Too tired to think of a title

Last week Kelly took me to Cafe Breton for lunch. I didn't know it existed and I love it! I do know that acute accents exist and that there should be one on the 'e' of 'cafe' but I can't make it work on here.

I have to say though, I bought some macarons to take back to work and they weren't amazing. They tasted like an oven. I have very high standards though, because of my favourite macarons in Auckland. Anyway, apart from the macarons, which I'm willing to give a second chance, it was so cute and my omelette was giant and yum. And the French guy there is quite a babe.

My other near-my-new-work discovery is a florist a few doors down that has amazing $10 bunches of flowers. I really hate the blank walls of depression that are office cubicle dividers, and I'm slowly covering my new ones with decorative items (I refuse to put 'useful' things like organisation charts and phone lists on them, that's what folders are for), but I can't go too crazy too quickly and install a whole exhibition, so I've bought flowers twice now to help fill the gaps. They smell amazing.

In movie news, the other weekend I watched a Danish film. It was called A Royal Affair, and I only kind of skim-read the synopsis on the Penthouse Cinema website when Kelly asked if I wanted to join her and some others for dinner and the movie, so I thought it would be some kind of bodice ripping costume drama. And who doesn't need a bit of that sometimes? Turns out, it's a pretty intense two hour and seventeen minute long historical drama about the Danish royal family in the 18th century. I learned a lot though, like that vaccination in some form had been invented as early the 18th century and that Danish is a very complicated sounding language.

Completely different, was Sunday's classic movie. The Commitments. 

I think the idea to watch it came about because Cam was talking about the song 'Mustang Sally' last classic movie Sunday. Anyway, I had seen bits of it before because my Mum loved it, but I don't remember ever having seen it all the way through. While the story is pretty much that of your run-of-the-mill struggling group from unlikely origins (often sports teams but in this case a band), I liked that they didn't actually achieve fame or anything in the end. It felt much more realistic. For some reason, I always thought it was based on a true story. I just learned that it isn't. 

Anyway, there are heaps of babes in the film and I decided Jimmy Rabbitte could be my Irish husband. The poverty and hopelessness of Dublin in some parts of the film were pretty stark. In one scene, there are kids just throwing bricks at a wall in an alleyway for what seems like no reason, they just have nothing else to do.

Nature

Now that I work right by Midland Park, I have slightly changed my route to work in the mornings, which means I get to walk through part of the Botanic Garden. These poppies have been a delight.

There is a lot of moss on Glenmore Road.

If a tree falls in a forest...

My loyal readership of one has been crying out for updates (even though she's been present for most of the events of note in the last few weeks) and I am not one to let the fans down.

I don't know why I haven't written anything in a while, it feels like both nothing and lots has been happening. I started a new job, I ripped my second half-done bootie out because I made the same mistake as the first time I tried to knit the first bootie, I stayed home most of last weekend in my pyjamas and re-watched five episodes of Girls. It's a tough life. Oh, but also the last two times I posted there was weird white background highlighting on some of the sentences and it made me angry and I couldn't fix it.

Anyway, I can't not record the event that was DJ Plays the Hits. Three weekends ago Ed and I had a joint birthday party at his house. There were giant red balloon columns. We went to the Salvation Army and bought hit records, such as Rod Stewart's 'Blondes Have More Fun' and one with Barbara Streisand and Barry Gibb dressed entirely in white and embracing on the cover, to make mobile-like hanging record decorations and artfully place the covers up the stairway. There was a disco ball. I made 30 cups of jelly and no one could understand why the jelly wasn't alcoholic.

Heaps of people dressed up and there were some amazing costumes. I wore Vogel's toast on my head.

On Sunday just been, we had classic movie Sunday for the first time in a while. I think. Yes. It was the first time since Annie. Anyway, we watched Top Gun in recognition of Tom Cruise's latest divorce. It was pretty hilarious. How many times can the song Danger Zone be played in one film? Many, many times. Why was Tom Cruise ever considered a heart throb? I have no idea. Why does the blue light in the scene in which he and the instructor woman get together make it look like they are inside an aquarium? Again, no idea. I found the flying scenes really stressful. My favourite character was Goose. He wasn't interested in wearing jeans when it was extremely hot and getting sunburnt because he was shirtless while playing an intense game of beach volleyball. He was wearing flowery shorts and an 80s t-shirt. And he played the piano and his wife was a really cute Meg Ryan wearing a great dress. And that's the sum total of my critical analysis.

Ancient History

What have I been doing? I don't even know. But here are some photos from last weekend. I think. It seems like a long time ago already. I was down in Canterbury visiting my Mum.

I finally completed my great Christmas 2011 lavender scheme, by taking the bunch of dried lavender out of the hot water cupboard, stripping the little bits off it, admiring my harvest, and cutting up an old pillowcase to sew two little lavender pillows.

I kept saying it was a small cottage industry and that Country Calendar would be around to interview me any minute. Next summer I am going to really have to up my harvest. 

On Saturday night my Mum, step-sister, and I went to a movie at the Waikari hall. The old screen is still there from many many years ago when movies used to be played and someone has set a projector up in the old projector booth. The chairs weren't exactly luxurious but it was a cute community time. The movie was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which I had seen before but I knew my Mum would like.