BFF

Who's your best friend?
As a child that seemingly so simple a question becomes the cause of many an argument and upest, as well as joy at being labelled such by another kid; it is the source of hunts for friendship bracelets/necklaces/charms, secret passwords and codes, and the endless dilemma of who to choose for that prestigious title.

As an adult, I now delight in having lots of best friends, spread all over the world. I'm one of those lucky people: my mum's my best friend. So's my boyfriend. The girls I stayed up to 2am writing essays with at uni. The shy 'other English girl' who my fascinated classmates told me to speak English to on my first day at a Dutch-speaking school. The special lady I saw today who has made her home elsewhere but never forgets about me. My wonderful, tolerant housemate in NZ. The list goes on and on and on...
I no longer feel the need to choose a best friend. I have lots, all different, all part of who I am, all fabulous. I love you all.

When Kansas becomes Oz (group email)

Hmmmm... It's been quite a while since my last email. Wonder why that is? Wouldn't be anything to do with a rather wonderful distraction in the form of a fabulous man...

The past few months have passed in something of a whirlwind, with the hurricane picking me up and finally landing me back in my Kansas, which feels more of an Oz than ever before. Let me recap first:

I went back to Mt Ruapehu in late August and worked in the Marketing Department there til mid-November. It was a slight departure from my usual line of work, but I had a great time and I learnt so much from my fabulous colleagues, Shannon and Nadia. The job involved supporting the two of them by taking on things like the video content of the website, helping out at events and a bunch of other projects. Right up my street! I got lots of skiing in and (naughty me) bought some sexy new skis.
It also gave me lots and lots and LOTS of quality time with Gregg, and brought me back with the lovely Bex. Dinner parties, road trips, walks, skiing, etc etc. There are way too many stories to tell, really. One good one is of the Wild Food Festival held by friends of my NZ mum and dad up in South Auckland. The instructions were 'bring something you have caught, trapped, shot etc - only rules are: no roadkill and no pets'. Living in a national park we were clearly going to be limited in choice, so we went for a vegetarian option. Several hundred 'ows', 2 restarts and many scratched fingers and faces later, we had sufficient of the main ingredient for gorseflower fritters. They turned out to be rather bland and unexciting, but a lot of fun to make and they looked pretty... Other offerings at the festival included fish-eye mornay, peacock stew and wild horse steaks (yum!!), although eating started so late that we were all too intoxicated to really worry about what might be in most things. Come to think of it, that's not a bad tactic on the part of the hosts!

Check out photos of the Ruapehu and Wild Food shenanigans on flickr:
Mt Ruapehu, 23 Aug - 16 Nov 08: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157611324745025/
Wild Food Festival, 1 - 3 Nov 08: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157611326822839/

After the season finished mid-November, G and I headed south for a 2-week holiday on the South Island, seeing some of the bits I missed first time round, revisiting others and meeting Gregg's family and some friends. For those who know the geography: ferry to Picton, over to Nelson (WoW and classic cars museum, Centre of NZ), down to Westport (Gregg's brother and niece, huge opencast coal mine tour), across Lewis Pass (Maruia Springs) to Christchurch (Gregg's dad and wee sister, Antarctic Centre, Arts Centre) and over to Akaroa. It was a really relaxed holiday with little dashing around. The absolute highlight was Tree Crop Farm over in Akaroa. In a wild garden filled with lavender and roses we stayed in a tiny and secluded hut down by the stream. No electricity or plumbing, only a small woodburning stove, candles and lots of flowers. Oh, and mustn't forget the bush bath - open air bath with a fire under it to keep the water hot. It was the most romantic place ever.
The weeks sped by and a lightning speed week in Wellington later, we were back at National Park where Pete treated us to a shot in his jetboat and Bex put on a lovely Christmas dinner before I buggered off home, where I am now.
Holiday photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157611400827386/

Yes, I am back in the UK. Temporarily. Visiting mum and dad for Christmas and chilling. Literally. It's so cold here, having come from the height of a beautiful NZ summer. I'm also more conscious than ever of the sound basis for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). The days are SO short this time of year, and when there is daylight, it's not exactly much to write home about. But it does feel much more christmassy than I've felt the past couple of years, which is great!
Some other things I've noticed immediately on returning
- pedestrian crossing lights are larger but quieter
- no public toilets
- it's still much more cash-based here
- NZ just has no equivalent to Boots or Have I Got News For You

It's both lovely and very strange to be back.

Further plans are to go back to NZ late January, sort out my visa and a job and go from there!

Wishing you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year.

Vomit-inducing

It's probably a good thing we're on holiday at the moment, because anyone too close to us would be rushing to the bathroom to puke with the couply moments we're having.

I just got busted looking at him. Hee hee.

Yep, I'm very in love. OK, he's 18 years older, his hair's greying with white in it, he's a mechanic, he's from the other side of the world, his musical bone is minimal. On paper, it's incompatible.

I tell you though, get the chance to see us, watch us together, you'll see how right this is.

No news is good news

My mum always says she knows I'm happy and busy and enjoying life when she only hears from me periodically. My parents worry if I phone them too frequently when I'm away from home. "What's wrong?", "What do you need?", "You only called us last week!". The same is evidently true for this blog.

Life is really good. I have a wonderful, loving, understanding boyfriend. I'm excited about my visit home. Between them, Bex, Gregg and my mum do a good job of slapping me into shape whenever I have an irrational 'life is scary' moment. I'm unemployed and have a huge number of unknowns in front of me, but I feel strong and supported enough to take whatever life throws at me just now.

Unpredictable

There are many things I can predict my response to - a good meal, crap drivers, a smile from my boyfriend. Bad news is, however, still something I never know exactly how I'll respondto.
I couldn't predict the shock, the shaking and numbness I'd feel when I got a phonecall while on a skilift giving me the worst possible news about a dear friend.

All I know is I'm glad my close friend, a good colleague, and my fella were there.

