Amazon Haul Baby!

I got an Amazon voucher for Christmas this year. I had thought I would just get one or two books and then leave the rest until I had stuff I really wanted buuuuttt... nope! I now have 12 new books on my kindle.. YAY :)

The books I got were:

Afterburn by Sylvia Day

Winter Wonderland by Belinda Jones

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Faking it by Elisa Lorello

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Legend by Marie Lu

The noticer by Andy Andrews

First Ink by Laura Wright

The theory of opposites by Allison Winn Scott

The Complete Emily Trilogy by Lucy Maude Montgomery

Some of these are random and ... um 'adult' novels LOL. Gotta have a bit of trashy fun sometimes. I LOVE Belinda Jones for a great chic lit fix. I've already finished Winter Wonderland and it was SO GOOD. OhMYGawsh I am now dying to go to Montreal and Quebec even more than I ever was before. She has such a way of selling the locations of her books.

I have a huge T.B.R at the moment so not sure what I will tackle next but on this list The Hobbit, Stardust, Sharp objects and Legend are my main goals.

Now I must continue watching the news of all of the weather carnage and drinking my peppermint-vodka-coffee cocktail. WOOOOooo!

x

LUSH lovlies

I got my first pay check in almost a year last week. I was determined to spend some of it in Lush and purchased the Seanik solid shampoo bar which I'd had before and the Big solid conditioner. I haven't reviewed products and I don't really intend to but sometimes things are just cool! I forgot to take pics before I used them so these come from Google images :)

This stuff rocks my world! My hair absolutely loves it. I found it really strange to start with but now I really prefer the solid form shampoo. I simply lather it up in my hands and then rub it through my hair but I guess you could always rub it directly onto your head. The Seanik bar gives my hair such a good clean and I always end up with such a shine! Perhaps the best thing about it though is that it lasts and lasts and lasts! It's kind of expensive but when you consider how long it lasts and the freaking awesome results it is honestly so much more cost effective than anything at the supermarket.  

I used this for the first time tonight. I have to say that if the lovely girls at Lush on Queen street hadn't explained it I would have freaked out! Its so bizarre. There is no lather and it doesn't really dissolve in your hands. You have to break off a bit and sort of just pull it through your hair. I wasn't holding my breath in the shower let me tell you. I couldn't even see how it would get to all my hair. It seems to just sort of sit in clumps but in reality some sort of alchemy happens. I left it on my head while I did my face scrub etc and then rinsed it out. Even at that point I could tell it was going to be a win. 

With the combo my hair is so good right now! I'm a bit bummed that I'm just in my pajamas watching the music countdown on tv! I look so good I should really be out flaunting it LOL but ... I'm old so what-eves. 

10/10 to this combo for sure. I will absolutely buy it over and over again as the money allows. The only problem is that the conditioner will last a fraction of the time the shampoo does but I guess it will give my hair a chance to breathe in between and not get too used to the one product.

Thanks Lush

x

Making New years resolutions with Mrs Carter....

"Stop making a big deal out of the little things coz I got big deals and I got little things. Lets get carried away..."

Merry Christmas :)

It's December 25th and I'm sitting in my house all by myself drinking a green coffee and watching Mama Mia... kind of awesome :) 

I'm just waiting for my friend to come pick me up and then we're off to see my family for some Christmas goodness. This is the outfit i wore to the hospital yesterday. I wear it every Christmas eve and usually people just look at me like I'm weird and they pretend they didn't look at me but yesterday it was so cool to see people smiling at me all day long and loving my weird outfit. I felt like I was making people happy which was awesome.

Last night we went to see the lights on Franklin road. This mirror ball goodness was my favourite. Can't beat a good mirror ball!

This window made me laugh. It was pretty funky with all kinds of Christmas imagery ...and ALF! hahahahaha LOVE IT

At the top of the street we popped into Fred's for a coffee. I would never have even known it was there if my friend wasn't already a fan. Such a sweet place! All funky staff and painted brick walls. The coffee was pretty great as well :)

On our way from our Mexican cafe dinner back to our car we stopped in to watch the final 'joy to the world' at St Patrick's. I love this cathedral even though I'm not Catholic. Absolutely beautiful and in the back ground our Sky Tower all lit up for the season :)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to  every body . I hope  y'all are having better weather for it than I currently am! Grrr Mother Nature what is the steaming hot lead up and then a wet and grey day all about?

x

True That!

