BZH

Much as it's hard to resume normality after an event like Flo's death and despite the cliché, life must go on.
For the same reason, it's also difficult to resume casual chit-chat in a blog, so this post will be all photos (mostly of Brittany, where I've now been on and off since I made it back to France on April the 10th) and I'll post something more consequent in a few days.
Boat
Cider
Blackthorn
Silene Vulgaris

Pointe Saint-Mathieu
Le Conquet


Daoulas

Camaret sur Mer

Pointe Corsen

Flo.

I am extremely sad to announce the unexpected death of my most-cherished and beloved sister Flo, forcefully taken from us this week in Guatemala.

My thoughts go to all of us who loved her so dearly.

Edwige, Papa,

Robert, Annemarie, ma petite Mumu,

Ré, Sabrina et la famille

Anne et la smala,
and of course, my mum and bro.

Hidihi,
nothing much to say, it's just cruisy routine at the mo.
Still got a job (the same one)
Still got a car (the same one)
Still living at the same place.

I'm coming to terms with it, I know it won't last.
Like the cakes in the shop. I'm eating way too much sugar (so what's new, will you say), but I go from the principle that everything is ephemeral, so might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
When will my next chance of bumping into such a good French patisserie come up, huh?

Theoretically I'm stopping work just before Easter, then going up to Rotorua for our capoeira encounter (YAY!!!!) and at some point in April/May we intend to go to the South Island with Paul, Sid, the truck and the motorbikes.

On days off, I'm starting to ride my bike further and further, which is nice.
I always know how much I love riding a bike, but I often don't realise how much I miss it until I get back on one.. It's really pleasant to ride here (around Okato) , at any rate: not too much traffic, road quite good, magnificent view, and loads of blackberry bushes providing restful entertainment and diversion along the way! :o)

I made my first batch of blackberry jam this week, and heaps of crumble, yum!!!

Here are a few related and unrelated pics.
See ya!
Hahahaha, endless humour...

An American Car festival in downtown New Pymouth 2 weeks ago took all the oldies out, whether metal or organic..

I want that one!

On the way to work, nice sunrise..

A couple of pukeko on the side of the road just after Okato
A walk up Lucy's Gully, offers a nice view on New Plymouth once you get over the native bush line..
The cute fantails follow you in the bush.
Why? Because by walking you disturb the insects they feed on.

Mount T. undercover
Because Taranaki is, after all, the Dairy Heart of New Zealand...
Yes Sidney, it is...
Mount T. at dusk
At last, I'm starting to get back into more cycling, naes!!!
A few 50ish km rides to get back into the groove.. we've got a big capoeira encounter coming up on Easter week-end I want to be fit for, at least as much as poss :D

Aaaahhaaa, so yeeeeeeeeeees, some things in New Zealand leave me surprised.You go shopping and are allowed to park 20 minutes before getting ransacked, a.i, your car gets clamped or towed away, and you have to pay a fine. Being a person who takes an extreme long time to shop, due to extreme hate of shopping and undecisiveness, I wonder if the day will come when I'll turn up in the car-park looking for the vessel to throw the produce I have bought with my hard-earned money, only to find a void, an emptiness in the place it should have stood. Aaaaaah.
Another funny sign.
This grinning buddy also made me laugh somewhat.. friendliest skull I've seen in a while!!
But in fact, it's all about the poisoning of a native bush area. See, the possums kill native birds, so the government, in agreement with DOC, dumps food pellets for them regularly until one day the pellets they dump are poisonous.
Unfortunately, they happen to be poisonous for dogs and people as well. Not only if they eat the said pellets (especially dogs), but even if they just happen to chew on a poisoned carcass (referring to dogs here as well!) , even long after, and even if it's been floating down the river to an area unsoiled. So in fact, you can't really know, hey. The poison was dumped in the area next to the Stony River, which remains a beautiful place regardless.
Paul even has the Mount tattooed on his arm. What's that if it's not reverence?
More and more in love with this beautiful mountain. Non-philistines will have recognized Mount T., formerly known as Mount Egmont. I LOVE these cloud formations, they are sooo beautiful!!!

