Arrival

We finally got here! Wellington is stunning, and even more than I hoped it would be. It's about 25 degrees with a bright sun and a soft, cool breeze... the very best of Winnipeg's July days.

The people are very friendly, and I have fallen in love with the stores here. Example: I went to a high-end shoe store and admired the merchandise, only to find that the DISPLAY shoes were all size 9 or bigger! Here I've been, having spent most of my vulnerable adolescence being made to feel freakish by size 6 display shoes... I mean, who wears size 6, anyways? Oh no, NZ welcomes the podially enhanced, and I love them for it. ;-)

The place we are staying at is a suite, and while small, is clean and has very friendly staff. It also has all the major appliances, which will help in Dave and my mutual endeavour to accomplish the following:

1) Not eat at restaurants too much (Cash Conservation)
2) Not eat at restaurants too much (Anti-Fatness goal), and most importantly,
3) Rid our room of the awful airplane-travelling stench currently pervading the room, thanks to our respective plane outfits now festering on the room floor.

I promise, pictures will follow once I figure out how to get Madison connected to the net. For those of you who dont know, Madison is my sexy, smart, and wholly wonderful non-human travelling companion, otherwise known as a laptop. (I needed to qualify non-human there, as Dave might get jealous.) ;-)

So no worries, mom and dad -- this whole post just confirms that Dave and I are, in fact, alive... we're even still getting along. ;-) This bodes well. Love you, looking forward to hearing from you!

Random Thought...

...If food from the sea (like scallops and tuna) is called seafood, is food from lakes (like pickerel and jackfish) called lakefood? Hmm...

--Karla

Winnipeg Plug #427

FUSION GRILL on Academy: Great spot specializing in organic food prepared in a semi-exotic cuisine. Also, lunch for three people, including wine and taxes, came to $42. I had a bison and wild boar burger that was delicious, as was dads seafood paella, but his scallops were a little overdone. Then again, it's the prairies! If you want perfect seafood, go a few hundred miles that-a-way.


....


(Does that-a-way lead to a coast? I dont care, just go that-a-way so I dont have to listen to whining about imperfect seafood!!!) ;-)

--Karla

THE DRESS

While residing in Winnipeg, I decided a wise thing to start doing was shopping for THE DRESS. It didnt take me long to discover that I had no talent whatsoever for picking dresses that looked half-decent on me. Luckily, the saleswomen didnt have this same problem, as they found me several very lovely gowns. But above and beyond all the others, we found **the one**... and it is stunning. So, the most time-consuming thing to arrange and obtain has just been taken care of. Three cheers for that!

And of course, no Winnipeg experience is complete without my dad bumping into someone he knows. Now, keeping in mind that a shopping outing for a wedding dress is a MOI-centred experience, one might think that this might be the one time dad wouldnt know someone. Well! We get to the store with THE DRESS, and dad gets a big hug from a man who turns out to be the store owner! (And yes, they knew each other... its not that the owner randomly hugs people... I think....) Seriously, I just cant take my dad anywhere. ;-)

--Karla

Got the Visa!

As of Friday, last week, I finally got my working visa! Yes folks, it is real, it is beautiful, and best of all, it is in my hands!! I can almost hear the "Hallelujah" music. Now I can board the flight to Wellington sans incident... I hope. I really should stop speaking too soon! heh heh

The visit in Winnipeg has been very restful thus far, with lots of family time. There was one small bout of badness, but a valuable lesson was learned: Don't eat sushi from prairie towns where the average townsperson considers a Tiramisu to be a highly exotic dish. ;-)

But in all seriousness, I really miss my prairie people. Theyre so sensible. Evidence: as a society, they have managed to stave off the INSANE prices associated with the wedding industry, as I have become uncomfortably familiar with. Seriously, what other people could effectively stave off an ubiquitous, insidious industry whose annual worth is more than the combined salaries of the entire populace? If only making a multi-billion-dollar industry one's bitch was always this attainable. I love Winnipeg.

But enough about wedding planning -- life is very, very good. I just got my MA3 promotion, which I am thrilled about! It's just as well that I wasnt at StatCan when I got the news, as I began jumping about and shrieking like a lunatic when I heard. That same day, I also got carded at the liquor store for the first time in years. But for the (no longer Progressive) Conservative lead in polls, life could not be better.

Then again, a Harper Canada might be somewhat easier to leave behind for these months to come... :-/

--Karla