Overtime
Monday October 12, 2015
It's been a while since I've done such heavy overtime. It's made me remember how disruptive it is to life in general; gym schedule went out the window, food that I had planned to cook started to rot, I was tired and became less tolerant of people as the week progressed. By the time Friday hit, I was completely over it and couldn't stay past 8.30pm. All technical possibilities for solving our problems had been exhausted. I ended up escaping to Pan de Muerto with the Frenchies. It was Vincent's last day, and I had unfortunately missed yet another departure speech because I'd been working.
The weekend was full of sunshine, but all I wanted to do was sleep and relax. I did my regular badminton and gym exercise, but I also caught the final show of the NZIF - a battle of improv between New Zealand and the international artists that were visiting from the UK, Taiwan, Japan, France, Germany and Australia. Such amazing talent and full of laughs and feels, it was exactly what I needed after a long week of work.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:01am on Monday October 12, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 
It's Over :(
Sunday August 30, 2015
Wellington on a Plate 2015 has come to a close. I've been so busy eating that I've fallen behind on my food blogging, but I will be trying to catch up as fast as I can over the next few days. How much did I spend? How many burgers did I eat? What was the best and worst? You'll find out soon! It's back to cooking, gymming, and all those other routine things I do during the week. It was good having my parents down last week, and I also caught up with Reuben, Shereen, Sam, Andrew and Julia. We visited all the regular Wellington sights - Makara, the wind turbine, Mt Victoria, Oriental Parade, the Weta Cave and so on. We had a quick squizz around the Lux Festival too. Oh, and yeah, we ate heaps of food.
As a result of all these things happening, I missed a chance to go back to the US for my big secret project. Instead, I'm locked away in a room with special access, working away by myself lonesome self until Rob returns next week. Things are progressing... but that's about all I can say! Yep.
I was out with Joe on Thursday night to see Suddenly! A Musical, an improv show where a musical is created before your very eyes! That night we saw the epic tale of a recently engaged couple who return to Wellington from the OE with their cat Trixie, only to have her lost in Mumbai (it rhymes with Hataitai) due to the carelessness of the baggage handlers! I can't imagine how difficult it must be to try and come up with rhyming couplets on the spot like that, but these guys were amazing and it was such a good show. So impressed, congratulations to Playshop crew and Jen the director!
Posted by Jeremy at 11:40am on Sunday August 30, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
May
Monday May 11, 2015
May has been pretty damn busy for me, and it's only going to get busier. There were heaps of social things to keep me occupied, but more than anything, the big house move is on Saturday and that's been the cause of most of my stress.
We started off the month with Laser Strike at the complex on Tory St for Dianne's birthday, after some sushi train and a sneaky cocktail from CGR Merchant and Co. On Saturday, I saw the final night of Definitely Not The Babysitter's Club, an improv show presented by the cast of Definitely Not Witches. Today's topic was a rival babysitter's club, so cue awesomeness and chaos as each of the six actors on stage juggled three or four characters each. It was amazing. We chilled at BATS for a bit and then helped Joe pack down the stage before retiring to his house for a few drinks.
Then, on Sunday, we said our farewells to Josh and Christine at the Southern Cross, while following the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight on a live blog. Finally, early on Monday morning, Vincent flew in from Nepal via Australia, safe and sound after the devastating 7.8 earthquake that had hit the region. I caught up with Ben at Fork and Brewer on Tuesday. He'd been in town over the weekend, filming for the 48 Hour film festival. It was good to chit chat and see that him and Jill had settled in Melbourne alright, and said that I would someday be back for more food. And of course, one of those chicken parmas he keeps going on about.
We had some torrential rain hit the city on Thursday. The full force of northerly winds blew all the rain straight into my face, soaking the entire front portion of my jeans. I found out that several others had arrived quite soggy and miserable. I managed to secure a fan heater for myself to start drying all my wet clothes, but unfortunately it overloaded the circuit and shut down a few computers on my side of the office.
