Updates

Thursday, February 21

So, as I titled in an email I sent to my friends on February 12, "I have a job!" Let me tell ya, I'm so excited to be working full-time again! I know, I know, who really says that....but, it's true! I'm working with my former department at the UofA. Crazy how things work out, huh? We left for a year, had amazing life experiences/saw the world, and I'm able to pick right back up where I left off. Awesome! I love my job and my co-workers too. This opportunity is something not to be taken for granted.

Josh and I celebrated Valentine's Day...which has always been "my" holiday to plan because it's so close to Josh's birthday. I had a goodie bag for Josh on the kitchen counter when he woke up in the morning. It was filled with frappachinos (he'll never splurge on himself and buy them), a box pizza by Chef Boyardee that we could make together that night, and some cookies. We made the pizza in the shape of a heart and it actually turned out pretty cute since the tomato sauce made the heart red! Josh gave me tickets to a Flemenco performance at the Walton Arts Center at the end of the month and I'm so excited to watch the show! I love Flemenco!

On Josh's birthday, I decorated the living room and kitchen with streamers and we went out for birthday breakfast at McDonald's. The biscuits and gravy (my first since returning to the States) were SO GOOD! They have good coffee here too. Onto work for the morning and then we met up for lunch in the Student Union. More work and then we drove up to Rogers to eat at Carino's for birthday dinner. On the way home, we stopped at Dillard's to buy some cologne for Josh and then we bought some ice cream at Walmart.

At home, I gave Josh his presents and we put on birthday hats. I bought Josh some DVDs. I bought Josh a single serving size of German chocolate cake and put a 2 and 9 candle on it for him. We had a good birthday celebration and he said it was one of his best birthday's ever. Now, what to do for the big 3-0?

Josh and I have some upcoming travel for conferences. Josh has Nashville, New York, Washington, D.C., and Denver in his near future and I get to go to a conference in Las Vegas. Hopefully, Josh will be able to meet up with me there. I'm also planning a trip out to Charlotte to visit Jodi and her new baby, so our spring schedule is already packed!

We're in the process of house hunting again, so hopefully we will have more success this time around. We're checking out a home on Saturday (if it doesn't sell before then)! We're motivated to get out of this apartment and to own our own home.

At some point, I will get to a more detailed report of our trip to Asia.

Differences

Thursday, January 17

First, I'd like to say thanks to all the people out there who read the blog when Josh and I were living in New Zealand. I never knew so many people were keeping up with us. I mean, I would have written about the experience just for our own benefit, however, it's really nice that other people were following along too.

So, some of the biggest differences in New Zealand and the USA now that I've been back for a month or so:

1. Real life violence...not just in tv shows. When Josh and I returned to the states, the Nebraska mall shooting and Colorado church shootings were just happening. You don't see this type of violence in New Zealand. The biggest problems are drink driving and people being attacked by dogs (still uncommon). Regarding guns, a couple of months before we moved from New Zealand, the government had found a house with a cache of guns and was contemplating charging the owners with terrorism (for having guns). New Zealanders don't have a "right to bear arms" like Americans do. Josh and I were often asked at Rotary meetings if all Americans have guns.

2. Food...glorious food! In America, I can get reduced fat or fat free anything it seems. This is such a luxury. Although, the Kiwis do live longer and healthier than us despite the fact we can eat reduced fat foods. I think New Zealand longevity, in part, has to do with the fact there are not fast food chains on every corner in town. For example, in Fayetteville, if I drive down Sixth Street, I'm hit with the new Chic-Fil-A, Sonic, Arby's, Charlie's Chicken, Wendy's, J.D. China, Burger King, Braum's, McDonald's, Taco Bell (once the new one is built), K.F.C., and Mexico Viejo.

Don't get me wrong, I love this convenience and variety in tasty food....in moderation. I just totally understand now why about 65% of Americans are overweight with 30% being obese. How can we NOT be such an overweight society when all we see are food signs as we drive a main drag through town? Palmerston North had three McDonald's, one Burger King, one K.F.C, and one Starbucks. Only one McDonald's and K.F.C. were on the same road in town.

Another difference in food is the price. American groceries are much more affordable than New Zealand groceries...thanks Wal-Mart! I am seriously blown away by the fact that I can buy Jiffy cornbread mix for 33 cents or a big can of soup for less than $1. Hamburger (the most reduced fat kind) and chicken are much more affordable here as well.

