Opera Bound

We are getting so cultured! We decided to take the plunge and attend our first ever opera this weekend. The opera was La Boheme and put on by New Zealand Opera, which was in Christchurch for three performances of this opera.

Here is the overview from the NZOpera website - it summarizes it all so well.

Eternal Flame.

A lost key and an accidental touch of cold hands in the dark – so begins one of the great romances of all opera. Puccini’s glorious masterpiece of youthful flirtation, passionate love and heart breaking tragedy springs to life in this exciting production which brings freshness, energy and a modern perspective. Whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth, La bohème will remind you what it means to be alive and in love.

The Cast

This NZ Opera production, revisited from our acclaimed 2008 season, stars Talise Trevigne as Mimì, with New Zealanders tenor Shaun Dixon as Rodolfo and baritone Phillip Rhodes as Marcello.

The Story

When Rodolfo, a penniless poet, meets Mimì, a seamstress, they fall passionately in love. But their happiness is threatened when Rodolfo learns that Mimì is gravely ill. As her health rapidly declines her friends gather and watch on helplessly as she succumbs, her true love at her side.

Rudolfo (Shaun Dixon) cares for Mim (Talise Trevigne) as she dies. So sad!

We had a wonderful time. The was a screen on either side of the stage with subtitles so that we could follow the story. Thank goodness for modern technology! I really appreciated being able to follow the story line. It was such a good experience that I would definitely want to see another opera. We are getting so cultured!

No pain, no gain

Here we have another netball post. I have continued playing netball with my PwC team and I hope that I am improving. I definitely don't stand around as much now that I feel more comfortable getting involved. The main problem I have is figuring out how aggressive to be. Netball is not the same as basketball from a contact standpoint. You have to be 3m away from the shooter, you can't put a body on anyone. It almost feels like it's not a contact sport. Unfortunately, that usually means I'm not aggressive enough in trying to steal passes in my efforts to keep the appropriate distance. Oh well! It's getting better.

During a recent game, I was diving to intercept a pass (yes, I dove on the ground and I succeeded!). When I got up, my big toe on my right foot was hurting soooo bad. I thought I had just stubbed it, but it hurt so much I would have sworn it was bleeding inside my shoe. Unfortunately we don't really sub during the half so I had to work through it until the end of the game.

I took off my shoe and this is what I saw...

I know the picture isn't great, but that whole thing is BLACK! The things we do for sports.

It's been a few weeks and the nail is finally starting to fall off, but I keep taping it on when we play our games so that it's covered. Even though I've lost toenails from ballet in the past I think I've gone a little soft.

Good news is that we won the game, so the gain from the pain was totally worth it! Go team PwC!!!

Winter Olympics (in Summer)

Now I know one of the reasons why it's been so long since I made a blog post. I forgot I started this one in March and never finished it! It's long overdue, but better late than never, right?

Friday February 28th

To celebrate the last day of summer, we had an office party to hold the winter olympics (in summer). I am so amazed at our social club committee for being so creative. I was really skeptical when I heard we were going to hold some actual events to compete for the gold, but it worked out wonderfully.

Opening Ceremonies

For whatever reason, I was chosen to bring in our "Olympic torch" to kick off the games. So I ran in waving it around and got a good laugh out of everyone.

Here we have moved outside to receive our instructions for the first event.

Event #1: Curling

How do you curl on grass, you ask? I was surprised at how well this really worked!

1. Spread out a large tarp to act as your ice rink
2. Fill some large buckets with soapy water and get a couple of sponge mops
3. Freeze a scrub brush that has a handle on it in some water inside a pie tin
4. Remove the pie tin and you have a curling stone

I got to be a sweeper for our team. Go team Norway!

And we were the best! See the blue handle? That's my team :)

Event #2: Tandem cross-country skiing

And the creativity continues. For this event, we had to "cross country ski" in tandem across the lawn. All it took were some straps to be stapled on to some 2x4's. Simple, yet effective! My team did not medal in this event, because I fell over. I was wearing high heels and had a hard time keeping my balance haha. But I didn't want to go barefoot and get slivers - oh well!

Event #3: Olympics Quiz + Lunch!

