I'm so addicted to cross stitch. I sit at my desk and think about it. I am considering quitting my job so I can stay home and cross stitch. I have got 4 to work on when I've finished the one I'm doing at the moment but it's still not enough. I'm trying to resist going on trademe to find more to buy. Is there a support group for this kind of thing? Can I go on the sickness benefit while I work through my issues (aka finish my cross stitches)?

I Believe...

...that one day I will have a job I love
...that I won't always struggle when it comes to money
...that life isn't just black and white
...that showers, sleep, good friends and family are good for my soul
....that Tahu is my favourite
...that I will get through my trip and that even though I feel like I've bitten off more then I can chew that I can do it
...that God is my provider
...that you can speak things into someones life even if they can't hear you so you should be careful what you say about others and your self
...that I won't always be fat
...that even though I know it looks awful that I have bad skin it would look worse if I tried to cover it with makeup

I believe lots of things. Some things I have no idea what I believe and so I keep away from those subjects but other things I feel strongly about. I'm not sure I have many readers but if you read this and think of something that you feel strongly about please make a comment of it. Would love to know what others think.

This time in 7 weeks I'll be...

Ok I'll be asleep. But to be fair I'll be asleep in a hotel in Bangkok and will be flying to Cambodia later on that day! Can't believe how fast this is coming. We have almost all our flights, have found our accommodation and today Tahu is going to get our visas for India. All other visas we can get on arrival but for some reason we have to get the one for India early. And it costs $93AUD ($120NZ)! But I'm glad we only have to get one cos man it is a mission filling out forms and finding proof of everything! Do you know, after putting my name on the form, the next question is what is my father or spouse's name? We don't care where you live but we do want to know your dad or your partner. A little weird. But exciting.

It's all getting very real now. I feel a bit like I've bitten off more then I can chew but keep reminding myself that I got to this point by taking one little step at a time so that's all I have to keep doing. As is the same with everything, if I focus on the big picture sometimes it gets overwhelming. Looking at the little parts and handling them one at a time is much easier!

Transport - Lesson One

My sister Deb recently set up a blog for my nephew Reuben. He needs different ways of learning and this is one way they are trying. This has got me thinking a lot about how I could help with this and the things I could teach him that would be interesting from my life. I'm living in Brisbane at the moment and he hasn't been here before so it's not something he can visualise. The main thing I think about is that every day I take so many different forms of transport. So here's my first attempt at a "lesson" for Reuben. It's probably not very good but if nothing else, it's a least interesting to me!!


Different forms of transport I take:


First off, to get here I had to get on a plane. It took 3 hours and 50 minutes and I had to catch it at 7am!! I arrived at only 8.50am though because of the time differences (but that's a whole nother lesson!). I will have to get on one to come back too but this time I will catch it after work and so arrive at about 11.45pm! Oh for some normal timed flights!

When I go to work I catch a bus. This takes an hour and isn't very interesting! Cos it's so early and dark I often have to jump out on the road to make them stop for me!:

When I get here I have to get on an elevator to take me up to my office because I work on the 16th floor. Because this building is so tall there are 2 lots of elevators. The first lot stops at floors 1-12 and the second lot, which I get on, goes to floors 13-27 (I think that's how high it goes):

After work I catch a train. This also takes about an hour and I have to go through some underground tunnels to get on this train. It takes me all the way out to a place called Cleveland and I get off at the end of the line:

Some days, when I get off the train, I walk for a while. It's much warmer here then Christchurch. I walk about 2.5km up a gradual hill. These are not my shoes but they look very much like this:



Tahu picks me up after I have walked for a while unless I'm too tired and then he just picks me up from the train station. It's another 15 minutes to get home if he does this:

I should point out that these images are not pictures I've taken but I've tried to get pictures as close to what they look like as possible (That may or may not be Tahu's actual car though!!!) :)

I love flowers

This week has been a bit up and down. And my darling boyfriend knew this and to "show me how much he loves me" he surprised me with flowers when he picked me up from the train yesterday.


Aren't they gorgeous?

Something isn't right.

This week 3 boys were killed down south in a car crash thought to involve speed, alcohol, drag racing and road conditions. One of them, a 16 year old, was buried yesterday and his coffin was decorated in Tui stickers. (For those overseas readers Tui is a brand of beer here and also the legal drinking age is 18). There is so many things wrong with that whole situation.

Ok feeling better today but couldn't think of a pic that would show that I was happy so I thought I'd put up a picture of something that makes me happy:

My lovely family. Including Annie Rose now! Stolen directly from my facebook page I should add, I'm not actually an awesome stickfigure artist!

I feel like this:

Also just realised I've had this blog for over 4 years now. That's a pretty long time!

Rude!!

So at lunch yesterday I went and sat in the park across the street cos it was 22 degrees and sunny and I needed to get out of the office. And this girl came up to me and said "do you have 30 seconds to sign a petition" and I said no cos I only had a few minutes left and just wasn’t in the mood to save the world and I know she’s lying when she says 30 seconds! She goes ok and then are you from NZ or just wearing an NZ tshirt? Which I felt was a dumb question because the tshirt says NZ is Home and really who else would wear that but someone from NZ but said yeah from NZ and she goes oh where from? And I said Christchurch. She goes oh I HATED Christchurch! What was I supposed to say to that? I wanted to go are you serious? but instead I went oh well. And then she walked off. But seriously. Was that not ridiculously rude or what???

I feel at this point I should say that the petition was for stopping violence against women. Ironic I felt. I just wanted to hit her. I should have and then signed the petition. That would have been confusing for her!

Rude!!

Thoughts from Brisbane

So in case you don't know, I'm now based in Brisbane for the next 6 weeks. I arrived here very early on Sunday morning. I got a transfer so I can do my work out of the Brisbane office and it means I can live with Tahu and also visit cousins and friends who I otherwise wouldn't see! I work NZ hours here so start at 6.30am but get to finish at 3pm and it actually works really well for me. Think I'm more of a morning person. Also Tahu works very similar hours so our routines are the same.

It's really nice here. About 15 degrees warmer every day. It's still a novelty catching a train home from work and we live with a cat and it's just so nice seeing Tahu every day. These are just little things that make this all a lot more fun then last time!

I do miss my family and friends. Have spent a bit of time with Deb and the kids recently and it's so good. I find that I can handle life a bit better if I spend time with my family. Not just the kids but with Uncle Jack and Aunty Pat, Mum and Dad and Shaz too. I obviously can't hang out with Jem but email and texting makes that easier.

10 weeks tomorrow til I got to Asia. A bit nervous now! Well mostly nervous about getting enough money for it but I know that this is what I'm meant to be doing and so the money will happen.

Also still loving cross stitch. Working on the baches one that I had posted a picture of. Probably half way through now. Will put up some pics when I'm back in Christchurch of the ones I've completed cos I left them there.

Ok better go. Work to do!