I couldn't have predicted that it would finally hit me a day later, halfway to work, listening to Phil Collins, hitting me with enough force to require me to pull over.

I have no idea how I'll react at the funeral on Monday, surrounding by mutual friends (including my ex who cut all contact with me earlier this year). Again, I'm just glad that Gregg will be there by my side.

Staying on

I've made a big decision. Rephrase. A huge decision. My current visa expires mid-February and, until almost a year ago, I was fairly set on that being it for now. But things have changed completely. I still don't see myself living in NZ forever, but I'm enjoying it here at the moment and, more importantly, I don't want any relationship decisions to be made based on whether or not bureaucracy will let me stay. So I'm going for the only work visa currently available to me - one base on that very relationship. It's exciting, and very very right.

Hamish and Tavish comeback

A couple of years ago mum and I did a sponsored marathon power walk through London at midnight in bras, in aid of Breast Cancer UK. The Moonwalk. We decorated our bras as 2 wee Scottish lads, kilts, ginger beards and all.

Earlier today, Mt Ruapehu held their Bikini Downhill - a grand slalom done in bikini top or bra in aid of the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation. Well, it was too good a chance to miss. Mum shipped over her Hamish and Tavish, I fleshed it out with a saltire flag cape and became the flying Scotswoman. Great day, althoug a lot colder than central London in May!

As at the Moonwalk, there were plain and decorated bras, some of them on men. 2 girls did the course in full bikini. Brrrrr...

Watch a video of the event here: http://www.mtruapehu.com/winter/mountain-events/. The videos are down the left - click on 'Rip Curl K2 Bikini Downhill 08'.

Another day with Charlie III

There's nothing more teeth-grindingly irritating than a broken speaker. I've been driving my car on mono for months since one of the speakers started crackling.

Today I finally did something about it. As is becoming quite common, I took great joy in dismantling a large proportion of the door and finding the solution to a new speaker slightly too small for the existing mounts - attach it to an ice cream tub lid, of course. Can't take full credit for that bit of genius, that should mainly go to Bex. Now there's just the chore of making a second large ice cream tub lid available to mount the second new speaker on. What a struggle...

Lots of ideas, no plans (group email)

Today's a good day to be sending an update email. It's two years ago to this day that I flew out of Glasgow to head off on this adventure. It's not really that significant in the grand scheme of things, but it does mean a lot to me. It makes me very aware of how long it's been since I've seen most of you, and how long it's been since I last set foot in my beloved Scotland. For the record, all you lot back home, I miss you all very very much. I will come home, I promise.
When Sarah saw me onto that plane in 2006 I never imagined I'd go through half of what I've been through in the intervening years (welcome to life, Jo), although I certainly had high hopes. The biggest thing I've realised, learnt and finally accepted (and it may seem bloody obvious, but those of you who know me well will understand how big it is for me) is that life will ALWAYS throw curveballs at you, will always surprise you and, try as you might, there's no way you can plan for that, so there's no point in stressing overly about it, and that's ok. It's not scary. I bore people to death with my 'no plans, just lots of ideas' mantra - and worry my father - but it's still working for me, so I'm sticking by it for now.

Philosophical rant over. Where am I now?

Well, speaking of curveballs, the WoW job wasn't really working out, Mt Ruapehu offered me a really interesting project-based job. So here I am, back where I swore I'd never return to, working as Marketing Assistant. There are so many different bits and pieces I do, but the main gist is: lots of updating of the website content, helping out with events, and some longer term projects. Gregg, the recent addition to my life, lives and works up here too, which is a wonderful bonus. I'm back living with Bex, which ROCKS, and I'm getting plenty of opportunity to hone my skiing, meet new mountain people, and be reminded of all those little Mt Ruapehu irks and giggles.
I'm not toning down the extra-curriculars either. I've just finished a basic avalanche awareness course, which saw a bunch of us out in crazy strong winds and snow learning snow science and how to use avalanche beacons. Despite falling and coming out of my skis a record number of times, despite being dragged well out of my comfort zone, despite having way too many skin cells scoured off me by the weather, it was a great experience. For those of you who have seen the photos of me and mum doing the Moonwalk a couple of years ago, the see-you-jimmy bra is being brought out again (well, thanks to my brilliant mum, sent to the other side of the world) to make an appearance at the Mt Ruapehu Bikini Jam (skiing in bikini tops for breast cancer charity). It's all good!

After the ski season? Well, that's the million dollar question. Lots of ideas, no plans... My visa expires mid-February, which doesn't leave me much time left in NZ, so there are some big decisions to be made. I'll keep you posted.

Upside down, boy you turn me... (group email)

The teenagers downstairs are staging their loudest sing and boogie-along Saturday night party yet, so it's a good opportunity to get you up to date with the latest in the life of Jo.

I have been replaced, albeit temporarily, as 'most adventurous Odds family explorer' by my parents who are having (I hope) the trip of a lifetime to Macchu Picchu and the Galapagos. However, it would be highly inaccurate to assume that that means my life has become less exciting as a result. But we'll come to that.

The unemployment and jobhunting was interrupted by a brief but brilliant stint working in the Wellington Film Festival. I got to run the busiest and biggest cinema, which is notably the first venue I've ever managed with numbered seats. N.B. This seemingly minor matter makes a HUGE difference when seating a 750+ capacity venue 7 times a day.
It was a great experience with some fab people (the angry evil mum and the drunk spitting guy being obvious exceptions to that). My pick of the festival: 'Waltz with Bashir'. Check it out if you find it on DVD.

In the past week or so a lot of things have changed. This is mainly due to the new man in my life. No, let's get this right, he is not new to my life, but he has now started fulfilling a new role in it. My new boyfriend has swept me off my feet, turned my world upside down and made life just so much more exciting (although if I'm honest, he did all the above a wee while ago). Suffice to say, this is one very happy lady, and I'm damn sure he's pretty happy too!

