iLove. me. award.

MY FIRST EVER BLOG AWARD!!

Sher from Beneath The Crystal Stars tagged me along with 7 other bloggers for this award...
THANK-YOU SO MUCH YAY!!

and with this, I must list

10 things I love about myself

♥ I love that I'm a kung fu chick who wears pink Pumas as training shoes with pink Puma sports socks and matches them with pink Revlon nail polish (1 base + 3 layers + 1 top coat = to battle chipping of any sort).

♥ I love that I truly call Sumner my home, with its Cave, Clock Tower, Coffee Culture, Village Junk Shop, L'Strange Gallery, Red Fish Blue Fish and tiny cinema... If you ever come around to Christchurch, I promise to give you a guided tour :)

♥ I love that after 12 years of classical piano and 9 years of musical theory training which I gave up almost 5 years ago now I can still play piano, read music, strum a guitar, play songs by ear and write songs...

♥ I love that I had the gall to move out of home when I was 17 (3 years ago) to study in a different city from my family, to be more independent, to spread my wings and find out who I am.

♥ I love that I am an affectionate person. I love hugs and kisses and thrive with physical contact with friends, family and people I've just met! It's my way of showing you I care!

♥ I love that I have awesome bffs. You girls are an awesome support system and are the AWESOMEST to hang out with :)

♥ I love that I love shoes.

♥ I love that I write things and people call it poetry. I love it anyway :)

♥ I love that I have an amazing boyfriend who loves to smile, who makes me smile, loves to take photos and has perfectly symmetrical eyebrows. I love that I feel safe when I'm with him. I love that he makes me feel special.

♥ I love that I love God and that he loved me first.

I tag Yi from randomness, Char from dynamitechar and Patty Ann from AlphaBetaChic! Now go forth and spread the LOVE!!

black. randomness. TiLT.

yours truly - with bruised quads (and right knee medially) with magenta flowers

randomness

TiLT - Things I Love Thursday

♥ Town-bumming with Yi: visit randomness for pretty pictures from our day - including flowers and spangly looking lights at another cute cafe!!

♥ Hanging out with Grace: who I had the honour of grading with for black belt on the weekend. We had dinner at the Raj Mahal, had Jim Beam and talk about grading

and being black belt
and tattoos
and how awesome we are

and then we went to The Coffee House near the Christchurch Art Gallery
and ordered one regular hot chocolate, a trim white hot chocolate and a HUGE slice of banoffee pie talked about boys

and about best friends
and being black belt
and grading
and how awesome we are.

♥ My black belt: I'm still feeling tremendously euphoric about my black belt and apparently this feeling takes A LONG TIME to go away! STOKED!!

♥ My new shiny black pants: instead of regular white pants... as a black belt, I get to wear BLACK pants. I love it! They don't get grubby so easily, black is a slimming colour and I'm pretty sure they make me move faster just because they're black.

town-bumming. part. one.

WARNING: RIDICULOUSLY PHOTO-SATURATED POST!!

PART ONE

Yi my bff from randomness and I met on the airbridge around lunch time to find some new haunts and visit some old ones...

trim latte (no sugar) as a test of how great the coffee is at a new place... the verdict? quite delicious! Lumes is going to be my new favourite cafe for the summer... you'll see why soon...

a wall of beautiful mirrors...

original decor and illuminated art

top hats for lamp shades? Jenius (with a capital J!)

old painted doors as coffee tables

a decent 'cuppa' coffee

fun things to read with...

a bookshelf filled with second-hand books as well as copies of National Geographic and Time...

did I mention the lovely chandeliers?

or wonderfully aesthetic coffee counter?

afterwards, we traisped down Lichfield street towards Poplar Lane

and found this...

and cam-whored for a little

on a window-sill

these graffitis are sprayed across the little lanes in the centre of Christchurch city...

and another one

I like this one too...

Christchurch's very own Berlin Wall in the middle of Poplar Lane...

a beautiful balcony on the top of a little cafe

as I turned around I spotted this beautiful iron masterpiece on the top of this dumpster... such a waste...

we then left Poplar via High Street and found ourselves in Gerties, the vintage store where I found this...

this mega-jawsome belt! what do you think?

on our way up to our favourite vintage store on Hereford Street called Tete-a-tete... I tried to ease my lust for a lovely vintage suitcase from the antique store downstairs...

