Or Whanganui... it seems to have both spellings around but it is usually both spelt and pronounced with a 'W' not a 'Wh' - which leads to various leg pulling comments from those from elsewhere about the locals inability to spell/pronounce. (by the way 'ng' is pronounced like the ng in sing)
Anyway Wanganui is where the Quaker Settlement is (www.quaker.org.nz has more info) and there is an event being held called 'Tending our Meetings' which I didn't expect to be going to having just arrived and whatnot but then Marion rang yesterday late afternoon to say did I want to go? Apparently she'd been chatting to Merilyn at the Settlement and they seemed to decide between them it'd be good if I could be there. So, Esther and Martin will come in and open up the QMH for me etc and Fran and I head up the road this afternon, coming back on Monday - it's Labour Day here and thus a public holiday and a red letter day on the calendar... and despite all this it still didn't register until yesterday afternoon that it was OCTOBER 24th and therefore Jon's birthday, ho hum - your pressie will be late - again (sorry...)
So now I'm all excited as there will be all sorts of people there I know who I wasn't expecting to see until Summer Gathering, however this does mean I've got to blitz the QMH and Quaker Centre today so best get a move on....
Friday, October 21, 2005
Thursday, October 20, 2005
some random kiwiana...
(for those not used to British English either the Kiwi version is on the left!)
chippies = crisps
chilly box = cool box
jandals = flip flops
dairy = corner shop
domain = park (as in flowers, trees, grass etc not cars!)
kumera = sweet potato (and you can buy kumera chips at the chip shop)
The pedestrian crossings sound like a Pacman game
Postage depends on how big the envelope is, not how heavy it is
The $2 coins are similar size to our 2 pound coins (just discovered there is no pound sign on the keyboard!) and the $1 dollar coins are like our 1 pound coins - unlike Australia where they are the other way around. You can put the notes through the wash and even iron them if you feel so inclined and they'll still survive and spend.
Nastursiums flower in spring, so does lavender, instead of late summer/autumn (or quite possibly as well as!)
In Te Reo (Maori) wh = f and all words end with a pronounced vowel.
The clocks changed last weekend so we're currently 12 hours ahead of Britain - but now I don't know when they change in Britain, but when they do we'll be +13 hrs them and GMT!
Kiwi Marmite is worse than Vegemite (in my humble opinion!), well what do you expect from a company called Sanitarium?
Avocados and asparagus are ridiculously cheap compared to British prices, oh and Dad, they have Red Desire potatoes in Commonsense - so you'll be ok!
chippies = crisps
chilly box = cool box
jandals = flip flops
dairy = corner shop
domain = park (as in flowers, trees, grass etc not cars!)
kumera = sweet potato (and you can buy kumera chips at the chip shop)
The pedestrian crossings sound like a Pacman game
Postage depends on how big the envelope is, not how heavy it is
The $2 coins are similar size to our 2 pound coins (just discovered there is no pound sign on the keyboard!) and the $1 dollar coins are like our 1 pound coins - unlike Australia where they are the other way around. You can put the notes through the wash and even iron them if you feel so inclined and they'll still survive and spend.
Nastursiums flower in spring, so does lavender, instead of late summer/autumn (or quite possibly as well as!)
In Te Reo (Maori) wh = f and all words end with a pronounced vowel.
The clocks changed last weekend so we're currently 12 hours ahead of Britain - but now I don't know when they change in Britain, but when they do we'll be +13 hrs them and GMT!
Kiwi Marmite is worse than Vegemite (in my humble opinion!), well what do you expect from a company called Sanitarium?
Avocados and asparagus are ridiculously cheap compared to British prices, oh and Dad, they have Red Desire potatoes in Commonsense - so you'll be ok!
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
siesta time...
Ok, so I'm maybe not quite over jetlag yet - a siesta is seriously called for, had to resort to reading the displays on the walls to keep awake through Midweek Meeting for Worship - thankfully only half an hour long - as I didn't have anyone sitting next to me to dig me in the ribs if I became in danger of dropping off either to sleep and/or my chair...
I'm managing to remember to put on sunblock - although if I don't remember to do it early enough I head off down the street looking like the Witchery tours guide who dresses up as a vampire as my sunblocks starts off white so you can see where you've put it! Well I guess better that than ending up with streaky sunburn.
