'Rich girls love machine guns, it's a proven fact.'

So said Fat Dan, aka Fast Dan, aka Dandonneur, in regards to Tania as we passed Hearst Castle on the SLO 300k. Wit is especially appreciated on a long ride, even more so after 40 miles of head winds. Thanks Dan! His dope VW Eurovan had made the Friday night trip from LA as comfortable as I can imagine being, which I soaked up before our 'night' of sleep at the ride start.
After 3 hours of this sleep-like horizontal thing, it was comical riding up the coast in the dark, at 430am, in a slight drizzle and a haze of fog. From the coast we headed up over the ridge and out past Paso Robles. Not comical was the 39 degree, slightly wet, gloveless descent. The first control was the earthquake capitol of the world. It's a one trick town and there were no earthquakes happening so we left. The last bit back on PCH goes up to Ragged Point, one the most beautiful sections of the California coast. We finished the 187 miles in around 16 hours, much slower than anticipated, but the burrito lunch was worth it.
We did not get back to LA in time for the midnight tunnel sprints. Sucks! Jack won and Megan got second female so Swarm! still represented.

I'm a Jerk (another broken bike post).

Dear Budge,
I know I shouldn't of taken your bike without your permission, but my fixed is broken and I needed to be on one for the Team Bonobo photo shoot for the new video. I was really careful with it, even when doing those wallrides on 7th street. Dropping in on it did not seem like that big of a deal because I was already getting near the top. I should of pulled it clean, but I guess it being a little big and the fact that I haven't ridden fixed recently kept that from happening. Now you have a broken frame. After peeling my face off of the sidewalk I kept asking why I had your bike and what I was doing. It didn't make any sense in my concussion-induced haze and it still does not. The bitter taste of blood in my mouth when I woke up the next morning was a gruel reminder of my fuck up. They don't make camouflage to hide my aching pain. Years from now I want you to remember me as your fun housemate who always cooked up good food, not the jerk that took your Olmo and broke it. Please forgive me. Love, Matt

Death Valley Double Century and LA Marathon

the short:
1. Saturday Death Valley double century in 13.13, Jack and I were in the top 10 fastest times (wtf?).
2. Saturday night drove back to Los Angeles, arriving at 4am.
3. Slept 1.5 hours.
4. Ran a 4.57 marathon (2.20/2.37 split).
5. Ate two burritos.
6. Slept 16 hours.
Why: To try train for upcoming long races. And they just happened to fall on the same weekend.

the long:
double
We rolled into Death Valley Friday afternoon, which is a first. Usually we don't get there till 1 or 2am, which Morgan, Jack, Stacy and Megan did, keeping Swarm! tradition alive. Chris Kostman joked about all 20 of us staying in the one free room that the volunteers got. It probably seemed that way, with about 15 of us cooking dinner outside the room. Lee Mitchell, ultra-cycling legend, was perplexed by our presence. You all here for the ride? Yep, almost all of us. The double or the single? Most are doing the double. Wow, great!
Some of us camped, some actually had paid for hotel rooms and only six of us slept in the free room.

Saturday morning we tried to get a group photo, but some of Swarm! had to be at the Badwater checkpoint, some wanted to get in the early start for the double and the century riders were getting ready for their later start. As feared, Jack set a vicious pace to the first checkpoint, 17 miles away. I was blowing up. Him and I managed to stay together till Jubilee Pass, where he easily dropped me. I still passed a couple people going up, but was also passed on the long down hill to Shoshone that was plagued with head winds. Saw Jack as he was leaving the turn-around point and Jesse had caught me as I was leaving. The out-and-back gave us an opportunity to see how our other rides were doing.

