My little sister is oarsome!

Read this news story about my wonderful talented little sister!
And oogle at the higbees, but one (handsome pete), at a BA frenzy!

oooer, that's pretty

Has anyone else noticed how Kitty and I seem to be corresponding through our subject titles? I remember a series of email with Philip years ago where we were taking turns with lines from 'Boom Shake the Room'... (I know, I know- what was I thinking? But a part of me stuck in 1993 (in my defence, I did have to look up that date, I was thinking 1996...) still thinks it's a cool song. And knows all the words. For those who do not know me, do not judge me on this. Please.) Aah the crazy days of youth.

On Tuesday I could hardly walk because I'd been way too enthusiatic at the gym on Monday and yesterday I can't use my arms because of climbing. Small surprise then that I slept through my alarm and it took me twice as long to haul my protesting muscles in to the shower. It's still a cool feeling though. I mean now I know have muscles. If they weren't there, they wouldn't hurt. (Every cloud and all that... I'm having a bit of a Pollyanna day.) I even have muscles in my back. Dude.

Purchase purchase purchase!

Look! I just bought this little purse on TradeMe! for $11!

That guy has a pretty hat though!

Hey - I am going to make this blog open to anonymous comments - awesome!
Because I want people to go to this link, look through the thumbnails, and tell me which three Critic covers from this year I should enter into ASPAs.

I'm imagining tens of comments to come torrenting in by the way.

Also,

In an unexplainable upturn in zoo freedom bids, a Red Panda escaped from Hamilton Zoo, and was later found dead on a road near the zoo - apparently a victim of a hit and run incident. The Red Panda, Badal, and his (oarsomely named) brother Chito, had just been transferred from Auckland zoo, and some may speculate that the car incident was merely a Red panda unable to come to terms with Hamilton being his new home, and committing Red Panda harikari.
NB: Red pandas are actually racoons, not panda-pandas. Although they do eat bamboo.

what is the world coming to?

Surely this is just tragic? This is not the kinda thing I need waiting for me in my inbox on a Monday morning. I actually started to get angry. Please tell me the smokers out there think this is awful too?

shiny new climbing bling for Aynia

A slightly misleading title because I am in fact currently bling-less *sob* *sniff* but this new hobby of mine will be an easy source of birthday and Xmas beautiful blingorama for years to come. For the person who loves to accessorise, climbing is the sport for you! I have currently spent far too much time today looking at amazing pics of bouldering comps and investigating prices of various bits of gear. Because not only is there quality to take in to account but colour coordination. My shoes and chalk bag are currently kinda matching (of course), being ochre and black so I'm probably having to look at gear like this but I will have to branch out. Oh it's gonna be fun. Soon I hope to look like this. (But not be a boy.) So beautiful and shiny. I must have been a magpie or a bowerbird in a past life....

just when things seem to be calming down

Not much to write as I want to be heading home (I have banana cake and bread that needs baking) and I'm sure you all know about this but dude. It's kinda scary to be in London and hear about this kind of stuff happening to an airport you use fairly frequently. The poorPOOR people having to be at Heathrow today. And even for the next couple of days, this will sod things up right proper. Some may wonder why I'm linking to Sky News articles instead of the BBC- well I think the Sky ones are better. More coverage. Just more. And because, contrary to what Britain may believe, the BBC are not media Gods.

And on a similarly sombre note, look at this. I cannot even begin to think what life would be like with 2 heads. Since they have separate brains, will she have separate personalities? What's that gonna be like when you share one body? If you scratch the nose on head one, will head 2 feel like its nose if being scratched or will it just feel 'a nose' being scratched? I can not get my brain around it. I do hope she lives. Some might say it's an extreme form of Siamese Twinism (my word) but I say it's different.

good things come to those who wait

You may have a while to wait of pictures of me climbing my sweet. Until I look a bit more elegant, there won't be any pics of me whaling my way up a wall. That said, I had such an awesome time last night. I end up partnered with Rodrigo which is actually a really good match because we are both keen to climb marked paths and give each other advice as well as being slightly competitive about the whole thing. We both did a tricky-ish one and then I did a 4a (I haven't worked out UK gradings compared to what was used in NZ) so Rodrigo had to go do a 4+ (just that little bit better) so I did that one too and then he mostly did a 6+ on the same route and I tried, I really did, but I just kept popping off the wall. Partially the holds were just that little bit too far away for teeny weeny me but also I just wasn't good enough for it. Still, I had a bloody good bash at it and came home with adrenaline pumping through my veins and my forearms not working at all. Throwing ourselves off the wall went well, Rodrigo went first and he let go and jumped away with such enthusiasm that he set the bar quite high so of course I had to respond in kind. It does build trust quickly...

