Hong Kong and UK, here I come!

Eight hundred and seventy three emails later (I can, it seems, never pass up an opportunity to exaggerate), and my media trip to HK and Europe seems to be coming together.

Well at least my comped flights with the marvellous Cathay Pacific are sorted, anyway. Baby steps.

Missives are currently flying across the world to set up lunches, dinners and sleep-overs with mates in HK, London and Bristol. I especially CANNOT wait to see my besties Anita, Frenchie and Yoma in Bristol.

In the meantime, there is a stupidly long list of stuff to tick off. But at least I finally have some kind of traction...

     
(Pic credit: Vivienne Westwood) 

First day back

Returning to work after a holiday is a little like ripping off a sticking plaster - painful, unpleasant and, when it finally comes off, it takes a tiny piece of you.

Seriously, though, today was fine. Unlike last year, the first day back at the current contract didn't have me poking around the dustier corners of the internet for advice on anti-depressants.

Tonight after work, the Hound and I went on a gloriously long run in the bush; on our return we ran into one of Bristol's many GFs, a gorgeous black lab by the name of Lily, who positively fawned all over him.

Dinner was at 7.30pm in the back garden in the blazing hot sun. Happy days.

Something else in my bliss bag is this cute vintage tin I picked up at a Masterton second hand shop in November for the princely sum of eight bucks. It really rocks a pink hydrangea, doesn't it?

And, to balance out the colour wheel, here's some purple hydrangeas too...

A weekend in the Wairarapa with Taste Magazine

Back in November, you may recall we left HRH in the capable hands of our sitter Tania and tangled with the Friday night exodus from Wellington for a weekend in the Wairarapa (wine country an hour north of the Capital) for a story for Taste Magazine.

The Jan/Feb issue just out features the piece and glorious pics from the talented Animator. Click here to read.

Walkies

Today's meet-up group tackled the Pass of Branda on Wellington's Eastern Walkway (who even knew there was such a thing?)

It was a two hour walk and lots of fun. Afterwards we decamped to the fabulous Spruce Goose Cafe for coffee and curly fries, to a backdrop of planes doing whatever it is planes do.

Tonight there will be take-out, red wine and this brilliant piece of televisual entertainment.

Goodbye freedom

You have been a steadfast friend over the past two weeks.

On Monday it's back to the gulag and another year of writing, strategising and co-ordinating the shizzle out of a range of organisations. Today we bid farewell to long leisurely sleep-ins, breakfast in bed, hours lying in the sun reading a book, long-overdue catch-ups with friends, missed movies/telly series and a diet that would give the health police conniptions. The two weeks off have been a blast, but sadly it's time to get back to our real lives.

My last day of freedom was spent thus:

A two-hour rendezvous with my mate Donna at this fabulous cafe and the calorific wonderland that is peanut-butter cheesecake.

Later there was a spot of shopping (these cute as vintage chemist bottles, yo)

and these books which I liberated from the library's annual cull.

Still later there was a soggy dog walk and a workout to try and mitigate some of the cheesecake damage.

Today

consisted of a walk with my friend Julia and her two furry monkeys, cups of tea and gossip in the back garden, the finishing of an article due next week and the speed-reading of a library book that's flirting dangerously with its overdue date. In short, all of the below...

(Pic credit: Tumblr) 

Happy New Year

A quiet start to the New Year at the Stephenson-Haughey whare.

There was a sleep in, breakfast in bed and a bit of work (deadlines are no respector of stat hols). Later there was a waterlogged walk with the Hound, a run and the rest of this fabulous series.

I hope your bubbles were cold and that you drank slightly too much, laughed too loudly and welcomed 2014 in the style it deserved. We certainly did.

Today's visuals are of my furry love bag...what else do you need for a good year?