Bradley you tick all of my boxes… Bradley come tick all of my boxes

This entry will probably turn into a stream of consciousness.

I’m currently sitting on the couch in a holey bathrobe, astounded at the fact that the Argentina – Korea game currently sits at 2-1 just after half time. Wow.

Yesterday was my sister’s 17th birthday. It’s so weird, my 18th last year seems like only yesterday, yet my 17th seems a lightyear away. I had some errands to run so didn’t end up going to the waterfalls with Liv, mum and a family friend – although I got home earlier than they did, and spent a whole hour decorating her cake. This is why I am not, and will never be domesticated.

1 hour + 3 different icings later = the following: (and the last photo is the amazing dinner mum conjured up, mmm)

Whilst mum was busy snapping away the obligatory smiley, flashy birthday-girl photos, I decided to get my lens out and do my usual moody-ness. The cake looks better in colour, but I just wanted her face and candles, not all the hair and clothes and pink and blue. This is the second pink and blue cake I’ve decorated this month. I must remember to post pics of the other one, I was rather proud of it too.

I’ve forgotten what I had wanted say with the blog title from when I was in the shower thinking about it earlier. The title is derived from a song that was stuck in my head (urghh) that I heard live last week. The originalname used was “Malcolm” but I’m reaaally not a fan of that name – it makes me think of “Malcolm in the Middle”, that awful tv show from back in the day, plus it just doesn’t make me think of an attractive man.

Actually… it’s like 1.20am, I’m watching the footy, I can’t form coherent sentences, I will write about whatever it was… later.

I’m not the way that you found me, I’m neither here nor there. One day I’m happy and healthy, Next I ain’t doing so well

I’ve been listening to The Dead Weather’s Sea of Cowards whenever I need a kick of energy lately (which is all the time), especially first thing in the morning; thus I felt this entry’s title, derived from “The Difference Between Us” was appropriate, as it seems to describe precisely how I’ve been feeling.

Gloom aside though, my mum and sister are busy baking in the kitchen – yes, yes, whilst I am relaxing on the couch making this post, basking in delicious smells – and the first batch out of the oven consisted of scrumptious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! I was disappointed after 2 cookies that I had already eaten my allocated allowance, as apparently these are to be taken to some golf event tomorrow. Grrr!

Last night I finally got around to renting out a couple of movies I’d been meaning to watch for a long time. I know both Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Eyes Wide Shut are both pretty old movies, but there’s a reason they’re both so famous, and I’m glad to finally have watched them. For starters, I know Jason Statham’s not exactly Oscar-winning material, but he’s never failed to entertain me in a film. I still can’t get over how he was a national diver. Heh. On the other hand, I had never taken much interest in the idea of Eyes Wide Shut. I remember my parents and the press had made a big deal out of it, back all those years when it first came out, but what had piqued my interest was the fact that we had been assigned to watch it for a Scholarship English tutorial last year. I’d ended up watching A Clockwork Orange and Fight Club instead, but never got around to anything else – let alone the idea of Tom Cruise being jealous of his wife’s sexual fantasies. It’s such a bizarre movie… I’m still not even sure what to think of it.

This is a pretty slack post, and I didn’t even take this next photo, but why bother when Mum’s already taken it, and it’s cold and wet outside? I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the onset of autumn (winter soon, please!), and this is a corner of our deck and backyard. You can hardly see the back deck that the chair and table are on, as it’s virtually completely covered by fallen trees. Sweeping those are a nightmare.

Friday afternoon adventures:
1/ Remembering the wrong time for the ferry home, thus leaving the guitar boys to walk to the ferry… then discovering I had a 1.5 hour wait to spend alone, bored!
2/ Talking the guys down at Boardertown to help me get my broken Wesc headphones replaced, even though I lost the warranty and receipt.
3/ Seeing Takuma, who had been doing tennis training in Texas for the past few months.
4/ Walking the length of the beach catching up on things, being silly, reminiscing.
5/ Spying on the guy doing that thing that I can’t remember the name of… the sport where they stand on a board that looks like a surfboard, and are just, uhh, paddling along?!! Takuma says it’s all the hype and are all over sports magazine.
6/ Discussing how far away the rain is, as Rangitoto Island quickly disappeared behind the clouds…
7/ Being ambushed by the rain, and discovering just how far we’d walked down the beach – as running on increasingly wet sand in damp, tight jeans and dr martens wasn’t the easiest thing to do! Especially because I’m so unfit now…
8/ Spending the rest of the early evening chatting over twinkies and then going shopping for a new beanie to get me through winter.

