I am in an office on the 4th floor of a ChCh CBD building using LINUX (Mandrake)! I am happy. Saying ‘no’ to Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Steve Jobs. No Netscape, no Internet Explorer. Give me Mozilla! It is fun being in the company of computer nerds again, and Dave (the guy who’s letting me use the extra computer) is cool indeed. w00t! Here comes two weeks’ worth….
Indoor soccer was tiring. 3 11-min thirds, but nothing but sprints. I overworked myself during the first third and spent the other two trying to remember how to breathe. During the second game that immediately followed, I paced myself more and had fun. My team was playing in a higher league, so we got sufficiently creamed, but it was good to hit the ol’ bucky ball again.
Before soccer was mountain biking (with said Dave, and swing instructor Jeff). They took me to Bottlelake and I had tons of fun trying not to fall off. I hadn’t ever mountain biked before, and so I was scared about losing grip with the gravel on turns. But by the end I was doing sort bunny hops and pushing Newton’s Laws.
I’ve been a socialite this past weekend as well. Friday, I went to a touchy-feely theatre thingy called “Playback”. The MC of the stage gets someone to talk about their feelings about this winter, and 4 actresses get up and do a short improvised ’sculpture’. Many of the feelings were silly at best, but I may have been put off by the MC’s overly “and how did you feel next” attitude. After that, I went to a microbrewery and ordered an alcoholic ginger beer. Very nice. Then I jumped over to a jazz bar and danced to funk for a couple of hours. The Lindy crowd decided to have a small Lindy bomb, and ti was fun.
Saturday eve I made spring rolls for the swing instructors with Dave (and he made Tamarind chicken), Sunday I went for a drive in the hills with Rachel of the swing folk. And I also played more arena ubersoccer - this time I scored a point.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After soccer, I ate with the Rachel and her friends from med school - a good homemade Indian dinner, and watched “Mambo Italiano” - think My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but go over the Adreatic sea, and make the daughter a gay son.
Monday, I made Thai green curry for the swing instructors - and they loved it. Is good. Tuesday was dinner with Rachel, her friend Archie, and her little brother Ashish. Rachel made a great Chinese cabbage and fish soup, and a noodle stir-fry. Last night was my last swing night here. It was good, and they gave me a good-bye dance.
This weekend looks to be full of last hurrahs - dinner parties, more soccer, maybe more mountain biking.
Uf. I go home in under a week. I have so much to organize. It has the potential
to be stressful, and I don’t want that.