Ho Ho Ho-cd

I looked down at my silver-wrapped presents under my silver-decorated tree and thought :



This is getting a little much ... even for me.

The Grizzly Adams Experiment ... is over. O-V-E-R over.

Craig grew his beard for Six months and Three days.
Why? Just to see how long he could make it. He wanted to shave it after 4 months but fool that I am, I convinced him to try and make it 6 months.
Which of course he did.

And what did we learn? That he can go without shaving for a very long time.
And that a full grizzly-adams beard is less terrifying than an intense 70s moustache.

From this :



(Sweet, darling husband.)

To this :



(Castro.)

And this :



(oh. dear god. terrifying.)

And finally finally finally this :

We're leaving! Just not as soon as we'd thought.

So it turns out that there are absolutely no seats available at a decent price from Bangkok OR Singapore for the ENTIRE MONTH of April 2007.
Crazy.

It took Craig and I 2 and a half hours at the travel agency on Saturday but we finally got our trip organised.

Our Itinerary (booked)

Monday 07-05-07 - Depart Auckland 4:15pm
Arrive Melbourne 6:15pm
Flight time : 4 hours

Monday 21-05-07 - Depart Sydney 4:40pm
Arrive Bangkok 10:50pm
Flight time : 9 hours, 10 minutes

Friday 08-06-07 - Depart Singapore 10:40pm
Saturday 09-06-07 - Arrive London 5:15am
Flight time : 13 hours, 35 minutes


We just have to work out what it is that we want to do in Australia and how to get to Sydney. And what we want to do in Thailand and how to get to Singapore.

It looks like to get from Bangkok to Singapore we may be able (now that we have so much extra time at work) to use Intrepid Travel as our guides, they have a trip that takes 15 days and journeys from Bangkok to Singapore by way of Khao Sok National Park, Krabi, Penang, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lumpur, and Melaka.
And it visits my darling Wat Pho, a lot of markets, beaches for snorkelling and diving and possibly the most exciting thing of all, riding Elephants.

I'm trying to focus on all that and not the extra months at work.


NB: My play closed to a raucus house of 140 people on Saturday Night.
It was our biggest and best show, save only for Thursday night.

Man of the Moment

The show opened on the 23rd November. I chose that day to do another Photo-essay of A Day in My Life


(click to view.)

It was also the night that two newspaper reviewers came to see the show. Their reviews were published on the 27th and 28th November, respectively.

The Dominion Post


(click to view full article.)


The Hutt News


(click to view full article.)

I'm not going to lie - my favourite is the Hutt News review which reads, in part, Watch also for laugh-out-loud performances from Peter Hughson as Ruy the defeated Gardener, and Sarah-Rose Burke as the downtrodden nanny.

It's still showing ... just so you know.

click here to see the full article

Digging on the Beach, Burying the Kids, Bonking the Nanny, I don't know

Come one, come all to the New Zealand Premiere of
Man Of The Moment
The Award Winning Comedy by World Renowned Playwright Alan Ayckbourn.


click to enlarge

23 - 25 November
29 November - 2 December

What's it about?
Oh, a Murder. But it's really really funny.
No, Seriously ...
Yes Seriously. It's a black comedy with a little bit of slapstick and I have to wear a wetsuit.
A wetsuit !?!
Yes. A wetsuit. And I get yelled at!!
But it's funny?
Very funny. I mean ... I have to wear a wetsuit on stage.



Vic : Just like every man who can should grow a beard. Everything you can do you ought to do. Before you die. That's what we're here for. Right?



Only 14 days to go!
On the 23rd November Craig will have been growing his beard for Six Months.
So I'm going to shave it off.

You can't ... choose your family ... or something like that.

click to enlarge
Yup. That's my Dad.

To see more photos :
click here.

I love Wellington in the Springtime

Actually I hate springtime in Wellington. You have to pay attention to the little people telling you about the weather and then not trust them at all.
They get it right about 50% of the time though, breeding a misguided sense of trust.


On Monday night the weather man I have a little crush on told us that there would be rain all over the north island on Tuesday. He was standing in front of what should have been an image of the north island but was a grey sea indicating rain.
Rain everywhere.


So I got out my rain coat on Tuesday morning in preparation for a slightly damp walk to work. I looked out the door at the rain bouncing the puddles and thought it can't be THAT bad. It's spring! and set out.

The first thing I did when I got to work was to go into the bathroom, take off my pants and wring the water out of them. Not a single thing I was wearing was completely dry. My faded black cowboy boots were so sodden that they almost appeared brand new!
I was at work at 7am and by 3:30pm ... I was still damp in places.


And as such I trusted the weather man when he told me that Wednesday would consist of rain showers in the morning fading to a dingy grey sky in the afternoon.


Instead I spent most of today lying in my backyard, basking in the sunlight and listening to the tui that live in our trees call out all day. Making good use of their two voice boxes. Crazy, noisy birds.


Of course I realised that the tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) is a bird endemic to New Zealand and not everyone knows their strange strange call.
SO I recorded it for you! The tui burbles away and then another, more generic bird butts in and I tell it to shush in my annoying girly kiwi baby voice.

My Sunglasses : Mormon Approved

I had my first nice experience with Mormon door to door salesmen today.
I was on my way walking to work and I saw them off in the distance just groaned to myself.
I kept walking, looking straight ahead and walking as far left as the footpath would allow.

Morman #1: Good Morrow!
inside Sarah's head: Morrow? what the-
Morman #2: How's your day going?
Sarah: Oh I'm actually on my way to work so ...
Morman #1: Oh ok well you have a nice day!
Morman #2: You have a nice day.
Sarah (over my shoulder): You too!
Morman #2: We like your glasses!!
Sarah : ... thanks.

On this, the day of my daughter's wedding ... or rather, the day of her sister's birthday

It was my birthday on sunday and my nearest-baby-sister Charlotte gave me this card:



She had no idea that I loved the wallpaper designs by Hanna Werning (www.byhanna.com) and still she chose this card for me.

But the best part was the inscription:


(click to enlarge)

Anyone would think we were related.