Ceiling Completed

Whilst I was away for a lovely girls spa weekend, dear hubby had painted the ceiling.  It's a skillion roof we have so in our upstairs rooms it makes up a sloping wall.  It was great to come home to a nice white ceiling.  Some parts had needed up to 5 coats of paint! 

I also got some very nice chairs from a friend of mine and they look fantastic in what is becoming our reading room, although I think I may have to fight the cats for space!

So here is white sloping roof and new chairs.  Still to do: flooring and shelving.

Home Improvements in the Planning

We have been in our house for about 9 months now and finally inspiration has struck! I have a plan for how to decorate and have been gathering stuff to make it happen.

We bought some wallpaper and paint and ordered up some new furniture items and I'm quite excited about how it's all going to look when it's finished. However, there is a lot to do before that happens and the following weeks are going to be pretty busy!

For amateur decorators like ourselves, I think the whole project will be challenging and we might need to call in the professionals for some parts but I'm quite keen to give it go.

The first two jobs are to strip off the wall paper and to paint the ceiling. The ceiling is cathedral style with wooden beams so that's going to be fun!

2012 Retrospective

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?

Ran round the Bays and the Sculpt 6k and played Munchkin

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

As usual, I didn’t quite succeed in them all, but I still want to achieve them so they’re back on the list for 2013.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Kane’s sister had a baby girl called Beth.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No

5. What places did you visit?

I actually left Auckland twice and went to Hamilton and Waitomo. I saw glow worms, native birds and a Kiwi bird.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?

Gardening prowess!

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

My new Niece Beth was born, my parents and Kanes parents both came to visit

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year

I was accepted as a full member of the Institute of IT Professionals

9. What was your biggest failure?

I didn't achieve the level of running fitness I wanted.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Yeah, I pulled a muscle in my calf and reinjured it twice so I'm now in physiotherapy.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

A House!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

I have awesome friends

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

I avoid the news!

14. Where did most of your money go?

Buying a house and then buying house related stuff like ladders, lawn mower, leaf blower, lampshades etc

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

iPhones. I bought a house at auction

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?

Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton - it's my ring tone

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier

b) thinner or fatter? Same

c) richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Knitting

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Procrastinating

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2012?

With my parents and Aunty Betty eating, drinking and then watching movies

21. Did you fall in love in 2012?

My new label maker

22. What was your favourite TV program?

New Girl, Castle and the Mentalist

23. What did you do for your birthday in 2011?

I saw the ballet Cinderella

24. What was the best book you read?

I listened to a whole bunch of management and work related audio books and there were 2 quite good ones but I can't remember the titles

25. What did you want and get?

iPad and my own home.

26. What did you want and not get?

A fitter body!

27. What was your favourite film of this year?

Judge Dredd - I met Karl Urban! Skyfall, Bourne Legacy, The Avengers

28. Did you make some new friends this year?

Yes, a good bunch at the Auckland Star Trek club

29.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Getting fitter without getting injured all the time!

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?

Frumpy

31. What kept you sane?

Sims 3

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Karl Urban - I met him!

33. What political issue stirred you the most?

The American elections

34. Who did you miss?

No one really.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.

I ran a race on 2 weeks training and while I did finish, I really injured myself and now I'm in Physio. I guess the lesson is that there are no shortcuts. You need to put in the time and effort to get the results you really want.

Its Summer and Christmas!

This is going to be my third Christmas in New Zealand and I’m still not used to Christmas being in Summer.

It’s not just Christmas though, it’s other events like birthdays, hallowe’en, even summer holidays.  I have formed many habits and traditions over the years and without the seasonal cues to remind me I find I’m forgetting about things.

Back in the old country, daylight hours would be quite reduced by now signalling time to make mince pies and drink hot chocolate while writing out Christmas cards.  Christmas shopping would be punctuated with Starbucks in their Red Cups and I would be wearing some newly knitted gloves or crocheted hat and would finish in a nice sherry and maybe another mince pie. 

