Sometimes the quickest route is not the funnest route

In the weekend I headed to Ohakune for a friends baby shower, mum and I decided to make a weekend of it so we stayed the night.  On the way over I took the quickest route, the Napier/Taihape Road.  And while there is nothing technically wrong with this road (well not by NZ standards I would say... its pretty pot holed but where isn't these days) it was not the funnest drive to do.  There are very few cars you will meet so its a pretty lonely drive, and I am pretty sure if anything happened you would be screwed as there is also likely no cell reception.  Not tested this as I was driving lol.  Got to Ohakune in pretty good time though, and then met up with mum and we headed to the baby shower.  Nothing wrong with the baby shower but I don't think I have been to one I have actually enjoyed yet, they are definitely things I attend out of obligation and nothing else.

On the bright side though, our accommodation was quite nice and we went to the most amazing place for dinner.  It was an Italian restaurant and they squeezed us in which was very nice of them, we didn't have a booking and I think we probably should have.  But wow did they do amazing food, and were very aware of the difference between gluten free and celiac which was great.  I also didn't think it was too expensive, was middle of the road I would say which was nice. It was called Osteria and I would highly recommend it if you are in the area.

After discussing it with mum I decided to go home via a different, longer route.  I was going to go via Taupo but then we realised that going via Fielding wasn't that much longer so decided to go that way.  I've done the Napier/Taupo Road enough recently and have a few more trips on it coming up, so no need to add another one in.  So South I headed on Sunday to get home, and it was such a wonderful trip.  Fred and I just chilled and followed our noses to figure out our way back to Hastings (no googlemaps needed for us hehe), we had good music cranked up (thanks Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons), and had no time we had to be back by so could stop whenever/wherever we liked.  We took some pics to share with you guys, and just cos we wanted to :) so I would say the longest route was by far better than the quickest route, atlst for me in the wknd it was.

It's been a while...

It has been a while since I last said hi to you all.  I could blame many reasons for this (busy, not busy so nothing to report, sick, tired) but I won't, it is basically just simple procrastination.  The whole oh I will post about that, but I'll do it tomorrow, then tomorrow oh I'll do it tomorrow or in the weekend and then one gets busy or sick and it never gets done.  But here I am now :)

So what have I been up to since the last post (which was apparently in January, wow that is a while)? Quite a lot most likely but lets see what I can remember...

In February I went Art Deco-ing with Jo and Steve (worked with Steve at EIT).  Was good fun, mostly centred around cocktails/mocktails lol.  We did go listen to the Navy band for a while which was fun till they swapped to the movie soundtrack music which we all decided while good wasn't really what we were there to listen too so went of in search of another drink.

In March Jenny and I went to NP to see Matchbox 20 (her) and Goo Goo Dolls (me).  It rained, I got sick.  That about sums it up to me lol.  Nah it was a real good concert, we left partway through Matchbox 20 who were the main act.  Just the weather wasn't the best, and it sucked sitting there knowing I was going to be sick from the night while trying to enjoy it but I think that is a me thing as the others didn't get sick.

March also saw me head home for a second time, this time to stay up the mountain with Bro and Pa for a few nights.  Again the rain made an appearance, so much so we cut the trip short by one night, and didn't really get any tramping done.  We did one walk on the mountain on our last morning, and one of the days we went into NP and wandered around Pukekura Park.  Once the men left I went and stayed with Bridie for a few nights which was nice.  Caught up with Dons one of the afternoons, took Little Ted sightseeing on another, and hung out with Bridie and Eva on Easter Friday then headed back here,  Little Ted very much enjoyed his first road trip and I think he is keen for more.

Early April saw me head over to Rotorua where the whole family went to see The Phantom of the Opera (the one thing that was left on my bucket list).  Wow!!! What a great performance.  I highly recommend Rotorua Musical Theatre (I think that's who put it on, or some iteration of that name) if they are putting on a show when you are in Rotorua, def go see it I would say.  And now that my bucket list is clear I am happy as.  Some people have said I should add new stuff to it but I am not going to, I like that I've done and dusted it before I even turned 39 hehe.

