Ok so I had planned on going to NYC for my 40th and I have slightly changed this...
I decided it would be way more fun to have my 40th with a bunch of friends and thought the closest place that would be an awesome holiday for everyone was Hawaii... so now I am planning:
7 nights Honolulu
7 nights NYC
So I get the best of both worlds...
I am really excited about this because it means I could have a great time with my friends in the sun and then go to NYC for a bit of culture and city life.. plus it means I get to go to NYC!!!
I have got some serious travel plans in my mind for the next year or so...
1) Christmas.. really wanting to go to Vanuatu for Christmas.. tho I will have to wait till I am back from NZ before making any serious plans.
2) May... I have a week off in May 2012 and was thinking of going home coz it would be have been my dads birthday but if Vanuatu at Christmas doesn't work out I might go there in May instead. Or I could do something really stupid & go to London for 5 days!! That would be crazy!!
3) November... the big one.. Hawaii & NYC..
Somehow I got to work out how to pay for all of this tho...
But hey - dreams are free!!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Well...
So this weekend it will be one year since my little old Christchurch decided to makes its presence known to the world... why it had to be in the shape of a 7.1 Richter earthquake I don't know but there you go... you can't predict these things really can you.
It's weird to think of everything that has happened in the past 12 months - a lot of non memorable stuff but HEAPS of things that I don't think if you were writing the story of one person you would be able to get away with.. I know that compared to some people I have had a pretty mundane 12 months, but for me it's been rather full on... lets have a look shall we:
This time last year I was in Chch with the rest of my family preparing for my mothers 80's birthday. It was meant to be a nice, calm, civilised afternoon tea with my mum surrounded by her friends & family... instead it was a rushed, haphazard get together at my brothers farm - coz the venue we were meant to have it at didn't have any power after the quake. Sometimes your life can change in an instant and I know that Chch, and a lot of people who lived there would never be the same after that 30 seconds at 4.35am on Saturday 4th September.
You know how you have moments in your life where you go Before & After that moment? Mine is broken into two of those moments - Before my dad died & After my dad died; and Before the Chch earthquake & After the Chch earthquake... some moments in life define you as a person.
The next monumental thing to happen was finally going to the UK - still can't quite believe that it happened actually... Such an amazing experience and I want to be back there so badly. Its been nearly a year since I was there but I still think about it nearly every day. I fell in love with London from the first moment and everytime I think about that place, the love grows. I never knew you could actually fall in love with a city but there you go. I mean I have been to a few places around NZ & Australia and love a lot of those places - Chch of course!, Dunedin, Melbourne, Adelaide... but I actually fell in love with London! I never felt so at home in a place other than Chch... it was a really weird sensation - I had never been there before but at the same time, I felt at home.
Christmas - I wasn't gonna write about Christmas but it was a time that I guess changed a lot of things for me. Christmas 2010 will definitely go down as my worse Christmas on record. It was a huge disappointment and I never want to have that feeling of utter loneliness again. It wasn't down to one specific thing but a combination of things that happened leading up to the day itself. I hated it so much that I am adamant that I do not want to spend Christmas in Brisbane ever again... Sad but true.. it is not my first choice of where I want to be at that time of year... I am even contemplating escaping to a tropical island for a few days over that period because I don't want to be anywhere near this place!! I can't say that my love affair with Brisbane is over because I never "loved" it here.. but I know I am getting near the end of my tenure here...
2011 - I have this rule... I never say Happy New Year until at least March because I don't think anything good happens in January & February... This year will be the one I fall back on when people say that is a ridiculous notion.... January saw Brisbane & 80% of QLD under water.. floods were everywhere, there were cyclones and just plain trashy weather, people lost their livelihoods, homes & in some cases, their lives.. then came February and the day that Christchurch will remember forever... February 22nd 2011 12:51pm - 6.3 mag earthquake struck causing widespread damage that is still evident today - 6 months later. Not only did we lose a lot f Chch history that day, but 181 people never went home that day. This on the day before the anniversary of my father passing away, so it was already an emotional time.
I hold firm to my belief that nothing good happens in January & February..
Another major thing that have happened in the last 12 months; my 14 year old great niece has been diagnosed with epilepsy - you really wonder what is going on when something like that happens to someone that young... I have always had the belief that things happen for a reason - it isn't always obvious and sometimes I do question my own belief but I really do think that. But someone that young gets something like that you just really do question it... She seems to be coping ok with it all, but it must be scary at the same time.
I am really hoping that the next 12 months turn around.. honestly things haven't been good since 2007 - that was a shit as year and they seem to be getting worse every year. Don't get me wrong - there are some good things that have happened - I started with Weight Watchers in February and have lost about 14 kg since... which is a really awesome thing. I know there is a lot more to go and I have been struggling with it all in the past couple of months but it is time to get back on track and to keep going towards my goal... my first main one is to lose 20kg by the time I go on leave in November.. I have 8 weeks today to lose 20 kg.. I know I can do it - I just gotta motivate myself to do it...
