Yowser

I am probably the last person on planet earth to see Gravity, but Holy Toledo, this film packs more of a punch than debris from a Russian satellite.

Like Sandra Bullock's character, I spent much of the movie in a blind panic, wondering how the hell they were going to get out alive. As the woman next to me commented to her mate at the end, "That is the most tense I have been for ages".

The presence of Gorgeous George did, of course, help. And the normally annoying-beyond-belief 3D somehow didn't even register. But it still took a Pad Thai and a velvety red to decompress.

Go and see Gravity now. And if you've already seen it, see it again.

     

Hand model

Yes, dear reader, that is as random as it sounds.

This afternoon, PJ, one of the video boys from work, arrived to shoot my hands for a product shot. I'd managed to rustle up a cake which we ate while we gossiped - when my hands weren't assuming their starring role, that is.

Earlier there was a blustery walk around the waterfront and caffeine with a fellow freelancer, Sarah, where we hoped for a special hell for those editors who treat freelancers as though they're something stuck to the bottom of their shoes, and shared triumphs and horrors from the writing trenches.

I also met two deadlines (yay for me) and successfully pitched another feature. The Animator is spending his Friday night at the launch of a digital game he worked on so I am settling in with the Hound, a bottle of wine and the superb, could-this-fill-the Breaking-Bad-hole-in-my-life contender, Orange is the New Black. Sometimes life really is this simple.

Today's visuals are of PJ setting up for the shoot.

        

Shoe porn

The latest Urbis Magazine features my story on five of the world's most stylish shoe-stores (click here to read). And no, I didn't get to visit in person and yes, my envy levels are off the charts.

  

Extremes

Some difficulty in waking today, mainly the result of two for one cocktails last night with the Mt Vix Vixens at this excellent neighbourhood bar (I can highly recommend the Breakfast at Tiffanys).

A race to a story deadline was interrupted by having to schlep out to Newtown to have my breasts squashed between two sheets of perspex. After finding a lump a few years ago, am vigilant about having the girls seen to. Crossing everything I'll get the all clear again.

Tonight there is the launch of the NZ Festival of the Arts programme at the Opera House; the invite says 'glam' so not sure what the hell to wear.

(Pic Credit: Google Images) 

    

Thunderbirds are Go - again!

Am not sure where the weekend went; it seemed to have slipped down the back of the sofa.

There was oodles of sunshine and a visit to a gorgeous old villa in Whitemans Valley for Your Home & Garden Mag (I was so busy chatting, I clean forgot to take pics to show you). While I did the interview the boys wandered around the farm, checking out working dogs (am uncertain as to what they made of the poncy 'town' dog) and Bristol also had the pleasure of meeting other members of the animal kingdom. The Animator says Briz's eyes were as wide as saucers when he came across the cows.

Back home, our very dear mates Deb and Joe visited - we haven't seen them for the longest time - and we sat in the garden in the almost too-hot sun and as the surprisingly delicious vegan chocolate cake shrank and wine bottles were drained, afternoon turned into evening. More wine was drunk, pizzas were ordered and, in the end, they left about 1.00am. A fabulous night, which made for a slightly fuzzy Sunday.

In other news, the Animator started work today on Weta Workshop's remake of the classic telly series, Thunderbirds are Go! I loved this show when I was a kid, especially the classy Lady Penelope, and am ever so pleased they are breathing life into it 50 years after it originally aired.

Good Friday

There was the setting up of a couple of interviews, a walk and caffeine along O Bay with another of the Vixens and a visit to a neighbour to meet her three-day old son (and yes, my maternal compass may flicker only for infants of the four-legged and furry kind but baby Nicholas was quite the cutie).

Best of all, there was a long and protracted conversation with a government agency and the discovery that they have been extracting far too much dosh from me. The good news is that the cheque should be in the mail in the next few weeks. The bad news is that next week I will pay three times that to another agency in provisional tax and GST. Oy vey...

I am now about to bake a vegan chocolate cake for friends who are visiting tomorrow and, after that, crack a bottle of red because it has been that kind of week.

Images are, what else, but adorable canines. These pictures soothe my soul in a way that very little else does...    

(Pic credit: Tumblr)

Cover story

The November issue of Your Home & Garden Magazine is out and features two of my stories. This one is the cover story (click here to read).

This makes the next few weeks worth living (doesn't take much to please me, eh?!)