Childhood's · End

So, what with all my to-ing and fro-ing around the country I've been a bit slack on the old 'keeping people up to date' thing.
The rest of my London sojorn was enjoyable. Hung out some more with Adam (during which time I had the single most pathetic example of a ceaser salad known to man. My bad for ordering something not deep fried at a London pub I suppose), went out for fancy smantzy cocktails with one of the many Richards I appear to know (thankfully his shout as Lounge Lover cocktails are fantastic but jaw-droppingly pricey), ventured into Camden Stables for a drink with Kirsten (my god Camden's changed a lot in the last few years), had dinner at Tokyo Diner for old time's sake with Colin (followed by quite a nice walk along the Thames) spent a lovely evening at Anna's flat with her and her utterly wonderful fiance Jim, followed by a shopping trip the next day (braved the umbrella-wielding crows of Oxford st. Exhausting work) and wound up my stay with a nice natter with Michael and Kai during my (unfortunately short) stay at their place.

So, that was London. Nicely domestic. Don't ask for photos as I only took 3. I'm lousy at taking photos somewhere where I feel at home.

So, on to Edinburgh. The train was fantastic. So adorably cute and actually quite a comfortable sleep. The beds were surprisingly long enough for me to stretch out. Got to Edinburgh at 7.30, dumped my bags at the bus station and headed out for a wander. First place I come across: Wellington Cafe. Oh long black, how I had missed you.
Edinburgh is an amazingly arresting city. I find it beautiful. It's a city of stone and it's character is fantastic. Surprisingly the weather has been too. Today is the first day since I arrived where it's been cloudy. Take that all you Scottish nay-sayers.

Anyway, first day around I had a good wander then made my way up to Andrea's flat off the Medows. Another fantastically beautiful area. Hung out with her and David for a bit then we made our way out to the flat I was schedualled to look at. I didn't have a living room. No dice. Andrea then led me on a foot-breaking, round-about walk back to he medows, where I grabbed a cab to the bus station for my 2.5 hour busride to the family I am staying with.

Thankfully for me, Andrea has offered me the use of her (very comfortable) bed in their lounge, so I stayed there friday night. Saturday there was a festival in the Medows which David and I had a wander round. It was like being at the Grey Lynn festival except it was stonkingly hot and sunny (usually GLF gets rained on) I got myself a pagoda umbrella (I have always wanted one of these), the most outstanding chocolate ice cream ever tasted and a bunch of books. All very cheap. Then it was back on the bus and back out to Thornhill where I now write this while Mine Host takes the Communion service down the road.

Hopefully I'll get settled soon - I have seen one flat I love, I'm just waiting to hear back about it - then I'll be able to unpack, get my laptop set up and get the few photos I have taken posted for you.

Nicely busy day yesterday. Got up early to go and have tea and pastries at Anna's flat in Wapping. Oh my goodness but Wapping is a pretty place. Doesn't feel like you're in London at all. Cobbled streets, old brick warehouses and just generally lots of old stuff. Anna's flat is astounding. Had a lovely time, then we had a mosey on towards Anna's work (passing Graham Norton walking his dogs. As you do) First time I've ever crossed tower bridge or seen the tower of London (actually, that might be a lie. I think I went there when I was much younger, but I had a strange memory of it being more... isolated from the rest of London. It looks a bit odd, just sitting there surrounded by big glass buildings. It looks wee.)

Made my way after that towards Olympia to go to (what I thought was) a walk through the costume section of Blythe House, the V&A storage facility. Turned out to be some wankyass fashion/art/psychoanalysis exhibition thing which was a bit bollox. However it did give me a glimpse of the fantastic inside of the building, full to bursting with so many unshown pieces. I want to work somewhere like that some day.

On from there to a drink with Rod in Clapham before he set off on some undefined marque set up job. Nice little cosy pub (unlike the horrid depressing one I accidentally wandered into in Olympia). After he dashed off to go meet a man he didn't know, I killed some time reading a book in the park while I waited for Adam to treat me to a free evening at the Underdog, a pub he was reviewing. Sweet job that - no actual pay, but full free meals. Had a lovely long chat. How I've missed my Adamski.

Today I might just vege out at home for a while before meeting Adam again tonight for some Trolls 2 extravaganza. Weather's a bit shite. Might even find something to watch on the million and one channels of crap that seems to comprise tv over here.

So, I'm all arrived and in one piece, although my shoulder muscles would probably beg to differ. The downfall of shoving as much stuff as possible into your carry on works until you have to lug it from one end of a Heathrow terminal. In Singapore they're civilised and have little trolleys. At Heathrow you only get a trolley when you're collecting your main baggage, and even then it seems to be outfitted for the sport of Airport Drifting. Over here we don't turn corners, we drift direction-less around them.

The flights were ok.. NZ to Singapore I was on an older plane so it was all a bit scratchy and comfort-less. Nevertheless I still managed a few hours sleep (obviously worn out by my 19 hour day) The Singapore-London leg was a lot nicer. New plane, comfy seats and a free seat next to me so I was able to sprawl about a bit more. I had been considering the possibility of my plane falling out of the sky (why else would the gods have thrown so much plan-changing shit my way the last few weeks before I left?) and while that didn't happen, we did have a close(ish) call: On coming into Heathrow we were almost touching down when the plane suddenly pulled up again to begin another circle. Apparently groundstaff had spotted something on the runway right before we landed. Lucky. That's the kind of tiny little thing that makes planes go BOOM.

Arrived in London to 28degrees. 28! At 5pm! Who do they think they are, Italy? Everything kinda went downhill from the time I got off the plane to the time I got to my brother's house. Travel from the airport was a nightmare. Bus was baking hot and it was during rush hour so it crawled. Then when I got to Woking the ticket machines wern't working, I got stuck in the incoming tide of commuters and had to wait for them to leave before entering. Then the lifts were closed so I had to heft my bags up and down the steps to the crossover bridge (during which time one of the straps to one of my bags came off under the strain and dumped my bag on the ground. Yes, I cried. No, no one helped me) THEN I got caught in a commuter tide again. THEN I had to wait for 45 min because there was a big snarlup with... I don't know. The announcement sometimes said signal failure, sometimes it just said 'there is a delay (insert train) due to. We apologise for the delay this may cause'. Eventually discovered which train to catch and started the 5 hour trek to the far end of the platform, straps of my bag burning through my hand by this point, when an angel of a woman wheeling a bike offered to help me by carrying a bag on her seat. I could've kissed her.

Once I arrived at my brother's, I had a shower and something to eat and watched tv. I was human again. And the cats slept on me. Just like home, except without the horror movies and snoring boyfriend.

And now... off into the wild blue yonder which is Guildford to get myself a simcard.

So I've started on some of my research for my anorexic mystics seminar ('Can mystics such as Catherine of Sienna be considered anorexic?') For part of it I've decided to take a slightly interesting route by trying to compare the writings of mystics with modern ana and proana writing. Essentially I want to see if the same emotive and physical responses are evoked. Some interesting results thus far.

One thing I wonder however:
After trawling through pro-ana communities for the last hour, is it normal to REALLY want some creme eggs?

While I'm at it, if anyone has any pro-ana material they can direct me to I would be greatly obliged

So. This old thing is still alive and kicking. Apparently the tyrannical overlordship of Faceslut has not quite signed Livejournal's death-blog.

I suppose it's nicer to have your ramblings contained to pages specifically for such useless and uninteresting-yet-read-by-others-for-some-unfathomable-reason content. Not 'notes' mixed in with the latest 'What sort of shoes should you wear to the deathbed of your significant other' quizette.

So. I'm back. I guess. Although I don't think I could ever quite have left. I did a lot of growing up over livejournal (as pathetic as that may sound) and I guess I find it slightly disturbing to know that somewhere, floating around this rich series of interconnected tubes, are all those growings up. I don't like them sitting there without me keeping an eye on them. Which would easily be solved by deleting said content, but then all that growing would be thrown away. Damned if I do, damned if I don't I suppose.

Oh well. Gives me something else to waste my time on.

Alright then. I guess while I'm at it I might as well thrown in a whole other bunch of new leaves to turn, so as of April 1st I will:
Go to the gym at least 5 days a week.
Drink all the water a person is supposed to drink in a day
Cut down on all the crap I funnel into my body
Keep on top of my Uni. I am going to nail this honours even if it kills me.

So, getting older.

It's my 22nd on Tuesday so I am having drinks to celebrate. Saturday, 4th August (next saturday) at Ruby in Kingsland. I figure I'll be there some time before 8, so turn up when you do. There will be a bit of a tab, so drinks will be cheeper until it's gone.

Right, it's that time of year again.

I'm going to The Signal tomorrow at 8.45. Anyone keen on joining me?

