Franimal Roberts does the South Island

Hello all, it's me again. Apologies for the lateness of this entry, I've been essaying. Here is a precis of my time on the Kiwi Bus. Those are some photos of my time of the Kiwi bus, plus my birthday cake. One of my birthday cakes.

So I left Welly on the morning of April 15th and we did the short drive over to the InterIslander terminal before clearing everything of the bus (buses stay on either the north or south island, they don't go between because it'd cost Kiwi Ex about $1000 a day to do that.) I spent most of the crossing watching The King's Speech for a second time as there's apparently nothing to see for the first two hours. The last hour of the crossing is supposed to be amazing and you're supposed to be able to see the Marlborough Sounds. We did the crossing in a storm, so not only could we see fuck all, we were an hour late getting into Picton :( On the bus I was sat next to Andri who is from Brazil. When we got to the accommodation that night in Nelson, she invited me to hang out with her and her friends. We did beer tasting and took advantage of the $15 two course meal deal. You should also know that raspberry cordial and coke is nice. Through Andri I met Aya (Japanese), Elena (Spanish), David (Austrian, and will be referred to as Tripod from here on in), Per and Fredrick (Swedish) and Randi and Derek (Canadian.) I had a very strange bunk bed that was on wonky angle and had no ladder :|

The next day we went to Westport and it was still pissing it down, so the scenic stops we'd normally make didn't really happen. I signed up to go jetboating but nobody else did so I couldn't go so I said I'd go horseriding instead with Daniella (German) but my horse kept bucking and trying to throw me off so I stayed in and had some tea and read some magazines whilst we waited for Daniella so we could get to the hostel. When I got back, I caught my middle finger on something in my bag, presumably a zip, and there was blood everywhere. Even I was weirded out by the manky-ness of it and it's still scabby now. In the evening we went to the pub, where I became acquainted with Jax, Double D, and Henry who all work at Base in Queenstown, as well as Dylan, our driver. Nobody is entirely sure how it started but my name started getting put into song titles. By the end of the trip, I was the bus celebrity and we even had our tour guides joining in with it.

The next morning we began our drive to Lake Mahinapua where we stayed at the 'Poo pub' owned by 85 year old Les, the world's oldest publican. On the way there we stopped at Greymouth (terminus of the TranzAlpine train) to pick up supplies for the fancy dress party that night, the theme being Bad Taste. Tripod wasn't listening, didn't make any effort and then threw a hissy over Hitler and the Fritzl family. Dude, it was BAD TASTE, c'mon! I decided just go with a very peculiar outfit. On the way from Greymouth to Mahinapua, we picked up Hana (Canadian) in Hokitika and we played speed dating on the bus. Except I met people O already knew. At the 'Poo Pub' we were served food and we had the place to ourselves. The police came to visit us (fairly standard) and good times were had. Randi got really drunk and locked herself in her room with her key and escaped by breaking the window :|

From here we went to Franz Josef, stopping at various places on the way, including the Bushman centre (a deer-hunting museum) and I was the last back on the bus because I was waiting for my hot blackcurrant to be a bit less scalding. In Franz it was a really nice day and I wanted to go kayaking but nobody else wanted to, so again I couldn't go. So I went to a kiwi sanctuary instead. We had fun times in the bar, including me getting ID'd and struggling to get my passport out so they let me off with my drivers license. Played some Killerpool which Charlie (Jersey) won. He then gave his prize to someone else because he wouldn't be in Queenie long enough to do it. Damn. As Henry was skipping forward a day and leaving us, Double D made him do a ski run, albeit a less lethal version than the one they gave me (more on that later.) Our second day in Franz Josef involved actually hiking up the glacier itself. Double D, Jax, Jodie, Sophie, Elena, Per, Fredrick, Tripod, Aya, Katie and I formed group 5 with our guide Rebecca AKA the slow group. On the way up we managed to overtake two groups but coming back down we were so slow that they had the send an extra bus back for us. It wasn't that we were walking slow it was just that Tripod was insisting on taking photos everywhere and not listening to Rebecca when she asked us not to/walking off the path she was taking us on. Urgh. In the evening, I went to the glacier hot pools with Double D, Jax and Katie before having dinner in the bar.

In the morning we went to Lake Matheson which is a mirror lake and was very foggy. We crossed through the southern Alps through the Haast pass and between Haast and Wanaka we did a quiz in the teams of two we were sitting with on the coach. I was paired with Laura (German.) When we got to Wanaka, I had a shower and went down by the lake. As I was walking past a bar, I heard a familiar voice. Double D and Jax had gotten some of the other girls together and had been looking for me two and were having some drinks with their colleagues from Base Wanaka, including Shane or Happy Feet as he's known. In the evening we had a few drinks in Mint Bar where Happy Feet abused his staff discount for us all.

