Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

As is tradition at this time of year, I always take a look back at what went on in our lives - good and bad, happy and sad, fun and... what's the opposite of fun that also rhymes with bad...? Mad? Hmm the theme this year was maybe about being busy, about working more on the lives we want to create, about trying to find balance. And about Porter, it's always about Porter. So let's round it up! We started the year waking up from a night of camping beside the beach. Not too bad. Except that Porter found the electric fence. And he was so tiny. Poor guy. I was winding up the temping role I had taken on and dove into a ukulele class, a meditation class and weekly Zumba. In February we made the trip up to Kawhia with friends for the kai festival to kick off the month. I was doing two days a week temping and starting to approach getting my business going and ended up with a contract to map the processes of the local tertiary institute and to make recommendations for increas...

If you haven't been to visit us yet, this video was filmed all around the region we live in - some of it just up the street from us! (The rugby stadium) If you have been to visit, watch for all the fun spots you would have been to - Paritutu, the Te Rewa Rewa bridge, The Wind Wand, The Festival of Lights - all the hot spots! :) They've been filming this for the last 18 months and have gotten so many people involved. We missed the few public filming chances or we definitely would have been in it! (Ok I can't speak for Dustin but he does love the song so he might have been convinced.) Enjoy!

So if you're missing my voice, you can have a listen to my visit to the community radio station here! The show is a weekly chat without a strict format, the host just guides it where she likes :) It was great fun and we even got serenaded by a local musician! https://soundcloud.com/acessradiotaranaki/2016-12-02-girlfriday-chriswelsonkatherineblaneyjoannedusterhofe

We are definitely converted to the warm Christmas day. The only trouble is all the Christmas songs have always been about winter and cold weather - obviously because Santa lives in the North Pole. Air NZ - that clever fun crew - has rewritten a classic Christmas tune to reflect the warm weather. I think you'll enjoy it. (And if you like the kid in the video and haven't seen The Hunt for the Wilderpeople yet, check that movie out as he's one of the stars of it.)

For the first time in a long time, after next weekend I won't actually have anything major on my calendar for the weekends! Sure we'll have some birthdays, Christmas parties, projects and fun stuff but the last of 5 events that I've organised or helped organised takes place next week. The others have taken place over the last 6 weeks or so and this means I can look ahead to some free time! Certainly I enjoy the planning and running of events, I wouldn't have gotten involved if that weren't the case but of course having them all stacked within weeks of each other was more than I expected! So, even yesterday when we were at the clothes swap, I wasn't a bundle of energy the way I usually am. I did have a bad sleep the night before (thanks to drunken angry guy yelling) but it was more than that. I got home around 4pm and was already dozing by 6pm. Of course I couldn't go to sleep that early, so managed to kind of stay awake until 9. I think it's just like ...

So, I've found some downtime in this ever-hectic life of late. I was clearing out some emails and decided to watch a video in one. That's where the title is from and Marie Forleo is the speaker - it's very good timing for me as I'm midway through a marathon of activities and that simple phrase, "Everything is figureoutable" is going to come in handy. http://www.supersoul.tv/supersoul-sessions/marie-forleo-everything-is-figure-out-able In the last two months things have really been ramping up. I've increased my client base, I've gone to Sydney and launched a new Zumba class with another insructor, I've created and run a successful health and wellbeing event , I'm involved in planning two other events ( Startup Weekend and a Zumba Breast Caner Fundraiser ) and this is on top of the usual life and love we live. Finding downtime feels rare at the moment and even Porter has stopped playing with his ball long enough to just sit and snooze besi...

All these years, I've been such a music addict but yet I can only claim fame to hot cross buns on the recorder and a very simple piano song as far as musical instrument talent. Well, not anymore! I've probably mentioned it but Dustin got me a ukulele for my birthday last year and thanks to ultimateguitar.com (yep they have tons of uke tunes!) I have a bundle of songs in my repertoire now. I keep being a bit shy to post any videos of me playing though. The great thing is it fits my hands perfectly (which was what kept me from learning guitar - my fingers just couldn't reach and I guess I didn't have the resolve to force them to!) and it works really well for lots of punk rock tunes. So, I don't have to learn new songs really, I just have to learn them on the uke. It's really handy to play things where I know the rhythms and words, it definitely makes it easier. I need lots of work on my strumming patterns as I seem to keep it at a simple down/up down/up. Ah w...