Three years

Number of posts - 811.

Number of views - 49,789.

Number of countries where those views occurred - 98.

Keeping this wee enterprise going for three years - Priceless.


Actually, the third anniversary of the blog was May 31, but there's been so much going on, I clean forgot.

Thanks for tagging along, and here's to me not running out of steam for a little while yet...

(Pic Credit: Google Images)

Feral

Two days ago I emailed a friend in the US to gush over how mild our autumn/winter had been.

It was too much obvs, because today the fates gathered together every bit of crap weather they could find and hurled it down on us.

On the way home from work, hail stung my face and the wind tried to carry me to the South Island. Water seeped into my walking shoes and because I forgot my gloves, my fingers froze.

One hot shower and an even hotter curry later, and warmth has wrapped around me like a thick duvet. I am also prostrating myself in front of the genius who invented central heating.

I am currently snug in bed with my laptop, writing a corporate newsletter I need to deliver next week. The Animator, bless him, has just made the most ridiculously fattening hot chocolate with chocolate chips. Having endured the worst weather so far this year, I have managed to convince myself that drinking this is an entirely necessary thing to do.

Am telling myself that I will run it off later this week...

  (Pic Credit: Google Images) 

A day off

Dear Queenie,

It's nothing personal, but I don't really like you. Or your pimped up, over-privileged whanau. I was in the UK not so long ago - I know how much ordinary folk there are suffering. You and your elitist family are an expense a nation already on its knees can ill afford.

And please don't bang on about being a tourist drawcard - no-one comes to the UK to see you or your band of expensive wastrels. They come to experience the pomp and majesty of centuries of history; remove you from the equation and they and their wallets will still come.

Just this morning as I ate my museli, I watched a doco about your ancestors and their appalling treatment of poor old Mary, Queen of Scots. A nasty business, that. The good folk of your cold, rainy isles should have seen the writing on the wall back then and stamped out the monarchy, saving themselves centuries of pain and ridiculous servitude.

As for the notion that we in the colonies remain tethered to the 'Motherland' 12,000 miles away, well that's as outmoded as floppy discs. But until the great Republican machine can slice though those ties, we're stuck with one another. The one saving grace is that we get a day off for your birthday (is that even today?)

If I wanted to be churlish, I'd complain about how, as an hourly-rate contractor, you've cost me quite a bit today. But hey, a day off is a day off, so thanks for the opportunity to sleep in, finish one of my overdue Seoul stories, take the dog for a walk and drink red wine.

Just please don't ask me to sing Happy Birthday...

    (Pic credit: Toonpool.com)

Fortunate

There was high excitement in the Stephenson-Haughey household this morning when the Animator found a dog wandering around the hood. Mysteriously, it still had its lead attached.

He brought it home and while the poor thing hungrily ate Bristol's food, we called the council. I'm sure I recognised the sweet black dog from our jaunts in the Town Belt and Bristol was gracious enough to share his backyard with another woofer. Fortunately, it didn't take long for the dog control folk to collect the dog and I hope they have tracked down his owner.

Later there was a trip out to Eastbourne to interview the owners of this beautiful house for Homestyle magazine, then lunch in town and an hour spent chatting with neighbours while six dogs cavorted and chased each other all over the park. It was heaven for both canines and humans.

Tonight I will strap myself to the laptop and not move until I have scaled freelance mountain.

(Pic credit: Stuff)

Welly bar on Forbes site

My second blog post for May - on a fabulous new Welly bar - features on the Forbes travel site, Startle.

Click here to read 

(Pic Credit: C.G.R Merchants & Co)

Your Home & Garden Magazine

The June issue runs one of my stories, of a cute wee cottage in a hilly fold of Khandallah.

Click here to read.

What happens when you're a sticky beak

This morning, while waiting to meet a client in a cafe, I almost spat my coffee across the room when I heard the following conversation between two blokes at a neighbouring table. They were probably in their mid 30s, good looking and wearing clothes that, even from a distance, you could tell were good quality.

Bloke one: "Laura was fine about me having a wife, but she went ballistic when she found out about Kim."
(Presumably Kim are Laura are his mistresses).

Bloke two: "That's nothing. When my last girlfriend found out I was seeing three other women, she grabbed my iPhone and threw it out the car window. I was not impressed with that..."

In between dating most of the greater Wellington metropolitan region, and swanning about in cafes for large chunks of the day, I'm surprised these blokes have any time to sustain the elevated tax bracket they so obviously occupy.

I know how this dog feels: this is exactly what I wanted to do after hearing their conversation. And yes it makes me sound like my mother, but sometimes I despair for the human race...    

(Pic credit: Tumblr)