Monday 28 January 2013

Today was a hot summery Sunday, and I decided I needed to go for a long walk. I've been feeling a bit lazy lately, like I haven't been doing as much exercise as I should be. So I "phoned a friend" through facebook and arranged to go for a walk.

Within 12 hours prior to leaving, we received a message on facebook asking if we would go to the beach or meet up at the gardens later for a picnic. We were like, hmmmm, will decide tomorrow.

So I met my friend and we left my apartment, we then walked along the roads through the city, up to Central Park in Brooklyn. Before we got to the park though we walked past another friends house: So I took this image of his front path, of course picture-messaged it to him and said "Hey". He replied "stalker, come visit" to which our reply was "maybe later". (We ended up not seeing him, but hey lovely friend you're mentioned on the blog!)



Central Park is pretty big and has an amazing playground - complete with adult sized flying foxes!

Here are some images from along the walk. So started at Central Park, ended up walking through Central Park for maybe 20 minutes or so, then we decided to continue along the Town Belt edges and see how far we could go. After all, we were going on an Adventure!


(Above image) The City in the distance view is from the top end of the Renouf tennis courts by Central Park.
(Below image) More of the city.


 Between the above image and the next one, we walked for quite a while following what we thought to be a path, instead we found ourselves wandering along a bike track! Filled with jumps and crazy banked up corners, somehow we managed to climb it. (It was really steep and slippery in some places). Neither of us hurt ourselves though and there was only one point one of us slipped slightly. It was pretty fun though!

(Below:) This was actually looking directly at the Wellington Hospital, located in Newtown, sadly the light was just far too intense for my phone camera to focus on the buildings.


Another view of the city, towards Newtown and suburbs.
This was taken after we'd gotten out of the bush area. The blocky looking white building off to the right of the tree is the hospital.


More views of the city...


As we were walking back (along an actual paved path) we were talking about how Valentines Day is coming up. My friend mentioned that he doesn't have anyone to give a Valentines to this year - I suggested just giving things to the people he likes - even if they're only friends.
 I also suggested a bunch of flowers for myself. Hehe!
We then saw a couple of love hearts graffitied onto the ground;



(Above) Mount Cook playground where our walk ended, 
after that we walked back along the streets back to my place. 

Our trek took quite a while, by the time we had walked back to my apartment we had been gone close to 2 and a half hours. We then met Dan and took him to the supermarket, then up to the Gardens... Where we met more friends and listened to Gospel Music. It was actually a new experience for me and was pretty awesome.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the Gospel Music stage and lights... while I enjoy a much deserved Hot Choc (with Marshmallows of course!)


 Picnic Foods and Drinks...


Early on in the evening, still quite light out. 


 I made Bubble Log (Cake) and the remnants of the picnic. 


 Getting darker, the lights starting to go on...


Looking at the lights in the trees.


A lone tree, but later it was looking amazing! 






A lantern in the park, it's on a tall pole.


Blue lighting under the seats.... 







Then we noticed.... 








BUBBLES!!!








Friday 25 January 2013

Game Masters: The Exhibition and the bad hair cut.

Okay, so after cleaning "all of the things" today and finding that we now have neighbours (oh joy), I decided to give my fringe a bit of a trim. The only problem was, I did it too crooked, which ended up with it being far too short.
My flatmate and her partner both said it looked cool and like I'd done it on purpose. Poor Dan couldn't do anything but laugh at me.

Oh well, nothing a 2-6 week wait won't fix. ;)

Game Masters: the Exhibition:

Game Masters The Exhibition is on at Te Papa at the moment.
(15th December 2012 to the 28th of April 2013 to be exact).  It's on level 4 in the Visa Platinum Gallery.
And it's pretty awesome if I say so myself; Dan and I went along with some of Dan's work mates.
The Exhibition is open daily 10am to 6pm.
There is an admission charge to enter, though I would say the admission is well worth it.
(Once you're in, there are no pass outs, but there are toilets available inside the exhibition).
No photography or filming is allowed within the exhibition.
When you enter, you're given a wrist band, it has a special chip in it, so you can use it to scan at certain places throughout the exhibition. (This was you can be later emailed about the things you scanned, so you can find more out about that product or group -- which is pretty awesome!)

