Hey! An audience!

Writing a blog expecting noone to read it is kind of like the sound of one hand clapping, or the tree falling in the forest with noone to hear it (does it make a noise, etc. etc....) - although it is possibly more therapeutic than either of the above, I still immensely prefer communicating to real people... so, basically, I would like to thank anyone who has come here and showed some interest in my rambles about my life and times - well, a small selection of them - it is so nice to know that someone cares enough to have a read and it is also nice to hear your comments back :)

Anyway. I have now been happy on three consecutive days (actually, more like five), so I've decided it's here to last, and that the second half of 2006 is going to be a vast improvement on the first. Had Joy staying with Lisa and I in the weekend, that was really wonderful and we all had a lot of fun, I still managed to run both Sat and Sun since I have the Chch half marathon this Sunday!!! Hmmmmmm I'm doing it with Mindy, which will be fun, even though it will be quite different this time round than the Auck one in Oct last year - change in climate, not running with Karthik, later in the day, variation in training (a lot more running alone this time), I'm a little under the weather with a vicious cough which makes it hard to breathe sometimes, and the terrain will be flat instead of hilly, and it is a 'there and back' course too, and one I'm unfamiliar with. Although I could fix that one. So here's hoping it goes well and that the race is better than my training!!! I see that Esther is doing it too, and Megan, so I'll hopefully see them (probably passing me!!) at some stage. iN fact I'm only going down Sat afternoon 5pm, and back Monday night 8pm so it will be quite a short visit, and in that time I want to spend time with Mum and Jenna, visit all my grandparents, hang out with Helen and Doos and play my violin and the piano. And cook with Jenna. So, good luck to me!!!!! Oh and did I mention I have a half-marathon with Mindy taking up one morning???

Have been on training this week - well I did go to work today for 1.5 hours to do some testing for Jai (I was worried that since I was holding up two of her projects by being absent she'd be running out of work, but turns out I didn't need to be concerned...) so that has been brilliant, especially since it starts at 9am!! I wasn't too keen on going since it means taking 4 days off my important projects and the most important one is already behind deadline and I really like the client so I feel terrible... but oh well, in the end I can only do what I can do, and four days away isn't the end of the world. I probably needed to be away from work to regain some perspective, and it has been interesting. I may go to work after training tomorrow to do some stuff though, I'll see.. otherwise might be in for a long and hopefully very productive Friday! But hopefully no more mad hours like last week (Lisa busted me doing a 5am start once when she got up at 4.50am to go to the bathroom and I wasn't here - I should have closed my bedroom door!! - but I didn't tell her that I had been starting at 5.30-6.30 all week, I didn't think it would have gone down too well.....)

And we have had some nice weather lately which is always good! Plus I have been doing different things - like going to a talk by the author of 'The Time Traveller's Wife', that was on Monday night, it was very interesting - one of the things I thought was interesting was her comment that people would be so much happier if they made more of the things they liked rather than buying them. And she inspired me to write. I periodically get inspired to write, and this time I hope the inspiration will last. I also love the mayfly advert on tv at the moment. Fill your days with the things you love. Like for me this is talking to people, eating and cooking and baking nice food, making music, listening to songs, reading books, looking at paintings, looking around at the wonderful world we live in, learning languages, writing letters, learning about stuff, and lately I have been rediscovering the joy of shopping when you don't need anything and in fact are unlikely to buy anything ;) I have been wandering into shops instead of just wandering past, and it's been fun.

I also am really enjoying work lately. So that's a good thing, since I've had to be there so much! Went to a free concert tonight in the Town Hall, a sampler by the Auck Phil, it was great - Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, Mendelssohn's Hebride's Overture, and some movement of a symphony by Ross Harris, composer in residence, I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was much better than last year's offering.

Just discovered your site Abi, it's really cool! If anyone else wants to visit, go to www.jabbytalk.com

Ok, hope you are all having a wonderful week and appreciating the BLUE SKIES.

