Old Musings - April 2002

It is Saturday night, and I am making the most of a nice quiet evening at home - after all, it has been another hectic week. 

Last weekend, I went canoeing down in Kangaroo Valley. Not much to say about that other than everyone had very sore arms afterwards.

When I got home, my new flatmate was busy moving in. Arlen decided a while ago that she was tired of taking the train from Sydney every day. To be honest I don't blame her - the train ride is about 2.5 hours each way! So now she's my flatmate during the week, and in the weekend she goes back off to Sydney.

So far Arlen has been a very bad influence on me. Since she has moved in, I've started noticing how grubby my place has become lately, and I've on a cleaning spree. The place now looks cleaner than every. Well, that was until yesterday. Today Arlen is back in Sydney, and for some reason the place looks like a sty again. What gives? Where did Clean Gerard go all of a sudden? Where did all those dirty dishes come from?

I had a nice relaxing ANZAC day. I managed to get a number of things done that have been piling up for a while. One of those tasks was my whiteboard. Normally I have a whiteboard stuck on my fridge. I say normally, because lately it has developed a tendency to fall off. I guess they just don't make Blu-Tac like they used to. I used the day to have a good look at the technical aspects of this perplexing problem. I needed to find a better way to affix the board to the fridge. My first attempt at a solution involved a number of fridge magnets strategically hot-glued around the perimeter of the board. Unfortunately the magnets proved too weak to provide sufficient cohesion.  So my second solution, and one that appears to be working at the moment, involves velcro strips with an adhesive backing.

I don't know why, but I have started to do lots of crossword puzzles. I guess it has something to do with exercising my lexicographical prowess. Mind you, if I am doing a crossword while watching Pulp Fiction (one of my new DVDs by the way), then I figure it is just a matter of the universe maintaining some sort of weird balance :)

Web Update
New Canoeing photos
Updated DVD list 

I am very tired and sore today - I helped Chris and Yvonne cut down a tree yesterday. The tree was starting to rot on the inside, and it was posing a danger to the neighbour down the hill. So, to get the tree down they invited a whole bunch of people for a BBQ - on the condition that they chipped in. (I know - very bad pun <g>).

Wohoo! Just got back from a glorious holiday back home in NZ. 

 

Using some of my frequent flyer points I had managed to secure a free trip home, which was great. Unfortunately, I could only fly out on Easter Sunday even though I wasn't going to be doing anything on the (Good) Friday or Saturday. I really wanted to fly out a home a bit earlier, so I kept on checking the available seats - the airlines start making more frequent flyer seats available as they realise they won't be filling them with paying customers. 

Eventually I struck the jackpot! I found that a seat on an earlier flight had become available so I quickly rang up and asked to change my flight. Everything was going well until I was told that I had to allow 24 hours to change flights. Hmmm. That was the end of that idea then. 

Rather peeved off, I  sat down and thought about the problem at hand. 

A couple of minutes after my initial phone call, I rang back and told them again that I wanted to change my flight. This time I made a point of stating that the flight I was after was not due to depart for 24 hours and 20 minutes! With that, my flight was changed and I managed fly back home to Christchurch for Good Friday :)

One of the highlights of my trip back home would have to be a trip on the TranzAlpine express over to Greymouth. I caught the TranzAlpine from Springfield (D'oh!) which is right at the foot of the Southern Alps. From there to Greymouth it is almost 100% stunning scenery. I say almost because there are 16 tunnels during the trip, and the views aren't that exciting when you are in any of them :)

To make the most of the trip, you really have to go and take it all in from the viewing deck. This is a great vantage point to take photos from, without dirty windows getting in the way - but take a scarf though, it can get pretty fresh!

After approximately three and a half hours, I finally arrived in Greymouth. Luckily the hotel I had booked was only a quick 10 minute walk away from the station, so once I had dropped off all the gear I was ready to go and explore. Well, it didn't take long before I had surveyed Greymouth's CBD - the two roads weren't all that long! 

Of course, I am a sucker for 'the Warehouse', so I couldn't resist popping in. What might surprise some people is that Greymouth sports one of the largest Warehouses in the South Island. As usual, I couldn't resist sifting through their DVD offerings, and I ended up purchasing a copy of 'Unbreakable'.

The next day, after I was all shopped out and getting wary of all the Jade exhibits, it was time to return home. When I got to the station, I was told that train wasn't running today because of an obstruction on the track. Not looking forward to being stuck in a bus going over Arthur's pass I managed to secure a one-way car hire. This meant that I could drive back at my own pace and stop every now and then to take snapshots. That was just as well, cos I ended up spotting a Moa when I stopped for a quick refreshment at a pub!

 

Web Update
Moved the Ramblings for March off to the Archives.
Added a couple of Flora and Fauna photos
Added some photos from my TranzAlpine trip to Greymouth