Weekends

The good thing about living 12 hours ahead is that if you can't find the energy and inspiration to update your blog on Friday, you can still do it Saturday morning, because it will still be Friday on the other side of the world : D
I have been very absent on the blog lately, but if you work 10 hour days and spent a lot of that time behind a computer you can't really be asked to spend a lot more time behind it once you're off... Besides that, since I am working so much during those 4 days I don't really do a lot of other things. Weekends are used to sleep and relax and sometimes do something as well. The last post ended with the preview of the last weekend of Saturday when Chris and I had a day planned to celibrate his birthday. I prepared a nice lunch and had his surprise planned and so on Friday evening we phoned to confirm and ask directions as to where to go. I've booked us a 1,5 white water sledging adventure with damdrop.com. It sounded awesome and we were both excited about going (I told Chris at the end of the week where we were going since he had to drive us there). When we got at the set place and time nobody was there. Over 20 minutes late they arrived (there was another couple waiting with us as well) just to tell us it couldn't happen because the water in the river was too high and it would be too dangerous. Right. They could've phoned us earlier and told us that earlier, there was no flash flood or anything.... We were rather disappointed, mainly with the way they handled it (the apology that was clearly not sincere, the improfessional way of the booking process beforehand etc). We only drove 45 min to get there, but the other couple came from Wellington and had driven over 4 hours just to get there. They had all our contact details and could've called to say it was unsure if it was able to do it... Anyway we went for a drive around the area and had a lovely picknick at lake Rotorangi, where we had to use a bit of 4 wheel driving to get there. Lovely spot, nice and quiet and Chris had never been there before as well, so good to be a tourist in your own country.
Last weekend was a completely different story. 4 Years ago when I was in NZ I visisted Anna and Arjen who have taken the big leap and have emigrated to NZ from the Netherlands more than 6 years ago. We kept in contact and now that I'm in the area (they are only 45 min away) ofcourse I had to go see them again. We emailed and Anna and I met at the visitor information centre at 10.30 last Friday. It was great to see her (and Arjen) again and after a big coffee and carrot cake at Starbucks we went for a bit of shopping. Anna and Arjen have entered the 'Farmer of the Year Award' competition and she needed a nice dress to wear to the award evening. We found a beautiful dress, shoes and one of those lovely big 'Bridget Jones underwear' things: a massive pair of paints to keep everything in a good shape under the dress : D Ofcourse we explored the farm (they are sharemilkers and own their own cows and all loose equipment, they just rent the house/stable/land) and talked forever. On Saturday evening we went to the cinema in Hawera and watched The Tourist. Nice movie and a great evening out. Sunday we went to the beach somewhere on the coast and enjoyed a lovely picknick there. In the evening it was time to say goodbey again unfortunately, but not before we had a great meal at Crowded House here in New Plymouth (a place I would def. recommend). Since I'll be here for a while I'll try and visit them again before I leave the area.
Yesterday (Friday) my long weekend started relaxed, did laundry, went to see the Kings Speech in the cinema (nice, very well played by Collin F) and had my hair trimmed at the hairdressers (much needed since I hadn't been to the hairdresser in over 5 months) after which I needed to get the standard cappucino at Starbucks (it was Friday after all ;-) Time to catch a bit more sleep and read sitting on a big stone near the sea.
Besides this I have been thinking a lot about life and what to do with mine. It's all rather confusing and I still haven't figured it out yet. A few things are becoming clear and I have made the right choice when leaving UvA, Amsterdam/Haarlem to go back to Groningen, I am sure of that. The rest will fall into place later I guess. I have tried to upload pictures many times now, but unfortunately it's not working. Will try it sometime when I'm at Starbucks with a different network. Hope you are all doing well and keep in contact! I know I suck at replying to emails, but I will try and answer as much as I can during this weekend (but not now, cause I want to go out and explore).