Tree Hugging

Normally I don’t get up on a Sunday to go climb trees and scare my limbs into a jelly-like consistency from being above the ground and attempting challenging obstacles at the same time. But this morning I did. For 3 1/2 hours me and my friend Aaron played Tarzan and scrambled up, across and around trees in Woodhill Forest. It was awesome fun (especially the flying foxes at the end of each course), but now my muscles have ceased and my hands are raw from gripping on for dear life. Crazy kids. 

Oh how I love the sun

On another run (9.5km), we ran away from the sun down this strip of road next to the motorway:

After which we had dinner and went to a Fringe Festival show which was fantastic! We sat middle front and center and were forced to become part of the show, at one stage I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. The actor was amazing and the show was entertaining the whole way through!

Stacey Marie

Time out

A much needed break was had over the weekend, first up I ate myself sick on the sweet grapes at a friends parents house up north, then worked my way through four country pubs and their characters on the way to a campsite where we slept with kiwi running around outside the tent

 

My Bad

I have been very crap lately, but I moved house and have only just got internet at my new place today. And on the weekend I dropped my camera in the water and won’t buy one till the after Christmas sales, so I will only appear in Emma and Vera’s posts till then. It was nice knowing you all ha ha! I will still be checking out all your posts of course!

Here I am celebrating the move to a new house with friends on the deck after the sun had gone down:

And the most magical weekend I’ve had in a while… back up at my friend’s house in Pataua South,

drinking games involving hermit crabs, while perched in trees over the water (ultimately the perfect formula for dropping ones camera into the ocean…)…

But look it’s sooooo pretty:

That night there were bioluminescenes in the water, and me and amy stayed out swimming until around 1.30am. I now no longer need to do acid (if I ever did), as that experience was pretty trippy!

THEN the next day in the very same water in the photos above, we were swimming and saw splashing in the water, and swam over and it was a pod of four, maybe five dolphins having a good old play. We swam closer and they stayed for about 20 minutes, going through the entire repertoire of dolphin tricks. A dog from the shore even swam out and they played with him! It was so awesome!

So that’s it from me for a while, I hope you guys all have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!! OXOX

Stacey Marie

SCORE for summer!

Went to the second-hand store today, I love searching through and finding books. None of them had prices so I grabbed all the ones I wanted and took them up to the counter…

… $5… for the lot! There are all my favourite authors in there… Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Bryce Courtney, Kapka Kassabova, a couple of hardcovers and some randoms! I am well excited about embarking on these books!

(Except I am moving house this weekend, and am supposed to be getting rid of stuff… oh well!)

Stacey Marie

Bestest Sunday Ever

Vera already wrote about our lovely Sunday afternoon, and here are the pictures. It was such a great day that if it was a date she would have been able to have her wicked way with me later on!

My tootsies on the top of the mountain, while eating takeaway and drinking beer:

Vera’s peids:

Group shot!

Now we are going running up the mountain in about an hour. No curry or beer waiting for us today. Grumpyface.

Stacey Marie

My catchup post

Have been away. From it all. And by it I mean not only good coffee, but the internet too. Don’t hate me, but here is what I have been doing:

So I went to the Kingdom of Tonga for one week. It’s only a three hour flight from NZ, but is a whole world away. The first four nights I stayed in a cheap, but very fun hostel in town, and from there I did the touristy things like tours and the such:

Went on a day trip to a couple of reefs in the ocean to go snorkeling on, and finished up on an island (Pangimotu), which I went back to the next day to lie on:

After I had had enough of tripping around I booked into an awesome place right on the beach where I had my own fale complete with bathroom, porch… and hammock. My next three days went something like this:

Lie in hammock and read

Snooze.

Go for a swim:

Go back to reading in the hammock.

Go for a walk to the shops to buy some snacks:

Go back to the hammock.

Go for a swim.

Go back to the hammock for a nap.

Read book. Finish book in one day. Start next book:

Go for a swim.

Find coconuts to take pictures of so I can walk along the beach singing “I’ve got a lovely pair of coconuts”. Then remember that the song actually goes on about a lovely pair of rollerskates, but Mah. There is no-one around to correct me so I’ll sing what I want.

