French Show Offs

Those Frogs showed us up again on our respective Christmas dinners. They had sauteed chicken breasts and shrimp to put into a sauce made of fresh tomatoes, leeks, garlic, mushrooms, and capers. It was served over a bed or rice and smelled and looked delicious.

And then they started showing off. While doing the moon-walk, a successive line of attractive young males and females filled desert mugs with slices of fresh fruit, yoghurt, and topping it with can after can of whipped cream. They had black turtlenecks on and smoked cigarettes afterwards as well. Well, actually there was no moon-walking and they didn't ALL have black turtlenecks.

And the Americans? What did they have? Campbell's Thick and Chunky soup. We did not impress those French. I had planned to eat mine directly out of the can, but was intimidated by the French into heating it in a pan and eating out of a large mug. But to spice our meal up over the presentation the night before, we had apple slices WITH carrot slices.

Perin and I did a 3-hour hike around Lake Alexandria and it was beautiful and just the right amount of exercise. It turns out that we weren't looking at Mt. Cook at Lake Tekapo. Mt. Cook was the next lake over (Lake Pukaki) and it did look about as awesome as with my parents last time.

Tonight we're in Te Anau and grilled up some fajitas with all kinds of fresh ingredients. Total show-off meal. And there's no-one to show it off to. We're in the equivalent of a KOA campsite and we have no one near us. Oh well. It tasted spectacular and we get leftovers tomorrow morning.

And speaking of tomorrow, we're off to the Milford Track. We'll update again in another few days. Hopefully we'll get the pictures up soon too.

Lake Tekapo

It's pronounced Lake Tek-a-poh. Not Take-a-poo. Even though we know that, Perin and I still mis-pronounce it all the time. We made in pretty good time on 24 Dec: it was still light out when we got there. The view of Mt. Cook was great, but last time we were here with family there was more snow at tht etop making the view even more spectacular.

The best was making our dinner in the communcal kitchen that evening. The camp site wasn't all the way full, but there were quite a few Froggies there. And the French know how to do communal meals. They had grilled chicken kabobs with oven baked potatoes and a huge salad. They also had numerous spreads of crackers and cheeses, lots of olives, hard boiled eggs, lox, cottage cheese, salamis, pan-fried garlic bread, and numerous bottle of NZ Bubbles (Champagne).

Actually what I think impressed me the most was that they were a group of young 20-somethings traveling together putting such a fine meal together. They looked like a snowbaording crew I would have hung out with at college. And while my crew and theirs shared backwards hats and hooded sweatshirts, that meal was finer than anyting we would have put together.

There were some senior British tourists as well who had toast with a selection of margarines (from what I can tell) for their dinner. They were engaged in a not-so-fascinating discussion of the history of pattern recognition in architectural arch-types from the 20th century to the present. It sounded to me a like a boorish way of saying that architects copy each other.

And what about your dear American bloggers? What did they have for dinner? Hamburgers. Damn straight we had hamburgers. And we split a can of corn between us for a side dish. Nobody spoke a single word of French to us. English all the way.

Just six months ago...

...We did some activities and have pictures to post. Editing and choosing which photos to post is a massive effort for Perin and myself. However, sometimes we can get the ball rolling and take care of several of them at the same time. Here are four fantastic photo opps we had:

1) We joined our friends Nicole and Andy in the Northland of New Zealand and had a great time:

Northland

2) Slightly more recently, we joined Antonia, James, and Max (Lorna hadn't been born yet) in Kaipapa Bay. The sea was brisk and the sunsets spectacular:

Kaipapa Bay

3) Several weeks ago, we participated in the Wellington Zoo's Cheetah Encounter. They're huge - sitting up, one is nearly chest-high on me. And cheetahs are at the smaller end of the large cat spectrum. Feeling the cheetah's purr was a like a little chainsaw. It was awesome:

Cheetah Encounter

4) And most recently, we joined the neighbors on a trip to Somes Island. It was first-time voyage for all of us, and Lauren's first time on a boat. Great weather and calm seas:

Somes Island

A Good Cunt

Last weekend Perin and I attended a wine country extravaganza called "Toast of Martinborough" in Martinborough, New Zealand. Perin had been before, but this was my first experience. Individuals and companies arrange a train car to take their preferred passengers from the Capital to the vineyards of the Wairarapa.

Our train journey north began with some young females skulling (chugging) large water bottles filled with alcohol and orange drink which convinced and encouraged them to sing top pop songs at the top of their lungs in-between consumption of overnight-vodka-soaked gummy worms (at approximately 10am). One girl's rendition of some crappy song-in-her-mind reminded me of the scene from "Dumb and Dumber" linked here. She was far more annoying than those clever actors.

We tasted several wines from several vineyards. Each vineyard had its own band and wine selection. There was a palpable differentiation between the vineyards attracting the 19-year olds with a DJ, and the vineyards repelling them with numerous alto-saxophone solos-featuring-bands. We brought snacks and sandwiches with us so we didn't splurge too much on the delicious delectables surrounding us and took a refreshing nap on the blanket we brought with us (near a reggae band). The young wastoids mocked us for sleeping near the relaxing band when we could have been moshing hard-core, wine-country-style. We're old.

The evening nearly concluded when wine stopped being poured, but fortunately, we ran into Jackie. Perin and I were hanging out waiting for our bus to the train station when Jackie stumbled up to and sat down at our people-watching perch. She was too intoxicated to purchase her own liquor (Toast rules stipulate that one must exchange their cash for non-refundable Monopoly money) and asked us to purchase some for her with her grip of Toast-money. After what one could perceive as negotiation, Perin tried to help her out.

While Perin was gone, Jackie asked if I had any cigarettes. I replied in the negative and mentioned my present distaste for them. Jackie slurringly replied, "Don't worry. I'll get us both some fags."

Jackie wandered over, introduced herself to some Kiwis sitting on the grass, then came back and literally pulled me over to the group. "Come on! They want to meet the Americans!" was the line she used to show off her new-found novelties.

Re-assuring the group that we had only met Jackie minutes earlier, we learned that Jackie had been drinking since 8am (it was at that time, nearly 6pm), had lost her friends around noon, had lost her mobile phone during the day, and that she wasn't sure how she would get home.

2011 Toast of Martinborough

One of the Kiwi-group opened a spare bottle of wine to share with everyone, and Jackie informed him that he was a "good cunt," in the most positive interpretation of the word. "You're a good cunt! Too many people think 'cunt' is a bad word. But it's not. You're a good cunt! That's what I tell my mum."

Concern for Jackie between Perin, myself, and group of Kiwis in the circle, rapidly decentigraded once Jackie tried to roll her own cigarette and spilled an entire pouch of loose tobacco in her lap, revealed her lack of coordination due to [possible] ingestion of XTC, and then used my mobile phone to call her boyfriend giving us insight into a one-sided conversation that went as such, "Hey... No... Hey, fuck you!... No, fuck you! Fuck you!" and then handing the phone to Perin to arrange amicable pick-up times and locations. No one was on the phone once Perin received it.

Jackie was sure she could buy some food, but she had been walking around with her purse upside-down with the zipper undone. Jackie had lost her ATM card as well and couldn't buy any food. We shared some granola bars with her so she had something to eat, but when Perin went to check on our bus departure time, Jackie freaked out saying, "Where's your wife? She's the only one who's nice to me!" then smashed her wine bottles into each other, shattering them into the grass and ran away.

We didn't see Jackie again but made our own way home safely.

However, my highlight from this week is the overheard stories of the Kiwis returned from Auckland's U2 concert featuring Jay-Z. The actual dialog I overheard today goes as follows:

"U2 was great --"

"--Yeah, Jay-Z sucked. His songs were worthless to me. I spent his entire set checking crickinfo.com for play-by-play cricket updates. His last three songs were cool though: that New York one--"

"Empire State of Mind?"

"--Maybe. Whatever! Then 'Forever Young,' then that Linkin Park song he raps over. He didn't play the Linkin Park part - he just rapped the gay Jay-Z part."

"Did you notice all those people with hair and no wrinkles bouncing a hand in the air like Nazis?"

"Yes! I had no idea what that was about. And then they held their hand together in front of them to make triangles!"

"I think they're diamonds. Like when Jay-Z shouted 'show your diamonds to me!' That's when they were doing the diamond thing."

"No, I'm pretty sure it was a triangle. ALL rappers do the triangle thing. It has something to do with rap."

Instead of correcting any of them, I decided a blog post was more appropriate.

Finally, a Successor to Alexander McQueen

Perin unveils her quick "scarf skirt." Click the following to see world-exclusive runway shots from her Spring Collection:

Perin's Skirt

Picture update

As promised, here are some pictures for you. The first set includes pictures of our parking spot's fencing destroyed by a neighbor who backed through it. Even after her admission and description of how it happened, I can't picture it. I hope those guys at the NRO got it recorded from a satellite, so when I become President (or National Security Adviser or whatever) I can watch it over and over in slo-mo.

Parking, Soccer, and Hair

Also, here are our pictures from Melbourne:

Melbourne

All Blacks

In the desert of postings for this blog, there are occasional oasis when a flurry of activity by either of us results in many postings in a small space of time. And so, today three of the All Blacks came to my workplace to sign autographs and take pictures with everyone. In attendance were Ma'a Nonu, Cory Jane, and Owen Franks.

Nonu is one of my favorite players and getting to see his forearms in-person was a great experience. I didn't end up talking to Jane but I had a good discussion about gridiron football with Owen Franks (his brother Ben Franks is another All Black). Owen's favorite team is the Raiders and I thought about discussing his poor choice, but then noticed his cauliflower ear and realized that even though I probably know more about football, I would have lost that argument.

Phones

Melbourne was great. We did lots of touristy things, went out to eat, and I was strough (contraction of strong and tough) enough to chaperone some power shopping. We met up with our American friend Nicole too and she was great company. You'll get all the details and pictures in a future post.

Now for the inspiration behind this post: phones and the noises they make. At one point in my life I attended graduate school in the mornings and answered phones for a living all night. I was doing tech support and answered the phone tens of times each shift. And nobody was calling to tell me how well their equipment was working. They all had problems and high-stress levels and wanted me to share the emotions they had. Answering the phone wasn't great, but I really hated that little red voice mail light. Long meandering monologues about their problems that they could have relayed to the next available tech support agent.

At school, I was studying Telecommunications and gaining deep insight in the engineering, business, and legal methods though which the phone companies were screwing us all. Together with my job, I developed a severe aversion to phones. I cancelled my home phone and refused to get a mobile phone. I had broadband and could email or IM with anyone from home or work, but if you wanted to talk to me, you had to call me at work. When I had to call someone, I would do it at work and planned my life accordingly.

After dating for a while, Perin didn't care for my arrangement and eventually convinced me to get a mobile phone. Having done research into the mobile operators, I was paralyzed attempting to choose the least-evil provider. It couldn't be done: they were all really evil. I eventually relented and chose one. People could call me on it, but I refused to check voice mail.

Time heals all wounds. Two years after graduation and leaving that job, I could force myself to check my voice mail when it would get to around 10. And now I don't despise checking voicemail, and I can check it each time I get one, but I still dislike it.

And at the same time, I've become the ultimate sell-out. I work for the phone company now. Technically, I work for a subsidiary of the phone company selling/doing computer stuff, but I work with people who sell "communication solutions" including phones, mobile phones, and phone plans.

Or course, I still dislike the sounds of phones ringing. I always try to set my phone to minimal ring sound. A single ping or something like that. I leave my phone on vibrate pretty much all the time. However, working with this team of phone salespeople means they're always getting new phones and tend to be too lazy to change the default sounds. So when one phone rings, they're all "Is that me? Is that you? Who's is that?" Same thing for reminders, and email, text, and voice mail alerts.