After climbing back over Salsberry and Jubilee, the head and cross winds really kicked in. That's the desert. Jesse, a Bullshifter rider and myself managed to bridge up to a couple of other groups just after Ashford Mills and got a paceline going. At one point there were 8 of us, all taking turns in the front battling the wind. Then the group split in half, then suddenly it was just me and one other guy. My stomach and legs were feeling better and we rode past a couple more groups before finally arriving at distant Badwater. Budge, Luz, Jen Diamond, Morgan, Max & Sasha (who DNF'ed the century on the tandem cause of Sasha's f'ed up knee) were all there. And Jack! He had just flatted. It was the lunch stop, but we barely hung out before him and I left together.

This route is tricky in that the 150-mile checkpoint is at the start/finish (picture on left is Kiecker and Paul before the last 50 with Signey who had finished the century). It's real easy to stop and not do the last out-and-back to Stovepipe Wells. Five of our riders did not make the cut-off time here and were not allowed to continue on (but two tried! Props to the 'old guys' for the punkest move of the weekend). I think they all would of made the overall cut-off and were only delayed to here because of the crazy head winds. When the sun went down and the full moon came up it was so bright we could see our shadows! The last twenty-five were tough, due to the aches and pains that arise from the first long ride of the year. I'll spare the details of Jack's ass pains. Some clif shots with caffeine (after two months of almost zero caffeine consumption) made my stomach unhappy. When I finished I just laid in the grass. It was the most out of it I possibly have ever been after a ride.

Our team chefs (the century riders) had made some gnochi that I pushed down before showering and coming back to wait for our other double riders to finish. We hung out with the guy who rode the fastest time of the day on a fixed gear. Not the fastest time on a fixed gear, THE FASTEST TIME. On a 48-16 yet. Yeah. He ruled. Was real nice too. Congrats to everyone who rode their longest ride, whether it was 100, 150 or 200. Thanks to everyone who helped cook, drove, etc. It was a team effort and I am stoked to of been a part of it. Also see Luz's pictures and Kiecker's write-up.

The drive back luckily, was uneventful. Tried to sleep, but with 3 of us crammed in the back it didn't work out so well. I'm also one of those people who is so concerned about the driver falling asleep that I feel the need to stay awake.
When we got into the house, on the kitchen table was the map of the marathon. I looked at it and sighed. It was 4am. Morgan said, 'Look Matt, if you didn't do it, no one would think less of you.' Not doing it never seemed like an option, which I think made it easier. After putting on all my running gear, I took a nap sitting up on my couch. Disorientation barely describes what I felt when that alarm when off. Holy shit. I'm going to do what?

Marathon:

The new route for the LA marathon is a point-to-point from Universal City to Downtown, which makes bike transportation difficult. I opted for the train and hopped on at Beverly/Vermont only a 20-min walk from our place. Cyclists may look funny in spandex, but there is something about runners or being at running events that makes me feel real out of place. Maybe no matter the bicycle event, it is still a part of the broader bicycle culture, a culture I am comfortable functioning in, as opposed to a 'running culture' which is still undefinable to me.

I'm off the train and on time. Glad to see some anti-war group handing out stickers which many people have put on their shirts or bibs. Meanwhile I am hoping that no one notices my crumbly, old bib. In the 'corral' I ended up next to two bearded, bare-foot guys. One, I learn, is Barefoot Bob from runningbarefoot.org. I asked if it was a requirement to have a beard to run barefoot. Others asked him the typical, annoying questions that he answered with a quick wit that kept me amused till the race started.

The start is anti-climactic after standing around for 45 minutes. I'm tired as we start to climb the back of Cahuenga Pass. Unlike cycling, there is no free ride and the downhill into Hollywood is brutal, but my legs feel better then they did on my last training run. My brain not so good. Around mile 8 I pass 6th/Hobart and I toss my long sleeve shirt in a bush to pick up later. Looking for Morgan or someone from the house, but can't blame them for not getting up after 4 hours sleep to see me run by. The halfway point eventually shows itself and I have retained enough analytical ability to do some math on my time/pace.

Not that my entire mental state is healthy. For no reason I would take serious emotional dives, almost into tears. Unexplainable. Not in a 'running is horrible I need to stop' way, but in more of a nihilistic, depressing, 'the love of my life just dumped me' way. As if physical or mental exhaustion was exposing the emotional ends of my cognitive functions. I knew what I was getting into and, the best I could, welcomed the ups and downs.

