Thank you Sarah.

Sarah is probably the only person in the world I speak to about my blog outside of the internet. And I do realise that it must be pretty boring, sozzard Sarah. I tell her about the jokes I've thought about writing and as I say, I think I'm hilarious. Other people beg to differ.

Anyway, Sarah obviously felt that my blog was so brilliant it needed more exposure and as she now works in Marketing, it's only natural she should appoint herself as my advertising campaign manager. 

This arrived in the post today. Pretty cool, ay?

Thank you for my present Sarah, I love it!!!

I got horrendously burnt on my face yesterday. My lips are so raw, it really hurts! (I know what you're thinking mother, but they are raw from the sunburn, not from kissing boys. Eww.) 

With my sunglasses tan line I resemble a raccoon. I'll tell you now it's not a good look. Oh and I leave New Zealand today. The burn better fade by Tuesday or all my ambitions of looking good when I arrive home and at the wedding are absolutely ruined.

I may be being a bit dramatic. I may not be. I'll let you be the judge of that. Presenting the sunburn, along with no make up and newly washed hair. Just look how white those arms are!

Today I'm grateful for music. And hair.

Happy Turkey day. Remember peoples, attitude of gratitude. 

I should probably rename my blog 'Things I've found on the internet today'. I'm sorry for this shift in blog subject matter but at the moment my life consists of myself and the internet.

There's plenty of other things I should probably be doing, like packing or reading or preparing my Relief Society lesson. Unfortunately the lure of novelty websites are too much to resist.

Today I'm sharing a website that accompanies me through my web surfing. 8tracks.com is basically the same as Pandora Radio, but works outside the US. I was pretty disappointed when I realised that Spotify didn't work over in this part of the world. But never fear, 8tracks has been providing me with multitudes mixes over the last couple of weeks. The mystery of what songs are on these mixes is all part of the fun of it.

This is the mix I've been listening to while writing this. Enjoy the jams while you skim read my blog post for any interesting details, of which there are none. You might want to stop reading now.

 

So you're probably wondering why, when I have less than two weeks left in NZ, am I spending so much time at home on the internet. The answer is simple. Procrastination and work. These last couple of weeks I feel like I've been working non-stop, it's been busy. But I enjoy my job and it doesn't really feel like work thankfully. When I get a decent chunk of time off I do manage to take myself away for some me time. 

For example, last Saturday between Phoebe's birthday party and babysitting duties I slinked off for a hair cut. Whenever I get a haircut, I usually leave the salon feeling like I've just paid a buttload of money for the hairdresser to go scissor happy on my hair creating a cut that I don't even like. 

"I don't know, it just feels a bit flat. It's too straight" is what I said when the hairdresser finished. She asked me if I wanted her to put a bit of movement in it. Yes I would like a bit of movement I answered and went back to my mag. When she finished I looked up and entered a state of shock. I looked like I'd been sat in rollers all day. My mother would have loved it. But it really wasn't me. It was probably me thirty years from now.

My answer this time was "I never like my hair when I get it cut." I then proceeded to dig myself a deep, deep grave trying to convince the hairdresser I wasn't being offensive. 

I'd planned on going to check out a festival going on at a local park after the hair cut. Instead I walked for 5 minutes, looking at my reflection in every shop window, before I decided my only real option with this hair was to head home and hideout for the rest of the day.

When I finally got round to washing it myself I realised what was wrong with the haircut. It's exactly the same as it was before I got it cut.

This time I'd paid a buttload of money for the hairdresser to waft a pair of scissors around my head and then style my hair in a style that  was last popular in the 70s.

So that's the story of how I got my hair cut without it actually looking like I got it cut. Oh well, at least I have hair. I am thankful for hair.

I think I'm the only person on this planet who could write 6 paragraphs about a haircut. And that's the short story. Why are you even still reading? I'm boring myself. Ciao.

Barbra Streisand.

You know what they say, small things amuse small minds. Well, I've just spending the last whoknowshowlong creating my own versions of Duck Sauce's Barbra Streisand.