No, I'm not dead

Hello everyone!

You would be forgiven for thinking I had died or something since I haven't been posting for years, but I thought I'd just say hi! So, life has been really busy lately - but I have been in Auckland a bit more so that's been good. I have been working a lot, and really enjoying work - lots of challenges and fun stuff, and I guess I like being busy and ticking off things on my to do list (even though it grows steadily longer every day...) - also it's a bit sad cos David has his last day on Friday and Stephen is leaving for Texas in three weeks! It will definitely be quieter without them around, and I will definitely miss being able to talk to Stephen about anything whenever I want. And who is going to help me when I get stuck?? :( Well, I guess Stephen is not the only person who helps me, but he is really good at it. And Brendon has been so busy lately - by yesterday evening he had worked an impossible 61 hours for the week already. He was here both Sat and Sun, and very early on Sun. Poor Brendon. I hope he is going to change this soon and spend more time with Minan! See I may be working long hours, but not in the weekend.

In my weekend I played paintball (I raised the flag, and then got cut down by enemy fire, but we won that game! ) - and it was a lot better than Chch paintball. And I went out for tea with Lisa and Céci and Bas Fri night to Nishiki on Wellington St, it was really fun and yummy food, Japanese bbq so something quite different. Then we went to the supermarket to buy food for the post-paintball bbq, and I got up early on Sat morning to attend to the salads. After paintball, I watched 'The Importance of Being Ernest'. I don't often watch movies by myself but did on this occasion and it was hilarious! I was laughing out loud. Sure it was a bit farcical at time and I could have been very sceptical about the girls' claims of love, but it was great. So witty. Then I fell asleep on the couch, but woke up for dinner.

Sunday I did the 10km run2heal in the domain- but like most people got lost (no marshall present at the first corner for the first people) - so I think I ran about 10km, judging by my time (58 min) and by an examination of the route and comparing that to where I ran - the bit I missed was probably equivalent to the bit I did extra. It was such a beautiful day on Sunday so that was nice. I also went out for lunch on Sun with a couple of girls from choir and then we went to Black Grace - a contemporary dance production in the Town Hall. It was really superb, the first piece was great and the music so beautiful - Schubert's D minor quartet and 'Death of a Maiden' - I am going to the library to get it out :) The second piece was more thought-provoking and interesting, if less beautiful. After the interval I drifted a bit in the third piece (getting tired) but it was still cool. And so nice to do something different. Fell asleep 6pm on the couch again Sunday night, reading my book. (By Iain Pears, something about Scipio and a Dream - he wrote Instance of the Fingerpost or something too, read it ages ago and really liked it).

Monday I had a wonderful evening swimming at the police apartments in Newmarket with Lisa, my aunt, uncle and cousin Jessie - my other cousin Josie had tickets to Korn so they'd come down for the night. Had Chinese for tea. Learned (again) how to do forward rolls, but cracked my head on the bottom of the (1.2m deep) pool on one of my attempts to do a backwards one... still sore now if I scrunch up my face/ laugh/ stuff. Tuesday I had singing and tea at Tanya and Sascha's and fixed a couple of their computer issues. Well, they mysteriously vanished when I was there, so kind of "fixed" them...

I have also got two really lovely letters this week - one from Ben and one from Little Nana. And a postcard from Charlotte - sent before her first postcard from Vietnam. Well, I'm amazed they make it actually. So that's always lovely.

Went for a run tonight, 50min and it was really fun and not boring and not very hard. Good run day. And baked a banana cake, vacuumed the flat, cooked tea, did the dishes, talked to Mindy... nice to muck round the flat :) Actually, anyone who knows me will be astounded - yes I vacuumed. Well, the floor needed it. And it looks so nice now. And Lisa came home and didn't even notice :( Oh well, it might dawn on her tomorrow...

Tomorrow is Cécile's birthday!!!! Happy birthday Cécile... hope you're excited...