The next morning we went to puzzling world where Hana and I tried to do the maze together but she gave up and I eventually managed it. Also went through some illusion rooms and bought myself Quiddler. It's a word card game and we're not too sure yet how you play it. Back on the coach and it was time to announce who'd won the quiz...it was me and Laura! Only Laura didn't want any of the prizes as I'd answered all but one of the questions, so I had Dylan throwing a ridiculous amount of stuff and me. There's a picture of that, if Vic. House net wasn't so crappy, I'd upload it for you. He then said that we should find him at AJ Hackett (home of the original bungy) and he'd buy us both a t-shirt, which he did. I have an I <3 NZ one. From AJ Hackett we went to Queenstown where we picked up a cardboard cut out of Henry and went to have our bus photo taken. After checking in, Hana and I went to Noodle Canteen and got a ridiculous amount of noodles for $10 each. In the evening, people got wasted and it was interesting.

The next morning I stumbled out onto the Bottom Bus. We were being driven by Mike and my fellow passengers were Darren and Claire (a couple from Ipshit), Charlie, Tom (NY) and a girl whose name is escaping me...my bad. We drove to Dunedin and saw Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. We then drove out to the peninsula and sat on a beach watching yellow-eyed penguins come into shore.

The next day things were a bit different as the driver who was supposed to take us had been in a motorbike crash so Mike was trying to get us where we needed to be without going over the number of days he's allowed to work. We went down the coast through the Catlins and were joined by Kat (German.) I got off in Invercargill with Darren, Claire and Cat and Mike drove the rest to Te Anau.

The next day we went to Stewart Island. Not a lot happened on Stewart Island due to the fact that it has Vancouver style downpours most of the day but we managed to walk about a bit and do a trip to Ulva island and I ran into Jax and Double D and we had a couple of pints together.

On the Tuesday (26th) we went back to Invercargill and went to Dominos and got $6 large pizzas. Mine had a bbq base and had onions, jalapenos, spinach and feta on. It was good.

The next morning was my birthday - ! - and we had to get up stupidly early to catch the bus. This time our driver was Don and he drove us to somewhere in the middle of nowhere where we caught the Milford Explorer with Jamie at the wheel. We made a fair few stops, including in Te Anau, before we got to Milford Sound and our cruise. Kiwi passengers had the buffet lunch included in our ticket and we went nuts whilst enjoying the view. Milford Sound is the 2nd wettest place on earth after the Amazon rainforest and 2/3 days have rain so we were very lucky to get blazing sunshine! Milford Sound is also currently in the running to be named one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. One the way home we stopped in Te Anau again and Jamie put on the film Dodgeball as it was getting dark. I'd forgotten how funny that film is. Also got a pretty view of the stars. When we got to Queenie I dumped my stuff, got changed and went to Altitude Bar where Darren and Claire presented me with birthday cake, Jax bought me a bottle of champagne, many other drinks were bought and I did my ski run. One red shot (vodka and raspberry,) one green shot (it was supposed to be chartreuse but those bastards game me tequila), one black shot (JD and Jager) followed by a Jagerbomb. People were impressed by my effort as I now have the privilege of being one of the few people who's done a ski run and not thrown up. The other guys whose birthday it was didn't do so well. Afterwards Double D got me into World Bar and the bouncer, Johnny, carried me out because I was drinking water.

The next day was pretty chilled, went to the endangered birdlife place.

Friday I took the gondola up and did the luge, that was pretty fun.

My last day in QT was spent on a funyaking trip. We took a jetboat (complete with 360 spins) up the river then came back down in an inflatable kayak, with lunch on the way. Good times. I went out with some English people from Kiwi but lost them in Buffalo Bar so I found Jax who was at Revolver and some drinks with her and said goodbye. The next morning I hung around Base for a while yarning to Henry before flying back to WGTN.

I've lost the will to type any more except to say that the birthday cake Michelle had made for me was awesome. It was a mudcake duck and they put relighting candles on it. Good times!

Of Kiwis, Poms and Jafas

I don't know what it is about New Zealanders and nicknaming people after fruit. They are kiwis, Brits are poms (pomes originally, with pomme being French for apple) and Aucklanders are Jafas (and there are jaffa oranges, no?)

Not got much to report other than it's my radio show tonight. You know the drill.

Off topic

This post has absolutely sod all to do with my year abroad. Feel free to skip over this, unless you want to read some of my more general rambling.

This evening I had the best idea ever*

*probably not but I say it's still a good one.

Steam punk Doctor Who.

Eh?

Quite.

You'll have to bear with me on this but A) Let's face it, being a scriptwriter for Doctor Who would be a fracking amazing job. B) It's just begging to be done. Not that I've ever written a script before but I have written steampunk before (I have? Yes. I only realised that earlier too, I just didn't know at the time what it was. It involves a half-elf, half-vampire aviatrix named Arienette. Apparently I wrote this in early 2006. This is the kinda shit my 15 year old brain produced.) Although I'm not going to lie, I will probably have more fun inventing the look of the characters rather than writing the script. It's on my to do though.

