Wednesday List: Fabulous things from an amazing weekend

On Labour weekend Shannon and I ran away to Martinborough for a mini-break and it was quelle amaze. This blog post is late, but also the whole experience was so fabulous so I feel totally justified in bragging about it still.

Here are some of the best things. (Non-listed best thing: Shannon. Because that goes without saying ❤, vom).

Tandem bicycles and boozy vineyard tours

Have you ever ridden a tandem bicycle around a vineyard with your lover? If no, may I recommend it to you?

The bicycle situation was pretty great. While we biked with increasing danger from vineyard to vineyard, casually drinking and buying wine, the people we hired the bike from rode around after us and collect our wine purchases.  So.decadent.

Fascinatingly, I found that my tandem-riding abilities increased with the amount of wine we “tasted".

So much delicious food

Did we eat and eat and eat? Yes we did, and it was pretty great. Highlights include the scallops at Pinocchio, a delicious roast lamb platter at Cool Change, and the inevitable fish and chips at the Lake Ferry pub on the way home. I was very sad not to have a pie at the French bakery cafe in Greytown but I guess we can't eat all the things all the time, because time just doesn’t work like that.

Chinoiserie all up in my hotel room

Shannon was lucky enough to be given a voucher for one night of our stay at the rather swanky Martinborough Hotel - hence our decision to stay there (nay, take a mini-break).

The Martinborough Hotel is a big old pile that's been renovated in a terribly tasteful style and is smack bang in the middle of the town. We stayed in the Bidwill Room and it was decorated in tres pretty Chinoiserie. There was also a small table with a silver jug of white blossoms that were artfully losing their petals.

Stonehenge Aotearoa

Stonehenge Aotearoa is worth a visit for the novelty alone. DID YOU KNOW it is not a mere replica of Stonehenge in spray-on concrete and chicken wire, but rather a perfect astronomical clock, reversed for the Southern Hemisphere and incorporating elements of Māori astronomy? DID YOU KNOW it is run by a group of enthusiastic local astronomers who also run tours and have made a lovely video guide you can watch in their auditorium? DID YOU KNOW it is beloved as a venue by local Wiccans and Druids?

Entry fee was $8, and I have no regrets.

Here is a photo of two different Stonehenges, can you tell the difference?

This February, I...

 

✙ Took two weeks off work - and spent a week of that lazing about at home and enjoying myself with no pressure to go anywhere or do anything.

✙ Ate a crapload of summer fruit especially peaches, plums, apricots. Golden Queen peaches look terrible but taste amazing.

✙ Spent ten days in Golden Bay, my spiritual home, and became almost obscenely relaxed. I swam in the sea everyday and mostly stopped washing otherwise: it was heavenly.

✙ While in Golden Bay I went on an overnight kayaking trip and had a near death experience.  On the afternoon of the first day, the wind and the swell picked up and the waves became so much bigger than I am confident with - the waves were breaking over the front of the kayak and I FREAKED OUT. When we arrived at our destination I recovered with half a bottle of wine while shaking from shock; but now I can't remember the fear and only how amazing the trip back was on the second day. I Overcame my Fear? Or at least Killed it with Wine?

✙ Drank a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin.

✙ Took my measurements properly, re-sized a couple of patterns and sewed two skirts - one a-line and one pencil - and another Scout Tee. The a-line skirt is not that great, but the pencil one was a spectacular success I feel.

✙ Read a heap of books: Caesar's Women (Colleen McCullouch), The Snowman (Jo Nesbø), The Paris Wife (Paula McLain), Going Out (Scarlett Thomas), The Dante Club (Matthew Pearl), The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho), The Subtle Knite (Philip Pullman), and the truly ghastly and stupid A Discovery of Witches (Deborah Harkness).

✙ Went to my first knit-night at Holland Road Yarn, where I was given permission by a fellow knitter to frog my thrice-cast on sweater and to admit defeat. "The yarn doesn't want to be that top." THE RELIEF IS SO GREAT.

✙ Washed my face with honey in the morning, cleansed using the oil cleansing method at night, and moisturised with a hand blended oil that included the epically stinky neem oil. Pretty happy with the results - have no immediate plans to turn back.

✙ Cast on a pair of merino-possum socks that I am enjoying knitting very much. Not a fancy pattern, but I'm not feeling too fancy at the moment so it's suiting me well.

