Blogger crime

OK I freely admit I have been terrible at updating this recently. My excuse? Well I have been loving life too much to even remember I have a blog. Sorry about that.
In a nutshell/bulleted lazy person list here is what has been happening...
*Loving Nelson
*Getting drunk with new friends
*Competing in the local pub quiz (as yet no fingers capone or rugby player karaoke moments)
*Loving my new job and being made trainee manager. Cheerio that horrible I have to go to work feeling.
*Realising I am the happiest I have ever been.
*Watching the Nelson masked parade and actually missing Nigeria. No one does ass shaking like they do.
*Walking everywhere with a bounce in my step.
*Getting confused by the constant changing time difference, clocks stop changing already.
*Realising I haven't picked the best place to find a beautiful maori rugby playing husband, then remembering Jerome Kaino is married already.
*Lounging on the beach burning the back of my knees.
*Drinking awesome local wine. Ha.
*Missing good cheese.  Boo.
*Thanking the inventors of the tinterweb and skype (again)
*Enjoying how chilled/happy people are here.
*Working out how I can stay here beyond a working holiday visa and getting my family to move here. One visit should do it.

Gert lush

Life is pretty darn good at the moment. In the last two weeks I have found a place I love, scored a top job and have a new home. Sunny Nelson is beautiful and I don't want to leave!

I started my stay here at a cute little hostel called Shortbread Cottage. Every day the shortbread elves would leave a piece of shortbread on your bed which was nice. I suspect that the shortbread elves were in fact the nice Japanese girls who were working at the hostel. I taught them some English whilst I was there in a language lesson of sorts. They learnt the very useful words weasel and owl.

Whilst it was lovely at the hostel and I was being helpful teaching English, I'd reached my fill of shared rooms and so was only too happy to move on once I got myself a job. The delights of having your own room are appreciated all the more after a time of observing the slightly tiring unwritten hostel etiquette rules or getting pissed off at those that don't. What a joy to know random people aren't going to wake you up at all hours or being able to come in and turn the light on. Although I am pretty good at moving around, locating items and getting dressed in the dark now. Not so good that I didn't notice my top was on inside out one time though. It happens to us all! 

So I not only love my new room because I can get dressed with the light on and avoid embarrassing inside out moments but also because this is my view..... 

This picture doesn't do it justice, it is hands down the most beautiful place I have ever lived. I get lulled to sleep by the sound of the river and have taken to flinging my curtains back with joy in the morning. I don't think I ever did that in Gateshead, although to be fair I had blinds so I would have had to wind them excessively fast to get the same effect. My new housemates are awesome, the third room was filled last night and we ended up sat round the kitchen table drinking wine/beer/cider and playing increasingly complicated card games until the wee hours. Maybe the drink had something to do with the complicatedness. 

So finally my new job, I'm working at Lush. I love it. It's like my dream job, working in a happy, glittery, beautiful environment with happy, glittery (perk/hazard of the job) people. I do worry I will spend all my wages on products however. Moderation Kasia, that's the key. 

So life is pretty darn good, or gert lush as they say back in my neck of the woods. I'm sure that I can make it catch on in my new neck of the woods too. Stay tuned for tales of Nelson life, maybe I should rename the blog Kasia's Nelson Column? 

5 swishes

Cooking pool - swishes vary

Welcome

The meeting house

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch

Bit of a mouthful - wh is actually a fa sound

Champers darling?

The Champagne Pool at Wai-O-Tapu

No smoke without fire?

Artist's Palette

There she blows

Lady Knox Geyser

Rotorua Mud

Bubbly goodness

Volcano!

Auckland 

Very high

Sky Tower japes

Interislander

I have now technically Interislanded it to the South Island. I actually did this a week ago. I realise now I am not the fastest blogger in the West or East or wherever this classes as. You all probably realised this weeks ago. I'm basically having such an awesome time that I keep forgetting to blog, so sorry about that.

Right then, Interislander. Ferry that takes you between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It leaves from Wellington in the North and arrives into pretty Picton in/on the South.