April was also the month I helped with a kids show at Aubyn Live, and made some new friends.  One 8 year old in particular seems to be a new friend.  Me and him mimed rock concerts and fights to the death backstage most nights so I think he has earned the title of friend.  Plus I am friends with his mum and now dad (his dad was backstage too, first time) so I know he has a good chance at being a decent human and kid lol.

Also went out to a couple wineries for meals in April.  Went to Crabfarm with work for a team lunch one Saturday.  It was lovely, as Crabfarm always is.  And we had a wander through the art shed afterwards which is always fun.  Too expensive for me, but you sometimes get good ideas for projects hehe.  Then another Saturday Steph and I went to Black Barn for dinner.  This was a splurge let's save and not worry what we spend dinner which we planned back in Feb.  So good, and so worth it.  We dressed up, and just treated ourselves for the evening.  Def glad we planned it with time to save though cos it wasn't cheap.  Will we do it again, yeah I think we will :) is nice playing fancy grown up every so often.

I also got the flu somewhere in amongst all that April stuff... so that was fun... not :( am mostly recovered now though which is awesome, took about 4 weeks to go through it all so please don't catch that one anyone, it wasn't fun.

Dad visited in May, did a few things around the place which I wanted done and a few that I hadn't gotten to do cos I had been sick on and off for what felt like forever.

Last Friday Beth and I took a day off and roadtripped to Palmy to go to Munch (a fully gluten and nut free cafe, Beth has a nut allergy) and go opshopping.  It was a wonderful day and we especially loved that only could we order whatever we wanted but that we could share food.  It's the first time we have been able to.  We had so much fun we are going to do it again on a semi regular basis hehe :)

Other than all that I have had the standard coffee catch ups with friends, dates with myself (mostly at my fav cafe or Indian restaurant).  And the equally standard nights at home crafting or reading away, or doing nothing but staring into space, or dancing with a bear, or watching stuff on tv, or you get the idea... lol.

Overall, other than being sick far too often, this year has been going all good.  Work is still going well, love my job much more than the previous one even when I am tearing my hair out cos the roster is looking horrendous.  It's still more fun, and the team is fantastic (most of the time) which is lovely.  Had forgotten what a nice supportive team can be like and how much better they make work when it's busy and also just on a general day.

Anyhow hope you are also all good.  Sorry for such a long post, but we are all caught up again I think :)

Hugs to everyone xx

The downside of my new role

In my experience every job has a downside (atlst one, and some have more than one), or a challenge if you would rather think of it that way. Well I am pretty sure I have figured out what it is for my new role… it’s a real first world problem kind of downside/challenge as well :( 

Every time I leave the office I have to walk past the hospitals book swap trolley :O I know right, what a nightmare!!! And what makes it worse is if I have to wait for someone at the photocopier it’s right there, being all distracting and sexy :( 

I was planning to be good and wait till I had one to swap before taking one, but today it got the best of me and now I owe it a book. That’s not a problem as I’m sure I’ll find some I’m not gonna keep as I work through my to read pile, but now I’ve added to that pile with the book I took today…

So yes, that’s my dilemma and I see it continuing for a while, if not the whole time I’m in that office.  Life is hard ain’t it lol.

Otherwise the new job is going awesomely.  Have left work in a good, if not great, mood each afternoon and on Monday I was even looking forward to going to work not dreading it like I was in the other role. The team is full of lovely ladies, we have some great laughs and they are all supportive and kind from what I can tell. So yay to taking a risk even though I wasn’t sure it was for the best at the time, it definitely was :)

No idea where the time has gone...