✙ Had a spectacular meal with a group of friends that I regularly dinner-party with, and brought devils on horseback as my offering.

✙ Was fitted for contact lenses for the first time in the twenty-three years that I've worn glasses. Turns out I can't see that well with the particular contact lens prescription that I have which is disappointing. I'm hoping that we can sort that out at the next appointment I have BUT: it's fun to be able to see so much when applying my make up.

✙ PAID OFF ALL MY DEBTS AND FILLED IN THE DEBT UNICORN ONCE AND FOREVER.

Drinking Someone Else's Liquor Cabinet: Classic Daquiri

Verily, I remember the days in my first year of University when frozen daquiris were a Wednesday night must-have. Lizzie described them as alcoholic smoothies and we weren't going to say NO to something as conceptually brilliant as that. Related: I have a recollection that while drinking Tupelo of some men asking us, a group of nineteen year old girls pretending that we were terribly sophist,  if they could buy us drinks - and spending us a fortune buying us a round of Strawberry Daquiris. I don't remember much else happening from that point though - chances are I caught the train back to Whitby. At the time we thought we were just such sophisticated Sex in the City-esq risque minxes.

Ok though, this is not a frozen daquiri. It's a random winter classic daquiri inspired by the recipe on Pink of Perfection but perhaps mostly by the fact I am craving summer and still have a fair amount of booze in the pantry. Winter = no limes, so it's a lemon classic daquiri (what a proper mixologist might call: A TRAVESTY OF A DRINKING HABIT). I'm enjoying it! TBH, It's actually quite a lot like a whiskey sour, but with white rum instead of whiskey.

I'm not even going to bother reposting the recipe as it just seems too cheeky for words. Please check it out though!

Drinking Someone Else's Liquor Cabinet: Whiskey Sour

Still drinking my way through that liquor cabinet FYI. A couple of weeks ago now I took a bunch of the more random stuff (Sambuca, Blue Curacao) to a cocktail party where I attempted to bait the long suffering bartender into making something crazy delicous out of what were, basically, kind of bizarre and disgusting liquers.

Here I am drinking the Sambuca jobby (I think) and looking meaningful and wistful. What I don't look is SLOBBERING DRUNK, which is ironic given the circumstances.

 

 

Anyways, today, the day where I found both the time and inclination to talk about myself on the internets yet again, I drank the very last of my Tullamore Dew whiskey, the one spirit I was not disappointed at all to receive. WHY? Because of *Whiskey Sour*, my cocktail happy place.

A whiskey sour is:

One part whiskey to one part lemon to one part sugar syrup. Or:

whiskey : lemon : sugar syrup

You're supposed to shake this all up with ice and then pour it in a glass, but that would require more steps before I get the booze inside me. I tend to put the ice cubes at the bottom of a glass, add all the ingredients and give it a quick stir.

 

 

Then it's just a matter of getting it as quickly as possible from glass to mouth.

Next: the bottle of Galliano. Ugh.

Drinking someone else's liquor cabinet: Golden Margarita

 

For my 30th birthday party, I was given the ends of a liquor cabinet. Luckily, no Baileys, so I don't think that anything will go off.* However: I have no idea how to go about drinking cocktails and there is a LOT of booze in my house. 

In an effort to not buy wine and cider and beer, and to clear some space in my pantry, I have started educating myself in The Way of the Cocktail (that is, I am trying to save money by drinking some of this booze). Let's not get too excited with the concept of "mixology" however: as I now have blue curacao and mango liqueur (amongst other things) so it's doubtful that all of these cocktails will be classy. I see a lot of 90s trashy cocktails in my future (Blue Lagoon party!).

Hey, also, I have no cocktail glasses. So my glass choices are either the pink vintage glasses, the blue vintage glasses, wine glasses, mugs, or champagne bowls. Champagne bowls! ♥♥♥♥

Tonight I made myself a "Golden Margarita", which is

11/2 oz tequila
1/2 oz Cointreau
salt
lime (or lemon, because that's all I had).

Rim the glass using the salt and "lime", shake up the tequila and Cointreau with ice, pour into glass. Garnish with a lemon and some bread crumbs that you've inadvertently picked up because you were too lazy to find a clean chopping board to cut your lemons on.

Have great difficulty making bed. 

