This week has been another one of those "oh my goodness, how did this get so hectic?" weeks.

Our landlady and her parents have decided to sell our house. We think that they're selling because they really need the money from the sale, as they brought the property as an investment place to develop in 2007, when the property boom was near it's peak. They're going to try to sell the house as a tenanted property, which is good for us since it might mean that we get a new landlord rather than having to househunt.

I'm sorry to lose this landlady, as she has been really good about doing everything upfront and honestly. We got told about the house sale as soon as it went on the market. She's been reasonably good about getting essentials fixed and she's been prompt about bond deposits etc. Hopefully if we get a new landlord out of this they will be just as good, instead of a plonker like the first one we had.

The land agent has been a bit harder to deal with. He's been very enthusiastic about some of his ideas- he'd like to bring people over whenever he wants to view the section, and he first agreed to 3 open homes and then wanted to change that to 5 open homes starting this weekend. That has been vetoed and changed to 3 open homes starting in 2 weeks time plus 2 "open gardens" starting this Sunday, when the prospective buyers get to stand in the garden appreciating the freshly mowed onion weed and look longingly at the locked house. We've also managed to get a tell us the day before notice deal for people coming onto the section, since it's important to actually tell all the flatmates and to reduce the chances of people being unaware if someone suspicious comes on to the property. High crime rate neighbourhood and all that.

The flat is going to spend the next couple of Saturdays cleaning up the section and the interior of the house. I've got everyone to agree to pitch in, hopefully we can get everything looking respectable.

Just had a look at the photos on the website. Trust Ca' (Porl's very smart and self opinionated cat) to turn up in the photos :).
http://barfoot.co.nz/415684#8

Found a marvellous website for ideas for victorian and 1920s costume:

http://www.antiquedress.com/gallery.htm

It has really good photos of actual womens dresses from those periods!

 Time to make another post!

Today has been a pretty good day. We have very large trees growing at the back of our house, so I spent some time standing outside watching tuis bouncing around in the trees and eating berries from a smaller, unidentified tree. And listened to them singing and scrapping. We tend to get a few native birds around our place. It's nice being able to appreciate nature without having to travel too far to do so. Also had a morepork (small NZ owl) hooting up in the trees early this evening. 

I'm also very much liking the fact that it's inorganic collection time at the moment. We have done some work on de-junking the flat. We've been collecting up stuff to throw in the collection because it's free and all- no point in taking it to the tip and paying if you can put it out for collection instead. It also provides a good opportunity to pick up stuff that is still useful even if someone else doesn't want it. I scored a wooden planter a year ago. Very useful!

We had a bellydancing party last night- every 6 months or so my dance teacher runs a party where she gets dancers from all experience levels to perform dances that they have been learning in class. Seeing how good some of the advanced and professional girls are is really good inspiration. Two of the girls were also celebrating their birthdays, so Monique (my dance teacher) had arranged a surprise for them- a male stripper. He is a friend of Moniques and he was absolutely fantastic, that is definately the first time I have seen a stripper stand on his head and do the splits. Apparently he has a background in contemporary dance, and that really came through. If you require a stripper for a hens night or somesuch then Dion from Men of Steel is the way to go. I've been to a couple of girls nights with entertainment along these lines and this is the best yet. 

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage/relationship (or if you think you might be someday), and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

I really don't see why gays getting married should be a problem. It's not like it has some strange cosmic effect that makes heterosexuals get divorced!

We've recently given them the right to have civil unions, which as far as I understand it gives them basically the same rights as a married couple. Why not go the whole hog? I understand the arguement that marriage is a religious thingy, but I don't agree with it. After all I'm not religious and I can still get married.

 Well, New Zealand has gone and elected a right wing government. 

Whether they stay sort of centre right and try to aim for some balance in their policies or whether they go further to the right and tip their balance in favour of business and the rich and away from the workers who also make up an essential part of the economy remains to be seen. 

I tend to be pretty centrist in my views. 

I think it's important to have a welfare system that supports people who become unemployed until they find another job. I think that there could be some merit to work for the dole schemes, I have seen people blob around on the unemployment benefit and take a long time to get the motivation to move on. 

Supporting businessses so that they can grow is also important. I don't have a problem with small businesses  being able to employ people for trial periods like the National Party has been suggesting. Lets face it, companies have been able to do that anyway with casual workers and short term contracts. Having things like minimum wages technically keeps things balanced for everyone. Workers earn enough that they can pay their rent and feed their families, and maybe they can use the skills they pick up in their current job and in their outside interests to climb to something bigger over time. 