Short version of time in Wellington, I didn't overly love it but hving typed that I don't think I gave it a fair chance. Partly because I hated the hostel I was staying in, soooooo unfriendly compared to every other place. Also the National museum Te Papa made me cross. Pretty amazing in places but let down by unorganised nature of some exhibits that made my inner museum geek get all narked. So after hating my hostel and getting museum rage it got a whole lot worse when I tried to leave Wellington and the boat didn't work.

Long story short, eventually moved to another boat, depart three hours late. Too chilled out to even panic about missing the only coach of the day to Nelson where accommodation is booked and find out from Interislander staff that they've organised a shuttle bus for the stranded passengers. Nice. Day gets better.

Arrive safely and just a couple of hours late in sunny Nelson. That's what it's known as and the name doesn't disappoint. Should mention I've totally fallen in love with it here and currently job hunting. It feels like home.

Beautiful South Island

An expected journey

It's been a week since I visited Hobbiton so apologies for being a bit tardy with this post. For any fan of the Lord of the Rings films I can absolutely recommend a visit, you really do feel like a (giant) hobbit walking through the Shire. It was worth every penny, sorry cent.

I've since watched some Hobbit related promos on you tube and squealed like a wraith with excitement at having seen actual scenes shot at Hobbiton and Elijah and Sir Ian on set for the new films in the very places I was stood!

Where could we be? 

Hobbit holes, Bag End up top

Sam's house

Pickles the Hobbiton cat - look out for her in the film

Me outside Bag End - Right where Elijah filmed! 

Bag End is the only hobbit hole with any detail behind the door 

The party field 

I'm a Hobbit! 

New shire 

Hobbit vegetables 

The last one in the Shire 

Geothermal happenings

Rotorua, town of rotten egg whiffyness. Actually that's not fair it's only the steaming pools of sulphur around the town that smell not the whole place. I loved it despite the occasional pong, maybe because it reminded me of my uni halls of residence in first year at Durham. Good old Oswald.

On the way to Rotorua I visited the Waitomo caves to see the glow worms, or glow larvae as they should correctly be called. Quite simply magical. The ones that glow brighter are hungrier and do so to attract dinner. Clever glow larvae. They looked like a blanket of stars on the roof of the caves and even if I could upload photos I couldn't show you that because cameras weren't allowed. Google it instead or I'll show you my postcard when I get back.

Rotorua has loads on offer and I packed a lot in to my brief stay. Wai-o-tapu geothermal park was first, geysers, mud pools, crazy formations and stunning colours bubbling up from the earth. The Champagne Pool was my favourite, it literally bubbles like champers and has this weirdly beautiful orange edge, all the while it's smoking with intent. I also went to a Maori village and my favourite trip so far Hobbiton. I'm going to save that for another post and hopefully by then I'll have photos sorted so I can share the Shire with you all.

Right now I'm sat in Te Papa museum in Wellington enjoying free wifi, it does exist here hooray! The museum beckons so I'm off.

Just in case any ex Oswalders are wondering I haven't picked up that smell.

City of sails

I'm playing catch up here given that I'm now in Rotorua and no longer in Auckland the city of sails. I had five days there to get myself sorted, bank account verified and opened, tax number applied for and travel plans made. Job(s) done. I did some touristy things too like the museum and going up the sky tower, it swayed, I scarpered. I enjoyed generally mooching around but have discounted it from my potential places to live list. It did nothing to offend me and generally speaking I liked it but it didn't give me that shiny this could be my home feeling.

The aforementioned list is at the moment made up of just about every town in New Zealand, I'm not sure I can visit them all but I'll do my best. One thing is for sure where ever I end up I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it, I haven't stopped smiling since I got here!

I do have photos to show you all but due to expensive tinterweb access here I'm not sure when I'll have chance to upload them so expect some montage type posts in the future. For now picture a very tall building with a slightly alarmed jet lagged Kasia at the top and that was Auckland.

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur what can I say? I didn't hate you but I won't be back. Best thing was the Malaysia Airlines check in at the train station in the city centre. OK I'm sure there was more than that but it just didn't grab me like any of the other places I've visited this year. Photo below might be lying!

Girls day out at the paralympics

I spent my last day in England at the Paralympics with my mum, sister and niece. As Bonnie rightly pointed out we were having a girls day (but she did miss Theo). After becoming quite obsessed with the Olympics and Paralympics I was more than a little excited about our trip. The tickets were booked last year when I was in Nigeria which seems an absolute age ago now, I had no idea then just how excited I would be about going.