This cocktail tastes mostly like tequila and salt, also my tongue is now numb. 

*Not "luckily because I hate Baileys", however. Baileys is my secret shame. Will accept all contributions of Baileys at any time. Nom.

365DOP: My month of aging disgracefully; and It's Music Time?

Cross-posted from 365 Days of Peta.

Aging disgracefully over the last month has involved a lot of early nights and being cosily domesticated, and possibly drinking a little too much for me than is strictly necessary. Probably not quite enough though to qualify the adverb disgracefully: I have had no throw-backs to university days of drunken karaoke yodelling or Thursday night drinking sessions. Peta of course recommends consumption of red wine and dark chocolate in fair quantities, but I have been mostly consuming cider, white wine and cheese. (In Can We Help it if we're Fabulous, Peta comes down fairly hard on white wine (she loves her sweeping statements) and declares that it's only good for removing stains. Oh dear; I suspect that she'd be less than impressed by my quaffing of gallons of Sauvignon Plonk.)

Truthfully, my disgrace has more frequently included falling asleep on the couch with a book spread over my chest. Shannon has taken photographs of this every time it's happened. So much disgrace.

From memory, this was a particularly enjoyable snooze

The highlight of the month was the 30th birthday party - fabulous people, I was spoilt rotten, and I had a super awesome time. There were no photographs taken at all at the party, which was an inadvertently beneficial oversight. There are already too many photos extant of my drunken self and I'd like to start limiting those. I've never seen a photograph of myself boozed that I've thought was flattering in any way shape or form.

I intended to cook my little socks off, Peta-style, but in the end limited my experiments to my booze choices: I made the World's most punchy Punch, recipe from Insatiable:

• 3 bottles of rosé
• 500ml of cognac
• Some fruit and a vanilla pod

Feed to party-goers and watch as Shit Gets Weird.

From this I learnt a valuable lesson: Peta does not pull any punches when it comes to booze (thanks, I'll be here all week!).

Looking over my Peta list, I can say that I have at least thought about walking more, and have actually taken evening walks a little more frequently than I have in the past. I try to take a passeggiata at lunch time involving Stairs and Hills. I have not been as committed to vegetables as perhaps I might, but over Easter weekend I ate so much white carbohydrate cheesy stodge that I have been craving vegetables for the last three days.

This month I have marked down for Making Music.

I think that when I began this project I imagined myself joining a choir and learning to play the ukelele. The first is easiest enough - beginning next Wednesday I'll commit myself to going along to the Wellington Community Choir in Taranaki Street. Fascinated to know what it will be like; I imagine a little fruity?The ukelele is a little more difficult, but I'm hoping that the lovely Hayley will lend me one of hers and that I can learn to play at least one little song before the end of the month! Perhaps I can make a horrible video for you all.

Also: singing more around the house, and perhaps dragging some unsuspecting people along to karaoke.

Music! Fun!

Nat's Big Fat Gypsy Hen's Party

Nat is getting married in a fortnight. Huzzah!

As Anna and I are (extremely proud to be) her bridesmaids, we put on a Hen's party for Nat this Saturday just passed. The theme was My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Check out my extreme abilities in Photoshopping!

It's insanely super nice putting on a party for someone as in: taking what their idea of an ideal party would be and then actioning it. Not too many tacky Hen's party games either - the lack thereof not being to the taste of everyone but certainly to mine, and most importantly, the Bride's.

We did however play "pin the dress on the Gypsy Bride". I made this one up myself, and Nat did look stunning if I do say so myself:

That's a cat on her waist FYI:

Anna was in charge of drinks and plied us with strawberry daiquiris and champagne with cassis. Pink! Delicious!

Dinner and then into town to have some very civilised drinks at the Library. Gypsy Love Potion! More pink and also like drinking a Turkish Delight. Ridiculous coloured drinks make me so happy.

And now for my favourite photograph of Nat and me ever (I'm the one with all the bronzer in case you can't recognise me without my glasses on).

Currently playing: La javanaise by Serge Gainsbourg

 

 

Camera Obscura | Whiskey and Water

Right now: Camera Obscura and whiskey and water from a Crown Lynn Colourware teacup.

