2 weeks on..

.. and I'm feeling a lot better, follow up appt with the surgeon today confirmed everything is healing nicely, but I'm forbidden from running or lifting weights for the next 2 weeks. Looks like me and the stationary bike at the gym are gonna get nicely acquainted. I'm allowed to chew soft stuff now, which I've kinda been doing anyway but its nice to get the official word. As I type I'm trying to eat a nashi pear cut up into little bits but I'm not having much success so may have to lay off the crunchy stuff for a while longer.

In other news we are looking for a place to rent. We are downsizing, and going to try living by ourself for a while which should be an adventure.

Ive discovered several new loves in the last few months:
-Skinny pants - they just look so classy, and I love how you're supposed to wear them with a baggy top - perfect for hiding fat tummies.
-Which brings me to my next new thing - www.stylebytes.net - a cool chick who takes a picture of what she wears every day.
-Getting the antipasto platter (or 'grazing platter', or 'platter to share') instead of a main at restaurants - so relaxing just casually nibbling and conversing rather than facing a big stodgy main.
-Fresh mint. Having it whizzed up with watermelon and pineapple, or chopped up on soup. mmmm..
-The new Survivor series. nothing like some good trashy reality TV.

Other exciting things, we have our first nephew (Tim and Celia had wee Thomas) but unfortunatly we are yet to meet him as he lives in London. waahhhhhh! no newborn cuddles for us. Ummm what else? Both our flatmates are recently engaged, so weddings are the talk du jour round here.

More Surgery (not for the faint-hearted!)

On Monday I had the rogue cyst removed from my jaw. It turned out to be somewhat bigger and harder to get to than they thought so the operation ended up being quite major. They cut thru the bone in my maxilla (see the wee skull diagram) and kinda pulled it down to get at the cyst and tooth (kind of in behind my left cheekbone), then stuck my face back on with plates and screws and stitches. I was in hospital for 2 nights, on morphine and all sorts of other things. I feel like I've been sleeping all week, and every day the swelling seems to get worse! Its all a bit gross, and Im not allowed to chew for 6 weeks until the bones fuse together. Trying to stay happy but feeling pretty grotty at the moment.

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:

A gastronomic experience

Saturday was Phil's birthday, and we took the opportunity to cash in gift vouchers for Rotherhams of Riccarton restaurant which we received for Christmas from Tim and Celia. We went all out and ordered the 5 course degustation menu (although not as 'all out' as the table next to us who order the 8 course with matching wines at $200 a head!!). It was absolutely amazing, every bite a delight! Definitely worth the small fortune we spent.
In other news, we are patiently waiting for the arrival of our first real niece/nephew. This weekend we are going on a tramp to the Mueller hut at Mt Cook, which I am SUPER excited about having never been to Mt Cook before. I'm a sucker for a good view and apparently its amazing from the Mueller hut so hopefully we'll have good weather.

Mrs and Mrs May (2nd Gen)

I think Facebook is sucking the will to live out of my blog. I'm tending to just put my photos up there.
We went up to Blenheim in the weekend for Frank and Em's wedding, which was an awesome day. The ceremony was really sweet, plenty of tears (eh Frank!), and the reception was great fun. Phil and I were the MC's, and I was a bit nervous, but once we got going it was fine. I quite liked the microphone by the end of the night! Afterwards the groomsmen and a few of us continued the party in town. Everyone had a great night it seems, and Frank and Em were really happy with how the day went.
We bought Gracie back with us, so she's with us in Chch for a few days.
Heres a few pics.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. Heres some snaps from our hols. Yep I know I'm getting lazy in my posts, less words and more pics etc but lets be honest, you really just come here to look at the pictures don't you?

Weekend in Wellington

Some pics from our trip to wellington for Gordons retirement dinner after being at SU for 27 years! We also caught up with Kathryn, Wilf and Maggie Robinson.

Dunedin and drugs

This week has gone by in a bit of a blur thanks to the pain medication Ive been taking. I don't know whats worse, the groggy gross feeling from the drugs or the pain itself. Anyway its all over now, seems to be healing up nicely and Im certainly not missing the ole wizzies!
Im still sporting a nice bruise which Phil feels he has to explain whenever we're in public ("I didn't do it!")


In other happenings, last weekend we went to Dunedin, Phil to a stag do, and me to see the girls. A great weekend was had by all I believe. Unfortunately I didn't take my camera to dinner so I don't have a good pic of me and the girls all together but theres a nice one Christine's facebook!

I gotta stop putting Anna on a pedestal...

Jase and Mais

Maisie Mitchell. Doncha love those cheeks?? shes so cute!

Dunedin in all her glory.

Muttons

its been a while!

We've been back for just over a week now. Its Monday morning and I took the day off cos I was supposed to have surgery (biopsy of a lump in my jaw + removal of 3 wisdom teeth) but it was canceled. So here I am with no excuses as to why I can't update the blog.
We had 4 nights in Singapore after leaving London, which was fairly enjoyable but we kinda just wanted to get home, we were pretty travel weary by that stage. Here are some shots of the Zoo, which was definitely worth the visit.




Also a few pics from our last few days in London with Tim and Celia:



Its been a pretty full on last week or so, got back from Singapore last Saturday, then straight to work 8am Monday morning for both of us! luckily it was short week - thanks Canterbury - but, in keeping with our never-ending busyness we traveled up to Blenheim on Thursday night and got back yesterday. whew! its actually just as well I'm not working this morning..still got unpacking from the last 2 months to do.
Here are some pics from Blenheim:

still singing...