This makes me appreciate the exceptions a little more though. The 50-year-old lady next to me has the Black Eyed Peas' Boom Boom Pow song which is a nice change (also she doesn't get too many calls which I'm sure helps). But the best is going to visit the Unix and development teams. Those nerds have no problem changing the default noises the computers and phones in their lives make. Standing over there before one of their team meetings starts is like the noisiest SciFi set ever. Everyone's computers and phones alerting them is a cacophony of bosun's whistles, phaser noises, light sabres, R2D2 noises, and a lot pneumatic door noises. The best.

Back in Oz

Perin and I got up at 3:30am yesterday to catch our flight to Melbourne. Being the grisled travellers we are, Perin had the rows with no people in them scoped out. As soon as they closed the doors we jumped and each had a row of three seats to ourself. Perin went right to sleep and I watched Date Night before getting a couple hours of horizontal rest myself. It was glorious.

Last time I came to Melbourne, I got the ExpressBus from the airport to the city and it was great. There's a bus that leaves every ten minutes. I tried to buy us tickets for that again, but the girl at the airport desk sold us tickets to a shuttle that were non-fundable. We watched two or three ExpressBusses leave before our shuttle arrived. And then they packed us full and we were the last drop-off. The nice part is that we got a nice free tour of the city before arriving at our destination.

We didn't have a lot of touring energy, so we walked through the casino, got some delicious hamburgers, then checking into our hotel and took showers and naps. Then we headed out. Some hair product company (Schwartkopf) was putting on a live infomercial for thier hair products and having people off the street enter in the "Best Hair in Australia" competition. Perin entered, got her hair didded, and it came out beautifully. She would totally win, but we don't live in Australia and are excluded from competition. Glam shot photo to be displayed later.

We ended the evening by heading up to Chinatown and looking for a hole-in-the-wall noodle and dumpling restaraunt. I remember it from my last trip here, but we didn't eat there because it was cash-only and there was long queue. I wasn't sure we'd find it because it was down some dark alley, but we ended up right at it. Waited our turn in line and then had a delicious feast for very little money.

Then we wandered through the alleys and shops and along the river just watching people and looking and everything. I wanted to talk to Perin about Date Night and all the funny parts, but still not give away the whole movie. She'll have to watch it on the plane home and I'll have to hold my tongue until then. Still tired we called it an early night and went to bed. Today, we're hitting the touristy stuff hard. But first, we have to eat!

In Consideration of Others

It's birthday season at the Casa de Wehde. Before Perin's birthday we picked up some giant crayfish (lobster-sized) and she picked out some cheese too. In general, Perin doesn't like cheese, but the Port Nicholson we got was mild and she liked it. The crayfish were delicious and we had a great dinner at home.

Perin woke up on her birthday to me making breakfast. But she was in the mood for a bite of cheese that no longer existing in our home. I ate the last bite earlier that morning. It just so happens that I come from a long lineage of competitive eaters, where left-overs are as rare as rocking horse crap, and all food is subject to survival of the least delicious.

Perin was furious (for a few minutes). Finally, a cheese she actually liked. And it was gone. I hadn't even thought about that, her, or her feelings as I popped in into my mouth and savored its deliciousness.

Fast forward to two days ago. It came to my attention that it was Bloomsday where everyone who doesn't drink a Guinness is subject to a leprechaun ripping off their head and defecating down their throat - while they sleep. This concerned me greatly and I discussed this at length with Perin over lunch.

At 4:50pm Perin sent me a text stating that she's grabbing a drink with some people at the Black Harp - the best Irish pub in town. I drop everything and head directly over. Obviously, Perin heard my concerns at lunch and arranged a quick Guinness before heading home, to prevent the cruel and brutal treatment at the hands of leprechauns.

Six minutes later, I run into Perin standing outside the pub. She and all of her colleagues were done with thier Guinnesses and she wanted me to accompany her on a walk back to her workplace to collect her computer and notebook and then drive home. To suffer the wrath of the leprechauns... how inconsiderate!

I tell her this is unacceptable and dispatch her to collect her things on her own while I consume a preventative Guinness. It was a good thing too because we both woke up with heads attached, throat-defecation-free.

