Moving On Up
Monday July 14, 2014
I guess it's official. I'm moving house - 20 metres across the driveway of the apartment complex I'm in. I couldn't find a replacement flatmate for Matt so I decided it's probably time to find a different place to live. This place is slightly cheaper, my room is larger, I still get a carpark and because I'm essentially in the same location, it's still a 15 minute walk to work.
The past few weeks have been socially busy. We celebrated the Fourth of July at Goldings, where Jill kept asking people if they wanted to ride the mechanical horse at Dakota. We played Cards Against Humanity and Mario Kart and had KFC at Ants and Jo's on the following Sunday (it was actually an excuse for Jill to come over and play with the cat.) and we had some delicious steaks at Portlander on Wednesday.
We played Bubble Soccer at Shed 1, Queens Wharf last Saturday. Thankfully my leg had healed up enough for me to have a good run around for twenty minutes in a gigantic insulated bubble, barging into others while trying to kick a small yellow ball around the court. My team of yellow bubbles - Thomas, Sarah, Beau, Simon and Jimmy - played against the team of blue bubbles - Will, Josh, Andy, Dwayne, Neil and Vigz - for three 10 minute thirds, and we came out victorious with four goals to two. Afterwards, we enjoyed some food and beer at Mac's Brewery where Sarah, Thomas and I shared a gigantic antipasto platter of breads, dips, cheese and cured meats.
I was at Cami's house in the afternoon playing the Firefly board game with Tim and Juliann. The whole ordeal took five hours but it was a pretty fun game and would have been more enjoyable had I known what I was doing. I kinda got into a cycle of doing missions, just slowly building up my strength without knowing how strong I needed to be to go for the final goals, when Tim and Cami raced for the finish, leaving me far, far behind. Would try it again... possibly! It is a very heavy time investment.
Come Sunday however, my body would just not move. Every muscle was aching from the Bubble Soccer and I was having a bad time. Thankfully, I felt much better after heading to the sauna in the afternoon, and I'm pretty much back to normal now.
This morning, we gathered at work early for the finals of the World Cup, with Germany playing Argentina. More importantly however, were the scones, croissants and pancakes stationed conveniently around the office for us to enjoy while watching the soccer. And watch we did, there was much cheering as Mario Gotze struck a brilliant ball into the back of the Argentinian net in extra time, sealing the Germans as the Football World Cup 2014 Champions. Exciting times!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:01am on Monday July 14, 2014 :: 0 comments :: 
Um. What?
Sunday January 26, 2014
I went out to Lyall Bay this afternoon to teach Mitchell how to drive. The area is full of learner drivers because the roads are relatively quiet and most importantly (in Wellington), it's flat. We stopped by the side of Onepu Road and swapped seats, just as a torrent of rain hit the area.
As we were about to leave, a very confused and worried woman beckoned me to wind the window down, and as I did, she frantically bleated "Help!! Please help me!! I need $10!!!!" She's a little out of it, and has a bad stutter, and it's clear she has a problem but whether it's a cash problem specifically, I am unsure. Anyway, I am a bit apprehensive, and I tell her that I don't have cash but we can drive to the dairy down the road to get some for her. Again she repeats, "Please!! I need $10!! It's life or death... I can pay you back $20 tomorrow...." and again I tell her we'll go to the dairy to get money. She asks to hop in the car and Mitchell and I quickly tell her she can't. Then she asks for Listerine ("It's $7!! I need Listerine!!!!") and I say to her again we'll meet her at the dairy. She starts walking away and Mitchell hits the central locking on the car and we wind up the windows and call the cops.
We drove round the block a few times and we spotted a police car driving away from the dairy where she had been waiting. Hopefully she'll be alright - but boy, what a strange encounter.
