Trench Warfare

So where the last post left off was bang on middle of April - the 15th.

The following couple of weeks were nothing much to write about, albeit I was finally told that I wasn't required by the my work anymore, and Susan my partner in fighting crime also left - the week before I did, on the 4th of May. In between this there was Anzac day, which really was "help Anne & Wayne around the house day".

Once I finished up at work I decided I really wanted to get away for about a week, as I would soon be house-bound in the role of custodian of Jordan & Jess (J-Dog & J-Cat). I decided I would brave a trip back up to Kaitaia and visit some old friends after 3.5 years.

So on the Wednesday - I hopped in the car and headed to Tauranga, probably shouldn't have bothered with Tauranga, but I wanted to take my wetsuit up north in case I got the chance to have a swim. Nothing much to report Tauranga-wise, except for the fact that someone near the house has unsecured WiFi, so I made use of that.

Thursday - I headed to Auckland. Decided once I got to Sylvia park that I would stay the night in Auckland, as I could casually do stuff, rather than drive some more and then have to find some dinner, and set up a tent etc possibly in the dark. I walked down Queen Street and decided to take part in a Pub crawl that was advertised at the hostel. The downside was everyone else on it was probably in their early twenties, so I felt like a real old man. I gave up on the last free drink and bar because I wanted to check out the Ice bar (bar in sub zero temperatures)- I would have gone earlier in the night, but at about 6pm when I was down that way no one else was there - Awesome if I was with someone else, but would've been lame just by myself. Unfortunately when I got there at 12.30am (they are advertised to close at 1am) they were shut, and someone said they'd closed at 12.

On Friday I got up and headed north, and got to finally check out the new bypass road and tunnel - that they had been building the two years I was up north, but not quite finished by the time I went to London. I stopped in Whangarei for lunch, and then headed on to stay with my old workmate Peter.

Saturday & Sunday - I picked olives for Peter in his olive orchard. It was a relatively easy task, almost like milking a cow. The worst bit was the hidden trenches/drains that were hidden in the long grass between the rows - hence the above title. For my work I got 10.5 litres of organic olive oil which was pretty choice. It was also nice staying at Peter's - out in the country.

Monday, I left Peter's and went down the road to Mangonui and visited a distant Bruntlett relation, shared information, and had lunch with them. From there went to Kaitaia. I kept my eyes open as I cruised down the main street to see if all my favorite haunts were still there - yes to the roast shop (albeit with a different name and owner) and the 2nd hand book shop. Nero's had closed, and my former workplace has changed it's name and one of the partners.

I stayed the night with the Brott's, who were essentially the chairpeople of the Puriri Park village where I orginally lived when I first moved to Kaitaia. I had a great time with them, in some ways they remind(ed) me a lot of my maternal grandparents, albeit a lot more youthful. Pam even made a Nek Minit joke - how she knew about that I don't know. It was great catching up, reminiscing, and telling them the stories of my travels.

While I was in Kaitaia I also went to visit the Little Theatre, where I had performed several plays in my time up there. It was now part of the Te Ahu complex that had been proposed around the time I was up there. It combined the museum, community centre, information centre, Little Theatre, and library into one building, and looks totally awesome. Probably way over-budget though...

I had to come back to Hamilton for a WINZ appointment, which really was a waste of time as it simply was a hoop to jump through.

Suzanne and Bevan went to Europe, so I am currently in charge of their house. Jess shows me lots of affection and sleeps with me (too bad she is a cat), and Jordan is a dog, he has just learnt to bark (at everyone and everything) and seems to want to chew everything. In the few quiet moments I get, I have been getting London-sick by watching 'The Only Way is Essex' and 'Who Do You Think You Are?'

I had my graduation day for my "Advanced Certificate in Te Ara Reo Maori" the other week. It was alright, but most of my classmates weren't there, so I didn't get to catch up with them, which was a real shame. The food was alright, and the sash I got to wear looked pretty awesome. It seems to be a painful coincedence that I always seem to be unemployed (or at least underemployed) whenever I have a graduation, which just goes to show that a million letters after your name doesn't make you anymore job secure.

