Liz back on line

I have been remiss in not keeping this blog up to date in the last few months - Yes, I have been busy but I have been unsure how interested other people might be in my happenings so have decided to continue even if it is just for my own benefit in keeping a pictorial diary.

fter an eventful trip to the South Island over Easter in our motorhome - long story - the short version is a tree fell on our bus in a storm, but all is well or mendable - and we spent a great few days with J and O and Callum on the way home.

I have just returned from another two weeks in Sydney working at UTS - always feel so welcome there and had several lovely meals with friends and the work went well.

I spent a couple of days with Catherine and the family up at Glanmire, it gets cold watching football up there - the two nanas took Sean to his game while Catherine took Joshua to his. I think the kids grow an inch every month - it seems like that!

The following weekend I caught up with Brett R. - lovely to hear news of his family - we had lunch at the Forum - an Italian community area in Leichardt with a large square surrounded by restaurants on the ground level and apartments above. Also went for a walk the next day to the Museum. Hyde park was being enjoyed by large numbers of people out in the sunshine.

Visited with my friend Joan while she was babysitting her grand daughter Eva- almost same age as our Callum - and enjoyed a Lebanese restaurant meal in Redfern.

Had an enjoyable evening with the UTS Women in Engineering group - the speaker brought along a couple of incredible robots - one football playing dog and a person shaped one that had been programmed to do Tai Chi and dance to rock music! The little dog was jsut like these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diiv7kpW-ng

My last day on this trip was special as a colleague picked me up and we went to work by boat in his "picnic" boat - a gorgeous still, blue sky autumn morning, as we left Iron Cove and tootled up the PArramatta River, anchored at Darling Harbour (only $25 a day if you are going to work) and walked up from there!

Home safely now in Auckland - and enjoyed catching up with two old friends we hadnt seen for about ten years.

More later! Off to Palmerston North next weekend to babysit Callum. then home for at least a month.

We are having the hottest February for a long time - really hot and sticky - hard to sleep at night.

We ran away last Saturday night overnight to Shell bank at Kaiaua - fish and chips and the calmest sea imaginable. Hot swim the next morning and back to host a few friends over for a BBQ.

Peter continues to work consistently on the garden and is gradually separating all the bromeliads which had been "procreating" in their pots - each year they get another pup and the part that has flowered dies - when we shifted we brought them all with us and we now have upwards sof 50 new bromeliads all nicely planted in new pots. Not sure what we will be doing with them all - maybe we can set up a roadside stall? The photo has only got the first 20 or so ...

Tomatoes coming out my ears - I am freezing pulp, and cooking them every night. Lettuces, second crop going crazy as well - have eaten up all our potato crop but another is on the way!

Sunday we had the first music in the park concert over our back fence. A "covers" band which was very good - so hot that all the audience sat quite away back in the shade - must have been a bit hard for the band to feel in the mood with everyone a bit away from them - but way too hot to sit in the sun. Next Sunday night is "French Toast" which is a trio playing French tunes. Should be fun.

I am doing quite a bit of work and preparing for more - but have made sure I take the time to do stuff for myself - like patchwork. Done quite a bit the last couple of weekends. Went to the "Counties Manukau Quilters Guild" - a nice group of women - about 50 of them, met some ex pupils, but most of the women were older. And I am back at my Philosophy group - off to a weekend retreat this coming weekend.

All well - just HOT!

Up North and the Far East

Well the year is racing past, and after a week or two, sorting through paperwork and doing a couple of outstanding tasks ( like writing my Kong Kong presentation), we set off to go to the near North for a weekend. The first night we took the Scenic Drive and ended up at Bethells Beach ( there was a Rock band going to be playing so we left there) and then back to the Cascades which is a lovely DOC spot with a regenerating Kauri forest and a clear bubbling stream. We stayed the night in the car park and I went for a neat walk to the Falls - very do-able 45 min walk. Tidied up immensely and well maintained since I last came here as a school teacher with a school group. Then went on up to Mangawhai for Saturday night - had breakfast in the car park by the beach - watching the world go by.

Then on the night of 18th I left for Hong Kong where I had been invited to give a keynote talk at a workshop which had mostly Korean, Hong Kong and Taiwanese participants. Great experience where I learned a lot about the academic cultures and also my first experience of Hong Kong. A fascinating place - 7 million people crammed into such a little space. difficult to choose photos to display. The first one shows the walkways which are over the roads -they are everywhere in the business district - cars take preference on the roads! They have the longest covered "escalator" moving walkway at 800km which goes from the CBD to the "midlevels" - where the medium to rich people live which comes one way - down - in the morning and one way -up- from 10am.

