Just Miss is brilliant. I love her blog, where she’s always super (super) honest and generally cuts right to the chase. She blogs about Boobs, and her post about her poor hamster cracked me up no end (it shouldn’t have, really, but it did. That’s just how Just Miss rolls).

Her tweets are pretty brilliant too (You can find her as @JustOneMiss) though I don’t often get all the baseball references. I did discover a bunch of cool hash tag movements to follow though.

Anyway, she went on a blogging holiday and I wrote a guest post for her, when I was getting all proud about Rarg (in a delighted way, not a ‘this is my hood, bitch!’ way) about being a perfectly ordinary blogger. You can read it here, so give her (and me!) some love, okay? XD!

This month, Steve’s Orienteering Challenge required a bit more forethought than last month. But I kinda enjoy the randomness, so after convincing The Boy to be enthusiastic with me I got a bunch of crazy photos for my entry!

The May challenge was thus:

1. The Many Faces Of Steve

(Print out a mask of Steve’s face and wear it whilst doing something fun)

This one just kept getting better and better. At first I thought riding a canon was pretty awesome. And then I was up climbing in the trees of a forrest, and that seemed more awesome. And then SURFING through the trees? That pretty much topped it. Pity video entries aren’t really accepted . . .

2. Play The Game

(Get a photo of yourself playing a (non video) game)

By the time we got to this one we were both exhausted from the weekend we’d had. And it was raining. I opted for a copped out version:

3. Street Sign Mad Libs

(Insert the blanks with a Street Sign: “Sometimes, I like to ______ in my ______ .”)

We went through the street map, and tried to find some funny versions. The funniest ones, unfortunately, were always something like a 3 hour round trip. We opted for the dirty local signs instead:

Another amusing way to pass the weekend days :) I wonder what next months challenge will bring . . .

The weekend just gone was another one of THOSE weekends. The kind where you get up too early and spend the day doing things that mean the next morning your waking up with sore muscles and scratches in weird places.

I spent my Saturday with The Boy, The Square and other assorted friends climbing and swinging through the trees at Woodhill Forrest with Tree Adventures. It was loads of fun, and dude, how sore are my muscles today? Still, totally worth it. Some of the courses were harder than others (we also skipped courses 1-4, and went straight to 5-9), but they all were pretty awesome. You could surf between tree’s, swing like Tarzan, run between lillypads (or inch really really slowly if you are me), climb up cargo nets, and ride flying foxes to the ground.

First they hook you up to a harnesses with a bunch of different caribeenas, give you a helmet and tada, they pretty much send you off to go do your thing several large metres off the ground:

Yeah, we were up pretty high. Climbing up the cargo net was pretty freaky, actually. Because you had to unclip yourself from the tarzan swing to the safety wire above the net. Clipping and unclipping while holding percariously to a net while it’s swinging wildly underneath you? Hard, and a little scary. Actually, that went for most things. Things held up by ropes that unbalanced as you put weight on them, and wires that were slippery as. If they moved radically under your feet, then it was a good bet to say that I inched along like a little worm, clutching super tight to my safety harness. Even though it was pretty safe. I found out that each carabeena could hold up to 2 tonnes, and I had two. Three, if you count the flying fox doo-dad.

And once you got started, things became less scary. Which is good, because each course got progressively harder and required more muscle and effort to get yourself from one end to the next.

We had a rather large group too, which was nice. It meant that as you were climbing through your course there were often people above or below you shouting encouragement, or funny (good humored) insults. It was crazy to be climbing up a ladder to get to a platform and look up to see your friends climbing through rope obstacles 10 metres above you.

It was a pretty awesome way to spend the day :)

I was at the mall down from work the other day, and I saw this carpark:

Can they be any more ambiguous? Is it meant for all people? In which case, why did it need a symbol to tell us that? Is it for people who are either male or female (but not both), or perhaps people that ARE both, or perhaps people that aren’t sure if they are either? A confused trans-gendered person, or a transvestite? Do these people need special carparks now? Are we discriminating by carparks? Is this the evolution of sexism?

I worked myself up about it, I did. What could they possibly mean by that funny little symbol?Were they being horrible to people who didn’t deserve it?

In the end I hoped that it was someone being funny, a form of good-humoured street art. Hilarious carpark graffiti, designed to instigate confusion. Or that it was the local council or car parking company being idiotic again.

I still have no idea. It could mean anything, really. What do you think it means?

[edit]Other suggestions have been: emergency toilet parking, a muslim seperatist parking spot (because they can’t be seen together in public or something?), male driver, woman passenger. None of them make sense really, it’s so odd![/edit]

As most of you know, I reached my 200th post this time last week, and to celebrate I had a (my first!) giveaway :) Thanks to all who left comments, or tweeted, or sent me congratulatory messages – so much <3! In truth I was afraid that no one would enter and had a minor spaz to the BFF about it, but people did enter! And I am so pleased that y’all did – that’s really awesome :)

Unfortunately I only have one prize pack to give out. So, without further ado, congratulations to:

Hurrah! Congratulations Miss Kyla Roma from kylaroma.com. :)

And thanks again to all who entered. You’re all brilliant. And Yay! 200 posts!

In other warm-fuzzy news, my post about Paying it Forward is up at Operation Nice! Much thanks to Miss Desiree Fawn for the wonderful encouragement and everyone else for the lovely comments. So much <3!

Today is turning out to be brilliant – hope your day is filled with it! :)

It’s not summer here. In fact it’s mostly been just rain. And storms. And very dark and grey. New Zealand has officially descended into Winter.

All in all, it’s not that bad. I’m still holding some things close that only happen in Winter: wearing tights, and scarves, and multiple layers. Hanging out in the evenings as close to the fireplace as possible, with it’s gorgeous raging warmth-providing fire. Watching the snow base at Mt Ruapehu go up, and counting down the days till the season starts and we can embark on snow trips again.

It’s a bit disorientating when pretty much my entire blog roll is celebrating the warmer months, and all the joys that spring brings. But then one (or two) of them spouts how fantastic something is, and I forget all about how cold it is here, and think instead of how not cold it is there. Today, it was this:

500 Days of Summer comes out mid July (in the states. Which means it’ll be in NZ in August, or September). And it looks so ridiculously cute, so very very cute. And quirky. And how great is Zooey Deschanel?

It comes out just in time to help a girly girl think warm thoughts in the winter months :)

Friendly reminder – if you haven’t already entered the 200th post giveaway, you’ve still got one day left to do so! Be into win some fancy fantastic-smelling things!

On Sunday I had to drop some stuff off at Sibling’s work. This wouldn’t be so bad if Sibling worked anywhere else but where she does (ie, Middle of Town, with no free carparking within walking distance, and prowly Parking Wardens around every corner). So, hoping for less carparking drama and some form of swiftness, I parked in a public carpark that you have to pay $8 an hour for.

Lucky for me, as I got out to pay for a ticket a women approached me, and asked if I’d like her ticket as she was leaving. A ticket which was paid up till 6am the next morning.

I thanked her, and took her ticket and was astonished (and grateful) for her generosity.

I locked up my car, left the ticket on the dash and rushed off to do my thing. Just like I expected, dropping Siblings things off took all of ten minutes, and I was back to my car in no time. Just as I was about to leave, another car pulled in. I waited till the gentlemen got out, and approached him as he went to go buy himself a ticket.

I offered him my ticket. He, like I was with the woman before me, was a little flustery, and super grateful. He even offered to pay for some of it, and when I said that another lady had given ME the ticket free of charge, and I was just paying it forward, he held my hand to tell me how lovely it was that I was doing so.

He said that it wasn’t often that people display such random acts of kindness, wasn’t I such a lovely soul for passing on something that was given to me.

His praise took me back a bit, I didn’t do it for the praise, no matter how heartfelt he was. But the grin he walked away with? That was pretty damn rewarding.

I don’t doubt that when he was done with his ticket, that he gave it to someone else. Paying it forward seems to be a pretty awesome thing to do. :)

Friendly reminder – if you haven’t already entered the 200th post giveaway, you’ve still got a couple days to do so. Be into win some fancy fantastic-smelling things!

I love Auckland. Not alot of folk do (especially if they’re not from Auckland) but the city is actually kinda nice. I love walking past it’s funny little stores and down the wide footpaths and through the random alleys.

I especially love the little Japenese places. There is one in particular is super small (enough room for two benches, no more) and so cosy. And it does the BEST Vegetarian Ramen. And chicken gyoza. And teryiaki chicken don.

There’s something unbelievably sublime about sitting in a cute little place like there, with two of your best friends, eating the most delicious foods. On days like this one I’m unbelievably grateful that I live the life I do. :)

Friendly reminder – if you haven’t already entered the 200th post giveaway, you’ve still got a couple days to do so. Be into win some fancy fantastic-smelling things!