Worldwide financial crisis? It seems to be pummeling the US and UK at the moment. Hasn't hit us too hard yet. Economies go through booms and busts, it's just what happens. Things will recover. Maybe people will be a bit more responsible with debts and saving and making wise investments after this is over. Maybe people in charge of large mortgage lending companies will be a bit more responsible! Petrol prices are coming down here. This is a good thing. I think that with escalating house and food and petrol prices and debt over the last couple of years, some sort of opposite reaction was inevitable. 

Health? Our system isn't perfect, but it could be a lot worse. It's nice having reasonably affordable doctors fees and knowing that people who can't afford health insurance or private care can still have operations and get broken legs fixed by the Government. 

Lets hope the new government keeps things in balance, doesn't move too far to the right  and doesn't indulge in any major screw-ups. 

....Me and Porl got engaged. Squeee!

I've been shamelessly flashing my ring at people all week. 

He proposed in the rose gardens in Hamilton. Very romantic, especially at a bit past midnight. Ironically enough, we were down there for a wedding of a couple of our friends. 

We haven't set a date yet. All in the fullness of time.

 I'm sure it's about time I posted again. 

I've just come back from a 3 day tramp in the Coramandel. It was with the Auckland Uni Tramping Club- my lovely flatmate jinerviet belongs to it and encouraged me to come along tramping over New Years. I like bushwalking, but hadn't been properly tramping in a long time- not since me and Porl went to Canada for a couple of weeks several years ago. We went up to the Pinnacles in the mountains and stayed at a hut there for 2 days. 
   Compared to some of the other tramps that people in the tramping club do, this was an easy one. For me who hadn't been tramping in a long time, the 3 hour trip to get to the hut, with a heavy pack and about 2 and a half hours of the trip being clambering up stairs, was pretty difficult. 
   The other people who came along on the trip were very nice however. There were 17 of us altogether. There was another PhD student from the commerce department, and several people who had just finished studying and had started working. There was also a guy who had finished a music degree in playing the recorder, he was superb and entertained us with a lot of improvised music. I showed him some of the medieval music I've been learning and also some of the stuff I haven't learnt yet because it looks difficult- now I know what it is supposed to sound like :). Lots of very adventurous people- about half the group stayed up till midnight to cheer in the new year and then woke up in the early hours of the morning for an hour long walk/climb to the top of the Pinnacles to see the sunrise. I wasn't feeling that adventurous so opted to sleep in instead. I walked up to the Pinnacles later that day when it was nice and light instead. The view was gorgeous- could see the sea and what we think was Pauanui in one direction and farmland south of Coramandel in another. Also lots of mountain landscape. There  were several places on the way up where there were ladders to climb, rocks to climb over and big staples in the rocks for grip on the more difficut bits, so I was glad I didn't climb up for the dawn. It felt quite safe during the day, but I would have felt very uncomfortable in poor lighting. 
   I also went on a walk which took a couple of hours to see an old Kauri dam. The mountains were logged extrensively from 80-100 years ago, so the mountain landscape is covered in regenerating forest and scrub. At the height we were at the vegetation wasn't more than about 2 metres high and was considerably shorter at the very high points. Throughout the landscape there are dead tree stumps that tower over the scrub- perhaps trees that broke when others around them were felled or ones that weren't suitable for timber? They make the landscape look very eerie, and made me wonder what it looked like before the europeans started the mass felling of mature trees. The dam itself was unpreserved. I could see a very large log lying against the river, which must have been part of the base of the dam. There was a large log above it, but this had partly rotted through. And another log nailed to the partly rotted through one with a giant steel spike. Further down the river was another log, which had some rot and also another steel spike in it. It was interesting to look at and interesting trying to imagine what it might have looked like when it was built. 
  There was a restored dam about 5 minutes away from the hut we were staying at, which was very cool to see. Because it's a protected structure I wasn't able to get too close. During the dark old days when there was a lot of Kauri logging in New Zealand, the areas that were logged were so remote that the best way to move the logs was by river. They used the dams to block up the water and logs so when the pressure was released the water would sweep the logs downstream. Networks of dams were used to transport the logs. 
   The trip back down from the hut- again with a pack, authough a bit lighter since most of the food in it had been eaten- was a lot easier than the trip up. We took a different track down, which took 4 hours. There were some spectacular waterfall views on the way down- of a waterfall called Billy goat falls. 

  Now I'm at home, relaxing and eating cherries and typing. I like summer fruit a lot, and cherries are about as yummy as strawberries. Ie, they are at the top of my yummy friut list. Also it is peak cherry season at the moment so they're not humungously expensive.