Check out GoBarbra.com. You will not regret it.

Here's one I created earlier.

I think I find myself too funny sometimes.

This is a lesson in procrastination.

I'm beginning to stress a little bit about going home. 

And by stress I mean procrastinate. I seriously can not be bothered to pack. Too many decisions about what to take home, what to leave and what to throw out. It's like April all over again.

In my procrastinating state of mind, I somehow ended up playing with the premium features on Picnik. After several politically incorrect edits, I began playing with the facial hair tool.

Here's my tribute to Movember.

I hope you like it as much as I do. It may become a permanent feature.

These last couple of days have kinda been like this...

via

About Mraz.

If you'd asked me last week for my opinion on Jason Mraz, my answer would be pretty neutral. In fact I'd probably tell you that some of his lyrics are ridiculous and he's way too fond of the scat singing.

OK, so I can't think of any evidence to prove my point of the ridiculous lyrics. BUT at the end of one of my favourite songs of his, it ends with a voicemail recording that says "It's like you're an island of reality in an ocean of diarrhea."

Ahhh, yeah, you just spoilt that moment for me.

When Amanda asked me to go see Jason Mraz with her I was a tad hesitant but agreed. And well, I'm so happy I went.

Ask me now what I think of Mr Mraz? Definitely one of the best live performances I've ever experienced. The guy is talented, he's funny and he really engages with the audience. It didn't matter that I only knew 4 of the songs.

My favourite bit has to be when he had us whale singing. Me and Amanda were in tears of laughter by the end, much to the annoyance to the woman sitting next to me. She needed to get herself a sense of humour.

Here's a video from the concert. It's the part where Jason Mraz gets a fan to come and sing with him. I'll admit it, I was thinking it was going to be like when Beyonce let a fan sing along, I was kinda wrong.

Road Trippin' Part 2.

So here is the promised part two. 

On day two we headed over to Waitangi Treaty Grounds & House. It's basically the place where New Zealand became part of the British Empire, although it's a lot more complicated and controversial than that. The grounds are nice and peaceful, looking out over the bay of islands. They have a huuuuuuge waka (canoe) with beautiful intricate carvings. It was built to commemorate something, but I've forgotten. I'm a bad tourist.

By the treaty house there is a meeting house, each panel representing a different Iwi in New Zealand. 

Next we headed over to the treaty house. There was a dress up box so I got in the spirit of things and dressed all 1840s in my bonnet pinafore. Obviously the clothes were for children, but I reckon we styled it out pretty well. 

I got some lols in the treaty house. This display clearly shows that this is where the inspiration for 'The Village' came from. 

A house within a house? Houseception. 

We stopped off for lunch in Mangonui and had delish lasagna with a roast vegetable salad on the waterfront. 

It was divine.

It was also comforting to know as we were driving round Northland that there was only ever a low fire danger.

We continued on our drive up to Cape Reinga. Once we hit the home stretch it was 100km of nothingness. Just us, the countryside and some staunch poultry. Seriously, there were turkeys and chickens out in the road, among all the roadkill possums.

We finally made it to Cape Reinga and headed to the lighthouse. It's the place where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific ocean. The water was a beautiful green blue and ever so choppy. The place was just beautiful. I love the sounds of the ocean.

On our way back down, we took a detour and drove 20 minutes down a dirt track wondering if we'd ever actually make it to 90 mile beach. We made it to the beach, seriously, beach for as far as you can see.

We managed to get some signal on our phone and booked to stay the night in Ahipara. It's at the bottom of 90 mile beach and it's a gorgeous place. We got ourselves some chippy and headed down to the beach to watch the sunset. And take pictures. As we sat there it was like we were on the beach set of the Last Song.

The next day we began the journey back to Auckland. We came across this beautiful place, which I can't remember the name of, but they loved a dolphin there. Not only was there two statues of this dolphin, it was also buried outside the village hall.

