Thanks Celia & Simon

Tonight when I got home I had a postcard from Celia and Simon from their trip to Taupo.

Thanks guys:)

The postcard is of a Maori Haka, which is cool, but the blurb on the back of the postcard reads as follows -

"The modern Maori thrills visitors with the spectacular dances and delightful folk songs of his people"

Does anyone else find this slightly - weird?

Well I better go and get changed as we are celebrating our 1 year "Welly-versary" tonight with drinks with out friends at Syn.

Well today's the big day

Today Rich and I have officially been living in Wellington for ONE WHOLE YEAR.

Tonight we are having a few drinks with friends in Syn bar to celebrate - yah!:)

Also today I'm meeting up with my old workmates from my first job in Wellington, I haven't seen any of them for ages and they are all good for a laugh - so will be good to catch up with them for lunch.

Well I best get ready for work, feeling reluctant, lots of stuff on I just don't want to be doing at the moment. I should just really get it all sorted then it will be done and I will be able to get back to doing something a bit more interesting.

Also - I have started my poem and it's not looking too bad at all so far - but it still needs lots of work. But I'm pretty happy with it considering I haven't done any creative writing since high school.

As it turns out.....

I put on 100 grams in the past week - I can handle that - I'll get it off in the next week....

Bought a pedometer tonight too so that I can enter the "walk off" which starts on Thursday.

Tuesday Morning Rant...

Well just a few things I want to say this morning....

Firstly I've found out that Carolyn is going to Perth with Simon. It's such a wicked oppourtunity for them and I'm sure she'll love living in a big city like Perth - It will make a real change from New Plymouth. She's leaving early in August and said she is going to have a nice lunch or something before she leaves as a farewell, so I will head up to New Plymouth for that.

Secondly I have to write a poem. What? A Poem. Yes Rich and I have decided to write a poem each "just for fun". The poem has to be at least 6 lines long and it has to be something new and it has to be completed by next Sunday.......I've got an idea of what I want to write about and a few ideas floating around in my head but as of yet nothing on paper - whereas Rich is all sorted already!!

The other thing is that it is weigh in day today - and I'm expecting to have gained. I had a bit of a bad week last week, I was feeling a bit down so didn't really record and ate more than I should. I managed to do a fairly decent amount of exercise but not enough to burn off all of the food I ate. Well, there's nothing I can do about it now so shall just have to face the music tonight....argh!!

Thank You Jess!!

Jess is back from the USA! Popped in on the way to work to see her today and then when I got home I found out that I had a postcard from her when she was over there. Wicked.

I will add it to the collection:)

Oranges: Revenge of the Eggplant

Ha ha ha!!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=71161562

But you really need broadband or lots of time if you are on dial up (like us!)

I know I haven't blogged in ages...

Seems like I haven't had time to get on the computer and write down a few of my random thoughts in ages - considering I usually write at least once a day.....so here's a random ramble of some of the stuff that has happened to me in the last week....

On Monday went and had a coffee with Belle and Leanne - good to see those two as we haven't caught up (outside of bookclub) in absolutely ages....so good just to have a gossip about this and that and life in general.

Tuesday was weight watchers night - so nothing to report there - except for of course Jess was in America on her trip and weight watchers always seems a bit strange when she's not there....at least I had Ange to keep me company:)

On Wednesday I just bummed around at home and did nothing - wow - exciting mid-week action:P

On Thursday Rich and I finally got to see "The Proposition" at Paramount - for those of you who don't know - it's the film that Nick Cave made and it's bloody excellent. The music is beautiful and there are some amazing shots of the Australian outback and the story line is wicked - you HAVE to see this film!!! Or at least look at the link before you decide not to see it!! http://www.thepropositionfilm.com/

Friday night I went out to drinks and dinner with Georgie and had a good old gossip about all sorts...which was cool and then headed over to Matterhorn to meet up with Jaimee and have a few drinks with her and her friends and boyfriend to celebrate her graduation - Yah!! You go girl!!