Mmmm - Subway! I was quite happy with the lunch choice today. It's not every day we get to order Subway sandwiches and they were tasty.

Anyway, for the third event we had a quiz - sort of like the quiz night game I posted about a year ago. Each team had questions specifically geared toward the country we were representing. Luckily we had done our research and knew questions like the capital of Norway, how many gold medals Norway won in the 2014 Olympics, and the population of the country. 

And once again - my team won this event! 

Enjoying food - and conversing with team Russia

And the winners are...

Team Norway!!! (can you tell my competitive side kicked in? I think patriotism is part of the DNA of Americans) We won the gold in 2 of 3 events, so we were the overall champions as well. What a satisfying day :)

We are anticipating our victory! From left to right - Quynh Tran, me, Laura Cotter, Caitlin Gray, Carl Stuart and Richard Perrett)

Caitlin is accepting our gold medals for the team - hip, hip, hooray!

And here we are donning our bling - and wore it proudly for the rest of the day!

Funny story. I really did wear my two gold medals for the rest of the day. That evening, Brian and I went to dinner at our favorite little middle eastern restaurant (that closed soon after) and while we were there I realized I was still wearing them. How embarrassing!

Netball Neophyte

Wow - I was so excited about the name for this blog post that I have writer's block on where to begin haha.

So PwC puts together an indoor netball team every year. I didn't join last year because I had never even heard of netball before and didn't want to make a fool of myself. But as I was talking to the girl that organizes the team, she said they have taught several people to play over the years and I thought, why not? I can accomplish several things by joining up: learning a new sport, getting more active and making friends.

My first game was pretty scary because I didn't know any of the rules or where I was supposed to be. It was pretty funny. I've played in four games now and it's definitely getting better. I always play the same position, wing defense, which means I at least know where I'm supposed to stand and who I am supposed to mark. But that's about it so far lol. 

Here are some of the basics, if you're interested (pulled from Wikipedia). 

1. Netball is a ball sport for two teams of seven players, predominantly played by women - we play in a coed league with 4 girls and 3 boys per team.
2. Games are played on a rectangular court divided into thirds, with a raised goal at each short end. The biggest difference from basketball hoops is there is no backboard. Make it much harder to shoot! 
   
3. The object of the game is for teams to score goals, by passing a ball and shooting it into their team's goal ring. 
4. Players are assigned "positions" that define their role within the team and restrict their movement on court. I play wing defense, which means I can only go in the back and middle thirds of the court, but not the goal circle.
5. During general play, a player with the ball can take no more than one step before passing it, and must pass the ball or shoot for goal within three seconds. No dribbling! It took me a few times to make sure I stopped moving before catching the ball, but I haven't been called for traveling in the past couple games. Also, passes have to go through each third as you move up the court. That means you can't pass from the goal you are defending all the way up to the goal scorer.
   
6. Goals can only be scored by the assigned shooting players. 
7. Netball games are 60 minutes long, divided into 15-minute quarters, at the end of which the team with the most goals scored wins. In our games, we just play two 15 minute halves and the only subbing is done during half time.

Brian came to watch me play tonight because my game was after Young Men's ended (usually they are at the same time). He was kind enough to take a few pictures so you could all see that I really am playing the game. Thanks baby!

You can't see the line, but I am stopped at the front of the middle third. I just sit and watch while my teammates shoot the ball and score (front right).

Here you can see me waiting on the line just in case we miss the ball and the other team gets the rebound.

The action shot is a little blurry, but I'm in the left corner passing the ball. Hopefully I made a good pass! (I have thrown quite a few away because I'm so out of practice - plus you don't get very long to hold the ball)

As you can see, I'm having a great time! It's a great cardio workout for me - there really is a lot of running around even though the pictures don't show it :)

And even though I'm the least experienced member of the team, I bring us good luck. Of the four games I've been to we have won 3 and tied 1. I'm pretty sure they have only one 1 of the games I haven't been to. I think I motivate everyone to pick up their game to make up for me being the weakest link haha. Thanks team for letting me play with you!

Where has the time gone?

So once again my Dad has given me crap about not posting on the blog. I keep telling him we haven't really done anything as we recover from the expense and days off from our trip with them over the Christmas holidays. Plus, somewhere in there was busy season for us tax accountants.