The statues are by a contemporary sculptor - they symbolise the fervour of the red Guards for Communism ( the front one with the little red book) and the back one the fervour of the modern Chinese generation for Capitalism ( clutching a cell phone).

I was somewhat amazed at the seeming lack of Communist China influence in HOng Kong - seemed to be "Business as usual".

The photo in front of the lights was taken before we left on a dinner cruise when all the Skyscrapers were lit up and they had a fancy laser light show every night at 8pm. Quite magnificent but my little camera didnt take good photos so the photo in front of the poster will have to do.

The skycrapers were jaw dropping and incredibly close together. One new building was going to be so close to its neighbours that they demanded that the residents of the adjacent condominium had to remove their external air conditioning units so that the new building could fit in!

I was also able to squeeze in a couple of side trips - one to Lamma Island which is relatively unpopulated - only 45 min in a ferry - lots of expatriots live there and commute into the CBD - no houses over 3 storeys and no cars on the island - lots of bush and lovely beaches. Didnt realise there were such unpopulated areas or island close to Hong Kong - most of them too hilly to build on but a real breath of fresh air from the CBD.

Then on Saturday afternoon after a workshop I was able to go to the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Gardens - I easily negotiated public transport during daylight hours and other than being a bit squashed it was very efficient.

The Gardens were beautiful - aiming for Harmony and Peace - they certainly achieved it! Bonsai'd trees, huge unusually formed stones and rocks and lots of water features!

Then on my last morning I took a bus to Stanley Markets which went round the south side of HK Island, and Repulse Bay with the multi million dollar apartments over looking the beach.

The markets were incredible - I bought presents for kids and family - lots I could have bought in the clothing line but my wardrobes are already full, so I restrained myself.

All in all a wonderful, unexpected opportunity. Enjoyed the chance to see how the other half lives, glad we are in NZ and blessed with so many natural assets.

The beautiful edible garden

Our garden has blossomed and fruited madly - we had a bucket and a half of beans when we came back on 4th janaury and have had at least another bucket full since, a coupl eof buckets of new potatoes and cabbage and cauliflower ( although the white butterfly got more cauliflower than we did) - and last night we had our first sweet corn - and wow were they sweet. The gladioli have been a picture although the colours are not as vivid in these photos as theya re in real life. Pity they last so short a time.

I have sat out on the deck and eaten lunch in beautiful sun, under the umbrella, and think - yeah it is a simple but good life!

Hopefully we have gardened enough and will get away in the bus this weekend.

Happy New Year for 2011

Happy New Year to anyone that reads this and follows my journey. Well, here we are in 2011 – the years fly by. Seems only yesterday we were planning for computer crashes as the clock rolled over to the year 2000.

After a quiet New Year in Palmerston North, with Jonathan, Olivia and Callum ( and Jenna and Hershey of course) Peter and I had a sightseeing morning with Christine – whose driveway our bus had been inhabiting each night – and we went up to the wind farm overlooking Palmerston North. I didn’t realise the turbines were so big! We think they are quite attractive, although I think sometimes they look like the pictures from War of the Worlds.

Palmerston North is quite a pretty town, although it is not close to any beaches, it does have the river winding through it with lovely riverside parks and the little Centennial Lake ( thats me with the ducks having a drink before my dinner).

Then we left on 3rd January to drive back to Auckland – took it slowly and explored some side roads and potential camping sites for the future – right beside the railway line at Erua where the Last railway spike was rammed home joining the north end to the south end of the main truank line in 1908, and at the YMCA camp beside the Mangawhero river.

Beautiful spot and quite empty that day.

We went in to see what we could of the Raurimu spiral and then came up the back road into Taumaranui on the other side of the river. Watched four mothers and six kids get set up in hired canoes to go down the Wanganui river - I got more grey hair just watching them, One kid was crying "I dont want to go" before they even set off - and none knew any paddling strokes except forwards and hopefully backwards. We followed them down through the first couple of kilometres and then decided it wasn't really our problem. Love weather for them, and very low water so hopefully they had fun.

Home again and now back to work. It is taking a while to settle.

The garden had grown madly - a bucket and a half full of beans alone! nd a few days later a bucket and a half of lovely new potatoes.

Hopefully someone enjoys reading my blogs - I put them here mainly as a record for myself and Peter - good backup - never too sure if they are a bit of an ego trip though, but at least it is better than bombarding friends and family with long emails with pictures! Hopefullyalso a bit more private than Facebook.