Just dropping in to say hello

It's been a while so I thought I would drop in a say hello :)

Not a lot has been happening, so it's not really a post filled with news, more just bits and pieces.  I am settling in well at my new house and new job, though I suppose soon I will have to stop saying they are 'new' lol.  In a week I will have been at my job for 5mths, and I've been in my house with the cats for 3mths (I think), so they aren't really new new any more.

The cats and I are getting on quite well.  Lulu is basically my little shadow, generally speaking whatever room or area I am in she is as well.  Where possible she is also helping me, or 'helping' as I prefer to say.  The only thing I have found so far that she doesn't like is when I sew and I think this is because she can't be on my lap and its much harder for me to pause what I'm doing to give her attention.  She does very much like gardening in all its forms, though yesterday Zeffy decided to help with the gardening as well and it turns out it is much harder with two helpers than with one...  Normally Zef can be found on his front seat snoozing in the sun, or lack thereof - I do live in Stratford after all lol.  While he loves pats and cuddles he is a much more independent cat than Lulu.  Oh and Lulu also loves to play, a LOT!!!  And she often gets a tad cranky when she thinks I give up too soon.  She doesn't understand that there are other things I want/need to do, or she does understand but just thinks I should still put her play first, which is highly likely.

The rest of the house is good too, I very much like my little place.  Am slowing doing stuff outside (some with Dad's help) to get it how I want it.  Some things will be long term things, so aren't focusing on them yet.  Same with inside, most of that is long term stuff, and some of the short term like painting a few areas needs to wait till its warmer so am not worrying about it much at all.  Am making the most of having less to do and am reading and playing with cats instead hehe.

Work is going very well.  I love the role and my workmates are awesome.  Yes there are a few that try my patience but that happens everywhere.  I don't even mind the 30ish mins commute either which is nice, was a bit worried that that would bug me quickly.  My wallet is noticing it and have had to wiggle a few things around to be able to afford it, and the cat food, but it's ok.  I still think the cats and the job is worth it and that is all that matters.

I hope you are well and that you have survived winter without too many bugs finding you 💜 

Not long till spring time, and warmer weather (yay).  I am def enjoying the sun being up a bit later so I have time to do a few things outside, if I feel so inclined, after work 😊

It’s been a very good wknd

It has been a very good wknd this wknd. Nothing extraordinary happened but still it’s been very good. I have got all boxes unpacked now, and just a few things left to organise/sort. The house is definitely feeling like home. Also feels like I’ve been living in Stratford for more than just a few weeks, which I’m taking to be a good sign lol.

Yesterday was Inglewoods last home game (rugby), so I headed down to watch Paul play, and by that I mean catch up with Bridie while we sort of watch Paul play lol. The weather was rather ick and we both wondered if we truely loved Paul enough to be there, but we stayed and our crazy was well rewarded… Paul scored two tries!!!!! He’s an old man now, for rugby atlst, and I can say that cos he’s older than me for another few weeks lol, so him scoring one try was pretty incredible, two was insane. He hasn’t scored all season, though he has had a couple of assists. Inglewood lost the game, but Bridie and I don’t care cos Paul scored lol, well that and they have lost every game (I think) this season so we weren’t expecting any different.

Then after that Dons came and saw my place and we hung out, then we went thru to NP to go to Mike’s which is a gluten free restaurant. Once again we just got a bunch of starters and shared, cos we can and it’s not often that we can so we are making the most of it hehe. The food is yum as, and so are the cocktails we have tried so far. Bit limited on those as have to drive but still worth going.

Today I wandered round to my friend Diane’s, it’s a lovely walk and you get to go through King Edward Park for some of it which is lovely. I had something to drop off and something to pick up, Fred wanted the day off hence the walking. 

I also did some baking this afternoon, my new to me oven seems like it will do the trick. It’s a bit smaller than my old one so just have to adjust a few things, but only really if doing biscuits as the tray I had to get fits less on it.

The rest of the wknd was either spent pottering or chilling, so a nice one all round. I hope your wknd has also been a good one.

Oh and this is my 500th post. Crazy!!! Thanks to everyone who has been here from the start, and thanks to those who have come in along the way.

