Wings clipped

Hi everyone - sorry for v short post but am typing with one hand as my arm is in a sling. will reveal all when i am back up and running. oh the frustration.
next post will include:

• thoughts on the gwen stefani concert i went to!
• descriptions of my 2 new housemates!
• lots of harry potter spoilers (i cried)
• pics of my sexy new haircut!
• lots of ranting about that wonderful topic, bloody boys!

till then, wish me quick healing.

Home sweet Home

House move is over. It's everything I wished for and more. I just adore it and am so so happy to be in my own place, with all my stuff around, and it's lovely to know that I will be there indefinitely.

Anyhoo details please. Moving began on Saturday when I had to be at the new house to receive the new fridge and washing machine I had ordered. I turned up and bless their little hearts, it was a hive of cleaning activity from the previous owners. The movers turned up on time! and installed! the appliances for me. Kudos to them.

Later that afternoon it was serious moving time. Megs and Ben turned up with Amelie who was a champion. She kept herself amused in her wee capsule for 3 hours and Ben fed her a bottle and she had a wee snoozy so Megs could arrange stuff and be Monica to her hearts content.

I tell you it's exhausting stuff, moving. That night I went to M&B's place to watch the rugby (All Black's vs Australia and we won YEAH!) and I was having to prop my eyes open with toothpicks.

Sunday and Monday were more unpacking, spending of money, and general joy and Snoopy dancing at knowing it was ALL MINE and MINE ALONE (except for the 2/3rds that Mum owns, but hey).

Anyhoo - photos of stuff. Everything looks a bit Amish because I only have the basics in. You'll have to imagine all the photos and art and actual furniture that will eventually turn up in a few months.

This was the very first thing I unpacked. I smell Good.

My room. This bed (new) is The most comfy bed in the Universe. It's like lying on clouds. I'm going to lose the feature wall and put up some mega hip wall paper, eventually. I have a lovely view of the garden and sunset at night.

The spare room. This is where the Amish look comes into its own. I have a few prints to put up and will get some cushions to liven it up a bit.

My hideous veneer bookcase with my wonderful wonderful books. I have had these in storage since March, and opening each box was like going to an old friend's reunion.
These are the only pics I have so far of the house, but if you want to see more, go here.

One of my most favourite parts of the weekend was The First Shop. My sister and I discussed my shopping list like it was a wedding registry or a five-year-old's first letter to Santa. I love the supermarket, in case you didn't know, and I always go down every aisle, and try every new product. Anyhoo even I had a heart attack when I saw the bill. Let's just say that for someone living on their own who buys their lunch every day it was somewhat high. Here is a pic of the trolley and see if you can guess what this cost me:

The receipt took whole minutes to come out of the till.

This is what it looks like in my beautifully organised pantry. I could look at this for hours. Date Man found the fact that all the labels turned outwards was an excellent indication of my personality.

After all that shopping, this is what I had for my first dinner at my new house:

A burnt bacon and fried egg sandwich with 2 triple strength brandies. It was delicious.

I shall leave you with some thoughts:

Weirdest thing I had to buy: Castors to stop my beds rolling across the polished wooden floors. Possibly not fun if I have a nocturnal visitor.

Item that brought me to tears: fucking fucking drying racks. Somehow I always manage to get myself tangled up in them and they fall over and poke me in the guts. I hate them.

Most expensive thing I bought at the supermarket: Instant coffee. I don't even like it that much.

Odd feeling when unpacking: coming across all the photos from my Sth America trip. Quickly put away in a dark corner to be looked at when ready.

Thing I love the most: my bathroom. It looks ridiculously cool.

Most useful house-hold item: Scissors. They haven't been out of my hands for days.

Quick 180: doing my first clothes wash and hanging it out was fun. Doing the sixth wasn't.

Best discovery of new house: There is a fully functional compost bin out the back. I don't quite know what to do with it, but am sure it will come in handy.

Can't wait for arrival of: new kitten - to be picked up from SPCA this Saturday. YAY!

Nom nom nom - I could eat her up.

One for the ladeez - here is a pic of my neice Amelie (right) with her new bestie Maddy.

Is she not the cutest thing imaginable? I just want to squeeeeeeeeeeeze her. Tomorrow is Moving House day, and my sister is dying to help me (I know, she's like Monica from Friends). Amelie snuggles will be on tap all day then, which makes this move even more exciting. I haven't seen her for weeks.

