Alyse

Alyse is an 21 year old student from America (Hawaii) who will be staying with us for a week, while she is in Wellington. She has been travelling all over the place since September, and reckons she has slept in over 50 different beds during that time! god, I don't envy her, eh! I miss my own bed even when I'm away for a week! (although I don't miss Tim's snoring..... kidding!). Anyway, apart from having Alyse to stay, not much is happening around these parts. I'm just preparing for the year ahead with school, trying to get all my planning done for term 1 while there is still time (having slacked off majorly for the past 5 weeks!!). Today I'm meeting our ex-flatmate, Anne, for lunch in Newtown, we're going to check out a cafe called 'Planah' which has recently re-opened after being closed for over a month. Check it out if you're ever in the area. Its on Ridderford street and does amazing vegetarian food, great coffee, and to top it all off.... loose leaf tea from T-leaf!!! what more could you want? :D

I found out yesterday that this year I'll once again have 7 kids in my class - two girls, and five boys! all teenagers! and hopefully have the same teacher aides as last year - Raewyn, and Tracy. This year will be interesting, as the kids in my class are all working at different levels of the curriculum, some pre level one, some up to level three, so I'll have to pretty much create separate programmes for each of them, while at the same time having a programme which the whole class....... so it'll be a more challenging year than last year, but I'm looking forward to it.

Oh my god! the wind really is crazy here!

I was walking out of the video shop today, standing by the side of the road, when a big gust of wind blew up out of nowhere, and blew my glasses off my face! to my utter despair, they landed on the road, and proceeded to be blown further onto the street, where they were promptly run over by a car! unfortunately, they're a bit had it now, but no doubt it'll be a funny story to tell in the future, and I can keep them as a conversation piece for parties! haha!

Christchurch whanau

Grandad digs in to his tucker.... we're doing alright in this country!
I think Lizzie might be slightly hungover in this picture, ah! the follies of youth!
Me with my Mum and Dad, taken in their lovely garden in Christchurch.

My last night in Christchurch, and what does Mum cook for dinner but my favourite- smoked Salmon! I think she might be trying to convince me to stay down there.....

My plants

Check out the plants that I've been growing:

Tomatoes: Supertom and Cherry tomatoes:

Strawberries..... mmmmmmm!

Tim has been so good to me - watering the plants for me while I've been away! he's earned some serious kudos! breakfast in bed every day for another year (oh wait, I do that anyway!)

The last couple of days

I've had fun times over the last couple of days. On Friday night I caught up with Dad in a bar on the strip, called 'The Boulevard' where he proceeded to get me drunk with his 2 for 1 drinks card! after that followed a hilarious dinner at Ann's Thai Resturant, where we practised our Thai, and ordered more wine, and watched Mum and Lizzie roll their eyes at us. Talked to my brother on the phone during dinner, and god knows what I said to him, I was so drunk! I remember hassling him about how he still hasn't sent me and Tim our Christmas present, but he assured me that it was on his way. Then I blurted out that I knew what it was anyway, as Lizzie had told me ('where's Osama bin Laden?') and he laughed and said that he was sending something different up, and that I'd just have to wait to find out what it is. You see, like most of my immediate family (including my husband), they know how curious I get, and how much I can't stand not knowing!

Yesterday (Saturday) was spent catching up with Clare for lunch. She took me to this fantastic resturant/mediterranian food warehouse, which specialised in wafer thin pizzas - made the traditional Italian style. Well, I ordered a pizza, thinking that it was going to be tiny when it came out, but lo and behold it was huge! and I was able to finish the whole thing (it was delicious, a four seasons pizza topped with Artichoke hearts, Salami, Olives, Mushrooms and Mozerrella Cheese! yum!).

After Lunch with Clare I met up with Tracy at the Coffee House to find out how things were going with her man. We walked through the gardens and talked, admiring the scenery as we went. We even got to have a look inside the spaceship house that they've placed in the gardens! It looks just like a UFO from the outside! and finally, the sun came out, which lifted my spirits a bit! I spent the rest of the afternoon planning to go out that night but didn't end up doing anything, as I was so bone tired. So instead, I helped Mum sort through piles of photos that we're going to get scanned so we can make blurb books with them in the future.

Christchurch Buskers

Strange looking buskers in Cathedral square.














The Blackstreet boys entertain the crowds.

Its 2am in the morning

And I'm posting in a blog. I woke up about half an hour ago, after being asleep for three hours. I've got strange sleeping patterns at the best of times.

Tim just sent me some photos of my Strawberry plant and tomato plants back home. They look so big and ripe and juicy! its been so rewarding being able to grow my own fruit and veges. He's scoring serious brownie points by looking after them for me while I've been away!

I've been rather busy over the last couple of days, hence no time to post anything in here. One of the best things I did was go to the Busker's festival on Wednesday night. It was fantastic, over three hours of live street theatre. The best act was this guy called 'Mr Spin' who is probably the best juggler I have ever seen (and I've seen a few in my time) who somehow managed to juggle three pins while riding a 7 foot high unicycle (and did I mention that he was balancing a glass of water on his head the entire time? :D unreal!).

Yesterday I caught up with Janna and her daughter, Holly. We spent all day together, reminising over the old days. We've known each other since she was born (26 years, to be precise). Now she has a 13 month old daughter, and another child arriving in a couple of months.

Later on today I will be catching up with Clare for lunch, and hopefully with Steve and Jess after that. I'm also going to meet Tracy and get the rundown on how things are working out with Kevin - although from what I've heard from her it seems to be going really well, so thats good.

Wow.... where to begin?

