Long wknd and RDO #2

I feel like my wknd was rather uneventful but am sure there are those of you out there that would disagree, especially as for starters it was a long wknd, 5 days to be exact, well 5 and a bit cos I finished early on Wednesday.  So here is a day by day summary and you can decide if you think it was uneventful or not :)

 

Wednesday I finished work early so bro and I could go watch the Blackcaps at McLean Park.  They were playing India and they came a solid second lol.  It was far too hot and we both decided that we don’t really like live sport in practice, only in theory.

 

Thursday had the day off and we went to watch the White Ferns play India at McLean Park.  Again we came second but the girls put up a better fight than the boys did.  It was also overcast and cooler, and less crowded so I didn’t mind watching it live.

 

Friday we headed home to see mum and dad and to swap cars for me.  Long drive but that’s a given these days, boo to this small country having crap roads and long routes anywhere.

 

Saturday dad and I headed into Stachurski Motors to trade Spartz in for Cleo.  Cleo is my new car that mum and dad chose out of the few that they test drove and using a list of things I wanted.  Sad to say goodbye to Spartz but me and him had a blast while it lasted, sadly my body just won’t drive a manual no more and he was starting to cost a bit.  Cleo is a Nissan Teana, automatic.  She is a great girl and I think me and her are gonna have lots of fun together.  Picture will come when I have one of her somewhere cool, she doesn’t want a just boring pic as her first one lol.

 

Sunday bro and I drove back to mine.  Went to Three Wise Birds for a cider with Samara and David, then out to dinner at a pizza place in Havelock North which was real nice.  Bro was nice and got a gf base as well so we could share pizzas.

 

Monday was my second and last RDO.  Bro headed home in the morning and I headed down to Radio Kidnappers where I will be working from the 18^th February as their Broadcast Technician.  I went down just to see them and hang a bit, get a bit of an orientation as well.  Was surprising how quickly the time went, I was there for almost 3 hours but it didn’t feel like it.  I know you are probably wondering what I will be doing there as work and the answer is a bit of everything, but mostly the technical stuff like putting shows together and getting them in the system to go on air and ensuring that the music playlists are updated semi regularly as well as training new broadcasters on how to work the equipment.  I am not going to be on air, except when interviewing people.

 

So yeah that was my long wknd, not very eventful was it :p lol

 

RDO #1

My first rostered day off (RDO) was very chilled and semi productive.

I continued my French history lessons. A few interesting things I've learnt from these lessons so far:
1: speaking French is only a recent-ish thing, they used to speak English with English, Scottish and Irish accents.
2: Paris has moved, you used to be able to ride (on a horse) to the Spanish border to have a fight or rescue someone or such like, and return in less than a day, quick enough to still have time to have a fight or do some business on your return to Paris.
3: never be a Red Guard for the king, always be a musketeer. Red Guards die at a huge rate, musketeers don't die at all. Not quite sure how the Red Guards keep filling up their ranks, maybe this will be explained later in my lessons though.

I signed up to a doctors, finally I know but there haven't been any openings in Hastings since I moved here in either of the two practices I wanted to join. This I was glad I had a day off during the week to do, so score one for this trial hehe.

Inbtwn the rain I managed to get rid of two bucket loads of dirt, I sprinkled the dirt on the lawn as per dad's suggestion. Only got rained on a bit while doing it.

Did some sewing after lunch. Finish the maxi skirt I started ystdy, plan A and B were ystdy and plan C was today. Luckily today's plan worked out all good. Plan B didn't work cos someone, not naming names, didn't measure properly or check measurements that she did take so cut wrong. Silly rookie mistake I know. Atlst plan C worked out well, skirt looks very cool I think.
I also turned 2 dresses into tops. One I cut shorter and added splits up the sides and the other I shrunk in hot water, it's kinda fun deliberately shrinking something.

I've also continued my Swedish camping research. Not sure I'd recommend camping in Sweden if this source is accurate, though I am only half way through so anything could happen yet. Just have to stop reading it before bed cos it does not aid peaceful sleep....

