I know this is a bit late and this post is a bit boring but when I have time I will write more and upload photos and stuff....
And a message from my sister who wants to post on my behalf:
"Well what can I say.... my brother islazy and won't put any more stuff on this posting so here I am to rescue the situation. Family xmas was great and theboys vs girls Trivial Pursuit was super awesome as the team who best deserved it succeeded..... THE GIRLS whipped their butts outta the park. Well... what else. Um I'm off to Oz tomorrow, hip hip hooray! So bye for now.
Last weekend Katie and I popped down to Ruapehu to catch up with Nick and his girl, Sarah. Nick was doing "The Goat" half marathon, which is a mountain race from Whakapapa to Turoa ski field - pretty hard core! He managed to finish it off with a sprint finish and did it in just under 3 hours so it was a mighty fine effort :)
Nick and Jono Pooch at the finish.
Neither Katie (injured) or myself (wuss, and not fit enough) was in a position to run the race this year, so we were part of the support crew and did a bit of exploring while we were down there. Managed to get some damn nice weather for which I am grateful!
Casually making my way down the boardwalk...
Uh oh...
Movember is now finished (finally!!). So I don't have my mo anymore. Katie kinda misses it, but not the stubble that was usually left behind from the slightly less frequent shaving. Anyway this is the last pic of my mo, taken on Sunday 2 December (so yeah, I went two whole days overdue).
Again, I look kinda sleepy...
A BIG thanks to all those who donated, I managed to raise $115 for the Prostate Cancer folks which I think was a damn good first up effort!
Firsty, a Mo update. I'm still looking for a tad more sponsorship (and Movember is nearly over!), so please spare a few dollars if you have, or know anyone with a prostate.... You can sponsor me here, and my registration number is 167594. Thank you.
Katie made some Vegan Macaroni and "Cheese" it was yum (although it is definitely a bit more complicated to make than the real thing!). I also found some fake meat at the Asian store that we used as "bacon" :)
I've also been upping the running training recently. My lovely PT has prepared a strict training schedule for me with the intention of us entering some events early next year. Unfortunately she's injured so can't run with me at the moment :( It's actually a really nice feeling after a decent run, and I'm finding it a bit easier now that I've started to get into a routine.
Anyway, here's some proof:
It was Cass' birthday recently, she's 26 now I think (hmmm, wow!). Katie made her a carrot and chocolate cake with vegan cream "cheese" icing. Yep, I managed to convince her to sneak the carrot cake in there :) hehe
Also finished my first orienteering event last Tuesday at One Tree Hill. It was a good go first up with a pretty solid time (around the middle of the field). However I did have an advantage in that I was with Katie when she was setting the courses! It'll be interesting to see how well I go next time...
Some of you may already be aware, but I am participating in 'Movember'. This means I am doing my best to grow a moustache this month in the hope of raising some sponsorship for the NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation. So it's for a really good cause but also great fun to be a part of.
This really isn't my forte, but I'm doing my best, so show how much you appreciate my valiant attempt and sponsor me!! My registration number is 167594 and I am in Team Telecom. Any amount is fine but most people seem to operate in multiples of $5/10 :)
8am Monday 12 November:
This is pretty exciting - every day I look in the mirror now my mo hair is the longest it has EVER been! (which still isn't really that long.... yet)
Last weekend (when it was raining) Katie and I went for a scout around One Tree Hill. She was planning the courses for the Orienteering Summer Series event that is happening there next Tuesday.
On Saturday, Katie and I went to Huia (in the Waitakeres) and completed the "Greatest Little Fun Run in the Universe", one of the Lactic Turkey events. We did the 5km run which went up a hill, down again and then though a bush track section, which got my shoes really muddy. We had a great time, which was made even better by the fact that we won stuff! Wooo YEAH.
