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lovely going away dinner at Hampden House last evening.... will begin Sydney, part II in less than 24 hours.
xo.
I visited Schmitt in Hampden this past week and she came up with the utterly brilliant idea that we should go to the Smith and Wesson shooting facility to fire some guns!
Above is my target sheet and the revolver we used.
At first I didn't quite get the concept of lining up the sights, so my first 8 rounds hit the ceiling, oops. Schmitt was a natural shot and after shooting 100 rounds was all ready to shoot a bigger gun: a semi-automatic something or other that was pretty frightening and real real loud.
Above is my target sheet and the revolver we used.
At first I didn't quite get the concept of lining up the sights, so my first 8 rounds hit the ceiling, oops. Schmitt was a natural shot and after shooting 100 rounds was all ready to shoot a bigger gun: a semi-automatic something or other that was pretty frightening and real real loud.
Andy experienced his first new england snow storm...about 10 inches fell.
To enjoy the snow we went on a woodsy walk with Henry and I demonstrated how one makes a snow angel. Though andy was tempted by how fun plopping into a deep pile of snow and doing jumping jacks lying down looked, he resisted and didn't try it out himself. Definitely missing out.
I also introduced him to the lovely feeling of snow going down your neck after getting thwacked by a snowball! But my white wash attempts failed.
The five little pictures to the left were from our walk around Crane Beach and Long Hill Estate.
Nice to be back into the woods for a bit.
Spent the afternoon walking around the lake, (Winslow, Mum, Kat, Andy and I) and persuaded Andy that you could indeed step onto the ice and not fall through, though Katherine didn't help much chiding me from the edge of the lake to be careful with that oh so motherly tone of hers!
went out for the first day of the australian vs south africa test match cricket last week!
watched about 5 hours of the 8 hour match (LONG day).
beautiful historic stands, rowdy crowds, beach balls flying everywhere...
the prime minister kevin rudd even made a cameo in the stands above us.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
some pics from our lovely new years eve overlooking darling harbour.
some pics from our lovely new years eve overlooking darling harbour.
so the pictures here run the span of christmas time celebrations. the images all down the left are from andy's apartment where i spent all christmas day. his family came over for christmas lunch: we ate prawns, oysters, pork, ham and turkey with stuffing that i made (and manage to make taste quite good)! andy, oh so kindly, told his whole family it was a recipe passed down from generation to generation in my family - in reality i found it on epicurious.com the day before!
the two dogs below are andy's cute bichons named ferris and georgie - adorable. we took the dogs on a nice walk to three different parks in the area post feasting and pre dessert.
lara s, rav, david, simon and ajita joined later in the afternoon and thus ensued an evening of card games, vino and even some dancing - possibly by just me. also down towards the bottom is a pic of the molasses cookies lara s made for christmas - so delicious. and also the wind up monkey mum sent as part of my stocking and was an amusing hit throughout the evening.
the picture of lara and i at the very bottom is from lara s's paddington inn christmas party where the whole staff was dressed in holiday atire: elves, santa, mrs clause, and lara dressed as an angel! good fun evening.
the bloody mary's above were from boxing day afternoon, woke up and spent the day relaxing and watching test cricket, which is a five day match between australia and south africa. i now actually understand the sport thanks to wikipedia, so it was much more interesting to watch then my past attempts.
was a nice holiday period, though you all at home were certainly missed!!!
tomorrow is new years eve and lara and i will be going to simon's office in the city, which overlooks a place called darling harbour. some bbqing and beers, should be nice and relaxed with a balcony view of fireworks.
pictures to come...
lara f.
Our guide was a really funny Kiwi boy who spent the whole time making fun of the Aussies that were there and generally just answering in ways that were funny, yet unnerving. (Ex. Lara Fuller: So, just out of curiosity, how long have you been doing this? Kiwi Boy: *Checks watch* About twenty minutes. *Silence*)
Included in this outing was a warm muffin upon return, along with your choice of alcoholic beverage, both to be enjoyed with your fellow cavers in a real sketchy hot tub.
Afterwards I wondered how we were able to participate in this activity without some sort of licensing or training - it was no joke. Then my mom informed me that there is no such thing as liability insurance in New Zealand, and a lot of things got a lot clearer.
The last two days of our trip we spent in Greymouth, one of NZ's original gold mining towns on the West Coast of the South Island. We get there the first day after a seven hour drive down the coast. It was rainy and we poked around a bit, eventually heading back to our hostel to generally just be unsociable in a room full of what seemed like very nice and hungry backpackers. I don't really know though. This is only what I could observe from the corner Fuller and I were hunched in. having a nice little pasta dinner nad avoiding eye contact.
The town itself was creepy but we resisted the urge to flee straightaway because we had seen a brocheure about caving and had gotten kind of fixated with it. The next morning we drove up to check out the Pancake rocks (middle pic) this crazy national rock formation. It had been raining quite a bit and the water crashing about in the center of these formations sounded very close to thunder and left you feeling a bit awestruck. Also notable about this stop was we met THE ONLY RUDE PERSON IN NEW ZEALAND. He fixed Lara Fuller a tea, and a proper, yet unjustified, scolding to go with it.
After the Pancake Rocks we went on a little hour hike to some waterfalls. It was just meant to kill time before our caving adventure, but it ended up being a very beautiful trek through the rainforest and we were the only ones on it.
The town itself was creepy but we resisted the urge to flee straightaway because we had seen a brocheure about caving and had gotten kind of fixated with it. The next morning we drove up to check out the Pancake rocks (middle pic) this crazy national rock formation. It had been raining quite a bit and the water crashing about in the center of these formations sounded very close to thunder and left you feeling a bit awestruck. Also notable about this stop was we met THE ONLY RUDE PERSON IN NEW ZEALAND. He fixed Lara Fuller a tea, and a proper, yet unjustified, scolding to go with it.
After the Pancake Rocks we went on a little hour hike to some waterfalls. It was just meant to kill time before our caving adventure, but it ended up being a very beautiful trek through the rainforest and we were the only ones on it.
