new year's eve

today has been a domestic day - i cleaned the car (inspired by the moss that was growing on the mudguards), made bread, picked a bucket of blackcurrents, cleaned my room, vaccuumed the house, washed the dishes, did several loads of washing, took up a pair of pants (or would have if the needle hadn't broken halfway through), fed the dogs/chook and generally kept busy being housewife-ish. not sure what brought on this bout of domesticity but it definitely won't continue over into the new year. I feel like i should make an effort and go to town and join in the festivities but i can't be arsed fighting my way around drunk people. but moping around at home ain't much of a way to see the new year in. *sigh*

stolen

things are fun....particularly when you steal them from other people's webpages (thanks clam for giving me something to fill in my evening with). I hate owning a tv - i just got sucked into coronation street of all things instead of doing something vaguely cerebral. did make strawberry muffins tho...yum!! one more day of work for the year and then hopefully i will be off camping of something exciting. weather looks like it is going to be the usual new year's crap but camping in the rain is fun, right!?

post christmas ramblings

christmas this year consisted of 25 rellies, a pre-lunch run and post-dinner walk with much gluttony inbetween. all quite rushed tho - drove to chch on the 23rd, flew to wellington on the 24th, did the xmas thing, then flew home on the 26th, went up the clinton on the 27th and then back home again today. not really much of a holiday. and unfortunately the brain is feeling it. spent the last two days being insanely grumpy about nothing which is ridiculous when i'm being paid to be in the hills in absolutley glorious weather. think i'm well overdue for a real holiday where i don't have to be nice to people i haven't seen since i was 3 or run around organising other people's lives. bring on a holiday.....and soon

work

can often be a drag but not when you work for doc. cancelling my trip up the arthur yesterday because of torrential rain meant that i got to see our three newest ducks hatch which was choice as i had missed the last two hatchings. and i got to get myself on a helicopter flight down to the coast that almost turned into a mission of epic proportions.

we flew down to breaksea island to check out an old hut that needs to be demolished to work out what tools will be needed. it's normally about a 40 min flight but dodgy low cloud meant that we had to take the long route down and almost meant that we didn't make it back.....

landing on the beach was a little tricky as the locals weren't that keen on moving. as was walking the length of the beach to the hut. also saw my first south island saddlebacks but failed miserably with the photography

the hut we came to investigate the demolishing of is in a wicked location. pity i will be in christchurch for that trip in janauary

wet jacket arm was looking stunning on the flight home

but...
the weather packed it in

so... after flying around in circles trying to find our way through a pass, we had to shut down in the kintail and hope for a gap in the cloud. It was looking like it might be a long and uncomfortable night

but eventually the cloud "cleared" for a brief second and we snuck over a pass just above the treetops. i was secretly disappointed that we made it home as i had to get up at 4:50am this morning and do the weaning (as I do again tomorrow) but sleeping in a raven doesn't really rate high on my "must do" list.

oh...the experiences one has when they work for doc!!

i should

really try and write here more often but i have been spending so much time at work in front of the computer that i don't feel like turning it on when i get home (& i want to be a phd student??) speaking of which, i got one of the canterbury doctoral scholarships for being the nerd that i am, so that's $45,000 to keep me entertained for the next three years. that's a LOT of beer. finished the kiwifruit monstrosity yesterday - i would take a picture but i'm too lazy to walk down the other end of the house to get my camera. got dolled up yesterday to go to a races party - nice little green feathery 1920's number. today was weaning/dagging/drenching day - started at 5am and spent the day covered in sheep shit - lovely. up the arthur tomorrow `til thurs, then it's off to welly for the big family christmas shindig. too much to do - whatever happened to summer holidays.

christmas

is just an excuse for overglorified consumerism and today i did my bit by participating in the madness known as christmas shopping. Wandered the streets of invercargill for hours and hours and spent something horrendous in the order of $400. And the best thing of all....I only spent $30 of that on somebody else. So I now have a horrific credit card bill and i am really no closer to having completed my intended shopping. But i do have a lovely new merino hooded jersey and three pairs of pants and some tops and some lovely kiwifruit fabirc from which to make a skirt for the kiwiana christmas party. ok so that last purchase was a wee bit random and will probably end up being hideous. I had actually gone in to look for some cloak fabirc after being inspired by the narnia movie to make a cloak suitable for summer temperatures but got sidetracked by other crazy fabrics. still who wouldn't want a skirt with kiwifruit.....

multi-tasking

is a bad idea when gardening. Particulalrly when one of the tasks involves picking gooseberries and the other trying to remove a horrendous gaiter tanline by wearing a limited amount of clothing. my arms are now nicely scratched and i have spent most of the evening removing thorns. got myself a 5 litre bucket full of strawberries tho. decided that i quite like the rural lifestyle (but not farming per se). will have to find myself a little block of land up in chch next year where i can potter about in the garden.

populating the business plan

i learnt all sorts of interesting business lingo at the recovery group meeting, like how to populate business plans and how to get money through funding grants by usign statements such as if you don't give us money and the ducks go extinct, you'll all look like dicks. managed to impress the RG into giving me about $10,000 towards my research and secured myself a contract to develop and maintain a national whio database for like ever. which is great because it measn that i will get paid to develop a tool that means other people end up doing all of my data entry for my thesis for me!! blenheim was disgustingly hot and reminded me of being back in athens, ga - not so cool. wined, dined and schmoozed. all and all a rather productive few days.

grunty

today was the day pf the luxmoore grunt. 27km of mountain running with a whopping 800m vertical climb followed by an 800m vertical descent. not the kind of thing that sane people do. i didn't really have any great expectations - have been sick with the flu for the past week and a half and spent all this week doing whio river surveys, covering about 50km walking down the clinton, tutoko and cleddau rivers. not really the best buildup. had secretly been hoping to beat my sister but wasn't that optimistic. But,hah....i was wrong!! did the run in 3:14, whipped my sister's arse but 15 minutes and would have been in the top 3 local women if i hadn't stopped for a pee near the end and been passed while i had my pants down round my ankles!! Bugger.