We've had a few birthdays this week; on Wednesday night we tried to go to Gasworks in Miramar for Jono's birthday, but they were totally full and Jono hadn't booked, so we ended up at Lonestar instead. We would have been indulging in the all-you-can-eat $20 ribs at Gasworks, so we substituted that with the famous Lonestar Hoisin and Mandarin Ribs (Large Stack). Greedy as ever, I also got the Jack Daniels and Chocolate Self-Saucing Pudding for dessert. Yummo.
I was at Sprig and Fern for a few drinks with Paul for his birthday, where we had some lively conversation about iTunes and choices, and Wei and I also taught the guys how to play Mahjong. Yesterday after badminton, I was at Strawberry Fare for lunch to catch up with Jono and Karlyn, back from their overseas travels, and also Jono's recent birthday. After that, I saw Frozen (would recommend!) and then met some workmates for dinner at Pan de Muerto, before heading back to Joe's place to play Machine of Death.
Looking forward to Chinese New Year next week - Year of the Horse 2014!
Posted by Jeremy at 7:21am on Sunday January 26, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
All Quiet on Christmas Eve
Tuesday December 24, 2013
I was mentally checked out from work probably a week before we actually finished. The final week we spent doing a Game Jam of sorts - management presented a series of questions they wanted answered and we were to spend a week trying to see if we could answer these questions. It was okay; I felt like last year's Game Jam was way more enjoyable. I was lucky I had a great team this year and though things were a bit rocky and indecisive at the start, we pulled together and made a pretty neat toy. We celebrated the end of the year with karaoke at New Kor.
I drove up to Auckland on the Saturday after work had finished with two colleagues. We made good time; we left Wellington around 9.30am and stopped in Waiouru for lunch, Taupo for ice cream, Huka Falls for some sightseeing and Tokoroa for a quick nap, and still made it to Auckland at 6.30pm-ish. As usual, the drive was straightforward and easy, though I was a bit miserable and tired at the end of it.
I got to see the new KCC building for the first time at the Sunday Christmas service. It's very spacious and looks great, and it was great to catch up with so many people. We spent the rest of the day playing games like Buzz, Dominion, 7 Wonders and Up and Down the River before heading home around 1am. Whee.
On Monday I did some last minute Christmas shopping at West City Westfield. Not as busy as I thought it would be, but I wasn't there for too long. I picked up some food supplies as well, and I caught up with my sister and her family. My nephew sure has grown! So cute. I played soccer with him for a bit. Adorable that he's so excited to see me. Will be looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow for Christmas lunch.
After a quick nap, I was off to Newmarket to catch up with the Wellington/ex-Wellington crew for our traditional Christmas dinner at Sun World. Sumptuous plates of Peking duck, prawn balls, lamb cutlets, fried tofu, fried squid and chicken filled the table. It was an excellent meal with excellent company.
And finally today, I caught up with Amy in Ponsonby at the Foxtrot Parlour, before heading to Reuben and Shereen's to catch up with the other guys from youth group for a Christmas potluck lunch. We did a last minute Secret Santa that worked out pretty well. Everyone was told to bring one dud gift and one nice gift. I scored myself a Gucci pocket air-freshener thing (the "dud" but not really!), as well as a microfibre cleaning cloth. We played some Time's Up, although looking at Board Game Geek's description of it, we played it horribly wrong. Still, we had a fun time and everyone was satisfied and tired by the time we parted ways.
It's been almost non-stop social events since arriving in Auckland. I'm always surprised by just how busy I am over this period despite making very vague plans prior to coming up. It's not really my style to do that, but apparently it works well and it's a lot of fun (sometimes very tiring!) seeing people and catching up.
Holidays are great.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:47am on Tuesday December 24, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
The Past Month
Sunday April 14, 2013
...has been absolutely manic. Following on from February's packed schedule, I had events on each weekend in March. After our failed comet viewing attempts at Makara, we decided we'd keep going back for the fantastic night sky and the shooting stars. As winter settles in, the sunsets become earlier and the skies become cloudier still, so we're taking each opportunity as it comes, and we've never been disappointed.
Well maybe that one time when Chloe and I saw all the shooting stars and Mitchell missed like, seven of them. Zing!