Last year I walked the water stations and still ran a 4.04 in my first marathon. Now I was finding myself walking well past them with little motivation to run. My calves, quads and ankles are all aching so I stopped to stretch occasionally. I saw a guy throwing up on the bridge back over the LA river from Boyle Heights and I gave him some props for letting it all go (I don't what that guy ate, but it looked like an entire Indian buffet), but he was less stoked than I. The math I am doing in my head at every mile is making less and less sense as I get closer to the end. But I care even less. When we reach downtown I find it incredibly odd that all the spectators are blocked off from the route by these giant 10-foot tall fences. It seemed so out of place, like we were in a ring or some sort of cage. I unceremoniously cross the finish line: 4.57.

Again I don't take the medal (something else to throw out next time I move) and again the post-race refreshments are crap. Some round bread, bananas and shots of OJ. I don't know how anyone who paid $100 for this race thinks that is okay. Hobble to the train back to our neighborhood where Morgan meets me with a bike. We coast down to get some burritos with Budge, Luz and Megan. Everything is surreal and I feel super hot. Did I drink enough water? I know I didn't eat enough burritos so I eat two. At 4pm I go to sleep, only waking up once to have some toast before sleeping till 8am. Good weekend. Thank you to everyone who made it happen.

Doing these events back-to-back will hopefully prepare me for Norseman, which will be my first attempt at an iron-distance triathlon. And this is my first public commitment to it.

Jesus (tortilla)

vegan cupcakes.

San Diego 300k Brevet

DNF. Booooooooooo. Sheared the bolt on my carbon FSA cranks about 30 miles in. The odd thing was that we started on time and were more or less with the front group. After I called to report our situation the super nice guy from the SD Century Riders actually came and picked us up. Thanks Mike! Probably kept me from stripping out the crank arm or spindle.
Spent the rest of the morning chillin in Pacific Beach looking at purse girls and guys who say things like 'total mosh sesh' and 'killer bro'. Then ate some vegan Asian 'fusion' at Sipz before enduring the drive back to Los Angeles. My bike looked all fresh with new Armadillos and the FSA wheels I peeled the stickers off of (pre-crank bolt shearing), too bad. Now I have to go up to SLO to get my 300k in.
More regarding Brevets, etc at Rusa.org

Joshua Ploeg dinner

Joshua you bring such joy to our lives with your presence and your fabulous culinary creations. Is this the 6th or 7th time you've cooked for us? We decided on an Asian Fusion Dim Sum menu. Lots of fried, complimented with a root vegetable lasagna (no pasta, just jicama, sweet potato and other root veggies). What is better than a fantastic meal with good friends?

Fried Wontons

Pakoras

Stuffed Curry bread

Sushi with Deep Fried Tofu

Plums for topping the dessert

Up in the bay like Huey P

Found a cheap flight to the bay for one of very few weekends open to meet up with some of my workaholic (and other) friends in the Bay. The whole Bay area has this vibe that is really fascinating, and quite wonderful. Maybe because so many subcultures I am/was involved in are overrepresented...Is it possible to like both LA and SF? Is that allowed? While I feel most people when they talk shit on LA, two things bother me and this trip exemplified them. There is tons of traffic in the Bay and the public transportation is not all that. It's good, but it is not worlds above LA. Is it better utilized? Yes. Is it also more expensive? Definitely. If you live and kick it in SF, that is one thing, because all you really need is a bike ride away. But, from anywhere else, dare I say, the Bay is 'so spread out'? You have to take BART ($$$) or drive ($$ and traffic all hours of the day). Was it horrible? Not at all. But, its not the glorious car-free mecca that people make it out to be when they talk shit on Los Angeles.
Friday was able to hit up
Maggie Muds for some vegan ice cream and then did some hiking in Bernal Heights. I was on one hour of sleep, so we didn't do much outside of seeing Tim for dinner in the Piedmont section of Oakland.
Picking our breakfast in a garden definitely rules, as do warm, sunny days, anywhere you are. Fresh mint tea and chillin with the chickens. Hanging out with 'foodies' that are not strictly vegan adds an element all of us vegans need to think about. How does GMO soy, a cash crop from Brazil, compare to eating eggs from chickens running free in a backyard? Which is better for the earth or its inhabitants? I am not questioning the ethics of veganism, but most vegans' understanding of or (lack of) concern about food systems. Check out the Buy Fresh, Buy Local link on my sidebar to see what I am talking about. And not to mention that most vegans I know could eat a much healthier diet.
What else? Rode an S-Works at XfrankX's bike shop, hiked in the Berkeley hills and fell asleep at the top, reconnected with some tight friends, ate at a vegan Japanese restaurant (Chaya's), saw a crazy variety show in a bar with plays, skits and a dude eating a light bulb.

