i'm still alive and stuff. just too cold to think out a blog post fully. even this one is squeezed in between dinner and going to a movie.

what really inspired me to actually blog today was kind of jeff buckley. who has prompted a post from me before. but anyway i was watching the amazing grace documentary on saturday night (being a thirty something, having an early night). and there was this excerpt from his diary that was along the line that he wrote music for people who scream down the highway, listening to loud music, with tears in their eyes. which made me feel ill because of that time i listened to cold play and got all weapy.

but then today i was driving home from levin, where i'd spent my morning looking for an open cafe (fyi i don't really recommend the old railway station as a back up cafe) and then swimming in the swimming pool with the coolest four year old in history. driving along listening to my ipod on shuffle, when what comes on but kenny roger's reuben james. and i start to get all weapy again because IT IS ONLY THE GREATEST SONG OF ALL TIME....



the first concert i ever went to was kenny. i was five. for most of my life i think that my father has had a kenny rogers look to him (the beard thing). we used to watch kenny on the tele as a family. and goshdarn it if my parents don't still fight over how my dad has taken kenny's greatest hits out of the living room and into his car without consultation. so i have a kenny soft spot anyway, but seriously a song about a no-count share croppin' coloured man, who didn't turn his back on a hungry white child with no name. it will bring me to tears everytime.

good lord. now i'm thirty all i want to do is sleep. i'm not even attempting to be funny. it is just the way it is.

i am awesome at sleeping. so, being thirty continues to rule.

anyway, here are the other eleven things rocking my world at this exact point in time:

1. trivia. so today i watched two episodes of brideshead revisted (1981, bbc). frankly, it was awesome. and i'm so IN to the guy who plays sebastian.

if i owned this photo i'd totoally put a watermark all over it too. sebastian flyte AND royalty. it is photographic GOLD.

so to the trivia.... did you know remington steel was created for him, but he TURNED IT DOWN. god bless him too. because that is directly responsible for last year's greatest movie moment. sigh.

2. l'occitane shower gel. seriously, you should get some of this. it is like crack. for your skin. i can't find an image of it on the line. the l'occitane online store for nz doesn't seem to have it. so i'm linking you to a site i in no way endorse. here. anyway, i figure if you spend more than $30 on shower gel you are simply a better class of person. i am therefore, closer to god as a result of this purchase.

3. no-no-notorious b.i.g. have you seen the movie notorious? you really should see it. 7/10. you should also buy going back to cali from itunes. it is my new favourite song. well that plus let's get it on. the latter thanks to catching two minutes of idol this week. it was motown week on idol. but that doesn't qualify it for my list of eleven things.

4. mexicana breakfast from pranah. it is really good.

5. safety message. like in this poster i just bought from etsy dot com. i can barely wait to see if it is as awesome in real life as it is on the internet.

6. thorndon summer pool. it closes this thursday so you should hurry up and visit. i went today. it was not especially warm. so i retired to the spa instead. and sat there for like an hour. it was thoroughly exhausting. and awesome, obviously. six dollars well spent.

7. ryles, singing TI's "whatever you like" to me over the phone. i am so in love with my nephews. they are adorable. and will get spoiled at easter. if i have my way that is.

8. this website. which is where i got the number eleven for my list today. it combines two of my passions: lists and lauding music knowledge over people.

9. massage. i had a hot stone massage this week. i thought i might pass out from bliss midway through it. it was a gift from my team at work. and it is safe to say, best work gift ever.

10. neon tiger by the killers.



you know i'm going to see them this wednesday night ahe? i actually realised earlier today that i have so deified brandon flowers that i may vomit when he comes on stage and proves to be merely a man. a hot man, but still only flesh and bone and a killer smile.

