And then I had a cold....

So, my first cold of the season has arrived. Sore throat, fuzzy head, snuffly nose. Blagh. I know it was only a matter of time, but really Mr. Cold, couldn't we have gone one winter without meeting?

I guess not...so instead of moaning. moping and generally feeling sorry for myself, I am going to take some time out for ME and indulge, in the only way you can when you feel ghastly.

1. Stay Snuggled in Bed

...for as long as possible, preferably with a good book and a hot water bottle.

2. Drink Hot Lemon and Honey

...to soothe your throat. Trust me - it always tastes better when made by someone else (and what a treat?!) And even better, drink it while snuggled up in bed.

3. Bubble Bath

...and make sure there are lots and lots of bubbles. Maybe some candles. Oh and your hot lemon honey drink.

So now I have my evening sorted, and this cold doesn't seem like such a burden, more like a reason to make myself take a little time out for me, and enjoy a little pampering. Lovely.

How do you keep cheerful when you're feeling blue? 

 

Do you have any tried and tested remedies that work wonders on colds?

 

Please share, I would love to know...x

Tears on a Saturday

I just found this gorgeous video over at A Cup of Jo and it sure did make the tears flow.

This video is the beautiful story of Danny and Annie's 27 year romance, from their first date, until Danny's last days and is a must see.

Completely uplifiting and yet totally heat-wrenching at the same time.

With Love from Me. x

Driving Diva

Having a brilliant day today! I finally, after what must be YEARS, passed my driving test and I am now a fully fledged driver (watch out!).

Driving over the years has been a massive pain in my butt.

In NZ you can legally start learning how to drive at 15, (don't worry, you can't drive by yourself until you are at least 17) but between one thing and another, I never sat my test. I would practice with my parents every day for a couple of weeks, and then not go out again for 6 months, forget almost everything I knew and have to start (almost) from the beginning again. I never felt confident driving, probably because I never gave it a chance, and so I left home to travel at 18 and didn't think much about it again.

Until last year.

When I realised that my younger sister (2 years younger) had managed to pass the first part of her test, and my even younger brother (4 years younger) had managed to pass his ENTIRE test, I realised something had to be done. It was test time. Not because I was particularly desperate to drive, but mainly because then I would have my licence and if I wanted to drive I could and if I needed to drive, I could.

My wonderful BF bought me a block of 11 driving lessons for my 21st Birthday last year and so come September I launched into lessons and studying, ready for my test.

Well, my test was a disaster. All I will say is that it ended in hysterical tears on my behalf, awkward explanations by my examiner, a nervous instructor, with me swearing off driving for the rest of my life. Seriously, I was so hysterical I couldn't speak, I had mascara and snot running down my face, and hiccups. I imagine the examiner wished he had never uttered the word fail knowing what it would bring. Nevermind, that is all in the past.

So TODAY, after a few lessons over the last couple of weeks with my fantastic instructor (I am as surprised as you that he took me back after the scene I made in his car last year....), I sat my test and I passed!

Okay, so there were still a few tears.....I hit the curb at one point, started sobbing and said...

'If I've failed, please can I pull over and stop now!' 

Aparently it didn't count as a fail and I aced the test with only 4 minor errors (and you are allowed 14!).

I am pleased as punch and keep wanting to shout as loud as I can in excitement! Yippee, I can finally drive! And as a treat the BF is taking me out to dinner to my favourite restaurant - DFly. I am going to stuff myself with copious amounts of Thai food and cocktails.Yum.

Oh how I love to celebrate!

 

E.E Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear

no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

Exploding with Excitement

I truly feel like my heart might explode out of my chest I am that excited.

As some of you may already know, over the last 6 months the BF and I have been filling in reams of paperwork, making numerous payments, asking friends, family and colleagues to write letters gushing about how perfect the two of us are together, compiling "loved-up couple" photographs, and had too many medicals & police checks to count, all with dream of the BF being accepted for a NZ Residence Permit...

AND WE DID IT!

On Friday afternoon, we received the official acceptance letter, and I almost cried with happiness.

The next part of our journey together is about to begin, and I really am so ridiculously excited. Who knows when exactly we will be jumping on a jet plane - desination NZ, but we do know we have... 1 year to get there, flights to book, more money to save, accommodation to find, and A LOT of packing.

To be able to move home, to my favourite country in the whole wide world, with my soul mate by my side, is a dream come true.

Whatever souls are made of

his and mine are the same

- Emily Bronte

Head Over Heels

In Love with....

the prospect of a snowy Christmas (fingers crossed...)

sparklers on guy fawkes night

wrapping up warm, and getting cosy with the bf

 

getting my 'cupcake on' for charity

notes of love from the ones i love (from the otherside of the world)

just love...

Lunch Love

1. Sushi

2. Carrot Sticks w Tzatziki

3. Lemon & Poppyseed Muffin

This afternoon I feel content. A tummy filled to the brim with delicious treats - always guaranteed to make me a happy girl.

1. Sushi is easily one of my all time favourite foods, and one of the only problems with this beautiful British town that I am currently living in, is the total lack of Japanese restaurants and sushi bars. There is one restaurant that I know of that serves sushi and I am not exagerating. This makes me a little sad as I would happily eat sushi every single day. To solve this problem, I tried to make it myself. FAIL. I have no idea what I did wrong, but it really was terrible. The rice was too starchy making it soggy, the fillings had little flavour, it was far too cold and I only managed to eat half of it before giving up (very unlike me!). So every now and then, when my cravings get too strong and I just have to have a piece of sushi, I buy a little box from the supermarket down the road. Today was one of those days, and despite not being made fresh infront of me, I was totally satisfied. 

Also, my adorable Grandmama calls it Shhhushi. Everytime. Without fail. And it makes me laugh hysterically, and my heart becomes so full, I worry that it might burst due to all the love inside that I have for her. So today I ate my sushi, thinking about my Grandmama which made me happy.

2. Vegetables and dip, particularly hummus or tzatziki, feels like such a healthy lunch time snack AND tastes delicious! I had forgotton about this little lunch time treat, and now am pretty excited about the prospect of having it more often. Today I had little match-stick carrots with tzatziki and it was light, delicious and filled me up nicely.

3. My lemon & poppyseed muffin was a bit of an indulgence today, I try not to eat too many cakes and treats but I just couldn't resist! Yum yum, a perfect finish to a perfect lunch.

Do you bring packed lunches to work or do you buy them on the day? 

Do you have the same thing every day or change it up?

I would love to know your lunchtime habits (especially the ones where you treat yourselves!) so feel free to drop me a line.

Oh and if anyone has any great sushi making tips, I would love to hear them! x

"...well it's hard to be happy, in a world thats so cruel...

...where the weak just get weaker

where the powerful feud

where the children go hungry

while the soldiers stand by

lay down your weapons 

take hold of your lives

and when will we learn

that its hate that breads hate

only love is the cure

dont leave it to late

get up, and feel it

the truth that wont wait

if we choose to do nothing

then we take all the blame..."

- Fat Freddy's Drop

Lyrics that make my body shiver and send goosebumps up and down my arms.

Fat Freddy's Drop are a 7 piece New Zealand band that are a mixture of funk/soul/house/jazz/ska/reggae whose music makes you get up and dance (even if your not a dancer - just ask the BF!).

I am lucky enough to have seen these guys jam twice already this year, the most recent time on Saturday night at the O2 Academy in Bristol, and even with my high expectations and excitement overload, they did not disappoint. They had the entire crowd (the gig was sold out, as usual) dancing and singing their lyrics back to them, and the band looked like they were loving it!

I can't get enough of these guys and urge anyone who hasn't heard of them, to look them up and have a listen, they really are amazing!

As you can probably tell, I had a pretty good Saturday night, and honestly, the rest of my weekend was pretty good too! I managed to get out for 2 runs (still following From Couch to 5k, and loving it!), went out for lunch and to watch a football game with the BF, played a big family game of Trivial Pursuit (my team won!), and had a very productive cleaning day on Sunday. By Sunday evening, I was totally relaxed and looking forward to the week ahead (although my body/brain had other ideas about getting up at 7am this morning...).

A family game of Trivial Pursuit was a great way to spend a Friday night in, and I do love a good board game. Trivial Pursuit is normally my least favourite, unless teamed up with the BF (who seems to be able to hold a HUGE amount of general knowledge, the more random the fact the better), so luckily I was paired with him and I only had to contribute to a few answers! There's just something really daunting about answering general knowledge questions, maybe because I feel my general knowledge isn't all that sharp, and its pretty embarrassing when you don't know the answer to a pretty easy sounding geography question. However we did have a lot of fun, and I managed to get a few questions right, winning was definitely thanks to the BF but I was happy to be included in the victory. 

Fingers crossed it's Scrabble next weekend!

Do you like to play board games? Do you have a favourite? 

I am always on the lookout for new games to play, especially as Winter is on its way which will mean more cosy nights in with the family, board games, hot chocolates and mulled wine. I'm actually pretty excited by the prospect!

Hope you all had great weekends, and are having exciting fun filled weeks!

Love HanneeNz

x

Adventure South

So it's been nearly a week since we got back from our Southern Roadie and I am still feeling the post holiday blues.

Our road trip was perfect. Better than I ever could have imagined. We played loud music in the car, danced about in our seats (which resulted in funny looks from other road users), ate white chocolate, fudge and jaffa cakes for lunch, and finally made it to Bournemouth mid afternoon last Friday. We were met by beautiful sunny skies and a salty fresh sea breeze and I instantly felt like I was on holiday.

It was lovely seeing the relatives but the nicest part was all the time the BF and I got to ourselves. We spent the weekend being big kids and had an absolute ball, laughing hysterically most of the time. 

