100 posts strong?

Well this will be post number 100 since I started and it's been a LONG time since the last post.
A lot has happened so here's a brief catch up.

My parent's have now separated. Rather a life altering thing to happen when your family has always been the rock that you stand on. Good news is mum has a new house and is getting her new life into order. I'm really rather proud of her, she's much stronger than she gives herself credit for. My dad on the other hand has gone up north and (in his own words) "shacked up" with a woman named Shirley. That's about all I have to say about that, I mean well, yea.

Um, more recently I won a competition from a magazine. It was just your run of the mill fill in the entry form and post off kind of affair but the prize was $15K worth of HP products! I'm actually flying up there tomorrow to do a bit of a meet and greet along with a photo shoot. Crazy huh!

Other news, progress on the car has ground to a halt, mostly my own laziness. I am determined to make headway on this now though as it has gone on too long. I am going to ring some panel beaters today to talk about booking it in to have someone finish the fitting of the body kit. It's hard not having a car and even harder on my sweetness who is fed up with being 'the driver' (and rightly too)

Um, what else has happened in between...

Ooh! a good bit of news is that Karen, aka the messy annoying bipolar cow has moved out! And what's even better is that Sharyn and I had a shift around of rooms and I now have an awesome big bedroom. It's got a lovely bay window at the front looking out onto the street and as of last night I finished making a window seat to go in it. It's really cool.
We have a new flatmate, her name is Delaney and she seems really nice, I think she'll fit in well. She's a 5th year law student who's moved down from Auckland (but we won't hold it against her)
The flat is starting to feel like a real flat again, rather than the hostel environment it's been.

I got a great buy on 1-day.co.nz, it's a palm sized remote controlled helicopter. It's very cool and about 100 times easier to get the hang of than the much larger scale version I got off ebay. Tons of fun and really robust for a little plastic thing!

I've gotten onto facebook, it's really good for keeping in touch with friends overseas, have been getting regular updates from Mikki and Jo which is cool.

I'm taking stock of my life at the moment, getting rid of some crap that I don't need, making changes for the better, mostly mindset changes. I've become quite a procrastinator in my old age and it's time for that to stop. I'm taking a page from Garla Darling's book and am going to have weekly to-do lists to try and help with the process.

Well I'd like to write more but I AM at work so I'd better get back to doing some actual work.

Till next time

Long time no sea

Hello, well it's been a while since I last blogged.
I thought I should make an effort and update.

So what's been happening? uuum, it's hard trying to think of everything.
Well, my parents have sold the farm, no idea what's going on there, the situation's not the best but everyone keeps soldiering on.

My girl came back to me (that's the best thing). She never really went away anywhere but she was struggling with some things. We're all good again now though and I'm loving it. I missed her lots.

What else?... we'll I've made the leap and I'm doing some study again, I've just started the first paper on my way to a Bachelor on Applied Science majoring in IT. I'm starting with 'Introduction to Law' I'm really struggling with the reading though, it's all very boring legislation and stuff :S

It's Ben's birthday today. I was looking at getting him a gorrilla-gram or a strip-o-gram or something but unfortunately I left it a little too late. I'll remember for next time though. Maybe a male strip-o-gram, that would be funny, especially if I got it sent to him at work ;-) oh how deliciously evil...

Next week I'll be off to TechEd up at Auckland. It's usually pretty good but I'll be away from my girl for 3 days. I guess that wouldn't be so hard for most people but we work in the same office so we've really gotten used to seeing each other during the day, even if we don't necessarily see each other in the evening, so 3 days away is going to suck.
Hopefully the weekend after will make up for it, we've got a wonderful weekend planned. We're working a half day on friday and then we're heading out to Parehua Country Estate in Martinborough, it looks spectacular. We're there for 2 nights and plan to make the most of it :)
We're both REALLY looking forward to it.

We're still looking for a flat, we're both 'done' with the flatmate thing, it grows old very quickly and once that's happened you really just want to get away from them all.

Oooh, Miss C got her new tires yesterday, the ones she won. They look really flash and come with a warranty! They're brilliant performance tires and she says they handle superbly :)
I've yet to put my new rims n tires on my car, I'm holding off till I have the body kit, get it all done in one go :)

Apart from that there's not been too much going on, not that I can remember right not but I've got about 3 things on the go at the moment so when I get a breather I'll probably update this some.

