Marsden is Here

D had a Significant Birthday this year, and with some money from her inheritance chose to take us both Sydney for a long weekend, and to cram as much into the few days as possible.

This was my first time out of the country, which meant that I had to bite the proverbial bullet and get a passport. This was a bit of an exercise in itself as the photo we paid for from the chemist wasn't adequate and we ended up just having E take photos of me against the kitchen wall with my phone and using the online tool at passports.govt.nz until we got one that was good enough (the main issue was shadows around the eyes).

( Travel log, very long with photos and links to galleries )
Overall despite some hiccups it was a very enjoyable and interesting, if full on with little-to-no time to relax, trip with lots of new experiences and many good memories made.

Some months ago we were given notice of my brother (B) and his fiancé's (R) wedding, to be held beach-side in the the Coromandel. After looking at the costs and logistics of flights, rental cars etc just for a weekend trip versus the cost of the ferry, and discovering that there was a quilt show on that we could feasibly visit en-route, the decision was made that we could afford for me to take a week and a half off work, E would be taken out of school (which she could mostly keep up with remotely) and we would make an overdue family holiday of it, visiting places that D hadn't been in years and completely new territory for the other two of us.

( long post is long )

Thoughts in vaguely structured order.

17th of Sept (a Saturday) was the memorial service for D's mother, who passed away at the beginning of August. D. flew up at the beginning of the week to spend some time with the boys and help with organising. E, myself, and my Mum flew up on the Friday. One evening during the week I helped out formatting the service sheets via a google doc.

( Friday/Saturday )
( Sunday )

The weekend just been D, E and myself flew to Auckland to see the Lion King, as who knows when a show of its like will be in NZ again and who knows when we will be able to remotely afford such a trip again. The trip has been in planning since the announcement, including reserving presale tickets to the matinee on the Sunday afternoon.

I'm sure I would have enjoyed the weekend more had I not been running on emotional fumes for the past few weeks.

( Saturday )
( Sunday )
( Monday )

On January 11th D. and I proclaimed our commitment to each other in front of a gathering of family and friends. On January 13th we sorted out the paperwork in a registry wedding (which was planned for the 10th, but doofus here left it too late making the booking). From January 13th - 16th we were on honeymoon.

( Lead up )

( Ceremony and after )

( What we did on our honeymoon )

For the first time in many many years (since 2006) I attended KapCon. It's something I've been meaning to get back to but if money wasn't an issue then it was finding the spoons to organise travel and accommodation. This year I had additional incentive and logistics assistance :) (And an ice cream container of home-baked gluten-free chocolate chip cookies to help sustain me over the weekend <3 )

I was skeleton crew at work for the first week back, so I was not able to travel up early and help set up. Flying in Friday night I simply taxied to meet D. at our hotel. The accommodation was nothing fancy, but it did at least provide the opportunity for a cooked breakfast on site Saturday morning before heading to the venue.

Although I recognised quite a few faces, and got to put faces to some names, I didn't really spend much time over the weekend actually talking to people. I did get to play several systems I have heard of but not experienced before.

( games played and other activities )

The weekend started as planned, in that I got to the airport and parked in good time. After that things went a bit awry. It turned out that fog had prevented some earlier flights landing so (at least) three flights /out/ of Christchurch had been cancelled, including mine, due to not having the aircraft available.

( elsnippo )

I took a couple of extra days this weekend to travel to Dunedin (Friday - Sunday) and recuperate/get the chores done (today).

The drive was a bit nerve-wracking in both directions - although I ought *not* have been tired I found myself at risk of nodding off / zoning out behind the wheel more times than I would have liked. And on the return trip the weather came in wet and *dark* between Ashburton and Chch which didn't help.

Dunedin itself was mostly good, turning on a beautiful day on Saturday much of which I spent traipsing around town / catching up with first salahdra and then S. My legs did not thanks me for this on Saturday evening/Sunday.

Friday evening I dropped in on avaiaal at work but it was quite busy so there wasn't time for more than a hug :( It was the first weekend back for the Uni - there were drunk students everywhere. I had just driven past one party which appeared to be being broken up by police.

Sunday I had lunch with micheinnz before heading back north.

In between times I mostly spent at my excuse for the trip, the OURS minicon, either playing board games or, as my busy social calendar meant I kept getting there after people were all organised into games, watching/listening to people play games (somewhat bored). I should have taken my Russian homework and some other reading material to the con with me but I kept leaving that behind in my motel room :-/ Fortunately for me (and only me) the Saturday night LARP didn't reach critical mass.

Games I played over the weekend included Blood Bonds[?] which was OK but not something I'd like to play a lot, DC Heroes (mostly the new set), Biblios, Seven Wonders (with and without expansions) and briefly filling in in a game of Fiasco for a player who had to leave, during which I managed to get the character body-swapped with a very angry sentient tavern (instead of the enchanted crow the other characters thought I had been put in - there was a lot of it going around) effectively removing the character from the game by the time I also had to leave.

