Helen: Yup, that's right, I've gone and got myself a job. In Edinburgh. Starting at the beginning of June. On the one hand I'm sad that our trip will be ending soon, and that we won't get to spend as long as I'd hoped exploring Central Asia. But on the other hand, I'm certainly done with living out of a backpack and whatever we don't manage this time round we'll do the next time. And, I have to say, I am excited about having a job, using my brain, and working for the Fed (my old job with city farms/community gardens) again. I loved my work and it was a real wrench to leave, so I'm happy. And C is even more excited. He's already talking feverishly about what he's going to do when he gets home - skiing, putting a bike engine in his caterham, lots of climbing, martial arts...you name it. Think he thinks he's going to be a kept man!
It's late here and I'm off to bed. But, more news soon, I promise
hx
ps forgot to say, we're now in melbourne - it's great - v v different from nz, and from sydney for that matter. It feels like London or Glasgow. Lots of old buildings and character. There are more people in this one city than in all of NZ put together. Was quite a culture shock when Jenny and Gareth picked us up from the airport and we drove home on a 4 lane each way road! That's the biggest road we've seen since we left the UK!
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Don't let the bed bugs bite
Helen: Not been a particularly inspiring week, I have to be honest. We drove to ChristChurch from Nelson, and have been waiting here since then in limbo. We were all geared up to leave NZ and head to Aus after our YM exams...and then we got stuck here because C wanted to retake. Thankfully that's all sorted now and he's doing his exam again on Sat (back in bloody Nelson though. Another long drive - and we don't even have any Dan Brown to keep us occupied (I won't say amused or interested) this time). Oh well... hope he passes this time!
We have managed to go swing dancing once, meet up with some friends (from Tahiti - who are now having a baby - I told C that everyone we know is having babies now so maybe we should too and he just said 'no, all we need is some new friends!), and go to the cinema (Valkyrie is very good, if you can ignore Tom Cruise, which, I admit, is hard as he's the main character). But we haven't managed much, partly because we've been in wierdo limbo land, and partly because we've been hanging out at the Backpackers Car Market every day. It's about as glamourous and exciting as it sounds. We've been trying to sell our car for 3 days now and no one wants it! It's really upsetting C that people would rather buy rust-buckets that even I think sound awful than spend decent money on our car, which he's looked after well. I'm going to cover the car in coloured stickers tomorrow in an attempt to get people's attention.
Only other thing of note that's happened to us is that C has been munched by bed bugs. Yup, bed bugs. He had so many itchy red bumps he even went to the doctor to see if he had chicken pox. He didn't, so he went rooting around under the mattress in our hostel and found a colony of the little buggers. All our possessions have now been fumigated. It's making me itchy just writing this (although, I have, unusually, escaped, unscathed. Normally, if there's a rash to be got, I'll get it, but not this time. Serves C right as he insisted on swapping sides of the bed with me - he ended up in the bed bug nest not me!)
Ok, that's all. Time for bed
Hxxxx
We have managed to go swing dancing once, meet up with some friends (from Tahiti - who are now having a baby - I told C that everyone we know is having babies now so maybe we should too and he just said 'no, all we need is some new friends!), and go to the cinema (Valkyrie is very good, if you can ignore Tom Cruise, which, I admit, is hard as he's the main character). But we haven't managed much, partly because we've been in wierdo limbo land, and partly because we've been hanging out at the Backpackers Car Market every day. It's about as glamourous and exciting as it sounds. We've been trying to sell our car for 3 days now and no one wants it! It's really upsetting C that people would rather buy rust-buckets that even I think sound awful than spend decent money on our car, which he's looked after well. I'm going to cover the car in coloured stickers tomorrow in an attempt to get people's attention.
Only other thing of note that's happened to us is that C has been munched by bed bugs. Yup, bed bugs. He had so many itchy red bumps he even went to the doctor to see if he had chicken pox. He didn't, so he went rooting around under the mattress in our hostel and found a colony of the little buggers. All our possessions have now been fumigated. It's making me itchy just writing this (although, I have, unusually, escaped, unscathed. Normally, if there's a rash to be got, I'll get it, but not this time. Serves C right as he insisted on swapping sides of the bed with me - he ended up in the bed bug nest not me!)
