Doing Nothing

When sitting down to write today, I thought about my week and realized that I really didn't DO much. Gareth rolls his eyes at me whenever I feel this way, and here's why: The first time I uttered the words "But we haven't DONE anything" was about a month into our trip around New Zealand as we were sitting sitting on a lovely sandy beach. He looked at me with the are-you-kidding face and pointed out that we had done plenty. We had spent a week exploring Auckland and Waiheke Island with a friend. We flew to Christchurch, purchased a car and visited another friend on a beautiful hillside farm overlooking the Akaroa Penninsula. We then drove all over the South Island, hiked numerous trails and mountains, saw tons of wildlife, camped along gorgeous beaches, traversed a glacier, took a boat tour of the Doubtful Sound...etc. I sheepishly nodded, acknowledging that he was right.

Doing nothing on a glacier with our friend Ned

The second unforgettable time I uttered the words "But we haven't DONE anything" was while floating in a huge pool overlooking the Andaman Sea in Thailand. We had been in Asia a month and had spent our time in Malaysia, the south of Thailand and Bangkok. We had been to some of the world's tallest buildings, had visited four islands, had toured a mangrove forest by boat, had cruised around on motor bikes, had eaten countless delicious Thai dishes, and had experienced a true monsoon.

Doing nothing at a Thai cooking lesson

The moral of the story is, don't take Sara seriously when she says she hasn't DONE anything lately.

It was a very typical week with some yard work, a few runs and a few bike rides, some beers and some work. The highlight of the week was a visit from Gareth's childhood friends Chris and Tobi who were on their honeymoon. We had a lovely evening with them as our first house guests (other than Owen, Pam and the kids)! It was so nice to meet them and we had a great time chatting over cheap wine and Gareth's oh-so-delicious dal and chapati. I'll have to post the recipe sometime. We have another visitor this week and that is Jake, the dog. He's always fun to have around, even if he does hog the bed.

Jake pushing me down the hill. Note the muddy paw prints on my neck. And don't you dare knock poodles...He's the best dog in the world.

Check out the bar on the right to see what else I'm writing about this week. The plan is to write about different things everyday for a few weeks as a trial. Tomorrow, I'm writing about Mangoes.