Questions for the last day of April

In 28 days I will see this princess again.

It's been over a year since I was last in San Francisco but not a day has passed where she hasn't entered my thoughts.

Is it wrong that those who hold - and have held - the largest chunks of my heart are animals?

Why has the projectionist in my head had the anthropomorphic reel running for as long as I've drawn breath?

Do I give a toss that I prefer animals to people?

Do I feel sorry for those whose hearts and minds have never expanded sufficiently to love another species? Actually, scratch that, I'm not even sure I even know anyone like that and if I do, why are we friends?

Molly, I'm hoping that May passes quickly so we can get on that plane and have the biggest cuddle in the world.  

Nice to wake up to

The NZ Herald's glossy Saturday magazine, Canvas, runs my feature on me old mate Ange Meyer. 

Her book launch is Friday night, so looking forward to that. Any excuse to dust off the bling... 

More excitement

Today the sky is the colour of an old bra, rain clouds are duelling and a vicious northerly is shunting pedestrians across the street.    

What's the best way to brighten up the day? With another parcel of clothing goodness from afar. Seriously, I'm not sure what kind of karmic positivity has brought Anita into my life but, by God, I'm glad she's there.

It's about 12,000 miles from my door to hers, but I'm sending love and thanks and hoping it gets there...

Grim times

Maybe it's the change in seasons, the fact that summer has handed in its boarding pass and fled for the hills. It could be the global economy that's still lurching around like someone's drunk uncle at a wedding, or a hundred other, non-connected reasons.

The fact remains that everyone seems to be wearing their angry coat right now. From the check out chick to the passerby on the street, to colleagues and the dude in the corner dairy, grumpiness is currently more addictive than Ebola.

The remedy? Whack this video on indecently loud and dance around your living room. I know it's old and  Australian, but this three minutes 45 seconds of musical genius is guaranteed to get you smiling. Go on, do it now....

ANZAC Day

Today I wanted to sit in the sun and remember the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during WWI. And gave us the day off.

Instead, I spent hours wrangling nouns and verbs into a sodding freelance piece that I was hoping against hope would write itself; it didnt.

The highlight of the day was time with this gorgeous fullah and the Animator's French toast for lunch.

It constantly amazes me that I don't self combust from the amount of excitement in my life. If you are still awake at this point, you deserve a chocolate fish.

Yay!

Time for a loud squeal and some excited jumping up and down on the spot.

It's been a while but today the postman delivered two packets of wonderful to my office.

One gorgeous dress, two sweaters, two tops and a pair of earrings later and I am the happiest girl in NZ.

Thank you Anita, you will never know how much I appreciate your care parcels or how widely they stretch my smile.

To finish off a great day, this evening we had another meeting of the Mt Vic Vixens; as tomorrow is a public holiday in NZ we decided to kick off the celebrations with lots of red wine and grand plans. I feel so fortunate to have so many wonderful women - both near and far - in my life.

         

It's tights time

Tiredness exists on about eight different levels today. Bubbly and a school night - it's a tumultuous relationship, isn't it?

The best I can manage today is a whinge about being unable to avoid wearing tights any longer. We may still be getting 16-17 degree days, and I happen to spend nine to five sitting underneath the world's most enthusiastic heater, but the walk to and fro work is starting to get chilly.

So the tights have been dusted off and I don't even want to think of how long it will be before they can be retired.  

Today in pictures

The day started with a walk to the farmer's market on the waterfront

It was followed by pancakes and berries

There was a spot of gardening (we finally got around to planting a vege garden)

There was a bit of sunbathing

And, to finish, a whole heap of blinging-up for the NZ premiere of Good for Nothing where we ended up talking to actor Andy Serkis and hobnobbing with other film folk. Check out the pic at the bottom where we got to hang in the photo booth and dress up in western props. A good night.

Time to show off the Animator's handiwork

The editor of the interiors magazine I write for, Your Home & Garden, has asked me to profile our house in the magazine. I did this with our previous Kelburn place for the March 2009 edition; it was slightly odd writing in the third person and using my mother's maiden name for my byline but I'm sure the eight page spread, and cover shot, did us no harm when we sold that place privately a few years later.

Besides being a useful selling tool should we decide to move on, it will also be lovely to showcase the Animator's Herculean efforts in renovating the house in six weeks, not to mention the kick up the arse it gives us to finish the last few things that need doing, such as painting the remaining walls and sorting the mud room/laundry.

I've pleaded with the editor to let me file the piece and have the photo shoot after we get back from San Francisco in June because our plates are already overflowing; she's thinking about it.

           

This is what I spent Friday lunchtime doing

Posing in front of a new Honda, in a city street, for a story for Honda's corporate magazine.

For some reason, the editor thought it would be funny to have the journo in the shoot...

Yup, that's how we roll in the 04.

  

Eight museums in four days

I've been commissioned to write a 1400 word travel piece about some of Welly's quirky/boutique museums. Which is nice but, as so often happens, they need it by last week.

Because I'm currently in a full-time contract, I've spent the last two lunchtimes speed-dating with museums. Today it was Wellington's Museum of City & Sea, a treasure-trove I'm ashamed to say I never knew existed, as well as the strangely compelling Reserve Bank Museum. Yesterday I criss-crossed the city to scoot around the Colonial Cottage.

This weekend I need to knock off another five and then write about them. When did my life become so much fun?

What's a girl to wear?

It is beyond my powers to make the above ticket look bigger, but basically we've been invited to the red-carpet premiere on Sunday night of Good For Nothing, the Kiwi western I profiled for North & South Magazine.

Now, of course, my dilemma is what the hell to wear. My plus-one wants to rock it in jeans; I am not amused.

Things I'll never do

Not sure how we got into it but today conversation at work turned to things you'd never catch us doing. It was a funny, throwaway conversation but here's my list, by no means exhaustive, of things I'll never do:

• Reproduce: no screwing with the gene pool or adding to the chronic over-population of this poor groaning planet for me

• Headline Wembley

• Eat smooth peanut butter: how can I take you seriously as a person if you prefer smooth to crunchy peanut-based spreads?

• Be tall

• Eat meat (animals of the world, you have nothing to fear from me)

  
  

• Wear Crocs, Polar Fleece or high-waisted jeans

• Win an Olympic medal

• Even begin to understand cruelty to animals, organised religion or racism.

(Pic credit: Google Images)

Two page spread

My story on the first-time Kiwi film-maker and his 'pavlova western' is published in the May issue of North & South Magazine.

And check out who turned up in the 'contributor's column'....

Another weekend down

It's late and I'm tired, so a quick recap of this weekend:

• Words were written, stories filed, invoices sent
• The first soup of autumn was made (Thai pumpkin coconut, since you asked)
• The next words make my gag reflex kick in, but it's GST time, meaning I've had to painstakingly locate endless pieces of paper for my accountant
• The back-stage pass we had last night to Pirates! A Band of Misfits. The assembled animation boffins loved it and asked the Animator all manner of interesting and intelligent questions.
• There was a trip to the pet store to stock up on assorted canine ephemera. Our little one almost peed on another dog, he was so excited.
• Exhaustion from yesterday's outings has done him in; he's currently lying on his back, making cute little crying noises and dreaming of chasing rabbits. That never gets old.

Canine heaven

No words needed today - these pics from the Wellington SPCA's first Paws for a Cause walk around the waterfront say it all.

Loads of money raised, butts sniffed and friends made. More than 200 dogs and humans turned up and Baby Bristol was beside himself with excitement. Good times...

That clever husband of mine...

has been contacted by a Sony publicist in LA and asked to participate in a Q&A session following a special screening of Pirates! for the VXS (Visual Effects Society) at Weta on Saturday.

I've offered my PR skills to help him prep for the interview but he's not keen. I, of course, can't wait for Saturday, not just because I get to see this fabbo movie again but also because I'm dying to hear the Animator's take on the 'making of it'. Have you seen it yet?

Getting back in the saddle...

Before I left NZ in May 2010, I'd built up quite a stable of publications that ran my freelance work.

Getting back into the freelancing saddle takes some doing - editors change, relationships have to be built, blah blah. And there's that whole thing of having to once again prove yourself as not only a good writer, but one who respects deadlines and word counts.

Today I was lucky enough to have a piece accepted by the Sunday Star Times magazine, which is imaginatively called Sunday. Back BB (Before Bristol) I used to file a lot profiles and essay-type pieces for this mag, so it's nice to be re-admitted to those pastures.

This afternoon I was also commissioned to write a travel piece for an Auckland publication so, all in all, a very productive day.

Four years ago today we were....

in Vegas, getting married by 'Elvis' for a story for NEXT Magazine (hey, it was a free wedding!)

To celebrate our anniversary, tonight we went to this fabulous restaurant for dinner. We stuffed our faces with delicious food and wine (including complimentary drinks when they found out it was our anniversary) and dissected our lives, and all the wonderful adventures we've had, over the past four years.

We also gobbled down these desserts which the food police would have arrested us for (the chocolate mousse was to die for and the Animator reported his pear souffle was "like a kiss from an angel".)

Here's to another deliriously happy four years...