life in the real world

so i've been back for nearly 2 weeks and am back in the swing of things i guess!

the day after i got home i emailed my old work for a reference and was lucky enough to be offered a job which i started last friday. so for 3 days i did absolutely nothing and slept about 13 hours a night with no troubles and didn't feel the slighetest bit guilty about it, and then friday started work. i'm really happy to be back with the same people i was with before i went to hawaii, a lot has changed at work but i really enjoy the people and am enjoying myself : ) there is a lot to do so i'm always busy which is good too.

other than that i'm pretty boring. i'd forgotten how exhausting working full time is - quite ironic really, i can train 6+ hours a day and manage but put me in an air conditioned office for a day and i'm exhausted. am not doing any training whatsoever other than 2ce weekly club which is good. teaching me to loosen up a bit and not take myself so seriously - at least i hope that's what it's doing! i'm so used to being so focused and trying to get as much out of every training or whatever, but for the next 2 weeks my focus is going to be having fun. i don't know if it's noticable to anyone else but it's a really funny feeling, like this inward argument - my body and mind go into the mode they usually do and then this other part of me laughs the whole time there's no way to explain it but it's a really funny experience, every training and game.

went wedding dress shopping this week with coralee and jess. everything is so exciting. coralee went to kate dowman for a consultation who was really good and professional and knew her stuff and the gowns are gorgeous and i came away feeling very educated. we got it down to 3 dresses, all pretty similar but just a little different. jess didn't want to pay for a consulation so we went spent the best part of a morning (after 3 hours sleep from a night out with mandy before she goes away) walking around and looking (but not trying on) at dresses until we came upon a shop that has a wonderful lady who let her try on anything and knew her stuff and was so incredibly helpful. at some point jess put on a veil and i freaked out and was like, i'm sorry i have to go i'm sorry and had to go have a breather lol. but we found a really nice dress and she's going back with her mum to have a look.

mandy is moving to brisbane in a week and a bit so on friday night after the game and after having a fantastic dinner with greta and catching up with alex and wade (i have missed those boys) i FINALLY got to frankie's after midnight just in time to go to town with the girls to send mandy off and have a happy birthday celebration for kelly. so that was fun, it has been so long since i've been into town there's a new bar (which aparently has been there for ages) where there used to be a clothes shop. so that was a lot of fun and finally rolled up the driveway at like 5 just in time for mum to get up and go to work at 6. the next morning she asked if i had been talking in the car all night because it was still warm when she got in, quite nice really she wan't cold the entire journey to work.

last weekend a friend mike from hawaii was visiting the country so we watched the rugby with my dad and then went into town to the minus 5 ice bar which was fun. was cool to have a visitor. jen from the uh team is here this weekend but i haven't heard from her and wouldn't know how to contact her so that's sad to miss her!

since starting work i have been enjoying my walk from the bus stop to the office down the main street with all the hustle and bustle of the early morning city. i find myself wanting to browse shops and being disappointed this isn't america and they're not open until a reasonable hour. and then i have to remind myself that even in america shops don't open at this hour, it's just because the only place i can ever afford to go to is wal-mart which is open 24 hrs lol. so then i am content to be home around clothes shops in the city in good old nz and am happy to just look at the window displays.

and thats all really. very boring but good. really good. there is always something cool about any scene if you look for it. the other day walking to work i looked up and there amongst all the high rises i could see on the roof of one of the buildings leaves from a garden that must be up there and i was like, that is cool.

anyway enough for now xxox

Tianjin, China

my journal on the 28th of may (caution, the following might be considered a little crude to some people so i apologise for any offense caused. if you dont want to hear about toilets in china, skip the next paragraph):

we arrived in China today and made it to Tianjin so easily! last time we had to go 4 hours and the bus broke down and ra ra ra. this time it was only 2 and it was such a fun drive. we stopped to go to the toilet at this pit stop type thing and there was a bathroom with only squatters but it was so nice and clean! didn't even smell. I was worried because I remember the bathrooms at Guilin airport last year being so horrible,but this one was really nice. Anyway so there we all were squealing away because we had to squat and "wiggle" because there was no toilet paper. and the cleaning ladies were laughing so hard at us because we didn't really know what we were doing and were all shouting advice at each other at how to avoid peeing on ourselves all at the same time - there were lik 20 cubicles so no one had to wait. poor (name deleted) had to wash her feet afterwards, i guess she had a little trouble. but it was awesome. definitely feel like the team bonded a lot as a result. probably my best toilet experience ever!

so that was the beginning of our trip. it was a lot more fun and foreinger friendly than last year anyway : ) the bathrooms didn't flood at there was bread at almost every meal, so we did alright with that. they had some awesome markets in Tianjin so everyone shopped up a storm, almost everyone in the team (except me) bought a fake prada/chloe/puma/gucci/luis vuitton bag for like $10 NZD or something, it was pretty sweet deals. i bought some cool stuff, but didn't find the right bag. being not the biggest bag person, i'm very fussy even when stuff is cheap.

the water polo wasnt very good at all, we lost all our games which was really disappointing but we didn't have any time together before hand so it wasn't that surprising anyway. we just didn't mesh well as a team. since we got back, our coach has resigned and i'm starting to wonder if it's my turn too. but then who knows. maybe i could just keep playing without international water polo? yea right. anyway i'm glad i don't have to make any decisions right now.

anyways, so now i'm home until august and have found myself a job at an office i used to work at before i left. so at least i know the people and even though the work is totally menial i'm looking forward to catching up with people and earning some money to keep me out of trouble! no more water polo except club so that will be interesting, playing for fun with absolutely zero pressure or expectations...we'll see how that goes anyway!

since being home i've had about 12 hours sleep each night which is totally amazing, haven't even stirred during the night. i love my bed! but tomorrow i start work so that is the end of that. it has actually been really nice to just sit on the couch all day and not do anything and be even too lazy to think about feeling bad for not doing anything.

good to be home, it's not too cold at all, quite nice actually probably like 15ish which is pretty nice for winter here, all the seasons have been coming late though so by the time i leave it will no doubt be very good timing. it's kinda sad to leave the summer in the air feeling though. was talking to my friend in Long Beach today and i got really jealous because she's just chilling at her house in the summer, playing water polo and enjoying evenings on her verandah with friends and riding her bike around everywhere, and i was like, wow. fun.