Alpha Males

The goalkeeper on one of my soccer teams is about to have a child so another player arranged a Lads Day Out for all of us to celebrate. Now that the weather is slightly better, the plan was to gather in a local park to play some cricket.

I had Perin drop me off and we ended up playing soccer with a group of older Asian guys for a while as the rest of the lads arrived. We beat the other team (although they'd been playing for hours and we just showed up) and they left when all our players arrived.

We set up the wickets to get the cricket started and formed teams. I thought I'd be the worst but as an American, at least I have some theory of baseball and an idea of how to hit a moving ball with a bat. I was better than both of the Germans who played. While I was a satisfactory batter, my bowling (pitching) was atrocious. While attempting to bowl a spin-ball at a high velocity, I misjudged the release time and threw the ball straight down by my feet. Twice. Even the Germans laughed at me.

We had all kinds of rules to speed up the game and increase scoring, so it wasn't as boring as normal. But even with all the "action" when I played outfield I couldn't believe how much concentration it took to always be ready. I gained a whole new appreciation for those cricketers (I think that's what they're called) that stand around in the hot sun for days-on-end concentrating on everyone standing around. Cricket would be a terribly difficult sport for anyone with ADD.

Our match ended a little after 90 minutes and my team won (I think). We might have played some more overs (kind of like innings) but a bunch of teenagers showed up and started playing soccer nearby. With a few beers in all of us, we had to leave the cricket behind and assert our alpha-maleness over those punks.

The teenagers were sober, fitter, quicker, and had spikes (cleats) on. We were all wearing running shoes. And so the game was in the teenagers' favor to start with. Fortunately, the goalkeeper having the baby is my height and has about 15 pounds on me (and is quite skilled on the field). We ended up taking control of the middle of the field. If one of those punks tried to dribble around either of us, they got a heavy shoulder or a punishing elbow to slow them down and we could steal the ball. They could be gentlemen and pass the ball around us, but we weren't about to be dribbled around.

I kicked the legs out from under one of the kids (mostly because he was too quick and by the time my foot got there, the ball was gone) and he yelled, "Foul! Foul!" I said, yes, he was correct and stopped playing to allow him a free kick. But then he was sprinting down the sideline looking over his shoulder at me laughing and saying "game on!" Paul started talking about himself in the third-person and he wasn't about to let the punk get away with that! So I chased him down the field and viciously shouldered him to the ground. I let him know that he "should've taken the free kick."

While the teenagers were probably better players individually, they didn't play well as a team and we beat them 5-4. Alpha male dominance was asserted. Beers followed. Great Lads Day Out.

Summer weather!

It's heading into summer here, so we get sunny days more frequently. Last week, we had two! As you can see on the forecast here, we are preparing for the bright sunniness that will be partially covered by clouds when it shows up on Sunday. I'm going to wear sun glasses.

When it rains now, it is much warmer than the winter rains. Our winter had pouring rain and airport-closing wind, but no snow. I'm becoming rather obsessed with the weather and will probably post more updates about the rain if it keeps up. I'm ready for the sun!

Soccer is going well. My all-men's indoor team had a particularly rough game last night. After 5 flagrant fouls, the other team is awarded a penalty kick. We scored two goals off penalty kicks before the first half was over. The game heated up from there and both teams got numerous penalty shots. Regardless, my team won. Playing seven to ten games a week has improved my fitness dramatically. I don't really go to the gym anymore which isn't a bad thing.

Our classes are ending next week. I have my big improv performance on Saturday night and Perin will get some pictures and maybe some video to share. Hopefully it's entertaining. Perin's sewing class finishes and she's almost finished her sun dress she plans to wear in Hawaii. We've both signed up for classes in the new year - I've got Mandarin lessons and Perin's taking another sewing class.

Adult-education classes have historically be subsidized by the government, but the National (conservative) party is in power and it cutting funding for next year. So many of the smaller schools will not be offering classes next term and fees have gone up for everyone. Our school wasn't closed and it's still a pretty good deal, so I'm sure we'll take heaps of classes over the next year.

Work is slowing down a bit as we head in the summer/holiday break. Because I don't have too much to do, I procrastinate and then don't get anything done. And then I stress out a bit at having not done enough at the end of the day. At least I'm getting my exercise!

