Episode 17 ✈️ Anticipation for Auckland, Toddler Tales, Pranks & Vintage Wine

So it is a Monday and the customers definitely need me today . So , yeah , we'll see how we go , but I just wanted to loop back as to the update on my last pod . So much feedback and interactions . I am obsessed . I love you all and I'm fine .

I know that was like exciting to have new introduction music but then to end the pod on such a low because Danny was having a moment . I apologize . I'm just burnt out and totally need a break and there's just a few things weighing very heavily on my heart at the moment .

And , mate , I will cry at the drop of a hat for anything , but I feel like I'm really anxious right now , like I'm excited anxious that I'm getting on a plane tomorrow , but I'm also like just really I'm even breathing in a real short , like gaspy kind of breath . That's where I know that I'm like stressed about things and there is a lot to stress about .

I have a lot on my plate . I'm juggling , fricking life , but yeah , apologies for losing the plot at the end of the last pod . It didn't go my way . They tried to rope it back in and the more I thought about it , the more I was like I'm gonna cry , wrap it up . But hey look , I'm only normal and I do have feelings .

So apologies , but we'll move on from that and let's just say , when I'm back from Auckland , things will be significantly more upbeat and different , because I have some huge plans and my fabulous travel companion who , it's a godsend , we even managed to book a hotel because she's so spontaneous . It's crazy .

I announced to her on Saturday that I had some bookings that I had made and I was so excited but very nervous because , obviously , like , she is just the most spontaneous queen and I just was like , okay , well , yeah , that's great , but I don't go to Auckland if ever , and my social media or camera role is actually filled with screenshots of , like , interesting

and fun places and different types of deals and whatever . And I was like you know what I actually took last Thursday and I jotted them all down and I took a step back and I was like okay , okay . Anyway , I showed her this piece of paper at the pub on Saturday and she was like I'm not surprised .

But I'm just like okay , we're actually going to be quite busy because Danny has an itinerary . And I was like no , no , no , no , no , it's not that it's , if we happen to be in the vicinity of this this and this at this time when this is happening , well , it wouldn't be the worst thing . So I am overly excited about this Auckland trope .

It has it's kind of crept up quite quickly . I'm sitting here with an empty suitcase on my bed and I'm just sitting like what do I even pack ? I've got the dumb . I don't know how to pack anymore .

But yeah , we've got to get ourselves up to Auckland and that's , you know , that's probably the big step is to , you know , get on that plane and we've got some terrible weather coming in . I'm like not even surprised , but there is snow forecasted and even before the snow gets here , there is 70% chance of rain . I was like go away , just like .

You know , piss off until another day . Because it's one thing for me to , you know , not freak out about flying . I love planes but I hate flying . But to have bad weather in the mix , oh no , I'm not happy about it . Anxious excitement is engaged , that's for sure . I actually had a little person in the house last week .

It was really exciting and let me tell you from the bottom of my heart , I don't actually have that many friends that have kids .

So I was sitting at my desk minding my own business and my mum brought one of her co-workers daughters around to the house because her co-worker had an appointment and she was like it's cool , I'll take her back to my house and introduce her to Danny and we'll hang out and like , just , you know , do girly stuff . And I was like what ?

So I kind of had a bit of an inkling this was going to happen , but then , when it actually happened , I was like , oh , I'm not ready . So mum opened the front door and she was like and we put our jacket down here , we put our shoes on the shoe rack , and I was like , oh god , it's a little person .

Anyway , mum had kind of told her that Danny was in the house and she says go up the hallway and look for Danny . Danny's my daughter . And so this little person she's barely three comes around the corner and just the look she gave me . I honestly think she thought that I was about the same age as her , but I wasn't .

And she was just shocked and mum was like that's Danny . And I was trying so hard to be so hard to be welcoming and like hi , but it's just , I can't . I don't know how to be around children . I'm six foot four . I'm not built to have that type of engagement .