We went, to a waterslide park, 10 pin bowling, for lunch at an 'every-type-of-food-imaginable' buffet, to dinner at a gorgeous restaurant, enjoyed a luxury home-made cakes and scones afternoon-tea party, to a nightclub opening to listen to a soul and reggae band and had a beginner surfing lesson! All in 2 days!

The surfing lesson was 2 hours of pure fun, and by the end of it I was exhausted. You may think that as a young girl, growing up in NZ I would have had plenty of opporutnity to learn how to surf, but unfortunately the town where I grew up, was not known for its waves and I missed out on that particular beachside sport. So thank goodness I have discovered it now!

Waiting nervously before the lesson...

Learning (very slowly) how to stand up. I was very pleased with myself!

Okay so the waves wern't huge and I dont exactly look comfortable on there yet, but I sure am going to give it another go!
Next holiday, definitely a surf based one!

Tagged!

It's taken me a little while to respond to Curly J's tag on Running From Cupcakes, as my weekend was full on and tonight is really the first moment of free time I have had since last Wednesday! I am definitely not complaining, I have had a great few days, but I hope you can forgive me for being a little slack.

The idea of this tag is to answer some fun questions and in turn ask your fellow bloggers the questions too....Check out my answers to the questions Curly J asked me.....

1. Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate?
I am all about the dark choccy! The darker the better, I just love that slightly bitter taste combined with the sweetness. My favourite at the moment is by Green & Blacks and a block usually lasts me quite a while as I can only manage a few pieces at a time. The BF is rather partial to a bit of white chocolate so sometimes I will treat him (and me!) to a block to share.

2. What's your favourite colour?
I don't really think I have a favourite colour, there are loads I love but all for different things...
To wear - I love grey, navy blue, and black.
Cheers me up - YELLOW
Girly indulgence - Pink. I don't wear a lot of pink but I do love pink accessories, like nail polish, purses, lipstick, shoes, key rings. A hint of pink always makes me feel gorgeous.


3. Do you have any creative hobbies?
I like to dance in my kitchen, bake delicious cakes, scrapbook memories, sing in the shower....

4. What was your favourite subject in school?
French without a doubt! I had a fantastic teacher for all 5 years I was learning, and a great group of friends to learn along side of. I went on some fantastic trips - one to Noumea in New Caledonia and one to Paris on an exchange, we ate pastries once a month in class and sometimes were treated to Chocolat Chaud if we were good! I spoke French as often as I could and even enjoyed entering regional French speaking competitions - now that is love!
I'm not sure what started my obsession with all things French but I've still got it and it just keeps getting stronger, I can't wait to pick it back up when I go to university, and am already browsing French books for potential reading material.

5. What is your favourite season and why?
I love the inbetween seasons because they start the big season build up.

I love Autumn as Im usually tired of the heat of summer and look forward to wrapping up warm in coats and scarves. I love the crunch of fallen leaves under my feet as I walk to work and the changing colours - so many beautiful reds, oranges and yellows. Autumn has begun here, and I am pretty excited!
I love Spring because of all the new beginnings. Baby birds, lambs, daffidols, cherry blossom, the evenings getting warmer and longer and lazy afternoons in the park.

In saying that, I also love Summer and Winter.Summer brings family trips to 'The Lake' and Winter means snow on the mountains and weekend ski-trips. As you can see, I'm pretty happy no matter what the season!


6. Who inspires you to sing like crazy when no one is around?
Fat Freddys Drop - My all time favourite band.
A fantastic New Zealand group - soul, reggae, ska, 'roots'. You really have to hear it to believe it. BF and I always sing our hearts out when listening to their music. We are lucky enought to be seeing them in Bristol next month and I am so excited! I plan on being at the front, next to the stage and will dance my socks off and sing all night long.

7. What is your favourite dessert? Can you make it?
Creme Brulee and I haven't tried to make it but I will! My beautiful Mumma makes a delicious one and I bought her a kitchen blow torch recently so that she can get the perfect golden top without using the grill! (To be fair, hers were still fantastic even before the fancy torch!)


8. How did you learn to cook?
All thanks to my wonderful Mumma! She truly is a kitchen goddess. My childhood was filled with cakes, cookies, cupcakes, brownie, puddings and desserts, not to mention stunning home cooked meals that were delicious and nutritious. I was thoroughly spoiled.
When the BF and I spent 3 months in NZ between Dec - Mar this year we both threw our healthy eating plans out the window and succumbed to diets of sweet and savoury treats. The BF (who is 5ft 11 with a very sporty, fit body), claims that if he had grown up in my home he would be the size of a daddy whale.
It is all thanks to her that I have such a love of cooking and we frequently swap recipes and tips over the phone and email.

Now to tag some of my favourite bloggers in the hope that they too will give us a little insight into their fave choccy/subjects/colour.

Inspirations by D
Jin Curly + Nerdy
Julies Blog
My Favourite Fashion
My Teacups in Peony
Pastor Girls Ponderings
Unconventionally Beautiful
Capture the Moment

Love Me. x