legless at Christmas

So I hope you all had a very happy Christmas and are looking forward to New Year's Eve with all the usual overanticipatory hype.

What did you get for Christmas? From me, you probably got jack shit. I totally screwed it this year. I ordered a bunch of stuff online, from a New Zealand website, and realised after I'd entered my credit card details, that it was actually being delivered from the UK.

It could've still made it in time, but then the confirmation didn't come for another four days. And then two or three days after that came the email apologising for delays due to the Christmas rush and so forth. And since I'd supplied my work as the delivery address, and we don't open again til the second week of January...

Or possibly you got nothing from me because I don't actual like you that much. Muahahaha!

JOKES JOKES :D because I do OF COURSE love you dearly, here is a wee treat, something that made me very happy - pics of the pony! woot!

















My other main news is that the gammy foot situation progressed downhill steadily and now uphill slowly. As you can see from those photos, on Christmas Eve I was still rockin the mismatched bandage combo and in fact while in Wangas I wound up going back to A&E twice and not JUST because its one of the more entertaining activities for that wee city.

Getting literally pumped full of drugs was pretty sweet, tho of course the first nurse totally screwed up the IV. My arm was a mess after she was finished playing pincushion with me and of course it bruised up good n proper as well. Then she had the audacity to tell me that I had "tiny veins". Oh really? Well I think you are fucking incompetent, lady.

But then less then 24 hours later I'm defending her at Christmas lunch, being the leftie liberal wank that I am, when Dad is retelling all to the family and mentions her Asian ethnicity in terms of "let's say she wasn't a New Zealander har ha" which of course set me off in true family-Christmas-political-discussion style.

Of course I have some awesome pics of my arms with needles hanging out but I forget that not everyone else is as down with that shit as me so will refrain from posting them online. Sigh.

Finally got some crutches, after Mr Wellington A&E Doctor was a hold out on that, too busy being all "So where do you work? Oh wow, that must be great! Cool! Yeah I love the theatre! Wow! Cool!" and I'm like "Dude, now is NOT THE TIME to hit on me. If you're not gonna let me have crutches I want at least, like, an x-ray or something".

Unfortch the prob is I'm pretty useless on the crutches. Haven't ever used them before in my life and am having to be shown proper instructional techniques by more experienced practitioners such as Simon.
Have only dropped on damaged foot once so far tho.


Footnote: I typed up this entry on the 29th but our interweb connection was having ISSUES so couldn't upload the lovely photos. Hence the lack of entries over the break, hence irate comments from Trelease and the like. I'm now resurrecting the draft here in the first week of January and backdating like a mofo. Skabooche.

More things I've learnt in 2006:

Alrighty. Am back home now (putting the NUI back into WANGAN! Yeah!!) and thanks to my boy genius little lil brother, am lounging in a toasty bed, enjoying the joys of joyful wireless interweb...

• Making friends is easy. Even with girls! Losing a friend is hard.
• Trust me on this on: choc-covered cashews. Don't imagine they're roasted/salted and then dunked in milk chocolatey goodness, as I first did - they're more like an uber-delicious version of the passe scorched almond.
• Office politics is just office politics. Because you spent a majority of your time in there, it seems like the world orientates around it, but you can leave on Friday, start somewhere new on Monday, and find the world spinning on a whole new axis. A much more stable one.
• Skinny jeans! Didn't think I'd go there, but now I'm all about tucking em into those boots.
  
• I have been poleaxed by grief this year. Even with some advance warning of Sam's illness, I still completely underestimated how unequivocal the impact of his death would be. A month or so ago, walking past Floridita's, I caught a glimpse of someone inside I thought for a second was him. Then I did the double-take and thought, "Nah, can't be him". And then I thought, "Of course not. Not Sam. Never Sam again. We've had that taken away from us. The chance to randomly bump into him happily in the wrong city on Sunday night. Get that in your head, Bel." So then I'm crying in the doorway of a closed shop on Cuba St, feeling cheated, lonely for my Hamilton friends despite the great crew I have down here, praying for his family, as my pain must just be a sliver of theirs.
• Music I have fallen in love with past twelve months: CocoRosie, Regina Spektor, M. Ward, Beirut, Lily Allen, Immortal Technique, the Tropical Downbeat Orchestra, Frontline, Shaky Hands, Over The Atlantic, Eagles of Death Metal, Kings of Leon, Interpol.
  