(Ironically I would also be suffering from seasonal adjustment disorder)

But here it is the beginning of Summer and I pick strawberries, go for evening walks and then have a nice glass of white wine out on the deck.  Writing out cards and putting up Christmas decorations are quite far from my mind.  Which reminds me, I need to look out the Christmas decorations.

The only thing for it is to start making some new traditions and letting go of the ones that don't fit anymore and make sure I keep my calendar updated and set birthday and event reminders a few weeks in advance!!
 

Seminar

I was having a browse when I came across this here video of an event I attended - I don't know why I was so surprised to see myself but there I am, milling around, oblivious to any filming going on!

On a different note, I'm definitely getting a hair cut and going on a diet!!

A Change of Routine

We have been in our new house for just over one week now and we are still very much unpacking, sorting and organising our belongings.  It’s very reassuring to have a place to settle into and when I place something down I know that it can stay there forever if I want it to.  For such a long time things have been temporary and “it’ll do for just now”, at last we can make things permanent!  However, I am neither pressuring myself to get things right the first time, nor am I throwing things into cupboards with the thought “I’ll sort that out later” - best effort is the current mode.
I am quite happy with my closet, and with a recent purchase of shoe racks I think we have the beginnings of a happy relationship, but I’ll know more once I have the rest of my belts and scarves in there!
So far we have taken a walk around the neighbourhood and visited the local pub. We have met with several of our neighbours and they have been friendly and welcoming and have all said nice things about the street and the area.  I am surprised by how quiet and countryside-like it is, there are sheep in a field near my house and just the other day I had to stop my car to let a line of ducks cross the road – how cute is that!  I know this is more common on the outskirts of the city, but I live in Auckland city!  I just love that I have city life and country life.
I’m now creating some new routines and trying to revive some old but good habits.  I’ve gone back to Pole Fitness who have moved to a very cool new location in the CBD and I’ve started jogging in the evening.  Soon I’ll be back at skating too and lately I’ve been feeling the urge to pick up those knitting needles.
Overall I’m feeling happy and positive.  I have the occasional moment of doubt, or fear that the plumbing is about to disintegrate or the roof is going to fall in (but that’s what insurance is for right?).  I knew we shouldn’t have watched The Money Pit after we won the place at auction!

Round the Bays – Accomplished!

So the training didn’t quite go to plan, I failed to get further than Week 3, Day 1 of the couch to 5k program I was following!  So I was fairly contented to walk to the full 8.4km.  It seemed fairly busy as we all made our way to the start and when the gun went off it took a full 5 minutes or so to reach the start line and even then the field was fairly congested.  It was reported that 70,000 people took part in the event!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6595042/Auckland-Round-the-Bays-a-success

After walking for about 10 minutes, the field in front opened up a little and I was feeling good so we decided to try a little jog.  We jogged for a short time until I was feeling tired and then we walked for a bit and we continued like this the whole way.  The most I had done in training was 3.4km and it was about this mark that I was feeling tired, but by this time I had entered into a secret challenge with Chicken boy (a boy in a chicken suit with a band-aid on his chin).  We would overtake chicken boy and then when I got tired we would walk and chicken boy would overtake us and so on.  At first my aim was simply to beat chicken boy and that kept me amused for the mid section of the race but towards the end I got passed by a team of people carrying a caber and then I had an extra challenge – to not get beaten by the log!  In the end I achieved both my secret challenges and that made me very happy!

I completed the race in 80:58 which is by far my slowest time yet, but it is also my most under prepared event to date – lesson learned.

http://www.roundthebays.co.nz/

After the race, we went to find our friend Jude’s works BBQ and headed off for Glover Park after walking all the way out there we found out that the BBQ was actually at Madills Farm and had to turn around and walk 2.6km all the way back.  However I think the extra walk helped and even 2 days after the event I don’t have any pain or much stiffness.

So now I’m giving some serious thought to the Auckland Half Marathon in October – but I really have to do some proper training for that!