We stopped off in the middle of the forest to check out a Kauri tree. And it was huuuuuuge.

We got to Dargaville, a place famous for growing potatoes. There wasn't much there but we drove up to a museum on the top of a hill where they have the mast from the Rainbow Warrior.

We then decided to take another beach rest and headed to Baylys beach. Somewhere between Dargaville and Baylys beach my camera battery died. Woe is me. For that reason, I have no pictures to prove how gorgeous the beach and the surfers were was. Must. Go. Back. To. Baylys.

After lunch we continued on road, finally made it back to Auckland and then I bade farwell to Sarah and Hamish as they drove off into the sunset.

Road Trippin' - Part 1

This past weekend Sarah and I escaped the city and road tripped it up to the very top of New Zealand. It was a rather epic road trip distance wise. Just check out this google map of our route.

Now, I don't know how precise it is, but google tells me we did 1,016km. That's 631 miles for you imperial-heads. That's equivilant of travelling from Manchester to Ahlen in Germany. That's just 40 miles more than driving from John o'Groats to Cardiff. It's quite far, ok, get it? We did it all over 3 days.

We drove through the countryside (which Sarah said looked like Wales), through forests (which Sarah said looked like a rainforest), along the coast and on dirt tracks to get to beaches. Sarah was right, it did look like we were in Wales and the Amazon at times. It was pretty cool when we were driving though the countryside and spotted the sand dunes off in the distance. I ain't ever seen that before. Those sand dunes gave Formby a run for it's money.

We agreed to meet at the car rental place just before 9 on the Friday morning. As both me and Sarah suffer from chronic tardiness we both knew this meant anytime before 9:15. Well, we both shocked ourselves by turning up by 9 and our speedy getaway was only slowed down by the guy who took forever sorting our rental out. We were happy to discover that our rental was a yellow Honda Fit. We named him Hamish and he was quite a cutie. Sarah even wore a coordinating top, it made Hamish happy. Well, I imagined it would have done if cars had thoughts and feelings.

Hamish's song was definitely Black and Yellow by Whiz Khalifa. A song which featured on the mix CD I made for the journey. We so ghetto.

It took me a moment to get used to driving Hamish. After 3 months of cruising round in a Ford Territory (which has no name), I felt like I was back in my little Polo (RIP Nora). It was like sitting on the floor, and seriously, where was the cruise control? We kept the tunes blaring as we took a little detour to try and find One Tree Point. We ended up at an oil refinery. True story.

We left the highway to check out Whangerei. You probably read that place name with a 'Wha' sound at the beginning. Wrong. Try again. It actually is pronounced with an 'F' sound at the beginning. Now I know nothing about linguistics so I hope I explained that correctly. Anyway, I don't know if we were in the wrong part of town but there isn't much in Fongarray (again, no expert with them phonetics). There is a restaurant called Killer Prawn though.

We spent a long time in this second hand book shop. We get drawn into second hand book shops quite easily, they're the only place in New Zealand where you can buy a decent book without having to sell every limb and your firstborn. Sarah browsed the books that would actually be read while I looked at the pretty old books, looking for ones with inscriptions. I can only assume my fascination with these stems from watching Definitely, Maybe a few too many times. We both know I watched it for Ryan Reynolds, not the story line. After the purchase of a book, we went on the hunt for food. As we were running out of time we ate our lunch in the car. For those interested, lunch was from Subway not Killer Prawn.

Back on the road, we continued our journey to get to the Bay of Islands. We decided to check out the Lonely Planet to see if there was anything worth seeing on the way to Paihia. And there was. What we found was some pretty famous bogs created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Kawakawa is also famous for it's train line which runs through the middle of town. And as we were heading back to the car a train passed through, right by where we'd parked the car. Kawakawa is the perfect place to stop for a toilet break as you get to see those famous loos. Between the stalls there are bottles in the wall, so you can totally watch people on the loo,  if you're into that kind of thing.