11. the internet. for reasons like this.

guess who thinks thirty is awesome? me

i love thirty because at thirty you can wear your slippers in to town. you can get a deluxe massage and drink coffee with the ex internet dater like you are a lady of leisure. at thirty you can demand the women at the mac counter give you a make over. and at thirty you can buy yourself treats like stationery and manicures. and you can eat chocolate cake in the sun at the dowse. so basically what i'm saying is thirty is THE age to be.

apart from how i have some kind of romantic love for all of my friends right now, i'm so madly in love with my family that i might actually explode. in fact that is why i have a headache right now. thinking about their choiceness is making my head hurt. they threw me a surprise party. sure, there were awkward moments. but mostly not. mostly there were gifts and gossip. and family jokes being shared left right and centre. and handmade gifts from ryles (it was a volcano. apparently). and it was all topped off with a sound of music birthday cake. ie perfection.

tomorrow i will come crashing down to earth. well, perhaps i will. i also think there is a chance i will hook up with one of the kings of leon at their concert on friday night, thus beginning my thirties as a shameless groupie. the next robin reynolds if you will. new zealand will have cause to be proud.

good lord, me turning thirty will probably be not just good for me but for all of new zealand. this is a truly magical day.

this is my last five things so i better make them good:

21. i am very untidy. i watched wife swap the other day and the house that was so dirty it made the swapped mother cry didn't look so bad to me. luckily for my flatmate i tend to keep my filth to the confines of my room.

22. i love jon stewart but hate seeing photos of him in 'casual' clothes.

he should stick to the corporate suited look. reoooowwww.

23. i hate making small talk in networking or party situations. but i'm so goddamn charming you probably never knew. right (lie to me, it hurts less).

24. my mother once told me that she's never loved anyone more than she loves my nephews. i should have been hurt. but i kind of understand. they are what awesome would look like if it were two brothers.

25. hashbrowns. seriously. they are just about the best food ever invented.

i am writing this as i sit in a central south island motel room watching csi miami. the south island is hot, mostly. we started on saturday with christchurch and rumours of another 40 degree day. which basically didn't happen. but, hey, any excuse for a sprinkler party. so we got into our togs and went nuts.

speaking of nuts, a road trip with your family is the most mental idea in history. the term over ambitious springs to mind. plus there have also been fights over the use of english. especially whether the instruction "veer right" means "turn right" or "go straight". needless to say, when your car rental company doesn't give you a map and you haven't yet bought an iphone with gps, this kind of conversation is pretty frequent. plus we haven't yet figured out the right grace period before we can make fun of this kind of hilarity. hence the near tears this morning as we were trying to get out of christchurch to head south.

on the up-side i probably get to feed wallabies tomorrow and my nephews are even more awesome the more you get to know them. plus the warehouse has cheap cds. which leads me to announce my new favourite song of all time:



barry white forever!

sunday was one of the greatest days ever. my brother and i went to new zealand's golden coast to see our nephews and sister. first stop: LINDALE.

it rained. so we could only eat lunch (substandard corn fritters for me, but served with a smile so i just couldn't complain) and watch nains waste his pocket money on a coin operated tractor. btw nains continues to light up my life. he's three. he is hopeless at hide and seek. so anyway, despite the baby chickens everywhere we didn't even attempt to see the animals. instead we drove up the road to southwards.

it was memory lane! i remember first going there with either my uncle or my grandfather (some older male anyway). i must have been about five and i demanded a print of a model t ford. which i got after a lot of argument (nb: even today they are only 50cents, which makes me think it was my penny pincher grandfather that took me to southwards). i could look at the de lorean for hours.




nains was bored with the museum but just about passed out from the excitement of the elevator. my siblings and i were excited by the basement room, which is basically a memorial to every car we've ever owned. which reminds me of my new phrase that i might sell to toyota:

picture me co-rollin'.

anyway, for me the childhood memories and the joy on nain's face when it was over were worth the $10 entry fee. plus they have the best postcards in wellington. you should go.

after the museum we fed nains and tiki up on ice cream and left them to their mother. while we drove back to wellington. i played a game where i was the 91 ZM dj who does "High school hits". so i'd be all like

"high school hits, class of '97" and then play "don't look back in anger".

and so on. it might be the best road trip game of all time. you should try it.

other songs on my high school hits play list:

• semi charmed life - third eye blind
  
• santeria - sublime
  
• every morning - sugar ray
  
• we close our eyes - go west
• misery - soul asylum
  
• time - pink floyd
• intergallactic - beastie boys

basically, the ride home from the kapiti coast is just not long enough.

anyway when i got home i bought we close our eyes on i tunes and to prove its worth, i tunes genius reminded me of this:



NEW FAVOURITE SONG OF ALL TIME.