Ok, that's all. Time for bed
Hxxxx
Tuesday 10 February 2009
not Yachtmasters :(
Helen: Well...we didn't pass our sailing exam. Thanks for all your good luck messages all the same. We went for RYA Yachtmaster which is the highest non-commercial qualification you can get, as well as the lowest commercially endorsable qualification, and the exam was bloody hard! The examiner had us picking up buoys under sail, anchoring under sail and doing blind navigation round imaginary reefs. In the end he said he thought we sailed well together, and that his kids would be safe with us, but that we didn't have the experience for YM, so he gave us Coastal Skipper instead, which is the level below. To be honest, I'm dead chuffed with that. I wasn't really sure that I was up to YM, and Coastal is good enough for me. I've had a lot of sailing experience in the last year, but not much boat handling or skippering, so I think it was a fair decision for me.
C on the other hand is fuming. He didn't like the examiner from the start and thinks he has been treated very unfairly. Our instructor agrees, and they're in the process of lodging an official complaint to the RYA. C is cross about all sorts of things, the edited highlights of which are:
- when the examiner came on board he said he'd be examining us, but also that he hoped we'd learn something too - which put us in a very difficult position - all the time we weren't sure if he was testing us or teaching us, especially when he told us to do manoeuvres differently from how we'd been taught
- he didn't seem to be able to treat me and C differently - it was as if we were a job lot and I feel that C might have been tarred with my brush as it were. For example, the examiner said that it took C 5 attempts to pick up a buoy under sail which just isn't true - that was me!!
- he put us under stress by his personality, rather than just stress from the situation, which isn't allowed in RYA guidelines
- he wouldn't allow us to do manoeuvres the way we'd been taught by an RYA instructor - he wanted them done his way instead, which is just daft. If he's an RYA examiner he ought to abide by RYA regs.
And so on. You get the idea. Anyway, we're now back in Ch-Ch totally knackered (I'm writing this from bed, and it's 1135 in the morning - don't plan on doing much today at all - might finish reading Dan Brown to C (I keep him amused while he's driving by reading drivel that doesn't require much brain power) but that's pretty much it - oh, and we might go and meet some people we met in Tahiti for a beer). Then we have to sell the car, and head to Oz - but C might want to retake his YM exam in Nelson first...
Will keep you posted
Hxx
C on the other hand is fuming. He didn't like the examiner from the start and thinks he has been treated very unfairly. Our instructor agrees, and they're in the process of lodging an official complaint to the RYA. C is cross about all sorts of things, the edited highlights of which are:
- when the examiner came on board he said he'd be examining us, but also that he hoped we'd learn something too - which put us in a very difficult position - all the time we weren't sure if he was testing us or teaching us, especially when he told us to do manoeuvres differently from how we'd been taught
- he didn't seem to be able to treat me and C differently - it was as if we were a job lot and I feel that C might have been tarred with my brush as it were. For example, the examiner said that it took C 5 attempts to pick up a buoy under sail which just isn't true - that was me!!
- he put us under stress by his personality, rather than just stress from the situation, which isn't allowed in RYA guidelines
- he wouldn't allow us to do manoeuvres the way we'd been taught by an RYA instructor - he wanted them done his way instead, which is just daft. If he's an RYA examiner he ought to abide by RYA regs.
And so on. You get the idea. Anyway, we're now back in Ch-Ch totally knackered (I'm writing this from bed, and it's 1135 in the morning - don't plan on doing much today at all - might finish reading Dan Brown to C (I keep him amused while he's driving by reading drivel that doesn't require much brain power) but that's pretty much it - oh, and we might go and meet some people we met in Tahiti for a beer). Then we have to sell the car, and head to Oz - but C might want to retake his YM exam in Nelson first...
Will keep you posted
Hxx
Wednesday 4 February 2009
And then there were two...
Helen: Now we're all on our lonely ownly ownsome. L, B and W went home a couple of days ago and now it's just us again. It's all quiet without them - but much easier to wash up after 2 people than 5! Predictably our baggage still expands to fill the boot of our car, and most of the back seat, even though we sent a whole bunch of stuff home with the Panks!
The last few days the rest of the clan were here we went kayaking in Milford and walked the hallowed Milford Track (well, 2 miles of it anyway) - have to say it didn't look that different to the rest of the rainforest we've seen in NZ! C & W got very excited because they thought they'd seen a kiwi in the wild - it turned out to be a weka instead (small, brown bird so they could be forgiven for the mistake). Then we went to Queenstown (where we saw real kiwis in a bird sanctuary), wine tasting in Otago (yum, yum, yum is all I can say) and ended up in Mt Cook where we got an amazing picture postcard perfect day with clear blue skies behind the snow and ice capped mountains. Bloody gorgeous.
