Merry Christmas!

Here's a picture of our pohutukawa, also known as the New Zealand Christmas Tree for obvious reasons!

Pre-Holiday Celebrations!

Iain is currently in Dunedin visiting his family for a few days while I stayed home to work on my project. The day before he left, we went into town to do some Christmas shopping and have lunch. We ate at this cool outdoor/indoor market thingy called Elliot Stables (I like the name 'cause it reminds me of Elliot Stabler, on Law & Order: SVU).

Elliot Stables has a bunch of little restaurants in it, allowing you to go from place to place sampling all the food. There's a Spanish tapas place, an Italian place, a German sausage place, and a French place. Plus sushi, some gourmet markets, and a snazzy tea joint. It sounds incredible but we weren't overly impressed. The sausage place was a total let down. The Italian sausage was a complete joke.

Then we wandered over to Ponsonby for some drinks and more shopping before heading home.

It's weird going Christmas shopping in 70 degree weather but I'm getting used to it!

There would've been a billion more pictures but my camera died since I stupidly left it plugged into my laptop the day before, with it in "on" mode for like 3 hours.

Cats in the Yard

Update

We've been busy doing housework (Iain) and homework (me). I'm a few weeks into my Industry Project and have managed to get a lot done while not completely killing myself. I hope this means I've actually learned a few things this year...

We're in the process of getting double-glazing installed on the windows. It's incredible insulation but it's also amazing at soundproofing. This will come in handy when we're trying to block out the screaming, unattended small children who live next door and spend their days and evenings going up and down their driveway on skateboards.

In other news, we had a great brunch at our friends Max & Toni's house last weekend. Max made a leg of lamb, potatoes and vegies, and the best bruschetta I've ever had (possible exception: this cool Italian place in Brooklyn that we stumbled upon with Danielle and Nam).

Attached are some random pictures of our hydrangea bush and Toni & Max's brunch.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!!!

The Dark Knight

After TWO YEARS of seeing movie trailers and saying, "We should really go see that..." Iain and I came to the sad conclusion that we just don't go to movies. It's a hassle, we never like the times, so let's just admit it: we don't go to movies. There. Now we don't need to continue the incessant, "We should really go see that..." conversations that just leave us feeling guilty because we know deep down that we WON'T go see that. We'll do what we always do: stay home, watch TV.

SO. It's taken us this long to see The Dark Knight. I was prepared to be disappointed because of all the hype, and I was. No hype, no sudden tragic death of a certain star, and it would be a good movie. But not great. And while we both enjoyed Heath Ledger's performance, it is not (in our opinion) Oscar-worthy.

I'm refraining from going off on a rant about how as soon as someone dies everyone decides they're a creative genius. I loved River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain and agree that they were extremely talented, but if they'd lived, would we still consider them "voices of a generation"? All you have to do is look at Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl and there's your answer. One has faded into oblivion awhile the other has surpassed Kurt Cobain in talent and influence but is still not considered as important.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

My Dad turns 71 today!!!!

Summer!!!

My client approved my design ideas for her site! I was fully anticipating a weekend spent re-doing my designs, so I'm thrilled. I took a day off from computer stuff and actually - brace yourself - turned off my laptop and went outside! (well, I hung out on Facebook in the morning....) Iain spent the morning painting some windows and doing other household chores.

Yesterday was spectacular, so we enjoyed the rest of the day by lying out on the deck reading Real Simple and Oprah, and then went for our first swim of the season! It was so great to be in the water again. It's days like yesterday that remind us of why we moved here. There were, admittedly, a few dark rainy weeks in August where I was like, "OK, this blows."

Today we got up early and went for a long walk along the water, and are about to head out for some brunch!

