Wednesday, February 27: A bit overcast to begin with, but warm, cloud becoming lighter in the course of the day
Dave’s/Brennagh’s
After the excitement of yesterday, today was a bit of a day for odds and ends. I set up VirtualDub to do a run through of a timelapse sequence – in the end it didn’t work particularly well. The Play_0 button doesn’t seem to do anything, and even downsizing the image was not really effective, as the exclusion zone didn’t seem to work. Put a couple of minutes together for Rayna to look at, though.
First shopping stop was Mitre 10 for a new gas bottle (will use up the old one on this trip and see how far I get with the new one). That was quite a hike across town. Next stop was the supermarket. Will be trying out a couple of new muesli bars this time, as well as some cheaper dried peas which will take 8-10 minutes and will be cooked with the rice. A dollar store yielded an ice-cube tray, which will be needed later for the egg cooking. Lost my shopping list somewhere after shopping, and that had the Whanganui River Adventures’ phone number on it, who I had been meaning to call to confirm that they will be picking me up, giving me a bunk bed and have something to sell me to eat.
Lunch on the way back was just a pie (steak & pepper) at the bakery at 173 Victoria Ave for $3.5. Still had a bit of time to spare and uploaded the kayaking video to youtube (unlisted) for Rayna. The bank was good for $400, which should cover shuttle, jetboat & co until I return. Then it was time for Sue the seamstress. She had managed to get the job done ($15 – seems like the going rate here) and out on the street I wrangled the frame back in – at first not quite into its holder, but then back here, properly where it should go. It is now under tension as it should be, let’s see how long that lasts for.
Washing had to be attended to, and in the meantime the eggs were boiled. Kerry, the male ghost, surprised me just as I was throwing the ice cubes in and said he had never seen that done before. Turns out he was a cook in a previous life, and when I explained it to him he said it made sense to him.
The washing now finished it was hung up to dry, then nearly everyone wanted to be having dinner at once (the Russian ghost was having some sausages with spaghetti with tomato sauce on toast), and Brennagh was furiously deep frying and burning some more toast while all this went on. I smuggled my remaining fried rice into the microwave and ate it in the majestic dining room alone.
Slide Show
Click on the image to stop/start the animation
Then it was time for some photos. I had taken a number of signs on the way to the supermarket this morning and now the house was my subject, under the watchful eye of the Russian ghost who wanted to know whether I was an architect or surveyor. She then bellyached to Kerry about my photographing the house.
For the Trains Track/Matemateaonga, I managed to get confirmation that I will be picked up at 10:00 om Friday from Manutahi to the start of the track, and then again at the other end at 14:00 on Tuesday. In between there are two shorter days at the beginning and the end, and three days of about 18 km each. Doc was giving distances that were partly very much less than what I had measured, but it will still be a challenge, if not a race.
