Steph kicks the karate world in the chops

On Saturday I attended my first karate grading and it was my first chance to get a coloured belt - blue was the next level up that I was aiming for.

It started at 9am (on a Saturday!!!) and the white belts were up first (that was myself and 4 others) At the grading everyone from the club goes along so there about a hundred other members watching including really senior students (black belts etc) who circle the outside of the floor to observe and encourage the participants.

For our grading we had to go onto the floor and work our backsides off doing all sorts of moves and combinations (and a million press ups)- it was really hard work. I made a ton of mistakes and thought I had done really badly.

After our part finished the white belts left the floor and we basically just sat and watched everyone else go through their gradings (the blue and yellow belts, then the green and brown belts) . Some of the stuff they had to do was incredible - they were exhausted - especially the brown belts (who are one step away from black)

So, once everyone was done we all knelt down on the floor (in order of seniority so we were at the back) and the Shihan (master) called out all the white belts. He congratulated us on our effort and then he handed three people a blue belt - i was gutted because there were only three blue belts on the table so I thought I wasn't going to get one.

Amazingly though the Shihan said that sometimes students show enough to justify putting them another grade up and I was awarded a yellow belt along with another student.

I now have a Gi (uniform) and yellow belt and a whole new set of things I have to learn - I'm really enjoying it though and wish had stuck at it when I was younger (my first experience was primary school would you believe! I also did some karate with some fellas from the co-op in shettleston and I studied a self defense module in the USA.)

I would highly recommend it to anyone that has ever thought they would like to give it a go - it's a real challenge getting your body to learn new movements but really rewarding.

;o)

Steph

our last days in Moana Road

We will update you with all the news soon (including a "can you believe it's been 12 months since we left" entry - but for now all we will say is that we are having to leave Moana Rd (Moana means sea/ocean by the way).

Here's a photo I took last week of the view from our decking during a full moon.



Farewell to Moana Road but hello to Washington Ave, Brooklyn.

Franz Josef

Hi, as promised here is the final instalment in the "When Clare met New Zealand" series of stories.

Well, after all our other hilarity in the South island (and once again, a zillion kilometres) we packed up and headed to Franz Josef. Now, Franz Josef, i have since found out, is one of the most dangerous places to live in new zealand - not because of crime or the glacier, but because of it's location directly on a major fault line. Earthquake central.

It's funny, we had been back 4 weeks and in the paper it was talking about earthquakes and how dangerous it is in Franz Josef (potentially - like if the big one happened) and it showed a photo of the main street and you can actually see a bulge under the road. Unfortunately for the people in Franz Josef (as if life wasn;t difficult enough) they decided to build the petrol station right on top of the bulge in the street. Mental.

Anyway, we had no earthquakes whilst down there thankfully but we did sign up to do the Glacier climb which was amazing.

Here's a wee bit about the glacier itself:

" From its origins high in the Southern Alps, the Franz Josef Glacier descends deep into the lush rainforest of Westland’s National Park, from a height of 2700m above sea level to only 240m in as little as 11 km, making it the worlds steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glacier.

It is the rugged gradient of the Franz Josef Glacier that ensures our clients enjoy the most dramatic glacier scenery available to the general public anywhere in the world."

You basically leave early in the morning and do a one hour hike to the foot of the glacier - you then climb up the face in groups of about 10 with a guide. You then make your way pretty far up through the ice tunnels and stuff, stopping for lunch before descending.

It was really strange to be on such a big lump of ice that is apparently always moving but you can't feel it moving and it generally goes too slow to perceive.

If you ever get the chance to go on a glacier and wield an ice axe, I would highly recommend it and so would the people in the photo below........

Quake

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2809604/Wellington-rocked-by-powerful-quake

Certainly not a nice way to be woken up - a very strange sensation. All part of the experience though!

kateandsteph

If you ever get bored of our blog here's a similarly named one

http://www.kateandsteph.blogspot.com/

A song for people back home.

A song I have been practicing on the guitar - quite a few mistakes and ropey strumming (no plectrum and nylon strings) so more practice required but thought I would share it mistakes and all. I know this isn't X factor and if it was I would not be expecting to win it anyway. Hope you like it.

I'm sure my brother or Dad (or both) will be able to confirm for me that this is actually a Scottish song - everywhere I look this song has been covered by Irish folk bands and I think everyone is under the impression that it is Irish - but I believe it is Scottish. I hope I am right.

Mike part 2

Mike the darned monkey seems to have went down quite well so here are the rest of the pics from his visit:

Mike and I bike in to school.



Mike and I deal with some parents over a coffee – Mike encourages me to bluntly state that their child isn’t in the first 11 because they are not good enough. It doesn’t work as we expected.



