1/24/2009 - Good Day, Then a Bad Day.

The day started out quite nicely, waking up slowly on a fantastic bed; Weet-Bix and fresh fruit; relaxing. The plan had been to do some hiking today, but those plans evaporated like a puddle in the heat (around 90-some degrees Fahrenheit today). No problems there.

Met up with Kayra for an excellent lunch involving the skyscraping "Kiwi Burger". Little known fact: Burgers here almost universally come with big slabs of beets on them, and the waitress apologized profusely as they were out of them. Though not bad, you've gotta admit that burgers were not meant for squishy purple vegetables (just slimy green slabs of pickle, thanks).

I promise I am not yelling at the Leaning Tower of Burger. This is simply to illustrate mouth-span vs burger height. The ratio is not looking good.

You will be proud to know that I finished the whole thing off without a fork. or other modern implements.

Took it easy in the park for the afternoon, finding more delights that Masterton has to offer and getting pictures of the places that I had neglected on my walk before.

This is where they filmed the opening to every Disney movie ever made, I think.

Some random kids cruising down the flying fox. Somehow, despite a lack of warning signs, they survived to go around again.

Circuit bike race - they cruised around about a 2km track over and over again. Interestingly, none of them had a bike trailer, and there was a distinct lack of tents or panniers, so I do not consider them REAL bicyclists.

Toward the end of my walk, I noticed the miniature train that I had only seen at a distance before. There is only one word to describe this thing: EPIC. There are two people there and their day is winding down. They are part of the miniature railroad club and run this on a volunteer basis.

I have grown to massive proportions on New Zealand milk and fruit as evidenced by this size comparison to a full-size train. HULK SMASH!

It doesn't take much arm twisting to convince me to jump on after talking a bit to the people.

The little 5-year-old inside of me was jumping up and down by this point. I paid the NZ$1 to ride with the other children and their parents. I figured that if I scrunched down enough, no one would notice that I didn't have a small child in my lap.

To better explain the next 5 minutes of my life, I would like you to envision me as an overexcited five-year-old explaining things right after coming off the train, as it was a struggle to keep this from spilling out audibly to the nearby parents.

"So I got to ride the train and the conductor let me sit on the conductor seat and then I got to sit on the second car and then the conductor tooted the horn and it was LOUD! And then the train started going and it went through a tunnel and he tooted the horn again and it was LOUDER! And we went real fast and we passed some ducks and I waved to the ducks but they didn't do anything and then the train crossing bell was dinging and we KEPT GOING! And I almost hit a tree branch but I didn't and we scared some birds and went through the tunnel again and it was scary 'cuz it had some spider webs! And then we went around again and that was all we were supposed to do but the conductor WENT AROUND THREE TIMES and usually you only get to go two times around so I got to go extra and the tunnel was loud again and the ducks still didn't care and we were going so fast you could feel the wind on your face. And then we stopped and it was SO COOL!"

All this showed on my face, I think, but the assorted parents were kind enough not to mention it or call child services.

My inner 5-year-old, goofy smile intact.

Wandered back to the apartment and did some relaxing. I will spare the details of the late afternoon and evening as this was when the day turned very somber and unhappy for personal reasons, made worse by the fact that these reasons were completely my fault. I will leave it at that for purposes of the blog and try to keep my future posts light as per usual.