Last week I spent helping Mum and Dad out at their work, picking orders and going out in the van to help on deliveries.

Act Two: Who do You (I) think You Are (I am)? Taranaki & Wellington

So, I stayed with Cheryl for a couple of nights in Waitara. The first day I went and caught up with a distant relation, who also happened to be the convener of the local Genealogical Society in Waitara and compared notes and photos. She was also a descendant of my Great-Great Grandparents John Reardon and Sarah Ann Bruntlett (pictured - you may recognise them from an earlier post).

Following that I mucked around for a bit, and then nipped down to New Plymouth, to check out where Puke Ariki was (the local museum, which also has a great archive). Admittedly it ended up mostly being a recon & use the free Wi-Fi mission. That night I had a small walk down to the beach (in pretty much stark darkness) and then watched a bit of TV and slept after a call to one of my mother's cousins who knew a bit about my mother's mother's (Nana) side of the family, the Melvilles of Kaponga.

The next day I went to New Plymouth and did my research - looking up all my Taranaki ancestors (of which are the majority). Unfortunately, I only found good information on the Melville ancestors, however that was better than nothing.

I had intended to do a bit of a drive around Southern Taranaki once I had finished there, to see some of the places my ancestors had come from, unfortunately it had decided to rain quite heavily, so I cut my losses and headed straight to another set of distant relations - Alan & Annette Reardon - who are related to me as John Reardon (pictured above) my Great Great Grandfather, was the brother of Alan's Grandfather William.

Alan & Annette had recently come back from a big trip around the British Isles - including spending some time investigating our ancestors and exploring where they came from - they managed to find Ballyriordan (The Valley of the Reardons) and met some O'Riordans, so they had some good stories and some extra information, including a map if I ever make it over there. We also had a fantastic feed of corned beef that night, which topped it all off nicely.

The next day I did most of the looking around Taranaki that I had intended to do the day before, first starting with Kaponga (Melvilles), then making my way to Hawera and then around the coast through Patea (Bartz), stopped in Maxwell (Reardons), and then spent some time at the Aramoho cemetery in Wanganui (various - Reardon, Bruntlett, and especially as apparently my elusive ancestor Edwin Valentine Westerby is buried there, but in the row where he is supposed to be, there is no headstone - probably not surprising when you desert your wife and kids, even if they do find out when and where you die, they might not be so keen to fork out for one.)

From there I hightailed it to Wellington, checked into my hostel, and caught up with Campbell - my mate that I worked with at the CPS in London.

The next day was Friday, and I had several things I needed to do on a week day - unfortunately the hostel didn't have it's own parking, so every morning I had to go and move my car before doing anything else. Anyhow, I wanted to visit the consulate offices of Spain, France, and the U.K. and go to Archives New Zealand. The Spanish consulate was very helpful, the French ignored me, and the British were closed by the time I got there.

At Archives New Zealand I mucked around a bit as I figured they wouldn't be so useful, being a bit cynical and jaded from other institutions I had visited so far, however, once I got into the swing of it I found they had a whole lot of my ancestor's wills - which I got them to photocopy for me, and have made very interesting reading.

Admittedly the rest of my time in Wellington was fairly low key, Friday night I did my washing, Saturday night I went out, but otherwise the only thing of great interest was on the way out I visited some more distant (again second cousin, twice removed) relations (Clemoes side) and chatted and shared information with them for several hours, which was great.

Whakapapa Hikoi - Act One - Rotorua

So finally I made it to my holiday without dying of exhaustion, or insanity. I haven't had any time off bar a week between assignments in July, since March last year.

Thursday night once I escaped work and had packed my car I got the hell out of Hamilton and headed for Rotorua.

