I've been incredibly busy with lots and lots of things.

Firstly, my Pokemon website Psypoke got a huge overhaul with a completely new template and a new backend that hopefully futureproofs the site for Generation 5, if that exists. The Great Refactor was an idea I had in November that actually carried through, so the code is nice and tidy, and the template has been sitting there for six years or so, so it was nice to have a fresh new look for Pokemon Platinum's release.

Secondly, I've been doing a bit of overtime at work - two weeks ago, I did four days of overtime with both good and bad meals to compensate. Microwaved food is seriously disgusting. The meal I had was named "Delicious Chicken Breast" and it should have been called "It's A Trap". There's been a huge amount of indecisiveness over the way that the menus and the UI are designed, and the UI coders suffer as a result. We're getting so much work piled on us, we'll be doing three days of overtime next week and three more the week after.

Thirdly, last weekend, I went with some friends to the 'Naki where we stayed at someone's grandparents place, only to get up at 7am the next day and scale the steep heights of Mt Taranaki. And omg, it was one hell of a climb. I was so incredibly unfit, I was struggling each step of the way. What made it really bad was a section of the mountain was just scree (loose rocks) so you'd take a step and slide down. I kept complaining about negative progress and whatnot, but four and a half hours later I was standing on top of the mountain, over 2.5km above sea level. The view was shrouded by clouds but in the gaps there was the splendour of the New Zealand landscape, seeing as far east as Central Plateau itself. My annual exercise for the year can now be checked off and I can mark this as an achievement to be proud of.

We had some spare money in our flat account, so we hit the town and went to a classy restaurant on Cuba St called the Matterhorn, where I had an awesome steak and shared some Bordeaux wine with my flatmates. Steak is my hero, it makes me calm.

A few weeks ago, we also had the annual Newtown Fair, where I bought some delicious ginger fudge, that I still haven't touched because I feel bad for eating so much bad food :(

And finally, I am officially a New Zealand citizen. Take that Winston Peters!

Blahblahblah blah blahblah, blahblahblah. Blahblahblah blah blah. Blahblah, blahblahblah. Blahblahblah blah blah blah. Blahblah, blahblahblah. Blahblahblah blah blah blah blahblah blahblah blahblahblahblah blah blah blah blahblah blahblah STRAWBERRY FARE blahblahblahblah blahblah blahblah blah blah. Blahblahblah blah blahblah, blahblahblah. Blahblahblah blah blah. Blahblah blahblah blahblahblahblah blah blah blah blahblah blahblah blahblahblahblah blahblah blahblah blah blah.

I've had a pretty damn awesome week. I got to spend time with family and friends, eat lots of delicious food (that I took pictures of, don't worry) and I graduated in two degrees that were the result of four years' hard work and divine intervention.

Fantastic.

I spent all of Wednesday with Debs. We went to see Iron Man, which was rather disappointing in my opinion. The story and the villain was predictable, the fight scene was short...and the physics were completely wrong. Also,
1. Build robot arm and leg.
2. ???
3. SUCCESSFUL ROBOT!
I got to spend some time on the Internet (which explains the rushed post below this one) before we went for dinner at St. Tropez. We shared escargot; I had a nicely done steak for mains and a tart au citron for dessert - she had braised duck and creme brulée.

I wanted to meet up with Casey and Jesse on Thursday, but neither of them were in. Instead I spent half the day fixing the Internets for my dad, since he'd decided to ditch Woosh for ihug. I spent the rest of the day catching up with friends and lecturers at Uni, before going with the family to Mikano in Mechanics Bay for dinner. Tom wasn't working there that day. Whether this is fortunate or unfortunate is for you to decide. But the dinner was nice and dessert was superb - I had another steak and a nut trifle. Trifles for the win, seriously.

Friday graduation brought about some weather uncertainty. Andrew picked me up before picking Deanna up. We were a bit strapped for time, so he decided to drop me at Uni so I could rush in for the Maths breakfast. And what a delicious breakfast it was as well - there were fruit kebabs and toasted croissants and danish pastries and garghharg*drool*. There was also some champagne but I decided to take the sober route for the day.