Another AWESOME THING was meeting Richie - well I didn't exactly meet him... just rocked up to him and asked for a photo.. still it was the best 5 seconds I've ever had in a Brisbane back alley ;)
Well I guess that is it for me.. bit of a long one.. I have to go now and find a plaster coz I cut my finger one a carving knife when I was doing the dishes... see even doing the dishes is hazardous :)
It's weird to think of everything that has happened in the past 12 months - a lot of non memorable stuff but HEAPS of things that I don't think if you were writing the story of one person you would be able to get away with.. I know that compared to some people I have had a pretty mundane 12 months, but for me it's been rather full on... lets have a look shall we:
This time last year I was in Chch with the rest of my family preparing for my mothers 80's birthday. It was meant to be a nice, calm, civilised afternoon tea with my mum surrounded by her friends & family... instead it was a rushed, haphazard get together at my brothers farm - coz the venue we were meant to have it at didn't have any power after the quake. Sometimes your life can change in an instant and I know that Chch, and a lot of people who lived there would never be the same after that 30 seconds at 4.35am on Saturday 4th September.
You know how you have moments in your life where you go Before & After that moment? Mine is broken into two of those moments - Before my dad died & After my dad died; and Before the Chch earthquake & After the Chch earthquake... some moments in life define you as a person.
The next monumental thing to happen was finally going to the UK - still can't quite believe that it happened actually... Such an amazing experience and I want to be back there so badly. Its been nearly a year since I was there but I still think about it nearly every day. I fell in love with London from the first moment and everytime I think about that place, the love grows. I never knew you could actually fall in love with a city but there you go. I mean I have been to a few places around NZ & Australia and love a lot of those places - Chch of course!, Dunedin, Melbourne, Adelaide... but I actually fell in love with London! I never felt so at home in a place other than Chch... it was a really weird sensation - I had never been there before but at the same time, I felt at home.
Christmas - I wasn't gonna write about Christmas but it was a time that I guess changed a lot of things for me. Christmas 2010 will definitely go down as my worse Christmas on record. It was a huge disappointment and I never want to have that feeling of utter loneliness again. It wasn't down to one specific thing but a combination of things that happened leading up to the day itself. I hated it so much that I am adamant that I do not want to spend Christmas in Brisbane ever again... Sad but true.. it is not my first choice of where I want to be at that time of year... I am even contemplating escaping to a tropical island for a few days over that period because I don't want to be anywhere near this place!! I can't say that my love affair with Brisbane is over because I never "loved" it here.. but I know I am getting near the end of my tenure here...
2011 - I have this rule... I never say Happy New Year until at least March because I don't think anything good happens in January & February... This year will be the one I fall back on when people say that is a ridiculous notion.... January saw Brisbane & 80% of QLD under water.. floods were everywhere, there were cyclones and just plain trashy weather, people lost their livelihoods, homes & in some cases, their lives.. then came February and the day that Christchurch will remember forever... February 22nd 2011 12:51pm - 6.3 mag earthquake struck causing widespread damage that is still evident today - 6 months later. Not only did we lose a lot f Chch history that day, but 181 people never went home that day. This on the day before the anniversary of my father passing away, so it was already an emotional time.
I hold firm to my belief that nothing good happens in January & February..
Another major thing that have happened in the last 12 months; my 14 year old great niece has been diagnosed with epilepsy - you really wonder what is going on when something like that happens to someone that young... I have always had the belief that things happen for a reason - it isn't always obvious and sometimes I do question my own belief but I really do think that. But someone that young gets something like that you just really do question it... She seems to be coping ok with it all, but it must be scary at the same time.
I am really hoping that the next 12 months turn around.. honestly things haven't been good since 2007 - that was a shit as year and they seem to be getting worse every year. Don't get me wrong - there are some good things that have happened - I started with Weight Watchers in February and have lost about 14 kg since... which is a really awesome thing. I know there is a lot more to go and I have been struggling with it all in the past couple of months but it is time to get back on track and to keep going towards my goal... my first main one is to lose 20kg by the time I go on leave in November.. I have 8 weeks today to lose 20 kg.. I know I can do it - I just gotta motivate myself to do it...
Another AWESOME THING was meeting Richie - well I didn't exactly meet him... just rocked up to him and asked for a photo.. still it was the best 5 seconds I've ever had in a Brisbane back alley ;)
Well I guess that is it for me.. bit of a long one.. I have to go now and find a plaster coz I cut my finger one a carving knife when I was doing the dishes... see even doing the dishes is hazardous :)
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