Valentine's Day

Yesterday I had my first ever "Valentine's Day", and in all honesty I've not a clue what all the hype is about. It was just another day really. I went out for dinner with Taylor at one of the local pub/restaurant places as they were holding a proper valentine's night. Which perhaps wasn't the best plan.
They had suggested to book ahead, so I had done that a week or so ago. And they showed us to this table out in a separate room set up for the whole valentine's theme, complete with fairy lights and an acoustic singer. It was so loud I could hardly think. However when we went back to the bar to order the food, we realised somebody else took our table while we were ordering! Although there was a much more comfortable seating arrangement in the bar and it was further from this guy who was singing, so at least it wasn't as loud. I think it was just because the speakers were echoing, so you couldn't think a word in your head, let alone string a sentence together to have a conversation in there. So that worked in our favour a bit. But it still wasn't great. Because they were so booked up, it took an hour before one starter came out for us - salt and pepper squid, it was really delicious. But that might've been because we were so hungry. Finally 10 minutes after that, the main meals showed up but the meat was overdone so again, just yeah.
They're a really good place to eat at, but I guess because they were so busy, things went a little slack in the kitchen. I'd imagine they were working hard out, food was constantly flowing out, it was just a shame it took an hour to batter some squid and then deep-fry it. I was so tired, I was just like, "wake me up when it arrives..."

Overall it was a rather mediocre night, it would've been more pleasant staying home and watching a movie. Valentine's is certainly more of an American holiday, isn't it? Very commercialised.

I took Annie in for her first service yesterday, she's done over 1500 k's now, so definitely well run in. I still like her and I'm still definitely getting used to her, it is taking a little while this time. Although she does need a repair already, just some plastic paneling on the back passenger door has come apart - we suspect in the heat, and it can't clip back in for some odd reason. But because the cars are so new, it'll take a bit to order the part. The frustrating thing is that she doesn't have an"over speed alarm", I can be cruising along at 105 and not even realise it, at least if a bell were to sound then I'd know sooner rather than later. It's not that I don't keep an eye on the speedo, I do, but she just likes speeding. It would be handy in those areas where I'm not sure on the speed limit too, but alas she doesn't have the alarm.  Which is rather odd for new cars these days.

Oh so I'm joining a community netball club! I saw it advertised on facebook and suggested it to Chantelle. Last Wednesday was just an info session and tonight are the trials. I'm not too sure what it exactly entails, but at 6 o'clock tonight I guess I'll find out. I've never played netball a day in my life, but I've often wanted to, so they suggested I sign up for a Wing Attack or Wing Defense roll and just go from there.
Trials are tonight and then every Wednesday onwards are training nights - two hour sessions, that should be in the school gym so at least the weather won't bother us. In May the actual games start, so every Friday night I'll be there, although that is outside in another local town so it'll be inconvenient if it's raining! The sport plays until around September-ish, so that'll keep me as a busy little beaver until then. I just figured that I'd rather not have the life where I simply eat, sleep and work and see Taylor. Chantelle and I have been struggling to organise a movie night with Bianca, because it seems every suggested night somebody is busy! So this way Chantelle and I will have compulsory catch ups at least once a week!
Another girl, Maddie, might also be coming. I know her through Taylor as she lives and works with his best friend Luke on one of the farms around here. She's 18 and seems really nice so it'll be good to get to know her a bit more. I just hope that we all get onto the same team after tonight's session.

Playing sport meant buying some decent shoes, so while we were in town yesterday I hunted through Rebel Sport to find a pair.
Did you know the average pair of sneakers start at a whopping $120?
Yes, ok so they're decent shoes from decent brands like New Balance. I bought a pair of them when I was 15 for about $100 and I still use them every day to drive to and from work. Sure, the framing is poking through the material now but they're still very usable, just perhaps not as sports shoes anymore! So at least they last the distance, but sheesh! I went through glancing at all the prices, proper "netball" shoes were sitting about about $240, so we strolled down to the specials/end of lines deals. I finally found a great pair, size 8.5 (perfect fit for me) for $60 - down from $120. So of course I walked out of there with them (in a bag though!) and I've been wearing them around the house to try and wear them in a tad before tonight.

I'm feeling somewhat nervous because I'm not too sure how tonight will go, I know I won't be "perfect" at the game and I've got a heck of a lot to learn, I just hope I'm not too obviously useless at it! Catch the ball Kayger, please don't have butter fingers!! hahaha Please don't run with the ball Kayger, this isn't rugby. Might I also suggest not bouncing the ball either? Yeah, that'd look bad.

Now, to organise myself to go do some stapling on a few new fences on the job we've started up the road, and to encourage myself that I'm being rather well behaved by still having NOT opened the chocolate Tay got me for valentine's day...Dunno how long that will last though...

The weather here is atrocious lately. We've been getting soaring temperatures of over 30 degrees almost daily, and at night the humidity is often unbearable, it's been sitting anywhere between 60-70%. I'm so tired at the moment because I just haven't been able to sleep! Then there's the rain, it'll rain when you least expect it to, and when it does rain it does so in an amount that is more annoying than anything. It just makes everything slippery and then the wind dries it up again. A week or so ago we got 15mm overnight, which was a great dumping. We're lucky though as we don't have any fires like other parts of the country and Aussie do...there was one a bit further up north on Waitangi Day, but that burnt through about 3-4 hectares of scrub, not 300-400 hectares like everywhere else...