s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

In two weeks the bellydance-fairytale, The Two Sisters, goes down. Which means the final frenzy is now commencing. For the last 10 days Tam has been working like mad to get the promotional artwork done. This became a case of “what can go wrong, will”. Case in point was Saturday, all she had to do was burn the data onto a CD. She sticks in a blank CD, and the drive breaks. It had been working perfectly the day before, but now it is kaput. Many hours of repair efforts failed, and we discovered Sony does not do service advice if you are outside the US (gee- thanks!). In the end we shuffled drives around between machines and got stuff working. This is only one of many incidents that has plauged the process. We are both hoping the latest version is the final one, so we can simply focus on practicing our dances a few million times before the show.

We are also trying to get as many around the house and farm projects done as possible. My parents arrive in 3 weeks, and that is a great incentive to not have half-done stuff lying around. At the end of last week I finished digging-in pipes and making connections so that the house is now getting its water directy from the new water tank. Hopefully we can get the new drainage field for the septic system finished now that it has stopped raining continuously. (Note- no rain for 4 consecutive days! It’s a miracle!).

Yesterday afternoon, after rehersal, we drove around Wellington harbor all the way to Eastbourne. That is far as the road goes around the east side of the harbor, before becoming a private dirt road that only connects to remote farms and lighthouses. It was fun walking along the pebble beach and looking west across the harbor to the city. When we get our bikes repaired we will have to come back and cycle down the road to the lighthouse at the end. It is supposed to be a 7-hour hike, which would be a great bike ride. And since it is a coast road, it is nice and flat! I would not want to cycle in many parts of this fine country, as the frequent vertical changes require thighs of steel.