Spring!

Plate, abate

Alishia Anderson

I was going to start this post with 'ooh, another earthquake post' etc. but soon realised the earthquake post I wrote last year never made it out of my drafts folder. I couldn't get my thoughts in order, hyperbole took over, then re-wordings became understatements. For my local readers, a play-by-play of my thoughts and fears during the shakes we've had over the past few months would be a bit of a snore - we all have our own earthquake stories, varying in levels of drama.

There was a bit of damage around the place - my friend's house north east of Masterton was quite a mess yesterday  as shown above, and it was a similar story following the Seddon 'quakes that affected Wellington in 2013. A big fat nuisance, concern for loved ones, the sad loss/damage of posessions and property; a decent bloody fright.

There's not that much to say about this latest shake either, now everyone's accounted for. Just keep-calm-carry-on towards the apparently imminent 'big one'.

Shelly Bay

Little City

By Michael Jo

In the neighbourhood

We went to Pickle for dinner last night with Charlie's mum, and to be totally honest I have mixed feelings about the place. The atmosphere was great; I love the ceiling of pickle jars, the flower arrangements and miss-matched chairs. The drinks menu was also great; we had Six Barrel Soda and Rekorderlig cider. To start we ordered barbeque fries with aoli, and sliders which were delicious and affordable (3 pulled pork with tomato salsa and 3 ham, cheese and pineapple for $20). We were off to a good start, with fries wrapped in a newspaper cone and presented in block of wood, and the sliders on smaller slabs of wood.

But we each chose a large plate to share for dinner (smoked salmon, potato and chive salad; roast chicken, basil pesto and tomato salad; 57°c skirt steak, iceberg salad and condensed milk dressing) and I found them rather lacklustre - no outstanding flavours that Charlie and I would struggle to recreate at home (that's saying something) and little attention to presentation. I'd heard a lot of great things about their quirky dishes, so perhaps we were too conservative with our choices. The staff were friendly, but a little disorganised - we were served by several different people throughout the meal, and asked for our initial drinks order twice.

Overall, it was a nice evening out. I'd definitely go there again for a cider and sliders (and wouldn't mind trying the sausages and something from the sweets menu) but we probably wouldn't bother again for a dinner.

Now, when is Mt Vic Chippery opening?

Gunpowder Treason

Happy Guy Fawkes Night! I didn't really take many photos of Wellington's display since I was watching them with Charlie and Wallace and those I did take were a bit crap because they were too bright for my camera to deal with and the window I was resting on was shaking with the boomin'. Beautiful! And Wallace was super brave.

C-17

Brighter than the Moon, Moon, Moon

An Olympic gold medal ceremony was held in Auckland this evening so shot putter Valerie Adams could finally get her well deserved medal. Here in Wellington we were treated to a fireworks show, the first that's been held since we moved into our home with a view and now I am super duper excited for Guy Fawkes Night! Wallace was a little alarmed by the boomin', particularly when our neighbours joined in with a few sparklers of their own, but coped way better than I expected considering his crippling fear of the vacuum cleaner. Here's a couple of photos I snapped from our window.

Fireworks

Petone Winter Carnival fireworks across the harbour this evening.

Supermoon Sunday

Facebook and its magical share button, eh... I can't find a website for Chua Jun Kent's photography, but will link to his Facebook page instead. Unfortunately I wasn't out taking supermoon snaps, so this shows the moon rising above my suburb - what I could see from my window were many, many camera flashes across the city! Representing numerous disappointed snappers, I suppose.

Image source.

Tumble

It's days like this I wish I had an amazing digital camera - it's frustrating to have such a spectacular sight before me and not be able to photograph it effectively with a point and shoot. The Red Checkers flew over Wellington this morning, and it was beautiful to watch.

I had tickets to go to the Ohakea Air Show with my parents over the weekend, but I was not at all up to it unfortunately, so it was nice to get a small taste of the aviation action today.

I am sorry that I haven't been posting anything on here. Over the past couple of weeks I've experienced a lot of back pain again. In addition to all the limitations that puts on me, it's really not doing anything to help my emotional/mental wellbeing. To be honest, I'm scared as hell.

I want to keep blogging, even through the difficult bits - especially through the difficult bits actually, it can be quite therapeutic. But I don't want to turn this into a pity party, because that wouldn't do you guys or myself any good. Perhaps measured honesty is the best way forward for now.