for the crew going to Death Valley for their first century or double century

The first weekend in March, 20 of us are going to Death Valley for the century/double. This is my third year going to the Spring event and I am honored to be rolling deep for 2007. I know for a lot of you from the Swarm! list this will be your first century or double century. Here are some things I have learned, that I want to share:
1. Read the website so you are familiar with the route, rules, etc.
2. Get enough sleep on Thursday night. This is more important then Friday night.
3. Start with full bottles and a little food in your jersey pockets. The first 18 miles to Badwater (checkpoint 1) are mostly downhill. Budge, Morgan and Luz will be there helping out.
4. Start with warm clothes, that you can shed easily. The temperature difference between 6am and 2pm can easily be 30 degrees. A vest and arm warmers is usually adequate.
5. Have your lights sorted. There are drop points for where you think you will need them, usually at Badwater (checkpoint 5), mile 130. Make sure your batteries are fresh. Also carry a tube, a pump and a patch kit.
6. Don't hammer from the start! I still make this mistake. When I rode the triple century my first 100 and 200 miles were PR's. I paid for it later.
7. Eat something every hour. No matter what. Not eating/drinking enough takes out more people than lack of ability. The ride is well supported with 7 checkpoints with gels (bring a gel flask), bars, fruits, PBJ sandwiches, etc. Eat your money's worth. Always put a bar or fruit in your jersey pocket for between check points.
8. Stay focused. When you get tired your efficiency drops, but less so if you are mindful of it. Over 200 miles the difference between a 12 MPH pace and 14 MPH is 2.5 hours. Don't think about your finish time, but what you are doing at that point in time to keep your pedal stroke, etc efficient.
9. Ride with others at a similar pace. Pacelining saves energy and increases motivation.
10. Don't hang out at checkpoints! Do as we say, not as we do, right? Swarm! has a reputation of chillin hard and wasting time. It adds up fast.
11. At this point, it is all mental. Plan to spend the whole day (and into the night!) on your bike and look forward to being able to do so. Death Valley is beautiful and it's effect on you will change with direction, light, feelings, etc. Take it in. There will be mental ups and downs; this is what life is about.
12. If you've been riding, which I know most of you have, forget about the physical part. It's a spiritual journey (to quote Morgan Goat Beeby). Compare it to running: A sub four hour marathon is a tough physical endeavor, but walking 26.2 miles in one day would not be difficult, if given the time. You've got the time for this ride, so do not stress on the physical component.
I don't want any Swarm! DNF's! My props to you for taking this on. See you at 6am for the group photo.

Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer 2007

For the second year in a row I woke up the morning of this event not knowing if 10 or 100 people were going to show up. Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer is a Swarm! event based on Danny Chew's Dirty Dozen race. I found the ten most brutal hills in LA; the group rides together to each hill and then 'races' to the top. We regroup, ride to the next hill and do it again. There is a point system to declare the fastest of the day, but for most people just getting up all of these in one day is a huge feat. Hell, the LA Wheelmen make a huge deal out of the their ride up Fargo St. (notice Swarmers! Brian and Alec doing it on a tall bike!) and on Feel My Legs it's only one of ten...Check out the GPS data of the ride. Almost 3000 feet of climbing in less than 20 miles.
Last year it was dry at the start and started raining at the first hill. This year we woke up to rain that slowed and then stopped before the meeting time of 930am at Pershing Square. We took names, did a warm-up through downtown and headed for the first hill that goes from 5th st to Grand and up. Check out some of Budge's pictures of the first hill (and others) on his myspace page. Stephen Roullier has some fantastic pictures up here.

The hills:
1. 5th st to right on Grand
2. Sunset to White Knoll to Marview
3. Quintero (off of Sunset)
4. Echo Park Blvd to Left on Baxter to top
5. Baxter St (north of the previous hill)
6. Fargo St
7. Earl St to left on Bancroft to top of Earl
8. Silver Lake blvd to Duane
9. Mulholland fountain to Hillhurst to Vermont Canyon to Observatory
10. Mitcheltorena

I didn't count, but I think 25 people finished.
We had a fantastic time out exploring LA in our unique way.

None of this would of been possible without the team of volunteers, Budge, Morgan, Kiecker, Michael, Alec, Stacy, Plex, Chris Palestine, Gnuzycats, Luz, Molly and LA bike winter. Thank you.

All finishers got this dope shirt.











Where does the name come from? I'll give you one hint: S&M. Winner gets a free tour of the course.

Bike Winter Metric Century

Molly and Swarm! put on a metric century as part of Los Angeles Bike Winter. We met up at the bike block where the Kitchen and Orange 20 are. About 25 people showed up and for many this was the longest ride they have ever taken on. Congratulations!
There are some other pictures here.
Check out the GPS data(thanks Paul!) as well..

Parties and Cupcakes for Training

Friday night was the 2nd anniversary of the Santa Monica Critical Mass ride and the Green Party opened up its doors to us for an after-party yet again. I missed the ride cause I was preparing my music to be laptop DJ (which ruled). The party was fun, we raffled off a bunch of great prizes, etc, etc. About a dozen of us left at 130am, heading across town. Budge was super drunk, which was funny when he was kicking mirrors on Porsches, but less funny when he was falling on the ground.
I road Molly over to Echo Park and took a long way back so it was almost 4am when I arrived back home. This is part of my sleep deprivation training. I read for a couple of hours and made food then went on a 32-mile road ride at dawn. What was most odd was that I felt cold the whole time, but I knew that it was not that cold out. Afterwards, sans spandex, I rolled over to Janie's for her cupcake ride.

I brought a bright pink shirt to have a pink cupcake screened on. They rode to some bougie place in Beverly Hills that doesn't have any vegan options (and were pissy when asked). So instead I rolled by the house to scoop up Jack, Megan, Morgan and Budge to meet the main group at Mannie's for some breakfast and vegan sweets.
Side effects of no sleep:
Patience for annoying shit reduced
Tolerance of people on the westside very low
I ended up catching a 3-hour nap around 3pm, before heading out for the night. Including the commute miles, I rode almost 100 miles in the 33 hours I was awake plus I had run for an hour and a half early Friday morning.
Sunday Stephen and I did Tony's gravity race and then did a moderately paced 40 miles through Griffith Park and then up Chevy Chase and back.

Sometimes weather is unfavorable even in Southern California

Team Swarm! met up with some of the Dock Riders today for some fast, flat miles on PCH. Ended up rolling 9 deep. Caught another group from Santa Monica to Pepperdine and suddenly almost 20 of us were cruising along the coast at 24 MPH until we dropped them all on the climb (I think commuters have a real advantage in climbing. Or something!). There was only a 30% chance of rain, but it rained on us for most of the ride. Not so bad as the temps were in the low 50's, much warmer than two weeks ago. Has anyone else noticed that suddenly we ride with some fast people? 100 miles in 7 hours or so. This pic is from Magu Rock in Ventura County, our turn around point (thanks Jesse). Looking forward to rolling to the Death Valley double 16 deep.

