Grazie

It's always dangerous to sit down to write a blog without having had any constructive thoughts to it's content, but here we are. I don't want this to become like all my other blogs and lay dormant for months on end.

Last weekend I celebrated my 28th birthday. I had breakfast at my favourite breakfast restaurant with my family and a couple of friends, met a 3 week old baby for the first time, though he was too noisy for me to want to hold, caught up with some good friends who'd come down from Wellington to help me celebrate; especially awesome as they are moving to London in a week, so it will be the last time I see them for ages. Went to Winniebagoes for dinner with 22 family and friends, old and new, which was really nice. Had planned to go drinking afterward but everyone was shattered so we went home by 8pm. I must be getting old!

On Sunday I met up with some friends for brunch around the corner from home, then headed to Armageddon dressed as Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor! I had jelly babies in my pocket so I was able to offer them to people (as Fourth often did) and everyone seemed to recognize my outfit, which was really cool. Katy had knitted me a scarf to the original pattern (though I was terrible at matching the colours), which really set the ensemble off.

Overall, from the massive number of people who spent time with me over the weekend, the 75+ people from all over the world who wished me a happy birthday on Facebook, or Twitter, or Xbox Live, I just felt a great lift every time I thought about all these people who I meant something to, who meant something to me. From my oldest school friend to my parents to people I had only known for a week. It's just..

Nice.

Thankyou to everyone, everyone reading this, everyone who has ever made me feel worthy of love and support, thankyou. You make me who I am.

Occhi stanchi

I went to a Tupperware party last night, which doubled as a bit of a house-warming party for the Frompsons. I even bought some Tupperware, basically for freezing and reheating leftovers. I really wasn't planning on buying anything but there you go.

My birthday planning is going well, I will be 28 on the 2nd July, and I am organising breakfast and dinner on the 2nd, and brunch on the 3rd. I love when my birthday falls on a weekend. I also love dining out with friends and family. On the Sunday I plan to go to the Armageddon pop culture expo after brunch, though I don't know how much of an event it will be, having been rescheduled and reorganised from February's earthquake. I invited like 65 people to dinner on the Saturday, at the moment it looks like I could end up with about 20-25? Biggest birthday ever! Even my 21st only had 12 or so people. I didn't plan for a big 21st though, just a quiet evening out.

I broke my pokermanz, I got greedy and cheated to get more masterballs, now my tm case is corrupted. I can start again and make better decisions now though. Like not cheating.

I haven't made any gamerscore progress for a few days, though the last achievement I got was 100G so that should tide me over. I should do things like find all the damn feathers in Assassin's Creed II, the flags in Assassin's Creed, drive a car 750 miles in GRiD, drive a total of 1000 miles in DiRT.. these are all such tedious goals though. Perhaps I'm better off starting fresh with Mass Effect 2, or giving Fallout 3 another chance. I'm in a bit of a gaming funk but it feels more positive than usual, as if I have too much to choose from, rather than no motivation to play.

We had a 5.4 magnitude shake last night at 10.35pm. It was a lurcher rather than a jolt. It's been four months since February's 6.3m. We had more shakes all through the night, everyone was a little bleary-eyed this morning. I think after June 13's shocks, people were subconsciously waiting for something bigger to follow the 5.4, so sleep was almost impossible to come by.

Despite being tired constantly, I feel pretty good about life. I've stopped saving for a little while, just til after my birthday, so I have a bit of extra cash to spend, I'm getting out there and being more social than I'm used to, I think it's all working for me. Life is what you make it, and if you sit around feeling sorry for yourself... it's a pretty crappy life to be giving yourself.

Stay safe.