1. Go to Antarctica

Tomorrow I'm off to do Number One on my list - Go to Antarctica! It all still seems a wee bit surreal - I've spent the weekend moving out of the house I've lived in for the past five years and squeezed all of my stuff into a storage shed. I have a giant pile of "stuff for the Antarctic" on Hamish's floor and it's hard to believe that I'm about to trade a balmy Christchurch evening for 3 months of ice and subzero temperatures. I can't wait!

I'm going to work with Adelie Penguins at Cape Bird and will completely isolated from the world for 3 months. No internet. No phone. Nothing but 24 hours of daylight and ice and penguins and leopard seals and whales and 2 other people in our tiny little hut at the base of Mount Erebus. Should make for an interesting summer!

So this will be it from me for a while. But I promise I'll be back with lots of pictures sometime in February. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a warm summer to you all!

10. Compete in a multi-sport event

Once again the Mighty Midgets stepped up to the challenge of the all womens adventure race, the Spring Challenge. This year's event started and finished in Tapawera and included rafting, mountain biking, orienteering and hiking. As usual, our preparation for the event had involved more tapering than training but we were feeling relatively confident as we stood at the start line. Our aim was to finish the course within 8 hours and cross the finish line exhausted but still smiling and having fun.

The starting gun saw 300 women head off on mountain bikes with amazing little carnage. We had cunningly elbowed our way to the front of the starting block and set off at a cracking pace, mostly being dragged along by the amazingly fit 12 hour teams. At one point, we were crusing along at an impressive 40 km/hr on mountain bikes on a gravel road! 13 km later and it was off the bikes and onto the raft (after being shoved into our wetsuits by our awesome support crew).

The mighty Motueka river was no match for the Mighty Midgets and was thankfully full of water, unlike the Buller last year when we spent a LOT of time dragging the raft over rocks. Our raft guide did spend quite a lot of time chatting to raft guides on boats we were trying hard to pass (mildly annoying) but we dug deep and got to the raft pullout in super-quick time. Another quick transition: wetsuits off, bike clothes on, food and water in. Then back on the bikes.

This leg started with steep grind up a large hill and was hard work. Little navigation required, although a little confusion at the top of the hill before a nice rocky descent, followed by one of the muddiest rides I have ever done. WE're talking thick, soupy mud over your wheel hubs, with ruts and sticks and blackberry to catch you when you're busy concentrating on the mud. There was a lot of pushing bikes but it was a lot of fun (and a little frustrating). We eventually emerged from the mud and sped downhill towards the orienteering course.

Now, the Mighty Midgets specialty is orienteering. We do loads of rogaines and night navigation orienteering and we're pretty good with a map and compass. So we were pretty happy with the orienteering leg - a nice easy course where we hit every checkpoint straight away and never even looked like getting lost. Then it was back on the bike for another muddy sidle around the hill to Transition 3.

We hit Transition 3 in 10th place! Amazing! We hadn't really trained and didn't think that we would be anywhere near that close to the front of the field. But we're pretty competitive and this news meant that our super-competitiveness kicked in. We set off on the hike in good spirits and keen to pass as many teams as possible. Which meant that we changed our plan and decided to take an alternative route to the next checkpoint at Trig U. So we set off up a narrow forestry road leading up a ridge through the pines. A couple of km up, the road petered out and after consulting the map and a bit of dithering, we decided to keep heading up the hill, following a track that had obviously been pioneered by the Spring Challenge competitors in front of us. After much struggling up the steep hill, through gorse and blackberry, we eventually made it to the top of the hill and popped out at a Trig. Trig Z. Not the trig we were supposed to be at. In fact, a trig on a completely different ridge a long way from the trig we were supposed to be at. There was a little swearing and "how the $#% @ did we get here?". The lesson from Spring Challenge 2010: Look at your map and don't necessarily follow the path most travelled!

Then we sat down, had a muesli bar and figured out how to actually get to where we were supposed to be. Fortunately there was a relatively easy route that avoided the gorse and scrub and we were quickly heading in the right direction. An hour of traversing paddocks saw us at Trig U and back on the homeward straight. Then it was a quick run downhill through the forest and out into the township of Tapawera.