2007 Feel My Legs, I'm a Racer Design

Chris got this to me recently and I wanted to share it cause it rules so much.

San Diego 200k Brevet

Start of ride. Notice that everyone else is gone.


Is Randonneuring French for Beauocracy? In preparation for yesterday’s 200k I sent off my membership to Randonneuring USA (RUSA) and included Swarm! as my club. About a week ago I got a response from someone at RUSA saying that my club was not official and that he would just put that my club is RUSA. Funny thing is, Jack just made our club official with USA Cycling. Politely I relayed this info to the membership coordinator or whomever at RUSA and he said we still did not count! What is a club then? I ride bikes almost every day with my friends and then we do long distance rides on the weekends. We were a club pre-namesake, unlike, I imagine, most ‘clubs’. Our list of 2006 events is pretty impressive (doubles, triathlons, 508, Messenger World Championships, etc) so I passed this on to him with our President’s info (Jack Lindquist) and Chris Kostman from AdventureCorps as a reference. Finally, he said we were borderline, but he would count it anyway. Thanks for the favor. He also refused to recognize the ‘!’ in ‘Swarm!’.

Despite all that, at 345am I was up and ready to head to (near) San Diego with Paul and Zack in Paul’s truck. Budge decided not to go last minute after not sleeping a wink. Plus he hasn’t ridden much. Not much traffic at 430am and we are there early! The Randonneur scene is like a subculture of a subculture. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but the riders were similar to the double century crowd (some racers, some fast-looking old dudes, some people with racks and tons of stuff and mostly non-descript guys and a few females, on bikes). I paid my $5 and both Paul and Zack joined RUSA in order to get medals. Then, even after being early to the start point, we were late leaving. Fifteen minutes behind the group start, which is a mental fuck.

I had heard poor things about the route, but is was not too bad. We saw our friend Lynn on tandem who insisted on introducing me to everyone as ‘Matt who did 508 team on a fixed-gear’. I looked like I should be much faster than I am, but this is not a race it is a Brevet. Therefore it is also self-supported; my jersey and seat bag were filled with 2 bananas, an apple, 2 lara bars, 2 clif bars and some Sustained Energy. The self-support thing may be an issue for the longer rides, but for this it was fine. It makes Brevets an interesting combination of ultra-distance cycling and bike touring.

Other highlights:
I ate a Clif bar out of the garbage at Control Point 2
Rode to almost dark!
PCH route to SD- Had memories of with Justin, in 2002 on the way to Belize, when we saw the steel worker who had ridden from Ohio after he lost his job. That was almost five years ago! Also, Matt Pro and I were on this route when we did LA to SD in one day training for my first double in 2004. Self-supported 175 or whatever it was, was so huge back then.

Zack signing his route card after finishing. Paul celebrates with a donut.Afterwards we headed up to El Segundo to hang out at Brian's dad's place again and pretend to live the life for a night. Food, chillin, hot tub (this time there were some females at least). In the morning four of us went for an hour run on the beach. Yeah, California!

Broke Fixed

Isn't the title an odd linguistic structure?
Regardless, on Sunday my fixed gear frame snapped when Megan and I were riding to Lomita to meet up with Jack, Brian, Max, Jenny and Kiecker. We picked up Alec on the tall bike and we were riding through Redondo Beach when I saw a big JESUS sign someone had put up against a pole. Like all good citizens, I took democracy into my own hands (foot, more specifically) and kicked it over as we rode past. Yes, sometimes I am still 15 years old. I know this. Three blocks later I got an odd wobble in the front end. I say odd because this bike wobbles often. After pulling over and inspecting it I found that the lug was cracked all the way through. Uh-oh. We were close to Vege House so we road slowly the rest of the way. After eating, it only took leaning hard on the bars for the tubes to separate. Is this a sign?
I've been riding this bike for almost three years, after someone in the A-house gave it to me in lieu of one month's rent. Not sure how many miles I've put on it, but easily several thousand. Many of those riding in LA with friends, at events, etc. I put on the Jam Master Jay sticker almost straight away. The frame deserves a proper memorial, but we have not thought of anything yet. Will keep you updated.

