Saturday, November 28, 2009

Social

I am a social person, I roam the halls at work chatting to people as I head for the loo or the staffroom. I do lunch, coffee, drinks after work and enjoy being interrupted by a phone call. Before Jonty I was VERY VERY VERY social, after Jonty but before Nicholas I was just social, since Nicholas I am not social at all outside the hours of work. It is the biggest thing that has changed in my life, time to socialise. So, it is with a modicum of sadness that I am sharing the extent of my Christmas socialising plans. My entire Christmas social calendar takes place in ONE WEEK!! For some reason my Christmas fun is squeezed into one little week.

Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming and I could organise a wide range of things myself to ensure my early December activity does actually link to Christmas. I am very grateful to have the following social events to attend next week. Sadly they are all, but a few, work related which tells me I need to sort my life out and start heading out at night and being a part of the world outside my work Saddo.

Fortunately I work with a wide range of lovely and engaging people so each one of my work related activities will be interesting and enjoyable...

Tuesday
  • Lunch with lovely Viv our most recent interior designer. Will be an enjoyable interlude
  • After Upholstery class...the last ever! We are off to the Fox n Ferrit for a pint. Jonty is kindly taking the night of work to facilitate that. Much appreciated.

Wednesday

  • Early evening Jasmax Architects 1st Birthday roof party. Not sure how this will go but I am guessing it will be friendly and stylish
  • Later evening Book group Christmas outing to the Crumpet Club. Will be loud and fun. Can't wait.
Thursday
  • Early breakfast with the Bishopdale library team before we deliver a 'Roadshow' to them. Will be very nice. Great team, generous invitation
  • Early evening drinks and chat at the Dux De Lux with Aoraki LIANZA peeps. Not sure who is going but should be ok. Nice to sit outside in the evening sun if the weather behaves

Friday

  • Early breakfast farewell for Khrys at Upper Riccarton library - retiring to Hokitika. That will be fun. Also an opportunity to check out how the re-laying of the tiles in the library is going.
  • Early evening - farewell to Lovely Elizabeth a colleague whom I appointed some years ago who is feeling the pull of her homeland and heading back to the States. One of my most favourite appointments. I will be the Nana who leaves early as I know this evening could get very messy and I am not really comfortable losing my composure at a work related function.
  • Jasmine is also coming to town that night.

Saturday
  • Morning - not strictly social but a day spent at the AFFIRM festival in Aranui doing some pre-new library- schmoozing with the locals
  • Night Lesley's 50th birthday party. This will be fun and the food will be delicious.

And that is it. I am sure more personal non-work activity will crank up but I think others are far more busy than I and have much more exciting and flash dos to go to. Might do a report back later. Actually I think we forgot to go to a cricket club social last night. Obviously we need to do some calendar work and get our act together.

So, what is everyone else doing to celebrate in December?

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Just Finished Reading 25#

Finger Lick'n Fifteen - Janet Evanovich

The sorbet course of my reading feast. I enjoy these books purely because the characters are the same and they don't change much from book to book. The stories are funny and there is always lots of action and silliness. Nothing much else to say except there was a lot of talk of eating and chicken. I had 10 pages to go before going on holiday so I ended up reading it in the car on the way to the airport so I could clear my palette for the last in the Millennium series....slowly working my way through that now...

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Dragon Fruit

Jus commented that there were no pictures of fruit from Tropical Fruit World. Good point. So I trawled my pics and found only one of anything resembling fruit. Here it is.....ta daaaa

Dragon fruit cactus plant things...dragon fruit is very delicious and if you grew them you would just eat them all the time. They come in various colours, we ate yellow ones. mmmmm

If you see them in the shops, give them a try

Monday, November 16, 2009

Landed

Home from what seemed like a very short break away. However, it was fabulous to spend time with John and hang out in the warm of the Gold Coast. Not a lot of shopping or roaming went on, just lots of hanging out and being together.

