photostory friday - GO WELLINGTON!!!

on the eve of yet another mighty wellington-canterbury ranfurly shield clash - it's time for a little history lesson.

this is the ranfurly shield. also known as the 'log-o-wood'. it has a long and illustrious history dating back to 1902, and is the holy grail of provincial rugby in new zealand.

it has changed hands 75 times
it's been held for as long as 8 years and for as little as 7 days

wellington wrested the shield from auckland last year, winning 27 nil, and our city held a parade in their honour.

it was a full circle moment for me (well, sorta).

back in 1982 (when i could wear black fishnets and heels squatting on the back of a truck), the canterbury rugby union held a parade BEFORE their first successful shield challenge against counties. this was in the days when no excuse was really needed to throw a parade.

still living in christchurch, DH ('the boyfriend' as he was the time) and i were part of a voluntary organisation called st. john (like boys and girls brigade, but with a first aid slant). hubs and friend dressed as counties players (by clevering adding a band of white tape around their red and black jerseys) and pretended to get 'beaten up' by the canterbury players (during the parade). see hubs' "black eye".

the 'injured players' (see leg in cast in background of VERY grainy old picture) would get tossed onto the hospital bed which was on the back of a truck, and 'slutty nurse sue' (that would be me), would 'tend' to them.

fun, fun; and look - there we are with the famous logo o' wood.

cut to 2008 and here it is again (except i'm photographing it, not holding it).

this is leo the lion - the team's mascot. it was a VERY windy day

wellington and canterbury have played each other for the shield at least seven times

and we haven't won many of them ('we' being wellington!)

back in 2003 they even had a 38-all draw

which brings us back to today - town is abuzz with 'shield fever'

we won't be at the game, because we're heading out of town for the night
if i'd known about the game, i think we would have stayed in town and gone, coz it's gonna be a good one!

i even have a bottle of chardonnary riding on it with a friend

GO WELLINGTON!!!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

wordful wednesday - yesterday i became the mother of a daughter entering her 3rd decade

and yeah - we pretty much ALL wrote smart-alecky things in her card about not being a teenager anymore!

they went kinda like this:

"ok, i don't know if you know this, but 20 is a REALLY scary number to be writing..."

and

"half way to 40...or 10 again..."

and

[from me]

"i look WAY too young to have a 20 year old..."


HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY

we love you!!!

for more wordful wednesday, visit angie over @ seven clown circus

to enter my latest giveaway, go here

photostory friday - kickin' in our new boots!

tara and i had an impromptu trip to the mall last friday (on our respective days off). i'd been looking for flattish brown boots most of this winter and tara was looking for some black boots to go over her new black jeans.

i guess the planets were all in alignment that day, because we BOTH FOUND SOME!

because it was warm, and because we had a few minutes up our sleeves before school got out, we celebrated by stopping off at a local beach to take some fun shots.

note that tara has hidden her shopping bag BEHIND mine because it's so much smaller
she has shopping bag envy!

i just love my new boots!

i don't know where i was going with this. i guess i just got caught up in the moment
maybe i had spring fever or something...

so, does this ever happen to you? i was actually re-visiting the same shoe store to see if ANOTHER pair of boots i had my eye on had been FURTHER DISCOUNTED.
they had not, and i ended up buying a NEW SEASON pair - that were another $80!
the shop assistant said "my husband says, why don't you just go for the MOST EXPENSIVE pair straight away"!

he might have a point!

then it was tara's turn to try hers on, but oh no!
she has sweaty feet and can't get them on!

so i'll just hold them up against my person so you can see, ok?

a good day

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

wordful wednesday - goodie in a hoodie

or in this case, goodIES in hoodIES...

goodie in a hoodie day (last week) ran alongside UNICEF's International Youth Day and encouraged people of all ages to wear hoodies 'to empathise with youth'.

given that my house is permanently overrun with 'youth', i have plenty of empathy, but i did my bit and i think miss 19 and i look rather cute!

for more wordful wednesday, visit angie over @ seven clown circus

yes, that's my daughter channeling a 1930s gangster [and other random thoughts]

and that's her boyfriend on the right, and he's ALWAYS that happy.
he's quite adorable and they're very cute together.

trust my daughter to be front and centre, but where else would you be with cheekbones like that - (eh daryl?)

got this today from elizabeth - thanks from your 'foreign' friend!
[aren't we all foreign when it comes down to it though? just a thought...]
saw district 9 on sunday night with our neighbours
it's certainly not a movie i would have picked if it was a 'just the two of us' on a date night, but WOW
compelling, riveting - and has peter jackson (a kiwi you know!) written all over it

two thumbs waaaaaaaaaay up!!!

i just had a 4-day weekend
because i'm working THIS friday (which is usually my day off), i had yesterday off
4 day weekends ROCK!

miss 19 turns 20 in exactly ONE WEEK!
(she was due yesterday!)

i'm having another hot stone massage next week
(yes i am!!!!)

