Just thought I would share these pics with you, courtesy of Mr Ken Morrison and his handy camera of course :)
Note: both photos were taken in the last few days, just if you were wondering. And yes I have been good enough to get a pressie from Santa this year, and no I was not working when the other one was taken lol
Just a warning, this is probably not the blog post that you are expecting. However I have decided that it is something that I want to share so here I go.
On Saturday I went out for lunch with a few friends and as per normal I went through the gluten free check etc with my order, however on this occasion it turns out that I made some (in hindsight) rather incorrect assumptions so I am willing to share some of the blame for the consequences, however I feel that I do not deserve the full blame. I checked with first thing that I was ordering that it could be done gluten free, proper gluten free blah blah as I often do when going somewhere new, however with the second item I did not, I assumed that the waitress would realise this one also needs to be gf. I didn’t think anything else of it except a brief ‘hmmm I guess she was smart enough to make this gf too’ when it arrived but that was it. I started feeling a bit weird and funny later Saturday afternoon but again didn’t think much of it, mostly cos I was being busy and rushing around from one place to the next and only had about an hour at home to sort and eat dinner before rushing off to the theatre for final night of Footrot Flats (brilliant show by the way, absolutely loved being part of the set team for it). Did I think it was weird that I wasn’t hungry and didn’t want dinner? Yes, but not overly cos I didn’t really think about it, again I blame the busy. The show went as per normal, but with me sitting down more and being generally not as cheery as normal. Got home and fell into bed and assumed I was just tired…
Boy did Sunday prove that wrong! Woke up, earlier than I would have liked given it was my one sleep-in that week, rushed to the bathroom and emptied my stomach. Crawled to the couch with some cereal in a box and figured that was that, I would munch on cereal and feel better. Again, I was wrong. Basically I spent all of Sunday puking, eating a little in the following 10 minutes when I felt a bit better, sleeping, puking, eating, I’m sure you get the drift of my day. I did test a few things, like not eating anything to see if that would stop the vomiting need, it didn’t that just created dry heaving which is so not fun and I was already doing lots of that. I also tried just drinking something, no eating. Again not a success, it will take me a while to stop tasting that drink on the way back up (ick, yuck etc). It didn’t take me long to work out my body was trying to get rid of something specific, especially not when both ends were at play (sorry if the over share is a bit much but you were vaguely warned at the start lol). It took till about 11pm Sunday night for the offending food to be removed, and by that time I was crawling around because standing meant going dizzy and falling down again. My hands were shaking rather badly and I was just not in good shape.
Monday arrived later than usual for me (10:20am if you are interested, good thing I had pre-warned Ken I wouldn’t be at work on Sunday), and while I felt weak and shaky I knew that I would keep my food down if I took it easy, much improved from the finger crossing and hoping of the day before. I still had little appetite and ended up sleeping much of the day but felt well enough to attempt work on Tuesday (ystdy). Managed a half day ystdy till my body said ‘nope, that’s enough, you need to nap again’. So home to nap I went, did a bit of work inbtwn naps, but the great news is that after the 3rd nap I woke up feeling awesome! From still feeling blah before that nap to ‘in my opinion’ magically feeling like JB again, well a lethargic limb JB but still JB all the same. My appetite was back, I could eat choc fish again (yes that was a test), I had some energy and wasn’t lightheaded. So I did what any sane person would do, I rearranged my lounge and bdrm and ate choc fish :) hehe. My legs and arms are still quite lethargic overall and don’t last long doing stuff, took ages to rearrange stuff, but this is the longest side effect I get and will last btwn a week to three weeks in general.
You might be wondering why I decided to share this, and there are a few reasons for it. Firstly I often tend to minimise being celiac and pretend it’s not a big deal, and it obviously really is. So this is a lesson to mostly me, but also to those around me who may be taking my blasé view on it that it’s not a big thing. I think I need to be more like Luke who thinks of it in terms of ‘Jill will die if I bring her something with gluten in it’. Secondly this blog often tends to have all the good times in it, and sometimes things are not good. Thirdly I realised some things on Sunday which I wanted to share that would not have as much value or meaning without the full context.