So, would you believe it, mere hours after Saturdays chirrupy little post, I was smote with a ghastly dose of food poisoning/gastroenteritis which put me completely out of action for Sheryll's party and for the rest of my time in Melbourne. Even the thought of food was horrifying beyond belief for the rest of the weekend, and drinking alcohol was completely out of the question. I'm sure you can imagine that the trip back on Monday was no fun at all -- I swear the woman sitting next to me on the plane could hear the tortured gurglings of my stomach.

I decluttered the RSS feeds in my reader and purged a bunch of feeds that I never read anymore or have been skimming impatiently for months. I love decluttering so much that I get disproportionately excited whenever I get the opportunity to declutter another aspect of my life. Soon I plan to take on Shannon's wardrobe [evil laugh] as I feel there is a great deal for me to work with in his room. So much to get rid of.

Finally, just wanted to show you a website I made in class and that actually (mostly) works! Depending on time constraints and my relative success in making usability changes to the backend, I think that I might actually migrate my blog there in the future. How exciting would THAT be, to run a blog that I had built myself from the ground up! Making stuff is fun.

The prototype blog is here.

The next assignment that I'm due to start on (and in fact, should probably do now) is something I'm pretty excited about - a mobile database of the thrifting, antique and second hand shopping opportunities in Wellington. I've seen one New Zealand op shop directory site (it looks like it's based in Auckland) but I know that I could make a better one. I'll let you know how it pans out!

Just some chattiness with a glass of cider

Hello my darlings, have I told you today how wonderful you're all looking? I love to see your little shining faces staring up at me. "Ginger", you ask, "Ginger - what wisdom do you have to share with us all today?"

WELL let me tell YOU - the wisdom I have to share is merely the wisdom brought upon one by a lovely glass (read: bottle) of French cider, of the kind that tastes a little bit like feet. So it's mostly wisdom like: CHEESE IS GOOD! YOU LOOK PRETTY WITH LIPSTICK ON, YOU SHOULD WEAR IT MORE OFTEN! And also - THE BEST WAY TO COOK KAMOKAMO IS WITH BUTTER! Meaningful stuff, you know?

My big excitement of this evening is rediscovering all my Gillian Welch albums. She's like, totes a genius y'know. I'm crazy about her. Also, I quite like Neko Case, but she doesn't compete with GW, noways. GW is deliciously old-timey, and THATS what does it for me. Nostalgia for a time and culture that's like - MILES - away from my own. Yep.

SIX ITEMS OR LESS: Colour me Over It. Yes, I thought (a bit) about clothes and consumption and stretched myself a bit in terms of accessorising and won't give up before the end date (next Monday), but I went through my love of uniform/Zen stage and I've come out the other side, itching to wear bright colours. Lately I've thought a lot about the way I dress and if nothing else I guess that the SIOL has given me space to re-assess how I'm going to approach the whole "dressing" thing for the next wee-while. As in: I need to accept the fact that high waisted pants don't really look that good on me, but on the other hand lots of 50s and 60s style stuff looks amazing. Also, I feel better with a big pop of colour and pale colours don't always cut it. Also, I love playing dress ups! I get so bored dressing one specific way for any length of time. I'm Madonna! I'm a Chameleon! I'm drinking out of an empty glass now so I'm going to go off and do something about that!

Incidentally, I DO think you're looking wonderful today. I love that thing that you've done with your hair. xxxxxx

Jelly Wrestling and the fine art of leaving when appropriate

 

via Victoria Belanger

Saturday night I went to the Marist premiere women's soccer league fundraising event with a bunch of girls from my new derby team Smash Malice. I drank too much because soccer club bar prices are crazy cheap and screamed like a banshee for the girls who were wrestling. It was surprisingly tasteful (as in, no nip slips) and one of the most hilarious events I've ever been to. Well done those Marist premiere soccer girls for a fantastic night!

Of course, a bunch of drunken derby girls and a pool of jelly is an accident waiting to happen. Two of the girls from my team (a coach and a captain) ended up in the pool, put up the best display of the night and I have to say it was absolutely the highlight of my evening. I died laughing. Unfortunately, after one of the soccer girls asked them to exit the pool there was a distinct chill in the atmosphere and there was a unanimous decision to leave. Burgers ensued. I was home and sitting on my bed by 11pm, where I iced my knee and passed out on my unmade bed. Einfach fabelhaft darlinks. Classy bird.

