Earlier this week, I had a moment. And for reasons I won’t explain, I found myself standing on the side of the road alone in the dark, in sweaty netball gear pretty close to tears.

And it was moments like that one that I appreciate the love and acceptence within The Square. There aren’t many people who I can call and say “I’m standing on the side of the road stranded” who will send such love down the line and let me know that, whatever stupid situation I’ve got myself into, it doesn’t matter, it’ll be fine and organise a plan of action with me.

There aren’t many people whose doorstep I can show up on unexpectedly, who love that I came without calling first, who will usher me inside, offer me a shower and feed me comfort food.

There aren’t many friends who will lie sprawled out on the couch with me for hours and hours, and discuss their rather deep pasts, and give me time and space and love to get out what I need to.

But earlier this week, that’s what happened. Lying all cuddled up, the four of us on the couch (which doesn’t happen that often. The four of us being in the same place at the same time, I mean) spending some time just hanging out.

And in the quiet, inbetween the in-jokes, (here comes the cliché) I couldn’t believe how LUCKY I was to be part of The Square with these brilliant, brilliant people.

Sometimes unfortunate moments can bring the appreciation of what you have. And I’m so amazed that I have The Square. ♥

Just another one of the reasons why I totally ♥ The Boy:

He’s prepared for all possibilities :)

Last week, The Third Quarter said that we should go on “a walk”. She didn’t mention anything about a giant, massive mountain until we got there on Saturday. And for serious, it was massive mountain.

And we walked up it. This big giant mountain. And about the quarter of the way up my body was ready to off me, because what was I doing? Asking it to climb a mountain!? Pfft, didn’t I know better? I should have known better, because that first hour or so? I was so nauseated, it really was horrible. Foo was nice enough to suggest it was because I was low on blood sugar. Me? I don’t think it was (I’d had a chocolate croissant for breakfast, see) but instead thought it was because I’m so horribly unfit, that walking up a giant mountain with a ridiculous incline was asking more from my body than my body was prepared to give.

Still, I kept at it, and after a few hours had made it to the top, collapsed in a heap and had lunch with everyone else. It really was amazing though, the views were gorgeous (you could even see the coast in some parts!) and when I wasn’t cursing the track for asking me to defy gravity and pull my body UP, the natural bush really was gorgeous.

The way down was ALOT easier than up, it took almost two hours to haul my behind up that mountain, but only 45 minutes to get down again. I suspect this is because it was easier to move down the mountain at a half run than it was to slow myself down and walk it. Gravity and momentum definitely had a part in that, I think.

Once we got down the mountain, we stopped at Te Aroha Mineral Spas, which is situated over a natural hot mineral spring. We hired two spas and spent some glorious time relaxing out muscles in the hot water, which really was brilliant after such an intense walk! Two days later, and my muscles are still sore, but it was a pretty amazing walk. If your ever in the area and are in fairly fit shape, I suggest you go visit. The views really are amazing :)

Last night The Boy and I went to go see Apollo 13, an interactive play that was, without question, Brilliant. With a capital B.

The idea was that it was an reenactment of Houston’s control centre when Apollo 13 took off, and came home. But instead of just watching it happen, half the audience was at consoles. THE CONSOLES! The actors ‘acted’ around us, and we were given jobs to do, things to figure out. You could interact as much or as little as you wanted, and I got all excited (its hard not to when things are unfolding around you) so I interacted alot.

The Boy was seated at console Booster Monitor 2, and I was at Booster Comms, which meant that I had a phone in front of me, and we both had switches and a bunch of flashing lights and plugs and other things. Our rows “job” was to worry about Boosters, which was pretty exciting because the action was staged around us when the astronauts took off, an had to re-enter the atmosphere. Twice I got calls from someone named ‘Gerry’ from ‘Booster Engineering’ about Engine 5 dying. And I had to call the switchboard to get messages back to him, that was pretty cool.

And there were whole sections of other consoles, ecomms (who had to worry about the environment within the command/luna modules), people who had to monitor the astronauts, and a whole bunch of random things. It was pretty impressive.