There's a gift shop at the end.
When you've gone through it all you're also allowed to enter a draw to win stuff:
 I think it's the HP Envy x2 Hybrid Tablet. 

The Admission:
Adult: $16
Child: (5-15 years) $9
Child (under 5) FREE
Concession (Student): $14
Plus there are family passes for $45
And group passes are also available.

There's 100+ playable games and heaps more on show. You travel through a period of 40 years, that is 40 years of  gaming. From Dance Central 2 and Space Invaders to Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, basically there's something for everyone!
You play on all sorts of consoles too, Playstation 1, 2 and 3... On the WII, on XBox (including the connect version) as well as PC games.

There was a pretty awesome game on the iPad which was Music based. I liked it, you listen to the music through headphones and tap the squares as they turn white (in time with the music), it was pretty cool.

There were even indie games designed and created here in NZ as well, such as Shatter a great ball game from Sidhe Studios; The guys of which I met in Auckland last year at a Gaming Conference.
Plus I have a copy of Shatter which I happened to win at the Auckland conference. ;)

Dan and I also played Fruit Ninja on the Xbox Connect, which was a bit hard to start with as we weren't used to playing it off a touch-screen!
But overall pretty fun. It didn't help that it was set up for a child height person to play (fine for me, considering I'm 5'3" but it made it really hard for the boys.)

There is also a free download of an action-packed game app for 1-2 players. You can play the "giant" version of it at Te Papa in the exhibition, but it's available here: tepapa.govt.nz/gamemasters
You can also collect the game codes in the exhibition (there's free wifi too) to unlock a special bonus level.
(Sadly I didn't do this, shucks.)




Anyway, I'd better go.
I have work tomorrow for Orientation Day with the new Korean kids. :)

Thursday 24 January 2013

More of a health thing

Sorry for the sudden detour away from the usual kind of topics, but last night Dan found a flea. The only place I can possibly think anyone could have picked it up is from the cat that lives at his old flat. I don't have a pet and the only cat I've been around is my sister's one named Ginger, but he lives 4.5 hours away! (So I highly doubt it's from him) .

Whenever I got a flea bite in the past it was usually from a cat or dog, and I always come out in hives. Last night after finding the flea - which Dan didn't kill (urgh), I saw that I had 5 itchy spots all on my upper legs, 5 turned into 7 (two are on my lower back area).

Here's a few images of my legs today. 



Another new thing: decided I don't like my fringe and after trying to give it a trim (and failing miserably)...
 I've decided to grow it out. So here I am, rocking a bandanna head band. 


Can still hear the neighbours moving in next door. It's going to be so weird trying to be quieter now that there's actually people living there. - It was awesome not having to worry so much about noise after 10:30pm since we only had people above and below us to worry about annoying. :) 

Neighbours...

I wasn't going to write on here today seeing I posted three times yesterday.....
BUT there's an exciting update in the Neighbours / Apartment Living front:

We are going to have Neighbours in the apartment next door! 

Even though I now worry about the noise travelling, it's also kind of exciting. Before this we only had people above us and maybe below us. All I know is we could only hear the upstairs neighbours. For some reason even walking softly makes it sound like you're stamping around to the people living below you.

On a more personal note, I've come out in 7 spots of Hives. Not pleasant and definitely itching me like crazy! Hope the anti-histamines  do their thing and help it to stop itching soon. I'm doing everything I can to keep myself distracted from them so I don't scratch. 





Hearing someone say "Oh no, I think we broke the elevator" is never a good thing to hear.

Listening to the neighbours move in is entertaining!

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Three posts in one day! Wow!

Marriage Equality.

Okay, so first I better get everyone up to speed: in NZ it's currently legal to marry a man and a woman. Gay, lesbian and trans-gender people are currently not legally allowed to marry. In the NZ Government system right now (since June last year in fact) has been a debate going on regarding this thing nicknamed "Gay Marriage", it's a bill that once passed will enable many NZ couples to legally marry. Gender becomes fluid and anyone can marry provided they're not first cousins (along with a bunch of other rules).