More as soon as I'm up to it... I have a lot of ideas, but not a lot of energy to carry them out at the minute.

Crescent

This was our view of the city last night. The moon was so bright over the hills, and shining either side of it were Venus and Jupiter - though unfortunately my point-and-shoot camera couldn't pick them up.

Lowlights

I've had these questions saved on my computer for a while - I think I got them through Kim's blog, but I'm not entirely sure. Regardless, they've also been occupying my mind for a couple of months.

• What am I freakishly good at?
• What do I geek out about?
• If I was a horrifically superficial and shallow person, what would I really want?
• What do I want to be known for?
• If I had a full year off, and a stipend, how would I spend it?
• What’s going to be carved on my hypothetical tombstone?

I've been in my job for over a year now, and I'm thinking about the next step. Don't worry, this won't be of great surprise to anyone - I'm in an entry-level role in my organisation, and my colleagues are students or recent university graduates gaining some experience on their way to their ultimate career goals, so it's not a job most people go into for the long term. That's not to say I don't enjoy it - I do, it's a great working environment, and the work itself involves typing, TV, radio, and the internet, so what's not to love? But I know I won't be there in five years time.

Anyway, my problem is that despite having gained a ton of experience in the working world (compared to peers who did go to university, at least), I'm still just as overwhelmed and indecisive as I was nearing the end of high school.

There's another, almost conflicting problem I'm faced with, before you rush in with reassurances that I'm only 22 and have my whole life in front of me. Right now, my health is pretty good and I'm perfectly capable of working a 40 hour week at an office desk. I get sick a fair bit due to my shitty immune system, and I'm often pretty tired and sore by the end of the day, but overall that doesn't impact too severely on my job. But because of my AS, I have absolutely no idea how long this good fortune will last.

Over the past five years since leaving school, I kind of figured I'd take what comes, and see where my working life ends up. But the longer I spend living like that, the less I enjoy it. I feel like I need an ultimate goal or dream to work towards, to keep me sane in this paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. I just don't know what I want.

I don't want to go wild living out fun jobs, and being left middle aged and able bodied, but without valuable experience and qualifications. I also don't want to work my butt off climbing a corporate-or-any-other-kind-of ladder to be left crippled and exhausted.

I don't want to feel like I've wasted this indefinite healthy period I've been given. I also don't want to work myself into exhaustion and stress to be left unable to complete a career goal.

This post has been saved in my drafts for a couple of weeks, without any kind of conclusion because it's an ongoing dilemma. I had a discussion about it with Charlie's friend who has Crohn's disease - and, like me, is taking the prescription medication Humira - and he's feeling the same way. The career he studied for and started working in is something he cannot live out in the foreseeable future due to his illness, and a similar situation is something I fear. I already have a student loan from the flight attending training I couldn't complete, and I don't want to add to it without an achievable outcome. He also brought up the fact that the prospect of living overseas is far more difficult for us - in New Zealand the $2000 cost of the drug is almost entirely paid for by the Government, but that's not the case overseas, at least not long term. For as long as Humira continues to suppress my AS symptoms, I can't go without it.

More frequently I think about working enough hours to pay the bills, and spending the rest of my time improving my painting skills, and blogging. But what kind of a long-term plan is that? I know it's a modern-youth cliche and supports Michael Laws' theory of bloggers suffering from mental illness, but I have been depressed in the past, and going forward happiness is my number one priority. But I know from experience that living on the bones of your ass ain't much chop either.

Home, Sweet

Hello ladies and gents! We are officially moved in! Still internet-less of course, so this is a bring-to-work-on-USB-for-final-tweak-and-post blog. Our 3G network is pretty slow, so I've managed a little Instagram and Twitter, but mostly I've had a weekend away from the outside world, which has actually been really nice. More about that later, but first - the move.

It was no fun, no fun at all! The past few (eight, nine, ten? Who's counting? Hi, Mum and Dad) times I have moved, my parents and other family members and friends have helped us lug furniture and boxes to and fro a hired van or truck. This time we decided to hire movers, and I booked them in a couple of weeks ago via email.

