Graduation!

No, no. Not me. My graduation is still two years away.

I just witnessed a batch of graduates parade down Lambton Quay here in Wellington. Led by a kilt-clad, bagpipe-playing orchestra, they walked in groups according to their area of study. So you had, amongst others, education, humanities and social studies, law, science … and my memory fails. Jesus, I study at Vic, and I don’t even know what else they offer.

The reason I went into town to watch is that one of my friends is one of the graduates today. He was in the science group. I have seen the same progression down Lambton Quay once before, earlier this year, but that was a pure co-incidence.

Seeing the students in their graduation outfits, complete with the hat with the tassel, makes me want to be a graduate so bad. I met up with my friend last night, and he told me how it all works. Apparently they really do the whole ‘throw-their-hats-in-the-air’ thing which, for some reason, I assumed was only the case with American graduations.

It’ll be interesting to see when (if it happens at all) I become a graduate. At the moment the plan is to complete my bachelor’s degree, and that’s it. Which means that if I pass all my courses, I’ll be a graduate in more or less two years to the day. Exciting.

However, if my desire to learn even more is stronger than my desire to graduate in two years’ time, then I’ll do at least another year at uni, which is likely to be a one year course in screenwriting (you can tell that I’ve already thought about this).

At the moment I can’t possibly imagine leaving Wellington, but who knows how I might feel after another two years here. It’s a fantastic place, and I love so many people here, but if I’m no closer to starting a career here once I’m ready to graduate, then there’s nothing to keep me here, really.

Wellington is absolutely abuzz today. I’m currently sitting in my favourite cafe in Lambton Quay, enjoying a lunch consisting of a mocha and a bowl of fries, typing away on my wee netbook.

I heart cafe offices.

Graduation time is an amazing time, because the city is full of all the students who have returned for their graduation, as well as their families.

That is what I look forward to the most about graduation, to be honest. Getting my family down here to watch me graduate, and celebrate with me. The best thing about putting off graduation is, for me, that it leaves more time for my family to save up money for the huge trip down from Norway – it’s not as if they’ll be coming down for just a weekend, plus they have to pay for six people, if everyone is coming…

Right, better finish off my fries now. I’ve taken up a table for three all by myself for more than half an hour, and the place is packed. I’m sure the staff would be shooting me dirty glances right about now if they weren’t so nice in this place.

A Fruity Obsession

I just woke up one day and wanted some fruit…

Lately I’ve been buying quite a bit of fruit every time I do my grocery shopping. And it keeps getting worse (or better, either way you like it). Earlier this year I attempted to become healthier by buying less chocolate, chips, and so on, but I soon went back to buying it (in larger quantities), mainly because I didn’t buy any substitutes to nibble on every time I felt peckish. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I went completely overboard and bought so much chocolate I won’t say just how much it was, and subsequently ate it all over a period of 4 days. So I felt bad about it. And started buying fruit instead. Now I have a constant supply of apples, pears, mandarins, oranges, bananas; last week I even came home with two eggplants (squash), an onion, a lemon, capsicum, salad – to use in cooking/lunches. I mean, come on – onions?! Since when did I start eating onions? I’ve hated them all my life! But I used it in a meal, and it tasted delicious.

I also keep making epic (and healthy) lunches:

This looked so good it was almost a shame to eat it, but I couldn’t not eat it, because it looked so good. And it was.

It’s been a very rainy day here today, and I feel all moist, but in a good way. I think it’s finally easing now, and it’s supposedly going to be sunny and warm for the next week or so.

Also, a quick newsflash: I don’t know how much the rest of the world is actually hearing about the Hobbit and PJ vs. actors drama currently unfolding here in NZ, but down here it’s on the front page basically every day now (today’s headline reads: ‘Nats [Nationals, ed.] take up arms for [Peter] Jackson’). A fantastic blog entry by up-and-coming Wellington film maker Chaz Harris sums up the main points of the dispute so far, and thankfully he shares my exact view on the situation, so please have a read of it if you like. PJ is not the villain in this scenario.

That is all. (For now.)

Sunday silence

 

Sundays are great. Especially when you haven’t been out drinking the night before and can appreciate every second of the last day of the weekend. And when Wellington surprises everyone by providing nice weather instead of the heavy rain that was predicted, it gets even better.

 

I stayed up way too late last night, though. I meant to be in bed before midnight, but that didn’t happen. As you know, I went to see Inception, and that finished at 11:15 pm, and I thought I’d missed the last bus home, which I was very unhappy about when I left the cinema and discovered that it was absolutely pissing down and windy and cold (at least it was a good night for a movie). However, as I started walking along Courtenay Place, I saw a bus drive past me, and it happened to be my bus, and I thought ‘Bugger!’ because there was no bus stop right there. But then I looked ahead, and there was one almost right in front of me, so I ran over to it, got on the bus and escaped the long, cold and wet walk home, which was such a relief. I can’t tell you how good it was to get home and take off my wet socks, wrap myself up in a blanket and just chill out. This was just before midnight, and of course I had to go on Facebook, and there one of my friends started chatting to me, so that kept me up even longer. Eventually it was almost 3 am before I went to sleep, so I didn’t exactly have an early start this morning, but that’s alright.

