12 days off and what did I do?....

My Christmas/New Year holiday started on Christmas Eve, about mid-arvo when Ken and I escaped from work.  I had collected Jo from Taupo on the Sunday before so she was already in the Bay just chilling and doing her own thing while I was at work.  Our Christmas Day was rather uneventful, as we had planned.  We woke up when we felt like it, unwrapped pressies when we wanted, went for a walk along the waterfront in Napier and sat on the rocky beach to enjoy a cup of tea and some shortbread cookies and we chatted to Ben who was spending Christmas in Germany with his family.  We then headed home for lunch, an amazing meal cooked by Jo, all I had to do was tell her where to find the equipment she needed, keep her company and keep the tunes playing, all things I am good at so it worked well.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching movies as the weather forecast was for rain and we decided that was a good enough reason hehe.

Jo stayed till Sunday and while she was here we went to see Cats, such an awesomely terrible movie, we were both super impressed with how terrible it was and since we were hoping for it to be bad we were happy lol.  We also went to Jungle a couple of times, they are a gluten free café in Havelock North that also do dairy free (and vegan) food, all very tasty.  Actually I think we may have gone more than a couple… oh well its good food so there is nothing wrong with that.  

            We also went on a wine tasting tour with Shura (she was visiting her parents for some of the holidays).  That was a great day and we tried some very nice wine.  I tried less than Jo and Shura but that was because I was driving and I also knew that some of the wineries I’m not so fussed on lol.  We had a very chilled out time and just spent most of it relaxing in the shade (me and Jo) or the sun (Shura) chatting about all sorts of things.  We ended the day at Three Wise Birds cidery where we had some yum cider (I am a tad biased cos I can walk to that one so go there the most) and dinner.

            Jo and I also went for a wander along the walking tracks around Pakowhai Country Park.  Turns out this is a popular spot for taking dogs and we both decided there is basically no way you could go there in a bad mood and not end up in a good one unless you were a broken person.  The dogs were so playful and there was a river there for them to splash around in.  Many found nice big sticks for their owners to deal with lol, good doggies those ones.  We even did the dog agility course (total surprise rounding the corner and seeing that, awesome surprise of course).  We first read the rules so we know we did it in the right direction.  We may have skipped going through the tyres (we weren’t sure if we would fit with our bags on) but I did go through the tunnel.  We made a friend there for a while as well, he wanted us to throw him his balls about 3 times each then he ran off back to his owner.  As another surprise there was a throne seat and a heart cut out of tree trunks, so of course I had to have my photo with them hehe.

            Am sure we did more than this but it feels like a long time ago now, and the main thing we were doing was hanging out and having fun and we achieved this very well each day.  

After saying goodbye to Jo the next few days of my holiday basically involved me reading my way through The Night Angel Trilogy (very hard to do this when work gets in the way hence the reading over this break) and emerging every so often to do some jigsaws.  I did start the trilogy when Jo was here and finished today, so it is possible to fit life in and around it, but it can be hard to pull yourself out of Midcyru at times.  

I didn’t do anything special New Year’s Eve but I did take the boys to see the sunrise on New Year’s Day which was fun.  Not the best sunrise ever but atlst there was a small gap in the clouds at the horizon level so we could see when the sun was rising, and had risen.  Then later that day Jenna and I went to the races.  It was Jenna’s first time and my first time over here.  We did not enjoy how long there is between races, mostly cos we weren’t betting I’m guessing but still there was almost an hour which seemed like a bit too long.  Still was fun to catch up with Jenna and a good chance for her to have a break from her kids over the break hehe.

