Make it stop...

At the end of a relatively intense and very busy week at work I reckoned that the best way to start trying to wind down for the weekend would be to go see a silly movie, and I felt that Mamma Mia might just be the one that could achieve that.

I listen to Mark Kermode's weekly movie review podcast and I couldn't wait to hear his review of this film a while back. Needless to say he pointed out how badly directed it is, plot is non existent (my words not his), how Pierce Brosnan can't sing and Colin Firth can't dance. However, what sold this film for me was the fact that it is apparently so bad it's brilliant! So, on Fri evening we pottered along to the Penthouse to watch this. I was relatively sure that I'd end up enjoying it but I did have some concern for my movie viewing companion. So the film starts and the initial reunion scenes are excrutiatingly bad. I mean awful. Horrendous. But you know, some of the songs are amusing and after a while I'm starting to enjoy it. Then, during the song, Dancing Queen when Meryl Streep is dancing/singing across island and all the women drop their burdens and join in, I quietly hear the words "make it stop" whispered beside me. And what was my sympathetic response to this? I just started laughing uncontrollably! I tried once or twice to say something kindly to try to soothe battered ears but I couldn't get words out as I couldn't stop laughing. By the end of the scene I had tears rolling down my face!

Anyway, for anybody thinking of going to see this film, DO IT! It is truely awful and as a result very funny. It's the three blokes who make the film for me though... can't say I thought that any of the women seemed to relax in to their roles... or maybe it's just that the dialogue they had was so awful I don't know. But I highly recommend going to see Mamma Mia.

The weekend

I was pretty exhausted by the time I got Friday evening. It was a fairly intense week at the office though not necessarily a bad week. Just busy. Our company has a new office in Wellington so we had our monthly meeting there seeing it furnished for the first time and having a little drink before I left by 5:30.

I viewed a couple more apartments on Fri but thinking that I might just stay where I am for another 6 months. It's a good location and I do like my kitchen here :) Fri evening after dinner (with some gorgeous French Comte cheese :) ) we watched Borat. Admittedly Borat is not a movie I've been jumping up and down with excitement to watch but I felt I should watch 10 or so mins before continuing to diss it. Sort of ended up watching it all (bar the last 10 mins or so) but it was more in a state of "is this for real?", "surely it gets better", before I realised that, well, I just don't get it. I smiled in one or two places but I can't say that I find it particularly funny but I know that it's because, as I said, I just don't get it!

Sat morning I checked out a 2 bed house but as I'd been warned, Aro Street just doesn't really get winter sun because of the hills (well it is in Aro Valley) and it was cold in there! It looked nice in the photos which is why I went for a nose but I guess after hearing from my climbing partner that mould grew on her clothes while she lived there as the house was so damp, that I was somewhat wary going to view! Watched another couple of episodes of the Long Wary Around (while enjoying a rather delicious bottle of Ata Rangi Crimson Pinot Noir). It really is a fantastic series and the journey through Mongolia and along the Road of Bones in far Eastern Europe looks so so difficult! The bikes are holding up great as well!!

Nice chilled slow start to the day today which was lovely. Horrible forecast for the day so I made arrangements to go climbing at 4pm with Amanda in Fergs. We headed out to Jackson St in Petone and found a whole bunch of great looking cafes. Definitely heading back there. We drove out to the coast and it was lovely out there. Definitely picnic in spring/summer location. Don't get me wrong, this was not a sandy attractive beach at all (no golden sand or the likes) but the water is just beautiful there and we could see the Sth Island in the distance. Anyway the forecast was so wrong as it turned out to be a beautiful day! Not hot but relatively mild and very sunny. Could have headed off early for a walk this morning if we'd know that! But not to worry.. I headed down to Fergs a little early as I decided to buy my own climbing shoes. It's only $3 a time to rent them but as they're rented I always had to wear socks and they were a little wide. So I now own my own shoes... and didn't need to wear socks. Have to admit that they're bloody uncomfortable except for when I'm climbing. Walking between climbs not nice and I was well happy to take them off at the end of it all :)

And with them I did 5 climbs (only completed 3 of them) but one of those was a grade 15... haven't done a 15 before! Had a go on my challenge wall but it was my last climb and while I got further than before my arms, me, was just too tired to manage it (remember I haven't completed this wall before).

