I need some help. Obvs I need help in many ways..but specifically, I need someone who has travelled on New Zealand's South Island to weigh in with ideas of brilliance. Brilliance.

I haven't been on a holiday with my beloved since October 2010. That's a long a time between drinks. I haven't been overseas with my beloved since June 2009, and we had a big fight because he told me that he only asked me to go with him because his bestie couldn't, and also, I can read a bus timetable in German. I was pretty pissed. And I can't even read German, I was just guessing. Here I am pissed, and Rob is sheepish. You see??


Anyway, he learned his lesson, and doesn't mess with me when I'm jet-lagged anymore. My German comprehension improved a bit too. Pfft.






















This time we are going road-tripping, just for a week, in New Zealand. Apparently it is not normal to schedule holidays too precisely, so (unlike the Broome trip) I have resisted the urge to itinerise nap times and internet breaks. I smashed my iPad anyway, so internet breaks could be difficult.

The plan.

Day 1:Akaroa
Day 2: Lake Tekapo
Day 3: Mount Cook
Day 4 & 5: Queenstown
Day 6 & 7: Te Anau/Milford Sound

My whole idea for going to Akaroa was centred around seeing the biggest damn penguin colony on the South Island, but it turns out that in March the little fuckers have all gone out to see. Devastated.  Alls I can say is that if we go on a harbour cruise (does that sound a bit naff...?) there had better be seals. Or at least a dolphin.

In Tekapo, I want to walk around the lake and go to the Mt John Observatory at night. The observatory at night; I'd like to look at the lake in the daylight. I'd also like to wear my hiking boots again (6 days in Tasmania in 2008; they've been in the same plastic bag, with the same dried mud, ever since) so I think Mount John via Lake Shore sounds worthy...

In Mount Cook I want to put my nose on a glacier. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but I need it to happen.

In Queenstown I am open to ideas. I just know that I would be absolutely crap playing frisbee golf and that ziplining will make me wee my pants. Just sayin.

I know that on one day, from Te Anau, we shall day-trip to Milford Sound. Is there any other reason to be in Te Anau? I have my fingers crossed for a penguin. Just one will do. Two would be better, or maybe a baby penguin, but I know that beggars cannot choose.  I quite like the idea of some kayaking on the Sound, too.

How does this sound? Obviously I haven't scheduled the inevitable melt-down that will happen when I am driving and take a wrong turn. Or conversely, the wrong turn that will come when I am navigating;  I think both will come in their own sweet time. But otherwise... is anything missing?

My succulents are still growing. Quite well in fact. But my mint is ailing, and my strawberry has long since dropped its lone berry and started to droop downward. I took an agave cutting from the plant in our complex's  'garden'  (it is mostly concrete), and it is going well, but I have now realised that agave do nothing for me. They are just.. green. No flowers. No scent. Just, green.

Sometimes, you just have to admit defeat. There is no point trying to grow flowers, or other nice things (herbs? heroin?? I don't know), when you live on the top-floor of a UV-loving building with two flower-loving rabbits.

But, aside from the violent neighbours, and the kids injectign drugs in our garage, one of the good things about our street is that lots of old people live in it. Old people, who have nothing better to do with their time than grow flowers and yell abuse at passers-by.

I like to imagine that I will be just like those old people, someday.


Until that day, I'll just mumble things under my breath as people pass me by, and take pictures of the flowers, hoping that one day I'll be able to grow something half as lovely.


❤

We went for a drive to Fabric Remnant Warehouse today because it was warm and the car has air conditioning. I needed to buy a stretch twin needle. Just one. One packet, with a needle inside.  I ended up with rather more than that. I tell myself that it's ok, because I'm spending much less on fabric than I was previously on clothes, and also, I am supporting an independent business, which means I am doing my bit for the economy...

Anyway. We also went on a trip to the vet because Rob's coat just hasn't been its usual shiny self lately, and I've noticed that his nose has been a bit dry. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the girls needed to get their calicivirus vaccinations for an upcoming stay at BunnyWonderland (because we are going on holiday!!).  I love BunnyWonderland because they clip the girls' toenails for me, and they appreciate the cuteness of Binky and Mochi. And they deliver hay to my house, which is awesome (I hate PetBarn), and text me pictures of the bunns when I am away. I think the girls like going to BunnyWonderland more than being at home.