On Thursday I painted my shed.  It reminded me of how much I hate painting and even if I was desperate for a job and almost homeless I think I’d rather sleep in my car than be a painter (sorry Uncle James, I have no idea how you can stand it lol).  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a terrible painter, I’m not a great painter either but it’s just super boring and dumb and stupid and just not fun.  The main thing I was thinking by the last coat was that being an independent female is overrated and watching someone else paint my shed would have given me the same result but a much more enjoyable experience lol

On Friday Doffy, Bro and me conquered Rainbow Mountain, no it’s no relation to Rainbow Road but if anyone finds a real-life version of that please let me know (Nintendo comment there if anyone is confused lol).  I say conquered to make it sound super impressive but really it’s just a hill with some steep parts in places.  It did have some great views, and the power to make Doffy speechless though which is something pretty impressive lol.  After that we met up with Mum for lunch, then Bro and I just chilled and did me and Bro stuff for the rest of the arvo.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Abbey Estate Winery for Samara’s birthday.  David and Michael had a gig there which was pretty cool, I think Samara liked it all except for when Michael told everyone it was her birthday and pointed her out as she tried to hide lol, gotta love Michael when he does stuff like that.  We are going back on the 6^th Feb as they are doing an Elton Tribute, and they do Elton very very well so it should be an awesome afternoon that one.

            In the evening Steph, Nigel and I went to the outdoor cinema at Black Barn Winery to watch Bohemian Rhapsody.  It managed to pour with rain btwn me getting home from the first winery and being picked up for the second one, but it had stopped by the time we got to Black Barn.  I quite enjoyed the movie, it took me about 5mins to realise that I only the names of two members of Queen lol.  I don’t think the movie was as good as people who raved about it implied it was, but it was still interesting.  It was a rather cold night even if it wasn’t wet, and when I got home I made myself a hot water bottle, the first of the year.  I feel like I was allowed though cos we dropped below 10 degrees overnight, so it was like winter cold lol.

Today I have done not a lot, which is what I wanted.  I finished my book, did some baking, watched some dvds, cut out some stuff for sewing and did some gardening, oh and wrote this blog update for all you awesome as peps.  It’s back to work for me tomorrow, not sure if that’s a yay or a boo.  I do love my job, but it is still a job which means I can’t sit in my gorgeous beanbag and read a book with a cup of tea all day long.  Life is hard ain’t it lol.

My finished Christmas tree

The boys 'guarding' the presents

Christmas Day tea and cookies on the beach

Wineries with Shura and Jo

Pakowhai Country Park

Jo playing with our new friend

Watching the first sunrise of a new decade

The boys offered to drive me home...

My shed before...

...and after

Rainbow Mountain

Missie came out of retirement for this walk

And as usual Missie manages to make a friend 

Lol bro you should have deleted this before I saw it, love it too much to not share :)

Chilling at Abbey Estate with Samara

Once Upon A Christmas Story

Once upon a time is when this story starts.  And once upon a time, in this case is about 365 days ago, and for the purpose of this story we shall call it a year.  Now once upon a time there lived an eccentric spinster.  This amazing spinster lived in a gorgeous two-bedroom unit in the magical city of Hastings, located in the sunny Hawkes Bay.  Although The Spinster hadn’t ever pictured herself living in a sunny location she found that she was loving her new home and that she didn’t want to leave.  She had some very good friends here and her brother was closer than when she lived on the other side of the island (and the other side of the world but that is another story for another time).  She also loved having her own place, and she loved the freedom to do with it what she wished.  Of course being the eccentric spinster she was, she did have a few slaves that helped her as she required, as dreams for a place of your own are not always as simple to carry out as one would wish.  She had a favourite slave, Doffy, who got most of the jobs and responsibilities. Between The Spinster, Doffy and the other slaves, the small unit began to look more and more like her home.  Now don’t underestimate The Spinster and assume that she delegated all the hard work to the slaves, she did do some of it herself, but also don’t overestimate her, she didn’t do that much of it, especially not if she thought a slave would be willing to do the job.  And the slaves did get fed, and Doffy got multiple nights’ accommodation when he visited, so please don’t feel too bad for them either.  Overall it was a perfect arrangement which everyone seemed rather happy with, especially if you didn’t dig too deep into things.