Saturday I just did a bit of shopping and then that night we headed out to see an Irish Comedian with two retro old school keyboards at downstage called David O' Doherty - It was a comedy festival performance and it was sooo damn funny - I'd tell everyone that they should go and see him too - but it was his last Wellington performance last night.

Today was a bit of a totally crazy day where nothing seemed to go right - firstly we decided to go out to Paekakariki for the day - so bought a day rover ticket and jumped on the train only to be told they were doing maintenance on the line and the train would only be going to Porirua today - bummer. So decided to go for a bit of a walk in Porirua - unfortunatly as I'm sure most people know - Porirua is not going to win any awards for being New Zealand's most beautiful city. We thought we might go and play mini-putt but then realised that every parent in Porirua had decided to take their kids to play mini putt today - so decided that wasn't the best idea.

So we then had a look around Porirua - which has to be the land of the "MEGA STORE" I have never seen so many "MEGA STORES" together in one place....

After a while we found Pataka the Muesuem out there and decided to check it out and it was a really cool muesuem - so it wasn't all doom and gloom today.

But then we went to catch the train, we were just sitting about waiting for the train when a voice came over the signal box advising us that there would be "Extreme Delays" as there has been trouble with the signal box further up the track. I think we could have handled waiting there - but then a whole bunch of people started getting really aggressive and yelling at the poor guy selling the tickets - just not nice - not a nice environment to be in. So decided to get dinner.

When we decided to get dinner we soon found out that there is nowhere nice in Porirua to eat - unless of course you enjoy McDonalds, KFC or Pizza Hutt....all of these have crap food that I'm sure shortens your life span a little every time you eat it. So we ended up just ended up eating boring old Subway....oh well at least it's relatively healthy.....

After tea we finally ended up getting on a train to town - we were supposed to be meeting Nankz and Paul for coffee at Katipo - but as it turned out - Katipo was shut....then tried Felix and surprise surprise that was shut as well!! I text Nankz and her suggested "Midnight Expresso" and thankfully it was open and it was really cool there - they were playing The Cure - my favourite band - so at least something went right today!!!

The "Walk Off"

Next month at Weight Watchers we have a "walk off" competition - basically - who can do the most steps in a month.

So next month I will be walking as much as I possibly can - will be a good way to lose some extra weight too - which is a good thing:)

Yah for me!!

Went to Weight Watchers tonight and I have lost another 600 grams - very stoked.....

Just chilling out at home tonight - Rich has gone to a work mates leaving do at Bodega...

I did get some exciting news at work today - I am going to QUEENSTOWN for work in July - really excitied about that....even if I have to go to work with my work mates I still get to go to QUEENSTOWN - Awesome:)

Sunday Sunday

Well yesterday was one of those really unorganised Sundays - which is good sometimes I guess....

In the morning we went to check out the Iwi Art Gallery on Tory Street where one of Marth's mates Tia had an exhibition on - unfortunatly despite having a good old look around we couldn't see any of her work:( Maybe it had already all sold? But they had some really incredible stuff there - especially some of the Ponamu - it was amazing!

Then we just did a bit of a walk around the waterfront which is always good - the wind was quite freezing cold but I think we are both starting to get used to that wind!!

After a bit of late lunch we decided to check out a film - we both really wanted to see "The Proposition". We had a look at Paramount, Rialto and Reading.......but unfortunatly everything we actually wanted to see was on too late and we didn't want to hang about town. So we ended up going to see "The Hills Have Eyes" - I haven't seen a horror in ages and this wasn't the best horror I've ever seen but it wasn't the best either - It was pretty predictable with "Texas Chainsaw Masscre" and "Night of the Living Dead" overtones but it did have quite a good mix of gore/humour/splatter - although at times it did get close to becoming just plain gross in the way "Saw" is just plain gross.

Well it's another Monday - and in true Monday style - our jug appears to be broken....grrrr....

Jess has taken off on her trip to the USA!

Jess was leaving tonight to take off on her working holiday to the USA for a week, how exciting :) She promised to send me a postcard - although she did point out that she will be back in Wellington before the postcard makes it here.......

