Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

We technically had our first beach day of this summer on Sunday. A beach day is when we go to the beach for purposes other than surfing/running. We bring snacks and drinks and beach mats and if we're lucky we catch up with friends too. We started them when we lived in Melbourne and did a couple beach days with Theresa. They are a grand thing. Our lack of beach days this summer is partly due to a chilly start to the season and partly due to a commitment to renovation. But on Sunday Dustin convinced us to move past the war with the venetian blinds and take some time out to enjoy the sunshine. It was a great idea. It also gave me a chance to fulfill a request we've had for some video footage of the beaches here. So, welcome to Fitzroy Beach. It's about 5.7 km from our house and takes about ten minutes to drive to. It was low tide when we were there. Hopefully I remember to bring the camera the next time the waves are pumping so you can see it in its full glory. It's a ...

Just thought I would share a photo of the basket of lemons I mentioned. Yep, climbed up the tree myself on Saturday because there's a bunch of branches that I can't reach from the ground or from a ladder! At least the laundry will be lemon fresh.

For the first time in I can't even guess how long we went out on the town, specifically to go dancing. After a comedy show of course, otherwise how in the heck would we be able to stay up late enough for the clubs to be open? The comedy show was a bit of miss due to terrible audience members. How terrible? Well, when a group was told to be quiet their response was, "What is this, a library?" No. But it's a place where about 95 other people have paid money for someone to make them laugh. And not to watch them be distracted by you talking to your friends. Unbelievable. Anyways, the show ended earlier than expected (thanks again sucky audience!) so even at about 10:30pm on a Saturday night, things were very quiet. Luckily we had an 18-year old friend with us to navigate the evening. We checked out all the options and then stuck around at the one where there was more than a dozen people and got hooked. Ok, only I got hooked. I forgot how fun it is to go out dancin...

In a Pembroke St garden in the shade... Come and have a visit in our backyard on a fine summer's evening.:    http://youtu.be/vKHTzKAJpoE

It has been a very long time since I have been into the cake making. For years I have been without my full kit of supplies to do it and trying without the right tools usually leads to frustration. When we shipped all of our stuff down from Canada, that included a giant tub of cake pans and decorating supplies! However it still took a couple months before I put it back to use. I just needed a good excuse. Turns out a guy at work was getting married so voila, a perfect reason to dust off the tools - they weren't actually dusty, this is edible work we're talking about! The workmate likes racing cars so this was my best idea without a lot of time to plan. Then, I was so keen that two weeks later I created this little number for a friend's birthday. She's a Gaga fan so I tried to capture a bit of Lady Gaga in a cake. Any suggestions for my next project?

In a stroke of genius, NZ has two public holidays for New Year's Day. There is the usual, January 1, New Year's Day and then there is the cleverly named January 2, Day after New Year's Day. That means two two-day breaks two weeks in a row to wind out one year and start off the next. So, what else do you do on a sunny Day after New Year's Day but go golfing... And we didn't forget the camera:  http://youtu.be/HFjYR9svWtg

I'm not much on words today - not because we partied it up last night (unless by "party it up" you might picture Dustin falling asleep on the couch around 6:45pm and me weeding the garden and then both of us wanting to watch a movie and realizing there are dozens of movies from this past year that we haven't seen, or even heard of, and watching trailers for about half an hour to decide which one to watch) - but I'm not much on words due to a general fatigue that's been plaguing us lately. Whether we're working, or off over Christmas, we just seem to go go go lately and after another day off we are both exhausted. So here are some pictures and stories from lately. This is our room a week and a half ago. Wallpaper down. This is what Dustin did while I was eating sausages and drinking beer.  I did bring home a box of meat that day though! My work got us each one from a local farm, Green Meadows Beef . We took the gib down beca...