Hi groovers. I'm having my lunch break, due to aliens, a broken toaster and a misaligned light bulb my flight doesn't leave today until 4pm. Which means I'm here at work until 2:30pm which is not cool.

I went to Karate last night, lots of fun as usual. We got to drag ourselves along the floor using only our arms as well as do some sort of crazy disco moves that everyone apart from me seemed to know the routine for. You feel rather stupid when 29 people are facing one way and you end up facing the other, looking back at them all. Practise practise practise, that's what it'll take.

Well, as you can see I started writing the above two paragraphs on Friday. But it's now Saturday morning. I've just dropped Sarah off at her friend Kelly's house, they're going down to "The Mount", which is the name...

I was just in the store buying some olive oil. This crazy looking dude comes in and gives the guy a two dollar coin and says "Hey man, last week you accidently gave me an extra dollar change! Can you swap this two dollar coin for two fifty cent pieces please?" So the shop keepers looks at him kinda strange and says no worries, gives him two fifty cent coins and a single dollar coin. "Naaa man, naaa! You gave me an extra dollar last week! That one dollar is yours!" So the store keeper says thanks and pockets the dollar. The guy then frumps around the store for about 30 seconds, grabbing up stuff and then plonks it down on the counter.

Then he tries to pay with a cheque. Duh. The shop keeper wasn't having a bit of it however. "Cash or nothing" he said so this guy...

Hi groovers. It's a long weekend here in New Zealand!

Yesterday we went to the MOTAT (I think it stands for "Museum of transport and technology") scooter festival, we have a scooter (Though it's RIP at the moment) so we thought we'd see what it was like. It was a lot like I'd imagine a hippy convention to be. There was about 10 different stalls with scooter bits 'n' pieces on display, lots of people riding around on scooters, a band that no one was listening to and not much else. We left after about 10 minutes because we'd seen the whole festival! We thought there might be a few displays and information, the history of scooters etc. Nope, just the odd scooter parked in front of a "stall" you could look at. It was still good to go, even if it just helps to support MOTAT.

Last night we...

The one thing I really do enjoy about Wellington is walking to work. It takes me about 25 minutes each morning and thankfully most days it's nice and sunny! I took some random photos this morning on my way to work with my phone's camera. They're pretty random and not very good quality but they're attached in case you're interested!

The first one's the sign on Cuba street. I love walking up Cuba street at night, there's cafe's and bars. You walk past lots of intersting things and interesting people. Last night there was a couple playing guitar and bongos. Usually there's a homeless looking dude who's quite good on guitar.

My workmate Dean has been in Queensland for the last week at a wedding. Today he walked into work with a 6 pack of Boags! Thanks Dean! It was a really nice gesture, I hadn't even asked for it. I will enjoy them no doubt.

Karate tonight was very hard. Though I do notice I am getting more coordinated. The hardest bit was the teacher making us do what felt like about 30 situps. My stomach was NOT impressed with this. Good exericse though.

In other news, I can hear very drunk people yelling and screaming in the pub below my apartment building. They're having a great time.

I'm getting used to this flying around thing. Translated that means it's boring and I hate it. But I have no choice so I won't moan about it anymore.

Friday night we went to Misson Bay. It's such a nice place when it's nice weather and Friday night was pretty perfect if a little cold. We bought fish and chips from the "famous" fish pot cafe. They managed to stuff our order up though, but it wasn't really their fault. Their ticket book had the number 100 in it twice. So some lucky devil ended up with our order and we ended up with theirs! I went back though and they made our order for us again.

While watching all the dogs being walked and seagulls hoping for a feed, we noticed one seagull that was keeping a low profile. It seemed like he was hugging the sand. It took...

Hello. Every morning on my way to work I walk past a Starbucks coffee on Lampton Quay. In the window is a poster advertising about working at Starbucks. On it, in blue pen, someone has written "Helen...Woof!" Every time I walk past I notice the poster and the words then I always wonder who Helen is? Why did someone take the time to pull the poster down, write that on it and put it back up again? What's the woof all about? Is someone trying to suggest Helen's a dog? Is it code for something? Don't Starbucks care this is on their poster? It's kinda hard to see so maybe they haven't noticed. But I've noticed and it really annoys me. Maybe I should go in and ask to speak to Helen?

Life is so confusing.

Tim

Hello.
Still in Wellington, still not much happening although this is the week that everything's supposed to be happening. Current tasks today have included writing a serial number on a bit of paper and trying to ping a few hosts. In non-techie speak this is about as exciting as blowing your nose and plucking an eyelash.

On the weekend we did some gardening. We pulled out all the weeds and dead crap from the front of the house and make it look all lovely. We also cleaned out a lot of my crap in the garage because it had gone mouldy. Erk.

Skype is really cool. Sarah's got it on her laptop and we both have webcams. Sarah took her laptop into the kitchen and we were able to chat and talk, as well as see each other. It's pretty cool, though I'm still waiting for the day when she...

I did Karate again tonight. I got special one-on-one teaching too, the only one to get it. I'm not sure if this is because I'm extra stupid or just because I'm the newest there. I'm hoping for the second option.

Wellington is in the middle of a storm at the moment. The usual level of wind (insane) has gone up to crazy levels (Psychopathic deluxe). On my way to work this morning I got sunned on, rained on then hailed on. Joy. I hope my flight out tomorrow isn't cancelled, quite a few have been today and yesterday.

I stayed home sick yesterday because I was feeling really crook when I woke up. I felt better by late afternoon (after a lot of sleep) and then I was ok this morning. A werid 24 hour bug thing. Maybe all the Karate wore me down the first time.

Walking to work...

So I went to Karate tonight. Take a second or two, have a laugh if you need to. Yes, I went to Karate. I need something to do at night while I'm down here and Karate's meant to be fun and good workout. That's what I've been told and it certainly turned out to be the case. AS I type this pretty much only my fingers are able to move freely while the rest of me creeks, cramps or spazms.
Ok, so I'm not really that broken but I'm pretty sore in a few spots! It was heaps of fun though, a lot more relaxed atmosphere than I thought and a bit more physical work than I thought it'd be. At the end we did this exercise where you had to run with this heavy ball (about the weight of a balling ball) and hold it while you did situps...