We celebrated Vincent's birthday at the Boat Cafe on Oriental Parade. One of his friends is part of the waiting staff there, and was telling me about their entry for the burger competition for Wellington on a Plate 2015 - a mussel and kumara burger - that was currently available for patrons to try. So, unable to resist the chance to start the WOAP journey early, I agreed to give it a go and provide feedback. The burger had good texture, perhaps a bit too much bun on the bottom, but a lovely crunch from the pickles, green salad and lightly toasted bread. The patty was interesting and I do like that they chose some adventurous ingredients, but I couldn't taste the kumara at all, and wouldn't have been able to tell there was any if I hadn't been told. Several others on the table agreed, and I suggested that maybe they could enhance the flavour with more kumara, maybe making it a bit more chunky, or adding something with a bit of kick like a chilli salsa. We shall see what the Boat Cafe offers in August!
On Saturday after badminton (and a nap), I joined Sam and Sarah (and 2000 others) at the War Memorial to see if we could spot Prince Harry doing his rounds around Wellington. Sure enough, at 4.30pm, he arrived at Pukeahu and went inside the memorial for a bit, before walking around greeting the crowd and shaking hands. A very personable, down to earth guy, I must admit! I got some good, close pictures of him and tried to get him to fistbump me, but alas it just wasn't my day. Sam and Sarah were much more successful and managed to grab a handshake! I was so tired after gym that day that I gatecrashed the kids' apartment and chilled for a bit before heading out to Grill Meats Beer with Will and Phil. We texted Mana and Mike as well, but they were pretty cosy at home, so we headed there after dinner for a while. They got Josh and Christine's couches, so it's finally feeling a bit more homely in their flat.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:24am on Monday May 11, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Definitely Not Anything Special Today
Sunday March 1, 2015
It's been a tough week. I've had to cram six days' work into four days (rather reminiscent of what happened on Auckland anniversary weekend), and towards the end of the week, both my lead artist and I have been under increasing pressure to complete our tasks as well as co-ordinate other members of the team and ensure we have a build to send out for our milestone. There have been a lot of distractions around our area and we've just found it difficult to focus and be productive. There was a big news bombshell dropped on us on Friday, as well as being Josh's last day at work. It's sad to see people go; we've lost so many in the past couple of months. It's not an indication of the company's health, I think people are just at that point in their lives, all coincidentally. I can't expect people to stay forever, but at the same time... it just seems to have happened all so suddenly. Sigh.
So I was thankful to Christine and Jen, as well as their co-stars Rose, Abby and Caitlin, for their performances at BATS Theatre in an improv show called Definitely Not Witches. Laughter truly is the best medicine, and the show on Friday was so impressive that I booked tickets for the Saturday show too. It was good to hang with friends and go for dinner and have the week behind me, but it was a bonus to be able to be entertained and laugh so much on two successive nights.
Yesterday was the PikPok family day too. We started off at Mission Inflatable just by the train station in the morning, then to Thorndon pools for a barbeque and dip in the afternoon. We learned that we aren't as durable as we thought we were, but still had heaps of fun on the obstacle course, mechanical bull and various other bouncy arenas. Didn't come away with too many injuries! The pools were a bit more relaxed, I busied myself with food preparation and cooking, but couldn't resist the chance to dive into the water just before lunch was ready. The spa was pretty relaxing too; again, it was just awesome to hang out with cool people whose company I enjoy. After heading home for a quick nap, I went into town again for a Chinese New Year dinner at Big Thumb, then the last night of Definitely Not Witches and finally a good solid two hours of karaoke at K Zone.
At some point heading home, I did let it slip that today was the 1st of March.
But it doesn't matter what day it is, people still turned up for a good time and I really enjoyed this weekend. Thanks to all who made it so memorable, I'm truly blessed to have people like you as colleagues and friends.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:33am on Sunday March 1, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Drama
Sunday June 29, 2014
drama ˈdrɑːmə/ (noun)
1. a play for theatre, radio, or television.
2. an exciting, emotional, or unexpected event or circumstance.
This week has been dramatic for several reasons, covering both of these definitions.
Work-wise, the week has been pretty average actually, I've been looking at some bugs from our World Cup update release of Flick Kick Football Legends and had to get deep into the advertisement SDKs to figure out what was going wrong. It's tough having to trawl through other people's code, and when you find things wrong, you are often unable to do anything about it except notify the company and wait for the next update. I've learned a bit about how it all works though, but that didn't stop me from coining another quotable phrase - you can't spell sads without ads. Waw waw.