NB: Scroll down to the next post for PART TWO!

town-bumming. part. two.

WARNING: RIDICULOUSLY PHOTO-SATURATED POST!!

PART TWO

shop window of what used to be Honour and Obey on Lichfield Street

our beloved secret spiral staircase

Yi climbing carefully

cute French poster

Yi on a graffit'd something in Sol Square

and her beautiful blue umbrella

my white flats and Yi's umbrella

Yours truly - posing with Yi's umbrella

the Mini Cooper high on a wall in Sol Square - it makes me smile every time

snapped by G as we began playing on barrels by the Fish & Chip Shop

I love my Yi :)

stabbity-stab-stab!

ahh! attack!

terror ensues.

yup. standing on barrels...

a poster on Manchester Street we all stopped and stared at...

Thus drawing the day of town-bumming to an end. I hope you enjoyed the photos... there's more on my flickr loveloveloveyou.

the. best. weekend.

Photo and text-saturated post!

I got told that I passed my exams!
I gave my log-in to G and told him not to tell me my result until after my black belt grading in fear of screwing me up mentally before my grading if I had failed but… He didn’t. He told me about a minute afterwards to “say hello to 4th year, baby”! I even managed to maintain my average around the same as the previous years at a fairly consistent B-!
Not brilliant but satisfied!

I have a shiny new black belt!
After carbo-loading for 3 days, I got up at 5am for my gruelling black belt grading which began for me at 7am and lasted until 3pm (ish). We weren’t allowed clocks or watches... this added to the mind games as well as the physical challenge... It was open to the public from 10am onwards where Yi and G came along and gave me support from the side lines - as well as my “Chans’ Family” which consisted of pretty much everyone who is a member of Chans Martial Arts.

V and I doing our forms...

My Uncle K (visiting from Auckland) giving me a hard time...

By 10am, I was physically drained. There was no energy left. Not a drop. I still do not know the words to fully describe the grading. It was intense, fun, terrifying, intense, limit-pushing… and so much much MUCH more…
There were so many times where I blacked-out and had to desperately try to remain standing without showing that I was completely-mentally-out-of-it but thanks to the awesome support I saw it through.

Spot the pink nails which match my shoes... We were breaking slabs of concrete with our palms!

the run up to the 'flying side kick'

breaking the board with my uber flying side kick...

...look at the air I caught!

D at the beginning of doing a hip throw on A (her knife partner)

G disarming her knife partner with a potentially arm breaking technique

I am so proud of the 6 others who I had the privilege to grade with, the two other girls especially - D and G . We had been Facebook-supporting each other via a thread for the past 3 months, leaning on each other from the top of the North Island, to the middle and bottom of the South Island. Finally seeing each other on the morning of the grading was epic and so wonderfully inspiring!!

There is so much more in the grading which I would love to write about but unfortunately it is impossible to explain or tell all… I wish you could have been there to share this special day with me!

After the grading, G was amazing and drove me home - popped me into the spa (after a very cold shower) and gave me a foot/leg massage! I know. Lucky me!
Before we could stay in the spa for too long, we had to get dressed for the Annual Black Belt Dinner.

I wore a short yellow qipao (which had been altered 2 days ago to fit me better), low white peep-toed wedges, E. Funkhouser lip-gloss, a yellow ribbon and later on - a tiny yellow cocktail umbrella in my hair which was taken off the ice cream tray for dessert! G looked dashingly swoon-worthy as per usual ;)

A and D - who sported a lovely peach coloured shirt and uber blue tie from the local op-shop!

Yours truly - reaching over for some non-alcoholic chinese tea.

WH - My little brother (who is turning 19 in January) graded for his black belt last year

Dinner was super fun! I couldn’t eat much, didn’t have the appetite y’see - but I did have half a glass of K’s red wine she bought when she was stranded in Sicily and enjoyed a round of Heineken from P. Lets just say that I was well tipsy enough by dinner due to the minimal food I had throughout the day!