Oh well, I'll post again later, until then, keep watching the skies (or something)

Monday, monday

Well it's another Monday at work and I'm down again.
A bit of a catch up.
Last week Miss C's Grandy passed away. He was diagnosed with cancer a little while back and it all escalated very quickly. It's awful that it happened but it's fortunate that it didn't get dragged out while he got worse and worse.
There's been very little going on in my life of late and I've been trying to concentrate on being there for my girl.
Unfortunately I mucked things up over the weekend and am feeling rather down about it. Suffice to say on the first weekend after a very long week for Miss C with running around after people and funerals etc, I kind of dropped the ball.
On Saturday we snuggled up with a dvd and that was all very nice and cozy, it was good to just be alone with my girl again.
Then yesterday I wasn't feeling so hot and wasn't really with it. As a result I hadn't really asked Miss C if she wanted to do something at all. I left her feeling unloved.
I felt awful that I'd made her feel like that and really didn't have any excuse. Sure I wasn't feeling well but I knew that she was still grieving after her Grandy passing away and I should have been there for her, doing everything I possibly could to cheer her up.
Sometimes I'm just a bit of an idiot. I mean, I can't imagine my life without her in it now. I don't mean to be such an oaf but turns out I am.
It's something I have to keep working on, because I don't want to lose my girl.
Her flatmate does really nice things for her every now and then, and then he'll go and do something really thoughtless and stupid. I don't want to be that kind of person.
I really don't.

Anniversary Weekend!

Well it’s been far too long since I blogged so here’s an update!
There has been lots of things going on since I blogged but I’ll leave them for now and get on with a blog about the weekend.
This weekend marked the 1 year anniversary of when Miss C and I started going out so we celebrated in style 
Coming up to the weekend Miss C was bursting at the seams to tell me what she’d organised and eventually she did. She was worried that I would think of the same thing (luckily I seemed to be away with the fairies so there was no problems there ;-)
Miss C organised a night at the Intercontinental in the upper class accommodation meaning we had full access to the club lounge, free valet services and breakfast, spoilt rotten in other words.
Since Miss C had organised that I felt it only fair that I sort out the dinner arrangements.
I booked us a nice table at Juniper and we were all set.

