so much for the weekly updates.

Wed., July 2, 12:14 PM

Yes I know, Ive been slack again. Im finding I dont have much time with work and study to do too much else. Everything is going well now, the first semester of uni is over and I got good marks so Im happy with that, work is well, work, the flat is working out well and I even have a lovely man in my life.

Heres some photos of my flatmates. There are 7 of them at the moment, 4 permanent and 3 rescue dogs. Yes things do get a bit noisy at times, we had a full on dog fight to break up this morning. 2 of the boys cat stand each other and have to be seperated at all times. A door got left open this morning and it was all on. My flatmate and I grab a tail each and yank them apart which usually works but it took 2 bowls of water dumped over them to seperate them today. The fur was flying. My flatmate collects abandoned Samoyeds from death row in the pound and is a foster home for them. The 3 we have now had been abandoned at various times, one locked in a garage for 4 days with no food or water while the owners did a runner back to Asia. Some people are just so cruel.

Blake, the boss. He just loves crashing out on my bed. Also the inspiration behind Blakes Bikkits

Molly, who was left in the garage. She'd been shaved as well so isnt as fluffy as she should be but her coat is growing now and she is starting to look like a proper Samoyed.

Noah.

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the joys of driving in Auckland

Sat., March 15, 07:23 PM

Week 2 at uni and everything is still ticking along. I’m finding one paper a whole lot harder than the rest, its all science and I had a phobia of chemistry at high school which I’m now having to relive. The lecturer kept saying right this is just basic, that’s basic, but to some of us its not! Aaaargh!

The things you see on the roads in this town are entertaining. It takes me 40 mins to drive to work, 25 mins to drive to uni and anything from 40 – 60 mins to drive between work and uni so it gives me a lot of time to observe those around me. To the motorcyclist with the rego 56KEG, next time you hop on your bike PLEASE pull your pants up so we don’t have to see your muffin top and your notsotinywhities and plumbers crack. Not a pretty image.

A group of homies or whatever the current term is (heres me showing my complete lack of local lingo) had me in stitches the other night. They were cruising up the motorway in this huuuge American 50’s style convertible, all lowered and hotted up. There were about 6 of them in big boofy jackets; caps etc with rap music blaring then as I pulled up beside them at the lights the driver had a Chihuahua on his lap! They saw me laughing at them and just smiled and waved. Bless.

Everyday I see a variety of nose pickers, hair groomers, shavers, even a guy cleaning his teeth, finger tappers, seat dancers and the whole big class of dickheads who got their license out of a weetbix packet. I feel sorry for cyclists like D-Man who regularly dance with death on their way to work. Auckland drivers are just so aggressive, if there is anything resembling a gap in the traffic you can guarantee someone will nip into it because swapping lanes just might get them home 3 seconds quicker.

I feel guilty about being a single occupant car but there’s no public transport from where I live and I would have to change buses and take twice as long between uni and work. Once my student ID arrives I’ll definitely be checking out the new northern busway as it will mean I use less petrol which is astronomically expensive now and looks set to rise even further. On my days off I don’t use my car unless I really really want to go somewhere and then its usually only to take the dogs to the beach.

Don’t get me started on the amount of unrestrained kids in cars either, its just shocking. When I first moved up here I was walking to the mall and in that 15 minute stretch I saw 6 cars with kids unrestrained. In all cases the driver had a seat belt on but what about the kids?

I heard a really good question today standing in the uni book store contemplating the cost of text books. “would you like a petroleum based bag for that?” The girl in question was about to say yes then realized we were all looking at her and quickly stuffed her purchases into the bag she already had and took off. Perhaps every shop should be saying that.

Right I should be studying not aimlessly trolling the net. Procrastination is so easy!

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I am still around

Fri., February 29, 03:58 PM

Its been so long since I wrote anything on here I forgot the password. Process of elimination later, here I am.

yes I am a lazy monkey but the evils of facebook have taken over my life lately. Now I'm a bit sick of it so my new years resolution (made on Feb 29, better late than never ) is to write at least once a week.

