LaDeDa it's New Year

Happy New Year!!!

I hope you all had fabulous New Years eves. I spent mine covered in mud.

I went to a festival in Martinborough which is about an hour away from Wellington. I went with an American girl, Catherine, and her brother and boyfriend. We had an amazing night even if we did end up covered in mud.

A little bit muddy

Arriving in style at the festival

A good look, I think you will all agree.

 It is funny watching people at festivals, we are paying for the privilege to be herded round like cattle walk around in mud and spend a ridiculous amount of money on expensive drinks. I met some amazing people last night; chatting to random's is always funny. I few of highlights were: watching a man dance in a field of mud wearing a wet suit, seeing how many people would fall in the mood (I'm evil I know) and just generally watch happy(drunk) people dance like crazy in what can only be described as a giant mud bath. 

Catherine and I, not looking too muddy at this point.

Dancing in the mud wooooo.

Catherine and I with one of the random people we started chatting to.

I dropped my camera in the mud, woops the lens cap no longer opens fully.

Not quite as glamorous as Kate Moss, haha, but not too bad for 2am covered in mud

A creative way to wash the mud off, in a feeding trough.

Walking back through Wellington this morning at 11am in a pair of shorts muddy jacket and muddy gum boots (welly boots) certainly got me some funny looks.

I wish everyone a fabulous 2012 and hope all your dreams come true this year.Wow I'm getting soppy in my old age :)

Thanks for reading the last three months, come back in 2012 to see how i'm getting on.

Katie x.x

2011 what an amazing year.

2011 has been a year of amazing changes for me. So many times this year I have been out of my comfort zone and in doing so have had so many great adventures.  I found this app on facebook that allows you to use photos from throughout the year and create a collage.

From the top left- 1. Packing to come to New Zealand. 2.Hot water beach, New Zealand. 3. Saying goodbye in London. 4.One of many trips to scotland to see my niece and nephew. 

2nd row left. 5. Bristol friends. 6. Green man festival. 7. fun at the park with my brother and his family. 8. Berlin with Audrey and Earl. 

3rd row left - 9. Hong Kong, 10. Hong Kong. 11. The All Black win the rugby world cup. 12. New friends in wellington

4th row left - 13.Amazing hikes with Jimbo in the Peak District England. 14. Birthday camping in Wales 15. Summer job, Sidcot. 16. Breathtaking scenery New Zealand.

Lets hope 2012 will be just as fun.

Thanks for reading,

Katie.x.x.x

Goodnight Kiwi

I was just sat in my living room finishing up for the night and getting ready to go to bed when this animation came on TV. I thought it was really cute, it is by a TV chanel saying goodnight end of programing.

Goodnight everyone,

Katie .x.x.

Rain, Rain, Go away!

As you can tell from my title we are not having the most amazing weather here in New Zealand. Since the 27th we have had bad weather and today we have had none stop rain.

The rain has put a bit of a dampener on things as I have two weeks off work and had planed to go away and spend a relaxing two weeks at the beach whilst the hotel I work at is closed to functions. I decided not to go to the south Island as planned as who wants to spend time at the beach in the rain. And I am sure you are all getting as fed up of seeing my green raincoat on photos as I am.

Today's rain day was not too bad, I had a lazy morning reading a book. Followed by a trip to the TEPAPA museum in Wellington, a perfect place on a rainy day. I managed to catch up on drawing and also made some bread. Something I like to do every now and again. I find it relaxing, calming, it puts me at ease. Wherever I am in the world I can make a loaf of bread cover it in hot butter and feel happy :-)

Is this going to be me??

Now I have a slight problem with the rain for tomorrow night as tomorrow is New years and I am supposed to be going to a New Years Eve festival in a field in Martinborough which is about an hour away from Wellington. This will be great if the weather miraculously improves, if not eeeek HELP!!!!

This got me thinking what do you wear to New Years eve in the rain hmmmm.

.........or maybe I will look like this, :)

 Keep your fingers crossed for me that I won't look like a drowned rat.

Thanks for reading,

Katie, x.x.

Christmas in New Zealand

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope you have all enjoyed the festive season.

I mentioned on my last post that a New Zealand Christmas is different to those back home. This year has been very odd for me I have not decorated a tree, I have not done any baking I only truly got into the Christmas mood on Christmas eve and that was because I kept up a tradition from back home of wrapping up presents and watching Christmas movies. I did this at work getting the tables ready for Christmas Lunch :)

A perfect summers Christmas Day.

Christmas Day Blue Sky

 I woke up on Christmas day with the sun blazing and the start of a 25 degree day, it was stunning. I popped my headphones in and headed into work listening to Christmas music along the way. Yup thats right I ended up working Christmas day this year, serving lunch to a 100 people. I have worked Christmas Day before in the UK back when I was at University so I did not mind too much. Plus I had no presents to open on Xmas morning so working helped me not dwell on this too much. Work went very quickly with everyone in festive spirits. I met some lovely people when serving who made the day extra special. The key highlight was an English family of mum and dad and two little girls who were truly such a happy family they could not help but put me in a happy festive mood. I had arranged a secret Santa of sorts with the staff during the week so once all the guests left we had a quick sit down over a glass of wine and opened our gifts which everyone did pretty well out of.