French lessons

Swedish camping research

My new skirt :) 

Wknd fun

Last wknd ma, pa and bro came to visit. Dad was only a slave for a bit of his time here, rest he was a visitor 😊 he even got out for dinner and to see a couple waterfalls hehe.

Ma and pa drove over on the Saturday as did brudda. Bro stayed Saturday night only while ma and pa stayed till Tuesday. Didn't do much on the Saturday afternoon but dad did some stuff for the house or yard, kept himself busy I think. We all went out for tea on Saturday night which was real nice. We went to Lone Star, always good food and lots of it there.

Sunday morning bro and pa and I went for a couple walks that I wanted to do but hadn't yet. The first was at White Pine Bush, very nice and not at all challenging. Some lovely nice photo areas though, and some annoyingly big trees that were rather difficult to get all of in a photo. The second walk was Tangoio Walkway to check out the two waterfalls. The first waterfall, Te Ana Falls, was pretty cool 😊 I even braved the not even close to warm water to get nearer the falls for a photo, so worth it once I could feel my feet again lol. The second falls, Tangoio Falls, was not worth the extra walk in my opinion (and dad and bros), super not cool. Maybe it would be better after some rain but then the track woulda been so muddy it wouldn't have been worth it anyhow.
The rest of Sunday was just chill and hanging out really, dad prob did more work cos he seems to like keeping busy, nothing at all to do with a maybe demanding dorta...

Not much happened for the rest of the week after mum and dad went home and this weekend has been a nice chilled out place to myself wknd. Today is my 6 month as a home owner anniversary and to celebrate Samara and her mum came for dinner. It was a very lovely evening. I also got bored earlier today and made myself a tablecloth 😊 Me, Missie and the boys tested it to make sure it worked. The boys think it works marvellously as Glenny finished first followed by Fishy while Missie and I seemed to keep finding every snake and took our time finishing. Think it's cos the snakes are purple and you know how much we like purple hehe.

Tomorrow I have a rostered day off, my team is trialling a 9 day fortnight at work to see if it will work as a possible option for the whole organisation. Next week is the first week of it. I get Monday off, then work 7.30-5 Tuesday-Friday, next Monday I work 7.30-4 then same as previous week for the rest of the week. And repeat. Explaining it to you guys cos the team decided (one day when I was not in the room) that I would do a blog about my days off, so instead of starting a new one gonna just add to this one, if I remember. Cannot guarantee anything interesting will be done on my days off but will be nice having 3 day wknds every second week 😊

White Pine Bush

Had never seen mushrooms growing on a tree branch before 

Te Ana Falls

Tangoio Falls

Sunrise from craft room other morning

Ensuring tablecloth works

Visitors for New Years

Meant to get this up a few days ago but what can I say, I'm on holiday and feeling a bit lazy hehe. My friends Bridie and Alice came to stay over New Year's. We had lots of fun and did quite a bit of stuff really. This is the abridged version 😊

We went up Te Mata Peak, yes I know I go there lots but I like it so why not. Also it has nice tracks that are shaded if you don't want to go to the top and it's also close by. So yup I'll keep going and keep taking ppl there.
We also did a winery bike tour, I liked the biking and the wine tastings but personally prefer to not mix the two. Biking is exercise and fun, wine should be drunk while chilling lol. In saying that would recommend doing one if over here cos really is quite fun.
For New Year's evening we went to a free concert at the Sound Shell and the family fireworks cos they were earlier in the evening and meant we could wake up for the sunrise on New Years Day. Although there were a few more clouds than I would have liked we still got a good sunrise.
We went to the Open Air Cinema to see Mamma Mia 2 one of the nights, good movie, great venue.
Along with general exploring, sightseeing and some shopping the time flew by. Bridie and Alice also did Cape Kidnappers and went to see the gannets, I didn't go as my body doesn't walk on sand for the amount of time required without some loud protesting and brokenness. They really enjoyed it tho and one day I'll do the tractor ride version of it hehe.
Ps all the above may not be listed in the order we did it 😛

Open Air Cinema

Te Mata Peak

Winery Bike Tour

Sunrise 1st January 2019

Friends made while shopping lol