I have been slack

I have very slack , life has been packed in , i have been house/dog sitting this month , still dealing with this nerve problem in lower arm / work has been a bit of night mare at the moment / and my David is working night shift and is heading for 10 days straight in a row . Also i am doing more and more cycling and kayaking - Hooray ! And the running is great , off to Rotoura this weekend so i will have a long running the redwoods .

Queen Birthday weekend

We had a have a great weekend in and around Te Kuiti on Queens birthday. I want to show David there i was from. The largest feature was going Black water rafting , it was 10:30am and it was no more than 14 degrees above ground. I did get a great shot of me exiting the cave (left) .

Also I took David to met my very good friends of Tim and Grover in Hamilton which is my old haunt from my uni days. Lastly we spent time on Monty's farm (my mum's boyfriend) it was a beautiful place with wood pigeons in the garden and rolling green hills in the background until the eye could see .

mocaving photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairemoava/sets/72157600331636628/

i am back

i am back , i am typing with one and three fingers which is good enough too get back into blogging .

I have experienced so many things in the last afew months with my wrist injury; mountain of frustration an sea of pain . I think i spend all of February under a cloud of some sort of drug. But that was past and today is today .

Well to today for the first time i went for a kind-of kayak and MTB cycle (this rose of the fact i couldn't run today has twigged my knee in a silly manner putting away food shopping on Friday night). My lovely David was my concrete companion thoughtout my activites . The MTB went very well and kayaking was paddle for 8 to 10 mins and then a rest ....its a start :)

Dyslexia Awareness Week

http://www.dyslexiafoundation.org.nz/dyslexiaweek/

The Dyslexia Foundation of NZ is very pleased to announce NZ's first-ever national Dyslexia Awareness Week. 23th -29th April
and http://www.dyslexiafoundation.org.nz/dyslexiaweek/pdf/pressarticle.pdf

and i havent been blogging but i am down to still one handed typing , promise I'll be back with tales of casts , pin removals, walking in the wineries drinking wine before 11am maybe a meantion Gutbuster too x

the man & post op

Well, it's been a while , but for a good reason. Firstly i have a wonderful boyfriend to my right . Funnily enough i found him on the Internet dating site something i thought i wouldnt do, but i have decided this is a year of difference, new things , new adventures. He's funny , he listens , he's smart and loving what more could a girl ask for ?

2ndly is this wrist operation, i have been siting here for four days post op now, the op still feeling like my head is full of cottonwool and solid objects are slightly marsh mellow'ïe . I went in last Tuesday morning putting on a brave front, as from the previous week basically i had a stream of people telling operation disaster stories ... this wasnt great my for fragile hospital head space.

But i did have the best doctor in this part of the country. Robert (doctor) came in to examine me before the operation and had decided once again to chance the operation for the 4th time, much to my dismay, again not helping my hospital head space. Finally however the operation was lot more complex than first thought but has worked out very well in the end. So what happened? well in a nut shell the small piece of broken bone still had small pieces of ligament and tendon still attached. So he removed the bone, reattached the pieces, took the cartalidge that was now loose, and grafted it back to my wrist bone and wired the whole thing back together again. Cool or what!!!!. The up shot of all of this is, that I am now in a cast upto my shoulder for 4 weeks with more to come. This does sadly meen I will be of my bike for a little longer than expected, but when I return I will be bigger better and badder than before which is great news!. Nurse 'dave' has been doing a good job keeping me fed, clean,watered and saine which is always a bonus and has been there for me during those "heavy lettuce" days { thanks Mr tranadol } .

Hawkes Bay WineO weekend

I love summer has its the time of sun and fun . Well another weekend away with David , Justin , Gordon , Mr_Waine and Mr_Waine(the man chasing into a winery) and my self of course . This weekend was the reactionment of weekend me , Justin and Mr_Waine expenerince 4 years ago and we decided to get afew new ringins for the festives.

There were 9 wineries on Saturday...

Me, David and Gordon went to Gannets on Sunday , i think we were all feeling a wee bit seedy

Also for some more excitment we were spirit cars ! David found a flyer for these at one of wineries on Sunday . So on Monday before it got too hot me David , Gordon went to track . We discovered that my David was a natural on the circuit.

Lastly as we are people of history , so we went to the local museum about Napier. I was blown away with the actually damage of the 1930's earthquake . So that is must-go if your in Napier.

Turangi weekend

Another weekend , another adventure afoot for this girl .

The weekend in question was the 13/14th Jan . The plan was to do a navigation course at OPC at National Park and then spent some time with Grover (my flatmate of many years ago) and his girlfriend & parents.

Well i decided to drive up on the Saturday morning like early early , getting up at 4am, it was worth getting up early early has the road were clear and the sunrise was simply beautiful with dusty pinks and roving italics.

The navigation course was great there were four of us so we got a lot of individual attention. I must admit of was pretty tired so taking things in was a little hard. But the main things i learnt were how anyways know where north is use a bearing (i really like this means of getting from point A to point B) , calculating time for route choice. We did this afternoon practice , it rained the compete time.... 4.5 hours worth . My feet got so wet they were wrinkled when i removed them from my shoes. Well worth the $160 course fee.

When what i was really looking forward too seeing the "Grover"clan it was nice and relaxing , with good food , and good company. I got there a little late, but it wasn't a problem . We had a beautiful dinner only mom's have the skill to made: with gravy and peas ummm .

The "plan" was to going the 42 transverse the next day but with BIG downpour the day before it was abit So me and Grover set off to do some more low key MTB like Tree trunk gorge track which is a big thumbs up in the Kennett's MTB. The conditions won - both Grover and i were soaked to the bone as there was a lot over grown 4WD tracks that face/ chest. the trees that lined these were water heavy .... wak , branch in face ... hit , mouth full of strange leaves.

The wonderful end to this weekend was Liam cooking dinner for me David and Corrine. His famous roast pork and some wonderful wheat-free muffins.

Can this year get any better ?

This year has got off a banging start and its only 11 days in :

• My very good friend who was exchange student from my high school is coming next month for a holiday. After 15 years , i get to see her again. This was totally out of the blue, the very best of surprises !
• My brother and Hazel have arrived from Ireland to get married on 10th Feb . An i have just talked to him on the phone - EEK.
• I have meet a great chap.
• I have reach my goal weigh after 4 months.
• I will find out a solution to my wrist on Monday, i am counting down the days.
• Wellington ann weekend, I am spenting it with some of my dearest friends drinking wine in the beauitful Hawkes Bay.

Thank-you. I am very happy.

Corrine's Birthday Bash

We had a bunch for Corrine's Birthday last Sunday. I arrived back from my trip on the Saturday to oragnise the wee garthering . We had visitors from out of town and i had afew of my friends there too. It was even sunny !

...... I couldnt get over the food eaten :
- over 2 kgs of bacon
- 3 batches of pancakes
- 2 packs of breakfast saugauges
- 1 o normal saugauges
- 2 salads
- a friut platter
- 2 birthday cakes
- 2 boxes of mini eclairs
- al teast 5 botttles of bubbles
- one bottle of red wine
- chippies / rice crackers.

Great Quote

There's no genius behind it. It's persistence and listening to people.::: Craig Newmark :::

5th Jan -KAIKOURA

An early start – 6am to get my boat at 7:15am . Again it was another simply gorgeous day. I was really impressed with the whale watching provider who were very organized (somebody after my own heart) . I was surprised how small the sperm whales were. The whales that feed off Kaikoura’s coast are only young males feeding up to be of a worthy size to mate with their lovely lady whales in tropics which can take up to 35 years …. A virgin at 35, bugger.