♥ Campus A Low Hum - Day One ♥

It's taken me ages to write all of this and now I'm worried that it just reads like an appalling story written by a small child ("And then I went to the Zoo, and then I had an ice cream, and then I rode on the train"). So. Just saying.

I cadged a ride with the Boy up to Bulls the day before camp started and decided to have an early night, which mean that I woke up full of PEP and VIM on Saturday morning, CALH Day One. It rained all Friday night and on and off for most of Saturday, but in an effort to be mature and responsible I had checked out the weather before I left (indeed, obsessed over it) and had brought a pair of gumboots and some awesome plastic ponchos that made me look like I’d just been picked up from the drycleaners.

I spent the first part of the morning haunting the canteen and looking forlornly towards their espresso machine (i.e. the Teat from which I Prefer to Suckle) because OH MY GOD I NEEDED COFFEE. This need was a combination of the beer I’d drunk the night before that was still hanging out with me, and all that fresh out-doorsy air.

Shannon and the RNZ crew were working the first part of Saturday and the rest of the people in my tent party (Bex, Luke, Bryna, Peter) had bustled of to Marton for gumboots and umrellas, so I was left to my own devices. I lurked ex-workmate Ange and gf for a bit and then wandered off to look for Lippy with whom I was supposed to be doing skating stuff. As soon as I started looking for her she appeared like magic and we managed to get a skate in and try out the floor before attending life drawing classes, which were being run by a friend of Lippy’s.

Lippy and Me getting arty with ourselves

This was great, but apparently it was vitally important that I made a dick of myself during this class, mishearing “gesture drawing” as “jester drawing” and thus making a douchey-smartass comment completely inadvertently. I’m actually blushing just thinking about it. Anyhow, it turns out that I’m not as shit an artist as I thought – with the right patience and guidance, two beers and my Derby Wife by my side, THIS is what I can achieve:

Dude! It kind of looks like a person and not a series of blobs!

It was already well past midday before I got around to seeing any bands – the first I saw was Parking Lot Experience who were a bunch of guys from Melbourne. I can’t remember anything about the music, but I can tell you that they made a very impressive human pyramid on stage and then performed a Chinese dragon dance that became a conga line.

We had a quite a nice relaxing afternoon and evening featuring more alcohol (a theme for weekend), gumboots and a deep and meaningful between Bex and me (kisses darling). At some point after we’d drunk copiously we noticed what the time was and toddled off to see the Dodos play. Shannon and I ended up perched on the edge of the stage which was awesome fun; he gave a boost to a small girl who was trying to climb on top of a stack of speakers. That was one of the most fun things about Camp – even if you were doing something that was basically kind of dumb, there were no grown ups telling you what you could and couldn’t do (with the exception of climbing the water tower. That was Verboten). Oh, and as always the Dodos were fantastic to watch! I enjoyed this gig much more than when I saw them at San Fransisco Bath House at the end of 2007 because the sound was just too loud for me. I ended up having to stand right at the back of the bar and even then my ear drums were quivering with fear.

After the Dodos had played, Bex and I changed into our toga/sheets for the Orientation party which had been billed, essentially, as a non-ironic bogan fest. We danced to some seriously bad 90s music in the gym, including that KORN track about doing it all for the nookie (still stuck in my head). I was disturbed at the amount of nostalgia that the music and the situation made me feel and I felt strangely affectionate towards the situation instead of horrified. Indeed, I was thrust back in time to 1998 when I went to all these trashy parties with Hayley and her Chilton friends, parties that also featured a whole bunch of gross Hutt Boys and a fair amount of RTDs. Dude, I was THERE again. I was feeling it. I requested "Barbie Girl" from the DJ.

 VIA Sean

Later during the Orientation party, having cleared an enormous dancing space for ourselves, Bex and I decided it would be an awesome idea to slide around on the floor on our knees and I promptly bruised myself on top of an earlier bruise I’d got from roller skating.

NEXT WEEK: A crocodile, two holes, and I actually see some bands.

This Weekend in Pictures

  

Saturday: Bella and affogato and sock knitting in the sunshine at Caffe Eis by the Frank Kitts Lagoon. Birthday drinks for Kate later in the evening.

Sunday: My mum, and then Bex and gin and hiding from the rain at Duke Carvell's.