 But so, the vet. I think that I was more nervous than the girls were (apart from the general terror induced in them by a car trip). Have you ever seen that poster in the doctor, aimed at fretting mothers who are getting their babies jabbed? "It won't hurt if you don't look." But I wasn't worried so much that the girls were going to be hurt. Rather, I was worried that, in my attempts to restrain them, I was going to get hurt. Those bitches bite.

I was paranoid too, that the vet would judge me as a bad mother for not having the girls de-sexed (it costs a lot of money..), and tell me that Mochi is too fat. I like to think she is just big boned and cuddly, but nothing hurts more than the truth.

Luckily, one bleeding claw-mark later (thank you Binky), I had two weighed and jabbed bunnies, and am now safe in the knowledge that Mochi is not too fat. She just likes to eat ❤ And Binky's no angel.


I didn't even get a lecture about getting them spayed. Win!





❤

I am being so domestic lately. It's disturbing. No wonder Rob's mother keeps throwing around the marriage comments.

First: pork.

Progress towards my first goal began early. Not only was I out of bed before 10am, but I was out of bed, putting a load of laundry on, being generally domesticated, and  going grocery shopping to obtain above-mentioned big piece of pork and cider.

All you need is a big piece of pork, some apples, an onion and a bottle of cider. After 8 hours in a very slow oven, something life-changing happens. Both for the piece of pork and the people eating it. 


As a side note, lately, to my great joy, Swedish cider is being imported into Australia. Rejoice. Rejoice! I need to let you know that Kopparberg is more delicious than Rekorderlig, which I find to be a bit too sweet and cloying. Kopparberg also reminds me more of Uppsala, and is therefore, just better.

Second: skirt.

Progress towards the second goal began a couple of weeks ago, when, during an internet-window-shopping trip, I stumbled across this Uniqlo skirt. Unfortunately, I couldn't buy the skirt, because I'm not buying clothes this year, remember? And also...Uniqlo don't ship to Australia... But mostly, of course, the no buying thing...

So I decided I would make it. Somehow.
So, I guess you're wondering how it went?

Well. I didn't finish it in time for work on Monday. That much I'll grant you.

Sometimes, one just must spend money on oneself, to pick oneself up.

Also, one sometimes finds that when payday arrives (but once a month) a.. hole.... begins to burn in the pocket. But, there is a solution! It takes about an hour, a bus trip to Newtown, and the ability to keep the eyes closed for about an hour, safe in the knowledge that two pairs of tweezers are being wielded very, very close to said eyes.


Some might say that eyelash extensions are a luxury.

Some do, in fact, say that they are a luxury. Even if they're just jealous, Jennifer.



Ellie says: they make me feel good so they're worth it. As long as I don't make a habit of it. That would make a very expensive habit...

... Well, things have been a little quiet this week. I haven't had a chance to do any sewing this weekend, or this week for that matter. I'm now in Grafton, where it's humid, and a bit depressing, and it's a long story with an end that hasn't happened yet.

Last weekend, however, I did some more work on my Vogue 8667 dress. I finished the hemming (or rather, I started the hemming...), and for the first time I used the little hem jiggy on my dress form, which, sadly, was one of the most exciting things that happened. I set the collar, too. I set it and it involved rather a lot of hand-sewing. I set it and it doesn't look the way I'd imagined it would.

I'm going to chop it off. Partly because I didn't realise that the back makes it look as though the collar has been accidentally sewn on backwards, and partly because it is Too Big. As in like.. makes me feel as though I'm being strangled. It's disconcerting to say the least.


I'm kind of pissed because, as I say, I had to hand-sew the damn thing on, plus I spent about 30 minutes pressing it, and now I don't like it.  I don't want to waste the hand stitches though, so I'm going to unpick the back and trim it down to about a centimetre wide, and.. sew it again. Much, much smaller this time.

Live and learn. It's becoming a catch phrase.