So is finishing the Arienette story.

And the Le Chat Noir story (see dystopian Britain.)

And my dissertation.

And whatever the hell I submit with my MA application.

Oh, and the mods and rockers reworking of Romeo and Juliet. Again, I suspect the look of the characters will be waaaaaay more fun than the script.

Oh yeah, and figuring out my costumes for Lincoln. Totally going to buy a nerf gun and jazz it up a bit.

This is one of the upsides of having a personality disorder, my mind works in a slightly bizarre way. Great for creative stuff, terrible for interpersonal stuff.

EDIT: I forgot to say, you should totally read the Mortal Engines series. I'd lend them to you (who are you?) but I suck and don't have the first book and the other three will make NO sense without the first. So ja, read them (or at least the first) then combine it with Doctor Who and you'll get where I'm going with this.

Second Lake

Those are some of the photos I took at Rotorua or Second Lake as it's translated into English. I've got a tonne of photos from a certain movie set but I'm not allowed to show you those as I signed a big legal thing saying that I wouldn't. If you really want, I'll take pictures of the things I bought there so you can see those. They are pretty.

After the movie set I went to Te Puia for a tour and a Maori cultural evening. I saw geysers, the haka and a poi dance and I ate a hungi. The next day I did the duck tour and went to the Polynesian Spa which is apparently one of the top ten spas in the world.

Between my panic attack and sitting reading the Wikileaks book, I'm fairly sure I weirded out the other passengers on my flights.

In other news, I'll be back on the radio on Wednesday, 9-11pm Kiwi time. You can listen here if you fancy. I'm unofficially calling my show The Mixtape. The theme for next Wednesday is bands I've seen live. It could be an interesting mix!

I've also applied for my classes for next year. We'll see what I end up on. I also need to fill in my dissertation proposal form. I roughly know what I want to do, I just need to get round to filling in the form.

Finally got round to booking my bus tour for Easter. I can't confirm a seat on the exact date I want until nearer the time but theoretically I'll be leaving at some godawful time on the morning of April 15th and we'll take the interislander and arrive in Picton around lunchtime. I'm flying back from Queenstown on May 1st. It was a choice between paying more money and being very scared on a turboprop or staying on the coach and going through Christchurch. I decided that I feel more uneasy about earthquakes than I do about flying on iffy planes. But then again, I've been on more flights than I've experienced earthquakes. I slept through another one the other night.

I'm going to Reading over the August Bank Holiday and to Lincoln in September. I'm not sure when I'm going back to Norwich. I expect someone will invite me to something up there at some point. Hopefully we can figure out a promising date for my do at The Bicycle Shop that Lauren has offered to organise. Hopefully people will turn up. Lauren has promised to nag Kav, Christina and Tom to come. I may suggest that someone brings a Scrabble board. If nothing else, unless there's something major going on, Inigo will be there.

Diiiiiiiiiiiiirty

OMFG! Lush UK now has a whole new range of Dirty products!

For those of you with no idea what I'm on about, Dirty was a range that was sold by the Lush sister shop Be Never to Busy to Be Beautiful until everything turned to custard at the end of 2008.

Lush NZ doesn't have them yet. I know this because I was in Lush today.

It's my birthday next month. Just sayin'

Here is a picture of me on top of Mount Victoria and one of Wellington harbour.

I don't know why it's put the photos like that!

Herrow :3

It is I. I fail at updating this, it seems. I guess between eating pineapple lumps, trying to book gigs (nearly got one!) and pissing myself laughing at Uncyclopedia, there's no time for blogging!

Not a vast amount has happened in Kiwiland since I last wrote anything. Michelle and I went out for dinner to La Casa Pasta on Monday because neither of us fancied dinner at Vic. House. It cost just over $20 or about £10 as we call it.

On Wednesday we went to see HIStory which is a Michael Jackson tribute show. The tickets were free and the guy was pretty good. Before that I'd gone to an earthquake meeting for international students. It was taken by an Irish woman. She thought I was Irish. Weird accent is weird. Before that I went to my first tutorial/seminar. It was weird and awkward because some gobshite started effing and jeffing at the tutor and I was the only person who seemed to know anything about American politics in the 1890s. And before that I went out for lunch at Molly Malone's with my buddy Steffi and her boyfriend Chris.

At some point I'm going to make a spreadsheet of numbers to be rung if it all turns to custard in Wellington. I'll send that over to the parental unit and hope that they don't lose it. I've decided that I'm heading to Kelburn Park if things go wrong because it's A) Near me B) An open space C) High up and D) Near a civil defence centre.