The park is a triumph, each venue iconic and the atmosphere inside was euphoric. Random strangers striking up conversation left right and centre. It felt a bit like the Toon to be honest!

We were lucky enough to have tickets for the athletics and scored great seats by the finish line with prime viewing of the victory ceremonies. Oscar (beautiful but narked) and Weir (emotional and smiley) were the highlights. We saw Weir compete too and David Devine, so nice to know they went on to get more GB medals. There was also wheelchair basketball, torch holding and the orbit. It finished with a tearful goodbye to Rachel and Bonnie. Bonnie not so tearful because she was off to the disney shop. All in all an amazing day and one I will never forget.

Happy and Glorious

During last night's Olympics closing ceremony Count Rogge the chief dude of the IOC described the games as 'happy and glorious', perhaps in a nod to our national anthem or perhaps just because they really were. I have loved the last 17 days (if we ignore large parts of the closing ceremony), at times I wanted to beat my chest gorilla style with the pride I felt for Team GB and the games themselves.

Last year I left on the first part of my adventures to do VSO in Nigeria. I was disillusioned with this country and couldn't wait to leave. It was an interesting and challenging few months where I came to appreciate life at home in a way I never had before (see blog here). Then I came home briefly, initially loved it but very soon I found myself wanting to leave again, cue the start of this blog, me on my travels around SE Asia. The doom and gloom in the UK in January was too much for me and I'm not just talking about the weather. So when I came back this summer I wasn't expecting much in terms of joy. Awful weather aside it seems to have been a wonderfully happy and glorious British summer, thanks in the most part to London 2012 and the way it has lifted the spirits here in Blighty.

The games started in the best possible way with an opening ceremony that had it all, what followed was two weeks of drama, emotional displays, the mobot, the comedy of horse dancing, and the creation of memories to cherish for a lifetime, inspire a generation indeed. Alas I cannot lie the closing ceremony did not hit all the right notes for me. The opening segment was noisy and confusing culminating in Timothy Spall AKA Churchill bellowing 'STOP'. Stop indeed before this gets any worse. Highlights were Elbow, Emeli Sande and Ed Sheeran all giving great vocals. Fat Boy Slim and the giant Octopus another winner. I found myself strangely emotional with the video screens of Freddie Mercury at the start of the Queen song and Russell Brand, bonkers but I liked it. All in all though it was too bitty, it didn't flow well and every time it seemed to get going the next act was a let down, sing something we know George Michael!

The Brazilian segment giving us a glimpse at what we can expect in 2016 was much in the same vane, the samba was fun but it all seemed a bit haphazard and random. Then the extinguishing of the flame with fire represented through the medium of dance was all a bit special for me, it tainted that beautiful cauldron. Finishing with the awesome rockness of The Who and not Paul McICantneysinganymore was a major blessing however. It didn't diminsh from what was an amazing games and watching the athletes have fun was great, I bet there were a few hangovers this morning.

Now what am I going to do with myseld until the Paralympics?

Pic of the games - Lovely Mo and Lick me please Usain Bolt.

BEST CAULDRON EVER!

This was what I exclaimed during the unbelievable and amazing opening ceremony for the Olympics. It isn't a phrase you get to use that often unless you do magic of course. It is the best cauldron ever though.

Having been out of the country in the lead up to the Olympics I wasn't getting all the hype, possibly a good thing as I also wasn't sick of hearing about it as some people seem to have been. I wasn't really that fussed about it until I got back and started hearing about the torch relay, did anyone see the documentary on it? I wept like a goodun, don't know what's wrong with me!

For anyone who follows me on twitter or facebook you will have seen a large number of posts from me over the last week or so. I literally cannot get enough of Team GB and the Olympics in general. When else would you see the Queen parachute with 007, gasp as man shoots at clay pigeons, shout "SWIM SWIM SWIM" very loudly at the TV, or get to enjoy the slo-mo lunchbox cam during the 100m men's heats all in the space of a week? I've learnt more than I ever needed to know about some sports and feel quite the expert, I definitely had more idea what was going during the cycling road race than the commentators who couldn't even distinguish the race leaders from the peleton. It's even been suggested I could commentate from the pool in my scuba gear, although you'd mostly just see lots of bubbles as I tried to tell everyone that one in the middle is very fast and has a lovely bum.

