10 December 2007 - Settling In

True to expectations it is still raining with disappointing regularity. Nevertheless as Aucklanders are used to this the only side effect is the fact that you cannot really drive anywhere on wet days. Despite the prevalence of water on these roads, locals still completely fail to maintain adequate following distances and accidents are as predictable as the precipitation.

On Sunday I met with Katherine and a few other faces at a local Botanical Gardens and we walked for an hour or so through what would euphamistically be called mist but was in fact more bloody rain. It was great fun however, as the photos hopefully will reflect, although I did have much cause to wish that the blue skies of the previous day had stuck around a little longer. You might envy me the elevated temperatures but I can assure you - when the sun shines it hurts to be out in it - and when it doesn't it's just as miserable as a grey day in London.

Mum, Dad and I sat down to a very unusual meal at the end of our one sunny day. Mum got chinese food and laid a picnic cloth over a discarded plastic outdoor table which we first cleared of clamps, saws and woodshavings as Dad had been making shelves. The bunny rabbits in the cage ignored the food smells, but the chooks (hens) cats and flies swarmed in most annoyingly. Also later I discovered the mosquitos had had a feast of their own - unnoticed under the table. Grrrr. Halfway through the meal it began to lightly rain. But as we'd gone to so much trouble to eat outside, we decided to just get wet. The shower didn't last long luckily.

During the week I had a few chances to go dancing. Live bands at every event. Friday was the Christmas Ball for my favourite dance school here (Viva Latina) and luckily I had a salsa dress I'd loaned my sister once or cinderella would have had nothing to wear! It was more like an office Christmas Party than a salsa party as we would describe it. There wasn't a great deal of salsa but lots of other dancing as well. Given that the dance school doesn't only represent salsa I think that's probably fair enough. I did find a BachataCompatible chap thank goodness as they play 8 or 9 tracks in an evening and that's far too long to be standing out or grazing at the buffet table. The venue was most impressive - see below.

Next week I'm not going to Australia. A few less air miles never hurt I figure.... now how mad is that - a free trip to Melbourne and I'm saying - actually no thanks.