In other news, Date Man came around last night and I cooked him dinner (Thai red chicken curry), which he praised, and then cleared the table. His star chart is filling up fast!

Ears are slowly perking up

Well it's Thursday and as predicted, the weekend's around the corner and nothing can get me down. Only 2 days before I move into my new house, which is so exciting I can't even think about it as my head may explode.

Other things I am stoked about - I finished this last night:

sorry for crappy pic. I have been working on this since Sunday night, it was really difficult! In case you're wondering what it's a picture of, it's a jigsaw of old school tarot cards. Dad has lots of old jigsaws in his cupboard which I may liberate for him as I have found it's quite cathartic pouring a glass of wine, putting some good tunes on and pottering away on my jigsaw. An enormous sense of satisfaction was felt when fitting the very last piece.

Update on the skin rash from hell - after wheedling a faxed prescription for Elocon out of my doctor in Auckland it is now nearly gone. I tell you that stuff is gold in a tube. And it only cost me $3. For once I agree with a product that the NZ govt agrees to subsidise.

Also today I received in the post from StrawberryNet (I don't need to link it as every single woman in the world should have this in her favourites) a coffret of By by Dolce and Gabbana. The leopardskin packaging is going to look very hip in my new black and white bathroom. It's a bonus that it happens to smell mega hot also.

Right time for a chicken noodle cup of soup and I shall leave you with this, which I find utterly hilarious.

Rant rant rant.

I'm sensing somewhat of a pattern here. I start the week in a monstrously bad mood....then by the end of the week I'm all fine again. It's like that Snoopy cartoon, you know the one where from Monday to Thursday he's on top of his doghouse looking grumpy, then on Friday his ears perk up, then Saturday and Sunday he's doing his Snoopy dance. I would post it but have just spent ten minutes searching for it and it's nowhere to be found.
Anyhoo Tuesday 17th of July hasn't started well.....the traffic into work this morning was appalling and our little car pool group were all late for work. Then I find that the new desk I was given yesterday has been taken off me for the day due to technology issues and I'm back in my broom closet. Plus all the work I left in perfect order had been chucked to the side and is now in a big mess. Then my eczema has returned with a vengeance due to the cold weather so I am all red-faced, red-eyed and constantly scratching. You're probably thinking jeez, this girl Always has something wrong with her! But seriously....the last few weeks have been a doozy that's for sure. I think it must be all the stress of moving.
Oh yeah and last night, my grandmother very kindly rang to tell me she saw my ex on TV last night being interviewed at a curling competition in Central Otago where it was minus 12 yesterday. "He was such a handsome lad. What went wrong there?" Um dead and buried Grandma and I'd appreciate you not bringing it up thankyouverymuch.
Bah. So anyway...I feel somewhat better.
Positive things to note!

• I got paid today and for once don't owe anyone any money
• There will always be Chicken Noodle cup of soups
• Date Man doesn't snore.

Hola chicos.

As it is Friday, and Sunny, and I have another date tonight, I am in a somewhat better mood.

The week has possibly been one of the most boring of my entire life. Bed at 8:30! Boring book by Paul Theroux (sp?) to get through!Crap on the telly! But hey I needed it....got a lot ahead this week coming up.

Moving house on Saturday! Packing all week! Organising movers and delivery men and people to help! If you're in Tauranga on Saturday 21st, please feel free to come over and lend a hand. I would appreciate it muchly, and you'll probably get a beer or 5 for it.

Anyhoo this weekend is looking pretty good so far. The weather is supposed to be pristine, which is always good times. Tonight Date Man and I are meeting for an afterwork drinkie on the Strand, where wine is $3 a glass till 9pm (I guess about $2 USD) so you know, I may be somewhat sozzled. Saturday is going to be shopping and packing, then on Sunday friends are here from Auckland so we are going to walk around here:

because this is where I live. Lucky huh!

So a very nice social weekend....just as I like it.

hope you all have super weekends, Aims

Rargh

Today I am like a bear with a sore paw. Not having ever seen a bear with a sore paw however, I can't be sure.

You know how you have those days where everything is just Shite, and nothing can cheer you up? Hey, I hear they call that depression! You don't say.