So, come Saturday we were off!
First off Miss C came round at about mid day and we decided that we’d go out and try and sort out her wardrobe dilemma and find something nice for lunch. We settled on Petone for brunch at one of our favourite cafe’s and then Westgate for the wardrobe.
Well that’s where things started going off the rails a little...
We drove out to the Hutt and both of us weren’t really paying attention to anything and before we knew it we were heading for lower hutt rather than Petone. No biggie really, except for the fact that only moments earlier there had been a fatal car accident on the hutt highway ahead of us and traffic soon came to a halt, and looked like it would stay that way for a while. It was at that point we noticed some cars behind us pulling to the side of the road and reversing back to the lights that were only about 100m behind us so they could go back in the other direction. After a few moments of indecision we swapped seats and I reversed us back and then into town.?
We drove around town looking for a park but at this point we were both VERY sick and tired of it all.
Eventually we gave up and just used a carpark building (which was the best decision we’d made all morning)
We headed off to Borders and had a coffee and shared a croissant.
With our batteries somewhat recharged and a new sense of purpose we headed off in search of something nice for Miss C to wear.
We headed into Jacqui E and found a couple of nice dresses, finally deciding on the one we’d seen in the window and were sorted. While we were paying the Lady behind the counter was making small talk and the conversation turned to our anniversary. “Just a moment, I’ve got a little something extra for you” she said as she dashed out to the back of the store, only to return with a bottle of bubbly.
And that’s when the day started to really pick up ;-)
I decided I couldn’t be bothered going home only to have to iron a pair of pants for that evening so we headed into Hallensteins to grab a nice pair of pants to go with my new pink shirt I’d bought on Friday (yes Pink, I know)
After that it was off to my place so I could pack a bag and we were OFF!
We arrived at the Intercontinental and had the car and our bags whisked away while we went and checked in.
We got out keys and headed upstairs to our room. It was a nice room with a view of the road below and was made even better by the fact that we couldn’t see work ;-)
It was at this point that I pulled out the bottle of Verve Cliout that I had picked up and we had a glass of bubbly. Very nice stuff too.
After that we exchanged presents! (yea, the good stuff)
I gave Miss C a bottle of Moet that was decorated with Swarovski crystals, an eye toy, a eye toy dancing game, some guitar ince cube trays, some jewlery and a scrap book type photo album that I had made, which contained photos from some of our more memorable times together. She was very happy with it all and I was quite pleased because I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d gotten her an appropriate ‘memorable’ anniversary gift but she said I did well so that’s all that matters 
From my sweetness I received a Michael Palin book, his diaries from the Monty Python years (which I’d been looking at since it first came out), a rip curl jersey (which I’d been looking at with her), a rip curl watch (which is really really nice :D) and three picture frames with memorable things in them (a misery card, a picture of the lighthouse from Cape Paliser, and a ticket from the Evermore concert we went to). I got some wonderful gifts and we both had such a great time :D
After that we god dressed and headed up to the club lounge for pre dinner drinks and nibbles.
The club lounge was very nice, we mixed some nice drinks and enjoyed the atmosphere.
Then it was off to Juniper.
We were given a nice corner booth upstairs. We ordered a couple of really nice cocktails and started our dinner out with fresh garlic bread and scallops, both of which were really nice.
Then for our mains we had the chicken and the pork, both of which were lovely also. A very nice dinner all round.
After that we were naughty and caught a cab up to Courtenay Place to grab some Gelato from Kaffe Eis (so typically us)
It was wonderful. We walked along Courtenay Place while we ate our Gelato, heading into Whoutcoulls and coming out with a Jenga/Yahtzee game pack which we took back to the hotel and played while drinking another couple of bottles of bubbly 
After all the frivolity we were ready for bed and just as we were nodding off we heard some strange sounds, but they disappeared as quickly as they came. Then a couple of minutes the strange noises returned and then started getting louder and faster. It didn’t take too long for us to realise it was the people in the next room getting ‘jiggy wit it’
We both laughed rather loudly and then the niose suddenly stopped again, whoops ;-)
We got up at 9 the next morning only to decide that breakfast wasn’t worth getting up for so lounged about in bed for hours 
Eventually we got up, dressed and headed down to Arizona for a beautiful cooked brunch. It was brilliant.
We headed back up to the room feeling suitably drowsy.
After a while Miss C got a call from her mum saying her grandy had gone into hospital with suspected renal failure so we had to pack up in a hurry.
Miss C dropped me off at home and proceeded to the hospital.
Long story short it turned out that he wasn’t getting enough liquids so they were keeping him in overnight. Poor Miss C got awfully shook up about it (and understandably too) so headed home after that and curled up in bed with her book.

Regardless of the hurried finish to the whole affair it was a WONDERFUL weekend and I’m looking forward to the time when we can celebrate our second anniversary.

Now I’m sure there’s some things I’ve missed out so no doubt this will get updated a bit tomorrow but it’s almost home time so I should really wrap it up.

I will try and keep in the habit of blogging more often again, scouts honour ;-)

TAFNR

Onward Christian Soldiers

So It's April 24th today, Anzac Day's Eve.
Childrems stockings are hung in the expectation of crout specters that will go from house to house, wafting like eerie elves, leaving shell casings for good little children....
Well no actually, the only specters that will be around will be the brave RSA members at the dawn parades, commemorating those who were lost and what they gave their lives for.

I should be making an effort and going to a dawn parade but I'm still getting over being sick last week and I still need all the sleep I can get :S
Both my sweetness and I have been under the weather of late, her more so than me I'm afraid. She's being stretched thin with coping with being sick and being assaulted with a barrage of work from her boss.
You see, Miss C is leaving her job to come work for the good folks at IHC, of which I just happen to be one! :D
And to top it all off, we're currently flat hunting so we can move in together! :D
I guess that would scare some people, living AND working together, but it doesn't phase me one bit. I'm rather looking forward to it.

So I haven't blogged in a while, to catch up, I've had some wonderful times with my girl, some awful times at home being sick, and some other times where i was mostly half asleep.