I rushed to the CompSci breakfast two floors above and to my delight I managed to swipe the last custard tart as I entered. It was good seeing lots of people I knew and catching up with more of my lecturers - telling them I'd gotten my dream job, and thanks for putting me through all of that, and so on. Many thanks to Ann for including Python in the CS111 cirriculum, it has become quite useful at work :p

Rain threatened to cancel the procession at 9.30am but a window of opportunity arose and we quickly marched down to the Town Hall, a bit wet, but still jovial. Upon arrival, who should we find but HSIN-YAO?!, who had previously not existed for the past three years or so. We have pictures as proof, in case you don't believe us.

Trudging back up to Uni, I took some photos with some of my lecturers and old Clock Tower workmates, before heading to the Science brunch for some delicious chocolate cake, and finally to Albert Park for some more photos with the youth. It was all too short lived as we rushed down to the Town Hall again for the ceremony. Mad props to Andrew for high-fiving the chancellor!

Dinner was with my CompSci friends at Santa Lucia in Mission Bay. It was a really good atmosphere, with live music and dancing. I was in such a good mood that I asked Debs for a dance. Only to be refused. But apparently Amy was keen, so I tried to teach her some Ceroc moves without looking too uncoordinated, and it seemed quite good O_o So hooray for that. We migrated to Amy's house for 4 hours of mafia (again, I was promptly killed in the second game I played. I blame you, Casey!!).

I spent Saturday with Mat, Tom and Richard, playing Ticket to Ride in the afternoon, then heading for dinner with the CSC + Mat and Richard at Jimmy Wong's on Lorne Street in the city. It's some kind of fusion east-west place, and I had some wagyu beef which was really disappointing. My parents can cook better stir-fry than that. Unsatisfied, we went to the dessert place next to the Civic Centre for some ice cream and pearl milk tea (I had a double scoop of mango and cheesecake ice cream!).

Sunday was a chance to say goodbye to the youth group. It was a Mothers' Day service, then a quick lunch at New Lynn Shopping Mall, before spending some time with Debs and then my family. We rushed to the airport at 7pm, to find out my flight had been cancelled...engineering problems, or something. I was really lucky to get a flight at 9pm on Air New Zealand, for no extra cost. What's more, my luggage was overweight so I had to stuff some clothes into hand luggage. So while the flight was a bit chaotic to start with, I managed to get back to cold, cold Wellington without further troubles.

I wish I could relive this week again. :3

It's really hot today x_x We had Stanley's Roast for lunch, and then I went to Auntie Val's house to fix up her computer (Intarwebz troubles). Matt and Holly stayed in the car with the radio/fan on, so when I went to start the car...yup...flat battery. So I called Cinta and Brendon came over to jumpstart me and I was on my merry way home.

Anyway, Friday was Sonny's 21st party thing, so we went to Dolce Vita on High Street for dinner. And I was incredibly hungry so I ordered a steak with parmesan cheese on it. And after devouring it within a few minutes, I was still hungry, and Sonny couldn't finish his pizza, so I had some of that as well. The cake was good though :3 (The cake was not a lie). And after that, we went to play pool at the same place, where I proceeded to fail miserably and lost a 5 ball lead to Jess -.- But at least me and Jess beat Sonny and Steven, so all in all, it was a good night.

I went over to Debs' place yesterday, where Alice, Jo and Cinta had crashed after New Year's. They wanted, with Reuben, to play some Risk. So we did. And some extreme hax by Alice saw her take the first two games with no real competition. Seriously, she had such easy missions like "Destroy 15 enemy units in one turn" or "Conquer one continent", and she had hax dice rolling skills too. Reuben won the last one..haha, and in that game, we conspired to eliminate Alice first.

Anyway, we had a really cool night, just hanging and chatting. For some reason beyond my comprehension, the subject of a dinner party was brought up, where the guys cooked for the girls. And the next thing I knew, Reuben and I had volunteered to do just that O_o So, today, we did. We cooked a three course meal for Alice, Jo and Cinta.

We started off with bread and dip for entrees, then proceeded with sirloin steak on salad and salmon, with roast potatoes. And to top it off, we had a strawberry and mango sorbet, thanks to Reuben's Magic Bullet.

It was a really nice dinner. I was quite impressed with how well it turned out, given the amount of planning we did. My only regret was the steak, which is overcooked and ruined :( But at least it was tasty, so that was some consolation. The sorbet was really nice and the bread was really nice, so all in all, it was a good night.

Of course, there was a catch, and the girls are cooking us dinner next week. Mwahahaha.