These Cookie Dough Bites are amazing. Dammit, I need more of that stuff.

And last, but not least, I took a detour on my way home at about 3am to pick up a belated birthday present. 3x Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums. Just because Matt thinks I need to be enlightened. I can tell you now, it’s going to take me quite a while to get into them. But alas, I am very impressed by the wrapping job. It’s too bad I couldn’t get a photo of it whilst it was still wrapped.

I’ll walk this modern tightrope… Where is home?

No, no, I’m not leaving civilisation for a year – I’m just off to Taiwan/Japan for a month, and that’s what my luggage looks like. 90% of what I’m taking consists of “western food goodies” and other New Zealand-produce like sheep wool scarves and boots. The 2x party packs of salt and vinegar chips are for my godmother, because apparently they don’t have s&v flavoured chips in Taiwan?! Plus, chocolate just makes a solid, relatively cheap gift – I mean, who doesn’t love chocolate?

Among the slightly less expected items were milo – I’ve got four heavy packs of those in there somewhere, for my mum’s friend in Kyoto who’s kindly offering me and my friend a place to stay next month when we fly over. And Ugg boots. Apparently they’re all the rave in Taiwan during their winter at the moment, and my godmother’s very picky and wanted NZ-made ones, with proper wool, instead of the cheaper, Made-In-China alternative.

I think the most annoying thing is the fact that my flight is at 11:45pm tonight – making today pretty redundant. Asides from my last minute packing and tidying my room, I haven’t really been able to do much today. Although, I think Charlotte’s coming around for goodbye hugs and to snip my fringe. It really, really needs a cut. But I’m too scared to do it myself!

I think the main upside to my luggage being occupied by edible and space-consuming gifts is the fact that after I arrive, my bag will become virtually empty, allowing me to go craaaazy with shopping; this is mostly important because university will be kicking off a couple of days after I return, and I don’t know how I am going to cope with mufti everyday for the rest of my life! Blog entries full of newly-bought goodies and yummy foods and sights from Taiwan/Japan soooon. If all goes well, by this time tomorrow I will have in my possession a very funky pair of somethings that I’ve lusted after for aaaages now, look out!

You and me in the photobooth, waiting for the flash, close the curtain urgently

I’d totally forgotten about my plight with these shortbread cookies until I was cleaning out the memory card and found photos which my mum took of them. These were the nicest batch, and dare I say, my batch that I’d mixed from scratched and made myself. I know, I know, shortbread is freaking easy to make, but it was more the fact that I actually went to the effort of making them that’s really worth something – I’m really lazy and generally don’t enjoy much baking/cooking, etc…

Anyway, the story behind these Christmas shortbread cookies was that I’d made them to give to friends who I simply couldn’t afford to buy Christmas presents for. The problem was, at some point, mum took over mixing the ingredients, and she’d doubled all the ingredients except the flour! But being the amazing cook she is (and me the shitty one), she didn’t like the idea of me entertaining the idea that perhaps she’d done something wrong in the process, as the mix was just faaar too soft to even cut up! Thus began the tedious task of refrigerating them back and forth until I had finally shaped them all and baked them. It wasn’t until much later that she suddenly had a lightbulb moment and went “OH…” haha.

Those who managed to eat some in the end said they were good anyway; but I felt a little bad that there were many friends I’d failed to deliver to, just because we were never home when I was free or had the shortbread with me!

