this is me eating my final meal of 08 as the sunset over the vines stage at rhythm and vines. it is also possibly the last photo you will ever see of me due to my lappy being retarded*.

so far 2009 has brought me acute sinusitis and a slammin' tan. but like diana ross sang, you've got to take the bitter with the sweet, right? anyway, 2009 is just kind of happening. ideally i'd take the bull by the horns and shape the year to my whim. after all, this year i plan to grow up young lady.

i've started my list of 101 things in 1001 days. and i've nearly finished one task: to send ten postcards through postcrossing. i'm only one shy. good lord i'm amazing. my life is so entirely different now from seventeen days ago when i hadn't sent a single postcrossing postcard. i now know that kolobrzeg is a place, for example.

also on my list is to save, save, save. so 2009 is going to be my year of darning socks or whatever people who save money do. so that 2010 can be the year of glorious spending. ah, glorious spending - i think i will miss you most of all.

oh, and as per i plan this year to finally become perfect. which is, afterall, what all resolutions are really about. unless you're orlando bloom. according to the classic hits summer dj orlando's resolution is to save the environment. probably single-handedly. i figure, if anyone can - its him. and 2009 is so his year.

*appendix: why my computer is retarded

i broke my camera's sd card. how is unknown, but basically i broke off the thing that locks or unlocks the card so now i can't take any more photos on it. so i bought a new one. i upgraded to a 4GB card. and guess what? MY LAPPY DOESN'T RECOGNISE IT BECAUSE IT IS TOO POWERFUL. i know i'm supposed to love the one i'm with, but seriously this is testing the relationship. big time.

you should probably know i love personality tests. which is why going to melbourne last week was my best australian holiday ever. it started with shopping. then moved to cocktails and ended in three days of personality tests, 360 reviews and counselling.

here i am drinking a mint julep. not in savannah, but at the meat and wine company - melbourne, while watching a couple give eachother foot rubs IN PUBLIC like it wasn't a thing. for me, it WAS a thing and i could barely cope with the mad case of the giggles it was giving me.

i am resisting being self disclosing about the course, even though it was so awesome it is basically all i can think about. it confirmed i'm an infp. so i feel confident that i can accomplish great and wonderful things. however there is a questionmark over how this combines with the fact i'm a fire sign. jung and astrology seem fairly similar if you ask me. ie both are right on the money.

and at the course i fine dined, and got to wake up to this view every morning, before walking along the beach (for like five minutes, this was self discovery not a health spa).

since returning home i've been in a bit of a haze. mostly because all i want to do is talk about the course. i keep recommending it to people, and analysing their problems. i'm like an evangelist. which is why i urge you to do it too. but if you don't have a spare five thousand dollars or whatever it costs to do this professionally, take the free internet test here.

i have also dedicated time to finding new places for my ikea presents to myself. it turns out i didn't really need that third duvet cover. oh well - i bought that before i was self actualised. so it doesn't count. oh and i went to see the tempest at toi whakaari. i don't do shakespeare without claire danes so it wasn't my cup of tea. plus it was too avante guarde for my tastes. but it was enjoyable overall plus gave me the sense of being cultured. bonus.

speaking of being cultured i need to stop writing now and go and work on my 1001 books to read before you die. months ago i declared i'd read one a month. that hasn't happened. i've only read one - fear and trembling. but am close to finishing a second - eva trout - which despite all the summaries making it sound like the perfect book for me is actually duller than you could imagine. i do not recommend it.

so i'm planning to go dancing because hello, that is the way hip young things spend their saturday nights. but hip young things usually have hip young clothes. but i haven't got a stitch to wear.

ps, this is not a real photo. i just copied and posted two photos with brick walls in them. amazing, i know.

morrissey and i are so in sync over these things. this is said despite how today i did a wardrobe stocktake and i own twenty dresses and nine black skirts. yes. so that is at least 29 things to wear. but you know, nothing young and hip or whatever.

anyway, i am blogging so i remember the exact moment i decided there was a clothes buy freeze. three months. can i do it? only time will tell....

where to begin? probably by saying that internet at the quadrant is not as good as internet at home which is a bit frustrating. but that is hardly the biggest news of the day.

last night i went to see pj harvey at the civic. there were fairy lights. I AM A SUCKER FOR FAIRY LIGHTS. but more important GUESS WHO SURPRISED ME OUTSIDE THE CIVIC THEATRE. only AL. only one of the funniest people alive. only someone i haven't seen for over eighteen months. she has been in japan. and i can't believe i haven't blogged about her more. i found some blog posts, like this, but given that my internet is so friggen slow at the mo' .... i am sure there is more.

anyway, after a joyful reunion and a few hiccoughs, including talking to some guy who had been in antarctica and was now looking to buy a pj harvey ticket, we had to part so that we could go to our seats. and i watched pj harvey be awesome. i am not her biggest fan or anything but by the end i was super in to her.

here is a clip of her singing when under ether, apparently. don't even begin to think that my internet can play this....



the guy next to me was there for the crowd surfing rocking numbers. he was disappointed. i felt it in his snarky clapping. the woman on the other side kept checking the time. but i sense she was in to it. probably just trying to get home for the babysitter. there were a lot of that type at the concert.

after the show we ran into alex again (mr antarctica) and ruined our chances of having a valentine by walking away from him and instead going to some dive of a cafe and drinking milkshakes (me) and hot chocolates (AL). and i took selfies. and it was like old times. only better because the boys in dorkland aren't the boys in wellington so there was new stuff to talk about.

today we might go to an aquarium. but first breakfast. maybe we'll test the french toast in dorkland. and then life ambition fulfilled. cos it is INTERPOL TONIGHT.

so anyway i have this new thing where i am not not spending but where i am not spending as much. it is called having a budget and sticking to it. something i've never been especially good at but that recently i haven't even remembered about.

case in point. one day last week i was dressing for work and realised that there were few clothes i owned that looked blingin'. some fine clothes but not many things that i could put on and feel pristine in. so anyway, a few suggestive comments from colleagues and three hours later i'm in a shop spending four hundred dollars on a dress and a cardigan. what the? i guess the upside is that the next morning i wore something and felt pristine in it.

anyway, under the budget oh seven regime this will change. it may mean more meticulous laundry practices on my part to help clothes keep pristine and ergo more work. but it will be worth it because hello, i will be able to afford eat dinners while i'm in new york IN SEPTEMBER.

in other news i had delicious toasted sandwiches and cocktails at mighty mighty tonight. i keep waiting to start to tire of that place, and yet.... i am still in love. and with five dollar toasted sandwiches my budget loves it too...