On the way home I stopped by Kerry's and was greeted by Jen and Tanya bearing over-ripe bananas and winsome smiles. Having tasted both my banana cake and my banana bread, they were hoping I'd bake some for them. And I'm ever the sucker for someone who loves my baking... ;-)

But now for piccies and a brutal summary of my weekend:

On Friday we went out to celebrate Rose's 30th birthday (far left in the pic) and we went to the Medieval Banquet which was quitequite cheesy but a great evening. Some people dressed up in full medieval kit and others of us just opted for a fancy hat. I had this stunning red princess-esque number but it kept slipping off my head so it spent most of the evening under the table.Basically it's like attending a perofrmance where they have audience participation and stop every now and then so you can eat. Everyone got in to the spirit of it and there was much laughing and hilarity.Kerry and I have reached the conclusion that no matter where we go out to eat, there will end up being a picture of her with a napkin tucked down her front. At the moment food just seems to leap off her plate/fork/spoon in an eager bid to splatter itself all over her chest. A girl can't win. This photo sums Lauren up perfectly really. Check out her sensible trainers! In her defence, you couldn't see them under her long skirt unless she lifted up the dress.

On Sunday I got sunburnt for the first time this year. It seems there's always gonna be once no matter how careful I am. Lotte, Fanni and I went to FruitStock, a free festival in Regent's Park. It's sponsored by this fruit drink company and was a fantastic day out. We wandered around, enjoying the food stalls with funny signs. This sign was beside a stall that was doing different types of hummus-based meals. They even had badges with 'give peas a chance' but sadly I was too slow and missed out. Lotte and I enjoyed tucking in to some massive wedges of watermelon which, although a smidge on the floury side, were enormous fun to eat. I mean check us out, those things are nearly the size of our heads! The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing in the shade listening to music and reading and chatting. I even bought some poi with streamers on them. I know I have poi at home but they aren't doing me any good in NZ are they?Sunday evening saw yet another BBQ at Kerry's (the Sunday BBQ at that flat seems a summer tradition by now) and I brought out the pois and of course everyone wanted to learn. More hilarity ensued with great feats of lack of coordination and of course the crowning glory when JJ cracked himself in the nads. *sigh* It will never be not funny...

I want pictures of you throwing yourself off the wall!

Just so there's a picture for our blog, I thought I'd put one of my new friend.
Her name is Chelsea. And she likes the smell of permanant markers. She lives on the lawn in front of the clocktower.

nonsensical late afternoon babble

Everyone I make coffee for leaves me. Well every guy in this office that I make Magic Coffee for (instant coffee + milk = Magic Coffee). First Christian and now Jon (Dive's designer). They claim they love my coffee and I get such heart-warming smiles when I make it. And then they leave. Is there something they're not telling me?

And why do you guys get to hear about this? Well I tried to upload weekend happy snaps but blogger.com photos is 'not responding'. So instead you get nonsense. Shortly I shall be leaving for week#2 of my climbing course. Tonight we get to spontaneously thow ourselves off the wall so that our belayers get a chance to see what it is like to catch someone when they're falling. It'd better not have to be from too high up, that's all I can say.

So if this blog is my last, it's been great folks, remember to be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Peace out.

dude

Firstly: Kitty my sweet- you cannot just slap up new Jessa pics and not give any links! That is so cheating!

Secondly: look at my supercutie family. Well supercutie Mumsie and sister. Dad sent me these pics and it's only been just over 3 months since I was home (really?!! It seems like sooooooooooo much more than that...) and seeing this pic, I was struck by how much alike my Mum and sister look. I mean dude. It's not like I should be surprised, genetics and all that, but still...