The Spinster saw the start of the year in with her friends who had come to stay and explore this lovely sunny place she was now living in.  They went to the early fireworks the night before so that they would be not too tired to get up for a sunrise.  Now The Spinster was still used to seeing the sun rise over the land and not the ocean after many years living on the other side of the island so she really enjoyed sitting on the beach with her friends and her coffee early that summers morning to watch the sun rise.  And Mother Nature put on great weather as she knew how much it would mean to The Spinster to have such a magical morning.  The rest of the visit with her friends went like a blur, and it was not because of the wine they drunk, it was surely because of all the fun that they had.  The Spinster was sad to see her friends go but knew that there would be other visits with other friends in the upcoming days and also that she would be going to see her friends at times as well.

Not too far into the year, The Spinster had to swap her trusted ride and good friend Spartacus with another named Cleo.  This was one of the sad and happy moments as while she was very sad to part ways with Sparty she was also very happy to be getting a new friend, and being awesome like The Spinster was she loved to make new friends.  Cleo and The Spinster hit it off right away and they have become fast friends.  Cleo can be a tad lazy during the week and often makes The Spinster find her own way to her job but The Spinster does not mind this as it means Cleo has lots of energy in the weekends when The Spinster wants to go catch up with friends that live further afield or go exploring.  Cleo and The Spinster enjoy driving around with good music pumping, sadly the only thing stopping them doing this more often is the cost of Cleo’s food.  If Cleo could find a way to feed herself at no cost to The Spinster, The Spinster is sure they would be off exploring more.

Because she was an awesome independent spinster she worked and did not need to rely on a man to help her pay the bills, however there was one big issue and that was with her job.  She was loving the rest of her life but her job was making her feel not as awesome as she was, so The Spinster decided to look for something new, something better, something more her.  She wrote out what she really wanted from a job and she came up with three main things that the new job needed to include if at all possible.  First she wanted to be able to walk to work, not to save the environment as The Spinster wasn’t that selfless but because she liked the walking to work and not commuting, and as stated before Cleo had become a tad lazy and didn’t like getting up just to take her to work each day.  Second she wanted a challenge, The Spinster was bored of the humdrum of her current job and wanted something that would force her out of her comfort zone, but not all the way out of it as she liked part of that comfort zone, it was nice and cozy and warm.  Third and lastly if she could at all swing it, The Spinster wanted to work for a charitable organization as she wanted to give back to the community, but since she was awesome and independent she needed to get paid while giving back.

            Magically a job that fitted all three of The Spinster’s criteria appeared on her radar and she applied for it even though she wasn’t fully qualified for it, in fact she was barely qualified for it but she was hoping that the big important people would see past the qualifications and look at the heart and passion in her application.  The Spinster was extremely lucky as the big important people did look at the heart and the passion, and at the eccentric, and possibly crazy (it has never been proven hence the possibly), in her and they took a risk and offered her the position so it was that on a bright sunny day in the second month of the year The Spinster walked to her new job at a small community-based radio station which caters for all the minority groups in the sunny Hawke’s Bay.  

For the first couple of months there were four dedicated amazing and uniquely talented individuals working for this small radio station, and then the one training her left for a life of retirement in the country and they were down to three.  Almost six months later another of the awesome individuals left, this one was off to a new adventure over the seas and oceans in a faraway country and that meant only two were left.  This did not mean that The Spinster liked her job any less, in fact she may even have enjoyed it more as now it was just her and her friend Ken it meant that she has some new responsibilities and some of these, like talking to people in the community about what they did, were right up her skill set and she liked the challenge and variety she had.  There did seem to be less hours in every day though and her communicating with a friend in the distant town of Napier was not as regular as it once was.  Now don’t get me wrong, The Spinster was still able to communicate with her friend, it was just limited to emails when they could be squeezed in rather than many per day.  As The Spinster was amazing and rather awesome the less hours in the day did not really lead to any stress or work not getting done, it merely meant that some days she would arrive at work and it would seem that almost straightaway Ken would be sending her home.

