stellar_muddle (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stellar_muddle) wrote2006-01-03 03:15 pm
stellar_muddle) wrote2006-01-03 03:15 pm
Entry tags:
I don't generally do alcohol, but sleep deprivation...
Back in Canberra after 2 weeks in New Zealand. Wish it was longer but am also happy to have own bed back. Less please over it being 31 degrees out, but you get that.
There may or may not be a fuller report (or bits added to this when I remember them) later...
Cohearance may be optional due to the 3:30am getting up for 6am 3 hour flight, with 3 hour bus trip following. I remember sleep... (Z is currently catching up on it, but I am being silly and doing the electronic update stuff)
Sydney: Trip down included a second trip to the Viking exhibition at the Maritime museum. More pretty books including a British Museum publication on the Lewis Chessmen. Luggage storage no longer at the Central Train station (terrorism threat etc), but local internet cafes seem to suddenly be discovering that locked cubboards are cheaper to maintain than computer networks...
Christchurch: Met up with NZ supervisors and discussed papers while Z shot (paintball) at others and then his siblings. The bruises were quite impressive. The lesson appears to be have the Bruce boys on your side when shooting things. Usual fabric and secondhand clothing shop tours - linen, silk:)
Wellington: Christmas food shopping and running into someone I knew from primary school - she recognised my mother, not me... Christmas eve dinner with family. Christmas day BBQ at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alpha_angel - Zombies and tug of war... Boxing day sales (briefly) with most of the effort being focussed on pillaging Arty Bees (NICE second hand and new book shop). Curiously good find of a pseudo Victorian doublet at Glassons of all places. Then off to meet medievalists and Alpacas. Good to catch up with old friends and meet some new and I wish we could have spent longer. Following day King Kong at the Embassy. Worth it there, but I have the sneaking suspicion that a second viewing might spoil things a little. Z's elder brother in credits twice. Pillaged Courtney place Arty Bees - yay for danish bog finds, though not the Hald one. Turkey, cranberry and brie pizza is a good use for leftover turkey:)
Nelson: Moni and Vernon's wedding. All very big and impressive and organised, all the best to the happy couple. I hope (and think) it went exactly as they wanted, but boy, am I happy we did what we did wrt getting hitched. Nice food, lotsa explosions with fieldguns and fireworks, the Mudcastle was very impressive... and I have photos of Z in a suit. I like the effect of the sunglasses but it doesn't exactly inspire trust...:). Next day worries of how to get back to Chch were solved with an eveing flight, so afternoon was spent at BBQ, talking to people. Z has very cute nieces (especially in the swiming pool and when one was trying to feed her father christmas cake... and leaves and greenstone and anything else she could get her hands on), but that was skipping the apparent 50km drive with vomiting in order to get them to sleep the previous night.
Christchurch: Galactic Civilisation (Z playing with 3 others, me watchign and sleeping). 13 hours and an actual end to the game - apparently a somewhat rare event. New Years eve and bah humbug to makeup shopping but yay to finding LOTR extended editions boxed set for 20% off the already marked down price of ~$100... and "She will have her way". BBQ and party. Fun talking to people, though a little lacking warm sitdown space where you could hear yourself think. I crashed ~4 am with Z following at 5am(ish). New Years day and trip out to Staveley - people don't tailgate when you are towing a field gun with the barrel pointed at them. Back the following day with UCMRS dance picnic and russion LOTR parody. Liked the oliphants and horses.
Which brings us up to today, which started at 3:30am and has been trundling along from there. Things to note:
Customs is a lot easier when you have written what you need to declare on the customs form and it is all in the one bag in easy reach.
Including NZ passport holders in the aussie queues for immigration appears to have doubled the size of the queues - cluttered up with all us riff-raff I suppose... or it was just a bad time.
Open blocks of chocolate go through customs fine - to be remembered next time.
Need to stockpile the Whitticars 72% dark chocolate.
