GIVEAWAY WINNER!!

A few of you will remember a while back I decided to hold a giveaway due to a failed swap package (my partner disappeared and never sent my package).

I was meant to draw the winner of the swap last Sunday, but with my brother being in hospital and all and me having to head up to Hamilton for a week or so it was kind of impossible. 

But I can now announce the winner of the giveaway, its a week late - but better late than never right? 

I completed the giveaway in the most formal manner possible - writing all of the names on bits of paper, putting them in a tea cup and asking Rich to draw the name of the winner. 

The winner is Liv at Wait Until the Sunset who had a couple of pretty great cooking disasters - making a cake with salt instead of sugar and putting too much cornflour into a slow cook teriyaki chicken mix (result being it almost tasted like gravel).

 

I hope you really enjoy the apron and badges Liv!

Things have gotten turned upside down!

Hello all - you may have noticed I've been a little bit vacant from the world of blogging for a bit. The truth of the matter is, my brother has had an accident which had lead to him ending up in the hospital, the time frame of how long he will be in the hospital is currently unknown. He lives up north in Hamilton, fortunately I also lived in Hamilton for the better part of eight years and whilst I was here I made some pretty wonderful friends, who are more than happy to have me stay with them as long as is needed. So right now, my whole life is operating out of Hamilton. I will be going back to work tomorrow in my organisations Hamilton office, but I will be heading up to the hospital after work each day. My plan at this stage is to return to Wellington this coming Saturday, lets hope it all works out.

I'm trying to make the best of a bad situation, spending time with old friends in my old city, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't tough right now - because it is.

However, there are some good times - like last Saturday we took my brother to the Hamilton Botanical Gardens. The gardens were always one of my favourite things about the city, I decided to take a few pictures to share with the world. In some ways they are a standard city botanical gardens, however, they do have an area of "themed" gardens which are just incredible.

First up in the Japanese Garden - complete with zen garden, haiku and coy carp.

My favourite garden is the Chinese garden, although it was super busy on the day we went, it really is a lovely calm place.

Next up is the American Modernist garden, only a few photos, as it was modernist - not too much to take photos of when its all clean lines. Also, its not really my favourite garden - sorry American Modernist Garden.

Since I last lived in Hamilton a new garden has been built, the Indian Garden and it sure is beautiful. I could easily spend plenty of time hanging out here (plus imagine the great photo shoots you could have).

Last, but not least is the Italian Renaissance Garden, for some reason I feel like this was the first of these themed gardens. However, I could totally be making that up. It is a really beautiful spot - I've seen a lot of wedding parties having photos taken here over my years of living in Hamilton - you guys can see why right?

Well its time for me to head up to the hospital - I hope to see you all in the blog-o-sphere sooner rather than later. But will have to take it one day at a time right now, hope to be back soon (and also hopefully I can catch up on my blog reading).

50 Years of Dr Who Exhibition

I've been AWOL for a while - some of our friends got married in the Coromandel so Rich and I have been away for a while. The Coromandel is quite a distance from Wellington and the weather is a whole lot better than here so we decided to stay for a few days. I will write a post about our beach adventures soon, but today I thought I'd share some photos of the Doctor Who exhibition we have happening in Wellington right now.

Fun fact - I've watch Doctor Who for pretty much as far back as I can remember! Episodes used to always show after school (just before the news) and I clearly remember watching the third, fourth and fifth doctor - but the fourth doctor was always and will always be my favourite. 

I'm going to be straight up with you guys, I think the main reason I liked Dr Who so much growing up was the monsters. I do like monsters and creepy things a lot. I remember one of my friends once telling me he used to hide behind the couch whenever there were daleks on screen, I'm pretty sure I moved closer to the screen when the daleks and other associated monsters turned up.

I'm pretending to be scared by the cyber man - but its totally a lie - I freaking love cyber men!

The exhibition had quite a few costumes on display that were non-monster related (although as we have already established, monsters are the best part). 

 The fifth doctors hat and celery (I never really 'got' the whole thing with the celery!).

 The costume that Kylie Minogue wore in the Christmas Episode she guest starred in (Kylie really is tiny!)

 The fourth doctors scarf - my favourite!

The costumes of the tenth and eleventh doctors - bow ties are cool! 

The exhibition also had a tardis - for reasons that should be obvious to everyone. 

Overall the exhibition is on the small side, but it is still totally awesome - how often do you get to have a photo op with the tardis, a dalek an a cyber man? If you're in Wellington you should check it out for sure - it will be fun, I promise! Best of all the exhibition is FREE! (my favourite price).