The days are crisper, the outdoor swimming pool is not quite as crowded, and I am not waking up stuck to all of the sheets every morning.
Thank goodness for that.
The autumnal weather is as lovely as ever. And tomorrow it will be my birthday. In autumn! Even though the air feels just about right for a very lucky English March day, it still doesn't feel quite the same.
It does feel like we are now declining in our New Zealand time; people are making plans to move away. New people are arriving. It's coming to the end for new friends - time that seemed so far away at the beginning ('yes, we'll be staying just until the end of April') is strangely close.
It's all a bit melancholy and suitably autumnal.
***
Over the weekend we went out in Wellington, which was tremendously exciting. I took the opportunity to finish off my PADI, which was terribly traumatising and anti-climactic.
Fact: Diving is just not as much fun as I thought it would be.
I am glad I did it, because I always wanted to and I would otherwise always wonder if it truly was the glorious underwater paradise type of thing I imagined. Floating freely, not having to come up for air, noiselessly gliding through all that water. Heaven, etc.
In reality, you're stuck inside a huge mass of equipment which is always threatening to tip you over sideways or backwards, a mask which is always leaking water up your nose (salty water, which is truly disgusting), and your mouth is constantly filled with seawater, and you're totally unable to spit it out because you're 6m underwater and if you spit it out then your regulator fills with even more seawater and everything becomes even more mucousy and disgusting. I have never experienced quite that much mucous in one go. Word.
The sea was extra terrifying because there was a current always threatening to take me out to sea which I found, pathetically, terrifying. I now feel a great and terrible sympathy for all people who suffer from claustrophobia. Even the fish couldn't distract me.
So after that dive I surfaced and announced I wasn't going back in ever again and that was that. And then I happened to mention that I'd done all the other stuff in Rotorua (by way of comparing it to this horrendous experience), at which point the dive leader said, 'oh! well in that case, technically you've passed your PADI.' To which I said, 'thank God, and now I'm never going to dive again.'
The whole experience was topped off by me really, really needing to pee and having to swim back to shore and take everything off (because you really can't pee inside a wetsuit). You haven't experienced unhappiness until you've had to snorkel your way back to a beach, take off your fins in the water, take off your mask, take off your hood, take off the ENORMOUSLY HEAVY cylinder and flotation device, take off your weight belt (which is pressing on your bladder, helpfully), take off your bootees (without which you cannot take off your wetsuit), take off your OUTER wetsuit and THEN wrestle off your inner wetsuit, all the while desperate for a piddle. I now know what suffering is.
***
On reflection, I think a lot of it has to do with the equipment - hired equipment just doesn't fit properly and so much of diving is so dependent on the equipment. That is another unappealing area, though - to be so dependent on zips and seals and floaty things.
It is sad I will never get to do this (from 4 minutes onwards - though the first part is also very entertaining. I do note however that none of them are wearing flotation jackets, and in the first part neither Sean nor his squeeze are wearing any wetsuits, which must make the whole thing a lot more pleasant. And easier to pee in, which I have now realised is a crucial consideration.)
I think I'd just rather snorkel.
***
So after this highly invigorating morning experience, I met up with some friends who were in Welly that day for a birthday party to do lunch and some shopping, which was tremendously exciting. I remember quite clearly when we first came to Welly, how very quiet and not like a capital city it seemed. And this time it was all a bit TOO MUCH. It seemed extremely happening and full of shops and places to eat and people out and so on and so forth. And yet it really wasn't that different, objectively, from the first time I was there.
I am filled with excitement at the prospect of visiting London on my return and having a nervous breakdown at EVERYTHING.
The afternoon was whiled away very pleasantly and I purchased several things I don't need (including, at last, a top with a peplum - I caved.) In the evening, we went drinking at a very pleasant bar which was Alice-themed, and which served delicious cocktails in teapots and teacups (I had a gin based cocktail which was made with rosewater and jasmine tea - it was splendid). You would have loved it. All of you.
At this point I went home to bed, exhausted by my underwater adventures. It was midnight. I hit the pillow and was asleep in seconds.
At 2am Cat came in.
Cat: "The boys are still out. I don't know where they are."
At 4am Tim came in.
Tim: "Hello! I'm very drunk!"
Me: "I can see that! Where is Sen?"
Tim: (airy wave of the hand) "Oh. He's not here. He is dancing."
At 5am Sen came in, then got up at 7am to put more money in the car.
Then we all checked out at 10am.
Despite the delightful morning sunshine, everyone looked rather grim.
Though I had not drunk much, I was so tired from the long day on Friday and getting up early and the long drive and the diving and then the whole day in Welly I too appeared wearied and quite in keeping with everyone else's general demeanour of slight unhappiness. There was a profusion of dark glasses. We had brunch, and then silently dispersed. We drove back to Palmy kept awake only by the Beatles Greatest Hits (thank you Beatles. Theatles), got home, and then promptly fell asleep for 4 hours, waking only to have dinner and then go back to bed.
Tim: "I've discovered something."
Me: "Yes?"
Tim: "You know how beer then wine makes you feel fine?"
Me: "Yes?"
Tim: "And then wine then beer makes you feel queer?"
Me: "Yes?"
Tim: "Well beer then wine then gin then wine then beer then jaegerbomb and then champagne then rum then jaegerbomb then beer than jaegerbomb then whisky then jaegerbomb then wine makes you feel terrible."
Me: "It doesn't rhyme."
Tim: "But it's true."
***
And on that bombshell I shall leave you.
For the sun is shining.
I am on holiday.
And it's my birthday tomorrow!
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