i'm slowly getting through the list of things i hope to achieve during the holidays. but very slowly! i managed to get some spring-cleaning done, as well as do the round of the boxing day sales. the latter was rather painful, i hate shopping at the best of times & this certainly wasn't the best of times. the crowds, the heat, the parking issues, ugh. still, i got a couple of bargains so it wasn't all a loss.
today we went for a day trip to the prawn farm near taupo. we managed to catch one prawn between 7 people, and i think the whole place knew when we caught it, what with all the squealing & screaming. it was a pretty big one, and none of us wanted to touch the thing.
it was a lovely day out though, and the waikato river was looking absolutely beautiful near its source. it was a gorgeous aquamarine colour, and crystal clear when you get close. the tragedy is that the thing is such a disgusting murky brown by the time it reaches hamilton, and totally unsafe for swimming. there is something seriously wrong with a world where we do this to our natural resources, with very little complaint.
on another note, i did finally manage to finish captain correlli's mandolin a couple of weeks ago. i can't say that i enjoyed the book, nor that i'll ever read it again. and i'm not exactly recommending it, except that it is a book people should read. much as i think people should be made to watch films like fast food nation and blood diamond. they aren't pleasant experiences but important for us to be aware of the realities of the world we live in.
i'm now trying to read margaret atwood's cat's eye, but find i'm really struggling with that as well. maybe i've just gotten used to novel's with much more pace & plot, which this doesn't seem to have much of even though i'm a quarter of the way through. or maybe it's just the psychological effect of reading a book that i think i should read rather than one i actually want to read. time for a visit to the second hand bookshop, methinks.
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