I managed to come 3rd in the "Men's Open" grade (8th overall in a time of 23:14), while Katie came 3rd in the "Womens Open" Grade (18th overall in a time of 24:58). There were 204 participants so it wasn't a bad effort. We got a fluffy toy each which was good, coz then I didn't feel guilty about either keeping mine or stealing hers :)
Jono goes for a celebratory slide after completing the race:
While Katie is a bit more sensible and does some stretches:
Nice spot on the side of the dam as we waited for some of the other runners to go past:
We had a picnic on Sunday with Katie's friends - Cameron and Julie. Now the plan was to go to One Tree Hill, but the weather wasn't quite playing along. So we ended up having it at their house in Mangere! Good fun. Katie made some yum seedy bread and we got to try tofu luncheon - it's actually really good! Some of you may even recognise the rug...
We also popped into the Diwali (Indian festival) to experience some Indian culture. Yep, there were plenty of Indians around :) It's actually kinda like the Lantern festival but you have more Indians, less Asians, and also less Lanterns. But still lotsa overpriced food stalls and big crowds! I got conned into buying this tiny tiny ice block thing for $3! An enjoyable afternoon though.
Saturday night we occupied ourselves at Nick and Tracey's keg party. Kegs aren't really my thing - I wouldn't get my money's worth before hitting the dirt. Katie had a taster I'm so proud :)
Last weekend I went surfing with Andrew which was awesome! But as expected the water was pretty damn cold :)
Well they were chucking out a whole bunch of stuff at work but a few things caught my eye - well three actually - these awesome coloured perspex 'T3G' cubes!
Yeah I am quite a hoarder (that habit comes from Mum), I've been trying to suppress my natural instincts now that I'm flatting, but sometimes it's just too hard. These cubes serve no practical purpose and getting them back to the flat certainly wasn't easy. Also, I'm not quite sure where exactly to put them (the middle of the lounge isn't a long-term option). Well, at the moment they're happily stacked in the corner of my room.
Last weekend Katie and I went out to dinner for my friend's birthday. Here's a photo for you :)
We went bowling afterwards and discovered that Wii bowling still isn't much of a substitute for the real thing... Neither of us has improved much - although I did manage to break 100, just!!
OK, a bit of a photographic update this week.... The theme at the work drinks was the Rugby World Cup, quite fitting really. I went in the uniform of my favourite non-All Black team, see if you can spot me...
In the weekend I went on a bit of day trip up north of Auckland and checked out the new Auckland Luge (next to Snowplanet). It's pretty cool - not as good as the Rotorua one, but then that has a much bigger hill to work with. But on the plus side, the Auckland one is much more convenient! This is the view heading up to the top in the big travelator thingee:
Now, heaps of you know, I have been honing my skating skills for a while now with little proof. Well here's a bit for all of you. Take special note of my awesome skates.
Check it out, skating on one foot!!
Oh and one last photo...
Me with my new friend, Katie, at Whangaparaoa (just before the weather turned to total crap, and we got drenched!!)
He tasted good.... Ok, Ok, I had a little help (ta Katie!). From what I could tell my flatties enjoyed him too.
Also played in the ACCC Four Corners tournament last weekend. The same 10 people had to play in 4 different sports (touch, volleyball, basketball and pub quiz). I was the captain of the "Power Strangers" and we finished 5th (out of 8). A decent effort I thought for such a rag tag bunch. We had no actual basketball players so we were totally destroyed in that sport, but put in good efforts for everything else!
A few pics from the weekend - unfortunately, since I took all of them, I'm in none of them :(
And that means its getting warmer. Yay I prefer it less cold and wet. Well actually, cold is OK as long as I have my skates/snowboard on and am standing on some form of frozen water...
One of my old workmates was kind enough to give me a ticket to Microsoft Techfest a couple weeks ago (I know I've been a slow to update this site, but that's what happens when life gets busy!) . There was a whole bunch of cool stuff (including a blackjack tournament, rows of Xbox 360s, and the Candy Lane dancers who are hottttt), but the main act was Evermore. I managed to get right to the front - man those guys put on a good show and I love their tunes. They're cool, but also kinda geeky, so very suited to an IT expo!! hehe. Here's a few photos:
I had a couple of lovely cooked dinners in the weekend. All the better since I didn't have to cook either of them! Cheers for that, you guys know who you are ;)
Maria and I have also rearranged our lounge furniture and it looks much better, and makes so much better use of our space. It's amazing how much room we have now. I pulled out my yoga mat the other day and tested it out, awesome.