• When you get trained up on Ticketek systems as part of your new job, the guy teaching you everything will be able to open up your account and show you exactly how much you've spent on tickets for the NZ Intl Film Festival in total and this amount will horrify you.
• Susceptible to cute.
• Maybelline Great Lash (that classic green & pink one) is still the best mascara out.
• A lot of the time, the upsetting/aggressive/untoward things that people say to you have nothing to do with you but are actually about them and their headspace. Sometimes its really hard to keep this in mind when things are delivered in such a personal way, but its been so important for my own stability this year to deflect a certain amount of what I've decided is their baggage.
• Ask the restaurant staff what their favourite dish is. So the best way to find out what the true specials are. And I've wound up being tempted to trying things I wouldn't usually, which is great because I tend to just get overwhelmed by the big gorgeous list of words that a menu is.
  

Okay, well the pain of being busting to go for a wee has now gotten worse than the aching of my foot. Am going to wail until big lil brother comes to my rescue and lets me lean on him while I hobble in slow motion to the bathroom... I've become very demanding and high maintenance as a result of this incapacitation - ahem - not that you'd notice!

Things I've learnt in 2006:

• Cherry tomatoes are not entirely evil. This is based on the one that Simon got me to eat at Meg's 21st, so further research may be required. However, I was pleasantly surprised not to be entirely repulsed, compared to how disgusting I find regular tomatoes.
• Having a long term working relationship with your hairdresser is a wonderful thing. It means you can walk in and say "do want you want" and walk out feeling happy and looking good. Plus you tend to get freebies.
• Pods - Snickers flavour - mmm.
  
• Just because he acts like he's single, doesn't mean he is single. But acting like he's single when he's not probably means he's not happy in the relationship. But it doesn't mean he's going to end the relationship. But it does mean you don't wanna touch that with a freakin ten foot pole. We call this "learning it the hard way", kids.
• Lino magazine is awesome.
• Pavement magazine is the sucks and now its bust, haha.
  
• You can add extra names to your 'To Celebrate a Decade of Kissing' list after blogging it due to an initial memory lapse and no one will comment on it. Heh heh hee...
• 
  

Ooh - Eddy is here - gotta cruise! He just rung the bell like a BILLION times and Cam said he's taking a litre of blood for every second of noise...ed says whooooo!! EEK hijacked!
Right, stocked up CDs - must be time to hit the road! Ka kite ano!

gammy

I have hurt my foot.

Quite badly.

I can't move around much. Cam & I were sitting at the dining table and my cellphone tweet-tweeted over on the windowseat - I looked at him dolefully and so that dear sweetheart went and fetched it for me.

It is very weird to be this incapacitated. Melissa said "I don't think I've ever seen you limping before!". And we've known each other since we were seven.

But she's probably right - I haven't ever broken a bone, needed an operation, never even had a filling! I've been blessed with good health in general.

But right now I'm hobbling round the place like a blimmin cripple and yelping with pain whenever I put weight on it.

POOR ME!!

It started hurting yesterday and I just thought it was because I was wearing high heels. So i spent most of the Bats party in bare feet, which no one blinked an eye at, you know - arty farty types n all.

But by the time I woke up this morning, after a miserable sleep, my heel had swollen hugely and it just hurt so much. I was freaking out I'd wrenched the tendon or something and so went on the missions with my guardian angel, Melissa.

Turns out its an infection and a week of drugs will fix it, thankfully. In the meantime I'm being forced to shuffle around in slow motion, feeling like a right twit.

Slippers are the hot look right now, as I can't get anything else on my beast of a foot!

The other thing is I know that this isn't just a physical thing - or rather, that the physical is tied up with the emotional. I have had a rollercoaster week, including a situation that was intensely emotionally traumatic.