AND SOME GREAT NEWS FOR LOCAL SWEET TOOTHS...
the organic grocer cafe (bottom of ngaio gorge) is now back open as the
EAT RIGHT CAFE

spread the word, drop in and say hi...

- oh, and 41 sleeps until all that stuff in the post below happens...

counting sleeps

45 sleeps until we go here

45 (maybe 46) until i get to photograph this

and i really want to photograph it at night
obviously i want to photograph it during the day TOO, but i REALLY want to photograph it at night

maybe i'll get a shot just like this one, because we're going to treat ourselves to one of these before we go

45+ sleeps until we drink a lot of this (standing up, because apparently it's cheaper if you drink it standing up)

it's also apparently totally uncool to have milk in your coffee after 10am, (or maybe it's before)
i know i'm totally gonna stuff it up and look like a total plonker-type tourist

but i really want to drink one SITTING DOWN here...
and i don't care how expensive it is

because in 50 sleeps we're celebrating 25 years since we did this

[sigh] if i knew then what i knew now...

i wouldn't change anything

N-EEEEEEEEEEEE-THING.
[true]

so, we have very good friends who are both 50 and have been together longer than us and don't have kids and they're going to live in rome for THREE MONTHS (to celebrate their 100th). the middle month just happens to be the month of our wedding anniversary which is why this trip is SO MEANT TO BE.

they're staying in THREE apartments (just to mix it up you know) and we get to stay in TWO!)

this one in via patera, in the heart of trastevere
(i have no idea what that means, i just cut and paste it from google)
and this one in the jewish ghetto
it sounds very chic and cool, no?

then we're treating ourselves to a 1st class sleeper on this

it's a tiny picture, but you get the picture!
overnight from rome to paris, then eurostar to london

we're staying with my sister in london, and i've been making good use of google maps dot uk and have discovered that there are a GOOD many of these to be found within walking distance of my sister's flat (well, 6 miles, but after eating pasta and drinking red wine for a week, we're gonna need the exercise!)
of course we'll be going on this
(who wouldn't?)and on our first night in london we're going here for dinner
and were meeting this totally hip and cool blogger
(although i really hope she leaves the inflatable stripey thing at home...)
then we're taking the train out to here
{i don't know whose child that is...}

to stay with this strangely lush blogger and her adorable family

i hear there's even a castle near where they live
(although, knowing the UK, that isn't anything unusual)

i was disappointed to discover however, (while writing this post) that this castle is under renovation and won't be open while we're visiting

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
(boo hoo hoo)

ah well. maybe i could just take a picture from the outside
[like this one...]

jealous much???

photostory friday: cupcakes, cosmos and sex and the city!

i'm finally posting about the fun night i hosted with my scrapbooking email group last month

'scrapmates' is an email group i belong to made up of mostly wellington-based scrapbookers.

kris is the engine behind the group, sending daily questions and prompts and links to fun projects, videos, and all things on and off the topic of scrapbooking.

the idea for this night came out of the girls' night we had a couple of months ago. we started at a bar in town where the drinks were 2-4-1 and of course, eventually a cosmo or two was imbibed!

in the midst of my current obsession with cupcakes, i offered to host what turned out to be a very fun night. i organised for everyone to bring something different, down to renting the dvd - but the lovely nat GIFTED me my very own copy - thanks nat!

your hostess for the evening - ME!
had my hair done that day too - i think i'm totally working it...
[the top was new as well]
AND i made my necklace!

smiley NAT who gave me my very own copy of sex and the city
- TO KEEP!

action aplenty in my kitchen

the always laughing, lovely lou

decorating cupcakes is a SERIOUS business

...or is it???
[that's joh]. we love joh

lou and our scrapmates 'leader' kris

i love this shot of mandy! mandy came over earlier in the day to help me make a trillion cupcakes in preparation for our fun night

raise your cosmos and say cheese!

the fruits of our labours

that's a pineapple lump sticking out of the top. they're an iconic kiwi 'candy'
i might be tempted to add some to my latest giveaway
[note the shameless plug]

and then we settled in to watch this...

(some of us for the 4th time, some of us had never even watched an EPISODE of SATC!)

thanks for making it fun night my friends - let's do it again soon!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek