Bits & Pieces

I should not have written the world pieces just then. It make me wanted Reese's Pieces. ARGH!!! My friend sent me a lovely picture of Reese's Ice Cream the other day, oh man! It looked like love in a tub.

My DSLR camera is a Canon EOS 1000D. I'm currently reading through the manual and then maybe one day I will take a course or something. But I just want to have fun at the moment.

My Camera

This weekend it was one of my oldest friends birthdays. She turned 21 on Friday so we had planned to go up to hers and then go out for a dinner. We had dinner, but instead of going out we stayed at hers and helped with the set up for her party on Saturday.

We spent a good few hours blowing balloons (thank goodness for electric blowers), joining balloons and helping with the beginning of putting the balloons together.

Helping with the set up

Her party was the coolest I have ever been to. There were balloons filled the helium floating up to the ceiling. There were arches made of balloons and then daisies made from balloons. It reminded me of a prom from the 70's like you see in the movies.

The cake was fantastic. It was a normal cake on top of a stand and then ice cream cones filled with cake and then topped with icing all around down the stand.


The YUMMY Cake

Note: Those crackers positioned around the cake were made by my friends mum. She put things like toy soldiers with parachutes, rattles, whistles, moustaches and facts about Kelly in them.


My running is going good. I am a bit behind on the total for 20 days but will get back on track. There have been a few days where I have had no time to run, and it is far to cold in the morning. At work my team is also doing a challenge. We are seeing who does the most hours of exercise and who walks down and up the five flights of stairs at work the most over the next 20 weeks. I'm already starting to feel a bit better and I can definitely see the differences and changes.


A joke from a email I received a long time ago



I have subscribed to TIME magazine. I find it holds so many great and interesting articles. I didn't realise how fast they would arrive. I am part way through my first issue received about two weeks ago and now a new one has arrived. Maybe I will have to include the TIME magazines in my reading goal for the year. For every six issue I read I think I will make it one book!

The first issue I got was the one related to the recent sexual mis-conduct of head of the IMF and then it went onto historical and recent trysts by some very historical people. It was quite funny and very eye-opening at the same time.

My first issue

This coming weekend I am going to a High Tea with Mum, some of her friends and a few of my friends. I will have to take my camera along and keep those memories forever!

Happy Geek Day!

To help celebrate I got some...

Nerds... Yummy!

 

I have a feeling there is going to be a over-active Cheryl at work this afternoon. Sugar High!

This weekend...

I did very few things this weekend, but I did do some things.

I continued building a new friendship with an old friend.
I got part way through the manual of the new camera I bought. It's only an entry level DSLR, but it is my baby.
I did some course work, and realised I need to get my butt into gear.
I kicked the butt of the cold I had.
I got further into what seems to be a really good book.

I had a lovely weekend. Next weekend is already looking crazy, I plan to enjoy every moment of it!

Day 30 - A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself

Cheryl,

You are amazing. Awesome, in fact! You have beautiful blue/grey/green eyes. You have hair that girls would pay for.

I love how patient you are.
I love how caring you are.
I love how you get scared of things but try your hardest to overcome the fears.
I love how you can get something done, even if you do procrastinate.
I love how you know something is good and I love how you know when something is not good.
I love how you know the difference between right and wrong.
I love how you learn from your experiences, mistakes and trials.
I love how you only have a dimple on one of your cheeks.
I love how you are so particular in the foods you won't eat, even if you haven't tried them.
I love how when you are determined, you are determined.
I love how when something doesn't go the way it should you get upset, then cry, then you work out a way to fix it.
I love how you love to try new things.
I love how you aren't scared of heights, just of falling from great heights.
I love how you still sleep with the same soft toy you have since you were given it when you were two.
I love how you named this soft toy dog, because it is a dog.
I love how you are unorganized, but extremely organized when you want to be and always on time.
I love how your nails grow fast.
I love how you don't tan, and then the one summer you had given up on even trying you kind of tanned.
I love how you love to learn new things.
I love how you set yourself goals every year.
I love how you sign your lungs out every time you are driving in the car.
I love how sometimes when you stop at traffic lights you don't stop singing.
I love that you pretty much have no nail on your little toe.
I love how you have a scar on every finger.
I love the way you love your family.
I love the way you love your friends.
I love how easily you can forget things.
I love that you love to be artistic.
I love that you love movies.
I love that you would prefer a quiet night out with a few friends to a night out on the town with the rest of the people in the city.

