We spent a … lot of time watching terrible/amazing television as the weather was not stellar. But on Saturday Amy took us around her favourite lakes. I, as always, was dressed appropriately.

I was also in a short skirt, Black Craft Cult t-shirt, leather jacket, massive scarf, and hoodbats beanie. Amy and Frith were in chucks, jeans, jumpers, and jackets.
I didn’t look out of place at all.

That was Lake Okareka. She then took us to Lake Tarawera where we almost crashed a wedding and Blue Lake where, on the playgroud, Frith tried to convince us she would be excellent on Wipeout.

(that’s Frith way up there)

Then we watching 10 hours of the show Made in Chelsea. My life has changed forever.
(she says, watching the second day of the Made in Chelsea marathon)

Last night the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill passed in the House.

Life has been absolutely exhausting recently and I can barely string the words together to explicate how much the passing of this Bill means to me. A lot of what has been exhausting me has been working towards the passing of this Bill.
I’m so proud. And exhausted. And grateful.

“Finally, a message to all LGBTI—and I finally got that out. My message to you all is welcome to the mainstream. Do well. Kia ora.” Tau Henare

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Coming Out//80 to 40//Almost Equal is Almost Bullshit//Recommends by a Majority that it be Passed

We had a day of rain, a day of blistering sunshine and a lot of in-between

(the boys took to the spa in the rain)

The mansion even came with pre-arranged wildlife.

The rooster decided that his favourite place in the world was right outside Craig & my bedroom window. It was not the best. Stupid rooster.

On New Year’s Eve we all dressed up fancy

Which quickly devolved into

Duckfaces

Grumpycats

Squish!

But I think my favourite photo may be this one:

YES. I AM THAT SHORT AND I AM THE ONLY ONE IN HEELS.

No but actually

Cutest friends.

On the first day of 2013 as I lay in bed I tweeted

It seems I started 2011 off with a run. I ran a lot in 2011. I didn’t start 2012 with a run. Barely ran. Uh-oh. #precedent

— Sarahsaurus-Rex (@ohsarahrose) December 31, 2012

So a couple of hours later, Laura, Craig and I set off to walk to Waikawa Beach.

Not because it seemed particularly enticing, but because on google maps it didn’t look that far and the directions were ‘at the end of the Mansion House driveway, turn right. At the end of that street, turn left. Continue until you hit the edge of the country.’ Or, you know, something like that.

Incidentally? In the two weeks since this walk? I have been for 8 runs, 2 big walks, and to the gym (THE GYM) three times.

We walked and we walked and we walked. We guessed that the beach would be beyond each turn and rise in the road. We were always, always wrong.

Realising, with dismay, that we were probably only halfway.

BUT WE MADE IT EVENTUALLY.

Waikawa beach was not so much a Beach as a Stream. It was very disappointing.

Craig disappeared off into the forest. Laura called after him “don’t go too far” to which he replied “okay mum” THEN WE LOST HIM FOR HALF AN HOUR.

After climbing three hills in our attempts to find my wayward husband, and realising that Waikawa Beach didn’t even have a corner store at which to purchase something, anything to drink, we called back to the house and begged them to drive down and collect us.

The final day at Mansion House was grey and humid.
We spread cushions over the floor of the television room and drank whisky and watched Cabin in the Woods and Pitch Perfect. There was much excitement when Cobb the wandering Hund came to visit

We ended the holiday by attempting to consume all of the leftover perishable foods in the house and driving away in cars laden with empty bottles.

It was kind of the best holiday I’ve ever had in a teeny tiny town close to home.

I like hanging with people where I can use a hashtag in real life and they don’t laugh at me #cityprincess

— Sarahsaurus-Rex (@ohsarahrose) January 1, 2013

* Manakau in the Horowhenua district. Otherwise known as the town that I did not know existed. Despite having driven through it countless times. I knew Otaki, I knew Levin, and in between? Manakau, apparently.

** there was a lot of day drinking. The day we started drinking whisky at 11am was a particular favourite.

As you read this I am, all things going to plan, somewhere in the air between Wellington and New Plymouth.
I am super excited for this trip. And that is not something you often hear someone on their way to New Plymouth say. But I can explain

So here’s the thing. Somehow I have ended up with a two week period of my life where, again, I’m getting three tattoos. I am so excited.

It’s not quite like July/August where they were all relatively small & most of them were arranged at relatively short notice, these upcoming appointments have been booked for months and are two three hour sessions and one … well, one session that may be two hours or may be three. I have no idea. But they were … opportunities I couldn’t turn down.

In two weeks time I will have fewer annoying blank spaces when I look in the mirror.
(I will also have had 10 tattoos in 2012. Sorry mum)

It’s all because of Laura & the upcoming Tattoo Festival. Why they chose to hold it in New Plymouth, I couldn’t possibly guess. But in New Plymouth it is being held, and to New Plymouth Laura and I are travelling.
(I’m coming straight from Wellington and Laura’s coming from Cambodia and Myanmar/Burma, but that’s an entirely different story)

To be completely fair, part of this did start in December last year.

Rose Hardy

I’ve been admiring Rose Hardy’s work for almost as long as I’ve been proactively interested in tattoos. When I heard that she was planning to do a guest session at Sacred Tattoo in July I had my name on the waiting list as fast as I could possibly manage it, while still looking cool (I never look cool).
They said they would get back to me when they had dates sorted.

Toby Gawler

A few months passed and, across a bar one night, Laura suggested we road trip up to New Plymouth for the festival in November. That turned into flying but, you know, Cambodia and whatnot. Also: laziness & my inability to drive. But that’s beside the point.
We started researching tattoo artists at the festival & both decided on Toby Gawler. I booked in with him in June.

