Summer days

I’ve spent a couple weeks tripping around the country sans camera but sadly I’m back at work now. It’s pretty quiet so went down for a mean as milkshake by the water for lunch. Yum!
L x

Sitting by the water daydreaming of my holiday L x

Summer time & the living is easy

Caught the cable car up to the top of the Botanical Gardens on Thursday and had lunch on the grass in the sun.  L&P, potato top pie, jandals. Life is good.

L x

Big weekend

Friday night I went to the Festival for the Future opening night and caught up with an old friend who was speaking as a young innovator; truly inspiring. Afterwards I went down to a local mexican restaurant for their Dia de los Muertos celebrations with mariachi band and facepainting – muchos awesomness:

Saturday was Guy Fawkes Night and the city council puts on a $500k display every year. We had front row seats on the rocks, so pretty

Sunday I rode my bike for the first time, all the way out to Red Rocks. Such a mint view:

Then finished up the weekend with a lovely wine in the sunshine and bread shaped like New Zealand:

L x

Gumboot weekend

Have been gardening all weekend, and not just weeding but the heavy duty stuff in an attempt to reclaim my jungle. Mum and Dad came over with trailer and a chainsaw and we got through heaps. Absolutely knackered now.

 

Thank goodness for that

After 24 years NZ finally won the Rugby World Cup, as the lovely Miss Stacey mentioned earlier.  This is me on the Monday after the big game. After spending most of my formative years overseas I finally feel like a complete Kiwi celebrating with a pie, albeit a fancypants gourmet wild venison one. You can also see my future hubby Richie McCaw on the front of the paper too, phwoooar!

L x

Hey there little guy!

Met this charming young man (I am assuming) on my deck this morning. He seemed nice. I’ve called him Sid.

L x

Fishy business

On Sunday I caught up with a family friend that I haven’t seen in around 11 years and met his two kids. It was a gorgeous day so we went to the Island Bay Aquarium, where they have a tank that you can play with cool stuff like starfish and sea cucumbers, then went and explored in the rockpools. So much fun!

L x

Friday fun

Snuck out of the office for lunch at Foxglove with the lovely Ms Kate and Ms Hanna. Goats cheese and mozzarella balls with manuka honey, droooool. Perfect way to lead into the weekend.

L x

Summer. Ish.

Since its been getting lighter we have busted out the camp chairs after work to relax in the garden barefoot. Still not quite warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, but it’s getting there.

L x

Hump day

Today was my first day back at work after having the flu and I was supposed to have a ‘quick’ meeting with one of the committees I’m involved with at 5.15… but an hour and a half later we were still there! Suffice to say it was the most spirit crushing meeting I’ve had in a long time. So now I’m perched on the couch with the most dainty bottle of wine I’ve seen in a long time watching trashy tv. Just what the Dr ordered.

L x

Of late

I’ve been super busy lately and neglected to post for a while so here is a quick update…

I’ve been snowboarding:

Bowling:

Did some more snowboarding:

 Then there was that time it snowed in Wellington:

Followed by some more boarding:

And on Sunday I went to the Argentina/Scotland Rugby World Cup game:

Now I am broke, but happy.

L xx

Covert shoe-perations

Spotted these bad boys at the annual Downtown Community Ministry book fair a few weeks back and had to share them. I was trying so hard to perfect the casual ‘I’m just checking a text message, not taking a picture of your truly hideous shoes’ face. Luckily he’s checking his phone too because I’m a terrible actress and would have got snapped out immediately had he seen me.

L x

Organic Carrot-y Goodness

My lovely friend and co-worker Kate gave me some veges from her garden and I cannot wait to make them into carrot and coriander soup. That’s assuming I don’t just eat them raw with some hummus first…yum!

L x

Ladies who lunch

It’s a friend’s 30th birthday today so we went out for a lovely lunch at Portofino on the waterfront. Perfect way to spend a rare sunny-not-windy day in Wellington! And another opportunity to wear my super comfy cowboy boots that are tucked away in the darkness of the bottom of the photo.

L x

Feeling the love

 

 

 

I work in recruitment and today one of my candidates started his new job, so he popped in with this lovely little pressie for me to say thanks, bless! It made my day actually. And my new shoes are making their SPD debut – black wedges are one of my favourite things at the moment, almost as favourite as my nude stilettos, but you have to wait for the weekend to see them.

L x

 

Horsing around

This pic is about a week old but I’ve been playing catch up since my internet at home hasn’t been working. Went horseriding out in Ohariu Valley – it was gorgeous but the horse was more hungover than I was and we didn’t go above a gentle meandering pace, which was a little dull but probably for the best.

