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That is the age I have turned today. I can’t believe it! 24! My 21st party doesn’t seem that long ago. But I’m happy, 24 isn’t a bad age, it’s a fun age!

I have been spoiled rotten today and had lots of lovely messages from family and friends.

I had a fabulous time last night out with friends celebrating the end of our exams for this semester. I thought I hadn’t drunk much, but after recapping this morning I realised I’d had four glasses of wine, a cocktail and a shot of tequila. Not bad.
I woke this morning feeling OK, but have developed a sore head now that I’m at work. I have heard wine can do that to you.

But no complaining from me, just lots of water and neurofen. Because tonight… is round two.

I have work drinks (because it’s Friday - and that’s what we do) at 4pm, dinner with my family (solid food - only had a piece of pizza bread last night) at 6.30pm, then have Annabelle’s birthday party after 8pm! The same crowd from last night are going so I’m sure we’ll have as much fun as we did last night. Uni life has hit it’s high. It best stay here for as long as possible.

Now off to raid the work first aid kit for neurofen….

Today is my baby (well hardly a baby, but my youngest sibling) sister’s 18th birthday. We’re having a family dinner tonight for her. I asked her if she’d like me to bake her a cake and if so, what flavour. She requested chocolate cupcakes. So the angel that I am and wonderful eldest sister, I baked them.

I have put the recipe under the cut.

In between study and cupcake baking today I pulled out my inner Hills and painted my nails black. Not a normal colour for me. But it actually looks good and seems to be the in nail colour at the moment.

This Friday I have my work-do. They’re taking us to see the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert musical. It’s had a lot of good reviews and is supposed to be amazing. I saw the movie years ago, so have the general jist of what it’s all about. So looking forward to a night out!

As promised; the recipe:

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I have a great weekend. It started off slow on Friday night with the movie American Gangster, which I did not enjoy. Then on Saturday I went shopping with my sister and bought new jeans and some cute shoes - totally love my new purchases! We also stopped for sushi and coffee for lunch.

On Saturday night we went to Rob’s sister’s boyfriend’s (I know a mouthful) 30th birthday. He had a 70s/Hawaiian Beach theme. Unfortunately I don’t own anything in either category. So turned up in my dressy gears and was then got given a leis. It was a fun night, mostly made up of Rob’s family but we had fun dancing and socialising. It wasn’t too much of a late night, we were home about 1.30am.

Today (Sunday) I’ve just got back from lunch with my sister and a few friends. We went to a Mexican cafe in Orewa. Oh wow! So yum. Instead of snapping photos of the meal I ate I took a couple of Ella. Ella is my sister’s boyfriend’s sister’s baby (yes, another mouthful) and she’s three months old and oh so cute!

After lunch four of us headed to the new luge in Silverdale to have a go. Quite fun I must say. We were so lucky to pick such a beautiful day!

The girls.

My cute, new shoes. You do not need to see a photo of me in a helmet. Not a good look!

But yes, a pretty eventful weekend… considering I was supposed to start studying management accounting for exams. Ahem. I missed that bit out.
Now we’re off to my dad’s house in about an hour for his birthday dinner. It’s his birthday tomorrow, but we’re going tonight because my sister is out of town for work tomorrow night.

I hope everyone else had a brilliant weekend!

Oh My God Westlife were good. Their concert was absolutely amazing! They sang lots of old and new songs. Some so new that we don’t even had the album here in New Zealand. Friggin’ typical! I’m now tempted to buy it online from the UK. I wonder how long until it’s here in NZ? I’ll have to go find out. They have put out a Best of CD which comes with a DVD of the tour, so I’m tempted to get that too.
But their concert was awesome. Their accents were even better. They talked to the audience every so often in between some songs… oh the accent just makes you melt. They could be telling you the weather and it’d still be a turn on!
For the record my favourite is Shane. He’s the best singer of them all anyway. Mind you, had never liked Kian until last night, he’s so much hotter in person than photos! Nicky is cute too, but Mark? I’m not a fan of his. Plus he’s gay, so he wouldn’t be a fan of me!
By the end of the night I’d almost lost my voice and had a sore throat from the singing and screaming. But it’s a small price to pay.

Their opening act was Annabelle Fay, a Kiwi girl. She was awesome! Her song Strong was used on the Heroes series. I never even realised she was a New Zealander!

Today is Mother’s Day, so my sister and I headed over to my other sister’s house with my Mum and Nana for a champagne brunch. After brunch we headed out for some shopping for a few hours. Our day was more like ‘girls day out’ rather than Mother’s day. We had a lovely time.

Westlife said they’d be back in NZ within 2-3 years. I’m planning to be in the UK then, so will have to see them in concert there.

Today is Rob’s 24th birthday. So old.. I know!! It’s been a busy day. I nearly baked him a cake, but his mum turned up with one. So I thought rather than make us fat, we’d just have hers. (I will take a photo before we cut it up).

Rob went out to play golf with a group of friends, so I had coffee with my friend Victoria whom I haven’t caught up with in ages.

We’re off to dinner soon at Gengy’s. Will be so yum! So right now I need to get myself spruced up and ready to go!