I have finished to end my holiday early, with the sore wrist/ankle and i am in the need of some love from my one and only my beautiful cat. It was one easy phone to call to bluebridge .. I am coming home a day early.

4th Jan - TRAVELLING

The day after the “the goat pass” run .

I woke around 8:30am with …. Sore finger tips , sore ankle and bloody sore a back. HELP IN NEED A PERSONAL MASSEUR NOW. So with all that said I was pretty slow getting up out of bed and I really need that 10am leaving time at the hostel .

Today was boring …. Drive drive drive …. to Kaikoura to watch the whales at 7:15am on the 5th

<-- Only highlight on the trip was a wee MTB out the back of Oxford … , simple beautiful.

I could only pedal …I couldn't’t bend either my ankle or wrist .. So those fences and gates were a problem.

3rd Jan - STAYING ARUTHERS PASS - running the goat’s pass

The big day . Goat pass is 30 kms for “experienced tramping track” and is also the run leg for the Coast to Coast, which the premier mutli sport run in New Zealand for the last 20 years.

It all started well at around 9am at the start of the track and like a good DOC supporter I left a intention slip with DOC office and took my area map. The track was mildly confusing with so many river crossings. I found the terrain was fun and exciting with bounders/ broken trees . I was a bit nervous on the river crossings with flash backs to words that Louise was directing at me the day before and that silly lady in the Dominion Post around Labour weekend who got wash down river in the Nelson area.

Disaster one:
Twisted ankle , one hour in . I am writing this day in reflection and I can tell you that this was quite serious injury. I can barely walk on it two days later.
Disaster two:
Afew double backs on the track to find the markers prior to the first hut …so just time wasting
Disaster three:
Being on the wrong side of the river and missed the major turn off … wasted around hour of hour and half LOSTED . I did use my map to get back on track.

This was a kind of disaster/but saved me from being lost again … I was collected my two lovely “real” C2Cer’s and we ran for 20 – 30mins which was good for me – I could keep up okish. But then one for them got injury so it was a long walk out for all of us …

So this epic day was 7:52 mins in totally , not less then 6000 cals were burned in this a truley mammoth day

What I learnt :
the track rating required "experience" fitness == rock track markers, many many river crossings
But the book at http://www.multisportcoach.co.nz/ before going the track again .

2nd Jan - GOING TO ANTRACTRIC CENTRE & DIAMOND HARBOUR

We waved Liam good bye then me, the lovely Louise and her neice Emma went to the Antarctica center in Christchurch to see the penguins …

<--… these guys are SOOO little I couldn’t get over it.

Lunch was very strange for me - I had it with four other females, something I truly that never done before. I actually enjoyed a lot and leanrt a lot from there conversation, ike other relationships and other struggles the 20/30’s girls are facing. So it doesn’t seen the “the mates” comment above is too warranted , if I act like a bloke , I am a bloke for all due purposes, huh ?

MENTAL NOTE: wear a skirt to your date. Don’t talk about the fact you had lego instead of dolls has a child. AND GO to lunch dates with more females .

1st - CHRISTCHURCH

Well the day after event, the day of new beginnings and promises to yourself and the world around you.

My thoughts for this year:

Thought One: get my career sorted - PMI/IRD/ maybe even a short contact overseas in XBRL ?

Thought Two: I deserve a top bloke - not another bloke that is going to “save the world” or who “needs saving him“ (doesn’t the world know I have quit from my white knight syndrome?) or that classic line I know so well….. “but your mate” .. you’re a girl really ? . I need to make pancakes on Sunday lunch for somebody, build something with hammer/drill, have a mini break weekend ?

Thought Three: standing order - live life and do stuff .

Anyways …during the day me . Louise and Liam hung out .. the conversation was always warm and sometimes heated, which was good for all parties – topics were … kids ? , married ? , study and affairs on the heart …. Were the centre of the discussion.

MENTAL NOTE, actioned , OMG. Oh *uck , I am going a date.