Ever since this broke in June last year - I jumped on the bandwagon of support.
I attended a rally to Parliament to protest -peacefully- and show my support.
I'm not personally in a queer relationship, I'm straight. But I do have queer and trans-gender friends who I am supportive of.
Some of the current laws in NZ are archaic. I don't agree with all of them. But then, I am no law-queen. I cannot make judgements without researching thoroughly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=trh7LFQKZ7I

This video was filmed at my university. It comes from a larger website of support which can be found here: http://www.marriageequality.co.nz/

There's also a website which is against the entire thing. Personally, I don't think religion should come into this debate. Sure churches are where a lot of weddings take place but the Catholic church (and other religions) didn't actually recognise a wedding (like we do today) until much, much later than most think. (Something like the 11th century BC?)

More can be found here: (I know Wiki isn't a great source, but it's an awesome place to start).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_(Catholic_Church)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0 <-- amazing="" amn="" and="" by="" featuring="" great="" i="" it="" lambert.="" lewis="" love="" macklemore="" mary="" nbsp="" p="" re="" right="" ryan="" s="" same="" song="" support="" you="">
Thoughts?
Are you with me in supporting this? Or against me? (Haha), comment below. Love some feedback on the topic.

A bonus of apartment living...

So a definite bonus of apartment living, is the noise factors.
They're not all bad.
Hold on a second, let me continue. It's not always bad. Sure the vibrating of the washing machine on spin cycle of the apartment upstairs is enough to annoy some. Especially when it vibrates so much that the floor shakes the entire apartment below it.

But when the young 20-something male neighbours in the next building want to have a good ol' conversation out on their balcony - well let's just say, yeah, you can hear every word. ;)

Sadly they're both dirrty, dirrty smokers. Hehe.
Dan's lucky that smoking is a major turn off for me!

Anyway, yeah so there's these two guys who live next door. Every day in the afternoon, they come out for their regular puff on their cancer-sticks and talk. Kind of loudly. Well, maybe it isn't so loud. Just noise travels quickly here especially since we live mere metres apart. They're a good 15 if not 20 metres away, but  still, voices carry.

Hopefully if I sit at the office area and update my blog enough with it being just quiet enough and the wind is being nice to me and blowing in just the right way... I'll be able to hear all their juicy gossip. Hehe.

23rd of January 2013.

Today was all about catching up on errands.
I went to the bank and luckily (for me) going at 2:30 pm meant there were few people so the lines were short and I could get going a lot faster.
I then grabbed a gelato from one of my favourite cafes, Kaffee Eis. They have 4 stores here in Wellington. One on Courtenay Place, one down on Oriental Parade by the beach and one under the park near the harbour (Frank Kitts Lagoon) and another in Cable Car Lane. All their stores rock.

Their website is here: http://www.kaffeeeis.co.nz/

 I love gelato, they make it on site and you can buy it by the scoop... 1 flavour is $4.50... and you can even buy a litre tub fill! (I can't remember their other prices).


This one is the cafe latte flavour (that is if I remember the name, it's definitely the coffee one).


Oh and they're currently looking for a Full Time barista for their Courtenay Place store. 
As well as a Part Time Sandwich Hand, so if you know of anyone looking tell them to give Hugh a call on 021 1555 766. They can also bring their CV into any of the stores and apply that way. 


When I returned from my errands, it was close to ten past four and I was getting  hungry and tired. Anyway, I get back and the fire alarm starts going off. So I grab my stuff and run down stairs. (Thinking I needed to evacuate). I then text the Building Manager, as I didn't hear the usual Voice-Over saying to Evacuate... Just the sirens... The B.M. text back saying, "Oh, sorry, the alarms company is currently doing noise testing". Great, so I just ran down 4 flights of stairs for nothing! 

Oh, well! Great practise in case it's real. :) 

Got the washing on and enjoying the breezy weather. 

Have to plan dinner soon, maybe not the same as this, which is what we devoured last night:

The Famous Lamb Salad:
Boiled eggs, lettuce, grated cheese, pan fried lamb pieces, 
Mine had added tomato and cucumber... Dan's had grated carrot. 


 The dinner being made:


Small kitchen in use:


Today during my walk I came across this amazing building at Tory Street.


