Where's BH - Volume 6

Greetings dear readers and welcome to the latest edition of Where's BH. I know it has been some time since my last update. Rather than apologising (look, I'm learning how to switch my letters!), I'm just going to say that from now on there will most likely be a decent passage of time between my updates. Ah yes, it's all about managing expectations.

Right then, now that you know what to expect, grab a cuppa and settle in.

Special thanks to Karryn for sending me a card. Real mail rocks!!

It is now officially less than one month before I return to the US on holiday. I'm even more excited than I thought I would be. It's going to be wonderful to catch up with friends and family again. The itinerary is as follows:

Dec 18 Depart Wellington
Dec 18-23 San Francisco
Dec 23-31 Kansas City
Dec 31-Jan 2 San Francisco
Jan 2 Depart San Francisco
Jan 4 Arrive Wellington
Jan 5 Brandon (buddy from SF currently living in Tokyo) arrives for a visit
Jan 12 Back to the grind

Time in San Francisco is booked with things like Dickens Fair, hair cuts, catching up with dear friends, causing mischief…the usual. Time in KC is booked with being the coolest Auntie to my nieces and nephew, catching up with friends, seeing my horse, etc. I can't wait!!

So, what have I been up to you may ask? One of the neatest things I have done is a train pub crawl with the Hash House Harriers. We started in Palmerston North and went to Napier. One of the hashers works for the railroad so we had our own private 3 car train. About 120 of us went on the adventure. Most drove up on Friday night, but as I attended a Beltane festival that night at the Woolshed, I drove up early Saturday morning. Met the crew at the train station and hilarity ensued. It was great to hang out with some folks I hadn't seen in some time and to meet new people. We stopped at about a dozen pubs that day in addition to drinking while on the train. When we got to Napier we checked into the hotel. The beds were rather alluring at that point and I think we ended up with 3 of us in the single bed and about 6 in the queen bed for a quick nap and then went to the RSA for dinner. After, we intended to go to the hot pools, but got distracted by the All Blacks match. The next day we took the train back to Palmy with one stop along the way. I had a leisurely drive back along the coast and stopped at a couple beaches on the way to enjoy the sunshine. Luckily I had my camera with me and took some shots of the beauty. I need to play more with the camera to be able to do what I want (or I could just suck it up and upgrade to a digital SLR).

Oh, speaking of, I have finally been uploading photos! So many of you have been requesting them and I have been terribly delinquent. I've set up a Picasa account so from now on you can go here: picasaweb.google.com/annika.corley whenever you want your latest dose of BH, her antics and to see some of the gorgeous NZ scenery.

My buddy Matt (English guy) and I went to a Phoenix (soccer) match. There's a section of the stadium that is clearly filled with ex-pats. The chants and songs are magic and it's loads of fun. Naturally, we got our seats in that section and had a blast. I'm not a big soccer fan, but in that kind of crowd I love attending. Also got together after work with a girl I met at an Italian cooking class I attended. Her husband and another friend were there. It turned into an evening of laughter which I always love.

I went to a full moon celebration at the Woolshed a few weeks ago. This one focused on Mothers and I thought it appropriate since that's what I'm working on these days. (No, not becoming one, but dealing with the loss of mine) Ah yes, the universe always provides. I'm thrilled that I went as it was a good release for me and I gained some interesting insight into certain things.

A few weeks ago my flatmate Eddie had a couple friends of his over. The 5 of us spent the evening playing Cranium. I had never played that before, but it definitely provides some good laughs. It was a fun way to spend the evening.

