Hey guys, just to say I have heaps of new pics and stories.. I'm having so much fun.. I keep thinking wow.. you don't get many days this good in your life.. then they keep on coming! However, no time to post any tales right now, I've been living in the bush for weeks and I'm headed back into a Valley we are occupying to stop a coal mine in a few hours.. I promise I will when I'm reunited with my laptop in a couple of weeks. There are more details of the campaign a few posts & pics from me here:
www.savehappyvalley.org.nz/blog
x
05 February 2006
16 January 2006
Adventures on the south island..
Kia ora te whanau, I'm still not convinced about this blogging lark.. now I've been having lots of adventures I've not really had the time or access to talk about it! ...a big sorry I'm being so rubbish at communicating, I had no credit on my phone for 3 weeks (& no shops!) I'm not getting much on-line access and I've a lot of campaigning/acitvisty work & logistics type stuff on which I have to see too before I can reply to whanau.
But heres a bit of a ramble about the last month.. hopefully some of the pics will speak for them selves, theres two now albums on flickr.. 'bush' and 'tramp' (kiwi term for a several day walking mission) theres links to individually mentioned pics.. or the whole albums.
Bush & Tramp
So it started with a plan.. We drew a map of the top of the south island on the whiteboard with the dates and location of everyone we would like to meet and everywhere we'd like to go and 'there be dragons' and things like that.. of course the adventure didn't quite end up as we planned..
Em, Nomis & I (friends from wellington) started off from wellington on my favorite ferry ride in the world to the south island.. getting in very late so being the brigands of the high seas we are, we bedded down in the brig of a pirate ship for the night. Which was under a big wooden ship-shaped climbing frame in the park in Picton..
THE DEEP
We then hitched to Pelorus Bridge, an amazing (if over touristy) part of a clear cool river with impossibility vast deep pools.
Being the budget mission we were (and hating camp sites) we found a magic spot hidden in the bush under Ponga tree ferns, Beech and larger canopy trees where we wouldn't get spotted by anyone after camp fees.
We met up with an cool American EF! activist/botanist and all spend a few days here swimming, eating, swimming, walking, swimming, sleeping out under the stars, comparing cultures and activist scenes & slang around the world and learning heaps about the plants from Em our native plant expert.
INJURED!!
I bashed my knee swimming, and I didn't think much of it at the time.. ouch maybe, and ohh its bleeding a tiny bit.. and got on the to task in hand for the next two days of swimming, walking, lazing about in the bush, exploring waterfalls and more swimming in the deep, deep clear pools..
Two days on and I'd already been for my pre-breakfast swim and suddenly my knee was like a balloon and weird squeeky feeling when I moved it, so it was quickly into R.I.C.E. action (Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation) to fix it so we could go tramping. No an easy thing when you are living in the bush and hitching..although I'm sure hitching with a stick, bandages knee and ice-pack gets more rides!
So.. on the road again and as out last civilization stop of a week we got in supplies, had some rather dysfunction multi hitching communications problems, camped up hiding down a river.. But it all ended well and we all eventually got to a place caled Marahau for the new year which is the stunning start of the Able Tasmen national park with many stunning beaches and surrounded 360 by hills. Check out the pics here and the next few pics.
Have leeks, will travel : 'pack'
We finally get ourselves together on new years day we then hitch over the mountains to get to the start of out tramp into the wilderness.. the last ride, who was quite randomly was someone my friends know from wellington, who was looking for somewhere to park her van for the night, so we persuade her to come with us to a little free camping spot a little ways down the valley Em knew where we want to start our tramp from.
As we pull into the lay-by there a strange sign and ballons attached to a post 'disgraceland - phy-trance retirement village'.. “oh there seems to be hippies here..” “is that a teepee?” “is that Sarah?” and ended up at an party in the woods with 2 sound systems and random friends from all over.. luckily there was also a drum & bass sound system! All very surreal and very New Zealand!
So realising the road end was 38ks down the valley, and in the rain no traffic (opps!), we persuade a random friend of a friend at the party called 'hobbit' to drive us 30ks down the valley and up over the hydro station (the track started down in the mist by the reservoir at the end of this valley). So after a last swim in the heat them came winding along and unsealed road through the bush with 6 hippies, 2 crosses and a Jack Russel!
