As work goes

Claire just told me that I am funnier than I look. I think she meant that as a compliment, but I'm still trying to work it out.

There are some things in life I recently realized (or realised if you prefer) that I always accepted as 'givens'. For example, walking home from work across the Auckland Domain up by the museum (first picture) at say 6 p.m., and it's dark outside, there's a crisp breeze, maybe about 5 degrees (40F), many trees have lost their leaves, and I think Christmas must be coming soon, and Ohio State must be playing football this Saturday. Because these things happen in Autumn and Winter, and it's Winter. Seasons have always been a constant in life, and it's a bit hard to adjust.

Claire and I took a walk today from our villa to the hospital (second picture) across the domain (Auckland's largest park) - I particularly wanted to show her the view from our office... it's pretty spectacular. Claire took a few photos out of the window. I'm on the 14th floor, second from the top, and my desk overlooks Auckland to my left (3rd picture) and out over the harbour and nearby islands to my right (4th picture).

I must admit, working in a hospital is quite an experience. My job is with the Auckland District Health Board and the Auckland City Hospital (the building I work in is pictured). I've recently spent several hours in the Emergency Department (ED) with a couple of the head nurses. They really are heroes. It's no surprise that there are so many tv shows about hospitals and the ER. Next week we're supposed to make notes and observe the processes in the ED including during a 'Resus', or resuscitation, when a patient comes in critical (which happens every day) and a team of nurses and doctors drop everything and greet the ambulance as it pulls in. They have every range of patient you can imagine. Our first time down security was stationed at one of the beds for a known 'bad' patient they expected to have a violent situation with, and apparently were not disappointed.

As for the weekend, just a calm one, back home Claire was excited to bake (pictured) some banana bread (pictured - yes, we really did put a picture of a loaf of bread on our blog - Claire is very proud)... Looks good to me! Not sure if it will make it until Sunday's breakfast or not, and that's only a few hours away!

A Wet and Windy Weekend Away

Last weekend I took Tim away for a belated birthday treat. I booked us into a B&B (Takamatua Estate), halfway between Matakana and Leigh, about 90mins drive north of Auckland. I recommend it if you're ever up that way - Michelle and Harald have a fabulous home and are wonderful hosts. On Saturday morning we visited the Matakana Farmers Market, popular with locals and Aucklanders (pictured). It was pouring down with rain, so we didn't expect it to be very busy. However, much to our surprise, it was buzzing with a lively crowd. We bought ourselves some locally produced olive oil, some gourmet mustard, and two types of peanut butter. After stopping to appreciate the live jazz band (pictured), we continued on to browse some of the local art and gift shops. In one stationary shop we found a poster of the London Underground map, which we are excited about putting up in the flat to remind us of home - its easier to view the tube map with fondness when you don't have to travel on it to work everyday! We also found a poster map of the world, which we're also planning to put up, and stick pins in the countries we've visited. We stopped for a coffee at a local pottery gallery, and then headed to Leigh, where I'd booked us in to the microbrewery for a tour and tasting. Peter, the owner/brewer of the Sawmill Brewery, took us through the entire brewing process, and gave us a taste of all the beers their produce. Tim liked the Pilsner best.

Tag team blogging. It's the latest thing - there's not even an acronym for it yet. This is Tim writing now... I did like the pilsner the best. Claire definitely raised the bar on the bday presents. I look forward to returning the all expenses paid destination birthday weekend for Claire in October. Saturday evening we went back to the Sawmill Cafe for dinner, more beer (for me anyway), and a live band. A Kiwi reggae group. Hard to top that. The wind was blowing though, harder and harder, and about the eighth time the power went out it stayed out. The band was good though, they found a couple acoustic guitars and played on under the candle light (pictured) for a memorable evening. We made it back through the storm, and our b&b hosts left port and freshly baked cookies and candles out for us in our private sitting room.

The wind was still providing 60+ mph gusts in the morning, although the rain had subsided, so we went down for a walk on the beach (pictured). The wind was clipping off the top of the waves as they crested blowing mist high into the air. The surf was about the roughest I've seen, but that only seemed to encourage the kite surfers to come out. Not the best picture, but you can get a scale for how big the waves are if you can make out the man surfing.

Had to drive back early though, and get ready for my first day of work. I can't quite remember what the expression is about paybacks, but as I patronizingly snapped a photo of Claire on her first day or work, she got one of me (pictured).

No more big adventures planned in the next couple of weeks, unless you count a Saturday spent curtain shopping. Some things even moving across the world cannot be escaped.

You put your left leg in; you put your left leg out

You do the Hokey ...???

Never have I been in such a heated argument (not involving politics or religion) where everyone had a different answer and everyone was certain he/she was right. So, what comes after Hokey?

Well, in New Zealand - we'll call this #4 of the list of upside-down things here - the answer is Hokey Tokey. When clearly, it is Pokey. Actually, that's only true in North America. In the U.K., claims Claire, it's Cokey.

Whatever you'd like to call it, I think Claire and I agree, it feels like we have spent our first six weeks in Auckland doing the Hokey Pokey. Since our last post, Claire's started work, I've found a job with the auckland district board of health, we've furnished our flat, received all of our stuff from Lonodn, and just yesterday bought ourselves a car. I've also played in two concerts with the Auckland Symphony (pictured above the lobby before our concert and the full choir and symphony), and we've had our first house guest, Sejal, who has a few more months of travel ahead of her before returning to London.

Unfortuntately, the beautiful pictures are a bit hard to come by for this post, as we've spent more time in Auckland's variety of discount shops (The Warehouse, Mitre 10, and Briscoes) than visiting the many natural beauties of New Zealand. Although, after an interview at Villa Maria (pictured), Claire and I went back to sample thier wines and pick up a few bottles at the big wine sale.

Now that we're nearly settled, Claire is taking me away this upcoming weekend in our new car (pictured, our 2005 Honda CRV) to a surprise destination as a belated birthday present. So next time around, we should have some more interesting photos.

Hopefully the weather will be good for us. Sun and showers seem to run on a 30 minute cycle here some days. Usually the sun is out just long enough to lure us out to get soaked by the next shower that comes along. The benefit, I suppose, is that everything is green and we often have rainbows (pictured from our kitchen porch).