This is what I know ... for sure ...

(psst. click on the image for the full poster. I totally took that photo of Kat.)

This weekend one of my most favourite-st people in the world is going to pour her heart and soul onto a stage and turn it into an entire concert-thing.

She has been working on her music for longer than I can remember and now has a sound reminiscent of Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan and yet wholly her own. Plus she's adorable. So you should totally come.

The $15 cover charge includes a copy of her EP (!) as well as a complimentary first drink and nibbles.
And we all know there's pretty much nothing I love more than Free Alcohol. Finger foods! are a close second though. So again, Come!


Kat McKenzie EP Launch
Sandwiches Bar, Cnr Majoribanks St & Kent Tce, Wellington
Doors open from 8pm, gig starts at 9:30pm
$15 entry (includes CD, first drink, and nibbles)


Also! I have been gainfully employed as Photographer for the gig which I am most excited about. I am however disappointed to note that I will not be wearing a Press Pass or anything of the sort. But! I will have a camera in my hand.

Also also I think one of the songs she'll be playing is The Middle which is the song she wrote as a wedding present for Craig and I. It's lovely.
And it can be heard here : http://myspace.com/katmckenzie

I am miniature. People find this Hilarious.

Disclaimer: I am (in my opinion) just a regular small-sized person. Others would beg to differ. There is nothing (as far as we know) medically causing my lack of ... size, but my mother did smoke while she was pregnant.

This weekend my mother found my diminutive stature frankly, hilarious.
I was sitting in the drivers seat (ssh. more on this later) and I said
Sarah : So, you just push the pedals with your toes then?
Mum : Uh, yea, the balls of your feet.
Sarah : Oh. So your feet are just meant to hang there?
Mum : No, you push the pedals.
Sarah : It's awkward to do that with my toes
Mum : No, the balls of your feet!
Sarah : The balls of my feet don't reach the pedals if my feet are touching the floor of the car!

And every single time she got behind the wheel to reverse or turn us around or steer us around a very solid parked car she looked in the rearview mirror at my other sister (also learning to drive. But she's 15, and much taller than I) and collapse into laughter.
After seeing this I knew that Craig and I would never be able to share a car, he already complains about his new midget driving position when my mother moves the seat. I don't think he'll even be able to get into the car after I've used it!
Which might actually be kind of fun in an Oh godDAMN it Sarah! kind of way.

Oddly enough, I too found it difficult to get out of the car when the seat was pushed up against the steering column.
I guess 5"1 is really that short after all.


This really means that something monumental is happening.
I AM LEARNING TO DRIVE!
After 7 years of conscientious objection I am finally giving in and learning to drive.
More than that! (which is seriously, huge enough news as it is) I am doing so not to settle a score, or to prove my (darling)husband wrong but just because.
Ok. Fine. Not just because but because of an undesirable comparison to someone else who shall not be named (Voldemort!?) who also cannot drive.

My first lesson was this past saturday and when I returned home I found Craig out in the garage and burbled wildly
Sarah : Hey baby, I drove!
Craig : Yea?
Sarah : Yea! I didn't cry or crash or anything. And I went into second gear and turned in a circle!!
Craig : Well done.
He's just glad I haven't been scared off ... yet.


NB: I also have short grandmothers. So it's Genetics vs Cigarettes and I think it's Genetics for the win

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

Why are Pirates called Pirates?
Because they Arrrgh!

We're leaving, on a jet plane! ... eventually.

Yesterday Craig and I made our first trip to the travel agency!

Things we learnt :
1. I am an idiot. I was budgeting for return flights when we're going for one way flights.
2. To get cheap(er) flights we should book before christmas.
3. That's for an estimated leaving time of somewhere between March and May 2007.
4. We have to apply for the Visas after we have departure dates.
5. We can stop over in Australia, the U.S., or Asia.
6. I need to have a passport. Soon.
7. Craig is too too reticent at the oddest of times.
8. The only visa restrictions career-wise involve the childcare and health sectors.

It should only be two to three months before we have an itinerary organised.
Or at least a better plan.

SO EXCITING!
(so terrifying)

I love the smell of Sulphur in the morning

09-09-06 - 10-09-06

Craig was driving up to Rotorua to pick up an engine. He took me and we made a weekend of it.



Click here for photos

We ended up at a hotel room with our own private spa pool.

Yep, I'm really glad to be home again.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes ...

Craig and I have a new neighbour!

Craig : you know the new neighbour?
Me : ... yea
Craig : He's an embalmer
Me : Hee! Cool!
Craig : I thought you'd like that.

a minute passes

Craig : You know, I think you've desensitised me to all that
Me : What?
Craig : Yea, he told me and paused like he was expecting a big reaction and I was just like oh yea and went on talking about what we'd been talking about. My car.
Me : huh.

Just doing my wifely duty.

To begin at the beginning:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black ...
Last night I saw the most amazing staging of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.
It was in at Downstage which is already one of my favourite theatres, but it felt more intimate than usual.
The stage was multi-leveled and included a rotating section of floor which gave the actors room to move and at times it seemed something closer to a dance than a play ostensibly for voices. The Night was evoked using an almost unnoticeable black screen, a smoke machine and near-silhouettes.
All of the actors were just ... mind-blowing. They have to portray so many different characters but pulled it together remarkably well. I loved that they didn't rely on solely one method of characterisation, they changed their clothes, the way they held themselves, their facial expressions and voices. Everything.
I also cannot get over Loren Horsley's hair. Love.

It's only running until the 9th September but if you can, I really recommend catching it.

You can hear the dew falling, and the hushed town breathing. Only your eyes are unclosed, to see the black and folded town fast, and slow, asleep. And you alone can hear the invisible starfall, the darkest-before-dawn minutely dewgrazed stir of the black, dab-filled sea where the Arethusa, the Curlew and the Skylark, Zanzibar, Rhiannon, the Rover, the Cormorant, and the Star of Wales tilt and ride.

Hypochondria Hour!

There is a stabbing stabbing pain in my hand, running right down my weddingring finger all the way to about an inch above my wrist.
Every so often it feels like my finger is vibrating with the pain.
Ouch.

I think it might be being exacerbated by the fact that I keep my little finger flung into the air while I type, jerking my weddingring finger down when I need to use the shift key. Creating what I kindly call my typing claw.



If I ball my left hand into a fist it goes away.

I think work really is breaking my hands.
Which totally sucks because I like my unusually small hands!
And really, I find them quite useful.



(ok seriously, in order to counteract the claw I've been trying to hit shift with my littlest finger and it's working.)
(Hi Mum! you can stop worrying now)

Pierre! no. Jean-Luc? no. Michel? no. Batman? maybe.

TONIGHT
is a very important night.

Tonight, The Great Battle that has Plagued Craig and Sarah has come to an end.

They have settled the matter of Cat vs. Dog

And it was Won by this adorable little Alien face.


French Bulldog
Bouledogue Français

Of course, this battle is completely moot at this point, as the purchase of said family pet (now decided as one (1) French Bulldog) cannot occur for at least three years.

BUT! it must be publicly recognised that Sarah and Craig have decided that a French Bulldog is manly enough for Craig and small and alien-faced enough for Sarah.
Besides, Gilby Clarke has one.


Of course uh, Sarah can't live without at least one cat ... but that's another battle.

Happy Birthday Baby-Jayne

17th August 2006
A Photo Journal



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