WINTER
We set of up into the mountain in the wind and the rain.. there are no pictures of the next part of our journey as the weather was so wild.. we climbed for a couple of hours then passed Lake Peel, which was more in the air than in the lake, then across the ridge where we all got blown over several times.. the gusts would come and I'd anchor myself with my feet and the walking poles and big pack against the wind and it was still impossible to keep standing. Then the biting hail started....Never been so glad to reach a mountain hut!
The weather stayed largely pants so we didn't walk far, just a couple of hours a day one night sleeping in a very pre-historic rock bivi at 1000m, with a not very warm fire. Very Cool. It looked very much like the one used in the Fellowship of the ring for Wethertop.
After a cold, cold night was woken to what looked like someone taking a photo then the world went BOOM!!! and we were in the middle of a huge thunder cloud. I've never heard thunder roll around for so long and so loud. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM, ROOOOOOOOM, UUUOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM UUUUUUUHHHHHHH UUUUMMMMMMM.
The weather finally cleared and we tried for an accent of MtArthur.. but the weather came in and we were up on the ridge
in driving horizontal snow!
We got sooooo wet.
At the road on the other side of the range we got cell signal and I texted a friend who lives in the area(ish!) to see if we could stay we started walking down the valley and an hour or so into walking down the road to civilisation and she came an picked us up and took us to a land of sunshine, beds, fruit trees and showers! Ahhhhh.
I'm now in Cristchurch a new land of meetings, organising, saunas, banner making , t-shirt printing and surfing.
Yes surfing! before you get to excited with the image of me in a tight wet suit long hair straggly with salt around my shoulders and surfboard under my arm (although the were was probably a few moments like that) . I have to tell you the first time I went out in the wet suit i managed to put it on both inside out and backwards.. as as for actually catching waves.. hmmm well thats another story.
Well theres loads more tales to tell.. thats just a taste of the last month... please keep mailing me your news – even if I'm poo at responding, I appreciate it heaps.
arohanui xx
But heres a bit of a ramble about the last month.. hopefully some of the pics will speak for them selves, theres two now albums on flickr.. 'bush' and 'tramp' (kiwi term for a several day walking mission) theres links to individually mentioned pics.. or the whole albums.
Bush & Tramp
So it started with a plan.. We drew a map of the top of the south island on the whiteboard with the dates and location of everyone we would like to meet and everywhere we'd like to go and 'there be dragons' and things like that.. of course the adventure didn't quite end up as we planned..
Em, Nomis & I (friends from wellington) started off from wellington on my favorite ferry ride in the world to the south island.. getting in very late so being the brigands of the high seas we are, we bedded down in the brig of a pirate ship for the night. Which was under a big wooden ship-shaped climbing frame in the park in Picton..
THE DEEP
We then hitched to Pelorus Bridge, an amazing (if over touristy) part of a clear cool river with impossibility vast deep pools.
Being the budget mission we were (and hating camp sites) we found a magic spot hidden in the bush under Ponga tree ferns, Beech and larger canopy trees where we wouldn't get spotted by anyone after camp fees.
We met up with an cool American EF! activist/botanist and all spend a few days here swimming, eating, swimming, walking, swimming, sleeping out under the stars, comparing cultures and activist scenes & slang around the world and learning heaps about the plants from Em our native plant expert.
INJURED!!
I bashed my knee swimming, and I didn't think much of it at the time.. ouch maybe, and ohh its bleeding a tiny bit.. and got on the to task in hand for the next two days of swimming, walking, lazing about in the bush, exploring waterfalls and more swimming in the deep, deep clear pools..
Two days on and I'd already been for my pre-breakfast swim and suddenly my knee was like a balloon and weird squeeky feeling when I moved it, so it was quickly into R.I.C.E. action (Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation) to fix it so we could go tramping. No an easy thing when you are living in the bush and hitching..although I'm sure hitching with a stick, bandages knee and ice-pack gets more rides!
So.. on the road again and as out last civilization stop of a week we got in supplies, had some rather dysfunction multi hitching communications problems, camped up hiding down a river.. But it all ended well and we all eventually got to a place caled Marahau for the new year which is the stunning start of the Able Tasmen national park with many stunning beaches and surrounded 360 by hills. Check out the pics here and the next few pics.
