Hedgehog Days of Summer

Well I feel bad about lapsing so much on the blog as it has been about a month since I last posted, but the truth of the matter is that not much of consequence has happened other that visits from my parents and Tenny's mom. Having our first visitors definitely brought a breath of fresh air into the trip, as the last month has been spent mostly making as much money as we can and playing as much softball as I can. I am happy to report that we have managed to save up a decent amount of $$ for the 2nd leg of our travels, and I have managed to correct the deficiency in my batting stance that led me to strike out an embarrassing amount of times. Plus I have finally gotten used to the infamous 'riseball' that was causing me fits. Since fastpitch is underarm the ball comes at you in an entirely different angle, and a good riseball can start at the waist and end up at neck level.

On the home front the summer weather has finally arrived and our house is even more beautiful now that we can keep all the windows and doors open. A couple of days ago we also earned the honour of being the first tenants in 30 years to save a hedgehog from the fish pond. To be fair hedgehogs are kind of stupid little critters and every so often they come down to the pond looking for a drink and get a swim instead after slipping on the plastic lining. Tenny's mom spotted this one paddling madly and trying to get up out of the water, and after some discussion we initiated a hedgehog rescue effort by fishing him out with a garden rake. The water was so cold he was shivering pretty badly so we made him a little recovery bed in the trees with a towel for a blanket and worms from the compost as a snack. He wasn't in any shape to eat so the wormies made their escape but sure enough after 2 hours he had gotten his body temperature back up and disappeared into the grass. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of him before he left us, so you'll just have to imagine how cute it was.

We did however take a picture of our cat wearing this hat.. which is even cuter, so you can feel like it wasn't a complete waste of time reading this:

M'Lord Mayor!!

Sometimes I wish news broadcasts were still like they were back in 1956, so punchy and full of hullygully. In honour of the start of the Olympic torch parade back home I give you what I can only imagine was the best moment of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne:

P.M.

The boring morning of yesterday surprisingly turned into one of the most fun nights we've had in Nelson at the beginning of the Nelson Arts Festival. Opening night is headlined by a kids masquerade parade, and last night we took our spot on the street for the main event. I think there must have been some kind of peace and love theme, which was interpreted pretty broadly by the teachers, but seeing the little ones from each local school in a different costume was indisputably adorable. Tens and I had a bit of a photo contest to see who could capture the moment the best.. let's see who you think did better.



Tenny Shot #1











VS.


Doug Shot #1:











Tenny Shot #2












VS.


Doug Shot #2











I think we all know who the winner is.. but nice try babe.

A.M.

It's official, today is one of the boringest mornings of all time. First it was the never ending rain, then a mad dash for a balloon boy that was boyless, and now I go to myp2p.eu to see if there are any exciting sports being shown online to pass the time and this is what I get:

Some days you just have to get creative.. which means it's time to work on my headline collection. Ever since we got here I have been collecting amazing headlines from local newspapers, inspired by a headline in the Vancouver Sun before I left which read "Classy player ends career with class". So far my favourite, from a paper on the Coromandel Peninsula, is this one:


I'm hoping to make a compilation of my headlines and combine them with Tenny's ongoing collection of funny mailbox pictures to make a superbook. Kind of an encyclopedia of NZ culture..

Really.. that's offensive??

I could probably fill twenty blogs with the hilarious instances of racism (although admittedly not malicious) by unsuspecting Aussies and Kiwis, but this one probably takes the (lolly)cake. Apparently this week on the 'Hey Hey it's Saturday Night' reunion special, sadly not shown on our side of the water, one of the acts was just a wee bit offensive. Luckily Harry Connick Jr., a.k.a. Captain America, was there to set things straight. Here is the article from the Guardian, and if you are a glutton for punishment the clip from the show is here:

Personally I feel the worst for Philadelpha Cream Cheese, who had the misfortune of having their logo advertised right as they stepped onto the stage. But hey we shouldn't be too hard of them, it's not like they were highly educated or anything.

lolligag

Last night Tens and I decided to put our money where our mouth is and bought a package of supposedly delicious 'pineapple lumps', thinking that no product with a funny commercial could possibly be disgusting. Well we were wrong, and have noticed that New Zealanders seem to have a strange fascination with revolting dessert products.

Ever wondered what racism tastes like? Well try New Zealand's Lolly Cake. Through extensive research I have determined it to be it's purest incarnation..

Tenny sells them at work, and the finished product looks something like this:


But if you break down the ingredients a bit, you'll find those innocent fluffy chewy marshmallowy chunks are actually these:

ESKIMOS!! The dreaded candy that once sparked a mild international full scale rumbling!

Of course not surprisingly Kiwis ferociously defend the right to use their racist little treat, but I have to wonder what they would think if the shoe was on the other foot and they went to a store in Canada and found a caricature of a Maori person.. honestly I suspect they wouldn't care at all. It's pretty obvious that the two things New Zealanders resist the most about modern Western culture is its PCness and the onslaught of the 'nanny state'. But does the addition of the eskimo candy make the lolly cake officially a form of evil?? Well, before discovering that a lollicake is spelled lolly cake I went searching for a picture of it and the first image that came up when I typed in "lollicake new zealand" was this:

I believe it is customary in the legal profession at this juncture to use the term CASE CLOSED!

Heavenly Mud

Well, not surprisingly the God of Pineapple Lumps cared more about producing and distributing delicious bite size snacks and didn't care at all about our car, so I failed miserably. But I would give myself a B+ for effort, after all I did locate the problem and bought the replacement part, I just couldn't physically remove the starter from the car. Yesterday I definitely learned the valuable lesson that socket wrenches are necessary for car repair, and lack of one is a bit of a deal breaker. So I took it off this morning to the local auto electrician and we'll see how much my lack of skill cost us. As a result I have now put taking an auto mechanics course at the top of my adult education demands, even higher than learning to play the ukelele which was the previous #1 holder.

But it's not all sad news and dollars lost on this side of the world. To the contrary, last Wednesday was an awe inspiring victory for 'Heavenly Mud', the name of our quiz team that competes every week at our local bar the Sprig & Fern. With my knowledge of Chemistry gleamed from the various posters and hooked rugs around our childhood house, Tenny's knowledge of famous faces, and our friend Hugh's knowledge of MTV New Zealand's latest videos we vauled to the top last week claiming victory by a sizeable margin. As you can see from this victory shot we were in a league of our own, being the only team to pick up 80 points:

And that beautiful basket wasn't even part of our prize, that was the gift pack we won in the weekly raffle which took place before the start of the last round. I guess when it rains it pours sometimes.. and thanks to luck and our teammates we got a whole week's worth of alcohol paid for us. Now that is the taste of sweet sweet victory.