2012: A Year in Review

Posted on January 5, 2013 by admin

It’s already a week gone in 2013 but better late than never… (I did start this draft on 31st Dec 2012!!! Promise!)

I was having a wee squiz through a few old posts recently and found this post from 2010 New Years and though it would be a great re-hash for this year of huge changes we have had!!!

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes!!! My sister in law (to be) had a darling adorable little girl called Izzy. Pip and Mark are wonderful parents and Dave and I are so excited to be first time Aunty and Uncle’s!!!!

We have also seen the joy of babies in lots of our friends and cousins lives – too many to name!!! (And have several friends expecting too)

Did anyone close to you die?

Unfortunately a close family friend was killed in a tragic farming accident in January of this year. It was terribly traumatic for their family and was tough on me not being there for my parents in their grief. He was a lovely man and well loved all round.

What countries did you visit?

England, Norway, Sweden, Wales, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand!!!!

What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?

A better lifestyle, centered around more thoughtful and healthy eating and exercising for both fitness and fun.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Losing 6.6kg in 6 weeks in a gym competition – diet and exercise met my will power! I came 6th out of 55 women which sadly meant I missed out on prize money but I was still pretty happy with my loss!!!

What was your biggest failure?

Not making enough effort to get out on weekends to visit London and various UK places.

What was the best thing you bought?

Honestly? My phone – my Desire I posted about last time had come to a point of being useless and faulty. So it was time to upgrade. I now own a Galaxy Nexus and love it – even sold an I-phone 5 I won because I love it so much!!!

Credit: http://www.phonegg.com/Samsung/Galaxy-Nexus

Where did most of your money go?

Travel for sure – we didn’t get the opportunity to do what some people do and bring money back from the UK to NZ…instead we came with credit card debt – but a lifetime of fabulous memories that I wouldn’t trade for a few dollars in the account!

What did you get really excited about?

HOMECOMING!!!!

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

Much happier. I am content and so comfortable in my life at home. We are planning our wedding – which is 2 1/2 months away!!!! I love my new work colleagues and being home with friends and family is just wonderful.

Thinner or fatter?

Probably in between to be perfectly honest. While I have had a pretty decent loss since moving home and starting to live a more clean and lean lifestyle I probably put on a similar amount in England really…

Richer or poorer?

In money terms, definately poorer…but in all other definitions of the word, so much richer.

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Travel in the UK. I so enjoyed my trip down to Devon in between Turkey and Greece, I wish I had seen more of the country side.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Spending money on useless things like crappy food and ciggarettes…

How did you spend Christmas?

With all the family – including my brother who currently lives in Perth!!! It was wonderful. And it was so special to share in my nieces first Christmas too. We missed a lot of first in the few months we were overseas between when she was born and us getting home but we are making up for it now!

The Jervis Family including partners and the Strain Family

Did you fall in love in 2012?

Yep – with home again!!!

What was your favorite TV program?

Greys Anatomy – watched it from Season 1, Episode 1 right up until somewhere in Season 9…

What was the best book you read?

Is it cheating if I say the 50 Shades series??? Just can’t remember the names of other books…there were many!!!

What did you want and get?

A move back home from England.

What did you want and not get?

Money for a house deposit and the wedding from the UK.

What were your favourite films of this year?

I honestly can’t even remember the films I did see this year…I dragged Dave along to the Twilight movie…thats all I can remember! Movies aren’t that important really…

What did you do on your birthday?

Had a huge big Welcome Home/Engagement/Brithday party where people came and went as they could and I had a fabulous time. Was a great birthday.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

Whatever…I had put on so much weight and really preferred to spend my money on travel so I didn’t spend much time or money shopping. So it was a case of whatever fits gets worn.

What kept you sane?

The knowledge that we would be home – kind of a repeating theme for me personally throughout 2012.

Who did you miss?

Early in the year I missed friends and family and after leaving the UK I missed my old work colleagues, the scrapping ladies and my friends in England.

Who was the best new person you met?

Heidi was a girl I met when I went with a friend to Greece. We got on like a house on fire! I like to call her my sister from another mister. Unfortunately though she lives in Brisbane – not Auckland…

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012: Live your life with passion and joy. You never know what is around the corner!!!

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

“Big Jet Plane”

She said “hello mister, pleased to meet ya”
I wanna hold her, I wanna kiss her
She smelled of daisies, she smelled of daisies
She drive me crazy, she drive me crazy

Gonna take her for a ride on a big jet plane
Gonna take her for a ride on a big jet plane
Hey hey
Hey hey

Be my lover, my lady river
Can I take ya, take ya higher

Gonna take her for a ride on a big jet plane
Gonna take her for a ride on a big jet plane
Gonna take her for a ride on a big jet plane
Gonna take her for a ride on a big jet plane
Hey hey
Hey hey
Hey hey
Hey hey

Gonna hold ya, gonna kiss ya in my arms
Gonna take ya away from home
Gonna hold ya, gonna kiss ya in my arms
Gonna take ya away from home

March – What a month!