The whole set up was pretty great, we had big screens at the front that shows the astronauts in their modules, and a news station with a news guy with a CRAZY moustache and funny accent, both who provided random information when we needed it, or acted out a particularly scene. The great thing was that one of the astronauts was from the audience (he was a kid from Scotland, who had come with his Mum and brother, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t a plant) so that was awesome.

The interaction with the audience was pretty cool, there were problems that needed to be figured out, and things broke that we had to fix, and they would ask a certain person questions. Like before lift off they asked the Meteorologist (a kid who was stationed at that console) what the weather was like. They were fantastic at improv, working the answers we said into the act. We all were given little things to do, like ‘flick [our console switches] and hope’

There was one section where all the actors walked out, and the astronauts were asking for Houston. I picked up my phone (no answer) and people were calling out. I’d heard from someone who’d been before that if that happens, I should look for a headset. So I got up, and found one at the front! I got to TALK TO THE ASTRONAUTS, who were freaking out because the C02 stats were too high, and one guy had already passed out, and we had to figure out how to make a filter. I couldn’t figure it out, but a guy (named Alex, who was also awesome) who had been sitting at the console behind me knew what was going on and found instructions on the front desk, so we talked them through making a filter with pipe, a plastic bag, a random box filter thing and some duct tape.

It. Was. AWESOME.

Everyone cheered when the C02 Stats went down and we saved the day. It really was brilliant :)

I’ve honestly never enjoyed a play so much, it was BRILLIANT. If you’re in Auckland, and you have a chance to go YOU TOTALLY SHOULD! The show runs till the 15th, and with the tickets being a mere $20 (for a CONSOLE seat!) you really can’t go wrong.

I have a bunch of posts saved up to post for when I don’t have the time or energy to write a post. But it seems lately I’ve come to rely on them, and have started posting ONLY the “filler” posts. With work, and Sinter/Rarg Designs work, and all the other social commitements that I have at the moment it seems that any “real” posts get left on the way side. Posts about what I’ve been up to, thinking, wanting, wondering, that kind of thing. A “real” post, then.

Last weekend The Boy and I went to Melbourne to see the brilliant, and wonderful Liz. We ate so much food (Melbourne is SO GREAT for foods!), and admired the street art (I love that Melbourne allows such urban street art to exist, rather than painting over it. Whether it was intentional or because they can’t afford to paint over it is kind of moot at the moment. The point is Melbourne is TEEMING with awesome street art).

We did some touristy things too, we wandered all around town, saw Federation Square and it’s messed up buildings. We walked by Flinders Station, and breakfasted on Chapel St. We went to Melbourne Zoo, and did a behind the scenes tour. We TOUCHED AN ELEPHANT. Totally. Amazing. :)

(Excuse the quality, we took stills from the video camera . . .)

It really was awesome. Their hide is tough and leathery, and their trunks super dexterous, and pretty strong too! We did a whole bunch of things as part of her enrichment activities. We painted, and kicked a ball around, fed her carrots and apples, it was amazing. It was a pretty fantastic thing, to be standing next to an elephant, and have her look at you knowing full well that if she wanted to, she could knock you over and squish you. Plus, she was HUGE. I didn’t realise how HUGE huge could be till I was standing right next to her.

And seriously? Three days is not enough time to be hanging with your best friend. Who is amazing. And who feeds you, and lets you crash at her apartment, and reintroduces you to the BEST cupcake place ever, and acts a tourist guide and puts up with your grumpy moods because some how you misheard the Australian Accent and brought eight professional photos of you hanging out with the elephant for $59.95 instead of $15.95 (No love, Melbourne Zoo, No love). Three days is NOT LONG ENOUGH!

It was a really, really brilliant weekend. And today at work it’s slow and I’m working on niggly projects that require the details to be perfect across all browsers (gaaah IE6 I hate you) and I wish that somehow we’d not been able to get on a plane and were still in Melbourne. Where the art is awesome, the food brilliant, and the best friends are THE BEST EVER.

At the moment at work I’m designing a case management system. And the best part about mocking up the screens and working out the functionality is creating mock data:

I keep such brilliant, brilliant company :)