I love so many other things about you, you are as perfect as can be.

I love you!

Love from,

Your biggest fan,

Cheryl

Easter Twenty-Eleven Road Trip

Mum and I left around 10am on Tuesday 26th April and headed north to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Four hours and 300km's later we were in beautiful Paihia.
The drive up wasn't to bad. We were driving along listening to the weather report and it was telling us how very bad weather was hitting the North Island, we were both looking out the windows going "typical weather reports, always wrong." We had beautiful weather for the two days we were in Paihia.

On Tuesday afternoon we walked around Paihia and had some afternoon tea at a bar on the beach front. It was so stunning sitting there eating your food and you look out at the ocean.


Afternoon Tea View

We went back to our Hotel room for a nap and then about 7pm headed out for dinner. We went to a lovely restaurant down the road. We had a cheese platter to start and then a meal each. I had a yummy steak on mash, yum yum yum!

Wednesday, we drove up to Mangonui to go to the Mangonui Fish Shop. It is marketed as the best fish and chips in the world. There seafood is amazing. It is a must do!

On our way to Mangonui stopped in Keri-Keri and went to the Stone Store, NZ's earliest 'trading post', since 1819. Kerikeri Mission Station includes the oldest wooden house to survive. It was very cool to see. While we were there we also popped up the hill to an old church.

Stone Store

We ate our lunch at the Fish Shop and then headed back to Paihia, stopping at Hururu Falls and Waitangi on the way. Hururu falls wasn't a spectacular huge waterfall, but it was nice.

Waitangi is NZ's most famous historic site. It is where the Treaty of Waitangi, a treaty trading the land of New Zealand from the Maori tribes to the British Empire for supplies such as blankets, muskets and others. It is a very beautiful piece of land, and the views of the ocean are amazing. There is a war Waka there that is huge, it was also carved from Kauri trees and was built for the 1940 centennial. I was a bit bored, it isn't as exciting as some other countries history as it is really our only history. But at least now I can say I have been.

View from the beach, just below the Waitangi Meeting House

After Waitangi we decided to head over to Russel that afternoon, instead of doing it in the morning. So we got our walking shoes on and got the Ferry to Russel. Very pretty. Not much to do. There is a museum there, it is two rooms. One room is solely about the history of the Freemasons in New Zealand. We sat at the Duke of Cambridge Hotel Bar and had a drink while looking out at the little beach and the ocean. The ferry back was amazing as the sun was setting and the view was breathtaking.

Sun set from the wharf at Russell

Luckily we had gone to Russel that evening instead of waiting until the morning. When we woke to get ready to head home it was raining and glum outside. We headed home on Thursday morning and then off again on Friday to Palmerston North.

In Palmerston North we went to the wedding of a good friend of mine. It was such a lovely day. They got married in the afternoon in a garden at a farm estate. It was a bit chilly, but both the bride and groom looked smashing. The Wedding was followed by a reception at the local Race Track. The food was YUMMY! The music was fantastic. It was just a lovely day.

We said good bye to Palmerston North on Sunday morning and took the six hour drive home.

I had a blast that week. Mum and I did so many fun things, it was very enjoyable and driving around is so spectacular as you get to see so many amazing parts of the country.

Ten Days Down!

And I am on track. I have run 100k’s in the last ten days and I feel great!

I was sore for the first day and then I was sore when I was running or just after. Now, it is just a good feeling. A better feeling is the one where I know that I am on track.

Ten days down, ninety to go!

Baby Shower

This Sunday just gone it was Jenna's Baby Shower for Baby X.

All us girls went up the Jenna's parents house for an afternoon of games, cupcakes, scones and fun.



Jaime, Natalie, Jenna, Me, Nic & Kelly

 We all had a try being blindfolded and putting a diaper on a teddy bear. It is so hard trying to put on a diaper when blindfolded. Jenna & my brother got so many presents for there new addition - who should be arriving very soon. It was a lovely way to end the weekend.