I heard on the radio about Christmas lights competitions, but I don't think I've seen a single house that has them up here. I think part of the reason is that we're heading into summer and the sun doesn't set until 8:30pm. Christmas ads have Santa wearing shorts and jandals, but it was explained to us that all the "white Christmas" stories are accepted by children here because they understand that he lives in the northern hemisphere and know that it's cold there.

With no Thanksgiving here, it's okay for holiday parties to start much earlier in the year. I think our first party was over two weeks ago. It makes more sense than cramming them all in together at the end of the year. And you can attend them all with less stress. My first work party was at the Staglands Wildlife Preserve and we saw all kinds of cute baby animals and walked around. Check out some of the animals we saw here.

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

We are months behind on uploading our pictures. Here is the first of about 6 albums we need to post. But its amazing what procrastination can help you get done. While avoiding work, I found I was incredibly keen to sort through photos.

In July 2009 we took a whirlwind tour of the US starting off in Hotlanta, then going to NYC, Philly, NJ and Colorado. It was so great to see everyone, especially all the little babies.

Enjoy our photos!

US Visit - July 2009

A cold wind bloweth

I've regaled you in the past with epic tales of the television opulence we wallow in here. But there is a new development: Digital video recorders have been introduced! For $100 plus another $20/mo. we can utilize this spectacular technology. That's for the cable company version. TiVo costs more. And they did just become available last week. You can read about a criminal getting caught trying to steal one from an early adopter here.

There isn't really anything I would record, but

I suppose I could have saved the Broncos game to

watch at a more convenient time. Because the Broncos played MNF yesterday, I got to see the game here (we only get the SNF and MNF games). It comes on live at noon, but they show a replay that starts at 10pm. So last night, I stayed up to watch. I didn't talk to anyone about the game, didn't read about it on the Internet, didn't look at any Facebook or Twitter updates. I was going to get to watch a real Broncos game! And what crushing disappointment for me. Good first half, but I could barely keep my eyes open when the fourth quarter rolled around at 1am. With the loss, no sleep, and freezing winds blowing up off Antarctica causing vicious cold and rain/sleet today, I am not pleased.

There isn't too much Christmas stuff in the stores here yet. Because the holiday falls in the middle of summer here, and everyone takes time off work to go away, I just don't think the decorations are quite as big of a deal. Many Kiwis get the whole family together, hire some caravans (rent campers) and park them on the beach for three weeks. Most caravans don't have room for many decorations.

Perin and I are heading to Sydney this weekend to meet my friend Greg. He's giving a seminar at some university in Canberra and then meeting us in Sydney.

I've never been to Canberra, but allow me to talk some smack about it. Melbourne and Sydney were fighting over which city should be the capital when they decided to found a new city halfway and make that the capital. It's in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing to do there. Or so I've been informed by numerous Kiwis and Aussies.

When we moved to NZ, we looked at the map and thought about how close Australia and New Zealand are, and pictured ourselves flying over for long weekends all the time. However, it's a 3.5 hour flight and good deals start around $500 per person. So we require motivation to make plans to go. Greg coming through means we're going to see Sydney. We're both pretty excited to check it out. Perin is also very excited about shopping opportunities that may present themselves.

Una actualización general

Again, it's been over a month since we updated the blog, so I thought I'd catch you all up.

Things are going well here. However, Perin and I are just about done with the rain here. Although we're heading into spring (I know, crazy hemispheres) it rains like nothing either of us have ever lived through before. No charge for drinking water though.

In my rafting course, we got all of our drinking water from waterfalls and drank straight from most of the rivers which was really weird for me. I know that it used to be like that for most fresh water around the world, but humans and livestock introduce a lot of bacteria and that changes everything.

It's still weird to me that there are more people in the Denver metro area (7M) than this whole country (4M). I recently learned that because NZ and Australia have close relations and similar world views there were plans for several years to join the two countries into one. But then they would have lost a vote in the UN, so they decided to stay separate...

Halloween is kind of a new holiday here. It is seen as American cultural imperialism by many of the older Kiwis, although the kids love it. People who have kids are like, "I have to buy a costume for my kid? And then buy candy for the kid and all the kids coming over to my house? And then have them all hyped-up on sugar for the rest of the night? Sounds like a waste of my money and a terrible night. Damn Americans and their damn holidays!"