As we approached Paihia we were in awe of the sea. I guess coming from a landlocked town that seeing the sea is a pretty big deal. We rocked up to Paihia, checked into our hostel and went to explore the town. It was a nice little place but not much to do unless you wanna fork out a load of cash to get out to sea. We ended up at a bar chatting with some fellow Brits. Like you do, because obviously we came ALL the way to New Zealand to talk to fellow Englishmen.

Stay tuned for part two. And possibly three. I'm not making any promises.

Home is wherever I'm with you.

Hopefully if I've done this blog scheduling thing right, this should post while I'm away for the weekend. Sarah and I are heading up north, right to the top and will check out the bay of islands while we're at it. Today it is 5 weeks until I head home.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bit sad to be leaving New Zealand. And I'm well aware this is pretty pathetic because I'm coming back again in January. But the closer it's getting, the more excited I'm getting.

I'm looking forward to seeing my lovely family (and yes, I include my dogs in my family).

[I love this picture of my grandad. Shows how dapper he really is.]

Champions

Unless you live under a rock (or a country that doesn't care much for rugby) you may have heard that the All Blacks won a little thing called the Webb Ellis Cup. That's the trophy for the Rugby World Cup people. And boy, are the Kiwis celebrating.

I watched the match with Sarah over at Chapel Bar. The cheering was way underway before the team even got on the field. Me and Sarah (along with some french fans) were the only ones who didn't shriek along with the national anthem. It's not that I didn't want to sing along. I would have and I really thought the room could have benefited from my dulcet tones. But I don't know the words to 'God save the Queen' let alone the words to 'God defend New Zealand'. And they even sing it in Maori first, there was no hope for me. I sang a song in Maori once at church with RS and could not help laughing at my terrible pronunciation.

he match was a tense game and I pretty much watched the last 15 minutes through my fingers. I was so happy when it was finally over and felt a little bit of pride when they picked up the trophy. Yeah, I pretended I was Kiwi that day. I mean I've been here almost 6 months, that's surely enough to get citizenship right? When the fireworks began down on the waterfront we headed outside to check it out. I love fireworks!!

The next day was a public holiday. Not because of the world cup, it was Labor Day but I'm sure it wasn't a coincidence the final was the day before.

I had the day off so I headed into town to catch the parade with Dani and Serena. Once I managed to get off the bus I had to walk for about 30mins to get round the crowds and blockades just to meet the girls. Luckily they'd managed to find a spot where it wasn't too busy so managed to get quite near the front.

Here's a selection of photos for your perusing.

Piri Weepu, the guy celebrated for pretty much saving the All Blacks got into the parade dancing along.

Now that the world cup is over I can return to my equilibrium and go back to not caring about sport and rugby.

Yay!

A day out with Miss Raybould.

Today I somehow managed to get the afternoon off work and slinked away to the city to spend time with the fabulous Amanda. We headed over to the museum to check out the Webb Ellis Cup. We waited our turn to step onto the platform and get a little bit closer to the cup. I told Susan about how only one group were allowed up at a time (i.e. only me and Amanda that were on the platform) and she told me it was probably because last time they put a trophy - America's Cup - on display someone took an axe to it. 

2011 - New Zealand?

We managed to win the world cup once at least.

As we were leaving the museum, we saw our bus go past. I suggested we walked down to Parnell. Amanda told me about Chocolate Boutique. Obviously, as it had chocolate in it's name, I just had to try the place out.   Amanda got herself an italian denso and I got a hot jaffa - hot orange chocolate. Yum!

When we made it back to town, we had about 45mins before Amanda needed to head back over to her side of the harbour bridge so we went to the cloud to play some games. Amanda was the winner of the day as she managed to save someone's life, score two conversions and a try. I let the person drown and only managed one conversion. I love my talented friends.

In other news, I changed my flight. Instead of leaving New Zealand on 21st Nov, I'll be staying here until 3rd Dec. That means I've gone from having 2 weeks in America to two days. It's a long story that I can't be bothered to share, but it's all about the money, money, money.