Interesting...

“Ice hockey has been characterized as the fastest and most violent team sport in the world played with clubs (hockey sticks), a bullet (puck), and knives (skates).”

Hmmm... interesting way of looking at it... :D

Oh yeah...

Had a full proper LL shift on Monday night. Started kinda crap on the first call (the caller was feeling very ‘stuck’ and I managed to let a lot of that project on to me, a good learning experience anyway!!). But after that warm up I was much more effective on the next one - felt good, managed to zone in a core value that was really holding her back, whether she will use that I don’t know, but I do hope so.

I also attempted some Watercolour painting last night, it’s very different to acrylic, you can do some amazing effects with it. I’m thinking maybe I should turn one half of my room into a studio, somehow - it’s certainly big enough. Oooo a project perhaps – exciting!

Painting Efforts

I really like how this one turned out, it has a nice impact. I spent quite a while practice drawing the little men (I was paranoid I'd screw them up on the actual painting). Turned out pretty well in the end though.

Kinda here and there with this one, I like the trees, and the background turned out ok, but the yellow looks a bit overbearing in this shot, it seemed a lot duller on the actual paper.
The way I painted it ended with an almost watercolourish look about it. Foreground is a little knobly for my liking. For some reason I enjoy painting almost everything except foregrounds - I found them pretty tedious for some reason. Oh well, I'm a beginner - and I can use that excuse for a while yet :)

Various bits...

Quick recap on some highlights in Jono’s world: 

• Housesitting - Mika (the cat) is the most friendly, placid thing I have EVER met. And it was great having Sky to watch the All Whites game. Man, I totally yelled the house down! And with MySkyHDI I could rewind, pause & slowmo all the cool bits too :)
• Painting – just finished latest paining (photos up soon). Teacher wants me to quit my day job, and I wish I could, but not sure if it would quite pay the bills (yet) :P
• Curling at the ice rink – enjoyed the novelty, but ice is much more fun with skates on ;)
• 1st game of ice hockey (padded up and everything, even scored 2 goals – yeee haaar), just a practice game but still, this might be the pinnacle of my career.
• Not sick anymore (that’s good, sux being sick)
• 1st Lifeline shift – talk about nerves (!) the first time I was waiting for that phone to ring. I managed to get the counsellor ‘flow’ going after a few minutes and got through it. Since it was the first one, my supervisor was listening in and gave me a good recap afterwards. It can be hard to gauge how much difference as a counsellor you are making, you can’t really solve anything, but for some you can help them get to a point where they are ready to, and for most you can help them get through the day. And no, I will not be telling you what time my next shift is! J
• Curry party – I made a green beef curry (from scratch) which I called “Moo Thai” (geddit??). I have to say, bought paste is fine by me! The taste/ satisfaction benefit in making the paste from scratch does not make up for the effort saved in just buying it!!! So I guess the skill becomes finding a good paste ;)

Art?

Following on from the Thai cooking class I was doing a month or so back I signed up for the community art class. Just did some pencil sketches last week, but the teacher bullied me into attempting some painting this week.

I found a pic of a lighthouse in one of the books and had a shot at it. I decided to keep the colours simple - but still, never in a million years did I think I was capable of painting anything Blog worthy.

But you know what? I guess I surprised myself a bit, so here it is, on my Blog :)

Might touch up the house on the right a bit. And I should probably sign my initials on the bottom too...

I've got a few ideas for my next project, we'll see what happens I guess!

Sniffle

I've been a bit sick this week, which has kinda sucked, but rather than talk about that, I'll show you what I was up to BEFORE I was sick :) That's much more exciting. Found myself in/around Tauranga last weekend and lucky to have the most awesomest weather.

I'm quite proud of how I managed to make it over this thing.

Definitely gaining more confidence on some of the more technical obstacles. This one was actually pretty easy, its just the height of it that made me a bit hesitant.

Here I am, posing at the top of the track....

OK we found this spot (called Waimarino I think) that was just so much fun. Anyway I think half a day of dipping in and out of the water was what contributed to this annoying cold I have right now. They had this thing called the "Blob" which was just so cool - basically you get shot up (what seems like) miles into the air - and then land in the water - totally disorientated - into the wate.

This pic here is me on the good ol' Tarzan rope.

Oh and in other news - I had my final Lifeline assessment today. Passed it -Yay! :) And managed to do pretty well I thought. Basically we had to run through a whole scenario (role play) with the instructors and demonstrate the various counselling skills - I've still got stuff to work on of course but I've definitely come a long way. Anyway, such a relief.... and I start my first shift in a few weeks time. Today was the last gathering of our training group so it was a bit sad in that respect (we ducked of to have Yum cha for lunch which was awesome! :). I'll see them around of course but its always sad when something like that comes to an end. And I've made some truly awesome friends for sure.

Next week I'm starting some house sitting in Epsom which is exciting! A friend of mind recommended me and I met the owners last week -its a real nice, modern place. I'm looking forward to it - just gotta look after a cat, feed some fish, and water some plants for a couple weeks.

Anyway, goodnight :)