A cheerful end to the week

Well, I don't know my end of the week is extra cheerful or not.  It's been a standard wknd, nothing special has happened, but then nothing bad has happened either really.  But I thought I would chuck a couple of random photos up here so you can have a cheerful end to the week, and cos I know the post earlier this week wasn't so pleasant so this one will be :)

All these photos have been taken this year, except the last one and that one has been added cos I can't not laugh when I see it, its a brilliant pick me up if you ever have a bad day lol.

This was on the wall in a burger bar in Wellington, and to be honest if you bought me a burger and told me I was pretty I would be super happy so I took a photo :)

This one was taken last week, so that is what my hair looks like, well for now atlst lol

I promise I really do love my bear, but this is just so funny that I can't not keep sharing it lol

It just takes a moment

Before you read the following I just want to say sorry to everyone that loves me, sorry that I am posting this and therefore you are reading it and maybe worrying about me.  But I think the world often forgets how being a single female in it is not always a fun thing to be.  So this is just a reminder to the world, and to people that don't always remember that.

Sometimes it just takes a moment, a single moment, as small as a minute or two, to change how someone feels about something.  In this case that something would be my walk to and from work, and that moment happened this afternoon on my way home.

I was walking home from work, it wasn't dark yet (it was about 4:50ish) so almost dusk but definitely not dark, when a car that was coming towards me did a u-turn behind me and pulled up alongside me.  Inside was a gang member and one very nasty looking and sounding dog.  The gang member wanted to know if I wanted to buy some dope, I politely said no.  He then offered me some other drugs, some I've heard of some I hadn't.  I politely said no each time.  I also tried to leave each time and he would just inch forward as I moved.  I wondered if I was going to be allowed to get away when he said something along the lines of - I know you are single, why don't you get in and we can have some fun.  Now I am assuming that he was guessing I am single, that he has no idea if I am or not (and I will stay thinking this cos the other option is way too scary).  I know some people say you should never lie and that there is never a case where you should, however I am not of that mindset so I had no qualms saying something along the lines of - I'm not single, I'm just walking home to my boyfriend's and he is expecting me.  

Just to confirm I am ok, so you don't need to worry about that, however my walk to and from work is likely to be a thing of the past now.  I know it was probably a one off thing, and won't happen again, but as a single female (or even just a female) it is a stupid risk to take when I have other options.  So yeah, thanks dickhead, thanks for that small moment which made the rest of my walk home rather nerve wracked and ruining all future ones for at least the next wee while for me.

Roadtripping time

Last week was road trip week :)

I had to go to Taranaki for the Womens Institute Arts and Craft Festival thing, so my friend Jo and I decided to make a road trip out of it.  

Jo bused down to me on Sunday, we hung out in Hastings and Napier for the first couple of days.  We hit a lot of opshops and of course we went to Jarks, how could we not hehe.  Then on Wednesday Cleo took us to New Plymouth, stopping at opshops along the way, and via Inglewood to see Aunty Susan and mum.

On Thursday mum and I had the Arts and Crafts thingy in Bell Block, I had a few entries, all in the sewing, knitting/crochet and general crafts sections.  At this stage I don't enter in the photography, cooking or gardening stuff but maybe that will change one day.  Am happy with what placings I got.  Considering I was juggling work, study, theatre, Lions, 2 book clubs and friends I think I did pretty well :)

On Thursday night we caught up with some of my Taranaki friends at India Today, it's still as good as I remember which was awesome.  It was wonderful seeing them all there, and awesome catching up with all my old friends.  I don't get to see them all that much which is a bit sad, but I wouldn't move back there as I love my life in HB.  Haha Mother Nature agreed with me as she made it wet and blah for the whole visit, which I choose to believe is her reminding me I don't want to live there again lol.

On Friday morning we headed north via Mt Taranaki.  To begin with Mt Taranaki was being all shy, but after a cuppa and some cake he very quickly showed most of himself to us :) yay, thanks Mt Taranaki.

After the Mountain side trip we continued up north to Auckland (sorry all you Aucklanders, it was a flying trip so didn't hit any of you up).  We stopped at the Piopio opshop, cos we could and it was open for a change (I normally am not going through on a weekday).  We also stopped at the big apple, but it was locked :( that was sad as I was hoping that we could climb it, just cos of course.

Saturday was Auckland day, we were hoping to go to Waiheke Island but it turns out that everyone else was planning to do the same.  We didn't get on 3 ferry's so we decided to save our tickets (they last for a year) and we went to a movie instead.  We went to see Girls Can't Surf, if you like sports documentaries I highly recommend watching it.  It was brilliant.

Sunday I headed home, after a yum yum cooked breakfast - thanks Jo :)

And then it was Monday and back to the real world of work.... yay......

My placings, on the entries that got some

Shhh this technically got 3rd

I got one other 3rd but the photo is rather blurry, my hands weren't in fine form last week and blurred a few photos.

Other random photos from our road trip

Awww I always suspected that it did :) xxx

Mt Taranaki when we arrived....

... and then he cleared (mostly) for us

The random big apple

I just liked this, with the clouds in the buildings windows and the tree :)

Christchurch - Day 4

So Monday was our last full day in Christchurch and we headed off exploring on foot instead of in the car.  We wandered into Hagley Park to find the botanical gardens, which when we found them were pretty cool.  I could easily imagine spending some time reading a book under a tree or something if I was there for longer.  Had a wonderful photographer with me, thanks mum hehe, and we had fun taking some photos as well.  Sorry some of them are a bit dark, it wasn't the sunniest day.  