3. Movies...We rented DVDs in New Zealand from Blockbuster and that's who we use in the states. The difference in price is crazy though. The other day, Josh and I rented 3 movies and renewed our Rewards membership and the total was $12 (we even got a free 2 litre of Diet Coke since we'd rented 3 films). One DVD at a New Zealand Blockbuster cost $8 NZD=$6.15 USD/movie! Needless to say, we rent more movies here (especially since we don't have cable yet).

4. Driving....Okay, so I must admit, I almost caused a HUGE ACCIDENT the other day whilst driving. As Josh and I were leaving the Remax Real Estate building by the mall, I totally did not realize I turned the WRONG WAY and was driving down the hill towards the interstate on A ONE WAY ROAD....and, there were other cars driving UP the hill going the correct way! Oh my gosh! I was freaking out! Thanks New Zealand driving on the other side of the road! At least nothing major happened....I just need to focus more whilst making turns. Turning is the easiest thing to mess you up. Well, that and always turning on the wind shield wipers rather than the blinker and visa versa. That's getting really annoying.

5. Central heating....I love being able to turn on the heater whenever I want rather than rolling the oil heater over to where I'm sitting. An insulated house with central heat and air is a luxury I will never take for granted again. I am loving being warm in winter!

To conclude, a couple of people have asked me if I miss being in New Zealand since we've returned to Arkansas. There are certain things I miss, like the time off to travel, landscapes and the ocean, however, overall, I am happy to say that I don't miss living there. I don't miss it in the sense that I think about it everyday saying, "I wish I still lived in New Zealand." But, I think it's a GOOD thing that I don't miss living in New Zealand. I think if I missed New Zealand whilst living here now, that would mean that I made the wrong decision to return to the states.

I am so happy to be back here (especially in Fayetteville which just feels like HOME and where I belong). I'm loving having a dishwasher and a dryer that is INSIDE the house that doesn't have to be connected to an extension cord anytime we want to use it). New Zealand is a WONDERFUL place to visit and live. However, Josh and I were living a very temporary life there i.e. we didn't have a nice flat with central heating and insulation and neither of us were working full time. It was a great place to take a year off, however, if we returned to live more permanently, I'd have to upgrade my heating system and live somewhere that was sunnier in winter. Fayetteville's winters, whilst much colder because they produce frost (and some snow like today), don't seem near as dreary because of the sunshine outside. I also love living closer to my mom and being able to go out for dinner once a week or so.

All this to say that I know I'm changing and that is throwing Josh off a bit. I was always the one saying I couldn't see ever settling down in one place. I always wanted to be moving. Very bohemian. But now I realize that I can still travel the world but return to a home base somewhere. I don't have to always be on the move. Maybe this is a phase seeing as we didn't have our own home for 2 months whilst traveling and living out of a suitcase. Maybe I'll want to live somewhere new again. However, right now, living in Fayetteville feels great!

Fayetteville Updates

Wednesday, January 16

Well, it's been over a month since the last post....that's crazy to me. I just have to say that my best friend from high school, Jodi, had her first baby, a boy, yesterday. Yay! I hope to be able to fly out to visit her soon!

To backtrack and cover the last month, we loved Mexico, however, we really didn't feel like we "needed" a vacation once we were down there. I mean, we LOVED our trip and plan to return next December because it was so empty at that time of the year, however, with neither of us working at the time we took the trip, we weren't stressed out and in need of R&R. I had to remind myself that I had booked the trip when I was working in New Zealand and looking forward to having a break. It was our third time to this resort (Excellence Riviera) and overall they have made positive changes since changing management last year.

The trip to Mexico started and ended crazily. We were scheduled to fly out of Little Rock to Dallas on December 11 at 9:00 or so. However, the fog was ridiculous so our plane, which was coming in from the west, had to divert and land in Memphis. Well, that delayed us in Little Rock although, apparently, flights can DEPART when it's foggy, they just can't land (who knew?). So that meant that everyone on the 10:00 flight from Little Rock to Dallas could fly out because their plane was already at the Little Rock Airport. It was so sad watching all those people getting to leave while we were still waiting for our plane to arrive and the fog to lift.

Eventually, our plane did fly into Little Rock and we were about 2 hours behind schedule. We missed the 12:50 connection by about 15-20 minutes (why couldn't that flight be delayed?). Josh and I hung out in the Dallas airport and tried to make the best of the situation. We just hoped the last flight out of Dallas to Cancun would not be canceled that night. We finally caught a break and were out on the 8:00 flight.