wow. i still remember my blogger log in. its been over a week. my memory powers are amazing.

is anyone else simply exhausted? or is it just me? whatever it is, the sound of music and pyjamas midweek sounds like the perfect cure. the fact that i will probably get presents and to see my nephews is just icing on an already sweet cake. bring on the 25th.

no kidding even seeing this on youtube makes me a bit teary it is so wonderful

plus my secret bonus gift to my family is singstar. so basically i'm the best sister ever.

also, you owe me since i'm giving you this treasure....

clearly this is amazing, but then at 1.20 POW and then at 3.34 breasts.

oh falco! you old heartbreaker.

so over the past few weeks i've done heaps that i meant to tell you about. i've:

• seen high school musical three and fallen in loooove.
• seen the new bond movie, quantum of solace, and fallen in looooove.
• watched highlights of oprah's twenty year career as a talkshow queen.
• had too many cocktails
• eaten a lot of fancy food at expensive restaurants, not all of it excellent (you know who you are bisque on bolton)
  
• lied to the people's coffee people about who i voted for in the TAWAs (although this was a genuine mistake because i (now) remember that i was torn between two options)
• had a tearful farewell for one of my favourite colleagues
• exprienced some highs, some lows
• become the victim of credit card fraud
  
• decorated my low key christmas grotto, and reinstated my diana queen of hearts tree
• had brunch in paekakariki
• listened to last christmas on my ipod about eight times
  
• had numerous phone calls with my excited nephew who is counting sleeps until santa, and
• ordered groceries on line.

the fun never stops. anyway, where are my pyjamas. i need to go into training for my traditional christmas night sound of music indulgence....

i have spent a chunk of the weekend watching twenty years of oprah. i have a lot to be grateful for. the thing about oprah is we are very similar. like me, she was deeply moved by princess diana's life and her passing. and she mentions it at every opportunity. and she asks the hard questions that everyone wants to know the answers to. like how she asked lisa marie if she ever had sex with michael jackson. the answer was a surprising yes.

i've done other stuff besides watch oprah. but i can't really remember it. i'll stick to the highlights:

• chris brown and rihanna at the tsb area. chris brown is cute. rihanna is beautiful. and they both know how to put on a show. i suspect a lot of training and rehersal on their parts. highlight of the night was the encore performance of umbrella, where they dueted. however, this didn't stop me wondering when either chris brown or rihanna were going to kill it like ice cube. it never happened. note to self: buy shares in supre and fake tan. this is what all the girls - and there were thousands - were wearing.
• brideshead revisited. too much of the girl characters, not enough of the boy characters - but still quite a lovely relationship between sebastian and charles. 7/10
• young @ heart - i cried at one point, but basically this documentary about a group of 70+ singers who reinterpret more modern songs had all the character in the world, but as a documentary it wasn't great. worth seeing just for the performances at the end. and for louie. 7/10
• rain of the children - i avoided seeing this until now. the life of puhi, an 80 year old woman from tuhoe, is retraced. and it plays like a love letter from vincent ward to her, twenty eight years after her death. the movie is proof that history repeats. 9/10.
• my nephews are in town. ice cream outside the zoo is my new favourite activity.
• i am going to a ball on tuesday, so had to buy a new dress. think red chiffon. needless to say, i keep pulling it out of my wardrobe just to admire and pet it. i hope i am as much of a hit in real life as i am in my imagination.
  

one of the things that my one counselling session taught me was that i too often over book myself monday to friday and then spend weekends at home thinking i have no friends. but not doing anything about it. it is my form of being socially spastic.

but it doesn't happen every weekend.

this weekend was all highlights, all the time.

i should probably start with blackalicious.

fifteen out of ten. it was off the charts. or off the hook. or whatever the young kids say. i know i'm old cos i turned up two hours early for the show. but pay off! cos i also got to be pretty close to the front when blackalicious came on stage and - after getting caught literally in the middle of a fight - i heard opportunity knock and found a posie right at the front. close enough to get serenaded by gift of gab during some love song i didn't know. and at some point in the song we locked eyes and he pointed at me at the part in the lyrics where he says "you complete me" (this may not literally have been the words but it was the subtext). i have thought about it since, and i should have stayed for the after party. but if i did i probably would have hooked in to gift of gab. on the plus side he is tall and famous, on the down side i'm more into his home boy lyrics born, and i also plan to marry kanye west or simon le bon.