Thirdly: I had to put in this picture of Julie because it just made me smile and almost laugh out loud. (J, if you want me to take it down that's cool.) This folks, (mystery readers in California and Ohio-ish regions) is my sister. She is posing beside a poster for the play she is putting on at Bats at the moment. Props, kudos and best of luck to her for it.

Fourthly: Monday is too busy to post other photos and stories from the weekend but I'll get on to it tomorrow.

Jessa's back - back again!

Your Ireland wedding blog is like a chicklit dream come true! Did you wear a hat?

stolen moments

Too busy. Too much to do. Too little time. Poor little Aynia brain about to implode. (Ever since seeing a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where he imploded I've decided that it so soooooooooooo much cooler than exploding.) So who knows how much wedding and baby madness I shall fit it. I've worked solidly through the morning so I now intend to reward myself with 10 minute bursts of blogging after I finish minor tasks. I think we'd better buckle up and get ready for a bumpy ride.

But first before I forget:
These are the coolest bags ever. When I am finally back near a sewing machine I intend to steal this idea. Sorry, I mean "appropriate". I saw these when I was at V&A and would have bought one but just couldn't let myself pay out £30 for the smallest bag which isn't even 200x300mm in size. Sooooooooooooooo beautiful though. And cool. And innovative. And trendy. Julie- do not steal this idea before I get a chance to!

The coolest thing I have seen this week. Even if it wasn't George Bush, this would still be superultramegaübercool. You can even click on him and move him around. Dude. I could watch this for hours.

The funniest thing I have seen this week. Click on each animation and watch it go. Courtesy of my sister which was in turn probably courtesy of one of her crazy friends. Thanks hon! Thanks crazy friend! (The email I got from J had each cat labeled as rocking out to a certain type of music which this link doens't really seem to have which is a pity. Make up your own. Most of the head-bangers are death metal kitties and the one that runs around the shop with the drugged up scared eyes is a techno one. Hee hee.)

Down to business
Here are the happy couple. I had the most fantastic time in Ireland. Whenever I'm there I never ceased to be overwhelmed by the warmth and hospitality of Pat, Olive and their family. I think part of what made the wedding so special was not only that Anita & Steve were so happy but that everyone was there was so happy for them as well. This is Daisy, Cathy's daughter (I stayed with Cathy in Portugal and she is Anita's eldest sister) perched atop her father's shoulders. Over the course of the weekend, Daisy seemed to flip, Jeckel and Hyde styles, between being a total BernieLimpet and being Little Miss Sociality.The reception was at the beautiful manor home with the most amazing lawns and while the wedding party had photos taken, the rest of us could have a drink at the bar or play croquet or petanque on the lawn which was a bloody awesome idea because they're nice light sports and it was mega sunny. Bernie and I teamed up against two strapping lads, Steve and Dave, who were friends of the groom, and we got our asses kicked. Well to be honest Steve had played before and he kicked all of our asses but since Dave was on his team he got to share in the glory. Croquet is a nasty devious game really and we all had enormous fun abusing each other and being croquet divas. And then to top it all off, I ended up seated between Steve and Dave at the meal! What a twist of Fate. And so the afternoon off piss-taking and comradery continued. It helped that both lads were quite charming and attractive and all in all, Aynia had a fantastic day. ;-) Cathy's kids almost stole the show though with Daisy being the cutest thing ever and Sean asking to be picked up so he could sing, "One, two, three, four, five, once I saw a fish alive..." etc etc after the speeches. What I want to know, is why are little girls just so gosh-darn adorable?
So that was the Thursday. I spent Friday and most of Saturday with Cathy, Bernie and the kids. We drove up to South Ireland (only in bloody Ireland could you drive up to go to southern-whatever. Typical.) to stay at Pat and Olive's mobile home and have a general wander around the countryside. For me, the highlight had to be driving through a town called Muff. Muff. They called a town Muff. Bernie and I sniggered for a good long time over that one. He was educated in the UK (I think) so he got it but Cathy was like, "What's so funny about Muff?" [Cue more sniggering from me and Bernie.] So of course I had to take a photo. During this trip I got treated to the best all time chat up lines ever- courtesy of a 3 1/2 year old. When I was seated between him and Daisy on the back seat, he would occasionally sit there looking at me and stroke my arm and come out with such corkers as, "I like touching you." "I like your muscles." And also, "Do you want to touch my muscles." I mean dude! He just melts my heart- when he's not busy being a precocious little shit that is- he's at that age where he really enjoys testing his boundaries- but despite that, he is an absolute honey. Apparently when Cathy and he went to the airport to pick up Bernie, Sean said, "Can we wait here for Aynia?" Cathy said yes, he could, if he wanted to wait another 2 days. He looooooooooves me. ;-)