If I was reporting from the Olympics I think I would be more sympathetic than some of the interviewers. I am so proud of our athletes and get very angry when they ask stupid questions like "You must be disappointed with a bronze?". That means that person is the third best in the WORLD at what they do. To even be competing in these games makes each and every athlete here amazing in my eyes, they are doing things that most of us can only dream of.

However I don't have much chance of reporting from the Olympics when I'm tweeting about admiring the strength of the girl stood behind Usain Bolt on the start line for not licking him. I am definitely on a high security watch list somewhere. But you would though wouldn't you?

Lick him!!!

Golf Dressed Fancy

I have recently returned from a final visit to Newcastle before I head off to New Zealand. It was all a bit last minute and totally unplanned but turned out lovely. I got to play golf dressed fancy, see all my lovely friends(thanks Pippa for putting me up) for a last ta ra and start my obsession with the Olympics (more about that in the next post).

So golf dressed fancy. Well it was Stanley Karen Marshall's Birthday and as tradition dictates we normally play crazy golf (or mini golf) in fancy dress of the same theme. The first year was Pirate crazy golf dressed as pirates, aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! The second year, alas a washout was Dinosaur crazy golf dressed as you guessed it, dinosaurs. Poor Tom's papier-mache triceratops didn't like the rain at all. The year after that was probably my favourite, where we played American style mini golf dressed as inappropriate Americans following the Tiger Woods scandal. The costumes were amazing, we had Tiger himself, OJ Simpson, Sarah Palin, Don King, Paris Hilton, Cher, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (I think Katie was chained to Tom at the ankle) and I went as Monica Lewinsky. The other golfers were frankly alarmed.

Last year there was a break in the golfing activities and I wonder if we have matured in that year as this year it was decided that we not partake of fancy dress but instead dress fancy. See below.....

Golf, dressed fancy

Not quite so many people pointing and staring this year, we were asked if we had been at a wedding though. After a tricky start on the first hole, I think most of us ended up in the bushes or behind trees, I managed a podium place and quite surprisingly came third. Very happy with bronze.

 

First hole difficulties

The rest of that day became a haze of pimms, jager bombs, cocktails and crazy dancing. So a normal night out in Newcastle really. I do love the Toon.It was of course a teary goodbye, I still have my flat there but something tells me that I wont be back one way or another. Of course there'll be visits and no doubt more golf, dressed fancy or fancy dress we enjoy both.

Home and Howay

I'm staying at my mum and stepdad's this summer as my flat in the toon is rented out whilst I'm enjoying myself in various locations around the world. This meant I had to call upon some lovely friends to put me up for my recent visit to Newcastle for another friend's wedding. It's strange being a visitor there after having lived very happily on Tyneside for seven years. Apart from the biblical floods on the Thursday night followed by a monster hangover after accidentally enjoying 2-4-1 bottles of wine whilst sheltering from said biblical floods I had a lovely time. The wedding was beautiful, congratulations to Mr and Mrs Munn.

Wedding ladies

I've also been lucky enough to have a few days in beautiful Madrid with my mum. It was my belated 30th birthday present and it was a great way to escape the rain! The little dude from the hotel who picked us up at the airport confidently told us it wont rain until September in Madrid. Nice!

We had a grand old time, enjoying tapas, flamenco and sangria. Ole and all that. There was some cultural stuff and shopping too. Madrid is a fantastic city, yet another place in the world that I could happily live in. We especially liked the dedication to Ham spotting numerous 'ham museums' around the city streets. They are of course a chain of shops (disappointing) selling an impressive array of you guessed it, ham.

A lovely food market

It's not Buckingham Palace but it is pretty good

Very fierce flamenco ladies

Shiny red shoes!

Rain delay

I'm blaming my serious laziness in the blogging department since I've been back on the excessive rain. I can't believe how miserable the weather has been since I got home. Alas there isn't the option of closing the roof here so that play can resume, so we're just bumbling along in the soggy surroundings regardless. Ho hum, Summer will arrive at some point, right?

