28th August

This day I had my university Open Day, where a whole bunch of high school students from around New Zealand came to my university to see the different courses that were on offer. I volunteered to help, being a campus guide. Pretty much everywhere we had these cupcakes, which I mistakingly ate too many of, and felt quite ill for most of the day. But oh boy they were good! The blue ones tasted like bubblegum and I think we decided that the yellow ones tasted of a mixture between banana and vanilla.

29th August

The next day, my boyfriend Conaugh and I trained up the coast to stay at his Mum's house for the weekend. It was basically an excuse to get away from the city, to be cooked for and looked after (his Mum makes the best lasagne) and to also have a bath together that actually fits us both in. We got to experience what warmth feels like (student rental properties just don't have insulation) and sat in front of the fire all night, as we watched The IT Crowd and cuddled up to the puppy Suzie.

31st August

On one of the last days of mid-semester break Conaugh and I went to the local City Gallery (which, to my dismay was the first time I ever went, even though I have lived in the city for almost three years). Which there has been an exhibition on called Demented Architecture, where there are a couple thousand white lego pieces on a long table and the public are encouraged to come and build towers and castles and whatever their hearts' desire. 

One of my friends works at the City Gallery and he said that there's a man who comes in almost all day every day to build something new, he has built a tomb with a mummy and other trinkets inside with another tomb over top, it's really quite something! I think Conaugh and I ended up spending an hour there playing with the bricks watching the other children build their towers, and one girl making heart shapes and putting them on top of all the other towers previously built.

8th September

I got to meet up with my good friend Heather recently, which I haven't been able to see in such a long time. We walked down to the waterfront (stopping by at the supermarket to get snacks) and had a cute picnic. A big group of ducks and seagulls decided to join us, which Heather trained one of them to eat out of her hand, until it got all confident and tried to eat the food she had dropped on herself and started pecking at her! We got to have a lovely catch up as we don't get to see each other often as she has moved away. I do miss her, and all my other friends I have met online that I don't get to see because they've moved away or live too far away for me to see them at all.

10th September

I have recently decided that I need to cut down on all the unnecessary sugars I eat, which mainly consists of all the fizzy drinks and artificial juices. This means I have finally decided to become a tea person. Being half English I'm surprised it's taken me 21 years to come around, I just never liked the traditional English Breakfast tea that my Dad drinks all day every day. I have however found out that I like the sweeter teas. I have picked up this Blackcurrant & Apple one by Healtheries which I am loving, it almost tastes the same as Ribena! I'm trying to branch out and start a collection of teas, so if you have any suggestions on flavours or brands, let me know!

22nd September

Last Tuesday was date night for the boyfriend and I. We went to this cute restaurant called Arther's, which seems like an old house converted into a restaurant because of all the pokey rooms and how it's layed out. We each ordered a roast lamb which by goodness, was the best roast dinner I have had in a long time! Before our food arrived we discovered a shelving unit with a range of board games, so we got to play Dominoes and Checkers, the competitive sides in both of us coming out.

It's definite that this restaurant is going to become our "usual" because it's just so darn cute!

19th September

Last night I had two of my close friends' 21st birthday parties to go to. One was my flatmate Ella, which we went out to dinner at Viva Mexican and I ordered the very spicy chicken soup (I couldn't manage to finish it all so I embarrassingly asked for a container to take the rest home with me), then the whole table sung Happy Birthday to Ella, very loudly so that the rest of the restaurant goers joined in, much to Ella's disgust. Afterwards I went to my friend Chris' birthday at his flat, which was actually where Conaugh flatted last year. I drunk responsibility and danced and sung very loudly, which has together made me a very tired girl today. It was a great time at both parties, lets just hope that next year they don't both decide to have it on the same night for the third year running!

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I hope you enjoyed this little catch-up post, I am going to try my absolute darndest to get back into blogging. This week I actually have a Lush Bloggers event to go to, which I am going to photograph and write up a post about!

I hope you're all having a great day, let me know what you've been up to the past month since I've vanished

- Louise