The unforgettable story of forgiveness, redemption, love...ahhh. The Westend production of this was everything I hoped it would be! We had such high up seats it was kind of like having a birds eye view of the stage but who cares... we could still see everything and of course the most important, hear all the songs. Absolute highlight was Jean Valjeans "Bring Him Home". Just beautiful. Fantines "I Dreamed a Dream" didn't disappoint either. Some of Javerts songs were not what I'd expected though, a pity since he's one of my favorite charactors. Eponine was gorgeous and her "On My Own" was really good. It was all really good...

Some Photos Finally! (Nice and Switzerland)

Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco

Beach at Nice

Darren and Lizzis house in Switzerland

Me in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland (if you look closely you can see its snowing!)

The valley opposite the one we were staying in.

It sucks...

..Im in Paris but can barely appreciate it due to the incredibly nasty virus I seem to have contracted. Despite round-the-clock panadol I am unable to sleep due to the pain in my throat and ears, not to mention the nose going like a leaky tap. And oh..the injustice of being in the culinary capital of the world with faulty tastebuds!

Well now I've had my whinge ill get on with it. We had 2 days in Munich, nothing much to report really, very cold and grey. Did some shopping, looked at the sights, tried some of their infamous beer. We have been in Paris for 3 nights now, and today have moved out of our hotel into Sophie's apartment for the next 3 nights. Its a joy to be able to rest on the couch today and make myself cups of tea and peruse the free internet - just what a poor,sick girl needs. Thanks Sophie! We have done a few of the main things in Paris, went up the Eiffel Tower, to the Lourve, out to Versailles, all of which was good.
sorry for the mundane post, but i think i need to have a nap..
home in 2 weeks now,

Switzerland

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling wee sister who celebrated her 17th birthday on Saturday. Hi Gracie!
Today we arrived in Munich after spending 3 nights in Lauterbrunnen. We went through no fewer than 4 countries today! Internet was expensive and rare in Switzerland, hence the silence on the blog.
We absolutly loved Switzerland. The small town where we stayed was very quaint, and in a valley surrounded by impossibly high snow covered mountains. It was straight out of the book "Heidi", wooden farmhouses, and farm animals with bells round their necks etc. The weather was a shock, coming from the sunbathing in the south of France. It was very alpine and even snowed one morning!
The first afternoon we were there we took a train to the town of Speiz where Darren (a friend from the old dunedin days) met us and took us to his place for a catch up. It was lovely meeting his wife Lizzi and baby Ana (4 wks old), I really enjoyed `talking babies´ with Lizzi and having a nice long cuddle with Ana. Ive been missing baby cuddles! Darren and Lizzi live in a farmhouse with amazing views over a lake, and they have animal (including wooley pigs) and grow stuff. We loved thier community lifestyle.
We spent the rest of our time exploring, visiting waterfalls and eating traditional Swiss food, which seemed to be very fatty and a little to heavy on the stomach for my liking, but the chocolate - thats another story..divine!

oh the frustration

Ok so i just tried real hard to get some photos on here and it wouldn`t work. I mananged to get some on facebook though. Im beginning to lose faith in this particular blog engine. In other news we went to a small seaside town called Villefranche-su-mer yesterday and it charmed our socks (among other items of clothing) off. Had a lovely swim and came home a wee bit sunburnt. Off to Switzerland tomorrow.

Monaco

We are in Nice at the moment, in the heart of the French Riviera. Sounds glamourous but if you saw our hostel you'd think otherwise! But nevertheless we've had our share of glamour. Yesterday we took a day trip to Monte Carlo (Monaco) where all the rich people roll around in their money. The city was so opulent, beautiful gardens which were free to get into, very clean, nice public toilets and SO MANY incredible cars. Almost every car was a head-turner and im not even that into cars. We saw limited edition Porshes, Bentleys, Maseratis and all the 'ordinary cars' were BMW's or Mercs. It was a Sunday and I enjoyed people-watching all the rich families on thier outings, impecably dressed mothers with perfect hair and cute shoes and fathers who were trying to dress casual but when you look closer you realise their polo shirt is YSL or Gucci or something, and the kids looking like catologue kids and playing with remote control helicoptors " just like daddys" (yes really). We had a good time, getting back quite late and managed to find a cute bistro run by a man with limited english who seemed to appreciate my attempts at French. We had an incredible dinner for a very low price. Go to the La Albatross bistro if you're in Nice!

Firenze part duo

No photos again today, havn't managed to download them yet.
We went to the Uffizi Gallery yesterday, which houses the Medici family's collection of paintings including some famous ones. Our favourites were the Tondo Doni by Michelangelo (pictured above) and one of Da Vincis early ones - actually I think it was his first commissioned one - the Annunciation pictured below


Also liked Caravaggios 'Sacrifice of Issac'. You could really see why the famous artists were famous from these pics, their paintings just leapt off the walls and outshaddowed most of the ones around them.
The top picture is of the main duomo/church thing here. Its really impressive, with green and white stripes of marble. We haven't been inside yet, thats tomorrows aim. Today we took a train to a town called Pistoia where the pistol was invented in the 1600s. Was a cute wee town and nice to get away from the city for a bit.
More to follow...xxx