Work is going well, but they want me to go to work every day. And work the whole day. It's BS! Mostly they want me to do project management and that's the worst job ever. A business wants to do a project. So they hire a project manager. But the project manager has no carrots and no sticks. The PM has to ask workers who have other jobs and tasks they're rated upon to do extra stuff. But the PM has no power to reward people for doing what the PM wants them to do, and no power to punish them for not doing anything.

The only people I've ever met who truly enjoy being project manager are small, vindictive people. They relish politically backstabbing anyone who doesn't do what they want them to do. Regardless, I'm working to have no one assign me any PM work after this project is done at the end of the month:)

Last week was pretty stressful, and since Halloween isn't too big a deal here, I had a beer and went to bed early. Plus I had three soccer games on Sunday so I didn't party too hard. I had two outdoor games, then came home and took a nap, then went and played an indoor game. Good exercise, but I'm sore all over today. And because last week was so stressful (I had to work through the night one night), I got Monday off. I had big plans to drop Perin off at work, finish my timesheets for work, go to the gym, stop by the library, do some grocery shopping, make lunches for the rest of the week, and do the dishes all before noon so I could lay back and watch NFL all day.

But guess what? No football because the Yankees and Phillies were playing. So I didn't do anything on my list. I walked into town to buy some beers then came home and took a three-hour nap. Speaking of naps, when I was sleeping between my soccer games, I told Perin to wake me up and I was like "C'mere. Give me a kiss," and she's like, "Well... okay. But only on the forehead, because that huge patch of drool down the side of your face makes it hard to kiss you on the lips."

Perin is doing well. She's got it all figured out by assigning all work to underlings (of which she has many). Sometimes it takes a lot of work to get a subordinate to do things she wants them to do, and she knows it would be faster and easier to do everything herself. But Perin is wise and understands that if she can train them to do what she wants how she wants, she can get out of lots of work. She's a real genius!

I'm taking an improv comedy class on Monday nights (like the TV show Who's Line is it Anyway) which is a lot of fun. I have a performance December 5th, and then after that there is a possibility I could join the Wellington Improvisation Troupe (yes, with all those weird British spellings) on Wednesday nights next year. I enjoy doing it because there is no real preparation ahead of time. We spend a lot of time learning about how stories are told. There needs to be a platform for the story to begin (which is very important), then some conflict, and then some resolution.

It's hard to keep that in mind without a script or plan. So the art of improv is working with other people without a plan to tell a story. And what makes everyone laugh is during failure. So embracing failure is another skill that we work on. Embacing failure and not hesitating are the two biggest skills we work on. In case you were wondering, I'm the best in the class:) And the most modest:)

Perin is back in a sewing class this session. She's working on a dress to wear to Hawaii this holiday season. Although not the most experienced seamstress, I think she enjoys being more experienced than most of her classmates and sharing her knowledge with them. She's had this tutor before (they're not called teachers here) and she really likes this one.

We've both been playing heaps of soccer. I'm on four indoor soccer teams, and just joined and outdoor team. Perin's been playing on two teams and started seeing a personal trainer at the gym. I think I might get a personal trainer too.

We both decided that when we're super rich and retired that we'll start every day off with a personal yoga instructor, then a personal trainer at the gym, and then have a flotation tank. Perin and I tried using sensory deprivation tanks (now called a flotation tanks) in San Francisco and they were really cool.

Although popularized by hippies, it's basically a bathtub in the dark with much epsom salt diluted in the water. All the espom salt increased the water's density which means you float easily. The water is warm, there is no light, and it's sound proof. Most people don't realize how much brain power they spend just to keep themselves upright in a chair or listening to ambient sounds. So by freeing your brain from "having" to do anything or process any information, it can do whatever it wants. Without any drugs, chemicals, or other stimulus the brain goes straight to relaxation and healing.

Anyway, whether or not you believe in anything like that, Perin and I are working and investing. With the US dollar sinking, our NZ dollars are becoming more valuable and we've been doing some dollar-cost-averaging transitioning of our savings back to US dollars. We're saving for a house down payment, our retirement, and a baby (or babies).