I wasn't going to take a day off work to deal with how my heart was hurting and everything bouncing round in my head. Twenty-four hours later, my body saw fit to cave in on itself.

Some people don't hold much sway with this train of thought, but the older I've older gotten, the more closely woven I've seen the body with other experiences.

I'm not sure whether I'd label myself "holistic" and I'm still very much a stickler for mainstream medicine, but cause and effect should be looked at in a wider scope.

And in terms of healing, these things have made me feel better this afternoon:

• Nurofen Plus
  
• getting stuck into a new novel, lent to me by Ebony
• coming home from A&E to find Simon had left in my bedroom the next Ex Machina
• Nurofen Plus
• Fluxjhflchlcjjfdgcillon something - 'cept its like "four times a day, on a empty stomach", which is sooo confusing, I mean, who has that kind of routine?!
• oh what the hey, surely its time for another couple Nurofen Plus!!
• dozing in the sun on the windowseat
• knowing that the ACC form which i filled out saying "Scene of Accident: The Pit Bar, Bats. Cause of Accident: Wearing high heels?!" became redundant after the diagnosis
• Cheese Big Uns
• Pineapple Mango Crush JustJuice
• fresh Arobake bread
• knowledge that I have both friends and family willing to come to my rescue when I call up first thing in the morning saying, "My foot hurts, real bad."
  

fun bonding activities like throwing axes & shooting guns

Christmas is great, because it gives business organisations an excuse to ignore whatever spiritual connotations are behind the season and instead just be nice and debaucherous here at the end of the year.

For our work do, it was decided we'd go out to a luxury farm (OXYMORON) and do some some fun bonding activities like throwing axes & shooting guns before sitting down for a huge boozy lunch.

The office manager said I'd get an extra pressie if I came dressed up, so I scrambled together an outfit resembling the Ghost of Christmas Past - appropriate as, of course, our workplace is a nearly 100 year old theatre which has several ghosts.

In fact, at the moment we are without a Technical Manager (head of the backstage crew) and so the roster just has "Yuri" on 24/7 - who is the resident ghost and known for playing tricks, particularly with electrical things, as he worked in that department. The most recent 'sighting' was Monday night...!

Anyway, turns out the prize was more for 'most gullible' than for my actual awesome costume and I didn't get any extras goodies - boohoo!

But as we were playing that standard office Christmas party game where you're numbered off and people can pinch presents off each other, wouldn't have made much difference. I was second to go and therefore got shafted - anyone else who wanted to was able to literally take whatever I had outta my hands! Truly in the spirit of Christmas.


We quickly got onto the activities as we were only allowed one drink before arming ourselves and most people were keen to have more. Isn't it funny how this time of year makes everyone want to drink like a fish? I guess we're all just feeling so ready for a break and to relax.

As you can see from the pics, I had a go at the axe throwing first. The most terrifying thing wasn't so much that I might hit myself in the arse swinging it back over my head, but that the guy supervising looked about twelve years old. Seriously, it was like, are you qualified for this? Can I see ID? Can you lift this tomahawk with those spindly arms my child?

Got a pic here of one of the techie guys kindly removing the axes from the target for me. As you can see, it turns out I have quite an eye for this thing.

Also please note, its a case of Steal Her Style here with Neill choosing to rock the sleeveless hoodie outfit I was wearing - though he went with the conventional black rather than sparkly silver like mine.

All of the guys that work backstage are referred to as being on or from "the dark side" and when you occasionally seeing them wearing blue jeans instead of black, commenting on it will get you a gruff reply in keeping with their well maintained tough guy demeanour.

Next up was the target shooting - it was a 22 rifle if I remember rightly, though I'm sure some boffin will take one look at the pic and correct me. Twas my first time ever holding a gun I think and I made the mistake of going after Ciara, who's Irish and been in their equivalent of the territorials and pretty much owned.

I do quite like that the shawl and sunglasses give me a bit of a 'British hieress on safari' look tho, very fab.

The damn gun kept jamming which was quite annoying and made me wonder how entirely effective the whole shooting thing must be in a warfare type situation...?! But at least it gave me something to blame for hardly ever hitting the target. Tiny wee thing that it was.

