A Day Out

Repton has once again been hurling himself into the grass, this time at a tournament in Christchurch, and I spent my day pottering around having fun.
- going to dancing practice at the Medieval Guild and being a test audience for the play that they'll be performing at the Harcourt Park Joust in January;
- nice lunch at the Aro St cafe with a couple of members of the aforesaid Guild;
- biking around the bays as far as Cog Park - the eponymous giant cog wheel doesn't seem to be back yet, alas;
- wandering around Te Papa - I thought about looking at the colossal squid they have, but the queue was quite long, so I settled for peering at the display case from the partition;
- gelato on the waterfront.

There were many people out swimming, or paddling, or riding tandem bikes, and just generally enjoying the sun. It's been a nice day.

One of the interesting things - at Te Papa they had a 3d animation display of what they thought Big Squid's life was like, which was neat. Here's the thing, I'm quite amblyopic (posh word for saying my brain ignores the input feed from one eye because it has a very different focal depth) and under normal conditions I don't think about things like depth in what I'm seeing. But in some conditions, like in an Imac cinema, or looking at some pictures with technical tricks giving the illusion of perspective, or today at Te Papa, I get the feeling of knowing that things are nearer or farther just by looking at them, I don't have to work it out from size and movement. Is it like that for most people all the time? Gosh.

Move is just about complete bar hanging pictures and making myself laundry bag. Macca the Cat is now officially Allowed Out, although is having problems getting up the nerve to venture outside anytime she thinks that bouncing around staunchly insisting how brave she is might actually result in being exposed to Other Cats Looking At Her. Right now, she knows where the cat door is, and what it is, but is mostly using it as a toy to bang her paws against. No, wait, she's finally wormed through it now. It's unlikely that she'll be out long. Silly cat.

EDIT: And she just faced off one of the neighbour's cats trying to come in. Might have to think about undisabling the cat door magnet and making her wear a collar.

Total cycling distance: 18.8km, spread over about 6 hours with lots of distractions in between.

Premoving

Repton and I are going to be moving into a new flat by ourselves soon, for which I got the keys yesterday, and as Repton's off heroically hurling himself into the sands of Nelson for the weekend (frisbee tournament), I spent the day doing a premove. Repton's parents came over to help, and we shifted a number of carloads including, but not limited to, a significant quantity of books, a sewing machine, pictures, Uni notes, a violin and a Lundia bookshelf. Also, we spent the afternoon out buying a new fridge and scouting for additional furniture. I don't spend large sums of money often, but occasionally it's nice to, and right now I can not only feel like I'm nobly doing my bit for the economy but whiteware is Really Cheap. Hanging out with Repton's parents has been pretty interesting - among other things they've been gossiping about him, including exactly which kind of household item he has a habit of breaking.

I have to pack some more books tonight, but can't yet face it, so I'm blobbing out watching Guys & Dolls and drinking tea.

Feline reactions to the disruption: Macca has been running around like a mad thing when she isn't being obsessively clingy and waking me up at 6 in the morning; Mort is swaggering around like the pirate cat he is; Prana doesn't appear to have moved all day.

Time Capsule

I've been sorting through old University notes, those dating from the period 1995-1998. I've never been able to bear throwing the physical reminder of all that work away, so they were packed into boxes and have been following me around for the last ten years. I still can't bear to throw them away, but I'd like to squeeze them down to one box so I've been flicking through the files pulling out ephemera - exam papers, assignments, scratch notes, that sort of thing and putting them aside to be recycled. In the process I'm not only glancing at old material and remembering (or not) studying it, but finding old pieces of music, stories I've written, stories other people have written (1), letters, cards and all the bits and pieces you collect.

It's interesting looking back at the person I was then. While there've been some big events between then and now, I think that most of the changes in me as a person were so gradual I didn't really notice them at the time, and I need to look back over a large space of time to see growing up in perspective.

(1) Cat, if by any chance you're missing the originals of your Etherfee Omn stories I have photocopies that you sent me an age ago.

On Cabbage

I'm moving on the weekend. (Into Repton's and HouseMonkey's house, for them that know where that is, and people that don't can leave a comment here if they'd like my new address.)

In the process I'm trying to do a sort out of all the gear I've accumulated and, out of both tidiness and necessity, getting rid of the things I don't need. Last night was working through my fabric bin taking out the pieces that are too small to work with, or uninteresting and unlikely to strike my fancy for, I dunno, doll-making or whatever. A friend of mine once referred to these kinds of scraps as 'cabbage,' and since that makes me think of the raggedy strips of sliced up cabbage prior to making coleslaw, I think that's a good term. Right now, my whole house is full of cabbage - left over bits and pieces that get left behind after the essential stuff has been packed, like the natural decomposition process of kipple. It's a bit disconcerting, although the cat is treating the whole affair as An Adventure. I'm not sure how she'll feel when the move hits and she's confined to a room to adjust in. Oh well.

But back to the cabbage. My current plan is to load the bag of scraps into one of those clothing bins that cuts old clothes up for rags. If anyone thinks they might use it, instead, like for patchworking, let me know and it's yours.

I must be moved in, we have had a house warming party...

(Disclaimer: some of this was previously written in a letter to a friend. Hi Donald!)

So after a week of University I feel a need to take stock. I'm liking getting to mooch around in my pyjamas in the morning and very carefully selected tutorial slots to be no earlier than 11am. (Joy.) My cat has finally arrived (see below), the weather has been gorgeous although is today overcast and windy. For the weather I'm blaming Alan who is visiting for the weekend - he must have brought it down with him. Also, we now have a broadband internet connection so I don't have to trek all the way into town to get access to email. (Double joy.)