Oooooohhhhhh! Babies!!!!! I don't really have any more details for you right now. Babies are for later, but we're planning for them. The tentative plan is to quit our jobs when our work visas expire, see some more of NZ, then take a world trip back to the States over a couple a months, then come back and have some babies. Oooooooh! Babies!!!!

How to do business in NZ

I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker last week about my perceived differences between the working culture of the United States and that of New Zealand.

When I first began working, I had a definite preference for working with British expats (they're heaps of them here) because (like Americans) they say what they mean. In general, Kiwis are less explicit in their interpersonal interactions, so you never really know what they want or need.

Part of this comes from (I believe) NZ being a small country with a small population. It is not wise to make enemies or piss anyone off as you will have to work with them again. Harmony is valued and confrontation is not.

An example of this is that one of Perin's development goals is to be less confrontational when playing devil's advocate during meetings with clients. What is seen as a normal business practice in the States makes clients uncomfortable here.

Spending my life as a loud American and doing business with other loud Americans has left me with the expectation of being able to hear everyone speak in meetings and during presentations. Rather frequently during meetings, I will be sitting near a Kiwi speaker but won't be able to hear them. My natural inclination is to ask them to speak up, but then my hearings not that bad and I know no one else that's sitting farther away than me can hear them either. So I sit back and observe. What's going on here? Why isn't anyone else asking the speaker to talk louder?

I believe that there is a definite Asian influence for saving face. No one wants the speaker to lose face by asking them to speak up. Everything is subtle. No one tells anyone else what to do explicitly. They suggest and imply. Quietly.

And there is no feedback. If you're doing well, you won't hear about it. And if you're doing poorly, you won't hear about it. However, if you are doing poorly, people will talk about you behind your back.

The whole conversation came up again at the end of last week when I sent an email to the executives of my company praising the hard-work and selfless dedication of one of my co-workers on a big project we just finished. The co-worker wrote back saying thank you, it was a "very, very American email," and that the Kiwi executives won't know how to handle it.

Now five days later, I have still received no word from on-high about my electronic praise (although I will admit that I've been out of town on training). At the absolute minimum, I hope to get together with the bosses soon and [quietly] talk smack about some of our crappier employees behind their backs.

Fruity tea-baggers

As the summer approaches, Perin and I are trying to eat a little healthier and that means starting every day off with some fruit instead of some butter. Apparently, kiwi fruits are in-season all year round and priced accordingly. Most other fruit has to be imported and is more expensive (with the exception of bananas: they're always cheap).

Today is also day one of Perin and I giving up drinking Coca-Cola. We're trying to drink tea in the morning instead. Long association with the British empire has imparted a love of tea to this nation. Though not bad, it just isn't the same. We'll see who can hold out the longest.

Along with the affection for tea, there is a general - though not pervasive - loathing of Coke here. We have both receive numerous lectures on detriments of cola to the body, mind, and soul of the individual and to cola's contributions to the downfall of society. Mostly it's the artificial colors and flavors that do it. The one saving grace of Coke here, is that it is sweetened with pure cane sugar and not high fructose corn syrup.

NZ Wife Beaters

In the United States, white sleeveless undershirts are sometimes known as "wife-beaters." Spend some time with Google if you have no idea what I'm talking about. However, in New Zealand, wife beaters are black. And they're called singlets. Why? Because of a movie _Once Were Warriors_ (which is a really good movie - go watch it). Here's a clip from the film featuring the black singlet and the vicious beating of a wife:




Also, I have learned about POMs. This is the not-very-derogatory-anymore term for British people. It stands for "prisoner of (his/her) majesty" or "prisoner of mother England" in regards to the criminals sent to Australia when Oz was a penal colony. Wikipedia states a different etymology, but you know those POMs are a crafty bunch and wouldn't have any qualms about changing the entry.

Regardless, the point of bringing up POMs is that Stella Artois is known as "wife beater" back in the British Isles. Instead of the uppity image Stella has in the States, it is seen as a the drink of choice for spousal abuse across the Atlantic. I find this fascinating study in international branding.

Sales Training

In the different professional roles I've had over the years, I've had the opportunity to work with many sales people. Having worked with quite a few of them now, I've learned a little about how one achieves success in the world of sales and try to share that knowledge with new sales people when we work together.