Around 10pm, 140 people headed back to HQ for the Annual Black Belt Award Presentations. This is where we find out whether we passed or not… and guess what? I GOT IT!!

Master K, Master S and Grandmaster C - my father.

It was an awesome feeling and it still is! It’s euphoria!! My Uncle K decided to be funny and tied my black belt on
me like a sash and called me Miss “Chans Martial Arts“ and I proudly/drunkenly waltzed around with my black sash on for the rest of the night! Also, I gave Master S a thank-you gift for training me for the last few months and always believing in me... Whiskey!

G attempting to play pool...

Yours truly - looking classy and having shots of whiskey out of the cap...

It was an amazing night! G, P and L ended up playing pool for the most part, I boogied it up with the other new black belt girls as well as others on the dance floor and had shots of R’s whiskey which incidentally happened to be the same whiskey my father was having… And then V suggested that we hit the town! We ended up rounding up a group of at least 12 people and we traipsed down the main street towards Sol Square and ended up in Fat Eddies! G and I boogied it up with the kung fu kids until 3am where I decided that I was much too sore and tired to continue… and he took me home because he stayed sober to look after me. How awesome was that! Thanks G…

I saw Pearl Jam!
Live in concert at the AMI Stadium! As well as Liam Finn, Ben Harper AND Neill Finn!! I was so ridiculously sore and could already barely walk. There were several times where my legs buckled on me but I survived the mosh-pit and even got about 2-3 meters from the front! It was EPIC and I will never forget seeing Pearl Jam playing classic-iconic-Kiwi music… I will always remember the broken tambourines, the rain, the drunk shirtless mosh-ees and the group of people dressed up as Santa’s plus one reindeer, Ben Harper chucking his shirt into the crowd as he finished opening and the acoustic performance of The End… *swoon*
NB: I wish I had a photo of my outfit I wore... It involved white flats, white singlet, boyfriend's black top, Jamie's black short shorts and super-blue tights! Apparently I looked like a Smurf!!

More of this...

Modern Materialist

and less of this...

So I had the BEST weekend.

What did YOU do?

phantastic. phaux. photobooth-ing.

ALL THE CREDIT FOR THESE PHANTASTIC PHAUX PHOTOBOOTH PHOTOS GO TO YI at the blog "randomness"

For the little story behind these photos - check out her blog!!

be. a. proton.

photos taken by yours truly - on Yi's camera - found on "randomness"

Things I Love Thursday

♥ Getting prettied up: eyebrows, nails, hair...

♥ Carbo-loading: for the last two days all I've been doing is eat alot of carbs in the form of rice and potato! It's great. I just eat as much as I like. AND I'm making pasta tomorrow! For those who don't know me, know that I am a somewhat recent convert to pasta. I used to avoid it like I still avoid pizza and nachos. I know. I'm weird.

♥ Sitting in the sun with Yi: it seems like that is all we achieved today... Sitting by the Avon having a big bacon and cheese bread loaf... Sitting on the grass outside A's place...

♥ Childhood parks: hanging with G at the park by HQ was lovely fun :)

♥ Saying HELLO to my 4th and final year of Physiotherapy!! I passed my exams!!


A lot of other things happened today which weren't so nice but I'm going with this whole thing about keeping the glass half FULL and ignore those things... Yi (randomness) and I established the following while on the bus today...

Don't be all negative
like an electron.

Be a proton.
They're positive.

P.S -Notice that I've changed the blog template and the sizes of some photos... Let me know what you think...

glass. half. empty.

gregarps: Yellow Sun

6 Positive points from yesterday
"In The Event That The Glass Is Half Empty"
inspired by this guest post at Sarah Von's blog yes and yes.

