Hello.... Summer!

Today is one of those days where all you want to do is lie on the beach and sip beer all day. Hooray! The skies are clear, the sun is out, it's a nice balmy 19 degrees. Okay. Perhaps it's a little too chilly still for the beach but hey, what the hell. It's been a while since we've had weather this sweet. To top it off, it's Friday, and the weekend is here. Again. Can't get any better that than.

Stephen's 31st (yes you've heard it right. THREE-ONE.) birthday is tomorrow and I've got the whole day night all planned out. I'm still working on the day bit. We'll be going for dinner at Tanuki's Cave and plying ourselves with yakitori and lots of sake, before heading to a horror house theme park. It'll be a riot since tomorrow is also Halloween.

Speaking about Halloween, the kids in our neighbourhood dress up and go trick-or-treating every year.  I'm considering whether I should dress Cooper up and when the kids come a-knocking, I'll set the hound from hell in all his full glory on them. It'll be hilarious!!! What say you?

Today Is Gonna Be A Good Day

This song is so apt for kicking off a long weekend. We're going over to a friend's for dinner tomorrow and heading off to Rotorua for the rest of the weekend for some serious quad-biking followed by a well-deserved massage. It's been too long.

p/s: I would love to be part of the flash mob, cheesy choreographed dance moves and all.

/Quote of the Day/

Be like a duck.

Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.

Today.

Today is just one of those days. Every thing that can go wrong has gone wrong. Well, not everything everything but it sure feels like it. Lately, it seems like I've been up-to-my-neck with too many thankless issues.

Big fat sigh.

First Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

Understand, I'll slip quietly
Away from the noisy crowd
When I see the pale
Stars rising, blooming over the oaks
I'll pursue solitary pathways
Through the pale twilit meadows,
With only this one dream:
You come too.

Doggy Minced Meat

This is Cooper feeling really sorry for himself after getting yelled at and spanked on his bum.

Why? Well this is what Cooper did while waiting for us to come home. This is the THIRD time he has attempted to murder my iron and this time round, he's done it. I have no idea how to fix it. He made sure he chewed up every single bit of the wire. I'm going to KILL that dog and make minced meat out of him!

Grey's Anatomy

Season six is now available online and I've been religiously streaming each episode every week.

Heard this phrase on the show and thought it's really funny - I'll kick you from here to Sunday.

That's my new phrase. Now I just have to find opportunities to tell someone that. Ha!

Mt Ruapehu

Jopien came over for a visit about a month ago and we took a drive to Mt Ruapehu and went snowboarding. Or rather attempted to snowboard. I ended up with a really sore bum since the only way I knew how to stop was to fall over while these 5-year old Kiwi kids were just zipping right by and sniggering every time I fell.

Stopped by for a photo op on the way to the mountain.

At Mount Ruapehu.

Tsunami

Just a note to say I'm fine. NZ wasn't hit by the tsunami that unfortunately devastated Samoa and Tonga.

Tyler Durden

One of my favourite movie characters is Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) in Fight Club. Re-watched the movie last night and still loved it! Here's one of the many quotes from the movie:

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."