Apart from our frequent trips out to the west coast, I've been at Tom and Astrid's pirate-themed engagement and housewarming celebration, as well as Dale and Bec's engagement party. I went bowling at Bowlarama for Jono and Karlyn's farewell, checked out Pete and Bronwyn's new house, saw some dragonboating and did some Shufflin' and Gangnam Style at Luba's D-themed birthday party.
I spent Easter up in Auckland, catching up with the old KCC gang and getting some good old milk tea from Momo's with Sam and Jo, who have now relocated to Melbourne. I played Dominion, 7 Wonders, Citadels and Dixit. I spent a day at Auckland Zoo with my nephew, checking out all that has changed since I was last there 15 years ago. There was curry and steak and seafood... and more steak, and more seafood. Easter was full of great people and delicious food.
The following weekend, we made our way down to the South Island for Matt and Clare's wedding at Peel Forest. Having never been to the South Island before (gasp!), we went for an epic road trip that spanned 1,500km over three days.
First leg of our journey was Wellington to Picton on the 2.30am Bluebridge Ferry. We secured a private cabin for ourselves so we could get some sleep for the long drive ahead. We were expected to land at Picton at 6.30am but they lost power to the main engine and that delayed us until 8am - a blessing in disguise as we managed to get that little bit extra sleep.
We hit Picton just as the sun began to rise over the islands of Queen Charlotte Sound and started the drive to Nelson. The sounds were misty from the early morning, and the water totally still and glass-like. We picked up some breakfast at Havelock - a bacon and egg pie for me - and reached sunny Nelson around 10am. We continued on to Murchison where we had lunch, then crossed over to the east coast via Lewis Pass. The scenery through Lewis Pass is so diverse, with forests, rivers, mountains, snow and barren desert all visible in the space of a two hour drive. We had a quick squizz around Hanmer Springs (not enough time to relax at the pools unfortunately) and made our way to Christchurch for dinner. With sunset rapidly approaching, we picked up the pace and headed out to Peel Forest.
Peel Forest is in the middle of nowhere. It was only on Friday morning that we realised that our accommodation was called "Peel Forest Ecolodge". It was so "eco". No flushing toilets (ugh compost), wasp infestation in the main room, five minute walk through moderate bush from the carpark and cold bunk beds. Even the beds on the ferry were better. I mean, it would have been fine if we were there for a camping trip but we weren't - we were there for a wedding and we needed modern amenities. We arrived around 11pm, after many difficulties finding the place, and passed out.
We were up around 8am and headed out to Lake Tekapo, only 90 minutes drive away. The day was overcast and the usually azure lake reflected the greys of the sky. We stopped by the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd and admired the grandeur of the Southern Alps in the distance, with its sprinkling of snow clearly visible. We hurried back to Peel Forest for the wedding.
The church was tiny, fitting maybe 80 people at full capacity, but nevertheless the ceremony was lovely; both the bride and groom tearing up at various points in the service. The reception was in a marquee at Peel Forest Lodge, where we had quite possibly the best rare steak ever. Juicy, succulent and tasty - everything that meat should be. After hitting the dance floor (yet more Shufflin' and Gangnam Stylin'), we adjourned to the lodge in anticipation of another long drive the next day. I could not help but admire the crystal clear skies from the Ecolodge (we were in the middle of nowhere, afterall) and spent about 30 minutes staring up at the heavens. The Milky Way was quite visible, as were many familiar southern hemisphere constellations. And in a moment of pure magic, there was a shooting star across the sky!
We were grateful for the extra hour of sleep from Daylight Savings, and we left the Ecolodge for Christchurch. We let Google navigate us to Cathedral Square, but the effects of the devastating earthquake have rendered many of the city center's roads off-limits. We parked near the closed Rydges hotel and wandered around a bit, looking at all the grim sites of rubble and destruction. We followed the Avon River down to the new shipping container mall, which had a nice vibrant atmosphere and was bustling with buskers and filled with Sunday morning coffee aromas. We had a quick brunch in Upper Riccarton before taking State Highway 1 to Kaikoura.
