May Madness part 1

01/05/10

Another wonderful day in Melbourne. Started with a delicious brunch with Isabel, Christopher, Hugo, Kathleen, Dusty and Eleanor near the beach.

Then I introduced my mum to the glory and addiction that is IKEA. We both managed to leave without breaking the budget, but as usual I bought a new duvet(dooner) cover. Then we were treated to the most delectable dinner and dessert cooked by the masters Regan and James.

02/05/10

Last day in marvelous Melbourne and started it with more food at the oldie but goodie Greasy Joes in St Kilda with the Whirlwind Design Alumni. Sara, Mel, Andy and Jon. Was so nice to catchup with them and hear all the creative things they are up to. Then sprinted back to town for a last minute Target shopping session before heading to the airport for the flight home. Terrible film on the big screen called Letters to John - not recommended.

04/05/10

There are a few actors I just love regardless of the quality of the script or direction of their movies I will always enjoy watching them, Johnny Depp is one and Robert Downey Junior is another. So with this in mind I headed out to watch the second movie in the Iron Man franchise. I had high hopes as I rather enjoyed the first and it had a great cast but the story was really a bit too predictable. I did absolutely love the choreography of the fight scene that Scarlett did, she is incredible in it.

09/05/10

There are so many amazing things about being a woman like dress-up and giving birth but there are just as many bad things top of my list - Hair removal. There are so many options such as shaving, depilatory, waxing, epilday, laser and so on but all are generally expensive, time consuming, painful, short term and generally unsatisfying - if it weren't for the joy of having a partner I think I would be doing the hippy hairy thing.

13/05/10

Tonight a group of us went to see the stage show Avenue Q. I have to admit I was not too excited as I have never been a huge fan of musicals and the idea of one with puppets seemed even stranger but it had such rave reviews that I thought I had to give it a go. Well I can happily say along with Wicked, Phantom, Grease, Sound of Music and The Rocky Horror Show it has well exceeded my expectations and was one of the funniest and most entertaining shows I have seen all year. The lyrics to some of the songs are pure gold. My favourite being Everyones a little bit racist

"...Everyone's a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go 
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one's really color blind.
Maybe it's a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race..."

I laughed so much and so hard I had the most giant wrinkles etched into my face.


14/05/10

A close friend of mine needed a lift to hospital and back as she was due for an outpatient procedure which of course was not nice and as such I was happy to help. I had the best unpredicted fringe benefit from this though as I rarely drive due to the fact I have never owned a car, let alone when I do get the opportunity it is usually in a crap mobile. This however I felt like P Diddy as it was a giant tank of a black SUV (no don't ask what make or model I have no idea) and I noticed the strangest thing as the usual battle to merge on the motorways no longer applied as everyone actually got out of the way. It was so much fun felt like a queen for the day.

As it was Friday and we had all had a long tiring week at work a group of us decided to knock of a little early and hit the local pub. Well to cut the story short this was one of those sniff the first drink - fall over drunk two minutes later nights and after 6 hours and copious amounts more of alcohol I was decidedly tiddly and on my stumbling (sashaying) walk home a friendly group of maoris on their way back from Karaoke decided to take me under their wing and feed me back to sanity. By the end of my magic kebab we were having a kiwi vs Ireland sing off in the restaurant. Such a fun way to complete a night out.

15/05/10

OK so early starts and hangovers are not the best combination so I was running super late delivering the car back to my friend and consequently she had an appointment to get to so ran out of time to drop me home meaning I was at the mercy of the Trains. Now this is not normally an issue only on this occasion I missed the train by 1 minute so had to wait the full 1 hour for the next one. My ipod battery was flat. I had no book and it decided to pour with rain and crazy thunderstorms and wind all on a day I had thrown on the clothes on my floor - in short 1 cotton dress and a pair of leggings. I was feeling decidedly sorry for myself. I then had another hour to wait at the changeover for the next train so by the time I reached my friends for lunch I was very clean and crisp to say the least.

Then still feeling very sorry for myself I attempted to mask this with the female aids of makeup and fashion before heading out for a Birthday celebration. We had a fun night of ten pin bowling of which I can proudly say I was the worst I mean if you can't be the best why be in the middle?

Then we headed out for some really good Japanese food which finally did the trick and made me feel completely human again. I had the most fun sizzling crackling cook it yourself sukiyaki meal. The highlight of the night though was definitely the dad a Japanese virgin so as such ordered a taster plate and thought the green ball was to be eaten whole as like most food on the plate and then spent the next 10 minutes trying to stop his burning mouth and teary eyes. The green ball of course being wasabi.

16/05/10

For mothers day my gift was that at the next craft meetup that my mum hosted for the ladies I would do all the catering. It was fun but very busy making so much food in such a short space of time and my mum feeling sorry for me came in to help and when I asked her to get the jam out for the pikelets thought I had said the scones so the cheese and herb scones were soon topped with raspberry - now I imagine if I was in America this might have gone down a treat with their peanut butter and jam like combo but here it was a little strange.

After all the cooking was done I packed a picnic and headed to Takapuna beach for a lovely stroll and relaxation after the madness. Also got to try a bites of the lemon meringue gelato from the Takapuna Beach Cafe - mmmmmmmmmmm

17/05/10

This morning we had a super early start as it was one of our 6 weekly work Breakfasts. Always nice to have a yummy cooked breakfast out and today featured the slide show from my boss Jon as he recently did the mad hatter thing and volunteered to join the part time army so had just returned from the full on basic training course. It confirmed that I would not be donning the khakis. It also confirmed that when my relative chose Waiuku as the Army base because he thought no one would want to live there - that he was spot on it looked absolutely freezing. We have nick named our boss GI Jon.

19/05/10

I am a third of the way through my 12 week life coaching and boy am I getting organised. Today I purchased a product called Mobile me which syncs my calendar and address book between my work computer, my home laptop and desktop and my iphone so now every device I own can check what my schedule is for the day. I have even made my calendar have subsections for each of the wheel of life focus areas to ensure I am spending equal time on each part. 

Another bonus of my coaching was brainstorming ways to keep my volume of reading up even though my allocatable time had reduced and we came up with the idea of audio books. I am now an audio book addict as they are so good to listen to when walking to and from work or other such places and you can get through books so quickly. Richard Branson reads his own biography for losing my virginity.

It is kind of like being read a story like you were as a kid.