In Which Debbie cha-chas down to CHCH

 I seem to be covering parts of my holidays in reverse order. Very confusing.

In the ridiculously early parts of last Wednesday morning, Matt and I dragged ourselves out of bed, said goodbye to the cat* and headed off to Wellington Airport to go for a brief but fun-packed holiday to Christchurch.

I must note that due to my bad reactions to mornings I more stumbled along than cha-chaed, but I was cha-chaing on the inside. I like Christchurch - it is a very pretty city and Matt and I were going to visit his sister and her husband (Loo and Roo) and their house and cat. Woot for holidays.

Upon arrival in Christchurch we promptly found our transport and set about the business of finding breakfast. Christchurch city is quite civilised and tends not to bother being too busy at around 8am. We found the Yellow Rocket Bagel cafe next to the square and so we could eat deliciopus breakfast whilst watching the shops start to open and more and more people pass by as the city came to life. Yellow Rocket Bagel Cafe it an interesting eatery. You can pretty much get most different kinds of breakfasts provided you get it in, on or next to a bagel. I had my favourite banana, bacon and maple syrup on a french toasted bagel (very yummy) and Matt a a hearty serving of eggs, sausage and bacon decoratively arranged all over a bagel. The cappuccino was passable although the milk had been a little overheated. I would recommend their breakfasts to anyone provided they liked bagels.

As Christchurch is heavily populated with students, we noted that many of the book and gaming stores (which we eager to investigate) did not open until 10am. However, they were worth the wait and we spend a couple of very agreeable hours browsing around the shops before heading back to the Airport to pick up Matt's mum who was also heading to holiday in Christchurch.

We all met up with Loo and Roo at around lunchtime and after some brief refreshment and more shopping went to their nice home in New Brighton. A very nice house which has been fairly recently painted and spruced up a bit by its new owners. We had seen photos of its previous decor and it was cool to see how much of an improvement redecorating can make. It was kind of like watching one of those Hot Property type shows were they make-over the house, only without watching the painting or redecorating process. It made me eager to try and redecorate a place and make it look cool and trendy. This is a danger when I only see the awesome results, not the hours of work. Still the owning of and make-overising a house seems a drool-worthy prospect. Pretty houses...

We ate delicious Thai food from a place (cannot remember the name unfortunately) and later in the evening went out to Denny's (yet another distinctly Christchurchian experience for me) for yummy hot fudge sundaes and oreo milkshakes to celebrate Roo's birthday with family and youth group. It was a most enjoyable experience only slightly marred by...

Disturbing fishy behaviour. Whilst waiting for a table I was watching the fish tank. They had goldfish and googley eye fishes which seemed to be innocently swimming about in their tank. Unfortunately, one fat looking goldfish kept rising to the surface and seemed to be badly constipated. A smaller goldfish swam up close to the bigger fish and... For the sake of the gentle-minded or weak-stomached readers, I shall not divulge what happened next but needless to say had even the Marquis de Sade been observing those fish at Denny's he would have felt a little queasy. It took me a while to regain my appetite.

On our second day, we ventured off to the new art gallery after a fortifying breakfast. The Gallery was very interesting - it particularly stands out in design as a modern glass building contrasts quite nicely with the stately old buildings of Christchurch.

The older collections were stunning but modern installations were less than impressive. I started to believe I was one didn't like Modern Art, however there was one very evocative Prison themed installation that I thought was immensely cool. I realise I do like Modern Art just not bad Modern Art.

Anything where you have to read a page of commentary before you have any idea what is supposed to be about is probably not very good.

We then went to the Arts centre which I love and I bought entirely too much Fudge. Hmm, fudge.

After a delicious lunch (I had Spinach and Ricotta lasagne at Le Cafe which was fantastic) we did some more shopping and bowling. After a brief rest at home, we had some excellent food at San Pan restaurant (a great mix of Korean/Malysian/Thai food) and played a couple fo games of pool before heading back to the Airport at the end of Christchurch fun.

Unfortunately, the plane was delayed so we had one of those "waiting around at a crowded gate" airport experiences which did at least afford plenty of time to read.

The plane trip back was bumpy at best and there were a couple of "arrgh, the plane's dropping out of the sky and we're going to plunge to our deaths" moments. Although Matt claims it was not so bad. I seem to be getting more sensitive to turbulence as I get older. I used to love flying.

We arrived back in Wellington late that night. My Mum picked us up at the airport and the cat was pleased to see us when we returned.

All in all, an excellent trip. Much fun and delicious food, it was great getting to catch up with folks as well and see the place they live in and their lovely cute cat Simba.


* We went down to my parents' place with Austen (cat) on Tuesday so as to spend a night with the cat to help her adjust to her holiday. Austie dealt with her couple of days at her Grandparents' place with great equanimity** but was not particularly impressed by the car trip. She didn't mind being in her cat carrier but she was displeased with the moving car. Her complaints during the trip varied between plaintive meows and angry feline expletives directed at us whenever we went over a bump in the road. Matt did his best to go slowly and carefully over speed humps and around corners to avoid displeasing the cat further.

