Back to the thesis

Well here I am, out in Colac Bay, attempting to get back to work. I have an ocean view and can constantly hear the sound of waves, and at night time it is dark enough out here that the sky is full of so many bright stars. Unfortunately, it is not overly warm out here so I can't very well go swimming every day, but that's also a bit of a positive note because if it were sunny I would surely want to be outside in the sun reading a book every day. Except that I forgot the charger for my kindle so I have no books to read. Again, probably a positive thing because now the only thing that I can do to keep myself busy is think about my thesis. At least for the time being I'm in a nice quiet environment for thinking, though soon I will have to go back into town to work for a bit so that I have proper internet access. Here is my little study space - not even a desk but so much nicer than my office back in Galway!

So now it's time to get down to work, it's not easy to really get a lot done because I'm still putting together results and I am waiting on some last bits and pieces from various colleagues before they will really be ready. Then it will be a matter of one draft after another that my supervisor will rip to shreds, but hopefully the process won't be too painful. Today my view is a bit dark and the ocean is a dark green and grey instead of blue so I think it might rain. If it is fine later I will go for a walk down the beach though, because just sitting and working the entire day is not good for anyone!

One sunny day between two weeks of rain

So far this year has been pretty cruisy - one week in and I have done nothing at all. Sadly the weather has mostly gone sour, with lots of rain and cold winds, but summer came back in full force over the weekend and I went out to Colac Bay to make the most of it. Saturday morning was overcast and didn't seem so hot, so I didn't quite get around to putting on sunscreen - that was a bit stupid on my part. But you can see how I would make such a mistake, the view from the front gate that morning was just clouds and more clouds:

It's just a marker of how long I have been away that I expected to be safe on a cloudy day. It doesn't seem to matter that you can't actually see blue sky and sun here, you'll still burn to a crisp. The plan for the day was to go fishing (my plan was not so much to fish as to look around a new beach) - we'd been told that the only place around that would give you any chance of catching fish was way down the edge of the bay near the point, a place called Tihaka. Amazing how different the beach is just because it faces a different direction - while right by the town of Colac bay the beach is sand, down at Tihaka it is a more gravelly, pebbly beach with lots of big rocks.

There was lots of driftwood and broken bits of shell, even really big horse mussels washed up from Stewart Island. It seems that old habits really do die hard and I spent my time on the beach filling my pockets with shiny, colourful pieces of shell. This area of the coast isn't generally where you would expect to see seals or penguins but I did see some shags:

So of course we didn't catch any fish, but that's OK because if we had we'd have had to gut them and stuff. Instead I got sunburnt, all down my back and legs, but it could've been worse and at least I'm getting my NZ tan back. By the time that we decided to turn back towards the car my poor legs were exhausted from traipsing over the constantly moving pebbles and gravel and I was all scratched up from climbing up rocks to get a good view. It was worth it though, you could see Stewart Island clear as day from there. Photos don't really do it justice, it was much bigger in real life.

After making our way back down the beach and climbing over a hill and some farmer's field in order to avoid jumping over a slippery chasm on the rocks, but in the process having to wade through a creek and some really swampy grass and prickles, it was definitely time for a swim. The water was great - colder than the last week but once you were in it was really good. Then the day was nearly over and it was time to fire up the pizza oven in the back yard (I know, how cool is that, our own wood-fired pizza oven!). Of course, my dad being in charge meant that nobody had bothered looking up instructions and it wasn't really 100% successful. The first pizza looked cooked, but the base was still completely raw. I've looked it up since and I reckon the fire in it was way too big, so that the pizza burnt around the edges before it could be cooked properly.

Anyway, we solved that problem by precooking the bases. There was still a bit of charring around the edges, but they were edible at least. It was a rather lenghty procedure just for a slice of pizza.

All of that was just Saturday, and Sunday brought more mediocre weather (though it was better than the heavy rain that I am watching out the window right now). Sunday is touch practice and it is so much harder than tag rugby was. What makes it worse is that half of the players that I can't keep up with are at least 20 years older than me. Makes me feel awfully unfit, even though I'm not really at all.

Anyway, the weekend is over now and I think it's high time that I get my A into G and start working again. My thesis is not even half finished and if I ever want it to be over I'm going to have to get down to some serious writing (and thinking, that's the bit that I've been trying to avoid...). Still, distractions are great so right now my focus is on buying a new laptop - I mean, the one I'm using now is OK, but it has gotten really slow and it freezes a lot and it doesn't handle big things like huge word documents and photoshop so well. Plus a new computer would be so nice and fast and shiny. And small - I'm looking at either a MacAir or a Sony Vaio ultrabook so that it will be easier to take my computer (and thus potentially my work) anywhere with me. Maybe that will encourage me to work harder? Only I can't quite decide what I want...

Hello 2013...

