Winter
Wednesday July 8, 2015
Winter is definitely here, with a sharp cold front hitting the country and plummeting the temperatures to 3.1C. Thanks to the wind chill, it currently feels like -4C. It was hailing a few moments ago, but now it seems to have quietened down, however the forecast remains grim for tomorrow and Friday. There is a small chance we could get some snow flurries in the CBD like in 2011, so hopefully that eventuates.
It's been ludicrously busy recently, with my project expected to submit a gold master candidate this Friday. I've felt like freaking out a couple of times because I've simply been overwhelmed by several things happening at once. Sometimes it's difficult to juggle the needs of people as well as the programming tasks assigned to me, but I think that my ability to stay calm and rational (or at least appear calm and rational) has improved over the years. I think the project is in an okay position, and we'll make our deadline, but it wasn't easy getting here.
Last month, there were a few birthday celebrations. We went to Gasworks in Miramar for Phil's birthday, where Mana and I had all you can eat ribs. Dale had his birthday at Matterhorn on Cuba St (which I've written a food blog entry about) and James had his birthday at his new place on Tory St. Lizzie had her birthday with some drinks at Goldings and karaoke at KZone, naturally. Rob had an "old man brunch" out in Elements at Lyall Bay last weekend, and it was so glorious and sunny that I was in shorts, in the middle of winter. I've been sightseeing with the guys too. We've been to the Brooklyn wind turbine, the Miramar gun emplacements at night, and the Wainuiomata Coast during the day. I tried the Flaming Dragon pizza from Hell Pizza, watched four workmates do a 1kg burrito challenge, had a massive pork hock from Grill Meats Beer and got some Moustache cookies delivered from Auckland. I also caught the Venus Jupiter conjunction, though not at their closest. It's amazing seeing the planets come together like that, two of the most prominent night sky features in clear view.
Last weekend was busy too. We went to Mishmosh to try out their food and see if it would be a worthy destination for Wellington on a Plate (not bad, would recommend!), then went to Fringe bar and sang Hakuna Matata at the public karaoke. On Saturday I went to two flatwarmings and watched the Hurricanes/Highlanders game. This weekend is going to be busy too, with the end of project celebration, a lunch at Strawberry Fare, and music at Central.
Phew.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:24am on Wednesday July 8, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 
The Moment When You Get Internet at a New Place
Sunday May 31, 2015
Blogging has been quiet since my move because I've been lacking a proper Internet connection. Unlike several of my friends who have been waiting for fibre to be installed in their building, this failure of connectivity was completely my own fault. I bought two modems off TradeMe, unfortunately neither of them supported PPPoE/VC-MUX which was required by my ISP for their service. ANYWAY, now that I have a working modem, I can sell the other two off on TradeMe; it's still cheaper than buying a new modem. And most importantly, I'm back on the net.
The past two weeks have been pretty busy. The move went as well as it could have. We had arranged for the Salvation Army to swing by and pick up our beds, cabinets, shelves and what not. They only did weekday visits, so I had to move my bed down from the first floor on Thursday night, which meant I was on an airbed kindly loaned from Vincent for two nights. However, on Friday morning, they called us to say that the torrential rain and subsequent flooding of Wellington's northern suburbs meant they were unable to make it. Instead, we had to hire a van and drive all of that to the store in Newtown. Thankfully, the weather had cleared by Saturday, so moving was not a problem. Thanks to Phil, Will and Vincent for their help!
Since moving into my new place, I've had a solid worship session on the piano at Central Baptist, karaoke, dinner at Dragons for Wei's birthday, steamboat at Campbell and Linda's and also managed to catch the Eurovision song contest. We said goodbye to Charles and Pete on Friday with some drinks at Fork and Brewer with the programmers, then karaoke at New Kor with all the artists - so good to see so many people out having a great time. Yesterday was weekly badminton in the morning, gym in the afternoon, and drinks for Charlie and Donnie's birthdays at Goldings, Hashi's and Southern Cross. I really enjoy how the long weekend just seems to populate itself with events and social gatherings.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:43am on Sunday May 31, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
May
Monday May 11, 2015
May has been pretty damn busy for me, and it's only going to get busier. There were heaps of social things to keep me occupied, but more than anything, the big house move is on Saturday and that's been the cause of most of my stress.
We started off the month with Laser Strike at the complex on Tory St for Dianne's birthday, after some sushi train and a sneaky cocktail from CGR Merchant and Co. On Saturday, I saw the final night of Definitely Not The Babysitter's Club, an improv show presented by the cast of Definitely Not Witches. Today's topic was a rival babysitter's club, so cue awesomeness and chaos as each of the six actors on stage juggled three or four characters each. It was amazing. We chilled at BATS for a bit and then helped Joe pack down the stage before retiring to his house for a few drinks.
Then, on Sunday, we said our farewells to Josh and Christine at the Southern Cross, while following the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight on a live blog. Finally, early on Monday morning, Vincent flew in from Nepal via Australia, safe and sound after the devastating 7.8 earthquake that had hit the region. I caught up with Ben at Fork and Brewer on Tuesday. He'd been in town over the weekend, filming for the 48 Hour film festival. It was good to chit chat and see that him and Jill had settled in Melbourne alright, and said that I would someday be back for more food. And of course, one of those chicken parmas he keeps going on about.
We had some torrential rain hit the city on Thursday. The full force of northerly winds blew all the rain straight into my face, soaking the entire front portion of my jeans. I found out that several others had arrived quite soggy and miserable. I managed to secure a fan heater for myself to start drying all my wet clothes, but unfortunately it overloaded the circuit and shut down a few computers on my side of the office.