So I actually dropped down my stand-up desk and I lowered it to her level and we were doing a bit of drawing . She drew me a picture for the fridge and actually ended up being quite cool because , as mum was starting the fire and she was in the lounge playing with my cat Safi , she said to mum , can we go see Danny ?

And mum was like yeah , we can go see Danny . So I hear these little feet come up the hallway and oh my god , she's growing on me . Anyway . She ended up leaving the house like a couple of hours later and her mum pulled up and she got this little present out of the car the wee girl did .

She came to the front door and she was like hi , I just wanted to give you this present and it was these little hair clips and she was like it's one for you and one for me , and this little like three year old has given me hair clips .

So not only have I got this beautiful picture on my fridge I don't really know what it even is a picture of , but it's the thought that counts and that was my little engagement , whether we , we three year old last week , which actually warmed the heart , because I said to mum the next day how's my wee friend ?

And she was like oh wow , she won't shut up about you . Well , that's because I have a theatre kind of a jewelry closet and she was trying on all of my like fascinators and my rings and my necklaces and I mean I am like a walking beautician's pharmacy kind of a thing .

So this wee girl was just in her element and I really wanted to make her feel special , because it's not every day you have a three year old running around and that was just a lot of fun for me but weirdly it grew on me . So , yeah , I just wanted to mention that I did have a little person in the house and it was cool .

I have massive , exciting kind of pass on news . So I know , in my very first pod I mentioned that how I , you know , my wine club of girlfriends all started and we had this main person .

She's just an absolute light and I wanted to share with everyone that she got engaged just recently and it was one of these things where a couple of us girls who saw the announcement we screamed . I , however , was at home and mum was asleep and I refused to scream because I would wake Susan and we didn't want that .

But , um , yeah , just to have her engage and just her whole engagement story and like how she even met the guy that she's engaged to , was just so romantic and , from the bottom of my heart , I have a massive place in my heart for this chick . She's crazy .

And just how she got everyone together , you know , three years ago to have that catch up , kind of the meet and greet dinner at this random restaurant who we all remember that night if we were there , and it's just one of these things that now to see her engaged and happily like getting organized to start this next chapter , and then , about a week later , her

brother announced that he was expecting a child with his girlfriend and I was like I love it . I love more than anything is when families have things that happen in such close succession , you're just like , yes , your parents are gonna hate you .

Not only have you got a wedding and a baby , but it's actually the same things happening in my cousins , my family's circle , at the moment . You've got a wedding happening in a month's time and two babies , two babies and two different siblings . So , oh my God , I'm here for it . So , no , all the best with everything .

Miss Kate , you are an apple of my eye and I was so excited , but I just couldn't scream because I'm going to wake up Susan of your engagement .

And also , we have five birthdays in two weeks in my friend circle right now , which led me to kind of think well , what happened nine months ago sort of 25 years ago , but nine months ago as to how all these people ended up having birthdays in two weeks . And I just wanted to say I don't know how , if they even know this , but I googled it .

I was like what was the date nine months ago ? And , lo and behold , it actually was Labor Weekend . So not only were all of you kind of conceived around the Labor Weekend part , there's also weird things that happened , and I think some of them are turning 25 , 26 , is that ? It kind of was 96 , 97 when they were born ?

There's weird things like supersonic land speed records and also Princess Diana she died in a car crash in that year as well and just , I always think it's really wild to look back and see what was happening at the time you were born . So for those five that are having birthdays in the next two weeks , I think we've already done like two or three .

Quite frankly , I'm getting exhausted of like drinks and presents and everything else . But happy , happy birthday from the bottom of my heart . I love you all so much and I will be there for every part of this . You , labor Weekend babies , you .

So I was catching up with my mom . I always kind of like brainstorm podcasts and topics that we could talk about because she's very creative , and she said that something that always , you know , makes her laugh is when you think something has happened but it hasn't .

