Hello, good morning, it is the Danny Dot Pod. I apologize. I said I was going to record this on Friday. However, when I got back from Auckland, I was a little bit dusty and I tried, but I couldn't do it. What an adventure, holy moly. So much to talk about and it's crazy, it is literally August tomorrow. It's freaking me out. So we'll do a bit of a recap on July as well, I suppose.
Speaker 1:However, my trip away I am going to actually refer to my friend that I'm traveling with quite a bit, so I've decided to put a name on her because, just for privacy reasons, if you don't know who I went with, I'm going to call her Smiley. And holy moly, did we have an adventure? It started with her actually publishing my anticipation for Auckland at the airport. I just said to her do you want to push the button? And she was like yep Kane, and then we didn't document it, she just did it. But no, I look she is a superstar. I mean, it must be a bit of a hassle of traveling with someone like me who barely ever leaves the bubble. I've become such a hermit that you know. Even getting on the plane, I was feeling a little bit like I was so excited but I was so nervous. I didn't realise how much I actually hated flying until we were actually climbing out of Queenstown and my hands were really sweaty and I was grabbing the chair in front of me and I was like, holy shit, when have I turned into this person that can't travel on a plane? But yeah, we managed to get there and I can't really tell you there's much that happened on board that flight. We were just sort of like catching up and just talking and, nah, the air hostesses weren't even like too too much fun. I don't remember.
Speaker 1:But once we got into Auckland, I suddenly thought, shit, how do we get from the airport to the, to the, where we go in downtown Auckland? We actually ended up getting our bus passes from a vending machine, which was wild. I was just like when does technology move that fast that we're doing this? However, we as the users of the vending machine didn't do so well, but I actually became really kind of relaxed in a sense, and while we were on the train from somewhere that I still to this moment can't pronounce the train station, I kept forgetting that I was on public transport and I didn't comprehend that it was the end of the line that we were going to a place called Brita Mart, which is like downtown Auckland. I keep panicking and thinking, shit, I've gone past the station. I did it twice. I was like this is too much. I think it's one of those things that you know, for two or three months we were so excited to actually get to Auckland that actually being there was just a whole different mindset, and I was very overwhelmed Once we actually left the train station and managed to find our accommodation.
Speaker 1:We were, I'm not going to say upgraded, but we were on level 18 of a hotel that only had 18 floors and it was quite special, but I forgot how much being up high was just not my vibe. And I was standing on the balcony and I thought, yep, done that, don't need to do that again. And that's coming from someone that would literally stand out on the balcony of all the Brisbane and Gold Coast departments and just drink and eat and, you know, spend time. And now it's like I've had my feet plunged on the ground for so long that I've forgotten what heights feel like and I just struggle. So we decided to go out and explore and see where we were, just in case we got a little bit drunk and we couldn't find our way back to accommodation eventually.
Speaker 1:So that was all fun, but what is up with Auckland weather? It kept raining. It was freaking me out. I was like, should we have brought ponchos or a jacket or something? I don't know. But we had a booking. I'm going to tell you all about it. It's super, super fun. I didn't want to mention it in the last pod because I didn't want any of my peoples that were also going to Lizzo that my followers on DannyDop to steal my idea and book it out. So I came across a TikTok and I didn't think it was going to work. But oh my God, it did and I'm so here for it. So neither me or Smiley had been up in the SkyTowel and it is 50 floor, 53 levels in the sky, this stunning, bloody thing that you can never.
