Duldrums and Decorations

Sunday, December 12th, 2010
Oakura, Taranaki

There's been a lot going on in my world recently, and at the same time it feels like not much has happened. At the forefront of my thoughts at the moment is the fact that Matt and I have had a terribly rough few days in regards to our relationship. I want to be honest on this blog and let you know that even though we are having pretty awesome adventures, it does get really hard sometimes, and that we fight and cry and have pretty terrible days once in awhile. That said, privacy is important, and I don't care to elaborate on our current situation much, besides to say that the vast majority of the issues at stake are entirely my fault. We're not out of the woods yet, but we are recovering and I am attempting to truly rework and renew my desire to be the best partner I can be to Matt. He deserves it, and I owe it to both of us to get it together and give way more than I have been. I'll leave it at that.

What with gray weather, crappy moods and a lack of surf over the past several days, there are few big adventures to note, but a couple smaller things of interest. First of all, when we were stranded in town on Friday with the car in the shop for its Warrant of Fitness check-up, I decided to go through with something I've been thinking about for awhile, and came away with a new 'do. Check it out:

I am in love with it! I really like having long hair, and while I've had short cuts a couple times before, this is by far my favorite! It's light and fluffy and I have to do absolutely nothing to style it, as the shape comes from the way it was cut. I think I'll keep this one for awhile...

In news from the natural world, we discovered a colony of stick insects in one of the bushes by the deck. I had only seen small ones before; these guys here are about four inches long. They fascinate me and also sort of give me the heebie-jeebies.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

 There are at least 3 stick insects in this photo. Can you find them all?

 A molted stick insect skin. 

How cool is that?

And in the food realm, after months of missing Mexican food (we saw one pseudo-Mexican restaurant in Auckland, and none since then), we realized that we could, in fact, cook some ourselves! A scouring of the supermarket yielded taco spice, tortillas, and other essentials. We haven't found black beans or pinto beans since arriving in NZ, and kidney beans just don't work with tacos (in our opinion), so we were pretty chuffed to find a can labeled "Chilli Beans" with pictures of small red beans on the label. Alas, when we opened the can it turned out to be a sort of gooey baked bean/chili mish-mash that, to me, was not acceptable in the realm of burritos! Oh well. I made a good fresh salsa, which I prefer over store-bought anyway, and definitely beats the "taco sauce" that is sold here (not the same thing as salsa).

Heaven on a plate (yes, that's pineapple). 

And finally, we are attempting to get into the Christmas spirit here at the Wavehaven. We were talking yesterday with Nigel and Megan, who have been having the same difficulty we are experiencing: how do you wrap your brain around Christmas in the middle of summer when you have grown up with cold Northern Hemisphere midwinter Christmases? We've all been having a hard time realizing that Christmas is only two weeks away, so clearly something had to be done. So, this morning we pulled out a load of holiday decorations that I had unearthed in a cupboard a few weeks ago, put on some Christmas music, and set to work. It was good fun, and now the Wavehaven is fully decorated in an extremely stylish and classy fashion. Observe our hijinks:

 I made it my personal goal to fit as many ornaments as possible on the tiny (artificial) tree...

 The halls were suitably decked....

 ...as were the fridges...

...and the telly, which Nigel thought needed dressing up. 

The music and decorating did seem to bring the desired effect. I am feeling much more Christmas-y now that I am surrounded by tinsel and stockings, and Megan seems to be in the Christmas mindset as well, as evidenced by her shenanigans:

That's about all I've got for now. I have a bit of cleaning to do and some job-searching, and then hopefully will get out of the house for a little while. I have a new goal of taking a walk on the beach every day that we don't surf (I was pretty much doing that before, but it's a good thing to stick to for good), and yesterday Matt was out with the car all day, and I got pretty stir-crazy. It was a bit stormy and I could hear the ocean from here, a few kilometres from the shore, and I wanted to see it. So in the afternoon I took a rainy, foggy walk all the way down to Ahu Ahu Beach. It's a good 45 minute hike each direction, but it felt great, and it was really calming, somehow, to see the ocean all gray and white and stirred up and to only see the first 30 yards of it, with such close fog and clouds. When Matt gets back from work today, I'm planning to head over for a jaunt along Oakura Beach, as I haven't had a good wander there yet. I think I'll try and walk all the beaches around here if I can, so Back Beach is next!

Here's hoping everyone is enjoying the run-up to the holidays wherever you are, and whichever bits you celebrate!