smug

So there are these images that we have been chasing for a feature for some time now and I finally got a reply from the people- in very broken English. They asked if I could speak German or Spanish so, in the belief that my rusty German would be better than their rusty English, I dusted off the old Deutsche grey cells and set to work. It was a bit of a brain teaser at times and I would find myself muttering the German under my breath but typing the words in English, but I got there in the end. And then I found a free translating thing online- oh so übercool. In fact I was quite blown away by it. You can select a range of languages and just type in your sentence, click the button and poof- instant German. So I typed in English versions of my German sentences and I was about 90% right on average. Not too shabby. So right now I'm basking in the warm glow of my German being better than I thought and also being cunning enough to find a lazy way out if it fails me. If I were a cat, I'd be purring.

diamonds are a girl's best friend

The things people come up with will never cease to amaze me. Did you know that you can have your cremated ashes made in to a diamond? No shit. In 60-80 years, this could be you. Dude. You can even have your pet done. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. I mean I think it's totally cool that you can be made in to a gem and set in a ring or on a pendant but jewellery so often gets lost and how do you think someone is going to feel if they lose you- again? I mean talk about guilt!

Dunedin misses you!

After three days of crying after you left, the Leith is struggling to hold its banks, and has turned into a raging torrent of chocolate milk.

See!

10 ways to know that you're missing NZ

1. you buy "Nature's Best" at Chch airport even though you have an iPod and not a discman
2. the first song you listen to when you get it to a CD player is "Slice of Heaven" (I lie- it was 'Lydia')
3. you find yourself bobbing your head like a muppet in time to the music
4. you wish you'd bought some cheesy t-shirt like 'I heart NZ'
5. you definitely wish you'd bought that black canvas shoulder bag with the green koru design on it. Or maybe the one with the pukeko
6. you work out how many sleeps it is till you fly back again (237)
7. you change the desktop of your computer to one of your holiday snaps
8. you start calling everyone bro and saying aye at the end of every sentence
9. you develop a sudden interest in rugby and cricket
10. you're a way to know that I'm missing NZ

the one about planes, sidecard racing and jetlag

You never know who you're going to end up sitting beside on the plane. Prior to my flight back to the UK, I had been blessed by always sitting beside people who had no interest whatsoever in talking to me. I've heard horror stories from my friend Sue who, every time she flies back to SA, seems to get stuck next to someone who wants to talk to her for the whole 10 hours or whatever it is. And they keep talking when she puts on her headphones and tries to watch a film.

Well on my flight back I got stuck next to chatty people but chatty in the good way. Accompanying me the whole way was Stan Dibben who seemed like a friendly old man and turned out to be bloody fascinating. Full of interesting anecdotes on electronics in the war, gramophones, and other miscellaneous things, it finally came out that Stan was the 1953 sidecar racing champion and he is about to publish an autobiography. I got to see the draft and was blown away by pics of him hanging out the side of a motorbike sidecar going at something like 100mph. Oh my God. You just never know who you'll end up beside. As a result, I had a horribly long flight with delays, no vegetarian meal, reroutes and holding patterns BUT I got to chat with Stan and a lovely Swiss girl who was sitting on the other side and when I got sick of chatting, I could just put on my headphones and they were nice enough to leave me alone. It was fab.

I arrived back in the UK to a beautifully sunny day (apparently the first they'd had in 2 weeks) and I was so thankful because if the weather had been doing its usual grey thing, I think I may have gone home and hopped in to the bath with a toaster. I got to go to a bbq and headed home at 8:30pm when jetlag hit like a very heavy duvet. I slept a lot of Sunday and woke up at 4am on Monday. Cool. (Not.) but I think things are pretty well in sync now so fingers crossed.

to our mystery reader

Even though I am back home and therefore most of the people that this blog is directed at are now in contact with me, it is still alarming to see that there were no hits in the last day. Mystery reader somewhere in America, don't give up on us. Kitty never blogs anyway (love you Kitty! xox) but after hearing how busy she is, it's small bloody wonder that she manages to write at all, let alone make it look all minty fresh.