That flight was so great, too! It was mostly empty so Josh took the Emergency Exit row and I took 3 seats for myself to lay down. This was our fourth time to Cancun (the only time we didn't stay at the Excellence was for our honeymoon at the El Dorado Royale) and it was the first time we were landing at night. The sky was clear and watching the stars and the city lights as we landed in Cancun was really cool.

They've updated the Cancun Airport since the last time we were there in May 2006. Good changes. Josh got the red light going through customs so they had to go through his bag. However, we'd only carried on, so we were still the first people out of the airport. Other than losing a day of fun in the sun, I highly recommend taking the late flight into Cancun. It's cooler outside and way less crowded/chaotic. Because we were originally scheduled to land at 2 pm, I'd booked us private transportation rather than sharing a shuttle. We used USA Transfers and our driver, Marcos, was excellent. I plan to use this company again. It's only $20 more total to book a private driver rather than sharing a ride in a shuttle van.

Mexico pictures:

We also had an adventure returning from Mexico. When we arrived in Dallas on December 19, we learned that they had overbooked our flight to Little Rock by over 10 people and they were asking for volunteers to give up their seats. They were offering $250/person, hotel, and meal vouchers. I asked the ticket agent if they would up the offer but he said no. Josh and I agreed to accept the offer since we were not in a hurry to return to Little Rock.

We sat at the gate while they boarded other people and when they called us up to the counter again, we thought we were going to get our free stuff but the guy told us that we had to get on the flight because we had confirmed tickets and that the other people were only on standby status. We were so upset because we were prepared to stay in Dallas and get our vouchers. We told the guy that we didn't want to leave (in front of a family of four with two small boys who wanted to get home but were listed as standby) and that really made those people upset. I see their point because we were okay to stay (if we were compensated) and they wanted to leave. The agent told us we had to get on the plane because the airline wasn't going to give us anything to stay behind.

So, we left. That plane was at capacity. Bumpy flight and it was so foggy as we landed in Little Rock that we didn't see that runway until right before touch down. But, at least we made it.

We spent Christmas Break with Josh's parents in Cabot before returning to Fayetteville on December 30. We knew we had to find a place of our own to live. Well, we thought we lucked into finding a great deal on a big house on 2.63 acres in Fayetteville that was in pre-forclosure. We got as far as being under contract on the house before getting cold feet and realizing we should play it safe financially seeing as I am currently unemployed. So, we got an apartment and we're highly motivated to move out and buy a house as soon as possible i.e. as soon as we're both working.

Speaking of unemployed, I have two applications out for jobs at the UofA. I was even able to interview for one of them so far. Not working, even part-time, is a totally new sensation for me. I mean, I have a lot to do since we decided not to move into a house and instead moved into an apartment. Just getting unpacked and things set-up for living here has kept me busy for the last 5 days or so. I want to get back to work though. Yet, I feel like God is teaching me a lesson by my not immediately going back into work here. I really feel like I know God has a plan for my life but right now I don't know what that plan is. I feel like I've always had everything planned out two steps ahead of myself and now I'm like, what's next and I don't know. It's really weird.

Regarding unpacking, I'm really surprised at some of the things Josh and I kept in storage over the last year. Seriously, what were we thinking? I think we are taking more stuff to the Salvation Army now than we did when we were moving out. Josh's desk finally kicked the bucket and broke into several pieces as he and his brother were trying to move it. The broken futon frame has got to go (but we'll keep the mattress). There are lots of books, and cups, and clothes I didn't need to keep too. The best thing about getting our stuff back is looking at the pictures we took on trips before we had the digital camera and could put the images on our laptops. I've had some serious laughs looking a Josh's hair/beard on the roadtrips we took in 2000 and 2002.

So, that's life in Fayetteville in a nutshell. We moved into our apartment on January 10. I love Fayetteville and being back here but I'll write a new post about all the changes on being back stateside next. Also, an upcoming trip to Las Vegas is in the works for us and Josh's grandma known as "Ma" since she's always wanted to visit Vegas. Josh's parents might make the trip as well. We're looking at 4 nights in March/April and catching a couple of shows while we're out there. Still working on the details though.

Welcome Home!