And so, who was less considerate? He who ate a bite of cheese, or she who participated in an hour-long discussion of the importance on Guinness consumption on Bloomsday, then invited him to join her group of Guinness consumers, and then told him that they were done and he should skip his Guinness and join her collecting her things from her workplace?

Tangential to this story, others who worked with me were recently (and for a long time) mislead. My manager was informed by a large vendor of ours that one of my colleagues was no longer allowed to represent them. He could perform no service directly for them, as a consultant, nor as an independent contractor. My manager was informed of this with no explanation as to why this decision was made.

After some inquiry and analysis, my manager was able to discover that this co-worker of mine had filed for bankruptcy, changed his name, and had been charged with felony fraud but had only been convicted of forgery. Due to fraudulent activities at numerous companies before ours, the police were looking for him, and they had border stops out. But the co-worker had been in and out of the country multiple times (for work that was completed to the end-customer's satisfaction).

He had stolen laptops from work and resold them, claimed expenses that did not incur, and as part of his successful history of womanizing, was sleeping with an HR executive from the company. When the police became involved, the executives of the company were informed they couldn't tell the HR lady because she might tip him off. The delicious irony of not being able to tell the HR executive anything!

Regardless, my old colleague has gone into hiding and the police have yet to find him. His fraudulent ways do not take the considerations of others into account. And so, this is by far the most scandalous event that I've been personally involved with in New Zealand.

And all of this reminds me a visit to the veterinarian in San Francisco when Perin's cat Cleo was sick. Cleo didn't like going to the vet and was uncomfortable and scared. When the vet picked Cleo up, Cleo meowed and unleashed a huge poop - which fell straight into the vet's white lab coat pocket. Perin and I couldn't stop laughing! And in considering the vet's displeasure, that made it even more hilarious.

And so dear readers, always consider the feelings and emotions of others. Especially if it's hilarious.

Hawaii Revisted

In April, I had the pleasure of meeting my mum for a 10 day holiday in Hawaii. We went to Honolulu for a day of shopping and then off to Maui for a week of relaxation and fun.

Enjoy our photos:

Hawaii with Mom

An oldy but goody

A year ago Alicia and Bob came to visit. This holiday was adrenalin filled.

For a glimpse into some of the adventure, here is a video of Paul and Bob on the Bungy Swing. Perin and Alicia did the same thing as well.

For some reason, the blog cuts off the side of the video. I recommend for best viewing that you click on the link in the top right of the video where it says "Sky Swing" and it takes you to Youtube to see the full picture.

Holidays, Son.

I wanted Perin to post these, but she delegated the task to me... Her skillz are superb. We didn't even make it to the zoo, but we did get some pictures put together for you.

Our first trip was to Kaiteriteri with our friends James and Antonia (and Max).

Kaiteriteri

The next trip was to Sydney, Australia. No Over Proof Brandenburg Rum* on this trip...

Sydney

*Over proof. It's a rum with a 150 proof rating or so (Bacardi 151 for example)-- and it's at least 75% alcohol. Normal Rum is 80 proof (40% alcohol.)

Monthly Update

So I quit my last job and got a new one. The last job had me sitting on a floor by myself and I'd see my boss for 15 minutes a day. With the new job, I sit on a floor of 140 sales and sales-support people who all have high energy and are enthusiastic. So the process of going in to work alone is far superior.

However, any company that has 140 sales people is a large organization with much bureaucracy. But I'm still so new, the mind-numbing complexity and bureaucratic hassles haven't crushed my soul yet, because I don't know any better! Anyway, I'm making a positive contribution and I'm quite enthusiastic about being able to close some big deals.

They just released the results from an employment satisfaction survey and it said that employee satisfaction climbs rapidly for the first six months. Then it drops through the floor and plateaus at a very negative bottom for three years. But after three years... then it slowly starts to climb up again. Almost to where you were when you began. Glad they could share that with us.

We had some HR lady come talk to us about "interpreting the results" and said that people are initially excited but don't know how to operate in the company's bureaucracy. And it takes three years to figure it out. And then once you figure it out, you can really start accomplishing things and your satisfaction improves. However, I chose to interpret that as "Who is going to stay three years before they start liking work?" Everyone who hated the company left within three years, and all that's left are people who don't mind.

