Day 9 in Cromwell

Vaseline actually does work p well when u have a cut just above ur lip whilst shaving....

it's been a week since i last blogged.. well i've had my biggest ever paycheck - $440 plus 6% holiday pay minus tax resulting in a payout of $377 for the 40 hours i put in last week.. not bad.. with $80 going to my landlady.. so that's $297.. still quite a good payout.. not really a big spender anyway.. this week will be less though coz Monday was washed out and only managed an hour of work.. might work this Saturday if i want to to make up for the lost day..

firstly, well the boys - and Jacqui and Roxy - did go out to Queenstown for the weekend.. or at least the Saturday which seemed to last much longer than usual coz of the 3.30 wakeup for the rugby.. coz of a mix-up with Reevous (Mike Reeves if u dint know) we ended up only setting off for Queenstown late in the afternoon.. still enough time to go on the Skyline Luge, where i had this massive crash on my first run on the hard circuit.. it was just before that banked corner after the big downhill.. i dint put on the brakes coz i wanted to try and take that corner flat.. well i went faster than i should have down that hill - which isn't what u call smooth all the way downhill - and went off onto the kerb on the left hand side of the track and then into the wooden wall on the right.. that was some massive burn marks and scratches on my right hand.. i took a pic but will show u.. two big burns and several scratches.. not the worst bleeding i've ever had.. in fact it was p minor when u compare it to the scratches i had on both hands last year when i tried to climb back up the pier at Glennfalloch Gardens at low tide.. darn barnicles.. or when i scratched myself trying to chase Michael Schumacher in Sepang in 2002..

nice thing is my landlady who has nurse training saw it and decided to dress the burns so that it wouldn't be infected on the vineyard.. very nice indeed..

anyway, we had abt 8 hours to kill before the rugby after the luge and KFC - Cajun rocks btw - so we went to the shore of the Frankton Arm and "camped" there until 3 in the morning.. no cops fortunately came by, and we set off for the town centre at 3 am.. went to the Lounge bar which i have to say was packed with Pommies and Kiwis in front of this big screen as the ABs and English walked out to Twickenham.. it was so loud that i dint realise the ABs were doing the "new" Ka Pango haka.. anyway seems to work in the close games.. it was a thriller.. thought wouldnt go back to sleep after all the excitement.. but it was 5 am.. anyway the boys wanted to head back to Cromwell after that so had to drive home.. it was such a challenge trying to keep awake on that bit of road through the Gorge.. but God was with me and i did.. safely home at around 6.30am.. went to bed immediately after, and woke up at 9.30am..

then went to can u believe it, a Catholic church for the first time ever in my life... i dint even know i was in a Catholic church until i walked in.. was looking for the Presb church around the corner on Inniscort Road.. anyway it was a good experience, seeing how other ppl worship God.. more reverant, rigid and traditional than Elim of coz.. mass was short which was good.. i'll stay with Elim though.. in fact think was only non-Pakeha there.. was a good sized crowd though for such a small town..

anyway, a p good weekend.. also went to the Bendigo goldfields alone and yeah it was p interesting.. only downer was hearing that my pastor in Malaysia who i look up to, Pastor Chris, had a big fall and fractured his backbone.. he may be paralysed for good.. that's a big shock.. still praying abt it.. they'll do a few more checks to see.. but yeah it was a bit of a shock when i got that text from my mum..

not sure when i'll blog again.. tonight thinking of doing a bit of a mountain bike around Carricktown near where the boys live in Bannockburn.. this weekend? may work on Saturday halfday.. then may head out to Clyde and do a bit of the Otago Central Rail Trail.. anyway want to go watch the news.. life suddenly changes without Sky although i've rediscovered my taste for TVNZ.. suddenly u're two steps behind in the news and it's back to the old days when the 6'0'clock news was the only way to find out what was going on in the world.. luckilly it's not like Australia where they only show Australian news.. now that was v hard.. anyway congrats to the All Blacks as they sweep towards the Grand Slam.. should beat Scotland easy.. and also yeah great news on getting to host the Rugby World Cup in 2011.. by then hopefully i'll be completing my PhD in Pharmacology in NZ..

btw, got my marks back.. got p good marks in the harder subjects surprisingly, i.e. Genetics and Biochem.. got an A- for Biochem and a B+ for Genetics in fact.. B for Pharmacology.. hopefully can still make it into honours.. i guess shouldn't be surprised since they dint have the model exam papers for Pharmacology while they had them for Genetics and Biochem.. so was able to study only "some" topics for the latter two while the first one had to study everything..