Today by numbers

Number of phone interviews done with lovely NGO chap: 1

Number of times this man spoke of helping peeps in the Third World: 7

Number of times I wished I was as kind as this man: 7

Number of lunches enjoyed with a friend from journalism school I haven't seen in two decades: 1

Number of times we laughed the kind of laugh that makes men nervous: too many to count.

Number of glasses of red wine consumed at boss' leaving drinks: 2

Number of  times I thanked the good lord it was Friday: many.

Today's visuals are of the gorgeous Susannah, my old mate from journo school, who is now one of my travel editors. '

Happy weekend y'all....

      

Made Me Cry

Yes, I'm a hard old bitch. But I also make no bones of the fact that I like animals about a zillion times more than my own species. So sue me.

Which is why this piece on the Huff Post today made my eyes leak (click here to read).

I can only hope that the bastards responsible for this elephant's 50 year ordeal get royally kicked in the arse by karma.

  

Too smart for kids?

This month's North & South Magazine runs a cover story on why some of NZ's smartest women aren't rushing to breed - and asks if we need to be concerned.

The editor asked me to contribute a 900 word piece to this feature about my reasons for not sprogging. You can either read the entire piece here or click here to skip to my bit of it.

Illustrating my story is this lovely pic that the Animator took atop Mt Victoria.

   And here's this month's N&S Mag cover

Five more books

Getting home from work to discover that the postie has delivered five more review books: lovely.

Realising that I still haven't read - or reviewed - the last lot: less than lovely.

The thought that one day I could give up everything and lounge about all day reading, making notes and scribbling book reviews: priceless.

Alas, as that day still seems some way off, I will have to tuck these books into an already hopelessly over-packed schedule.

Still, free books make the corners of my mouth turn up like nothing else.

      

Weekend

Friday night was filled with leaving drinks for a colleague at this lovely Welli bar. The open fire and glass(es) of red were so pleasant, I could have moved in.

Saturday morning we drove up to Pauatahanui to interview a puppet maker who is taking his adorable kiddies show - Duck, Death and the Tulip - to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. While I did the interview, the Animator and Bristol strolled around the chap's 37 acre farmlet. It's the first time Bristol has seen sheep and although he wasn't at all fussed, the photo-bombing picture below made me laugh like a drain.

As we were in the hood, we dropped in to our friends Deb and Joe's for lunch - leaving six hours later, armed with fresh eggs from their hens.

Today it's back to writing like a demon...

Best wedding invite ever?

It's far too tedious to go into but this week I swapped one of my working from home days from Thursday to Friday. A bonus was that I got two days uninterrupted writing space and have finished, drum roll please, three of the nine stories I currently have on my slate. Yay for me.

It also meant that, deep in Vienna-related research, I was ripe for a distraction. It came in the form of this cute wedding invite, which plopped into my mail box this morning from two of the founders of the Wednesday night running group (sidebar: I went back last night for the first time in five weeks. It hurt). As befits them, the wedding invite is in the form of a marathon entry, complete with safety pins. In fact, the envelope came stamped with the words 'Marrython Pack'.

In typical Brent and Ewa style, the wedding will be at the top of Mt Victoria and guests are invited to run with them to the reception afterwards. Am not sure I will be running but will certainly be there to cheer them on.

   

Weta's Thunderbirds Are Go!

I'm a week late to the party but the covers have been lifted on the project the Animator is currently slaving over a hot computer for. Well, one image has been released - of Thunderbird 1. But it looks pretty spiffing.

The NZ Herald tells it better than I can (click here).