   We had a Christmas party for bellydancing yesterday. Went on a mystery bus trip to a restarant in Greenhithe. 
   Apparently the bellydancing school has very risque parties. Very fun ones though. The theme was from K'rd to Cairo, the idea being that you could dress up as anything from what you would find in K'rd to what you would find in Egypt, and any other place in between. Most of us beginners played it safe and dressed up as bellydancers. We were quite astonished to get there and see our teacher dressed up as a Krd courtesan, in a big blonde wig and feathers and black corset and lacy pink knickerbockers. There was also a lady dressed up as someone from panama (?) with an enormous black hat with a giant bow and feathers. It's the biggest hat I've ever seen. And 2 policewomen with whips, handcuffs and minidresses. And a french maid. And also quite a few not quite so outrageously dressed people, dressed as chinese women, people in corsets, a devil, etc. 
   Lots of drinking wine on the bus and punishments issued by the policewomen for mismedeanors. 
   The restaraunt was very nice, yummy food. Beautiful gardens surrounding it. All us new girls were rather nervous at performing for the first time, we did several practices of our dance out in the garden before the start of the performances which helped calm our nerves a bit. The dance went quite well- not without mistakes, but I think we got most of the bits in the right places. 
   We've got a gap from dancing for a month or two over the Christmas holidays, no lessons. I think I'll have a look into going to lessons somewhere else over the break. The lessons I go to every tuesday are so relaxing and fun that I really don't want to take a break from it and get rusty. Not when I'm just getting the hang of some of the moves. 
   I was very naughty and picked 

elven_alchemist up late. Fortunately we still got to the place where the bus was with plenty of time to spare. What can I say, I have a bad sense of timing, know that I frequently lose my keys or other neccessary things or get last minute phone calls before going out the door, so I do try to leave lots of time to get places to compensate for it. This time it was a phone call from the landlady to ask if she could come over later in the evening to have a look at the house and grounds for future development ideas. We're quite happy with our new landlady- she is courteous and nice and pretty upfront about plans for the property. So a speedy fast 10 minute clean-up: make bed, chuck clothes on floor into washbasket, tidy bathroom, tell flatmate to expect landlady- was instigated. I should really try to be places more on time. Excuses and good reasons for being late often happen. Maybe I'm just too busy.

 

 This week has, on the whole been a very good week. 

- work has gone well, found two mutations in my cancer cells. Also did lots of protein extractions so feel that the week has been very productive.

-Spent morning taking lots of junk left over by previous landlord out of garage and taking it to the tip. Now we can actually put cars in the garage! Oh, the novelty! Sorted through the junk and will be selling the more respecatble stuff on Trademe. Nothing too exotic, just a couch and a fireguard and a dinner set. 

-Going to spend afternoon pottering around in garden and then going bushwalking withmysylie.

-Party to go to in evening.

 This is a grumpy post. 

Some moron crashed into my car on Sat night while I was at a party in Avondale.  Didn't leave a note. Now I have a big dent in the drivers side door, which doesn't open properly. I don't think it's legally drivable at the moment, so ladies who do bellydancing with me take note- until it's fixed we're going to have to catch the bus. I expect that it will be a couple of weeks before it is fixed, will probably need a new door.

Thank goodness I have car insurance, and much kudos to my flatmate who is lending me his car so I can get to NAAMA!

I think it's about time for another post, I have been a little slack in the posting of late. 

St Wolfgangs was awesome crazy fun! A medieval catholic themed weekend larp. I didn't realise how much I missed medieval themed larps until I turned up- there have been none until now since Mordavia ended. 

I turned up as crew, ready to play monstery bit-part sort of characters, and got to play the lady of the castle instead. *enormous grin*
I played Lady le Grand as absolutely combat incompetent (she stayed back at the castle when monster attacks or screams from the woods happened and didn't pick up a sword all weekend). She was secretly enthralled to a vampire lord, and was under strict instructions to keep a religious relic in her possession safe from any of the players. 
    This lead to a lot of fun with playing with one of the groups of players- a group of priests who really wanted the relic.  It was one of the main aims of the players to collect the relic that I had and plus another twin relic. I managed to convince that group of players that my character was trustworthy enough to be allowed to keep hold of the relic.  Being the lady of the castle and that  it was my relic and had been  passed down in my family through generations was sufficient for them to let me keep hold of it. The interatction with that group of players was definately one of the big highlights of the game for me. 
   They eventually got the relic off me when my characters husband died. This dampened the vampire enthrallment somewhat and made Lady le Grand decide that the priests would be a better guard for the relic after all. She didn't remember any details about the enthrallment ( what enchanter worth his salt would let his victim remember anything if the enchantment faded?) but had an uneasy feeling that the nasty monsters around about  might target her. 

