Friday, March 09, 2007

Limeys, Brits and Poms [#20]

March - and the time I've spent in New Zealand stretches onwards. I've been here almost 10 months now. I've been through the excited new arrivals stage, post honeymoon-down to earth with a bump stage, a few hard times, finding my feet a bit and I'm still trying to find where I fit into this place. Making big decisions about the long term don't happen easily for me. It took 5 years to get to this point so I'm never going to make a quick decision about the next few years. But finding somewhere to belong is probably only something you can tell with hindsight. Unfortunately!
NZ is a colonnial country. It has only had settlers for about a thousand years when Pacific Islanders arrived, and 'western' citizens for just over two centuries. And most of the people you meet are recent additions. Naturally there are plenty of Brits here, which actually is something I quite like. - Parachuting into a distant land alone can be a bit daunting, so having people you identify with can be enormously helpful. I didn't come here to get away from Britain (like some people do!), it's a brilliant place. But I'm finding I need to keep good contact with it. I've met up with a few ex-pats and I'm finding it's helping. I'm also loving being able to listen to Radio 4 over the internet, watch football on the telly (well, there's hardly anything else worth watching) and most of all downloading comedy. Ah, comedy. One thing that the British do very well.

So, what else have I been up to?
Well, I mentioned in a previous post that I was delighted to climb back into some running shoes and join the gym to re-build my fitness. I'd only been running for about 5 weeks after a 9 month hiatus when I heard that there was a race on in Wellington. I hadn't raced for 18 months so I didn't have huge expectations. It was a sprint race - only 7km but I registered a day before and turned up and ran my best. Well, in actual fact I didn't do too badly - I ran 28 minutes 11 seconds and came 192nd out of 10,097 runners! Back in the UK I would never have come that far up the field with that time but I was reasonably happy. The dissappointing thing was that there was no race medal at the finish. Just a peanut bar and some water. A peanut bar! I don't run for peanuts you know. I want gold and glory. Monkeys run for peanuts, and although 'Colin the Monkey' is one of my nicknames, I have aspirations of being fully accepted one day as being one of the higher primates.

This evening I got back from work and found a bit of wildlife at home. A rather large stick insect. He was just waiting there to be photographed for my blog.



This is the creature giving me his predatory beady stare. He obviously thought he could take me on so leapt for my throat but I was able to fight him off using a bicycle pump as an improvised weapon. Alas he attacked me again, chewing off my left arm and leaving me with a bloody stump. I was fortunate to get away with my right arm - partly because this allowed me to continue taking photos of the beast.












Last month one of our house-mates - Alice had her birthday so we all went along to her party. This is a rare (possibly the only) occasion as all of the house-mates were together at the same time. It was jolly - and as you've probably guessed, an 'Alice in Wonderland' themed party.
Michelle, Shaun, Mathew, Alice, Paul and me!

Other stuff:
We've at last moved into our new work premises. Building/conversion work is still going on but all in all conditions are greatly improved. I don't have to unscrew my legs and leave them outside the front door anymore. (Apologies due here - I promised a cartoon in my last posting, I'll mobilise myself soon and finish it - promise). Halfway through the refit. Perry and Alan enjoying their daily ice-cream break!

My veggies have proven very productive since Christmas. I've enjoyed fresh lettuce every day, nasturtiums, herbs, swiss chard, rubbarb, sunflowers to make us happy and there's more coming through. All either sown from seed, or cuttings/junior plants picked up from random places. It may not be much - 7m x 1m, but it's better than nothing, and it was 2ft high weeds when I moved in so it looks nicer.You can see 'Sid', our next door neighbour's cat coming over to say hello to me. We get on very well. He's very friendly and I'm a sucker for a bit of unconditional affection! However he is cheeky. He knows which is my room and because it's been hotter recently I sleep with my window open. Well, several times I've woken up when he's come in to have a nose around and jumped up on my bed. The other night I woke up at 4am when he walked over my head! Gosh he's a shocker.

Kiwidiom
Week 6 : Pronunciation
As I include priceless treasures of New Zealand vernacular, I think it's about time I included a feature on pronunciation. What follows is a brief guide to the correct method of enunciation. I am sure you will find this helpful. Practice at home in your room and you will soon become fluent and I'm sure you will soon be able to understand any barman in Earls Court, London!
NZ-------------------UK
Pigs--------------Used for hanging out the washing
Pug---------------Large pink animal with a curly tale
Munner Stroney- Soup
Fear Hear--------Blonde
Iggs Ecktly-------Precisely
Bun Button-------Been bitten by an insect



posted by col @ 10:02 pm 0 comments