In other matters, tomorrow I’m driving down with a friend, my sister and her friend to Raglan for a couple of nights. We’ll be camping at the local holiday park, and who knows, I might even brave it out and attempt to surf. Maybe. I’ve always wished I could surf… although unfortunately the weather at the moment isn’t looking too fantastic, I’m just hoping it clears up soon, but it’s a guaranteed good trip in general! In fact, this is shaping up to be an exciting week overall: Tues-Thurs is Raglan, Thursday night I will be photographing the Peaches gig (I’m actually quite gutted that I’m missing out on The Mint Chicks because it’s on the same night), and Friday will entail about 14hours of photographing Auckland’s Big Day Out. Not to mention I can’t get out of shifts at work for both Saturday and Sunday…

To be honest, I just can’t wait to see what whacky shots we come up with on the trip and how good proper stage lighting will make my gig photos; so please, please, please all have your fingers and toes crossed for me that my sore throat gets better ASAP!

A perfect circle

Tuesday 1st December, 2009: First day of the last month of my final year.

For months and months I’d been anticipating December 1st. No, for once it wasn’t for the birthday bash of my best mate, but rather, for my 7th form sign out day – my last day in uniform, ever – followed by Graduation Dinner. Not only did this signify the end of all college exams and last minute cramming for the year, but it also brought an end to five, often long and tedious years spent at Macleans College. Surprisingly, well, actually in all brutal honesty, I know myself better than this so it wasn’t really surprising to have found myself spending the day in numb frustration. I was sad to be leaving, but only because I’ve been so used to the comfort zone and safety bubbles that I’d built up around me at school: the daily routine of classes and socialising that I had become accustomed to and can execute in zombie mode all day, everyday, all year. But it’s for that same reason (and many, many more) that I have been more than ready for leave for over the past couple of years. I’ve been tired of the same surroundings, the same (many not-so-likeable) people, the uptight school rules, the chore of upholding my “prefect status” and trying to be some kind of role model to juniors who mostly don’t care. Speaking of surroundings though, I will admit that, whilst I often took the picturesque sea-view from school for granted at times, and often cursed it as the reason the billowing wind during winter was so brutally lethal, I don’t think I could have attended a school with a better setting. Most people don’t get to sit perched on a hill in the middle of a reserve, in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods everyday!

On that note, I think I’ll end my sentimental train of thoughts, I don’t think that I will fully deal with the change until it actually hits me once university starts next year. I have a lot of regrets… no wait, that’s probably not the best word, but in the sense that, people are right when they say things like “in ten years time it’s not the things you did that you will regret, but the things you didn’t do”, or something along the lines of… I can’t remember the exact, more eloquent phrasing! Anyway, there are definitely things that I wish that I’d done, or had done differently, but I guess that would ultimately have made me a completely different person, and I’m not too sure how well that would work out, haha.

Here are some photos from each setting on the big night:

Colin was generous enough to offer the services of his spare lounge for our pre-grad. Not surprisingly, everyone’s looking pretty glum. I think most people with either extremely hyper (definitely not us lot), or were feeling pretty out of it, tired, and generally just wanted to get through the evening unscathed by any huge pangs of “OMG SENTIMENT!”

This picture shows Sinead hijacking the background of me and Freddy… A bit of organisation later we were on the ferry into the city. It seemed the most social option, so we didn’t have to split into cars, beg parents for rides, etc, and at $4.40 it wasn’t so bad… until we got off the ferry and decided not to split a 10minute taxi fare, instead deciding to make the 4-block uphill trek on foot. Now usually I’m not one to complain about walking, but when the only black heels you own are about 4 inches high and also have a platform, my feet didn’t like me so much that day. Plus it was hot and humid, and showing up sweaty was really, really unattractive.

I must say, the good at Grad Dinner was a thouuuusand times better than that at the ball. And the dessert too, for that matter. I actually ate both slices of cheesecake! Though, as you can see here, I left my cardigan on for much of the evening. My Topshop dress is lovely, but I hadn’t really wanted to wear it to Grad since it’s very low cut at the back (as well as the front, for that matter, forcing me to break my arm-folding habit for the evening) and I didn’t really feel like it was that most appropriate.

And last, the true highlight of the evening = getting tipsy down at O’Hagan’s on the viaduct. Thankfully I have a lovely mother with a distrust of taxis, so offered to pick me up at any hour, drunk or sober. Me and three friends decided that mum’s transport offer was a huge ask already, and her having to wake up at 6.30am was just brutal, so we didn’t stay out too late and got home at 2am. Needless to say, I crashed without sparing a thought of taking a shower that night.

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