Speaker 1:We were actually like struggling to find it when we were in Auckland. I was like, surely we could see it from, like most parts of Auckland, but you kind of can't. So there's a happy hour at a bar called Sugar Club, where your entry into sugar is you just have to spend $40 at the bar and your lift up is free. So happy hour goes from five to seven. They have a cheese board and champagne and there's all these drink specials. There's even bread specials at $2 a slice of this beautiful rustic sourdough bread with butter, which I didn't even eat, but I saw it and I was like that looks boss. The cheese made my mouth go numb. I actually had to ask the beautiful bartender what is in this and why is my mouth gone numb. But it was a Geruda type blue cheese that had I thought it had pumpkin. That's why I was like what is going on? I'm not allergic to that, but I think the mold was just a little bit funky, like like exotic funky, and made my tongue go numb and I was freaking out. I was like Smiley keeps saying to me why you keep eating it. She says delicious, but my mouth's gone numb.
Speaker 1:So we enjoyed a cheeseboard, champagne and some cocktails, and the cocktail menu had some real strange out of it ingredients. I mean, maybe they're not that strange anymore, maybe it is a thing, but chickpea brine, I don't know. I don't know if we should have that in an alcohol beverage. And also there was another cocktail that had rubies in it. So they're not even that expensive either about $20, $25, which I know that is a lot, but I didn't drink those. I stuck with my old faithful, the old espresso martini, and let me tell you the ingredients in. That was not normal espresso martini stuff. It was delicious and they made this little cinnamon sugar club thing on the top which just topped it, to be fair.
Speaker 1:But not only do you get like a different entrance to go into the Sky Tower with a different lift, it's not busy. So if you want a different, like date night or whatever, minimum spend is $40 per person at the happy hour, which is very easy to achieve. But you do. You just go onto the website for Sky City and you book in with Sugar Club and it's from five to seven. Just go up the lift, go in the fancy entrance. I don't know, it's just special. We actually thought we'd spend a lot longer there, but the once the lighting changed and all you could see was the inside of the Sky Tower, you couldn't take photos outside because the flash would just just eliminate everything.
Speaker 1:We had a booking for dinner at Holy Moly, which is a really cool mini golf arcade area down in the Viaduct, and I didn't realize that the Sky Tower was kind of a bit of a hill up Hudson Street, so we had to total on down to this Viaduct. I was super excited. I love Viaduct, it's just fun. So we ended up having the first table at Holy Moly. We were a little bit early so I said to the lady hey, listen, can we play a couple of games of mini golf? She literally takes my FBOS card off me and gives me a tab card, like to build a tab, and I'm thinking, oh, here we go. It's happy hour, $10, cocktails, dinner's not for another 45 minutes. I'm already feeling a little bit happy from pre-drinking the Skytower. So here we go.
Speaker 1:We played a bit of mini golf. It wasn't easy, I'm not going to lie. I sucked the first round just because I think the drunk you get, the better you get at those kinds of things. And then there was this beautiful cocktail that they didn't tell us any of the ingredients. They just said what the name of the cocktail was and that it was $10, which is fine and I totally get that. However, we drank the menu. There was only four on it. It's fine. But the last cocktail I don't like things that are sour, so I bypassed on a cinnamon sour. However, smiley got it and it was like drinking just shots of fireball, and I love fireball, so it was just like I should have got more of them. To be quite fair, there was like tequila ones, rum ones, zombie ones. It was just I don't know, it's just a lot of fun. And then we had dinner and I had a chicken-sizer hot dog thing with this bun and chicken tenders and all the things that you get in a Caesar salad and a roll, and my cocktail was a bathtub. I even kept the rubber ducky that it came from. But because Smiley didn't want to have two fireball cocktails after each other, I had to have the fireball in the bathtub, but you couldn't even taste the fireball. So I don't know, maybe it was just covered up by all the other delicious ingredients, but Holy Moly is a general. It was such a vibe.
