50

umm, what to say?  50 has arrived.  Feels pretty good, looks better than it might have but 'could have done better' and as I am often heard to say, 'lucky to be here, many don't make it'.  Being away on my work adventure on the day meant I probably didn't spend as much if any time thinking about the meaning of '50'.  There are plenty of reasons to fear it but for me it is liberating and for that I am grateful.  Putting aside the hell that is living in the post eq situation, I can say it feels great to be here.  Happy, healthy and really excited about what might be coming next.  Always looking out and looking up, grasping the beauty and turning my face to the sun.

P.S.
No party!!  A birthday without a party is just not right, but there is time yet.  Reflecting on my past 50, just want to say thanks to all my lovely family and friends.  Front and centre, the best thing in the world.  Would never have made it on my own

Cheers  

Library Love on my 50th

Make a wish

Routine often punctuates the weekend and I do find that rather stultifying.  So, how lovely it was to spend  breakfast at my folks place with the family celebrating my dad's 78th birthday.  After a morning of fruit, bagels, pancakes, coffee and magazine and newspaper reading  I went out for lunch with 7 gal pals to Under the Red Veranda...a firm favourite with the must have fish of the day...yes there was food envy happening.  Nothing like a bunch of women laughing and enjoying each others company with good food in a nice setting.

Ben eying up the birthday cupcakes

Great having kids who still love candles too

Rainbow candles and cases...cyte

Nic's beach themed 'Best Grandad" card. 

Now home to sit by the fire before heading out to watch the Crusaders beat the Western Force.  Living Saturdays....

weekend eve

I love Friday because it is weekend eve.  However, it is Thurday weekend eve for me this week becasue tomorrow Alex and I are off to Dunedin for the iD Dunedin Fashion week.  For lots of reasons this weekend is going to be great, besides the fashion there is time with my friend, visiting Jasmine and hopefully meeting Simon and Nicky's very new baby Brianna AND shopping, markets, art and staying at a new hotel.  I feel very blessed to be able to do this.  Thanks Jonty and Nic for not making me feel guilty for taking time off.  The things that are not going to be so great about the weekend.  Missing Ben's birthday party and most of all missing Nic's first Weet Bix kids Tryathlon.  He seems very ok with me not being there but I have a few moments of the guilts.  Mind you, I miss most stuff of Nic's so I guess it isnt a bit deal to him as long as someone is there.   Alex, Ruth and I are off to Ellerslie Flower Show on Sunday...straight off the plane and to the show.  What fun. 

Last weekend was brilliant.  Aside from spending the morning painting the giant @#$%& painted graffiti off the fence, I got to go to Nic's cricket which was fun. Then a walk in the park with Steph and then Jasmine was in town and we went out to Wagamama for dinner then to the Chinese Lantern festival.

Sunday was Nic's birthday and we took him and four friends ten pin bowling.  It was hilarious.  7 year olds are so funny and observant and self aware.  Gorgeous.  I won the bowling, by the way.  Then home for pizza.  Later in the afternoon the entire family came over for afternoon tea.  That was great too, sitting outside eating a lot of stuff and enjoying everyones company. 

I was so impressed with Nic and how he managed himself.  So calm and kind and very sweet.  I almost shed a little tear later thinking about the weekend.  Warm with love it was.

Social 2#

So, how has it been? Thanks for asking Jus. I have been trying to summons the strength to write about it. Like you I am fairly knacked. I have to admit out loud that I piked on a few things. Oh the shame...

Tuesday lunch, very fun and delicious and post upholstery class drink, very nice. Will post a picture of the chair sometime soon.

Wednesday - Party at Jasmax...very fun!! Had a great time, so great that I was late for my next bit and had to sprint down there without changing and also without my wallet that I had inadvertently left at home. Still, financially bailed out by Alex, I enjoyed the evening. Picked up a few books too. Lovely people.

Thursday - Bishopdale breakfast, Very pleasant. Sadly after a full on day at work, I piked for drinks outside at the Dux. Shame.

Then on Friday I piked for an early breakfast for Khrys but did catch up with her in the afternoon. Friday farewell drinks didn't happen either... got caught up at the pub with the people I was meeting with in the afternoon then had to get into work to pick up stuff for AFFIRM the next day and then Jasmine was in town. Shattered by then.

Saturday....a stunning morning at AFFIRM and then afternoon shopping and cooking for Lesley's birthday. Great night, a groaning amount of moreish food and bubbles.

Wayne taking an amazing amount of care in his drawing of what he would like to see in his Aranui library Our first photo wall contributor A photo wall close up. Very proud of this. Gorgeous Clare with the wheelbarrow of books

Saturday - The children at the birthday party. Of all the photos these are the only publishable ones. Not one adult managed to smile nicely for the camera. Love these little faces.

Sunday night was a repeat as we needed to get through the leftovers. OH DEAR GOD!! Seriously, I put on 1kg last week. Sunday - The gingerbread house (on Acid) I made with Nic, Olivia and Ben

Today! 12 stunning cupcakes courtesy of a supplier. Made by Cup Cake Parlour...the box looked exactly like this. I couldn't resist. It is just all too much, in a very good way. Heading for a lie down soon. More little gatherings are materialising and I know I am going to explode.

Sorry about the GIANT post but the next is my 300th and I want to save it for something.

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

Week in reverse

It has been a really busy social week around here lately. It has been a very welcome diversion from endless house stuff I must say. In reverse....

