Hi again!
We have spent the last 7 days touring the south island of New Zealand! Seen about everything that there is to see (well no, but as much as a brain
can accept in 7 days anyway...), and had in generall the best week since we came down here!
Thanks a LOT to Kieran, who could be bothered to drive us around, without whom this journey could never have happened. Which would have been a shame.
All in all we have taken about 1600 photoes! (mostly Kieran, the man goes nuts when he gets a camera:-) And I will update the album thoroughly over the next few days.
In other news today: I have quit Armourguard for good. This happened right before we went on our trip last sunday, and I hope I left with a good impresion.
I shall let you all know how my "woking abroad axperience" went as soon as I find out what my boss REALLY thinks of me:-)
That`s all for now. We just got home and had a shower, so the house looks like a complete mess. We decided (wisely, in my oppinion) to ignore this, and
go see a movie instead of cleaning up:-) Have a good weekend all of you!
-Audun- ...
Mon. 15. Jan. 07
First a wee message too the Norwegian speaking visitors:
Bloggen min er oppdatert, Hurra! Trykk og les:) Takk for oppmerksomheten;)
LOTS of T. Pratchett quotes up on "my" section of kristineandaudun. Check it out!
NOTE: I removed the media-player from my section. That should sort out any trouble you guys have had with your browsers. In different words; you should now be able to browse my section of this site, without having your browser freaking out;)
Edit: In other words, yet another thing women can't do; html... -Audun-
- Kristine - ...
Wed. 10. Jan. 07
Hipp Hyrray! Just in generall you know, seeing as it`s a new year and everything... First post of the new year! WEEE! Anyway...
First of all, sorry for taking so long before I got this post up. A lot has happened, and we probably forgot most of it, so for those of you who weren`t there: "Sorry, you missed out!" Where to start? Oh, I`ll just do me first:
I`ve handed in my resignation from Armourguard for the 27th of January. And the rest of our stay here will be spent cruising the island, and the pubs of course(mussn`t forget the pubs!!).
We have been lucky enuogh to be invited on a road trip with Kieran, just after I quit Armourguard, and this is what we`re really looking forward to at the moment. Hopefully this will be 4 days of tramping, sleeping in the great outdoors, and seeing most of the south island. Wohoo!
Then there was Christmas. We spent it with Kieran`s family in Milton, just under an hour to drive from Dunedin, which is a small and cosy town on the outscirts of bussy. It was definitly a different Christmas, with a BBQ on Christmas day, and everyone sitting outside enjoying the sun. We actually tossed a tennis-ball in the garden for 2 hours, without freezing! But I must admit I missed the Norwegian Christmas. Getting up early to open gifts was OK, but not the same as gathering in the living room after diner in the evening. No one really dressed up, so it all seemed very informal, compared to what we are used to, peaple just wore t-shirts and shorts. Nor was there a fire going in the fireplace... The BBQ was good, and all honours to KP`s dad for beeing a good cook, but I missed the stick-meat:-) I guess all in all it was a great party, with gifts(!), but it honestly didn`t feel like Christimas. It was more like a well planned summer-party:-)
A reasonably quiet week went by after that, and then there was New Years Eve! And we saw that it was good!
As much as Christmas didn`t feel like Christmas, the 31st of December really came through! Everyone in Dunedin were at the Octagon celebrating, and the fireworks were really good! We sat outside at the pubs all night, and the reasonably warm air made it the best way to celebrate New Years ever! I think we made it home around 6 in the morning, and made a few calls back home to tell you all that the new year was safe. We saw it first! HAHA!
And this friday we.re planning another LAN night at our place, which hopefully will be as cool as the last time. We had a fearly good time when we last played, just before Christmas, and I especially enjoyed the Aliens VS Predator II game. I RULE! Best map:
First one to 20 frags:
1st place: Audun 20
2nd place: Robb 5
Not sure if any of the other 3 players had any frags at all.... doesn`t matter, I RULE! Then came of course the Warcraft III game, and I got so thoroughly beaten that it hurts to talk about it.. so I wont.
So what have Kristine been up to?
Pretty much the same as me(she won one of the AVP II games!), except she was on a party between Christmas and new years that I missed out on(I had to work). But I`m sure she can tell you all about that herself.