Hmmm.... its late at night, and I'm posting on a blog. How sad! its been a very full-on day here in chch - from dropping Tracy off at Kevin's place, to attending the Busker's comedy festival tonight in the Arts Centre. Also, it was Mum's 54th Birthday today, so happy birthday Mum! she absolutely adored the Blurb book (go to http://www.blurb.com for more details on how to make your own books!), so we were all really stoked. Anyway, its too late to really be writing much of significance given my frame of mind right now, so I'll sign out and finish tomorrow. Promise! g'nite!

Mum and Grandad on her Birthday, at Coyotes.

The whole gang out to lunch at Coyotes: Grandad, Mum, Aunty Moi, Dad, Liz, moi.

Christchurch here I come!

Now its around six hours and counting till I board the plane. I'm hoping it won't be delayed or anything, its a little windy out there today (which in Wellington means just slightly less than gale force winds!!), but apart from that fine, just a bit overcast. I'm looking forward to seeing all the whanau once I'm down there, and showing Tracy around Christchurch.

Just because I'm in such a good mood today, I thought I'd add a little bit of humour to my blog. Check out this notice we saw in the window of a well known Wellington sex shop:

I mean, how would you feel to be that guy?!?!!

Ah, you gotta love Wellington!

Corsets

I've always loved clothes, ever since I can remember. So this year, I'm thinking of trying to design my own - and not rely so much on patterns. I would like to begin making clothes for other people, whereas previously it was just for myself and was more to do with self-gratification. I think I would now get more satisfaction from making something for someone else - something which fitted them perfectly and flattered their figure. At the moment I'm going to concentrate mainly in women's clothes, and build up my confidence before venturing into men's attire. I guess I'm just more interested in women's clothing, anyway.

Here is a picture of a corset I made, being modelled by a friend. Its made primarily of cotton (outer layer) and satin on the inside. I believe it took about ten hours to make.

January, 2007, Part 3 1/3

Ok, so I wanted to talk about the Hunter Valley in my last post, but didn't get around to it as I got sidetracked by talking about William. Besides, William deserves his very own entry (I think).

So we went to the Hunter Valley in Australia for Tim's AGM. So basically, all his workmates (and moi) piled into one of those tourist buses in Sydney on Monday night, arriving in the Hunter Valley very late that night!


We stayed at a resort called 'Cypress Lakes'. Check it out on this link:

http://www.cypresslakes.com.au/

It was pretty flash..... and basically a whole community of villas, surrounded by a health spa, resort centre, and acres of golf course. The Hunter Valley itself is located about two hours drive out of Sydney. It was very hot while we were there, so unfortunately I was unable to do much apart from sit around the pool all day long. But such is life, I suppose! Tim spent most of the time at the conference, getting to know his workmates better and doing strange orientation and group work activities, like having to be blindfolded on a croquet court, and find his way from one end to the other.



We checked out the Lindemans winery while we were there, which was cool. They had this amazing sweet white wine for sale for only $8.95 a bottle! we brought a couple of bottles and are now kicking ourselves that we didn't buy more than that, although I don't know how we would have got it back to NZ if we had completely indulged ourself!

I got a facial on my last day at the Resort. I felt a little bit like my idol, 'Bubbles devere' from Little Britain! (see above)

January, 2007, Part 2

Another thing that happened in January 2007 (on the 15th, to be precise), was the birth of my cousin Christie's baby, William! So now I have a new second cousin (or something....)

Here he is with my sister.

I'm looking forward to meeting him when I come down to Christchurch. And not long to go now, either! I fly down there with Tracy at 4pm tomorrow.

Tracy is a friend from work. She has never been to Christchurch before, so decided to come along with me, although she'll be staying with a friend of hers while she's down there.

January, 2007

The sun is shining in Wellingtown, and I've just been for an hour long bike ride. Tim is at the gym (nice rhyme!) and its a public holiday today...... so, a perfect time to start a blog. I thought 'Thoughts from Fi' was a bit cheesy for the blog title, but couldn't think of anything else at the time so I guess I'm stuck with it for now :D hopefully my army of loyal fans out there won't mind too much.

Anyway, this January has involved lots of travelling around the place. We've been to Greytown for New Years eve, Sydney, and the Hunter Valley in Australia. We got back last Thursday at midnight, and I'm heading off again tomorrow for Christchurch (I'll be spending a week down there, visiting friends and whanau).

Greytown was heaps of fun. We got to hang out with Tim's sister, Sarah, and her husband, Brian. They had come over from San Francisco to visit for Christmas and New Year's. Heaps of fun times followed, included an evening of rather drunken karaoke singing where Tim and his sister did an outstanding rendition of 'Snoopy's Christmas' complete with dance moves! Tim and Brian also wowed the crowds at the Green Man with an energetic performance of the 'Banana Boat' song, while Ses and Fi seduced the masses with 'Love Potion Number 9'. In fact, we drew in the crowds, as we noticed that the bar went from empty to full in the time that we were there :D a little bit different!

Sydney was heaps of fun, too. We stayed right in the centre of the city, near the town square, in a hotel called 'The Medina Grand'. Sounds lovely, but all we paid for was the location. The room was so small that you could barely swing a cat in there! nonetheless, we had plenty of opportunities to explore the city some more and do the usual touristy things like go on a harbour cruise and see the opera house, check out Kings Cross, etc etc. Tim found some really funny condoms in Kings Cross 'For small peckers', which he thought would be quite amusing to give to one of his friend's husbands..... although he ended up being unable to resist giving them to one of his workmates over in Sydney. Such a thoughtful gesture! I was really stoked at finally getting to look around the 'notorious' Kings Cross, and we liked it so much that we went back that night for a bit of night time entertainment (I'll leave it up to you, dear reader, to imagine what that entailed!)