4 more sleeps!

Just adding another countdown update.....
Only 1 day and 4 hours of work to go!!! And who am I kidding.....I'm not going to get much done tomorrow!!
All I can say is that it's lucky we leave on Monday as I have some serious packing to do this weekend! No doubt I'll pack my bag and my darling sister will come along and through out half of it! Travel light is the key!!!

OMG.....ONE week to go!!!

Exactly 1 week from today, I will be sitting in Auckland International Airport, waiting to catch my flight that leaves in 1.5 hours. WOW.

You know, I had a realisation on the way to work today (I do a lot of thinking on my hour drive to and from work). Today in exactly TWO weeks, I would've reached one of my life goals - to visit Paris. That just made me even more excited!!!! I know I've always wanted to go and was determined to go in this lifetime, but then I suddenly realised that it's actually going to happen!!!! I can't believe it!!!

13 Days To Go!!

I can't believe in 2 weeks time I will be in London!!!!!!!!! Still have a couple of things to organise, but not major things. Other than that, I'm in denial this is actually happening. Cameron and I have been talking about it since Easter last year and now it's ACTUALLY happening!!!!

Not too much has happened since I last wrote on here - besides the countdown!

Yesterday we had a cake competition at work. I was quite excited cause I thought I'd be able to show off my new found skills. Turns out that didn't happen. Had an idea of what I wanted to do but also found this cool cake I wanted to do for my sister's birthday. Everyone at work wanted me to make this other cake and not the fancy one - so that's what I did. The icing actually started to set on me (which isn't suppose to happen with buttercream frosting so something didn't go right). The top looks a little mank, but oh well.....it was all in the name of fun!

It's a Watermelon Cake (for those who can't tell!!)

I have also added a photo in my photo gallery of the earrings I made at Easter - Click Here

Am I a freak or a geek?

Cameron had his birthday party on Saturday night - a Freaks and Geeks party! I raced around in the morning getting my Mother's Day present and the rest of my costume then unloaded Jo's stuff (she's moved into our house for nearly 3 months - mainly to look after Rach and the house while the rest of us are in Europe!).
While Cameron was off driving the truck to move Jo, I quickly decorated his cake - keeping with the geek theme!

We all scattered off to our own rooms to get into our costumes at about 5.30pm. After we managed to calm down from laughing at each other, we had the standard photo shoot! Click on my photo gallery on the menu on the right to view more "Freak and Geek" photos!

A few guests arrived and we fired up the BBQ for dinner! No potato bake this time but it was still just as good! (Nah, who am I kidding - but Rach deserved a break from it). A number of drinks we consumed and many jokes were told. There sadly was even a debate on the Laws of Physics and which order they are supposed to be in! Now THAT is geek-ish!!

Most headed off to town while Jo and I stayed back - we both had to get up early the next day.

Sunday was Cameron's actual birthday. I did think about going to jump on him to wake him up and wish him happy birthday, but now he's sharing a bed with Rach, I did't think that was such a good idea. Jo and I went to Camp Quailty reunion in Rotorua. It was great to catch up with everyone from summer camp (January 2006). I'm so looking forward to the next camp. Winter camp in September has us flying down to Christchurch for a long weekend! How awesome is that??!!!!

Sunday evening we went out with Cameron's family to Valentines Restaurant for dinner. Why is it that they always sit the big groups at the back of the restaurant, furtherest away from the buffet tables!! Didn't stop the boys though! Nothing like seafood, pavalova, steak and cheesecake, aye Cam?! (pretty much in that order too!!) I must admit I used to like Valentines but they have seriously gone downhill. Their meat selection was shocking! Never mind, it looks like Cam had a great day, which is the main thing!!

well overdue...

OK OK, I know it’s been far too long since I wrote. Originally I was waiting for photos to be downloaded from Easter, but I still haven’t gotten around to it. So below will be a summary of what’s happened between now and then. Will add more photos when I can be bothered.

First weekend after I last wrote was Easter. Was a nice, relaxed weekend of not doing much.

Friday was the day that Jo and Rach were off work (Cam and I work for government owned organisations, therefore always have bank holidays off!). We decided to head to Auckland to go to the Maize Maze in South Auckland. After some dodgy instructions, we finally found the old mental hospital where it was situated. The Auckland one is well known for it’s Spooky house, which in an old mental hospital, you can picture to be quite scary! As it was Easter weekend, they had an Easter egg hunt. We were given a piece of paper with about 14 different eggs on it that we had to find situated around the maze. After walking in the heat for 1.5 hours, we were ready to head out (and still missing 3 eggs). We came across another family with the same problem. We swapped some answers and headed out. We didn’t go prepared with a water bottle, so thirst got the better of us. When we got out, we got an Easter egg for completing the challenge. Chocolate was not going to help the thirst!! From there we headed to Wendy’s for the standard Auckland lunch. I hadn’t had Wendy’s in ages but Rach and Jo are addicted. I actually had a beef burger and it was the BEST! I totally get the Wendy’s craze now!!

With not much else open on Easter Friday, we headed towards home. Took us about an hour to get to Auckland and nearly 2 hours to get home again!! Traffic was bad from about 10km south of Papakura (for those that know Auckland) all the way down to Meremere. Once we got past the racetrack at Meremere, things sped up a bit. We decided to go to mini-putt, but the one just south of Bombay was closed so we carried on to Hamilton to go to the cool one in Horsham Downs.

Saturday, Rach and Jo had to work and Cam went to do the family thing. I totally need some more friends…… Anyway, the weather was great again (so NOT normal for Easter in NZ!) so I sat in the sun, enjoying the weather. I made some earrings from some beads I bought in a cool bead shop I found in Botany Downs (Auckland). The blue ones are beads to match a necklace Pam made for me when we went to the South Island a couple of years ago and the pink ones are the same colours as some of the beads on my new, cool, long necklace. Couldn’t find beads to match it, so just matched the colours. I decided I quite like making jewellery. Might have to go to that bead shop again and get some more things!

Sunday was crap weather so decided to head to Tauranga for the night, as I didn’t think I’d make it back to Tauranga to see Mum before I went on my holiday. Went to see our friends, The Morten Family, in their new house out near Katikati (about half hour north of Tauranga but an hour from Mum’s in Papamoa). For those who know the area, I soon found out it wasn’t actually there, but even further out in Athenree!! Was good to catch up with them, especially Brigitte, as she has recently returned from a trip to Vietnam where she did volunteer work for a couple of months.

So that was Easter. The Tuesday back at work was my anniversary of starting work. I've been working there for a year now! Heaven help me!!! I can't believe it's been that long! So I did a little baking to commiserate....uhh I mean celebrate.

Afghans & Brigitte's Slice (don't know real name)

The weekend after that was a normal weekend with the Tuesday after it being ANZAC day. I took the Monday as annual leave, so I ended up with another 4 day weekend. Gotta love how that works!! Actually didn’t do much that weekend (that I can remember). Just did a bit of shopping and organising for my holiday. As Monday was a normal work day, did heaps of stuff for the trip – mainly bank stuff – BLAH. But yay to the 3 day work week that followed!!

Friday 28th April was our annual work quiz night. The IT team put forward a team with one extra from outside. We were called Pretty in Pink – and indeed we were!

I must say that Andrew did look the best! Think he helped us win the Best Dressed prize!!! Jude (next to Andy in the photo) won biggest mouth! Ahh didn’t we just rake in the prizes! Sadly, we didn’t pull in 1st prize though.

Now I’m up to the week that was.....nothing exciting this week so far. Have Cam’s birthday party this Saturday – should be interesting!! Freaks and Geeks party. Photos definitely to come!!