   The last few scenes of the game were also very cool. My character was taken away by the vampire lord, in a nice big combat of vampires versus characters. The last scene of the game was a big combat in a crypt underneath the castle, where the players got to fight more vampires and fufilled their mission of using the relics to release the souls of a long dead king and queen and send them to God. Lady le Grand ran off with the vampire lord. A doting husband upstairs and an undead lover in the basement- that was Lady le Grand. Her son, the major villain in the game, died just after the final combat- converted to the good side and then killed himself when he discovered that he would be separated from his lady love forever as a punishment for dabbling in dark magic. 

  There was also a wonderful scene Saturday night when the group of priests got a visitation from the villanous son and the seven deadly sins to try to charm them out of chanting protective spells. My new flatmate and I got the joint role of Lust. 

  There were several dream sequences for some of the players, where they got visited by an angel to inspire them to be more enthusiastic in their duties in fighting the evil and praying feverently. We had plans to do a mysterious nonsense dream for one of the players as he had asked earlier on in the game what happened when he was blessed by Bishop of the order of St Wolfgangs earlier on in the game. We decided to can that idea however as we though that it would be a lot more fun for the crew than the player who got dragged out of bed. So he missed out on a very strange dream involving the bishop and weird things like pigeon cheese. 

    Totally enjoyed the game. Thankyou so much to allova and the rest of the GMs for making it such a fun game! There were a few teething problems, it being the first game under a new system, but it was absoulutely splendid to be part of. 

    Time to go and do some work now though.

Most things are going pretty well in my universe at the moment. 

My study is going well, I have been doing quite a lot of stuff with DNA samples lately and got back some lovely clear sequencing results last week. Sometimes the results can be a bit ambiguous, which can be really frustrating, but this time they were very clear. 

Things around the flat are improving too. Our landlord has sold the house we are living in to a chinese couple and their adult daughter, who all seem to be very nice. They want to keep us on as tenants for another year and a half, which we are delighted about. After that they plan to develop the property, but we knew that that was going to happen at some stage and are happy that we have a year and a halfs grace. 

I found this very interesting review of Pirates of the Carribean 3. It is very funny. It has ninjas in it. 

www.askaninja.com/node/3718

  I wanted to go to Auckland Sword and Shield practice yesterday. I've been woefully slack about going to training in the last little while- often because of being busy with having to spend some time at Uni or just needing a day to myself. 
  I was on my way there, driving, and one of my contact lenses started playing up. Contact lenses are wonderful things most of the time, having worn glasses for a few years I really appreciate having peripheral vision again, but when they play up it is like having an irritating speck in your eye that you just can't blink out. Had to go home again and replace it. It had developed a split on an edge. Very annoyed, as it was a 2 week lens and I had only been wearing it for 3 days. 
   So I went to Argent Lords display practice instead. I I haven't been going to their display practice for awhile because I don't want to be roped into displays. They are a fun group of people in general, but they practice very hard for the displays and get quite stressed about them at times. I'd rather put that time and stress in getting good results for my PhD, no point in rushing around and getting stressed about swordfighting, which is something I'd much rather do just for fun. Their combat trainings are pretty good though, I have been making an effort to get to those recently in order to get fitter again. Ans so I can fight with reasonable competence at NAAMA.

Bellydancing was indeed very fun tonight. 
The place where we went was in Birkinhead. It's called Abbraccia school of dance. The lady who runs it teaches the dances from a studio attached to her house, she was very friendly and seems to be very good at teaching as well as dancing, and likes to crack lots of jokes during her lessons. 
   The lesson started off with stretching and relaxation exercises, and moved pretty quickly on to going through shimmies and hand moves and hip moves and stuff. elven_alchemistand I basically watched everyone else and the mirrors and tried to keep up. There was a lot of repetition so we were able to get an idea of each technique before going on to the next one. I know I'll need rather a lot of practice at most of it however. But this is good, I like to learn new things.
   The power cut out part way through- there was a big power cut on the North Shore tonight- so most of the lesson was done by candlelight without music! I think the lack of music for a lot of it made it easier to concentrate on how the moves went however. 
   My abs are sore now- I feel like I've definately had a good workout! Looking forward very much to the next lesson. 


My experiments at work misbehaved themselves today. Grrr.

Here is a very cool website for all  who like nigtmare circle/ Lovecraft etc:  www.kthulhukitsch.com/games.html
It has stuffed toys and T-shirts and lots of other things!