Saturday, March 31, 2007
Strike a pose there's nothing to it. - 4:39 PM
IntroThis week has involved a lot of shopping although I didn’t mean it to be. From computers to shoes to handbags and socks and skirts. All I need is some chai and I would be set. Iced chai tea is good, chai lattes haven’t done it for me yet. I did something bad this week……. I used packet mix to make a brownie. It was a Betty Crocker one. But I still feel bad about using it. I also discovered one of the worse food group, Cheese in a can – or to its friends Easy Cheese. 18% of your daily salt intake in 2 table spoons and 10% of your fat. 100% of your artificial preservatives and colourings. How can some thing so bad – be so……. Cheesey.
Week of Work
Work has been frustrating. I have been trying rather hard to get my own problems sorted, let alone any one else’s. But I have narrowed down my gene list and have put together a list of potential house keeping genes. I am starting a writing group with Kelly so that we can get more publications out. I am actually looking forward to writing so it has to be an improvement.
Week O Social
Last week I went to the Girls Day In (http://www.gdo365.co.nz/ ) which has a much more interesting website that I would have thought. And it was packed with people and had massive cues to get into any of the good stuff. But I entered the competitions and got as much free stuff as I could and discovered a few things I should never do. Most of this was in the clothing side of things from other people that were there. I learnt two important rules.
The best thing about GDO was outside Wild Pair were having a sale, $10 shoe sale. I found a pair I really liked and could decide on red or black… so got 1 of each. Was like 1 pair of $20 shoes.
Rule 1.
When wearing your older sisters pink halter neck tutu dress, don’t make it fit by gathering it together with a large safety pin, and certainly don’t wear it with a black bra.
Rule 2.Just because you really like your spotty tights and you really like your heavily patterned mini skirt. Doesn’t mean you should wear them together.
Friday night was a work social; due to the fact our social club President is chasing his woman to Spain and a new President needed to be elected (Go Rob, she will make a man out of you yet, and grats John – I am sure you will be as slack as Rob was.), so Kelly and I had some bubbly and then decided to head to St Lukes for a spot of shopping, on the there the rubber sole lifted off my pair of boots I was wearing. (it started lifting last year, but I never did anything about it.) So I took them to the shoe repair place and he said fixed by Monday. So I was shoeless, and right outside Wild Pair who were having a sale. So $20 later I had a new pair of shoes. And right beside Wild Pair is Pagani (my favorite store, which I hardly get to go in as Aselle made a girl in there cry and can’t go back) so $40 latter I had a new denim skirt. On ward, to Strands for Bags (the whole reason we were at the mall.) and $30 latter I had a new hand bag. Deciding we had spent enough money we headed out through Farmers and noticed 1 day sale posters every where. Lucky all I wanted was some socks. So $20 latter I have some new warm funky socks. The hard part was explaining to Nick with out him laughing why I brought another pair of shoes.
Then last night I went to a BBQ for Nicks work mate. So since it was bring a plate I took some saussies, a salad, and the Betty Crocker brownie. It was boring; mainly because I didn’t know who any one was. So I ended up cooking the meat with Nick. I got a nice blister on my lip from hot cheese from a sausage.
Now it damn well hurts. The brownie was really good and will recommend it fully has a packet mix.
So was the salad. Kumara Salad
1kg of red kumara - scrubbed and chopped into 2cm pieces.
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 rashers of streaky bacon
2 teaspoons each: liquid honey and Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
4 spring onions
Preheat oven to 200C. Toss the kumara in the olive oil and roast until tender.
Cook the bacon and cut into small pieces.
Place the honey in the microwave and melt, add the mustard and the vinegar.
Mix the bacon, kumara and spring onion. Drizzle with the dressing.
1kg of red kumara - scrubbed and chopped into 2cm pieces.
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 rashers of streaky bacon
2 teaspoons each: liquid honey and Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
4 spring onions
Preheat oven to 200C. Toss the kumara in the olive oil and roast until tender.
Cook the bacon and cut into small pieces.
Place the honey in the microwave and melt, add the mustard and the vinegar.
Mix the bacon, kumara and spring onion. Drizzle with the dressing.
Week O WoW
Was a good week and dropped Netherspite no interesting loot, but was a first for our group. And I am saving hard so I can buy my stylie flying epic mount. 1/5 of the way there.
Week O Being a better person
I did my exercise video again, and was trying to behave on the eating front, but cheese in a can happened. Still since you can’t buy it in NZ means once the can I have is gone… that is that.
Was a good week and dropped Netherspite no interesting loot, but was a first for our group. And I am saving hard so I can buy my stylie flying epic mount. 1/5 of the way there.
