1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I were in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
3. Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor’s having my brain and heart removed so I can be promoted to our management team.
4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from vacation. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over.)
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
8. Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
9. I’ve run away to join a different circus.
10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Lucille’ instead of Steve.

Right, so  obviously my 30daysofme blog post mission is over and out… and I have to say I quite enjoyed updating this thing more often than once a year haha!  Now my problem is to keep that up so I’m going to do my best… but I am a bit ‘all talk no action’ sometimes so we shall see… so if you notice I haven’t updated in a couple days or so PLEASE email/tweet/kick me and tell me to sort my shite haha.

Ok I fully intende to write an actual blog post tonight but as per usual I’m too sleepy to be coherent… BUT I did find a cool website with questions just like the last 30 I did so I shall update with that tomorrow… hopefully!

sorry kids – what can I say… AJ is all talk no action sometimes! x

Pfffft there’s no way I’m gonna pick just ONE favourite song mate haha!   Here’s my top 15…

1. Be Yourself – Audioslave
2. Life is a Highway – Tom Petty
3. Side – Travis
4. Fishing for Lisa – The Feelers
5. Romeo & Juliet – The Killers
6. Yesterday to Tomorrow – Audioslave
7. One Step Closer – Linkin Park
8. My Fathers Eyes – Eric Clapton
9. 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton
10. Phlex – Blindspott
11. Take it Easy – Eagles
12. Shadow of the Day – Linkin Park
13. How Bizarre – OMC
14. Dreaming – Scribe
15. Building a Mystery – Sarah McLachlan

There’s absolutely no way I could pick just one fav song cos I have different songs for different moods and they’re all my favs.

In the past month I’ve learnt that I can handle being pretty much thrown in the deep end at work without any massive dramas!  After only a month in my new job my supervisor flitted off to Tenerife for two weeks (lucky lady haha!) so I was without her expertise.  I ended up loving it to be honest!

I’ve also learnt that people will always first assume that I’m an Australian and not a Kiwi… ever since I started my new job not one person has first said “Is that a New Zealand accent?” haha it’s ALWAYS Australia!

Another thing I’ve learnt is that some people are just stuck in their ways and it’s easier to just work around them rather than try to get them to change to a more logical way…  (Thank god these people only exist in my life during the hours of 8.30am – 4.30pm & I get to deal with them via telephone/email… otherwise I’d go mental!)

I’ve also learnt I have great patience… actually I knew that one already but it’s just been tested to the limit this month haha.

Anyways…. how boring is this post!? sorry but it is what it is. xx

I’ve picked a photo of me at my leaving party back in Jan/Feb 09 and a photo taken back in August of this year.

I’ve changed quite a lot since last year and I pinpoint that change starting when I left my family in New Zealand back in Feb 2009 to move here to the UK.  Making that big of a move takes courage and since then I’ve lost a bit of weight and done some travelling, both on my own and with family, which has had quite a profound impact on me.  I find travelling on my own such a buzz and it’s encouraged me to have a level of confidence that just didn’t exist before.

It’s definitely been a year of growth that’s for sure!  I’ve learnt not to give a shit what anybody thinks and to just be myself… an oddball!

I’m doing this 30-day challenge because I wanted to be not so much of a slack-ass minx when it came to updating this bloggy thing.  I thought it might get me used to updating every day or every other day so that when it was finished I could go it alone… buuuuuut now I’m thinking I’m gonna need another list of questions haha.

Also, I wanted to show more of my true self I guess. Some of the questions on this thing required quite a bit of honesty where it’s often easier to just lie and make up something not quite so embarrassing or revealing.  I can say though that I’ve been honest throughout… which feels pretty good.

Kinda like I’m embracing my uniqueness and rebelling against becoming a Leeming…. you know, the old-school arcade game where the wee Leemings follow the one in front…. until before they know it they’re falling off a bloody cliff or something!

Hmmmm maybe a sheep analogy would’ve been better on this occasion… but then I’d probably end up get the sheep-shagging jokes from any Brit’s who read this hahaha.

Anywho… that’s me done with this post.

My friends are bloody awesome and that is a factamundo! They are spread out all over the world… some I’ve known since birth, some I met years ago at school and some I’ve never even met at all in person!

You see, I love my laptop (and more so my iPhone these days haha) because most of my friends live in there! Over the years I’ve made a few solid online-friends who have seen me through my ups and downs whilst not actually being there to physically give hugs… I get cyber-hugs!