It was during this year that we are talking about that The Spinster decided she quite liked baking, she was having fun experimenting with recipes and she even started making bread.  Now the bread she was making tasted way way better than any she could buy in the shops, not that anyone else would know as this was something she didn’t share.  She often shared peanut brownies and weet-bix slice with her boss as he really liked them, as did her main slave Doffy so she tried to have baking for him when he visited.  Being the awesome spinster that she was this did not always happen as some times she just got too busy with other things.  One of her best experiments, in her opinion at least, was her cranberry and white chocolate muffins, and these were the best in her opinion only as she did not share them with any one, they were way to mourish for that.  Not all of her experimenting was a success, some were only eaten as she didn’t want to waste food, however with one batch of something she decided wasting food was a kindness to herself.  Now please do not mistake The Spinsters love for baking to mean that she started cooking as well, don’t be silly.  She did get rather good at dusting the stove before visitors arrived so it looked possibly used and she thought this was a rather good skill to have.    

The Spinster managed to get to see many friends and even some family during this year.  Some came to her, and some she went and saw.  Many fun times were had and much laughter.  She had a few regular, if you can call them that, places she visited.  Partly cos the trips there were fun or the people there were her among her favourites.  One of Cleo and The Spinster’s favourite trips was from sunny Hawkes Bay to a central place known by locals as Taupo, not that there is anything particularly exciting about Taupo and The Spinster most often continued onto Rotorua or Mangakino, however the road from The Spinsters to Taupo was one of her favourite drives.  The other favourite drive of The Spinsters and Cleo’s was the Napier-Taihape Highway.  This road would take her to the rather chilly but gorgeous town of Ohakune.

Perhaps the most exciting visitor The Spinster had all year was her old friend Jo, she is pretty sure they can be considered old friends seeing as they have known each other for many years.  Now the reason this friend was perhaps the most exciting is not because Jo does anything super exciting, nor is she super entertaining, however The Spinster did not expect to be seeing Jo anytime soon as Jo lived on the other side of the world, and The Spinster lived with her when she also lived on the other side of the world.  Now maybe Fate is not the one to credit with them both being in the same country, and The Spinster does not mind, she is just happy they are back in the same country as visiting is much easier this way.

The Spinster did many fun things throughout this year, and she is very thankful for all her family (especially those slaves of hers) and friends for making it the year it was.  She is happily sitting in her beanbag at the moment pondering how she got so lucky, well no she actually isn’t as she knows why.  She is sitting there thinking how for an impulse purchase it is perhaps her favourite seat in her house, and she is also wondering what the two bears sitting in full view have been up to as they were not there before and they are looking rather pleased with themselves, she is also wondering what she has done to end up with both of them for so long and is thinking that perhaps its’ time for one to go back to his dads, knowing full well they will do what they want no matter that Doffy just says they are stuffed toys, cos in this case Doffy does not always know everything and he is mistaken.  Anyhow The Spinster is back on track and hopes everyone out there in this wonderful world has an awesome 2020 like she is planning to do.  No guarantee that there will be a story version of that year though, just be aware that it is going to be another awesome one for The Eccentric Awesome Spinster.

Hanging with my sisters

So I know it's been a while since I have posted, well a few weeks but lots seems to have happen or been going on in that few weeks.  Mostly just chilling and hanging with friends and sisters. 

At the start of November I went to Whareroa to hang with Bridie at the bach, we didn't do much but it was an awesome wknd and was good to get away and just chill I think.  Then Laura came to stay that week and the following wknd (Ted also came over for the wknd) and that was also a fun time.  Yeah not writing much but there will be pics to follow and they show the fun we got up to hehe.