Today is Tuesday

VIA

♥Looking like: Today I’m wearing my Vague Person yellow t-shirt with the sleeves lopped off, Karen Walker two-tone jeans and a pair of cracked plastic court shoes that I bought at an op shop. These shoes are MUCH cooler than they sound, brown mock crocodile skin and wiggly things and cracked across the toe. They look tres shabby chic (or at least, I think so). I haven’t worn these shoes for a very long time and looking at them today, I thought that I’d like to paint them a bit to cover the cracks and brighten them? Also, stickers could be fun. They would look like a small child had been let loose. (I tried to take a photo of this but my phone camera is so bad it’s beyond laughable).

♥Listening to: I’ve been listening to audiobooks, as per usual; the last few days to AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book. I’m enjoying it rather as Byatt is a splendid writer and I don’t know very much about the particular social group/time period situation that the book is set in so it’s quite interesting from that perspective. It has a few sexy bits, and listening to these on an audiobook is always a bit awkward, much more awkward than reading them – literary sexy bits And also she overuses the word “haunches” - I read this in a review before I bought the audiobook, and I would never have picked up on it if I hadn’t already read about it, and now it bugs me. It bugs me a lot.

♥Fad a la Mode: Cider. So much cider. My fridge is still full of cider after the Spinsters’ Knitting Club Craftinoon and Cider Tasting. I have tasting notes that I need to type up – the notes devolve during the course of the tasting. The most memorable comment? “This cider is the Combover of Ciders”.

♥Watched this Week: “Coraline” courtesy of Jo which was fun in a grown-up-watching-a-children's-movie-way. “When We Were Kings”, although I fell asleep during that – not because of the story (it seemed as though it was going to be great!) but because I was very relaxed after half a bottle of wine, full of roast chicken and nice and warm in the Boy’s bed. Series 3 of “QI” (again) because I am hugenormously in love with Stephen Fry and “A History of Britain” again because I am hugenormously in love with Simon Schama.

♥Reading: How the Irish Saved Civilisation by Thomas Cahill. Honestly kids, just don’t do it. I read it when I was 16 and thought it was great, now I can’t imagine how I enjoyed such shameless tripe. The difference may be ten years and a History degree.

♥Webreading: The Unclutterer. I’m like a Woman Obsessed with decluttering at present, and this blog is feeding me. FEEDING ME I tell you.

♥Anticipation: First Derby training session of the year tonight and Camp this weekend!

First Christmassy Weekend of 2009

bryna, jo, bex, me

Despite some impressive gale force winds, I managed to experience some sunshine this weekend and had my first Christmassy weekend of this December – strawberries and mussels and drinking too many bubbly things in the sunshine! Saturday I woke at the Boy’s and went out craft shopping for the last bits and pieces I needed to finish some presents I’ve been making (glass eyes and florist wire). While I was shopping I put down the tiny key that locks the back wheel of my bicycle and lost the key. I then had to leave my bike on Marion Street and travel home on the bus, pick up my spare set of keys, change my clothes, tidy my room and otherwise ready myself for Bryna’s family Christmas party in the evening, to which I would have to travel via the Marion Street Craft Store, where I would jump on my bicycle and ride it up to Roseneath. Did I mention how much I hate missioning about in the weekends? And also how it always ends up happening. This is a case in point as I was well organised until I lost the tiny key and my organisation went BLAM KAPUT DEAD. “UP to Roseneath” is no kind of throwaway term. Bryna assumed I was walking, gave me the “via Grass Street” directions and as I didn’t correct her I ended up carrying my bicycle (which weighs 20kg+) up an almost vertical zig zag ramp and stair walkway. There were many stairs. I didn’t count them all because I was too busy trying not to die of asphyxiation and burning muscle pain. The party itself was lovely, and although I was a bit intimidated by the glut of small baby-type people at the beginning of the evening, I found that a litre of Boysencider and four glasses of fizzy wine helped me to over come this. Peter made a Belgian feast and fed us deep fry and mayonnaise and I ate too much smoked salmon. Also, the deck was quite sheltered and we were able to enjoy some sunshine! I LOVE SUNSHINE. Summer begins very slowly in Wellington, so any chance to lounge around in beautiful Vitamin D makes me very happy. I rode (rather wobbly it must be said) from Bryna’s to the Boy’s place where his flatmate Dave was having a combined “not-Birthday” and “not-Christmas” party. Thus, it was not especially festive, but I did see Bea and Henry who I haven’t seen for ages and was very, very happy to see (there were more friendly lovely types there, but it was Bea and Henry that made me squee rapturously). Parties filled with people I haven’t seen for weeks always make me think of summer and Christmas and I feel about 50% more festive! I suspect this is due to end-of-University-people-coming-back-to-the-City associations. On Sunday I had another full day, first meeting Mon for market shopping and coffee and gossip, and then attending the Inaugural Spinsters’ Knitting Club Craftinoon Tea. The wind was still gale force but the sunshine was around (at least, I managed to convince myself I was seeing sunshine while I was being blown about. It could have been an optical illusion). After wandering about Chaffers Market, Mon and I went to Sweet Mother’s Kitchen where I ate a pulled pork po boy sandwich. By the way - OH MY GOD I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THOSE THINGS. They Taste So Good. The Craftinoon Tea was good fun, I drank many Bellini, finished some Christmas present projects and taught some (very) basic crochet skills to Megan. Bryna invited us to her apartment as the weather was due to be so awful (nixing outdoor crafting plans) and it was so sweet of her – especially as she seemed quite tired and hung over. She still managed to be a gracious host while preventing her small son from dropping buttons into glasses of gin and bashing everything in sight with bamboo knitting needles. That’s some kind of talent and I am infinitely impressed. This week is my last week of work before Christmas and I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to muddle through as well as attending the pre-Christmas festivities to which I’ve committed myself. It’s beginning to look as though it might be a busy one – thought I’d try out busyness for a change and see what it feels like.

Just a rant, you know.

Hello my darlings! Why yes thank you, I am feeling MUCH BETTERER than I was feeling the other day. Do you know what helps when you are feeling like shit? Eating well and taking your antidepressants regularly. Oh, and the love of a Good Man. I have many exciting things happening over the next few days! Tonight I am having drinks with the lovely Nat who has finished her last exam for this semester. I’m really looking forward to seeing her and giggling and stuff because I haven’t really seen her terribly much lately, and I just want to hang out with someone I’ve known for a stupidly long time. Friday night Shannon is taking me out for dinner to Maria Pia’s which I hear is delicious! I’ve wanted to go there for dinner for ages so this is quite exciting for me; I want to eat and eat and eat and eat. We’re planning to drink a bottle of Champagne before we go (none of the traditional Pageant Juice for me!).

Boy + Food + Champagne + Being Horribly Spoilt =

one super happy Ginger

Saturday I am heading to the Massey University Blow Festival fashion show with Bex and then going to the Tiki Shack at the house of the lovely Kate and Jo where I plan to see Derby girls who I haven’t seen forever and get my hula on. Sunday I am skating for the first time all week and I am very quite excited… I’ve had the opportunity to recharge my Derby Love and I miss the feeling of being on roller skates so much. It feels like freedom, my lovelies. All in all it’s shaping up to be a fabulous couple of days. I should probably schedule in some cleaning/washing/crafting time too… and some reading time… and some blogging time… and some lurking time. Chillurking time, perhaps. ALSO: I have a couple of kind of exciting projects coming up! One will definitely be blog-based so watch this space for EXCITING THINGS.

Civil Offence: the Aftermath

SO, the people are asking "how was it?" PEOPLE: it was AWESOME. Of course, it would have been more awesome if Brutal Pageant had won but: c'est la vie! Also it means that the final will be a decider and that will be super extra fun to skate in. Oh, and also super extra nerve wracking and super extra good for PR.
A rundown: basically, Smash Malice dominated for the whole game. Coming out of the first half we were close enough in points that we could have made up the gap but we didn't - Malice were really tactical with their speed and control of the pack and we ended up chasing them in an attempt to play their game when we should have played our own. What else... there were some really big hits and I know that members of our team were a bit shaken at the end of the first half. I ended up in multiple pile ups and did one quite spectacular leap over/into a three or four person crash right near the benches (Jed Soane got a good picture of it). I think that it's fair to say that in the end we were simply outclassed by Smash Malice who had a heap less people skating than us and used their resources really, really well (don't kill me for writing that, Pag).