I started a new eating plan a couple weeks ago that William sent to me. So far it is going really well and I feel far better now that I am eating healthy foods all the time. I've also been working out 4-5 days per week so that has been a good stress reliever. This past Sunday I was feeling a little guilty I hadn't made the gym. Around 5pm I went for a casual walk along the water and took my journal with me. As I was writing in my journal, my buddy Matt turned up and we went for a walk over to Oriental Bay and had our feet in the water. He then said, "Let's go for a quick stair walk." Silly me, I should have known then and there I was in for it. Quick background – Wellington has many, many hills. A lot of houses were built on the hillsides in a time when no one thought cars would ever be used. The other problem is that a lot of the planning was done in England by people who had no idea of the topography. So now you find "roads" that are really just foot paths because no road could be cut there. We went up Grass Street which is one of these "roads". When I say up, I mean UP. Nob Hill has nothing on this bad boy. There are some gorgeous houses tucked away back there and the views are incredible. We went up to the top and then around the other side of the hill and took the long way back down. It was a great adventure, but we decided we need to do it again with our cameras and when I'm not in flip-flops! My feet aren't too thrilled with me today, but it was great exercise!

Saturday was the Aro Street Fair in the park. They had multiple live bands and several of us met down there to play with our poi and various fire toys. No fire though as it was during the day. I got there first due to a friend's fiascos in transportation. There are some old Victorian houses right next to the area where they were set up. As I was looking around I thought to myself that I might as well be sitting in Delores Park or some park in SF. Really reminded me of home. The music was great and the crowd was fun. Some guy there had a golden retriever that was just gorgeous. I went over to play with the dog and ended up hanging out with those two for a couple hours. It was good fun. That night I went to my flatmate's Christmas party at a place called Havana. It's a great space and definitely a place I want to go to again. As the evening wore on the boys decided to go to Ivy which is a gay bar that opened recently. It was okay, but I tend to enjoy spending my time where I at least have a chance at some of the men in the room. :-)

Speaking of, I can't believe it is almost Christmas! I know all of you in the US are focusing on Thanksgiving right now, but I don't have that distraction. The oddest thing is that the weather is getting warmer as we get closer to Christmas. Though I'm thrilled I'm going to be spending my Christmas with family and friends, it's disappointing to think I'm missing out on warm weather! I want to have a Christmas tree this year that just has jandals (flip flops) on it. Seems appropriate somehow.

I am off to Auckland this weekend for a friend's 40th birthday. It promises to be an impressive party. I was going to attend a Thanksgiving Dinner celebration hosted by the American Women's Network this Thursday. However, as I only get one free day a week on this eating plan, I decided to save it for Auckland rather than spend it on a meal that won't be as good as what I grew up with anyway.

Work (only because so many of you ask about it) is going well. Have been fairly busy which is nice. It looks like I will be spending a couple days per week in Auckland on a project for December and January. It's an easy commute so I can't complain. Plus, the project is more in-line with what I did in the past. It will be nice to have full confidence that I know what I'm doing. If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle them with …..

I'm looking forward to having some visitors. First Brandon is coming over. Niamhie is going to head across at some point. Oh, she and her flatmate Des had a brilliant idea of having a wall of fame in their flat. As they have now had two visitors (myself and then a friend from Ireland), they want each of us to pick our favourite photo of ourselves, blow them up, sign them and then put them in the post. I think it's genius and can't wait to see how they turn out! You can see photos from Sydney at the above link. My favourite photo was actually one Niamh took, but isn't in that list. For those of you on Facebook, it's my profile photo on there.

I've had some good conversations with friends back home recently. Skype is a beautiful thing – free computer to computer and $0.021/minute computer to the US. It's only $0.10/minute from my home phone so rates are pretty darn good with either option. Download it for free y'all!

My buddy Dylan whom I mentioned in the last update has not only moved to Wellington and has not only moved into my building, but has moved into the flat directly above mine. Stalker! :-) It's great to have him so close so we can hang out during the rare moments he isn't working at Weta.

The Christmas party season is starting. Weekends are about to get busy. I know, I know – like they weren't before?!

Okay, I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now. I hope everyone is well. I will get to see some of you very soon!!!

This update was brought to you by the letter C and the number 23 (days til I come home!)