Anyway, I'll only be there for ten months (eight to go), so it's perfect. Then we're outta here Feb 2011. More on that later in this post.

I completed the ACL reconstruction of my knee and that seems to be going well too. The doctors saw some meniscus damage in the cartilage they had planned to removed at the same time, but it had healed itself by the time they cut me open. That's nice because it will delay arthritis in that knee a little longer.

The physiotherapist and surgeon were impressed with my leg strength before going into surgery and I've made pretty good progress so far. I have almost full range of motion and I can put all my weight on that leg and walk around the house. I still use a single crutch when I leave the house for balance, but I should be done with that by next week. I'm off all the opiate drugs too, so I'm much less itchy and more regular:) Just Tylenol a couple time a day now.

Before the surgery, I went out to dinner with a bunch of soccer friends and we ended up getting some drinks at the bars afterwards. Which led to dancing whereupon I was attacked by a vicious cougar! She was fifty-ish and telling her I was married only made her more aggressive and she cornered me. Fortunately, my frantic signalling to one of the soccer girls paid off and she rescued me. The cougar was angry then and gave many mean glances after that. It was time to leave.

Most people would have gone home then, but it was my last night out. So my wingman and I went to the karaoke bar where I ended up singing a duet with a Samoan tranny. THEN it was time to leave. So I walked home and went to bed around five in the morning.

When I was younger, I used to think it was stupid that bars couldn't stay open past 2am. Now I believe that's the perfect time. You can feel wild about staying up after midnight, but you can still get [close to] a normal night's sleep. Now I'm of the opinions that bars that don't close are stupid.

Perin and I are focusing on our world trip. The itinerary is now (subject to change of course): Japan, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Cambodia (Siem Reap -- Angkor Wat), Moscow, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Israel, Petra (Jordan), Cairo, South Africa (safari), and then all over Europe. We're working on our plans and trying to save as much money as possible.

Perin's health is good too. We have to look into immunizations and see which ones she can get before we go (which may affect some of the destinations we may travel to). So that's this week's activity.

I'm taking time off from improv while my leg improves. I'm excited to get back to it though. Hopefully in another week or two.

Right now, I'm reading two books - Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and The Decisive Moment: How the Brain Makes up its Mind. First off, Ayn Rand was crazy. That book is a fascinating biography. But the point of this paragraph is that Ayn believed in the all-importance of rational thought. The second book is about how we use emotions to make most decisions, even when we think we're being rational. So it turns out they contrast each other nicely.

Perin and I are off to the zoo today. It's hazy and pretty cold, but it's not raining and it's not windy which means we have really nice weather. They have free wheel chairs, so I'll get one of those. And if we're extra motivated, we might end the day with the planetarium. That's just big talk though; there's no way we doing that after the zoo. We'll probably just get some hot soup and come home.

Doritos, White Island and Blackwater Rafting

The most exciting news I have is that Doritos-brand corn chips just launched in New Zealand. Finally a proper corn chip. The flavors are different than those available in the States, but I'm primarily interested in the unflavored (aka "salted") line. Kiwis get both Good Friday and the Monday-after-Easter off of work as national holidays and I plan to put on a couple pounds making myself plate after plate of delicious nachos.

Perin and I took a trip in February up to Whakatane to see White Island (Moutohora Island) - an active volcano which has formed an island around itself. My first visit to an active volcano (sulfuric acid steam spewing; not liquid hot magma spewing) was pretty badass. In fact, I took the camera away from Perin for not taking enough photographs and went a little crazy. I trimmed them down pretty well for you, so enjoy:

White Island

From there, we traveled to Waitomo to the famous black water caves. We crawled into our wet suits and descended into the caves. Here are (far fewer) pictures of the caves:

Blackwater Rafting

Latest Updates

It's been a while since I rapped at ya. The latest updates include blowing my knee out playing soccer in December right before we left for Hawaii. Turns out I have torn cartilage and need an ACL reconstruction. The only part I can brag about is that my leg muscles are so strong, there's no instability and none of the doctors or physiotherapists knew about the ACL until the MRI came back.

