Big Sky New Zealand

Week Fourteen

Sunday
I bought this print of Alice by Modigliani from the side of the road in Karori. She looks perfect in our hallway.


Monday
A work trip. Which I don't discuss.


Tuesday
Some days I hate this sign and some days I like it. Tuesday was one of the latter.


Wednesday
Craig's threadless order arrived! 4 new tee-shirts.


Thursday
A hateful day. April Fools.
But! The last day of a short week before a four day weekend!


Friday
We woke up late, packed, and drove to Taupo.


Saturday
A not so nice day. Craig was due to skydive at 11am (his christmas present!) but it was delayed until midday, then until 2pm. But the clouds didn't part. The last time he even got into his jumpsuit (pictured) but still no dice.
We will reschedule. And pray for clear skies.


&



Tired.
Also? I'm wearing a sweatshirt purchased (I forgot that it might be chilly during the day in Taupo) in the Child section of a large department store. Craig was very amused.
But it was half the price and with a greater discount than the grown up clothes. There are benefits to being diminutive.

An early memory ...

One of my earliest memories is of going to High School with one of my parents (I believe it was my father), they were teachers and I was off school/kindy/creche (no memory of my age) sick.

I mustn't have been very sick though because there I was, sitting at the front of the class at my father's desk, drawing. The gigantic students in their black woolen jumpers heckle me lightheartedly Are you our new teacher? Is she our new teacher, sir?

And I can remember very clearly feeling mortified, trying to ignore them, incandescent with embarrassment, and thinking furiously to myself Of COURSE I'm not. I'm OBVIOUSLY a small child. GOD.

Week Thirteen

Sunday
Craig borrowed the painters' ladder and stole the pears from the tree. The birds had been so enjoying them.


Monday
Raindrops and brakelights on the commute home. A long Monday.


Tuesday
Working out the bus schedule after the Tweet Up. A little drunk, I ended up catching the bus all the way home instead of the cheaper option: bus and train. Maybe I was a little more than a little drunk.


Wednesday
A grey day, I went to Cue and tried on a fuchsia top and an acid-lemon-chartreuse trench coat.


Thursday
I went to the mall to pay off another chunk of our Hawaii holiday while Craig went to the gym. I walked home at dusk.


Friday
Craig and I went back to the mall to pay off the rest of the holiday (woo!) then picked up Japanese food for dinner. This was taking while waiting for the food.


Saturday
I used Jamie Oliver's iPhone application & cooked Bacon and Asparagus Tagliatelle (from his recipe for Bacon and Asparagus Parpadelle) and it was amazing. Simple, fresh ingredients, and so delicious. And, most of all, it had asparagus in it and Craig ate it all. And! it made me feel a bit like a chef.


&



I ran.
I have (as of today) just finished Week 2, Day 1 of Couch to 5K.

Last night: Wellington Tweet Up

@McQuillanator (Laura), @sarahrose (Moi), & @MsConstantine (Kim)
Polaroid taken by @kathrynwilson24

I met people from the internet. A lot of people.
And they did not chop me up into little pieces and distribute me around the city.

There was a Wellington "TweetUp" at The Malthouse and I went along, arriving just before the name badges and sending Craig frantic messages trying to look busy as I tried to find someone I recognised (turns out, twitter icons are TINY and NOT USEFUL FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES) until, finally, someone I knew approached me. And she had the name badges.

But oh, I met a lot of lovely people.
And I met a lot of the lovely people I have been following on Twitter for some time. That was probably the best part.

The weather today? I think that was me.

Hell may have frozen over.

I now own running shoes.
And more than that? today I used them to RUN.

I just completed Week 1 - Day 1 of Couch to 5K.

Week Twelve

Sunday
Wolf Hall and Flickr Uploadr on my Macbook. Just like what feels like every single Sunday this year.
I am loving Wolf Hall but it seems interminable.


Monday
Beautiful sky. Sunrise at work. The days are getting shorter.


Tuesday
Ah, the beginning of the Flight Centre Saga*.


Wednesday
St Patrick's day. I went understated and wore all black but with MInt Green fingernails, a shamrock around my neck, and a claddagh and snake** rings.


Thursday
Craig and I had been watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy earlier in the week and then, all of a sudden, this quote appeared outside Bennetts. And it's not even close to Towel Day.


Friday
Flattos. Disc like peaches.
According to flattos.co.nz they are an heirloom fruit and are sweeter and less messy than more spherical peaches.



Saturday
Craig dragged me out to a giant shed where an auction was being held. He was looking at welders and I was looking at antiques. He decided not to come back to take part - he says it's because the welders would most likely go for more than his budget but I think it was just to stop me buying strange and ornate 'antique' asian furniture. Because I would. It was amazing & bizarre.


