rogerdoger

I keep forgetting to mention a couple of things, so going to write them now before i forget again.

first i had had an email from the map guys in taupo a couple of weeks ago saying they needed a yes or no now in regards to me going forward with the rotorua map. Gary said from our previous schedule it showed i needed to start the Rotorua map almost immediately and that they needed to figure out their work load due to a possible big job they were bidding on. There was also a line in his email about his sales girls being in Rorotua and a number of guest houses asking about a new map and him saying, "so there is a market for it" Ok i smelt bullshit. First off the Rotorua map didn't need to be started until the end of May, second, i dont see how a "bid" should be a concern unless they actually landed the job. The comment about the guest house guys saying they wanted a new map, well im sure they do, the current one has mistakes and is badly produced, but gary gives the guest houses free maps and they dont even advertise on it, so of course they'd love to see a new one. I felt like i was being pushed into making a commitment, and we all know how well I do with commitments! So it actually pushed me the other way to tell him i felt with his vague and already high estimate on the map design and the open possibility that the ad design could run to $4000, I didn't think there was any money in it. It was a bit of a shot at seeing if he'd either commit on a lower price or come up with a better deal. instead he didn't reply at all. It's sort of left me feeling that he maybe wasnt planning a scam, but that i wasn't getting the amazing deal he was leading me to believe that he was offering.

I go through highs and lows with my ab workout. In India it had fallen off completely, but before I left I'd managed to get it back to full strength. i still do the same workout. 5 sets of 50 sit ups doing different sit ups in each set working all across the abs. between each set i do 10-15 push ups and do the whole thing as fast as possible with as little rest between. After india, it was difficult to keep up the routine in australia and in NZ it fell apart completely. Its not like i need much equipment to do the workout, but i do need a comfortable space and a place to lift my legs for raised leg crunches. The obviously place is out on the grass, but in NZ you can hardly go 3 days straight without it raining, so the grass is always a little damp if not soaked. so i just stopped and then its so hard to start back up. about two weeks ago i was laying in bed and thought about the workout and tried it in bed. vola! the perfect place. between cuboards and seat backs i have the perfect place to lock my feet and a comfortable pad for my back. It started out i couldn't even get through the first 50 sit ups, but each day got better and better. I'm still only up to doing 3 sets of each, but each time it gets easier and easier to get to those. So hopefully i will be back up to all 5 of each soon. Just in time to go travel again and then not be able to do any of it again!

Its easter weekend, and also on Tuesday in Aus and NZ ANZAC day, a remembrance of those that died in the horrific battle in Gallipoli. So its a big holiday here. The campsite in Rotorua was over run with obnoxious campers with yapping dogs and screaming kids. The kitchen and bathrooms were over run, and to top it all it was raining and cold. Up in katikati at the naturist campsite it was 4 degrees warmer. Thats 4 degrees centigrade in a distance of less than 60 miles. Since Im heading back up to Auckland next week I figured why not go up to the naturist park for the weekend. The people there are always so much more respectful and they are naked! So here I am. Its raining here too, but it really is much warmer and if you get cold its nice to go sit in the hottubs or the sauna. And its quiet! Oh and lastly they have cats! three lovely kitties.

Ow this was nice. I love it when that little dim light goes off in my head and I have some miraculous moment of crystal clear vision.

I was finishing up dinner in the camp kitchen and watching the end of Throw Momma From the Train. I love that movie, the fact that they are writers had me even more interested in it. It finished and they flashed up that Shutter Island would be the next movie. I watched it the other night but missed the beginning, so thought I'd stay and just watch the part I hadn't seen. turned out I didn't really miss much from the beginning and soon had the tv off and back in my camper. I thought to myself, that was a good movie, I wonder who wrote it Then wham I had my moment, that was the friken movie and book I was speaking of today that I couldn't remember!

Swam today, but it was hard going. Its been what maybe two weeks I think since I did a proper pool swim. Managed 200 warm up, 4 sets of 400 and 200 cool down.

Bit of a strange day yesterday. I'd been txting with Toni the last couple of days. She wanted me to take them all up to her moms for a birthday surprise her step dad was laying on. Its really difficult to communicate by txts and the last one I sent was telling her we should meet and talk about this. I had umpteen reservations about why it probably wasn't a good idea me going. I'd meant to get out early and go swim, but it never happened. Ive been playing around on a new writers forum and between the posts on there and it actually doing what Id hoped and motivating me to start writing my book, the day slipped past again. It was nearly 3.00pm by the time I started up the camper to head over to Toni's to talk to her and I had told her Id be there at 2.00. I started the van and it idled then died, started it again and the same thing. Got it going and it died outside the campsite office. The gas gauge was on emptyish, but its been lower. Still it sounded like no gas, so I went in the office and Kevin had a little gas he gave me. She started up and drove fine. Drove to the gas station and filled up.

