Birthdays, Bodybuilding and Babies

Birthday Lion

The beginning of October marked a Wellington trip for my friend’s birthday. Incidentally, I have been to Wellington 3 x times now in very close succession and each trip has led to different experiences and also catching up with friends and/or family.

The main point of the trip was to go and celebrate with Julia for her birthday and we had an amazing time! I arrived late on Thursday night and we stayed up until about 2am talking, laughing and drinking. We woke up on Friday morning (her birthday) a little knackered and worse for wear. However, because we are ‘professionals’ we soldiered on and had a catch up with her sister-in-law and nephew (who is ADORABLE). Then we took treats over to our friend who was madly preparing for the Craft Central Artisan Market at the St James on Saturday.

On Saturday morning we raced to the market and ended up buying some amazing things from our friend from SweetDesigns NZ. Julia and I are enablers and I think that I probably got Julia to spend more by saying “What does the fox say” every time I saw something with a fox on it. We managed to buy a few more lovely things on our way out the door from dPendants and ZippityDooDah!

After a very quick stroll along the waterfront we picked up Julia’s birthday cake from Louis Sergeant for Sunday. Then back home to unpack so Julia could be ready to get picked up for her birthday surprise. This left Paul and I home alone and excited about the prospect of lying at opposite ends of the couch to watch a movie. Julia, her friend and daughter came home to find Paul and I on the couches with drinks, chips and under blankets smothered in cats and dogs.

Then I went out to the Hutt to see my sister-in-law and father-in-law and watch my brother-in-law compete in his event at the ASN and Les Mills 2014 NABBA Wellington Bodybuilding Championships. I thought that I really would not cope seeing him compete as it is not every day that you see your brother-in-law with not a lot of clothing on, on stage. However, it was incredible and he did so well and I cannot even fathom the sheer amount of work and mental fitness it takes to compete in a competition like this. It was really interesting to see all the other competitors as well as there were a variety of different ages, nationalities and body types. What I understand now is that it does not matter how hard you work there are some things that you just cannot change about your body and that is okay. Also, seeing the different age groups i.e. 40+, 60+ and 70+ you can really see the changes that happen with age. All and all it was an amazing experience! Oh and the heels that the women wear when they come on stage at the end…..how do they walk in them???

Sunday brought a more relaxed start with the rugby (although Paul and I were yelling at the end) and Julia cooked us this amazing breakfast with eggs, and leftover wedges and cheese. INCREDIBLE! Then we pretty much just chilled out until her family arrived at 2pm and we had nibbles and cake! After hearing so much about her brother I finally got to meet him which was great. I think that when you already know a person through a friend when you do meet them it feels like already know them.

Leaving this time was really hard as I do not have a planned date to go down again. However, the most exciting thing is, is that (finally) Julia is coming to Auckland after Christmas. She will finally get to meet our crazy fur babies and see our house!! It is possible I will have to fill the Whisky cupboard now and hope that Mark does not drink it all before she arrives!

So many laughs.....thank you both for having me! "Touch the cow. Do it now".

New music:

‘Blame (feat. John Newman’ ~ Calvin Harris

‘Changing (feat. Paloma Faith)’ ~ Sigma