When the Cheshire emerges...

I'm off on a weekend road trip to the coast so I'm hoping to score some mid-winter shoe bargains somewhere... here's hoping. Meanwhile, Shoe of the week and the month for June goes to these.

*I have two photos entered in the current Qatar Reflections competition. Please show your support for me by voting for either photo! Short backstory and links here.

New Zealand is a cold country. Obviously in the South Island with the Alpine Belt and all, but pretty much all around it's got a cooler climate than Australia. Being Feb/March on my visit though, I went with the presumption it would be at its warmest.

Boy, did I get the shock of my life...

Australia had a pretty shite summer, so I was hopeful that NZ might be a bit better. Turns out they'd had a pretty average time too, even for them. While Auckland and the Bay of Islands had T-shirt weather (just), for the rest of the trip I was severely underprepared. Devastated.

These are some of the tops I took with me, real light cotton tops (excuse the average photo). My two 'jumpers' and my jeans were failsafes for most of the trip. I regretted not bringing a scarf from home often. But it was SUMMER, I wasn't going to have a scarf on! Oh, but I was. The morning in Wellington before purchasing said scarf would have been the most worthy to use it of all.



Saturday March 3. A weather bomb hit the capital, with winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour lashing out across the whole region, damaging homes and such as well as cancelling all flights and ferries. Funny story, I was being driven along part of the coastline, and on attempt to get outside for a photo of the sea I almost caused the passenger car door to be swung clean off, and then couldn't stand still enough to take a straight shot as you can see. I've experienced nothing like it. The worst 'summer' weather I could possibly imagine.

But for all that, the Kiwis have a very carefree approach.

Wellington is known as the Windy City. Told by plenty a local that an umbrella wasn't even worth taking out with you, I still stuck with it. I got approval from just one person, which made me realise pretty quickly that they were probably right.

Down in the south I found they had a similar attitude.

Arrowtown

Queenstown

It did get better. But I still think it's so abnormal being so close to us yet with a totally whacked-out plan from Mother Nature. My first day in Melbourne (three after flying back into Australia) was 31 degrees. Now that's what I'm talking about. I missed half of Australia's decent summer time battling 14 degree temperatures and weather bombs. But I wouldn't change a thing.

Moral of the story: bring warmish clothes but ditch the umbrellas, even if it's pouring. It's summer after all, why ruin it by acting differently? :D

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Still more to come in the New Zealand makes you... series so keep a lookout!

So I have begun my summer quest to complete This Is Not A Book (TINAB). And the one thing that's sticking in my head and won't leave until I remember right now is: how much I would regret using a pen to write in there. A pencil is what I need. Oh the days of writing in pencil. As my new workmate Regina put it, who writes with the lead after they get their pen licence? Me now, that's who.

My Melbourne 'Unies' trip let me discover many things. One of those was this grand new release 'book' called This Is Not A Book. Funny that I discover it in a bookstore away from home, but I couldn't resist. It was staring at me from the counter. It was red, and had a scribbled title which intrigued me. And I hadn't bought a book in ages (from an actual bookstore). So I bought it.

And it's not a book. Might be in the shape of one, but it's telling me it could be something that could change my life. A series of 'tasks' fill the pages, asking you to do things outside the square. What a perfect way to spend the summer. And summer it is... fitting that I decide to grab it this morning and realise it's December 1st. Woah. December. The first 'official' day of summer. Sweet.

I've yet to look through it all but thought I'd be logical to start with and begin on page 1. The task is as follows:

This is an inconvenience. Take This Is Not A Book everywhere you go for one week. You must place it in full view at all times.

So if you see a red book poking out of my bag or on the table over the next 7 days you know why. And I'm daring you not to be curious. The goal is to get through everything in the next few months. You can help me if you wish. Because this thing with pages that apparently isn't what it's meant to be is sticking around.