While I'm loving Beyonce and Sol3 MIO right now I am really feeling the lyrics in this song. It's so beautiful :)

"My girl, she ain't the one that I saw coming
And sometimes I don't know which way to go
And I tried to run before
But I'm not running anymore
Cause I've fought against it hard enough to know

That you love, who you love
Who you love
You love, who you love
Who you love
You love, who you love
Who you love

Oh, you can't make yourself stop dreaming
Who you're dreaming of
If it's who you love
Then it's who you love

My boy, he ain't the one that I saw coming
And some have said his heart's too hot to hold
And it takes a little time
But you should see him when he shines
Cause you never wanna let that feeling go"

x

I'm slightly in love ...

I was introduced to SOL3 MIO by my mum. I'm not generally one to go for opera but ... just ... it's so nice to listen to and they're so damn adorable. As I always say .... Samoa = land of the beautiful people!

This video will definitely get you in the Christmas spirit if nothing else will. Enjoy :-)

  

x

Fashion and Hello Kitty... all in one morning!

This morning I caught up with a friend I haven't seen for a while. She's been busy moving to the other side of the city and getting employed and such while I've been hanging out reading a lot... LOL

We went to the Auckland Museum to see their 'Selling Dreams' fashion photography through the years exhibit. I really liked it but nothing compares to the 'Who shot rock and roll' exhibit from the Art Gallery last year :) There are some pics from the museum below. I even took a couple of snaps of my fave photos before I noticed the no photography sign. Apparently it's a copyright thing so I wont load them up here even though they rock! I don't know if I would recommend a special trip for this exhibit but certainly check it out if you happen to be at the museum. It's cool but not large enough to really justify paying for it I don't think.

After that we went to the pinkest cafe in the history of the world... seriously I could have got myself a dose of diabetes just by looking in the window! Actually it's pretty cute and if they put a little more effort into the details they would have an A-MAY-ZIng little cafe. As it stands I would love to host a 6 year old girls birthday there :) The coffee was pretty good and of course they have super cute templates for decorating. The wedges were amazing. Really perfectly cooked. I just think that if they made it a little more luxe by focusing on little details like the cheesy little stickers on the walls and the cheap white plates they put the coffee mugs on then it would elevate them a lot. I'm also obviously a terrible person but I found it quite off putting that the staff were all male.... I don't know. They were perfectly lovely and good at what they did but it just felt kinda wrong. I know... off to sexist jail for me but .... really??

I'm not gonna say anything about that chair ... it was pleasantly firm... bwa-hahahahaha :-P  The collage is sadly not as clear as the photos are individually but the idea is to showcase how crazy awesome I am at having my photo taken!! hahahaha I have the dumbest look on my face in every one of them. I hardly look like I brushed my hair! LOL.  It just makes me laugh :-)

x

Federal Delicatessen and Montreal Poutine!!

A couple of weeks ago my friend Hue was so excited to let me know that she'd found somewhere that was selling poutine. Ever since I returned from my year in Canada in February 2010 I've been missing the stuff. I mean it's kinda gross and really a heart attack on a plate but it's just soooooo tasty and holds a ton of fab memories for me. I especially used to love hitting up the Dairy Queen that was behind the library I worked in for cheap poutine and an iced tea the size of my head. Good times!

The restaurant in question is the Federal Delicatessen. It's a gimmicky little New York style (I assume) place opposite the Sky Tower. From the waitresses uniforms to the menu it's all about 50's fun.

 

The menu is very Jewish with Kosher this and that. It just screams tasty. I wanted to eat almost everything on the menu. Sadly my food intolerance meant that I was pretty restricted. Sometime I will go back and just carpe diem and eat the damn cheese! hahahahaha yesterday though it was all about memories....