on saturday, i day dreamed about what my life would have been like if i'd succumbed to the obvious chemistry. but mostly i distracted myself with an art gallery tour of wellington. the dowse for craft 2.0 (and some stationery. have i mentioned i heart stationery?) and pataka for the patricia grace related exhibition.

i heart craft 2.0. but there seemed to be fewer people there this time. not that i ever notice the people really. only when they get in the way of me and notecards. the sun was a plus and there were even stalls OUTSIDE. just like a summer market.

i also heart pataka. they have a shantytown you know!!!! you must check it out. if only for the shop window display....

what the???

there is also an exhibition of photos by my favourite photographer ever. desiree dolron. check out the pataka website here for clues at how awesome she is. or deireee dolron dot com here.

being cultured is exhausting though so i had to have lots of pit stops for coffee, tea, berry crepes and fruit toast (the latter coming from the aunt daisy cafe in titahi bay, 8/10 for decor).

in the evening i went to 24hr pp. and it was awesome.

have i told you i'm so in to robert palmer right now? this outfit was loosely inspired by the simply irresistable girls. plus with a lime green bow how can you go wrong?

i had sore feet so was waiting for sux, or less good songs, but finding a chance to sit down was impossible. as i tried new dance moves (more twirls and footwork as well as some bgirl fusion - adapted from blackalicious the night before). hrc and i also got to dance with some of our favourite dancefloor celebrities as well as adopting a new friend for the evening who knew almost as many words as i do. almost. luckily the verve was played at some point and i had an excuse to leave. that point didn't come until after three sometime.

then this morning i went to the zoo zoo zoo with ryles. he was less interested in the animals than in pretending to be one. there was a heartbreakingly cute moment where he saw three otters lying in the sun and he demanded that he be put inside their enclosure so he could play with them. i could understand that. otters look like they would be wonderful to play with. he ws disappointed when i wouldn't lift him up. and when i said that if anyone was getting otter hugs it was me. but i handled the resulting tantrum the way any good aunt does. with ice cream.

then i spent the rest of the day watching dvds and trying to rest up for the working week. i watched the original (not harrison ford remake) of sabrina (7/10 overall, but 10/10 for the wardrobe and for audrey hepburn's eyebrows), and pillow talk with doris day (7.5 for the movie, 12/10 for rock hudson for being dreamy).

i am pretty good to you. i've written to you five hundred times. exactly. to celebrate i'm writing a list of five hundred reasons why i'm awesome.

kidding.

but if you want to, who am i to stop you from writing comments to that effect?

my most used label is about being an aunt and to celebrate i gift you a moment of adorable.




you're welcome.

that gorilla from my last post continues to be hilarious. i have become the most frequent visitor to my own blog. just to get my three times a day dose of the gorilla going phil collins on the drums. i might get fired for excessive internet use at work.

speaking of work, i wore a suit this weekend. which is almost as hilarious as the gorilla given that i refuse to wear suits at work. i went to a hospital themed party as a bureaucrat. complete with post it notes and red tape. and a great opening line for any hot doctors i came across. something about tying them up in red tape for months. anyway, i didn't use it.

i did get stabbed in the head though.


today i went to see shetland ponies at the most awesome museum slash farm slash cafe that i've ever been to in my life. just to be clear i am only linking it so that you know for sure that YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO GO THERE WITHOUT ME BECAUSE I WOULD DIE OF JEALOUSY. we went there for ryles's birthday. that's right: the most choice two year old just became the most choice three year old. his treat was going to see the model railway and feeding the shetland ponies. but he was more interested in pretending the disability access toilet cubicle was a spaceship. we ate chocolate mud cake too.

and by the way i can't believe ryles is three. because it seems like just yesterday i was in the hospital arguing with nurses and worrying about the pipe things coming out of his teeny tiny nose.
and now he's singing happy birthday and blowing out three candles without any help. he's such a show off.

from third to sixth form i was like this economics genius. but i pretended i didn't care. at fifteen, people who care a lot are vile. now too, i guess. unless it is me being a care bear.

in 7th form i dropped economics for calculus and a low grade.

