The Book of Ashes

In Palmy 11:09AM

So I made it through the week in Palmy. It was cold up there. Not like it is in Wellington but getting more towards what it was like in Alexandra. That was real cold. Ice kisses to numb your face as we trudged 3km to school in -8 degrees. How did we ever survive?

The days up there were long. We were in the office by 8am and leaving sometime between 6 and 7pm. I didn't really know what I was doing. I had never used the product before or the tool in it that I was meant to use. I learnt lots but hit snags and couldn't get it work so now its a Friday, my day off and I'll probably head into work to get it working.

The guys in Palmy were good to work with. The Palmerston North City Council. They took us out for a tour of Palmy one lunch time. Not much to see you'd think but I enjoyed it. It must have looked pretty funny though to see five fully grown men in suits squished into Rob's little Citron. We saw the rich part of town, the uni, the institute of rugby where the all blacks train, the research institutes and the sewage system. It was pretty cool.

Tuesday night was cold. I went round quickly to visit mum then caught up with Farmgirl. I told her the house was no 4 Broadway ave. After searching that street she called me and I gave her directions to 4 Barnes Close. She then harrassed me for giving bad directions as Barnes Close was no where in sight. The driveway I had come out of went onto Vogel street. I didn't know, that was just the name of the street I had been given. It turned out that our drive way was called Barnes Close (with only three spaces for houses down it) and even the postie didn't know where it was.

So Farmgirl, her friend Tammy (I was itching to ask whether Tammy was short for anything) from Ausie and I went round and picked up Meads. Meads, Farmgirl and I went on the skiing trip almost exactly a year prior so was good to catch up with her. She had baked a most excellent chocolate cake so we had some of that and Tammy crashed in Meads bed (who she'd never met before) as she was tired from skiing and a little run down. We then headed out to one of Kate's friends places after getting subway on the way. We turned up at Kate's friends place and walked into a room of 8 girls. Sweet I thought all is good. Then they started talking about buying ball dresses and their worries about falling out and boyfriends and stuff. Wheres all the guys I thought? Nah it was most entertaining. I am getting old though, they all looked like little girls (21ish). Meads went outside to smoke a fat doobie. Hadn't been around anyone smoking for ages. She told stories of the local pub, the Fitz, where you weren't allowed to dance or snog and if they caught you doing so you got water chucked on you. Only in Palmy huh...

Next night I went out for dinner with mum. Had a good meal at the Box Office then went out for a drink but found all the places were doing quizz nights. Went home earlish.

So while in Palmy I learnt that it is much colder there (gets below zero each night) and much warmer in the days (we had some nice days). The sun is orange as it sets over the flat land and theres not many tall buildings there. We were situated in one of the taller ones on the 4th floor (of 5). Palmys a nice place but theres not much to do up there. The other guys are there for a year+ and are going to eat microwave dinners and takeaways every night they're up there. I couldn't believe it