💜💚🧡

Zeffer & Lulu

I realised that in the last post I don’t think I let you know my furry friends names… how slack of me 😂 They are Zeffer (aka Zeffy) and Lulu. Zeffer is full black (whiskers included), Lulu is black and white. Often Lulu can hide her white when she is sleeping, but you can usually still tell them apart cos Lulu will be sitting on me and Zeffy will be beside me. 

Lulu does not really stay still long enough to get a good photo of her markings, but Zeffy is a bit of a poser esp when outside on the front porch area lol. 

Anyhow here are some pics of them. I’m sure they won’t be the last ones you see

Zeffy

Lulu

 

My ‘outdoor’ cats

For those that do not know I moved into my new home King’s Bday weekend. It’s a lovely 2 bedroom house in Stratford. With it came two cats, the previous owner was moving to a non-pet friendly place in Auckland and she had two rescue kitties which were offered to me. I thought about it before saying yes as I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to take on even one cat let alone two, but after talking it through with a friend I decided to say yes. It’s their house and I thought it would be nice to let them stay somewhere familiar and also together (they are brother and sister). I was told they are outdoor cats, and that they spend over 90% of their time outdoors. Well they are now called ‘outdoor’ cats, note the quotations cos they sure spend a whole lot of time inside for outdoor cats 🤣🤣

To be fair Lulu spent some time outside in the weekend, when she was helping me out and I was outside lol. And they do sometimes disappear outside for long stretches of time. But overall, if I’m inside they are too. And if I’m sitting somewhere atlst one of them is on me if not both. 

They are very gorgeous, and love to snuggle and also play. The favourite toy at the moment is a piece of cord I found, leftover from something from Pa I think. It is hard when they both want to play and there is one on each end, it’s not that long a piece of cord and had quite a few scratches on my hand by the end of Sunday lol. It also gets challenging when they both want pats/love cos I don’t always have enough hands it feels. But overall I think we are bumbling along ok and figuring each other out. 

They don’t know it yet but they are going to become gluten free kitties cos they love me that much 😶😆 am sure they won’t mind… corse gluten free cat food is more expensive than normal cat food, and I have to buy twice as much. But this time I’ve chosen to do it so hoping it hurts a little less 🤞🏻😄

I was going to add pictures of the cuties but blogger won’t let me access photos on my phone or iPad and I don’t have my computer set up yet, and I’m also stuck and cannot move (probably most impt lol) cos both of them are on me at the moment lol. So photos shall come shortly, hopefully over the weekend once I’ve sorted out my spare room which is my office and creative space 🤩💜

Kiwi Release

For work yesterday I got to do something I never thought I would get to do, at least not without a lot of planning and groundwork to work out how to get my name on a list... and then the opportunity arose at work and I jumped at the chance (even said yup I'll come before I checked with my manager lol, though when I did ask her she said she had been waiting for me to ask as she knew I would be keen as).  What did I get to do you are wondering, well I got to help with a kiwi release 💜

It was so amazing and special, and very magical.  Altogether 13 kiwis were released, our group took 6 and the other group took 7.  We were on York Road Loop Track just out of Midhurst.  The Kiwis we released were all pretty well behaved, a couple were not impressed at having been stuck in boxes for so long but they calmed down quick enough and most went into their burrows perfectly happily.  One even fell asleep on Tane (the handler, him and Sue were the only two that got to touch the kiwi, which made perfect sense to me), which was rather sweet.  I didn't photograph many of them (only 2), as I wanted to experience it not behind the camera, but I did get a few photos as you can see below.  And I decided to film one of them being put into their burrow, that was the only one who decided that it wanted to escape and make a break for it.  Kinda happy I got that one on video as it was cool to see one running hehe.  

We carried them in pairs, one on each side of the box.  I was with my workmate Michelle and she sung our kiwi a waiata (song) as we walked which was also very special.  Turns out they are quite heavy, and when you pick it up with your dodgy shoulder it gets even harder quickly.  The other option was my dodgy hand and I thought overall the shoulder was the best bet out of the two lol.  We had to keep the box level and not let it brush the ground or the bush at all so there was a lot of concentration when we were walking with the kiwi.  It turned out that all kiwi released into the wild are at least 1.9kg (fighting weight) so when combined with a wooden box they are not light.