I'm going to Paris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kerry has never been to Paris and the last time I was there was 8 years ago so we're going in September! Part of me doesn't want to jinx it by writing about it but hey, here I go anyway. Accompanying us shall be Andy and JJ, two of Kerry's flatmates. I'm really excited about it and it should be a total blast because they're cool guys and the bunch of us always have fun when we're out together and the boys are quite hilarious. My aim is to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, I've never seen that before and I think it could be something quite special. And we're getting (well we hope to get) this special Eurostar deal which is train plus accommodation and is soooooo much easier than having to go to the airport because the train takes you right in to Paris. Oh joy!

And for now that shall have to do whilst I wind up Friday madness. Let's hope that from now on I'm better at this updating thing.

Space filler until aynia's fantastic ireland wedding/babies blog (are there babies? I hope so)

CUTEST BABY EVER!!!

look at his schnuggly wuggly ears!!

okay so maybe Friday...

Good ole Kitty. She hides in silence for weeks and then WHAM! she comes out with gems like those pill packets. Geez Louise- I thought I had some random urls. You put me to shame hon!

In other matters, I'm glad I didn't explicitly promise to write a decent blog today because- you betcha- no time. I was hunting down special deals to Paris and now my time is up and work calls. Especially as tomorrow I'm out of the office doing press passing again. Maybe Friday? Maybe.

Last night I did the first session of my beginners' climbing course. It was awesome and, as predicted, my forearms nearly dropped off. It's a 4:1 ratio of students:instructor and apart from me there is a British couple and a guy from Brazil. We're a nice bunch and I think we'll work well together- climbing is so much nicer when you talk to each other and discuss problems and have someone yelling at you from the ground to tell you where to put feet/hands when you get stuck. Oh yeah- and the instructor is hot. ;-) Call me shallow but it never hurts to have eye candy around... We did belaying, knot tying, and then just generally scrambled our way up the walls using whatever came to hand. The focus was on getting belay technique down and believe you me, I never realised how important it was. I was spoilt because I was taught by people that I knew and trusted and had already climbed for a while. As a result I could slap myself in a harness and happily scramble my way up knowing that if it went pear-shaped, I'd be fine. Last night I discovered that you climb a whole lot more carefully when the person at the bottom of the rope is doing it for the first time...

Right. Work. Ciao.

can i just say!

check out these alarm pill cases! halfway through wednesday print night, but needed to post this so i don't forget it!

smug again

We have a deal going at work whereby everyone has a cake buddy and on your birthday, your cake buddy buys you a cake (which everyone in the office helps you eat). Today was Ali's birthday (well strictly speaking it was yesterday but she had the day off so today was cake day) and she had requested carrot cake so carrot cake it was. I used this amazing recipe which Mum got from a friend years ago and tomorrow I will post it for the anyone who is a carrot cake fan to try out. It won over people in the office as well with many an orgasmic groan accompanying the first bite. So once again a pile of crumbs pies as a testament to my baking success. Oh yeah.

And apart from that I find myself, once again, without time to blog properly. What's with that? I guess because my spare time today has been taken up with trying to sort out flights to Paris (Kez & I plan to go there for a weekend in September) and flights to Berlin and accommodation for when a bunch of us hit the Christmas Markets just before Xmas. Tomorrow I tell you, tomorrow I shall write of Irish weddings and small children who flirt with me and photos and oh so much more.