Have leeks, will travel : 'pack'
We finally get ourselves together on new years day we then hitch over the mountains to get to the start of out tramp into the wilderness.. the last ride, who was quite randomly was someone my friends know from wellington, who was looking for somewhere to park her van for the night, so we persuade her to come with us to a little free camping spot a little ways down the valley Em knew where we want to start our tramp from.
As we pull into the lay-by there a strange sign and ballons attached to a post 'disgraceland - phy-trance retirement village'.. “oh there seems to be hippies here..” “is that a teepee?” “is that Sarah?” and ended up at an party in the woods with 2 sound systems and random friends from all over.. luckily there was also a drum & bass sound system! All very surreal and very New Zealand!
So realising the road end was 38ks down the valley, and in the rain no traffic (opps!), we persuade a random friend of a friend at the party called 'hobbit' to drive us 30ks down the valley and up over the hydro station (the track started down in the mist by the reservoir at the end of this valley). So after a last swim in the heat them came winding along and unsealed road through the bush with 6 hippies, 2 crosses and a Jack Russel!
WINTER
We set of up into the mountain in the wind and the rain.. there are no pictures of the next part of our journey as the weather was so wild.. we climbed for a couple of hours then passed Lake Peel, which was more in the air than in the lake, then across the ridge where we all got blown over several times.. the gusts would come and I'd anchor myself with my feet and the walking poles and big pack against the wind and it was still impossible to keep standing. Then the biting hail started....Never been so glad to reach a mountain hut!
The weather stayed largely pants so we didn't walk far, just a couple of hours a day one night sleeping in a very pre-historic rock bivi at 1000m, with a not very warm fire. Very Cool. It looked very much like the one used in the Fellowship of the ring for Wethertop.
After a cold, cold night was woken to what looked like someone taking a photo then the world went BOOM!!! and we were in the middle of a huge thunder cloud. I've never heard thunder roll around for so long and so loud. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM, ROOOOOOOOM, UUUOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM UUUUUUUHHHHHHH UUUUMMMMMMM.
The weather finally cleared and we tried for an accent of MtArthur.. but the weather came in and we were up on the ridge
in driving horizontal snow!
We got sooooo wet.
At the road on the other side of the range we got cell signal and I texted a friend who lives in the area(ish!) to see if we could stay we started walking down the valley and an hour or so into walking down the road to civilisation and she came an picked us up and took us to a land of sunshine, beds, fruit trees and showers! Ahhhhh.
I'm now in Cristchurch a new land of meetings, organising, saunas, banner making , t-shirt printing and surfing.
Yes surfing! before you get to excited with the image of me in a tight wet suit long hair straggly with salt around my shoulders and surfboard under my arm (although the were was probably a few moments like that) . I have to tell you the first time I went out in the wet suit i managed to put it on both inside out and backwards.. as as for actually catching waves.. hmmm well thats another story.
Well theres loads more tales to tell.. thats just a taste of the last month... please keep mailing me your news – even if I'm poo at responding, I appreciate it heaps.
arohanui xx
14 December 2005
Climate Indymedia
Hey so I thought I'd tell ya'll about my latest project...
I somehow got drawn into taking on a big role on putting together an IMC.
IMCs are 'Independant Media Centres' - "A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues." Most of them are local based websites where anyone can post news stories. For instance there are sites for Cites all over the UK, then National UK Site, then IMC World. They are structures like this all over the planet.
The project I have been involved in is a Global Climate focused indymedia.
Its been pretty cool working with people all over the planet.. sometimes having meetings over the internet, with people you have never met, at strange times of the day & night. We found that the universal language of The Simpsons prevails! My main input has been the design, content management, hitting people with virtual sticks, and learning some of the coding to get it online..
Things have been going pretty well, we are now getting many submissions from all over the world. There is still a lot of tecnical work to do, but its a good start.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Climate Indymedia Is Born
A global group of climate and media activists are establishing a topical indymedia site on climate issues. We are concerned that news reporting on climate issues too often is biased against local communties solutions and the concerns of local communities to government and industry are not being heard. We hope to provide a place for a range of news and views on climate issues to have a voice.
Our site is supported by members of many grass roots environmental, social, climate and alternative media organisations. We hope that you will take advantage of our site to post your stories so that people globally can access of the views of the majority world on this important issue.
You can post on our site by visiting:
http://www.climateimc.org or emailing it to us at imc-climate-organising [at] indymedia.org.au
For information about our project and how we are organsied you can visit our documentation site at
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcClimate
If you're really keen to get involved in this project you might like to join our mailing list at:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-climate-organising
The IMC-Climate Collective
www.climateimc.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I somehow got drawn into taking on a big role on putting together an IMC.