I have another couple wknds away and then I am going to have a few at home, and I am not making plans as such for them.  Mostly because I have only had one wknd at home by myself since the start of August (I have either been away or had visitors for all the other wknds), and I think it's time I had some wknds to do whatever I want in.  I may hang with friends, I may do some of the things on my list of stuff I want done around the house, or I may just hide with a good book and my beanbag for the wknd :) whatever option I pick am sure I will have fun though so don't worry hehe.

 Wknd at the bach with Bridie

 This was the view of the sunrise from my bed :)

 Lol I was trying to not get my legs wet, I failed haha

Wine Bike Tour with Laura

Te Mata Peak with Laura (Ted was there, he took the photo lol)

Cape Kidnappers (beach area entrance to the at the moment closed walk)

 Cleo getting out and about, she likes this view of Napier so asked me to include the photo :)

Hawkes Bay Anniversary and Labour Day

It was a nice long wknd in Hawkes Bay this past wknd.  On Friday we had our anniversary day and I went to the A&P Show with my friend Viv.  It was pretty cool, I liked watching the fencing competition and the wood chopping.  The NZ Wood Chopping Team was there which was quite cool, and I decided I have seen too much wood chopping in NZ as I recognised many of the team members and knew roughly what their handicaps were lol.  The only disappointing thing about the A&P Show, and it's a kinda major thing, is that it was very commercial but not in a farming sense.  I didn't see any tractors for sale, mostly it was cars or fancy as utes (ok so those would be useful on a farm) and many stalls that you see at big markets or gypsy style fairs around the way.  There was also a disappointing amount of craft entries in the craft competition bit which has made me wonder if I should enter some stuff next year.  We will see if I remember that I thought that come this time next year lol.

On Saturday I headed off to Taupo to pick up my friend Jo.  Now for those of you who are wondering, and when you see the pictures think hmmm she looks familiar but not from NZ photos, Jo is my british friend who I lived with in my first flat in Edinburgh.  We met when she was in NZ many years ago, then chilled together a lot when I was in Scotland and now she is back in NZ working for a few years.  Sadly she is in Auckland, but hey Auckland is way closer than the UK so I will take it.  Anyhow she bused to Taupo and I went and got her and then brought her back here.  We spent the wknd just chilling really.  On Sunday we went into Napier to have some fun and chill and so Jo could see some of the things she loved when she lived here.  Possum World was an eye opener for me, I have been here for 18 months and did not that this awesomeness existed.  Such bad taxidermy, such a random museum of sorts but so good and random and funny lol.

Then on Monday we drove back to Taupo where we met up with Mum, Dad and Richard for lunch before Jo got back on the bus to Auckland.  Don't worry though she will be back at some stage and I will be up there to see her as well :)

One of the other highlights of the wknd was that we went and checked out Jungle Cafe in Havelock North.  It is a gluten free cafe and the food was amazing.  Definitely have to go back cos I could have eaten so much more than I did, it all looked amazing and what we got def was amazing.  And it was super cool that we could taste each others dish without either of us getting sick.  Go Jungle Cafe :)

Not really been up to much else, just pottering and trucking along really.  I am now a member of the Hastings Heretaunga Lions Club, the youngest member believe it or not hehe.  It is a good bunch of people, there are around 12 of us varying in ages from me to much older than me.  Viv, who I went to the A&P Show with is from Lions.  I am also happily in two books clubs now, one is the one at Hastings Library which anyone can go along to, and the other one I was invited to join from a current member of it who also goes to the Hastings Library one so that is cool.  I have my first meeting of that one later next month :)  Should be fun.

Other than joining stuff I have also been crafting and sewing, more planning sewing than sewing at the moment and I need a wknd at home to get some of the stuff I want done started.  I have started making my diary for next year as well, it's going to be just as cool as this years one, if not more so :) hehe

Anyhow here are some pics from the wknd with Jo :)

Napier waterfront area

 

 

Possum World

Sugar Loaf

Stop on the way back to Taupo, Cleo and I finally have a pic together :)