WRITTEN ON March 9th, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN books
I read about how Arsenal won 5-0 against Porto and Porto was eliminated from the Champions League. My first thought? Nick Hornby must be really happy.
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WRITTEN ON March 8th, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN environment
Tags: bottled water, environment, graphic
source: http://www.onlineeducation.net/bottled_water/
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WRITTEN ON March 3rd, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
On one of my trips to New Zealand, I spent some time on the plane watching a documentary about Kiwi English. I found it really funny and, most importantly, very interesting for anyone visiting/moving to New Zealand, as well as New Zealanders or simply people who are interested in language and how it develops.
I tried to find that documentary both on DVD and on You Tube but always without success. Today, while searching for something else on the NZ On Screen website (and what a good website it is!), I stumbled upon the documentary again. It’s filled with interesting bits of information about how the English language developed here, its history, influences and even a hint about its future. Finding it, along with the bus driver that let me on the bus even though I was not at the bus stop when I should have been and the co-worker who surprised me with lollies on my desk in the morning, has made this day a total win.
I can’t seem to be able to embed it here so just head to the NZ On Screen website and check it out. Make sure you watch all the clips (it’s divided in six). It’s choice!
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WRITTEN ON March 3rd, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
My lovelies,
I started writing this post with a feeling of “I wish my life was slightly more ‘blog-able’ so I wouldn’t spend so long without coming back here” but I guess that’s not really what I want to say anymore. I’m not sure if it’s a case of having blogging material or not (so many blogs out there have zero blogging material and yet publish posts like there’s no tomorrow). I think I just get really tired of words, sometimes, and there’s so much to put into words that I ran out of vocabulary for the mundane things that one would normally turn into blog posts.
Don’t fool yourself, though, I ain’t no vegetable. There’s a lot going on over here and maybe if I didn’t write for a living I’d have more patience to come up with texts about everyday musings. I’d come back more often to tell you how much I love Easter for the abundance of Cadbury Creme Eggs (truly one of the most amazing things ever created). I would tell you how happy I am about my boyfriend being back in New Zealand after five weeks away, working in South Africa and I would also tell you about my hint of jealousy when I see his wonderful photos of monkeys and giraffes (how awesome are giraffes, really? Super awesome, that’s how awesome).
I’d probably also come here to tell you little things that mean nothing but are enough to make me smile/ giggle/ laugh/ cry/ all of them. Like, yesterday, when I heard from a person who said that the last book they’d written had been “a non-fiction book about dragons”. Or how many laughs I’m getting off Modern Family episodes. Or the store that I walked past the other day and that only sells water (you might think that it makes perfect sense but it still made me giggle).
And speaking of water, and moving onto things that really don’t make me giggle, I’m still trying to understand why the hell bottled water is so criminally expensive in New Zealand. And while I’m talking about things that don’t make me happy, let me use a couple of sentences to talk about how, the other day, while trying to get ready, I was watching the morning news and saw a New Zealand artists apologise live on TV for one of his paintings. He entered a portrait competition and the rule was that he had to paint a real New Zealand so he took on the challenge of painting a villain and painted Clayton Weatherston and apparently people got angry and he apologised for it. Am I really the only one who thinks that there is something very wrong with a country where an artist feels the need to apologise for his work?
Anyway, I’m going to watch another movie under the stars tonight (unless Auckland’s weather turns to custard in the mean time, which is highly likely). You know, ignore my parenthesis, I’m not even going to complain about how unpredictable the weather here is. I’m just going to make plans about how I’m going to enjoy the last rays of sunshine before winter gets here.
So bottom line is I am trying to get my blogging mojo back - while, at the same time, trying to maintain my offline journaling mojo (I’m keeping two offline journals, people, TWO! Brownie points for me!). Bear with me, there’s lots to blog about. I think.
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WRITTEN ON March 1st, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
Tags: hot pools, rotorua, spa, travelling
And just when you thought that a roadtrip with fun people followed by a crazy ride in a zorb wasn’t enough to make it a good day, comes an afternoon relaxing at the hot pools in the Polyneasian Spa.
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WRITTEN ON March 1st, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
Tags: adventure, new zealand, rotorua, travel, zorbing
I had been wanting to have a go at Zorbing since the first time I heard about the crazy “sport”. It basically involves rolling downhill inside a giant inflatable ball. There’s two ways to do it: strapped to the zorb, going down the hill on a straight route or having a bit of water inside the zorb and having your body float aimlessly inside it while you go downhill on a zigzag kind of way. Of course we chose the latter. And, obviously, there’s no better place to do it than the original birthplace of Zorbing - Rotorua.
I can’t really tell you how long it lasts for. It must take about one minute but it certainly feels way longer than that inside the zorb. It is an amazing feeling and I now understand why it is on so many “to do” lists of tourists to New Zealand. Well worth going all the way to Rotorua for and well worth putting up with the sulphur smell.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go sit by the washing machine feeling jealous of my clothes.
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WRITTEN ON February 10th, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN politics
I was going to write a really long rant about all the things that annoy me about kiwiland (this week alone has given me enough material) but I think I’m going to wait another day or two and see if my feelings remain unchanged (I guess this is what being adult and mature is like). So instead, here’s a picture of cute lambs, to remind us all (and especially me) that there are cute things in kiwiland. Lots of them, actually. But then there are also really, really incredibly annoying things. But I’m not going to talk about those today. Oh no, I’m not. Not today.
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WRITTEN ON February 9th, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
step 1. start the weekend with dinner with your girlfriends, drink wine and watch a movie that makes you laugh.
step 2. have brunch somewhere nice with said girlfriends.
step 3. take a nap. never underestimate the importance of a good nap.
step 4. have dinner with fun people.
step 5. watch more movies that put you in a good mood
step 6. pick a nice beach and play dead on it for a couple of hours.
step 7. reflect on how great your weekend was, even if you didn’t have any big plans or expectations about it in the first place.
Yep, that’s all.
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WRITTEN ON February 2nd, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
Tags: lists, new zealand, outdoors, summer, travel
(summer here in the southern hemisphere, that is)
I know it’s already February and we’re half way through Summer down here but before the sky goes all grey again and the coats need to get out of the closet, here’s the plan:
- run more, run more often, run for longer.
- go strawberry picking (apparently every single person in kiwiland has done it except me)
- the tongariro crossing
- have a lot more picnics
- kayak in puhoi
- return to waiheke island (this time with good weather instead of the crappy day i had the only time i went there)
- zorbing!
- visit the auckland fish market (i’m not even sure if it’s good or bad but i want to go there)
- learn to ride the goddamn bike!
- go to markets more often (farmers’ markets, crafts markets, it doesn’t matter, so long as it’s outdoors and there are pretty things on display)
There’s heaps of other stuff I want to do but I guess narrowing it to ten things will help me get out of my lazy butt and actually do it.
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WRITTEN ON January 19th, 2010 BY kiwivera AND STORED IN kiwiland
Tags: random
1. As a listaholic, the best thing in life is to have your wishlists and your to do lists be one and the same (or at least to be able to move items from the wishlist to a to do list on a regular basis, and then tick them off). I’m always so happy when I get to tick off the to do list something that was part of a list of things I wanted to do, rather than something I had to do… That’s how I want 2010 to be - full of happy lists!
2. The Tuatua Restaurant, in Whitianga (Coromandel Peninsula) serves one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. So worth the long drive. Plus, they have a super cool looking coffee machines. One day, I’m going to have a collection of awesome looking antique coffee machines.
3. The new Vampire Weekend album redefines the word “awesome”.
4. I’m committed to not buying any shoes until I’ve worn all the pairs that I have at least once. The good news is that I am down to one pair which I haven’t worn yet so that too shall be solved soon.
5. The best thing to get over how much you miss the people you love is to hang out with other people you love. Does wonders for your mental health, I tell ya.
6. The Falls restaurant, in Henderson (West Auckland), is another amazing place to go to. Had an amazing brunch there last Sunday and am predicting a lot more visits to that place in the future.
7. No matter how nice coffee tastes, being seriously addicted to caffeine is one seriously horrible curse. You try to convince yourself to cut back on it and the result are a series of massive headaches that make you run back to the kitchen for your next cup. It sucks and, on days like today, I wish I had never touched coffee in my life.