And how did this opportunity arise you might be wondering, well the Iwi does mahi (work) with one of the partners who do the releasing and our youth programme helps as well.  They helped with the release at Stratford Mountain House on Thursday and us kaimahi (workers) were invited to the Friday one as they know we are also keen to help and experience releasing kiwi.

The blue tag on the bottom right marks the burrow

Video of the one that hightailed it hehe

Sold and bought

Hey all, 

So this one is just a quick one really, mostly cos there are not enough hours in a day when one has a long commute to work and back (Aucklanders I have no idea how you do it on a daily basis!!! 😱 lol).  But in exciting JB news I have sold my house in Hastings (settlement was last Friday), and I have gone unconditional on one in Stratford (settlement is in 4 weeks time) 🎉 

I am very happy and while it might seem rather rushed for the buying of one, it is definitely the right house.  The moment I walked inside I felt at home, and even my friend who was open homing with me said she could see me living there, and this was moments after we walked in the front door 😻💜

I am not sure how long this link will last, but here are some photos for those of you keen to check it out 😊

https://homes.co.nz/address/stratford/stratford/23-achilles-street/Yp0nP

Goodbye Hawke's Bay - Hello Taranaki (again)

I have officially left Hastings, and am now back to living in Inglewood.  I drove over yesterday/today with a stop over at Mum and Dads last night.  It's nice to split the trip, cos it is a long one, plus I needed some warmer clothes and they were already at mum and dads lol.  I am happily all unpacked now, the cats have been fed and like typical cats I have not seen them since feeding them dinner.  (For those that don't know I am staying with Susan, a long time family friend, while I get my unit sold and find a new place to call my own.  Susan is fostering two cats, and she is currently in Australia so it is up to me to keep these two cats fed and alive for a couple weeks... 😶 and yes Susan is Aunty Susan but as I don't need an adoptive Aunty anymore, rumour has it I'm all grown up now, thought I'd give calling her just Susan a go 😊 lol).  Anyhow, I thought I would sum up my time in Hawke's Bay somehow.  Cos it was quite a while that I was there, the longest time I've lived anywhere since leaving home to go to uni way back when.  And as you likely know I like numbers so here is my time in Hawke's Bay in numbers 😄 

8 yrs 1.5 months - total time lived here

1st home bought (and now on the market to hopefully be sold)

4x places of work, 5x different roles

4x Art Deco’s attended

1x props room needing sorting that lead to a wonderful and strong friendship

0x props rooms actually sorted (lol)

4x book groups joined and regularly attended (each for a while at least)

3x local theatres joined

2x major health setbacks

2x major health setbacks overcome

11x tattoos (give or take… lol)

Things I have not been able to accurately count (for different reasons):

Amazing friends

Book events/launches attended

Authors met

Theatre shows taken part in, either back stage or front of house

Winery sessions - hanging with friends or reading a book on my own

Visits to The Figgery (I did buy myself a The Figgery t-shirt before leaving, it was a must really)

Dinners cooked by Namaskar

Kilometres run

New to me music discovered (some is new music, some is old music I didn’t realise I loved)

Dance parties held in my lounge (Glenny can confirm my dancing has not improved, not even a little bit, but my enthusiasm has never wavered lol)

Radio shows produced/part of

Hairstyles and hair colours

Homeward Bound

To some of you this might come completely out of the blue, others of you it won't...

I am moving home 😀🎉 home being Taranaki for those of you who are not sure where I call home these days.  And to be fair I call a few places home at the moment so if you weren't thinking Taranaki straight away you are forgiven.  Anyhoo... I have got a job in South Taranaki which I will be starting on Tuesday 7th April so I will be moving back over Easter weekend.  And before you ask where am I going to live, I don't 100% know yet.  I know where I am thinking of looking once I sell this place, but I am also aware I do like to change my mind so there is a chance I will end up somewhere else lol.

