A sea of boxes and exploding mountains

So we're surrounded by boxes. Full boxes, empty boxes, and some in between. We got the kitchen sorted last night, and Jo's working on clothes at the moment, but other than that, it's difficult to do anything more for now. Because we don't have units yet, or shelves, or cupboards, or sideboards, there's nowhere to put anything. I foresee more furniture shopping ahead. And weeks of box-laden living. But it is good news that our stuff's here. I can't be too downcast. It is a relief to have all our stuff back, even if there is nowhere to put it. The weather's meant to be good this weekend. I will hopefully get some time out on my bike.

I awoke this morning to news of an eruption on the north island. I knew there are volcanoes around the place in New Zealand but news of one erupting is a little disturbing. It's a ski area too. Imagine having your ski holiday cut short or cancelled due to ash and volcanous debris. Scary stuff. We were talking about it at morning tea at work today. This was when the girls decided to tell me that it's not unknown for Chch to experience earth quakes. Hang on just a moment. No-one told me about that sort of thing!

I'll be glad when I can get away from a PC at the moment. After staring at a screen at work, trying to figure out ways to extract data from databases not set up to work the way I need them to, I have come home to try and get Jo's desktop working. The internet is working fine, the printer is working fine, the wireless network is working fine. All I have to do now is copy across all her files from my laptop and make sure her email contacts and home finance data is all up to date. Oh, and download the 413 emails she's received since being disconnected.

On Friday Joanne and I are going with out some people from work for a drink and maybe some food. One lass in the my department, Gabrielle, who has only been around about five or six weeks longer than me, has decided we need to do more socially as a team. We had afternoon tea out for Lisa's birthday last week, a team breakfast on Tuesday to (belatedly) welcome me and bid farewell to Erin (who's going on maternity leave), and now these plans for Friday. Gabrielle's definitely doing well.

On Saturday Jo and I are going to watch Canterbury v Auckland in the egg-chasing Air Nuzziland Cup. It should be a good game, I think. Both teams are unbeaten going into this, the final game of the regular season, standing as 1 and 2 in the table. With both guaranteed a play-off spot already you might think there'd be nothing to play for other than top place bragging rights and that the players might take it easy heading into the play-offs. I'd agree this would be the case, were the Ranfurly Shield not added to mix to spice things up a little. Ask any Kiwi, there's something about Shield matches.