Christmas Day at the Wellesley

Cousin Gina with her husband Dave and daughters Emma and Laurel

After finishing work I went to join my cousin Gina and her family who had kindly invited me over for Christmas dinner. I had a great time at there house being able to relax and enjoy some delicious food and good company. Whilst at Gina's house I Skyped home which I found hard work. The internet connection was slow and there was too much noise, I think this upset my mum but hopefully she understood that it is hard to skype when it is like that. I also upset my mum a little because I had sent everyone a hamper for Christmas with thought out gifts inside but nothing had been sent to me, I did not expect anything but because I had sent them something I think it upset my mum.

Boxing day I spent at the beach enjoying yet more stunning weather followed by yummy home-made chicken burgers. A fun day.

So my conclusion after my first Christmas away from home. I prefer Christmas in England. My Christmas was lovely but not really Christmas for me. The fact that I worked so much before Christmas and on Christmas day perhaps did not see me enjoy a southern hemisphere Christmas as much as I might otherwise. I am now ready for summer and excited to enjoy this part of the year in New Zealand.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Thanks for reading,

Katie, x.x.

It's Christmas......... honestly!

Courtney Place, Wellington. No traces of Christmas.

A store window, with a cute and fun Christmas display.

Christmas here has not had the normal build up that I am used to in England. The streets and shops don't have the same feel to them as back at home. I went out on a walk today on a mission to find Christmas and I found it very hard to find any traces of it at all. The fact that it is summer does not help this. As who wants fake snow and fir trees in their houses in the middle of summer.

When out on my walk it actually shocked me the lack of signs of christmas there was.  One of the main streets, Courtney Place, there was nothing no lights, no trees, no tinsel.  I actually only found one street that showed any signs of Christmas, Lambton Quay.  It had Wellington's Christmas tree and a department store had made an amaxing effort with their windows.  They had created santas work shop with sheep making the toys, cute.

Perhaps they get it right in New Zealand and focus on the important parts of Christmas. Spending it with people important to you, your family and friends. Its not about all the trimmings, I have thought in previous years that people seem to get caught up in buying people gifts they do not really need; getting into debt in the process.

Wellington's Christmas tree 7.45 pm notice the beautiful blue sky in the background.

Work colleagues at our Xmas party.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the week turns out. I wonder if they get more excited in the week before Christmas. I shall be working Christmas day which surprisingly I am not too bothered about. The people I work with are lovely and have started to become friends so it will be nice to be with them for a small part of the day. Yesterday was the staff Christmas Party at our managers house, here are a few photos of the people I work with.

 Thanks for reading, hope your all getting in the festive mood for christmas.

Katie, x.x.

Christmas Cards

My Christmas card design

I have been busy finishing writing my Christmas Cards this afternoon. A little bit past the deadline for them being in England on time. (sorry anyone who gets a late one).

I sent some home-made ones over a week ago but had not had the time to make any more. So today I had to buy some cards. Sorry anyone that gets a store bought card.

In each card I also put a photo-montage of me over the last couple of months. It seems a very American thing to do, but I thought my family might appreciate seeing what I have been up to.

 

 

 

Christmas in New Zealand is bizarre, I think I am used to Christmas brightening up the long winter months.  The festive lights make the early dark nights and cold a little magical. Here it does not get dark till 9/10 so the lights don’t have the same effect.  Christmas trees seem odd in the middle of summer. Seeing pastel colours and summer clothes in shops contradicts the snowy scenes in shop windows.

It is my mission this Saturday to show you all  a summer Christmas, keep posted for the update.

Thankyou for reading,

Katie .x.x

75 hrs

Awful photo, but me at work.

Sorry everyone for not posting this week I have had a mamouth 75 hr working week, I have been taking advatage of getting as many hours as possible before the work dries up over Christmas. 

I am finding the work easier now I have got used to being on my feet again for so long.  I don't seem to moan as much which is good. 

The people I am working with are lovely and I have been out with them a couple of times now.  Which is nice after being at work for hours, getting chance to unwind before it all starts again the next day :)

I will take some photos next week of the hotel I am working at. It is a lovely old building, very small and quaint.

Earthquake

Yesterday I felt my first earthquake. Not a huge one, but it was a weird feeling. I was sat on the toilet at the time, hehe. Not the best place to be caught when there is an earthquake but you can't really plan these things. The earthquake was 5.7 in magnitude I have been told this is not very big, it did not seem to bother the people I was serving at the wedding. My house mate told me after wards that glasses fell off tables and shelves at the bar he was at.

New Zealanders are taught from a very early age what to do in an earthquake, but for people like me from the UK and other non earth quake country’s its a little bit daunting. Fingers crossed Wellington/ New Zealand have no more, it's horrible to see what has happened to Christchurch. I have a horrible feeling that one will happen when I am walking through Mount Victoria tunnel and it will cave in on me. Sometimes I think my imagination is a little bit over active.