One of my friends has been directing a women-only improv show at BATS called "Taking off the Bird Suit", and I took the opportunity to see this on Tuesday, their opening night. It was filled with hilarity and awesome, with songs about exploring space and stories about witches. All proceeds from the show are being donated to Wellington Rape Crisis, so great work on this Christine and good on you for donating to such a noble cause. In addition to this, Damon's improv classes finished up with a graduation show on Thursday, so we were treated to more laughs at Wellington High School too. Good stuff!
On Friday, I caught up with Andy before he jetsetted to Melbourne, and then went to the Sprig and Fern to see another Andrew who had arrived back from Papua New Guinea, as well as several others who I hadn't seen in a while. There was a surprise guest there - Nats - who had unexpectedly turned up and announced she had been living in Wellington for work, so it was awesome catching up with all those people again, even if we didn't get to discuss all the ramifications of pre-destination.
Yesterday was Damon's Canadian-themed flatwarming party, where I tried poutine for the first time. Small world - I knew a few people from various other social circles there and had a chat to them, as well as having some good yarns with my workmates too. I was home quite late (by my standards) but managed to grab some brunch with the Fine Dining Club at Duke's on a brilliantly sunny Sunday morning.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:26am on Sunday June 29, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
What a Weekend
Sunday March 2, 2014
The weekend started out with a few drinks and pizza at the Sprig and Fern, and some healthy discussion on mildly controversial and polarising religious opinions. Following that, we headed back to the Greenhouse for some delicious black forest cake to celebrate a non-descript March holiday which happened to coincide with World Civil Defense Day. I had my suspicions but I was still pleasantly surprised and a little embarrassed with the attention, but the night was thoroughly enjoyable.
On Saturday, we had the PikPok Family Day Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Bowls Club. Though the day was a bit windy, the sun was glorious and the atmosphere chilled and relaxed. Charlie had found out about the aforementioned non-descript March holiday and had brought in some candles to stick in the cupcakes, it was very sweet. Thanks to a sign she had written, people well-wished me as the day progressed, again very touched by the sentiments but a little embarrassed with the attention, teehee. It was awesome to spend the day with cool people doing cool things, just out in the sun chit-chatting and playing bowls.
We ended up at the Gryphon Theatre at 8pm to catch the final night of the Fringe at the Gryphon, with three improv shows: Brooks and Brown in Literally Anything, Sketchual Healing and Here's a Thing. Mind-blowingly funny, absolutely amazing performances by all involved and just damn entertaining, capping off what was a brilliant day.
I've been house-sitting at Charles's place too, with his two kittens Hugs and Kisses. Adorable but so mischievous! They like following me around the house and they're extremely playful. I left the pantry open and they snuck in to have a look around; they got stuck in one of the large drawers in the kitchen as well. They'd go into my room and I'd try to carry them out, but since there's two, I'd get rid of one only to have the other sneak in, and repeat. Still, heaps of fun to play with, and I think they liked the attention too.
I've also been following Twitch Plays Pokemon, a social experiment giving 60,000 people the chance to control a Gameboy Emulator playing Pokemon Red. After 16 days, they've finally beaten the Elite Four and Champion but spawned several memes and a joke religion - Lord Helix the Omastar, Bird Jesus the Pidgeot, Flareon the False Prophet, so on and so forth. Highlight of the Elite Four battles would be level 36 Venomoth (nickname ATV, or All Terrain Venomoth) versus Lance's level 62 Dragonite. Due to some questionable AI programming, Dragonite kept using Barrier and Agility as they were "Psychic" attacks super-effective against Venomoth, and Venomoth had managed to Disable Hyper Beam and Poisonpowder Dragonite. Totally epic, and absolutely fascinating to watch the whole game unfold at the hands of thousands of people like that. A new adventure begins in just over two hours - what could it be!?
Today I was at church for the final in the series of "Things I Wish Jesus Never Said", and then out to Lyall Bay for Ekim Burgers with Jimmy and Charlie. After a solid afternoon nap, I was at Laundry with Jono, Andrew and Wei for dinner, then Fidel's for dessert.
My weekend has been super busy but full of amazing friends and fun times. Thanks guys, you rock.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:45am on Sunday March 2, 2014 :: 0 comments ::