December 8, 2007

We're back in the states! After 3.5 weeks in Asia and a week back in Arkansas we are back into updating the blog...with a caveat. Josh and I depart this Tuesday for 8 nights in Mexico at our favorite resort: Excellence Riviera Cancun in the Mayan Riviera. So, what follows is the quick update to cover the many life experiences we had in the last month and a more in depth breakdown will hopefully be posted once we return from Mexico and spend the holidays with Josh's family in Cabot.

Asia=AWESOME! We thoroughly enjoyed our travels through Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Cambodia. We lucked out on the majority of flights by always scoring exit row seats or having a window and an aisle with the middle seat empty. Great!

We had an 8 hour layover in Sydney, Australia on our way to Bangkok so we stopped into the Taronga Zoo on the most perfect sunny day. We were tired from preparing to move out of the flat and plan the trip but this view definitely made us feel a little better:Bangkok, Thailand impressions: Arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport (only a year old) was great. We got in around 11 pm. It was a very modern and clean airport. Getting a cab was no problem with the translators outside of the airport writing notes to the cabbies to tell them in Thai the name of our hotel. The cabbies in Thailand are crazy drivers! They don't follow the speed limit or the fact that there are two lanes...they will drive super fast on the shoulder. Our first thoughts of driving into Bangkok was that it was like being in Mexico: billboards in English, humid weather, passengers sitting in the bed of a truck as it sped down the motorway.

Our hotel was great with breakfast included although the front desk staff were not too knowledgeable about what was going on in town...more on that later. We did a lot of sightseeing at the different temples in town and the hotel was perfectly located to walk to the major tourist sites. After a day spent out viewing the temples, we returned to the hotel to shower and then we'd take a cheap cab ride to MBK which is the enormous shopping mall in the city. Josh had a cultural experience watching a movie there while I shopped. Before the movie started, a short documentary about the Thai king was shown and then the Thai national anthem was played. Josh had to watch others in the audience to figure out what to do!

In Bangkok, there was a lot of selling of random items on the street. The strangest item for sale that Josh spotted was a broken dust buster. I remember seeing lots of broken watches. There was definitely a seedy feeling to the overall Thailand vibe.

Overall, Thailand turned out to be our least favorite country on this trip. Perhaps it was because we didn't really know much about its history or the history of the temples and Buddhism. The temples are very ornate, well decorated, and nice to look at but they held no significance for us.

Yangshuo, China impressions: After one of the best flights we've ever had (2 hours, no turbulence, exit row seats, and a flight attendant walking up and down the aisle asking if we wanted free refills on our wine) we arrived in Guilin, China. Most people stay in Guilin and take a Li River cruise in the daylight to the smaller town of Yangshuo. I had read online, however, that Yangshuo was a quieter place to stay so we took an hour long cab ride through the dark (arranged through our hotel) to Yangshuo.

Note: The things we read about how the Chinese stare at Westerners held true for our experience in the country. We thought it was funny to be stared at and it never bothered us.

In the morning we watched the sunrise over the limestone karst formations from our riverview balcony. Spectacular. It doesn't get better than this!

We rode bicycles out to Moon Hill where we hiked up the mountain for this awesome view:

The next day we negotiated for a ride on a bamboo raft during sunset. It was a great deal at 30 yuan or about $4.25 USD.

Beijing, China impressions: This city is huge but easy to get around with a cab driver. Although there is a subway system, our hotel was two blocks from Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City as well as another two blocks (in the opposite direction) from a major shopping complex. There is heaps of construction taking place in Beijing in order to prepare for the Olympics. There were construction crews everywhere. Staring at us was at a premium in Beijing, however, even though it was more of a tourist city, a lot of Chinese people are moving here from the countryside where they may not have seen a Westerner before.

Pollution was only extremely bad one of the five days we were in town. It was very hazy and the air looked gritty. You could view the midday sun directly without sunglasses on. I think the pollution/irritants (or maybe just the traveling) caused me to catch a cold while in Beijing.

WALMART! Ever since I heard that Walmart had stores in China (a while ago) I have wanted to visit. Guiltily, I must admit that Josh and I visited a three story Beijing Walmart Supercenter BEFORE we made it out to the Great Wall of China taking a cab to reach the store! The Walmart was great although it didn't offer super savings like I expected. We did get a lot of snack food there though!

The Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section) was surprisingly empty. The mountainous landscape was different than we'd expected as was the isolation of the location. We selected to visit this section of the wall because it is less touristy and not completely renovated like the Badaling section of the wall. My most favorite thing about the Great Wall was reaching the end of the cared for section and seeing where the trees and brush have grown all over the wall and it's steps and walkway. Seeing that was so amazing.