And what are those things you realised I hear you asking, well I shall share them with you now. I am not quite sure I appreciated how much mum and dad did for me whenever I was sick when I was younger, now I do. For example, when I wanted a hot drink I would have to get up and put the jug on, fall back on the couch exhausted often falling to sleep again (not ideal). If I did get the jug boiled while I was still awake I had to get up again to make the hot drink and by the time I got back to the couch I would generally fall asleep again. So yeah, the hot drinks were generally not hot, or even warm, by the time I got to drink them. Also for someone like me who does groceries as she needs them (and Sunday was the day I was meant to be going to get some, after having put it off for a week and a half), it is interesting finding something to try and munch on that didn’t take much (if any) standing time. So thank you mum and dad for taking care of me all those many times when I was younger and not well.
Also it turns out that when I am unwell I don’t really have any spatial awareness so there are more bruises than normal on me, and some more stains on the carpet from drinks being knocked over as I reached for them (not helped by my then lack of getting up to get paper towels or towels to clean them up). Yes you are allowed to laugh at this, I have since I’ve started feeling better lol.
But I am pretty much all good now, the life lesson has been learnt and filed away for atlst a few months, and below is my new lounge layout for all you curious people. Yes I have two 8-seater tables up, and yes I can only sit 2 people cos of all the crafting stuff, but that’s why I live alone, so I can enjoy spread out crafting space :) And if you are wondering where the china cabinet is, it’s in my bdrm and it looks super awesome surrounded by purple, like it’s made to be in that colour scheme (picture the emoji with hearts as eyes here lol). Anyhow, I am back to happy JB, and I hope you dudes and dudettes are all doing good as well xxx
Ok just so you aren't confused real early on, the part 1 refers to the part 1 of my two weeks of holiday not to there being two parts to this blog post. Cool, so we are clear now..? Sweet :)
Ystdy bro and I went and found the centre of NZ monument, which was on top of a hill (shock horror aye) and also turned out to not be the centre of NZ as such, but is the centre of Nelson district and Nelson district is the central district in NZ so they claim it or something like that. The monument was so-so, nothing amazing. And the rain on the way up didn't help. It wasn't meant to rain, according to the weather report so you know a super trusting source lol, so that kinda put a damper on our plans for the day. After heading back down, and making sure the boys weren't too wet (turns out Fishy was fine, Glenny and Big Ted were a tiny tad damp though) we decided to head back to the accomodation for a chill and some lunch.
After lunch I headed into the Suter Art Gallery as I was told by Helen (Station Manager for Fresh FM, our sister station down here) that it was worth checking out. And I can say now that I agree :) it was very good, and the cafe was also very yum and relaxing. It was a really nice way to spend a hour, just wandering around then having some cake and tea and a read of my book.
After the art gallery I wandered around the park next to it, Queen's Park I think it was. It was quite small but had some good surprising sections in it. I also got chased by a goose, I think it didn't like me trying to cross the bridge by going through its territory. And yes I ran away (well scurried more than ran) and found another path to take me to the bridge, cos I am kind and caring that way lol.
Today was a better weather day, finally. We went and explored Richmond, which did not take very long at all, and then we went and explored a couple of parks in Nelson. The first one was Miyazu Japanese Gardens, which were pretty cool and then we wandered down to Founders Park which turned out to be like Pioneer Village in Stratford, ie pretty cool. Def a good use of a morning. I also called into Fresh FM which are based in Founders Park and had a chat with Matt who was the only one in the office today. Bro very patiently waited in the reception area while Matt and I chatted about station stuff and our issues etc. It was actually quite a nice chat, as there wasn't really any time pressure like there is at CAMA get togethers and conferences.
This afternoon I wandered into Nelson and checked out the museum and wandered around the shops. The museum was so-so, wouldn't say don't go but also wouldn't say make the biggest effort to go. It was fun to wander around but I wouldn't have missed much if I didn't go. In saying that their upstairs exhibits were shut so I could only see the Nelson District settlement side of things. The shops were shops, nothing amazing though I did find a couple of good finds in an opshop :) Sadly I couldn't find any pens or similar small souvenirs that said Nelson to buy for friends, which was a pity. I did find a few postcards so that will have to do. Never realised how many of our souvenirs just say NZ, its not so fun when you are just traveling within NZ. Although I did get a keyring from Suter Art Gallery that says Suter Art Gallery, another reason why I liked it hehe.