My personal policy of always emailing service and trades people rather than phoning (so there's a written record of an arrangement... and because I hate phone calls) proved valuable for my sanity- the movers were under the impression they were helping with a 'small move' (their words) and moving just half a dozen items of furniture, rather than half a room of packed boxes. Fortunately they had a large furniture truck and two workers available, who were understandably a bit pissed off at having to do so much unexpected work in the afternoon, but were amazingly efficient. So it all got finished in the end, and I have sent an email to the office which I don't really expect them to read and don't anticipate a reply to... but it made me feel better. It really irritates me when companies list an email address as means of contact, and then are rubbish written communicators. Anyway. The movers themselves were awesome, and we would use the company again... but with a lot more caps in the instructions, I guess.

The other drama was that because (I guess) the flat had been empty for a few weeks while renovations were carried out, so the power had been turned off just before we moved in. I'd arranged with our power company for someone to come in the afternoon to turn it on, and was happy to pay a fee for that person's time. Long story short - no one showed up, I played phone tag with the call center for a couple of stressy hours, they said they could send someone out after hours for an additional extra fee... and then in the end they reconnected us remotely so all we had to do was push a button. So we finally got power in the evening which was such a relief, but now I guess I'm in for a bit of arguing with the call center to get that connection fee wiped from our account. Being an adult is such a pain sometimes.

So that's my lame whinging out of the way (I felt I had to elaborate a little on my grumpy Tweets from Thursday).

Once all the moving was complete, we put Wallace in a carry box at the old place, and walked him over. Poor little guy was so frightened that all his stuff had disappeared, and wriggled around in his box the whole way. Once we got to the new place and let him out we found he'd pooped himself with fright (I feel like a mother sharing an embarrassing story about their kid). Although maybe he was just busting, cause as soon as we let him out he started strutting through all the rooms, checking everything out.

We've been living here four (five) days now, and so far he's seemed very much at home. He loves sitting in the window watching the view, and lying on the couch in the sun, and besides being curious as to what's outside the front door, he hasn't been crying to go outside or anything. The only time he gets a little frightened is if the neighbours are talking/moving outside the front door - he runs to hide under a cabinet for a few minutes.

Everything is pretty much all set up now! Our washing machine's being delivered on Tuesday, we still have a couple of boxes of clothes and linen to unpack (and a huge stack of collapsed boxes to dispose of), and we're on the look out for an opaque free-standing screen - either one of those Japanese panel-style ones, or perhaps hinged MDF painted or covered in fabric. And I also have to buy a bunch of picture hooks so I can hang all my framed art and prints. I was super stoked when our landlord said he doesn't care how many pins and nails we put in the walls - especially as quite a lot of painting had been done.

My sister was in town for a party, so I spent a little bit of time with her over the weekend. Once almost everything was unpacked, I spend a lot of time lying in the sun, admiring the view and reading my book - the Nancy Wake biography I need to check off my goals list. I might write about it when I'm finished, it's fascinating so far.

I'll post some better photos eventually, but probably not until we have the internet at home. Phone photos will have to do for now. Hope you all had a great weekend!

I'm not really sure I'll ever do justice to the view in a photo - it's magic.

One of Wallace's new favourite sleeping spots.

I got such a fright when I looked over at Wallace and saw him frozen like this... after a moment I realised he'd spotted seagulls flying over head

This (the hallway) is probably my favourite spot of the whole flat so far. Rita Angus print, torch lamp, my new ring holder, and a bunch of my favourite prints on the wall.

The kitchen is pretty old fashioned which is typical of Wellington flats, but perfectly adequate. A bit bare at the moment, but I'm planning to hang a couple of Wellington painting prints in there. I have one which features our new house, and another of Summertime Wellington by Marianne Muggeridge which is almost exactly the view from our previous flat, as it looked in the 1980s. Anyway, they're both fairly common prints around this city but I think it's cool to have a personal connection to them.

And lastly, we have a bath. It's not massive, but it's brand new and... it's a bath. Thrilled!

Shift

I haven't been a very committed blogger for the first month-and-a-bit of this year (really, February already?!) which is a shame because 2012 is shaping up to possibly be my greatest year... so far! In addition to making a conscious effort to improve my health, I recently got a great opportunity at work and... now I have more news!