Xian, China impression: This is the place to visit to check out the Terra Cotta Warriors. However, the actual soldiers are about a 45 minute to 1 hour drive out of the city. We were happy to have visited this site, however, we won't go back to visit for a long time, if ever. It was definitely a neat thing to see and something that we'd recommend for people to check out but just not much to go back to visit again. Like, once is enough.

We also did a bike ride around the city wall of Xian before catching our afternoon flight to Hong Kong. It was a 13.75 km bike ride and we had to complete the ride in 100 minutes or pay more for our bike rental. By the end of the ride, we'd broken a sweat but it was fun and we felt good to get some exercise.

Hong Kong, China impression: Bright lights, big city. It was a mixture of China and New York City. While we LOVED China, NYC is not our most favorite place. We're just not big city people. So, we did some shopping, caught the free Symphony of Lights show where the city's buildings light up on cue to music being played, a took a ride on the Star Ferry across the harbour. Our plans to climb Victoria Peak were thwarted by the hours it took us at the post office to mail 15 kilograms of clothing home to the United States.

Siem Reap, Cambodia impressions: We absolutely loved Cambodia and all the ruined temples at the Angkor Wat complex. We definitely plan to return to the country and visit/explore further. Cambodia was simply incredible and affordable. We can't wait to go back and spend at least one week because the 4 nights we had there wasn't enough time to see it all. Heck, I don't even think we saw the town of Siem Reap at all in the daytime and we only saw about two streets of it at night when we'd go out to dinner in town.

Phuket, Thailand impression: Wow! We love this island! We stayed on Karon Beach...huge waves, clear water, amazing sunsets. We scheduled 4 nights here and had a great first two nights...we were even in town to catch the Loy Krathong Festival where hundreds of lanterns float in the water and the sky. It was magical.

Then, on our third day, Josh got knocked out with food poisoning and our last two nights were spent trying to get him to recover. Picture me jogging to a pharmacist with a wad of Thai baht in my fist not caring how much the medicine would cost and explaining to the Thai pharmacist Josh's symptoms. This was the first time I have ever seen Josh this sick and I couldn't handle it at all! I was crying and scared...another reason why I could not have kids...I think it would be worse seeing a little person go through what Josh went through.

Before the food poisoning incident, we were talking about alternating Mexico and Phuket for our yearly beach vacation. I think it's still a possibility because there was so much of the island that we were unable to experience due to Josh's illness. We were thankful, however, that he got sick while we still had time left in the Phuket hotel rather than on a travel day.

So that's the short version of our time in Asia. When we traveled back to the states, this was our itinerary:

Bangkok-Sydney-Wellington (one night)-bus to Palmerston North (one night)-Auckland-Los Angeles-Fayetteville. It was definitely the long way home but well worth it and we're here now. We were EXHAUSTED when we arrived last Friday night but we had a lot of business to take care of.

On Monday, we bought a 2008 Toyota Rav-4 because our Civic was totalled last December before the move to New Zealand. We got new cell phones. We're sorting out what house we'd like to purchase. It's narrowed down to two choices. The job front looks promising. We've still got some Christmas shopping and gift wrapping to do.

We've eaten at several of our favorite restaurants and the food is as good as we remembered as we layed in our bed in Palmerston North talking about what we were going to have when we returned to America. The portion sizes in the states are huge in comparison to New Zealand and you get free refills on your soda! Of course, there is the down side of the violence in America as recently evidenced by the mall shooting in Nebraska.

We've met up with our friends and former co-workers. Most people we run into in Fayetteville are friendly and I am constantly reminded of why we picked to return to live here. We fit in here and it's true that there is no place like home.

The LAST, Last Time

Monday, October 29, 2007

The title is a quote Josh said ALL THE TIME when we were moving from New Mexico to Arkansas in 2003. He started off saying that going to a restaurant or a friend's house would be for the last time. Then, he'd go back to that same place before moving so he had to say it was the LAST, last time.

Anyway, that personal quote just came back to me as we do and see everything in New Zealand for the last time. Last week we went to feed the ducks at Victoria Esplanade so I made sure to bring the camera to capture this last time event. I love the baby/adolescent ducks that are there. We also walked through the rose garden which is beginning to bloom again. I love the roses too and had to smell all of the ones that were out. I asked Josh to smell them too but he has a much weaker sense of smell so he could barely make out the flower's scent.