** She mostly slept, smooched my Mum and demanded food. On one occasion, whilst the dog was gone from the house, she ventured out of her upstairs quarters and explored a bit.

In which Debbie tries Cosplaying, has fun and wins pizey goodness

 Well, it has been a long time since my last post (due to much busy activity and not being near a computer rather than slackness I might add).

For the purposes of clarity and not losing any parts of my entries* I shall post a series a small vignette posts of my holidays thus far.

Armageddon.

On Sunday, I toddled off to Armageddon with Talula, Giffy and Puggle in our Teen Girl Squad** costumes. The idea was sheer genius - making costumes of 2D stick figures and alas I can take no credit for it. I think it was all the work of Giffy and Talula's wunderbrains (I think). As Matt and I are tremendous fans**** of all things StrongBad we were naturally keen.

The multi-talented Matt provided all the voices for our skit in his best StrongBad voice as well as drawing the Fashion magazine and the Princess logo on my dress.

There were many factors that made the whole Cosplaying a throughly enjoyable experience, I shall try to list them in no particular order:

1. The whole vibe in the Cosplaying room. Everyone was buzzing and it was wonderful to be in a room stuffed full of people looking happy and awesome in their costumes. People were taking each others pictures and the enthusiasm did not noticably seem to diminish despite the increasing hot and stuffiness of the room. Whenever people gather together with a shared interest or hobby it tends create an intoxicatingly exhilarating vibe. I was reminded of why I like conventions and similar things. Everyone can openly be rabidly enthusiastic and passionate about their favourite things and feed off other people's similarly radib enthusiasm which brings me onto...

2. People who recognised who we were and got excited. OK, it didn't happen very often but it was supremely gratifying when other Teen Girl Squad fans realised who we were and laughed/squealed/posed for a photo with us.

3. Performing the skit was SO GOOOD. I was a smidgen nervous before getting up on the stage (I was concerned that I might trip or fall or something) and it was heaps of fun once it started. People seemed to appreciate the humour and were laughing. I nearly cracked up a couple of times because the others were doing such a great job. Talula's gesturing as she talked to her imaginary boyfriend (Brett Bretterson) and Giffy and Puggle's dropping their heads in unison with the "That's true" line was perfect. Matt's voicing was excellent. I had been concerned that noone would be able to hear us (several of the prior skits had been hard to hear) but Matt was certainly audible, possibly bordering on the loud.

Well done, my fellow TGS performers and Matt, you guys were great.

4. The joy of hanging out with cool people and doing weird stuff! Yay, thanks Matt, Giffy, Talula, Puggle and the various partners/friends/flatmates who helped out with the costume preparation, rehearsing, giving us rides to and from Queen's Wharf and supporting us in a awesome craziness. It was most excellent fun to spend the hours involved in the company of cheerful and funny people. The laughing and joking made the whole experience fantastic. So much fun that I didn't even realise how exhausted I was until I got home.

5. Thanks to everyone who said nice stuff to us. May the beverages (caffeinated or otherwise) you order at cafes never be disappointing.

* Blogspot is a sometimes greedy beast known to swallow large chunks of blogging when one's post seems long and particularly delicious.

** Teen Girl Squad is a hilarious series of short cartoons by the infamous genius StrongBad. It follows the struggles*** of four teenage girls searching for their own identity, pan asian cusine and the endless pursuit of looking SO GOOOOD! You can watch them here.

*** Struggles include not infrequent deaths, falling down bottomless pits and being mauled by possoms.

**** We even bought the t-shirts (TGS, Trogdor and Stinko Man), and the StrongBadia keyring.

As Wheezy as a weasel

 Upon reflection, weasels probably don't wheeze that must. They look fairly sleek for the most part and are probably pretty fit. Unless they wheeze due to allergies. They are pretty close to the ground. They probably breathe in a lot of dust and whatnot. Although they almost certainly would have adapted and evolved with either longer legs or resilient lungs by now had allergies been a common problem for weasels since the dawn of time*.

Regardless of the biological accuracy of the simile, it is safe to infer from the title that I am wheezy.

I am wheezy. Still. Puffed. Huffed. Out of breath.

Why, one might very well want to inquire, am I so short of breath? The answer can be summed up in 5 words:

Teachers versus Students Indoor Soccer

We teachers put on a brave front but alas (for my part anyway) were too unfit and uncoordinated to stand much of a chance. (Although I must say a couple of the teachers seemed to be pretty capable). I was exhausted after about 5 minutes of running around and the younguns didn't seem remotely puffed.

The humilating thing is it wasn't even a student soccer team. It was just a bunch of Year 10 students from one fo my classes that wanted to play against their teachers. They bested us with their advanced run-around-and-not-get-exhausted young person skills.

I really must start exercising these holidays. I do not think that it is right to be quite so slobbishly unfit as I seem to be. Uh well. Maybe I challenge them to a teacher versus student spelling bee or scrabble game. I could probably win one of those. I've seen their spelling.

