Thursday, November 27, 2014

Cake. Coffee. Conversation. Weekends away rock!


Pirate Clip

I just had another lovely weekend away in Wellington!

There were lots of lovely conversations, food and drinking…..and LAUGHTER! Oh and not to mention the million metres of Christmas tinsel everywhere in the house!

On Saturday we had a relaxing start to the morning with a beautiful breakfast. ‘The Beard’ went to get supplies to make a new bird feeder.

Julia and I went out to Lower Hutt to catch up with a friend for coffee, cake and a quick loop around the Dowse Art Museum to look at some of the exhibitions.

Moths
I loved the ‘Invitation to Openness — Substantive and Transitive States’, by Wellington sculptor Elizabeth Thomson. It is hundreds of moths placed on the walls as if they had just landed there. It reminded me of the many puriri moths that I would see as a child growing up in the bush. I also really enjoyed looking at the 1970’s ‘Revolution in Fashion’ exhibition. I found that the light reflecting on the walls from the giant ‘translucent pyramid’ were more amazing than the pyramid itself. Also, loved the reflections on the wall Moniek Schrijer’s 'Earth is all we know' display.

Happy Cat
Then we went back to Anjuli’s and did some shopping from Sweet Designs and got some beautiful things. I bought some cute hairclips and I now have pirates, animals, crowns and robots to go with my UNICORN clips that she gave me. If you are looking for beautifully handmade gifts then please check out her Facebook page.

On Sunday ‘The Beard’ and I caught the last 35mins of rugby which was probably the most eventful of the entire game. Unfortunately, one of the cats had to go to the vet as his little face was swollen and made him look like a chipmunk. Then later on we retired outside to watch the construction of the new bird feeder. Then a quick visit from Julia’s brother/sister-in-law and little nephew + cake, coffee and wine.

Sunday afternoon wine & water
Lots of cat and puppy cuddles before heading to the airport to come back to Auckland.


I really cannot believe that it is now less than a month until Christmas.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Exercise (Gym) Mojo or Lack There Of




I feel flat. I have really lost my exercise and/or gym mojo.

Between July 2013 and January 2014 I was nailing my exercise and probably averaging at least 20 x sessions per month. However, somewhere along the line I have lost the edge and am lucky if I manage 10 x sessions per month at the moment. I even backed out of doing the Sketchers 6K (for a number of reasons) which is the first event that I ever did and I have done it every year since it started.

Not doing as much exercise makes me feel really antsy and grumpy and on the eve of the 20thof November I feel a bit lost.

What happened? I think that I got complacent and less adventurous. I also stopped doing the number of walking events and training with other people.

With summer around the corner I want to take this opportunity to add some more exercise into my week/month and also branch out and try some different things and get back to 20+ x sessions a month.

My plan for the next few weeks: 

  • Try Power Hoop
  • Start doing some weights
  • Minimum of 4 x RPM classes a week
  • Walking with hills and stairs



What helps with your exercise mojo? What exercises do you love that you keep going back to time and time again?

Monday, October 13, 2014

Birthdays, Bodybuilding and Babies



Birthday Lion
The beginning of October marked a Wellington trip for my friend’s birthday. Incidentally, I have been to Wellington 3 x times now in very close succession and each trip has led to different experiences and also catching up with friends and/or family.

The main point of the trip was to go and celebrate with Julia for her birthday and we had an amazing time! I arrived late on Thursday night and we stayed up until about 2am talking, laughing and drinking. We woke up on Friday morning (her birthday) a little knackered and worse for wear. However, because we are ‘professionals’ we soldiered on and had a catch up with her sister-in-law and nephew (who is ADORABLE). Then we took treats over to our friend who was madly preparing for the Craft Central Artisan Market at the St James on Saturday.

On Saturday morning we raced to the market and ended up buying some amazing things from our friend from SweetDesigns NZ. Julia and I are enablers and I think that I probably got Julia to spend more by saying “What does the fox say” every time I saw something with a fox on it. We managed to buy a few more lovely things on our way out the door from dPendants and ZippityDooDah!

After a very quick stroll along the waterfront we picked up Julia’s birthday cake from Louis Sergeant for Sunday. Then back home to unpack so Julia could be ready to get picked up for her birthday surprise. This left Paul and I home alone and excited about the prospect of lying at opposite ends of the couch to watch a movie. Julia, her friend and daughter came home to find Paul and I on the couches with drinks, chips and under blankets smothered in cats and dogs.

Then I went out to the Hutt to see my sister-in-law and father-in-law and watch my brother-in-law compete in his event at the ASN and Les Mills 2014 NABBA Wellington Bodybuilding Championships. I thought that I really would not cope seeing him compete as it is not every day that you see your brother-in-law with not a lot of clothing on, on stage. However, it was incredible and he did so well and I cannot even fathom the sheer amount of work and mental fitness it takes to compete in a competition like this. It was really interesting to see all the other competitors as well as there were a variety of different ages, nationalities and body types. What I understand now is that it does not matter how hard you work there are some things that you just cannot change about your body and that is okay. Also, seeing the different age groups i.e. 40+, 60+ and 70+ you can really see the changes that happen with age. All and all it was an amazing experience! Oh and the heels that the women wear when they come on stage at the end…..how do they walk in them???

Sunday brought a more relaxed start with the rugby (although Paul and I were yelling at the end) and Julia cooked us this amazing breakfast with eggs, and leftover wedges and cheese. INCREDIBLE! Then we pretty much just chilled out until her family arrived at 2pm and we had nibbles and cake! After hearing so much about her brother I finally got to meet him which was great. I think that when you already know a person through a friend when you do meet them it feels like already know them.

Leaving this time was really hard as I do not have a planned date to go down again. However, the most exciting thing is, is that (finally) Julia is coming to Auckland after Christmas. She will finally get to meet our crazy fur babies and see our house!! It is possible I will have to fill the Whisky cupboard now and hope that Mark does not drink it all before she arrives!

So many laughs.....thank you both for having me! "Touch the cow. Do it now".

New music:
‘Blame (feat. John Newman’ ~ Calvin Harris
‘Changing (feat. Paloma Faith)’ ~ Sigma