Kaikoura's awesome. The peninsula boasts some fantastic views of the mountains to the west and Pacific Ocean to the east, and right down by the coast, one can enjoy some delectable seafood from the world famous Original Kaikoura Seafood Barbeque shack. I had a seafood chowder and whitebait fritter, but people on other tables had splashed out for some grilled crayfish. Yum! A few minutes driving north, we stopped at Ohau Point to take a look at the adorable seal pups swimming upstream under State Highway 1 towards the local waterfall, before continuing the journey to Blenheim and Picton to take the return ferry.
We arrived in Picton with plenty of time to spare and had some takeaways before boarding the ferry. The boat ride to Wellington was as smooth as the trip over, and in three hours we were back on the North Island.
Whew!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:22pm on Sunday April 14, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
March Misadventures
Wednesday March 6, 2013
A year older, a year wiser?
The days are shortening and the southerlies are definitely more noticeable. Summer has paved the way for autumn, though we may still see some more of that warm sunshine that we were blessed with this year.
Comet Pan-STARRS has been supposedly visible in southern hemisphere skies for the past week or so. Always in search for an adventure, I recruited Mitchell, Chloe and Hayden (while he was down here) and we went out to Owhiro Bay to see if we could spot the comet. No such luck, as we presume the southwestern hills around Red Rocks were in the way. We headed out to Titahi Bay, but still no luck. Today, we drove to Makara but there were still hills in the way; we decided we weren\'t going to leave without a quick exploration of the area, so we followed the track to Opau Bay and the wind turbine farm for about 15 minutes, putting us just over the western ridge of Makara beach and giving us splendid views of the Tasman Sea. As night fell, we gazed aimlessly at the stars, watching the brilliance of Jupiter in the north and seeing the Milky Way arching overhead. Then, in a moment of sheer magic, we caught two shooting stars streaking across the northern sky!
But no comet. Oh well.
Last weekend was pretty busy for me. Mark\'s last day with us was on Friday, and we had a \"final\" game of Battlestar Galactica. With Rob\'s horrendous dice rolling putting the humans dangerously low on population count, it looked like Team Cylon - Mark and myself, and Mitchell, kinda - might have clinched victory, but some sweet blind jumping from Jordan netted a destination 3 card which put them on the home stretch. Not about to be outdone, I shot Rob in the face and caused Tim to die in the same turn, but sadly that wasn\'t enough to pull morale down to 0. It all rested on a final dice roll, and Team Human took away the victory with a strong 8 roll. Epic!
After our regular Saturday morning badminton, I met Damon, Joe, Chloe and Mitchell for some hot drinks at Milk Crate, and we relocated to Caffe L\'affare for brunch. Afterwards, the group minus Damon visited Jos and Ian at Garage Project headquarters, before heading home to find Smudge - with little success. We trekked over to Central Park to play on the swings and flying fox, but there was some kid\'s birthday party going on and it felt awkward just shoving them off the playground, so we went our separate ways. I met up with Damon, Joe and Mitchell again for dinner at Oriental Thai, and we joined Alan and Aaron at their place by Chaffers Docks, right where Homegrown was on. Rocking times!
We had an \"autumnal celebration\" barbeque at the Treehouse, full of fantastic meats everywhere - my kilogram of roast pork that I had purchased from Yan\'s was very popular. There were sausages and skewers and steaks to be had, and for dessert, Charlotte\'s scheming resulted in a deliciously moist and rich chocolate cake with fancy sparkly candles, decorated as if it was someone\'s birthday celebration.
It\'s going to be a busy month, with both my work and social calendars full of events and deadlines to meet. Looking forward to time off over Easter, then the South Island trip early next month!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:33am on Wednesday March 6, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Social Butterfly
Sunday February 24, 2013
I have been doing too many things with my life.