&





* Craig and I wanted to spend a week in Fiji in July to celebrate the fact that as of the 15th July 2010 we will have been together an entire decade (in fact, 6:15 that night marks the moment). We had done research and chosen where we wanted to stay but we wanted to book with an actual travel agent (I don't remember why exactly. Something to do with payment) and so, on Wednesday I arranged it all with a travel agent when Craig, sweet infuriating man that he is, decided that we should get another quote from another agent, just in case, what can it hurt, and in the DAY and a HALF that it took the agent to get back to us (not an unreasonable time) the amazing resort within our budget became COMPLETELY BOOKED.
All Friday afternoon and Saturday morning we tried to find anything similar in our pricerange and we came up completely blank.
And so, on Saturday afternoon, after half an hour of tears & accusations in our car in a carpark, we went to yet another travel agent (this makes four) and instead booked a trip to Hawaii for our 5 year wedding anniversary (14 January 2011).
This means longer to save, a trip to Hawaii like we had originally wanted for July this year, and like 2008's trip was Turtles and Pearl Harbour, 2011's will be Manta Rays and Volcanoes.

** Because Jolly Old Saint Pat is feted for ridding Ireland of snakes. And setting up the Catholic Church there, but I don't have a particularly "catholic" ring.

I may have bought this shirt for Craig. I may be making him wear it today.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!
(La ale-lah pwad-rig son-ah jeev)

Hiatus Update 2: Zoë by Sam Edelman Edition

Hi there oh amorphous internet,
I’m so pleased that this second hiatus update is lacking in the confession stakes. Well (of course) almost …

I ended up purchasing a leather pencil skirt (yes, I am doing nothing to dispel rumours) from trademe (New Zealand’s version of eBay except you CANNOT snipe the auctions. HATE.) and admittedly, I bid $2 while drunk and did not expect to win it …. Ha. More fool me. I won. But my darling husband gave me a pass on that one. So it doesn’t really count:



I have been approaching this hiatus as less of a challenge and more of a lifestyle change. I haven’t found it torturous because I haven’t been black and white with myself, shades of grey all the way,
I have modulated my lunchtime walks around the city, I tend to go to the waterfront (or just see how far I can walk) instead of to the main shopping street(s), but I haven’t banned myself from going into clothes shops or avoided reading fashion blogs. I think, I think, I hope, that this change will last longer than the three months I initially set out. I have a feeling that it will. I do like it more than I was expecting.
Of course I was expecting it to be horrid and hard and frustrating as all get out but you know, I always prepare for the worst case scenario because then I’m usually pleasantly surprised!



Additionally, in the not-exactly-a-confession category, my darling dear approved the purchase of a pair of shoes I have lusted after for years but which have been sold out every damn time I managed to scrape the requisite cents together. He’s lovely. I had previously decided, and mused out loud to Sir C, that I would purchase a pair of vertiginous heels as a celebration of the end of the hiatus. When these shoes (Sam Edelman Zoë boots aka faux-biagas) became available for purchase again my puppy-dog eyes took over my face and he rolled his eyes and said he liked them. Hurrah!
And so I ordered, I received, I tried them on, I took photographs and now I will pack them away again until April 14.



Only 30 days to go!


(yes they are kind of high. But the platform? the platform helps)

I am the queen of delayed gratification.

Week Eleven

Sunday
Over at Trinity for dinner, my darling mother SCREAMED in the kitchen. Turns out it was because THIS (a Weta) was in the lettuce she had picked (from the garden, not the supermarket). There followed a lot of general screeching while Craig collected it, held it while I took photos, then set it free in the garden.
Creepy primordial insect.


Monday
Sometimes, upon arriving home to Park Place, Craig and I hang out on the bed for a bit and chat before continuing on with dinner & the like. This happens less often since we started driving to and from Wellington. We do the chatting in the car.


Tuesday
The day I discovered I was in Post-Modern Ink. So exciting.


Wednesday
Two chairs and a lectern awaiting Richard Dawkins. His talk was interesting and lovely and oh, I just adore pop science.


Thursday
A cupcake success!
Mini red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing. They were delicious. Seriously. And they looked so cute.
I have a strong feeling this will be my go-to baked good for quite some time.


Friday
A very climatically strange afternoon.
While at the pub a mini tornado tore through Wellington. We walked over in grey sunlight and emerged to rain and trees and minor chaos. Driving home in the rain we arrived to a Pear Massacre in our backyard (approximately 200 pears on the ground) and within a further hour the rain was gone, the sun was setting & lighting up the sky, and there was an impressive rainbow.


Saturday
A busy day - there was the talk by Neil Gaiman, a family barbecue, then celebrating Petra's birthday with a chili chocolate cake (seriously), and a lot of tequila. And vodka. And more tequila.


&



Self Portrait wearing Girl About Town by MAC.


Pictured, Right.

People have asked how I can wear such a bright bright fuchsia lipstick and all I do? seriously, is apply it with my finger and use it more like a stain. I mean, unless I'm really committing to being the girl with the hard out lipstick. Which I very rarely am.
But it meant I could wear the same outfit (Jeffrey Campbell wedge ankle boots, jeans, floaty black zip top) to all three events and not be over or under dressed for any. Success!