By the time I got to Toni's I was really late, she was already out picking up Lorran. I drove towards the school to meet them and give them a lift back, but then the van started spluttering again. Met up with Toni and Lorran and Lorran gave me the biggest hug and smile. We got in the van and spluttered back to her house. There is a mechanic opposite her house, so after me taking a bit of a look and having an idea it was shit in the carb, I took it over to the mechanic who thought the same, but couldnt get to it that day and said it was a bear of a job, because the carb is so difficult to get at. This obviously gave me the best excuse for not going with Toni to her parents. She made some jokes about me "fixing" the van to act this way, but she had another lift planned, so it was ok and I left.

On the drive back I thought I really should go try and swim. It was too late to go to the pool, so I headed up to the lake and then decided I should run and then could swim. Its strange how my worse feeling days end up being my best run days. I did two laps round the lake with very little stops and felt really strong, even running the whole of the big climb without stopping. I felt like Im made a breakthrough, from struggling along to powering along, and even had those old familiar feelings of being able to cruise with my mind wandering instead of focused on pain.

I'd talked to Toni about possibly going up to meet her at her parents today. She said she can get a lift back from her step dad if I can't get the van sorted. Ive had another day of doing nothing and sitting in the van either writing, reading, or surfing, but not looked once at the van. It actually has been cloudy and rained a little. Much different from the damn full sunny day that was promised by the totally crap weather service here. I was hoping to get a trip to the beach on the way up to Toni's parents. Now its not looking like there will be a sunny day till late next week.

The other day I came across a name that reminded me of someone I'd known years ago. I've looked for this person a few times but never been able to find anything on her. When I lived in Key West the longest job I had was working at the Moped Hospital. It was a bicycle and moped rental place and the guys that ran it were two crazy NYC gay guys. They had retired to KW and bought this business. I don't think they needed the money and everyday was a riot. There were about 6 employees including me and we had all been there for a few years. It was like a family with its dramas and fun times.

Key West was predominantly gay and as such I probably had the most heterosexual sex there that Ive ever had. Girls would arrive on vacation ready for romance only to find that every hot guy was gay. So when they found a straight guy they would be like "oh finally yes take me take me!".

Working at the bike rental place I'd meet most of the tourists the minute they arrived. The best way to get around the island was by bicycle, and we were the biggest and longest established rental place at the time. So people would check in to their guest house then come straight over to us to rent a bike.

One day I was in the office and saw this vision walking across the parking lot towards me. She had a tight teeshirt on with nothing underneath. Her breasts wernt huge, but they were perfect, perfectly round, perfectly sized and nipples perfectly sticking out. Her boobs arrived in the office in what seemed like 5 minutes before she did. Certainly long enough that by the time she came in the door I knew I had to have her.

Clem was at least 10 years older than me. Southern belle to the T. She got me into running and I did my first ever race with her in KW. After the race we had been on the roof top the tallest building in KW at the bar. In the elevator on the way down two business type guys on vacation were eyeing her up in her tight running clothes. They asked if she had beaten me in our race. In her most southern voice she answered, "oh no I never beat my man" I felt about 10 feet tall and we went on that night to have some wild crazy sex.

She was only in KW for a short vacation and when she left we stayed in touch, as much as you could do in the 80's with letters now and again. I left and went back to the Uk shortly after that and she continued to write to me and even called a couple of times, much to the delight of my mother who asked "who is that woman with that accent!" She sent me a little care package onetime of a running bible and other running gear. Finally we drifted apart, but when I moved to Atlanta in 92 where I knew she lived I tried to find her, but never could.

So when saw something the other day with someone with the same name, it made me think of her and I signed online and tried again to search for her. It seems 2 months ago she finally got a FB account and there are a couple of other references to her. Its strange to see someone in their 60's that was so hot when you knew them. She looks like she still has her lovely southern style and charm to her. How old we are all getting. I sent her a message on Fb and damn if she didn't reply. She's currently down in Ecuador, and she made a little remark about our hot nights and that she is still a little fox on the sly.

Yesterday Toni txtd again. Why is it we are attracted to the crazies. What is it about them that makes them so appealing, so desirable, so damn hot. I know she's also so bad news, she has to be, I'm sure of it, and I'm sure it's going to be big trouble down the road.

A few txts back and forth and the next thing I know we are meeting out at a tourist attraction in town. Its a sort of animal sanctuary and she'd been spending the day with the kids, taking them to the museum because its free for locals on Friday and then to this place because she got a really cheap locals family pass. We all sat in my van for a while. The kids were really sweet, L giving me big hugs and N being quite the gent. N was looking at the pass she had just bought and then blabbed "you put rogers name down" When Toni got the pass they had asked for all the familys names and I don't know if she planned it or it just happened, but she put my name down. We went into the attraction and she handed over the ticket and because it was a new pass they needed to take a picture of the "family" so we all had our picture taken together as a little family unit.

