Over half-way through Term Two

The weeks are passing by quickly, only 4 more till I get another holiday... We get 3 weeks for the next holiday which is nice. In the third week I'm off to Samoa for a week on a girls trip with my friend Hiria & a few others, to celebrate her submitting her Ph.D. School has been busy, we've just finished the whole report cycle. As acting HOD I had a bit of extra work to do with proof-reading all the Maths Department reports.

A few weekends back Will & I went to see Dave Dobbyn & friends playing Bodega. It was a great gig, Dave never disappoints... Will and I were right up the front against the railings. I love how close to the action you can get in some of these small intimate venues.

As you can see, it was a pretty awesome set list, a mixture of both Dave's songs, plus his guests who were mostly Wellington musicians.

Warren Maxwell from 'The Little Bushman' (below) was a hugely entertaining crowd-pleaser. The other big highlight was Wayne Mason singing 'Nature'.

Scribe was also amazing live. His name hadn't been featured on the promo posters so it was bit of a surprise, but he was very very good.





Also a few weekends  back I had the second Wellington Masters badminton match in New Plymouth. It was a fun weekend away. We won the badminton pretty easy, beating a North Harbour team 11-1 & then Thames Valley 10-2. On our badminton trips to the 'Naki we usually stay at the Flamingo Motel in New Plymouth. It has a brilliant big indoor hot pool that is just what the doctor ordered after a day of badminton... Another of the Masters teams was also staying there, so we caught up over a few beers in the pool.

 

Last weekend was the third of our matches, this time in Rotorua. Again, we won the badminton comfortably, beating two Waitakere teams 11-1 and 10-2 respectively. Geoff and I had got some cheap flights to Hamilton so flew there and were met at the airport by mum & dad. They kindly lent us one of their cars & we drove the hour or so to Rotorua. They came to watch me play on the Saturday which was really nice. They are very good at coming & supporting me if I am ever playing anywhere vaguely in the area. It was also lovely to catch up with Chris Leckie who lives in Rotorua and popped in to say hi.

 

After the badminton my team headed to the Polynesian Pools for a lovely long hot soak. I had never been there before, it's touristy, but pretty cool. Especially the hot pool right down on the lake-front with an amazing view. In the evening Bay of Plenty, as the host association, has arranged for all the 6 teams to go out to the Pig & Whistle bar for the night. We had a good night having a very nice meal, watching the first France/AB's rugby test, then having bit of a boogie to the pub covers band which kicked in later in the evening. I love how social the Masters badminton is, most of the teams will come out and socialise in the evenings, & are (mostly!) pretty nice, so you get to know some of them quite well. Geoff & I then drove back to Hamilton Sunday morning (stopping in to see my nana in Leamington on the way). Mum & dad put on a nice lunch for us, before we headed to the airport for our afternoon flight. Dad had a meeting in Wellington on the Monday  so he came back on the same flight as us & stayed the night at ours.

 

A few weeks back I signed up to couch surfing and have been inundated with people wanting to stay. So far I have hosted Jonathan & Lavea from China, above, for a couple of nights, Joey & Rachel from the USA for 11 nights, & Maren from Germany for 3 or 4 nights. It has been really nice catching up with travellers, hearing their stories, and feeling like I'm helping them out a bit. I figure Will & I have a nice house with a couple of spare bedrooms, so it's nice that they get used on occasion. Coming up in the next couple of weeks we have another couple from China, a guy from the Czech Republic, & a girl from Belgium lined up to stay, not all at the same time!

That's about all my news. This weekend has been quite relaxed. On Saturday I went to watch my old rugby team, OBU (in the green & white) play Wainui. Unfortunately they lost 25-15. I usually try and see them on weekends when I don't have badminton, they are playing somewhere in the city, & it's not pouring with rain. Often I'll take the camera down & take a few pics. Below are a few from Saturday... I had friends around on Saturday night for dinner & to watch the second France test. Today the weather has been awful, it has rained all day (& is meant to continue doing so for the next week or so!). I've spent most of the day pottering around doing lots of inside jobs, then had badminton interclub which my team won this evening.