That\'s okay though, I have thoroughly enjoyed the fun times and the awesome people I\'ve been hanging out with over the past two weekends. Now is the time to make the most of the sun before it fades away behind the abysmal weather so typical of Wellington for ten months of the year. Summer has been great and it\'s sad (if not alarming) that it is March very, very soon.
Last weekend, we went out to Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt to watch some jousting after badminton. It\'s not particularly like what you would imagine (or what Hollywood would have you imagine). The tips of the jousting lances are fragile and break easily, and are colour-coded for each person. The idea is to land a hit against your opponent (with rules around where you can and can\'t hit - no hitting the horse!) and points are given based off aforementioned criteria. As the lances break, the resulting fragments are clearly identified by their colour to assist in the judging. There were also longbow displays and sword fighting re-enactments, but none as exciting as the jousting.
The next day, we were out at Adrenaline Forest in Porirua for part one of Ben\'s birthday celebration. Swinging, climbing, gliding and shuffling (often struggling) our way through the treetops proved quite the physical challenge at times; not so much the mental challenge I was expecting since I was so focused on the obstacles, I barely had time to look down at the ground. Unlike previous ropes courses I\'d been on, this one is more individually managed so you clip yourself onto safety ropes to traverse the trees instead of being belayed by a group of people on the ground. Additionally, you\'re equipped with your own pulley and hook system so you can clip yourself onto the wire and ride the gradient to the other side with some gravitational help. There\'s some great Indiana Jones-type swings, including one into a large spider web of ropes on course six!
Part two was competitive go-karting - teams of two doing 30 laps each. Jordan and I paired up to deliver a relatively unrisky and consistent display that landed us fourth place out of eight (not last, yay!). The karts supposedly reach 50kph and handle pretty well, though my skidding and sliding were not as masterful as I would have liked. I kept feeling like I was going to topple the kart over. There were fortunately no coloured turtle shells on the track.
I went for an improv show at the Gryphon Theatre on Ghuznee St, then to dinner at the Matterhorn on Friday night. I was last at the Matterhorn in 2009 and they have changed the menu and the style of eating since. The intention is that you order a selection of plates to share instead of having individual meals. Essentially it is like yum cha, except ten times the price. We found the concept complicated and were a bit nervous when the waitress asked us if she could have the authority to place food on our tab without our explicit permission. We shared some oysters with champagne sorbet, crispy pig tails, deer fillet with blackberry, potatoes with roast almonds and various other plates that I can\'t recall off the top of my head. The company was great and the food was good, but the messy logistics put me off and wouldn\'t recommend it - would have been much better if we had just had individual meals and maybe some sides to share.
Yesterday after badminton, we had the PikPok Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Lawn Bowls club. It was a family-friendly event, with a kids-only bouncy castle (much to the disappointment of many of my workmates), face painting and board games available. There was of course the lawn bowls outside, and in defiance of the Wellington wind, beer pong on a table decked out with some fantastic Flick Kick Football artwork. Time passed quickly and it got a bit chilly around 6pm so I left for another barbeque out in Island Bay with my church\'s family group. Though it was a brief event, it was good to catch up with various people and I was absolutely smitten with the two guinea pigs called Pip and Squeak. I ended the day over at Andrew\'s flat in Roseneath, taking one hour to set up a new board game called CO2 and three hours to play. Would not recommend.
Finally, to finish it off, I celebrated Chap Goh Mei, the last day of Chinese New Year, at Big Thumb in style, with plates of chicken, pork and seafood in dumplings, buns, rice noodles and deep fried!
Though we don\'t have the fireworks and fantastic lion and dragon dance displays that the Auckland Lantern Festival provides, I\'ve had fun celebrating Chinese New Year in my own way. This will be memorable for years to come.
<<edit>> Okay we just got fireworks. Yay!
