Limes. Fresh lime juice. Adds that little bit of sweet and sour flavour to the soup... delicious! Before Dave left for Australia, we took him up to the Wairarapa for a bit of a tour, and on the way back we stopped by this fruit and vegetable place where I bought some huge capsicums, some lemons and some limes. While the capsicums are almost gone, I still have plenty of lemons and limes. I made lemon chicken one day, and apart from burning the chicken a little bit, it was really good. Yay for expanding my cooking horizons!

Been for karaoke twice in the past week. I "blame" Petey (King Pededede as his friends call him, his birthday was last week) and Owen. It's good fun, although I usually end up with no voice afterwards. Also, apparently Lift and Soju is a good combination, but I'm still ambivalent on that one.

Last week, I met up with the guys from the Tongariro Crossing to play some board games. We played a game of "Power Grid", where you're a power plant owner trying to supply Germany with power fueled from rubbish, coal, oil, uranium or environmentally-friendly sources. The game is interesting because the person in the best position will get the last turn to buy resources and build buildings, although this didn't seem to faze Jono, who pretty much steamrolled his way to victory.

After consuming a Burger Wisconsin burger and several greasily delicious sides, we wound down the night with a few games of Dominion. Next time, I think we're going to try Agricola or Puerto Rico. Looking forward to it!

I hate dress up. I don't see the appeal of wearing something uncomfortable and awkward for the sake of entertainment. Beth had a flatwarming last Saturday with a theme of "pre-Internet" (it had taken them a month to get connected, I probably would have died by then) so it was pretty open. There were pirates and 1950s housewives and flappers and in my entire 5 seconds of considering what to wear, I donned a bedsheet on top of my clothes and called it a toga. Apparently this gives me "M4D PR0P5". Go look at the photos on Facebook.

Sunday was pretty busy too. After music in the morning, we had lunch at Great India and then went to Sunni's for some rounds of Carcassonne and Dominion. And that was great, it's been a while since I played either of them and I didn't do too badly. It took up most of the afternoon so I didn't get a chance to have my usual Sunday nap, so I was kinda tired when I went to Vaughan's for a delicious lamb roast.

I wasn't feeling too well on Monday so I took the day off, but I managed to achieve a lot of things (namely sleep). Psypoke is chugging along nicely, although it's a bit slow at times, and work is okay. Still waiting on news on my next exciting project...

Smudge's owner has finally taken to putting a collar on him, so it's kinda like we can't feed him anymore. He still visits us often (the collar has a bell on it, so while I'm at home and I hear a random jingle sound, I know there's a cat at the door) and he still loves being scratched and playing with my keys, but yeah, it's like the collar is a "hands off" signal so no more foods. Or maybe a little bit once in a while.

Yeah, life is alright at the moment. Really just waiting for that big news.

Happy Wellington Anniversary.

My injuries have been healing well and the swelling and bruising in my right eye has greatly decreased. The ophthamologist said I didn't have to take so many eye drops as well, and that's awesome because eye drops cause me so much agony. I got my replacement glasses from OPSM too so I'm pretty much back on track with my life.

Work has been going well. Last Friday, we farewelled our iPhone producer and bid him the best for architecture school. We shared our "last" drinks with him at Southern Cross, which was unfortunately right across the road from that incident, so I was extra careful when heading home. Fortunately, I made it back without any problems, this time.

Saturday was pretty uneventful, save for some badminton in the morning. Jono (Dall) and Dave came over to watch a movie with Charlotte in the evening, but we played Dominion while waiting for the DVD to burn. Sunday was just pouring with rain so I tried to stay indoors as much as possible. We did go for Laser Strike for Jono's (Dixon) birthday then to Cha for dinner afterwards, and finally back to their flat for some board games including Sunni's newest acquisition, Carcassonne. Those Germans really know how to make board games, huh?

Today, Jono, Char, Dave, Beth and I bundled into my car and we roadtripped up to Lindale Park on the Kapiti Coast. There's a cafe there and some specialty shops for Kapiti-branded cheese, ice cream, wine and honey, as well as a farm with lots of adorable animals like bunnies, chickens, calves, goats, donkeys, alpacas, guinea pigs and several ducks and geese on site. We drove a bit further north and lazed about on Waikanae beach for a while before heading back to Wellington.

I'm tired.

Edit: I've just received a text from my brother-in-law and I am an uncle to a baby boy, weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces! Mother (my sister) is exhausted but doing well. Squee!!

Wanted to play badminton after church on Sunday but I guess because it's a public holiday, the courts were locked up so we ended up going to Matt's house nearby and playing Rock Band, Raiden 3, and even Boggle.

I went over to Richard's house on Monday to try out his new board game - Agricola. The silly game took us four hours to complete, but it was kinda fun nevertheless. Maybe we'll be faster when we get better. I also snuck in some table tennis with Hsin Yao and of course the family pool and also the piano were well used that day. I led everyone in a rousing chorus of "The Tide is High"...

The next day, the rain came.

Despite the wet conditions, I met up with my workmates at Sun World in Newmarket for a delicious yum char. The place was absolutely packed and for good reason too; the food was tasty and the variety was fantastic, and all for a very reasonable $19. Jono and Charlotte went their separate ways but the Sidhe crew met up again at Bryce's house where we played Dominion and Cranium! Fun times.