Speaker 1:We were there for quite a while and the weirdest thing was that, even though we'd come up for Lizzo, there was a friend of mine who used to work at the airport, who was there with her partner, and I'm thinking we've left the bubble, we've gone to a restaurant and I've got people here, we know, which is crazy. We just chilled out there for a bit. And then I also had a booking. I tell you I got so excited about Auckland. I was thinking, yes, we're going to go to all the things that I've kept on my Instagram that I want to visit and explore and do, and blah, blah, blah. We had a 9pm booking at this really cool nightclub in the sky and I'm thinking I wonder if it opens at 9 or if we could go there a little bit earlier and just chill or whatever. So I looked it up on Google as to like where and how far we were from it and it said temporarily closed. And I was thinking what? So we tottered across to another bar in the Viaduct. I just probably got this under control because I was thinking I'm not walking all that way to a bar that's temporarily closed. I'm going to ring them beforehand.
Speaker 1:So we enter this place called the Fox and I had it on my happier list that they do a tree of gin goblets for $60. So you get two of each type of gin mixed with a mixer. I don't know if I genuinely thought that the actual size of the glass wouldn't be a goblet like a massive goblet, but it was overwhelming, to say the least. So we're sitting at this random English bar and drinking gin, I felt like I was in Coronation Street. I was like this is too much. When I'm looking at Smiley and she's getting a little bit like sick of this whole tonic thing, which is not a vibe, and I totally get that. So I said to her hey, listen, go to the bar, get yourself a rum and I'll continue and try and drink all the gin While she's at the bar. I ring the nightclub and I'm like yo, your Google says your temporary closed. And the guy says, oh yeah, we had a syringe water leak and the place is closed until next Tuesday. And I'm thinking, mother, I had this whole plan and it's just fallen to shit. But it didn't, honestly, kind of happen for the best, because after five goblets of gin, danny was struggling and we had to walk back up this hill to go back to our accommodation and I was thinking, oh, here we go.
Speaker 1:I made a bit of a choice to ride a Lime Scooter. So I come flying out of this Fox nightclub and I've just downloaded the Lime Scooter app. It's still the same from when I was in Australia. Nothing's changed. It's all easy Scan the barcode on the handlebars and it's like dismount and take the break off. And I'm like, yep, cool, don't know how to do that.
Speaker 1:This random bartender comes from nowhere and she's just pulled the handlebars back and she's made sure that it's all working. And she's like you've got to push off, you've got to push off from the pavement. And then the scooter starts and I was like, fuck man, I've been drinking a beer, but this is going to be bad to worse. Like I'll take you back to 2018, when I fell off one in Brisbane in an intersection and my iPad flung across the road. I mean, I was fearful at best, but also back then, when I had my accident, I wasn't on blood thinners. So this is not my finer moment, but I'm thinking, ok, if I can nail this, I will be super happy, because we need to get back on the horse. The Lime Scooter is not going to defeat me. So I pushed off from the sidewalk and I'm thinking, ok, just keep going If we stop, I'm just, I don't know how to get this thing going again.
Speaker 1:It's not my favourite form of transportation. I'm zippin' up Hudson Street past all these random people and I don't know where it came from, but I ended up saying things like get out of me way. I'm like Sonic come, zoom, zoom, zoom. People were just pissing themselves and I kept on yelling out. This is my first time. I don't know how to stop this thing. One guy was like holy shit, I was so happy. I'm not even lying, it's just, I don't know. It's one of those things where it just brings joy and you can't. You can't knock it. I don't hate the old Bloody Lime Scooters, I just get scared of them. So we ended up just actually smiley, almost ended up getting taken out by a Land Cruiser on a zebra crossing. She just popped out of nowhere and I had to hit the anchors and hit the brakes and, oh my God, I almost got the scooter to the shin. But we made it back to Sky Tower and I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've been to a lot of casinos in my time, but the Sky Tower in Auckland's casino is a little bit weird. I'm just going to say it. I don't know. It's weird that you can't go to an ATM and withdraw money. You have to actually physically see a cashier person. It's almost like they judge you for being like too intoxicated. But it's probably for gambling purposes and I fully get that. But I got out $30 and I was just like 30 is nothing, like you know, just, you could win, you could lose, who cares? It's still like you got to experience the lights and everything else.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I feel like I've forgotten how to gamble as well, because I think we were on one cent spins and every time I win I just forget I won and I walk away from machines. So I had to sort of like get myself together and, just you know, put the money in and ended up winning $50 on the free spins, and then I just took it out and I just walked I was like right back to the accommodation. I'm going to fall asleep soon, mind you, it was probably like barely 11 o'clock at this stage. So, yeah, the end of the first day in Auckland was, I don't know, just it was a couple of hours from I think we got there at like one, I don't even know, and then, I don't know, I was back in bed by like 11. But it was fun and it was just like weird loose enjoyment where you just sort of like go with the flow, even though we had reservations, we weren't rushing and we were just going with. You know what we wanted to do at the time and you forget about all those kinds of experiences when you just do your day to day life.