anyway, thanks to my economics pedigree, i know all about demand and supply charts and opportunity cost. which is how i figure i could have watched a whole disc of who's the boss series one instead of going to work today.


who's the boss is my new obsession obviously. it makes me feel the way i felt when i watched four seasons of cheers in like three weeks. in short, wonderful. so how work won the battle for my time today beats me.

if we pretend my sunday afternoon at work didn't happen, this weekend has been all about family. the bower/micelli blended family obviously. but also my own. i took my ryles to the zoo. where he banged his head and knee and ate pebbles (the delicious chocolate treat rather than the small rock) off the ground. and made me laugh until i cried. and my mother made me the best ham sandwich ever. and i think it was just ham and white bread. and dad made fish for lunch, which reminded me of sundays of my childhood (even if i don't think my dad actually cooked a single meal throughout the 80s). i also made cupcakes despite my no baking rule. but on the flip side i fought all temptation and did not buy myself a new dress even though i DESPERATELY need it because i am going to a ball. the opportunity cost though is i go to the ball looking like a hobo. but i'm still a bit proud of my will power.

anyway, the opportunity cost of me telling you any more is that i wont get to find out what happens in episode 9 "samantha growing up". and given the scarcity of my time, samantha wins. i hope this episode has a lot of mona. she's the real star if you ask me. and this dude.

since the whole cat incident my easter weekend has improved. i spent friday doing laundry, which obviously is an improvement on the cat. and watching so you think you can dance. my quest to bring tele back continues.

saturday i just about passed out from exhaustion numerous times. i went to craft two point oh where i saw about eight million things i wanted to buy. i restricted myself though. because i'm going to vietnam in under a week. i will hold off buying unnecessaries until then. i couldn't resist the cupcakes however. and got a sugar rush and a headache immediately after.

i also did my new favourite saturday activity: la cloche followed by playing with the puppies at animates. rounded out by a trip to the supermarket and looking for trendy but unrequired homewears at nood, my day just kind of evaporated.

then i went to the palliser hotel. the what? exactly. some of my readers will appreciate that. anyway, it doesn't have a website but since i'm evidently all about links today, try this. it was for my cousin's 21st. the theme was black and white....



and my cousin did the mtv standard birthday party appearance dressed in red. so super sweet sixteenth. there was lots of food. and speeches. and singing (they even sang my favourite song of childhood) and some fights. i even went to break up the fight i saw. the three taekwon do lessons i had that time have made me cocky. but there was no need as my cousin got there first to do same.

after speeches, pavlova and some dancing i left to head back to town for 24 hour party people. i was just about dead on my feet by that point. in part because instead of wearing sneakers, which would have been sensible, i was wearing black girl shoes to match my black and white outfit. my feet just about fell off. and my eyes were just about permanently closed. but i managed to dance up a storm to the arcade fire and interpol in particular, but to most of the awesome music generally. and my favourite barman was there. and he recognised me. it really must be love.

but even that adrenaline couldn't keep me on the dancefloor after two thirty. by which time the line to get in was metres and metres long.

yesterday i brunched at the recovery room, where i was also recognised by staff. i am such the girl about town. then AL and i read fashion and gossip mags at scorching bay where we could feel the jealousy of everyone else at the beach who wished they were us on our pink beach chairs. i also got to play cards with my family and eat a sunday roast care of my mother.

today though is when it starts going bad again. today i'm trying to get a bit of work done. i just have a few things i want to finish off before vietnam. damned sense of responsibility. it is so lame. i wish i could be more devil-may-care. anyway, so far i've put in about thirty seconds. i have spent the bulk of my time being an excellent aunt at the swimming pool and shopping for new slippers at the warehouse (what happened to the reserve i displayed at craft two point oh i wonder?).

oh and it is my birthday this week. i've put some energy into pretending it isn't real. but i am starting to come to grips with it. it being old age obviously. maybe the black cat that attacked me was just the shadow of old age rather than the shadow of death as i first predicted.

