No no no no!!! Time is going too too fast! It can't be 26 days since i last got chance to pour my thoughts out! Today is another sunny day! I have just finished work and got home for some lunch. There is no one home, o i think i have the perfect opportunity to catch upon a few things! J has just got home from Germany this week. He was in Aachen for the Diving junior world champs. Its a funny thing - i really really missed him - he was only away for 12 days - nothing at all considering i hadnt seen him for 3 and half years until now!! Anyway - he had a great timeand im so proud of him and Alice. Alice is one of James divers - he has coached her since she was 13, she is now 18 and qualified for junior worlds. She dived really well and this her first major international competition. Alice came 13th and just missed out in the final by .05!!! So she is currently ranked 13th in the world on 3m springboard - not bad eh!!!! While J was away a high performance coach from China came to Wellington to coach James other divers and also to bring some of her knowledge and experience to the club. She was called Ou yang Rai - she was really lovely. It was an interesting 2 weeks - Rai spoke no english so we had a translator with us aswell. However i found that when she was speaking her actions and imitations were so good that iwas able topick up what she was putting across anyway. Overall working in the club for the 2 weeks while J was away in Aachen was difficult, i didnt like seeing another coach with his divers!! On the last weekend that Ou Yang Rai was with us (20-21 sept 08) there was acoaching clinic - so 2 of the coaches from Christchurch and Hamilton came to stay in Wellington and attend the clinic - they stayed at our apartment; well with me i guess - J was still in Aachen and Tash was up in Napier for the weekend visiting her mum. It worked well though because im still a tourist in wellington and there are many things i havent seen/done and Deb (the coach fro christchurch) has only just come over here from South Africa and Claire (coach from Hamilton) has only seen the pool and a few bars in Wellington, so after saturday mornings coaching clinic i took the girls out for lunch at Epic - a cafe that Tash and me like to go to - we had a great feed!!! Then we headed out to go on the Wellington Cable car up to the botanical gardens! It was a really cold day but lucky for us it was afairly clear day and so when we got to the top we had a great view across the bay and the city. I hadnt realised that there are also domestic cable cars in Wellington - so al those little houses up in the hills of wellington have a cable car running the owners up to the front door!! Awesome! When we got back down we came out by the waterfront so just walked all the way back along instead of walking through the city! As we had to be up early the next morning for the second day of the coaching clinic we decided to stay in! So we went to the supermarket for some food and wine and i cooked dinner. It was a really nice night and i had chance to get to know both Deb and Claire a bit better - which is good ad i will probably see tem again at future competitions! And now i'll always have a place to stya in other parts ofNew Zealand!

On friday night just gone (26th sept) i went to my first bbq of my NZ experience!!!! Greg - one of the instructors i have worked with at the swimming lessons was leaving swim teaching so he was having farewell drinks and a bbq! It was a really clear sunny day so things were looking good - eventhough the bbq wasnt starting until 7.30pm! By that time it was still a clear evening but the wind had returned and was a little bit chilly!!! Up at Gregs house (right up on a hill - with no cable car!!!!) it was really quite open and very windy - but wow what a stunning view of wellington lit up by the city lights! We got a bigbonfire going - but remaining as dizzy as i am i stoof down wind of te fire - i thought ihad singed my eyelashes and eyebrows off!!! Luckily not - but i soon moved from that spot!! One glass of wine later all was well - i have become the worlds biggest lightweight i think - 1 glass and iwas merry!!!! It was a really good night - nice to hang out with people away from work. Gregs a good guy - he is from middlesbrough originally - how ironic!! His girlfriend is from NZ though. The reason Greg quit swim teaching though was because doing just 3 days temp work he can earn as much as he would in 1 fulltime week at the pool - its making me think twice abot what im doing now! I could work less, earn more and be out seeing and doing more than i have over the last 10 weeks! I think i will investigate and see if there is still plenty of temp work around and perhaps just coach diving and do some temping!

Last night (Sat 27/09) i went to see the stage production of Sound of Music - it was really good. The characters were perfect!!! I went with Tash, Nook (tash's mum) and Amey (one of tash's dearest friends and ex flatmate). We went out for dinner first and J came with us - it was really nice! Another great evening!

School holidays now so working less hours for a couple of weeks and planning my trip to Sydney before christmas - i am managing to save some money now - I am so grateful to J and Tash for lokng after me like they are and it means i can get out and do more now!

Tonight Nook is cookingher famous chinese beef stirfry dish! yummmmmy!!!! I can smell it cooking right now! I need to go and sort my washing out and i thinkits high time i called my mum and dad too - they'll be wondering whats happened to their children!!!!! I love everyone very much and still think of everyonexxxx