One thing I hadn't expected was to be ahead of the game on the environmental front - Aotearoa New Zealand Yearly Meeting has a strong environmental stance yet the Quaker Meeting House (QMH) here doesn't have a policy on using eco-friendly, recycled, energy saving products etc and recycling is up to the whim of the RF. I've already asked for a compost bin (there's a garden here) and will ask about the other things when I meet Premises Committee in a few weeks, might just sneak a few changes through as stuff runs out although I guess it'd be best to check with the treasurer! At least I got in to her good books by being able to do them =) The relief on her face when I said I'd done bookkeeping was huge. Looks like between us we'll be changing a few systems... just as well I like doing that kind of thing and have the experience from Edinburgh QMH to draw on. Thankfully altho' there are two 'accounts' (the B&B scheme and the QMH/Quaker Centre bookings) it is all one currency unlike JWP - running 'petty cash' in over a dozen currencies and reconciling exchange rates changes each month was not my idea of fun.
Anyway I'm struggling to focus so best crash out for a wee whiley, and there was me being all proud of myself this morning for having got over jetlag quicker this time - that'll teach me to get cocky!
I'm managing to remember to put on sunblock - although if I don't remember to do it early enough I head off down the street looking like the Witchery tours guide who dresses up as a vampire as my sunblocks starts off white so you can see where you've put it! Well I guess better that than ending up with streaky sunburn.
One thing I hadn't expected was to be ahead of the game on the environmental front - Aotearoa New Zealand Yearly Meeting has a strong environmental stance yet the Quaker Meeting House (QMH) here doesn't have a policy on using eco-friendly, recycled, energy saving products etc and recycling is up to the whim of the RF. I've already asked for a compost bin (there's a garden here) and will ask about the other things when I meet Premises Committee in a few weeks, might just sneak a few changes through as stuff runs out although I guess it'd be best to check with the treasurer! At least I got in to her good books by being able to do them =) The relief on her face when I said I'd done bookkeeping was huge. Looks like between us we'll be changing a few systems... just as well I like doing that kind of thing and have the experience from Edinburgh QMH to draw on. Thankfully altho' there are two 'accounts' (the B&B scheme and the QMH/Quaker Centre bookings) it is all one currency unlike JWP - running 'petty cash' in over a dozen currencies and reconciling exchange rates changes each month was not my idea of fun.
Anyway I'm struggling to focus so best crash out for a wee whiley, and there was me being all proud of myself this morning for having got over jetlag quicker this time - that'll teach me to get cocky!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
back at last!
Sorry it's taken me a few days but I'm now just about organised and settled in to my new home here in Wellington.
I'm not entirely sure that I've really got my head around the fact that I'm not just here for the week again, especially with spending the first couple of days at Marion & Quentin's, my usual Wellington crash pad! But last night I slept at George Fox House (what they've re-christened the Friends Centre) in what is now my bed... all very strange.
It is good to be back, not least because of the sunshine - something I hadn't seen for about a week before leaving Edinburgh. Wandering around town yesterday, doing some shopping and basically re-orientating myself I had to keep reminding myself that as this time I wasn't going to have to move on again so soon remembering properly where things are really would be a good plan rather than just 'well it's around here somewhere' and hoping if I meander around long enough I'll get to where I need to be. The big New World supermarket and Commonsense Organics (Real Foods isn't a patch on this place!) are all of about 5 mins walk from where I live (ok, probably 10 with heavy bags) so I'm well chuffed about that as I can stick to shopping in dribs and drabs as I feel inspired rather than having to do a big shop and lug it all back/scrounge a lift, which reminds me I need to pop back down the road soon and get some veges (as they spell it here...)
I got to Meeting on Sunday which I was very impressed with myself for managing as none of M&Q or Fran were able to go for various reasons so I needed to be up and out on me ownsome, slowed down somewhat by my sore ankle (I twisted it trying to get my heavy bags onto a bus at Auckland airport - don't worry Mum, it's ok now and after all Marion is a doctor!). The first two people I met coming up the road were Jonathan and Llyn who I know (I earned serious brownie points from Llyn by remembering his name - he was most chuffed!) and there were a fair few others I remembered from Summer Gathering and previous visits here, I do need to have a read through the book of members though and put names to all the familiar faces.
We've had glorious sunshine since I got here, but it still gets nippy in the evenings, a reminder that it is still spring not summer and as Krissy will point out to anyone who will listen they just don't do central heating here so I've been glad of being reunited with my microfleece jacket I left here (intentionally!) in January.
Anyway, best toddle off, we've a funeral here this afternoon so need to make sure all is in right ordering before Holly arrives to set stuff up - first full day here as RF, have to start on the right foot (albeit carefully, that's the one I sprained!).