Then realise that you may slowly be going mad from lack of human contact. Then realise if that is so you could go mad for a couple more days thank you very much. Then realise that you have to come home.

Go back to the hammock and have a nap because it is an exhausting life you lead.

Come home.

Sad face.

PS: I caught up with all your postings, they look awesome. Luci: Hatepe has been my special spot forever, but you can share it too. Vera, those photos look friggen a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Your parents must have been loving it! Em: You know Tequila is never anybody’s friend. I do like what you did with your hair though. And you’d never catch me in that scary thing. I’d be the one that peed her pants and had to be taken out early. Oh wait. You didn’t did you? Julie: I have been dreaming of a pedicure the whole time I have been away and those white booties tipped me over the edge! Megan: I say if you wanna twirl, twirl! Sometimes I sing really loudly and do wheelchair dancing down the hall of my office just couse. You gotta do what you gotta do. Barbara: so many cool flats! Peace out peeps.

Hawaii Lei-dy

Saturday night was a dress-up party Hawaiian theme. Good fun, got lei-ed.

Stacey Marie

Smoke and mirrors

Friday was had three end of year functions for work… dry ice from one migrated to another and into our cups… probably not good for you, but one was not thinking well by this point…

Stacey Marie

Bus tricks

No matter what time I get on the bus, these the same ajumma and ajoshe (grandma and grandpa) always get on my bus, and off a couple of stops later. I reckon they just ride the bus around all day, because I usually see them on the way home too. They are so cute, and are like a matching pair of dolls. They always sit in the same seats, the two up the front, the man on the right, the woman on the left. BUT today, there was another lady sitting in the left hand side seat, she got a dirty look then they both sat on the right.

Stacey Marie

Puppy love

It was SPCA collection day the other day and the bright sparks had the idea of taking to the streets with cute puppies and dogs from the SPCA to drum up money. It worked. I donated, and got to have a pat with this dude.

Stacey Marie

Star-spangled rice goodness

Caught up with two friends I only get to see about twice a year because of our combined crazy lives on Monday night for dinner at this great Thai place I love. Three hours later, gobbling food, wine and words like chickens, we were finished, only because the restaurant closed.

Stacey Marie

diversity is the spice of life

Went shopping for things to take on my island adventure next week…

I just like black jandals okay? And I had to buy the god-awful beach feet cause I don’t want to rip my feet up on coral do I?

 

Stacey Marie

Wild flowers are better than tame ones

Check out my bunch I picked on my walk on Saturday morning.

Stacey Marie

Food, glorious food. There’s nothing quite like it!

Man I am breaking out into the musical today. Must be boredom. Anywho, had dinner in the sun with my friend Kelly at one of my favourite restaurants overlooking the Viaduct on Wednesday night. No complaints here.

Stacey Marie

I’m on the top of the world with my Sealy postropedic feeling, Sealy. Really!

Nothing to do with beds, but here was the view I snapped on my last run up the mountain.

Note: No Vera. Has been a bit lonely lately

Oh but you can see Ranigtoto where I was a couple of posts ago

Stacey Marie

Marathon Day

Sunday was Marathon Day not only for Megan (how’d you go???), but the Auckland Marathon was also on. I went to go and cheer my friend Kit at the finish line, it was her first ever marathon and I was very proud. We enjoyed a well-deserved (for her at least) beer, after.

Stacey Marie

Rangitoto Crossing

On Saturday, me and five friends took sea kayaks over to Rangitoto (a volcano which last exploded 500 years ago), and then climbed to the top. It was great fun but exhausting!!

That’s Rangi from the Auckland side

And this is my friend Paul coming out of a cave we explored on the island:

Stacey Marie

Enjoying the sunshine

Here I am in the sunshine, thinking about the new deck my landlord is building, extending out to the end of the red wood. What you can’t see is the view to my left: beautiful. Can see ocean, forest, hills and sky for ages. Can’t wait to enjoy that!

Stacey Marie

Wicked Long Weekend

It’s just gone Labour Weekend here, where we shake off the winter blues and get our first sunburns of the year. I had an awesome time, kicking off on Friday night with drinks, fireworks and laughs with good friends outside on the balcony:

Then Saturday I caught the bus up north to stay with my friends Amy and Paul, who were hosting a hangi (traditional Maori way of cooking food in the ground) for- wait for it-… 90 people! There went the relaxing lie on the beach weekend I had in my head, suddenly I was immigrant labour. However the entire process and weekend was great fun, and really rewarding, and I managed to fit in a swim in the ocean and the chance to get my inaugural sunburn.