 

I went to the supermarket this afternoon. I wasn’t sure whether I should go or not, but when I had the last of my bread for breakfast this morning I decided I’d better do it. I’ve got three days to go until my budget for next month kicks in, and I think I’ve got just enough money left to make it. That’s quite surprising, and I’m really impressed with the effort I’ve put into staying within budget (and that’s the purchase of the espresso machine included!).

 

Now I’ve just had a late lunch, which consisted of ice cream and coffee. Yum. Going to try and do some more reading now, and just chill out with my music playing in the background. Totally relaxed.

I heart Sundays.

Break on a budget

 

So.

 

I’m on holiday.

 

It’s the semester break. As I’m not doing any courses over summer this means that the first half of my first year as a university student is over. I had my only exam on 15 June, and since then I haven’t been doing much. Unless you count the flat rental company business, but that’s just something I got involved with to avoid dying of boredom. (OK that last bit was a lie, but sometimes I think to myself that considering that it’s me we’re talking about, it might as well have been true.)

Unlike many of my fellow students, I have already had a two-week break, and I know I shouldn’t be complaining at all, thinking about all those poor students who had their exam(s) only yesterday and will only get a two-week break in total. I get four weeks.

When my break started I was really excited about it. Really. I was supposed to be moving to Mt Victoria, spend lots of time outside and explore Wellington and hang out with people. So far I’ve accomplished two out of four things: I’ve been spending a lot of time outside, walking all around Wellington. However, after I’d walked around Central Wellington a couple of times, I realised how bad it was for my wallet, as it is so easy to fall into the trap of buying coffee/lunch/a snack at one of the hundreds of cafès while wandering about. So I decided to approach the idea in a different way. It was time to go back to being a tourist.

The first thing that came to my mind was that I still hadn’t seen the famous location used in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where the four hobbits tumble down a hill and land on a forest path. It is conveniently located in the forest on Mt Victoria, so on a rainy and cold day I defiantly put on some warm clothes, packed a minimal lunch and set off. I despise looking like a tourist, but there’s no denying I must have strongly resembled one, when I made my way past Cuba Street and Courtenay Place dressed in wind-proof trousers and jacket, carrying a light backpack .

I eventually found the location in the forest (I think), snapped a few photos and started making my way back. Of course, it had been raining all the time, but as I was halfway home it stopped, and we didn’t get any more rain that day. It makes sense.

After that wee excursion, I have stuck to wandering about the city itself, mainly because I can’t think of any other ‘nature’ tracks around this area. So I’ve walked along the waterfront a couple of times, strutted through Lambton Quay and up and down The Terrace on several occasions, walked down Willis St (pretty much all of it), sat in Courtenay Place looking for Sir Ian McKellen and otherwise explored more or less every side street in the CBD. All the while trying not to be lured into spending all my money on the fantastic winter sale bargains.

Of course, it’s impossible not to buy anything when the shops sell most things for under half price, but after I went completely crazy once or twice, I decided that it was about time I imposed some ‘safety measures’ on my spending to avoid going broke. So what did I do? Well, for starters, I bought a ten-pack of noodles. That’s food for a week. Then I went and bought a pair of shoes. I think I’m pretty good at getting my priorities right.

I also decided that I’m not allowed to spend more than about $10-15 each day, and if I spend more than that in one day, it means that I don’t get to spend anything the next day. This seems to be working fairly well. Because I try not to spend any money, I spend a lot of time checking out various shops and supermarkets to compare prices on things I want and/or need. I’ve recently decided to make vegetable soup/stew a weekly meal (after I’ve killed the ten noodle packs, mind), so I wanted to compare prices of the various ingredients. First I went to New World, then I went to a place I’ve never been to before, which turned out to be an Asian supermarket. When I had walked past the fruit and vegetables that were placed at the front of the shop, it was like entering another world. I don’t think I would have been able to name or even identify a single product beyond the fruit stalls. It was glorious – so many weird things, it was simply amazing. Anyway, the Asian supermarket won – their prices were way lower than New World’s, thankfully. My wallet let out a sigh of relief.

So far I’ve been doing most things by myself. No, wait. Everything. I’ve been waiting for a couple of people to be in touch, and I’ve tried to arrange things with others, but no one seems to be keen, or they are busy. Hmph. But this Sunday I’m going to meet some of the All Whites players with a friend from Dunedin who’s in Wellington for the week. Yay, human contact at last.

Today was a wee cracker of a day in Wellington. Absolutely gorgeous. I spent about three hours walking around the city, and bought a loaf of white bread, European style, and some ham, and then I treated myself to a mochaccino at my favourite cafè in Lambton Quay. When I got home I made a late lunch, and I enjoyed every last crumble of it.

Now I’m just going to let some photos sum up the past week, as this blog entry is getting a wee bit long.