The ball

We just had our ball and it was pretty, it's theme was 'the secret garden'. Although it was missing a boy in a wheelchair like the book. There were fairy lights, strings of ivy and candles strung up around the beautiful old hotel room it was hosted in that had chandeliers and wooden floors to dance on. Myself and Kate took our time getting ready as it could be our last ball ever, and it turned out Chloe is a bit of a professional hair stylist in her spare time and curled my hair very skillfully.. though i then pinned it all over to one side of my head because 'why not'. Apparently it resembled Florence Welch from Florence and the machine's style when i added dark lips, a resemblance i'm quite happy with though i am not a red head <3 I do enjoy her music

We had quite some fun dancing all night and then out into town with the girls afterward, everywhere was fullest I'd ever seen it in town. We went to fever to dance on the lit up floor, someone grabbed me on the way out of there and attempted to perform a strange handshake with me involving spinning me around, knuckles and a slide-away handshake. Then we went to urban followed by metro where we danced to old music before the hungry ones took us through McDonald on the way home

 

Our RAs :)

Live band, they were pretty good

'bubbles' upon arrival

King and queen

Holiday - Queenstown

SEASONS
Found the tumblr i created a little while ago http://itstruckachord.tumblr.com/ entitled Summer's coming..
clearly i was missing the heat. I certainly am now, i like summer and autumn best of the seasons.
In spring it rains all the time so we are huddled indoor by the fireplace, listening to it pat against the roof. Or pulling our faces deep inside a raincoat, believing it is still Winter and missing the small blooms on cherry blossom trees, for me cherry blossoms are the only tree around me that tells me what the season is.
In Autumn it turns all the colours of gold, crimson, and crispy brown, not many other trees in New Zealand do that... they're all evergreens.
BAD NEWS
It is winter now, my fingers are stiff and my knuckles are icy if i press them to my face, which makes typing uncomfortable. I've been told arthritis runs in the family, genetically i can see it's true:
ALL my grandparents have the condition and my dad is beginning to feel it. This is not what i want to hear as an 18 year old when everything i love to do uses my hands..
Already i have had a day where i used my hands for writing too much and by the end could not even hold my pen, i just thought i needed to change my study technique.

It is holidays for two weeks now, less than any other university.
I'm at the end of my second week.
We went to Queenstown for the first week and it was beautiful but i think we all need time apart after so many months of seeing each other almost every single day.. it's only natural. I haven't seen either Max or Kate much this week, though i would love to meet his puppy. I've just been relaxing.. and it is very nice.

Here are a few pictures from the week from Kate's camera and mine:

xx

Rainy Day

Study technique: Turn all the lights out except your desk lamp. Even if you feel like you're sitting in a cave at 1pm, it focuses your attention on what the light IS shining on. Thanks Wong!


Ever since open day when it froze and rained and soaked us because Caitlin visited, it hasn't warmed up. Drinking hot drinks and the occasional noodles when they don't give us enough food and seconds time is years away, I even went and bought fruit to try feel healthier. The mandarins were amazing. I've tried to learn how to row and really didn't like it.. i wasn't very good at all, of course if i practiced i could get better at it.. but i really didn't like it, I was scared we would tip. It's just not for me :) Also learnt a little while ago to surf with Hayward, we got lessons for free and it was really fun, I managed to stand up on the board which is something i genuinely thought i'd never do. 
My heater keeps leaking on my bed and now it burned me when i touched it


A singer I like at the moment: Casey Abrams, 19 year old. Sweetest person ever with some sort of crazy talent that you don't expect. He even sang with Jack Black, and the judges used their idol save on him - have a flick through, not to everyone's taste


The only audition i've ever enjoyed watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Eto8n-WJ4&feature=related
'Georgia on my mind'. You have to wait for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI4RGwdEWZo&feature=BFa&list=LLD72QIttzYmK0rljM_Y4SfQ
Casey little thing called love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNCPzXavn5o&feature=BFa&list=LLD72QIttzYmK0rljM_Y4SfQ


I've been taking some photos to show what it's like at the moment, though no photos have yet/will ever be taken of myself dressed in fat pant, puffer jacket, fluffy hat, huge slippers with a mug of lemon and honey, which has been my classic take on girl-is-sick-and-has-exams-so-looking-nice-really-is-bullshit

Portrait made at the airport of Nirrimi
Incomplete.

From Judge

The last image is me today, that's my chemistry exam that i got to take home.. one huge pile of joy right there..