Speaker 1:So I was so excited for day two and so we woke up and we decided to go get some breakfast. I had chicken and waffles with vanilla ice cream, which it's like my favorite thing. It reminds me of America. It's just weird. It's sweet, it's savory. I get it, it's delicious.
Speaker 1:But I was pissed croc and I was struggling. So I remember my coworker telling me that the ordinary skincare was in a massive stock at this farmer's department store, and so I was like yep, let's go shopping. I want to buy some skincare, I want to see all the different you know ingredients and get amongst it and everything else. I was so pissed croc. I was like why am I in here? I can't deal with the bright lights. But also there's this weird thing going on in like downtown Auckland, where I know that something bad happened last week and I get that, but it's super quiet and there's like I feel like the street needs some live music or just even storefronts need I don't know something, but it felt very cold and empty and even being in farmers, we were kind of the only customers and people were staring at us, like I kind of tried to make conversation with some cashier people but I felt like they were judging me like I was going to run off with skincare or something. It was just this weird icky feeling and I couldn't shake it.
Speaker 1:So we actually went across the street to a place called Smith and Corgis and that was even weirder Again, a department store. But I was talking to this random guy about Tom Ford fragrances and I went to put a tester on and he goes oh no, honey, they've been, they've been dry for about a year, the bottles are empty and I was like what is happening? So, yeah, not the best shopping experience, if I could really sum that up. We didn't go there for shopping, but still it just didn't really hit the nail on the head. So we kind of turfed all that and decided to go back to the viaduct we're at Spun. We ended up at this random oh we just, we only had one cocktail. It is, you know, a neat little bar, but we were going to do like a kind of a walking pub crawl and it was fun. But I knew that if we didn't pull it together we would have been drunk and we'd been sort of so excited for our outfits, for Lizzo and getting ready and everything else that I was like let's rain it in and go get some lunch.
Speaker 1:So Portofino, as I said probably podcast number two or three that is my absolute favorite Italian restaurant. That was when I visited quite frequently in Christchurch before the earthquakes, and it left Oxford Terrace. There was one lo and behold in the viaduct and I thought, okay, oh my gosh, I told the waiter I wanted to like buy the sauce and just bathe in it. It was like this creamy Alfredo deliciousness. But you know, when you go to an Italian restaurant and they just use different pastas that you can never find in the supermarket or at a market or whatever, like just it's fresh as best. And so I was already just having the best time. I had this gin prosecco cocktail. Oh, it was to die for I was so happy we decided to take limescooters for a bit of a I don't know a tiki tour.
Speaker 1:You know, kill a couple of hours and see what we could see in Auckland. As we were getting on the limescooters there was this weird pop up that said, hey, do you want to hire this thing for like 60 minutes across three days for $13 or something and we were like, okay, okay. So we took these limes Again. I'm thinking, holy shit, I'm sober and I'm doing it and I'm not even like terrible. We took them right to the very edge of like Fisherman's Wharf maybe there was like people that were fishing and seagulls and everything else. It was quite far.