On the way into Rotorua I noticed they had Wendy's restaurant, so the first thing I did the next day was go there for breakfast - which was awesome. While I was there I got a text from a family tree contact (who we have worked out is the partner of my second cousin twice removed) saying come over when your free - I texted back and said 'I'm free now - coming over'

The rest of the weekend involved a bit of family tree work, but mostly getting to know them through food and a road trip to Ohope (in which I managed to get my first ever speeding fine)

I had booked two nights in the hostel in Rotorua, and ended up being able to stay in two different houses the other two nights as my 'new-found' relations owned a business renting out holiday rentals. One of these houses was especially flash - spa pool on the back deck - and both of these houses backed onto Lake Rotorua. On my last night I went to church, and then found a place where you shoot an airgun (slug gun) at targets for prizes. For example I had to shoot an aluminum can until in fell in half to win a can of drink (which I did). It was fun.

The next day after a cooked breakfast, I headed off - I was heading first to Piopio, to meet and catch up with a Scottish girl I met in December in Hamilton. I got there eventually despite technology failing me - my SatNav was being a dick and not finding satellites, and then my iPhone had no reception until I turned it off and back on again.

From Piopio I carried on down to Waitara - to stay with Cheryl - who I stayed with back in May last year - and was the Director of the plays I was in 2007 & 2008 in Kaitaia.

A Little Quixotic

For work We had our Christmas celebration as a breakfast at a local cafe. Christmas was spent at Papamoa with Mum, Dad, Suzanne, Bevan and Nana. Christmas day at Bowentown with us and my cousins. The weather that weekend was fairly average- I only had the statutory holidays off. New years went to the Papamoa tavern and saw the Feelers and Zed- two of NZ's popular bands of the early 2000s. The Feelers were the headline act, but I went more to see Zed, as they had broken up a while back. I had seen the Feelers in London for free not so long ago, so it was almost sad having to pay to see them here.

The middle weekend in January I made use of a birthday present from Adessa and went to Waitomo caves and went through the footwhistle cave after a nice lunch. The cave was good-interesting and well presented, but not too touristy. I had noticed when I looked at a map that the Waitomo caves road becomes Te Anga road, and I recalled that my great grandmother had lived there at one point, so on the trip home I did a big detour to check it out, as well as anything of interest on the way such as the natural bridge and the Marakopa waterfall which was huge and pretty cool.

The following week I managed to catch up with Campbell my workmate I worked with in London at the Crown Prosecution service. We had a couple of beers at home then had tea in town and finished off with a beer at a local pub called the Londoner, which seemed fitting. I was expecting it to be a 'London' pub in name only, but it turned out to be just like an east London pub.The next weekend I used another voucher to kayak along the Waikato river from Cambridge to the narrows.

 That was quite cool- peaceful more than anything. once that was over I had to rush to my first rehearsal of Don Quixote of La Mancha at the Riverlea theatre.The next weekend was Waitangi weekend, and Christine, a girl I grew up with got married to her welsh boyfriend now husband. Therefore we had a weekend in west Auckland, I got to catch up with a couple of girls I'd travelled around the south island with, so that was good, and my family and I went out to Piha to check it out at sunset. Since I had hardly swam in the last 3 years I decided to have a quick dip. The wedding was great, they made a lot of choices that I liked as ideas for my own future wedding. On the way home we dropped mum and dad off at the airport to go to Sydney. The following weeks were fairly similar, a lot of don Quixote rehearsals with the occasional other thing for variety such as a travel night put on by Calder and Lawson- the travel agency I used to go to London. The other thing was an Irish ancestry research day at the society of genealogists in Auckland- mum  and dad were going out fishing with one of their suppliers so we shared the ride, but meant I had less time. On the Sunday my mate Ron had his birthday and celebrated it the usual way- with a KFC party.In the following weeks I had a couple of interviews at our area office for a couple of jobs, and then I did two weeks on another team to cover someone. During this time we started performances of the play. In all it was good, we had pretty poor audience turn outs but admittedly it was competing with st Patrick's day and the balloon festival which were free events. Also I think with the economy and the price of the show people would be quite discerning with their cash.

I'm now just about to embark on an epic road trip... watch this space...