In other news, Fuji have decided to send me a new camera. They sent one that takes AA batteries but the nice man in the camera shop decided I wouldn't like that so he's sending it back and asking for a lithium battery instead. He reckons I'll end up with a slightly better camera than before. Win? I certainly hope so as next week I'm going to Rotorua! I'm going to visit Hobbiton and a Maori centre on the Friday. Not sure about Saturday but there's a good chance I'll take the gondola up and then luge back down :)

In other other news, I've applied to write for the student newspaper but they fail and haven't gotten back to me. I do, however, have a training session with VBC tomorrow. It's from 2-3pm NZDT, which is 1-2am Friday on GMT and 5-6pm Thursday on PST. Any other timezone, you can work it out yourself.

In further news, I think I've figured out what I'm going to do over Easter. I shall book it in the morrow. It involves Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney. Yay!

Oh, and for those of you who haven't heard, I'm heading to Lincoln in September for Weekend at the Asylum, a steampunk event run by the Victorian Steampunk Society (just Google this.) I may well be an airship pirate.

Oh! And Michelle has invited me to a waffles, booze and stuff night on Saturday. I shall bring my unopened Kiwi cider, see what it's like.

British things :D

So, Friday was the 6 month anniversary of me leaving the country. Doesn't really feel like it lol.

In other news, yesterday I went to town with Tracy, Lucy and Michelle and we went to the 'big' New World (supermarket.) I had been forewarned that this branch had lots of British imports. They weren't kidding.

I ended up with the following items:

A mug

A box of Twinings

A pack of Galaxy

3 bags of Scampi Fries

A bottle of Irn Bru

A bottle of Coke

A bottle of cider

As they were imports they were way more expensive than normal but tbh I was just really excited to see British stuff. They also had Walkers crisps and Marmite crisps but they didn't have the special RND crisps. I have requested that we don't go back there unless I get an urgent need for Irn Bru or something lol.

Also, we had hash browns at brunch today. This made me very happy.

I felt another quake the other night and I've not felt two. This site will keep you informed, just look for stuff that says Wellington/Hutt/Petone.

Lack of sleeeeeeeeeeeep...

Yesterday I had my first earthquake (it was ok, it was over before I realised what was happening) and my first fire alarm. It was at 5:30am. I was not impressed. Michelle was even less impressed as she had a 9am class!

That's all for now, I think!

Fran Roberts, music PR intern

'tis true. I'm going to be booking shows for this lady here. I'll crack on with that this evening. It's written on my table o' time under LATE.

LATE = anything after 7. I figured if I'm meant to be dealing with people in the UK, it'd probably help if I did it at a reasonable time for them.

Er, wish me luck. I really don't want to screw this up...

Things and stuff

This stupid blog won't let me name the entry what I wanted to grr. Here is an update of the last week.

Sunday:- Michelle arrived! We went out for lunch with her parents and her sister Sarah (Sarah is doing a teaching course here.) We went to Petone (pee-tony) which is the town next to Wellington (I think.) After lunch we drove up to Makara (makra) where we could see the south island! We were then dropped off back home in time for the BBQ.

Monday:- The RAs woke us up by setting the fire alarm off at 7am. We then had to do boot camp (a Vic. House tradition) which involved stupid games on Boyd Wilson field and carrying settees and mattresses up and down hills. I was unimpressed. At lunch time we had the civic welcome which is basically all the first year houses sitting in the civic square and yelling stupid chants at each other. In the evening we had vitesse datant aka French night aka speed dating aka human bingo. I won a bag of Jaffas and a little cup for coming in first place ;-) Afterwards I went to the Big Kumara for a couple of pints.

Tuesday:- I managed to finally get enrolled (albeit on a course that doesn't exist) and in the evening we went on a ferry ride around the harbour. In the rain.

Wednesday:- Pretty much dossed about all day and then did Operation Orientation in the evening. Pretty sure we came last but it was fun and we went on the cable car :D I met a girl from BSE :D I've noticed that there's a lot of ex-Brits here ie people who grew up in the UK and then moved to Kiwiland at a later date. People still keep getting confused by my accent. A worrying amount of people think I'm either a Kiwi or a Yank :|

Thursday:- I went to campus coaches at lunch time and then onto the faculty orientation. In the evening we had sexalogical (cross-dressing sex quiz.) I won best dressed boy and got a back massager of dubious shape as my prize.

Friday:- Went to the big play out in the morning (think assault courses, bouncy castle Twister, and human foosball.) Went up to uni in the afternoon to sort out my courses, bought duck wrapping paper for our door and the student notes for my classes (ordered the books off the internet...) In the evening we had the Zombie Ball. I had to leave and come back because stupid country is stupid and doesn't accept my drivers license as ID. The music wasn't my kind of thing, there were $9 bottles of Bulmers, it was due to end at 1am but ended at 11:30pm due to noise control/lack of people. The union bar has only just reopened, apparently it wasn't very popular (something I've noticed from other unis with multiple campuses.)