Time for Physics now

Tasmania

Since my last post i have been to Auckland, Melbourne, Hobart and Launcheston in Tasmania, Nelson and Te Arnaud and it has been so much fun!
As i will soon forget all the details this may appear a little bit like a diary in this post, a snippet from each day for me to remember.
2nd, 3rd and 4th of January
Traveled to Tasmania with the NZ contingent of 17 Venturers and 5 leaders, it was 40 degrees in Melbourne and they said that stepping out of the air conditioned air port was like hitting a wall... It truely was, everyone i saw come out were like "woa" as it was a solid wall of dry heat and i loved it. I was determined to have a tan after this trip and this was the place to be, Tasmania's weather was different though. We lost AJ at the airport due to his "fight with a dragon, scratch from a bear, or from the war in New Zealand", as he told all the Australians he met, he had a fracture and was not allowed to board the plane without seeing a doctor. Beforehand i had been drifting him around in his airport, as we discovered wheelchairs can drift. I had a splitting headache coming into Hobart, likely caused by the rapid decent that my head couldn't handle.. but before i was yelping in my seat with pain wishing for panadol i was dancing in my seat listening to music (yes i was dancing) or playing Sudoku on Caitlin's ipod which was fun. We were warned to look out for the spiders, snakes and scorpions before bedtime... really put us at ease for sure.

My very first dunk'n doughnuts

Following morning we got up bright and early (i awoke to a sneezing fit at 5.45am), I sat with Bri and Russell and drank peppermint tea before having what might have been the nicest shower i'd have for a while but all the showers ended up fine anyway, i always timed mine so that i never had to wait and always had warm ones. We played awkward name learning games that i cannot stand after school then a group New Zealand photo the adults then told us to take a silly photo but we were all still at the stage where 'sorry we don't know each other.'
Me and Caitlin set up out tents together as we were to be in the same group doing the extreme adventure tour, we ended up tucking our NZ tops up as the sun was so extreme and waiting for wind  on our skin. And because that's how Caitlin gets all the boys ;)
Will and Mike helped us set up our tents and we did likewise, then wandered around looking for Kate, Will and lunch. The Victorian contingent arrived but there were hundreds of them, me and Caitlin timed it luckily and found Will and Daniel who i knew and she had talked to, so she finally met them. Running jump hug for Will of course because HADN'T SEEN THAT BOY FOR TWO WHOLE YEARS! Hadn't changed much because i was then tipped upside down, had my sun glasses fall off my head and be stood on.
Met Holly who was very tired at the time but makes strange noises when tickled like myself, Will had an idea to make an orchestra out of us. I was tickled a lot on this trip and soon was tired of it and would run away or grumble if approached and poked in the ribs.
We now had today and one more day to do not much around camp, meeting people and such. I got sunburn and soon had a tan line, as we were not allowed to wear bare feet, sandles or jandles around due to all the dangerous animals that could kill you. Kate showed me her water shoe tan line in the showers after her sailing trip and it was BEAUTIFUL. The weather was very changeable and all over the place, alternating between raining and bright hot sunshine many times a day.

5th - 9th Extreme adventure

He wore that top hat everywhere

We all separated at this point to different places around Tasmania, we were mountain biking, caving, abseiling, bush walking and white water rafting (though the river was too low). Met an amazing group of people from all over the world and had Caitlin by my side the whole time, we had so much fun. This is a tiny number of photos from the many that we taken, but it gives the idea of what fun we had.

We learnt fire twirling one evening

The day we were meant to white water raft, instead played games
and jump rope. I gave Mel a beautiful plait mustache

I am a tiny bit claustrophobic

Climbed on the roof of the train and sang as Liam played the guitar

After most days we would swim

Daniel had a knack for being captured

He spoke in a French accent that day

Back with everyone

The rest of the trip passed in a blur: meeting people, doing things, climbing places, being recognised by the polar bear hat. It was amazing, photos are my own and others:

Mountain biking, before Kate broke her collar bone

We were cheering Liam:)

Helena and Nathan won with MGMT - Kids

Kathryn and her wallaby

The box robot i helped make, gave it a big red button
and a boom lever.

I was not very happy with the height

The ghost tour around port arther was very scary, he told the tales so well

I love this photo of us

The Australians had never encountered a bumble bee before

met this group in town as i knew Amy and Ross already
turned into the best day. That sushi shop was the cutest

intense colouring in the fairy shop on our day in town

We found a pet store

To make a box fort, ended up making box robots

Hair dye everywhere