December's over and yes, I wore a dress every day (although personally there are a few that I would call tops or jumpers, but other people say 'what a nice dress' so I will take their word for it and call them dresses). Now for a new challenge - I just found this and I think I have to do it, for the sake of having yet another distraction when I should be writing my PhD thesis: Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge. Besides, the weather has packed up and while I hope it gets better, it's good to have a pile of books for just in case it doesn't. With it suddenly being so cold and rainy going out to Colac Bay and the beach for New Years was no longer an appealing idea - much better to stay inside at home, dressed up warm with some movies and good food. Hopefully the new year brings back our gorgeous summer weather because my tan was only just starting to come back, and I have only been swimming in the ocean twice so far.

Christmas 2012

My first week back in Invecargill was sort of hectic. First of all, it's actually a proper summer here and quite hot, which was a bit of shock to the system after coming from icy cold wind and rain in Galway. I had Christmas shopping to do, gifts to make and food to cook, plus unpacking and tidying up the spare room that I have claimed as my own, and helping mum to unpack and tidy up her new place. In fact, I'm already getting sick of being around my family so before long I'm going to head out to Colac Bay and begin to write my thesis, all reclusive and on my own, with a beach view:

So Christmas itself was exhausting. It all started on Christmas eve when I was sitting on the floor wrapping presents and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye - it was a spider, running across the carpet. Only a medium sized spider, but I just did not have the energy to deal with it properly, so I tried to encourage the cat to eat it. The spider stopped moving as soon as it saw my shadow so at least it didn't go hide somewhere, but the useless cat would not get it for me. And I know that she does kill spiders sometimes because I found a dead one on my bedroom floor one morning, which was surely a gift from her because it hadn't been there the night before. So with the cat being no help at all I grabbed a book and squashed the poor thing, only it didn't want to die so it took several whacks. Just as I was about to turn back to my present wrapping I noticed lots of little insects crawling over the floor and my first thought was 'ew, the kitchen is being invaded by ants'. But then I looked closer and saw that the tiny crawling things were actually tons of baby spiders! The one that I killed must have had a sack of babies and I burst it open. That was the last straw and I had to be completely cruel and vacuum them all up. Poor spiders. They should not come into my house, then I wouldn't have to do that.

With my spider fiasco over, I still had presents to wrap and food to prepare. Mostly it was ordinary food but the frozen banoffee cheesecake was my prize piece for this year and I think from now on I will always make a banoffee cheesecake over a normal banoffee pie. Especially seeing as Christmas was actually a proper hot day. It was awfully hot even before lunch when I had to go pick up various family members, and it only got hotter. Too hot to eat almost. Too hot to sit in the sunshine. Ended up retreating into the house (which was no cooler, my sister's house is practically a sauna) and watching rather un-christmassy movies. That was my Christmas practically over - I got pearl bracelets from Dad from Thailand and a Minnie Mouse watch, and my brother actually came through with a really good gift of frosting equipment so I can go straight back to cupcake making. I spent the evening with friends, who have a brand new puppy that is so cute (and I so want one), but it is very nippy and has sharp little teeth.

Now New Years is nearly upon us and the perfect weather is finally supposed to break, the forecast is solid rain for the next few days. It's a bit of a bummer, but then, it's been sort of strange to have no rain and it will still not be very cold. It will give my sunburn time to fade at least. A bonfire by the beach would have been fun for New Years, but it's really just another day so I don't really mind being kept inside by the rain, to celebrate quietly with friends. The good weather should come back so there will be plenty of time for that.

Back in Invers

So you know you're in New Zealand when you're walking down the main street and you see a kid eating a pie one-handed while riding a bike. When I arrived at Christchurch airport the other day I had some time to spare and was hungry so I bought a pie, a proper New Zealand pie, with proper New Zealand tomato sauce. And it was awesome. Overpriced though, it was the airport after all.

Today was my first full day home and it was stinking hot (or at least it seemed so to me) but I did very little and couldn't even make the most of it because to me it was too hot, having come from such cold weather just a couple of days ago. Not to mention that I'm completely wrecked - I felt fine yesterday but I guess I must still be on Irish time because I woke at 4 am after only a few hours sleep and I swear I hardly even dozed after that. This evening will have to be a very early night, and then tomorrow I really have to start being back properly and going to visit people (the few people that I have here after leaving all my Irish friends...), plus there is all the Christmas stuff to finish organising. I feel sort of like I have dropped out of time completely - I keep forgetting what day of the week it is and it certainly doesn't feel like Christmas is just a few days away. Guess I've well and truly grown out of the whole Christmas-magic thing, and having a plastic tree that doesn't smell of pine at all really doesn't help.