Decorative coffee with donut that Josh made. He's so creative!

We've been listening to my birthday Brooke Fraser CD heaps this week and we thoroughly enjoy it! It is so much better than I even thought it could have been. The songs/lyrics are so meaningful. Good pick. We have also been playing word racer on yahoo.com against each other and it must be noted that Josh had a high score of 3800 against me.

Last Thursday we drove out to Cape Palliser for the day. The sun was shining so brightly as we drove south. We stopped at Paua World in Carterton to do some shopping. I'm not a big jewelry person but I found the most beautiful green paua bracelet for $20. I love it so much! I can't wait to wear it in Mexico. We had a picnic lunch of Subway sandwiches at the seal colony there. How awesome! We watched the seals swim around in the sea while we ate. It was a truly amazing day. "AMAZING" was the word that we kept saying over and over again. As we left our picnic spot at the seal colony, I spotted a dead and decaying seal on the shore. I thought it was gross but Josh said it added to the authenticity of the environment. There was no one to removethe seal like at the zoo.

Driving toward Cape Palliser...note that the sun is shining!

Toilet seat at Paua World...too cool not to take a picture of!

This was our view as we ate our picnic at Cape Palliser.

We drove over to the lighthouse but before climbing to the top, we decide to take a walk along the seashore. Along the way, we found heaps of paua shells. Most of the paua shells were seen sticking out of the small dirt cliff along the shore. It was absolutely fascinating to me. It was like being on a mini archeological dig. You could dig out whatever shells you could see. It was great and we got a lot of shells. Of course, when we went to rinse the dirt off of them in the ocean, we weren't smart enough to take our shoes off first. We ended up soaking our sneakers and jeans in ocean water. Heck, I even fell down once trying to avoid a wave (didn't get wet thankfully). Think Josh laughing a lot at that!

After finding some shells, we walked back to the car to drop off our loot. We took a picture of our find with our wet shoes and jeans before climbing the steps up to the lighthouse. Since it was a Thursday, we had the place to ourselves. Very nice. We climbed to the top without stopping which must be noted as an accomplishment for the two of us :) We stayed at the top for awhile. It was really hard for me to leave knowing I would not be back here again. As the sun was setting in the west, Josh said (while pointing west) "If the sun is setting there, the moon must be rising there (turning and pointing east)." As we looked east, I saw the biggest full moon ever. It was AWESOME and I took a ton of pictures.

Josh finally drug me away from the Cape Palliser Lighthouse and we drove back toward Palmerston North. The drive was a bit difficult, however, as the sun was setting right into our line of vision. We made a few stops along the drive back to take pictures of the sunset, waves, and the moonrise. It was a fantastic evening.

I have been thinking about buying a new camera, however, rather than spending money on a camera in New Zealand (which appears to be more pricey than an a camera in the states), I looked up how to operate our camera online. I get frustrated with our camera's AUTO mode so I'm learning how to operate it on manual. Operating it on manual makes me appreciate AUTO though! Josh's brother can get us 20% off a camera at Walmart for Christmas so we may take him up on that offer.

Practicing with the manual mode on the camera with a small flower in the backyard.

Yesterday, Josh and I drove out to Himitangi Beach to watch the sunset and eat a picnic dinner. Incredibly, Subway has an after 5 pm deal where you get any two footlongs and two small sodas for $15. For New Zealand, that is an insane good deal. Without the deal, the food and drinks would cost about $23.

We played in the ocean water up to our knees. We could see Mount Egmont as the sunset. We could even make out what, according to our map, must have been some of the South Island. A part of me wanted to have a boat to go off and find those distant lands...until my fear of capsizingsank in!

This is Josh and I playing at Himitangi Beach.

We're also getting ready to move. We've got a box to mail home...It's so heavy, I'm sure it's going to be like $100 to mail! I've got more hotels/flights to book but the reason I haven't booked them yet is that they are pricey. I'm almost about to throw my hands up and say forget about the budget and just get these things booked.

When I got the supermarket advertisements out of the mail today I was really confused. Both supermarkets were promoting their fireworks. What the heck?!? I know that Halloween is soon but really, why the fireworks? After closer inspection, I found out that the fireworks were for Guy Fawkes Day on November 5. The excellent movie, V for Vendetta, explains it all.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.