Claire, let loose on the world.................

I'm writing this from Oxford, where I arrived this afternoon, to spend Christmas with my Uncle and his family. My cousins here are 5, 8 and 10, so since my arrival I've played pirates, trains and dragons, to name but a few. It's amazing how much energy little kids have!! It's almost 10pm here and the kids are finally going to sleep, so I now have a chance to breathe!

So, I thought I should catch everyone up on my travels thus far............................

Left NZ on the 4th December bound for Singapore. Spent three days there, during which I visited Sentosa Island (to which, despite Krishal's advice, I forgot to take my togs), this new shopping mall (Vivo something??), Chinatown, Orchard Rd (to shop of course) and also went for a cruise on the harbour and on the Night Safari (which was awesome!!). I had never been to Singapore before, and was really impressed with the place! It's so clean!! Every taxi driver I had asked me if I was married (?!) and one gave me this big speil (read: schpeil, as I feel that yiddish is much more appropriate in this context!) about the meaning of life, which I found quite amusing. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch up with Lawrence in Singapore as he was in Malaysia when I was there.

The next leg of the trip took me to Dubai, where I stayed with a friend from Fonterra who now lives there. Dubai is a pretty amazing place, just the sheer amount of money that all the construction that is going on must cost is astounding! And there is construction absolutely everywhere! Hodgies apartment is close to where they're building the tallest building in the world, meant to be like 700m tall when it's finished! My first day in Dubai was spent going for a drive around the city and out to the desert. Went to a shopping mall which has seven different areas all designed like different regions of the world, and then to the Burj al Arab (the sail shaped hotel, which is apparently 7 stars?!)) for high tea (you have to either be staying at the hotel or have a reservation at one of the restaurants to get onto the premises). Had a look around at some of the hotels in the area, which just exude wealth, they're amazing! Spent the next day going for a drive out into the desert (saw some really big sand dunes, and some camels!) and visited the Hatta historical village and pools (to get to which we had to go off-road in the 4WD). It's quite funny, coz in Dubai people go camping and for picnics out in the middle of the desert, they take their 4WD's and quad bikes and spend hours driving around the sand dunes (Charles, you'd love it!).

The following day saw me winging my way to Paris, to a chilly 6 degrees, somewhat colder than the 26 degrees in Singapore and 19ish in Dubai! Paris in the winter is just amazing! (Well, I guess Paris at any time of year is great) I spent much of my time there just walking around the city soaking up the atmosphere and admiring the sites. Went to the Louvre (saw my favourites; the Napoleonic apartments, the Egyptian antiqities, the large format French paintings (just love the raft of Medusa and the coronation of Napoleon!) and the Veronese opposite the Mona Lisa whose name I never remember) and Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame and this really beautiful little church called Saint Chappelle. Consumed many a bagette and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate, but not like the one's you get in NZ, think chocolate boutique, only better!) before departing for England. Flew from Paris to Exeter, on one of the worst flights in my life (though that flight down to the Fonterra assessment centre in Palmy was pretty close)(I hate prop planes, plus I had a really bad cold, my ears have never been so sore as on that flight!). Anyhow, got to my Aunty's, kinda in one piece, in Devon where I stayed for a few days.

Now, anybody who knows me well knows that I don't exactly travel light! My hairdryer accompanies me on my travels, no matter how far or wide, and I'm not exactly the worlds most sensible packer, though I do always have an outfit for any occasion conceivable! Hence, my suitcase weighs 29kg, and my carry on bag somewhere around 8kg! (And that was before I went shopping!) Thus my vision of using trains for transport between destinations was abandoned, and I have opted for coaches and/or taxis to get me from A to B as this minimises the carrying (well wheeling really, but you try wheeling more than 35kg of stuff around!) of my ridiculously heavy suitcase!

Visited another Aunty and some cousins in Bournemouth before going to London. Have just spent 5 days in London with yet another Aunty (the evil one! the only saving grace is that her husband is really nice and is a fantastic cook!). In spite of evil Aunty, I had a great week in London, visiting the British Library, British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Sommerset House, Tate Modern, St. Pauls Cathedral (where I climbed the 528 stairs to the very top!!!), V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum, Science museum, Harrods and various other shops (gave my credit card a good work out!).