 It's an old building facade which has been left standing for the building work going on around it. I can't remember what the building project is going to be in the end. Wouldn't be a surprise if it becomes another apartment complex. Sadly they are popping up everywhere here and yet they're so expensive to buy. There was an article on the local news recently about housing prices and how few people can afford to buy them now. http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/residential-property/8207909/Wellington-homes-severely-unaffordable Sadly I think owning my own house is out of the question in the long term - unless I can drastically save a lot of money - and even then I doubt that I'd be able to get a mortgage from the bank easily. I'm not being negative about it, just facing the harsh true reality that money is my friend but at present I do not know how to look after it very well. It's a lesson I'm learning but it all takes time.


Tuesday 22 January 2013

It's now 2013

So, somehow it's now 2013. 
I've moved into an apartment...
I moved in with my boyfriend, Dan...
I've been unemployed over summer - it sort of sucks, but doesn't (more about that later). 

The old flat was too hard to me to keep going financially.... And my sister ended up moving back home after a period of working full time in a restaurant. Dan and I decided to move in together last year. We flat hunted like crazy and I viewed so many places. Apartments in Wellington city are mostly tiny! The first place I dragged Dan into he fell in love with. So here we are! 

Some photos from the past few months or so...

 The old place, this was the tiles around the fire place...

 

The view out from the lounge at the old place... I do miss having full sunshine streaming in. Oh well.


 The Owl drawers came with me! (Got a cheap set of drawers at a Salvation Army store before I moved to Wellington, back in 2009... then in 2012 I painted them as a giant owl.)


 The day we moved in, Dan got snapped! He had to climb in/under/around the bed base to set it up. Note it's a King sized bed and our room isn't huge!


 The owl drawers, and the bed base - coming along nicely!


 The "before" of the lounge/ kitchen/ dining area.  (the day we moved in, the movers just "dumped" everything in a pile.) The kitchen took me an hour to sort everything out... while Dan had a nap. Apparently bed making is hard work!


 A sneaky picture of Dan, playing around with his laptop (This was from the day when we made Sushi with our friends, at my old place)...


 Another sneaky picture of Dan...Wearing my wolf hat.


 An "after" image of the bed... And yes, there's a great view out the window - in one direction anyway.


 Another view, yes, more owls! (And my dressing table, covered in my soft toys)... Looking towards the car parking building!


 Dan's couch, It's pretty awesome, it's foam and folds out to make a double bed. My sister Ash came and stayed for her last week in Wellington and slept on it. (Didn't hear her complain so it can't be too bad to sleep on!)
I'm still half decided on using the all green or striped green pillows as the cushions on it.
Out of shot, on the opposite wall is the "office" area, it's currently a desk with laptop and other computer gear on it. The glass on the left of the couch is one side of an amazing glass ranch-slider door. (The whole wall on one end is all glass, made up of 2 large windows and glass doors).


 The kitchen and dining area (shown from the lounge end). There's a washer/drier all in one machine in one cupboard and a fridge in the one that looks like a pantry.


Looking at the kitchen, another view... The microwave that Dan just 'had' to have. hehe. Plus the stove in use.  And Dan's heater makes an appearance.


I guess the place is looking a bit more like a 'show home' that you'd see in a magazine, but it's coming along. There's still a lot to sort out and stuff, but it's early days yet. 

It's also got a 2nd bedroom, but I won't take a picture of the flatmates room out of privacy for her. :) 
And of course we have a bathroom it's shared with a loo too.......
 but no image as it's a bit too weird, even for me.


Unemployed over summer: Oh yes, good to have heaps of time...
 but not so good for trying to save or anything like that! 


So over summer time I don't work at my usual job (as an ESOL tutor) because the kids go back home (to Korea) over Christmas and New Years. Besides of which school in NZ doesn't restart until the start of February. Just waiting to hear back from the boss at the school, emailed a while ago, hope it's good news. :)
I also clean at someone's house, so I have a little income coming in. Just sucks being without a regular income.
I am heading back to school in a little over 6 weeks. Back to studying English Literature.

Apartment living has it's quirks, mostly good. A bit bad too, like the constant noises and being able to hear people and sirens constantly is taking a bit of getting used to. But on the whole, it's pretty awesome.

Signing off, write more later,
 Lisa.