The last few blocks were a bit of a struggle and it was a tired but smiling team of Mighty Midgets that crossed the finish line in 18th place. Another successful Spring Challenge completed in 8 hours and 20 mins.

Next year we attempt the 12 hour event!

28. Make marmalade

I love maramlade and I've always meant to figure out how to make it for myself - I mean it can't be that hard, right? So when I found a recipe online recently, I decided I should give it a go.

It turned out to be super-easy, very tasty and cheap to make. And if you're really clever (like me), you can make your own levitating maramalade! I've copied the recipe below in case the link disappears. I made 11 jars based on this recipe (I used giant fruit) and need to track down Paddington Bear to help me eat it all!


Magic Levitating Citrus Marmalade
2 grapefruit
2 lemons
2 oranges
2 1/4 litres water
Sugar - 1 cup for each cup of fruit pulp

Wash the fruit and cut into small wedges. Remove any excess pith, blemished parts and the pips. Place the fruit in a kitchen whizz. Whizz the wedges until they are chopped into fine pieces. Place all the pulp into a large saucepan and cover with the water. Bring to the boil and boil for 45 minutes until the fruit is soft. Let the fruit pulp cool down slightly. Measure the pulp in cupfuls and return it to the large saucepan. You may wish to leave the marmalade at this stage and continue making it the following day. Add 1 cup of sugar for every cup of pulp. Bring the pulp back to the boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil briskly and stir regularly until the "setting stage" is reached. This can take up to 50 minutes. Place 1 tsp of mixture on a saucer and allow to cool. Run your finger across the top of this cooled marmalade and if a skin forms across the surface, then the setting stage has been reached. Take the marmalade off the stove and cool for 10 minutes. Place into sterilised jars using a ladle or small jug and seal firmly with hot rubber-lined lids. As the jars and marmalade cool, the lids will be sucked down and may even make a popping sound. This indicates a secure sealing of the marmalade. The marmalade can be stored in a cool, dry place and will keep for a number of months.

I bottled mine in recycled jam jars, the ones with the lids that go pop. To end up with levitating marmalade, turn the jars upside down after you put the lids on and leave to cool. Enjoy.

14. Knit/crochet a jersey

One of the things I've been meaning to do for a while is knit or crochet myself a jersey. I have actually done this twice before but neither attempts ended up being wearable. So this time (hopefully) I've picked a pattern that is a flattering style and looks relatively easy - the Central Park Hoodie. The plan was that this was to be my Antarctic project to fill in 3 months of evenings in a remote hut with boys. But I started a little early and have had a week at home recovering from surgery (see new addition #27 to the list) and have now finished the back and the left front of the jersey. oops! The photo below doesn't do the colour of the yarn justice - it is a gorgeous milk chocolate brown.

I've also found a potential replacement Antarctic project if I end up finishing this one before I go. So I might be able to cross this off the list twice!

Shell-brimmed cloche

I recently discovered Ravelry - an online forum for knitters and hookers (of the crochet kind) and it has got me inspired to get back into crafting. So a weekend with the flu seem like the perfect opportunity to laze around in the spring sunshine and crochet up a storm.

The shell-brimmed cloche was super-easy and took a day and three movies to complete. I made it from a soft cotton that makes it nice and light to wear (& hopefully won't stretch out of shape). It didn't really end up being a sunhat (31 things: #26) as I had intended but it's cute nonetheless.

Queen Anne's Lace Scarf

I also needed to clean out some of my random yarn stash - shiny and soft things that my magpie brain has made me by at the yarn store because they were pretty. In my random surfing of patterns on Ravelry, I found a pattern for a Queen Anne's Lace Scarf that looked complicated enough to be interesting to do without being taxing on my snot-filled head.

So I ended up using up two balls of stash yarn (a silver metallic and a purple bamboo) to get two very different scarves. No idea what I'll do with them - they are way too pretty for a jeans and t-shirt girl like me!

Earthquake relief t-shirts

My friend is selling t-shirts to commemorate the 4 September earthquake in Christchurch, with 10% of the profits going to help out those most affected by the quake. Check them out at www.snowpool.org.nz/t-shirt.php

Geologising

On a less destructive note, last weekend H and I went on a geologising trip up to Motonau Beach to see if we could find anything cool.
It was a beautiful day and a nice beach with some pretty awesomely steep and pointy sand cliffs. We found quite a few crab fossils that are waiting on the rock shelf of death to be extracted.