Speaker 1:And then we managed to take it back up to the Sky Tower again. We thought we'd have another dabble on the casino. I don't know. You know, when you just feel like comfortable doing something and you do it over and over, that was us. But also had a friend from work who was going to be at the casino and she just landed and we were like, oh yeah, we'll wait for you. But she ended up not turning up because she was off shopping in Newmarket. But we went just some random ass bottle shop, which it shouldn't have been a bottle shop. It honestly looked like a corridor that just sort of had alcohol on it. It was so weird and the owner had been taping cans together and selling like I don't know, non resaleable, four packs for a set price, which wasn't bad. I got a four pack of Canadian and a four pack of Volcker Cruises for nearly $18. So it's not the worst.
Speaker 1:And we went back to the accommodation and we decided to start getting like pre-drinking and getting ready for Lizzo, and it was so cool. But in the back of my mind I was thinking we're in a city and we're sitting in a hotel room. Should we like be out doing something like? I had the guilt, but not the worst guilt, because I was like I was basically asleep on my bed, but I felt a little bit like, oh, I need to keep going.
Speaker 1:So we got ready and it was just so cool, just to take our limescoutters that were parked outside the accommodation to the concert venue, chuck them under the overpass and we were at the venue Spark Arena and the weirdest thing, they were handing out free Red Bull, which I was like, oh yeah, this will perk me up, sweet as. Get in at the concert. It's phenomenal. Oh my gosh, lizzo is such a vibe. We're front row, it's just. You know, people are feeling like self love, empowerment, motivation, self care. She's got motivational bloody meditation halfway through the concert. We're all standing there with our eyes closed. It's so cool.
Speaker 1:And then, yeah, we decided to like leave the Spark Arena and the scooters are still there. We kind of hid them. Well, I didn't, smiley did. But we took the scooters back to the accommodation and smiley got a little bit excited because she didn't know where the turnoff was to get back. So she just kept on going almost back to the Viaduct. I was like, hey, come here, didn't you need to pee? But yeah, like the whole thing was just faultless. It was so easy to just get around, so easy, just to I don't know again, couldn't fault day number two.
Speaker 1:So we were sitting in bed just eating Uber Eats, which I was so excited to do get some food to the hotel. However, I forgot the most annoying things that come with purchasing Uber Eats and having to wait for the delivery and everything else that I was. I've got such a cooked left knee right now. Oh my God. I don't know if it's from crouching on the Lone Scooters or leaning on this like fence post thing at the Lizzo concert, but I just I don't know. My left knee is just so sucky.
Speaker 1:And so that night I decided to take some painkillers and just try and like sleep it off and I passed out. I was like I was tired, I was drunk, it was. It was a whole vibe, and at 2 30, I hear a knock and I don't know if I dreamt it. So I just sort of like open my eyes and I was thinking why would someone be knocking on the hotel door? And then it happened again and I just wacked, smiley, I was like holy shit, someone's at the door and she's like what. And I said someone's at the door and this person knocked again a third time and goes housekeeping and I was like oh hell, no. But I couldn't get up because I had a gummy leg and the phone for reception was on the wall next to the door handle for the front door which they were knocking on, and I couldn't for the life of me look through the peephole because I couldn't get up. But also I could see feet under the door and I was thinking, oh my God, smiley's gone back to sleep. My heart is racing. I'm like this is bullshit. Who the fuck is knocking at this hour? But I still think that someone had just maybe gone through the fire escape and shaken some door handles just to see if they could maybe get a room for the night. I don't know, it's so weird, but I just, yeah, I didn't cope, but I didn't go back to sleep. I slept in my back because I was just like if I need to get up and make a run for it, I don't know where I'm going, but I know where the stairwell is. But yeah, that was so funny.
Speaker 1:The next morning I said to the reception hey, do you guys have housekeeping at 2.30 in the morning? Because someone came to the door and the guy was like no, wasn't us. Hey, look back on your cameras. We don't have cameras. The worst, it was just so random Daddy does not deal well with this kind of stuff, but no, look. So that was sort of it for us.
