Being drip-fed The Hobbit

Finally, another video from behind the scenes on the shoot of The Hobbit! So much excitement!

Friday Freedom

Today I handed in my last essay for this semester. It's a sunny Friday in Dunedin, and I've just spent the last couple of hours at the Forsyth Barr stadium where a Young Farmers contest is taking place. I went there with a coffee for Nathan, who's working there as security, and ended up deciding to stay until it ends at 3.30pm, because my feet are too sore from walking to uni to be able to walk home.

Not long ago I received a text from work, telling me to take today off, meaning that I'm free to do exactly what I want to do tonight: eat dinner at a reasonable time, watch the season finale of Revenge, and maybe go to the gym after Nathan finishes work. Fridays are simply awesome sometimes.

Now that all my assignments are out of the way, the things that I'm looking forward to in the near future seem that much more closer. First up is Nathan and I going to Wellington next Friday, for four days. Mega super excited about that. Then, in the two-three weeks after that I have my three exams (NOT so excited about that), and then we're going to Rarotonga! If I'm mega super excited about going to Wellington you can probably multiply that by a thousand and you'll be getting close to how excited I am about going to Raro.

But now I really must get back to doing...nothing. Oh lord it feels so good to have handed in all my assignments!

When daydreams take over...

It's been an EXTREMELY long time since I last updated my blog. I guess my inspiration for being creative went into hibernation a while ago, as I haven't really done anything that I find interesting in a very long time. At the moment I am suffering from what I would like to call imprisonment syndrome. Not that I'm actually imprisoned in any way, but due to commitments in Dunedin (oh yes, that's right, I did move down here at the start of the year, so after my last blog entry), meaning work and uni, and not having to travel to visit my boyfriend any more (as we are now living together (more or less)), I have been in Dunedin for, well, 5 months now, and in all those months I have only left the city briefly on a couple of occasions, most recently over Easter when Nathan and I went tramping in Wanaka for a few days. But being me, I need more freedom and adventure than that. I'm feeling so trapped in my existence that it's become a problem, as it disrupts my studies, because I can't stop myself from daydreaming about all the places I want to go, and all the things I want to see and do, rather than sitting in the library with a runny nose, a determinedly evil cough that just won't go away, and the seemingly squeakiest chair in the whole world. Life's not easy at times.

Of course, there's always that indeterminate light at the end of the tunnel. That light you don't know where emanates from until it's too late, and you've already been run over by the train. For me that light has a specific source this time, and that source is the glowing ball of sunlight shining over Rarotonga (Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean - look it up). Because that is where I am going next month with Nathan, for five nights, leaving the cold city of Dunedin behind just two days after my final exam of the first semester. My every thought at the moment begins on, and ends on, this beacon of hope. Rarotonga. With my man. Score.

Also, to slowly ease myself back into the art of travelling, we're going to Wellington together (Oh! Welly!) at the start of June, for four days, which I'm also REALLY looking forward to. It'll be the first time Nathan visits his family since we moved down to Dunedin in January, so it's a well overdue visit, but what can you do about it when he's so often occupied elsewhere with the army? Hence why I said we "more or less" live together; although we've officially shared a residence for over 5 months now, Nathan has actually only been here for 2 of those months. He returns from his latest army commitment in two days' time, and I'm hoping that I get to keep him for a lot longer this time around. After all, we moved in together for a reason (to live together, you know?) so not to do it seems, well, a bit silly in my opinion.

Five months down the track in Dunedin I am finding it, um, chilly. For four months I've worked at a restaurant, and I have really enjoyed it, and wish I could keep doing it, but due to recent circumstances I made a decision a couple of weeks ago that I need to resign, to focus more on my studies, as that is what I'm here for, and at the moment I know they are being thoroughly neglected. Not on purpose, of course, but everything is just a bit overwhelming, and I tend to run myself firmly into the ground, only to receive a nerve-shattering wakeup-call which results in a mental and nervous breakdown. And I cannot have that happen every two weeks during my last year at uni, especially not next semester, when I'm doing one more course than I am now. So sadly, at the end of this month, I will quit my job.

But now I have another tutorial to go to. Thank you, blog, for being there for me in my time of need (for procrastination). I have missed you.