insisted on being her bridesmaid at this wedding.  So yeah – good start to being Head Bridesmaid.
  • Wedding #2: Claire married Ludek.  I didn’t say “nice to meet you” this time, being once-bitten.  It would have been suitable on this occasion, but not going to risk it.  Cooked a pig, with Hayden’s assistance, for the wedding.  Did some karaoke.  Played the piano, and nobody shot me.  Looking forward to the Away leg of that wedding – Czech Republic in July… do I motorbike from London, or train from Vietnam?
  • Melbourne – hot.  Visited people, kept Nathan’s dog occupied, put the finishing touchs on the base-tan.  Read some Faraway Tree to Eli.  Got all jealous of people who live in places with an actual outside area.
  • London, cold, snowing.  Landed, got home – walking through snow in my non-waterproof kung-fu slippers.  Showered, found I didn’t fit any of my suit trou any more.  Went to work… managed to stay awake all day.  Came home – went to pub for dinner to force myself to stay awake.  Managed to stay awake (or close to) until 9pm or so.  Off to bed.  Jet-lag, sorted.  Managed the same on arrival in NZ actually… with opposite technique.  Slept all the way from Auckland to Rotorua, got there… an hour or two of pretending to be another day – then off to bed at 11 or so… slept all the way through to 6am-ish.  Jet-lag, sorted.  Man, I’m good at this international travel nonsense.

Now – waiting on some reasonable temperatures to see if the Spectre still runs.  And trying to save some money so I can do all (or most… well… some) of this again in May.

Ukkle Doose

Well – thanks to everybody who hosted me on my recent trip around New Zealand/Australia – and apologies to people who I didn’t get to see.

But – the trip was a success overall.  The main purpose was to spend some time with little sister Angela, littler niece Meiken, and smallest-of-them-all nephew Cohen.  So – after a weekend in Sydney to try and get rid of the jet-lag (Pen deciding the cure for jet-lag was a big old night out at the pub) – I arrived in Rotorua and just chilled out for a week or so.  To be honest – I was planning on maybe doing some day-trips here and there to visit people, but once I got there – I just collapsed into sloth.  But it was all good – Meiken’s actual birthday was the day after I arrived – and after a quick visit to the playcentre for cake/birthday-songs/etc – we hung out at home all day.  Trying to get Meiken to remember/meet/trust/like me.

I was supposed to be doing a bit of cooking and what-not also, to take the load off Angela – but didn’t really end up doing much of that.  My bad habits of cooking late at night don’t really suit the ‘young family’.  Anyway – it was all good.  A week of sitting around the house, playing with Meiken, watching Cohen, and watching daytime television.  (To all those who blame the degradation of society on violent movies and/or videogames, etc… you’ve got it all wrong – it’s mainstream daytime television)  The birthday party per se was on the Saturday – which was handy for catching up with a few more people without having to make the effort to travel to them.  Muhammed and mountains, or some-such.

And then the fruits of my postponing the travelling and visits came home to roost.  (Trying to figure out how to mix another metaphor into that, but I just cannae.)  So, after a week of sitting still, I embarked on a whirlwind tour of the North Island.  I missed Hawkes Bay this time, as most of my family from that way were at Meiken’s party (sorry to everyone else down there) – so the trip was just Hamilton – spent an evening catching up with the Wards, including Shainee & Tylah who have grown a ridiculous amount since I last saw them; Taranaki – catching up with Dad’s side of the family; Wairarapa – catching up with an auntie who has rather the sweet set-up, self-sustaining vege gardens etc, a bus for road-trips, and a decent collection of wine – I’m thinking about retiring myself and turning up on the doorstep; and finally Wellington – for a rather boozy night, starting with Bob & I drinking whiskey from the bottle in a primary school carpark, ending with H & I drinking red wine and having chit-chat, and my spilling of red wine all over the carpet and laptop.