32 & No Further Ahead

A small victory can be claimed I guess, in the fact it only has been a month and a half since the last entry.
In saying that, that 1.5 months has had a few achievements and milestones. I had intended to write something sooner, so I could be more philosophical, rather than listing off what I have been up to week to week, because if it's boring me, chances are it's boring you too.

And so it begins...
The weekend following my last entry (15/16 October) I decided that I would head to Auckland and check out the Fanzone for the Rugby World Cup while I a) still had a chance, and b) it got really wild for the final. I stayed the Saturday night at Nana's in Huntly, to spend some time with her, but also because it was half an hour closer to Auckland.
We watched the semi-final between Wales and England that night, and then the next day I drove on up, parked in a car park building at the top of Queen Street, and walked on down. It was kind of interesting, as I had stayed at the top of Queen street multiple times during the period when I was living in Kaitaia. On my way down the street I came across the couple I worked with at Pacific Aerospace in a souvenir store, so I got to catch up with them. Once I got into the fanzone, I decided the first thing I would check out was the big 'New Zealand 2011' despite the hour and a half wait, mainly because it seemed I had chased it around the globe, and hadn't manage to catch it - it was in Paris under the Eiffel tower in 2007 during that World Cup, then it went across to London, and spend some time in Potter's field next to Tower bridge - which is where me and Campbell, my then-work mate from Wellington ate our lunches for 8 months. The other place of course it went, was Japan. It wasn't really worth the wait to be honest.

Once I came out of there I went to find my old school mate Simon (who you may remember from the Doughnut shaped island adventure). By the 'Cloud' a long building built for the RWC. Simon and I walked through the fanzone, seeing what was there to see (not a whole heap), and then went down the road (and happened to bump into Suzanne and Bevan) and checked out the big plastic waka (boat) complex that had gotten media attention due to it's ridiculous cost to build, and the fact it would only get 11 days usage. By that stage it was about 3pm so we went and had lunch at a Mexican place which was awesome- I'm pretty sure I'd been there once before. Right next to the Mexican place is the Ice Bar - which Adessa & I have sworn to go to when she comes out to visit - as we intended to go the Absolut Ice Bar in London, but never got that far.
That night, the All Blacks convincingly thrashed Australia in the semi-final, however I was a bunch of nerves at the start of the game, as I knew they would be some-what of a challenge.

The next weekend was Labour weekend, so Mum, Dad, and I all went over to Papamoa. That weekend's project was organising my currency collection, and attaching pictures to the relevant data in my family tree. Because of the Rena crashing into a reef, and the subsequent oil spill, I couldn't go swimming which was a bit of a downer.
On the upside however was the RWC final against France. If I was nervous about the Australia game, I was petrified about the France game. In theory we should nail it, as we'd already beaten them fairly convincingly in the pool games, however theories don't mean anything on game-day. They would also have the adrenaline from being in the running to win the cup. I had intended to enjoy the game with a beer or two, but because I was so on edge about it, I ended up not bothering. We won by one point, and the nation rejoiced.

The following week I went to a couchsurfing meeting, which once again was cool - enjoyed the pizza.

The weekend following was the mile-stone of all mile-stones, Adessa & my One year anniversary - despite the distance, the detractors, and the distractions (Ok, there aren't really any distractions because I only have eyes for Adessa, but I needed a third 'D' word) we did it.

The next day was my last Wananga for my Maori class, where I finished off the last assessment. That was rounded off with the usual food.

The following week started quietly but on the Wednesday I celebrated another birthday. Me and some friends went to 'The Dinsdale Office' for dinner, and they were also having a quiz night. Our team, to our surprise came second-equal, although there was no prize.

Thursday there was a Contiki night at the House on Hood (where I go for the Couchsurfing meetings) co-hosted by House of Travel, which are the people I went through to go to the UK. The night was good, free pizza, 3 glasses of boutique beer and a couple of drinks bought for me it was all good.

Friday night was the training for the Elections- as I have decided to work on the Elections, since it is fairly decent money.