Went to Rob's on tuesday to play poker. A tree fell on powerlines around the corner and blew up the transformer so we lost power at 8.30 so we had to play by candlelight which was actually quite fun (for me anything involving candles = fun). I landed myself some semi-beginner's luck and won myself $50. Not bad for a night's work.

Last night May and I took Frances to Gina's for delicious dinner and fun Italain flirting (they love it when you can speak Italain, even a little). I tell you, it feels nice to be hit on for once by someone who doesn't think that by doing so he can convince you to give him a lapdance.

Also, got my Cure ticket on monday. Who else is coming?

Birthday drinks will be on Saturday, 4th of August at Ruby in Kingsland. There will be cheep drinks until the tab runs out, so the payment for fashionable lateness will be full-priced booze.

I will of course remind you again.... and again and again. I don't trust anyone's memory around here...

so... my birthday is in a few weeks. what should i do? just have something in a bar? scrounge a house [my flat is far too small]? if so, where? i`m really at quite a loss, so any suggestions would be appreciated. [also, they keybord i am using is still missing function in most of its non-letter keys, hence the tragic state of this post]

Got my phone back finally. They didn't call me as promised, instead they sent me a txt message... go figure.

So, you can txt me again. And please do, because I don't have anyone's numbers. But include your name so I know who on earth you are.

Chur

My phone is still not back. I feel like I'm wandering around without an ear or something. It's rather disconcerting, and very annoying as I am finding myself with a lot of free time on my shoulders and nobody to contact to relieve me of it (seeing as I have no numbers as well as no cell phone)

So, if anyone feels like doing anything or needs to get a hold of me at any point, buzz me at my flat on 3613510. Yay for landlines.

Well, my phone had a series of strokes yesterday and is not officially deceased. Currently on its way to the reanimation plant.

As such, I apologise if I haven't replied to any attempted communications over the last couple of days.

Now.... anyone have a spare vodafone phone I could borrow for 5-10 days? Pretty please?

I know a cunt that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves. I know a cunt that gets on everybody's nerves and his naaaaame is SQUARE.

He really needs to face it. He's a facetious shit and [6]ten is a really, really, REALLY lame name for a theatre production. Robbie, I know you're with me on this.


In other news:
*I am positively aching for this semester to be over. It's killing me.

*The new flat is nice (albeit cold) and the flatties, while not quite as fun as the grove crew, are friendly, clean(ish) and, most importantly, NOT potheads.

*Showgirls is good. Never ceases to fascinate me, except for tuesday night when it was dead as a plague horse. I told my parents about working there. The found it very amusing.

*Andrew's back in... 16 days. Surreal.

*Seriously unimpressed by Pirates III. The uselessness of the script, Knightly and Bloom kept me distracted from pretty much everything else on screen. They really should've left it at 1.

So. Much. Chocolate.

Had fun hiding eggs everywhere for people to find. Have a feeling they'll still be finding them in a month's time.

I think it's time for the heart patient diet after this.

Runs til 10th March. Here for more info.

Also, we've been reviewed.

Ivy's come. May was a trooper and came by herself on Monday.

Where are the rest of you?

Now, my bugging of you lot to come see my plays is usually relatively minimal. This time you're not getting off quite so easily.
You may not have come to see my first university production.
You may not have come to see me in my first title role.
You may not have come to see me in my first paying production
BUT
You are not getting out of coming to see me in my first lead female role.

It runs for a month (10th Feb - 10th March) The excuse 'I did not have time' is therefore invalid unless you are a) terminally ill or b) not in the country.

I seriously need to get away. By now I've had just about as much as I can take. I've had 10 days off in the last...6 months and they don't really count (Christmas = family, crap weather and cabin fever; New Years = Drama and too much random crap demanded of us). I haven't had a proper chance to chill since just after my birthday (When Andrew and I went up North for a weekend) Since then it's been departure, play, uni, play, Stage2, exams, holiday bollox, 2 plays, summer school, play, work, stage2. I'm starting to get paranoid and edgy again. I desperately wanted to go up north this weekend but 21sts have got in the way.

I am, however, going up north on the 17th. I'm going to leave at 9.30pm on the 17th and come back by 6pm on the 19th. And by crikey if ANYTHING gets in the way of that, hell will rain down swiftly on the head(s) of those responsible.

Well, that's it for me and Auckland in 2006 (ok, I'm around for the 26th, but under 24 hours hardly counts)

Hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas and an even better New Year.

See you in 2007

Opening Thursday, preview night tomorrow. Tickets for tomorrow's preview a measly $12. Come one, come all.