And now I'm having a lazy chilled Sunday evening :)

Is it the weekend yet?

Oh it's not. It's still only Wednesday. It's been a busy week and it's going to keep staying busy for a while yet I reckon.

On a good note my new macbook arrived on Monday and today I got a phone call from travel agent about my flight home at Christmas. I'm currently waitlisted for an upgrade on three of the four long haul legs there and back (I don't have enough air miles to upgrade for all four legs). Anyway turns out that I hit the top of the list for the Kuala Lumpur - Amsterdam leg which is good news indeed... especially as I didn't expect any of the upgrades to come through!

In the meantime I'm also looking for somewhere new to live as I'm not renewing the lease on this place. I want some sun. Have seen 3 places so far and none is runner. One was sort of a runner for a few hours but on further consideration it's not.

Unfortunately I don't really have anything of interest to say right now so I think I'll head off and read my book (Dracula if anyone's interested!)

Briefly...

Whoops, it's been a few weeks since my last post. Mixture of being busy at work, busy outside of work and missing my Mac Book :( It's definitely winter here; cold today and it was very very very very wet last Saturday when I was tramping. Absalutely everything I was wearing was totally wet after 3 hours and there we were heading to a hut with no heat of any sort. Anyway, as someone hurt their knee we were actually back at the van a little after 4 hrs walking.

Climbing this evening. I'm quite disgusted to find out that my current "challenge" wall is only a grade 14! I mean it seems so much harder than the other grade 14 which I use as my warm up climb now. It was so busy in there this evening that i didn't even get a chance to get to my challenge. Anyway, it'll probably be Sun week before I get to climb again and I'm telling you, I'm gonna get to the top... no matter how many attempts it takes!! And by that time I should have got my act together and bought my own climbing shoes.

Still haven't found a tenant for my apartment in Ireland. Bit depressing really so I try not to think about it. Will have to start viewing some places here too as I'm moving out on 24th Aug so need to find somewhere new to live. On a positive note, the insurance company have placed a purchase order with one of their suppliers to replace my Macbook as it's totally kaput after that water spill.

So, after a week of running around non stop at work (which I'm enjoying in a way) I'm glad that tomorrow is Friday... I'm ready for the weekend!

The weekend...

was cold and wet but at least I spent it in the company of good friends in Christchurch.
There was lots of rain. There was lots of wind. There was in fact lots of snow... though that disappeared as fast as it appeared.
Generally chilled lazy weekend while inside and cold wet weekend while outside :)

Oh Yeah!!!

I'm on such a high after climbing this evening! For anybody who's been climbing for any period of time what I did is no big thing but I'm sure nonetheless they'll remember that wonderful feeling when they did their first single colour climb... two of them. So tonight I climbed a grade 13 and a grade 14. And Amanda persuaded me to try this seriously hard looking climb - it's actually the wall overhangs, ledges, straight vertical, that makes this particular climb difficult. First attempt I get as far as the overhang (horizontal, no sloping here) and I just couldn't reach over. We did some other climbs and then she persuaded me to try again. This I thought was a total waste of time as this climb requires alot of strength in upper body (or at least alot more than i have) but I gave it a go and actually got further. I got over the horizontal overhang and carried on up to the ledge. And then I fell. But I feel so thrilled with tonight. Yup there were toe/foot cramps like last week but fewer and I just have to keep relaxing and try to avoid the really small footholds where I need to put all my body weight to move on until my feet are stronger. V pleased :)

Windy out there...

Oh... maybe I won't be taking the camera out for a walk today. Admittedly listening to the wind howling outside at 4am this morning I did wonder what I should expect when I woke up again this morning. Well, not a lot of anything good it seems! Rain and lots of wind out there so I thought I'd check forecast to see if it was going to clear up later. Nope. In fact severe weather warnings have been issued:

SEVERE GALE SOUTHERLIES AND FURTHER HEAVY RAIN FOR WELLINGTON AND
WAIRARAPA UNTIL EVENING

STRONG WIND WARNING WELLINGTON AND COASTAL WAIRARAPA : Southerly gales are expected through to this evening, before easing. The winds are likely to reach severe gale between 8am and 6pm today, with gusts of 130 km/h, especially about exposed hill tops.

Nice he? Guess I'll watch some more Prime Suspect then! And combine that with some more lazing...