It's also the beginning of blackberry season (don't I love the world upside-down!) so these days mark the beginning of a season for compulsive berry-picking and eating!! (1 apple and blackberry crumble already baked!!)

And yes, so life here down under.

Like I said, i'm working at the mo. It's really bizarre because I always end up doing random and totally un-nomadic things. Lemme explain. Having left to explore the realms of unleashed freedom (amongst others) I find myself currently
1) having lived the same place for like 1 month or so, not to mention being in the same VILLAGE since I got here, almost.
2) I have a job, 39 hours a week (WTF?) and also
3) a car.

Such normality is unnerving.

Now I know it looks like I'm complaining, but it DOES feel strange. (whoever wants details either doesn't know me enough or can ask personnally)
And just so YOU know, I know I can also transform that into :
1) I am very lucky to have found a nice place to live
2) I am extremely fortunate that someone lent me a car so that I can go to work every day, instead of hitch-hiking there and back and
3) Isn't it wonderful that I can work almost full time.


At any rate, work, ahaaa, yeeeeeeeeeeeees work. Theoretically I am waitressing in a French cafe/bakery. The harsh reality more often looks like a full-on very full sink of washing up, but whatever.
The upsides are that I can eat really good bread and cakes. The downsides are that I can eat really good bread and cakes. :o)
The funny thing is I never used to speak English with a French accent, which I now find myself doing occasionnally (aaaargh, I'll have to go and live in the UK next to make it better!!) Apparently I say "salade" when I say "would you like a side-salade", aaaarg, whatever, I say. Or should I say ouatte-eveur?

No joking now, although it's not a bad place, working there (like a few other places I have worked actually) is an incentive to make me reflect on the conditions of workers in developping countries for instance, and (I know I know nothing about politics) would tend to enhance my social/commie ideals/ideas.
It's a good, posh, expensive shop. Cakes can cost up to 6 dollars (yep, just one of them!!)
We are payed 13,50 an hour, which apparently isn't even minimum wage. (12,50 an hour in NZ)
An avocado costs between 0,50 and 1,30 dollars (in a country that produces them
A litre of milk up to 2 dollars (in the "Dairy province" of NZ)
At any rate, i'm starting to think my brains are getting slightly wasted doing jobs like that, and even maybe I should go back to studying something useful rather than end like one of those shrivelled old waitresses who left their life behind them in a kitchen.
Or not.
Whatever. I would have lots to say on the subject.

ANYWAY.
Still hanging out in Taranaki, as you see. The mountain is extremely magnetic. Some things here remind me of Iceland, which I think of a lot. The sand is black on this coast.
I see seals pretty much every time I take a walk on the beach!! Oh yeah, and funnily enough, someone had told me (quote): there's nothing to eat you here in the water, so I liked to go to the beach and swim until last week this guy got stung by a sting-ray and got a 40 cm wound on his leg, and incidentally, Paul and I found a 40 cm dead shark on the beach the other day, and it had teeth. I know it was LITTLE, but looking at it, i couldn't help thinking his mum and dad are still lurking in there somewhere. :o)

Ok.

Yes, I WILL write when I have time and inspiration.
Just so you know, and since a few of you have been asking, I'm fine, just still living in that place where they still haven't heard of computers, jazz or chocolate, but I'll get to it at some point.

I'm still living at my friend Paul's place. Now I'm working 5 days a week so it's not as easy to get out as it has been the last month or so (hence my non-writing, also..) but here are a few pics of the last 2 trips we made. We took the truck and the canoe to Mokau to have a play on the river.. Naes!! :o)

See if you can spot the truck on pics? Should be easy in the last ones.

Anyway, catch youse soon. :o)
Mokau



A new hat I "invented" after seeing an inspiring model at parihaka. And I'm talking of the hat.



Mokau