Vodafone lies to me! They make me think I can roam to Australia no problems. LIES. What they actually mean is that they'll give you your txt messages, but refuse to pass off the ones you want to send.

LIES! DAMN LIES!

There may well be a big surprise on final night.

Quite possibly the sack will fall from my hands and the Hurst's grinning, bug eyed stupid head will roll out onto the table. Then I'll really start up the cackling.

God I have to get out of this country. I feel compleately stagnated. Don't get me wrong, I love New Zealand. Hell, I even love Auckland. But I just feel I have to get out. Get on a plane and go. Luckly I should be going to Oz for a week with my dad in a couple weeks' time, so that should help, but I feel the need to go somewhere alien. Somewhere I would never usually think of going. Somewhere where they don't speak my language. Somewhere that takes a long time to get to. I want to get on a plane and just keep flying. I want to go to Turkey. Or South Africa. Or... um... I don't know. Somewhere. Tramp through the rainforest, discover Mayan ruins, visit ancient Indian buddist temples. Spend some time hanging out with some mongols.
For once the old elegance of Europe isn't drawing me. Not to say I don't still love it - if Dad turned around and said we were going to Austria for a week instead I wouldn't be dissapointed - but I feel the need to get compleately out of my comfort zone. Get lost, get sick, risk my life and come back with some fantastic stories.

I know my problem, it's twofold:
1)It's been too long since I last went anywhere. Every year of my life I can remember I have left my country of residence at least once. Now it's been almost three years since I last got on a plane out of here. Yeah yeah cry me a river spoilt little rich girl, I know. But it's just... I'm itchy. Travel is in my blood and it's times like this I can really feel it.
2)Andrew's exciting adventures. I know he'll be having them. They've already started. I was always going to be jealous of his opportunities because they reminded me of what I've experienced, but it never really hit me until he left just how little I knew about the culture he was going to. It seems wild to me, the whole continent. I have no idea about anything that will be going on over there. I spent so long developing such an irrational (although understandable under the circumstances) hatred of the whole area that I never bothered to read the books over his sholder. And now I regret it. So put me on a plane to Brazil, to Argentina. Then I can experience that wilderness for myself. And hey, maybe meet him at some point along the way.

I want to see the following (not sure on which times)

Keane
Hard Candy
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
The Science of Sleep
Shortbus
The House of Sand
C.R.A.Z.Y
Lunacy
L'Enfer
Regular Lovers
Requiem
The White Masai
Fateless
Water
The Method
Thank You for Smoking
Whole New Thing
An Inconvenient Truth
Into the Great Silence
Last Supper
Our Daily Bread
Who Killed the Electric Car?
The Army of Shadows
Under Satan's Sun
A Scanner Darkly

Interested?

Woah. A- in Classics? How the hell did I pull that off? A- my Medieval Mentalities paper I can understand... classics?

Also, if you haven't come to see Andrew's show A Night Of French Mayhem at the Herald yet, do so. It's on til the 16th.

Well, I've been learning (or I should reaffirming) the hard way this last week that playing with my hormones causes havoc. I know this, but for some reason thought it wouldn't matter this time. So now I'm putting that part of myself back in order and should be moderately sane from now on (although, I have to say, flat landscapes depress me. Spending all day in a flat landscape with no company but an 18month old is not overly enjoyable. Good thing I started setting myself to rights a couple of days ago or oooohhhh deary deary me) And of course lots of random unwanted bollox occurs when I'm at my most emotionally venerable. Luckily enough for me I have a May, and May can make me laugh at anything. ANYTHING.

My dad got back from England yesterday. I'm seeing him today. This shall hopefully mean I will be returning to my flat this evening equipped with flashy new ipod! Yay for me!

And now, because I have nothing else to do, I shall fill in a survey. Haven't done one of them for a very long time.
( 4 things )

Ha hA! Smart me! Child is now watching Finding Nemo. I now have nothing to do and so will read a book (or do study, which I really should).
Anyone around the Ellerslie area who wants to visit is more than welcome (or anyone at all who wants to come out. Really. Truly.