L x

Scary Sunday

Spent my Sunday at a high ropes course. It was fun but a long day after a late night! Also seemed like a good time to break out the matching toes/jandals combo again.

L x

Poor little shoes

Today has been one of those days… My shoes broke, I got a hole in my stockings and a raft of other little annoying things happened. But it’s nearly over, I’ve got a vino in hand, and tomorrow is a new day so it’s all on the up from here

L x

Neeeeeeooowwwwwww

Went go kart racing with my Dad, brother Scott and sister Sian. Such a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.

L x

Reach for the lasers maaan

I caught up with the little chicken I mentor again today. While I was waiting for her to arrive another couple of people on the programme turned up so we decided to play Mentees (mintees) vs. Mentors (mentos) laser tag. I had so much fun I actually broke the bow off my new shoes!

L x

Bows, cupcakes & butterflies

Here are a few of my favourite things: New shoes with BOWS on them! Cupcakes! Fridays! And a card to celebrate a whole year at my job, how sweet.

L x

The weekend that was…

I always do my washing on a Saturday morning so it’s out of the way for the weekend. This week was no different until I opened up the washing machine to hang out my stuff and saw this squeaky clean shoe ready to be hung out to dry. Apparently when I bundled up everything to put in the machine this puppy came along for the ride.

Later on Saturday night I went shark racing, run by the Island Bay Football Club as a fundraiser. Our team was named Sharky & George, and I’ve had the theme song from the cartoon in my head ever since. Ended up being a fabulous night; I won a spot prize of a plant, which I named sharky, and got rather attached to an amazing furry Russian-looking hat, named George.

However, I wasn’t feeling quite so chipper at 7.30am Sunday morning when I had to wake up as I’d decided to go on a kayaking trip up to the Otaki River. Being hungover in a kayak is no good, but the freezing cold water that I went into after tipping over in an eddy definitely made me feel alive.

L x

A-walking we will go

Monday we celebrated Good Queen Liz’s birthday. It wasn’t her actual birthday, but we got a day off anyway so who’s counting? Dad, my brother Ryan and I all went for a bush walk along the Te Au track, and even though it was raining it was neato and I had a great time. The foot shot is quite blurry (slow shutter speed in the rain) so I put in some of the lovely trees too.

L x

And they call it ducky love

I came across this cute little duck abandoned in the grass after my run today.But then I realised it was missing its beak and tail feather, and that made it look even sadder. Now it’s sitting in my pond at home. To be honest it looks a little strange, but oh well.

L x

Flower power

This is my favourite plant, the azalea called Luci. She’s finally decided to flower again, hurrah! And it’s still warm enough to wear jandals, double hurrah!

L x

New cultural experiences

It’s a bit belated, but last Friday night I stayed at a Marae for the first time ever as part of a mentoring programme I volunteer in. Here I am with a few of the girls who wanted to include something they liked as a prop:

This is the outside of the Tapu Te Ranga Marae. It’s 13 stories high and has been built by volunteers out of 100%  recycled (free) materials over many years. Pretty cool evidence you can do anything when you set your mind to it.

L x

Sunday funday

My brother Ryan moved back to Wellington via India last week after living in Perth for the past.. hmm… forever it seems. I caught up with him today for a sneaky cider in the sunshine on a truly beautiful Autumn day. Here I am hanging out at the waterfront waiting for him to arrive. On a side note I love that it’s officially winter in a week or so but yet still warm enough to wear jandals.

L x

Cheese Louise

As a birthday and leaving gift for a friend a bunch of us pitched in and got her a cheese cake. The bottom layer is triple cream Brie, the middle is Kikorangi Blue, the top is goat chevre.  All artfully prepared with pears, walnuts and grapes and served with home made chutneys. A-ma-zing. This picture really doesn’t do it justice.

L x

It’s as if they knew…

After last night’s excesses I was not in a good way. I took my friend for a little jaunt to the supermarket since she’s not got a car and saw this little beauty in the bread aisle. Amusingly named wheat goods made the whole experience slightly less painful. I think Hell is a packed supermarket on a Sunday afternoon, where all the children are snotty and screamy and people ram trolleys into your legs. This visit did little to convince me otherwise.

L x

The best laid plans of mice and (wo)men

I had planned a nice, relaxing evening with two of my best friends Saturday evening. Nothing too outrageous, just dinner at newish restaurant Pan de Muerta, which I’ve been dying to go to, and one or two drinks. I even drove my car in to town, so determined I was to be sensible. Next thing you know I’m at  a bar called El Horno, drinking sangria out of a jam jar, saving the Dial A Driver number into my phone moments before I lost the coordination to use my touch-screen phone.