The job is being an EA to a general manager, and helping the executive team a bit as well, its at a iwi run health centre.  I think it will be a fun job, and the people that I have met, over Teams for a video interview and via email chats, are lovely.  I am very much looking forward to the move and the new adventure.

Got a few things to do here now of course, like figure out the whole listing a house for sale side of things, packing, catching up with friends for the last time while I'm here etc.  I am sure it will keep me busy and before I know it, it'll be time to move.  I will be sad to leave my current job as I really do like it, but it is time for me to leave HB so I am ok with it.

Not much else to report at this stage so shan't keep you any longer, just wanted to share my happy news really.  Have a wonderful day 💜

How to spot JB at a concert

So I just want to start off saying the concert was inside… so no wind or outside air temps were involved lol.

Went to see Rob Thomas last night (solo artist and also lead singer of the band Matchbox 20) in Wellington, and while the majority of the crowd were happy in single layers, there was me in three layers (tshirt, winter shirt and jumper) plus Jenny’s coat and my coat as blankets AND I was still shivering. And shivering enough that Jenny who was sitting next to me (but we weren’t touching) could feel me shivering. I know I know, my body has a broken internal thermostat, obviously 🙄😂 good thing I had my trusty usb chargeable hand heater with me, it warmed me up enough that I stopped shivering, yay.

The concert was good, Jenny def enjoyed it more than me but she is a way bigger Rob Thomas fan. I mostly came for the road trip and the chance to see my Welly friends (who are doing good btw, we had a lovely catch up before the concert). 

We are staying at Waikanae Beach and had a fun Welly public transport experience getting into town, starting with buses replacing trains for a chunk of the trip so the 1hr trip took just over 2hrs. Still worth it to stay out here though, for starters our trip home today is only gonna be 3hrs 🥳 and we didn’t have to drive in Wellington, total win lol. We wandered down to the beach yesterday, it was blowing a gale so we didn’t stay long, but it was pretty 🤩 

Some photos from my happenings the last few weeks

Too lazy to write heaps about what I’ve been up to so here are some pics with brief explanations. If you would like to know anything in more detail feel free to reach out 🙃 

Aunty Susan’s bear was a perfect hot water bottle looker-afterer during the day

It’s not every day your friends name is on a gallery sign 💜 such gorgeous work on display, very lovingly made

At my friend Betty’s wedding with Tiare 

Some new friends I made when Jo showed me around Hohepa in Clive

Beach fun with Elyse who visited from the States for a week. I went and read under a tree shortly after this while she paddled some more

Up Te Mata Peak, trying not to be blown away

Fred enjoying the view from up Te Mata Peak, she was not worried about being blown away lol

Off on an adventure, aka exploring Hobbiton after paying a fortune for the pleasure to do so… lol

Helping out by doing some washing in a hobbits home

Doing some desk work, still in the hobbits home

Helping knit some of the hobbits scarf, possibly the most fun part of the tour hehe

Picking up Elyse for the adventure, got our walking sticks ready so must mean we are prepared 😂 

Elyse giving driving on the left hand side a go

Lake Taupo

Going for a wander round Lake Rotorua with bro this morning(ish)

Boy has it been a while...

Fully intended to do a post before now but as per normal life happened and time went by faster than I expected or planned and now here we are at the shortest day of the year already.  Yay for me because it means the walk to work in the mornings will (in theory) only get brighter.  Of course being Hastings there will be those mega foggy mornings when you can't quite see to the other side of the road but for now those can be ignored lol.  I am just going to be happy about the it being slightly lighter each morning when I walk to work.  And I am enjoying that I am back to being able to walk to work (atlst most morning I do).

As some of you know my health has been doing it thing again, you know that thing, that thing where it reminds me I am not as well and healthy as I look.  It is never fun when it does it, and this time it did a solid number on me and knocked me an awful lot (I ended up needing just over a week off work, well technically the doctor said I needed more but I ran out of sick leave so went back).  I am slowing crawling my way back to my normal level of unwell, and am definitely closer than I have been for quite a while.  Its a nice feeling to be honest, though its also a little sad that where I am trying to get is still not what I would consider well but I will still be happy to get there.  Its the little things as they say, whoever they are...