Week O Being a better person
I did my exercise video again, and was trying to behave on the eating front, but cheese in a can happened. Still since you can’t buy it in NZ means once the can I have is gone… that is that.
Books and Stuff
Finished reading the Farseer series and now reading the one that follows it. The Liveship Traders. And so far everything I have heard about it is right. Complaining woman.
Summary
Over all was a good week for shopping. Nick and I had an argument, but that was sorted and had nothing to do with shopping and more the stress of bankers asking you uncomfortable questions like – Well you now have a mortgage, how are you going to be able to afford a wedding? What kind of wedding will it be? And that. 20 days till I move into my own house though. Means I have to start packing. I feel guilty about packet mix. But I have a new handbag so I will get over it. Oh and Happy Birthday Kim.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Intro
Well the colder weather has creped up on me while I was in Aus and with that comes the flu season and already I am sporting a very nice head cold. It was very nice of Margot to bring it back for us from when she was in Queenstown and promptly given it to every one at work.
Week of Work
Has been a busy week and work, taught Dom three new experimental processes and looks like I got a positive clone for my gene – but I think it will fall to bits under sequencing. Still that is next week, got beautiful results for our gene reporter assays though.
Going to see if Dom will be a late entry with me in the Café Olympics. You have to play ping pong, pool and darts. Though I am not sure if we will have time.
Week O Social
Was pretty quite due to head cold and being poor from Aus. But I did go and see Paul Zenon http://www.paulzenon.com/
He is a magician who tells cheesy rude jokes. I thought it was great. Nick said not enough magic. But he did do some cool jokes, but he reckoned the venue was magician torture. A round room covered in mirrors.Week O WoW
Have started raiding again, and was quite good. Getting a new PC next week which will be all good. Well technically not new I get Nick’s old one and he gets a new one. I am not to worried, as long as it works.
Week O Being a better person
Well I did my yoga video and discovered I need more exercise in my life. But week 1 down of doing it every Saturday, so I will see how I go.
Books and Stuff
Reading book 3 in that series I mentioned last week having read book 2 at the start of the week. So far it is very good, and fully recommend it to any one that enjoys Sci Fi Fantasy.
Terry brought the Rome series on DVD so Nick and him have been watching it. Looks good but I missed the first episodes so no idea what all the relationships are.
SummaryWas a nice relaxing week except for being sick. Oh and the tittles to our house came through, so one step closer to owning it fully – well with the bank.
Like everybody else, when I don't know what else to do, I seem to go in for catching colds. ~George Jean Nathan
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Gold Coast of Terror - 7:07 PM
IntroTwo weeks have past since I posted, but that is because I have been in Aus or getting ready to go to Aus. I am pleased I had worked on my tan before hand as I didn’t stand out like a sore thumb.
Week of Work
Tried a new mutation kit from Stragene, it had some glitches which I was able to trouble shoot before I went to Aus. Hopefully Dom got it working while I was away.
Week O Social
Spent 1 week on the Gold Coast of Aus doing all sorts of things, so going to give you a day by day blow of how it went down.
Saturday 10th
Left New Zealand at 6pm so got to Aus at 6pm local, then by the time we cleared customs etc we didn’t get to our hotel room at the BreakFree Wings until 11pm.
Was a nice view from the apartment we were in. Not the best picture but you get the idea. From there we headed out to catch up with some friends in Surfers and Terry’s brotherThe rest of the night was spent hanging out with them,
the whole 1hr or so of it.Sunday 11th
Worked out how the bus system worked, which took longer than it should have. But finally made it to Pacfic Fair (
Which were really good for walking around in Aus, I bit flat for me and I think Nick was surprised that I could buy sensible shoes. After than was back to Anton’s and Adrian’s and hung out in the pool and had a BBQ of kangaroo steaks, which were damn good and I thoroughly suggest you trying them if you see them in the supermarket.Monday 12th
Movie World day. (http://www.movieworld.com.au/home/homepage.cfm). Where I discovered I really don’t like roller coasters. The problem I had was my only comparison was Rainbows End, which I still giggled and squeak through with Riven, And Rainbow’s End is a baby ride compared to Movie World.http://www.movieworld.com.au/rides_attractions/ride_details.cfm?ride_id=5) rst we started off with Superman .
I didn’t scream the whole way, but I think that was shock more than anything. 0 – 100km/hr in 2 secs isn’t my idea of fun it seems. After that we went on the Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster.
This wouldn’t have been so bad but after Superman I was on edge. I really like the que for this one, through the spooky castle. After this we went on the Wild West Water Ride. 
