Toot Toot
You know you're gonna
be special, my sweet little toot toot. I have no idea why this is
going round my head like the ear worm it is.
It's like living with
students. Everyone thinks that whoever's milk it is, they won't miss
the amount needed for a cup of coffee. That is, until half the milk
has gone. But it's not important, if I know it's going to happen
I'll just buy twice the size. The important thing is making sure I
have enough for me over Christmas. Do what it takes, don't fuss.
I have such a properly
English complexion. I would not have lasted a summer in the kind of
upper class Victorian England where having colour in your cheeks was
considered somehow unacceptable. 3 hours in the sun in factor 30 and
I could feel the soreness in my cheeks. Upped it today to factor 50
and there's a feeling of slight rawness. Oddly, my colour is not
incredibly high (or I'd be embarrassed to be out in public). Just a
feeling of having had a layer of skin shrivelled off me. Wonder if
it's time to invest in the factor 70. It seemed slightly overkill
and I had visions of it being a covering something along the lines of
latex. Remember that scene in James Bond where they suffocated
someone by covering their entire body in gold paint of some kind.
That's what I think would happen to me in factor 70.
It's funny the
superfluous stuff I have with me (soon to be sent home). In the UK
doing outdoor stuff in the summer I tend to apply moisturiser which
just happens to be factor 15. I brought it with me to NZ thinking to
just use it as a moisturiser. Now it just seems like baggage. I
suspect it may be used liberally every evening I'm in Rotorua and
then disposed of on departure. I'm a little eager to lose some
weight and volume from the Bloody Big Bag. It has got to the point
where I'm frowning at myself for having two biros when one would do,
and somehow two micro USBs when one would do. It smacks a little of
desperation, eh? Curiously, I also feel I'm a pair of socks over
requirement, perhaps also a pair of trousers and maybe a t-shirt. It
all adds up.
Those who have
travelled before have offered much advice on the casual clothing
front. Be sure to have a going out outfit was one comment. Take
jeans, you'll miss them if you don't was another. So I kind of
combined the two bits of advice. Sort of. I have a pair of black
going out trousers not jeans but not walking trousers, and a going
out t-shirt. Funnily enough, it's little girlie frocks I find myself
eyeing up in shop windows and on market stalls. Light weight,
flouncy, flowery, short and floaty, pretty girly frocks. Imagine how
little space that would take up in comparison to trousers and a
t-shirt. But what about the shoes … … sigh. It'll be what it'll
be. And maybe I'm a bit too old for the girlie frock thing?
Oooh, I have been out
on a bike, I have been out on a bike, I have been out on a bike. And
it's Christmas Eve, and all my shopping is done. Bike hire of a GT
Avalanche 2013 model (I say that because latest model somehow sounds
really swanky). We have danced through the Redwoods today, tomorrow
we shall dance some more and the day after our final waltz ending in
a crescendo otherwise known as a hill.
It's only 4pm and I
can't limit my “things that made me happy” list to ten I'm
afraid. Might have to do two lists today indeed …
- Cranberry Muesli. New Zealand really grasp muesli. There is all kinds of stuff in it, it's flavoured and not just chewy monotony. I am ignoring the fact that when I got round to reading the ingredients there is a) sugar and b) some added oil content. After all, I need the calories …
- GT Avalanche 2013 model. I hired a bike today and it made me excessively happy. It and me are going to play nicely for another two days. Today we bounced our way around the Redwoods, grinning for the most part.
- “You're not bad for a Sheila”. Sigh. Praise and admiration indeed from a Kiwi guy. Joined up with a group of 3 blokes on the trail. Single track so we did that thing where you decide where you fit in the pecking order. I was fourth of four. Then the man in front of me let me in front of him, then the man in front of him let me in front of him. Then I was at the front. No, not bad for a Sheila. I kick kiwi arse.
- “I love you”. Yes. Air Punch. I have exceeded my mother's dream for me. She anticipated I would spend Christmas with “a lonely man in a lonely bar”. I have done way better than that. In a ten minute bus ride I pulled and Jerry and my relationship reached the point where he could not help but say the magic words. He's 84, my intended, and in pretty good nick.
- Bouncy trails. As you do, on new trails, tentatively find your way through the grades. Started at easy, moved to intermediate, found my level at advanced. The trails have no rocks, no mud, no hills. They are fairly pan flat packed stuff. Earth? Pumice? I don't really know, I just know it's hard with just a tiny bit of sandiness. The technical difficulties seem to be purely related to switchbacks, berms and steepness.
- Open Uni – I'm really getting stuck into this, particularly knowing I'm sending the books back to the UK in a few days time. We're doing a module on language. The strange in speak you find yourself using amongst hobby groups. Look at the above. I remember when I didn't know what switchback or berm was. Climbing is the best for this with onsight, redpoint, grigris, prussiking, jumarring. A world of beautiful language to savour.
- Hot mud pools. Happened on one of these in the middle of the mountain bike ride. Fabulous splollop noises. A world of bizarre
- Living the dream. Another day when I remembered with clarity why 25 years ago I started dreaming about New Zealand. I couldn't name what it was that made me want to go when I started planning this year to make the trip. But the more I see, the more I go “oh yes, this is what I thought it would be like”. Oooh, I have a picture which paints more than a thousand words.
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- Chocolate honey muesli bar. I will not elaborate.
- Mechanical competence. I loved that after 15 minutes out on the bike I turned back, took it back to the rental place and said this will not do. Bearings gone in the pedals. I knew what it wasn't, I knew it wasn't bottom bracket and I knew it wasn't chain but I knew damn well there was a grinding sensation but not when the cranks turned, only when I put any force through the pedals. And there was a damned annoying noise. I paid top whack for this bike hire. Hehehehe. I laugh because I'm comparing a £25 per day hire with the local utility bike hire places which are £12 a day. I know damn well I'm getting value for money. But there's nowt like cheek.
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