I did my Karate grading last night and it's fairly safe to say that I sucked quite badly. I graded to 9th Kyu, while everyone else who started when I did has (already) graded to 8th. I'm pretty disappointed with myself, grading to 9th is kind of like saying "Well done for trying!"

I'm currently sitting on the couch at Mark's place. Mark's my boss, I'm staying at his place because all the hotels in Wellington are totally booked out this week. My contract officially ended last Friday but I've been extended again until the end of March. Because we only found this out last Thursday it didn't leave us a lot of time to rebook accommodation and the X-Air event in on this week, thus making affordable accommodation non-existent.

We went surfing again yesterday. I say we, because Kelly and Sarah came out to Piha but never ended going, it was just me. They did have a big night out though. I'd love to say I caught all the waves and totally ripped it up but actually yesterday wasn't my day to shine. It was my day to sort of sink, swallow a lot of seawater and get munched. It's all part...

Happy 25th Birthday to Sarah!

We've had a good weekend so far. Last night we went out with a bunch of Sarah's friends to celebrate her birthday, so we're both a little tired this morning. I think that means that I'm on pancake duty, which is only fair seeing as it's Sarah's birthday.

It's been an interesting week at work. A few unexpected things happened which made things interesting, nothing super interesting though. Otherwise work is going well, my contract was due to expire on Friday but it's been extended for another month. I'm not even sure where I'll be staying when I fly back down tomorrow morning but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to crash.

Not a lot else to talk about otherwise!

Tim

Well that long weekend that was going to be a nice relaxing 4 days turned out to suck the big one. Saturday was OK, we went out to Silverdale and Sarah did a bit of shopping. Late Saturday night I really started to feel quite ill all of a sudden and it was all downhill from there. After spending all Sunday in bed feeling miserable Sarah took me to the Dr on Monday.
Dr said that I had a bad throat infection that was causing me all my grief, gave me some antibiotics and some good painkillers and sent me back home again. The rest of Monday and Tuesday was spent in bed, I was due to go back to work this morning but I am staying home in bed for one more day, heading down to Wellington tonight to go to work tomorrow.

What a bugger. We were going...

This story was on the news the other night it made me howl with laughter. Good One Dick!!

We're waiting to see a photo from the Hawke's Bay Today newspaper which published a photo of the mad rush to get a good spot. Apparently Peter and I are clearly visible in the mad sprint to the "finish line".

Speaking of Photos, Sarah's uploaded hers from the concert day. Check them out at the usual place.

I went to my first Mission Concert yesterday and boy what an experience it was. Let me give you a little background on The Mission Concert. There’s a winery in Hawke’s Bay (The region where Napier is) called The Mission. It’s about a 3 minute walk from Sarah’s parents place. Each year they have one big concert with a headline act. You’re allowed to take in anything you want, booze included. There’s just a big open area in front of the stage and people take their own tarpaulins and map our “their” area. The earlier you can get into the venue the better because then you get a spot closer to the stage, but the longer you have to wait in line (and the more people you have to fight off once you’ve mapped out your area!)

This year as you know the headline act was Eric Clapton. The previous...

It's a public holiday in Wellington today so Sarah took the day off too and I don't have to fly back to Wellington until tomorrow morning! Bonus. I think we're going to go surfing today if the weather turns out to be on our side.

We've had a good weekend though, as we usually seem to do. Friday night we went to pickup the blender that Sarah bought off TradeMe. $50 for a blender and it turns out to be brand new, still in its box. The lady selling it got it as a Christmas present from her work and didn't need it. It's a primo blender too, when the old blender saw the new blender it started to sob, before it was quickly and unceremoniously chucked in the rubbish.

Saturday we did a bit of shopping in the afternoon out at Albany. My most exciting purchase was a $15...

Both Sarah and I completed a 25 minute run last night! It's a shame we weren't in the same city to do it together, but I stll think it's a good achievement! I never thought I'd be able to run (well, jog) for 25 minutes in my life. But it turns out to not have been that hard.
I think my training at Karate has really helped too, they really beat the crap out of us sometimes. Often as I lie there on the wooden floor, drawing numbers in the air with my legs, I think to myself "And I'm paying to be tortured like this?" But I always feel better for it at the end.

Running last night was really good though, I found that the Wellington harbour/waterfront area is a lot bigger than I thought it was so it's perfect for just running all over the place. Plus...

Boy we had some tasty food this weekend! Saturday night Sarah made Chicken Tom Yum soup. I spiced my bowl up with a good helping of ground up chilli paste. Sarah reckons it's healthy good which is an extra bonus!
Then for lunch today I had Sushi that Sarah made last night. I was supposed to make it, but I was out in the shed cleaning out all the spider webs. There's a huge gap under the door and every bug known to man crawls in under there. Not fun.

We headed into town yesterday to get a spirit level for Sarah's camera. Though she doesn't really need one in my opinion, it's always the photos I take with her camera that turn out wonky.

While in town we met Yarets Vladimir (or maybe the other way around), a deaf mute travelling around the world on his motorbike. He was...

I flew back into Auckland yesterday for the first time in 4 weeks yesterday. Good to be back home to the nest. The tomato plants I just chucked in a pot for a laugh have gone mental of the Christmas period. I can't believe how massive they are considering they're confined to quite a small pot. You'd think they'd refuse to grown when their root are squished up so tightly.

We got up nice at early this morning (I think about 10:30) and when for a run. Sarah has found a cool park near to our house that has a good running track around it. It was very hard work though, the weather at the moment is overcast but very hot and muggy.

Currently we're taking it easy, we've just got back from a shopping extravaganza with Kelly. We just went to the mall, it was the usual stab-your-eyes-out excitement...