A week in pictures
Grandad's place from the plane. (the brick place) Yes, that close to the runway at Coolangatta

The view from John's home, our place was the next door apartment, our view almost identical

Grandad waving a flag of farewell, funny as anything - our place just to the right.

Birthday celebrations

Trawling the mall

Me on the flying fox at Tropical Fruit World

Mt Warning from Tropical Fruit World just over the NSW boarder

Jonty and Nic in the Mexican garden at Tropical Fruit World Goanna at Tropical Fruit World
Locals at the Tropical Fruit World

Playing in Buccaneer Bay after a long and exciting day riding the chutes at Wet'n'Wild.
A great fun day and no sunburn. Balcony

Fish hunting with Sophia at Muwillanbar

Handing out the sweeties on the way home

Monday, November 09, 2009

Letter from the Gold Coast aka two sleeps

We are two sleeps into our GC adventure and although I would love to share stories of wonderment and sunshine, I am going to share a story of motherhood.

One of the challenging aspects of having a son like Nicholas is that his need for sleep is about half that of a normal person. Since the day he was born he has never really reached the sleeping goals I had been promised as an expectant mother. At 6 years and 8 months x 365+ days, he has NEVER gone back to sleep after waking between 5am and 6am. NEVER! So, why would his father say to him every day of his life...'now go back to bed and go back to sleep'? I was pondering this as I lay awake at 4am listening to my MP3 player this morning. Why would his father say to him 'go back to bed and go back to sleep'? I guess that is because that is what he would do. Nic and I share some things and being woken after 3am means you are up - for the day!

So, Nic has been on NZ time since we have been here. 3am yesterday morning and 4am this morning. Yesterday he and I went for a morning walk at 5.38am. Home for breakfast at 6.38am and then a whole live long day ahead of us. As we sat on the balcony watching the ocean hours later, a van pulled up and the blokes sat there eating. I said to Jonty 'isn't this a nice place to sit and eat your morning tea?' He snorted at me and pointed out that it was only breakfast time. Really?, I thought. However, the upside is, it is dark at 6.15pm up here in the tropics so it is ok to slink off to bed at 8 after a snooze on the sofa.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

3 sleeps

Yep. Three sleeps until we climb aboard the silver bird and head for the warmth and brightness of the Gold Coast Australia. Yipppeeee. I am not sure I am going to make onto the plane without breaking into a gentle whimper of emotional tears brought on by tiredness and overwhelmed ness. However, for the sake of propriety I will hold it all together. Perhaps a few moments wafting through duty free gathering beauty products up in my arms and lifting the lids on smelly loveliness will calm my mind and remind me of the 6 days of baking hot bliss we are about to encounter. Aaaaah, holidays.

I am waiting with daily anticipation as I slip slowly up the library waiting list for 'The girl who kicked the hornets nest' (the third in the millennium trilogy). Imagine combining that big fat treat with trips to Wet'n'Wild and Tropical Fruit world. Getting to spend dollops of time with my eccentric and lovable father -in-law, hitting the shops and doing a bit of library lurking are adding up to a busy but relaxed holiday. Visit number five, it feels like a second home. Who knows, one day it might be.

Also, check out a new entry on 'places I go'.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Just finished reading #24

Novel about my wife - Emily PerkinsI bought this book for bookgroup hoping it was going to be a stunner. Considering it is an award winning book, I was a tiny bit disappointed. I could clearly see what the author was trying to do but I felt it lacked a little something for me.

It is written by 'Tom' and tells the story about his wife Ann who dies. She dies at the end of the story so thisis a posthumus tale. This knowledge contributes to the tension and anxiety of the story. Set in London it is well placed and you can visualise the places and get the feel of it. I think I missed some stuff along the way and I read it really slowly so was a little confused. However, looking back things keep popping up in my mind and I think I am still absorbing aspects of it. I think it was a little harrowing and very thought provoking. A few too many back stories left untold. However, not a terrible book and the writing was good.


There is a much better review of this novel in the Listener by someone who is much more discerning and obviously less distracted than me. I agree with most of it. (June 21 2008)http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3554/artsbooks/11305/london_yields_.html