Interestingly, none of the sales people at my company here in New Zealand have seen the greatest sales speech ever captured on celluloid. So I shared with them the following video clip:

Now when I say, "Put. That coffee. Down. Coffee's for closers only." they laugh instead of looking at me strangely.

P&P Update

It's been over a month since we last updated the blog! So after typing up an email, I decided to replicate it here on the blog for everyone to read.

Things are going pretty well here. I got a job doing computer nerd stuff which is pretty good most days. I was doing a 3-month contract and it was kind of boring, and then I got a full-time offer. The day after I signed, they gave me nine things to do and I had to stay up til 2am for many nights getting it all done. Bastards! But now it's normal work busy-ness.

Perin's work is going pretty well. She's got an army of underlings to delegate the crappiest work to which is great. She's got two main clients right now so everyone is jockeying for her to help them more. Shows she's valuable even if management regularly changes her meeting calendar (or diary as it is called here).

We're both playing a lot of soccer. I play on a couple indoor teams and Perin plays on one indoor and one outdoor team (but the outdoor season just ended). This summer (I know the southern hemisphere seasons thing is weird) we're both going to try to play 5-a-side outdoor soccer in addition to the indoor soccer. Not to brag too much, but I'm one of the best players in NZ. Even though I do score a lot of goals, everyone wants me on their team as an "Enforcer," which makes me laugh. I play pretty physically (not dirty) but I'm friends with all the referees now (one even has a man-crush on me) so I get "favorable" calls more often than not.

Perin took some sewing classes, but is sitting this term out. She starts again next month. I'm taking an improv comedy class which is pretty fun. I have my first performance this Saturday, which is exciting. Perin is going to miss part of it because she has a one-time baking class she signed up for before we knew about the performance.

Going to work, soccer, the classes, and gym keeps us pretty busy (we also signed up for a boxing fitness class). We're working on our Kiwi accents. Perin makes fun of me because I can only do a "provincial" accent which means I sound like a farmer. But I think it's the same as when other people try an American accent - they can only do a southern accent.

Feels like a Wednesday

On occasion, people lose track of which day of the week it is. They say things like, "it doesn't feel like a Tuesday," or, "I can't believe it's Friday already. It feels like Thursday." Usually this is due to a long weekend shortening the work week. However, I always know what Wednesday feels like. This post came about when a coworker of mine said, "it doesn't feel like Wednesday," and I replied, "oh yes, it does! It feels exactly like Wednesday."

Every Wednesday feels the same. It feels like getting screwed over by the recycling truck. If I haven't been screwed over by the recycling truck, it's not Wednesday. If I don't have the recycling on the curb by 7am, that's when the truck comes. They roll by super early and then I have to wait until the following week to unload all that recycling. The worst is when hear the truck coming down the street and I run out with the recycling in my underwear and they're already six houses down and aren't looking back. They screwed me!

That means I have to set my alarm for 6:40 so I can hit snooze once before taking the bin out to the curb. However, the recycling truck knows that if I make it out there by 7, they take their time and roll by at 10am. Screwed me again!

Most nights I can't set it outside ahead of time because the wind is so strong here. Sometimes though when it's calm, I'll set it out and feel proud of myself. But then again, the recycling truck doesn't roll by until after 10am. Bastards!

So when it's windy (which is most of the time) I have to get up super early to get the recycling out. And then I either miss the truck, or I miss out on sleeping in. A lot of the time it's both. Feels exactly like a Wednesday.

Deloitte Ball

In the US fall and winter consists of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Chanukah and New Years. So this means that when warm summer comes around, its time to relax outside and enjoy the heat. In the Southern Hemisphere the summer is when the holiday's occur, so during the winter, without anything to celebrate, cold weather and dark days it's time for formals, parties and reasons to drink and dance!

Deloitte hosts the mid-winter ball in June. Its a chance for the whole office to attend a party in formal attire with great food, alcholol and dancing.

The most surprising part of it is how intoxicated everyone gets (partner and all), not just the analysts and recent grads.

We had a great time. Here are pictures of us and some of our friends.

Deloitte Ball

North Island Trip - 09'

In March-April Alicia and Bob came to visit Perin and Paul for a very special vacation in New Zealand. The trip focused on wine, cuisine and adrenaline.