So the big news is, I have a tattoo! :D
I got it last monday and its still healing at the moment, probably be all good at the end of the week, and then I'll take a picture. It's three bands around my left arm. It looks cool :)

Work is same old, same old, I will have been here 2 years at the end of the month, which means pay rise and a small bonus if the bosses are happy :)
Which is a good thing, because I'm going to be getting a body kit for my car and have it repainted :) I'm organizing the finance for it now and it'll be a month and a half or so before it'll get delivered so I'll have plenty of time to decide on a colour as well as possibly find some nice mags ;)

So my poor sweetness is having a hard time of it at the moment, her work is getting her down and it's very possibly the reason why she's still sick, stress does awful things I know.
I'm just trying to be here for her at the moment, surprising her with little gifts, just doing anything I can to try and brighten her days while she does the count-down till she's outta there. I can't wait. She's not the happiest camper at the moment and I wants nothing more than for her to be happy.
Only 13 working days to go!

Ooh, we went round to see Lisa n Rodney at their new house on the weekend. It's Rodney's old family home and it's rather nice. It's a bit dated inside but has TONS of potential. The bottom floor is a sort of rumpus room, complete with a full bar, pool table and indoor spa. The spa is a bit naff though, with mirrors all around the walls, a bit of a 70's throw back but that's easily resolved.
I'm a wee bit jealous but I'm just looking forward to living with my girl so it doesn't matter :)

Okay, that's about enough for now, I've got to get some work done.
See you on the flipside.

He's the diet coke of evil, only 1 calorie, not quite evil enough..

This is the view I was greeted by this morning at work



All I can say is TGIF

Wow what a weekend!

Wow, wow, wow. I just had SUCH a good weekend.
Miss C any myself decided to take monday off so we could have a 3 day weekend, no particular plans in mind, just thought it would be nice. What we ended up having was something much better than "nice"

We started off on Saturday morning, having decided the previous day that we would take a drive out to Martinborough to visit some vineyards and generally just enjoy the great weather. We were blessed with a beautiful day, for which we were well prepared with a convertible sports car, to take full advantage of the wonderful cloudless day.
We drove into Martinborough township just on lunchtime, couldn't have timed it better if we'd tried.

The first stop was a jewelry store that Miss C had taken a liking to on her previous visit on her 'work do'.
They had some really nice stuff, very cool original designs. Miss C was smitten with lots of items but we managed to leave without scaring anyones bank accounts.
We found a nice little cafe to have lunch, an open chicken salad sandwich for me and an open steak sandwich for Miss C. We both really enjoyed the lunch, wonderful Martinborough cuisine :)
Next it was off to do a few wineries.
The first place we stopped off at was rather non descript but they had a lovely Sav in their line for tasting. It tasted of passionfruit and was very crisp and clean. We came away with a bottle of that feeling very 'grown up' ;)
The next winery was chocca full so we didn't even bother going in, not much for waiting are we.
The next winery was also very busy, we stayed around just long enough for a cup of water an when we realized we weren't going to be getting any service because we obviously weren't the clientele they were looking for, we left.
The next winery was a complete turn around. We were greeted at the door with a smile and were even taken into 'the back room' to do our tasting. The guy who was serving us was a really nice genuine kind of guy and he told us all about the wines, how it had been 32deg the day before when he was out picking the grapes, as well as a handy suggestion that we head out to the coast to see the seal colony. We'd have never known about it if it wasn't for him.
We came away from there with a couple more bottles of wine, one of which was a lovely desert wine which we both enjoyed :)
We headed back to the main township because Miss C couldn't leave without getting a little 'something something' from the jewelry store. She found herself a very funky silver ring that she fell in love with (ahd has hardly left her finger since).
We stopped at the BP, grabbed a couple of cokes (in glass bottles of course) and headed off.

We decided we'd had our fill of wineries and it was off to find the coast.
We missed the turn off the first time but managed to find it on the way back. After that it was about an hours drive out through farmland which opened into a spectacular coastal scene.




We drove along the waterfront which was spectacular, going from metal to tar and back again.
The scenery was ever changing, there is some amazing rock formations around Cape Palliser
We stopped to take some pictures of the seals, some of them were showing off, posing for the camera.




I was telling Miss C how you have to be careful as the seals blend in with the rocks and it can be hard to see them sometimes. Look, see there's one there, and there, one behind that rock and OH! whoopsie, one right down beside me here too.

After the seals we headed on round to the lighthouse and being the wonderful day it was, decided to brave the stairs and climb up.




It was a bit of a slog but we made it and the view was definitely worth it.
Snapped some shots, walked back down and headed for home.








By the time we made it back to Miss C's place we were exhausted after having such a wonderful day.
We had a nice dinner, went through a bottle of wine between us and retired to bed.

TAFNR