Perin's step-father is a doctor and sent a copy of my results to specialists in the NJ area and they concur with the NZ doctors about the injury and my options going forward. Thanks Bob! The plan is to get surgery and rebuild the ACL using a piece of tendon from the back of my thigh. And then six months of rehab and I'll be stronger and faster than any human before me.

I also got a new job. Yay! Started yesterday. I'm working for Gen-i now which is a subsidiary of the phone company (Telecom). Basically I'm technical sales with an emphasis in Oracle/Sun servers and storage focused on the largest 100 accounts in NZ.

I took Monday off to give myself a three-day weekend and then started yesterday. Huge change from my last company. I sit on a whole floor of sales (and sales support) people so everyone is enthusiastic and high -energy. I got a hug from one of the sales guys who originally interviewed me because he was so excited to start closing deals with me (not the reserved Kiwi behavior I expected). One of the other pre-sales guys was rolling his own cigarettes at his desk and told me to get ready for a lifestyle of "cocaine and champagne." Of course, he was joking:)

And today is definitely a Wednesday. Forgot the recycling this morning and they rolled by at 6:40am. Missed them again. And it's been exactly 16 days since summer official ended and we've got pouring rain and howling wind. People had puffy jackets and furry hats on walking to work this morning. And finally, it's St. Patrick's today (which I didn't even realize until I saw the queue of people waiting to get into the Irish pub) and I didn't wear any green.

Fortunately, I'm part Irish and I think as soon as I have a Guinness in me, nobody will be able to legally pinch me. Plus, I'll get these sales guys to buy me a pint for sure!

Old Photos

Here are some older photos we have been meaning to share...

1) Cool Tatoos, Perin's Soccer and a Random Rainbow:

Well the title says it all. Paul drew a very cool tatoo on my foot, worthy of a photo. We took some pics during my outdoor soccer league. The most interesting shots show my teammates and coach smoking cigarettes during the game (definitely a new experience for me). And as we have been saying all along, NZ is the pot of goldat the end of the rainbow or so it seemed from our window one Saturday morning.

Cool Tatoos, Perin's Soccer and a Random Rainbow

2)Taupo with Nicole

In early October, I participated in the inter-Deloitte soccer tournament. Though the tournament was just ok, the weekend was fabulous. My friend Nicole joined me for a weekend of fun. The pictures say it all...

Taupo with Nicole

3) Mt Ruapehu

In October Paul and I ventured north for some slushy spring skiing. Lucky for us the weather was fantastic and the mountain had some nice spring snow. Though we learned quickly to stay on the top of the mountain as the bottom only had one run open and mostly filled with dirt, slush and beginners which made it more like a death trap than skiing (hehe).

Mt Ruapehu

Hawaiian photos

Here are our photographs from Hawaii. Enjoy!

Hawaii

January update

We're still backlogged on pictures we need to share. They're coming soon. In the meantime, we had a great holiday with the family in Hawaii and another mini vacation with our friends Nick and Jen on the south island.

We came back on a Sunday night and were back at work on Monday. Perin and I both decided that holiday is more fun than working. I injured my knee playing indoor soccer right before we left, but I was still able to move around pretty well. My ACL is fine, my MCL is strained but will heal, but a small piece of my median meniscus (cartilage) was torn. I have pretty much full range of motion, but it hurts to straighten my leg completely. I have a "real doctor" appointment (as opposed to just the physiotherapist) on Tuesday, so I'll probably get scheduled for an MRI then. No soccer means I have to return to the gym. Boooo!

An interesting development in our understanding of Kiwi culture is the tallest poppy syndrome. We hadn't heard of this until December, when it was mentioned to us about six times. One way it was explained to us is that immigrants from England wanted to form a society without class consciousness and frowned upon individuals who drew attention to themselves as better than anyone else. However, the wikipedia link above states this term is not unique to NZ.

But it does relate to an earlier post about doing business here in NZ and now that we've heard of the syndrome, we can see examples of it more readily.