On the job front it's been a wee rollercoaster of its own. I will resist from boring you with details, but there were some rather unexpected disappointments recently that left me a bit dumbstruck. But it's all come together and I've just got a job working for World of Wearable Art - a unique event at the end of September www.worldofwearableart.com - and another potential exciing job following on from that (tbc). Funny how these things go.

Other bits and pieces I've been up to:
- visiting White Island (volcanic) and getting locked out of the backpackers
- mountainbiking and falling off into the gorse
- commissioning a beautiful drum to be made by a samba-mate then falling out of her car into the agapanthas
- a primo day skiing with the lovely Bex, a worthy follow-on from falling in the pond whilst playing mini-golf together

Hang on, that's a lot of falling incidents... Anyway:
- attending the filming of the first round of 'New Zealand's Got Talent' and questioning the wisdom of the title
- getting a shiny new MP3 player and needing to replace my car speakers as a result
- fixing several tricky things on my car, all by myself, but of course with the assistance of my ever-patient advisory team; you know who you are ;o)

Life is good.

New Zealand's Got Talent (?)

I agree. New Zealand does have talent and lots of of it. Sadly most of that talent decided to give the first round of the TV show by that name a miss tonight. Actually, that's not quite fair. There was the most amazing beatboxer, a very impressive if unpolished juggling and diabolo trio, and a 15-year-old girl with an incredible singing voice.

Otherwise the best bits were the audience warm-up guy and giggling at the young, screaming, humourless girls surrounding us. An interesting 4 hours of my life, nevertheless, punctuated by crap karaoke singers, gang members and an utterly unfunny comedy duo (called 'Trio', hardehar... groan).

Photos: Wellington, Film Festival and Ruapehu

I've just uploaded 3 sets of photos to my flickr page:

Life in Wellington http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606662302927/

Wellington Film Festival http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606663161929/

Ruapehu and White Island http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606660106328/

Mending Charlie

It was a pain in the arse when my car failed its WOF (MOT) earlier this month, but it turned out a lot of it I could do myself. So I have. With the help of my advisory team – the friendly chaps at Repco and my ever-patient and supportive mechanic friend – along with my Subaru handbook, common sense and a fair whack of trial and error, I’ve successfully completed a series of fiddly repairs and today she passed her WOF. The best thing of all is that I took so much more pleasure in working on my car than I ever expected.

Never mind that I stabbed myself several times with the electric probe, flattened the car battery, broke and mended parts unrelated to the original problem, and almost burned my flat down.

Samaritans in the storm

We’re being hit by a pretty serious storm front this weekend. To be fair, it’s further north where they’re bearing the brunt of it with floods, power cuts and, in some areas, into civil defense mode. But we’re taking a pretty heavy beating here in Wellington too

I was a wee way into my steep uphill half hour trudge home through this storm just now when 3 ladies picked me up and drove me home. I live in the opposite direction from them but they couldn’t stand to see me walk through that. After having dealt with a particularly difficult and abusive customer last night (and eventually calling the cops on him), those three lovely women in their little red micra have restored my faith in humanity.

Land of a thousand beds

I’ve moved around a fair bit the past couple of years. Stating the obvious, right? Over the course of 5 months in Asia I spent the night in 68 different places, slightly more if you count individual beds. Since arriving in New Zealand I’ve already clocked 45 and still counting.

It’s certainly made me really appreciate it when I do get a chance to stick somewhere for a wee while (although it’s always safe in the knowledge that I’ll move on at some point – proper settling is still a long way off for me). I’ve been lucky to have three such ‘homes’ already – Borneo river lodge, Roz & Frank’s in the Bombay Hills, and Ruapehu farmhouse with Bex & Basil. I’m now onto a fourth here in Wellington. I’ve covered the chest of drawers with photos, I’ve got vegetables going furry in the fridge, I own a pair of slippers. The opportunity to create a home, to unpack, to make your mark on a place, learn you way around, form your unique dent in a bed, it’s become something very special.

Photos: Random Mt Ruapehu Trip, 30 June - 2 July 08

Photos to be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606069023225/

Random acts of spontaneity

* Monday, 8.00pm: Just finished induction for my new job and faced with another fairly empty week to fill. I've already arranged to meet up with Lyle tomorrow, a fellow ex-RAL'er in Welly but we haven't decided yet what to do. I've got an idea, I text Lyle.

* Monday, 10.30pm: We leave Wellington, petrol and fluids topped up, Big Mac in the tummy, ZM on the radio.

* Monday, 2.30am: We arrive in National Park and drive the last 15 mins to Bex' farmhouse. I've let Bex know I'm coming, but she has no idea Lyle is with me (they're close friends who don't see anywhere near enough of each other).

* Tuesday, 6.30am: You should see Bex' face when she sees Lyle.

* Tuesday, afternoon: I'm knackered, but we've had an incredible day of skiing and catching up with people. Lyle quit earlier in the day and has been drinking all afternoon waiting for me. Makes for fun playing and sliding in the snow in the car parks.

* Tuesday, 10.30pm: We're in the snow again. We won the pub quiz, so back up the mountain to check it out at night.

* Wednesday, 11.00am: I've had breakfast with G and now Lyle and I are back in the car, heading south. This particular random act of spontaneity is over.

I love it.

Photos: Between Kathy and Wellington, 11 April - 13 June 08

To be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157605785295004/

Back to 'normal'? (group email)

I’ve finally made it to Wellington. It was much much harder to leave Mt Ruapehu than I expected (although I really should have known…). It was so good to be back there, catch up with people, meet new people and mooch around the mountain for a bit. Bex welcomed me back into her home with open arms and a much slimmer Basil-the-cat, and it was like I’d never been away. I got a dead good send-off - a dinner party with selected and random mates - and before I realised it, I was in my car driving south. I’ll be visiting a fair bit though.

