Huh... weird!

So I heard this weird rumour today... apparently I am leaving the country in four days... weird... wonder if it will happen, or if I will (as I suspect) fall off my dad's woodpile and break my ankle and can't fly... will keep you posted.

Anyway - in preparation for the alleged leaving my big brother very nicely agreed to chauffeur me to Waikouiti to visit my nan today. We had a good drive down (a bit over three hours), nice lunch and then back (a bit over three hours again). Long way to go for lunch but great to see Nan. I took a few shots of the Canterbury plains on the drive so you could all see why I complain so regularly about Wellington's hills but my camera doesn't seem to like mum's computer so I can't put them up for me. Trust me... its flat... and Wellington isn't.

Well, not much else to report. I hope things are going well with all of you and keep in touch :-)

Goodbyes and Arms of Steel

Hi everyone - well the trip has started. I left Wellington yesterday (in the rain and wind - good that Wellington really put on a cracker of a day for me to leave in!) and have now got a couple of days at my folks place before I head off to Singapore on Monday.

Many goodbyes have been said over the last few days. The most effective approach so far seems to be the 'pretend you are only going to Christchurch for a week' approach adopted by Zoe and myself. Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts and coming along to various drinks/coffees etc to say goodbye, and just for the record, just cos I managed to avoid actual crying doesn't mean I thinking about it and sad to say bye!

Since I left Wellington I have been giving my arms a good workout. My bag weighed 24kg (for those of you who had a bet in the sweepstake) and then this morning I took my mothers er... energetic (code for NAUGHTY!) dog Quinn for a walk and he tried pulling my arms out of their sockets. He didn't succeed but it came a bit close a couple of times!

I am now going to go and have a play with the puppies (8 week old heading dogs and very cute!) and get the fire going. Tomorrow my brother are heading further south to visit our Nana so will write more soon. I hope you are all good and if you are lucky (and I can figure out how to do it) I will put some pictures up of the puppies soon.