Saturday:- Went in to town, found a nice shop where I was told to bring my camera and receipt in during the week and they'll talk to Fujifilm for me :) in the evening I went to see 'A Winter's Tale' performed in the botanical gardens with Michelle, Sarah, and Sarah's friend Rachel. I was quite surprised when the actors came on stage to see that my campus coach, Oscar, was in the production.

Sunday: Today has been a fairly chilled day before tomorrow, took the house photo. Asking Lauren if I can apply for an internship with her.

I think that's it...

Just to remind you all...

As I'm sure you're probably aware Christchurch, or ChCh as it's known here, got kicked in the balls whilst it was already on the ground. Obviously, in a country this small, a lot of people have been affected by it and there are people in my halls from the area who have friends and family down there. I'm very lucky as I live on the other island but we do still have earthquakes. If you hear of a quake in Wellington, then panic. In the meantime, if you're feeling generous, please donate some money to rescue & rebuilding efforts. I went shopping earlier and plonked my change into a collection box. I wanted to donate blood but I'm not allowed to.

In other news, things seem to be going ok with the whole room share thing although we've not got a lot in common. Michelle's parents have invited me to visit over Easter so once I know what my timetable is like, I'll start planning what I want to do for the break. I might go down to the south island for a week and then stay with her for a week. Michelle's mum's birthday is the day after mine!

There's probably loads of crap I need to update you on but for now, up there is a picture of me on Monday at the beach party at The Big Kumara. I went with some other people from Vic house and the guy next to me is William. I can report that Isaac's cider ($4.50) is quite nice.

Facebook stalking ;-)

After working my way through the list of recipients on the welcome email who don't have name based addresses, I have finally found my room mate. Unfortunately, all I can see is her profile pic. There are two girls in it, so one of them is her. It's between dark curly hair or dark straight hair. That'll do.

Am feeling a lot better after managing to keep some bread and rice in me. Met some more people today. Hopefully tomorrow will be alright *nervous*

EDIT: Quick perusal of her friends list seems to indicate that she is the girl with the dark straight her. The hoodie with 'Shelly' on it kinda gave it away.

frdhyu

Dear father, this is going to be another 'depressing' post because I'm ill.

Today I have spent most of the day in bed. I got it together enough to walk up the big fucking hill to enrol. Then I realised I'd left the form behind. The people were pretty much like 'Go home, get some rest, come back on Monday.' They can tell I'm ill because I'm wearing a hoodie in blazing sunshine (yet they can't tell my accent, they all seem very surprised when I tell them I'm an international student :S)

In other news, just got a message from Lauren saying that she'd like to organise my returning thing in Norwich at The Bicycle Shop and what did I make of it?

If the truth be told, I have no idea what I make of it. But she's good at organising things, so it's mighty tempting.

Windows Fran needs a new anti-virus

I can't remember if I mentioned before that I've been feeling like shit since Sunday. Anyway, today Jesse (my senior RA who turned 20 yesterday :O ) pretty much told me I was going to student health services because I look so rough. I survived the walk back up the hill, saw a Canadian, and then got charged $63 for the pleasure of being told that I have a virus and there's nothing they can do for me except tell me to take paracetamol and hide in bed. Gah. When I'm more alive, I'll figure out how I can claim this back on the insurance.

ION, I got my bank card today :D

Today was orientation. I haven't met a single Brit yet, and they don't have many partner unis. I'm the only one from UEA and they're also partnered with Leeds, City, RH, Lancaster, and Surrey. There are lots of other Europeans here (particularly Germans) and a shit load of Americans (who I already want to slap in to the next millenium.)

I really hope I'm less dead by the time Michelle arrives (I've also learned that she is 18) otherwise we may have a problem.

Also, a close friend has just gotten some really bad news in their family. Feel a bit useless being so far away at this time :(

Give it some Welly!

Long time, no blog. Blame Fiji.

There's perhaps one photo from my Hollywood tour because I own the worst camera in the world (I've spied a few shops that look like they may be able to help and if they still can't then it's time to put it in a box and send it back to Fuji - I found the receipt too.)

Fiji was interesting. My arrival in to the country was somewhat unexpected, being escorted by police wasn't what I was planning. Most of you who read this already know what happened. If you don't, then just ask and I will tell. I did however meet a very nice girl named Christina on the flight. She is from Washington state, about an hour and a half from Seattle.

Here's a general rundown of what I did:

Tuesday: Arrived, showered, napped, went for a full body massage.

Wednesday: Went to Southsea Island. Went on a sub-boat-thing, learned to snorkel (where I met Hannah & Jonathan) and got stung by sea-lice (baby jellyfish to normal people), exchanged contacts with Hannah & Jonathan (forgot to say, they're Aussies) over lunch and then went kayaking, which didn't go very well and resulted in me getting very burned and cutting my foot open when the tide slammed the kayak into it. Went home, had an allergic reaction (most likely the mosquito cream. I got bitten a lot.)

Thursday: Went to Robinson Crusoe Island, met Corina (another Aussie), watched the traditional dancing, tried fresh coconut, had a traditional lovo meal (cooked in the ground) and did the pamper package - massage, manicure & pedicure for $60 (or about £20!)

Friday: Went to Port Denarau and met Christina for lunch. After she caught her transfer, I tried to find Hannah & Jonathan (and Paul & Jillian who I didn't know they were with). They weren't in so I left them a note.

Saturday: Went to the temple in Nadi. On the way bumped in to Hannah, Jillian & Paul, had lunch with them and then went to Denarau with them and played volleyball in the pool at their resort.

Sunday: Spent the day at Chedly & Ellen's house (the hostel owners) as nothing was open on Sunday because A) It's a Sunday B) The Monday was a public holiday C) The country was in mourning because the old president had just died. We were going to go up to the mud-hot-springs thing but the weather was too bad so we stayed in and watched films and the USA sevens with their friends and family.

I arrived in NZ yesterday. The flight was fine and Auckland airport is officially my favourite one. My shampoo and shower jelly exploded all over my case. Got to Wellington and found out that I could move in that day so once we got there, I went and explained things to the hostel I was booked in to. I live in a shared room so I should be meeting my room mate, Michelle, on Sunday aka moving day. I've met a few people so far, including my RA Nicole, and they all seem nice. I just hope I can shift my flu-y-ness before Sunday. I hope Michelle is nice.

Today I set up an account with the National Bank, I should hopefully get my card on Friday. I've not paid my fees yet and my cards don't like the chip & pin machines here :S I bought a few bits and bobs (new shower gel, air freshener, a mirror because I couldn't locate where it was, a notepad, some plastic glasses and some lens cleaner.) I can't buy a fresher's pass (or O week as they call it here) because I don't have a Vic. ID and I can't get that until I enrol, which is Friday (grr.) Hopefully I will make it to some stuff, there is a neon toga party which sounds fun. I bought some Zubrowka at the Fiji duty free but I will have to hide it as it's against the rules to have any alcohol in rez during orientation, study, and exam weeks.

I will have uber legs by the time I return home. I live on a hill. To get to uni you go up it, to get to town you go down it. Wellington is very hilly but apart from that, it reminds me a lot of Norwich. I really like it here so far, it feels like home. We'll see how things go over the next little while :)

I forgot to say, according to the inflight magazine, cider is becoming the cool drink in NZ ;-) they also have the BEST money over here. The $10 note has Kate Sheppard on one side and the blue duck on the other :D :D :D

My eyes a camera, my feelings film

It's ok if you don't understand what the title is about because I'm linking you to the explanation. I hope the link is good because I can't check. I'm in the quiet area, see, because one of the girls in my room got into an almighty huff because I was using 'her' socket :S See Fakebook for snarky status on the matter.

I'm in LA. It's not a dirty as people said, although oh my lord, you need to be an expert people dodger to get anywhere. Today I was accosted by beggars (fairly standard on the west coast, it's the weather, see), guys selling tours (I booked myself on one for tomorrow), a bloke selling his EP, a guy dressed as the guy from Scream, people asking me to take their photo for them, and the people from the Church of Scientology. They wanted to know if I wanted a free stress test. I pretended to be deaf and carried on walking. I don't need a stress test, I know I'm stressed, haha.

So far I've wandered up the walk of fame, been to Grauman's Chinese theatre and finally got myself a new handbag. The tour tomorrow is one of those go see the Hollywood sign, see where 'famous' people live, see the shops I can't afford to go into type things. I imagine it'll be cheesy but fun. I should probably try taking the bus tomorrow, the whole hour and a half walk to Hollywood Blvd. is kinda destroying my feet. That and I don't think I've recovered from my last day in San Fran, where I decided to walk to Lombard St. (the winding one) then to Fisherman's Wharf then back again. There's a reason San Fran has lots of trams and things. Anyway, the best way I can describe that walk is to tell you to imagine walking around a crooked house (a la the one in Southend) whilst drunk.

I'm sure there's probably some other crap I should be telling you but I am le tired (it's bloody cold here at night so it takes a while to get to sleep)

The Fran o'clock news

Good evening. Here is a round up of today's news in the land of Fran:

- My camera appears to be working again. The man in the shop blamed the weather (was he secretly English?) and then tried to sell me a new one.

- For $8.75 I got myself a pair of turquoise capri pants, so I at least have something for my first few hours in Fiji. And they come below my knee, so I don't need to wear my sarong with them.

- The housing situation is down to two houses. On the same road. I know which one I prefer but it looks like we could be at a massive loggerheads situation here. We'll see how this pans out. I'm really hoping that somebody snaps up the house I'm not so keen on so that it resolves the situation.

- I've just spent nearly two hours talking to Farah on Skype. She seems nice and whilst I do see her points, I'm not sure if she can see mine. Maybe I don't articulate myself very well, so I shall try to explain things here in the hope that I make more sense. I'm hoping to get hold of one of the parentals in the next few hours to discuss things with them.