L x

Just call me Queeny

Embracing my inner princess at our Royalty themed marketing day. The wedges I’m wearing  are actually broken but I had to wear as they’re the most ‘senior’ looking shoes I own.

Weeee

Spinning on my chair a la Megan with a fun new app called ActionShot

L x

My Mum Rocks

It’s Mother’s Day in the Southern Hemisphere today, so I took my Mum and my little sister out for High Tea at this amazing little place called Martha’s Pantry. Had to do the two pics separate so you can appreciate the gorgeousness of it.

L x

PS – she reads this blog too, so HI MUM!!!

Getting my photo fix

Spent a lazy Saturday at the renowned NZ photographer  Brian Brake’s exhibition in Te Papa. There were so many amazing images I wish I had gone earlier so I could keep going back, but this is the last weekend it’s on display. I’m feeling inspired to play around with documentary photography now too.

L x

Sunshine & soup

I spent Sunday looking through boxes of old photos at my parents house after getting taken out for lunch. It was a super sunny day but now that it’s Autumn the evenings are getting pretty cold so I went home to make vege soup and chill out by the fire.

L x

Colour Coded Goodness

I was bored, so I decided to re-arrange my bookcase by colour.

L x

Easter bunnies

Baked cupcakes with the cool little chicken that I am a mentor to via an awesome youth programme last night. We made them special Easter Bunny ones, yummo!

L x

Sunday arvo sunshine

Went to visit the gorgeous Miss Holly on Sunday and see her  new house. This is us enjoying the lovely afternoon sunshine on her deck overlooking Porirua with Mana Island in the background. What a view!

L x

On top of the island

Went on a trip to Matiu/Somes Island on Saturday for the first time. It was absolutely hosing down the whole time, but it was kinda fun. Decided to hop on the trig for a sneaky photo, the first in a long time as I have been without my mobile for the past month and lugging around a DSLR isn’t all that easy.

L x

Autumn in Turangi

I had my work conference in Turangi this weekend, and the work part only took around 3 hours so the rest of the time we got to hang out, drink way too much, get massaged and explore the area. It was lovely!

L x

Sitting, waiting, wondering

Sitting on a ledge in Civic Square waiting for a client who was running late wondering if running away and joining the circus is a viable life choice. I think I’d make a great clown ballerina.

L x

Hanging out with some cool cats

My two flatties and I went to Meow on Edward Street on Thursday night for a couple of drinks. It was super retro, and reminded me of exactly what my house looked like when I went to look at the open home. Very nostalgic.

L x

Dum Dum Da Dum

Today is my parents wedding anniversary and Dad is away at his Boys Weekend so my Mama Bear and I hung out instead. We went to St Mary of the Angels where they got married 29 years ago. It’s a gorgeous church and we were there at the exact time their ceremony was taking place all those years ago.

L x

Day in / day out

Despite this week completely turning to custard this morning I took comfort from the fact that no matter what happens every day the sun comes up and goes down again, and life goes on.  Pretty deep thoughts for 7am.

L x

Bleurgh.

I have got some kind of bug and only lasted 45 mins at work this morning before I gave up and decided to head home to recover. So here I am, recovering in the sunshine with my slippers on after having a nap on the couch.

L x

My friday is casual and tasty

I made sweetcorn fritters for lunch on the sandwich press at work for lunch today, with my not-so-secret ingredients chillies and basil. There was also an earthquake at lunchtime but I’m not too worried about the ‘big one’ hitting Wellington, because as you can see below, the aircon unit is going to get me first. Normally I can forget about the tonne of metal hanging over my head, but with all the wind and tectonic activity over the past couple of days it’s making me think about writing a will.

L x

Next?

I have been contemplating where I want to travel to next today and it’s been lots of fun. I just have to save for it now!

L x

Boogie on down

After Bali I’ve been trying to be good and save some money. But when Miss Thompson called and asked if I felt like going out I crumbled. Before I knew it it was 2am and I had a glow stick and a kebab. Good night.

L x

Winter jandals

As you have no doubt noticed by now I love my jandals. In fact, I love them so much I tend to wear little else except my uggs in winter. But today all this changed… I discovered Tube Flops, or flip flops crossed with tube socks. Courtesy of one of those charming one-day-deal type websites I am the proud new owner of these babies. And the ridicule of my office.

L x