And then I fled to Melbourne for a bit of a rest.  Yep.  Still a little intoxicated from the previous night is never a good time for me to find a CD store on my last day in New Zealand.  Despite having bought a dozen or so albums in Rotorua – I somehow managed to find another 20 albums of kiwi music to purchase.  (And remember – it’s only been two months since I was last in NZ, and did a binge buy then also).  And then I rushed through security because I thought I was late for my plane.  I wasn’t – I had misread the time by an hour.  So I was stuck on the wrong side of security/immigration from the Icebreaker store – which is probably a good thing.  I’ve had my eye on a coat from there for some time, but it is rather pricey… and it is summer in London.  But, this still left me on “airside” with nothing to do, really, except drink.  So, I set up a bartab, and had some delicious NZ boutique beers.  And then get on the plane, and had some wines.  And then landed and bought duty-free, and had some beers while waiting to be picked up from the airport.  And then had some delicious Bailey’s in the car on the ride into town.  And then beers at some dodgy little bar.  And then it was time for dinner, and there was wine, and ouzo, and just all-round silliness, and then it was the bar with the champage, and then when I asked for milk with my Bailey’s I got told I wasn’t allowed to drink anymore – and really… fair enough.  About bloody time, in fact.

The next day I spent catching up with little Eli – and being convinced that it was a good idea (considering the number of young children I caught up with on my trip, and those here in London) for me to set-up some kind of competitive rating system for everybody’s children.  Perhaps even with some constructive criticism for the mothers of those children who were struggling in certain areas.  Still not sure if I’m going to follow through on that – it just seems all too likely that I will at some point have my eyes raked out by some mother objecting to my describing their child as anything but the next messiah.  Anyway – Eli did display some aptitude in several areas – while struggling with such simple concepts as “Salad Fingers is no good.  No good.  No no good.”  Anyway – after that, I returned to Elise’s place to watch something much more appropriate.  Thor.  Starring Natalie Portman.  Whooaa.  What a movie.  (Terrible).  And then I woke up, feeling very very ill, and had some champagne, and got the hell out of dodge.

Back to London.  Just in time to go home, have a shower, stagger to work, and discover that absolutely NOTHING had been accomplished in my 2 weeks absence.  Which is to be expected – I fully expect that after I have been back for 2 weeks, absolutely nothing more will have been accomplished.  Except for the one project where I have sole responsibility.  I have just nailed that in the last couple of days – up until the point where I first rely on other people to do their jobs.  And have resigned myself to the fact that this project will now also stagnate in the Pit of Apathy.  Still – for the last two days, I’ve done stuff.  Yay.

Aotearoa & Arsetralia

Checking the last time I wrote about visiting home – it was really rather long.  I will endeavour to make this much shorter, at the cost of scrimping on details on some pretty sweet events…

First of all – left Heathrow on a Friday evening.  Must remember not to do this ever again.  Airport bars just packed full of Ingerlund geezers & birds off to Spain or Ibiza or something for the weekend.  Not pretty.

Then the long flight home.  Arrived in Auckland on Sunday afternoon – tried in vain to find a CD store in the airport – instead went and picked up my rental car.  Advice from girl at the rental place for CDs… “there’s a Warehouse just down the road”.  Argh… had nearly forgotten about the existence of the Warehouse.  I thought I’d pop in for a quick look, on the off-chance it actually had some decent CDs.  Nope – never doing that again either.  Their “Top 20″ rack was comprised solely of compilations – terrible terrible bargain bin compilations.  Drove down to Rotorua, with the fatigue only starting to kick in near the end of the journey – which was quite lucky.  Got to Rotorua just in enough time to make an appearance as a stumbling stinky mess of an uncle to a scared little girl before she went to bed.  Well – not so much scared, so much as shy.  Or just not wanting to know – which would be fair enough.  That first impression took a little while to wear off – but eventually we got along pretty well.  Hopefully I won’t have to start from scratch when I return.  Leaving a collection of sand-castles for Meiken to destroy will hopefully help my chances.