This post was meant to be a pre-Christmas how is your year going kind of post, then it was going to be a pre-new year wow where has the year gone post, and then it was going to be a new year we made it post and now its a well and truely in the new year post.  Atlst to me we are well and truely in the new year.  I feel like I have been in my new role for ages (I started on Monday so it's been 3 days lol).  It's not that I know everything I need to know already, cos I sure don't.  It just feels like the routine of the year is already there.  Is that a bad thing...?  I don't know, but I hope not.

So my year ended with me still not being able to do a full week of work thanks to post-covid fatigue or whatever you wanna call it.  And ok so I wasn't diagnosed with anything cos that would have meant seeing my doc and I didn't wanna be 'that' person.  Thankfully the two long wknds (which I spent very chilled) and the two short weeks seem to have helped.  While I am not all better yet I am getting there, yay.  I am confident I will make it through this week without needing any time off which is awesome.  Am I napping every night after work then doing not much in the evening, ummm yes but I am making some great progress on some craft projects which is cool.  And so long as I ignore two which I started many moons ago and have been shelved then I am almost completely up to date so mega yay there lol.

Christmas saw me and Glenny just chilling here, with a book, tv series and a bottle of wine hehe.  It was actually a struggle to drink the whole bottle in the day and I had to stop partway through as I was rather drunk.  Seems that happens when you don't really drink any more... go figure lol.  Quite by accident I seem to have started drinking loads of water, and I actually really like it.  Am not really noticing any differences but others are and I've been told I am looking better and much healthier which is always lovely to hear.  Also has meant I can buy more treat food at the stupidmarket, that I am loving hehe, esp cos I can buy some of my expensive but amazingly tasty treats on a more regular basis, YAY lol.

New Years wknd Mum and Dad came over for a few nights, and Bro made a day trip over.  Did we do much, no not really but it was lovely all the same.  We did go out for dinner, to our fav Indian place in Havelock North om nom nom.  Dad and I got up for the sunrise on New Years morning as well.  Bit cloudy and probably not the best I've ever seen but it was quite cool in the sense it was very similar to the sunrise Mark got up and saw in Scotland.  I am taking that to be a sign that 2024 aint gonna suck lol.

Also here is my reading summary for 2023, with a lovely pic/graph with genres splits:
Total books - 54
Total pages read - 20,692
Shortest book - 105 pages
Longest book - 871 pages (Wilbur Smith, shock horror lol)
Average book length - 383 pages

Some other pics for your enjoyment :)

Work gave me a lovely bunch of flowers when I left the SMO Admin team 

Glenny and I celebrated 33 years together on Sunday, we have fun together as I'm sure the photo collage shows

Some rando watching the sunrise... (hehe I know its dad so not a total rando)

It's been a weird few weeks...

My last few weeks have been a bit eventful and a bit weird, well kinda.  Started with me getting new carpet in the lounge, just before Labour Wknd, and Pa was here so I didn't need to take the day off work, thanks Pa.  Then we hung out on the Friday cos it was HB Anniversary, can't remember what we did but am sure we did something lol, pretty sure we went out for dinner nom nom.  Then on the Sunday I headed off to Mangakino for a few days, just to chill.  I had the week after Labour Wknd off plus a couple days of the following week, cos why not.

Mangakino was fun.  Didn't really do much, but that's what I like about visiting there.  Caught up with Bro in Taupo on my way through, then we both headed to olds.  Went for a walk along the lake with Pa one of the days, then another went running in Tokoroa while Mum met up with a friend, who I then met.  Then Mum and I went shopping.  

Then I came home for a day before heading to Chch for a long wknd with Bridie.  We may have both under packed for that lol, I put my beanie back and she put her gloves back before we left.  Both agreed that was dumb when we got there as it was cccccooooollllllddddd.  Felt a bit warmer after we went and bought beanies from a souvenir shop lol.  Overall it was a good long wknd, we did lots of chatting (shocking I know lol), some exploring, lots of eating, watching stuff, some shopping, some reading, played on scooters and I went for a run while she watched the All Blacks game.  Slight disruption on our last day when I got a msg that my flight had been cancelled and I was now flying home via Auckland the next day.  Not at all what I had planned but I went with it like I had to.  Air NZ put me up in the lovely Novotel at the airport and gave me a food allowance, which seemed nice and high till you realised how much the hotel restaurant charged and this is where you had to eat to get it charged to room and therefore for Air NZ to pay.  Oh well, I made it work and spent $2 less than my allowance which is all I cared about, I didn't want to pay anything hehe.

