Sore + theatre + visitor from the US

Blame it on an over-full schedule, constantly being in catch-up mode or sheer stupidity. Or a combination of all three. But somehow I ended up at boot camp on Friday lunchtime, rather than the usual run. Of course, I couldn't pull out.

My hamstrings now feel as though they've been stretched to breaking point and I can barely reach around to do up my bra. Note to self: next time pay attention to which bleeding exercise sess you're signing up for.

In other news, last night we went to see my mate Neil's take on the classic Irish play, Playboy of the Western World, at the Irish Society.  Done pub theatre style, it was all kinds of lovely. If you're in Welli, and want a side order of  history with your Guinness, get yourself down there this week.

Today is filled with more work, a phone interview and a frenzied cleaning of the house before our friend Sheryl from San Francisco arrives to stay for a few nights.

Here's Neil and his gaggle of girlies from the play.

  

Dickens' A Christmas Carol

My interview with the lovely Daniel de Andrade, who crossed the world to direct A Christmas Carol for the Royal NZ Ballet, runs in today's NZ Herald (click here to read).

   

Warning: prepare for leaking eyes

It's been a bit of a week, what with losing the bach and the general overflowing of my bull-shit cup.

I was in desperate need of something to restore my faith. And then a friend sent me this video of Arthur, a stray dog who latched onto some Swedish athletes in Ecuador. These guys deserve Sweden's highest medal...  

Baking and the corporate food chain

My piece for Boardroom Magazine is published in the current issue (click here to read).

In other news, we missed out on the Waiterere Beach place we put an offer in for. Cue much eye-rolling and saying of bad words. I was hoping we'd be able to secure a wee bolt-hole before summer so we could avoid having to listen to the neighbours' rubbish music and attitude. But, sadly, tis not to be.

Am sure we will find something eventually but, just at the minute, the silver lining is proving a little elusive...

  

Like wrestling a rowdy octopus

I have spent large chunks of the day grappling with a sentence that doesn't want to work. I have arranged and rearranged the words in various combinations but to no avail. I am now at the stage where I want to slap it into submission.

But here's one I prepared earlier, from this month's North & South Magazine, featuring the lovely Sam Heeney who runs a company called Love to Cook (click here to read).

Say cheese

Between the current round of property negotiations and increasingly stupid copy deadlines, there is precious little time for anything. A colleague and I did manage to get out for a run at lunchtime today, and it was glorious.

Certainly there is no time to blog, but instead you shall have these pics of the Animator and I fooling around at the Amsterdam Cheese Museum a couple of weeks ago. The young cashier told us he often had his wicked way with the dress up box when he was bored and encouraged us to play silly buggars with the props. When in Amsterdam....

Roses - The Sequel

Am fighting with deadlines today so there is no time for words.

Instead, you shall have these pink beauties from our back garden. They are currently filling the upstairs bathroom with the most divine summery smells. In case you're interested, the vintage marmalade pot was all of about three quid from a car boot sale at Cheddar Gorge. I truly heart it.

And so endeth the Martha Stewart portion of our show.