Speaker 1:We ended up back at this beautiful bagel bar called the Ugly Bagel or something Ugly Bagels, I don't know and salmon cream cheese on a bagel with a coffee was exactly what I needed. I was so excited we did sort of turf in my luggage eight cans of Canadian club, which made it significantly more heavier, and I was freaking out. I was thinking, oh, here we go. We thought about drinking them on the way to the airport, but yeah, no, it wasn't a vibe.
Speaker 1:However, we ended up at Newmarket just to try and kill an hour, and Smiley at the best of times loves being late to things, just like when it comes to travel. She she has her name called out, we are all very aware of how she travels and she just randomly says let's go to Newmarket, westfield and Killenow. And I was thinking, oh, you know, it's going to happen, we're going to get stuck somewhere, like I'm thinking it. I'm not saying it, but also it's not because of her travel style, it's also just because I love a Westfield shopping center. Yes, I haven't seen one in like six months.
Speaker 1:However, we went there and we actually got off the train and there were some chickies from the V drink brand and they were handing out cans of V. So we stood there and had a bit of a yarn. They actually offered to take us to the airport. That's how kind they were Couldn't, couldn't be more happy with that whole thing. But we went to the Westfield and yeah, no, it's not what I thought it was. It's kind of like the Pacific fear of the Gold Coast, like it was stunning. It was all very top market kind of stuff, very new, but not the Westfield as I knew it, probably like I don't know, westfield, christchurch like Rickerton Mall kind of thing. Oh, maybe because it is a bit fancy. So, no, look, we didn't even spend that much time at the Westfield.
Speaker 1:We ended up back on the train back out to the airport and just sort of chill and eaten. I didn't eat anything. I was already like freaking out because hate flying. And then, yeah, actually the weirdest thing we were actually sitting amongst the Argentina photo media for the FIFA and Italia is like sitting next to a bunch of squawking pigeons talking to each other across me and smiley and I'm like, ah, we want to stay in our seats because it's quite busy. There's a few flights leaving at the same time, but the same thing, like they're just talking over us. And I was like shush, I'm trying to concentrate. We've got the people at the airport saying that if you're flying into Dunedin or Queenstown, there might be some delays because of weather. And already I'm getting a little bit wound up, like I don't like this, I don't want to do this right here, that we end up taking off and I lost the plot.
Speaker 1:Burst into tears I knew I was overtired, hungover, just like it just wasn't working for me. Burst into tears and I don't know. I just knew I had to pull myself together and be like you can do this. Fuck, you have no control over this plane. If it goes down like who gives a shit, you're doing it, you're flying. And then I sort of like roped it in a little bit and tried to pull myself together and I'm like far out, danny, this is not good If you're crying on a bloody flight down to Queenstown.
Speaker 1:And then halfway through the flight there was a little bit of turbulence, like nothing major. Not even the seatbelt sign came on and I'm sitting there balling again and I'm like, oh my God, what is going on. So I decided, like as we were coming into Queenstown, to just suck it up. Suck it up, you can do this. You don't need to ball your eyes out on a bloody flight. It's nothing major, everyone does it and you know you don't see frigging planes falling out of the sky. I didn't cry landing, I held it together, but I just I know that I need to get it sorted because I do have like five flights by myself coming up, nine in total. I know I'm flying quite a lot in this next six months, but I didn't realize how much I hated it. So, yeah, there's that I don't know.
Speaker 1:And now that I'm back and I'm sort of like I had such a wonderful time exploring and I'm looking back on the trip now as a whole. I'm just like shit, fuck. Yes, I had such a fun time and it gave me massive clarity and new motivation for things, and of course, me and Smiley we talked about you know what next? You know what makes you happy, what are all the things that you know you can do to just sort of. It was kind of like a bit of a vibe after Lizzo, because Lizzo is so empowering and of course I've been sort of a bit down in the dumps and as of late especially so, I decided that like this is where it gets a little bit funky.