1 picture = 1000 words.

this is teaks, my second nephew. i took him to the park. and he liked the feel of the air whizzing past his tongue. i mean, who doesn't. but he did it so cutely he is obviously a natural born comedian.

i am also a natural born comedian. or comedienne. like today when i crawled under my desk looking to unplug my lappy, when i realised hello there are probably mice nesting there, so i stood up and tried to unplug the cord with my toes. hilarious.

and of course my daily status updates on facebook never fail to amuse me, at the very least. but the spell might be breaking as lately the updates have become lamer and lamer. like how i quoted westlife. but today bertie higgins is my muse. on sheer website awesomeness bertie wins hands down. so i guess i could well be back on track. the track to being hilarious. just like teaks. who is also perfection, if you hadn't gathered.

being a stay at home mum (note: this is a two day gig, care of my awesome nephew ryles) has given me an opportunity to laud my television watching over people

actual conversation at park yesterday:

abigal's mum: good idea coming to the park this late, just before dinner. they should sleep well
me: yes. he'd better be in bed by eight thirty, its desperates tonight.


another conversation was where some israeli guy said moseltov. and then asked if i knew what it mean. i said "hello, i've seen topol in fiddler on the roof. i KNOW moseltov". well, actually i just said yes.

i am getting on my winter gears for another visit to a park now. hopefully there are no other kids slash parents there. i'm not very good at the parental small talk.

basically, if i ever want to have a conversation with any of my extended family i need to have babies or wicked tales of the city. i realised this when i was in christchurch this week. because i managed to say very little and i am pretty certain noone really noticed.

i went to christchurch with my mother, my sister and my nephews. because that is the kind of girl i am. and we visited relatives. who asked me about work. barely waited for the answer then switched to talking to my sister about the minutiae of her life. i drank my tea.

i don't really blame them, but hello i'd give them conversation prompts: like telling them how much i adore travel in the hopes that would create a good three minutes worth of conversation. but no. i wonder if my family have created a myth about me. that i'm carrie from sex and the city the early episodes (they ask me what kind of cocktails i like, but not because i demonstrate any interest in cocktails when i am with them, but just because they need something to say). maybe they thought the whole travel thing was a cover for how i'm following my version of BIG all over the world. i am finding it hard to articulate but basically if i'm as old as i am and unwed and barren, i have to be hitting the booze and partying all night. when hello, i'm MULTIDIMENSIONAL. of course, my sister lapped it up but in a few years will be resentful that they see her as a baby machine.***ps i friggen hope the myth is along the sex and the city lines by the way. the worse option would be the lonely old spinster with a million cats. which is why i don't tell them about the crochet.

my family are nice of course. and can make great cups of tea. but i was pleased when i could break away and sightsee. like the day i took my ryles to the antarctic centre to see the penguins and play in the snow. which also meant a break from my sister and my mother. much needed because they do not make hotel suites big enough to contain my mother's passive aggression basically.


these penguins aren't real, but he took some convincing. and i wanted to stay in the snow forever because he kept slipping and it was hilarious. but i think the guides thought i was the meanest aunt in history when actually the truth is i would win awards if they gave them out for best aunt. as ryles gets older i will keep my best aunt title too. i can't wait to talk to him about stuff like crappy television and the best waterslides in the world. or whatever tickles his fancy.

sometimes i say "i had an awesome day" or whatever but i don't think i know what i'm talking about. often all it takes for me to declare a day awesome is some barman giving me a free drink. but yesterday was awesome because my sister gave me a new nephew. needless to say i'm thinking of expanding my vocabulary.

anyway, my new nephew (te koha) is just as you'd expect.... wonderful. he looks like a gnome right now, but ryles - my first nephew - looked like a robot because of wires and whatnot coming out of him. so everyone is well pleased with our little gnome.

the only disappointment is that my brother is a terrible photographer. he took this photo and i wish he'd told me to take my sunnies off. but whatever.

also i'm pretty in to how te koha arrived at a time that was convenient for everyone. he obviously knows he's got a lot of ground to make up in the favourite stakes... (ryles has had two and a bit years of adoration and my brother has had like twenty five years, it is stiff competition).

this morning, even though i was EXHAUSTED from going to atomic and dancing til (almost) dawn i hauled myself out of bed and went over to visit my sister. i tried to convince ryles that having a nap together would be more fun than the wiggles. he wasn't convinced. and i spent at least an hour just holding te koha and marvelling. and even the midwife who was visiting (who incidentally delivered me, incidentally at strongerlight's current apartment) was afraid to take him off me. in the end exhaustion got the better of me, i handed over the baby and went back home for a power nap before playing (and losing) a boardgame marathon.