May I present ... dum da dum.. Montreal Poutine!!!! yaaaaayyyyyy!!!!! :)

This delightful little concoction is fries, gravy and cheese curds. It doesn't look so amazing but it's seriously tasty. I would say that the Federal Deli did a pretty admirable job with recreating the awesome but not perfect. It just wasn't... heart attack-ey enough! LOL. I think if they'd presented it in a bowl and been a bit more generous with the gravy and the cheese then it would have been almost perfect. For me the flavour of the cheese wasn't quite right either but that's probably a personal preference type of thing. I really remember the curds being a very mild sort of flavour and these ones were quite intense by comparison. Still.. this was great! I will absolutely order it again but next time I'll try one of the amazing looking sandwiches or mash dishes. This really is my kinda place! 

I heart Radio presents Stan Walker and Jessica Mauboy

Well I'm obviously never going to make a concert photographer... especially with an ailing cell phone to work with BUT you get the idea :)

Last night I went to the I Heart Radio concert at the Civic in Auckland. I'd put my name in the draw for free tx a while ago and then promptly forgot about it so I was a bit surprised when I actually got tickets! I wasn't too sure what it would be like. I appreciated Stan Walker. I even have some of his songs  on my ipod but I had kind of written him off as a teenybopper. I couldn't find anybody to come with me so I nearly wrote it off. I wasn't too fussed about Jesssica Mauboy as I enjoyed the couple of her songs I'd heard but I didn't really know her.

WELL. I am so very glad I sucked up all of the "I dont wanna go alone" "it's raining" "I'm going to be the oldest one there" "wednesday?? seriously??" thoughts and just went along. It was an amazing show. It started with Identity dance crew doing the routine they did on the NZ has talent show ( I think..) and then Mr Walker. WOAH that kid has talent and showmanship simply vibrating in the air around him when he's on stage. He's amazing. Really fun and O.T.T but there is just so.much.talent! How cool that he's one of us. It actually made me pretty proud and happy that the one show I got to see this year was a kiwi and as good as anything anybody from overseas could bring! What would be freaking amazing would be Stan Walker and Brian McKnight... hmmm who can I suggest it too??

Jessica Mauboy was up next and as I mentioned I really only knew her from doing the song 'Galaxy' with Stan. She won the crowd over and had everybody jumping and having a party. It was such a fun and cute performance. I don't mean to be patronising with 'cute' but she managed to be on the stage alone and get the whole crowd on her side and it started with a small group of obvious fans and then slowly it spread... hahahahaha so many smiles and so much obvious FUN going on. Of course it helped that the girl can SING. SHeesh all of that in that teeny little frame. She has some power. Though seriously what was up with the stage outfit? I didn't get it.... leopard print pants suit. Hmmm I'm obviously out of the loop with what the kids are into hahahahahaha.

The sound was a bit messed up but other than that this was the perfect perfect PERFECT way to spend a rainy Wednesday evening. Thank you so much I heart radio :)

Walking Stars Half Marathon 2013

On Saturday my sister and I walked the 'Walking Stars' half marathon for the Cancer Society. It was a hell of an experience. I am so proud of myself for finishing it when finishing things I hate really goes against my grain. This year I have learned the fine art of perseverance. I have learned to suck it up!

The walk led us around our fair city and it was actually pretty awesome to be a part of it. I loved walking by the harbor bridge at night and right alongside busy motorways. I loved all the drunk encouragement from the night club punters as we went through that part of town. It was amazing how they had timed things so perfectly that I was just saying to my sister that I really wanted some poweraid or something and then we round a corner to the rest stop where they are providing electrolytes! Awesome. I nearly didn't make it because the first hill just about did me in. I felt like throwing up and nearly did right in front of a classy looking building. If I had I think I would have been so embarrassed that I would have stopped. Luckily I kept it together :)

I think they could have planned a better route perhaps than one that had us finishing by slogging up a massive steep hill! that was the worst part actually. I came so close to skipping the last 2k but I didn't ... mainly because my sister wouldn't let me LOL

We were walking for our aunt Bev who passed away earlier this year from leukemia. It was really sad to see all of the people who were walking with long lists of names on their backs. Some people were walking for several family members AND a bunch of friends. It was just so sobering. I think the whole event was really cool and importantly a big FUCK YOU CANCER!!!

I have some lovely friends and family who have been so generous in supporting my sister and I. We managed to raise our team goal so hopefully our little contribution combined with all of the other contributions on the night will make a difference in the fight! 