Posted on April 6, 2012 by admin

One post in March…one! I am not so good at keeping my promises am I? I think I know what I am doing wrong though and that is all related to the last time I wrote in March.
How much has changed since then? Not much in terms of my personal health but…I have been absent because I have had to be practicing the ‘for worse’ part of my vows I will be saying next March.
Dave went to Geneva last month to visit a friend and do some snowboarding. There was also some fancy car show on while they were over there so they planned to spend a day there as well. After a couple of days of fun and snow I was called by a distressed Dave to be told he had broken his collarbone and was needing to have surgery to fix it! I was a wreck. I spent the rest of my weekend going backwards and forwards between insurance people and Dave trying to get him home so he could be looked after here. They had told him it wasn’t urgent enough to need to be operated on there so he could come back here and see the NHS for the op. By the time he got back and he saw a consultant at a private hospital (gotta love his work having medical insurance!) they told him the bone was fractured badly, not completely broken, and that he could have surgery or leave it to heal naturally which is the path we decided to take. It has been a long month and hard on us both. Dave has just started working from home and I am grateful for the fact that it was nothing more serious! I am certainly not so keen on holidays apart anymore…this was the first one since we moved here 2 years ago…but hey. Onwards and upwards.

On the emergency evac thing at Meribel

We celebrated (well, noted) our 5 year anniversary in March too. It was a few days after Dave got home so it wasn’t so much a celebration but we took the time to say nice things to each other and get excited that on that day next year we will be getting married!!!

Takapuna Methodist - The church where we will be married

I had a fantastic month at work and met my target for the first time which was a great relief to know I could do it! My challenge to myself now is to kick butt again and again until we head off home.

My cousin and her Daughter visited from NZ in March. Her sister lives in Bristol so they spent most of their time there but came up to visit for two days. We saw the changing of the guards, did a cruise on the Thames, went to the National Gallery and a few other touristy things. It was great to see them all and I always enjoy the chance to see whatever I can of London with others because I find it adds so much to the enjoyment. I hadn’t been into the National Gallery or done a Thames cruise so that was nice to add into the mix of the ‘standard’ sights.

My gorgeous cousins and Maddy

It was also my Dad’s birthday so we arranged for a yummy chocolate cake to be delivered which was apparently thoroughly enjoyed.

All in all I can safely say I am glad March is over but it was great that we had things to enjoy and celebrate to help distract us from the rubbish stuff that happened.

Here’s hoping I find some more time this month to keep writing, crafting and resting!!!

Yummy!

Posted on January 24, 2012 by admin

I went down to the supermarket today to grab a few bits and pieces but ended up coming out with trolley full of food! I try to buy something nice on the day I get the shopping in like fresh fish or similar as it has a shorter shelf life. Tonight was salmon time! I thought I would share with you the dinner I made since it was a random find online and both Dave and I loved it!

I googled salmon fillet recipes and came up with this: http://www.salmonrecipes.net/sour-cream-rub-for-salmon

It was really quick and easy to cook and tasted delicious! Give it a try…

P.S. What do you think of the photo editing? Let me know if you know of any good courses I might do! (I know only a few tricks and use them again and again!)

Guess who’s back? Tell a friend!

Posted on January 15, 2012 by admin

Hi everyone!

It has been a long break since I last wrote and there are multiple reasons for this absence but I wont bore you with all of them. Suffice it to say I was busy, unmotivated and multiple features in the background of my blogging platform were broken.

After a few nights of effort and using the fantastic skills of my fiance we have hopefully *knocks on wood* fixed it! Hooray!!!!

One of my fav self-portraits of 2011

While the blog has been having a break I have been inspired by other blogs out in cyberspace and I have come up with a game plan. I have lots of ideas for posts which include keeping you all in the loop with our travels, our wedding plans and our general escapades here in London as well as making the most of a few weekly/monthly features to keep the blogging regular. With this in mind…and without sharing too much of what is to come, welcome you back to my blog – In this life!

Oh and while I have your attention – I am hoping you can now comment here so if you can and have read this please let me know if there is anything you would like to hear more about/any old posts/styles you enjoyed in the past etc…basically anything I might be missing that you want to know about.

Thank you and goodnight!

Paper Bag mini album

Posted on November 6, 2011 by admin

Thanks to a generous freebie from I had some paper bags with which to make a mini albun with. The next few photos are the process of the album I made.

