Book love.....

Speaker for the Dead.

Casualties of Wellington

Winter Weather

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8823953/Major-storm-mop-up-gets-under-way

Book love....(not always)...

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. About that. Um, this one gave me all kinds of trouble. I may have only understood parts of it, if that. Just know that, even for me, a crazy book fiend, I struggled to finish this book. FINALLY, this past week I reached the end and then rushed to start something else. :)

Hot cakes.....

We tried a new "American" breakfast place this weekend. Interestingly, we saw that they offered "Iowa style" pancakes. Even though I attended my first two years of undergrad at Northwestern College (Orange City, IA) I had to come to NZ to hear about this type of pancakes. They were your standard fluffy pancakes and so I don't know how that makes them Iowan. If any knows, can you explain it to me?

Carded.....

This past weekend I was carded. Twice. First at the grocery store and then at a bar we frequent although it was from a bartender we don't really know. Why am I telling you this? Well, in the past I was flattered to get carded since the drinking age in NZ is 18. But it feels especially delicious now that I've hit the big 3-0. :) My secret? Daily sunscreen. And I drink lots of water.

Strictly NZ....

So in these first fifteen months in Kiwiland we noticed a few things. And here, in the "Strictly NZ" post, we will give a run down of this mishmash of Kiwi ridiculousness.

1. Sadly, there is no Mexican food in New Zealand. Don't get me wrong there are places that serve "Mexican" food but not Mexican food. Feel, me? And with that we've found that, in general, Kiwis aren't so crazy about spicy food. This is problem because, well, we are. Therefore, I have my doubts that this place can actually serve up the spice we crave because that's just not how it's done here. :)

2. "She'll be right" is a common Kiwi saying that roughly translates to "don't worry about it, magically things will sort themselves out". We sometimes say this in jest when we observe this lax attitude. Just one example of this we noticed last week when we were walking after our archery lesson. Look at the photo below. Anything strike you as strange? Who decides to put a basketball hoop in between two windows? She'll. Be. Right.

3. Even though Wellington weather varies little throughout the year people still seem to be continuously caught off guard by it. It rains a lot. People do not dress for the rain. It's windy 99% of the time. People do not own wind proof clothing. I find this mind boggling. So following this train of thought it is no surprise that people find their umbrellas destroyed by the blustery conditions.

4. Please step into my office. Ok, I know that 'surgery' used in this context is a carryover from the British meaning (a place where a physician sees patients). And yet it still stopped me in my tracks the other day when I saw this sign attached to a person's house.

5. Dated. We've noticed that many things in New Zealand are a bit dated. You see this when you look at buildings and cars but it was reiterated once again when we strolled past one of the very dated hotels near our apartment. TVs from the 1990s. Yup, we are cutting edge here in Kiwiland.

Aspiring archers....

Two weeks ago we were excited to start a beginner's archery class in Lower Hutt (outside Wellington proper). But typical NZ would have none of that and we were rained out. Remember, we're going into "winter" which means rain (only some of the time). So last week we had our first lesson. We took the bus out found the field where we would have our class. Before we were given our equipment or any direction we completed a simple task to determine which eye was dominant. With Tim being right handed and me being a south paw we were sure that we'd shoot according to our handedness. With that said we were much amused to learn that I was right eye dominant and Tim was left. :) Since I haven't done archery since middle school I figured I could start learning to shoot right handed even if it didn't seem intuitive. Tim spoke with the instructor and learned that you can shoot either way regardless of your dominant eye. In the end he decided to shoot right handed. We never would've guessed that we shoot the same way. :)

Soon after we were given recurve bows, a quiver of arrows, an arm guard (for the bow arm) and a finger tab to protect the digits that contact the bowstring. When everyone was situated we were given some basic instructions and set 'to the line' to put technique into practice. Our main focus was to work towards correct technique and not worry so much about where the arrow is hitting the target.

With two lessons under our belt now we're continuing to learn about the subtleties of technique. And for the second week in a row I'm upper body sore pretty much everywhere. Apparently, I don't ever use some of the muscles in my shoulders and arms. :) It hurts so good.

Australia vs New Zealand.....

Below are two contest entries answering the question, "What excuse would Aussies use to go to war with NZ?". The first is that they would like an extra day off and the second is a poke at NZ's use of "100% pure" branding that you see everywhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=773aoMo7hPE

Book love....

The Casual Vacancy and Ender's Game.