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)