• Two full chinese meals for Mum's birthday: nom nom nom
• Lovely comments on my little blog: they just make my day and it's really awesome having support
• My outfit: no photos sorry, my camera was throwing a spazz. But it involved my striped red and white t-shirt, Jamie's black short shorts, Grandma's black sunnies, white flats and a pseudo-denim jacket embellished with studs and random zips handmade by my Mum's mother back in the 80s - I used to think it looked uber ugly but it's actually pretty sweet-cool
• Ice cream from the Indian dairy: Jelly-tip mmm
• The epic sunset: no photos again, I climbed the stairs of HQ and found my camera was still spazzing out on me
• Finally achieving a semi-functional Body Drop takedown: after nailing myself onto the ground several times and awkwardly making poor L hit the ground a million times

I would do a TiLT (Things I Love Thursday)
but I'm having a glass is half empty morning...

Lets not talk
about how much I
wish I could have a cold beer... AH!

Encouraging/uplifting/happy comments are extremely welcome...

two. big. rants.

angel wings

Sher at Beneath The Crystal Stars is doing a fantabulous giveaway this week... Hi Sher!! :)

KUNG FU RANT: I have been training all year you know and all you can say to me are discouraging things like "if you're not fit enough you shouldn't grade", "I can't make exceptions for you" and "you'd better be training hard"... Seriously, it's not like any sort of fitness training I do a week from my blackbelt grading is going to have any effect now. It's a bit late. I've done all I can. It doesn't help me mentally when my own father is displaying such lack of support. It was the exact same thing before camp and I showed him that I could survive. I'll always be 7 years old wearing pigtails and playing on the monkey bars - to him.
However, Laz was a wonderful God-send this afternoon. He gave me the most amazing pep-talk and it was just what I needed to remind me of who I am and who I depend on. Praise God. He is so lovely, bless him. And you know what? He was just telling me things I already know.
I can do this.
I will survive.
And I am going to take on this 8 hour grading one press up at a time.

GENERAL RANT: So what if you've got 30-40years on me. I am not you. I may be blood. But I am me. And I refuse to make the same mistakes are you did. I am going to make my own mistakes and I am going to learn from them. I do not care that you think I am going to get hurt eventually because I am not afraid of pain. Feeling pain means that something meant enough to feel. Being scared means that you have got something worthwhile to lose. You say "as long as you're happy" but you don't seem to mean it. You just want things your way. I believe in putting in the effort if I think there is a chance. You gave up even before I was born. You have no right to put your relationship advice over me.

Bottom line: I still love you both. And he makes me happy. You can't stop me.

the. Sunshine. Band.

Saturday was my rest day from training.

I slept in, played my piano for an hour until G came over and we went and got some fish 'n chips by the beach.

It was a beautiful hot day so we sat in the Cave - I watched small children playing and climbing while the elderly struggled to hoist themselves over the semi-rough terrain.
It just made me wonder what I'd be like in 50 years time, I can only hope that I will be as agile and as fighting fit as I am now...

Walking along the beach with my feet in the water is one of my favourite feelings, as is having wind-swept, sandy and sea-salty hair...

We caught the end of a lovely beach wedding with a cute ensemble called the Sunshine Band who played "When You're Smiling" as the couple walked down the aisle for the first time as husband and wife - it was so adorable... They had roses strewn everywhere... What a beautiful day for a wedding :)

After our short excursion at the beach, G and I went to J and K's for dinner - M and Z brought Cranium and we had a mad session of couples Cranium. G and I failed but it's OKAY - we'll get better at it! Afterwards, we went to Poplar Lane to listen to Z play his gig at Red Jacket - not half bad at all, especially when he played Better Man (Pearl Jam) as we got there! Go on M, he's a keeper and I approve!

one. spare. hour.

WARNING: Photo-saturated post.

...the Christchurch Botanical Gardens with G.

le. petite. rant.

Rumi

fashiontoast: cross your heart

Isn't this sideways cross from ebay totes lovely?

RANT: I have been feeling especially rubbish for the last few days. I'm putting it down to the stress of my to do list and my impending blackbelt grading. I just called my GP to get an appointment (Friday) for a medical certificate saying I'm fit and healthy enough to do my grading. I need to start/finish my 3 essays which are also due on Friday. I need to work on my knife defense this afternoon with C, C, P and L. I'm going for a run with G and V on Thursday afternoon. I need to find my swimming gear among all my piles of boxes. I'm freaking out and it's supposed to be my summer holiday. All I want to do is lay on the beach under the sun and play in the waves...

three. years. gone.

