Victoria Hotel Suites Hamilton

... an enormous order of fish and chips, washed down with a Franks ('Its a damn fine drink'). Then a few more $5 beers while the sun went down into the ocean. It was probably one of the best sunsets Ive ever seen. But there wasnt much going on in the town after dark, so it was a pretty early night. Plus, we needed to be up pretty early and on the road.

... deal. Ends up just over $100 for the whole month, with a pretty good cover package. Lemme know if theres a better deal though!! Other than that, just starting the lists, saving $$ to fund our adventures and learning basic phrases to "connect with the peeps" better!! Oh yeh I got the "Lonely Planet Phrase Book - Southeast Asia" for $20 and its wicked!! Will let u know if it was worth it. :)

... it was served very elegantly outdoors in the shade - but accompanied by non-matching serviettes, which very much troubled my host! This was all a part of the build up to get me to spend the next three hours working on a co-authored paper for a conference in Paris next year. Today's my last full day in Hamilton, before I set off for a week in Wellington, and I'd earmarked it for my Hamilton sight-seeing day. The temperature is in ...

... suits. We then strapped our boards to the car and headed to the beach which was only 5 minutes up the road. When we arrived, there were a few surfers in the water already and one guy was kite surfing. Shortly after our arrival a surf school showed up with about 15 people in it. The weather at the beach was beautiful, but the water was COLD...probably about 60 degress, thank god we had the wet suits. We spent about 2 hours at the beach trying to surf ...

... come to love her, and it's gotten to the point where I'm so used to talking to her that even when I'm at home I've caught myself saying 'Olivia...' after a sentence (yes, I often talk to myself). It's become habit to include her in conversation even though she can't answer back verbally. I know she's listening and when she really wants to, she'll open her eyes really wide which is when I wish I could read her mind. Sometimes work is tiring but mostly I've ...

... her, I liked her. I think that says something. Toby went on to preach and he talked so fast that I only understood some of it. Damn accents. What it seemed like was that he was trying to evoke the 'spirit' to come down into the room and be present. He was telling us that we should feel 'him' all around us and feeling 'his' healing come into our bodies. After that he said that 'God' was telling him there was a couple in the congregation who'd been trying to have a baby and that ...

... I'm doing it. Oh and on friday the other assistant was off so I ran the weekly 'sit n be fit' class which was fab! It was so much fun wiggling along to Tom Jones. One of my favourite patients said I could have a job in theatre ahead of me! Ok enough work talk... Will now go back and try to recall what I've been up to the last 4 weeks.... Hope everyone back home is well and enjoying some better weather finally. I have to confess we've had a lush day today ...

... can just eat that instead of starving becuase the food is not so good. you get used to it but I can't wait to eat good food when I get home. This past weekend, 8 of us went to a kiwi guy, Simon's beach house in Papamoa. It was 10 minutes away from this mountain, Mt. Maunganui which is right next to the beach. It took us about an hour to climb all the way to the top and was a rediculous workout. The views were gorgeous ...

... like me and much more interesting), but the real purpose of this week-long hiatus is to write, and I have been doing a lot of that as well. I'm plowing through the new stuff I need to write to clear up the holes I've got in this book of mine (well, most of the holes - some of them I'm afraid might not ever get filled) and tomorrow I'm going to start putting them back into the actual typed manuscript. I'm feeling really good about where the story is going and I think ...

Drove back into Raglan to hang with Aaron and Noosh ( thanks for the hospitality again!) and wait for my boards and knee brace to finally arive. The knee brace had been held by customs and taxed 170$ because my well meaning mother had insured the thing for as much as possible. I was able to clear that up with some cut and paste from my bank page. Then, I finally got ahold of ...