House no.1 (the one I want)

- 4 bedrooms

- Has a tennant already there who will be continuing to live there.

- As there is already a tennant, less faffing about with the bills.

- Is let by a lady

- £240/month

- Comes with tv

- Only single-glazed

House no. 2

- 3 bedrooms

- Is let by an agency

- £260/month

- No tv

- Double-glazed

- All bedrooms are doubles

Now, to me it seems obvious why we should have house no.1 The arguments against it go thus:

- Farah doesn't want to live with a guy

- Only single-glazed so will cost more

- Is bigger than house no. 2 so bills will be more

- 3 people = closer knit house.

I appreciate the points being made but here is why I think house no.1 is better

- Rent is less.

- House is bigger

- I've seen pics of it

- I have never known a house of 3 to work peacefully. It often ends up with 2 people being buddy-buddy and the other person being a spare. At UBC I lived on the same floor as nearly 40 people are it was the most harmonious place I've lived because there were more options for hanging out etc.

- The thought of an all-female house terrifies me slightly (I get on better with blokes. That's fairly obvious from the fact that all bar one of my closest friends are blokes.)

- I genuinely don't think that £20 extra/month for a house on the exact same street can be justified by it having double-glazing/less room to heat.

- Inigo used to pay £260-ish for his old room which was including all the bills so I really don't see how it's justified.

Yo.

I'm in SF atm. Eugene was very fun and Rose and her housemates were very friendly and welcoming. Rose told me today that they all said how much they'd missed me last night after I'd gone.

My camera is a little funny. I'm not sure why. I'm going to try to find somewhere in SF tomorrow to see if they can fix it.

My luggage is a massive pain. The new bag is bigger than the old one and therefore even though it has the same amount of stuff in it, it's heavier than the old one, which has led to fun times at checkin. United made me stuff loads into the smaller case, which then wouldn't shut, so they taped it shut :S Amtrak made me take out stuff and put it in a box. Fuck knows what Air Pacific and Air NZ will do. Hopefully just charge me a fuckload to keep it as is (you know things are bad when this is what you're hoping for.) Booked my flight home today. Will be back on Sunday July 3rd. If you're reading this, Mr Lazar-Gillard, I expect you to be in attendance with a polypin or two. An Aubrey would be good too but I very much doubt either of us can persuade/bribe him into it. So I shall just have to wait a while until I see him (probably for the best.) There is, of course, the option of turning up at city hall whenever I'm next in Norwich and scaring the crap out of him (it looks quite likely, for various reasons, that I'll be about towards the end of July. If not, I have decided that my very belated 21st/welcome back thing: The Norwich edition shall be held over the bank holiday weekend.)

I went to Macy's today and got this because it was nice. The shoes in the picture are ones I got in a vintage shop in Eugene, with a view to wearing them with my suit. I also got a haircut in Eugene as I hadn't had one since I left the country :S

Dude, I think this whole town is high

So sayeth the t-shirt I bought today in Denver. Ami and I took the bus to Denver today after we went to her psychology lecture. It was fun and I also bought a new camera (Ben lent me his but the batteries refused to charge - I'll post it back soon) and a new suitcase (the exploding shampoo and conditioner was the final straw with the old one.) The new suitcase is big and red. The new camera looks like this. I'm hoping that whoever found my previous camera did the right thing and handed it in to Continental, and that it is on it's way back to the Heath. If not, I hope that the holiday photos of us will convince that person to do the right thing. If not, I hope a tree falls on them.

Boulder was awesome and I didn't get altitude sickness, just a little nosebleed earlier (the Rockies seem to make me have nosebleeds, as evidenced by the ones I had on the train to Toronto.) I'm hoping the journey to Eugene tomorrow is ok and that Rose's house won't be too tricky to find lol.

Hope you like the picture selection :)

Rocking out in Boulder

I made it ok! In 5 minutes I'm going to head out so that I can meet Ami for dinner.

Quick list of things that have happened:

-Lost my camera.

-Suitcase broke even more. Somebody checked my bags and fixed it so that the zip isn't gaping open everywhere. Thank you, nice TSA person.

-I own a suit.

-I got a place in halls at Vic.

-I've been assigned a buddy at Vic.

Oh no :(

I will update properly and I will pack properly but right now I should go to bed because I am very sad.

Do you remember last month I wrote about the death of Jake Staines and how I thought the passenger was probably his fiancee Holly, who I also knew?

His funeral was a couple of days ago and in the facebook tribute group I read the following, as written by Holly's dad:

Holly remembered Jake today. We told her what happened. She knows but I don't think she understands yet.