Then we get to this week, Monday I went out to Dave & Sandra's for dinner. Tuesday was our Maori class end-of-year celebration, where they took us out to Valentines (a smorgasbord restaurant) where I hadn't been in nearly a decade (I had to clean the numerous windows there in one of my past student jobs, which probably put me off).

Today I went to the gym - there had been promotions for this gym several times, where you pay $3 for 30 days, but I was always too slow, however this time I got it. It was nice once I got going to not feel like I was going to die. Tonight I also managed to change the seat on my bike - something I wanted to do, as I have biked into work a couple of times, but the seat was a bit small and hard, so I decided my old seat would improve my motivation.

This weekend I am house-sitting for Suzanne and Bevan, and baby-sitting my blond nephew (puppy) Jordan, which should be fun.

As for the title above, I guess I have felt the rollercoaster of emotions that go with being fortune's fool. Let me explain... I have found an amazing woman, but she is on the other side of the world. In some ways I haven't worried too much about getting a full time job because I wanted some flexibility for when she comes out to visit, but now that looks like it will be next August. I had also thought that my job would finish shortly so I had gone as far as pricing out a cheap ticket to the UK for Christmas, however then found out that if I want it, I have a job until June, which is nice, but conflicting obviously. Now of course, I am sticking with the job, but every time it gets me down, I get negative and think about how I could be in the UK with Adessa.
Turning 32 didn't get me down so much, possibly because this year I have at least got closer with one goal, finding Miss Right, in saying that though, I also didn't get the other feelings in the spectrum either, none of the 'birthday euphoria'. So, anyway, that's me for now.

Same old insanity...

I last left this mid-July. It appears that not much happened until the first week of August, when we went down to the Hawkes Bay to celebrate Bevan's dad's 60th birthday.

Due to a bit of a stuff up on the part of our hotel, I was lucky enough to get my own room, and not have to share with mum & dad, which was quite nice. The Saturday was Adessa's & my 9th month anniversary, so she called me up, I sat with the ranch-slider open facing the beach (with the venue of Suzanne & Bevan's wedding reception from 6 years earlier in my peripheral vision) that was kind of awesome.

That afternoon, for lunch we went to Bevan's parents, and met his sisters' boyfriends. And later on we joined them all again at the restaurant for the birthday celebration. Awesome food, but the courses just kept coming, so it was hard to pace myself, or know whether to save room or not.

The following week I went to an information evening on African travel, which was OK, but aimed at older, more affluent people, and the presenter was an Australian who thought his jokes were the funniest things ever.

That Sunday we were reunited with Bevan's family again to celebrate Bevan's 30th birthday. This was achieved by eating lots of Chinese food and homemade pizza, in Bevan's recently finished outdoor pizza oven.

A few weeks later I spent the day at the NZ Family History fair at the Claudelands centre. It's probably hard to convey the interest in words, but I had a good time, and managed to find out several things about various ancestors. For example, my Irish ancestor - John Reardon (my Great-Great Grandfather) turns out wasn't born in Ireland, but rather Chelsea in London. It appears his parents married in Essex, and would have moved across initially to escape the effects of the Potato Famine. His daughter (my Great Grandmother Burley) it looks like, was named after a street intersecting with the one he lived on (Burleigh Street intersects with Exeter street in Covent Garden, London.)

For those of you who know my parents, would you agree that John Reardon (jr.) here looks like Dad when he was young, say in the late 70's, early 80's? (ie when he shared the same sense of style of facial hair) John is pictured here with his wife Sarah Ann (nee Bruntlett). One last piece of interesting family trivia, Sarah Ann's younger sister, ended up marrying their son-in-law's (my Great Grandfather's) brother (Albert Bartz - who died when the Ranui sank at Mt. Maunganui in 1951 - ironically topical at the moment).

Anyhow, once I finished up there (after catching up with the workmate I covered for when I was working at the Wananga) I went around to Scott's to hang out with him before he headed back to Kuwait on the Sunday.

The following week Adessa had her birthday, so again we had a special phone conversation. On the Wednesday Suzanne, Bevan & I went to see Te Movie (about Billy T James) after a dinner and the Cock & Bull. The movie was OK, but not super awesome.