And she was running through some stories of things that I've done to her over the years and she was like it'd be funny to mention on the podcast , you know , when she has thought something has happened but it actually hasn't because I faked it .

And one thing that I will let you guys know is that there was a time , probably when I was in high school , so I don't even know like , was that like 98 , 99 , 98 , 98 , 98 , 98 , 98 , 98 , and Papua New England High School ? I can kind of remember the house that we were living in at the time .

I don't know how I managed to do this , but I fudged the lotto to the point where mom thought she had won lotto and the whole thing went as far as her actually ringing lotto commission in Wellington to actually say that she'd brought the winning ticket To this day .

I still laugh because I'm like when you thought something had happened but it hadn't because I lied bad . And there was another time .

She had an Audi A3 or A4 and she lent it to me for six weeks while she was in New Zealand and I was in Sydney and I think it was around the time of April Fool's , and I sent her a photo of the front on it just hanging off , and I was like the main thing is here is that I'm okay .

And her text read was just things like are you fucking kidding me , danielle ? Answer your damn phone . So yeah , those are the two things that she just reminisced about and she just cracks up like she will lose the plot , like whose kids have ever pulled the lotto ? Prank on the appearance and gotten away with it , jesus .

But one of my favourite things where we thought something had happened and it hadn't , was my best mate and me coming out to Queenstown to my 30th and we had just got enough about quarter past three and driven from Brisbane to Gold Coast for a 6am flight .

Two separate cars , you know , trying to Be organized because obviously he was coming back from Queen's Down sooner than I was , so we had to take two different cars and we get into Gold Coast . We get all organized for this flight . I'm very sleepy at this stage . I got my hangover hoodie on . I'm sitting up against the planes wall .

I'm like gonna nod off planes taken off . This is back when I used to be relaxed flying and I don't know what happened . I think I've got older . When all of a sudden the plane starts taking off , you know when things happen . That's wild on the plane and you just think what the fuck was going through that passengers mind .

Well , the lady who was sitting on the aisle seat . She got up as the plane was climbing out of Gold Coast and Randomly .

Just take some stuff out of the overhead locker and lo and behold , this ring binder Falls out and smacks Dan fear in the chest , like fear , like he was winded I can still hear the noise , this and he , he was so frightened he turned to me and he went fuck , I thought the plane crashed just with this impact of the binder whacking him .

Just he was so salty for the rest of the plane , the rest of the flight . He actually just you know he says I didn't even get a packet of peanuts out of this lady . She didn't say anything , she didn't apologize , she just got told by the stewardess to sit down , but she still whacked me with the binder .

And to this day I still crack up because not only did no one see it coming , he thought the plane had crashed when it hadn't , but the poor guy was asleep . And then , oh , I feel so bad for him , far out , that was . That was so funny , it was wild .

So we've got a bit of fever footy happening up in New Zealand at the minute and I'm not really that switched on about the whole Football . It's not something that the woman's World Cup have I kept an eye on , but I love and behold . It actually goes for a month and it is on all these stadiums all throughout Australia and New Zealand .

But there is actually a game when I'm in Auckland , and I think it's Spain versus Zambia . I'm not going to it . It is kind of exciting because , you know I I should be more engaged with other sports than bloody rugby . I do apologize , but , um , yeah , for those that are following the FIFA and the females , I wish them all the best .

It's gonna be quite a Quite a Tournament by the looks of things and it's , yeah , as say , spread out all throughout New Zealand in different places . So that's rather exciting . And the other thing that I was gonna sort of touch on , but I'm not too interested in , is the Barbie movie . I mean , it's been going on for Eva , the advertising .

I was just like is this thing ever gonna even be on the cinema ? Because I feel like I've seen the whole movie through the shorts of everything on every channel . I'm not the biggest enthusiast of that kind of thing . I don't know . I love Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling , but I don't know .