IMCs are 'Independant Media Centres' - "A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues." Most of them are local based websites where anyone can post news stories. For instance there are sites for Cites all over the UK, then National UK Site, then IMC World. They are structures like this all over the planet.
The project I have been involved in is a Global Climate focused indymedia.
Its been pretty cool working with people all over the planet.. sometimes having meetings over the internet, with people you have never met, at strange times of the day & night. We found that the universal language of The Simpsons prevails! My main input has been the design, content management, hitting people with virtual sticks, and learning some of the coding to get it online..
Things have been going pretty well, we are now getting many submissions from all over the world. There is still a lot of tecnical work to do, but its a good start.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Climate Indymedia Is Born
A global group of climate and media activists are establishing a topical indymedia site on climate issues. We are concerned that news reporting on climate issues too often is biased against local communties solutions and the concerns of local communities to government and industry are not being heard. We hope to provide a place for a range of news and views on climate issues to have a voice.
Our site is supported by members of many grass roots environmental, social, climate and alternative media organisations. We hope that you will take advantage of our site to post your stories so that people globally can access of the views of the majority world on this important issue.
You can post on our site by visiting:
http://www.climateimc.org or emailing it to us at imc-climate-organising [at] indymedia.org.au
For information about our project and how we are organsied you can visit our documentation site at
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcClimate
If you're really keen to get involved in this project you might like to join our mailing list at:
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-climate-organising
The IMC-Climate Collective
www.climateimc.org
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
13 December 2005
Bypassed
When I had to leave NZ in such a hurry last year I was in Wellington.
It was the final few weeks before work started on an inner city bypass the local community had been campaigning against for about 10 years. The Bypass is very close to the hearts of many there as many people I know live in the nehibourhood the bypass is to cut through to make it quicker to get into the city. Tensions and preparations were escalating towards the first big demolitions of houses. The local activists were training, organising and there were actions planned I have roles in.. the atmosphere was tense but electric.
And so suddenly, unexpectedly, I was on the other side of the world and in my first few weeks back in the UK I followed the events unfold on TVNZ, Indymedia and text messages from friends "I'm locked on to a digger!", "I'm barricaded into a building they are demolishing!!".
But time went on, most people were arrested, trespassed of the bypass route, the battle has been lost and big parts of the the neiborhood have been trashed.
So it is with mixed feeling I return to Wellington, I am really stoked see so many friends again, but where I am staying is an activist house and community centre right on the route, all the houses are around have been demolished and moved and to really drive it home where there was once homes there is now a two story mound of earth next door.
Its really sad to see posters up for saving community gardens spaces that are now is piles of gravel and mud.
I hear many of the activists here have one by one had their dark times, and depressions, and dissapeaerd form the scene for huge chunks of time. And now the destruction continues around. It made me think of the campaigns I have been involved in and how I don't have to spend much time around the spaces that have been destroyed, and daily face the defeat and in the wrecked places I have tried to save.
So I want to say a big ups to the wellington crew for all their energy and staying strong and continuing to fight environmental and social destruction while they live with this.
with love x
It was the final few weeks before work started on an inner city bypass the local community had been campaigning against for about 10 years. The Bypass is very close to the hearts of many there as many people I know live in the nehibourhood the bypass is to cut through to make it quicker to get into the city. Tensions and preparations were escalating towards the first big demolitions of houses. The local activists were training, organising and there were actions planned I have roles in.. the atmosphere was tense but electric.
And so suddenly, unexpectedly, I was on the other side of the world and in my first few weeks back in the UK I followed the events unfold on TVNZ, Indymedia and text messages from friends "I'm locked on to a digger!", "I'm barricaded into a building they are demolishing!!".
But time went on, most people were arrested, trespassed of the bypass route, the battle has been lost and big parts of the the neiborhood have been trashed.So it is with mixed feeling I return to Wellington, I am really stoked see so many friends again, but where I am staying is an activist house and community centre right on the route, all the houses are around have been demolished and moved and to really drive it home where there was once homes there is now a two story mound of earth next door.
Its really sad to see posters up for saving community gardens spaces that are now is piles of gravel and mud.