[PS: don't forget you should be able to click on the photos to see larger versions]

So all in all was a rather fun day and I got a HILARIOUS joke in my cracker so am quite pleased overall. Of course, for last year's Christmas do, at my old work, we got to have a private screening of Brokeback Mountain two months before public release - and EVERYONE was dressed up as cowboys, gay or otherwise, and I seem to recall being quite slaughtered on frozen margaritas by the end of the night.

But hey - this year, I got to find out what a luxury farm is like. And apparently it means they have artwork on the walls, but they fasten it just by screwing it on straight through the front. Awesome.

I say I never watch TV

and then I spend half my time glued to stuff like this and this. And then there's my recently reinstated Smack The Pony addiction...

Timing (published poem)

Timing

my shoes off & feet up on the dash
driving along in the dark
enjoying the ribbon of open road
feeling like a spaceship
moving between planets
you & me being careful with our oxygen

wanting you to reach over & take my hand
holding my breath every time
you change gears

This poem was published as part of a ragtag collection that was called '50c Mixture' for an online journal, Intersection.
After a few issues being published by the esteemed Eds. McGeady & Schott, the site now looks like its under construction, so I thought I'd take the liberty of putting it up here.
The poem has been 'under construction' too, with extra stanzas pruned and grafted elsewhere, plus the rearranging that has gone on with what's left within.

Breaking news:

My grandma has bought herself a pony for Christmas.

Mum told me on the phone this afternoon. I was like, "Oh wow. AWESOME."

And I asked her old Grandma is, just to check how long it'd be before i clock up sufficient mana to make those kind of impulse purchases. (Because if I know my grandmother, I know this wasn't something that had a lot of forward planning).

Mum said, "Seventy-eight" and then she did one of those snort-laughs and continued: "Seventy, going on eight".

Both an aunty and a cousin have brand spanking new babies to show off this year at our family Christmas in Wanganui, but I think Grandma has pipped them at the post.

I sure know what's gonna be holding my attention... Boring slug-like baby that can't even hold itself up, let alone converse, or fun pretty PONY?! :D Bring on next weekend!!


PS: Grandma's website is here if you're interested (hasn't been updated in a while, no pony pics sorry).

boy, even tho I love you

I saw these guys open for the Black Seeds a couple years ago and they just owned. It was awesome. They're called Opensouls and they have their debut album out, Kaleidoscope, which I own and highly recommend. It has quite a hip hop element, with lots of soul and funky stuff happening, not much of that compulsory Kiwi dub - and it will definitely improve your summer - let alone your Northern hemisphere winter!

Drug-rape: this is how it feels

In the last week, nine women in Taranaki have approached rape crisis centres due to drink spiking. The letter below has been passed on by counsellors in the region. The writer wishes to remain anonymous.

Letter from a rape victim

How do I feel? Everyone keeps asking.

I know that I would like to know what happened and why, I would like to know why he chose me.

What was it about me that made him think he could drug and rape me? Was it something I did? The lady in the paper said we go out looking sluttish. I was in jeans and a hoody. How sluttish is that?

I would like to know what he looked like, because now I am afraid of everyone; I keep looking at every man and thinking, is that him? I'm afraid to be alone.

I go out of the house and think that everyone knows what happened to me. I see in the paper that they are urging us to come forward to the police. What would I tell them? I can't remember anything. What did he look like? I don't know. Where did he rape you? I don't know. Had you had anything to drink? Yes. Were you drunk? No.

Are the police going to believe me? I don't know.

Does anyone believe me? Am I going mad? I don't know.

How do I feel?

Ashamed, nervous, dirty, angry, confused, and jumpy, but mostly I'm afraid.

For the man that did this, fuck you. Karma will come around and get you. Fuck you, you bloody coward. How dare you do this to me, how dare you do this to anyone and all you other rapists, fuck you too.

To any other women out there who have had anything like this happen, find someone to talk to, it is helping me understand a lot. I hope one day I can move on. I know one day I will move on

[NZPA]

Overheard at Christmas Drinks

Marketing exec to new arrival:
"Hey doll - I'm so glad you came! Get stuck into the wine. I'll talk to you once all the boring people have left."