Last night Rob and I were invited to go to the Auckland Cricket Association (ACA) Awards Dinner at Eden Park, in the function rooms. Not out in the rain on the pitch. It was awesome! I love free food and wine. We turned up at 6.45pm and were offered glasses of wine and beer as we entered the main doors. Spotted a few celeb players; Andre Adams being the one I recognised most. Then for an entree we had salmon, was delish! A few speeches and a couple more glasses of wine got us through to the main meal; chicken or lamb. I had chicken, it was so yum! I want the recipe for the mushroom risotto they served with it!
The guest speaker was an Australian, Kerry O’Keeffe. God, was he funny! A very entertaining speaker.
After more wine I was ready for a coffee and thankfully they must’ve heard my call and announced it as dessert and coffee time. Dessert was chocolate profiteroles, not good for the hips, but tasted delicious on the lips. I was good, I only had one and thoroughly enjoyed my coffee. Rob was bad, he had three and washed them down with a few more glasses of beer. It was a lovely night. It was quite formal, so we felt every bit the special invitees, out and about on a would-be normal Tuesday night rubbing elbows with the top cricket players in Auckland, with some even playing for the Black Caps.

In other news, I went to Albany mall today and happened to walk into Borders; because it’s my favourite shop in the world (so far). And what was staring straight at me? It made my heart stop - I couldn’t believe it! Marian Keyes’s latest novel!!

This Charming Man. I can’t wait! If you know me, you will know I absolutely love Marian Keyes’s books. I have read them all and have been checking her blog (- obsession?) for the newest one to come out. I love how her characters are very every day, they make stupid mistakes like all of us. I remember going away with a group of girlfriends on a road trip, we were 17, I was reading my first Marian Keyes book, Watermelon, while at the beach. I remember giggling to myself for ages about a certain part of the book. My friends all looked at me wondering what the hell was going on. But of course trying to explain it is never has funny. But once I have the giggles I never seem to be able to get rid of them fast. Even four or five chapters later, I’d remember the one line Marian had written that triggered me and off I’d go laughing again. She’s amazing.
I bought the latest book of course, it was $24.00, normally $38! Bargain! I had goosebumps from the excitement taking the book to the register. I just want to go home now and curl up with a coffee and dive right in.

But no, sadly I have three more hours of lectures to attend this afternoon and they’re hard classes, so I have to go.

Within the hour Rob and I will be heading off to Napier on a road trip/holiday. It’ll take us about 4 and a half hours (411kms) to get there but will be a wonderful break.
We can visit vineyards, go to the beach and I think Rob wants to play golf one day - on that day I will be reading books at the beach.

We’re staying in a cabin at a caravan park, nothing flash (I’m still a student & Rob’s saving for our trip to the UK next year), but it’s a chance to get away, go out to dinner and all that fun stuff.

It’s weird how people my age think.. I told a few friends we were going away - first response - “oooo a dirty weekend!“. Ahem.

Here’s a map of our trip, just for fun!

Last week I spent $300 (well Rob spent it, I owe him!) fixing my car so it passed it’s warrant - brake pads and tyre. Then Saturday it decided to be a pain in the ass again, I get to cricket, after getting some lunch for myself and Rob, I find that my drivers side window would not go back up! It’s electric, so there was no way of winding it up. I feel myself starting to stress, I give Rob his lunch and go back to my car to see if I can get it up. I can’t leave my car out on the road with the window down, someone may steal it!! Which actually wouldn’t be a bad thing. After sitting there for 10 minutes starting to get furious, Rob walks over and asks what’s wrong and of course I burst into tears. I think it was the built up annoyance and anger at having to spend all this money fixing my car when I have none, rather than the bloody window not going up.
So, Rob suggests I call AA where I pay an annual membership to have their roadside service. When the man arrives he tries out the button and links different wires to see if he can make it go up. I don’t care if it doesn’t work, I just want it up so I can lock it and I wont get soaked in the rain! The guy tells me it’s the electric motor and he can’t do anything about it. I thought these people were trained mechanics?
For the rest of the afternoon I had to leave the car unlocked in the parking lot next to the cricket grounds, by now I’m hoping someone does steal it and can get the insurance paid out. No luck.

I drive it home and park it in the garage (lucky we have one) overnight. The next day (Sunday) Rob takes me to work, because I obviously can’t take mine in the rain! Then he has to pick me up again after work, such a sweetie!

So this morning I took it to a mechanic and he had to pull the door apart, but he fixed it for me for free! Well when I say fixed, I mean he put the window up so I can lock it and keep the rain out, but the electronics of it still doesn’t work, so I can’t use the window.

The rest of the weekend was a good one, on Saturday night Rob, Dylan, Natalie & I went to Christmas in the Park, an annual free concert held in the Auckland Domain with NZ celebraties singing and dancing. My favourites were Opshop, they were awesome live! The fireworks at the end were pretty good too. We were lucky that it only started to rain in the last 15 minutes of the show, so we had time to make it to the car.

We all had a great time and are planning to take a picnic next year, to be more organised!
Lots more good photos here.

After work on Sunday, my job at the retail store taking photos of children on Santa’s knee, Rob picked me up and took me out for lunch at Denny’s. It was 2pm and neither of us had eaten and he was teasing me that he’d just been there and had a chicken omelette - it made me so hungry thinking about it!

Some good news is that I passed all my semester two papers at Uni! Yay! So much relief! They aren’t amazing marks, but I’m not worried. They were hard papers so I’m just glad I passed!!

Bedtime now… well, time to read more of my book!