anyway, i wanted to talk about atomic today too because hello it was excellent. i must have been looking even more h.o.t than at 24 hour party people when i nearly passed out and i got hit on twice in quick succession. i mean, if someone tries to dance with you then whisper the words to take on me in your ear they can only be hot for you. anyway, i didn't take him on. also guess what? shout to the top was played. and even though i was expecting it, i got overexcited and forgot my literal dance moves. i made up for it with a few ad-lib spins though. i am sure noone noticed anything but some awesome dancing. it took me the next few songs to recover from the song and the daydreams i was having about finding a time machine, going back in time and hooking in to paul weller c. early 80s. sigh. also i tried to get the photog to take more photos of me but i think he thought i was joking. we did take a cab home together though where i clarified that i was certainly not joking and that i love digital cameras with all my might. anyway hrc assumed sharing a cab meant sharing a pash and was super jeal but hello i'm a lady of class, not a lady of the evening. but i did get a dancefloor kiss from someone else. well really a dancefloor peck on the cheek. and i have to say i'm not surprised. i bet more people wanted to do it. plus i got to meet a blog reader of mine! excitement plus. but of course i'm much more dull in real life. still i hope it was at least half as good for her as it was for me.

now... list time....

last week i delivered on nothing except the whole becoming an aunt again thing and i think we can agree that was entirely out of my control either way. so like a 2/10 week (i did try to clean my room and attempt finding out about taking wine to the USA so that stops it being a one out of ten week).

this week i have two action points:

• check my passport every day to make sure i know where it is
• fly to hawaii on wednesday.
  

the rest will take care of itself....

so anyway if you are my facebook friend you probably realise by now i'm like obsessed with scrab. which is a shame because i suck at it. for every game i win i lose two. how that happened i don't know.

not that it should bother me. because hello this time next week i'll be parasailing in waikiki. or at the don ho show. or something awesome anyway. currently getting a buzz from telling people in meetings i won't see them for five weeks. suckers.

maybe i'll move to the states. i mean, it would increase the likelihood of me seeing interpol live. i will do a pro con list on the flight home from LA. that is if i have time - in between picking between the sixty movies on offer. and as an aside thanks qantas dot com for knowing that the only info i need about my flight is what movies are playing. info like how to smuggle wine into the USA would have been totally superfluous.

tonight, in addition to watching an amusing figwit doco, i read lots of guidebooks. mostly for nyc. if i sleep in nyc it will be time wasted.

also guess what? i am still waiting to be an aunt again. my sister is still pregnant. and i still await anxiously the arrival of my new toy. i have outfits all selected (for both him and me) and can't wait to dress him up and cuddle him and smell him. holy heck babies rule.

and so do holidays.

as i've said before so does my life. rules that is.

so yesterday i was meant to go to the welli library zine fest but circumstance got in the way. circumstance being the fact that i'm the world's best aunt and took ryles to te papa to play shops instead. i have to share with you how amazingly cute it is to watch a two year old remain unconvinced that the banana is plastic and therefore not for eating. but we've already established on numerous occassions that ryles is the light of my life so he can basically just sit there and i will talk for hours about how it is the most adorable thing ever.

in short i missed the zine fest. but never fear. i got one of just about every zine on offer to look at. how is a secret (but i thank my flattie). and basically i spent saturday night lying on the floor, with strongerlight as a companion, eating chocolate and reading zines. it looked something like this...
while some are a bit hit and miss some are AWESOME. joanna's is an obvious fave. but there are others too. like sweet valley 69. as a result i'm totally into lesbian erotica. it is my new fave genre.

