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.

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?

Girls are fancy

We had an interesting discussion about the fanciness, or not of girls yesterday. How things are changing in our house with Nic just growing up and sounding more like a teenager everyday. Anyway, Jonty and Nic were talking about how girls have fancy toilets and boys have ugly smelly ones. I proffered that girls were fancy and deserved fancy things. They have perfume and jewellery and lovely things and Nic said 'Dad has moisturiser and so do I and dad has perfume and so do I' (he doesn't actually have perfume, he just helps himself to mine - no boundaries). So with the argument almost over, Nic then said ' Those girls on Mamma Mia doing all that screaming? That is NOT fancy'. True, I thought.

Then we did a Wordle talking about girls- then I put it in here. The reason being, that I am doing a learning thing at work and embedding some HTML in my blog was eluding me, so now I have done it, excellent. This is what Nic thinks girls are all about - today