500 Days of Summer. Popped out last night with Alex to catch this little gem. As Kate Roger said on 3Film, it is a 'a romance for real people, not just for believers in fairy tales'. It was appealing in its realness, no soft lighting or romantic swells of music. The soundtrack was fab. The characters were flawed and 'whats her name' the lead character was a bit naughty although forgivable when you think back to some of your own romantic misdemeanours. I also really enjoyed the depiction of LA as a real place and not Hollywood Boulevard. Loved my white chocolate and raspberry sorbet ice cream too.

Cricket - we have now entered the world of Saturday sport and much to my enjoyment I got to sit on the grass in the sun watching excited boys and girls learn cricket skills. topped off with a sausage in bread and a very excited child, I was a happy mummy.

Cookai - two nights in a row I got to taste the delights on offer at Cookai Japanese restaurant. John from Greymouth and Rachel texted on the road over to see if an early tea was a goer. Having just spent the day at home with Nic and his cousins I was ripe for an early evening outing. Having spent a very enjoyable evening at Cookai the night before with Karen, I was delighted to be able to suggest a well priced, authentic Japanese restaurant to my friends. Yum.

Kid fun - Taking annual leave to look after your child is one of the delights of full time work and parenthood. Long gone are the days of lying on beaches, shopping trips to Sydney and indulgence of any kind. I am not complaining. I had a great day hanging out with Nic, Olivia and Ben. I especially enjoyed our trip to the park where we played on the half basketball court with Anna and Karen who are in town and came to visit.

Birthday dinner (s) - Jonty turned 49 this week. Two days before the international day of the Older Person. Something I could have got a bit of fun out of but chose not to for some reason. Prior to his actual birthday we went out for another early family meal to the Belgium Beer Cafe and enjoyed and evening of delectable mussels, meat and potatoes in various forms. Great for my ever increasing waist line, NOT! Pudding too-creme brulee. I am a disgrace to all weight conscious women. Friend catch ups - afternoon play and chat with Steph, Frances and George. This included a bike ride on the road. Nic's first. Well done mate, very brave. Also on Sunday was a shared roast lamb dinner with stunning Jamie Oliver heart attack on a plate potato dish with Anne and Tim. Preceding that, on Saturday night, we had a family birthday celebration with Jonty's lot. Again, restraint played no part in the evening. We had spicy lamb and filo pie, pavlova, Paris breast, home made focaccia and wine. Lots. I know I gained a kilo last week. The eating was profound. However, the good cheer and time with friends and family far outweighs the extra tyre around my middle...almost...eek.

Back to reality. House cleaning and open homes.

Birthday

Thank you to all my lovely friends and family for my birthday texts, cards, presents, phonecalls, wall posts, coffee visits and cupcakes. I feel the love and send it right back. Nice.

home again

The busyness has continued since we have been home. We celebrated my mothers birthday virtually straight off the plane. We had a lovely lunch with the family. Super lovely to spend time with my cousin Wendy who I never get to see and also my ailing uncle Brian who basically came off his oxygen to come along. Lovely food and family.
On Sunday I needed to get out from under the clouds and get some sun so I checked out the web cams for the South Island and found the sun then headed north. We made it to Amberly and then headed inland on a mad adventure that took us on to farms and through sheep paddocks. After many stops for pine cones and u-turns we ended up in Waikari. Nic and I had a ball getting the cones. Jonty was reasonably mortified and sat in the car and we did 'teamwork' to fill up some wool sacks. Sitting in the cafe at Waikari we heard the very loud and distinctive hoot of the Weka Pass steam train. At a trot we made it on to the platform where Jonty and Nic jumped aboard and enjoyed a gorgeous sunny, smokey and sooty trip to Glenmark. I kept pace in the car and just loved watching them having fun.

What started as a grey heavy day ended up being such fun and such an adventure. Taking the road less travelled was hilarious and Nic loved it. Boy can he talk!

One of my biggest and almost shameful addictions is magazines. Whenever I go through an airport I leave with at least two, often three new titles tucked in my bag. This time I discovered Jamie. I am a big fan of Jamie's cooking and love the styling and recipes in the mag. I have made a few things already including a beef and quince stew with quinces that Ruth gave me...must get on and do something with the rest of them. Maybe tomorrow night!

The only sad thing about the weekend was making an 'intuition' call to Louisa my sister in law to find that she and her son Oscar were in hospital. Oscar has spent a lot of time in hospitals in his 16 years of life and it is really tough to be there again, this time preparing for dialysis. It is hard being so far away and not being able to do anything at all useful to help out. Kia kaha.

Holiday catch up

So much for keeping up the posts while on holiday. We have been home for a few days now so the instantaneous stuff is gone but here is a run down on the last days of the holiday.
To give the kids a bit of a break from each other and some families re bonding time we headed off to the lovely Parry Kauri Park in Warkworth. The bird sounds were fantastic and we loved being amongst the giant trees so lovingly cared for by a bunch of hard working volunteers.

That same day we had a great family lunch at Jill and Don's and drank far too much booze and ate so much food and it was all very delicious. J and D were gracious hosts and having looked after the children for a night as well, were really good sports. A quick run down of the food...stuff, boned leg of lamb, potato gratin, Waldorf salad and for dessert we had lemon and yoghurt cake, feijoa and apple filo tarts and the local Charlie's ice cream which is more than delicious and included lemon meringue ice cream...ooooooohhhhh. We also downed a fair few bottles of New Zealand's most delicious wines.

We were celebrating Jill's birthday a day early which was special and were sitting outside bathed in Northland sun having such a lovely family time. Don made the children box kites which they decorated with drawings. So sweet.