So an update on my life. I have moved to Auckland, I live in a flat with 2 other girls and 5 dogs. Its all going swimmingly well at this stage. I have the hugest bedroom ever and all the joy of having dogs around with none of the expense of keeping them. I took one of them to Muriwai Beach yesterday for a walk and boy it felt good. There is so much more reason to go walking when you have an energetic dog in tow.

I am going back to Uni this year, as well as working so will be a bit of a stressball in a few weeks I am thinking. I went along to orientation today only to discover I wasnt enrolled in what I thought I was enrolled in but after standing in a very long line for a very long time that seems to be sorted out.

Work is going well, I transferred up to Auckland Domestic airport ok only to find a day at work there is flat out insane compared to a day in Welly. They do things a bit defferently as I discover when I make a cock up such as not openeing the airbridge doors and leaving the passengers stuck on the airbridge wondering how the hell they were going to get out. Ooops. Still its a great job and I love it.

Short entry I know but that will have to do for now. My camera is dying a slow and painful death so no recent piccies to post either.

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oops its been over a month

Fri., August 3, 10:35 PM

I have a job at last. The only problem is it doesnâ€™t start for another 4-5 weeks so Iâ€™m still bored. I have to resort back to temping work to keep my brain functioning.

Iâ€™ve been doing the Aunty thing a bit lately. I had my nephew to entertain a couple of weeks ago. Its been fun really, Iâ€™ve missed 2 years of their lives while I was away and a lot has changed since then. Hes nearly 13 now and interested in different stuff than before I left. He mowed the lawns for me as it stopped raining long enough for them to dry out and was quite happy to do so as he was earning money. We went off into town and he promptly spent it all at Time Zone playing games. We also did Te Papa, they have a mystery solving exhibition on at the moment that is quite good, and just right for his age group.

We went to see Blades of Glory, good for a laugh but not much else. If you can stomach a half naked Will Ferrell then this is the movie for you. Rubbish story line, stupid moves, predictable end but good light hearted entertainment.

My youngest niece came down for the day last Sunday so we spent the day doing little girlie stuff. She very cunningly wore the oldest, holiest pair of shoes she could find knowing full well her grandmother would get suckered into buying new shoes for her. 2 pairs later she went home very happy. I had the middle niece for the day a few weeks before that and we did the tour of parliament which was quite interesting. I remember going there in 3rd form all those years ago and all I remember seeing was the chequered floor you see on TV and the chamber.

3 weeks ago I went up to Rotorua for the weekend to catch up with my mates. It was the Young Farmer competition so there was plenty to do. On the Friday night it was the 75th reunion and not too many my age were there but I got talking to some of the old guys who were in Young Farmers back in the 60â€™s and stuff and they had some pretty good stories. One guy was telling me how some bright spark had the idea of setting off the fire alarm in a small hotel after the annual ball one year just to see who appeared out of whose room. Some things never change. The idea was bandied about at around 4am on the Sunday morning but luckily it was decided the Novotel probably wouldnâ€™t appreciate it too much and the person in question couldnâ€™t afford the fire brigade call out fee anyway.

Saturday evening was the final show and ball. My friend and I stitched ourselves into our dresses â€“ has anyone tried those stick on bra things? Useless. My dress was so low at the back that was the only option available to me and they didnâ€™t really do the job quite honestly. After 12 hours in the dress gravity was starting to win but luckily everyone was drunk enough not to notice.

I even manage a very polite and civil conversation with the ex-husband. Iâ€™d not seen him since Iâ€™d left and a lot happened in the meantime, water under the bridge type stuff, but even in my slightly drunken state (someone bought me a whole bottle of red wine instead of just a glass, bad mistake) I didnâ€™t say anything too outrageous which was very controlled of me. The ball was pretty good, the blandest food ever was on offer but really good wine. Next morning was so not pretty, I went for brunch with a friend and lets just say struggled to eat anything. Considering I had a 7 hour drive home, it was one very long day.