Speaking of postcards I got another one from Marth today - so good to hear from her as always. She has told me one of her mates has an exhibition on at the Iwi Art Gallery on Tory Street so I think Rich and I will check that out at some stage tommorrow.

Had a pretty relaxing day today - the sun was shining so went out to Island Bay with Celia and Greg for brunch (although we did have to wait 1 1/2 hours to eat! Lucky none of use were hungry).

Then headed out to the scrapbooking store with Simon as well for Celia and Simon to check out paper for their wedding invitations - it was such a seriously cool shop - a crafty person's dream! Celia was maybe looking at doing some classes there - if she does I will be keen as a bean to join her - I love crafty things and haven't done nearly enough crafty stuff since moving to Welly.

Well time to sign off - Rich and I are off to see HDU tonight - wicked - the gig starts at 10 pm so I guess we will be heading off pretty soon....

Life in the 1500's

Mella sent me this in an e-mail yesterday - I thought it was pretty interesting....


Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet today.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying. It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a .thresh hold..

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon..

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning deaths. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave.

When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell, or was considered a 'dead ringer'

Yah Thursday - the weekend is just around the corner...

This week has gone so FAST.....but I guess I have been quite busy.

Last night I caught up with Jaimee because I haven't seen her for ages...went out to dinner and then a funky cafe called "Deluxe" which I'm sure everybody but me has been to before....but I thought it was quite cool, will so be going back there....

I also caught up with Georgie during the day for lunch was good to see her as I haven't seen her in ages either....

Tonight Rich and I am going to Te Papa and I am also having lunch with Jess, Celia and Ange....

In between all this I must get tho the gym! Last night I managed to go for an hour which was good - hopefully I'll get to do at least the same tonight after Te Papa.

Weight Watchers Last Night

Well last night I didn't lose any - but then again I didn't gain anything either....I know why I didn't do so great through wasn't counting my points that strickly and didn't do enough gym time. Well this week is another week - and I WILL be more vigilate and lose next week.

On a completely different note, Jess sent me a link to the "Death Clock" yesterday - I've done these things before, but this one seemed fairly comprehensive - took about 10 minutes to do but that said I'm totally not taking it as gospel or anything - but it did tell me I will live longer than the average woman which is good - apparently I will die in September 2059 at 80 years - Rich is going to out live me by three years! Anyways - if you want to find out when you'll die - the link to the death clock is below.......

http://www.okcupid.com/death

It's that time of the week again....

Yes - it's weigh in day today - not sure exactly how I'll go......I haven't been super bad or anything but I haven't really been sticking to my points religously this week either......and haven't spent as much time at the gym as I would like too, but I have done lots of walking so we will see.

I got a postcard yesterday from Marth - it was good to hear from her - she said when she gets back home she is looking forward to starting a whole bunch of art projects so it will be interesting to see what she gets up too. She also said she is going to sort out all her photos from Japan so that I can see them when I come and visit in June, so I'm really looking forward to checking those out - there's bound to be some amazing photo's!!

Send out invites tonight to our friends about our "Welly - versary" on the 31st of May - quite a few people seem keen which is really cool. We are just going to met at Syn bar for a few drinks and perhaps dinner as well - should be a fun night:)

I heard from Belle yesterday that her zine is now officially off the ground and is going to be launched at Happy on 3 June. Should be a good night out.

Damn it is freezing right now - and the worst thing is the rain which means I haven't been able to get clothes dried forever - I have seriously run out of work clothes!! No shirt left so I am just wearing regular clothes to work today, luckily my workplace is pretty casual so I can get away from it.

In other news Rich has another job interview either today or tommorrow - it's a web site maintence type job - so hopefully he gets one job or the other - fingers crossed!!!

Well this entry is truely full of a bunch of completely random thoughts......

Carolyn's Blog

My friend in New Plymouth Carolyn has now started a blog of her own:) Wicked - I love it when my friends have blogs of their own!

Here's the link to her blog -

http://pieslittleworld.blogspot.com/

Tinakori Hill

Today was a wet and windy Wellington Sunday - so what better way to spend the day than to walk to to top of Tinakori Hill?