Happy Hour

I went to happy hour on Friday with my classmates. After 8 months of making fun of everyone and whining about code, I've finally accepted that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. (especially since most of them are actually pretty normal)

Here's what I learned:

1. Most of the class thought I was Canadian (not sure how to take this)

2. Most of the class wants to leave NZ at some stage and work in the US, although there was concern over how "loud and competitive" Americans are (I kept quiet on this one)

3. Two of my classmates who drive to school every day actually live minutes from my house and could've carpooled me in all this time (I wanted to CRY when I learned that)

4. One girl turns 21 in a few weeks and is planning to celebrate by drinking an entire bottle of Jaegermeister (vile)

5. At least half the class has no interest in hardcore programming and wants to go into web design (great - more competition)

6. One kid has a biracial American fiancé in Florida who is looking for a fellowship in NYC. He's been to the US a few times and laughed that the bars are only open until 2am or 4am. Then he expressed his shock at how strong the drinks are in the US. I responded, "I know - it's great, right??" but he disagreed. I didn't really have much to say to him after that.

7. I worked from home most of last week, but urged my classmates to make sure to tell EVERYONE we were going out for drinks. Well, they told everyone except the German. He only found out about it by walking past the bar and seeing us all sitting there. Of course, as soon as a seat opened up next to me he moved chairs and confronted me: "Did you know about this beforehand? No one told me? When did you hear about it?" I felt badly for him because it's never fun to be left out of something, but at the same time I was angry that he continues to look to me to keep him in the loop on all class activity. I told him the truth: "I wasn't in class all week so I don't know who knew and who didn't."

8. Everyone had a really good time and we all agreed to do it again soon.

BIG NEWS!

Ok, so last night after dinner, Iain and I were walking around the neighborhood and we passed an upscale kids store (they also have AMAZING dresses for women, but that's for another post).

We were standing in front of the window commenting on this super cool Jungle Hospital kit you can buy. I think it's made from sustainable materials and all of the animals are really fun and exotic.

So here's the conversation we had (this is not verbatim but it's damned close!)

Iain: "Man, that's really neat."
Sas: "If you had a kid, how amazing would it be to buy one of these? It sorta makes having kids cool."
Iain: (pauses, puts his arm around me) "You know what? I think we should make the leap."
Sas: "WHAT?! Huh?"
Iain: "Yeah, I think it's time we invest in some really good cat toys for the boys."

Jon Stewart

My sister met Jon Stewart. This is BEYOND unfair. The last famous person I saw (SAW not MET) was Patrick Duffy when he was in Buffalo shooting Vamping in 1984.

Freebies and Gifts

I received my VERY belated birthday present from my sister last week. It contained what every American gal living in New Zealand needs: a Swiffer, candy, and back issues of Oprah and Real Simple. You can get these mags over here but at the "we flew these stupid things all the way from the US" price of around $17 each. Tabloids are affordable, thank god, so I can get my fix of "Beach Battle! Skinny bikini bods versus curvy bikini bods!" or read the latest in Angelina Jolie's life, but anything more in-depth ("Live your best life now!", "Declutter your home!") is going to cost me.

Thankfully, I did find a domestic magazine that's reasonably priced. "NZ Home & Garden" is like Real Simple meets DIY meets Domino. I'm very excited. I also received a St Ives Gift Pack as thanks. I figured "Whatever... St Ives... yawn." but I got these HUGE bottles in the mail. It's worth probably $50US, or $8,000 NZ.

I'll also give a HUGE belated shoutout to Jamie for sending me a massive box of Swiffer wipes to go with the Swiffer, as well as a year's supply or more of Bobbi Brown lipstick!!! Yay overseas gifts!

BBQ!

Dec 1 is the first day of summer (in NZ) and Nov 27 is Thanksgiving (US), so on Nov 30 we had a barbecue with Glenn and Claudine. The weather was perfect, the burgers and hot dogs were great, my mac & cheese was awesome, and the baked beans (my grandfather's recipe) needed to be cooked a little longer but were still delish. The highlight of the day was Iain's homemade kumara pie --- yum!

Thanks to Claudine for her hi-skool version of champagne!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!

To honor the fact that we've known each other for literally 25+ years, here's a flattering shot from Christmas break during our freshman year in college. I especially like your sweater and tights, as well as my pinned jeans with tights (?!). And I don't know what's going on with my hair...!