Next year some decent shoes and some good training and I will own those hills!

x

Map My Walk App

On Saturday night my sister and I will be walking our first ever half marathon. We're doing it for the cancer research foundation and in the name of our aunt who passed away earlier in the year. 

I haven't had much time or motivation to train for the event so have to say I'm probably going to suffer BUT nevertheless. I will do my best to finish in a reasonable, if slow time.

I loaded this app on my phone months ago when we decided to do the walk but only recently ( like yesterday) figured out how to use it. Great Idea!!! it's a bit of a drain on the old battery and data package but it's so good to have an accurate measure of how far and fast you're walking. If I were doing the training for weight loss or management it can also record all of those details. I'm keeping it simple and just recording the walk and how fast I complete it. Once you figure it out its super easy and given that it's a free app I'd say it's a vital tool in any training program. There are also versions for runners and cyclists. The internet is an amazing thing people! 

Now it looks like the rain is holding off so I will try and do another walk today. Yesterday was only 7.4k and it was in 1.08 hours. SLOW. ARGH I hope they keep the course open long enough for me to finish the event! LOL

x

EDIT: well it doesn't really work on cloudy days apparently. I couldn't get GPS up and going today so couldn't log my walk. *sad face* LOL 

Christmas is coming to The Big Little City :)

I love this video!!!

It shows off my fab city as the Christmas decorations go up. I know it's a little early for Christmas ... I try not to even think about it until my friend Sheri has had her birthday on Dec 8 Buuuuut it came through on my Facebook feed this morning so I had to share.

:)

The beginning and the end

I took this photo on Thursday. I took the same photo 10 months ago on my first day of university! Thursday was my LAST DAY and it's so fun to think back on who I was then and who I am now. I've learned so much about myself and also, of course about how to be the best teacher that I can be. I wont miss the university even a little bit but I am grateful for the chances that it will hopefully afford me.  I took this snap as I was walking out of the campus for the last time on my way to my mothers beach house for a weekend in the sun that I was completely desperate for :P

I met this guy while I was hanging out on the beach. He would waddle around and just stand about a meter away from me and just stare at me. He never approached me or tried to steal my food or anything... just staring! hahaha I think he's my spirit animal or my new best friend or something. I decided to call him Gary. 

I had a fantastic weekend with my mother. She let me have my fave meal 

(salad + sausages + boiled potatoes) each night and I just relaxed, read three books and applied for teaching roles. It was insanely relaxing. We went Pipi hunting and I managed to have my first swim of the season. A perfect weekend and now the future awaits!

x

Being authentic

Someone told me recently that she hoped I would keep asking questions and try to be as authentic to who I am as possible. It's such a great thought and it's really not as easy as it sounds! 

It's something I'm pondering a lot and I know that over the summer it will likely be a LOT clearer 

From Polly Gillespies fb page. Love that lady :)

x

2013 Parnell rose festival

My friend Sheri and I walked to the Parnell Rose Festival yesterday. It was about a 12k round trip which was good training for the half marathon I'm walking with my sister in a couple of weeks. It was super hot but absolutely worth the walk. The festival was busy enough to feel like a successful event but organised well and spread out well so you didn't feel caged in. I cant say enough good things! from the go carts and juggling pins for the kids to the whole 'compostable straw' culture of the event it was AWESOME. I cant believe I've never been before. I shall certainly return!

10/10

These ones are the randoms :) Some of my faves from the jewelry sale that I went to a couple of weeks ago. Love the dog broaches and the rings with 'emeralds'. Take note future husband... I like old things with a story!

This weekend I walked through the marina for the first time and I just thought that the boats in their dry dock getting ready for summer looked pretty cool.

These ones are from the Parnell rose gardens. I LOVE the views down to the port which happens to be one of my fave parts of the whole city. Not sure why but I really love the whole idea of it :)

The fairy queen looks a little dodgy for some reason...

It was just so beautiful to be among the lovely flowers. It was calm and orderly and the air smelt beautiful! 

x

FREEDOM

Yesterday I finished my last practicum. I raced out of that classroom at 3pm and didn't look back! It's been 5 very long weeks. I have learned my butt off to be honest which I guess is as it's supposed to be. It's been a non stop barrage of information and new ways of doing things. 