Which was fun, and I got soaked. I wanted to do this one again, but when we went back the que was really long. After this I said I wanted a nice gentle relaxing ride, like magical teacups or something. So they guys said Lethal Weapon. Which they promised was fast and definitely not a roller coaster…. They lied. I now know I can scream for 2mins with out breathing. From here we went to Shrek 4D
, which is a 3D movie with moving seats and air and water being blown at you. This was fun. And was made even more enjoyable for the fact when they went into the spider cave, Nick squeaked and almost climbed out of his chair when they blew air at your legs with all the spiders running past on the screen. With all that done, there was only one ride left to go which was the Batwing Space shot, which you can see in the Superman picture – the black tower. It worked like a reverse bungee and shot you up. I was pretty unhappy about it all. After this we caught back up with Anton and Alicia hung out in the pool at out hotel and went and had Thai, was very good Thai but my ears were playing up from pool, so I went to bed, and every one else went to Beers From Belgium. 
And it seems as though the beers from there are 12% and give Nick a hang over.Tuesday 13th
White Water World. (http://www.whitewaterworld.com.au/content/www_home.asp?)
This is a hydro slide theme park joined to Dream World. So you can buy a world pass and do both parks in one day, but we spent the day just at this one. Which was heaps of fun and I could have easily gone back. The ride I liked the best was the Hydro Coaster. (http://www.whitewaterworld.com.au/content/www_standard.asp?name=WWW_HydroCoaster) 
Which you can see in the picture, it is the orange tubed one, not the big green one, which was also fun.Wednesday 14th
We went to Brisbane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane) by train where I discovered the Valley Girl clearance shop.(http://www.valleygirl.com.au/).
Aselle would have gone into shock in this place. Every thing was under $10 and there were heaps to choose from and it was all nice. I brought 2 dresses, and would have brought more. But Nick and Terry were giving me the evils for spending to long in a clothes shop. But the reason we went to Brisbane was to meet a fellow QED’er - Aaron. 
He is the tall one and the short one is his 4mth old baby Phobe. He is currently teaching her how to play WoW so she can become one of our raiding priests, even if all she does is drool and sleep might do a better job than some of the other ones we have. Aaron then took us to all the cool places in Brisbane, like shops were you can buy a full sized metal terminator robot. A real bargain at $9999 
And saw the sights of Brisbane including some bridge and other stuff,
which we did by ferry. I have other pictures, but they are not so good. Thursday 15th
Dream World (
Which I had been hearing about all week. And how it was going to freak me out, because it is a 40 story drop. So I got into the right frame of mind and prepared myself and didn’t scream at all. (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/bigfivethrillrides_2Col.asp?name=BigFiveThrillRides) So as a reward, I got to do it in reverse. This ride didn’t worry me to much, though I did it with my eyes closed; but the train you were in sounded like nails on a blackboard. After this we went and looked at the tigers. (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/standard3.asp?name=TigerIsland) Tigers are cool. 
On to the cyclone. Which was a roller coaster and really rather lame, I felt bad for it. Worse que ever too did not help. We would have done WipeOut now, but it was closed for repairs, so did the The Claw instead. 
This ride just made me feel sick. Was like a big swing. From here we went to do the Log rides, but one of them was closed and the other one had an hour que. So went to the Australian Experience (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/standard3.asp?name=AustWildlifeExperience) where I got to hold a kola and feed a kangaroo.
No platypus though. After this we went and did Nightmares, (http://www.dreamworld.com.au/content/nightmares_standard.asp?name=EnterTheFreezer) which is a pitch black maze, with mirrors and lights that flicker on at certain moments, and people that jump out at you. Sounds worse than what it was, but think B grade horror and you are in it. Lots of nervous giggles and things jumping out at you. That was pretty much all of Dream World, so we used our tickets and went through to White Water World and spent the rest of the day hydro sliding.
Friday 16th
This was our last day, so went shopping. Hit all the outlet stores where I brought a set of Red crocodile skin luggage, which is very nice. And so to did the 7yr boy that kept patting it because feels just like a snake while at the luggage collection point. I did the typical English response and ignored him. But from there we went to Harbour Town (http://www.harbourtown.com.au/goldcoast/index.htm) which was really good and I brought 3 tops, 1 dress and 1 cardi. Nick also brought this years shirts and ties for work. This year it is grey and lemon.
Saturday 17th
Flew back to NZ and lost 3hrs. So tired, as we had to get up at 4am to get to the airport. But I have duty free.
Week O WoW
Not much happened because I wasn’t there. But grats on Drunk’s dropping of Illhoof.