Had a bad sleep on Sunday night, so spent yesterday looking forward to a luxurious 10 hour sleep in my new feet pyjamas. Yes they are incredibly flattering. BUT first the dinner I cooked turned out yuk. Then the Simpsons episode was the stamp museum one where Lisa can't sleep on her own (Worst. Episode. Ever). Then Antiques Roadshow was boring. So I went to bed. Then I read some of Stasiland by Anna Funder which is a bloody good book, but gave me bad dreams of being in the Holocaust and being hunted (does anyone else have these dreams? I get them all the time). Then I woke up at 2 with a roaring ear infection. Then had to wait for the Nurofen to kick in. Then I had a restless sleep till 7 where I had to get up and come to work where everyone is grumpy because nothing is going right and it's 6 degrees outside and windy and raining and freeeeezing and all I want to do is get in a plane and fly to a deserted beach and lie there ALL BY MYSELF.


You get the picture?


The only thing that has made me laugh today is this:

Let's all cross fingers and hope for a better day tomorrow.

3 good things!

Ulcer has gone!
Sore throat is going!
Date went really well!

Yes it did and thank you for your good luck wishes - they worked! We had a drink...then dinner...then another drink! Chatting away the whole time! I must have done most of the chatting because I have half lost my voice today. It was all very easy and unfortunately I have no embarrassing moments to share that would make this post funny.
We are meeting up again on Sunday so hopefully that goes well too!

have a great weekend
aims

D-day

So today, oh faithful readers, I am in nervous anticipation.
You see, I am going on my first ever date. I know. First ever.
There is a reason for this. Most of my "adult" life I have been in very long term relationships. From school, or uni, or you know, those ones that start from meeting at the pub and so on (can't go into details as Mum reads this).
But tonight this date has been set up thanks to some match making work of Trish and my sister. It was very funny indeed. They both emailed this poor guy (neither knowing the other had) and sung my praises. Then he was all, sure, here's my number, give me a call.
So when it came to call him I totally came over all Bridget Jones. First I made sure my room was tidy. Then I went through the contents of my wallet and counted how much cash I had ($32.50). Then I checked I had the right number about ooh, forty times. THEN I finally got the guts up and called. He wasn't there. So I left a really lame message.
BUT...he called back. And we talked for like 20 minutes. And he sounds really nice!
Anyhoo the outcome was we decided to meet for a drink tonight in the Mount. And I am really looking forward to it. If we do turn out to have a connection then that's a bonus, but having moved here and not knowing toooo many people it's nice to make new friends.
Wish me luck anyway!

Ouch

So today I am in the sixth day of battling the mouth ulcer to end all ulcers.

It looks something like this:

And is so so painful. It is causing pain all down my neck, and in my teeth. I can't open my mouth wide, or eat acidic things, or brush with toothpaste. As a result my breath smells Really Super Awesome.

I have tried putting salt directly on it (felt like I had just hammered a rusty nail into my jaw) gargled with saline (nada) Bonjela (double nada) and have put a throat lozenge directly on the ulcer (this helped somewhat). I have had this ulcer for so long that I have forgotten what it's like to not have it.

Stupidly, I googled it and of course came up with the diagnosis of Mouth Cancer from all those years of smoking cigarettes. Horror horror. Has anyone got any other good home remedies or similar stories so I don't feel so bad?

UPDATE: ulcer has nearly gone, but in its place is a sore throat that is like swallowing mouthfuls of broken glass. What's next???

Office parties

Just had a mad weekend - mid year do with Work. Our social club put on The Amazing Race, and we all had to get into teams and do all sorts of challenges around Tauranga. Our team was called The Quick and The Damned and we dressed up as the Grim Reaper. Well we thought we looked like the Grim Reaper but apparently we were more like the Phantom of the Opera, or Batman. Ah well.
We had to, among other things, make up a hotel bed, do an army drill at the barracks, and pour a drink at the pub, all while we were half-cut. We all ended up back at a lovely restaurant in town (we came third!) and all proceeded to get totally sideways.
Apparently I got home at 3:47am after falling asleep in the taxi, thank god the driver wasn't a nut job, with an exceptionally sore butt. Apparently I fell flat on my ass (the floor was SLIPPERY) while watching the America's Cup race - which we lost - not that I had any recollection of it. I do recall some terrible dancing, and whacking people on the head with my Grim Reaper plastic scythe. Coming to work today was hilarious, with some people very shamed out. Not me though! I had super fun. I hope you all have/had office parties as fun as that!

PS I was very very very quiet on Saturday.