Digging of the pit for the food

This is what a quarter of 20kg of potatoes and 10kg of kumera peelings look like

After all that peeling it was time for a dip.

Sunday was hangi day, and it all went off with only one hitch… when high tide happened on the beach, the pit filled with water, at the same time that we wanted to start cooking… waiting for high tide to recede and putting some more sand in the hole seemed to remedy the situation!

Monday morning shone light on the mess 90 people can create, but it was also a beautiful day, so once we had cleaned up, we could relax in this:

Stacey Marie

Ra Booties

We have this thing in my oldest and dearest group of friends, that we all love Ra Booties. What are Ra Booties? Delightful little knitted booties for big people which you can wear around the house, to bed, on the couch, anywhere inside at all. They are called Ra Booties because Ra was the mother of one friend who used to knit them for us all. Even though Ra Booties were around before Ra (I remember my friend Oliver’s mum was the first knitter of these when we were about 13), but we still can them Ra Booties, not Oliver’s Mums Booties. I guess it has a better ring.

The lovely Renee who I got to hang out with last week in Wellington, knitted me a pair for my birthday (beginning of June), and I got them in the mail today after she found them again. Maybe a little late for the season, but these will be well worn in the winter months next year. Go the Ra Booties!

Stacey Marie

Run Run Wine

Vera and I went for another run yesterday, and the thing which got us through was the thought of the cold bottle of wine I had sitting in the fridge at home, waiting for us. We needed it you see because we mapped our run on www.mapmyrun.com and had only done 5 kms. Which felt like more. Until we realised it was in miles, and we in fact had done 8km, including a nasty mountain climb. Hooray! Four more of those suckers and we have reached our goal of 12 km and can retire to drinking wine all day. Now there’s something to aim for!

Stacey Marie

Home James

Have just got back from a week visiting family and friends in Feilding where I am from. Did lots, here are the shoe per diem photos, although on reflection maybe this should be called sock per diem…

This is in the airport on the way down home. Penguin classics are so pretty, was tempted to buy a few then remembered I have a book back-log I should get through first…

Me and my Ma went for a wee trip to Whanganui, which some people make fun of but I like because it is quaint and has the best second-hand shop in the whole wide world (pretty much the only reason for taking a trip there in the first place, but it is still quaint okay.) And contrary to my above comment, I bought three books.

I chilled out with Jimmy by his fire. He was kind enough to share a little bit with me.

Saw Emma Kate and Honor Violet, more to come from Emma’s camera (ahem).

Played with Rouge the only dog in the whole wide world I like and am thinking of cloning her so I can have some of her lovely sweet nature. She is my friend Renee’s parents dog, and I was there for a big dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. We then used the left over meatballs to teach Rouge how to go in and out of the cat flap.

I then went down to Wellington to stay the night with Renee and her husband Brian and catch up with all my lovely friendlies who live down there. Me and Renee passed Friday afternoon drinking wine on her balcony overlooking the harbour.

And then a group of us went out for a BYO dinner, of which a bottle of red was a casualty… (This was nothing to do with me BTW)…

Stacey Marie

As Vera said, Monday after her first day at work we went for a run (we have entered a 12km run in January, now we just need to train), and then for dinner. A much healthier option than going for a wine and then dinner… anyway after two dinners for some (ahem Vera) we went for coffee and cake and the couch matched my new shoes. Choice!

Stacey Marie

All White = All right

I went to an All White game last night. Am not a fan of soccer, just got offered a free ticket, and thought why not? It was actually really fun, and there were way more people than I expected. And the team kept doing what they were good at: the score was 1-1.

Cool crowd shot:

Stacey Marie

Friday fun-day

Friday really was a fun day for Vera, she finished one job and starts a new one on Monday. We went out after to celebrate, which involved great amounts of food and drink. mMMM.

PS yes me = new shoes! Bought three pairs on Friday, whoop!