It feels like I’ve been away from the mountain for yonks, but it’s actually only been about a week and a half.
Although I’ve secured a great job in the International Film Festival (running their main venue), arts-related work and festival work is thin on the ground. I stopped trying to plan in advance very early on in my travels. However, in the same way that that led to my accidentally following the rainy season around Asia, it also prevented me from considering the fact that the busy time for performing arts work is likely to be the warmer months of the year. However, there is one thing that picks up during winter (apart from skiing, of course): RUGBY! No, I’m not donning a skull-cap and mouthguard and hurling myself around a field (much as that would probably have been useful in my lamb encounter last October), but there is plenty of work around events such as the Tri-Nations. I’ve decided to take a dip in the hospitality world and will very soon be a casual ‘Corporate Box Host’ at the big Wellington Stadium. Schmooze-central - I’ll see how I get on.
I’m pretty happy with casual, temporary and short-term work as it leaves me free to be spontaneous and indulge in my beloved extra-curriculars. I’ve rejoined Wellington Batucada and am cooking up projects with them already. I’m finding my inner geek and attending Wellington Astronomical Society lectures (gravitational lensing, anyone?). The flat comes with mountain bikes and a kayak, so I’m going to try a bit of that to toughen up my bum muscles. I also extremely randomly popped up to Rotorua and Tauranga with a mountain-friend for a fabulous weekend exploring hot pools and coffee shops. There’ll be more of that.

All in all, life is cold but good. Having finally drawn a line under the Borneo experience, I’m starting to properly enjoy and appreciate my time in New Zealand instead of half-wishing I was somewhere else.

Charlie IV

To recap:

* Charlie I: Roz and Frank's wonderful dog in South Auckland

* Charlie II: Crazy ownerless jack russell on the orchard in Hawke's Bay

* Charlie III: My lovely blue Subaru Legacy

Now introducing Charlie IV:

This Charlie is of the feline variety. He is Emma and Marie's young, handsome cat and part of the housesitting job is to catsit him. He's extremely affectionate but also has some serious airs, particularly when it comes to food. I'm hauling out my best Supernanny techniques on him. But he's keeping me company through empty days and snuggles up to me all night, so he's worth the effort.

Aw bugger

I'm a change seeker. I thrive on change, challenges and adventure. I also suck at goodbyes, big time. I try to focus on the advice I was given a while back: I'm not dying, I'm not going to prison or to war.
But it's still hard. My wee stint on the mountain was not long enough and, much as I'm sure to stay the whole winter would have been too long, I wasn't quite ready to leave yet this time. Damn.

Assimilation

You know you're slowly assimilating into kiwi life when:
- you're itching to find out what happens next on Shortland Street (and you're excited that Hone Ropata's back)
- your hiking get-up includes thermal leggings under shorts
- 'sweet', 'far out' and 'yeah nah' feature regularly in your vocabulary
- you forget what it's like to share the road with other vehicles, but it's not too odd to share it with farm animals
- you've lost track of a lot of what's going on in the rest of the world
- you go to the supermarket barefoot
- it's normal for it to be freezing cold in July
- you drive the 100m to the cornershop (I'm never going to be kiwi enough to call it the 'dairy')

Volcano hat trick

Having scaled both Mt Ngaurahoe and Mt Ruapehu with mum, I figured a gorgeous, crisp day off could be best spent nabbing the third one, Mt Tongariro.

It's a great walk, mainly a repeat of the first half of the Tongariro Alpine Crossing then branching off to the top of Tongariro. I set off a bit later in the morning to avoid the Tongariro Crossing rush hour and had the place practically to myself (or so it felt). Just brilliant.

So that's it, I've climbed all three and there are no major peaks left on the North Island for me to 'conquer'.

Well, that's not strictly true. It would be good to climb Mt Taranaki so I'd have ticketd off the four volcanoes I can see from this house. However, after the ordeal that was Ngaurahoe - on which I saw for the first time my mum throw a tantrum, albeit a very very brief one - and having been assured Taranaki is a very similar experience, I'm quite content to let it remain the pretty Mt Fuji lookalike in the distance.

Homes in the country and the city (group email)

Only a couple of weeks left on the mountain before properly relocating to Wellington for Winter. I've been down there a couple of times already to suss out the flat and for a job interview. The flat's gorgeous. I seem to do particularly well at finding winter accommodation with a view. The wee farmhous at Ruapehu has stunning views of the three volcanoes. The Wellington flat and particularly 'my' bedroom has incredible vistas over the city and the harbour. Plus great flatmates and a friendly cat. I will miss living with Bex, who is quite honestly the best housemate I have ever had. But I'm looking forward to city life again. Oh, and I didn't get the job, by the way.

Work on Ruapehu at the moment is mainly processing the thousands of season passes ordered in April. The mountain computer database system has not improved since last year. If anything, various upgrades and 'improvements' have made it worse. There is now no one computer of the 9 we work on that can do all the different tasks we need to do. Nothing like an unnecessary challenge. I'm working with fab people though, so that more than makes up for it.

Manually processing, printing and packing 20,000 passes with photos is arduous to say the least, but it does give you the odd giggle at the poser pictures you get sent, and the downright silly. There are also some pretty crazy names, some so nutty I've had to ask them to produce formal ID as proof because I didn't believe them.

Outside work I've been ticking off all the short walks in the area, catching up with pals, enjoying the hot pools I can't believe I didn't discover last time, fretting over soaring petrol and food prices, watching Shortland Street and looking forward to Wellington and travel after New Zealand.

Dead-end pavement

One of the sheer delights of moving back to city life is being able to walk most places. But an oddity, at least in Wellington streets, is that many footpaths suddenly come to an unexpected, abrupt end. No warning. No 'cross over now because I'll soon vanish at a point that's particularly dangerous for pedestrians to cross at'. Nope, they just stop.

Curse of the dilemma

Dilemmas are the curse of those who seek change. Particularly to someone like me who over-analyses and has difficulty with medium to major decisions. I've not even got to the point of the current dilemma actually being a dilemma, but the thought of its potential of being one is enough to turn my brain to jelly. Ridiculous. I've got an interview for a great job in a little theatre in Wellington. They're looking for someone to start 2 weeks before my job on the mountain ends. I don't want to miss out on the job because of it, nor do I want to bail on the current job early. And I've not even had the interview yet.

As I said, ridiculous.

Tempted

It is tempting to stay, so very very tempting. I love the people I work with, I have a fab housemate, they've offered me really god jobs and are clearly keen to have me here for winter. But there's still the lifestyle problem. It didn't take too long last season for me to find it just that bit too isolating. It's work and then either home for TV or out for drinks with people who work on the mountain. It's not enough for me.

I've got a weekend trip to Wellington coming up, it'll do my head some good.

Winter's coming

My car was covered in a sheet of ice this morning, both on the outside and on the inside. The yellow smiley face windscreen scraper was unearthed from its summer home with the spare tyre. Just to spite me, the windscreen blowers cleared the passenger side first and I was reminded that only4 of the stripey heat thingies across the rear windscreen work, and it's not the middle 4. My feet are rarely out of socks. I wear thermals as pyjama bottoms. Neither my towel nor my hair dry naturally anymore and the tan is turning more jaundiced by the day.

Another NZ winter is coming...

Dating game

I've never dated much, not in the conventional sense at least. I guess I've always inadvertantly come across as intimidating, too tall, so self-confident as to not need a boy, questionable as to whether or not I was straight, or any combination of the above. Until recently, I'd only ever once been asked out on a date and I was so petrified of the concept that I never acknowledged to my 19-year-old self that that is what it was. I certainly never acknowledged how much guts it took for that now dear friend to approach me in the first place.

Thanks to that lad and a short list of other very special men and women over the past 8 years I'm now (finally) confident in myself as an attractive, sexual human being. Just like every person on the planet.

Nevertheless, it still knocked me speechless when the other day an almost complete stranger told me he was interested in me and could he please take me out for dinner. At times convention is nice, and it was lovely to be given a gift, wined and dined, told I was fascinating and beautiful etc. Sadly there was no chemistry for me (before anyone wonders if I'll now be staying on in NZ), so I drove home alone that night but with a really warm heart, a big grin on my face and a timely boosted self-confidence. Oh, and with a new friend.

Mongrel tents, Crazy ladies and George (group email)

Time continues to fly. The long-anticipated visit from my wee sis has been and gone, as has (finally) the long dry summer. Yes, it's raining. North Island farmers can heave a sigh of relief after months of drought. It's less fun for my NZ family who are renovating their house, and for me who, well, is frankly not doing much at all at the moment.

Kathy and I had 3 great weeks together on the road through Northland and the Coromandel. We sailed, swam, snorkelled, duneboarded, explored deserted bays and are quite kauri-forested out for the timebeing, thank you very much.

As always, brief highlights:

- Ngawha Springs: non-touristy, cheap, little-visited set of sulphur spring hot pools

- Matai Bay: gorgeous secluded beach all to ourselves with enough wind to fly a kite

- Driving all the way to Cape Reinga for it to be shrouded in mist and rain

- Mongrel tent: only our NZ family could manage to lend us a 3-person-tent dome with a non-matching 2-person-tent flysheet

- Sailing in the Bay of Islands; I'm hooked!

- Ripple effect vomiting on choppy seas at the Poor Knights Islands

- 2-day hike in the Coromandel to the biggest tramping 'hut' you've ever seen

- George the hungry sheep at Whiti Farm Park

- Maori nightwalk amongst the biggest trees in NZ

- My brave sister doing the Big Swing at Highzone

- Toilets with a tree through them and trains going down the middle of the road in Kawakawa

- Out of Africa circus at Auckland's Royal Easter Show

- Crazy Lady in our Paihia backpackers; she stole my book! (see blog)

- trampolines

I could go on and on and on, it was just such a good trip and I will of course miss having Kathy around.

Next? I'd half considered heading back to Borneo for winter, but Nelson's got some things to sort out so that'll have to wait. I've actually now got myself all set to head back to Wellington for winter: a bit of 'normal' life, a wee break from the constant upheaval of travelling. I've got somewhere to stay, a range of friends, extra-curricular stuff and access to cultural things. Just have to find work to help pay for it and we're off!

Photos: Kathy's visit

Enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157604526107516/

Crazy Lady

Another loopy dorm-mate.

This lady, of unknown origin, is an alcoholic of indeterminate age. I believe she may be middle-aged but it's hard to tell. Way too much sun, booze and cigarettes have shrivelled her face to resemble a talking raisin.As far as we can tell she's been here in Paihia a while, doesn't eat much but drinks a lot, and spends a lot of her time leeching on to people and complaining about how much everything costs.

Yesterday my book went missing. I'd left it lying around the lounge while I cooked Kathy dinner after her sunset horse-ride. Later, it was gone. The brave Canadian who slept in the bunk above Crazy Lady (she shouts in her sleep and talks to herself loudly when drunk) had seen her with my book.
Next day I joined Crazy Lady on the balcony for sunrise, spotted my book in her bag and asked her if she'd seen it. It had a photo of me as a bookmark so couldn't be confused as a reject. No, she'd not seen it.Later, the book showed up on the table. Amazingly, Crazy Lady confessed to having dound it, could I believe it, in her bag of all places! She must have picked up my book (orange and white cover) and confused it for hers (black cover), she said. Sad thing is, she may actually be telling the truth; she could have been that pissed.

Nevertheless, Kathy had to guard our food as we were getting our stuff together to leave - Crazy Lady was eyeing that up too...

Travel health

When my friend, K, went off round the world for a year, I remember following her blog and seeing her take her first diving course and then slowly gear a lot of her travel around further diving courses and diving meccas.
It's one of the hazards of travelling longterm. Not only is it almost unavoidable to be bitten by the highly infectious travel bug, you're also exposed to a whole exotic, fresh, new array of things that may bight you and have time to manifest themselves. Things you have built up no immunity to back home.

In the same way as K soon found diving irresistible, I fear I may have been bitten by sailing. The question now is whether or not to resist...

Life after the Festival (group email)

The New Zealand International Arts Festival 2008 has come to an end and with it I can leave behind a whole heap of madness, incompetence, stress and overwork. But from it I'm also taking a lot of lessons learnt, some great new friends and a big hotch-potch of memories.

It's quite a different beast from the Edinburgh Festival. The NZ Festival is more like a large version of Assembly Theatre in the Edinburgh Fringe, programme and atmosphere-wise. It certainly doesn't transform the city in the same way as you find a different Edinburgh in August. There's a Fringe festival too, much more like I imagine the Edinburgh Fringe used to be. The role of the Festival here is different too: it provides kiwis with one of the few opportunities they have to see what's being produced at the top level around the world. As a result, it also provides a rare chance for NZ performing groups to set themselves against an international benchmark while staying at home. It's a wonderful thing.

I was Deputy Venue Manager for the festival's 'flagship venue', the Pacific Blue Festival Club. I ended up doing most of the Venue Manager's job too, but I won't go into that. What happened, happened. Main thing is that I finally got to try my hand at the next big step up from Front of House Manager, and I don't think I did too badly. We had some really great stuff in the programme (as well as some mediocre, of course) and it was pretty damn exciting to work in such a varied and high profile venue.

The Festival Club is a temporary structure - a cabaret tent (Pacific Crystal Palace), which is a modern NZ-made version of the Spiegeltent, for those in the know; attached to the Crystal Palace structure was a huge marquee fitted out as a bar. Most of the VIP functions are hosted there, so lots of big names and important faces around too.

I didn't get to see a huge amount of Wellington, or really experience Wellington life (apart from battling with the Wellington elements in our great big tent - we became squeedgie queens and fought many a battle of the (tent roof) bulge). I did manage to make it to a few shows though, incl. Black Watch (again) and the amazing Traces.

There were some old faces around too, most of them from my Assembly days. Plus a couple of lads who cropped up from my stint on the door at the QMU. Very random. Another old face that, inevitably, joined the melee was Sean's. We briefly caught up but for the moment the decision is not to stay in touch.

By far the best bit of it all was the discovery of the wonderful Emma. Em was the venue's Production Manager and, with a whole variety of shit flying about, we together found the eye of the storm and pulled together to spend most of our time there. It's so very rare to find someone you work and get on so well with, and it was an absolute treasure every day.

And now I'm back at base camp in South Auckland. My wee sister arrived a few days ago and we've been enjoying the end of summer. We visited Auckland's Royal Easter Show yesterday and had an absolute blast. Tomorrow morning we head north to discover Northland. Cue lots of beaches, islands, snorkelling and kauri trees. Can't wait!

Photos: NZ Festival 08

My latest batch: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157604211520131/

Trouple Therapy

End of the contract. I take the quiet option: dinner with the boys in the hills.
Meal's over, time for a bath.

I let the past 5 weeks wash over me, through me and settle deeper into me.
I stop the next 5 forevers from worrying me.
It's easy. In my bathtub under the stars.

My toes, black against the city lights, ballerina feet long gone, but still mine.
My fingers, already prune-like. A ring the only indication of a new person in my life.
I miss him, the man so much further removed from me than the twelve hour flight. The man I may or may not see again.
But it's ok. In my bathtub under the stars.

I consider the thousands of lessons learnt.
Shoulders tighter but mind looser.
So much more still to discover on this course with no graduation date.
The morepork pipes up and I look at the Southern Cross.
Oh yes, I'm in New Zealand. In my bathtub under the stars.

The water's cold.

Necessary reminder

My role as Deputy Venue Manager of the Pacific Blue Festival Club (the NZ International Arts Festival's flagship venue) is not an easy one. It's been a bit of an unnecessarily stressful experience so far, and one I refuse to bore you with the details of.
More important is that tonight, just past the halfway mark of the festival, we nailed it. The evening music gig (sold out) and the contemporary circus show (also sold out) straight after, all finally ran smooth as anything. Smiley punters, no disasters, no stress, bang bang bang, job done.

Tonight I was finally reminded of why I love this kind of work. This time it's taken a very painful and frustrating journey to get to this point. But we're there. I'm there. And god it feels good.

First steps

A year ago I ended a relationship. Today Sean and I met for the first time in a year and a half and took the first steps towards, well, I'm not sure towards what, but I do feel a certain sense of moving forward.

It was partly an unavoidable meeting: Sean is technical manager for a show performing in the venue I run and we had to find a way of being able to work together. But I wanted to meet up anyway and this provided the impetus.

It's taken the edge off being around each other, which is great. Difficult to pinpoint what else it may have achieved, but it's a good start.

What to wear?

I knew this would happen. I started by travelling through Asia, so summer attire is no problem. I had thermals with me too, so with a little bit of topping up (mainly with uniform), winter wear was sorted too. Now I need an autumn wardrobe appropriate for a windy wet city and associated job - i.e. what I wear the majority of the year at home. I'm stuck. It's all at my parents' in Aberdeen!

Queen of the Castle

My new house on the hill has so much character.

Once you've hauled your way up the stairs and run the gauntlet between Amanda's half-finished pizza oven and her lettuce patch, simultaneously dodging the washing line strategically strung, like all self-concerning washing lines, at neck height, you arrive in the kitchen. The focus point of the kitchen and ablutions area is the glooping blubbing fish tank containing, other than the fish, a plastic Lady Penelope.
Past the downstairs bedrooms you have a choice.
To the left are the stairs down to the Orange Room and The Dungeon (yes, a dungeon, complete with plastic skeleton).
To the right is the living room with half the Salvation Army's supply of sofa's and shelving. No Wellington living room worth its salt, it appears, would forget a pair of binoculars to watch cruise ships and ferries, logging activity on Mt Victoria, and for people watching. We've got 2 pairs.
Up the stairs of death finally to the TV room (no sofas, just mattresses, cushions and fairy lights) and my room. I can't stand upright in my room. I have no door or bed, just a curtain and double mattress. It's right under the roof so when it rains or the wind picks up, I feel a bit like I'm in a fishing boat cabin. I've not got enough stuff to worry about lack of space, and there are fairy lights too.

I love it. I've got a Jo space that's all mine for the next 5 weeks!

Wok City

Have you ever been to Wellington? Many people who've been to New Zealand have only passed through it. And they're missing out. But I'm not sure I've ever experienced a city built in such an anti-intuitive location.

The best way I can find to describe it is as though the city's been built in half a wok. The centre is fairly level, but in the immediate suburbs you're straight into really steep hills. In these hills, often unbelievably, people have built their houses. I'm living in one of these now.

After miles of suburban and rural NZ filled with one-storey weatherboard houses (and yes, I do understand to a degree why they're quite so prevalent), this Briton finds great pleasure and relief in being amongst more solid and more varied buildings. But they're on such steep hillsides!
I knew Wellington was hilly before I left the UK. What I didn't realise is that most of the houses don't evern have bendy hilly road access to front doors or garages. No no. You park your car in the street at the bottom of a staircase and then tramp up sometimes 100 steps or so to your front door. Not easy with a week's worth of groceries or your winter supply of firewood. (More wealthy Wellingtonians - around 400 of them currently - have had private cable cars built to allow easier access to the more inaccessible homes!)

The views are stunning from all these houses. I'm not sure if having to haul my way up the equivalent of Arthur's Seat every day makes it all worth it, though...

Samba-sick

Last May when I first joined in a Wellington Batucada (i.e. samba drumming) rehearsal, I came away simply feeling excited and accepted.
Today when I went back for the first time, I'm left mainly feeling a bit homesick for the Edinburgh Samba School and everything that ties into that.

Odd.

Been and gone (group email)

Well, mum's been and gone and what a wonderful 3 weeks we had together! It's just been amazing. We saw and did so many wonderful things around the North Island, but it was also simply magic to get to spend some quality time together after almost a year and a half away from home.

We left South Auckland with a vague route in mind, but pretty much made up most of it as we went along. The (summarised) itinerary ended up as follows:

WAITOMO CAVES (abseiled 100m in then scrambled and swam back out over 6 hours, including enjoying the beautiful glow worms, eels, fossils and everything else along the way)

TONGARIRO CROSSING (excellent long hike, really lovely although relatively busy, we opted to climb up the bitch of a mountain that is Mt Ngauruhoe - Mt Doom very apt - that is best compared to a 750m struggle up a sand dune, well worth it for the views though)

FORGOTTEN WORLD HIGHWAY (2 days over one of the most scenic roads on the north island, stopping off to search for random 'historic' disused tunnels, boat landings, waterfalls etc along the way, and an overnight in the Independent Republic of Whangomomona, whose last president was a goat)

TARANAKI REGION/NEW PLYMOUTH (vegging time, after Ngauruhoe we couldn't face hauling ourselves up another young volcano, so we chilled in town, went for a boat ride and explored the festival of lights)

MATEMATEAONGA TRACK (4-day tramp through NZ bush, more views of Ruapehu etc, but a really fab experience to use the back country huts and rough it for a bit, plus we heard wild kiwis and mum got her first jetboat ride at the end)

WELLINGTON (I can't seem to stay away from this city! We indulged in the delights of the cable car, botanics, good food, Parliament visit with a dreadful guide, Te Papa - the national museum, a spot of theatre and one of our highlights of the holiday: nightwalk in Karori Wildlife Sanctuary where we saw tuatara (rare NZ lizards that live to over 100 years old) and wild kiwi)

MARTINBOROUGH (hired bikes and swayed our way round a good selection of Martinborough wineries, sampling everything along the way, including gorgeous pinot noirs, and sea salt chocolate at a specialist chocolate shop)

MT RUAPEHU (very strange to be on this mountain in the summer, but it gave us the chance to hike up to the crater lake and slide back down on the remaining bits of snow, as well as catch up with old housemates Bex and Basil)

ROTORUA (tourist central, we tortured ourselves with a 'maori cultural experience' evening - only the bus ride there and back saved it; we also visited a good range of thermal springs, sulphur lakes and glooping mud pots (my favourite), took a thermal mud bath and the other big highlight of the holiday: Kerosene Creek, a natural thermal river that you can just go and bathe in for free)

And then we came full circle back to my NZ family in South Auckland, took a wee visit to see the fish and penguins at Kelly Tarlton's before getting mum back on a plane home!

What now? Not quite the million dollar question it could be. I've got work in the NZ Festival covering February and most of March, which is great. I can't wait to get stuck in to that. I head down to Wellington on Monday on the Overlander train. Before that, I'm cashing in my birthday voucher from my parents and going to canyon down Sleeping Gods Canyon, one of the more extreme canyoning experiences in the country.

And the festival ends just before the other female member of the Odds clan arrives on these fair shores for a month. Excellent!

Photos: Mum's visit, 10 - 29 Jan 08

Have a look at our holiday photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157603831479799/

Gone again

It feels like she only got here yesterday and already my beloved mum and best friend has gone home again. We've had an unbelievable three weeks together on the North Island, but more importantly it was just brilliant to see her after a year and a half, and to get to spend proper time together.

Naturally I'm feeling a bit homesick at the moment and wondering why I picked a country quite this far away. However, there are more exciting things still to come, including the NZ Festival and a visit from the other female member of the Odds clan (the males of the species are slacking).

Kiwi hospitality

Kiwis are generally - and quite deservedly - known for giving friendly an excellent service. It's one of the real delights of being in this country.

There are always exceptions though. Pak 'n' Save and Warehouse (both big budget superstores) are a sure place to find surly sales people. Unfortunately, the past couple of days we've come across some real crackers in new places.
The guide who took us round the New Zealand Parliament was of the particularly defensive variety of kiwi. Defensive instead of proud of her nation - it's a fine line but there's a fair number of locals who cross it. She also produced a stunning array of question responses, all with a general sense of 'harrumph'.
Our Wellington backpackers seems to be run by a similarly rare strain of kiwi. It took great effort to get them to tell us how to find our room in a rather large, labyrinthine hostel. Housekeeping seems to consist of changing the pillowcases and hoovering the downstairs hall, and if you manage to secure yourself a knife or mug from the kitchen here, you have to guard it with your life, they're so scarce. The first conversation we had with a fellow traveller in this place was: "Whatever you do, don't open the fridge. It smells like something's died in there".

They're really letting the kiwi side down.

I've seen a kiwi!

A real life Little Spotted Kiwi in the wild (and I'm talking about the bird). Mum and I just did a night walk at the wonderful Karori Wildlife Sanctuary near Wellington and we saw all sorts of rare indigenous wildlife. The highlight though was definitely our wee flightless showman who hung around doing snuffly kiwi things for a good 5 minutes while we watched.

I can leave NZ happy now, whenever that may be.

Satisfying shapes

Wellington is a strangely satisfying shape on a map. The centre is a neat grid, like the centre of a flower, and from there radiate loads of random squiggles in all directions (in the 3D, real life version: roads winding up the steep hills of suburban Wellington).

Very pleasing.

Disaster feet with tales to tell

My feet are a mess, but they do tell the stories of recent travels:

For starters, there's the alien life form that's been with me since Borneo - my ringworm friend.
Then there's the big bruise under the big toe on my right foot - the result of the endless downhill at the end of the Tongariro Crossing. The nail will probably drop off again. Poor thing, it's only recently probably grown back after the same thing happened coming of Mt Kinabalu in Malaysia.
My little toes are recovering from wee sandle blisters incurred in the quest to find a disused tunnel along the Forgotten World Highway.
Finally, my heels have been ripped open by giant blisters after tramping 37km through the NZ bush yesterday.

How come all mum has suffered so far is a 'bit of rubbing' on her right heel?!

Out of the jungle, into the sun (group email)

I'm finally back in New Zealand after 2 glorious months in Borneo. I'm actually pretty gutted to be back for a range of reasons, most simplest: at the moment I'm happier and more challenged by life in SE Asia than in NZ. And that's what I want just now.

Poor NZ's getting a bit of a hard time from me - it is a fantastic country, very easy and friendly to live and travel in, so I can't really complain too much. I had New Year on the beach with my NZ family. It's full on summer here and it's brilliant weather at the moment. I'm now in South Auckland preparing for my mum's arrival in a week. I haven't seen any of my family for almost a year and a half, and I can't wait to see my mum. Hurrah!

Back to Borneo though. So much happens in 2 months there's no way I can cover it all. I was 'volunteering' at the river lodge again for most of it - hosting tourists, helping out with housekeeping, guiding, other bits and pieces. Last time there were 11 fan rooms. Now there are also 16 aircon rooms and an extra 8 members of staff. It was good, almost better than last time. I'm getting my teeth round the language a lot more and pushing my weight around a bit more with regards to some of the more serious issues that need to be resolved there (such as rubbish disposal - into the river is really not a viable option!). I also spent a fair amount of time helping out my new Belgian friend, Gert, with the lodge he's building. He grew up about half an hour from where I grew up. Him and Jason (Malay) are building a lodge in the hills opposite ours. It's beautiful and it was great every now and again to pop over there and help varnish, paint, plaster, whatever.

As before I also spent a lot of time out on the boat trips watching animals. I can now recognise most of the primates from a distance by the way they move, I've become much better at spotting birds and at least distinguishing their broad type (i.e. whether they're a hornbill, bird of prey, etc) and I'm slowly learning to recognise the specific species of bird by the way they fly and the sounds they make. Some of the highlights of the past two months:

• losing 3 of my 8 pairs of knickers when Ujy threw them out, thinking they had been left behind by a guest
• staff dinner with the head honchos and having the chance to really have it out with the big boss (diplomatically, of course!)
• having an entire T-shirt eaten by a rat living in my wall
• watching Nelson and his brothers catch a 9m python
• learning to drive the boats
• meeting Richard and Jo, English photographers and divers living in Kota Kinabalu who come to the lodge several times a year
• going to a restaurant and not speaking a word of English
• daytrip to Nelson's family's old lodge and the areas they used to take tourists
• being taken on a 'nightwalk' around the restaurant by a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, discovering insects and reptiles and rats
• nights out in karaoke clubs in Sandakan

There are just so many wonderful memories, as always.

In the lead up to Christmas, Gert and Jason (well, Jason cooked) laid on a beautiful, delicious meal as a thank you; Christmas eve was spent in Kota Kinabalu having turkey dinner with Richard and Jo. Christmas day itself was a quiet one on Pulau Labuan, an island off KK.

I had a wee shopping trip in Bangkok on the way home, enjoying the HUGE weekend market there at Chatuchak. I secured 2 (replica) Billabong surf shorts, 2 bikinis (that fit!) and a t-shirt for 660THB (that's about 10 GBP). I also stocked up on (pirated) DVDS - 10 films and 2 5-DVD series for 25 GBP. Excellent.

As you may know, about halfway through my stay in Borneo my camera was nicked, so I only have photos from the second month. Big shame, but never mind. At least I've got some! I'll start getting stuff uploaded to flickr over the next week.

I'd like to say a big thank you to my medical team, Dr Mizen and her assistants Miss K. Odds and Mr Deo Campo, for all their advice and support while I was in the jungle. Thanks to them my bladder and kidneys did not fail and the aliens have not eaten my foot (although they are still trying). Thank you, guys.

For now, it's NZ. A visit from mum and then a month later a visit from Kathy. Other than that, it's all a big unknown again.