There were also some pretty awesome bivalves, both external and internal casts.

Hopefully more geologising to happen soon. H and his geeky geology friends are off mapping liquefaction around the city after the earthquake. Apparently there are some monster sand volcanoes out there!

Earthquake!

Yesterday morning we were woken up at 4:35 am by a 7.1 earthquake! Quite violent shaking that seemed to go on for quite a long time. Never quite made it out of bed and under the doorway but H had to hold onto the bookcase to prevent it falling over and disgorging its contents of rocks on top of us. The aftershocks keep rumbling on some 30 hours later, some of them quite big in themselves. Amazingly our part of town seems to have suffered little damage and we got off pretty lightly, losing only a couple of wineglasses and my car ending up under the neighbour's chimney! The bonnet is buggered and the radiator is toast, so I'm not sure how fixable it will be.

Amazingly, the 60 glass jars on the cupboard above the fridge stayed put and the fish (Gobius and Beluga), Milred the muscle and Steve the snail only lost a little bit of water from their tank. Badger, the cat, is still quite freaked out but an excellent aftershock predictor. If he takes off for his hole under the house, there's expect the earth to move. But it could have been much worse. Parts of the rest of the city have been quite badly damaged, with sides of buildings crumbling, roads with gaping holes and many houses still without power, water or sewerage. (Photos)

It is kinda surreal - looking out my window it is really hard to believe that there is so much damage just a few km away. Most of my friends seems to have survived without too much damage (besides the contents of their kitchen's ending up on the floor). All in all, we've been pretty lucky.

31 things

Once again I've written a list of things that I'm going to over the next 12 months. It isn't quite finished but I've made a reasonable start without too many things rolling over from previous years. I'm looking forward to an action-packed year being 31!

1. Go to Antarctica

2. Ride Long Bays

3. Submit a sturgeon manuscript

4. Run 500 km

5. Compete in a triathlon

6. Grow a Marlborough rock daisy

7. Publish the whio HQ paper

8. Complete a half marathon

9. Go cycle touring

10. Compete in a multi-sport event

11. Start a post doctoral position

12. Compete in a road bike race

13. Travel internationally

14. Knit/crochet a jersey

15. Compete in a mountain bike race

16. Complete the Crater Rim Trail Run

17. Climb a grade 16 on rock

18. Submit the final whio paper

19. Learn to ride my mountain bike clipless

20. Buy a macro lens

21. Buy a tripod

22. Re-instate my blog

23. Ride a century in a day

24. Spend a night at the Sign of the Packhorse

25. Learn to use Bayesian statistics

26. Crochet a sunhat

27.

28.

29.

30.

31. Go tramping at least once a month (SONDJFMAMJJA)

And she returns

After what has been a monster 3 year hiatus, I have decided to return to the blogosphere. This has been largely prompted by my discovery of RSS feeds and subsequent finding of random crafty/foody blogs that have inspired me to make/eat all sorts of fabulous goodies. So I'm going to use this opportunity to document my crafticious/delicious creations.

I finally finished my crocheted blanket today, at least a year after it was started. It's made from a single ply variegated wool and super soft and cuddly. Badger is in love! I've lost the link to the website where I found the pattern, so I'll attempt to make it up below. Super simple.

Crocheted blanket

I used 20 balls of 50g single ply variegated wool plus 1/4 ball of random stash wool for the edging and a 7mm crochet hook (I crochet super-tight).

Chain a foundation row of 151 stitches (or however wide you want it to be in an odd number).

Row 1: Single crochet (sc) to end

Row 2: Chain 1, sc in first chain, *skip 1, sc and double crochet (dc) in next chain, repeat from * to end.

Repeat Row 2 until the desired length, then finish with a row of sc in every stitch.

Edging: sc around edge, turning corners by sc, chain 2, sc in corner stitch. When you've gone all the way round, turn and go back in the opposite direction for a second round.

Hopefully that makes sense. I'll try and track down a link to the original pattern.