I hear many of the activists here have one by one had their dark times, and depressions, and dissapeaerd form the scene for huge chunks of time. And now the destruction continues around. It made me think of the campaigns I have been involved in and how I don't have to spend much time around the spaces that have been destroyed, and daily face the defeat and in the wrecked places I have tried to save.
So I want to say a big ups to the wellington crew for all their energy and staying strong and continuing to fight environmental and social destruction while they live with this.
with love x
20 November 2005
Hitting the Hight Street..
I don't usually go on about shopping. I dont usually do much clothes shopping outside the charity shops.
Avid followers of my blog will be aware that I'm having a little trouble in the footwear department due to cycling all these steep hills and dodgy breaks.. and now they are definitely on their last legs... So to continue with my consumer thread.. and also I know some of you cant sleep at night worrying over my ever thinning footwear, I have an update on my old converse situation.
So I've just got some shiny new No Sweat fair trade baseball boots. They are made in a factry in Jakarta and there is a card with a breakdown of worker hours (40) pay & benefits. I can now steap in little puddles without getting wet feet and know some poor sole is not living as a barley paid abused slave for the likes of nike (who own converse) to make them for me.
Oh, there there were complaints about not enough pics of me (ta for missing me ;-)
And not enough pics of my tan in that one..
So I've only a week or so of being online lots.. then hopefully I'm hitting the hills (well the volcanos & mountains!)..
Avid followers of my blog will be aware that I'm having a little trouble in the footwear department due to cycling all these steep hills and dodgy breaks.. and now they are definitely on their last legs... So to continue with my consumer thread.. and also I know some of you cant sleep at night worrying over my ever thinning footwear, I have an update on my old converse situation. So I've just got some shiny new No Sweat fair trade baseball boots. They are made in a factry in Jakarta and there is a card with a breakdown of worker hours (40) pay & benefits. I can now steap in little puddles without getting wet feet and know some poor sole is not living as a barley paid abused slave for the likes of nike (who own converse) to make them for me.
Oh, there there were complaints about not enough pics of me (ta for missing me ;-)And not enough pics of my tan in that one..
So I've only a week or so of being online lots.. then hopefully I'm hitting the hills (well the volcanos & mountains!)..
17 November 2005
Scummy Skipper / Dirty Dumpster Diver
skip (CONTAINER) UK
noun [C] (US TRADEMARK Dumpster)
a container designed to receive and transport and dump waste
Synonyms: ashcan, circular file, dustbin, garbage pail, trash basket, trash can, waste basket, wastebin, wastepaper basket, compost heap, garbage bag, litter basket, skip, trash bag, wastebasket, wastebin, wastepaper basket
I got that look again today. That disgusted horrified look. "Ohh! thats dirty" .
I told someone that sometimes I eat from skips.
If your not familiar with the practice of dumpster diving reading this you might to still be in that horrified stage - posibilly picturing me fighting with rats for that half eaten meals... but next time someone in Leeds makes you roast asparagus with fresh basil pesto and home made guacamole.. or in wellington fresh kumara soup and toasted onion bagels.. wonder where the ingredients came from.
You can get all sorts from skips & bin. Clothes, furniture, kitchenware.. well anything and everything. But why I especially like dumpster diving food is because it used to make me so mad to see what's in there. (Ok it still does but hey somthings its hard to be horrified when your faced with nice big punnets of blueberries & strawberries or a gialnt box of shitake mushrooms).
As an example the Leeds 'magic skip' its a veg wholesaler which means as it has to go on to other places stuff would be thrown away before it turned. Most of it is packaged up so its not even slightly gross. And things like Oranges & Bananas have their own skins. So.. I'd read the boxes & packets and they'd be from Brazil.... Zimbabwe... New Zealand.... All over. Somebody grows this food, and is probably underpaid for it, then we put it on a plane pumping out heaps of carbon dioxide so we could eat things out of season, and then while most of it was still perfect to eat - maybe a moldy orange or soggy mushroom, in a pack of totally good ones - we chuck it away to fester in a landfill where is can leach out methane and add more greenhouse gasses to our out of control climate. Thats disgusting. Thats horrifying.
So I'm dirty? Redifine dirty.. whats really dirty is what we leave behind.. the chemicals we put down our sink and over our houses & gardens, the carbon and toxins we pump into the atmosphere, the feces we flush down the loo into the watercourses & sea, the plasitc we throw away and the veg we dump in landfills adding to the climate chaos. This dirt will be around for a long time, it will outlive us. Our kids and grandkids can clean up our dirt.