Stacey Marie

Short on time, but never for food and wine

Have had two three-hour exams this week, along with working, so I haven’t had much time for much other than studying, travel and work, but now they are over, the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day and I am going home next week and it’s all so good!!! But yeah, where was I oh that’s right, I still found time to go and eat awesome food with Vera on Wednesday at Squid Row. Priorities people.

Stacey Marie

They’re baaaccccckkkk!

First Official Jandal Worthy Day, and I knew I had to spend it all inside studying for exams this week. So I got up early (ish, for a Sunday) and took a stroll into the village for a muffin and a cup of coffee for breakie. And now I am taking another break to upload this. But nevermind, I have been doing lots (sort of) of good stuff between now and then and am quite satisfied that this afternoon is a bit cooler than this morning, so I was right to go wandering earlier. Anyway, since I am procrastinating from studying right now, I could possibly go on writing forever and ever. Do you know I’m going to buy a ukulele next payday and learn a few songs in time for Christmas. An instrument is the perfect procrastination devise, as is spring cleaning, which I may just go and do now. Have a happy Sunday!

Stacey Marie

Putting two things out there

1) I think (don’t strike down on me with a vengeance oh weather gods) that the weather bomb is gone

*ducks*

2) I have decided to do a fun run in December. There I said it. To get my arse into shape, I have started running all the way up Mt. Eden and timing myself. Yesterday was 8 mins 53, today 8 mins 37. I plan to run all the way up, around the cone and back down again. So far I run up there, walk around the cone and run back down again (the easy part, takes about 4 mins).

So now I have put it out there, I have to do it. I really do enjoy running, once I get fit. Getting there is the hard part. Megan- oh megan, where have you gone? How did your run go?

Look you can see the museum from Vera’s last post just………………………………………………………………..there |

Stacey Marie

Dress up party and a wee bit of wtf

Friday night I found out I was going to a dress up party, and had an hour to arrange a costume. The theme was the Grateful Dead, so after a wee bit of looking in the cupboard and finding it bare, my eyes fell on my super oversized sunglasses, brown boots, leather jacket, white scarf, beanie and with a bit of imagination I decided to go as Jean Batten (the Amelia Earhart of NZ). One guy at the party actually guessed who I was. Shock horror. Anyway the entire place was covered in aluminum foil. Even the chairs. A wee bit of wtf.

Stacey Marie

Spilt personality weather

This morning I came into work to lovely sunshine (i think that’s what they call it when that yellow thing is in the sky) and the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Then home on the bus I realised I couldn’t see the city for the rain storm pummeling it…

Which cleared up in like 30 seconds…

And left a beautiful rainbow and blue sky!

Stacey Marie

Sunday Roasting

Dinner at an Irish pub out of the cold and in front of the fire with Vera on Sunday night. Bliss.

Stacey Marie

Weather Bomb

Apparently New Zealand is currently being hit by the biggest storm ever on the planet. They are calling it a weather bomb, and it is the reason why I haven’t been outside yet this weekend… The wind has been amazing, I now know how Luci feels living down in Windy Wellington, and the rain and thunder and hail storms have been awesome, I have spent a good little while sitting in my lounge watching. It’s hard to capture on camera, but there’s no way I’m going outside, this is during a wild rain storm, the houses are all blurry from the rain. I hope it stops soon, I need supplies.

I wonder how Vera is going on Waiheke Island, or more importantly, on the boat to and from Waiheke….

Stacey Marie

Walkies

I went for an evening stroll up the mountain by my house today, it was lovely, the wind was blowing quite hard, but when you are on the top it seems to blow all your worries away and clear your head.

There was a guy flying a kite up there too:

Stacey Marie

My new ride

I got my new scooter on thursday, but not been able to take a photo in daylight yet as I have been all over the place catching up since I went away. I snapped this picture this morning as last night I had forgotten to grab my pre-planned Saturday morning breakfast in bed lemon cake with cream-cheese icing from the scooter, to accompany a pot of strong black irish cream coffee and a good book. So I tramped down to the garage in my jim-jams, and took this snap.