Last night we had a house warming party so I guess that officially we're moved in. ;-)
Babe finally made the last two hour car journey to Wellington yesterday. She's coping pretty well, although a bit grumpy about not being allowed outside. We went out for a sniff this morning and I accidentally let her get out of sight for a couple of minutes and then found that I couldn't find her - she'd dissapeared into the undergrowth somewhere. After about 5 minutes she turned up again, so I delayed having a heart attack for the moment.

University has been good. I get to read the Chronicles of Narnia as homework (my Gran didn't believe me when I told her), manicly trying to memorise Latin vocabulary, and reading Middle English to Elizabethan love poetry, some of which is extremely smutty. The first couple of art classes were a bit dull, but hopefully they'll liven up a bit. I've also found that there's an SF group and a Gaming group on campus, so I think I shall be wandering up to their events and seeing what they're like.

I'm learning to navigate like a Wellingtonian. That means working out the easiest ways to gain altitude (like crossing the street, going into a building, taking a lift up 2 floors then crossing the street again via an overbridge) and maintaining altitude once you've got it. Unfortunately, the maps don't contain topographical information, so you pretty much have to 'know' the streets in question. However trust me on this one - you do not want to go down into a valley unless you absolutely have to.

Love to all,

Stephanie

Watch Out Wellington ... Again

So the movers gave me trouble with when my stuff was going to arrive and I finished all the errands that I needed to run so I ended up going back to Palmerston North to visit Catherine again. I'm back now, the weather is great, my gear is finally here and I had a reverse negotiation with my landlord over rent.

Me: "Y'know, I rechecked my finances. I'm not as poor as I thought I'd be. Do you want me to raise my rent to X?" (previously we'd negotiated my rent at a discount because I'm a poor student.)
Norman: "I had a look at prices around here. Do you want to lower it to Y?"
Me: "Sure. Aren't we doing this the wrong way around?"

I will leave you all with the mystery of why packing materials take up more space when the things that they've been packed with have been removed even when I'm taking care to stack them in neatly.

Missing the Auckland contingent heaps,

Love to all,

Stephanie

Watch out, Wellington

So I finally made it here.

Taking the train down from Palmerston North I remembered again how beautiful the hills are. I somehow always forget when I'm away from them.

I'm living in Kingston. Even native Wellingtonions don't seem to know where that is - a bit south of Vogeltown and a bit north of Happy Valley. Norman (me landlord) is a nice guy, but I get the impression that he will be out a lot in the near future - I think he's busy at work and that.

This is my first full day and I've been doing important things like:
1. Finding out about bus and train timetables. I went to the train station counter and asked for bus timetables. The nice chap pointed me in the right direction. Then I asked about train timetables. To Waikanae. He slumped in defeat so I hastily changed it to Paraparaumu which he could help me with. Apparently the commuter trains all stop in Parapaumu which is only about 5km south of Waikane. Go figure. (Waikanae is where my gran lives.)
2. Getting a map (which promptly lost itself, which is a bad start. However, it turned outself in, so I'm letting it off with a warning.)
3. Getting a library card. The library is where I am now, actually, they have internet access and everything.
4. Inviting myself to my brother's house for dinner. It's good to let him know who's boss, early. Then he invited me to the Botanical Gardens to watch an open air viewing of Amelie. Maybe he's trying to show that he's boss. Hmm. I must think on this. ...

More later.

Steph

Watch Out, Palmerston North

I'm here.

It's gone pretty well so far. Babe made an ill-judged dash for her food bowl about half past 11 and found herself unceremoniously stuffed into the bathroom for the rest of the day. She seems to like her new cage, which is reinforced plywood and very enclosed. At least, she spent most of her day hiding inside it. Was highly unimpressed about the plane trip (OK, so I might have told her that she was being sold for medical experiments), but took it pretty well and is very relaxed about wandering around Catherine's house.

Watching a cat explore a new house always make me think of a Feng Shui dragon. She keeps making circuits around the house checking out all the nooks and crannies that she can find and checking them for fit and smell. She has been very quietly and gracefully trying to ooze herself out through a window so I'm guessing she's not hugely worried about life right now.

(I should add that I found when travelling to South Africa for a holiday that having Catherine along meant that I had someone to fuss over, which was a good outlet for travel nerves. I think that Babe has taken over that role, hence my obsessive detailing of her movements. ;-) )

Stephanie

Up, up and away...

OK, I'm moving tomorrow.

My life has been condensed into 4 cubic metres of stuff (or at least that's what the nice people at the moving company are charging me for), a suitcase of clothes and a cat. My pot plants are on long term loan to a friend, I have purchased an industrial grade cat cage that the airline will accept, I have purged a lot of books I don't read anymore and clothes I don't wear anymore and my room is almost down to remnants of furniture with set squares, miscellaneous CDs, a padlock, a letter holder, unused envelopes, scissors, hair stuff and all the little bits and pieces that just don't pack up easily.

Most of my forms have been filled out, the movers turn up tomorrow at lunch time and my sister is expecting me and the cat. Her name is Babe by the way. Somehow I suspect that with all this, she still hasn't worked out that we're moving yet. She's purring far too much to have pre-move nerves.

More later. (Wellington, here I come.)

^%*^%$ I can't find my cat!!!

I guess she's figured out that something's up after all.

I have six hours and twenty one minutes to lay my hands on her scruffy little neck.

F**k.

Stephanie