So that brings me to now....................am going to be here in Oxford until I leave England on the 28th. I'm quite excited to be spending Christmas with young children as I think it'll make it more fun. Will be stopping in Dubai again for a few nights on my way back to NZ (will probably go to the Mall of the Emirates (the one with the ski field in the mall) whilst I'm there, as I didn't get there last time) and I arrive home on New Years Eve!

Well, that's it for me now, hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, wherever you are.

Lots of love from cold foggy England,
Claire xxx

Life of a summer studentshipper

Great to hear what everyone's up to. As for me, after returning from the south island I spent several days writhing around trying to deny the reality of being home again, and the rest of the time has been agonising over further postgrad apps, they are never ending...

I also popped into uni to check on my fellow studentshippers. The daily routine in the new comp lab (in the big room now) seems to go like this: Sandy and Tian turn up at 7am to get a free park, commence the first round of Counterstrike for the day. Hopa comes in to get frustrated with HYSYS (still not converging eh? well he should have known what he was getting into!). Ryan gets involved in trademe auctions. Joss shows up at 2pm in time for the second CS round. Joe might pop in if he feels like it. Though I'm in no position to criticise, I've done the least of all. Still need to get about 10 signitures on safety forms from people who aren't around (Wei Gao where art thou?). Well there's plenty more summer in which to start work...

Speaking of which, it's finally starting to feel like summer! Though I won't be here to enjoy it for long as I'm off to Sri Lanka in a week, where the 40 deg "cool" season will make our summer feel like a cryogenic distillation column. Hope to hear from you all!

arj

Group 7!!

Hoorah!! I am finally a contributor to this blog!!! For those of you who don't know, I am currently and unemployed bum and don't do anything all day, or a lady of leisure you may say. Anyway, I keep checking this blog and no one has been posting stuff!! So for my entertainment, I think you should all post stuff now!!!

Here are some photo's for your entertainment...

From me!

Hey all! Whats happening in my end... well, have been round Malaysia, seen my birthplace, that I have not visited for da past 13 years! And met so many ppl..there are too many of them around..lol. and everyone is definitely growing older! haha, maybe not a good comment to state right now. even saw ma old skools and teachers. will be finally going to kuala lumpur (capital) this sunday, so am utterly lukin forward to that! Hope y'all are doin well..fun wise of course. I know claire, mel, roz, maz and arj hav for sure :).
Well dats me, and what else is everyone up to???
chiaoz...Smi

Photos and "Reunion" (already?!)

Some photos from when we went to Akaroa (middle one) and on the Dart River jet boating in Queenstown.

Also, Sandy has decided that we need to have a reunion in late January. I suggest Saturday 20th January. Possible venue is Maz's place. Just wanted to let everyone know.

South Island Trip

Mel and I returned form the South Island yesterday evening after a fantastic 12 days away!! Leaving Roz, Maz and Arj to explore Invercargill and Stewart Island over the next five days. Here is some of the stuff we did in our time awsay………………

We spent our fist few days in Christchurch where we explored the city, went to the ballet and visited Akaroa (originally a French settlement, on Banks Peninsula). From Christchurch we drove on to Lake Tekapo, where we took heaps of photos by the Lake while I lamented my decision to wear a skirt that day, after a very Marilyn Monroe like moment!! (It was so so so windy!). After a night at Lake Tekapo we continued on to Twizel. Twizel is an interesting place, there’s pretty much nothing there, the “town centre” consists of about 10 shops. However, we were very excited to discover that their town Santa Parade and “Mistletoe Market” were going to occur the next day! The weather at Mount Cook was really bad so we decided against visiting it and after purchasing copious amounts of fudge and chocolate from the market we set off for Queenstown. We were really lucky, we had excellent weather for almost our entire holiday, so all the driving trips between our destinations were amazing. The South Island is so much more beautiful that the North!

Our first few days in Queenstown are covered by Arjan’s entry in my journal which I thought was so fantastic, I had to post it here…………………

Observations on the Movements of Claire Deutsch and Friends on 26th and 27th November 2006

A.Abeynaike
27th November 2006

Executive Summary

The author joined a group of females as they toured the South Island to observe their behaviour in a pack environment.

The females displayed characteristic ritual behaviours that enhance their bonding and improve group synergy.