BTW his name is Bruno

Stacey Marie

Lots and lots of catching up to do…

I’ve been on the most amazing trip down in the south island for the last five days, visiting my old university town, and biking the Central Otago Rail Trail, which (as the name suggests) is an old 150km railway trail, converted into a biking, walking and horse riding track. It was sooooo awesome, and I went a bit OTT on the photos cause there was so much to see! Bear with me….

Friday: I caught a plane to Dunedin, which is where I went to uni, and haven’t been back to since graduating. Thought it was fitting that this sign was outside my old theatre classrooms:

Saturday: We woke up to the news that Christchurch (about 4 hours down the road) had been hit smack on by a big earthquake and that heaps of buildings had came down.  The place is still shaking now, five days later!

We passed by the Cadbury factory on the way to our train… any good biking trip needs some chocolate

We got to the beautiful train station to catch our train to Pukerangi to meet the others and our bikes:

Taken outside of the train, as it’s going over a really high viaduct:

We had a short bike from our train to the place we were staying for the night:

The place we stayed had an old caboose as the kitchen and dining room, which was kinda cool

Saturday: We started the Rail Trail proper:

But only got 30km out of 60 for the day because of galeforce winds (150km). Three of our group were blown of the trail into ditches, my sunglasses flew off my face never to be seen again, and all of us had to squat on ridges, holding onto our bikes which were flying out in front of us from the wind. It was pretty freaky and scary and hard work, and a lovely local passed by with a trailer, rescued us and took us all to the next pittstop, which was the veranda of a closed cafe, where I was so cold, I had to put my merino top on my legs to stop freezing!! Thank god that was the end of the bad weather!

We were rescued and taken to our hotel for the night, where I made friends with a couple of Alpacas.

Sunday: Started bright and early in the chilly air, with a few shots of Jagermiester to warm the cockles.

Went over a few viaducts on the bike

Monday: We visited NZ’s longest running post office (since 1886) along the trail, and I thought the collection of phones through the ages was pretty cool:

Tuesday: Found this dead bird on a bridge, which I thought was a really pretty colour

We finished the Rail Trail in Clyde, one of the largest dams in New Zealand:

Wednesday: we left lovely Alexandra:

And I waited in the glorious sun at the Dunedin airport for my flight (note the prefix to my name, I usually go by “Captain”, but decided to mix things up this time).

I had an awesome trip and I recommend it to everybody!!

Sunday

It’s been a long slog…

But it’s here! 1st day of spring! Weeeeeeee! Thought I’d celebrate with these lovely flowers in my garden and buying myself a new scooter!! Haven’t got it yet as it needs to be registered first, but as soon as I do, you will know it on here. Whoop!

Stacey Marie

Return of the pink

Have totally been rocking the no shoes and floral mini-skirt today, in an attempt to pretend that it is warm enough to… which is actually is, I’m not cold! Still a little inappropriate once I leave the house, but oh the joy of bare legs and no shoes!

Stacey Marie

Bam the Ram

Last night was hilarious and awesome all at the same time (but actually at different times…) A group of six of us lovely ladies went speed dating, mostly for the experience, although I think we were all secretly hoping to meet our princes, would have saved a lot of hassle, but anyway no princes were to be found, although we do now have great skills at the art of awkward conversations… Anyway after the event we ran away and had a debriefing at a local restaurant, which was hilarious, because we all got to hear the different things the different guys had said to us all. This led onto another bar where we found ourselves the prey of some good hearted stag do antics which were pretty fricking hilarious too. Bam the Ram is from said stag do and is going to go and live at work on Monday. He’s a bit deflated today, but still horney as hell.

Stacey Marie

Doom Day

In less than an hour I will be getting tooth surgery, i.e crown replacement. I’m packing myself, but am looking forward to the drink with Vera after! In the way that the universe operates, you give some you get some, this morning I was passing by a thrift shop and found this woolly hat for my bike ride next week, and this NZ made leather jacket for $20! Now that’s a bargain, and hopefully gets me through the dentist. Time to go get ready, you know where I am if I don’t come back…

Stacey Marie

Hint Taken

Sorry Megan, I put up my hand and admit I have been neglecting this  fine site, but I have been reading and loving everyone’s posts! This is my life at the moment: writing, writing, writing and writing. Writing for work, writing for a business I am launching soon, writing for a client and writing for school. I’m feeling a bit snowed under! Add to that a $1000 dentist bill and subsequent appointments, preparation for a five day biking holiday next week In the beautiful (but cold at this time of the year) Central Otago region, and a healthy social life, and that is my list of excuses for being slack done. On the bright side, I should have some awesome pictures to post once I have been away

Stacey Marie

Another year older

But I’m not sure that equals another year wiser

It was V-dog’s birthday yesterday and I was kind enough to grace her with my presence for the evening. Another friend was also kind enough to bake her a chocolate Oreo cheesecake. Mmmmm mmmm. Food comas all round.