For lack of anything else, here's a pic that's been pulled out of the more recent archives. This was taken at the start of LAST year near Rotorua of my "trio" (Cass, me and Howie). Love the tans!! We're still best mates although we're all older n wiser now :)
Man it's cool! I've been to Snowplanet once but this weekend I managed to get some time at the mountain (Turoa, Ruapehu). Really looking forward to going again, as well as keeping an eye out for some gear (probably second hand - man, Jono's life is getting expensive - just bought some ice skates last week as well :).
Unfortunately, the weather over the weekend was pretty horrible with gales and rain. I'm just thankful that that I had Monday off work when the weather was puuuurfect :) A bit unfortunate for those that didn't...
We also visited the Waioru Army Museum when the weather was crap on Sunday. I spent a while staring at Upham's VC (Victoria Cross) and Bar...
"For Valour" x 2 - on the left
He was a pretty awesome soldier, from Christchurch too - born to fight and then some. I'd definitely want him on MY team. We also got some of the obligatory tank photos....
Coming home from the mountain on Monday after Snowboarding with Stu, I realised that I had kinda forgotten to keep an eye on the fuel gauge. It got to the point where I was sitting on the "E" line but we were still about 30kms from the next town (Te Kuiti). We ended up popping into a farm on the way to see if they had any spare gas! They didn't, so we had no choice but to keep going, with me driving the most fuel efficiently as I possibly could! Thankfully we made it :) I wasn't sure how far I could drive after hitting the line but I wasn't in the mood to find out!
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. They also say that when you get older you've gotta eat cake, so that's what I did.
The cake was destroyed soon after....
I tried Ceroc for the first time this week and I think my (miniscule) salsa experience made it a bit easier to pick up. Good thing is you don't have to think so hard about your footwork. On the subject of dancing - I saw "Burn the Floor" last night. Maria (flatmate) got a bunch of free tickets (yeehaaa!) to the show at the Aotea centre. Now those guys and gals are awesome dancers and their bods are really quite the specimens.
I'm going to a big Asian dance party tonight called DV8 . I've been going biannually - based on the time I'll end up getting home you do need some time to recover! Tomorrow morning will be a bit of a write off darn it. Look for the bags under my eyes if you see me in the weekend ;)
Moving on to the topic of ice skating... I've started that up again. Main task at the moment is buying my own skates - I'm getting so sick of the rental ones but always improving which keeps me going back for more. The ice never feels any softer though.
Also saw a film at the film festival last week called Death at a funeral which was mad funny. Definitely recommend it.
Tess turned 19 today so Happy Birthday to her. I got her some of her own Internet real estate (so she can be just like her awesome big bro). Check it out (it's better with sound):
NB. Although extremely cool, the current content is intended as a placeholder!
This past weekend, I went to my friend Jules' 21st where I had a fantastic time. Always good to see you folks.
The rest of the weekend was taken up by the LAN party we had at our flat. It was wicked - 8 guys playing old school PC games, as well as the associated junk food and sleep deprivation. Brought back memories of the college days when I was oh soooo much more of a geek :)
Last weekend I went with some of my colleagues to do some community work on Motuihe island. We did some tree planting in the morning had a BBQ for lunch. The afternoon we spent exploring the island. It was a great day for getting to know the colleagues and it felt good giving back to the community. Following this, I also got my share of our 15 minutes of fame with a pic and article on the Telecom Intranet. You can see some of the pics here:
Wow busy week. I've been catching up with sooo many people! And eaten out every night I think, ah well - people must have been missing me! My ex-flatmate Vicki had her engagement party on Saturday and I'm sure she'll enjoy the mention on my famous blog :)
I saw Transformers on Thursday, which I must say is totally awesome! I was seriously considering going to the midnight session, but my rational mind did eventually kick in. Anyway, the action and effects are amazing. Giant transforming robots beating the crap out of each other really is something I think we've all been wanting to see.