I played with Barbie dolls for quite a significant chunk of my childhood , so I don't need it ruined by a movie , but I probably would go if there was some really cool like merchandise that you could like . Go to the cinema and get a cup and a Barbie mug or something like , something you could take away from it as opposed to just viewing it at home , maybe .

Maybe I'll see what's going on in Auckland and see how hungover I am . I do have a wine of the week .

It is a long story short , but basically we are trying to dabble in the cask wine situation and I know that when I did the wine review for Dicey , dicey was in a cask and that was rather exciting because it was here in Bannock , burnin , I don't know , there wasn't many people flinching about the fact that it was in a cask and I do , you know , rather get

excited about how you can like save the earth because it's not in a bottle , and rah , rah , rah , no . So on the Friday just gone I went to the supermarket and I was doing a bit of a shop and I was kind of excited because it was straight after the germ and you know , there was no one in the supermarket .

Everything was fresh , all the stuff on the shelves had been replaced , it was , all you know , just good , and then I just found myself in the wine aisle but I noticed cask wine and I thought okay , okay , and normally I'm kind of like I judge a box on its label .

So I just kind of got one that looked half decent and I was like it'll be fine , if it's shit , I'll just add like vodka and orange juice to it and call it like a screwdriver , I don't care . But no , I tried it and it wasn't bad . And even mum she was like okay , this is different and I'm not hating it .

But I think the whole concept of like the volume of wine in the cask is rather exciting for the price . But the lady at the counter was like why are you 65 ? Why are you buying a box of wine ? Honestly , you can buy cocktails and boxes and wine in a box isn't the worst , especially if it's not bubbly , it's just still so . Who cares ?

I drank it over Friday and Zad Day and I am still not even hating it and I thought about having a glass last night . But no , there's something other , some other shit went down , so I decided not to drink . But I recommend everyone sort of picks up a cask when they're next at the supermarket .

Just wish that's in gigs , they're not expensive and just get back on your like older generation of how they used to drink box wine . And I said , mum said to me that my grandma , she used to drink a lot of a dry white that came out of a cask and she didn't ever .

Mum reckons that the quality is much better now than it was back then , and when she says then she's probably talking like the 80s or the 90s . So my grandma is not with us anymore to sort of keep up with how that changed . But I was like here I am living my nana life , I'm mooching around the house and my slippers and my cask wine .

But then sometimes I catch my reflection and my track pants and my hoodie and I just sort of think , oh my gosh , pull yourself together . You look like a bin chicken . So I'm rather excited to spend the next three days around Auckland and actual clothes and have a reason to like leave the house . That's not going to the gym or the supermarket .

So yeah , I am on the cask and I'm not even sorry about it . Sorry , not sorry . Also , I just want to do a bit of a call out for my brother . My brother has been a professional plasterer , for oh , I can't even tell you . I feel like he sort of knocked it on the head , maybe when he was like 15 , 16 , maybe I don't even know .

I feel like he started plastering at a very young age . He never really got into the whole retail thing . He touched on working at New World in the fruit and veg department , but he's such a blokey bloke . So massive shout out to my brother .

As of this morning he got his LBP , which basically means it's a document to make him able to sign off on work by himself instead of people signing off on his work . When it comes to , like , big companies that he builds houses for , and because he does work for himself , his company is Tommy , no trade . He ain't got no trade , he does everything .

It's a huge achievement because now it just opens all these doors where he doesn't have to wait for people to come down to Queenstown to sign off on a house . He can just sign off his own work and move on to the next one . So mum rang and she was like you know what , danny ? That's just .

It's just the best news to hear that he's finally got this accreditation and I am just so excited for the future prospects of what he's about to do because it's not a struggle and people support him because he's just genuinely this really articulate builder .

But to have that , I kind of think it's like when you get a certificate , when you do like just your normal job and you feel you know , like you're trained . I mean me and Tom . We never went to uni . We didn't . We didn't come out of school with anything worth talking about .