I'm not an expert in such things, by any means, but I can't help feeling that things might've been better if neither of them had survived. They'd been together since they were 13 and been engaged since they were 16. They were a year older than me. You don't have to be a genius to work out that that's a damned long time. I can only hope that Holly will recover ok and will some day be able to love again. I can only point to the case of Czech model Petra Nemcova who lost her fiance during the 2004 Tsunami and is now engaged to somebody else. Apologies for linking to The Daily Fail/The Daily Hate Mail but it was the most reliable source (?!)

Locked in a basement in Halifax

That's where I am now. I'm not complaining as I have the entire dorm to myself. Apparently Halifax is deader than dead at this time of year. Not sure why, it's warmer than Montreal was! I do hope nobody decides to turn up and stay in this room as well, because it's currently decorated with my washing. The dryer didn't work and I wasn't paying another $1.25 to try the other one. Oh well. The receptionist scared the shit out of me when he tried to open the door a while back. I stuck my head out and was like 'WTF?!' and he was like 'I just wanted to make sure you'd locked it' which was nice to know that he cared.

So, Montreal. Was fun, although speaking more French would've been good. Managed a few half conversations so I think I deserve a pat on the back. I went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, the biosphere (where I took photos for mother as they had an exhibition on making outfits from waste materials) and I took a walk around the gay village and Mont Royal park. A lot of stuff was closed due to the weather. Walking around Montreal was not fun (which is why they have many miles of tunnels built under the city to link important places so that people don't die) as the snow had begun to thaw. And then there was more snow. So you ended up with snow over black ice. Not good. The metro is a bit weird too as the doors have an unnerving habit of opening before the train actually stops. Other things that happened in Montreal include me getting asked for money by a woman in a fur coat (?!), arguing with Lance and Nanoo over various things including super-colliders in Texas, having wine with Lance and Paul (the hostel owner), Paul letting me check out late, eating vegetarian poutine, and getting seriously started with househunting with Kirsty.

Ottawa was very confusing. I spent the day at the national gallery. I can safely say that modern art DOESN'T make me want to rock out. Some of it what quite cool but a lot of it made me think eh?! A blind toddler could've done that. There are no pictures from Ottawa. There wasn't really anything I wanted to photograph lol.

The train to Halifax. The first bit was shitty. The train was uber-booked and I was sat next to a very fidgety woman who only spoke French. So yeah, that was pretty crappy. The upside was, she got off at Bathurst (an early-ish morning stop) which gave me the opportunity to snaffle both seats and go back to sleep. There wasn't much to see view-wise and we got delayed by an hour thanks to a broken down freight train but it was all good. Halifax seems very nice so far. Also, my hostel was literally just round the corner from the station so I looked like a bit of an idiot with my $3-something cab fare. Tbf, the driver also reckoned that I probably wouldn't have made it with my crap.

In other news, I only got onto one of my course selections at Vic. so now I'm having to make some more lol. This university is le stupid.

In other other news, I have blisters on my fingers, a gash on my ankle and my handbag has broken. The question is, do I get a new one in Halifax or wait until New York?

Oh my fuck, she's written an update!

Yes, it's true! I'm updating properly (perhaps minus pics but hey ho, we shall see.) I'm currently writing to you from Montreal (where the question is 'Parlez vous Francais ou Anglais?' and the answer is always 'Anglais.' At least I understand the question!)

Because I suck at updating, I shall be bulletpointing what I did between now and my last proper update.

Vancouver

• Went to Granville Island. Bought a bag, some luggage tags, a damned nice cuppa and a hammock chair.
• Went to the aquarium. Saw axolotls! Also stroked some anemones, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish.
• Went to Canada place and saw the Olypmic Cauldron, as lit by The Great One, Wayne Gretzky aka the king and god of Canada. Look him up, you'll see why.
• Skated at Robson Square. Then got drunk with some Kiwis.
• Saw the Ricmond Oval but missed the skating session.
• Christmas trivia quiz.
• Lynn Canyon, which was fairly shitty and rainy and almost everything was closed.

The train

• Not as bad as you'd think it'd be. Saw Mount Robson which is the highest point in the Rockies.

Toronto

• CN tower. Queued forever and ended up going up in the dark, but everything was lit up which was nice. When to the Skypod.
• Met Martin for a drink.
• Went to Niagara Falls (which is pretty much like a British seaside town) froze my arse off, tasted wine. Bought wine.
• Tim Burton exhibition!
• Shoe museum!
• Hockey hall of fame!
• Spent NYE at Wayne Gretzky's (the restaurant, not his house) and the hostel bar. Got given a glass of Baby Duck :D
• Everything pretty much shut on new years day so I went to the TIFF lightbox (where the Tim Burton exhibition is - it's Toronto's version of the BFI) and saw The Tempest. It was alright.
• Got the frak out of there!

Montreal

• Not much so far. Made peanut noodles for foods. Hostel is very nice. AND guess what?! The bathrooms are individual little lockable rooms with a shower, loo and sink! That's right, for the first since I came over here, there won't be people in the room as I take a shower!