Work is going well, I am still loving my role which surprises me a little (normally I get bored after a year, if not sooner).  I even am quite liking the surgeons I deal with which very much surprises me, I didn't think that day would ever come.  ED is still my fav department though, but then I see them in person more which I think has something to do with it.  Well that and one of the consultants answers my rather random questions when I have them, and that is always a bonus.  Not so sure about the last one though where she said it wasn't a weird question, paused then said for you...
My team also thinks I am very unique and I often get told I say the most random/entertaining things in conversation.  I don't see what is so random or entertaining about it, to me it's just things a normal person would say.  But they all seem to say things like that with kindness so I just roll with it lol.  Sides I like me too much to change and people always seem to think I think different so it would likely be a losing battle anyhow :)

I have had a rather large pause from crafting, see above where I have been unwell, it affected my energy levels so badly I havent been able to craft, or do anything other than exist really. But I am slowly getting back into it and am pretending I don't care about how delayed some of the projects now are.  And by slowly getting back into it I really do mean slowly, none of this spending the afternoon crafting like I used to.  But I will get there, eventually.  On the bright side my book reading is going extremely well and I have watched quite a few documentaries so it's not like I have just been sitting here just twiddling my thumbs lol.

For those who might have lost track of time this year, I have 6 weeks (minus 1 day) of being in my 30s.  Then it is on to the next decade for me.  Am I doing anything much for my birthday I hear you ask... well no, that requires having enough energy to make plans and know you can keep them which I have not been very good at this year (thankfully I have very understanding friends).  So on my bday I am going to have a very quiet lunch with a few good friends, then I will see my parents and brother a couple weeks after that for a birthday thing.  Just nice, quiet, small things this year.  But you can be rest assured that inside I will be celebrating like normal me, and I will be all excited and stoked that I have made it to another bday.  Ever since seeing someone comment that they are like video game levels and each bday is a level up I like to think of them like that to now :) and I am more than happy to keep levelling up hehe.

Well I think that is about it from me for now, hopefully it won't be quite as long between this and the next update as it was between this and the last one.  I hope you are all well and happy, stay warm my friends 💜💛💚

2024 in books

It is that time of year again, the time of year I let you know what my last year looked like in books :)

Total books - 74
Shortest book - 107 pages
Longest book - 582 pages 
Average book length* - 352 pages
Pages read* - 26,121 pages
*note the last two do not include the last 4 books I read, for some reason they tally the stats before Christmas which is not really a full year of reading but oh well.

This year I have done a graph that has previous years on it as well, just cos I wanted to.

In case the graph is too small to read properly here are the books read per genre for 2024:

Fantasy - 23

Sci Fi - 4 (one of those was the longest book)

Fiction - 19

Chick Lit - 12

Crime/Thriller - 8

Non Fiction - 8 (one of these was the shortest book)

Other - 0 (have included this cos its on the graph.  Other is either western or horror).

My superpower

I’ve decided, and hear me out on this cos it is probably going to sound like I’ve lost it, my superpower is getting sick. Told ya it would sound like I’ve lost it lol. But I’ve got reasons, maybe not great ones, maybe not even good ones, but there are certainly some reasons for this conclusion. Here we go…

1. A superpower is something only a few ppl have. And getting sick often and as badly as I seem to isn’t something that just anyone can claim. Most people probably only get laid low (like properly laid low, I’m not talking about a little cough and it’s oh I’ve got a bad cold kinda laid low, I’m talking the standing for any length of time greater than a few minutes is a mission and sitting unaided is a goal yet to be achieved kinda laid low) once every couple of years. Me, this seems to happen at least twice a year, if not more often. Therefore it’s like a unique gift (I’m looking on the bright side if you haven’t noticed already) and so I’m gonna call it a superpower. 
2. Superpowers bring out the best or worst in people, and I would say getting sick brings out the worst in me. I mean when I’m sick I do tend to swear at the world a lot, and at Glenny who goes into hiding so he doesn’t get disinfectant sprayed at the end of it. Does this make me a super villain if I go bad not good with my superpower… hmmm that is a cool pondering to be done. 
3. People with superpowers don’t share them. And no matter how hard I try no one around me ever seems to get as sick as I do and definitely not as frequently as me. Again, this is therefore a superpower. 
4. In my opinion superpowers teach you things, and I bet most people would have no idea how to work out what to make for lunch/dinner based on a mix of the food they have and how much energy they can expend and still be able to eat it before they need to rest, aka nap, again. Or even worse fall asleep while cooking, burn it and then have to start over (that ones the worst, obviously). And if you want to make enough for leftovers taking into account the energy it takes for all that (dividing the meal, finding lids and containers, getting them into the fridge etc). Doing the dishes is a whole separate adventure, and where possible you just cook stuff that allows you to reuse pots and pans, if you were wondering. 