She alsow got her fieldwork(you know, the whole reason for us beeing here in the first place) approved! Big YEY for Kristine everyone! This basically means that the last 6 months was a success, she got her 30 study-points, and can start writing her masters degree when she gets home! Jippi! I`ll leave it to her to do the next update, so you can get it directly from the source:-)
That`s all I can remember for now I think... Oh yes, there` two more things:
1: Sorry for taking so long to get you on the list KP!
2: Thanks for the reminder that it`s well overdue with an update Robert! (AND Henny... Almost forgot you were first, again:-) (we knew it, just needed a kick to get started. New pictures are in the album!
See you all later!
-Audun- ...
Sun. 03. Dec. 06
Hellu!
I know it's been a while since I last did any major updates, and I'm to busy to promise anything big right now, but there is one thing you should know.....
This will be bigger than LoTR, King Kong and the Godfather mashed in to a 2 hour circus with Coupling. It will probably be the best orgasm I will have in 2007...
That's all. I know I'm a geek. Do not care the slightest bit...
And lo He(Steven Spielberg) created the Transformers, and He saw that they were bad to the bone!
-Audun- ...
Sun. 03. Dec. 06
Well well! Now, the bigges pice of news may well be that the hunt for the Sheep is on. It should by now be plenty of clues out on how to locate the little bugger, and to get you started I will say that the hint on the front-page(where the Sheep can first be found), is indeed quite literally meant...
So, in other pice of news, we were at the Christmas parade today. That was something that surprised both me and Kristine(not that we were there, that there in fact WAS a christmas parade). There were floats of just about everything from Sponge-Bob Squarepants to Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs(Yes Robb, we DO have dwarfs in Norway as well, but in no greater quantity than any other country as far as I know). So that was fun, and we decided to put up a whole album called "Dunedin Christimas Parade". This may not be the most interesting album you`ll ever see, but should be god for a laugh.
I`m at work right now, and will try to squeeze in the time to crop some photoes and upload a small taste of the album. And I have finally posted the AUDUN site. It`s really no good yet, but at least this way it will give me a push to do some work on it. Will check and update the TRANSFORMERS page just after I post this, so that should at least be up to date.
See ya all!
-Audun- ...
Tue. 28. Nov. 06
Hi you peoples... So, I finally got myself a laptop that I could bring to work. Hopefully, this means that some of the hours I spend working can be put in to some good use(or not), and maybe I can find more time to do some frequent updating of this thing your` readin` now! We shall see...
Well, I`ve been kinda busy lately, but I have done very little. How is this possible you ask? Simple! By standing guard at different places all over Duneidn, and not doing anything else than standing there looking bored. I have decided to give myself premission to bring my laptop, and do something usefull with my time:-)
So, for some reason, even though it`s been a long time since I last wrote a blog entry, we havent been up to much. Highlight of the last few weeks was definitely the trip wih Robb and TJ up central Otago, where we were invited to a 30th birthday-party-thingy. It was great fun, and heaps of cool people, to bad it ended to soon... But not to worry, there will be other parties, of that I`m sure. And I will upload the photoes from that weekend when I get home(I`m off at three today, wohoo!). I did in fact NOT end up with the weekend off last week, by the way, but my boss has promised me I can take the next one. That means some over-due quality time for me and Kristine, and maybe we can fit in a LAN night with our neighbour(strange strange man that neighbour...).
Oky, that`s me for now, see ya soon!
-Audun- ...
Fri. 23. Nov. 06
JEG HAR LYST PÅ BAMSEMUMS!!! Vær så sniiiiiill!!! Bare en bitteliten bjønn????
- Kristine - ...
Thur. 23. Nov. 06
G'day! Just a wee blogg-entry before the weekend sets in. It's late, and to be honest; I'd much rather be in bed right now, but I have to wait up untill the laundry is done:( I'm going out of town this weekend. A maori professor at the Uni has kindly invited me to attend the annual Kai Tahu hui, which will take place in Moeraki this Friday - Sunday. Ergo --> I'm doing emergency-laundry at 22:31 Thursday night... That's SO me! I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning. There should be a law against getting up before nine!
Audun and me had a nice time last weekend. Rob and TJ took us on a wee road-trip up to Central Otago. TJ's friend celebrated his 30th on Saturday, and we stayed at his place. We got to experience a Kiwi-barbeque (that is; Kiwis barbequing - not Kiwis beeing barbequed...), and had a great time fireing a paintball-gun at empty beer-bottles; an experience enhanced by the transfer of the bottles' content to our tummies and bloodstream. Audun shot a sheep.
The cake was also good.
Audun is having this weekend off, so pictures, video-clips and a more detailed update is no doubt on it's way. That's it from me, for now. I'll come back with an update after the weekend. Also; keep your eyes open for the new "Audun" and "Kristine" sites. On my site I'll probably do a wee Norwegian blog. For the linguisticly challenged (like me). Peace, love and all that stuff.
- Kristine - ...
Mon. 13. Nov. 06
Helluuu! Ok, it's been a while since my last update. Though Audun has valiantly kept you more or less up to date on what's been happening:)
Fieldwork is going ok. I've been talking to both Pakeha (NZ caucasians) and Maori, and they've all been more than helpful, answering my questions. It can't be fun always, having an ignorant foreigner coming here digging into stuff that doesn't always seem that relevant... Beeing able to do fieldwork at all, depends on the goodwill of the people you wanna learn about, so if any of you are reading this; thanks alot guys! I especially enjoyed seeing a marae for the first time! Marae is a term often used about a Maori place of gathering. It is the place wich links each Iwi (tribe) to the land, and to their ancestors. It is also a place where lots of ceremonial stuff takes place; funerals, weddings, hui (for a lack of a better word; "meetings") and so on... (I could talk on and on about this, but a quick google search can tell you all you want to know - if you want to know it).
On another note; I put a self-made GIF on the welcome-page (I made it! Me! All by myself! No-one helped! Yey!). Unless you're Norwegian, you won't get it, so relax:) "And" is the Norwegian word for "duck"... Yeah I know - I'm way too cheesy.
Life has become very different down here after Audun got a job. I am now officially what they call an "Armour Guard Widdow". The shifts Audun is working are insane! ! 12 hours; most often from 7 to 7 (am to pm or pm to am - that changes). That sort of makes it impossible to actually do something together. He is either "soon going to bed" or "soon going to work". But I am counting on him to start saying "no" more often after a wee while. After all; he came to NZ to have fun, not to work his ass off:)
Well; that's it from me for now. To all you people back home and on fieldwork; Jeg koser meg som bare det, men savner dere kjempemasse! Take care!
- Kristine - ...
Sat. 11. Nov. 06
Hoppsideisi! Well, finally I'm done with the html -> php transformation. Some of you may get a 'Page can not be displayed' message if you try to jump directly to any page except the 'HOME' page or 'the Sheep'(where you will be forwarded to the new pages), so for example an old bookmark that lead to the album, will no longer work, but you can make a new one:-) Oh, and the guestbook is still under it's same old adress. Bottom line; if you are reading this, you have probably already figured it out, so I dont know why I bother explaining this...
Anyroad, me and Kristine both promise that the album will be updated with lots of new pictures this weekend!!
-Audun- ...
Thurs. 9. Nov. 06
Hellu! So, a lot has happened! I, for one, have got a job! (thanks to Robb and Kieran for introducing me to their boss) It's a jobb where I watch things. Feeling a bit like a gargoyle, but then I sometimes have to talk to people, and then, there are times where I must say:"Computer says no...." Basicly I'm a security guard for a company called Armorguard. They do all sorts of stuff regarding security, including cash vans, alarms, patrols, and static guards(what I do... I'm not trusted on the cash van.... understandably enough). Kinda like Securitas back home. So thats my job explained in an easy way.
Other than that, I'm trying my very best to upgrade this site. Please feel free to drop a coment if you would like me to put something in particular up! Right now I'm planning two new pages in the main menu(as soon as I'm done with the html -> php transformation, wich some of you may have noticed has already started), they will be called "AUDUN" and "KRISTINE"(original, huh!?), and will contain a bit more of a ME style, and a bit less of the US style. This way I can post things that only interests me, like for example Transformers stuff! I have joined the webmasters program on the Transformers website, and hope to be able to supply those of you who are interested with a few things not so commonly found on the web. Thats the plan anyway!
Well, enough for one night, my tea is getting cold!
-Audun- ...
Tue. 24. Oct. 06
Hi again! Another weekend has gone by, and Arvid has gone back to Norway(that is, he's probably somewhere over Australia by now). It was fun to have a visitor from home, but since the appartment is kinda small, it's alsow nice to have the extra space again:-)
Have applied for some more jobs now, and feeling kinda hopefull that this thing will sort itself out. Hopefully, I will have somewhere to go spend my days before to long. That's all for now!
-Audun- ...
Wed. 19. Oct. 06
Hello! Didn't have he energy to write to much yeasterday, so I thought I'd post an addition today.
Kristine's father came to visit us from Norway on Monday, and he will be staying until next Tuesday. He's sleeping in the livingroom, so the appartment is a bit small this week, but we are enjoying the company of another Norwegian.
You can easily see that they are related though, and the little things about her dad that's annoying Kristine, is basically the same problems I have had to live with for 7 years now. We took a long walk today, all the way from Rosslyn(where we live, for those who wonders) to St. Kilda Beach. The wery same fantastic beach that we went to with Robb and TJ a few weeks ago. The trip took us about 4 hours(but we walked along the whole beach), and we just came home dead tired! Kristine's dad(called Arvid from now on) is making dinner tonight, and we are gratefull. To tired to cook for ourself:-)
So now I'm having a beer, enjoying my relaxing evening, and building up my appetite.Have a good night all!
-Audun- ...
Tue. 18. Oct. 06
Well well... Have been working on the album as often as I could be bothered, and I think it runs pretty smothly now.
(still going to do a few tweaks to make it load a bit faster, but that will have to be later on. Not to many pictures yet anyway)
Hope those of you who take the time to look through the album find it satisfactory. I appreciate any feedback if there is some. This is not meant to be permanent, but I don't think I can be bothered with any major changes before we go back to Norway
Thanks to Terje for helping me out with pictures for my visa application. I'm pleased to say that it went through, and I can now stay until February! Now all I have to do is find a job...
Rob(our nice neighbour) invited me to come play Paintball last weekend, and it was indeed a saturday to remember. I got of a few good shots, and got hit with a few painfull ones as well. I'll post a few pictures when and if I can get a hold of some.
That's all for now folks. I know it ain't good, but I'll try to write again soon.
-Audun- ...
Fri. 29. Sept. 06
Hi all! Been a while since we last had an update, and the reason for that is quite simple. Both me and Kristine has played "Icewind Dale II" from start til end. This has of course taken up much of our time, and left us with little choice but to neglect our homepage.
Now that that's done, and it's still s few days til "BG I" is ready, we will hopefully have time to get some updates up and running.
First of I can let all of those who are curious know that I haven't found a job yet, because my application for a visa was denied again. THIS TIME we need to provide more photoes of us together, and have mailed home to try and scare up a few. I'm getting bored with this.
-Audun- ...
Thur. 7. Sept. 06
Okay, Audun has been pestering me for a blog-entry for DAYS now, so here I am. I'm still pretty sick. My throat hurts like hell, but only on the left side for some reason, and my head feels like it's going to explode any minute now. I've watched three seasons of Family Guy, I'm well into South Park Seson 8 and I've read three Diskworld books the last week... I've spent too long bunked up inside the appartment. I'm so sick of staying inside, I'm almost going insane!
On a brighter note; I made a pretty sweet deal this Monday. I managed to score a meeting with the Mayor of Dunedin next week:) Just goes to show you don't know untill you've tried. I never would have thought the Mayor would take time to meet with a lousy anthropology student from Norway. You live and learn. Live and learn.
Lots of thoughts to you other fieldworking buggers out there! I'm glad that I'm not the only one going through this. Even if you're everywhere else but right here, I still draw some comfort from that;)
-Kristine- ...
Sun. 3. Sept. 06
HEY! Had a long night out yesterday. Started to early with wine, and ended to late with beer. Have a distant memory of walking home sideways.
We have to realise that we were completely outmatched when it came to giving the the birthday boy presents. Someone gave him a copy of David Hasselhoff's last CD. We just have to face it, nothing can live up to that :-)
Ugh, I think it's time to make pizza and be tired now... I'll see if I can't get a few pictures up today.
-Audun- ...
Sat. 2. Sept. 06
Hi all! Today we are going out. Finally! And we can only hope this will be a night o remember:-) Had a few decent days lately, where we both are getting better. Think we just went through a tiny flu, but it's looking brighter by the hour!
Good news! It turns out, the battery for our laptop was in fact from the bad quality ones that apple had sent out. You may ask why this is good news: Well, it means we get a new one(have already ordered it. Sohuld be here within a few days) without any questions asked. Which in turns means that we wont have to pay a dime to get it fixed!
The second good pice of news is that we finally got internet up and running. So we can now enjoy the web in the comfort of our own private home. This means that, if Kristine wants to, she can find the recipe for "Skillingsboller", and bake them without leaving the house. I suggest that all of you take the time to ask Kristine how that went...
-Audun- ...
Mon. 28. Aug. 06
I have removed the Norwegian section. Yes it's sad but true. The problem is that I'm writing in English, and finding it rather boring to translate. Well, never the sad face. Maybe it will rise again(yeah right).
-Audun- ...
Sun. 27. Aug. 06
Stardate 27082006. 17 days out: Bad news first of all. The battery for our Mac-Book has quit on us. Don't know the reason for this yet, but it puts us back a step as we just recently got the possibility to log on to internet using a wireless connection, but we have to leave the house to do so. So now internet costs money again. Heard something about apple calling back a whole series of bad batteries, but I have no clue if this includes ours. Have to check up on it.
We have both caught a cold, and are sniffing our way through life. In addition we are feeling that it should be Xmas by now. Maybe because it's late winter, and we have seen no Xmas this far. This shows that celebrating Xmas in the middle of summer may be strange than we thought. Reports from home says that summer is continuing, and all is warm and cosy. Blast ye all!!!
I see now that I am used to having something to do. I need to find a job very soon, or go insane. Our budget is still holding up, despite a few unforeseen expenses, so the job thing is not even a necessity as far as money goes, but it would be nice to have something to fill the days with.
-Audun- ...
Wed. 23. Aug. 06
Bought some kitchen plants yesterday. When I woke up today, one was dead. Thats like less than 24 hrs... Someone owes me a plant! I believe I shall make Countdown(local supermarket) pay for this.. I will come back to all of you when I have more information about this evil.
And today we spent another 200 NZD on supplies. BUT! We got a lux! And a water-boiler and toaster.
-Audun- ...
Tue. 22. Aug. 06
This is supposed to work like a blog of some sorts. We haven´t gotten around to putting up a proper blogging tool yet, so this may all seem a bit amateur-like to those of you who knows what it should look like, but screw you.
We started out from Bergen on Tuesday 13. august at 5 a.m., and travelled through Copenhagen, London/Heathrow, Los Angeles, Auckland, and finally Christchurch by plane. From there we had a 5 hrs bus drive to Dunedin, and we finally checked in to the Stafford Gables youth hostel on Thursday 15. august at 5 p.m. This makes out at about 50 hrs travel, but we lost a total of 60 hrs due to the time difference. We will reclaim this on the travel back, so we swear!
The first week we tried to behave as much like tourist as we could possibly manage. We went to the "Early Settlers Museum", "Cadburys Chocolate Factory", "Otago Museum", "Otago University" and the "Farmers Market". We have even managed to see two movies on the "Hoyt´s" cinema: "My Super X-girlfriend" and "Hoodwinked". Not the greatest of movies we might add, though the squirrel in "Hoodwinked" was somewhat amusing.
Then on Monday 21. august we moved in to our new apartment. It´s a one bedroom small apartment, but we kinda like it. It´s got an open kitchen solution, which makes it seem bigger, we got a TV on the deal, it´s furnished(to some degree), and electricity plus heating is included. And it´s got a tub(Kristine´s eyes are still big and round)! So here we are, in Wallace St., trying to fit in by putting our personal touch on the place.
One of the problems with this place was a few essentials missing. Cutlery, glasses, cups, knives, forks, pillows, duvet, blankets, sheets, bins, you name it. All the little things. This has so far cost us about 300 NZD. hmmm...