Then after coming home and working for two days, I had a wknd which was lovely.  Took myself out for brunch then to the beach to read on one of the days, the other I have no idea what I did lol.  Then work again for 2 days, one of which I didn't feel so great, then was even more meh on Wednesday morning so took at a rat test and have been isolating with Covid since.  Day 5 today and still feel kinda meh, wouldn't be well enough to work even if it was a work day, so tomorrow shall be off work again and go from there I think.

So yeah that's my kinda weird few weeks, started off really well but then took a bit of a nose dive.  Am still doing Marathon in a Month but might not make (probably wont if I'm being honest) the full distance I challenged myself to do.  I think I will make a marathon but not the half again on top of that.  Still happy for donations if anyone is still thinking of donating.

And to finish off here are some pics from Christchurch :)

And a random extra from the fancy dress party I went to recently, am rocking the70s chick look in terrible lighting lol

Marathon in a Month 2023

November is Marathon in a Month time again.  Marathon in a Month is a fundraiser for Cancer Society NZ, where people sign up to walk/run/swim/bike a marathon (or other selected distance) over the duration of a month.  If you choose to do a marathon this works out to be 1.4km a day.  

This year I have roped mum in to take part, she is going to walk a marathon over November and I am going to run 1.5 marathons over the month.  

If you would like sponsor us this would be amazing, but we are also after people supporting us with words of encouragement throughout the month so don't feel like you need to donate money to be supporting us, sending us msgs to keep us motivated will also be needed.

To check our progress, and donate if you would like to, here are the links to our pages:
Me - https://marathoninamonth.org.nz/jilly-miller
Mum - https://marathoninamonth.org.nz/christine-miller
Team page - https://marathoninamonth.org.nz/maycontainnuts

If anyone would like to also sign up and join our team then let me know, the more the merrier I say :)

Ps: you may start noticing that I am changing the spelling of Jillie, I have decided that I am going back to how I like it spelt not how my friends chose to have it spelt.  I don't mind which spelling you use though, and please also keep calling me JB if you are someone who does as that name is still my fav, its just not really used any more... dunno why but am happy for us to bring it back hehe.

It's crazy the difference a year can make

Just thought I would do a positive gluten free update, cos I think my last few have all been kinda on the not so fun side of being gluten free.  Small side note on that, did you know paper straws and laundry detergent can contain gluten?? I know, me neither.  This world is just ridiculous at times.

Anyhow, onto the good stuff.  I have decided it is time I do up my lounge, paint it specifically, so I borrowed a couple of sanders off dad to save me doing all the sanding by hand.  And this time last year I am pretty sure I wouldn't have even been able to hold onto one of them with it going, let alone sand the whole lounge in one go, then follow that with washing my hair cos someone forgot to wear a hat so her hair was covered in dust (whoops lol).  I then did some knitting in the evening cos why not :) Then today I spent most the arvo (well just over 3 hours of it) painting the undercoat layer.  This also would not have been possible this time last year, no way could my hands have held a paintbrush for that long.

So while my super strict gluten free diet might suck, and quite badly at times, it is so absolutely worth it.  Just thought I would share that with you all :)

Anyhoo how are you?  I hope you are well and happy.  I am pretty good, feel like I'm not really up to anything at the moment but I am just sorta doing me things.  Me things like crafting, reading, hanging with friends, going for run when have the time and I feel like it.  Decided against one this wknd but that was cos I wanted to get lounge to the stage that next wknd I can just paint it and not worry about any of the pre-proper-painting stuff.  Am very happy with progress though I did miss getting a run in.  And ok if I hadn't caught up with Penny and Bex ystdy morning, Jenny this morning and Maggie and Paul this afternoon then I prob woulda been able to fit one in.  But me give up catching up with friends, haha yeah that aint so likely to happen lol.