Now I just have a lecture to attend and a 12 minute presentation to give at university and I'm done!  My time is up and for the first time in my life I will be qualified to actually do something. Woooooo

Honestly today, on my first day off I just don't care. It's not exciting to me at all. This year has been really sucky and I feel like my brain has simply switched off. As I sit here on my couch tonight its almost like it never happened. 

Right now I am happily anticipating a summer of temp work at the hospital. Days spent ward clerking and nights just having a life. I am so excited to spend my weekends on the sand and not have to worry about every cent. I'm looking forward to paying down my credit card a little bit .... seeing movies ... 

I think this is going to be a great summer and maybe after I've had some rest and the scary bags under my eyes are gone, after I have earned some money and gotten some space and the sour taste of university out of my mouth I'll start to get excited at the prospect of being a primary school teacher.. 

We shall see

x

Art in the dark

-from their facebook page

Last night my friend Sheri and I went to this event in Ponsonby. I was really excited as I love anything glowy and shiny :) We are so lucky in Auckland that we regularly have such events happening in our city. They're often free as this was and so all we have to do is turn up and enjoy. This event was like the Matariki event Sheri and I went to in Glen innes earlier in the year but ... on drugs! 

The art was REALLY cool. The concept was REALLY cool AND it was FREE so what's not to like right? Well sadly we both came away feeling like there where some major problems... only some of which were in control of the organisers.  The biggest problem was actually the other people. It was amazing how rude and self involved the crowd was. It was PACKED OUT and nobody seemed to be taking this into consideration. Nobody was paying attention to the fact there were other people behind them wanting to 1 move and 2 look at the art. People were pushing and stopping in the middle of the tracks. Just really disappointing Auckland.

The weather ( also out of the organisers control obviously) meant that it was super slippery in the park. The whole thing is on the side of a hill pretty much so I felt like I was always a few seconds from falling down the hill and breaking my leg. It makes it hard to enjoy the sights around you. This brings me to the things which were under the organisers control....

The park is not the right venue for this. It's simply dangerous to walk around in the dark. There are the slipping in the mud issues but then there are also hard to follow paths and broken paths and tree roots sprouting everywhere. I bet the St John people had more than a few injuries to deal with. The art wasn't set out in any sort of logical fashion. You really needed to be able to look up while walking around or you would miss some pretty awesome stuff. I think if they had a slightly bigger park that was flatter and easier to negotiate in the dark then  a lot of the crowd control issues would have dissolved. 

So frustrating issues aside that made us just want to leave here are some pics of the awesomeness!!!

x

"To Monica from Walter. March 20th 1917"

Every year the ASB stadium in Auckland is host to one of the best book fairs around. It's a 24 hour event and this is the line to get in 10 minutes before it opened...

It improves my faith in mankind somewhat to see that a book fair can attract a line, three abreast from the door to the road :)

This year I'm a student so I have no money. I usually go in several times over the 24 hours and spend about 50 bucks. This year I went once and spent $2.00. Well not even that. I didn't have the cash so rather than breaking out the eftpos card for that amount my friend gave me the $1.20 I was short! LOL.

What I got just makes me so happy. I LOVE that I own it. It's a 1907 edition of 'Sense and sensibility' 

It even has the "onion paper" or whatever that transparent paper at the front is called!

The thing that really makes me smile about this book is that it has a dedication in the front from Walter to Monica on 20th March 1917!!! It's so cool to wonder who they were. Was it a brother buying something for his sister or perhaps this was a very sweet romantic gift? ... I mean I don't know about anybody else but I'd call this a very romantical type of gift. Where did Monica and Walter live and how do I have their book now??  I just love things that have a history. These little things just make a great book so much more exciting :)  

So, side note for anybody who might ask me to marry them in the future... try a ring from an antique shop or a junk shop in a random place rather than Michael Hill! LOLOL 

x

Three weeks! I can do it

I am NOT loving this month. I'm finding it really hard to focus on all of the things that are so lucky and so amazing in my life right now for the reality of the things that I don't love. There are a bunch of things right now that I'm really not enjoying and they're taking O-VAH my brain. LOL. I'm feeling like the future is a big black hole of 'this' which it absolutely isn't. I'm over thinking and being a worst case scenario person and honestly just a brat so I thought I would follow the lead of one of my fave blogs and do a 'Happy List. So here's a bunch of stuff that is in my life right now that makes me happy and some things that I'm super grateful for..