The weekend proper was completed by an invitation to dinner (which I was lacking the energy to produce myself) by littlel who had over-catered for her evening with a very tasty spiced pork dish.

All very good, but not at all rejuvenating. I feel like I need a long weekend to get over my long weekend - and the week that went before it.

The hall also had several alarms and a few other things which I wound up co-ordinating by phone :(

#Prius round trip (filled tank to passing petrol station again) 735km 4.7L / 100km and that with the a/c on quite a bit.

~~~
Today I slept in longer than planned, and also took a longer-than planed nap in the afternoon evening, but I did also get a number of things achieved which I'm going to list here because hopefully in one place they will look more impressive than the things I planned to achieve but didn't :)

- made a number of information-seeking phone calls / sent emails
- caught up the accounts
- bought the reading list/inbox back under control
- logged on to work and dealt with some urgent stuff
- did laundry
- chopped firewood (acquired minor injury but all fingers accounted for)
- filled the green bin
- prepped for tomorrow nights game
- did Russian homework (some of the actual exercises not just the reviewing I have been doing).
- wrote journal post
- about to go an research something writing post has reminded me of.

The trip down was grey and mostly uneventful. I did stop in at the Ashburton graveyard to track down and photograph the grandparentals headstone (paternals) and plaque (maternals). Otherwise the traffic was surprisingly light - whether because all the rugby fans travelled Friday or later Saturday I don't know.

Anyway,
- arrived safely,
- checked in to cthulhu_dream and satanicpushcart's where I was kindly being put up
- caught up with and farewelled lenfant_de_jeu
- took a much-needed nap (remember I drove down on 5 hours sleep)
- chatted to satanicpushcart and bumped into _nonchalance_ and Slosh over Velvet Burger (I had a Babe and burnt my tongue on the juice)
- motored over to the party which never really got past a drinkies although a lively one. Bailed early at about 11:30 - turns out the reason for the discomfort I was feeling was that something I'd eaten was disagreeing with me, probably the fluffy pastry on the sausage rolls :(
- as a result managed another solid 5 hours sleep plus an incredibly pleasant and guilt-free lie-in / period of dozing.
- emerged to a brilliantly sunny day and an excellent brunch with micheinnz, salahdra and B. Unfortunately H was unable to join us, being out of town and not making it back until I was on the road north.

I really didn't feel like leaving, for those few hours today I was just really happy and relaxed. The trip back to Christchurch was both brighter (sunny) and lonelier than the trip down. Once I was firmly on the road again without distractions of course my brainmeats returned to slowly grinding over the things I have to deal with here over the next few days. Particularly another 3 LJ posts.

I do hope for another good nights sleep - although I was back early enough and awake enough that I could have asked to be back on the Antonio Hall alarms tonight I've chosen not to. If I am really needed for some reason I'm sure M will call me. And after catching up with stuff online, and a shower, and dinner ... I haz a tired.

~~~
Prius stats - Return trip 4.7 L/100km over the 357 km from the forecourt of the petrol station where I usually fill up for the return trip, directly to my garage with no detours for passengers or any other reason. Was only 4.9 L/100km when I checked in Timaru, so doing better than that over the plains.

There was a queue at the petrol station and heavyish traffic north - mostly travelling at a steady pace and quite polite.

~~~
I have returned home to one fewer flatmates and two fewer cats as flufmeister's time as an EQC/Fletchers refugee has ended and they have returned to their repaired flat. I will miss having someone around who is more proactive about doing the dishes than I am, and who voluntarily vacumns. Those chores getting done before they come up on my list has been really helpful over the past few weeks.

So the office is empty but I think I'll hold off moving for another few weeks - until I don't need to turn the heat-pump on in the mornings to make the lounge comfortable. maybe until after the next party here to give people the chance to really draw on the walls.

Friday afternoon I returned my furry guest to her home and headed out of town for a couple of nights. I wasn't as out of touch as usual having acquired a T-Stick and the lodge now having decent mobile coverage (if you're with Telecom). What I wasn't doing was checking anything that might be related to work, except turning on my phone a couple of times just in case (it had been one of those weeks).

Most of my weekend was taken up with either board games or eating, the usual. I briefly wandered outside .. twice. 3 times if you count the group photo.

Games: AlHambra, 500, a marathon game of RoboRally (won!), Hansa, trionimos, Ticket to Ride Europe . Possibly something I've forgotten.

There were fewer people there this year (circumstances :( ), and I actually found that to be an improvement. The previous couple of years I have mostly found it to be crowded and loud. It may just have been that movies weren't a big thing this year, which meant the big room was opened up for general (lit) activity far more.

Even so I think two nights will remain my limit.

I was planning to stay until the end (after lunch today), but it started snowing about 11am and my car (and driving experience) isn't really designed for snow so I played it safe and bailed early. In truth everyone else seemed busy packing and I was standing around bored anyway (probably could have rounded up players for a last short game, but wasn't confident enough :( )

Returned home with a large amount of leftover rice and (very mild, very meaty) chilli, rather more than it looked like in the bags. Guess what I'll be eating for the next couple of days.