Personally, I think that I skated quite well on Saturday night. I got one or two really good hits on Tuff Bikkies, one of which I know knocked her out of bounds, and that seems like a real coup because she's such a strong player. I also had considerably less penalties - only one at Civil Offence versus my four at Skate of Emergency - although that may be because the referees despaired at pulling up all our elbows. The women on my team played really well and as always I'm super proud of them, but I'm definitely going to miss Goldie and Wax at the next bout. Finally though, the best thing for me is that I know what I want to improve upon before the next bout on the 7th of November. WHOOP!
And then after the bout we went out and drank and I drank tooo much. There was some hanging out with fans ... some of which are a bit creepy but most of which are super fab, much like my gorgeous team mates... (this photo by Mike Roseingrave).

I rolled back to the Boy's house at about quarter to four and deeply unimpressed him by snoring with "three different kinds of noises". After two hours of listening to me (I'm sure this bit is hyperbole), he had to undertake the complicated manoeuvre of falling asleep while holding my mouth open. And Sunday was a complete wreck.

Such is the life of the True Athlete.

Ugh. Holiday Fail.

I spent all day Sunday vomiting copiously. I couldn't walk or sleep. It was all very wrong. It was also Self Inflicted.

This morning I turned up twelve hours early for my flight to Auckland. I've had that flight booked for months - and I was convinced that I'd checked the time quite quite a lot. But apparently not! Apparently I vagued out! Yay me.

So now - now I am waiting. I would rather be knitting but my knitting is already checked in with my luggage and is winging it's way to Auckland. I think I'll just watch these Time Team eps and twiddle my thumbs. And eat potatoes.

Heeey - do you know what I haven't done lately?

I haven't blogged ridiculously late at night after drinking. Because I'm not like drunk or anything. Just that sleepiness that you get super late at night after half a bottle of wine, a rather nice meal, a super delicious ice cream, and meeting a lot of strangers and making small talk.

Ah. Small talk. Tastes - small.

Today (now yesterday?) I did lots of stuff and I got up at half six. My lots of stuff included crafting a small cake and a donut after felt in order to wear them on my head as fascinators/interesting headdresses/decoration.

Also I did quite a lot of laundry and went to Spotlight and bought screeds and screeds of tulle to make a tutu for my Roller Derby/Brutal Pageant skating outfit. Sewing it together in a recognisable tutu shape may be somewhat of an experiment. But I'm sure I'll either have a Good Time or some other kind of a time.

Did  I mention how ridiculously tired I am. I. Am. Tired. Goodnight!

A list of things that are possibly quite awful but that I have really enjoyed doing lately

• Text messaging while riding my bike along the waterfront and listening to Agatha Christie audiobooks.
• Watching umpteen episodes of Deadwood in a row, until my mind goes funny and I want to call everyone Cocksucker.
• Living in bed: eating Men's Pocky and chocolate chip shortbread and revelling in my own filth while the weather turns to crap outside.
• Spending ages in the library looking at the CDs and only getting the stupidest nostalgia albums out (the Glory of Music Hall anyone? It features the song "The Biggest Aspidistra in the World").
• Cooking too too much food, filling the freezer with insane amounts of dahl and knowing perfectly well it will be there until I come back because both of my flatmates are freaked out by lentils.
• Making the Boy listen to the shittiest CDs of the bunch that I won at work for New Zealand Month while drinking two bottles of cheap white wine and ranting about the Media.
• Cooking an entire pumpkin all at once.
• Crocheting bicycle accessories.

Now listening: The Donnas - Spend The Night - Pass It Around

April Bowls Day

... happened yesterday. I went and played Lawn Bowls at the Workingman's Bowling Club in Newtown, and it turns out that I am almost (but not quite) spectacularly bad. The one or two acceptable bowls were a direct result of the vodka I had (very cheap and thus, exceptionally good). Honestly, I have no idea if the bar can make a profit at the prices that they sell their alcohol. I highly suspect not.

Bex organised our team - the Berhampore Destroyers. And we were the Destroyed, we lost our two games in the round robin, the first not too badly, the second by (gulp) nine points. Yuck. Apparently the competitive streak that I thought I'd developed at derby doesn't translate to the humble art of lawn bowls. Or maybe it was the relaxing power of the gin. Mmm, gin.

I only took one photo. It's kind of shitty, so I decided to roll with it and I've turned it into a Polaroid. I just couldn't get enthusiastic about taking photos. I blame hanging out with a photographer.