Please enjoy our photos. A couple of edited videos will follow in a separate post.

North Island Trip

View Larger Map

Birthday Celebrations

Declining to wear our birthday suits, we still manage to have some great birthday parties!

Birthdays

Living at the top of Mount Olympus

While we dine with the pantheon of Greek gods on occasion, we don't actually live at the top of a mountain. But we do live near the top of a large hill and are elevated enough over the city of Wellington to enjoy some semi-divine views. On this day we cast our gaze upon the mortals below us...

Fog

Kapiti Island

Perin and I have numerous photos we need to upload and post on the blog, but we did get started today. Here are our photos from Kapiti Island when we went back in March.

And for those who care, it's pronounced KAP-it-ee, not ka-PEE-tee...

Kapiti Island

Prime Minister's Motorcade

Today Perin and I witnessed New Zealand's Prime Minister roll by in his motorcade.  The front of the motorcade did not have any lead cars.  It consisted of John Key driving a Mercedes by himself.  The rest of the motorcade followed consisting of one police car with two policemen in it.  They stopped at a red light.

A slightly different experience than we're used to:)

Life as a Sararīman again

It's mostly good going back to paid work. I found a pretty good job where I can start making a positive difference pretty quickly. Everybody likes me and laughs at most of my jokes, so that's good. I think I have a lot of good ideas about different ways some business problems can be approached and that's valuable both to my company and to our clients. However, I am keenly aware (they use the word "keen" heaps here; and the word "heaps") that no one likes to be told about how, "in the US, we used to..." So I'm very conscious to always state, "one of the ways I've seen this done in the past is...." Then everyone is super receptive.

However, I find that by the time 5:30pm rolls around, I have a lot less energy than I used to. Having to wear a suit and tie every day (even though I'm doing heaps of Solaris administration) isn't that bad in and of itself. However, having to iron sucks big time.

My third day of work, they put me in the receptionist's desk, so I had to sign for all the packages that were delivered, and direct all the visitors to whomever they came to see. This wasn't an ideal scenario, so I came in early today and moved myself upstairs a level to an empty corner office. To everyone that asks, "Oh! Is that where they put you?" I answer, "yes." This may not work out for me in the long term, but with my spare minutes I'm typing blog posts instead of signing for packages and trying to find people I don't know.

I played soccer at lunch time today with my indoor team. We beat the very best team and have usurped them. It turns out a teammate's wife works closely with Perin at one of Perin's clients. I just sent an email suggesting we get drinks to celebrate how small the world is. My teammate's Scottish, so he's in fo sho; I don't even need to wait for an email response on that one.

The other good news is that we get free soda here. We have heaps of programmers on the level down below me (where I used to sit) but I don't know how good they are yet. When I looked in the recycle bin near the end of the day, there were only like 3-4 empties in there! And one of those was mine. Everyone knows that all programmers do is turn caffeine into code. And if they're not consuming much caffeine... Anyway, I had my first Mountain Dew in about two years. Once it hits your lips, it's so good!

We're multi-trillionaires now!

Due to Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation, Perin and I were able to invest and become multi-trillionaires. For only 25 New Zealand Dollars, we obtained the largest denominated banknote in history. We plan to frame our first 100 trillion.

Dragonboating

Perin recently finished her first season of dragonboating with her team from Deloitte. She received an award with the nickname Perin "When does the fun start?" Wehde. As such, this may be her last season of dragonboating as well.

You can see some pictures of the inaugural and exaugural racing season here:

Dragonboating

How to Make a Bed

There are differences between how Perin and I make the bed. Let's start with the unmade bed:



It appears as though we slept in the bed. Great. Now that it's a little messy, please allow me to show you what a "made bed" looks like:


See that? Nice smooth cover on the top. Doesn't look like two people just got out of it. The bed is made. Who wouldn't want to crawl into that shining example of bed making perfection? However, Perin states that the bed is not made. She believes that this is what a made bed looks like:


The bedspread and its lines are completely square. The pillows are arranged on top and that decorative pillow is placed in the middle. (On a side note, the room is apparently better lit too:) I believe that this bed is also made, but more time has been spent on the pillows. Conclusion: there is more than one way to make a bed (according to me) and one way to make a bed (according to Perin).