And they call me dirty for recycling perfectly good food.
So I skip to reduce my carbon footprint, to live cheaply and cos its fun! The magic skip in Leeds was like the local shop.. you'd meet friends there as you perused the selection. Wellington has a cake skip... Fresh bread, donuts, almond croissants, pecan pie, chocolate cake.. hmm am I even beggining to tempt you?
If your all really good and post nice comments I'll tell you the story about how I got half of Christchurch police after me for dumpstering..
--
i just found a whole directory on yahoo on Dumpster DIving.. its under Hobbies?!
If you missed that link before this is really good carbon footprint calculator.
noun [C] (US TRADEMARK Dumpster)
a container designed to receive and transport and dump waste
Synonyms: ashcan, circular file, dustbin, garbage pail, trash basket, trash can, waste basket, wastebin, wastepaper basket, compost heap, garbage bag, litter basket, skip, trash bag, wastebasket, wastebin, wastepaper basket
I got that look again today. That disgusted horrified look. "Ohh! thats dirty" .
I told someone that sometimes I eat from skips.
If your not familiar with the practice of dumpster diving reading this you might to still be in that horrified stage - posibilly picturing me fighting with rats for that half eaten meals... but next time someone in Leeds makes you roast asparagus with fresh basil pesto and home made guacamole.. or in wellington fresh kumara soup and toasted onion bagels.. wonder where the ingredients came from.You can get all sorts from skips & bin. Clothes, furniture, kitchenware.. well anything and everything. But why I especially like dumpster diving food is because it used to make me so mad to see what's in there. (Ok it still does but hey somthings its hard to be horrified when your faced with nice big punnets of blueberries & strawberries or a gialnt box of shitake mushrooms).
As an example the Leeds 'magic skip' its a veg wholesaler which means as it has to go on to other places stuff would be thrown away before it turned. Most of it is packaged up so its not even slightly gross. And things like Oranges & Bananas have their own skins. So.. I'd read the boxes & packets and they'd be from Brazil.... Zimbabwe... New Zealand.... All over. Somebody grows this food, and is probably underpaid for it, then we put it on a plane pumping out heaps of carbon dioxide so we could eat things out of season, and then while most of it was still perfect to eat - maybe a moldy orange or soggy mushroom, in a pack of totally good ones - we chuck it away to fester in a landfill where is can leach out methane and add more greenhouse gasses to our out of control climate. Thats disgusting. Thats horrifying.
So I'm dirty? Redifine dirty.. whats really dirty is what we leave behind.. the chemicals we put down our sink and over our houses & gardens, the carbon and toxins we pump into the atmosphere, the feces we flush down the loo into the watercourses & sea, the plasitc we throw away and the veg we dump in landfills adding to the climate chaos. This dirt will be around for a long time, it will outlive us. Our kids and grandkids can clean up our dirt.
And they call me dirty for recycling perfectly good food.
So I skip to reduce my carbon footprint, to live cheaply and cos its fun! The magic skip in Leeds was like the local shop.. you'd meet friends there as you perused the selection. Wellington has a cake skip... Fresh bread, donuts, almond croissants, pecan pie, chocolate cake.. hmm am I even beggining to tempt you?
If your all really good and post nice comments I'll tell you the story about how I got half of Christchurch police after me for dumpstering..
--
i just found a whole directory on yahoo on Dumpster DIving.. its under Hobbies?!
If you missed that link before this is really good carbon footprint calculator.
10 November 2005
The Macadimia nut dance...
I've finally given up trying different routes to cycle to work.. it was becoming frustratingly comical as I'd look at the map and find ''direct' looking routes across town then try them out and find mysef on a roller-coaster of impossible hills you have to push your bike up and that I diddnt dare cycle down with my dodgy breaks.. If these hills were in the UK they would have a cliff lift up them I've nearly worn through my shoes slowing my self down!
However - I was drawn on by the belief that if I looked hard enough I'd find an MC Echer route that would mean I could go downhill all the way... there and back.. but sadly no avail. Looks like I can't beat physics..
When I'm feeling uber fit I go the the 'Rocky route' which involves finding the biggest steepeds hill and pushing my bike up it, in the hope the rest of the way will be downhill (which as the name sugests is Rocky's cycling strategy) It kinda works...