So as you can see being sick is obviously my superpower, no question about it. Now I’m not saying getting sick often and bad would be my superpower of choice, but no one gets to pick their superpower in the comics and books and films so I’m not unusual there. Hmmm I wonder if someone will write a comic about me and my superpower… lol 

Just a wee update

I recently had a couple weeks off work and boy was it good.  Did I do much with my time off, ummm no not really but it was wonderful all the same :)

It started with me heading to mum and dads after work one Wednesday (Wednesday’s are now half days for me, for health reasons as I was tired of being tired, run down and sick all the time so we are trialling me having a pause mid week.  From my point of view it is going wonderfully and I didn’t need any sick days over winter which was amazing, esp as I had none left to take lol).  Then the next day (Thursday) I headed to Tokoroa to go to institute with mum.  The activity was indoor bowls and pool, turns out I quite like indoor bowls and might even look into joining a club over here at some stage.  Mum and I were teamed up for both activities, no idea who won the most indoor bowls games but mum and I won both games of pool which was cool.  

Pretty much the rest of my stay with mum and dad was just chilling and catching up.  We went through to Te Awamutu one day, and then on the Monday when I was heading home we had lunch with bro at the gardens in Taupo which is always a lovely place to chill in, was a bit cool that day though which meant we didn’t really wanna just hang out for too long.  I also went for a couple walks with pa which was lovely.

I don’t think I did much with my days at home… well other than reading, cross stitch, crochet, sewing and watching tv/dvds.  In other words I chilled out very well hehe.

Then I headed back to mum and dads for a night before heading to Inglewood for a friends wedding on the Saturday (21st if anyone is looking for a date reference).  I stayed with Aunty Susan which was, as always, very nice.  I arrived in good on the Saturday so I did the Windsor Walkway, all fully paved now which while nice was a bit weird.  There is something about walking on the road and watching for cars/vehicles that made it a fun walk.  After lunch I headed off to see Bridie and Paul get married, it was a lovely ceremony and very nice to catch up with everyone I knew (from both sides as I went to school with Paul, Bridie was my flatmate in NP).  The reception was through in NP and it was also a very good chance for me to catch up with my old workmates.  Great conversation was had, and no dancing cos we were chatting too much and I called it early as was tired.  Though in saying that Aunty Susan and I chatted till about midnight so I wasn’t exactly early to bed lol.

Sunday saw me catching up with friends in NP, then had dinner with Aunty Susan followed by watching a movie.  Headed home on Monday then just chilled on Tuesday.  Work on Wednesday was pretty good, I think going back on a half day is brilliant.  More than one person asked why I was going back for only 4 hours and why get up for that, personally I think its genius.  A full day is soooooo long when you have been off for a while and a half day is plenty of time to go through emails and respond to the important/urgent ones and catch up with goss you missed out on.  Then its home time and you can go chill.  See perfect planning hehe.

My friend Jo is visiting from the UK for a few days now so its been a good few weeks :) sadly she goes home, well back to Auckland then home, on Wednesday but I am sure she will be back again.  We have done all the important things so far, out for lunch, winery for a tasting and to read for an afternoon, Te Mata Peak (where we discovered we are not as fit as we thought we were), chilling and catching up.  Will go out for dinner tomorrow night, to my fav Indian place, and that is also an important to do thing I think hehe.

Hope you are all doing good, and yay for good sunshine weather :)

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

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)