At the beginning of July I found out that Rose had cancelled her planned mid-year guest session in Auckland. But she was going to the Festival in November.
Agony! I was really looking forward to getting work done by Toby & the last thing I wanted to do was cancel. I would have to let the time with Rose pass. Until they told me that she might be staying on in Auckland for a turn at Sacred. AH!

It wasn’t until the end of October when I found out that yes, Rose was going to Sacred after the festival. But only for a week. But, if I wanted, I could have an appointment. I said yes immediately and started booking flights to Auckland like a mad thing. I also purchased some immune-boosting vitamins on my way home.
I’ve been waiting on this appointment for most of a year! It very exciting.

Destroy Troy

Then came Troy.
Troy was pretty close to the top of my tattoo artist shortlist, if Toby didn’t have space for me then … but Toby did have space.
THEN I HEARD TROY WAS COMING TO WELLINGTON.
Then Laura told him about my cat face tattoo idea.
Then somehow, through instagram, while I was at a book fair, I had a tentative appointment booked with Troy.

I just … died a little thinking about how all of these improbable appointments came to be.

Today I am on my way to New Plymouth to get tattooed by Toby Gawler. Next Thursday I am going to Auckland to get tattooed by Rose Hardy. On the following Monday I am walking 7 minutes from my house to get tattooed by Destroy Troy.
I’m pretty fucking lucky.

I’ll be taking my immunofort every damn day.
Vit-Omens.

Oh how I did not want to start my fifth (FIFTH!) year of taking a photo every-damn-day* by posting a day late. But I am sleepy. So very sleepy.

The past three days have been somewhat hectic. 

My lovely family travelled to Napier for my oldest** friend’s New Zealand wedding reception***. A round trip of 770km punctuated with minigolf, swimming pools, brunch, a farmers market, and of course a night of drinking and dancing. 

instagram
wind farm / sunny Hawkes Bay / Pania of the reef / Craig lines up his shot / I almost bought a fuzzy white turban / I wore lavender / Kenjiro & his family barely speak English / pretty sisters / I was quite drunk / rainy Hawkes Bay / windfarm

But tomorrow! Tomorrow I will post the first week of 2012.

* in 2008 I only took 23 photos before giving up. In 2009 I missed one day (agony!). In 2010 & 2011 I took the full 365. This year I get to take 366.

** the story is thus: when I was two (three?) years old my family moved into a little house. Another family was moving in right next door. Each family had a Ford Laser. All parents were high school teachers. Each family had a daughter of few years and the name Sara(h). The stuff that, if not legends, lifelong family friendships are made of.

*** her husband is Japanese, they live in Japan and had their wedding there last April. Now she’s five months pregnant! But she still got back into that beautiful dress. It was just laced a lot looser. 

a picnic

a lot of nature

and inappropriate footwear.

Sunday
Walking Round the Bays with Petra.

Monday
My Amazing Bullet blender arrived! And I realised that I had been telling people I bought a Magic Bullet. Which is most definitely not the same thing.

Tuesday
The day New Zealand changed forever. We spent the afternoon glued to the TV and turned them on as son as we got home.

Wednesday
The flag was at half mast for the victims of the Christchurch Earthquake.
Every flag I saw was the same.

Thursday
Another rehearsal. We open on Tuesday. I’m exhausted.

Friday
The Earthquake has taken over. Understandably of course.

Saturday
The flowers are dying. You know what? I was on my way to rehearsal again.

&

I was sitting at my desk at work, eleven stories up, when I felt the earthquake.
It went on for a long time. So long that I sent a message out on twitter and saw both before and after my tweet, similar Wellington based messages. After it stopped I thought about it and decided that I really rather liked these little reminders that we are small and insignificant. And then I sent the message that starts this entry.

What I didn’t know then was that the earthquake I’d felt in Wellington was actually centred over three hundred kilometres away in Christchurch.

6 months ago Christchurch was rocked an earthquake. It hit in the early hours of the morning and there were no deaths or injuries.
It seems that was only a practice run.
This earthquake hit just before 1pm on a weekday. People were at work, at home, out at lunch. Exchange students were in classes and tourists were in the Cathedral. I was in my office, wondering why my screen was shaking.

Everyone I know spent that afternoon glued to the television.
Parliament rose early.
There was a profound sense of shock. We saw the shock we felt etched on the dust covered faces of the people in Christchurch. I watched the unedited footage and saw someone rescued from the top of a flattened building, I saw people loaded in to the back of SUVs as the city ran out of ambulances, I saw broken buildings and broken people.

We clung to social networking sites and I have never been more glad to have twitter. Never more glad to be able to help in my small small way.
I watched as messages headed into the ether, asking if this person or at person was okay, people sending messages that they were okay, offers of assistance. I retweeted what I could, getting messages to a wider audience, but terrified of sending out misinformation.

I have no family in Christchurch. There was no one I was frantically trying to get hold of. I am loath to admit how much the earthquake has affected me because, in the most basic sense, it has not.

But I live in Wellington. We have been warned how overdue for “the big one” our city is. There is the guilt that it should have been us and not Christchurch. There is the guilt that we are relieved it was not us.

I held Craig close that night. We decided on meeting places in Wellington and vowed to get a survival kit together. I thanked whatever gods there are out there that we were safe.

At the time of writing the death toll in Christchurch is 145. There are still more missing. Our garden city has made news across the world and international urban search and rescue teams have come to our aid.

I have donated. I have worn black. I will observe two minutes of silence.
I will offer all I can and do my job diligently and to the best of my ability. Christchurch needs the rest of New Zealand to keep the country running.
They are a little busy right now.

If you can please spare a dollar or two to help
http://www.redcross.org.nz