Seriously though - this was a very cool walk and what an amazing view of the city from the top.

Jess' new flat celebration dinner!

On Saturday a whole bunch of us went out to dinner at Fidels to celebrate Jess moving out of her Dad's house and into a flat of her own:) Here's the pictures from the dinner - good times!

Celia, Brendon & Ange

Teresa, Jess, Celia, Ange

Rich and Teresa

Jess, Andrew and Celia

Teresa, Jess, Celia & Ange

More Good News

I got a text from Marth today saying that she got to go home today:) Wicked!

Good News!

Well two pieces of good news - I heard from Marth yesterday and she seems to be in good spirits - she told me that her first round of chemo has gone really well. She also told me she had all her girls there making a fuss of her giving her facial's and massages and braiding her hair - so even though I'm not there with her I'm happy she has lots of good people there looking after her:)

She also said she should be able to leave the hospital today and go home to her mum and dad's and just head into the hospital when she needs treatment - which would be way nicer.

She has also told me that they have arranged to have her taken home in a Rolls Royce! How very cool.

I think I can also expect some mail from her sometime soon as she asked for our address - I love mail!

Rich has finished making a DVD of his work for her, he said he just has to test it to make sure it works ok so I should be able to send that to her next week.

My other good news is on a much simpler scale - when I bought my tickets to Auckland last week there was some sort of "win the cost of your flights back" promotion. I saw the competition and thought - that would be great but not bloody likely - but this morning I checked out my e-mails and I HAVE won the cost of my flights back - WICKED!!! They are going to put the $400 odd dollars I paid for my flight back on my credit card!! AWESOME!!!!!

So who really rescued the Miners?

Is this what really happened??

Cross your fingers, grab your lucky rabbits foot and find your four leaf clover

Today is the day of Rich's big interview which is at 3pm.

Make sure you send him positive vibes today!

I really hope he gets this job!

Good News on the Weight Watchers front

I just came back from Weight Watchers and it turns out I actually lost 1.1 kgs this week - which means I have lost 7.4 kgs so far - which is pretty darn good really. I guess it must have been the stress which made that weight come off.

Thank You Navie!

I got a postcard from Navie - all the way from Prauge - which is the place I want to go to most in the world! Thanks so much Navs!!

Back to Weight Watchers

I have to say with everything that's gone on in the last week (and I have to say the last week has been a blur in many ways) I haven't really made my weight loss a priority - I haven't been following my points at all because everything was just so crazy and it was just another thing to worry about there seemed to be more important things in life.

But I know I have to get back on track and try and do the things I would normally do again and this of course includes my points.

So I'm quite sure I've put one weight this week but I can handle - I know why - things just got out of control and there were more important things to focus on other than what I was putting in my mouth.

So after this weigh in tonight I'm back into - I'm still feeling sad and I do now feel like losing weight isn't one of the most important things in the world but at the same time I can't let my health suffer and I know that I can't give up now.

My Weekend

I have to say my weekend was so hectic that I kind of don't feel like I really had a weekend at all.

But it was really good to go to Auckland and see Marth - it was so good to see her - especially beacause she seems quite positive about the whole thing. But while she is going through all this I'm going to try and go to Auckland as often as possible - hopefully once a month. When I have finished updated my blog I'm going to check out the Air NZ site and book my flights for June.

As well as Marth it was good to see my other Auckland friends - I stayed with Alaina and we went shopping on K Road - so I got to got to the Misery and Illicit stores (and bought a skirt and Halterneck top) and Heroes for Sale (where I bought some cool toys based on Tim Burton's book The Melancholoy Death of Oyster Boy - I now have Robot Boy, The Girl with Many Eyes and Stain Boy on top of my computer screen at work).

Also caught up with Conor, Sue, Chaykham and Jonnie - It was good to spent time with these guys as I needed some laughs - I've also been invited to Chay and Jonnie's "Pimp and Hoe" party which is on next time I'm due to visit Auckland.

Also was able to catch up with Ekant, Unicia and Keziah - was good to see them more than once before they leave for Bath.

