Cycling to work

That's right people - today I cycled to work. You may remember a post I wrote a while ago where I called Paul mad for doing so and probably swore I'd never do it. Well I've been a bit slack about going to the gym lately so I thought that by cycling to work I would (a) save money on train tickets and (b) get fit at the same time :-)

So I actually quite enjoyed the cycle - I wasn't sure if I would or not. I go about half way with Paul and then he continues on the bikeway out to the airport and I veer off towards the city. Shock horror that not 5 minutes later I managed to get a bit lost - whoops. So I had to give Paul a call and get some directions. In my defence I had only done that ride once and that was back at Christmas last year and following Paul most of the way or having him tell me when to turn. Fortunately though I was only a little off track (3 streets over) so I found my way back.

So we'll see how oftern I do it tomorrow when I see how sore I am :-) te he. I'm not cycling home tonight as it's much harder going home (Keperra is higher than the city so there is more uphill on the way home) and I have book club at 7pm so don't really have time. So instead I shall cycle home after work tomorrow night. I'll prob try and leave work about 4:30pm though as by 6pm it's pretty much dark and I only have a budget light. If I decide that I'm going to commute more often then I'll go out and buy myself a commuting bike light. As a lot of the way is on bike paths which aren't lit, the bike lights that you need cost about $250 - $450!!

Right - lunch is over - back to work :-) Joy of joys (I'm testing at the moment - enough said :-( blah)

Christmas trip planning

Very exciting!! Paul and I have decided that since we have to take off at Christmas, that we may as well use the time wisely. So last night we booked flights up to Cairns! YAY!!
We leave Brisbane on Christmas day (Thursday) at 4:40pm and don't fly back until 12:30pm on (Thursday) Jan 1st. We will spend Christmas with Debz & co until around 3ish and go straight to the airport to catch our flight from there - flying Christmas day is way cheaper. Unfortunately they don't get Jan 2nd off as a public holiday in Australia as otherwise we wouldn't need to come home until the Sunday. Oh well :-) As we're doing our "resort" honeymoon in Sept next year, this will be more a roughing it trip. We want to get in a trip to the barrier reef and go on the rain forest gondola in Cairns - so going cheap on accommodation means we can afford to do those :-)

The planning is half the fun of any trip - so we're in full excited planning mode at the moment :-)
So the plan at the stage is for the following:

• Dec 25th: arrive at 7pm and stay the night in Cairns somewhere
  
• Dec 26th: explore Cairns in the morning and then drive up to Daintree - stay at Crocodylus Village which is a YHA hostel type place in the rainforest - yay (http://www.crocodyluscapetrib.com/default.htm)
• Dec 27th: try for a reef trip - means if the weather is bad then we can try to reschedule for the 28 - we might go on the Rum Runner (http://www.rumrunner.com.au/index.html) - stay at Crocodylus Village
• Dec 28th: try kyaking etc - I might even get some reading in here :-) - stay at Crocodylus Village
• Dec 29th: drive down to and explore Port Douglas - stay at Port O'Call Lodge (http://www.portocall.com.au/default.html)
• Dec 30th: drive down to Cairns and do the Skyrail thing - means if the weather is bad we can reschedule to 31st (http://www.skyrail.com.au/) - stay at Cairns on waterfront somewhere
  
• Dec 31st: explore Cairns - stay at Cairns on waterfront somewhere - new years eve, party party whoop whoop ;-) ha ha
  
• Jan 1st: have coffee in morning (essential for hangover), walk around Cairns waterfront and catch 12:30pm flight home to Brissy

Yay - ok, back to the real world of work now :-)

Ange

A few more things done

One of the most common questions I get asked these days is how are wedding plans coming along. Depending on my current mood, I give one of 2 answers, along the following lines, to this question.
(1) Yeah they're going well
(2) Argh, don't remind me, its getting to crunch time

Ha ha :-)

Well I can now say that plans really are starting to shape up. While we were in NZ I booked the ladies in for our hair & makeup appointments at Balliage (that's me, Marea, Fleur for the works and the 2 mums are getting blow waves). Over the past few days we have booked in the flowers with Bunches on Lambton Quay, bought a cake topper off trademe, ordered my wedding ring, tried on yet more shoes, emailed the organist, emailed the priest who is marrying us, emailed the church where I grew up to see if they can please please send through my baptism details to Wellington (I can't get married without that - we posted a them a form about 4 months ago - Paul's arrived about a week later but mine is MIA) and yes we even thought about sending out wedding invitations (yes yes we'll get there - te he - you all have save the date cards anyway - or if I forgot to send you that then I've verbally invited you, sorry Amz). Email is such a wonderful thing isn't it :-)

Today my wedding task is to organise printers for the invitations we aren't able to email out. Fortunately I have the address of one that my work uses so that makes things easier :-)

Right - back to work. Have a great day and take care :-D

RIP Kelly the dolphin

Very sad - Kelly, the last dolphin at Marineland in Napier has died. It's very sad - the Marineland dophins have been around my entire life :-(

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4689041a26642.html

Back in Brisbane

Well we are now safely back in Brisbane after a very busy week in Wellington. Paul and I got lots done for the wedding and also had fantastic times at our respective hens/stags dos.

Thanks so much to all of our fantastic friends who organised them for us - especially Fleur, Kat, Elo, Ben, Megan & Mike! A big ups to you guys and bear hugs all around!!

Also thanks to all of our friends who came along and shared it with us :-) Definitely a once in a lifetime event :-) Good old Paul didn't get to bed until 6:30am on Sunday! What trooper aye ;-) ha ha :-) Thanks to Maria & Peter for paying for our hire car and the petrol so we could get all the way over to Martinborough :-) I think it's a sign of the times that out of 11 people we could only rummage up 2 cars :-) And it was fantastic that Paul's mates flew down from Auckland for the night just to torment *cough* ... I mean delight Paul ;-) Ha ha. Thanks to Marea and Dan for their "presents" they sent over all the way from Europe (I'm not sure exactly where in Europer they were at the time.)

Also thanks to Mary & Pat for looking after us so well all week :-) We had a lovely time staying with you :-)

So I also finally booked the girls in for our hair and makeup for the wedding. We're going to Balliage Hair Design which is upstairs on Brandon St - conveniently around the other side of the block from where we are staying at the Quest apartments :-)

Another good point - I actually found my watch :-) YAY!!! Even though I had emptied out my handbag multiple times, as I was packing on Monday I found it right in the bottom in an area I never stick my watch! I was very very happy to find it as I was totally convinced it was gone forever! Phew!! See, I told you that St Anthony helps you find things!!

Right - best be doing somework as I have heaps on my to do list :-)

Off on my hens do

Well it's 9:24am in Wellington and it's raining and freezing cold. So I thought it would be the perfect day for my hens party :-) Ha ha! Nah I'm very excited about it. Lets just hope the weather in Martinborough is a bit nicer :-)

Off to NZ today ...

Yay - we're finally off to NZ this afternoon. First I have to get through a full work day though. I'm working till 3:45pm and then I'll walk over to central station, pick up my jeans from the dry cleaners (they're hemming them for me) and jump on the 4:11pm airtrain to the airport where I'll meet Paul. Our flight leaves Brissy at 6:40pm and we get into Wellington just after midnight!! What a long day!

I think Paul and I are going to freeze in NZ though aye! On the weekend we had the most amazing weather here in Brisbane! On Sunday it got up to 29 degrees!! We were in shorts, tshirts & jandals even! And today, even though the high is only going to be about 23, it is very very muggy! So I was walking to work in my short sleeved work shirt only this morning - and sweating even in that!! I think it may take a few weeks to get my body used to the muggy weather again after such a nice winter :-)

So in less than 24 hours I shall be in Wellington. YAY!!! I hope you're ready for the Ange invasion ;-) ha ha