Slow down life!

Feeling busy and rather overwhelmed at the moment. I think its a combination of things plus the fact I seem to have caught ANOTHER cold. Occupational hazard of working with children I guess.

This weekend is church camp. Guess who's doing the cooking?? actually I will call it "catering" - sounds more fancy that way. Yep, myself and a few friends are facing the daunting task of keeping 80 peoples bellies full and happy for a weekend. I've done it before, but for only 40 people, so this is a definite step up.

Yes I do realise

..that my posts have been a bit few-and-far-between lately. I've been a bit busier than usual, and haven't been doing much worth blogging about, also I'm still figuring out the genre/focus of this blog, so not really sure how much to write about certain subjects, and how personal to get.

I caught up with an old school friend for brunch today. It was fantastic seeing her, and the baked beans and eggs on toast were also fantastic. This old friend of mine is a particular favorite of mine. A farm girl, she is totally a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kinda gal, no false pretenses or bitchiness. Can be hard to come across gem's like this so I'm glad we're still in contact.

The press ups are going quite well, definitely stronger than when I began although its slow going. Phil is getting better faster than me.

I've recently decided to start gathering up/finding/buying all the old books I loved as a kid, so I can pass them on to my children when I have them. Y'know, Trixie Belden, Jill's Pony Club, Anne of Green Gables, Famous Five, pretty much anything by Enid Blyton, What Katy Did....and the list goes on. Some of them, particularly old Enid Blyton books are reasonably expensive these days so I'm glad I'm getting in early.

anyone got an ark??

This is the river about half a kilometre from our house, and its still raining! Scary huh? We live too far away to be in any danger though thank goodness. Going out to a fancy pants restaurant for dinner tonight - a spur of the moment decision. Can't wait!

Outfit post (specially inspired by Andrea), just as I am running out the door. Another dress which I don't wear as often as I'd like to!

how to make a sick girl happy

Big mug of tea, stack of DVD's and a pain au chocolat. "What??" I hear you say - "pain au chocolate's hardly a health food for restoring a cold-riddled body back to perfect health". Well, upon hearing I am on deaths door *cough*, a kind friend just dropped it off for me and let me tell you it is making me feel better already. YUM!

Todays attire

To make a change from blogging about food I'm going to show you what I'm wearing today. I've had this dress for a few weeks and been dying for a chance to wear it, today has been intermittently warm so I thought I could manage by wearing a long sleeved top underneath, and tights (although did need a coat over top when I went out). I caught the bus into town with my god-daughter to meet Phil for a coffee.

Excuse the bad picture, I'm still figuring out the self timer..

mundane

Im eating my favourite breakfast as I type this, chopped up fresh fruit with organic yogurt, flaxseed oil and homemade muesli sprinkled on top. mmmmmmm... I usually have this, or a variation of it 3 or 4 times a week. The rest of the time I have porridge.

Last night we saw a movie at the Rialto - I'd never heard of it before so we took a gamble in going (especially given the title - 'A Feast of Love' - sounds awful doesn't it??) but it was very poignant with a well thought out plot and excellent character development. Don't take your mum though - too many sex scenes.

Best made plans....

I had big plans for our Saturday morning. The sun would shine, we would dress in cute, hippy clothes, take the bus to Lyttelton with our recycled cloth bags and spend the morning perusing the market, stocking up on fresh delicious local food and finish up lingering over coffee in one of the funky cafes. Then I would have a ton of cute photos to post on here about the wonderful morning we had.

It was pouring with rain this morning.

We were too wimpy to take the bus in this weather and we left our cloth bags at home, but we did actually make it to the market. Which, despite the rain, was still fantastic. Stalls and stalls of the most amazing food and produce (I need more superlatives to describe it). Armed with a mayan spice hot chocolate from the first stall we came to, we ran thru the rain and made our purchases before huddling in the car to finish our hot choc while eating the most tasty moroccan vege pastry.

Refuge in the car

Our bounty

Mueller Hut Tramp

So after whinging in the car the whole way to the Mt Cook village about how hard it was gonna be, I actually made it up the 1000 vertical metres to the Mueller Hut without too many complaints! On Saturday morning we drove up to the Mt Cook village with Hamish and Ness, and set off up the hill to the Mueller Hut. Its 1000ish metres vertical climb but only 3 or 4kms in horizontal distance so you can imagine how steep it was! We had lots of stops to admire the view which was fantastic every step of the way. When we got to the hut we dumped our packs and rock-hopped the extra half hour or so up to Mt Olivier. Sitting in the sun on the top of the mountain while looking at Mt Cook and the Glaciers was absolutely magic. Other highlights were watching the sunset on Mt Cook, and looking out the window when waking up in the middle of night to see a sky full of stars.
Heres some photos: