Hills and things

On Friday I climbed Puketapu in behind Palmerston. It's the pimple with the lookout tower on its top that you can see for miles around. It's a bloody steep climb at the end and I was quite puffed, but as I was going up I couldn't help but think about the men climbing the slopes around Cassino, laden with ammo, rations and equipment, and with Germans shooting at them. There's no comparison of course, but it does give pause for thought.

It was the last dash of the Y12 camp but none of the girls were keen enough to give it a crack. Instead they broke into the van and tooted the horn every 2 minutes or so until I got back. It didn't impress me so I made them get out and walk while I sat in the van and tooted. I hate to think what the lady in the other car at the carpark thought of the girls. I'm surprised she didn't give them a bollocking. Anyway, the view was fantastic. Unfortunately though, water had pooled inside the tower and it was a mosquito breeding ground. The ladders were absolutely black with the critters, and so was I. They didn't seem too vicious in the end and I got no itchy bites - in fact they were less annoying than the girls on the horn.

The girls proved quite good shots in the small bore shooting we tried, though I beat all the other teachers and students. Nothing really to boast about as they were marking them rather leniently, but I'll take it anyway.

Saturday was a nice relaxed day, though J had a bit of retail therapy that required me to carry bags. I refused to pay $21 for a haircut (since I have so little) so we bought a cutting set and she did the job for nothing. One more cut and it'll have paid itself off! We can spend the savings on more important things like booze and food.

We went to see Hot Fuzz at the movies, and thought it was great. Good concept, good lines, lots of laughs. I haven't seen enough cop movies recently to get some of the parodies, but it didn't matter. We came home and watched Grumpy Old Men - the series, not the movie - on the box. Why J needs to watch this on TV when she's married to me I don't know...

Today we had a lovely brunch with friends from school. We are staying with M's sister in London for a few days, so we looked at photos of them and the house so we would recognise them! Then tonight it was another game of hockey. I was crap due to unfitness, but we won by default anyway. I'll sneak one more game in possibly, but it's the day before we fly out so I'd better not do any damage!

Don't know yet if I have work this week, but I'd better assume so, so buona
notte.