On the positive side, I didn't have to wait for Christmas to get a new toy - at Hong Kong airport I bought myself a smartphone and now I have been trying to figure out how to use it. I'm still finding it confusing, but getting there. I'm worried I'll break it though, considering how often I drop everything else that I touch. I also have a brand new (to me) bike so that I can get around now that I'm back in Invers - it's not the prettiest but it will do. I need a helmet though, I keep forgetting because in Ireland I got so used to seeing everybody cycle without a helmet. Definitely won't get away with that here. Over the weekend I promised my sister I would help her make gifts for people - which means making truffles and fudge, yum. Hopefully this southern hemisphere summer will stay so good as it has been in the last two days because I'm sure I really deserve some proper warm weather. Coming soon will be lots of photos to make everybody over on the other side of the world jealous, in hopes that they will come visit next summer...but first I have to stop hiding from the heat and sun and get out and do something. So I really need to catch up on sleep. Which means it's my bedtime now, or at least after I have removed the results of my unpacking off of my bed.

On Leaving Ireland

So for my last days Galway confirmed my reason for leaving and would insist on bucketing down rain every time I tried to go outside. I will not miss the rain, or the big puddles, especially in the dark when you don't see them and then walk right through and get your feet wet. I will miss my friends of course, and some of my favourite shops, and being so close to so many interesting countries (not that I made enough of that). I won't miss my lab or my building or the university, or the messy drunken students that are everywhere. Or the insane crowds that make me not want to go into town in the weekend. I'll miss my nice little apartment a little, but at the same time I'm sick of the dampness so I'll look forward to being in a house again. And I miss our NZ food so I can't wait to be back for Christmas!

I'm now in Hong Kong airport and it is very foggy outside, and I feel pretty gross after a 12 hour flight and a long (stressful) day of packing before that. Not to mention the horrible stress at Heathrow where my flight from Dublin had been so delayed that I actually nearly missed my plane! I got to the check in counter in the nick of time, she checked me in but couldn't print a boarding pass because it had all been shut down. I had to power walk to the gate, I would have ran if not for my heavy carry-on bag, and the man at the gate said 'sorry, the flight is closed'. My immediate response was 'nononono', but then he said relax, just wait, he'll try his best, and luckily they managed to get me through. If they hadn't I would have been screwed because it's all controlled by someone in Auckland and once the flight is closed they can't do anything about it. What a nightmare, I have never cut it so fine before. And being so late meant there was not option to choose my seat and the flight was so crowded that I was stuck in a middle seat. I think I hardly slept at all. I just hope everything from now on goes smoothly. I have another 12 hour flight in about an hour, and then another day of connecting flights to get from Auckland to Invercargill!

So right now I'm in Hong Kong, I have nearly an hour before I need to be at my gate and I have a credit card. Luckily there are very few shops here that I would want to shop at - mostly fancy over-priced designer stuff. But maybe I can find something I like. At least walking around the shops will let me stretch my legs before the next flight, so I think it's time to go do that instead of sitting here at the computer.

31 Dresses

It's December now, first day of summer in NZ but technically in Ireland winter has already been around for a month, because they're weird like that. I have taken up a challenge for the month, along with a friend of mine, and it's called Dressember - sort of like movember, only for girls and the challenge is that you have to wear a dress every single day. Which I think is surely harder than movember, because not bothering to shave your face is surely pretty easy, and trying to find so many dresses to wear, and to repeat them in new and interesting ways, is much more difficult. Of course, it's not meaningful like movember, though some people try to raise money for women's charities. I'm just doing it for the fun. And not just so that I can feed my addiction to buying clothes either. I think it began in the southern hemisphere, where wearing a dress in December makes a lot more sense. Luckily for me, I'll be spending half my December in NZ so I can wear both my summer and winter dresses. You're also meant to take photos every day, but I'm not sure if I'll manage that. Especially on days like today, which is Sunday, where it is too wet to bother leaving the house. For the first day of the month I got off to a good start though; not only do I have a photo of me in my dress for the day, but it's a photo with Santa:

It is not really a very good photo - it is too white and shiny. Guess I will have to get another photo with Santa to make up for it. But not today, because today I don't plan on leaving the house again. In fact what I would most like to do today is be huddled on the couch in front of a movie with a hot chocolate. However, I have only two weeks until I leave Ireland, pretty much for good. I have so much to do in that time! I should be working right now, except I have lost my ID card and so I couldn't get into my office. I have to pack, I have to give away all my extra stuff, I have to get travel insurance and arrange to bring a second suitcase with me (I hope it doesn't cost too much!), I have to tidy my room and I should probably buy a few presents for people. And I have to say goodbye to all my friends. So much to do, so little time. But I am so looking forward to Christmas, to a holiday from work and to some sunshine. So that I can wear my summer dresses, which will make this Dressember thing a lot easier. Until then I will just make the most of winter dresses, big scarves and warm leggings. Here is what I have to work with for the next two weeks:

That should be enough, so I will try really hard to restrain myself from buying more stuff, because I already have far too much. All my friends here will be getting lots of hand-me-down Christmas presents this year!