Writing is taking quite an effort this morning as my hands don't seem to be working properly at all. I partially blame the cold. I also blame my run (well really it's a walk) for sapping me of all my energy. Being back home is fantastic though. I have been having a fab time and have been super busy. In fact the only reason I'm updating this is because I feel some weird obligation to our mystery reader somewhere around the Ohio region. You bumped up a dot size on our little clustermap-doohacky so we're calling you a regular. Howdy. So just for you, a lot of pictures and an update. Although being back is cool, it's also kinda strange. I mean I know without a doubt now that NZ is where I want to be (unless some place captures my heart in the next year and a half) but it's strange to be away for a year and come back and it's like you never left. It's not just that the place looks the same, I can pick up just where I left off with so many friendships. Which is cool but still slightly surreal. Still- I've been supremely lucky with weather and also the tides as I've been able to walk on the beach every day. Hello, my name is Aynia and I love the beach. Although who couldn't? Catching it early in the morning at low tide there's something just so calming in all those shades of blue and grey. But enough of beaches. I suspect you want pictures.
I splurged out and got myself a fancy new haircut. Well the cut isn't as fancy as the colour. Check out my blonde bits. Oooer!


And here is my sister Julie doing Blue steel. So hot right now.


And here is Julie on the beach. Remind me again why I want to leave this?


And last but definitely not least- here is Sophie, my sensei's eldest daughter. She's grown SO much in the year I've been away it's scary. She rivals Sean and Daisy for cutest kids ever. So supercutiepie.

coming soon to an office near me...

One of the guys in the office is getting a puppy and this little darling should be in the office by the time I get back! Sooooooooooooooo supercutie! An office dog! I could go crazy with the exclamation marks!!! I intend to hide doggy treats under my desk and buy its love. Mwah hah hah.

so amazing!

This afternoon I've been on the search for macro images for our Geophoto and have come across the most amazing animal- the pygmy chameleon. (This guy really needed to moisturise.)

You cannot tell me that these are not the most amazing reptiles EVER. In fact just about all chameleons are awesome.

In fact, they are almost bumping off the weevil for my hit pick. Luckily one is a reptile and one an insect so I can keep them both. Weevils, for those not in the know, are just bloody hilarious.

I mean look at them. H I L A R I O U S.

And please excuse watermarks and lines through pics, they're grabbed from one of my fav nature picture libraries, NHPA.

Starbucks may be Satan but I'd sell my soul for a mocha frappuccino

Well maybe selling my soul is going a bit far although on a hot summer's day, I might do it for a mango frescato from Costa. Frappuccino, frescato, tomato, tomato- they're all really just different types of glorified slushies. Be it mocha shots, mango syrup or whatever you like blended up with a whole bunch of ice- it should be watery and nasty but it's not. It's yummy.

Back home, I only ever went to Starbucks once and that was when I was taken there by family friends and you can't exactly say, "No sorry, if I had a religion, Starbucks would be against it." when a nice couple is giving you a ride up to Chch and buying you lunch and they just want to stop for a coffee. And if I stopped to think about it, I have no reason to dislike Starbucks apart from the fact that they took over the Penrose building and are a huge international franchise in a city where I wholeheartedly support the small independently run cafes. But over here everything is a franchise. Cafe Nero, Costa, Starbucks, there are no nice small cafes here. But over my dead body will I succumb to the call of the frappuccino when I'm back in Dunedin. No I say, this girl has standards. (Well at least as long as anyone's looking...)

P.S. ONLY 3 SLEEPS TILL I LEAVE FOR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S. Check me out getting all funky with the font colour.

the one where I complain a lot

I fly home on Friday. That's like 4 days away (today not counting becuase I'm in it)- in fact by my counting logic it's really only 3 because Friday doesn't count because that's the day I fly out. Or maybe it does because I only fly out at 10pm (which is nowhere near midday which for some reason is the time I've thought I was flying out for the past God knows how many week- I must be mental). At any rate, it's bloody soon.

How was your weekend? It had to be better than mine. Saturday was fine but Sunday- well let's just say that's a day I'm never getting back. Sunday was The Boat Race. This is the annual rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge and little known to me, is just an excuse for everyone who can cram in to London to relocate to the banks of the Thames and get absolutely stark raving drunk. And when you're the sober person trying to squeeze your way through the masses for half an hour to get to a bunch of other people only to find out that you went the wrong way and have to go back and then squeeze through more people in mud and get trodden on and then end up at a marquee where HORRIBLE dance remixes are blasting at such a volume that your head actually vibrates and hurts, well it ain't such a fab time, let me tell you. Take a look at that image of the crowd. I walked through that. If you don't see any free room where anyone could possibly get through, that's because there wasn't any. And I missed the race. It started out well enough, as you can see from the pics of Jen (Aussie girl and a travel beer, small surprise there), Kez and Sam. We were initially in Putney (where there was room and we had a view) but then went to Hammersmith which was near the middle of the race and that's where everyone was. But I'll stop there, all I can really add to it is more grumble grumble, whinge and moan, oh woe is me, etc etc. I will let Sam and my muddy shoes say the rest.