Christmas is coming... and I couldn't wait

So last night in Waitrose I saw that they were selling little one size portion Xmas puddings - and they've got their special Waitrose Cointreau cream in the shops as well. So seeing as how I've been to my first Xmas party this week and have another one on Friday I just had to treat myself on the way home from work.

So now I've had my first Xmas pudding of the season as well!

eryn with mo

eryn with mo
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

eryn has been doing mo-vember and this is the proud result! I can't believe this picture... !!!

Jet-lagged life...

Coming to the end of my first week back at work - and boy what a week it has been. For the first time ever I've been suffering from quite bad jet lag. And it hasn't been much fun.

I landed back around 3pm on Sunday and lasted until around 8pm. Slept until 3am, woke up but managed to get back to sleep until about 6am. Monday I lasted until 10pm and again woke up about 3 times during the night. Tuesday I got about 3.5 hours sleep and had a particularly rubbish day at work on Wednesday! Last night I managed to sleep right through until 6.15am which was particularly exciting!! But I must admit I'm looking forward to the weekend!!

Killing time in Singapore

Right now I am stood at one of the free internet terminals at Gate F60, Terminal 2 of Changi Airport waiting to board my plane for the final (long) leg back to the UK.

Flight from Auckland to here was ok, but was longer than I was expecting. It is only 8 hours from Singapore to Auckland but the other way round is just over 10 hours. And I think the upcoming leg is also longer as well :-(.

I had a great time in NZ for the rest of my trip, and once I get back to London I'll upload my photos on to Flickr as well. Some of the highlights were:

• Spending lots of money on Icebreaker gear for walking (despite my family giving me grief as it is now made in China out of NZ materials - but I don't care cos it is very cool and very good for walking!).
• Going to the Great Britain/NZ rugby league test at the Cake Tin. And despite being pleased that NZ won I did find myself cheering for Great Britain quite a bit - after 10 years it is hard not to!
• Spending time with Anita and her two gorgeous wee boys.
• Experiencing the full range of weather in Wellington from gale force northerlies, to gusting southerlies and driving rain with sunny fine days in between!
• Catching up with my Uncle Harry and assorted whanau in Upper Hutt. Was fab to see him again.
• Chilling out in Taupo doing absolutely nothing - what a holiday is meant to be :-)
• Driving around Lake Taupo with Tracey - the first time ever for both of us, and some of the views from the western side of the lake were just stunning.

What I'm not happy about is not catching up with some of my friends - you know who you are and I feel crap about it. But the 3 weeks felt like a marathon sprint around the country and when I wasn't doing anything I tended to collapse in a heap and savour the brief time I had to myself. I will of course be writing grovelly letters (yes real letters!) as penance shortly...

These internet sessions are limited to 15 mins and I'm down to less than 5 and there are people waiting so I think I'll give someone else a go. I'm so not looking forward to this flight...

When in Wellington...

One does the Wellington things. Namely...

• Drink delicious latte coffee (from Midnight Espresso)
• Buy cool clothes from funky clothes shops on Cuba Street
• Have a delish lunch at the Lido (corn fritters - yum!)
• Have a lovely hot chocolate complete with marshmallows from Clarks, the cafe at the Wellington Public Library
• Wander around Civic Square, marvelling again at how cool it is (even tho the scenic picture is ruined by marquees in place for something)

Optional Extras

• Bump into old flatmate on Cuba Street, last seen about 7 years ago in a pub in London...
• Salivate over all the outdoor clothing shops to explore... (well ok, that is probably just me...)
• Make appointment to get hair cut at old fave salon, Grace
• Get worried in internet cafe when random links to soft porn sites appear on blog. Thankfully later realise that it was a virus the PC had, not someone hacking into my literary creations (as I'm in a different cafe and it seems to be ok...)

Blogging from the Southern Hemisphere

Yep - still here, and got to NZ safely. This is just the first chance I've had to update my blog! So read on below for highlights of my first week back in Aotearoa...

Me with touristy view of Auckland in background...

Me with touristy view of Auckland in background...
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

This was taken at Ladies Bay - not an area I knew when I lived in Auckland but Eryn and I were scoping out his next half marathon. Needless to say the houses were very posh up here!!

Animals, athletes and fireworks...

Continuing on my world tour of NZ, I headed down to Whakatane (closest airport to Opotiki) to spend time with Leigh and the Abraham whanau. But prior to that we had some time to kill so Eryn, Alex and I went to the Auckland Zoo. Which was pretty good - I saw some very active Kiwis and some tuatara and on the whole it looked alright. The saddest bit was the Meerkats who were really obviously trying to get out of their (rather tatty) pen. That made me feel a bit yuk.

