I can feel the burn on the back of my thighs and my back

I am going to bed as soon as I have written this, which is an hour earlier than last night. I need to get up earlier tomorrow too, as I am going to my parents' church. Why do I do this to myself?

While I'm here, I haven't been online as much. This isn't my computer and I don't entirely feel comfortable reading my usual range of things somewhere where my parents might see, despite them having long gone to bed.

I'm putting off going to bed a little because I got sunburned today. I had hoped to manage to avoid getting burned this summer, but evidently lying in the sun for three and a half hours this afternoon, even with sunscreen and swimming was a bit much. And since I was lying on my stomach, it's my back and legs that are red. My face is more or less one giant freckle, but that's usual for this time of year. My parents didn't manage to avoid getting burned either. But the Mount was nice and the water was lovely. Still haven't gone to that ice-cream shop, maudlinrose. Don't know if I'll get there, either.

I went flounder fishing with Dad last night. This involves going out into the water with an underwater light in one hand and a spear in the other hand and walking through the shallows until an oversize flounder is found, whereupon one spears it. We didn't see any oversize flounder, which may be one reason I'm keen to go out again because I didn't have to kill anything. On the other hand, we saw eels, sprats, pipers, a baby kahawai and a sting ray. The ray was actually really cool; Dad managed to turn it towards me and it glided towards me until its nose hit the spear shaft and then it turned and swam away. It really does look like it's flying underwater. There were a few baby flounder too, only five centimetres long or so. One of them I poked gently with the spear, it swam about five cm, I poked it again and it swam another five cm. It was practically transparent. When I say poked, I mean touched gently or slid the spear tip under to lever up.

Some family friends are coming to stay with my parents over New Years, starting tomorrow with numbers gradually increasing until after I go home. I'll be seeing the ones I miss at the wedding and it'll be nice to catch up with the ones I do get to see. Wedding present is coming along nicely; I've finished five of the eight figures and have the remaining three, the lettering and the backstitch to go. It's very easy. I should have gotten more done, but I've been relaxing.

(no subject)

I booked my flight to Christchurch and back for my brother's wedding on the first of February. I fly down on Tuesday, fly home on Sunday and expect to see lots of people I recently saw at Christmas, some people I missed and thesane as well as watch my younger brother get married. It should be great. I have to find something to wear first.

However, when I was booking I was surprised to find that the title drop down menu only had Mr, Mrs and Ms on it. I chose Ms, being unmarried, female and single, but I don't consider myself to be Ms nishatalitha. I much prefer Miss and use that on my official communication, if called for. It really annoyed me to have to use Ms instead of Miss and I even filled in one of their feedback forms just to comment on it.

My new suitcase is smaller than my old one. My bag broke somewhere on the way to Tauranga and I now have an actual suitcase, rather than a soft bag which will fold up. It doesn't contain quite as much stuff and I'm hoping that I will have enough room for everything.