Also our flat is fully occupied now which is good. Should generally have someone to talk to when I get home from now on.
I also uploaded a whole bunch of the holiday photos. You can catch them here:
Just got back from Oz this morning where I've had the greatest holiday with my folks, who are still over there (grrr). Back to work tomorrow, but just thought I'd chuck up a couple pics from Australia Zoo. I'm gonna post up some more stuff and pics over the coming week so keep an eye out for it.
Also, I came across this game today and its damn addictive. It's like a ragdoll version of Spiderman! You have to click to attach and then swing on your ropes (web?) to move across the screen. My best is 172 yds which I think is a damn good score. Talk about a great way to procrastinate :)
And her loyal subjects (including me) are very grateful to get a day off work! I used it to go tramping out in the Waitakere's with Kerhan and Sean.
Bush pole swinging.
Note my gorgeous Boys' High rugby socks.
Here's all of us standing beneath the tramway waterfall diversion ramp.
(this photo was made possible by Jono's awesome mini camera tripod)
I also played some squash with Kerhan on Sunday. First time I've played in about a year. After a few minutes I was glad to see most of the rust wear off. Great match in the end - especially since I won... just!
In other news, my mate Mark moved up to Auckland last week - he's always following me! Or perhaps it's his fiancee, who also lives up here? hmmm. Anyway, he's getting hitched later this year and guess who's the best man?
Yep, it's Jono, the fantastic bush pole swinger :)
I moved offices a couple weeks ago, and I have to say I'm really liking it. Downside is it takes me 5 minutes longer to get to walk to work now. Although in saying that it will very shortly be irrelevant... as I'm moving out of my flat in a couple weeks. The lease runs out here and I'm not looking to take it over.
In other news, I'm going to Oz (the east side) with my folks in June - Yay! This is our first overseas family holiday well... ever! Of course I'm very much looking forward to it.
Last weekend I went mountain biking with some mates out at Woodhill. Here's a video of Jimmy and myself attacking a little ramp.... awesome fun.
Also, to all you avid runners (and walkers), I would like to bring your attention to an awesome new site I've been using... www.mapmyrun.com It uses google maps and you can use it to plot out your favourite running courses. It shows you the total distance and can even show you the altitude at any point (and hence the general gradient). You can register (for free) and it'll remember the courses that you chuck into it. It has a whole bunch of nifty features - a very useful training tool indeed!
On the subject of running & fitness, I did a beep test at the gym today. First time I've done one since high school. I was really keen to see what level of fitness I am these days. I managed to make it to level 11 (which I just read is good enough for the Royal Marine Officers :) I'm pretty sure I could have pushed a bit harder but I wanted something fairly beatable for next time, and also would have liked someone else of similar ability doing it with me (competition is always good). There were only 2 of us doing it - me and another girl, however she dropped out quite early on. There was a decent audience too - pretty much a whole aerobics class was lined up waiting to go in and this one guy running backwards and forwards (i.e. me) was their sole entertainment...
Superman needed help saving the world in downtown. Lucky for him, Howie and I were around...
Earlier this week I decided to cook up a proper dinner, which is kinda rare these days. However, I managed to discover what can happen to the ceiling when you combine canned tomatoes, a really crap can opener, and an impatient cook....
I was preparing some Tomato rice, just like Mum taught me. Well aside from the tomato on the ceiling that is. Tasted gooood and I ate it all up. I could only get the can part of the way open and had to kinda force it the rest of the way which led to (at the time) unforeseen results...
I had a thoroughly enjoyable time cleaning though :)
"Well what can I say.... my brother is lazy and won't put any more stuff on this posting so here I am to rescue the situation. Family xmas was great and the boys vs girls Trivial Pursuit was super awesome as the team who best deserved it succeeded..... THE GIRLS whipped their butts outta the park. Well... what else. Um I'm off to Oz tomorrow, hip hip hooray! So bye for now.