We celebrated Vincent's birthday at the Boat Cafe on Oriental Parade. One of his friends is part of the waiting staff there, and was telling me about their entry for the burger competition for Wellington on a Plate 2015 - a mussel and kumara burger - that was currently available for patrons to try. So, unable to resist the chance to start the WOAP journey early, I agreed to give it a go and provide feedback. The burger had good texture, perhaps a bit too much bun on the bottom, but a lovely crunch from the pickles, green salad and lightly toasted bread. The patty was interesting and I do like that they chose some adventurous ingredients, but I couldn't taste the kumara at all, and wouldn't have been able to tell there was any if I hadn't been told. Several others on the table agreed, and I suggested that maybe they could enhance the flavour with more kumara, maybe making it a bit more chunky, or adding something with a bit of kick like a chilli salsa. We shall see what the Boat Cafe offers in August!
On Saturday after badminton (and a nap), I joined Sam and Sarah (and 2000 others) at the War Memorial to see if we could spot Prince Harry doing his rounds around Wellington. Sure enough, at 4.30pm, he arrived at Pukeahu and went inside the memorial for a bit, before walking around greeting the crowd and shaking hands. A very personable, down to earth guy, I must admit! I got some good, close pictures of him and tried to get him to fistbump me, but alas it just wasn't my day. Sam and Sarah were much more successful and managed to grab a handshake! I was so tired after gym that day that I gatecrashed the kids' apartment and chilled for a bit before heading out to Grill Meats Beer with Will and Phil. We texted Mana and Mike as well, but they were pretty cosy at home, so we headed there after dinner for a while. They got Josh and Christine's couches, so it's finally feeling a bit more homely in their flat.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:24am on Monday May 11, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
ANZAC Weekend
Monday April 27, 2015
Whew.
I've been on the flat hunt for a while, but have finally signed the tenancy for a studio apartment just around the corner from my current place. More than anything, it's the relief of having accommodation and knowing that it's all sorted. Flat hunting sucks. There are so many overpriced places out there, really looking to screw over potential tenants. This place is going to cost me twice what I'm currently paying, but it comes with a carpark and is in a good area of town, so I'm happy to go with it for the time being.
Jono and Charlotte have been in the country and visited Wellington this weekend. It's been awesome catching up with them at all the various good food places around Wellington - brunch at Spruce Goose, yum char at Majestic Cuisine, lunch at Fisherman's Plate, dinner at El Matador ($80 worth of lamb!), pastries from Louis Sergeant and ice cream from Kaffee Eis. We celebrated Andrew's birthday at Heaven's Pizza and then had karaoke at K Zone. We played a few games of Love Letters, messed around with the foosball table and table tennis table at work, and played some Sega Mega Drive too. It's been an action-packed weekend with lots of social interaction and I'm pretty exhausted from it all - but so worth it!
I went to the dawn parade on Saturday morning too. They estimated 40,000 people had turned up at 5.30am at the newly renovated Pukeahu National War Memorial to pay their tributes and to remember the tragedies that had occurred 100 years ago to the date. It was an emotional, poignant service, with a great sense of unity and respect. It was awesome to sing the national anthem with so many others in honour of those who had died at Gallipoli.
Work-wise, we had a pretty informative Tech Day last Friday where I gave a presentation of how my project had been going, as a follow up to the presentation I did earlier in the year on how I intended to plan the project. We had a good product review last Thursday and we're hitting alpha this Thursday, so things will be busy in the coming week!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:19am on Monday April 27, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Easter
Sunday April 5, 2015
Easter has been pretty quiet; I opted to stay in Wellington instead of flying up to Auckland for the first time in seven years. This was partially due to the fact that my schoolmates were supposed to organise a trip somewhere but nothing eventuated. Nevertheless, Jordan, Christine, Josh and I ended up day-tripping up to Martinborough to visit Damon on Saturday. We went for a wine tasting at Haythornthwaite Wines - for only $5, this was a bargain. Most of the ones we had were quite dry and tart, but I was partial to the Gewürztraminer dessert wine. Full of lychee aromas and delightfully sweet!
Afterwards, we headed to Poppies for some food platters - there was a delay in getting our table ready so it wasn't until quite late that we were seated, and when the food arrived, we ravenously devoured the olives, salmon, capsicum, beef, roast pork, tomatoes and cheese on the plate. So goooood. We had a bit of time to kill before heading back to Wellington, so we played a few games of werewolf, and by 6.30pm we were on our way back to the city.
The sky had begun to cloud over around 3pm, and by the time we hit the Rimutakas, it was already raining. Not good news for the total lunar eclipse that night. However, when we reached Wellington around 8pm, the skies were pretty clear and the moon was definitely visible. I dropped everyone home, got changed, and picked up Jimmy, Charlie, Phil and Joe, and headed out to Lyall Bay for Fleur's birthday party. There was a perfect view of the full moon from her balcony with no clouds around, and sure enough, around 11pm, the face of the moon began to enter the penumbra of the Earth's shadow. As time progressed, we saw the first glimpses of red as the moon slipped into the main shadow, and finally at 1am, we had totality. Awesome! We set off some fireworks down by the beach, but I was tired and had to head home because I was on music at Central Baptist the next day. Thankfully, I got an extra hour's sleep from daylight savings, so I wasn't too out of it for the Easter service.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:04pm on Sunday April 5, 2015 :: 0 comments ::