Sources: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

As I men tioned briefly yesterday, The Boyfriend and I went to his mum’s place for the weekend to visit with her and his sisters. They live in a dinky town called Te Aroha that is about two hours south of Auckland. A very dinky town. The shopping area/where everything is is a whopping two blocks long. They have one supermarket, several banks and the whole highlight is the thermal pools which we didn’t end up going to.

We left my house on Friday evening, grabbed some fish and chips from a rubbish place in Clevedon then went the back way through Hunua to miss out the Friday night motorway traffic. Driving through the Hauraki Planes (after having been blasted with rain while driving through winding, tight roads) we followed a double rainbow!

On Saturday there was a baby shower and a birthday party, but we snuck away for a bit to grab some food. I had a hot dog and Josh had a burger and chips. Nummy!

We ate out lunch outside the takeaway shop and watched the foot and road traffic.

Then we walked down the road to get DVDs (Whip It is awesome) and candy!

On Sunday we spent the morning hanging out before grabbing some lunch, then hung out with the family a bit more before heading back home. It was a very hot drive back (no photos because my phone memory was full) but quite fun. We like gabbling about whatever and then we lapse into a comfortable silence and then gab again. It’s nice, just us, the windows down and the journey.

Loving this track at the moment!

*I have some gangsta happening at the moment, ’cause The Boyfriend and I have been talking a bit gangsta this weekend. So sorry about that. Not that there is anything wrong with people who actually speak ‘gangsta’ or anything, we just like doing different accents.

I hope you’ve all had a swell weekend and are looking forward to what I hope will be an awesome week! I went away with my guy to visit his mother, step-dad and sisters, but I shall write about that tomorrow. Tonight I am going to bore you all with weight watching crap. Hurrah!

Basically, the last week and a couple of days has been quite awful. Last weekend I ate most meals out and much of the choice available was unhealthy and fattening. This weekend I ate what was available and lots of junk, including the left-over Maltesers and mixed M&M’s that I am currently scoffing. Whatever I managed to lose during last week (Mon-Fri) I have surely gained back in the last 2.5 days, what with the fried foods and sugar, etc. Sooo not good. I do not have the dieting thing + leaving-the-house thing down yet. I try to prepare a lunch and snacks if I know I’ll be out for awhile, but a lot of the time I don’t know for how long I’ll be gone, which makes preparing a pain. And I’m also lazy.

I don’t know. I want this week to be much better and I want to exercise more as well. So, those are my goals for this week: exercise at least 3 times and stick within my daily points limit.

I can do this. YES I CAN.

1. Garden Birds duvet cover from Urban Outfitters. I may be able to give up on my yellow duvet obsession for this. Maybe.

2. My niece’s growing language skills. Her pronunciation is coming along nicely and the way she says ‘mango’ melts my heart! Sorry I don’t have a sound bite of it!

3. Moccasins. It’s the wrong season for them here, but if I still love ‘em next winter then I will own a pair.

4. Archery. Bruises and sore hand aside, it’s a super-fun sport. Possibly the only sport I will ever be interested in (until my future kiddos start playing).

5. Sewing (although above image is actually a cake!). This week has been a wonderfully productive one at the sewing machine.

6. Christmas decorations. For the first time in my life I will have my very own xmas tree, a small artificial one for my bedroom. I’ve been collecting up a few decorations here and there over the last few weeks. Can’t wait for December 1st!

7. Earl Gray tea.

8. Blueberries, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. FOREVER I SHALL LOVE YOU.

9. Elsie and Emma’s wedding blog, Le Wedding. Elsie and her sister have started the blog as Elsie prepares for her wedding next year. Super-cute with tonnes of inspirational posts.

10. Good weather. Although I am having to try an make peace with the humidity, I’m just glad it’s not pouring outside all the time.

Today is an incredibly sad day in New Zealand. A second explosion at the Pike River coal mine near Greymouth now means that the 29 men stuck in the mine have died. Over the last five days since the first explosion we have hoped for the survival and rescue of the men, while simultaneously preparing for the worst since the situation was believed to be fairly bleak from the beginning. But, we have hoped; I hoped. I think most of us did.

The heartbreaking reality is that the families and friends of the 29 mine workers have lost their sons, husbands/partners, dads, brothers, friends. While those of us who are not directly affected by this tragedy can not possibly feel the way they do, our thoughts are with you.

If any of  the loved ones affected happen to stumble upon this, please know my thoughts are with you, you are in my heart. I do not know how you feel, I can only imagine it, but nevertheless you are in my heart. This outcome truly, entirely sucks.

I will finish this post with the names of the 29 lost – may you all have suffered little and if there is an afterlife may you all enjoy it truly.