You may or may not have wondered about my lack of arty-posts recently, and my lack of posts in general. This is mostly due to that fact that only one thing has been occupying my mind, and is something I couldn't share until it was confirmed. Which yesterday it finally was! The apartment my wonderful aunt rented for several years when I was a teenager is available again, and with her connections Charlie and I (and Wallace!) have nabbed it. We're moving! I am so crazy excited. Objectively, it's just a one bedroom flat with the one stand out feature of an amazing view of the city (see a fraction of it above, and excuse the average phone photo... you can bet there'll be many a superior image uploaded once we're there!). But it's the type of place that as a teenager living at home with Mum and Dad, I always dreamed of living in as an independent adult- of course I didn't imagine it would be the exact same apartment my aunt used to live in, but that makes it even more perfect.

I can't wait to move in, and I'm so grateful that Charlie's understood how much living there means to me and agreed to it! We will be moving in just a few weeks (the landlord is doing some renovations before we can take over) so there is SO MUCH to do before then! It's lucky I love packing and setting up house!

Rise

Below are three more photos I took on Tuesday with the images in this post while walking around my suburb.

I bleached my hair again yesterday and it's gone lighter still. I can't really afford to buy more white toner at the moment, but will attempt again in a couple of weeks. Check out the new photo on my 'about' page to see. The ends are still darker/brassier than the rest because of the old dye... my hair still feels like hair (as opposed to straw or whatever) so I'm thinking maybe I'll just bleach the ends one more time, just before I tone it. I'm doubtful it will ever get to the same colour all over but that's okay, it's kind of a fun ongoing project!

In other news, I got a kind-of promotion at work. Kind of, in that for the first half of my day I'll be doing my old job of monitoring, and then in the second half I'll be doing transcription (and getting a teeny bit more money, yay!) which involves frantic typing and attempting to decipher thick Australian accents word-for-word. It's fun!

I know I've been an incredibly boring blogger lately... It will end soon, I actually promise this time! Stay tuned.

Majoribanks

That ain't cricket.

Depending on who you are, you may or may not be aware of this, but December supposedly marks the beginning of summer here in New Zealand. This was how the weather looked last week.

And this is how it looked today.

It's so freaking cold! The start of summer is always unpredictable in Wellington, but Facebook friends from all over the place are equally as whingey and parts of the country have had severe flooding. I've deliberately left taking summer leave until January in the hope things have settled down by then.

How's the weather where you are?

Get busy

Today I did something I've quite possibly never done before in my life- I exercised, without anyone telling me to.

When I was younger, I played a little bit of sport and participated in school PE classes when my AS pain wasn't too severe. Once I left school (five years ago now) my pain got worse and worse but I also got extremely lazy. I wasn't at all bothered about swimming or walking to keep fit, only about the way I looked. Since any weight I gained went straight to my chest, I had no desire to exercise at all.

I've been AS pain-free for two years now, and it hasn't made one bit of difference to my motivation to get fit. Over the past year some extra weight has crept on, without me really paying much attention. It's easy to see how it happened- I have a reasonably short walk to work, I sit down all day, walk home, eat rubbish food, and sit around with Charlie, and I suspect I'm also losing my teenage metabolism. Anyway, I was aware I'd gained weight, but I hadn't really noticed how much until the past week or so. I looked at myself in the mirror and realised I don't look like a slim girl with big boobs anymore because my torso is expanding too.

Even before I came to this realisation, I'd considered starting a programme like the Couch-to-5K run for quite a while but just never got around to it. This morning on my way to work I saw a few runners in the streets. I went on the App Store and downloaded the 5K Runner app. Straight after work, I walked home, tied back my hair, changed my clothes, put on my running shoes and did some stretches. And then I left, iPhone in pocket and instructions in my ears.

The app interrupts your music to tell you when to walk and when to run, and builds up over the course of eight weeks. Today I went around our neighbourhood, then up the hill into the walking tracks. The wind was blowing something crazy, the sun was beating hot, and I was probably panting like a wild thing, but it felt great. I was out for just over half an hour, and came back home sweaty and energised. I feel silly for not starting this programme months ago, but I'm so glad I just got my ass into gear and began.

I'm not interested in tracking my weight or calories or measurements, I just want to get active and stop being so damn unfit. I'm already looking forward to doing some more tomorrow! Exercising is step one in becoming a healthier person- once it's become a regular part of my routine I think I'll start making a greater effort to eat healthy food. And someday I'll definitely have to quit smoking. Today has been a good start.

Evening

Sometimes Wallace lends himself as a nice addition to an otherwise mundane shot.

Sometimes he's just one little element in a busy frame.

Sometimes he just prefers to sabotage.