After an all too brief time in Rotorua – not even enough time to visit anybody I really should have (sorry to all) – I picked up Katie from Taupo.  (Finding out, at the last minute, that Katie had – of course – assumed that I would have enough room for a bicycle.  Luckily I did – but it sure didn’t help promote bicycle rights for me.)  A drive up to Auckland, (finding out at the very very last minute, that Katie needed to make slight detours to pick up stuff in both Hamilton and Auckland – luckily I had allowed over an hour for such Katie-isms) – and to the airport, and onwards to Melbourne.

A remarkably rapid and hassle-free progression through Melbourne airport, despite bicycles, Katies, and smuggling teabags – and shuttled like rich people to the Crowne Plaza.  Left Katie at the hotel while I headed off to find “the boys” in town.  Found “the boys” – and proceeded to have a few beverages and what-not.

Next day – discovered the Stormers (the rugby team, not the… other Stormers) were staying in the same hotel.  Listened to the coaching team discussing strategy in the lifts – and discovered why de Villiers has still got his job.  There’s just nobody else.  But anyway – Pen joined us at the hotel for a quick swim in the hotel pool – which was nowhere near as heated as advertised.  Still – rather nice to be able to actually swim.  Then – we checked out, and wandered around town.  Met Justin in Brunswick for coffee, then lunch, joined by a few others (but not Dave – Dave can’t handle his vodka).  Op-shopping for a while, some beverages, chats, etc – and then finally Pen, Katie & I returned to pick up our baggage, and head to our apartment in Williamstown.  Checked in to that, and proceeded to have an evening of chinese takeaway, and good old grumpy-tired-Kruse vs Pen-Katie-girlie-chatter times.  Which some how turned into my staying awake until midnight in order that Pen could open birthday present.  This was achieved with the help of a rather tasty bottle of whisky.

And then it was wedding-day.  Finally got to wear my new suit.  Had a rather tasty bottle of champagne while getting dressed (vintage Krug) – and then headed into Yarraville for some lunch.  Then – to the theatre for the wedding.  “Wha…. wedding, theatre?”  Yep – wedding in a theatre.  Not going to talk too much about the ceremony – as it’s kinda a private thing, I guess – plus once I start – it would probably take a very very long time to do it justice.  I just gotta say, Prince Mark and Cindy Middlesborough, or whoever – have got no chance of being anything but overshadowed.  In fact – I think everybody there on the day gave up on any chance of getting married.  Not including myself, of course.  I gave up years ago.  Ha ha ha ha …. aaaah.  But after the ceremony – relative normalcy returned.  Drinks at one place (where I was shown the cellar, and chose another really rather tasty bottle of champagne) – followed by another for the main reception – emcee’d by some Nathan chap.  I danced.  First time I’ve done that in quite some time.  And didn’t even attempt to play the bride like a guitar (I don’t think).  Did, however, instead slide across the floor on my knees like some kind of rock-start/footloose-Kevin-Bacon.  Eventually stumbled back to our apartment, to share some whisky with Dave.

Sunday – the aftermath – dropped gifts off at the newly-weds house of no-longer-sin, and ate some scallops and fish and what-not.  Chit-chat, then into town, some more chit-chat in a swanky hotel room – then chinese for dinner.  Where I proceeded to prove to myself that maybe the two months of lack-of-drinking followed by the two-days-of-yes-drinking had caught up with me, and the old Sunday-babble-Kruse started to rear his ugly head.  But managed to not offend anybody too much, except maybe the waiter (who was a prick anyway, and deserved anything he got – or that’s what people told me to make me feel better).  Back to hotel for a nice early night.

And then it was the dispersal.  Pen left early in the morning, then I left Katie stranded in Williamstown, as I headed to the airport – and caught my plane to Perth – which, as it turns out, is indeed rather warm.  Not as stiflingly oppressively unbearably hot as I was expecting – but still, pretty warm.  Got to John’n’Mel’s place, which is fairly nice.  Strange set-up – but perfect for the current use of two couples co-existing in semi-shared semi-segregated areas.