Govt dept man pointing somebody out to another govt dept man:
"He kinda looks like a gay windsurfer. Because he is."


Established actor/first time writer holds up hand to award-winning writer.
They high five.
Award-winning writer: "What's that for bro?"
First time writer: "I finished my script!"
Award-winning writer: "You finished it?"
First time writer: "Yeah man, its all done."
Award-winning writer: "Has your director seen it yet?"
First time writer: "Oh nah, not yet."
Award-winning writer: "Then you're not finished."


Two mailing list recipients discussing the Christmas-themed newsletter:
Grinch: "As soon as I saw the clip art I deleted it."
Scrooge: "Whatever. You went Ctrl-F ...Enter own name... ...No matches... Delete!"
Grinch: "No! You can't do Ctrl-F on a PDF."
(pause)
Grinch: "Can you?"
Scrooge: "...Recover deleted items... Ctrl-F..."


Couple are telling of wedding plans for February when he steals corn chip out of her hand.
Fiancee: "Oh, so that's how it works is it??"
Fiance: "Yep. 'I vow to always share my nachos'."
Fiancee: "'I vow to always require a larger serving'."
Fiance: "We should be writing this shit down."

Dolphin sighting!! Oh wait... false alarm...

It wasn't dolphins after all.

It was orca whales.

Yeah, that's right - orca whales. In Oriental Bay this afternoon. Just hanging out, swimming around. With their pointy dorsals and glossy black backs poking out of the sparkly water.

They were right close to the shore, not out in the depths of the harbour - I'm talking up by the fountain where the white sand beach and gelati shop is. There was this older guy jogging along the beach who got slower and slower, body slack, as all his focus was drawn by this amazing sight.

It felt like such a magical moment, a real privilege. I'd bunked off work early, after our boozy, stodgy Christmas work lunch and was just strolling along the waterfront with a couple of friends. Was certainly not expecting to see one of my favourite summer spots being inhabited by huge beautiful beasts of the ocean...


UPDATE: In the Dom Post today (Thursday) is an article and a colour photo! Proof! It says that "It cannot be due to the supposed summer weather, but killer whales have made Wellington Harbour and the southern bays a holiday home of sorts to "chill out" in. The pod of at least five orcas has been seen in several places around Wellington waters, including Oriental Bay, Evans Bay and the harbour entrance." Read the full story here, with comments from DoC and tales of close encounters!

Things Males Should Know About Pick-Up Lines

This is a SHIT one:

• "So, you're pretty tall. How tall are you? Like, six foot?"

And so is this:

• "Can I just check first that the age range here is 28 to 35 years?"

This one here, also, SHIT:

• "Come here often?"

Yup, also one of the biggest all time cliches - and in this case, also a tad freakin redundant when the aforementioned girl is wearing a long-sleeved dark blue 50s style dress in a club where every other female is wearing a backless halter-neck made from tin-foil and pants made from boy-leg undies.

Wanna know what else is SHIT?

Ok - well, I'm gonna tell you anyway.

• Asking her what she did the night before, to get the conversation started. Her describing a movie she saw and enjoyed. Mentioning that the themes were similar to a comic book she's reading at the moment, which tied in nicely. Him then deciding to dominate the conversation from there on in, regaling her with tales of his script that is currently in progress, how is sounds quite similar to those two things, but is in a different setting, how no one else is writing anything like it at the moment, and how she will definitely like it because its really good.

• Saying "oh" in response to her answering "what do you do?" but then when the same question is asked of him, not only detailing his current role, but name-dropping the title of a recent publication he's been included in and recommending she purchase it.

I'd love to hear any further contributions to this list... the Comments door is flung wide open.

And, yes yes, I know ladies bust out some SHIT moves at times too - earlier this year I was preyed upon at a party by a charming blonde (and by charming, I mean possibly insane), who seemed to think that pinching my arse and staring at me with laser eyes was going to equal seduction.


There's this whole "Man Drought" being played out in the media at the moment, and I realise the statistics are there, but the whole thing still rankles me. The Listener cover a few months ago 'Mr Good Enough' had me spitting tacks.

