Coolest little capital in the world???

It has been a good week for Wellington, firstly being touted by Lonely Planet as possible the 'Coolest little capital in the world' and then a few days later NZ was named fourth best country to live by some organisation or another, there seems to be so many of them putting out lists!

Anyway, it has been a good few weeks since the last post, so a catch-up is in order... A few weekends ago Will & I hosted our first BBQ of the 'summer'. It was a really enjoyable night with some of my friends from work being the bravest in staying outside all evening in the not so summery temperatures! With the help of a cranked up brazier mind you... A few stayed on to watch the AB's game against Oz, which was unfortunately bit of an anti-climax to the evening...

We have had some stunning weather of late, which the garden is appreciating. The wisteria has reached its peak & is now on the decline. It has been a gorgeous mass of fragrant purple blossom. We also discovered a lovely bright pink rhododendron right at the bottom of the garden.

I didn't plant many annuals as there is loads of colour around the garden anyway. I limited myself to a couple of pots of petunias & a couple of pots of geraniums. The petunias are blooming but the geraniums are probably a few weeks away.

The mild weather has meant I've been able to plant out most of the seedlings from my inside 'nursery'. We've put the tomatoes on the sunny sheltered side of the house where they'll be quite protected from the wind. So far so good, although not sure how well they will do in the Wellington weather...

The vege garden is growing like mad. We are eating the very first of the radishes & salad leaves. The runner beans have started 'running' which is exciting, as once they are off they really go for it!

Last Sunday I dropped Will off at the airport as he was heading off to Queenstown for a week of conference. It was a glorious afternoon so I decided to head into Otari-Wilton's bush & up onto the skyline track. It was something I had been wanting to do for ages, but had never gotten around to. It was absolutely fantastic with views over the harbour, to the south coast & beyond to the south island, as well as the Makara wind farm. I ended up doing a 2 & a half hour loop, re-entering Otari-Wilton's bush just after Johnsons Hill. I'll definitely be doing it again in the near future, but hopefully next time it will be with Will.While Will was away I did have good intentions of writing loads of reports, but that hasn't really happened... Partly because the weather has been far too nice to be stuck inside writing reports in the afternoon/evening. Yesterday I was even inspired to walk home from school! It only took 40mins at a reasonably brisk pace.

The seniors left last Friday, so in theory I lost 2 classes. However our girls are pretty focused & quite a few have been coming in during their usual lesson time for some extra help. It is great that they are so committed. One of my classes has their NCEA exam on Monday, & then the other is on Thursday, so I should pick up a little bit extra time after that.

On the sporting front, I've been enjoying my Saturday afternoon sessions with some of the Wellington Masters badminton players. They play right throughout the summer. Tonight was the start of the touch season. My school had entered a staff team in the women's competition, but our match tonight was against a pretty hot-shot mixed team! It was a bit one-sided, especially since we had a few players who had never played before... We got a hiding, but it was all good practice. I've also decided, along with a couple of my friends from work, to have a go at Gaelic football! There is an introductory session this Sunday (which is great, as I know nothing about the game!) then we play 5 weeks of mixed 7-aside football. One of the main reasons for giving it a go is that they play at a park just a few minutes from our house. It should be interesting/entertaining anyway...

I had better call it quits here before it gets TOO long. Will flies back into Wellington tomorrow night so I am looking forward to having him back home.