After splitting up (mum was going to visit a friend and I wanted to check out Chch central) we both managed to get rather lost trying to find where we were trying to go.  I ended up on the complete wrong side of the park and then had to backtrack to find where I was going.  Super glad I had GoogleMaps on my phone cos the park signs were just confusing me.  I did eventually find where I was headed first, which was the museum.  Had a good wander through the Museum, mostly enjoyed it... mostly cos I didn't really stop in many of the exhibitions, nothing took my fancy till I found the Antartica Exhibition, that was real cool.  And then on the way out I came across the olden days street, made a coupe of friends and wandered into some different shops hehe.

Then from there it was into the main area of Chch central.  It was rather quiet in town, which surprised me, but I still had fun wandering.  I was vaguely looking for somewhere for lunch then I saw this cool painting on the side of a building, or buildings, and I wanted a good photo so kept wandering till got one.  Then when I was closer the building itself looked pretty interesting so in I went.... and there were the people lol.  It was the Riverside Market and was full of food eating places and refreshments and all sorts.  It did help that when I walked in someone offered me a wine tasting yum yum hehe.  While I was browsing and deciding what I wanted I saw a cake/sweet type place, and there was a sign that said all the righthand side was gluten free and celiac friendly.  Of course I had to doublecheck that as there were a lot of yummy looking stuff on the righthand side.... the sign was accurate, and the baker man laughed when I said that I had to check cos I don't often get so much choice.  I ended up getting two things (wanted so many more though) and let me just say, they were even yummier than they looked, nom nom nom.

After the Riverside Market I wandered back to the motel via Hagley Park, and planning to find the cricket ground to find Nastle's statue (hehe, and yes I know there is unlikely to actually be one but a girl can dream lol) however, guess who got lost again.... Pretty sure the cricket ground is not actually in Hagley Park, am sure I covered almost all of it at stages in the day and I never saw it.  

Overall it was a very good day, and I enjoyed our holiday.  Christchurch is a very nice place for a long wknd, probably a very nice place for a longer holiday as well :)

Hagley Park and Botanical Gardens

Christchurch Museum, Kiwiana

Christchurch Museum, Antartica

Christchurch Museum, Olden Days Street

Things of interest around town

This is the side of the Riverside Markets, the side of the building is flat.... 

All the yummies I could have <3

Hagley Park, round two

Christchurch - days 1-3

So we have been in Chch since Thursday evening (it's not counted as a day cos we didn't do anything other than find food and learn that our rental car turns corners very well), we are staying at Camelot and it is lovely.  We have a very spacious unit thing, I am up in the loft area which is great, and mum is downstairs.  I do think I need to find a way to get a loft in my next house.... somehow..... 

On Friday we went to Christchurch Helicopters so I could go for my first ever (but def not my last if I have any say in it) helicopter flight. This was meant to be done last year in Tassie but we never got over there, for some reason, the reason is currently escaping my mind but I'm sure it was a good one lol.  It was BRILLIANT (look at that, it was so good I didn't even use the word awesome hehe).  So amazing, and so cool seeing everything from above but not so high like planes go.  The copter didn't go very fast, well it didn't feel like it did but I'm sure it went fast than I thought it did... I can also say I am not a fan of 4 point seatbelts, I mean I don't even like normal car ones so adding in another strap wasn't ever gonna make me happy happy, but it was worth it to be able to sit in the front.

Then we went to Dressmart, cos we could.  We barely spent anything though, the shops were a bit blah overall.  Except for the Chuck Taylor's shop, that one was real good.  Got me two new pairs (they are shoes for all you confused ppl), and not only was one pair on special it was also on 50% off woot woot, so I basically saved money by buying them hehe.

Saturday we went to New Brighton, I fell in love with the library there, it was so well set out and super cosy feeling.  Also loved the pier, the market was only so-so though and that is what we technically went for.  We would have gone anyhow but we went ystdy cos of the market.  Am a total grown up (stop laughing, I am) cos all I got at the market was a dusting mitt lol.  We then drove out to Lyttleton much to the annoyance of Ben (Mum's GPS thing) who kept telling us to take the next right then turn right, or to do a u-turn, or to turn left then left lol.  We didn't reset him from New Brighton so he was trying to take us back there.  Turns out robots aren't smart at all lol.

Today we went to the Airforce Museum, which is still as cool as it was when bro and I went all those years ago.  This time they also had a POW area, and I got caught and became a POW, but don't fret I found the secret passageway and I escaped YAY :D 

We then went for a drive to Mayfield to check out Overflow which is a big secondhand shop.  It was amazing!! If I lived closer I think I would spend a bit of money there, but sadly we are flying home so we saved our pennies.  We wandered down the road from there to Panthers Rock for lunch and I just wanna say they are awesome for celiacs <3 They talked me through the menu and what I could eat and couldn't eat, and then said if there wasn't anything on there I wanted they would be happy to create me a made to order meal, so kind of them,  I had the roast of the day though and it was yum yum yum.

We then drove back to Chch via the Inland Scenic Route which was much nicer than the straight boring roads on the plains, just saying.  We had a couple photo stops along the Rakaia Gorge, other than that it was just a nice trip back to our accomodation. A very nice day :)

Tomorrow we are planning to go and check out Hagley Park, I am sure that they will have a big as statue of Nastle there for his 222...... surely...... lol.  And yes, every time we go through his old suburb I say 'Hi Nastle' just in case he is still there and hears me hehe.  Anyhow I know you are just wanting the photos so here you go, some photos for you :)

Christchurch Helicopters

New Brighton Pier

Random cool as tree at New Brighton Pier

Airforce Museum

Rakaia Gorge