Week O Being a better person
I finally brought my yoga DVD, and I am going to try and make sure I do either it or my palliates one each Saturday. I have been going well with my blog, so lets see if this can follow.
Books and Stuff
Watched a couple of movies. One was on sky while on holiday,
The Crow 4. 
Yeah title says it all. Was very much B grade – maybe less as it had Tara Reid and Edward Furlong. Was a time filler and that was about it.
Monster House
Yeah title says it all. Was very much B grade – maybe less as it had Tara Reid and Edward Furlong. Was a time filler and that was about it.Monster House
was actually really good. I fully suggest seeing it. It is about a house that is a monster. Is a CGI one, and a really good one at that.Books at the moment I am reading Robin Hobb’s Farseer series
and it is very good. And looking forward to reading the rest of the series, at the moment I have only read book 1 which is Assassin's Apprentice. Is a Sci Fi book, but been a good read with well developed characters.Summary
I was asked why do woman go shopping so much, even if they don’t have money. I replied it is not the buying that is important but the looking. Like a guy that goes night clubbing but is in a relationship. Just because he has one doesn’t mean he can’t look at what else is out there on offer. And to finish with a quote Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), "Walden", 1854
Saturday, March 03, 2007
All about the sofa - 11:43 AM
IntroThis week I don't think I did much but read and have quality time with my sofa and get annoyed with Nick. Saw a few movies but yeah a whole lot of nothing. The house we are buying is getting fluffed around, but we should have the tittle to the place on the 20th March. Then we decide whether or not to change the date till May as has been requested by the current owner. Hopefully come back from Aus and it will all be sorted.
Week O Work
I spent the week showing Dom how to do tissue culture (which ended in all his cells being contaminated) and generally be very annoyed at the dust and noise that the builders have been producing. One more week of it. But then in 1 more week I will be in Aus for a week so it won't matter. At least I won't have to put up with the paint fumes.
Week O Social
Last Sunday I went and watched the annual Hort vs Landcare game. Hort won (yay us) Though I am not sure how much cricket we saw, generally was a good time to sit in the sun and drink bubbles and talk to friends about stuff. And get rather sun burnt, add that to the burning got on Saturday and.... nah I suck; Now I have a really nice tan. Kelly and Aselle both put make up on to disguise the fact they went red. 
Week O WoW
Not much happened, I spent most of my WoW time playing with Brackenhaven (Nick's druid) to lvl up it's skills, yesterday I leveled a paladin to 10.
Week O Being a better person
Yeah not so good, quality time with the sofa, could be because we decided that we wouldn't go and do a camel trek because we don't have the time. (to get to the place is a 3hr drive from where we are staying) Next time we go though.
Books and Stuff
I am now onto Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. At the moment it is quite a different read from all the others, but in saying that he has matured 6 years and attacks are every where.
Movies. Saw 3 very different ones this week.
Science of Sleep. 
This is an odd movie that has beautiful visualisation, and deep down a nice story. But doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. In the end you still won't know if he is dreaming or awake. But some really nice visualisation, so lives in the realm of art students.
This is an odd movie that has beautiful visualisation, and deep down a nice story. But doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. In the end you still won't know if he is dreaming or awake. But some really nice visualisation, so lives in the realm of art students.Running with Scissors
Damn where to start with this one, it is odd and funny at the same time. If you have seen The Royal Tenenbaums and liked it I would suggest seeing this. It is very similar to that movie just add a bucket or 2 more LSD. The freaky thing is it is a true story, all these things actually happened to a person.
Damn where to start with this one, it is odd and funny at the same time. If you have seen The Royal Tenenbaums and liked it I would suggest seeing this. It is very similar to that movie just add a bucket or 2 more LSD. The freaky thing is it is a true story, all these things actually happened to a person. Smokin' Aces
This is an American Guy Ritchie film (he brought you Lock, stock and two smoking barrels and Snatch) I got given the tickets to see it for free from a work mate, because I normally wouldn't have seen it (Ben Affleck is in it) But it was way better than I thought it would be, certainly not pay for it at the movies, is def a wait for video. But if you do see it, be prepared for some violence.
Summary
I have re-discovered scented candles. and now a a small collection on a large tile on my desk. At the moment I have the mango ones burning which are quite nice, but yeah even when they are not lit they still scent the room quite nicely. I brought mine from Origin in St Lukes and the Warehouse, but you can try these guys to get an idea. http://www.candlecompany.co.nz/index.php
Also Emontional tears are secreted in moments of intense feeling - sometimes joy, but more offen sorrow. They contain much more than basal or irritant tears; they carry stress hormones as a way of getting rid of them.