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Happy times but sad times. My beloved friend and esteemed salsa partner Jessica has finished her work contract here in Wellington and is on her way back to Canada. Yes, who'd have ever thought that the Canadians and Yanks would ever get along in such perfect harmony?! The salsa gang met up at a Restaurant 88, a little Vietnamese place on the corner of Tory and Ebor. As you can see, plenty of smiles all of which belie the fact that we will be losing one from the Wellington salsa family before long. But the good thing is, most of us are from all over the world and have traveled quite extensively, so are confident we'll cross paths yet again in the not so distant future!<----See salsa video off to the left on the side bar. 
Click on photos for larger view.
This photo prompted a memory of the lyrics from the U2 song Sunday Bloody Sunday, "under a blood red sky...." However in this case it was more like Wednesday Bloody Wednesday. Last week the rain cleared out just in time to create something on par with a laser light show at a Pink Floyd concert. I dove for my camera and captured this image. Quite impressive actually. Click on image for full size.
As you've seen from previous posts, we've been getting clobbered to death with some rough wintertime weather. Well finally a change of tune. Today was one of those rare days where the fury of mother nature subsided just long enough for the surf and wind direction to come together. Titahi Bay is not known for its awe-inspiring surf by any stretch of the imagination, but today was quite fun. I'm still on the upswing in recovering from my knee injury back in December, so this was just right for getting out and testing out the ol' left paw. It eventually got crowded (by New Zealand standards) and there was even a bit of vibe in the water. All in all, no major complaints...except for some goatboaters.
I also ran into Luke, an Aussie friend that Bobby and I had met on previous occasions out in the Wairarapa. He'd also been off the surfing radar for some time due to a repeat blow out of his knee. He had done in his ACL some time back but then reinjured it and had to get yet another ACL reconstruction. We surfed together for a bit and then decided to do a joint surf mission to Paekakariki in hopes of getting some good surf with no one around. Strong winds with too much south in it spoiled it, so we decided to give it a miss.
The following photos were snapped just before I paddled out. Nothing epic, but fun nevertheless. Click on each photo for a larger image.
In all the time I've been in New Zealand, I've seen some pretty chilly days. I mean, yeah, I've had a few of those cold-enough-to-see-my-breath kinds of days, but this morning threw me for a loop. I had to be up early to go train some subjects in my study. Now bear in mind the sun doesn't come up til after 7am or so, so imagine my surprise when I got in my car this morning and went to wipe away what I thought was morning dew on the windscreen. All I heard was a crusty scraping sound as the wiper blades grinded across what turned out to be frost! Ironically, all other windows were covered in liquid dew, but the windscreen bore the brunt of it. I was running a few minutes behind so I had to look for something to scrape off the ice. Nothing. I haven't touched an ice scraper since I lived on the east coast in the early 90s. I was able to get the car heated up quickly which then melted the ice, but it was still a little rough seeing out of only part of the windscreen whilst the remainder defrosted.
Click on photos for larger view.