G's photos from the railway station like I promised... I strongly encourage clicking on the links for a full view :)

gregarps: Three Years Gone

This is the back of the Dunedin Railway Station... I had never seen it and it took my breath away!

gregarps: Dunedin Railway Station

It's hard to believe that I won't be returning (unless I epically failed my exams) to Dunedin. I moved out of home 3 years ago to this student town which is notorious for its Scarfie culture - couch fires, rowdy riots, binge drinking and grubby clubs.

I leave now as a different person.

I've started to grow up, learnt how it felt to be really hungry, survived a competitive year of health science, found Jesus, made new lifelong friends, strengthened bonds with old ones and even managed to come away with an amazing boyfriend...

I did not expect any of that.

Cheers Dunedin :)

NB: Totes stole the title of this post from G. STOLED!

phairly. photo-saturated. phun.

So much has happened since the last post that I don't know where to start... Here's a mish-mash of photos in a semi-chronological order...

Dinner at the Henderson's was amazing and finished off with amazing ambrosia sprinkled with Flake...

Kung fu karoke with the kung fu kids for 3 hours at Vivace which ended with us wandering to the Monkey Bar in search of Stu. It was empty but he gave us free shots, turned on the music and lights and we boogied/flailed in an empty bar for over an hour... Sorry, no decent photos as of yet...

Watching an artist at work at 1am at the Dunedin Railway Station... Don't worry, there will be a post with beautiful photos soon... Be excited!

Chandelier lifegroup girls coffee date at Mojo's... clubbing and then morning gym session...

Packed up my room at Leith St to leave Dunedin forever... Unless I failed my exams. No photos sorry...

Took A and S on a short tour of Sumner today...

Coffee Culture on Wakefield Ave

THE Best chocolate covered coffee beans

Enjoying the sun, sticking our legs out of the sliding window...

Cute napkin with the Coffee Culture Bull

The top of the lighthouse sitting on Cave Rock

On the #3 bus to town...

Bubble tea on the airbridge...

And the famous $2 fried rice from Dumplings!

Thus marking the beginning of my summer holiday...

Dear D,

Are you saying that he is not right for me?

mission. bubbles. nostalgia.

Vire St

Vire St

Leith St

Leith St

Leith St

On a juice-craving mission to the super yesterday with G (who took these photos using my 6 year old point-and-shoot).
It was wonderfully windy...


I'm such a sucker for bubbles.

They are pretty much one of my
favourite things to play with so
I spontaneously bring
my bubble mixture to places...

I wonder if anyone else
keeps a bubble blower
in their handbag
for "just in case"...

It just takes me back
to being little again...

gregarps: a trip back in time...

G took this photo a few months ago...

Personally, I don't really like how I look in that photo :(
I think I look kind of weird....

What do you think??
Look at it in full size on his deviantART page here...

photo by Nicholas Haslett
Breaking down in the caterpillar press-ups at camp. It was so painful...

I had my first big breakdown/freakout over the encroaching blackbelt grading after a short run around the hills tonight.

It. Was. Not. Pretty.

notebookdoodles

In the choice
between Heaven
and Hell,

I choose Heaven.

I choose life.


Go.

Dr. Izzie Stevens
- Grey's Anatomy
Stairway to Heaven 2009

Now. Which do you choose?

post-exam. to-do. list.

cedric bihr

a beautiful gate and wirey winter trees

Now that exams are over, my relationship status is no longer hidden and I have until next Sunday in Dunedin... I shall write my To-Do List:

• tai-chi project for Cath at the MS Clinic
• 3 essays for blackbelt grading (by the 20th of November)
• organise a clothes-swap party with Le Char and anyone else keen
• take clothes to op-shop
• keep to my exercise programme
• go to pilates
  
• pack my room
• pack kitchen stuff
• clean/dust the flat
• do laundry
• buy some food
• S's 21st present
• get rid of food
  

Why does changing my relationship status on Facebook feel SO much scarier/nerve-wracking/terrifying than introducing G as my boyfriend to my Dad over lunch...?


I guess it's like they say...

"It's not really true - until it's on Facebook."