![jousting](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3510.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Adrenaline Forest](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3546.jpg\"){kind=link}
Posted by Jeremy at 7:33am on Sunday February 24, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
The Year of the Snake
Sunday February 10, 2013
Though I've just had a five day weekend, I feel exhausted from all the people I've caught up with over the past few days. It's been an enjoyable Chinese New Year celebration, seeing both family and friends over my time up in Auckland.
It is tradition to have Reunion Dinner on Chinese New Year. This is when all members of the family gather for a meal to bring in the new year; though the rules are a bit more relaxed as family members tend to be more dispersed around the world these days, the reason and meaning remains the same. My parents cooked some delicious food on Wednesday (we didn't even celebrate it on the real New Years Eve!), each dish symbolising various aspects of well-wishing that are common at the New Year - prosperity, abundance, wealth and happiness.
I caught up with Melbourne Dave on Thursday in town. We walked around the waterfront and Wynyard Quarter, we visited Moustache and for old times' sake, trudged up the hill to Albert Park and the University of Auckland. Seems like not much has changed, though there's some heavy construction around the Maths/Physics and CompSci buildings. Dave is doing well and it was great to catch up and see him, and hopefully one of these days I will make it over to Melbourne to visit him and the other people I know there!
I had lunch at the ever-delectable Tatsumi in Newmarket on Friday with my step-mum and grandmother. Never failing to disappoint, the "deluxe lunch" option with three main dishes, appetisers and a petite dessert was delightfully satisfying. Friday night went until 3am, visiting Jay's Tea on Dominion Road and playing 7 Wonders with the guys.
Saturday was relaxing, doing absolutely nothing all day except mowing the lawns in the early evening. I tried to organise something at night since my parents were out at a party, but unfortunately most of my friends were having their own reunion dinners and nothing eventuated.
After church at KCC and lunch at My Kitchen on Dominion Road, I spent the rest of Sunday playing more 7 Wonders. Some pretty grim low-resource games at the end, but fun nonetheless. Okay not really fun, but it was good to catch up with people, and next time I'll teach them about the Leaders expansion.
Did you know it's been five years since I moved to Wellington? I've been at my job for longer than I was at University. Time has gone by so quickly, with people coming and going in and out of my life. I remember this hilarious and thoughtful but a bit disturbing music video that the guys had made for me before I left for Wellington. It was to the Spice Girls' Goodbye, which has the lyrics "Goodbye my friend....it's not the end...so glad we made it, time will never change it". The weekend reminded me of how strong our friendships have remained in spite of the distance between us.
It was poignant then, that the song came up as Matt drove me to the airport, since it was the last time I would see him before he moves to Taiwan. The weekend was a time to reflect on how things used to be, and on what I cherish each time I come back to Auckland for a visit. Thanks to all of you for making my weekend what it was, and blessings in the year of the snake to all of you.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:54am on Sunday February 10, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
It's Christmas Time
Tuesday December 25, 2012
I have to admit, I'm a little jealous of all my friends in Wellington posting these pictures of the glorious weather, while in Auckland it's overcast and windy and wet. In any case, the weather has never stopped us celebrating Christmas and having a good time.
Yesterday I introduced my friends to Spaceteam on iOS and also played a bit of Citadels too. Dragon Gate! In the afternoon I had to rush off to Pak n Save to prepare for a small Christmas Eve dinner at home, as well as supplies for Christmas lunch the next day. It was totally chaotic there, with hundreds of others running around the supermarket trying to finish their last minute shopping. Thankfully I was done with plenty of time to spare and had a good meal with Mat and Jono, despite two last minute cancellations from Tom and Andrew.
And today's Christmas plans were great as well. So nice to catch up with my sister and her family - my nephew is almost two years old now (how time flies...) and full of laughter and energy. Now that he's walking and talking, he's a lot of fun to play with and absolutely adorable. He even knows how to high five! I'm sure there will be many more memorable moments to come.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, wherever in the world you may be!