I’m a bit of a loner if I’m being honest and I don’t have a huge amount of friends… but I like that.  I actually love that I can converse with most of my friends via Twitter/Facebook/Email/Text as it leaves me free to be on my own… whilst still being social if that makes any sense at all?  Some might think that it’s absurd to prefer that over meeting up with friends in person but I disagree.  That’s totally old-school! I have friends that are local but it’s also wicked to be able to have a Twitter conversation with someone in London or Northern Ireland or America! How else can you have a conversation with like 5 people at once… in different countries! I can be in a total downer of a mood and my Twitter friends from afar are there every time to buck up my spirits and I adore them for that.  I only hope I am returning the favor enough when the roles are reversed and I’m needed to be the bucker-uperer haha. Wow what an awesome word!

My Kiwi friends are so far away but we still manage to keep in touch – mostly on Facebook where I usually vent my frustration or general goings-on so they can stay in the loop.  Actually, I’ll take this chance to apologise to my not-so-close friends or friend-of-a-friend-acquaintances who probably get pissed off when I totally take over their live feed with my updates haha… just hide me already if you don’t like it! (Hmmmm probably pointless writing that last bit cos chances are anybody who that relates to has already hidden my updates so won’t see the update about the link to this blog… but it’s typed now!)

Anyways… all my friends know who they are and what they mean to me.  I am a total retard sometimes but they still love me – and I love them for that (and the fact that they’re just as random and retarded haha) oh and once you’re my friend you’re pretty much stuck with me for life… bahahahahahah SUX to be you!

hehe what would you find in my bag? um EVERYTHING but a flippin kitchen sink most likely!

• Book – Eat, Pray, Love
• Nurofen Plus
• Filofax
• Lottery draw from work
• Headphones
• Car keys
• Impulse deodorant x 2
• Pens
• Perfume – Kylie Minogue’s ‘Darling’
• Lip balm x 2
• NHS Appointment for wisdom teeth
• Vaseline for tatt
• Bepanthen crème for my tatt
• M&S bag
• Wallet
• Foundation, mascara
• Empty Ribena bottle
• Lip gloss tin “Queen of Fucking Everything”
• Kleenex
• Hairband
• Elastoplast
• iPhone
• Eye drops
• Tampons
• Chewing gum
• Clock in card for work
• Metro Centre map

OK so that’s it… hey a gal needs what she needs alright!

Dear Mum & Daddyo,

Thank you Mum for having a bung uterus because if you had one in working order I wouldn’t have been adopted by the best parents in the world! I honestly thank the Universe for bringing us together.

I love you more than words can express.

I miss you so much sometimes that I have to make a conscious effort to put you out of my mind because it’s just too hard to be so far away.

I know you want me to come home desperately but I have to do what’s right for me and right now that’s being where I am.

Even though you’ll never probably end up reading this I want to thank you for giving me the most awesomest childhood and life in general! I’ll repay you by not putting you into an old-persons home when you’re really really really old haha.

Love you lots and lots and lots and lots and lotsa!

AJ xx

P.S. – Sorry for all the grey hairs and wrinkles I’ve caused over the years! but you can stop worrying now cos I’ve done good.

• CRAVING (noun) -great or eager desire; yearning.

Hmmmmmm my biggest craving life-wise these days is to travel to the USA.  It’s a weird thing cos my whole plan was to come and live in the UK so I could explore the UK and Europe… but ever since I got here last year I’ve had this obsession with the States.  Originally I planned to ‘do the States’ on the way back to NZ when I moved back home permanently but that date when I venture home seems to be getting further and further away… so I’m struck by this overwhelming desire to plan a trip to New York or something much much sooner. Of course my German friend Sophie (who I met on my train trip across Ireland from Dublin to Galway earlier this year) is now living in the States as a nanny and she’s constantly putting gorgeous photos of NYC up on Facebook! SO jealous… and yeah it’s making this craving sooooooooo intense haha.

Food-wise my craving right this second is for another JD… and some mango sorbet! ohhhhhh I love sorbet and used to get it all the time at Eastgate mall back home in Christchurch. Actually I’m constantly craving NZ food these days… often I’ll get a craving for McDonalds but it’s for the NZ Maccas because the UK Macca’s is Feral with a capital F.

I really miss Maggi 2-min noodles from NZ (that I cook for 10mins haha) and um Lindaur Fraise (I can only find Brut here), ohhhh and MOST of all I get cravings for Mum’s mince pie – she is just the bestest cook in the world!