Autumn Red and New Car

I'm nearing the last stages of the thesis writing, and it's not a pleasant task to have to go through drafts you wrote years ago and update and edit them. It's not something we really teach or encourage undergraduates to do, then suddenly it's all you're doing at the graduate and professor level, because you have to get feedback and make edits on almost everything you write if you're looking to get published. In this environment, there are always seemingly more pressing things to occupy your attention (sometimes they are more important, sometimes not), so it becomes a challenge to stay focused and move through the additional research and writing. I'll get there eventually, but it will take a lot of effort.

Meanwhile, the mostly not-very-good summer has gone away and turned into a cold autumn. I can turn the heater up in my office, which is nice, but the walk to and from the parking lot is still cold and windy. The high next week is supposed to be 52F (11C) and rainy some of the days, so I'm not looking forward to those. The leaves changing color are still pleasant to see, although they really clutter up the car crevices and the parking lots and walkways everywhere. The garden only had a few crops manage to produce through the colder weather -- the cucumbers are still churning out a couple small one -- and my sunflowers had a brief but nice run for a couple weeks when it was nice out. They grow so tall!

We sold our car that had been pretty good to us since we bought it two weeks after we arrived because the auto shop said that it would have some major repairs coming up and wouldn't really be worth fixing since it had so many miles/kms on it. We sold it to a traveling American and it only took a week or so to get another one from an American backpacking couple who needed to get rid of theirs. It's a little 'newer' and has its own quirks, but we got it new tires and a tune-up, and hopefully it will last us for as long as we need it. It rides like a Cadillac compared to our old car though, which is a bit hard to get used to. And I've never had a white car before, but at least it's two-toned. There was a big spider living just above the driver's seat that came out while I was driving one night and it stayed there for several weeks, but we let it build its web back up and finally were able to get it out of the car and send it on its way into some plants.

A friend highly recommended I attend a spoken poetry evening with a famous Palestinian poet, Rafeef Ziadah. Admittedly, I don't know much about the issues, but she was so passionate and her stories were quite moving about the losses she and others have suffered. It is great to hear poetry performed live, and her musical accompaniment was also very good.

Rafeef Ziadah

Kraft Mac & Cheese (albeit freezer kind) finally makes it to NZ!! $5 though...

Can't resist clearance chocolate Easter eggs!

Autumn sunsets

Guy Fawkes, Dunedin, and Moeraki Boulders

A lot of the past month has been spent on two journal articles and conferences. These activities have taken more time than I anticipated, although they have been really good learning experiences. With everything now done and "summer break" beginning, I am hoping to recommit to my thesis and get a lot written, since there won't be many distracting seminars or things going on at the university.

Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th) was fun as usual. We took two friends out to New Brighton, a suburb on the coast, to watch the official fireworks display, then came home and lit off some of our own fireworks. We bought extra to keep us going throughout the year and for New Year's. :)

I picked up a sweet find of science fiction and feminism books at a garage sale for $5.

The weather has been off and on hot and cold. They're predicting it to be a really hot summer, so we'll see.

We hosted a PhD student from Australia and requested he bring some Kraft Mac 'N Cheese for D to enjoy, and he brought three boxes as well as a bottle of wine! Very nice. We bought a Christmas tree and put it up along with some outdoor lights. I think we're the only house in the whole neighborhood to have any lights up, and they are solar-powered so don't last very long if it's a cloudy day. It still doesn't feel like a holiday season with the hot weather and lack of spirit. It is strange to not be bombarded by all of the Christmas atmosphere like in the U.S.

One of my conferences was in Dunedin (about 5-hour drive south of Christchurch) and the weather was unusually hot and sunny, so I went on several walks around the city in the evening because it stays light until like 8:30pm now. The architecture there is nice and there was some cool street art. Other cities are so much more alive than Christchurch -- it's disappointing not to have a functioning city center here.

On the drive back to Christchurch, we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders which were beautiful and mysterious. There's a good description of them at NewZealand.com -- here's my paraphrase: boulders weigh several tons and are calcite concretions from about 65 millions years ago. They are gradually being revealed as the soft mudstone washes away. In Maori legend, the boulders are gourds that have come ashore from the voyaging canoe Araiteuru when it wrecked on land.

Bought this in Dunedin. Really makes you rethink how we see the world!