Should probably get some sleep soonish as I do have work tomorrow. And I have been about 45 min in writing this...
Thank you to all who accomodated and fed us in this trip:)
Must do it again some time.
There may or may not be a fuller report (or bits added to this when I remember them) later...
Cohearance may be optional due to the 3:30am getting up for 6am 3 hour flight, with 3 hour bus trip following. I remember sleep... (Z is currently catching up on it, but I am being silly and doing the electronic update stuff)
Sydney: Trip down included a second trip to the Viking exhibition at the Maritime museum. More pretty books including a British Museum publication on the Lewis Chessmen. Luggage storage no longer at the Central Train station (terrorism threat etc), but local internet cafes seem to suddenly be discovering that locked cubboards are cheaper to maintain than computer networks...
Christchurch: Met up with NZ supervisors and discussed papers while Z shot (paintball) at others and then his siblings. The bruises were quite impressive. The lesson appears to be have the Bruce boys on your side when shooting things. Usual fabric and secondhand clothing shop tours - linen, silk:)
Wellington: Christmas food shopping and running into someone I knew from primary school - she recognised my mother, not me... Christmas eve dinner with family. Christmas day BBQ at
alpha_angel - Zombies and tug of war... Boxing day sales (briefly) with most of the effort being focussed on pillaging Arty Bees (NICE second hand and new book shop). Curiously good find of a pseudo Victorian doublet at Glassons of all places. Then off to meet medievalists and Alpacas. Good to catch up with old friends and meet some new and I wish we could have spent longer. Following day King Kong at the Embassy. Worth it there, but I have the sneaking suspicion that a second viewing might spoil things a little. Z's elder brother in credits twice. Pillaged Courtney place Arty Bees - yay for danish bog finds, though not the Hald one. Turkey, cranberry and brie pizza is a good use for leftover turkey:)Nelson: Moni and Vernon's wedding. All very big and impressive and organised, all the best to the happy couple. I hope (and think) it went exactly as they wanted, but boy, am I happy we did what we did wrt getting hitched. Nice food, lotsa explosions with fieldguns and fireworks, the Mudcastle was very impressive... and I have photos of Z in a suit. I like the effect of the sunglasses but it doesn't exactly inspire trust...:). Next day worries of how to get back to Chch were solved with an eveing flight, so afternoon was spent at BBQ, talking to people. Z has very cute nieces (especially in the swiming pool and when one was trying to feed her father christmas cake... and leaves and greenstone and anything else she could get her hands on), but that was skipping the apparent 50km drive with vomiting in order to get them to sleep the previous night.
Christchurch: Galactic Civilisation (Z playing with 3 others, me watchign and sleeping). 13 hours and an actual end to the game - apparently a somewhat rare event. New Years eve and bah humbug to makeup shopping but yay to finding LOTR extended editions boxed set for 20% off the already marked down price of ~$100... and "She will have her way". BBQ and party. Fun talking to people, though a little lacking warm sitdown space where you could hear yourself think. I crashed ~4 am with Z following at 5am(ish). New Years day and trip out to Staveley - people don't tailgate when you are towing a field gun with the barrel pointed at them. Back the following day with UCMRS dance picnic and russion LOTR parody. Liked the oliphants and horses.
Which brings us up to today, which started at 3:30am and has been trundling along from there. Things to note:
Customs is a lot easier when you have written what you need to declare on the customs form and it is all in the one bag in easy reach.
Including NZ passport holders in the aussie queues for immigration appears to have doubled the size of the queues - cluttered up with all us riff-raff I suppose... or it was just a bad time.
Open blocks of chocolate go through customs fine - to be remembered next time.
Need to stockpile the Whitticars 72% dark chocolate.
Should probably get some sleep soonish as I do have work tomorrow. And I have been about 45 min in writing this...
Thank you to all who accomodated and fed us in this trip:)
Must do it again some time.
no subject