I have survived

Survived what you ask, well another full trip around the sun of course :)

That's right, I aged again last week.  And if I may say so myself I am getting the hang of this aging thing I think, definitely getting better at it.  This year it was a 4 day event.  On Wednesday Bro and I took the day off work and hung out.  We ran some errands, played some Switch and some N64, drunk some cocktails and ate fish and chips (not in that order).  Thursday I went down to Feilding to get another tattoo, this one is a biplane and is very awesome (in my opinion).  Friday Jenny took the day off work and we went out for brunch then treated ourselves to massages, then Jenny and a few friends came round for cocktails and pizza (nom nom slurp slurp).  Saturday Mum and Dad came over and Mum and I went to a Celiac NZ event in Havelock North which was actually pretty good (and I got a bag filled with groceries just for attending, mega score).  For dinner all of us headed round to Jenny's for dinner and she put on a scrummy dinner for us.  And no I am not mean taking my visitors to Jenny's instead of cooking for them, Jenny actually likes cooking just not for only one person, so she likes having more than herself to cook for.  Plus she likes my family (I know, she is weird... lol).

So anyway that sums up my bday for 2023.  And I hope you all had lovely days on my bday as well <3

Just when you think you have it figured out life throws you a spanner...

Wow, it's been ages since I've posted anything.  Sorry about that, time just got away on me (like it does sometimes).  This is another gluten free themed post, I know I am getting so good at these.... lol.

Got some gluten free soy sauce in a recent grocery shop, and decided to have some with dinner last night.  Which I would say went rather well, until I was partway through my run at the gym and realised something was not sitting quite right... got home in time (thankfully), turns out the gluten free claim on the bottle was not something my body agreed with.  Spent a fair chunk of the night awake with a crock gut, thankfully didn't vomit too many times as it wasn't that much gluten that I consumed, but there were plenty of moments when I wasn't sure that I wasn't going to.  Needless to say I had today off work, have been mostly napping and finding energy to get up and get something to drink/eat.  Not sure I will ever get used to how drained eating gluten makes me, the effort it took to just get up this morning was incredible.  And to think before I was diagnosed that was my standard day, no idea how I coped back then but I guess you do what you have to so I just did.

I did some investigating (thanks Celiac NZ website) as I was curious as to how something labelled gluten free wasn't totally gf and it turns out that products made in NZ and Aus have to meet strict criteria to be able to put the words gluten free on their labels here.  However foods imported from other countries have no checks and it's basically a trust thing, I get to trust that they are actually telling the truth and it is gluten free.  Seems like a big trust to me... And I'm not sure I am down for it at the moment, to be honest.  So for the next wee while atlst I think I am going to be a NZ and Aus product only celiac (with a couple exceptions of tried and true brands of course). 

To end on a happier note I have just finished being stage hand for the show Company done at Theatre Hawkes Bay.  It was a fantastic show, great cast and boy did they have good voices (it is a musical).  And unlike some shows I have been involved in, the cast chatted with us backstage helpers which made each night real fun.  Some shows the cast feel they are above us and we don't get spoken to at all unless it's something they aren't happy with.  This one thought we were included, of course we had our own jokes and whatnot, like backstage crew do hehe.  My next show is Jungle Book which is being done through Aubyn Live in September, it should also be a good show.  As much as I say I don't like kids, it turns out kids in a theatre are tolerable so I'm looking forward to it lol.

Take care all, eat some gluten yumminess for me please (pink iced buns, the long ones, with butter on them is what I'm craving at the moment (moment being the last few months lol)).