One day when I was swimming in the Mekong River

February 2005: Janna and Kimpy have a cheese off before ...

Janna realises Kimpy is the most beautiful woman in the world and can't stop looking at her. Amy just smiles like it's 1999.

Cleaning out old emails from my yahoo account, I came across these little precious things - pics of me, Amy and Janna the day we went to Silk Island and swam in the Mekong. Of course, being girls we had to cover up. By wearing skirts up to our armpits. Pretty racy, huh? I made mine fill up with air like a balloon when I lay back in the water. Later in the day, a crazy silk seller platted my hair, we went to a house where some women were weaving and I played with some very sickly kittens, and we ate cat's milk icecreams on the boat back to Phnom Penh.

Pretty things

Thought it was time y'all saw some of the things I make. I haven't photographed anything I've made recently (these were taken back when I still lived in Hamilton) but are some of my favourites. You can see I'm particularly into pink and red. The two middle necklaces (the green and red, and the one below it) are multi-stringed, the others are long single strings.

Summer lovin'

L-R: Ange, me, Nat, Matt, Becc on Mt Vic, Waitangi Day

Us lucky folk in Wellington have had four straight days of windless, sunny, warm evening-ed weather. It's been unbelievable. Saturday, went with Chris and Yasmine to Te Horo and hung out, ate good food, made a sand blob, talked about pus with our hosts Chrissy and Caroline, and had a lovely dinner for Chris' birthday back at our place. Sunday, did the Skyline Walk with Neil. We didn't talk about pus. Monday, rode my bike to work in my jandals and rode home again in jandals with only one stop on Hutchinson Road to put my lungs back into my chest. Went to Ange's for her birthday bbq where there were, at one stage, four babies at various stages of development - from walking (Bela) to unstoppable grinning (Leo) to just getting the hang of crawling and solids (Sweeney). Tuesday, went for 10km walk with Ange, Neil, Matt, Nat and Becc from Mt Albert to Mt Vic and back again. Then off to Eastbourne for a well-deserved meal and a gawk at more semi-naked teenagers getting skin cancer than I have ever seen in one place. Went to bed around seven cos I was knackered.

Today is also another brilliantly sunny still day. I walked to work with Pavement in my ears, imagining myself looking like a total rock goddess in front of 40,000 people adoring every note I pluckled. Must pratice guitar tonight.

Walking, walking and more walking

my new walking shoes, Friday afternoon

Yesterday Neil and I walked from the bottom of Mt Kaukau to Makara, and then a little bit more. I was feeling pretty good until we walked down Trickle Falls, a gnarly mountain biking track, which did my knees in and put me right off ever mountain biking again. We started just before nine am, and with scorching lungs reached Mt Kaukau about half an hour later. The weather was perfect, and we kind of dawdled along the skyline walk, taking in views of Wellington and Ohariu Valley, it was so clear you could probably have made out houses in the Marlborough Sounds if you looked closely. Just enough wind to cool the sweaty spots. Rippling pink and gold grass. Little tiny people doing tiny things in their tiny houses in tiny suburbs. It were splendid. We made it to Makara Hill Road by midday, a good hour or so before we were meant to. My new walking shoes held up well, just a bit of rubbing on my heels which I expected. So to fill in a bit of time before Becc picked us up, we went up Makara Hill, looked at the amazing view, then stumbled down Trickle Falls. When I got home, I ate everything I could get my hands on, had a bath, and fell into a coma. Then the hot Korean guy won Survivor, and I made a bit more of Chris' diary. Charlie curled up on my bed and stuck his white rabbit-like feet into my face, and today, I biked to work in my skirt and jandals. Life is good.

And on the subject of life being good - Sue from Craft 2.0 has said the posse can have a stall at the market on March 17. We'll be selling donated crafty things and baked things. It's on at the Dowse museum in Lower Hutt, and will help us towards our $5000 fundraising goal. That's so great - I am so chuffed! Thanks to all those who have offered to send crafty things to sell, probably best if you send them up to me at work: Kimberley Rothwell, Features, The Dominion Post, P O Box 3740, Wellington. If you wanna sell some baked stuff we'll co-ordinate closer to the time. Any other suggestions for things we can sell will also be gratefully accepted. Merci bien.

It starts today

On April 14, myself and three people who will probably never speak to me again after that date are taking on a bit of a challenge. It's called the Oxfam Trailwalker and it has two bits to it:
1. Walk 100kms with three teammates in under 36 hours on a course near Lake Taupo.
2. Raise $5000 with those same teammates before June.

In preparation for this, we are doing two things:
1. Walking everywhere all the time anytime
2. Organising a quiz night, a corporate box event, and getting people to sponsor us per kilometre we walk.
And while I type this, I am thinking of maybe running a fundraising stall at Craft 2.0 like Melissa did for the Ghalia family. Perhaps other carfties out there could donate some stock for it? I'll get back to you on that one...

My indefatiguable teammates are:
1. Ange Rothwell - she of the determined will who biked up that big hill on the round Taupo race and didn't get off to stop, not even once.
2. Matt Taylor - who says the walk will be just like 13 rounds of golf. Easy.
3. Neil Baggott - the Wolverhampton lad who is three times the tramper the rest of us are, and could end up carrying us all over the finish line.

So this is where you dudes come in - and I know you're out there. If you want to support us, there are plenty of ways you can do it.
1. You can sponsor me per kilometre I walk. I'm aiming of course to do the whole 100km (and am going to buy myself an Ipod as a treat if I do make it) but you never know... Either email me or leave a comment with how much you want to sponsor me per km.
2. You can make a one-off donation here.
3. You can come to our quiz night (TBA) and our corporate box night (also TBA). I'll keep you posted.

But whatever you do, check out Oxfam's work here - this is where the money we raise is going.

Many thanks in advance, the Mortimer Terrace Posse

Her diary will change my life

Chris and I are making diaries for each other for next year, loosely based on the concept of This Diary Will Change Your Life. I love these books - the design, originality, the silliness - but thought I would make my own. Every day has a theme, like Eat Only Cheese Day, or Irritate Charlie Day. So Chris is making one for me, and when I got home last night she was on the red couch making a list (I love lists) that she said I would really love, and when I get up to that day in the diary, I will KNOW that it was THAT list. So far, my diary for her involves a baby we all know and love, blackheads, Girl Guide badges, and an AA meeting. Can't say anymore, it's very hush hush.

And another thing, after a lovely yoga session last night with Nat and Monique, I feel taller. I saw my body in the bathroom mirror this morning and I look HOT. Hot, I tell you! Where has my puku gone? Who knew that eating better (or at all), walking everywhere and doing yoga could possibly be beneficial to the way you look?