Involuntary Time Off (September 2nd, 2006)

In the not too distance past I mentioned how busy we've been so far, even though we anticipated having up to 4 days a week off. What I would have given for a free day back then. Well, as always, be careful what you wish for. The snow gods must have been listening and in the last week I've been subjected to three unscheduled vacation days. On Tuesday I was too sick to leave bed (though I was able to read through The Grapes of Wrath), on Thursday we took the bus up to Coronet Peak but the mountain was "on hold" due to high winds ("on hold" means the lifts aren't running but the mountain isn't technically closed so they don't have to offer ticket refunds...), and today the mountain was officially shut down all day long due to "gale-force winds." Oh, and rain. There's been a weird weather pattern over the south island for the last 3 days which has caused some very warm weather (a balmy 15 degrees in Queenstown and nearly 10 degrees at Coronet Peak) and extremely strong winds from the north. Any snow that wasn't blown off by the wind was surely destroyed by the downpour today. Everyone is excited to see what the mountain looks like when we head back up there on Monday.

So what have I been doing with all this new found freedom? Sadly, nothing off the list of tourist activities I've been hoping to do. Paragliding? They don't operate in windy conditions either. Bungy jumping? Not in the rain. Instead I've been walking around town, buying souvenirs I don't want and eating food I don't need. In fact, I was excited because I was finally heading down to the Mexican place for dinner. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), two of my roommates went the night before and told me the food was so bad that they each had to send it back. Now I realize that this could be a sign of a good Mexican place, but I'd been sick for a week and didn't feel like tempting fate at that point.

On the flip side, though, when I told them I'd never eaten proper "bangers and mash" before they insisted on cooking for me. Well that's not quite true. I ended up peeling the potatoes (with an old, tiny peeler; I don't know how I didn't cut my knuckles on it), setting the table, and cleaning up after dinner while they sat around and watched The West Wing. But I got a great meal out of it, destroying my theory that all English food is terrible.