Then it was down to Opotiki where I arrived in time for the prize giving for the mountain bike race that Leigh and Maurie had just completed. 45kms for Leigh, more for Maurie (but I'm not sure what) and as everyone got a spot prize everyone seemed to come away happy!

Bar-b-q and fireworks in the evening - some quite spectacular ones, but I'm sure they lasted longer when I was a kid!! Highlight was possibly Lucy and I lighting incense sticks and wondering why they weren't sparkling...

The lesser spotted Alex-osaurus snapped at the Auckland Zoo

The lesser spotted Alex-osaurus snapped at the Auckland Zoo
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Beautiful fab Piha

While Eryn and Jacqui were at work and Alex was at school I took myself off for a walk along the beach at Piha. I love having family who live out there - there is nothing more grounding or anything that makes you feel more than a million miles away from London than walking on the beach. It is one of my fave places in NZ (next to Taupo and the beach at Tirohanga by Leigh's place) and I spent a great couple of hours down there.

Also managing to get my face sunburnt as my moisturiser didn't have sunscreen in it... Alex spent the next couple of days saying to me 'Boy your nose is red Megan...'

In the evening we went out for dinner to celebrate Eryn's actual birthday to Yaruki, a lovely Japanese restaurant in Henderson with friends of Eryn's - Paula and Graeme. I first met Graeme in 1998 which made me feel very old!

Eryn's 40th dinner - Yaruki Restaurant

Eryn's 40th dinner - Yaruki Restaurant
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Piha - looking towards North Piha, water reflections

Piha - looking towards North Piha, water reflections
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.

Suprise!!

I travelled up to Auckland on 3rd November and met up with Jacqui at her work in the evening. We got back to Eryn's place around 10pm-ish and as I waited outside the bathroom while he was brushing his teeth. His face was priceless as he opened the door, expecting Jacqui to be there. He just stood and stared at me and the first thing that came out of his mouth was 'Who are you'. Watching him try to compute that I was standing in front of him made the effort of keeping it a suprise worth it - absolutely fantastic!!

Taupo - the first time round

Had a good couple of days chilling out with my Mum and my sister in Taupo. The jetlag wasn't really in evidence although I did start to get very tired around 8.30 every evening - even fell asleep in front of the tele one night! Spent my time catching up, and walking the dog Honey with Tracey in the afternoons - too lazy to get up for the morning walks!

The long haul...

As always, being the paranoid traveller that I am, I got to the airport in LOADS of time for my flight. But all good! Both legs were very full - I don't think there were any spare seats on the first leg, and I'm not sure I saw any on the second either.

I had about 7 hours in Singapore between flights, and I was going to do a 2 hour bus trip around the island, but I couldn't get on the one I thought was more interesting, and then it occurred to me that sitting down for another 2 hours just before my second flight wasn't such an appealing idea so I flagged it. I did a lot of exploring of Singapore's fab airport and then found these reclining loungers by one of the departure gates so had a wee snooze there for 45 mins or so. Very civilised!

My brother and I managed to have a wee mix up over my arrival time so I had another 1.5 hours of hanging around at Auckland aiport when I arrived just to add to my overall total of time spent in airports - around 10 hours I think...

Correction!!

Eryn's time was in fact 1:54.39. Sorry bro!! I added on a minute - and I know that makes a difference when you are a runner!

Belated congrats to my almost 40 year old brother!

Eryn did his half marathon a couple of weeks ago and did 1:55:36 which is pretty damn good! If I've read the results right he came 113 out of 270. Not bad for someone who is less than two weeks shy of 40...!!

Goodnight Kiwi

This is just fantastic! NZ friend at work sent it to the Kiwi contingent and I just thought it was fab. I used to love this and I've told Kevin about it so many times - now I can show it to him! Hopefully this link will work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H2BOGGUbm4

Raconteurs

I went to see The Raconteurs at Brixton Academy with Mhairi, and met Cobie (work mate) and her flatmate there as well. They were supported by a band called BigBang - who I've just realised have an entry on Wikipedia - check it out here. I also saw them described as the Norwegian Pink Floyd and they were just dire. And in a reference for family readers - the drummer looked like how I remember Kerry Bingham looking - long blonde hair and a blonde beard as well. Dreadful!

Fortunately The Raconteurs were superb so they made up for it :-).

Interesting article on the language debate currently ranging in Dingle - or should that be An Daingean?? Check it out here.

Dingle is where we went walking in Ireland earlier this year...