I seem to be reverting to my NZ shape pretty quickly.. might need some bigger trousers but ohh blimey.. cold pressed macadima paste mmmm like better then marzipan, and no sugar ,I could eat a kilo a night ..
So not much going on right now.. seems a bit topsy-turvy having had the most crazy 6 months ever doing lots of insanely exciting things... and now I'm not up to much for a couple of months i write a blog! Ahh but lots of you are a long way away.. so i suppose that the point. The last few months in England/Scotland/Ireland/Wales&Spain will have to wait for my memoirs.. (wondering how many people are now wondering exactly how to bump me off!)
I've got a new room with a deck outside dieactly opposite the flashing 'Samsung Mobike Phone' sign.. but soon I hope to come home on a balmy evening and sip G&T's on my deck as the sun goes down (or at least roobois tea). You'd think I'd know better than to hang out on decks after that party though!
My flatmates are ace and theres aways something going on and people to hang out with. The include these guys. Eabha is one and a half and every night I come home she rushes over to put my cycle helmet on, shes dead cute. The local Food not Bombs runs from our place and a heap of assorted meetings and discussions are going on in the living room most nights.
There was an Auckland 'Women Take back the Night' which was fun, after we took the road for a while the (male) cops showed up sirens a blaring and not a single one of us even acknowledged their arrival..
Oh yeah.. I'm not compleatly kicking my heals.. very busy setting up Indymedia climate soon to be at climate.indymedia.org we hope!
So I'll leave you with a word from Mr Bert and his moist throat:
Oh I love chinese supermarkets!
xx
ps. and I'll put some new pics on flicker soon, from before my bag got nicked, theres been a delay as to add to my fun my laptop is very poorly.. she must have heard me say too many times "but at least Priss [my laptop] diddn't get stolen!
But to be going with, if you havent already seen them, are some pics from Stirling, Mayo and Escanda (spain) and the best of pics of the world from my travels. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookielovescake/
However - I was drawn on by the belief that if I looked hard enough I'd find an MC Echer route that would mean I could go downhill all the way... there and back.. but sadly no avail. Looks like I can't beat physics..
When I'm feeling uber fit I go the the 'Rocky route' which involves finding the biggest steepeds hill and pushing my bike up it, in the hope the rest of the way will be downhill (which as the name sugests is Rocky's cycling strategy) It kinda works...
I seem to be reverting to my NZ shape pretty quickly.. might need some bigger trousers but ohh blimey.. cold pressed macadima paste mmmm like better then marzipan, and no sugar ,I could eat a kilo a night ..
So not much going on right now.. seems a bit topsy-turvy having had the most crazy 6 months ever doing lots of insanely exciting things... and now I'm not up to much for a couple of months i write a blog! Ahh but lots of you are a long way away.. so i suppose that the point. The last few months in England/Scotland/Ireland/Wales&Spain will have to wait for my memoirs.. (wondering how many people are now wondering exactly how to bump me off!)
I've got a new room with a deck outside dieactly opposite the flashing 'Samsung Mobike Phone' sign.. but soon I hope to come home on a balmy evening and sip G&T's on my deck as the sun goes down (or at least roobois tea). You'd think I'd know better than to hang out on decks after that party though!
My flatmates are ace and theres aways something going on and people to hang out with. The include these guys. Eabha is one and a half and every night I come home she rushes over to put my cycle helmet on, shes dead cute. The local Food not Bombs runs from our place and a heap of assorted meetings and discussions are going on in the living room most nights.
There was an Auckland 'Women Take back the Night' which was fun, after we took the road for a while the (male) cops showed up sirens a blaring and not a single one of us even acknowledged their arrival..
Oh yeah.. I'm not compleatly kicking my heals.. very busy setting up Indymedia climate soon to be at climate.indymedia.org we hope!
So I'll leave you with a word from Mr Bert and his moist throat:
Oh I love chinese supermarkets!
xx
ps. and I'll put some new pics on flicker soon, from before my bag got nicked, theres been a delay as to add to my fun my laptop is very poorly.. she must have heard me say too many times "but at least Priss [my laptop] diddn't get stolen!
But to be going with, if you havent already seen them, are some pics from Stirling, Mayo and Escanda (spain) and the best of pics of the world from my travels. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookielovescake/
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