So last night was heat 4 of the 48hour film comp and I got to see myself on the civic screen (as well as a large amount of people I knew but didn't realise I'd be seeing). It was... interesting. Some of the movies were really great (ArtHaus, The puppet one and T.H.A.T especially) and others lacked a bit of.. well, anything (ie the superhero with the sparkely gstring) I was mildly disappointed with how our movie turned out overall... there were some great sequences but some shots that really should have been left in either didn't work or made the movie run overtime - I don't know, I wasn't doing the editing. Our people also had no idea how to soundmix, but then that is one of the hardest things to do in editing. It was a fun and interesting experience though. (And Morgie looked gorgeous in her War film)

Hmm... theatre stuff due on Monday. I should really have done more by now than just a rough outline of my staging exercise but I can't summon up the impetus. I guess I'm just a lazy. That and my brain has been trying to get out of my skull for the last day and a half. Bless Andrew's little soul, he's so cute when he's concerned for my wellbeing. He wants me to go to a doctor if it doesn't clear up by tomorrow. For now I'm chowing down Nurefen Migrane tablets. I never take medication of any kind so these are working a treat.

Dear god my head.
I had a fun migraine on Sunday, brought on in part by the 6 hour rehearsal for a guy's post graduate 'Directing Actors' class and in part by the hellish party I had to work for the 3 hours before the rehearsal. God I hate Remuera mums. Wanted me to give her the world sprinkled with fairies and on a solid gold platter. AND she wanted it 5 minutes ago. Apparently she also had the cheek to tell my boss that I was completely unhelpful. Fuck you.
Since then the headache hasn't really left. It's been exacerbated by various other outside factors, but that just makes it even more annoying.

Heh, first time on LJ for ages and what do I do? Bitch about my headache. Typical.

What else could I do? Be cryptic and dramatic?

'I cried on my mother's shoulder the other night'. Does that fit well?

Gah. I have to write my Alice essay. I think that's going to be done in the gap between classes tomorrow and early Friday morning. Then I have to batten down the hatches on my Theatre journal and staging exercise, history review essay and classics exam. Then I get a hell as long break til my English exam on the 23rd. And life just keeps spiraling faster and faster and before I know it I'll be 21, then Alone, then in 2007.

I think my headache is affecting my sensibility. And my dyslexia. It's starting to encroach on my speech which is not fun, especially when you come out with brilliant 'I want to spend a room in night five..' when on stage.

I wait for the day I come home to the flat and find myself arrested along with the rest of my flatmates for the copious amounts of pot they keep on a dinner plate in one of our cupboards. I also wait for the disgusting smell of hash butter to dissipate from my hallway.


I am looking foward to the 48hours film shenanigans on the weekend. First time I've had a chance to be involved in one. Go no sleep and big bags under my eyes!

Sigh. I am such a very very slack person. I feel a bit guilty for not going to CR last night. I was going to... until I realised I didn't have anything to wear because most of my clothes that I don't wear all the time (ie big foofy skirts and 5 inch high boots) are still over on the shore and I don't have the gas or the gas money to get there and back. So I was slack and lazed around at Andrew's house all day doing absolutely nothing.

And now I'm going up to the bach with my family tomorrow morning. I am a hermit.

I should really finish painting my room today seeing as I won't be in it again til friday. Then I can move the rest of my furnature in there and make it seem like a proper room instead of a hostle with a fancy bed.

Hope you all enjoyed easter and got lots of chocolate (unlike me who was only given a cream egg by Michaela on friday)

Just a reminder that if you're wanting booze for my flatwarming tomorrow (35 Grosvenor, Grey Lynn) you will need to buy it today. I don't think they let you sinners purchase your sinful substances on Big J's death day.

So, assignments done for this part of the semester. I just tossed off the biggest load of shit for my history document analysis. So uninspiring. But it's done and that's about all I care about now.

I like my home (I'm trying to make a distinction between the shore and where I live now... shore is 'home' and the flat I think is either 'the flat' or 'my place') It has a computer, sky, a fridge with food, clean pans (fuck, clean everything) and is also warm and tidy. And it has my cat. My place... not so much although my room is good. Have to finish the last wall of painting so I get my new scotch chest in.

Speaking of my place...
Party's still on on Friday (even though the other girl who was going to move in has pulled out. We are SICK of this happening to us) so that's around 9pm-ish, 35 Grosvenor St, Grey Lynn. Come and suchlike.

Have the law cross exam tomorrow... Thank god for Christabel, she saved my skin by being able to do both the Tuesday and the Wednesday comps. I would usually do the final, but wednesday is my and Andrew's 6 months (god, crazy. It's like I'm going to marry him or something) and so we're going out to dinner and to see 100 Cousins. Should be enjoyable.


Well, I guess I better get my washing and get back over the bridge :-P