Drum roll please...

While I still feel like I could somehow jinx it (even though my contract is signed and I have resigned from my current job as of yesterday), I think I can finally share my exciting news alluded to last week. I am moving to the bright lights of policy!

I beat out 130 other applicants (I know, I'm boasting a little bit but I figure I'm allowed to just this once) for the role of 'Policy Advisor (Graduate)' at another Crown Entity which shall remain nameless. So after nearly four years at my current workplace (two years of which were part-time while I was studying), I am leaving all the lovely people who keep me amused five days a week to venture down the other end of town nearer to the Beehive. I am really excited as this move means I will be able to use my brain a bit more and do more of what I love which is researching and writing. Hopefully it will be a steep learning curve and a big challenge. Yay! The four week countdown is on!

And here is my sock progress. I still have a few more inches to go until I get to the heel turn (which sounds rather ominous) but I am plodding away at it.


I'm loving the way the striping is happening. I was saying to someone at Monday night Knitting Circle this week that I don't understand how Tash dyes it so that such tiny sections are different colours when you look along the piece of yarn (you can kind of see it in the working piece coming out the top of the sock). She is clearly magic!

Waiting for Godot

On Friday I spent five hours at a rest home as my contribution to our annual 'Community Day' at work. On Saturday night I went to Waiting for Godot. Afterwards I mused that if the rest home installed a beautiful set and charged $100 a visit, it would be much the the same experience.

Image sourced here

I had to laugh at half time though, clearly many people did not know what they'd gotten themselves into. The woman sitting next to me asked, 'Is it half time?' in a tone that implied she was hoping it was actually the end and there just hadn't been a curtain call. In the bathroom I heard comments such as, 'Well it would be better if I could understand what they were saying!' (and seeing as the actors didn't have particularly thick accents and were speaking clearly and quite audibly I can only imagine this person meant she couldn't follow the sense of what they were saying) and 'Do you think the second half will be quite as long?'. I think a lot of people must have heard that (Sir) Ian McKellen was in a play and decided they'd better go, not realising that Beckett plays can be pretty tough going.

I hadn't been going to go because of the price until the last minute when my friend Ed emailed me saying he'd been umming and aahing about it for ages because it was so expensive, but that overseas productions of plays don't come to Wellington very often outside of the New Zealand International Arts Festival so it would be good to take advantage of it and maybe he'd just go (I think Mr. McKellen was also a draw card) and I thought, well, maybe I will too. I'm glad I did, it met my expectations, the set was bleak and beautiful (I tried to find an image of it but didn't have much luck, official production photos which give some idea can be found here), the actors were great - I especially loved Matthew Kelly as Pozzo. Yup, Matthew Kelly as in 'Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be...Mama Cass!' from the British Stars in Your Eyes. The script is very very clever and funny and sad and awful as well as infuriating and repetitive and I have to admit I almost fell asleep in the second half (it was 2 and a half hours long including an interval). But it did inspire some discussion between Ed and I during drinks afterwards about the meaning of the play and life in general, so I'd say Beckett was a pretty intelligent playwright.

All the Fun of the Fair

Anita returned from her visit to England yesterday, but she's staying in her hometown of Hamilton for a few days with her Mum before coming back to Wellington. While this means she'll miss another Monday night Knitting Circle this coming week, she has redeemed herself by sending these photos:






This is the second yarn shop she visited as part of the challenge I set her before she left. The first shop she visited was I Knit London which looked pretty awesome, but according to Anita, "This shop was by far the cuter of the two! If not the cutest knitting shop I've ever been to." I think the pictures are testament to the extreme cuteness. I want a tea cosy that says, 'More Tea Vicar' even though I've never had tea with a vicar in my life! Even the outside of the shop looks all quaint and ye olde England-y (and it has bunting in the window!). Anita said, "It was in this really nice shopping court hidden between two side streets in Soho called Kingly Court. There was a shop next to it with the cutest baby outfits also. Wish I had more time to explore." Well rest assured, when she moves back to England next year and I come to visit, we are definitely going to visit All the Fun of the Fair.

Outdoor sock

Today the sock got an outing. I decided to take my knitting to work and if it was sunny, sit in Civic Square and do a few rows at lunchtime. The sun moved pretty quickly though and there was a cold breeze so I was soon shivering in the shadows and it wasn't as idyllic as I'd hoped. I'm making progress on the sock though, and in the bright light you can really see the wide rib pattern which is exciting (I know I said I wasn't going to take photos of the sock every 5 minutes but clearly that idea didn't last very long).

Then after work I met Penny for a drink and it turns out we have matching bags! Her golden/mustard coloured one is newer and less stuffed full of crap than my blue one, but both are pretty cute.

It won't happen over night

Inside out - which I thought was right side out for a while because I get confused by how circulars work and when I was knitting my first hat someone said I was knitting it inside out which wasn't normal, but either she was wrong or I've somehow done it again

Right side out

But it will happen. Especially because I'm about to have a wee vodka and cranberry to celebrate some good news (finally! I've had many a drama the last few weeks, I definitely need some good life changes. I will share my news once it's a done deal...) and knit the night away!

Weekend in pictures

And some words. Because I can't help it.

My little brother Hunter's hockey (he's the one in the foreground)

My cousin Hamish's 5th birthday cake

There's still some orange in the Wairarapa

And a beautiful moon

Some belated birthday presents: Cath Kidston's Make!, Hadley Fierlinger's Vintage Knits for Modern Babies (which was on my birthday list from back in April, I'm so glad I got it, it's so pretty and the patterns are so cute!) and some lavender bags

Joined the girls from Outdoor Knit

It was out with the old

And in with the new...

More biscuits on another present, my very own cake stand in pale green glass (so now I can stop borrowing my Nana's one!)

Amazing cake with caramel sauce at my friend Ed's 'Baking, Board Games and Beer Birthday'

A strange game called 'Imaginiff' (why two 'f's?!)

Overall a pretty good weekend!

Spectacular textiles and small beginnings

Last weekend I called into Thistle Hall to see an exhibition. I love Thistle Hall. Not only did it provide us with a cheap rehearsal space for Tea for Toot, every week there is a new exhibition in the street-level hall part. Last week the exhibition was of hand printed fabrics by Massey University textile design students. There were lots of strong linear designs (which makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about and I don't) and fun patterns and colours. Unfortunately there wasn't a cushion made out of my favourite fabric so I left empty handed, probably a good thing for my savings though!


On Tuesday night I started my socks. I only had to rip the beginnings out once, one row in, before I got it right. It's going to be slow going though so I will try not to post photos of them every 5 minutes because no doubt that will be very boring!

I'm taking tomorrow off work and going to the Wairarapa to see my family and my friend Hayley and go to my cousin's 5th birthday party on Saturday. Then I'm coming back early Sunday for something very exciting - I finally get to meet Nikki in person! It's slightly weird feeling like you know someone via the blogging world without actually having met them in person. But I can show her the start of my socks and I'm sure it will be fine!