Enjoying the warm weather
Trip Start
Aug 13, 2007
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88
91
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Wellington,
North Island,
New Zealand
Saturday, November 29, 2008
I'm sitting outside on the deck, in mid 20s sunshine eating my lunch whilst I type this. I can hear the tui birds singing in the trees, the occasional shout from the park where they are playing cricket and the gentle rustle of the leaves as the warm breeze moves through them. In 3hrs my parents will arrive at Wellington airport and they couldn't have picked a better day to land. It's a beautiful summer's day - I can see the sea from my seat and it is a gorgeous azure blue - in fact I will have to go get the camera and take a picture so you can appreciate it. Unfortunately the weather here is very unpredictable so by the end of their stay they will have probably experienced all 4 seasons.
The North Island has native bird called the kaka, which is part of the parrot family. There are a lot of them that live in Karori Sanctuary, but just recently a few of them have moved to the valley by our flat. Earlier this morning I was watching one outside the flat, perched on a branch.
Tomorrow is the last day of Movember, thank goodness. For those of you that don't already know, for the month of November, guys grow moustaches in order to raise money and highlight awareness about prostate cancer and men's depression. Although Graham has been doing it for the whole month, he didn't get round to setting up a fundraising page until last week (well actually I set it up for him). There is still time to sponsor him if you so wish.
At work, 10 of us have been doing a weight loss competition. It started with a comment by one girl that she'd put on 4 kilos and then somehow turned into a big competition where we all have to lose 7.2% of our weight, with $50 put in by each person. Most of us were doing well until the work Xmas party last week. The competition ends on 5th Dec so it's one more week of hard work and then hopefully I will reach my target. Anyway the point of all this is that I've started walking to work in the summer mornings as it is light here by 6am, not that I get up that early, normally leave around 7am. It's about 1hr's walk but it's a nice way to wake up and start the day. I am lucky as there are nice showers at work, and they have a drying room where I leave my towel, and I have my breakfast at work as well, so a lot less hassle than would otherwise be. I also keep my work shoes at work, as I was advised at my induction to always have a pair of comfortable shoes/trainers at work in case there is an earthquake and I have to walk back home or somewhere else.
On Friday I did a crazy thing and ran most of the way to work - something that I wouldn't have considered doing this time last year. It wasn't too bad although I had missed out the 2 uphill bits, so maybe I'll try that next time. I think the Run/Swim series is helping me get back into running again, although I'm not sure I want to ever do a half marathon again. We both did Round the Bays last February which is a flat 7km run but next February we are away in Auckland to watch the Top Gear show so will miss it.
Elsewhere on the sports front, badminton and touch rugby leagues have started again. We played our first badminton match on Thursday and won quite comfortably, although I was worn out after the first game. I've also played 2 touch rugby games so far, but I don't really know what I'm doing. Still it's mainly for the social aspect that I play.