Even with the nasty and crazy txt;s that went back and forth with T and I, the minute we saw each other we were back in each others arms. While walking around the attraction she had her hand round me on my ass and mine on hers and now and again up her so short skirt. "oh dear Ive got no nickers on" she coyly quipped, knowing that that would make me check all the more often. I know this is going to be a disaster, but its that damn train wreck again, and I'm staring right at it. Other than the dirty flirting, she was so sweet, so normal, it made me wonder if maybe its me that’s crazy and not her.

Got a really good swim in yesterday. Started out not wanting to do it but warmed up and it went really well. 200 warm up, 4 x 500, 200 cool down.

Its raining. It started yesterday and it hasnt let up since. Last night it got really heavy and woke me at least 5 or 6 times. I could hear it on the roof, crashing down like sheets of glass. At times the wind picked up and the rain fell in crescendo's falling and rising as the van gently rocked.

Toni started txting yesterday. First one was "i know Im not supposed to contact you, but Ive been thinking about you all the time". I probably should have not replied but I did and again asked her about the lies. She replied "yes there are things I probably should have told you, sorry" From that the txt's continued with talk of great sex and missing it, and then talk of meeting. She needed to go pick her kids up about 100km away. She now has a car. Her last txt was something about going to get the kids and I could think about us meeting. I replied and then didn't hear back from her. Stupidly I replied again this morning asking if she had to drive in all this rain, still no reply. Who knows what the hell she is playing at now.

Its raining so hard I don't even want to get out to go to the bathroom. Guess no workouts today. I'd swim but its the weekend so the pool charges full price. Its only the difference of $5 to $3.50 but $5 seems like such a crazy price to pay just to swim. If it ever eases up, maybe I can go swim in the lake.

Library emailed me the other day to say Shantaram was in! I took Mol back since I'm on a time limit with Shantaram and its 900 pages long. I'l probably still have to extend my loan on it, but I figure no one is going to check out Mol and I can go back to it if I ever get Shantaram finished before I leave. Nice to have a hardback edition and for free!

Did big swim at the pool. 200 warm up 4 sets of 400 and a 200 cool down. 400's went pretty easy and I finally found something of a rhythum. The guy that looked at my willy is always at the pool. Ive seen him a few times at the lake too. He does swim a lot but he's taken to following me into the changing rooms when I leave the pool. We chat a bit and Ive told him if wants to look at willy's he should go to the nudist beach, he laughed, but seriously its getting to be a bit much now.

went over the the hot springs after the swim. My legs are still a little sore and tired. Didn't do much good as now the water is too hot! A kid recently died a few days ago when he somehow got into a hot pool and then fell in it, in Rotorua that was like 2000degrees. The one I go to is in a stream, but since it hasnt rained in a while the temp goes up since there is no rain water to cool it. So anyway that was sort of a waste of time.

My smugmug photo account has come up for renewal. Im not paying another $40 a year when I can get it for free on so many other sites and I have started putting pics on Flikr now. Only trouble is forums that I've done big write ups for with pictures will now loose all the pics. I'm downloading all the pics from Smugmug and I may try to go and edit the forums with some of the posts and re post it with the pictures from Flikr, but thats a long process.

Did a nice big 3 hour ride this afternoon. Parked at blue lake so I would be able to finish there then take a swim. The lake was packed with holiday folk, and the day hot. Ride went pretty well, middle ringed it all the way up red tank road, but it was painful and slow. Frontal labotomy went better, but still slow. Some great downhilling and was able to go at a pretty good pace back along the road that take me back into the last track to get me back to the lake. I was thinking about my rides I use to do and its no good Ive been kidding myself about my fitness level. If I remember back to rides I did that were 50 miles, or really hard rides that left me so spent after, and here I was finishing up this ride 3hours and maybe 22 ish miles (computer turned off a couple of times) according to the computer the ride time was only 2.00hrs. I did stop and talk with Mark who I saw out on the track, and I had a few other stops, but I cant believe they would add up to an hour. Swam really just to cool off, and clean up, nothing physical. On the drive back to the campsite I was remembering times when after a ride Id be completely wiped out. I was thinking maybe Im not training hard enough, but then I got settled in the campsite and then fell asleep siting bolt up right on the chair in the camper. So maybe I worked harder than I though. Thats a pretty good long ride, but Id still like to be able to extend that almost double.