Iâ€™ve succumbed to the facebook craze. I resisted myspace and bebo but after numerous invites I figured I might as well check it out and am now addicted dammit. I cant stop playing the traveler IQ game.

Still faffing about sorting out my photos, but heres a couple from New York
As all tourists do we went to Strawberyy Fields in Central Park. What a stunning piece of scenery that is. I want to see it in the snow next time. Someone was filming there and the dopey cow presenting kept fluffing her lines and wouldnt get out of the way so I could get a face on photo of it so thats why its slightly cockarsed.

View from the Top of the Rock. We decided on going up the Rockerfeller Centre rather than the Empire State as I wanted to get the Empire State in my photos. Yes it was a bad hair day.

The was the largest piece of cake I have ever tackled in my life. Its makes the sponge mountain I scoffed in Turkey look like a mere cupcake in comparison. We went past a very yummy looking bakery and decided to try a cup cake. Once we got inside the delights of the big cakes beckoned and we succumbed with squeals of delight. Little did we know that one piece would feed a family of 4 in NZ. Look at the spoon on the side, its a full sized spoon, not a teaspoon.

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I know I've been quiet, but I am still sulking.

Tue., June 26, 02:24 PM

Ok so I have been neglecting my blog, again. Its not like I am busy, I am STILL unemployed. Iâ€™ve had a couple of days work here and there in mumâ€™s office but not enough to get excited about. Better than nothing tho. Iâ€™ve had 4 job interviews so far, been turned down for 2 and waiting to hear from a local job which I know I will enjoy immensely, its working with animals again, woohoo. I have a second interview with another next week. That one sounds promising with a lot of opportunity for promotion but it means trekking right across town to the airport at odd hours of the day. Itâ€™s been a bit of a shock to the system, going for an interview and actually being turned down. Thatâ€™s never happened before.

So what have I been up to since I came back? Mum gave me a ticket to the All Blacks France game for my birthday so that was a good night out, good seats and it turned out a relative was sitting right in front of us but it took us a good 15 minutes to notice! I went to see Oceans 13 the other night as another birthday pressie so that was all good. Itâ€™s much better than Oceans 12 so worth a trip out to see that one.

Iâ€™ve been hanging out at the neighbours a fair bit, he is Jordanian so makes the best tea on the planet and we sit and chat about all sort of topics. I took his kids to see Shrek 3 last weekend which was ok, nothing stunning but still a bit of a laugh. The jokes seemed to be more aimed at the adult audience this time round and puss only pulled the cute face for about a second and a half.

Mum and I have been busy sorting her house out, sometimes you just need someone else to come along and say oh my god you still have that! Throw it out now! The local charity shop has been doing well out of us, 2 boot leads have gone down there so far this month with loads more to go. Weâ€™ve put loads of stuff up on Trade Me, its surprising just what junk people will buy and bid plenty for.

I am still sulking at being home. When people ask me whats it like being back its very hard to drag up anything that resembles enthusiasm. If I was in the UK I'd be heading of to Iceland for a girlie trip this week. Sigh. I hope you had fun without me!

I have a ball to go to in 2 weeks, it should be a fun weekend in the stinky city. I bought a dress in Bloomingdales (more about that later) and went out to one of my several storage sites this weekend to ferret around in my stuff for my dancing shoes. I found various treasures IÃ©v not seen for 2 years and a whole load of clothes that dont fit anymore. Still all my winter stuff is now seeing the light of day as its bloody cold here! The huge big 5C today. Last night was a really wild stormy night, the house was shaking the wind was so strong.

I'm wading my way thru all my photos when the mood takes, (which is not very often) and this one arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago. Its one of my favourite ever, Nicole took it at Petra in Jordan, but it was a team shot. It was taken on a 60 second exposure and it was a team effort keeping people away from walking in front of the camera. To get into the Treasury you walk thru a 1.5 km siq, a natural chasm in the rock. The whole route was lit entriely by candlelight, with this at the end. Well worth a visit!