So I am feeling a little sad for Marth but I'm pretty sure she can beat this thing - so I am staying postive and sending her good vibes - I just wish I still lived in Hamilton then I could go up more often to spend time with her.....but there is always text's and snail mail (I don't think she really has any internet access).

But I do finally have some good news - Rich has a job interview this week on Wednesday!! Yah Rich:D

My Luck just doesn't seem to be getting any better this week....

I now have a head cold - ew....

Postcards Postcards Postcards

When Martha was in Japan I used to send her a postcard every week - sometimes cheesy "Come to Wellington" type postcards and other times just random postcards I picked up at bookshops, Cafe's, Te Papa....

Now that she is unwell I've decided to re-start the postcard tradition - yesterday I sent her a cheesy promotional Lord of The Rings Postcard from Te Papa.

I am now all sorted for my trip up to see her this weekend - thanks to all my friends who have been helping me get organised for the trip/

Some days are just a shock to the system

Yesterday was one of those days for me.

I got an unexpected call from one of my friends in Auckland saying that she had some bad news - I was expecting her to say that her mum or dad was sick - but instead she told me she had cancer.

I'm totally blown away by this - in fact I think I am still a little in shock.

But luckily I have good friends in Auckland and Alaina has said I can stay at her flat and has also offered to drive me around where I need to go and she is happy to take me out to Auckland Hospital - I'm really grateful to her.

Jess was kind enough to check on the internet to see if I could still get flights up so now that's all been sorted as well.

I also have to say that I am so thankful everybody at work is so good - my manager saw I was really upset and told me I could go out for a walk and don't hurry back - so I was able to go and see Rich at work and talk to him for a bit. She also bought me some flowers to cheer me up which was so nice. The other ladies in my team have also been awesome with their kind words.

So yes I am in shock, and I am worried, and it does make all the things I obssess about on a daily basis (mainly my weight and money issues) seem a little insignificant but I will be ok because I know that I can be strong for my friend now.

I also know I'll feel 100% better when I get a chance to see and talk to her this weekend - so this week can't go quickly enough.

My friend will be in my thoughts for the rest of the week.

Nearly Forgot....

I also got to hang out with the lovely Jo last night - YAH! - was great to see her:) We don't get to catch up often enough!

My Weekend!

Sorry to all the people who read this regularly - but I have been a tad slack lately - mostly due to the internet connection going to crap - but the phone guy came on Friday and it's all fixed!

Well on Friday night I went to Rich's Graduation which was quite different to a University Graduation - it was really laid back - and the MC rather than being some learned person was these too munter style comedian's who had some really good moments and some REALLY cringy moments...but all in all it was quite fun:) Afterwards we went to celebrate at Harem!! My favourite:D

Saturday was a busy day was helping Celia do the wedding dress thing - we went to one little place in the Hutt and Astra Bridal - they have some beautiful gowns as Astral Bridal - just amazing! Also during the course of the day I managed to buy some Fimo when Celia went to Gordon Harris to check out some paper for her wedding invitations......I've been wanting to get some Fimo to make beads forever but I thought the only place I could get it was out at Spotlight so stoked!

Saturday night was a bit of a disaster - was just hanging out with Rich we wanted to see Pluto but when we go to Indigo the line was halfway down the road and we decided really wasn't worth waiting.....so tried to see a movie....when to all the cinema's in town....the movies had all either just started or were just plain terrible (Like Scary Movie 4 - I can't believe they got money to make a fourth one? Who watches that crap??!!???). So just ended up having a coffee and going home - not exciting!!

Yesterday was pretty cool though - went to Armageddon for the first time ever - and I have to say it was a bit average, although I did manage to get a couple of cool Anime on DVD at the Madman Stand.

But then went to the opening of New Zealand Music Month at the town hall that was very cool! Saw Deja Voodoo - they were quite cool but wasn't the best performance of there's I have seen but I think it was an all ages gig and they had to be a bit reserved. Then we saw The Bleeders - first time I have seen them and there were very cool. The only problem is - why did the promoters feel the need to have a strobe light at a rock gig? They are possibly the most annoying invention in the world....