I might be going in the wrong direction trying to use AI. Wow its amazing how difficult this has been to figure everything out. Jim the cartographer guy finally emailed me back today and said that he doesn't really use Ai for making his maps. Now the printer in India also doesn't use AI, they both use more sophisticated GSi programs. The printers one is very expensive, the one Jim uses that today he told me about and sent a link is affordable, not only that I can download an older version for free to see if its really what I need. When I watched how the printer used his program, i could see that its a much more specific program and in some ways easier to use for drawing maps. AI does all sorts of fancy things, 80% of which Id never need. Having said that I think I can see the differences from GSI to AI. GSi tends to be all business and a little flat, where as Ai you can jazz things up with shadows and shades etc. I think the GSI files can be improted into AI so they could also be jazzed up, oh joy, id have to learn both programs, which I probably will have to anyway, plus I still have to learn In Design. Again if Id put the effort of my workouts into learning all this stuff Id nearly be there by now instead of still feeling totally lost.

OK so workouts. I finally went to the pool this afternoon. Swimming in the lake is all well and good, but im not putting in the distance because being so far out in the lake freaks me out and Im not putting in the effort for the same reason. Much more controlled environment in the pool and yes it worked. I got about 1300meter in, and was doing 100"s fast as i could, which isnt very fast. But it totally pumped my arms and chest, and I had that feeling of my lats about to explode. So good swim and I need to do much more of it. Once I get up to speed in the pool I can switch back to the lake. I came back to the camp site, had some tea and a snack and took off again for the lake to go do an easy run. I mean easy. My legs are still really sore. I get changed step out of the van and another guy starts off running in front of me. he was out of sight before I began to run, but yup, I couldnt hold back and went charging along trying to catch him. I caught him before the steps from hell and then we played tag all the way around the trail. he was running a slow steady pace and Id speed along, then my legs would be about to blow up and Id walk and hed come past me again. I finally dropped him, but at the end he must have put the hammer down and he caught up again. Ok so legs are really in pain, so what do I do? turn around before I hit the lake and ran all the way back again round the opposite direction! So now my legs are really seriously finished off.

Got everything legal on the van today! wo ho. Makes me feel a lot better for sure to have that done. The WOF mechanic was awesome again. My horn decided to suddenly not work and he found a couple of bits of rust underneath that Id missed and he still passed it saying get it fixed for next time. Registration was a breeze and I also got the application for a new Uk passport, did I write yesterday that its going to cost $400! yikes.

Ran and swam today. I don't understand it, I shouldnt complain but I dont understand why my legs still feel pretty fresh. I wonder if all that hiking in the Himalya gave me a better base than I thought. Even so I did do anything for the last month while I had the cold. Maybe Im not running as hard as I think? I was puffing pretty good, and I think Im still suffering with being a bit chesty with the cold. I still feel congested in my lungs, but certainly over the worst of it. taking a swim after the run might be saving my legs a bit too. the water is freezing, so its like taking an ice bath. Swam further today which I realized was a bit silly. I stopped and was way out in the lake and then thought, "shit if I start feeling sick and dizzy again now, it might not be good!" but I breast stroked it for a while to cool off and then was fine to front crawl it back. Picked up a nice French kid in town who was hitch hiking. "I go to blue lake" "me too, hop in" he was ecstatic and told me he was trying to get back into shape and stop smoking and was heading to the lake to walk and swim. Passed him when I was running but never saw him back at the lake to swim.

What a surprise the weather man got it totally wrong. It was a pretty nice day today and tomorrow is supposed to be even better, but then possible rain for a few days. So might take off for the beach again tomorrow and make the most of what might be the last good day for a while, you never can tell in New Zealand. It was freezing last night and I pulled out both the sleeping bag and the heater!


By the way, when I got back from the mechanic I turned the adjusting screw on the horn and it burst back into life! Also fixed a damn warning light that had been staying on. Mechanic had told me what he thought it might be and it was, easy fix.

It rained pretty hard today. I moaped in the camper all day then finally managed to get a few things done and then head over to the Redwoods to run. Had a perfect break in the weather and the sun even came out. It was hot enough that the rain was vaporising and rising as clouds out of the little valleys and trees. That was all very pretty, but my run was not. This run climbs almost immediately on a very steep grade. my calves felt like two bear traps had been set on them. I thought it would ease up as I warmed up, but then two more traps were set, one on my thigh the other on my left butt cheek. My whole body felt like it was shutting down. This is supposed to be how it is, its the last build week, not that Im building and I hope Im not damaging too much muscle. I think I'll cruise easy the rest of the week and focus on a long brick this weekend. Eventually my legs did ease up and I had a pretty good run. Still finished in 1.15 which is strange, thats the same time as I've done it in before without the pain and walking. I think I usually end up walking more and running slower at the end. I really must be stronger and can give it more for the duration. I actually picked up the pace on the end, but then the end is all pretty much down hill.