New Zealand Signs

New Zealand 3-day bike trip

Ever think 'This is a really bad idea. We shouldn't do this. There is still time to back out.'? Usually, I would do so. A voice in the back of my head this time (which was slightly mumbled and maybe British) said, 'Come on, it's an adventure. What's the worse that could happen?'. It was boxing day, a strange Kiwi holiday the day after chirstmas, and Matt Pro and I were suppose to leave the next day for a 3-day, 300-mile bike tour from Christchurch to Nelson (a beach town on the northside of the south island). The problem was, we had one road bike, one fixed gear (49x16, mind you) and a broken single-speed mountain bike. No racks. No panniers. Bonnie, one of Matt's friends I had met, was planning the trip, but we did not know the other two guys. Neither had bike toured, one didn't really ride bikes. Yeah. We managed to scrape together four panniers and a rack and Matt bought another rack. We decided to take the fixed instead of my broken bike.

(unfinished post!)

New Zealand X-mas

Matt Pro has an adoptive family here in Christchurch that has taken him in. They are friends of a friend and they say you can't choose your family, but if he could of chose his adoptive family I don't think he could of done any better. He is there for all the holidays and tends to go over quite a bit just to chill out. Also goes for the Kiwi tradition of getting the barbi (BBQ) going, which seems to happen every day in the summer. The picture on the right is of 13-month old Tahunuiarangi, Dave (grandfather) and Josie(mom).
We spent x-mas eve chilling out and watching a lot of tv including Sione's Wedding and No 2 , both are choice and I'd recommend them, especially the former. Also watched Bro-town, a funny animated show from here in NZ about 5 kids growing up here in Morningside.

When we rolled up X-mas morning to go over to Pat's (grandmother) brother's place they had gifts not only for him, but for myself as well. Josie and her (american) husband regularly get chocolates for the family and they went out of their way to get Matt and I dark chocolate. There are these huge bars of Ghana chocolate that has been imported since 1896. Yum. They were happy that I had mine half-eaten before we even ate lunch.
For the x-mas meal they made us a huge plate of broiled vegetables that included pumpkin, potatoes and kumara. Kumara is sweet potato-esque, but much better. Not as sweet and has an entirely different texture than any potatoes I have eaten. Had some pasta and veggie sausages as well. I didn't cook anything, which was nice, but odd. In the picture below you can see x-mas crackers (not the people), which apparently is a tradition as well. Is this so for anyone else? I've never seen it. I also never had cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving, so what do I know? There are toys and jokes inside which made the meal a bit more lively than otherwise may of been.
Another sort of tradition, since it is summer here over x-mas, is the 'X-mas day water gun fight'. Matt and I stayed inside the best we could to the taunts that the americans are 'weak'. The others managed to soak each other pretty well.
The house we were at for x-mas is in what I considered a normal suburb, but Matt informed me that it is not a regular suburb, but a 'lifestyle bloc'. It is close enough to Christchurch that you can commute there for a regular job, but large enough that you can still have animals and maintain some of traditional rural Kiwi culture. Behind the house were some fenced off sheep (four of the 43 million on the two islands, more than 10 for every person) and some chickens in what I guess would be a coop. I've never seen a chicken coop, but I imagine a place where you keep chickens can be a chicken coop so that's what it is in my mind.


It just dawned on me that I spent Christ's birthday in a town called Christchurch. That is especially funny; this is the most secular country I have ever been in and well, I am obviously not religious. Apparently the city is named after one of the schools at Oxford one of the original settlers went to. Why don't they change it? The place is so non-religious that I don't think anyone cares. I am going to try to post some images of the city in a separate post. For now enjoy the sheep: