New Zealand?

There are tentative plans in our household for a visit to New Zealand during the October school holidays.  'Fabulous!' you think.  What fun to plan.  But unfortunately, at this point we are a little bit stuck on actually being able to go part of the planning phase.

You see, when you have Leukaemia and an addition dose of a liver transplant, travel insurance companies seem inclined to laugh in your face when you suggest maybe they could insure you.

Rude, I know.

I've looked at a few places so far and they have a list of medical conditions that exclude you from getting travel insurance and whilst Leukaemia hasn't been on any of them, an organ transplant is. 

Thankfully, there is an organisation called Transplant Australia, of which I am a member.  They hold the Transplant Games (fun Olympic like games for transplantees) and there is a World Transplant Games which requires transplantees to travel somewhere in the world for the games.  Of course, they will need travel insurance for such a thing and so Transplant Australia has partnered with a company that will (in most cases) provide it. (AIG Travel Insurance for anyone interested)  Phew!

I rang them today and now need to get multiple medical forms and letters from my specialists stating my conditions and the status of said conditions and then I get to fax them off and then ring to talk to the insurance company's medical team to do an assessment of whether or not I can be insured.

And then, if they decide they will insure me, we will be able to get on with booking flights and planning our adventures.

So fingers crossed.

And, where would you suggest I visit if we do get to go?  I'm thinking awesome crafty places, cool shops and lots of nature places. 

We'll be going for 10 days with probably 6 in north island (MR has lots of family there) and 4 in south.  Already on our list is glow worm caves, natural hot pools, a big flying fox and a bit of snow and lots of green.  If they let us go at all...

Celebrity Stalking

http://chibird.com

Today I was reading Maggie Alderson's blog, Maggie Alderson's Style Notes, which I regularly do as I am a big fan of her books and columns.  I got to the bottom of the page, past the comments and saw a link to her instagram account.

You can imagine my next move.  Of course, I grabbed my phone and hunted her down, started following her and then looked at every single one of her pictures (in my defence, there is not a huge amount of them).  After which I felt like a bit of a stalker. 

I'm not a trashy magazine, celebrity loving sort of gal.  When asked that question of "Which three famous people would you invite to your dinner party?" I cannot instantly rattle off ten names, protesting my inability to narrow it down any further.

However, I have realised I am a bit of an author stalker.  Of the three 'celebrities' I follow via social media, all of them are authors.  I realised this this morning after I finished stalking Maggie Alderson.

I follow her blogs (she has two) and now her on instagram.  I also follow Zoe Foster on instagram.  And I first read her books because Maggie Alderson had done a front cover blurb on one of them.  Also, she is incredibly hilarious, has great beauty tips and Meowbert is awesome. I don't yet read her blog because I feel I would be tempted to just buy all of the beauty products she recommends.  And that would cost lots of money.  Of course, now that I have opened her blog so I could link it here I am destined to the failure of ever paying off my credit card.

My third author stalkee is Patrick Rothfuss, the author of The Name of the Wind, which after my first read, instantly became my most favouritest book of all time EVER. What a storyteller than man is.  I read his blog and follow him on facebook.  Each post is like a short story.  Totally excellent, completely satisfying. 

Not including the Australian blog world celebrities of which I follow a couple via their blogs and/or instagram, I don't follow any others.  No actors, models, sports stars.  And that's not to say I don't enjoy a movie, a bit of fashion or watching a game of sport (preferably cricket) on tv.  I totally do.  We have four drawers of movies here and two shelves of tv shows on dvd.  It is MR's thing.  And it is perfect to crochet alongside of a movie.

So it is interesting, but not overly surprising for me to note I am an author fan.  Maybe those three people would be the ones I would invite to a dinner party?  Poor Patrick Rothfuss might feel a bit out of place...  (although, reading his blog, I really don't think he would be at all)


 
Do you follow any celebrities via social media?  Who?  Are they all of a particular genre? 

 

This week...

we got a dishwasher. We haven't had one up til now and I am on cloud nine. Every time I put a dirty dish in it I get a big grin on my face and when I turn it on (twice so far) I have clapped my hands and bounced with glee.

I finished my Kindy reports a day early. This is big for me, usually I am the type that hands things in a day or two late. Being on time has never been my strong point. So to finish and hand them in a whole 24 hours before they are due was a super exciting and proud moment for me. It also meant a weekend ahead of no school work. *ahhhhhh*

I baked, twice. Sago and banana bread. Can you guess the reason why? (Hint: see point one) Baking and no dishes afterwards? My kind of bliss.

I caught up with my best friend for a movie (Monsters University) and waffles. We felt like we were in high school again as we both chose mint fudge choc chip ice cream, the flavour of choice from those years.

I bought a new pair of jeans and only paid $35 for them. Enough said.

I have managed to schedule in a don't-leave-the-house, pyjama-filled day of reading, blogging and relaxing.

I have indulged on naughty forbidden treats; blue brie and pate. Oh how I love them. I'm on antibiotics at the moment so I figure they will kill any bad things hiding in them. This is my justification anyhow.



And finally, this week marks the end of MR's break after finishing up on the mines after 6 years! Unfortunately he is not now living full time with me but instead we have swapped locations from when we were first going out. Now he will be in his country home town working at the family business and I am in Perth. We're back to (as many as we can possibly fit in) weekend visitations after two years of approximately one week of three visitations. I'm a bit sad about it but it also marks the start of the next chapter in our lives together and I'm sure I'll get used to it again. I'll be in Perth probably until the end of next year and then I'll be heading back to the country as well.


How has your week been?