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Objectives
3.0 Methodology
4.0 Results and Discussion
5.0 Conclusions
6.0 Recommendations
7.0 Acknowledgements

1.0 Introduction

This report chronicles the adventures of Claire, Roz, Mel, Arj and Maz during theit grand tour of the South Island on the 26th and 27th November 2006. This tour, which will last for at least two weeks, began on 20th November. Other parts of the tour are recorded in Claire’s book and Roz’s Journal, yet to be published.

2.0 Objectives

The aim of the trip is to have fun and celebrate the beginning of the rest of our lives.

3.0 Methodology

Observations were made through the objective eyes of the author, who partook in the trip for the scientific documentation of several females on a road trip.

4.0 Results and Discussion

4.1 Trip to Arrowtown

After the previous nights inebriated socialising, the females woke at a late hour in the morning to begin their daily cleaning rituals, the secret rites that may only be seen by females. Therefore the author remained in bed until the rituals were complete. It was decided to skip a traditional breakfast for a brunch instead at “The Stables” in Arrowtown. Two eggs benedict’s and two omelettes were consumed. The females proceeded to peruse the local retail outlets, a seemingly futile exercise where nothing is purchased. This tradition, apparently has cultural significance however, as it is carried out in every town.

4.2 Afternoon Nap

Two of the females suffered form fatigue and required 3 hours of unconscious time. In the interest of understanding this phenomenon, the author joined them in this activity.

4.3 Evening Activities

English cuisine was chosen for the evening meal: steak, potato (mmm packeted cheese sauce………) and broccoli. For entertainment, the film “Borat” was viewed at the local cinema. As usual alcoholic beverages were consumed beforehand for their psycho-somatic effects.

4.4 Trip to Wanaka

As the $40 TSS Earnslaw was considered poor value, a sojourn to Lake Wanaka was opted for. After briefly viewing the lake, we fulfilled Roz’s dream of visiting “Puzzling World”. The females were indeed puzzled and could not navigate their way through the 3D maze. The author intentionally led them down wrong paths to observe their reactions in desperate circumstances, but provided inspiration when they reached the end of their tethers. This resulted in successful completion of the challenge which proved satisfying for all. Jittery Guy and Blonde Girlfriend (form the bar last night) were spotted.

4.5 Airport

A fourth female was collected. As expected, she integrated easily into the pack. Jittery Guy and Blonde Girlfriend were again sighted. It is thought he is stalking the pack, but may have been scarred off by the authors slick dance moves.

4.6 More Eating

The females prepared an excellent meal of stir-fried chicken and vegetables. The author prepared rice as a guise, while observations were made. This meal was apparently not sufficient and the females proceeded to the local chocolaterie to consume a staple of the female diet. The author attempted to join them, but as he hasn’t evolved the specialist digestive system of a female this proved detrimental to his stomach. Extra sedentary time was required for the digestion of this food. Meanwhile, a flurry of activity occurred around him in preparation for the following day.

5.0 Conclusions

The pack is successfully progressing on their great South Island tour.
Daily cleansing and shopping are important to the females psychological well-being, regardless of tangible outcomes.
Women eat chocolate.

6.0 Recommendations

Don’t eat too much chocolate.

7.0 Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank his subjects Claire, Mel, Roz and Maz for providing the data that made this report possible.

We got up at the crack of dawn to travel to Milford sound, went on a cruise around the sound (which is apparently actually a Fiord, as it was carved out by a glacier rather than water) in the afternoon. It was raining quite a bit, but in Milford this can actually be a good thing as hundreds of temporary waterfalls appear when it rains. The Fiord is absolutely amazing! Maz insisted on standing on the bow of the boat when we went into the big waterfalls and as a result got completely drenched, twice! Another early morning saw us kayaking, after we got all dressed up to kinda resemble ducks (it was really funny! Unfortunately, we didn’t get any photos L), around the Sound for about 3 hours (again in the pouring rain!) We all thought we were going to die by the end of the kayaking and all had really sore arms for the rest of the day, but it was definitely worth it!!

Back in Queenstown, it snowed up on the mountains overnight, which we were most excited about when we got up the next morning! To end the trip (for me and Mel) we all went on the Dart River in a jet boat, which was really awesome!! The others then left for Invercargill, and Mel and I departed Queenstown for Auckland.

Was a Fantasic trip overall! Mel will hopefully post some pictures of us all sometime soon.