This morning on the bus there was a lady sitting in front of me composing an official looking email on her big laptop. I thought this was sad that she has so much work to do and not enough time in her day to get it all done. Surely catching the bus could be a time for reading a book, playing a game, knitting or napping.

BUT THEN… she juggles her laptop precariously while trying to grab something from her bag and not poke the poor guy sitting next to her with her elbow. At last she found it – her iPad. She then got busy looking for something on her iPad and typing about it on her laptop. This required a lot of juggling between the two machines.

I stopped feeling sad at that point – she’s just showing off. The perfect ending to all this was when the guy sitting next to her got off the bus, turned to get a better look at the ridiculous person sitting next to him and gave her such a look of disgust it was beautiful.

Why do flight crew dim the cabin lights before take off?

The next two questions are actually more like complaints than questions…

When you are called to board your aircraft and they specify what rows of people are able to bored first – why do they let people on who are NOT in those rows?

When it is VERY clear how big your carry on baggage should be, why do they let people carry on stuff as big as a suitcase? The lady in the row behind me has just shoved a HUGE bag into the overhead luggage compartment. Her bag is so big there is no room for any other bags. SIX peoples’ carry on luggage is supposed to fit up there!!!

End of the complaints, I’m now sitting back mid flight enjoying a glass of wine, bagel bites and hummus. Aaaahhh fabulous.

This one’s for Michelle. I’ve been in Wellington for two days, which means I got to spend a night here. Usually I just come down for the day for work. But this time it was hand over from my boss who will be taking a year off to look after her baby – due any day now.

So last night after dinner I went for a walk and ended up very near my favourite bar in Wellington. It just wasn’t the same without Michelle, so I didn’t stay for a drink. But at least this time I managed to photograph the outside of the bar.

Hello

Here I am blogging all the way from the Flames Hotel in Whangarei. I’m very pleased to say they have done a bit of renovation since I was last here and the rooms are actually quite nice. The pool looks very inviting – shame it’s far too cold to use it.

This is my second time to stay here, I was up here about two years ago and I really wish I’d stayed somewhere else, don’t get me wrong the hotel is lovely, the food is great and the service is the best I’ve ever experienced anywhere. The problem is – it’s a bit isolated from everything and there’s nothing to do around here.

I’ve looked through the Guest Directory to find things they recommend to do and there is a tiny mention of a 30 minute walk around the base of some hill through the mangroves. Apparently there is even “small snapping creatures” that can be seen amongst the mangroves! Well I’m sorry but that just doesn’t really get me very excited at all – plus by the time I get back here after work it’s almost dark and NO… walking through the mangroves in the dark while trying to avoid stepping on some small snapping creature all on my own terrifies me.

While looking for something in the directory to do I came across a page dedicated to warning you not to cook toast. Not sure who would actually bring a toaster with them to a hotel, but if you do and this upsets the flash new heat protection system they have installed, causing the fire alarm to go off, you will be fined $1,000 to cover the cost of the fire brigade call out fee. Now that’s a very expensive piece of toast!

I had to pick something up from Mt Eden today so while I was there I went for a wee trip down memory lane. The first school I ever went to is in Mt Eden – Maungawhau School.  The school is still there but none of the original buildings are.

I went for a walk through the school hoping to have some little flashbacks of my time there, but mostly I got a big blank feeling something like what I imagine amnesia must feel like.

The swimming pool is still there and that looks the same, the field where we used to have a Xmas parade hasn’t changed much either and then I found the old tennis courts – that did it!  I got a really weird feeling of deja vu there and these very distant memories surfaced of marching in formation in the hot sun. I wonder if the marching was preparing us for the Xmas parade, or was it preparing us to grow up to be soldiers?  Do kids these days still learn to march in formation like that?  If they do I guess they get to wear sun hats while they are doing it.

On the way back to the car I walked past an area that used to be where my first year class was and I remembered ridiculous 2:00 naps on horrible plastic mats which took place after learning to count using coloured blocks of different lengths, I think they were called quisenaires or something like that!   (Edit…I just googled them and found out they still exist and are actually called “Cuisenaire Rods” named after the guy who invented them in 1952.  Click the name to see them in Wikipedia.)

On the way home I drove past a street where a friend lived, which reminded me of playing at his house after school, but it was all dark inside and his Mum was very glamorous, she was dressed up like the dancers on the “Happen In” TV show – mini skirt, long boots & “Bob” haircut. And she was smoking, plus I’m sure she had a big glass of gin or something like that in her other hand.  Thinking about it now… she was probably drunk (ladies in those days did a lot of early afternoon drinking) and not at all happy that her son had dragged some strange kid home from school without permission – she wasn’t very friendly and sent me straight home.  I’m sure that was the day I told him and some girl we were walking home with that I was from Wales!!!  When they asked me what it was like I said it was great coz it was next to the sea and you could see huge whales swimming right by the beach every day. They were so impressed they told everyone at school the next day, thank goodness my parents bought a house on the north shore after that & I didn’t have to keep up that charade for too long – I probably told them we were moving back to Wales LOL.

Wow – that was a very cool trip down memory lane.