But I didn't realize it has actually been three months since my last post. Inexcusable! So this is just a quick note to say I am back on the job and I will be posting some things we have been doing around town over the next few days.

1st Rugby Match!

This week, one of my clients invited me to the opening home game for the Canterbury Crusaders, the super rugby team resident in Christchurch. I'm not really sure how I made it onto the invite list, but I was excited for the opportunity to see my first live Rugby match.

There were about 10 in our group, 4 from the client and 6 people they had invited. I was the only girl. Of course. However, with my love of all sports and basic knowledge of the game I was ready to rock and roll. We had a great dinner before the game and then had pretty good seats to watch the main event. Lucky for me it was a warm evening because I don't think it would have been as much fun in the rain.

Look at that gorgeous evening!

I tried to take a picture when they lift a player up in the air on a throw-in. Stupid phone.

Richie McCaw, captain of the Crusaders & All Blacks is just to the right of the guy with the ball (he's wearing a knee brace). It was cool to see one of, if not the best flankers of all time

I took a few pictures of the game, but here are my observations of the evening and of rugby.

• If you are going to participate in a sweepstakes by guessing the outcome of the game, you shouldn't bet against the home team if you aren't already an avid supporter of the opposing team. The other members of your group will hassle you all night. This is obviously what I did.
• Contrary to my first point, if you can take the ribbing (which I can), then you should pick the game emotion free. I think that's what I had over the men. I made my bet based on the numbers and facts I had available to me, which is probably why I won the jersey and they went home empty handed and a loss for their team.
• Pick a team. Now that I have a Crusaders jersey, I guess I'm obligated to support them. But that's okay, they have made it to the playoffs the past few years, have one of the best players of the NZ All Blacks playing for them and it's always fun to have a local team to support. Anything to take my mind off the Broncos...plus I don't think I could pick the opposing team based on principal because their mascot is the Chiefs.
• The game moves a lot, similar to soccer, but is very physical like American football. I found it very interesting, but I am going to have to watch some games on TV because I just couldn't tell what was going on in the scrums from up in the stands.
• I don't understand all the penalties that were called. When I mentioned that to my group, they laughed and just said it is a subjective call by the referee and most people won't know what the call is a lot of the time. That made me feel better.
• Small stadiums are cozy. AMI stadium seats 18,000 for sporting events, which means no one is really in a terrible seat no matter how far away you are. I quite liked that.

Here I am in my new jersey!

Super Rugby

Friday, 21 February, 7:35 pm

AMI Stadium, Christchurch

Crusaders

Chiefs

10 - 18

Final

	1	2		Total
Crusaders	0	10		10
Chiefs	8	10		18

Waitangi Day - February 6 2014

Well, it's official. We have just enjoyed our second Waitangi Day here in New Zealand, which means we have been here for more than a year! I can't believe so much time has already passed by.

What is Waitangi Day?
Every year on 6 February, New Zealand marks the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. In that year, representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Māori chiefs signed what is often considered to be New Zealand’s founding document. The day was first officially commemorated in 1934, and it has been a public holiday since 1974.

I find it so interesting that New Zealand celebrates its National Day when the British came into the country rather than when they left, like the US and Independence Day. Regardless, this is a lovely country with lovely people - even if they do have an unusually high affinity for the Brits. 

Our Celebration
Since I had the day off, I started off the morning with a nice little chat with my mom on Skype. Since it was her birthday in New Zealand, I got to wish her a happy birthday over video chat. Love you mom!  Then it was off to the beach!

Amazingly, it was a sunny, warm day so we went to the beach for the first time this summer. The best part of the day was when we forced Ike to swim in the ocean. When I picked him up to cuddle him, he just kept paddling away in my arms for several minutes. We love that little guy. The worst part of the day was later than night when we realized how sunburnt we both got. We forgot to take sunscreen because we really haven't needed it with the lackluster summer we've had. We were sure sorry the next couple days!

Brian took a little video of the beach on the ipad and we took a couple of pictures. Enjoy!

A boy and his dog

All set to enjoy the sun!

Look at that clear, blue sky. Also, have you ever seen dark brown sand?