Tomorrow and Sunday are basically just travel days, so they don't really count as holiday days, I don't think any how. May still find time to do something fun but may not. Time will tell, as it usually does. And then next week I also have off work, but I will be chilling around Hastings/Napier which should be good. I don't really have any plans for it yet, got many things I would like to maybe do, but I may just end up doing nothing much. I definitely have set building one evening, and Dungeons and Dragons another, and a quiz one night as well so I will be doing some stuff.... I will keep you posted if I do anything super exciting :)
Centre of NZ Monument
Ystdy we drove up to Cape Farewell (Farewell Spit). It was a long drive but a good drive :) Few too many one lane bridges for my liking and plenty of roadworks so you knew you were in NZ but overall it was a lovely trip. We stopped and took photos along the way up and back. And on the way up we stopped at MAD Cafe in Collingwood for lunch. If you are ever up that way I highly recommend this place, the vibe was awesome, the artwork incredible (its the guys own artwork and I got a few cards with some of my fav designs), and the food was also very scrummy. I got the veggie burger and it was super yum as, it was packed fill with so much stuff and all the flavours worked awesomely together. There was also a black light art room which my hair apparently glowed in, it was a rather cool room as well. After lunch we wandered up to the boat ramp area then headed the rest of the way up to Farewell Spit.
On the way back down we took a turn off to Abel Tasman National Park cos what is the point of being up there and not calling in to say hi to the National Park. Along the drive there was a signpost pointing to Split Apple Rock so of course the driver (me) took us there. And while the rock was pretty cool I would say it looked more like a split Easter egg than a apple but lets not be fussy. I also just want to warn you that my photos do not do the rock justice, it looked way cooler in person.
After that small detour we headed to Abel Tasman National Park, didn't do a walk or anything but we can atlst say that we have been there now, and the boys have too. They finally decided to get out of the car there for a photo. No photo of them at Cape Farewell cos apparently it was too windy.... bears huh, so lazy (lol)
Lookout stop along the way
Today was icky weather (icky for us Hawke's Bay ppl, maybe not for ppl used to things like water falling from the sky....) and we decided to head over to Omaka to go see the Aviation Heritage Centre as we enjoyed it so much last time we were here. And now they have a WWII exhibit as well as the WWI one, so obviously we went to see both. And can I just say if you love biplanes like I do then you will be in biplane heaven in the WWI exhibit :) so many pretty biplanes, and some not so pretty ones but they are still cool cos they are biplanes and therefore just are. Have decided when I win lotto I am going to build myself some biplane Squadrons, maybe many of them (though I will refuse to call them a Group even if I get that many cos that is a dumb name). Definitely think the world would be a better place with more biplanes in it :)
Even learnt a few things, turns out reading the stuff they put around the place is actually informative, who woulda thought lol. Didn't read a lot of the WWI stuff cos read that last time, but one of the things I don't remember from last time that I did read this time was by the display of poppies and it turns out that purple poppies are for the animals (mainly horses) that lost their lives in a war so I think I might start wearing one of those as well as a red one round Anzac Day. Also read some of the WWII stuff, and have a book or two to look for now. Discovered that the Soviets let females fly and fight and so there are a couple females I now will look into a bit more, as well as the Night Witches which were a flying team of females, and yes I got the t-shirt hehe. Also learnt that way more Soviets soldiers died than I ever thought, which is rather sad. Also relearnt that I would suck in a war cos I am not a fan of being 'bombed' even if that bombing is just loud noises and a slightly vibrating room, and I know actual bombing would be way worse hence the me sucking at war.
Anyhow it was a good day, mostly just chilling and driving with some exploring and wandering around looking at planes :) nothing to complain about there :)
Just so you guys have an idea of the 'delightful' weather we had