I wonder if we have a new breed coming through now that have the mentality of 'spoilt for choice' and therefore 'can act like a prat'. Or is it just a basic (lack of) social skills thing?

And can I just say, half the rest why these fantastic examples here today come across as so SHIT is because a lot of the guys I've met are actual fantastic. Capable of being inside a bar, at party, whatevs and maintaining a lucid conversation - SIMULTANEOUSLY. Props to them.

PS: am also interested to know if the "Man Drought" is NZ-specific, or if its being talked about in other countries, in relation to their population gender split etc? Chur!

its what we do on Mondays

Post Secret is asking for support. You can buy their books through the link at the bottom of their page and Amazon will give 10% of your purchase back to them.

They'd also just like it if regular visitors linked to Post Secret from their own sites and things like that. The postcards above are some of my favourites from this year. There was another which stands out in memory - it reduced me to tears when I scrolled to it on the screen.

They don't archive the postcards and I didn't save it to my computer. The image just cut me through. I felt like it could've been made by one of my parents. Except it was too artistic to be my dad and not arty enough to be my mum.

I don't know if that's actually the best way to finish this post and recommend the site, but... yeah. Usually they're pretty intruiging, funny, a bit pervy - sometimes sad. Lots of sentimental. I love it when they put up occasional email feedback - like that time with the map coordinates sequence. It was like a soap opera!

Post Secret. Check it out.

Girl Power! Who's pulling the plug?

On a slow moving Friday afternoon, a headline like 'Some Hollywood women too busy to shave armpits' catches your attention. I mean, come on - most of the recent articles about Hollywood females have been about certain other delicate corners of the body..!

However, when I clicked through, it didn't turn out to be a paparazzi expose on who was or wasn't keeping up to date with their underarm stubble. It was apparently the only mainstream media coverage of the Hollywood Reporter's 15th annual Women In Entertainment Power 100 list.

The annoucement of the Power 100 list is somewhat anticipated in the wider film industry, as its a good indicator of who, as it states, has the power in the entertainment business at the time. Which generally means, who has the access to the money. A useful thing to know!

In the depths of the article are embedded really intruiging things, such as that the (female) edition of the list begun with just 50 places. They've gone from scraping around to fill that, to having to be ruthless to cull it down to their top 100.

How on earth is all this relevant to the headline then, you may be wondering? Well, there was a function to kick all this off, and one of the keynote speakers was actress, Maria Bello.

Its taken from a quote of hers, talking about juggling being a mother with finding enough time to maintain the supposedly glamorous image of being a Hollywood actress. I just find it phenonmenal that it an article like this with the empowering content and messages, they choose this angle to try and pick a headline.

Unfortunately, it don't surprise me, but it does still disappoint me. You can read the Reuters version I found on stuff.co.nz here.

And as a parting shot - let's not think this is a bullshit misogynistic overbearing trait limited to the film industry and its representation in the media - the music industry and the print publications that "support" it are just as rife.

I have a soft spot for Lily Allen, as you well know, and here she is on her MySpace blog, sounding off about some appauling treatment by NME, demonstrating feminism (defined as equal treatment for both sexes) still has a fair way to go in all realms of the entertainment world, despite the continuing successes of the talented women out there.

good sat PM, great sun AM

Our party went awesome, thanks for asking.

It was at quite a manageable size up until about 10pm, when all the people in the world arrived within about 17 seconds of each other and the roof nearly came off.

The only problem with having such a great party with so many lovely people, is you never wind up getting to see any of them. You flit about trying to keep track of it all and never quite get enough quality time with anyone in particular.

There was a touch of the Venn diagram thing happening, on account of the crazy disparate groups of friends and gorgeous guests, but I figure we're old enough now to hold our own when it comes to these things. That's the point of a party, right?

We have a mortifying amount of recycling to put out tomorrow, which is always a good sign - and though I did have Ribena left over this morning, the Absolut Vanilla was completely gone. Very mysterious.