Mike makes some new friends (this is actually the West Watson House Lion that I have kidnapped - I am in Averill House but our house always comes last and WW come first. I left a ransom note with the Staff member who runs WW asking for more House points for Averill. Even though he has seen this photo he still doesn't realise I have the lion - d'uh!)




Mike gets a lesson on Headstands



That's all from Mike for now but maybe he will get to visit again at some point. ;o)

Mike the Pre-school Monkey

Hi folks,

Just thought I would add in another side story before I finish my round up of our holiday a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I was interviewed by the pre-school at St. Mark's for their Unit on "who's who" in the school. They are all around 3 or 4 years old and they are pretty funny. They asked me lots of questions that didn't make any sense and then one of them wet himself ;o)

Anyway, this week they appeared at my door and asked if I would look after Mike the pre-school monkey for a few days and take a couple of snaps for his scrapbook. I should point out that Mike comes with his own survival kit - a banana (plastic), his toy cars and his Blanket. And he brings his scrapbook with him so he can tell the lucky teacher about his adventures. Please look beyond the obvious ridicule you could send my way for these photos and just think how happy these kids will be with the effort I put in.

Here is how Mike and I got on..................

Mike and I have an early breakfast before our cycle to school (cycling pictures to follow)





Mike and I catch up about my hilarious day at St. Marks



Mike chills out with a cup of tea and a banana



I teach Mike how to rock



Mike goes to bed



Mike and I back from a run (Mike didn't actually go cos he's a lazy b*gger)



Mike and I play some poker



Mike took me to the cleaners



I find out Mike has a drink problem (I won't tell the kids)



MIke goes back to school tomorrow, thank God, he;s been nothing but trouble ;o)

Steph ;o)

Karate takes up Steph Brown

Just a side note in amongst all the stories I am trying to catch up on......I have joined a Karate club here in Wellington and expect to be awesome at it within in the next few weeks. ;o)

Here I am pictured with the instructor.

Welly and Queenstoon

And so the story continues of our adventures in July!

After the Ski spectacular we headed back to Welly with two more bodies that we had left with - no we didn't do a Fred and Rosemary West - Clare and Lorna were coming to visit. ;o)

I did the whole tour guide thing with Lorna and Clare and we also got to visit Katie's work where Clare and I took on the might of Clint (a mighty Australian tennis coach who has worked with some serious players) and the Oman.

Oh, I never mentioned Chuck and Mariska from our Ski trip did I? Chuck and Mariska are also super tennis coaches (Chuck is from the US and Mariska from South Africa) well, they were at the ski place too and they were a riot - here's one of our many photos from our evening meal. Chuck and Mariska are on the left.



Anyway, more about them later - where was I ?

Oh yes, Tennis at Katie's work. Well I must say that the Tennis world got a bit of a surprise that day from a young Scottish superstar and you can check out some of the action here http://mcavoyandginger.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-07-31T08%3A57%3A00%2B12%3A00&max-results=2

Watch in amazement as I make the game look really easy almost as if it is no effort at all then I play an amazing winner. Andy Murray, if you need any advice just give me a call. ;o)

Anyway, the other thing that happened whilst Norma (Clare) and Johnathan Creek (Lorna) were in town was dinner with Chuck and Mariska. Unfortunately I couldn't make it but they went Mexican and Chuck decide they should all really go Mexican... Clare won the prize for the most Authentic Mexican costume after a fashion parade in the restaurant. Well done Clare.

So and then onto Queenstown - Clare, Katie and I took off for some fun down on the South Island. And it was amazing.

Here is the view of the Southern Alps from the plane (I took about a zillion shots for some reason - you've got to love digital photography)



Queenstown was a pretty special place and you can see all of our photos at http://www.flickr.com/katieandsteph88 as usual but here are a few quick snaps

1) We visited a wildlife park and nearly left with a few of the residents:




2) We ate at the legendary Fergburger (well we bought one and ate it down at the harbour)



3) We did a walk up to some of the Lord of the Rings locations (this is apparently the place (or near the place) where Aragorn fell over a cliff.



We also went out to a nightclub/bar where we started to all feel a bit old - we were tired, it was too loud and we were older by about 5 years than anyone else there. We did hang around though as we were entered into the competition for a $500 bar bill. The night could have been so different had we won but alas the Scottish D.J. didn't pick our winning ticket.

Probably for the best.

An interesting point to note about Queenstown to note for any single women out there (or gay men) - apparently in winter there is something ridiculous like an 80% higher amount of dudes than chicks.

Ok, I will leave it there for now but I still have to update you on Doubtful Sound, A big Icy Crevice and Christchurch so there is still some catching up to do.

I will leave you with a photo from the very beautiful Glenorchy which was a wee day trip away from Queenstown



Hope you are all well - missing all you lots.

SB