Feel free to draw your own conclusions:)

Television in New Zealand

New Zealand has, quite possibly, the worst television in the industrialized world. We have cable, but there is never anything good on. The very best shows are House and CSI, which have two one-hour time slots out of 168 hours week on 60+ channels. I never watched either of these shows in the States, but I have a whole new appreciation for them now. There is no on-demand or Tivo, so you have to watch shows when they're on. Oh, the humanity!

Right now (in prime time), on Comedy Central M*A*S*H* is showing. It is followed up by Frasier. Dukes of Hazzard, and Deal or No Deal are in the top echelon of show choices right now. However, what prompted this post is that Perin and I chose to watch Girls of the Playboy Mansion. It's a repeat. How do I know this? Because a lot of the time, it is by far the best show on. And this is the third time we've watched the softball tournament episode.

We've tried to convince ourselves that we should get into the Six Million Dollar Man series, or follow drag racing in States, but it comes down to E's non-stop GOTPM marathon being the best thing on TV most of the time.

I'm not sure you'll believe this, but I've been getting a lot of reading done while here.

Perin's first sewing project

Perin signed up for a class called basic dressmaking and finished her first project at the end of week three. It's a bag for her niece.

Perin's First Sewing Project

BBQ

We invited some people over a BBQ last weekend. Enjoy the pictures!

BBQ

Rugby Sevens

We went to the Rugby Sevens. They play rugby, but with only seven players on each team and seven-minute halves. Each team plays multiple games over the course of the day. Although Kiwis don't dress up for Halloween very much, they made up for it at the Sevens!

Rugby Sevens

NZ Naughtiness

During a recent visit to the dairy here (all convenience stores are called dairies) I noticed that the price for a pack of cigarettes is between $13-15. So I inquired into the price of chewing/smokeless tobacco to see if was significantly cheaper. Turns out it's illegal here and in Australia! You can import it, own it, use it, but it's illegal to sell. That's the first bit of naughtiness.

The second bit of naughtiness is when I started making fun of strippers (in a general abstract kind of way) when we were at the pub. I got me thinking: there is no paper currency here under $5. How do the strip clubs work? Do strippers here not get tips? Do they wear big baggy underwear to hold all the coins (whereby the best strippers are identified as the ones who look like they pooped their pants)? Do patrons throw coins at the strippers? Hard?

Instead of investigating in person, we asked some guys next to us. We were informed that patrons exchange real money for "stripper money" that comes in one- and two-dollar denominations, and other than that, strip clubs here function just like they do everywhere else. So now you're all caught up!

Two sweet pictures

Perin might have taken these, or they might have come from postcards purchased. The world may never know....

NZ Post Cards

Fishes

An underwater video from our dive at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia

Perin's Bungy Swing

Here is a fun little video of Perin's Bungy Swing in Queenstown New Zealand

Australia photos

Here are our photos from Australia. The first half are from our SCUBA diving trip. Enjoy!

Cairns

South Island Pictures

Our trip to the south island with Paul's family was our first trip there and was very fun and beautiful. Here is a map of where we went.


View Larger Map


And now for the part you've all been waiting for: the pictures!  Enjoy!

South Island - 08

In Cairns now

We got up at 3am to make our flights, but we were napping on the beach by noon. Slept until just before it started raining at 4pm. Ate a little bit and were in bed by 8pm! :)

The flights were nice - they handed out ice cream bars on the second flight! Qantas is alright in my book.

It's the perfect temperature for Perin here (around 85) but it's little humid for me. We tried going to the gym this morning, but it smelled like mildew and was way too hot and humid to do more than 5 minutes. Just proves that working out is stupid. I had some extra beers to compensate.

We're off to the outer Great Barrier Reef in the morning to go SCUBA diving! We're so excited! No underwater camera, but we'll post pictures when we return.

Getting caught up in the New Year.

I finally made a photo album of some good photos from the rafting school. My parents, Myra and Erik all came down for the holidays and we spent the last two weeks touring the south island of New Zealand (we'll post more details and pictures soon). And Perin and I are heading to Cairns, Australia for a week in sun to put the finishing touches on our holiday break. We'll post much more once we get back and in the new year.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Rafting Photos