Posted by Jeremy at 6:52am on Tuesday December 25, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
Monthly Check-In
Thursday July 26, 2012
I think it took me about a week in New Zealand to realise I wasn't on holiday anymore and to feel back in routine and get over the jetlag. Only a week :( But here I am, just over a month later and America seems like such a long time ago.
Things have been busy since I got back. There was the release of Black 2 and White 2 in Japan, as well as Pokemon Conquest in English. I've been busy hacking bits of information from the ROM with a friend of mine who is originally from Canada but is on a student exchange in Singapore. The developers have chosen to lay the information out in strange ways. Normally things are aligned to byte boundaries, but in Conquest, you often find clumps of data that span any number of bits between 3 and 10, making it difficult to discern data. Progress has been slow but the more we become used to this stupid system, the more patterns we find in the data. We had some great breakthroughs using Tinke's graphics utilities to batch export the Warrior and Pokemon Gallery images - exciting stuff!
Work at Sidhe has been pretty full on as well. Upon arriving back, I'd learned that I had been reassigned to another project starting immediately, and due out at the end of October. We are still in the prototype phase, and finding many challenges with the development and design. Stay tuned for exciting updates! We'll be on both iOS and Android.
I was in Taupo at the start of the month for Richard and Tanya's wedding. The weather was brilliantly sunny, despite dropping to -1C overnight. The lake and snow-capped mountains in the distance make the area so scenic. The church ceremony was okay, the highlight being the newlyweds walking out to the tune of the Star Wars theme. The reception though was great - fresh oysters galore! It was great catching up with school friends that I hadn't seen in a while, even if some of them still owe me money for accommodation. It was a great weekend away from Wellington, and to cap it all off, I coincidentally bumped into my youth group friends from Auckland in Turangi's Burger King. Small country >_>
I caught up with one of my old flatmates who had moved to the UK four years and is back in New Zealand for a month or so. It was a socially draining but very enjoyable weekend. Also got to play a bit of 7 Wonders too! Good times.
I still haven't sorted out my photos from America. There's over 2500 of them (and not all of food) but hopefully when the dust from Conquest settles, I'll have some time to go through all of them and process them.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:54am on Thursday July 26, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
The Secret to Good Tom Yum Soup
Saturday April 9, 2011
Limes. Fresh lime juice. Adds that little bit of sweet and sour flavour to the soup... delicious! Before Dave left for Australia, we took him up to the Wairarapa for a bit of a tour, and on the way back we stopped by this fruit and vegetable place where I bought some huge capsicums, some lemons and some limes. While the capsicums are almost gone, I still have plenty of lemons and limes. I made lemon chicken one day, and apart from burning the chicken a little bit, it was really good. Yay for expanding my cooking horizons!
Been for karaoke twice in the past week. I "blame" Petey (King Pededede as his friends call him, his birthday was last week) and Owen. It's good fun, although I usually end up with no voice afterwards. Also, apparently Lift and Soju is a good combination, but I'm still ambivalent on that one.
Last week, I met up with the guys from the Tongariro Crossing to play some board games. We played a game of "Power Grid", where you're a power plant owner trying to supply Germany with power fueled from rubbish, coal, oil, uranium or environmentally-friendly sources. The game is interesting because the person in the best position will get the last turn to buy resources and build buildings, although this didn't seem to faze Jono, who pretty much steamrolled his way to victory.
After consuming a Burger Wisconsin burger and several greasily delicious sides, we wound down the night with a few games of Dominion. Next time, I think we're going to try Agricola or Puerto Rico. Looking forward to it!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:42am on Saturday April 9, 2011 :: 1 comment ::
Dress Up
Wednesday March 23, 2011
I hate dress up. I don't see the appeal of wearing something uncomfortable and awkward for the sake of entertainment. Beth had a flatwarming last Saturday with a theme of "pre-Internet" (it had taken them a month to get connected, I probably would have died by then) so it was pretty open. There were pirates and 1950s housewives and flappers and in my entire 5 seconds of considering what to wear, I donned a bedsheet on top of my clothes and called it a toga. Apparently this gives me "M4D PR0P5". Go look at the photos on Facebook.