Blank bags

Looking at markets and some transport methods

Hope you enjoyed a little look through as much as I enjoyed making this. Thanks again Sian!

I won a free tour!

Posted on September 15, 2011 by admin

As most or possibly all of my dear readers know I work for Flight Centre as a Travel Agent and one of the tour operators we use have a promotion running to win a free tour. Last month one of my clients booked a tour that meant I qualified for a free tour!!!

I am over the moon and so happy to have such an awesome opportunity and we are currently looking through brochures trying to decide which tour we would like to do. I initially looked at about 20 different options which obviously is a few too many…just a few! Tonight I decided that since our aim of moving here was to travel the UK/Europe that we would do a tour in the European area.

The Coach that took us around Europe

We had a great time on our Topdeck tour when we moved over last year so have done most of the Western countries doing that so it really left us with Russia, Turkey and some Egypt combinations. Russian tourist visa’s don’t come cheaply so we shelved that option and are now looking at one of the following three:

1. Turkey Active

2. Best of Turkey

3. Jordan and Egypt Express

I am thinking the Turkey Active one would be best. 12 days, good price for Dave coming along too and a good target for us to work towards to improve our fitness and health! Tough choice but I think now my heart is more and more set on it. Another selling point of this tour for me is the chance to visit Gallipoli which I have always wanted to do. We decided we wanted to go there away from the busyness of Anzac Day on April 25th when we first moved over here so we would have more chance to enjoy it in relative peace and reverence. For those reading this who don’t know what Anzac day is, here is a link to the Wikipedia entry.

And so it seems I have solved my own dilemma on which tour to choose! Thanks lovely readers for all your help.

Jackson at Murawai Beach

In other news I have recruited my lovely friend back home in NZ (see piccie above) to help me fix my blog so hopefully by the time I participate in my first blog hop this weekend you should have the option to comment!!!

Love and hugs!

10 on the…Eleventh…

Posted on September 11, 2011 by admin

Well, I’m a little late to jump on the bandwagon here this month and completely missed last months with a crazy trip to NZ being booked just two weeks prior to our departure and then only being there for 1 week! So this month I thought I would post a few of my highlights of our trip.

1. Dave had a great time windsurfing for the first time since we left last April.

Dave Windsurfing Lake Pupuke

2. Road tripping down to Hamilton where our friends live.

Road trip to see friends in Hamilton

3. A night for free in an amazing ‘bach’ in Matakana

Free accomodation in Matakana

4. Yummy! My fav specialist wine in NZ. Feijoa wine. Yummo!

Lovely feijoa wine at Matakana Markets

5. Orewa Beach lookout – amazing views

Orewa Beach lookout with Lisa

6. Goody goody gumdrops and Hockey Pokey Icecream on Orewa Beach

Icecream on the beach

7. I flew a plane! Was an amazing day and the weather was stunning for us.

Flying to Pauanui Beach

8. An aerial view of Auckland City on our flight

My beautiful home town

9. We had the best 10hr stopover ever in Brunei with one of my best friends and her beautiful 3y-old who calls me ‘Aunty Woo’

Amazing day with Becky and Elias

10. We had a boat ride on the river in Brunei to see the water village and to try and see some Probiscus monkeys – which we found!

Boating on Kampong Ayer

We are getting married!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by admin

Loyal

Posted on May 3, 2011 by admin

A memory of home. A smile on my face.

Flat Hunting

Posted on May 2, 2011 by admin

Yep, we are on the move. Well, we hope to be! Our current agreement finishes in a month so we have to find somewhere else to go. We could stay here but with a bank account that is seriously ill from month to month I think it would be of benefit to look for somewhere a little bit more in our price range!

I will be sad to leave our lovely flat and the area we live in…we really enjoy it and there are great shops and restaurants just 5 mins away. Hang on a minute…maybe this is a good thing??? Move away from all the yummy restaurants that we go to far too often? I think I am on to a winner! Save money on rent, eat out less (=more money saved) and hopefully lose a few kilos!!! For the WIN!

I kinda just wanted to get that phrase in there. I laugh everytime it comes up on Wii sports when Dave and I play and I saw it on a page Shimelle made once too which got me thinking about phrases we use in daily life.

I digress, back to the house hunting…we went to view a flat the other day- twice! Booked with two agents to view flats and they took us to the same flat! Well, I lie, we nearly saw it twice. When I realised the problem we rung and said “Thanks but no thanks, once is enough!”
It was too small so we moved on and have arranged some more viewings during the week. Wish us luck!!! We are effectively homeless from early June and with my parents visiting during that time it is not particularly the most convienient!!!

Any tips or hints for flat hunting out there? Care to share?

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