Thinking back to the last few days of my trip around SE Asia I was gifted with heat and sunshine in Bangkok, there were showers too to be fair. This is third time I've been to Bangkok so I didn't feel the need to see all the sights as I'd basically been there, seen that and got the t-shirt. I did however feel the need to fill every possible nook and cranny of my luggage with additional shopping.

Of course a visit to the MBK centre was necessary but sadly the night market is no more so I made up for it by having repeated visits to Terminal 21, possibly the coolest shopping mall in the world. Every floor is a different city from around the world and the designers have gone all out, on the London level they've used double decker buses and tube trains to hold small boutique shops and there's a smaller version of the Golden Gate Bridge up on the top level that is a popular photo spot. There's also a cinema there where I went to see Prometheus, primarily to enjoy Idris Elba of course. I was caught out at the start when the entire audience had to stand in honour on the King whilst a film of him shown doing various Kingly things like walking around, getting off a plane and waving. Can't imagine that taking off here at the multiplex.

So after a few days of shopping I was homeward bound again, partly sad the adventures were over but also looking forward to seeing everyone. Mistakenly I thought this year I was following Summer around the world, I just hope New Zealand doesn't let me down.

Tomb Raider

I'm going to be honest, there wasn't any actual tomb raiding in Siem Reap but I did go to the 'Tomb Raider' temple on my three day jaunt around the Angkor Archaeological Park which was petty awesome. I also have to admit by the time I arrived in Cambodia nearly four months into this adventure I was feeling pretty 'templed out' and wishing that maybe I'd done Angkor Wat at the start as it's somewhere I've always wanted to visit. I felt like I was going to turn up and be all "Yeah it's a temple, whatever, seen like a bazillion of them." Nothing however can fully prepare you for just how amazing the temples are, and how many of them there are.

I spent three days of my week long stay in Siem Reap visiting the temples (it isn't cheap!) and was pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was, the tour groups only kicked in on the third day when I visited the bigger temples, even then it was often empty and quiet. Apparently it's a good time of year to visit and a bit cooler being rainy season. I still found myself becoming Asian by utilising my umbrella not for the rain but as a sun shade, it might be a bit cooler but it's still bloomin hot!

My camera was pretty much on permanent snap mode and I have only uploaded a fraction of the photos I took. Alas one thing I failed to capture on camera was the monkey attempting to steal my water bottle at Angkor Wat. Ironically I had been laughing with Heather (of travelling in Vietnam with fame) about how devious monkeys were and that these ones here at Angkor would not successfully rob my belongings because I was on to them when one approached, and by approached I mean loped towards me with criminal intent. The cheeky bugger grabbed my bottle with both of his little monkey hands and I had to wrestle it out of his grasp whilst clearly telling him that he would not be having my water. He then ran off, tail quite literally between his legs. Kasia 1, Monkey 0.

Of course there are other memories I will take from my visit, the sunrise of Angkor Wat, the amazing faces at Bayon and going all Tomb Raider at the very beautiful Ta Phrom, bouncing around on a Tuk Tuk through the Archaeological park etc etc but the monkey easily wins for most memorable moment. All in all, I loved my time in Siem Reap, the temples were more amazing than I had imagined and I'm glad I left them until the end, it feels like a fitting way to finish my adventures, bar a few days in Bangkok of course.

Banteay Kdei

Srah Srang

Pre Rup

Pre Rup

East Mebon

Ta Som

Ta Som

Ta Som

Neak Pean

Preah Khan

Preah Khan

Preah Khan

Preah Khan

Preah Khan

Bakong

Bakong

Preah Ko

Preah Ko

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Having a nap at Angkor Wat

In jail at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Apsara Dancers at Angkor

In your face!

Rabid face eating monkey (may have been on bath salts)

He's spotted his prey

A quick shimmy down the pole and he's off

The monkey that failed

MY water. Not the monkey's but MINE.

Heather and I at Angkor

Apsara costumes

Bayon

Smiley face

Nose to nose eskimo kissing

More faces

Bayon

Bayon

Bayon

Bayon

Ta Phrom

Ta Phrom

Ta Phrom - Tomb Raider land

Tomb Raider Tree

Tomb Raider Tree again

Bendy Tree