So, in summary:

Miss Bel, circa 3.30am. Further info, see here

Miss Bel, circa 10.30am. Further info, see here

Breakfast of Champions

There has to be a pretty good reason to get me dragged out of bed early in the morning. And by early, I mean 7am. But the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra definitely counts as one of these.

This morning was their last performance at Deluxe for the year and it was spectacular. You've got a chance to check it out yourself - because a) Jacqui Brown was there, filming for Campbell Live (screening next week apparently) and also b) they have a gig next Friday at the San Francisco Bathhouse.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on this. The quality is a bit crappy at the start, but bear with me, as its a cover from one of my favourite groups and heavily features Ebony's boyfriend, Age Pryor. Ok, technically, not her boyfriend at all, but - you know - DETAILS DETAILS.

aloha!

a self-centred way to do good

In connection with Hospice New Zealand, House of Travel is running a competition to win a trip to Australia. You can follow this link to just fill in some some questions about what Hospice does in New Zealand to care for people with terminal illness and be in to win free flights to anywhere in Aussie!

I have been busy for the last couple of days having Max and Anna come to stay on their way down the country. Friends I know thanks to Tanya, they are WWOOFers, originally from California, but now travelling around NZ, working on organic farms. Most recently up they've been up in the Naki, but also told great stories of living in on a commune in the Coromandel and are now heading to the Marlborough Sounds.

However yesterday was Anna's birthday and time for a change of pace. Also an advocate of my long-held policy that your birthday is your day and therefore your word is law, Anna put her foot down and demanded the simple things of life: Beer. Pizza (ordered online, delivered to the door, paid for by credit card - IS THERE ANY OTHER WAY?!!). And a Johnny Depp movie.
All in all, it was a top notch night.

going going gone

It feels like this winter was nothing but farewell parties. I didn't make it to Sam's goodbye drinks on the weekend, but fact of the matter is, I just don't know if I have it in me anymore. Speshly when the end result of all these departures is not simply a depleted social circle, but an inbox full of envy-inducing images too:

Lou in NYC, in the non-square Times Square.

Steph in London, where they have a bridge, apparently.

Felix travelling through Budapest...

...and also travelling back through time.

Lou (Richardson) with a wedding cake in Instanbul.

Pauly in Indonesia, a brief moment on dry land.

There are links to most of those people's blogs in the side bar.

Pauly's is shite in that he doesn't update it now, but is quite a good record of back when he was travelling through Indo & Portugal.

Louise of Lou's Travels has a much more entertaining blog and a real eye-opener. WARNING: bound to give you itchy feet.

The other Lou is Ms 'reduced to banality', a regular visitor here at Tuesday's Child. If her blog isn't already in your Favourites, then I don't know what's wrong with you.

Like Lou, Steph is also in London, balancing out academic study with a bit of baking on the side ;)

Felix doesn't have a blog as far as I know (and I do read pretty much every blog on the internet, just as Cam will tell you). But his group emails have redefined the term:

Craziest news... we went down to the danube to watch the st stevens day fireworks the other night with evey single person in Budapest it seemed and just before they began an enourmous bank of storm clouds gathered above and god and budapest fought for the most iompressive light show - it was incredible. then god got pissed with showy colours and sent down an incredible storm/hurricane! the wind was soo intense it ripped tents into the air and sent chairs tables branches and glass flying! It was pretty exciting, but we were glad to have a restaurant to hide in when it got too crazy! The debris the next day was unreal and apparently 4 people died (photos/video soon!)

So what have I been up to? Oh you know, just the usual... just hanging out, lots of time for me and my thoughts... enjoying the peace and quiet:

FYI

What You Really Want For Christmas...

Inspired in by Post Secret and also by her occasional Confession Booth post thingies on Reasons You Will Hate Me [see sidebar there - check out some of the others while you're at it, hey its a Friday, don't tell me you're doing actual work], I have something a little different today.

The headline says it all.

The idea is you post your comments - anonymously. So you click that box instead of logging in as you usually would.

If Santa's sack could really have anything in it, even the sort of intangible thing that's literally impossible to giftwrap, and not just because you seem to have a knack for cutting the paper 3cm too short ...what do you really want for Christmas?