Caro’n’Dom’n’Malachy arrived the following day – and I believe the day revolved around that, and then a barbeque (mostly cooked indoors).  Next day was a day out in Fremantle.  Well – for most people it was a day out in Fremantle, but Ben & I went and did a bit of diving.  ‘Cause we’re divers.  Hired some equipment, got some directions – and headed off to do some divin’.  Got lost on land.  Then eventually went into the sea (cursing how heavy dive gear is while carrying from car to beach).  And the first thing I did was go and swim face-first straight into a jellyfish tentacle.  Still got the mark from that on my face.  Not cool.  But we eventually got out a bit – and after quite a lot of trial-and-error (okay – a LOT-lot of trial-and-error) – we kinda remembered how to dive.  So we did some divin’ until my airtank was totally and utterly empty.  Headed back into Fremantle to meet up with the others and Sam at the Little Creatures brewery – and downed some beers and dinner.  Pleasant day, all in all.

Margaret River the next day – a small road-trip, just like the old days.  Well, nearly.  Stopped off at the Busselton Jetty and went for a walk along that, and a quick snorkel off the side of it.  Very long jetty, that one.  And about to get longer.  Bought some Guinness for a few road beers to help the Paddies celebrate their Drunk-Day.  Got to our accommodation in Margaret River in the evening – dropped off stuff, and headed into town for dinner and wine.

And then some more divin’.  Ben & I headed off early in the morning – up to Dunsborough for some wreck divin’.  Dom was kind enough to drive us up – before returning and joining the others for a morning of whatever it is they did.  Meanwhile, Ben & I went out in a boat – and then dived nearly twice as deep as we’d ever been before – to check out the wreck of the HMAS Swan.  Pretty cool – except I soon remembered that I really do use much more oxygen than most people – so we had to keep returning to the surface relatively early.  But still – pretty cool.  Two dives, down to a max depth of 30 metres – and just swimming along this huge grey hulk – then over it’s decks, around it’s crows-nest, etc – yeah – I could do that again.  Eventually we returned to boring old land – for some lunch, a winery or two, an aboriginal cultural centre (pretty good for stoking up the ill-feeling towards the english), and stocking up on venison, kangaroo, emu, cheese, etc to make up some kind of dinner platter.  And tried to get through as much of our booze stockpile as possible.  Managed to do all available wine, finished all normal beers, and made a start on the Guinness – but eventually we had to give it up.

Next day – a fairly early start in order to get Kruse to the airport.  Success – and I was soon on a plane on my way to Sydney.  At Sydney airport, got myself a ‘limo’ to Pen’s flat – arriving in time to try and mix and mingle at her flatwarming party.  Didn’t do particularly well, being rather tired, sober – and thrust into the midst of a party, where I was “the ex”.  But – good bunch of people, and good to see that Pen has a pretty good crew around her – and seems to have quite the reputation as a ‘cool’, or something, spinster herself.

Another Sunday – another day of doing not much.  Had a few short wanders about Manly – but it was raining, and not the magnificent surf-paradise it apparently is usually.  Cooked a roast dinner for everybody, drank a few bottles of wine, played some scrabble, and watched a movie.  Old-school Sunday with Pen, pretty much.

And then – time to leave.  Monday – breakfast with Nic, lunch with Pen, dinner with British Airways.  The long, long flight back to London.

Where I got a fairly early morning tube back home – with jetlag starting to kick in when I at one point realised that all the people around me were on their way to work – whereas I had that “homeward bound” sleepy feeling in my head.  I started feeling sorry for them – until I remembered that once I got home, I was going to just get in the shower, get in a suit, and then head to work myself.  And that is exactly what I did.  Leading to the strange feeling at about 10am of feeling like it’s a late night in the office – but suddenly realising that everybody else is fresh and just starting.  The exact same feeling that I am getting right now, actually.  Except it really is 5pm – it’s just that it feels exactly like the bad old days of working until midnight.

Anyway – back in London now.  And I figure one weekend of some irresponsible socialising will get me right back into my normal cycle of stay-up-too-late, turn-up-to-work-late.  So, yeah, don’t expect me at work on Monday too early.