Now we're back in Nelson (stayed a couple of nights on the West Coast where we encountered the rudest man we've yet met on our travels - he was, I hate to say, English, about 55, very fat and traveling with a much younger German girl. We were minding our own business in the lounge playing guitar and harmonica (we're getting quite good together) and he just started playing music on his laptop without asking us if we minded. Of course, we didn't complain - not the British way - but we should have. Bloody Dido droning on for hours. They went upstairs and left her wailing away - mercifully she stopped after 20 mins or so all by itself...and he had the cheek to accuse us of messing about with his computer - it had just run out of battery because he'd plugged it into the wrong socket. He was really agressive and accusatory. Wanker. Then we had to listen to him and his girlfriend shagging all night. Delightful. I can only assume that she was with him for his money...) Anyway, as I said, now we're in Nelson, in our favourite hostel, swotting up for our yachtmaster exam on Sunday. Cross your fingers for us.
Lots of love
Hxx
The last few days the rest of the clan were here we went kayaking in Milford and walked the hallowed Milford Track (well, 2 miles of it anyway) - have to say it didn't look that different to the rest of the rainforest we've seen in NZ! C & W got very excited because they thought they'd seen a kiwi in the wild - it turned out to be a weka instead (small, brown bird so they could be forgiven for the mistake). Then we went to Queenstown (where we saw real kiwis in a bird sanctuary), wine tasting in Otago (yum, yum, yum is all I can say) and ended up in Mt Cook where we got an amazing picture postcard perfect day with clear blue skies behind the snow and ice capped mountains. Bloody gorgeous.
Now we're back in Nelson (stayed a couple of nights on the West Coast where we encountered the rudest man we've yet met on our travels - he was, I hate to say, English, about 55, very fat and traveling with a much younger German girl. We were minding our own business in the lounge playing guitar and harmonica (we're getting quite good together) and he just started playing music on his laptop without asking us if we minded. Of course, we didn't complain - not the British way - but we should have. Bloody Dido droning on for hours. They went upstairs and left her wailing away - mercifully she stopped after 20 mins or so all by itself...and he had the cheek to accuse us of messing about with his computer - it had just run out of battery because he'd plugged it into the wrong socket. He was really agressive and accusatory. Wanker. Then we had to listen to him and his girlfriend shagging all night. Delightful. I can only assume that she was with him for his money...) Anyway, as I said, now we're in Nelson, in our favourite hostel, swotting up for our yachtmaster exam on Sunday. Cross your fingers for us.
Lots of love
Hxx
Squalid Tours
Helen: Well, we've been a fair old way since I last wrote – we all bundled into Ming, our trusty Mitsubishi estate (it's a good thing Panks are small and travel light is all I can say) and then we headed off for Dunedin. The guide book promised 'the Edinburgh of the South'...but it wasn't a patch on the real thing. We visited Princes St and George St and saw a few old stone buildings, but the real attraction was that we saw penguins! They come ashore when it gets dark, so we waited for them on the beach and saw a handful of them waddle ashore with white tummies and big yellow eyebrows and their ankles effectively tied together. You have to stay a long way away from them otherwise you frighten them so they won't return to their nests to feed their babies. Was a magical night – no one else but us and the penguins.
Then it was on to Curio Bay – beautiful beach (L, B and W appreciated it more than us – you can tell they haven't been sailing round the world recently as they were excited by the dolphins too), and then a 3 day tramp. It rained pretty much the whole time (typical West Coast weather – much like the West Coast of Scotland) and we didn't get any views at the top, but the huts were very luxurious – you could even buy wine and beer! Now enjoying a well earned rest before kayaking in Milford Sound tomorrow and wine tasting in Otago after that...
Hxx
PS had a hilarious game of 'international' boggle while on our tramp – we met a lovely Dutch couple and an Israeli girl who all spoke pretty good English so they joined in with our game (Bob's a star and carried travel Boggle all the way up the hill). In the spirit of international relations we decided we ought to play a round in Dutch and a round in Hebrew too. Was interesting how many Dutch words the non-Dutch contingent came up with (they only counted if you could also come up with a reasonable definition and the word actually existed in Dutch) – we didn't do so well in Hebrew though!
PPS had an awful 'oh-bollocks-I've-lost-6-hours-work-on-the-computer' moment last night (believe it or not I'm applying for my old job in Edinburgh again). Annoyingly, I'm now too old to blame the computer (well, I would, but C just looks at me reproachfully when I do.
PPPS read a brilliant bit in the guidebook yesterday – apparently the Maori believe the Fiords were created by a god with an axe and they were so beautiful that the Goddess of Death had to unleash sandflies on the area so that people wouldn't want to stay here forever! It worked!
Final PS – It's Jan 29th today. One year since Matt died. God I wish he was still here. Hannah, we're thinking about you and Nooka and all the good times we had together.
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