I'm not entirely sure that I've really got my head around the fact that I'm not just here for the week again, especially with spending the first couple of days at Marion & Quentin's, my usual Wellington crash pad! But last night I slept at George Fox House (what they've re-christened the Friends Centre) in what is now my bed... all very strange.
It is good to be back, not least because of the sunshine - something I hadn't seen for about a week before leaving Edinburgh. Wandering around town yesterday, doing some shopping and basically re-orientating myself I had to keep reminding myself that as this time I wasn't going to have to move on again so soon remembering properly where things are really would be a good plan rather than just 'well it's around here somewhere' and hoping if I meander around long enough I'll get to where I need to be. The big New World supermarket and Commonsense Organics (Real Foods isn't a patch on this place!) are all of about 5 mins walk from where I live (ok, probably 10 with heavy bags) so I'm well chuffed about that as I can stick to shopping in dribs and drabs as I feel inspired rather than having to do a big shop and lug it all back/scrounge a lift, which reminds me I need to pop back down the road soon and get some veges (as they spell it here...)
I got to Meeting on Sunday which I was very impressed with myself for managing as none of M&Q or Fran were able to go for various reasons so I needed to be up and out on me ownsome, slowed down somewhat by my sore ankle (I twisted it trying to get my heavy bags onto a bus at Auckland airport - don't worry Mum, it's ok now and after all Marion is a doctor!). The first two people I met coming up the road were Jonathan and Llyn who I know (I earned serious brownie points from Llyn by remembering his name - he was most chuffed!) and there were a fair few others I remembered from Summer Gathering and previous visits here, I do need to have a read through the book of members though and put names to all the familiar faces.
We've had glorious sunshine since I got here, but it still gets nippy in the evenings, a reminder that it is still spring not summer and as Krissy will point out to anyone who will listen they just don't do central heating here so I've been glad of being reunited with my microfleece jacket I left here (intentionally!) in January.
Anyway, best toddle off, we've a funeral here this afternoon so need to make sure all is in right ordering before Holly arrives to set stuff up - first full day here as RF, have to start on the right foot (albeit carefully, that's the one I sprained!).
Sunday, October 09, 2005
it's all in the stars
I've just been drinking my cuppa out in the back garden gazing up at the stars, wondering if this will be the last time I see them this way up for a while. Trying to creep as far down the garden as I could without setting off either of the next door neighbours movement sensitive spotlights I could just manage to pick out Cassiopeia, the saucepan (ok, then the plough/big dipper, haven't you read Swallows and Amazons?) and Orion through the light pollution haze of Edinburgh. Some southern hemisphere stars will remain familiar if not their orientation (altho' I was told Orion isn't standing on his head as I reckoned, he's breakdancing...) and I find the Southern Cross a lot easier to locate than the Pole Star! I love stargazing, but there never seem to be quite enough (warm!) clear nights for me to ever get beyond knowing about half a dozen constellations. Somehow they never quite look the same in a book as they do in the sky, I need someone saying 'see that one there, no, up a bit and to the left, then go right and there's another two in a line...' etc.
Stargazing always brings back many memories of people and places. Time and again I remember watching the stars towards the end of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage when I was 17 and Karin saying how now matter how far apart we'd be when we went home we'd still all be looking up at the same stars, it used to make the mile long walk up the farm road home from 6th form college far more comforting on the dark winter evenings.
At Summer Gathering last year (NYFSG – a Quaker teenagers event) Robin talked about how basically we are all made of stars (cue the Moby track as we entered the next mornings worship!) and the miracle of creation being that we and, everything around us, is made up of so few basic elements, with such tiny differences in our genetic makeup and atomic structure. Pretty mind boggling and impressive when you think about it.
I found my horoscope that Jo did for me a few days ago when packing – reading it through it seemed so contradictory in places that a sceptic would make mincemeat of it, yet if you take my life as a whole rather than just where I am now you can see the different eras represented; the stay at home, nest building, seeking comfort in permanent surroundings me of 10 years or so ago, and the globe trotting, no ties, following where the wind blows me me of the last couple of years. I like to think that the future holds something somewhere in between the two - hmmm, how about settling down in Aotearoa New Zealand with trips back to the UK every couple of years visiting various friends and family in between on the way... it has a certain appeal it must be said =) However that would require a work visa, a paying job, residency etc so no point counting chickens before the eggs have even been laid!
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