-Francis Skiddy Marden, 41, Runanga
-Conrad John Adams, 43, Greymouth
-Stuart Gilbert Mudge, 31, Runanga
-Jacobus (Koos) Albertus Jonker, 47, Cobden (South Africa)
-David Mark Hoggart, 33, Greymouth
-Richard Bennett Holling, 41, Blackball
-Peter O’Neill, 55, Runanga
-Keith Thomas Valli, 62, Winton
-Riki Steve Keane, 28, Greymouth
-Kane Barry Nieper, 33, Greymouth
-Joseph Ray Dunbar, 17, Greymouth
-Glen Peter Cruse, 35, Cobden
-Daniel Thomas Herk, 36, Runanga
-Andrew David Hurren, 32, Hokitika
-Samuel Peter Mackie, 26, Greymouth
-Terry David Kitchin, 41, Runanga
-William John Joynson, 49, Dunollie Australia
-Allan John Dixon, 59, Runanga
-John Leonard Hale, 45, Ruatapu
-Malcolm Campbell, 25, Greymouth by way of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland
-Peter James Rodger, 40, Greymouth by way of England
-Christopher Peter Duggan, 31, Greymouth
-Benjamin David Rockhouse, 21, Greymouth
-Joshua Adam Ufer, 25, Australia
-Brendan John Palmer, 27, Cobden
-Milton John Osborne, 54, Ngahere
-Blair David Sims, 28, Greymouth
-Michael Nolan Hanmer Monk, 23, Greymouth
-Zen Wodin Drew, 21, Greymouth

From my Tumblr.

Sources: one, two, three, four, five, six.

Good morning! It’s Monday already for me; I’m actually a little bugged because the weekend went by so fast. Oh well, another week and this week is going be super-productive with a whole lot of projects to begin! I’m still really excited about university being over for the year and actually having the time to work on crafts. It makes me giddy.

Anyway, I meant to blog earlier about seeing Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 on Thursday night with my guy. He’s a big HP fan, moreso than me as I didn’t get into the books until this year and had only had a mild interest in the films before. So, off we went for some movie awesomeness and we were not disappointed. I have not read the book yet so I can’t make comparisons between the print and film versions, but as a stand-alone movie it was incredible. They always do them so well, even if they aren’t exactly like the books. That is all I shall say in case anyone reading this hasn’t seen it, etc.

Friday was a super-lax day for me at The Boyfriend’s place. Nothing interesting to report there, really. On Saturday mornings, though, Boyfriend goes to archery club and, well, shoots arrows at targets. It’s his new hobby and one I fully support – um, hello, archery is awesome! This Saturday was my first ‘class’ though. I go to shoot arrows at a target too! It was incredibly fun and I did ok for my first time. I actually managed to get my arrows into the target most of the time, and once even managed to hit the gold in the centre! Haha. I did, however, slap the inside of my left elbow with the bow string one time. You see, you’re supposed to turn your elbow so that, when your arm is straight, the top of it is turned slightly in towards your other arm and the bottom is turned out. This gets your inner-elbow and arm out of the bow string’s way when you let it go. I failed to do that once and now I have a giant bruise to prove it! I may share a photo of it later – I am actually kind of proud of it.

Later that day we did a spot of Xmas shopping and Boyfriend managed to score a set of kitchen knives on sale, from $900 to $200. He was very pleased with himself over this and spent the rest of the day a bit hyper because of it. He likes cooking and obviously knives are very important. I found the whole thing adorable, hehe.

Finally, after months of waiting, last night was our night to see the Rocky Horror Show. It was a nice early 6:30pm start and at Auckland’s stunning Civic Theatre. We headed into the city early, grabbed some beers…

Beer.

Beer face.

…and wandered around before getting Indian food for dinner. Then, it was show time! The show’s creator, Richard O’Brien (born in the UK, moved here as a child), narrated the production and joined in for some singing every now and then. The whole show was just fantastic, from the set and costumes to the most important, the songs! The cast did an amazing job and brought so much life to their performances. My favourite characters are Rif Raf and Magenta in the film, and they were last night too. The actress who played Magenta (Nicole Melloy) was just so fabulous (and gorgeous); she just oozed sex all night, haha! The rest of the cast were amazing too, and Juan Jackson was a fantastic Frank-N-Furter – his voice is…omg wow. At the very end, after the cast had done their bows (like, 4 times, lol) they began an O’Brien lead ‘Time Warp’ in which the entire audience joined in. We were already standing and, well, it’s not like we didn’t want to be on our feet dancing and singing the whole show anyway! It was so awesome.

I absolutely highly recommend you see the show if you can. It’s on at the Civic for another week. It goes to Wellington on December 1st. I’m not sure if it will be heading elsewhere in New Zealand or overseas, however. Just, trust me, go if you can! Do not miss this.

I think it’s safe to say I did well with the one year anniversary gift. Boyfriend was most pleased.

*images link to sources.

1. On my Christmas wish-list for sure!

2. ‘Kay, well I really need one of those Silhouette SD cutters.

3. Saw this bike at the bike shop near The Boyfriend’s house. Niiiice. Needs a basket though.

4. Super-cute paper craft.

5. Pop art stacking mugs from Stevens, and pretty much everything else from that store.

6. This amazing dress. I have no idea who designed it though.

7. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Californication days. Reminds me of childhood, ‘Scar Tissue’, summer ’99, teen music obsessions, my first concert, rock star crushes, best online friends, first boyfriend, and so much more. Band of my youth!

8. Rocky Horror Picture Show. Seeing the live show later tonight with The Boyfriend! Insert excited jumping up and down here.

9. Castles. In particular, Château de Brissac in France.

10. Studios. Would give anything for my own.