back from Nam!

We survived the mayhem and chaos and i'm just talking about crossing the road. Nam was great, had a whirlwind of a trip - 2 days in Singapore (extended stay thanks to my incompetent visa organisational skills...ie, showed up to the jetstar counter to fly from singapore to hcmc and got asked to show our visas and i was all like "our what now?" doh!)
anyway, twas all good in the end.. expensive but all good.

so, back to the trip...we stayed in the old quarter in hanoi, where the street food was amazing and josh got drunk on 20cent beer. did a free walking tour with the hanoikids and watched/tried not to fall asleep during the water puppet show. had a gorgeously luxurious overnight trip to halong bay where they showered us with petals as we stepped aboard...

spent 2 nights in hoi an, riding a bicycle around the gorgeous streets and spending way too much money on tailor made shoes and clothes and oohed and ahhed over the pretty lights/lanterns at night. went for a private boat ride along the river and rode our bikes to the beach but got rained on, so josh got drunk on some more 20cent beers.

then onto ho chi minh where i had a heart attack everytime we crossed the street. took a day trip to the cu chi tunnels and josh showed he was as small as the vietcong by slipping into one of their super tiny tunnels. then we fired the M16 (about 4 or 5 rounds each) which was INTENSE and not really a pleasant experience. but was cool to give it a go anyway.
also took a day trip to the mekong delta and checked out the war memorial museum, which was a very sobering and emotional experience.

All in all, was a good and eventful trip, but to be honest, I wouldn't go back. we've seen a few amazing countries now and vietnam just didn't stack up. yes, its crazy cheap and yes, the food is so good, but the people were grumpier than i'm used to (to be fair, their country has been through a lot, so they have every right to be grumpy). the place was dirty, the weather was not so great, the water was always brown and there were no monkeys! no monkeys! seriously! no bloody monkeys. 

back to reality now though and it is good to be home. cuddles with my little britney xo

new jobs, haircuts and holidays

i survived the first week of my new job and it was even cruisier than i expected...in fact, i'm now worried i'm going to get bored. but for now, it's lovely to leave work at 5ish and not be worrying about my to do list. in fact, i was kicked out of the office today at 4:30 because "its Friday, its sunny.." and the manager wanted to leave. AMAZING! so nice to have to leave early! I was a bit lost and didn't know what to do, but it now feels like i have more time and life isn't just one big, long list of to do things with a clock working against me.

I've also had a haircut and my hair is the shortest it has ever been. I have a fringe and the hairdo looks good...until i try to leave it in its natural state, and then i look like a birds nest/i've been caught in a hurricane... which is not a cool look. So i'm already trying to grow my hairdo out even though it looks good. Its just not practical.

My bridesmaid duties start tomorrow and i am taking Nathania wedding dress shopping. Just had wedding dress discusssions on Jule's behalf with Siza and Tila. Poor Jules just looked Over.Whelmed. with capital letters. So hopefully we'll get her to a wedding dress shop soon so she can actually try some on and figure out what works for her and what doesn't. Which is what I'm doing with Nathania tomorrow. Fun fun :)

And then on Sunday, my darling husband and I are going to brave the seriously low cost carrier, Jetstar, to fly for 14 hours to Singapore, have a one night layover/party/shop/rest and then onto VIETNAM!!!!!! Sooooooo excited. I love travelling and this year has been AMAZING, what with our trip to Bali, Fiji and now Vietnam. Oh and a stopover in Aus too. And it's not over yet! We have already booked tickets to Sydney for the weekend of 2nd December, so lots to be excited about....

Love love love my life and my husband and all the opportunities available to us at the moment. Oh yes, and Josh's new single is going to be played on ZM from next week onwards!! He just may have a hit on his hands!

ciao ciao

Byeeeeeee! Had a lovely send off yesterday, with morning tea, long lunch and pressies from the RAL crew. Then got emotional saying goodbye to G, the best manager ever, and that was it, couldn't stop crying. It was like being at the airport and having to say goodbye to everyone, never knowing if or when i'll see them again. how embarrassing. anyway, on to new adventures now!

catch up time

almost the end of the weekend, which means my last week at RAL is almost upon me.  excited, scared, sad and happy all at the same time. the next two weeks are going to be INTENSE!  because not only am i finishing up at RAL, then starting new job, but i am also organising our trip to vietnam!!! CRAZY INTENSE! but in all sorts of good ways.

life so far has been good. booked tickets to aus for lyndell and geoffs wedding in newy in december. Julie and Simon got engaged woot woot! came up with an itinerary for vietnam. been training for new job (which sounds so much easier and less stressful than RAL). hmm what else..feels like a lot more has been going on. oh yes, my car lights stopped working. but josh got it fixed phew. toilet is broken as well, and we haven't fixed that. we have resorted to leaving tap off and having a bucket underneath the cistern in case it overflows. hopefully we'll get that fixed next week before we leave the country.

Josh has been super busy with rugby gigs as well, but we've managed to hang out a bit. 

watched him perform his originals at a festival in ponsonby yesterday with drew, nathania and robert. then popped over to the telecom "backing black" shed so josh could check up on sam allen. turns out the all blacks were there for a pr stunt, and were playing jenga and table tennis, so hung around and watched them before whipping off to see julie, simon, drew, nathania and robert at my exhibition.

off to the fanzone in the viaduct today to watch the aussies kick some springboks butt :)

List of gratitude

1. getting amongst it with the Scottish rugby fans down in Auckland city yesterday. Love that the rugby world cup celebrations are happening in my own back yard... and that i don't have to watch a game to get to enjoy the atmosphere and celebrations
2. lovely dinner and chats in a lovely backyard last night. love the fairy lights and wild flowers
3. grateful for the opportunity to "mooch" around the house today
4. honey!! honey and butter on toast - such a yummy start to the morning
5. beautiful gerberas and some random purple flowers that are in our house at the moment
6. so, so grateful that i only have 2 weeks left at my current work place....i need out!!!!!

i am an ARTEEEEEST

today was the best. lots of dramas and a mini meltdown just before i entered, but Joshy swooped in and saved the day. and i walked in to a room full of people, music pumping and "models" in a local designers clothes walking around offering sweets. what a turn out! T, geoff, siza, odette, mark, gethin, kim, bex, mum and dad leys (with a bouquet of flowers), shirin, george and baby bella all came to see our work and show us some love. such a brilliant day. knackered now and time for bed.

Exhibition day!

Today is exhibition day! we spent all day hammering, hanging, stapling, straightening and re-arranging photos. and now the venue is packed to the rafters with canvases and frames of all sorts of photos. i am very proud of our little group and i think all viewers will love our exhibition.