(i am probably going to get some hits as a result of lesbian erotica. the people searching will be disappointed i'm guessing)

and today has been awesome too. not only have i told everyone i've seen that my new favourite genre is lesbian erotica i've also done some pretty exciting things.

booked concerts:

the gossip are coming in december. i'm going to rock it. BIG time. and by then i would have had a lot of experience in rocking concerts. cos today i also bought tickets to bjork in new york. madison square garden to be precise. you know, a famous place. i'm going cos of the klaxons. but more people have heard of bjork so it is a more recognisable headline. and then a week or so after i get back from the USA the killers are playing in australia. and guess who's going. yeah. that's right. me. my life rules.

eaten cakes

care of simply paris. my favourite cake shop of the moment.

drunken drinks

not many of my drinks have been alcoholic. in fact i've only had a sip of alcohol. a pimms cup. which was someone elses. sharing a straw is basically like pashing. so i guess i've gotten it on in public today too. but mostly i've drunken coffee. lots of delicious coffee.

got my perve on...

i went to the invaders tonight. it was a-ok but not great. and daniel craig really looks best as bond it turns out. also the invaders wasn't scary enough.

also i have enquired about surfing lessons with firefighters in hawaii.

watched weddings

well i technically did this yesterday but i did it again today. my friends got married overseas and i got to see the results on the internet. and all i can tell you is that i have a new fave wedding song - viva las vegas.


anyway with all the excitement i forgot to do the things i was actually meant to do. so this week's to do list is very important:

• clean my room, before thursday which is rubbish day, because it is the last rubbish/recycling day before i go to hawaii (did you know, i'm going to hawaii)
• be world's best aunt. i'm probably going to be an aunt again within the next week. this week is my last "alone" time with ryles. i plan to give him advice from one eldest child to another (which will be along the lines of find a niche and we will always love you)
• laundry. i am running out of clothes again. how does that happen?
• find out how to take new zealand wine to new york.
  
• select some songs for the new york wedding of the century. i meant to do it today but the day... it just got away on me.
• magically save up a few thousand dollars spending money (!)
• remember that my life rules (this one is to act as inspiration when in desperation throughout the working week i check my blog to see if anyone has commented. and then i can see this one and be all calm and awesome again).
  

here i am trying out travel outfits. sure i look hot but what a nerd. i lay out all my outfits - mixed and matched and then pretend-packed them to make sure they fit in to my supersmall suitcase. then tried them on to make sure they actually went together. i still have three weeks until i travel.

in my defence i was on a sugar high. i went to simply paris, my new happy place, for afternoon tea. which, because of weird weekend eating habits, was also lunch. and at least some of the people who work there appear to speak french which is awesome because it makes me feel cosmopolitan by association. anyway, go there. there are cute cakes, rich cakes and light cakes and tea in awesome tea pots and they do side orders of fries. i actually don't think there is more you could ask for food wise. decor wise i'd ask for circle rather than square tables. but that's me being picky.

actually picky is a potentially highscoring scrab word. i'll have to store that one in my memory bank.

speaking of banks and scrab it is time for me to review last week:

10 out of 10! honestly. sunglasses are evident in this picture, afternoon tea with hels was at simply paris and i could not speak more highly of it, the klaxons are in new york the same time i am, so HOOK UP ( i don't even mind that it means i'll probably have to see bjork perform live), my cellphone is fully charged, i haven't had a single berry yoghurt trio and my student loan overpayment has gone directly to my credit card.

this week i may be a bit more demanding of myself because frankly the past week has all seemed too easy. this week i will:

• not buy any clothes (i weakened last week and went back to world, my favourite clothes shop in wellington, i voted for it here but somehow it didn't win. neither did lyall bay fishie chippie which makes best chips and best lime milkshakes in the region. and don't even get me started on how the title of best barman was stole from my fave cutie barman. the dj (other) i voted for did though. so i don't feel like i was totally ignored).
• give out the "for no particular reason" presents i have been acquiring over the past week. this one isn't a chore at all though. still, i am noting it as an activity.
• buy tickets to the klaxons.
• decide whether to pay the inflated inflated prices for tickets to the killers in australia in november (i really should have advanced ordered, i just didn't think about how they might sell out).
• do laundry. lots and lots of laundry.
• finish watching gilmore girls season six so that hrc can start (and finish) watching before we depart.
• try and finish the book i'm reading (touching from a distance, about ian curtis - basically what the awesome movie i saw at the film fest was based on. this is a great activity cos it's free)
• win me some scrab (either internet scrabulous or real life scrabble, i'm not fussy)
• organise a flat taboo challenge - i think newtown will win
• hang out with ryles. we'll probably do arts and crafts and make fun of people. he's the greatest ever two year old. EVER. and
  
• be super professional at work. this will be the hardest task of the week.