Stacey Marie

OMG

Running out the door on the way to an exam, but I had to stop and take a picture of my feet. Why? Why do you think, look, a pair of shoes that aren’t my boots! Wowza! I’m expanding my horizons, broadening my scope, digging further into my wardrobe. These brown heels are super comfy too

Stacey Marie

Metal Sculpture

After a devilishly delicious dinner of lamb shanks and fresh snapper Vera snapped me in front of this sculpture on Broadway (Newmarket, not US). Damn I need to polish my bag.

Stacey Marie

Undercover cop

I snuck this picture in at the hairdressers last Thursday, this person doesn’t even know I took a picture of their feet and have posted it for the world to see te he he he.

Stacey Marie

Work

It may be in the middle of nowhere and some of the people may be slightly odd, but I do enjoy the surroundings of my work place. We have three resident parakeets that inhabit these trees, a tui which mimics your whistle and bunnies which jump around and look cute, and mmmmm I bet they taste good.

Stacey Marie

I heart Sundays

Sundays are seriously the best day of the week, and last Sunday was exceptionally awesome. My friend Renee and I headed along to a Roller Derby girl’s house, for an interview I am doing for a magazine I edit, and the girl, Fliss, turned out to be awesome and we talked our heads off. Get this, Fliss (roller derby alias = Spar Kill) has a ward room… that’s right a room for her clothes and shoes and bags and sunglasses and hats and ribbons and nail polish and everything else. She seriously has an awesome collection of awesome stuff, and she blogs over at www.frockstar.co.nz to justify having so much stuff. She was kind enough to let us rummage and take photos, and I thought you guys might appreciate this one:

These are just the tip of the iceberg, you should see the full wall of two layers of clothes packed into the room! Make sure you check out her blog

After this me and Renee headed for a Sunday afternoon debrief involving a bottle of wine and a platter of goodies at a pub on Ponsonby Road, and I couldn’t resist taking another snap of this mosaic, which I know both me and Vera have snapped in the past:

Stacey Marie

I’ve had worse

Yesterday was a great day, as Vera showed. My highlight was the new soft soft leather overpriced boots I bought to replace the crap Wild Pair ones I have been wearing for the last little while:

And the movie we went to was cool, cause it was in a big old theatre, and after the screening the director and a few of the actors got up and we could ask them questions, I reckon every movie should be like that! (Kinda strategically impossible but never mind). Unfortunately, the actors I would have wanted to ask questions to were busy (bastards), but how cool would it have been to ask Jermaine Clement (Flight of the conchords, Eagle vs shark), Tim Finn (crowded house awesomeness) and the guy that plays Chopper Fucking Reid in the stage show a question? It was cool anyway, and this is a shot looking down at the actors from the gods, although its a bit dark to see….

Stacey Marie

Coz Youuuuu’rrrreeee gorgeous, I’d do anything for yooooouuu…

For the last few months I have been making eyes at an over night bag in the mall by my work, and on Tuesday I finally worked up the courage to ask it to come home with me. We’re taking our first trip together next weekend up north, I’m sure our love will only blossom.

Stacey Marie

I walk the line

Not really!

Exciting times lately, my plans for world domination are working out perfectly. Not long now people. Not long at all. MWAH HA HA HA ha ah ahaha ha.

Stacey Marie

The case of the missing Lizard: 15th July 2010

Not sure where he went after this track the footprints disappear…. freaky… This is me and my work mate Suzanne (*everybody wave to Suzanne) on our way to the cool campus.

