Turkeys and Technical Difficulties

Yes, yes, yes! I know it has been too long. But I have been drowning in computer non-functioning nonsense for the last few weeks, and the blog has suffered.

My poor computer (yes, brought from home) picked up a virus in Auckland, I believe, the very first week we arrived. We tried to transfer a word document from our hostel's computer to my computer, using Bjorn's memory stick, and somewhere in the process that dirty hostel computer sneezed on my computer, spraying it with lots of nasty (and potentially fatal!) germs. Ugh.

All of this is to say that now, when we try to open word documents, we find that the contents of those documents have been replaced with a message that says "Hack by debugger!!!!!" Creepy, right?

As the weeks have passed, computer has grown sicker and sicker, and basically all the files we have on there (which includes our personal entertainment - downloaded seasons of TV shows) have been infected, corrupted, whatever.

So blogging became a bit of an adventure. Because we can only pick up wireless internet standing at our kitchen counter, it's a bit more comfortable, going into a long writing session, to sit down on the couch, put the blog into a word document, then transfer it onto the blog-site later, when you can get onto the internet. Of course, with our Word completely corrupted, you must make sure NOT to save the document or close it, because once you have, your work will be sure to be replaced by that irritating debugger message.

So what happens when, amidst all of this complicated mess, your internet goes down? Well, that's what happened to me the last time I tried to write my blog. I had written a lovely entry about life as a cleaning lady (which you'll just have to wait and wonder about for now), only to find that when I was ready to post it onto the site, the internet was completely gone.

And so, because any computer messes like this REALLY drive me bananas, I just decided to wash my hands of it and haven't been bothered with trying to get that entry posted for some weeks now.

Mr. Computer has at this point been left at a service shop in Christchurch. Please pray for healing. Hopefully we'll get it back next week.

And another excuse! Internet here is $6 an hour, and they've like completely blocked you from connecting your camera and doing fun things like downloading pictures for your friends, which is what I was attempting to do when I came to the internet today. It is FASCINATING to me that internet access was so much better (and faster and cheaper) in South America than here.

So...pulease bear with me until I have my computer situation smoothed over. I have not given up on the blog!

Meanwhile, it is Thanksgiving day in America today (though it's Friday afternoon right now here). I imagine all of my friends and family sitting around their warm homes, shoes off, glass of wine in hand, full of food, watching TV, working a puzzle, perhaps already heading back into the kitchen to pick at leftovers, depending on what time you've eaten.

It's hard to be here for Thanksgiving. Well, no, actually. It's almost too weird for it to be hard. I feel so very far away that it's hard for me to imagine that it's Thanksgiving on the other side of the world. They obviously don't celebrate this holiday here (when, as my boss says, the Americans give thanks to the Indians for letting them take over), and furthermore, they don't really eat turkey over here! Ever!

Bjorn and I went into Christchurch on Wednesday night to have a big dinner out to celebrate A) Thanksgiving, B) our 8 month anniversary, C) my half-birthday, and D) my father's early birthday. We had yummy Thai food, and then went to a restaurant that specializes in desserts for a stomach-sickening pig out. It was fun - GREAT fun - but it wasn't really Thanksgiving, was it? We didn't even talk about what we're thankful for!

So I've been making myself go through my annual what am I thankful for list, even though I have no turkey to eat and no Frazier family party to attend. And I won't write out the whole list (though one of these years I AM GOING TO DO THAT!), but my family, my friends, Bjorn, and this amazing year are in the top five. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Know what I am REALLY thankful for? Mumsy and dadsy and brother John are coming to see me...for Christmas!! I cannot wait! EEEEE! It will be such fun.

Okay, my hour at the internet is about to be up, and I am not about to spend more than $6. So sorry.

Hope everyone has had a fabulous Thanksgiving! More soon...perhaps I'll even be able to rescue my cleaning lady entry one of those days:)

Much love to you all.