Sunshine and lots of it

My very generous and supportive mother

My beautiful nephew

Fab new maxi skirt that I cant wait to wear

It's Breaker nation time again (even if it's been a tough start with the new team this season. I don't care they rock!)

Jason Derulo on the radio 

Heart of Dixie on Television

14 more days of practicum

Remedy Coffee on Wellesly street

Auckland Libraries

The city campus of Auckland Uni

Friends who are drama free

My minke blanket

Nutrigrain for breakfast on the bus

Sunrise

Long days

Paramore on the radio

Bloglovin

Planning a Christmas in the snow for 2014

Living in the most beautiful little suburb by the beach

My head cold is starting to fade

'LALALA' by naughty boy on the radio

YouTube vids

I'm sure that there are more things ... there must be right? however I have a bit of work to finish. I was supposed to get all the planning done for the week by yesterday so I could have a whole day off on this long day but it just didn't happen. I'm just so damn tired! ... also I had a weekend I guess so it's not too bad :)

Ef you A.T Transport

In Auckland we have ONE public transport provider. There is, for those of us with no car, ONE option to get where we want to go. This post will be a VERY negative ode to that one option. A.T Transport oh how I hate you.

Just to set the scene this #firstworlddrama (LOL) all revolves around how ridiculously hard it is to use the fare card that we have. The company that we have no choice but to use have policies and procedures and ... it has to be said people who are all set up to make EVERYTHING as hard and insulting and frustrating as possible.

On Tuesday last week I got on my bus at 6.18 am. Said 'Good morning' to the bus driver and he greeted me with "Where's your ID"? ... I was so confused and just said "excuse me?" ... and that's when it got ugly. I understand that technically he is entitled to ask for ID given that I am using a tertiary discount but I have used the card 4 times a day for up to 7 days a week for a year and never once been asked for ID. He said I came up as a child the day before but he waited to ask me about it till then. ...

Then later that delightful morning I was on my second bus but the tag machine on the bus wasn't working and I was unable to tag off which meant an automatic $5.00 penalty. Obviously this is not my fault so I tweeted about it and asked how I was to go about getting a refund. WELL.... apparently it takes 48-72 hours for the records to update so they can see IF there is an unwarranted charge. If there is they will then send the claim to their disputes department to be looked at and then I might get my money back...  It took about 4 phone calls to get that information and as I have mentioned 168 hours later I still have no refund.

To add to that the frustration hit boil over this morning. I managed to drop my hop card between bus one and bus two. I've recently put money on the card so I was really upset! SO two more calls and apparently the money is secure and the penalty has been noted but not sent on to the disputes department. 

THEN this afternoon I went to replace the card as.. you know.. I wanted to get home and then I get informed that I cant use the balance for 24hours. At the transit centre there are a number of offices. The HOP "customer service" centre wont sell hop cards or put money on them. Apparently , despite the presence of eftpos terminals and posters regarding payment "they are not a retailer"...  ASSHOLES. So I stood in several lines and spent more money and ARGH I JUST WANT TO PUNCH SOMETHING.

apparently if you're AT Transport and you're the only player in the game you don't have to provide anyway for your customers to let you know about your huge gaping failures. So I cant use my hop card till tomorrow morning well after I will arrive at my destination. I cant have my tertiary discount till probably Monday and I've been charged a fee because their machines don't work. There's only one thing to say really isn't there...

FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING HOP CARD AT TRANSPORT 

Remedy Coffee

I went into Remedy Coffee this morning and it's just so cute that I had to do a quick post. The cafe is on Wellesly st, just off Queen.  It's such a friendly and relaxed place and not only do they have some of the best if not THE best coffee in the city but also a wall of books in the book exchange. There are novels and graphics and even board games to play while you dine. The best compliment I can give them is they remind me so much of The Library bar sans the booze ;)

Sorry random stranger. I was going for a shot of the walls I promise :)

Best looking coffee nook. Would be great to sit with a book 

X

My fave thing in my bedroom :)

This is a frame that my sister gave me for christmas last year. These are my grandparents outside one of their first homes ♥

David Levithan

I read this today. I love the way this man puts words on paper :)

x