Stacey Marie

It’s not all bad… 14th July 2010

My workplace is not part of the cool new campus, but a kinda crusty one. We have a walkway between them which is lovely dovely on days like these, not too bad for the middle of winter…

Stacey Marie

It’s game time: 10th July 2010

I don’t care much for rugby beside the tight shorts on the likes of Dan Carter and Ritchie McCaw, but when the All Blacks are playing just down the road from you you can’t help catch the vibe in the city. Saturday night saw them take on (and whip) South Africa at Mt Eden Park, which is the brightly lit stadium in view from my deck.

PS: That’s Dan:

And that’s Ritchie:

Hubba Hubba.

Stacey Marie

7 year old badge: 9th July 2010

Today I was working on an assignment in my comfy and oh so soft possum socks, and couldn’t help admiring the fact that my knee looks like it did when I was about 7. Before any of you comment, I didn’t do this while drinking, but while working to the gym via Mt Eden in boots with no tread on a rainy day. True story.

Stacey Marie

It’s a hard life, but someone has to live it: 8th July 2010

Vera bet me to it, but yes we had delish delish pizza from this out of the way hidden place, which was fill by 5.45 on a Thursday. Always a good omen. Anywho, my foot is in there, the small brown oval in the bottom right of the picture.

What Vera forgot to mention was that after the two large pizzas and carafe of red, we then went for French, her having snails in garlic butter, us both having creme brulee and a long black. Heavenly. Until the food babies arrived and make us feel like shit. We are thinking we might have to start an Auckland food blog to keep up with all the places we go (but really to justify having more than one nationality in one night…) if only this post-natal depression would leave so I felt inspired to begin one

Stacey Marie

Bus work bus bus work bus

It’s just another week in winter. Sigh.

Stacey Marie

It’s certainly not the Grand Canyon… 3rd July 2010

I went to South Auckland to visit friends I haven’t seen since university. For those of you who aren’t familiar with SA it is a very scary place. In fact the grimy nature of this picture is quite reminiscent of the entire experience although seeing my friends was just awesome!

Stacey Marie

Room with a view: 3rd July 2010

My great friend Heidi was in town on business this week so on Thursday night I went and stayed with her in her inner city hotel and we had saunas and dinner and it was awesome! This is the view from her hotel room, I think they may need to clean the windows

Stacey Marie

Giddy-Up: 23rd June 2010

Vera and me went to the movies (The Girl Who Played With Fire) and then out for a drink in a pub which had bar stools where the seat was a saddle… don’t ask, I didn’t… I just got on. This isn’t a great photos of the seat, but the good one got deleted accidentally… The we found this cool sculpture outside:

Stacey Marie

Art Journal away: 20th June 2010

Today I passed on the soujournal which has been with me for four months now. It’s Polly’s and so pretty! PS I was wearing jeans, but love the pink/green combo so thought I would share

Stacey Marie

I love lamp: 18th June 2010

My friends Tessa and Sam are moving to Canada next week, so they had a get together at the Northern Steamship, a bar with the coolest interior around. Sorry about the bad photo and Kelly’s face, but people were looking at me weirdly when I snapped this, so I had to be quick

Oh and hello Vera’s arm

Stacey Marie

Spring (?) Cleaning: 17th June 2010

I’m getting a little ahead of myself (or perhaps a bit behind?) and have decided to clear out all my things and go back to basics. It’s about a year since I moved up to Auckland, and I have accumulated a lot of stuff (read: junk), over that year. The wanderer in me is used to only staying in one place for a year, but as I am not planning on going anywhere I still feel the need to feel like I could pack up all my things into one suitcase if I wanted. Which brings me to my shoe problem, I am going to have to make some tough decisions, but some of these I never even wear, and therefore (under Section 2.3 of my Clean Out Policy), must go. I haven’t began on the wardrobe yet. You may not hear from me in a while once I do.

