Confessions of a Shopaholic

I must be mad or something but I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic last night. I have read almost all the books each of which drove me insane to the point where I would shout at the book scaring my cats and prompting my husband to look up funny farms on yell.com - I would be there for sure if I'd read the one with the baby. The reason for the outbursts was that the main character was utterly annoying and needed a good shake. Still I read on enjoying the fashion and the romance.

I must say the movie was great! Some of the storyline had changed which worked better for the movie format but more importantly the main character was engaging and fun. I'm sure there was some kind of lesson in it, but I was distracted by the shoes.

Awesome Auckland

It's a typical Saturday evening. I'm sitting on the sofa drinking tea with DH watching TV. Except that it's Bells tea, the Wellington Sevens are on TV and I'm in Auckland!!

From New Zealand 2009

The first few days were a little tense when neither myself or DH could take out cash from any of the ATMs, but a quick call to the bank to confirm it was really us and we were overseas sorted that out. Lesson learned: Use travellers cheques!



I also got really bad sunburn spending the day wandering around town with no sunblock on. I didn't realise until that evening when I started to glow red. As is typical for me, I was wearing a T shirt and everything else I have to wear has straps and a lower neck line so I've got to go about with red arms and neck and the rest of my skin is white. Lesson learned: Always wear sunblock!

However, the past few days I have felt the stress melt away in the heat of New Zealand summer.

I've watched street performers, saw fish and penguins at Kelly Tarltons, sun bathed at Okahu beach, ate great food, drank beers and shopped. And there's plenty more still to do.

From New Zealand 2009

My best purchase has been a new ice blue NDS Lite. It was a Waitangi day gift and I'm so happy to have one again :D


Staying in the CBD, I see Aucklanders going to and from work and they all look amazing. It's quite intimidating really. All the women are really slim and fit looking and wear great clothes. Everytime I thought I had spied an overweight person, it was actually a pregnant person. The men are the same, most likely hiding six packs under their very sharp and tailored business shirts.

It would appear to be easy to achieve the look here. I see ads on lampposts for CityRun.co.nz and see runners around town and with Albert Park and Auckland Domain so near, it's feasible to go for a 30 minute run on your lunch break. The local swimming pool, Tepid Baths is cheap and close to lots of offices. There are plenty of people roller blading, running and cycling around the bays. I even saw one guy on skis with wheels on the bottom, propelling himself along with ski poles. The supermarkets is full of fresh fruit and veges and there are plenty of healthy eateries around like Salad Works, Umi Sushi, Raw Power and Revive. And as for clothes, there are loads of clothes stores and shoe shops - it's a shopaholics dream!

I certainly feel inspired and invigorated and by the end of my holiday I hope to ready to take on the world again.

Post Festive Round Up

The run up to Christmas was fairly hectic to say the least! We now have our house on the market and it was a bit mad trying to finish up some last minute jobs, before travelling up to Orkney for Christmas and New Year.

Spending 2 weeks with my in-laws has certainly highlighted my hermit tendencies and has brought back childhood memories of hiding in my room for days just enjoying my own company and busying myself with whatever project took my fancy and only appearing for meals. My in-laws probably think I'm some weird antisocial crack-pot and perhaps to some extent that's true, although I would have been more social if my SIL and her fiancé were elsewhere. I find I can't relax in too much mess and their laziness was getting to me, but 3.5 bottles of sherry seemed to help a bit!

A few days before we were scheduled to come home, we had to go to the post office and outside a man in a wheel chair sped down the ramp and junk punched another man who was on a mobile phone at the time – not something you see every day!

I think the term junk punch is quite funny, so I decided to tell my MIL and FIL this story. I'm not sure if they understood, but I'm just pleased with myself that I brave enough to do it!

Since being back home it's been quite relaxing. However, there are plenty of things that need to be done and this weekend it all starts again. Clearing out cupboards, packing things, trying to find things again! It seems to be endless, but it's all worth it!

2 Weeks ‘til Christmas!

Where does the time go? It's 2 weeks until Christmas and I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping yet!! Normally, I'm well organised and it's all finished in October. I remember why I like to finish early – it's to avoid the madness, rushing, pressure and stress.

As well as presents to buy, I have decorating to finish. The shower room and bathroom are mostly finished, but the big rooms are still to be done. I'm hoping to have it all finished by the end of the weekend.

Then of course there's the trip to Orkney organise.

On top of all this I have cold. I think I'm over the worst now, thankfully. It's never a good time to get a cold, but at this time of year when there is so much to do, it's impossible to stop and be ill for a few days. It's unsurprising that the TV is all ads for cold and flu remedies. There hasn't been many ads for indigestion tablets yet, perhaps that's still to come.

Well Santa, if your reading this and want to give me my gift early, I would really appreciate it if you slowed time down a bit or sent me a few helping hands!

Push the button?

There's a button on the microwave at work that says CHAOS. I'm often tempted to press it, but I'm concerned as to what effect this will have on me on as the IT support person.

Interplanet Janet

Deluded

I really enjoyed my long weekend last week. It was very chilled out and relaxed. My Mum and sister visited and we all had a long boozy lunch and talked and laughed. My sister-in-law and her boyf came round for dinner which was nice and we had a good ol' natter with them. Didn't achieve much Christmas shopping, but I'm happy that a few ideas are now formulating.

The rest of this week has been busy but quite good. I had a good drum lesson, I actually went to the gym, we narrowly lost out in the pub quiz, and I finished season 2 of Alias.

I must admit that I'm finding it hard to stop eating cakes and start going to the gym. Going by the various conversations I have with my work colleagues, it would seem everyone thinks they're fat. Even the size 10s. I overheard one colleague, who is tall and very slim, covet the figure of another tall and slim colleague. There's hardly any difference between them, they're both size 8s. My problem is that I don't think I'm that bad. I guess I'm just deluded! I think of myself as a podgier version of Anna from Chuck:















Yup, definately deluded!! The reality is I now have a BMI of 30.5 which puts me into the obese section.

So you would think that I would be more willing to go to the gym, however, I feel the excuses mounting up in my head already! Christmas shopping is exercise though, right?