Winter Update

You should all know that as I sit here at the computer on a Friday morning, the truckers in New Zealand are protesting. They are protesting road use levies (hee-hee, levies!). They are protesting by driving slowly through all of the major urban areas of the country during Friday morning rush hour. It just so happens that our building is at a five-point intersection that someone high up in the protest planning committee decided was in need of some clogging.

Now for some updating... It's bloody cold in Christchurch right now. It is a measure of the kiwi-way that no matter how cold it gets you can still find plenty of blokes in shorts and t-shirts and a fair portion of the population never wearing shoes.

Holly has been doing quite well. Belle interiors is a great place to work and she is learning every day. The other non-owner staff member is leaving in August and they are interviewing for Holly's position as Holly will be filling the senior position. She still really enjoys her gym. It's a small, women only gym about a block away. She's getting all buff, it's neat. Funny story... we were walking through the local department store, Ballantynes, recently and Holly pointed to a sign hanging from the ceiling and said, "that's my bum." Sure enough, it was a poster made from one of her photo shoots for a jeans company. There were two bums on the poster and they were both Holly! I'm pretty sure that means she's famous...first Christchurch, then the world.

Andy is starting his PhD proposal. It is the first milestone in the process. I have to submit a semi-comprehensive literature review and basic outline for my project...rationale, hypotheses, experiment design. We are in between semesters right now so I am getting a lot of time to work on it. Next semester I get to TA for the highest level statistics class offered at the university. It's a great opportunity for me to get teaching experience at an advanced level. And, I didn't apply, I was selected...how cool is that?

We have done a few exciting things recently. We took a trip up into the mountains to a place called Maruia Springs. It is a natural hot springs sort of place. I was a bit put off by it. The outdoor pools had this black algae growing in them and it was cold and slightly raining. The cool part of the trip was that the friends we were with showed us a place where you can make your own thermal pool. There are places by a river where you can dig a hole and divert a little river water into the pool and the water will warm up and get all nice. It's a real kiwi sort of thing to do, go camping and get up real early to sit in your very own hot pool out in the middle of nowhere.

We went to see the All Blacks smash the English rugby team. We went with some great people that answered all our questions and made the game a lot of fun. Unfortunately, local hero Ritchie McCaw was injured and is going to be out for the next 8 weeks.

Not too much is planed for the next few months. Our friends, Rob and Olivia, just left NZ for Oz and we thought it would be a good time to stay quiet. So, we are going to go into hibernation for the winter months.
I have added a couple of new folders of pictures, enjoy.

A+H