Fun Timeswith Ana

I spent most of this weekend with Ana.

That’s not an easy thing to do considering she’s in Brasil and I’m in New Zealand. We can’t be physically close to each other right now, but thanks to the internet we can still be as close as two people possibly can be when distance keeps them apart.

It’s nothing for us to just connect using Skype and leave it running. This weekend I pretty much spent the whole time in my Lazy-boy recliner chair watching the Olympics and whatever else was on TV whilst Ana was doing the same thing 12,500 kilometres away. That’s around 7700 Miles for any Yanks reading this.

Now, we never usually get asked directly, but it’s always a topic of conversation amoungst people wondering how we cope with this distance. The internet makes in easy. Thank goodness for the internet.

I love you Ana Lucia.

There’s no doubt about that. I can see Ana and I can hear her and I can imagine being with her. And this allows us to get through our times apart. Nothing’s as good as being with her, but this comes a satisfactory (considering circumstances) second.

I had a wonderful weekend with you my love.

Thanks Dino for this picture of two guys having fun in the Storm.

We were battening down the hatches yesterday getting ready for the mother of all storms. After what we experienced last year (Ana was here going through it) I was expecting the worst.

Thankfully, it wasn’t so bad. We did have a lot more flooding by the looks of it though. The storm really started hitting us at around 11AM. The house was shaking sometimes with he gusts of wind. I went into town just after 2PM when the weather seemed to have settled down. The Town Centre was closed off because of flooding. That part of town always floods when we have too much rain, but due to the high tide coinciding at a peak in the storm, the flooding seems to be worse than last year. Several other parts of the Central Business District were closed off as well.

Port Road just down from The Warehouse. Notice the container, not just the roof.

According to the Met service, we were to expect even worse weather at around 6PM to 8PM. This didn’t eventuate. However, I’ve woken up this morning to some pretty severe gusts of wind and heavy rain. Here are some more pictures and two videos from yesterday.

Commerce Street

And one I picked up up from YouTube taken by someone else:

This coming Wednesday will be interesting though as there seems to be an even bigger storm building up, this time over the east side of NZ, in the Pacific. It looks like a biggie. Fingers crossed nothing eventuates.

Wild Coffee

I found this site tonight and thought it was worth sharing…some funky music and funky photos. What more could you ask for? Definitely worth a visit.

His name is Christophe Gilbert

Lady in colourful dress

Lady in Black

You sexy beast

I MISS my husband. Nothing is fun without him. I try to occupie my mind reading, surfing on the net or watching DVDs. But nothing, nothing compares to the happiness I with when we are together.

I am reading a book called “Can you keep a secret” (by Sophie Kinsella). Its good. girlie book. Its nice. I will keep on reading it.

I woke up quite early this morning because I needed to have a pee and called my husband on Skype. He was there for me and it was very comforting. Very. Comforting as it was on my last night when he was there online with me until I felt asleep (I went to sleep just after Cam left to visit his parents).

He went to sleep and I made my usual cafe com leite and had two slices of water mellow (quite ripe – good).

Cam showed me nice vegetable bags he bought yesterday. Quite a good selection! He made a nice soup and I am sure its so yummy. I would love to try it.

I will start making the bed now and get ready to start the day. I will have lunch at the aunties as usual, but I will stay at their place just until 3PM. Then I will come back here to speak to my beloved husband, my blessing, my happiness, my life.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY again, my darling. You mean the Universe to me.

I love you.

[Cameron]

I love you too. Two and a half wonderful wonderful years. I look froward to spending the rest of my life with you. The vegetable soup is great. I added some chicken that I’d browned and a few more spices. I’ve still got enough left to last me at least another three or four days. They have a pumkin soup bag as well, but I think I might just buy a pumkin and turn that into a soup.

Imade Golden Dumplings for desert. I have enough left over for two more servings. I’ll freeze them. The book says that they’re not good for freezing, but they were fine last time I made them. They didn’t last long in the freezer though

Happy Happy Anniversary my beloved. I look forward to many more.

I now fly Aerolíneas Argentinas when next it’s time to meet my love. The two things I really like about Aerolíneas is that the flight times are so much better than Lan Chile for flying to Rio and also that there is just a little more seat space. Lan Chile is so cramped. It’s hard to sleep when your legs are wrapped around your ears. Then you have to contend with the interminable seven hour wait at Santiago Airport until the flight for Rio arrives. It didn’t used to be like that. There used to be only a wait of one and a half hours. Much better. With Aerolíneas I only have a two hour wait at Buenos Aires.

Anyway, I digress. Ana’s started reading the Harry Potter series. I used to read a lot of fantasy, but not any more. The Harry Potter movies (you Americans call them films don’t you?), however, are a class act. I’ve enjoyed watching them all and I can’t wait to get back into watching the fifth in the series. I hope it’s good.

By the way. I’ve been using a “cheap as” (Kiwi slang I believe) portable speaker and I’d like to say just how good it is. I use it because I’m addicted to Podcasts and Audio Books. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea to listen all the time to headphones. I tend to use only the in ear headphones (earbuds) and even though I always try my best to keep the volume down as much as possible, I still think long hours of listening even at very very low volumes, are not good for my hearing.

So, I bought this (Click on each image for a larger picture):

Here’s a look inside:

It was cheap. Nine Bucks! That’s around US$5. It runs on two AA batteries and gives around 7 hours of play. That’s not quite true as I find I get at least 30-40 hours. I try to switch it off when I’m not using it to save on batteries, but more often than not, I forget. So, if I was actually religious about turning it off when I’m not using it, I would probably at least treble the battery life of this device.

Now it is only mono and although tonally it’s pretty good, it’s not designed for high fidelity music, but I don’t care. I’m mostly listening to conversations so it suits me fine. I’m going to get another one in case I ever lose this one. It pumps out quite a lot of sound as well and doesn’t really distort too badly when it is pumping out those sounds. It uses flat speaker technology so it’s almost impossible to damage it. Also, you can put your MP3 player (It fits my Radio Your Way LX no probs!) inside, zip it up, and just let it play. I don’t do that though as I’m always rewinding.

Just to finish off. Some more details and some specs:

* Speaker built-into the case – no need for headphones
* Protects your audio player and accessories
* Integrated amplifier for more powerful sound
* Gold plated plug ensures superior connection
* Up to 7 hours playback on 2xAA batteries

SPECIFICATIONS:

* Impedance: 4 Ohm
* Frequency Response: ~275Hz – 200KHz
* Power Output: 3 Watt
* Power Requirements: 2x 1.5V AA Batteries (Not Included)
* Connections: L-shape 3.5mm Jack (with 7″ cable)
* Dimensions: 135x135x50 mm (WxHxD)
* Weight: 200g

Now for Harry…

PS. Baby. I’m missing you so very much. I can’t wait until we’re together again.