The second weekend of September was opened with the Rugby World Cup opening, and on the Saturday morning I found myself walking 6kms for a fun walk along the river.

Several days later, Suzanne, Bevan and I shared some drinks and dinner in town, making use of a deal Bevan had got off the internet. On the Friday I dropped into the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants for a drink and piece of cake, and that evening S, B, Mum, & I went to the All Blacks vs Japan game which was being played here in Hamilton. It was pretty awesome. I was actually grateful that the night was quite cold, as I had on a thick All Blacks jacket, and didn't want to cook. I checked out the Hamilton museum and some cultural festivals they had on in the weekend.

The next weekend I went to another family tree thing, happening to meet up with an old Toastmasters colleague, and also a lady who I'd met at the first fair, who'd subsequently found heaps out about a line of my ancestors. I then went to Huntly to have dinner with Nana and my Great-Aunty and Uncle, to watch the rugby, but also find out more about my Popa's family, as my Aunty is the only one left.

The end of September brought the Hamilton Fringe festival - I managed to make it to one thing (I would have liked to also have checked out some of the stand-up comedy) a play about the Massacre of the McDonalds of Glencoe, which, of course, happen to be my ancestors...

Saturday was the Parish fair - I went late, which saved my from the temptation of buying anything. It was actually good in the sense of I managed to clear some of the clutter from my life, and in recent weeks, me and my parents have made good headway on tidying up the house.

And that pretty much brings me to the present day. I'm still working, still trying to work out what I want to do next with my life.

Op-Thomas Prime

So it appears I have slacked off again with my writing. However I have a valid excuse - I haven't really been up to much.

The weekend following where the last entry concluded was Queen's Birthday weekend - which was a welcome 3-day weekend, but is always the last bastion before the long-haul to the next holiday, Labour day in October. We went to the beach, Dad and I replaced the driver's seat in my car (it was wearing out - a steel bit had worn through). And my mate Baz & I investigated an issue with my heater. Other than that, I laxed back.

A couple of weeks later, I went to the Fielddays - another one of those things that I had put on my To Do list, as I hadn't been there since 2005, before I went to Japan. It was nice to get back to my rural roots, got some cool stuff, some junk information, and a bit of food. That night was our church's 50th anniversary. That was alright too, afterwards a group of us that had been in the youth group circa 2000-2002 got to gather and had a good time catching up.

The following Monday night, there was a salsa lesson in our church hall. One of my ex-youth group friends is going (back) to Mexico to work in an orphanage, so to fundraise she has put on salsa lessons. I liked the idea, but initially was hesitant, as previously I would have jumped at the chance to meet women, but now I'm a taken man, I don't want to do anything to jeopardise that, and naturally my girlfriend can't do them with me, being 19,000 miles away from me. Anyhow, after consulting with her, she was like 'Yeah! go do it, and then you can teach me!' so I did.

I finished at the Wananga on the Friday, and received a nice afternoon tea and bag of goodies. I had lunch and dinner with my mate Dave, since it wouldn't be as convenient from then on, not being in Te Awamutu. In the weekend I caught up with Scott, who is home from Kuwait for the holidays, and Sunday went out for lunch for my mate Graham's 40th birthday.

The subsequent week I worked 4 days, and had an interview. Friday I had off. Saturday I went paintballing, and then went to the Salsa night - not so fun with sore legs and multiple paintball wounds. Sunday I had a Maori test, and then in the evening had dinner at my Auntie's with my cousins.

The following week I didn't work, and caught up with Scott at the pub on Friday night.

And here we are. Today I started a new job, there is a code of conduct that says I can't advertise where I am working, so I will suffice to say that it is a similar job to what I did the majority of last year in the UK.

So, where to from here? again, I just wish I was 19,000 miles closer to my baby. But in the short-term I have a few things to look forward to, two weeks off from my Maori class, a trip to Hawkes Bay, the World cup - although it's too expensive to get a ticket.