Passports & Home Repairs

Adi's new passport has come and I want one like it too. New Zealand has changed its design since I last got one. The new passport is black and has silver ferns and Maori stuff in it. I'll have to put up with my old blue one because it still has plenty of pages with no stamps. Visas and kilometres are all Adi talks about these days. She's just a girl of numbers. It's "Niel can you ride 200kms per day for 15days?" And my standard reply "Whatever."
I might be able to ride 200kms a day but the question will be, would I want to?

Happy Feet  Not Allowed to Go Home.

All this visa stuff makes me think of poor old  'Happy Feet'' Happy Feet' is an Emperor Penguin that came ashore on a beach just north of Nelson. It appears' Happy Feet', sick of the Antarctica winter took off for an overseas adventure as you do. However it appears' Happy Feet' failed to get his passport stamped before leaving Antarctica.  Now having been detained by the New Zealand authorities he finds out that after a 4000km journey,he can not go back home because he does not meet the requirements for a re-entry permit.(Even Emperor Penguins struggle with bureaucracy) 

Apart from Visas stuff I've spent the day not cycling. As after all this rain 'Potter's End' has sprung a leak. Some of my friends seem to be able to spend their whole lives cycling but I have an old house to maintain so have been on the roof looking for water trails. Imagine my excitement on finding just what I was looking for and hopefully fixing it for nothing. Adi didn't seem that excited so I told her that the money I had saved doing repairs myself could buy me a new pair of cycle shoes. That got her going!

Niel on the Roof.

I did actually manage to get out on my bike a couple of days ago and cycle around one of my 100km circuits. Winter circuits around here are great because there's plenty of gravel roads that pack down in the winter dampness and frost to become very rideable. In fact it was on this ride after checking out some of the neighbours places that I decided I'd better do a bit of maintenance on my own house.

I figure that if I don't do any work on my house before I go overseas.  It will look something like the house up the road.I quite like the stripped effect they've gone for on the roof though. O' and I must remember to tell whoever is looking after our house not to let the sheep in.