Smelbourne Love and Cinderella

I have been slightly slack since my return to Auckland - which is actually completely untrue! I have been flat out, fifth gear, 130kms per hour and cruisin.
Being in Smelbourne and seeing all of you - my beautiful, loving friends and family has given me a renewed sense of place in the world no matter where I am. Nothing can beat the smiles, laughter and tears aof a special few days with a special few. I will remember that weekend forever - so many dreams came true. I have never cried so many tears of absolute joy!
Since I (oops, downhill slope in the study floor and on a wheelie chair sliding away from the keeeeybooooard) got back....I flew out on a 7am flight and watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on the way - which had me laughing out loud - much to the dismay of my fellow passengers! I got most of the way through a movie called Dot the I which, although I missed the ending, was awesome. I got a shuttle bus and got dropped home. Waiting for me on the table was a vase of 6 red roses and a beautiful welcome home note from Dave (more tears). He was at work. I dragged my bags, exhausted, into the bedroom and (drum roll please) the entire floor was covered in red rose petals and the bed had a white doona on it with "Welcome Home Baby" written in rose petals (lots and lots more tears). Totally romantic and very special. I unpacked and had a little nap before Dave got home. We got take away for dinner and I slept so solidly (and continued to do so for the next week at every possible opportunity!)
Wednesday I was back at work and totally hectic - more than ever as I had an event I had organised for 50 girls and 20 mentors and I had to organise the food and last minute stuff. Got it all done and on Saturday it was hailing - which totally sucked because the event was meant to be outdoors! Anyway, I winged it and pulled a workshop out of some brainy nether region of my being and poulled it off. Everyone had a great day. The Black Ferns (NZ Women's Rugby Team) came along and served lunch and the day was a huge success. I was so proud of myself and feel like I am getting to be a functioning and inspiring facillitator which feels good - to see where I am at and be proud of my growth and development! Blah blah blah.
Saturday night we went out for dinner with some friends and then went to the Aotearoa Hip Hop Summit which was thoroughly disappointing. Barely any live stuff and mostly just a Dj with an MC rapping about stying true to yourself in an American accent! One guy totally blew my mind - I think his name was Justin Effects or FX or something like that and he was THE most amazing beat box dude I have ever come across. He could do kick, snare, high-hat and vocals all at once and did some perfect Michael Jackson renditions as well as the usual hip hop mastery. Che Fu came on last with an 8 piece band called the crates and was pretty awesome too. Sunday was major relaxo day with many a vid and junk food and pizza for dinner and not much else. Been working all this week.
Monday I went to the gym after work and made an extremely yummy green bean, pumpkin and tofy tomato curry for dinner before going to writing group - which turned out to be a write one poem then watch Desperate Housewives group! Very fun. Aletia had surgery on Tuesday to get a porta-cap put int which is like a direct dial to your heart - a tube that sits under the skin and leads into the main vein going into your heart. It has a cap that sits just beneath the skin so when she has chemo they won't have to stab around in her arms looking fora vein - they'll be straight in. So, Tuesday I left work early cos I had some time in lieu hanging around. I went to the hospital and waited for Aletia to get out of surgery so there'd be someone there when she came in. She was ok. Looked after her for a couple of hours then Dave came and we took her back to her place and kept her company til her fiance arrived home. Wednesday I worked all day and managed to finish organising another event for December 16th. It will be a series of craft workshops so the girls can make their mentors xmas presents. There'll be a card making workshop learning these special techniques called Scrapito and Spirelli which look awesome; an artclay workshop which is a modelling clay that you fire in a kiln and it turns to silver so the girls will make silver jewellery; a beaded jewellery workshop and a printing workshop. Very exciting. Anyways, last night I went on a date to the movies with Dave and we pretended we'd just met and so we could only hold hands! It was fun. We saw 40 year old virgin which we thought would be crap but it was actually hilarious-laugh-out-loud-funny.
This morning I went to yoga nad have been doing some stuff for the business and scrubbed the crap out of the bathroom with a scrubbing brush and lots of elbow grease and did the full on Cinderella - well, how she was at the start of the story! So, hope you are all well - keep in touch. Love....