Brrrr

It was so cold this morning that my windscreen had a layer of ICE on it, which I had to wash off before I could go anywhere. And by go anywhere, I wait ten minutes for the pathetic thing to defrost the window so I could see. So seriously Winter. And yet, the days are beautiful and sunny. I hope this holds for the weekend. Then I think I'll be looking forward to it a lot more.

My class on Tuesday meant that I spent Monday night (until Desperate Housewives) editing my piece with Hannah in it at work with Becs helping/doing big chunks. My AVID skills are so bad. Luckily we have all sorts of AVID jockeys at work. One helped me master the lasso tool. It just still seems so clunky. I can't wait until it starts to make some kind of sense.

Class was at ten on Tuesday. I got Rose to give me a lift down from work in the new Living Channel-branded Smart Car. It was the first time I'd been in a Smart Car, and it was quite weird. For a start you feel like Gulliver, and then everything's so folded up and fastened away it all looks too dinky too work. Car aside, class was good. I got really nervous about showing my piece, as I have the sneaky, and correct, suspicion that I'm the least camera-experienced in the class. Plus my editing sucks, as discussed above. But I was saved from that as instead we all talked through two of our doco ideas. I think Jeff and Play It Strange held up really well, and luckily, I'm good at talking about things. To the point that I'm actually looking forward to pitching in a few weeks, and thinking about going in for competitive pitching at some point. So I didn't lose face horribly in class. Maybe only the tutor, who I assured I could shoot and edit, will know my horrible secret.

After work, I met my parents in town at a friend Olivia's exhibition opening. Unlike a few of the Elam shows I've been to recently, the art was great. Unfortunately a great series that my parents loved sold just before they got there, cutting short my visions of the paintings hanging on my bare white walls...Apart from the lack of beer, the opening was lots of fun, and I ran into a few buddies, including one person that I just keep running into, in the nicest way (sounds mysterious huh? It is).

We went for dinner at Prego afterwards. Dad's still stoked after they sold the Sultan's property and got a nice write-up in the Herald last Saturday. Prego was great, I hadn't been there for ages, except for take out, and it reminded me of how good it is. We kicked off with some great oysters (I wish the season was all year) and calamari. Then I kept on with seafood, with a lovely char-grilled hapuka fillet. So good. We all sat outside, and they thoughtfully provided rugs, so we al sat around looking like old men under our blankets.

Today was a very frustrating day at work, where I couldn't get a whole bunch of stuff finished. On the plus side, I managed to hook my friend Morgan up with a researching job so he's in the office. It's funny, we haven't seen each other properly for ages, now he's in the next room. We went and had lunch together today, at this Japanese place I keep walking past. It's called Toki, and is in the back streets somewhere. It's really good. They have a different daily ten dollar special. Today was a deep fried pork lunchbox, with little side dishes, miso and cut up fruit. New favourite. Can't wait to take Olly there. And they play eighties classics.

Went to the gym when I finished today, for the first time in way too long. Seemed very busy, and everyone was very focussed and working hard. I didn't go for that long. It was good though; I'll go more. Supermarket followed, where I stocked up on pancake supplies and general junk for the weekend. Should be fun. I'm taking Jess and Mark down, leaving at twelve on Friday, assuming I can sneak away from work. We're all going for Yum Cha tomorrow, so I might mention it then, to avoid any surprise jobs.

Am a bit worried about warmth situation in Ohakune- after quick clothes inventory, I think the only way to keep warm will be to wear all clothes at once. At least now the revolting Ugg boot things will be in their element...One of the two guys coming just bailed, giving us a very estrogen heavy chalet. Will be interesting. Hope there are no warring parties. Sure there won't be. Although, there will be board games involved...(yes, we are VERY cool).

Of course, before any of that happens, there's Simon's Party at Crow tomorrow night, which promises to be a good one, with lots of Jagermeister flowing. Could be trouble, except that I am very restrained and will only pop in before getting lots of sleep before the drive on Friday.