Sunday was pretty busy too. After music in the morning, we had lunch at Great India and then went to Sunni's for some rounds of Carcassonne and Dominion. And that was great, it's been a while since I played either of them and I didn't do too badly. It took up most of the afternoon so I didn't get a chance to have my usual Sunday nap, so I was kinda tired when I went to Vaughan's for a delicious lamb roast.
I wasn't feeling too well on Monday so I took the day off, but I managed to achieve a lot of things (namely sleep). Psypoke is chugging along nicely, although it's a bit slow at times, and work is okay. Still waiting on news on my next exciting project...
Smudge's owner has finally taken to putting a collar on him, so it's kinda like we can't feed him anymore. He still visits us often (the collar has a bell on it, so while I'm at home and I hear a random jingle sound, I know there's a cat at the door) and he still loves being scratched and playing with my keys, but yeah, it's like the collar is a "hands off" signal so no more foods. Or maybe a little bit once in a while.
Yeah, life is alright at the moment. Really just waiting for that big news.
Posted by Jeremy at 6:03am on Wednesday March 23, 2011 :: 0 comments ::
Wellington Anniversary
Monday January 24, 2011
Happy Wellington Anniversary.
My injuries have been healing well and the swelling and bruising in my right eye has greatly decreased. The ophthamologist said I didn't have to take so many eye drops as well, and that's awesome because eye drops cause me so much agony. I got my replacement glasses from OPSM too so I'm pretty much back on track with my life.
Work has been going well. Last Friday, we farewelled our iPhone producer and bid him the best for architecture school. We shared our "last" drinks with him at Southern Cross, which was unfortunately right across the road from that incident, so I was extra careful when heading home. Fortunately, I made it back without any problems, this time.
Saturday was pretty uneventful, save for some badminton in the morning. Jono (Dall) and Dave came over to watch a movie with Charlotte in the evening, but we played Dominion while waiting for the DVD to burn. Sunday was just pouring with rain so I tried to stay indoors as much as possible. We did go for Laser Strike for Jono's (Dixon) birthday then to Cha for dinner afterwards, and finally back to their flat for some board games including Sunni's newest acquisition, Carcassonne. Those Germans really know how to make board games, huh?
Today, Jono, Char, Dave, Beth and I bundled into my car and we roadtripped up to Lindale Park on the Kapiti Coast. There's a cafe there and some specialty shops for Kapiti-branded cheese, ice cream, wine and honey, as well as a farm with lots of adorable animals like bunnies, chickens, calves, goats, donkeys, alpacas, guinea pigs and several ducks and geese on site. We drove a bit further north and lazed about on Waikanae beach for a while before heading back to Wellington.
I'm tired.
Edit: I've just received a text from my brother-in-law and I am an uncle to a baby boy, weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces! Mother (my sister) is exhausted but doing well. Squee!!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:01am on Monday January 24, 2011 :: 1 comment ::
Dominionated
Wednesday December 29, 2010
Wanted to play badminton after church on Sunday but I guess because it's a public holiday, the courts were locked up so we ended up going to Matt's house nearby and playing Rock Band, Raiden 3, and even Boggle.
I went over to Richard's house on Monday to try out his new board game - Agricola. The silly game took us four hours to complete, but it was kinda fun nevertheless. Maybe we'll be faster when we get better. I also snuck in some table tennis with Hsin Yao and of course the family pool and also the piano were well used that day. I led everyone in a rousing chorus of "The Tide is High"...
The next day, the rain came.
Despite the wet conditions, I met up with my workmates at Sun World in Newmarket for a delicious yum char. The place was absolutely packed and for good reason too; the food was tasty and the variety was fantastic, and all for a very reasonable $19. Jono and Charlotte went their separate ways but the Sidhe crew met up again at Bryce's house where we played Dominion and Cranium! Fun times.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:42am on Wednesday December 29, 2010 :: 0 comments ::