We were like just there for the canteen and the days when the teachers used to come and hung over and we had to watch movies . So we took nothing out of our education .

So for Tom to come away and finally be in this position , and his sister , me , well , I , yes , I'm having a bit of a hard time in my job right now , but I feel like it's because I left one department and I didn't take a break in between my roles and I just I feel like everything's just all mashed up at the moment and I can't like forget some , some

things that happen in the other department . That's not the same as the department I'm in now .

So I'm just sort of like at this crossroads where I'm waiting for some leave to come up to make me feel like refreshed and everything , and I definitely recommend that you know , if you are in a position to change departments or change jobs , that you take that time in between those roles to gather yourself and come into it fresh , because Throughout this pandemic

and being with the company that I'm with now , I have nothing but respect for every part of it . But the same thing is is that if you don't take time away from your work , from home environment , to just refresh and , you know , put a bit of effort into what you'd like to take away from your next steps , it turns to jumble .

And that's where I am right now . Like Tom admires what I do for work and I think he's fabulous , I'm just waiting for the funds myself to build my own house and have him build it for me , but I'm struggling .

I Don't know if it's because I'm not really engaging in the fact that I enjoy my role right now , or I didn't have a break and I need a break because I'm burning out . But I'm hoping to make a few changes in the upcoming sort of what weeks or months or whatever . And I am excited about you know everything that's coming and how good this podcast has been .

I'm enjoying all the engagement and I know that you guys are just here to hear about . You know what's been happening and a few people have said oh , it's like getting the Cromwell news when Danny doesn't pod . It's not meant to be like that , it's meant to be fun . And there are things that are fun I can't really even say I had too much To say about .

The weekend is gone . It started as a friend of mine's drinks at the pub , which was totally fine . I loved it , and then we were at a house party playing some strange house party drinking games , which I haven't done for a while .

But because I knew I was going to a house party , I decided to not get a 10 pack of cans of you know ready to drink drinks . I was quite adamant . I was only having four , and so I got some Jameson and dry whiskey drinks , which is something I don't normally drink .

I will stick to my vodka sodas and I managed to get through my four drinks before I went to the nightclub . But I think it was the fact that I wasn't drinking what I normally do . I was coming in hot , but no , I managed to not only Come home and make a piece of toast at two in the morning , which is something I don't do . I'm not one to cook .

When I get home which was random I found a packet of biscuits Next to my bed and I don't know where they came from , and I lost my nose ring , which was really funny because on the underside of my nose stud is this hook thing which is actually like I don't take it out because it's painful to get out of my nose .

So for the fact that it was out and I was holding it in my bed wild , there's not much to really say about the actual night out . It was great and I really enjoyed catching up with everyone and seeing what everyone had been up to , and we had some really great banter . There was a couple of stinky people at the nightclub , as per usual . I had a .

I had a drink in the toilet with me . Well , like I was just killing time . That's gross . I take that back . I did not do that , but no , I didn't even . I don't even have anything to really contribute about my weekend . That's even that exciting .

What else I actually came into this podcast was zero Roadmap . I don't have anything to Really talk too much about . To be quite honest , I just wanted to say something before I went away to Auckland and I didn't plan anything . I just this is just honestly what's coming out of me as to what I've done recently .

But hey , look , we're at about 25 minutes and I'm gonna wrap it up here so I can get back to my job and I am all gonna be ready and excited for my flight tomorrow to Auckland .

So , yeah , take it as this , this is me now , but once I get back from this trip and I have a lot more to talk about and Some stories to tell , I'm thoroughly excited about the next pod and I hope that yous all have a really great rest of your week . I don't even know if I've got too much on this weekend coming , doesn't matter .

I'll loop back to you next week with more of a story and we'll catch up Again . I am fine , everyone . I'm just I hit a wall . I apologize , but we're ending this one on a high . I love you all . Take care . Talk to you soon . Bye .