aonoexpat - Tumblr blog

[aonoexpat]

"Spring is coming, I put the garden bench outside again!"

[aonoexpat]

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!"

[aonoexpat]

"Dangerous sport, billiards."

Translation:

background voices

"Pretty dangerous, isn't it?"

[aonoexpat]

"Odd duck..." (meeting a friend from Australia)

[aonoexpat]

"House hunting..."

[aonoexpat]

"Well, he is rather curious, and he heard a buzzing sound that got louder and louder, so he went to investigate..." (inspired by "De Spin" by Freek de Jonge)

[aonoexpat]

"Now, as you can see, there's practically nothing growing in my garden. But, I have to say... pūkeko has managed to find something after all. Look, there's still something growing there. Already, I should say."

[aonoexpat]

"Am I asking too much of pukiko?"

Translation:

"Well Pukkie, go ahead and choose."

"Yeah, I don't know. I'm okay with anything."

"Is it too difficult?"

[aonoexpat]

"I have found the old GoPro Hero 2 with all its accessories (and another action cam manual)."

[aonoexpat]

"I can proudly say Pukkie has had his first flying lesson."

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"Pukkie has won the contest for sitting backwards."

[aonoexpat]

"I opened the fridge this morning."

[aonoexpat]

26-02-2024

I brought a little pūkeko home as a souvenir for my dad:

I had shown it to my mom prior to giving it to him, and she didn't understand why I wanted him to have it. "Does he like that specific bird?" No, but it's cute, and he's going to like it. I was sure of it. And lo and behold, the evening I got home I gave it to him, and he spent the whole time holding it in the palm of his hand, with the little legs dangling off the side and swinging back and forth. It cracked him and my brother up every single time, to my great joy ☺

Since then, my dad has been putting the little pūkeko into Situations™️ left and right all around his house, and sending me pictures and videos. I'll share them here with y'all too! ♥

[aonoexpat]

27-01-2024

My apologies for the delay, but I have at last made it all the way back home to The Netherlands a couple of days ago! I was (still am) exhausted and quite jet lagged, and spending time catching up on sleep and hugging my family and friends was a little higher on my priority list than this blog.

The trip went by smoothly, I left Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington at 19:00 on the 22nd by bus, made it to Tamaki-makau-rau / Auckland by 06:00 on the 23rd and spent the day there resting and hanging out with a very kind friend. I got back to the airport around 20:00, checked in without issues and flew out by 23:00. I slept through most of that first flight fortunately, and landed in Guangzhou, China, at around 10:00 for me, but 05:00 for them.

I spent 7 hours at the airport feeling stressed and uncomfortable because it took me 3 hours and paying 33 euros to spend 2 hours in the VIP lounge of my airline before I could finally access the internet and charge my phone. It was the worst, most unwelcoming airport I've ever been to (so far). I guess the up side was that the lounge had a free massage chair, so I did enjoy that as much as I could.

Soon enough it was time to board my second plane, and unfortunately I was barely able to sleep on that one. I watched the entire hobbit trilogy and some episodes of The Greatest Dancer, sat around feeling restless and itchy to get up and walk around, read a bit, and just bade my time. When we finally started our descent into Amsterdam I got real giddy to see my family again! I had to wait for what seemed like forever to get my luggage back, but when I did I rushed out and my parents were there and we shared the biggest hug ♥

We took the bus and train back to my hometown, and made it home around 22:00. This would have been 10:00 on the 25th Aotearoa time, so I travelled a total of 64 hours 😵

It feels great but also strange to be back home, slowly unpacking everything while I run my jet lagged head around trying to see everybody and do everything again. But I'm sure I'll find my way!