* "since the dawn of time" has recently become one of my favourite phrases. It comes from an amusing, although completely and utterly wrong, exam answer I had to mark a while ago. The students had to analyse a Cereal Ad for Hubbard's Good as Gold Cereal. There was a picture of Dick Hubbard's dog which was just there for the 'unexpected' humour value and to show what a nice family man Dick Hubbard is because he has a dog**. When answering the first question as to why the picture of Dick's dog was included in the ad, the student answer thusly:

"Since the dawn of time dog has been man's best friend. But now times have changed and cereal has replaced the dog as man's new best friend." (Note spelling errors have been corrected for the purposes of readability).

** Owning a dog does for a cereal magnate what kissing babies does for a politician. I wonder now if Hubbard will have to snog a pooch as part of his campaign for Mayor? Pretty terrifying prospect for the canine I should imagine.

Blargh - being sick is not fun!

 More a statement of the blindingly obvious than a title but my mind is not up to much. I am always reminded every time I get sick of how much I don't like being sick.

In theory being sick sounds agreeable enough - lots of time in bed, maybe a day or two off work and an excuse for guzzling soup and being slack with the housework.

Howver, the reality is far less enjoyable than I keep on hoping or imaging it to be. For starters as soon as I become sickish, I seem to lose the ability to sleep well. Regardless of how many hours I spend in bed, I generally wake up groggy and tired because the majority of the night was spent with me, coughing, being unable to breathe properly or get comfortable. I also have to drink heaps of water because of the dry mouth/throat factor. Then I get too hot and then too cold and so on and so on.

Anyway, I shall not go on in too much detail. I imagine everyone has had the flu before and knows what an incredibly unpleasant and irritating experience it is.

I shall survive*, no doubt, the next few days in a nurofen/lemsip/panadol with caffenine haze.

I've been told that worse things happen at sea, but I am not a sailor.

* I've looked for the tell-tale signs of bubonic plague such as purple/black pustules (or technically are they macules? Cannot remember...**) and currently seem to NOT have bubonic plague based on my findings. So that is good.

** Cannot remember learning about the plague in enough details to clearly state for certain on the macule/pustule issue. To clarify, I am not claiming to remember HAVING the plague or being present during the historical Black Death ***.

*** Although I have played the board game on several occasions.

Random Bad Haiku for a Sunny Day

 Sun shines welcome light

Nature basks in the warm glow
But I'm in the cold

Birds sing a sweet song
Delighting in their freedom
But I sigh at work

Clock, you are weary
Your pace slow and hands shakey
You care not for speed

Window, you gloater
You feel the touch of sunlight
Display outside's warmth

Wanton Watch, clock's child
You're both as bad as each other
Slow keepers of time

Come Lunch come, make haste
Hunger grows waiting for you
I want my sandwich

 Weekend - Hurrah, hooray!

It has been a long and arduous week, with episodes of beastly nastiness that upset me too much to even blog about (students can be evil, or at least the evil ones can be, and not in a cool or clever 'evil' villain type way, just in a 'we're going to be really unpleasant' way), and also the stress of sending my first ever senior classes off to exams. They grow up so fast! Or rather they don't but time marches on and events their require a tad more maturity occur whether they are ready or not.

Friday afternoon was the first year 11 English exam. I had graveyard shift (supervising the exam 3.30-5.30) and it was really more stressful than I remeber my own mid-year exams being.

All the students from all the year 11 classes were set up in the hall since 2.30pm for their first three hour exam. From the account I was given by the teachers who were in charge of setting up the exam, I'm glad I didn't have to be responsible for the start fo the exam. It seems a large number of students forgot to bring their own pens and struggled with the information of what was necessary to write on each page. Admittedly it is a little more confusing than it was in my day. With NCEA exams students have a separate question and answer booklet for each Achievement Standard (for level 1 English, 5 different standards are Externally assessed). This means they have to write their name, their teacher's code and the correct Achievement Standard 5-digit code on each answer page. Sorting this out was apparently very tricky. I am just proud that all my students made it to the right place on time with at least two pens!

Apparently most students had seen those bottled water commericals that claim the dehydration can cause memory loss and poor concentration because they were all slurping furiously on the bottle of Pump and H2GO. Why study when you can just drink bottled water and everything you covered in class will just flow back into your super-hydrated brain.

The only problem with the drinking water throughout their exam was the fact of what happens when you drink a large amount of water. Generally speaking in life, what goes in must come out again. Hydration may give you super mental powers but nowhere on the ads does it claim that it makes you impervious to the calls of nature. Whilst guzzling a 750ml bottle of water (or in the case of the students eager avoid any chance of dehydration, the 1 litre 'SUPERPUMP') may imbue your mind with super English skills, it will then proceed to make its way to your bladder.

Unfortunately, exam rules state that only one student may be escorted out of the hall to go to the bathroom at a time lest students communicated about the exam or traded answers or whatever. This meant that after the first hour there were many out of the 200 students in the hall who had to wait wriggling and uncomfortable several minutes. In fact I spent most of the time walking out students to the bathroom and then walking back in to tell the next one it was their turn.

It made the hours go by quickly for me, probably not so much for them.