Stacey Marie

Birthday Weekend: 11, 12, 13th June 2010

It was my birthday weekend this weekend, and I was so lucky because many of my bestest friends came from out of town to spend it with me. On Friday (my actual birthday) we went out for dinner and a sing-song:

Then the next day I got to wear my new shoes and Russian doll necklace that the lovely Vera gave me for my birthday :

(Hello Emma’s feet too)

And then today I went up Mt Eden, although I went with Emma, not with Leanne, this is an old shot…

It was such a lovely weekend, and I am so lucky to have such awesome friends!! oxox

Stacey Marie

Contemplating the iPhone: 8th June 2010

When is the right time to get one? They just seem to keep coming out with new versions quicker than I can count my toes, so I just don’t feel like investing in one yet. Maybe at some point the technology will taper off. That’s when I may get one…

PS Happy birthday Laura

Stacey Marie

Hatepe Time #2: 7th June 2010

So it’s tradition in Hatepe that the last person up has to go for a swim in the lake no matter what time of year it is (or what time we went to bed…) This makes for some good times, especially because the bach is small, so you can lie in bed and listen for people, then get up before the last person, so you can trick the lazy ones (mostly the boys) into jumping up out of bed just by pretending to say good morning to one of the people not in the room. Gold. Oliver lost twice this weekend, here is his swim today (although it wasn’t really a swim, more of a starfish in about 3cm of water).

Stacey Marie

Hatepe Time: 5th June 2010

A couple of times every year, a group of my very close friends and I decend on Hatepe, which is a place on Lake Taupo where one of my friends has a bach (crib/holiday home…whatever you call it). We have been going there together for about 15 years now, and every single time we go we do the same things… involving copious booze, outrageous dancing and laughter, good times and general being really mean to each other because we can do that (it’s how we show we care). I love this place and even though in summer it is heaven, with the lake right there and the sunshine, there is something so awesome about being there in winter when you all have to stay inside together and it is stormy outside and you have to make up crap games because there is no form of contact with the outside world, which turn into fights and someone always gets their feelings hurt, but it’s okay because they will come out with something which burns the burners back later on.

This year Oliver was the butt of most jokes because he was wearing these boots (modeled by Amy):

Stacey Marie

Knee deep in it: 4th June 2010

Am knee deep in an assignment I need to finish before I can go play this long weekend. It suck, but I am getting there (yes in my dressing gown). On the bright side, it is the middle of June and I have managed to wash and dry my sheets, pillow cases, duvets (times two) all in one morning in the sun. Hang on is that a bright side, because shouldn’t I be out there enjoying the last of the sun?

Stacey Marie

Sunday Funday: 30th May 2010

Where did the year go? It’s June soon. WTF? These feet are of my friend Renee who came to visit me today. We went up the mountain but I forgot my camera so we had to take this one inside instead…

Stacey Marie

29th May 2010: Brazilian meat

It was Alison’s birthday (happy birthday Alison!) on Saturday and we went to the Brazilian bbq restaurant Wildfire. My mind really wanted dessert but my stomach said no

PS the shoes were a purchase from the day, a flat version of my brown heel boots from Wildpair. I am in love with them <3

Stacey Marie

Sadface 28th May 2010

Leaves and water, not as great a combination as sunshine and water. Sadface.

Stacey Marie

My under desk shoe pile: 22nd May 2010

Look Julie, I have a pile too. Sadly gone are the jandals and sandals though. Welcome slippers and chucks

Stacey Marie

Rain rain go away: Friday 21st May 2010

Didn’t want to get up this morning, but had so much to do, and only a scooter to navigate the horrible depressing nasty rain in. Needless to say I didn’t go anywhere.

Stacey Marie

Good book makes bus okay: 20th May 2010

Another perk of my new job is all the free books I get to read and keep. This one is awesome, if you get the chance you should read it (yes Vera I will pass it along). It makes the bus okay.

Stacey Marie

Din dins mmmmm curry: 17th May 2010

One of the perks of having a friend like Vera is that she likes too eat yum food too. We had an awesome curry, followed by a media preview of a movie (one of the perks of my new job), free wine, and after dinner mint icecream. Oh baby. I’m hungry now.

Stacey Marie

It’s official: Friday 14th May

So it’s a long story, but long story short I have changed my last name, and am now known by my real father’s last name rather than the sperm donor’s, who never did anything good for me bar leave my mother when I was two, meaning that Billy could enter stage left and make my life and childhood the awesomeness that it was. I’m in a really good place in my life right now, and realised that it was never because of the Childs’, but because of the Riordans. So I changed my name to reflect this. And my birth certificate came in the mail 5 days after I made the decision to change. So hello everyone, from Stacey Marie Riordan

Stacey Marie