Speaker 1:Even though I love planes and I hate flying, I'm kind of going to like look into becoming an air traffic controller, because I started googling it just to sort of see what the prerequisite for New Zealand were, and I'm kind of under the impression that you have to be of a certain age to do that kind of a role, but not even just to be an air traffic controller. But there are other divisions and departments that sort of all help each other and everything else. But seeing planes and like tracking them, I'm already like across all of that. I'm absolutely obsessed with it. So actually we were even standing at this bus stop somewhere and there's a random plane appeared and I just gasped If that doesn't tell you that I actually am just doting on flights, I don't know what will, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've been sort of thinking about it for a while. Are we working in our jobs that we have now because of the pandemic? And at the time it was what we could do? Because that's how I'm kind of feeling. Could I be doing more and putting my talents to good use elsewhere? Because at the end of the day, I don't want to say that I'm wasted sitting here in a desk in Cromwell, just like in my bedroom. But I'm kind of feeling like it because my character and my personality just needs to like be, I don't know motivated and inspired. And it wouldn't suck so much that you wouldn't have to keep pushing along if you didn't have like so much time on your hands. I don't, I don't have a lot of time, but also like when you do your job and you just sort of like an autopilot. That's what it feels like. You just do it autonomously, it's not hard.
Speaker 1:I kind of am thinking that like I need to learn a new skill as such, but something that's really like makes me happy and I don't think I've actually had a job in such a long time. That is, I have a bit of a drive form, even when I work for the airport, like I didn't even know what that job was. When I went for it I was just like, ah, was that an airport? Who cares? And I wouldn't go back to working at the airport like operations, like I was, just because the politics and stuff it's not for me, but also like there are different departments within an airport and it all sort of works together. But in the back end anyway, however, I don't know.
Speaker 1:So I've started looking into air traffic controller stuff and there is so much to do. It's quite exciting. There's like eight weeks of theory and stuff that you have to do in Christchurch and I said to mum you know, it's not a bad thing, if I have to, I will definitely move around for a job because you know, I actually I saw this starting right, for an ATC was $110,000. I was like, hello, why not do something you love and then you get paid for it, god? So yeah, look, this is where I'm at. I knew that Auckland trip was going to give me massive clarity and motivation and sure enough I came back and I'm all happy about it. It's just I don't know. I don't know If anyone out there has is in the same position as me and feeling like that are only doing the role that they're doing now because of the fear of lockdowns and having a job that you can do whilst in lockdown. I fully get it, but I think it's about time that we wrote that shit back in and we say, hey, right, what makes me happy and where should I be in my career? So I'm, I'm just pushing seven years and insurance for myself right now and I'm like I said it wasn't going to go back to insurance after working at the airport and it was kind of the one thing to do in the pandemic, but I don't feel like I need to sit here much longer. That's where I'm at anyway. So I don't know. Oh, I keep mentioning I forgot to tell you.
Speaker 1:Is that the wine of the week? Last week, the cask? I had all these messages and they're like you didn't tell us what your cask it was. I don't want to buy shit wine. Sorry, I was drinking the Long Ridge Sav Blanc, which was that new world. It's a two letter cask. It's kind of like fancy, like it's not the country dry white wine or anything. I don't really have a wine of the week just gone because I don't think I drank too much wine when I was away. However, if you manage to go to a Holy Moly somewhere in New Zealand and they have a cinnamon sour cocktail on the menu, do it, do it, do it and tell them Danny Dot sent you, because Holy Moly, it's my favorite thing and I don't even know the ingredients, but it was a fireball and delicious. It wasn't even my cocktail, it was Smiley's. I only had the end of it, but I rated it 10 out of 10. I can love it. So guess what Couple of things?
Speaker 1:I have 30 days today until I land in Brisbane, and that is another reason to make me happy. I get to see my friends and family, which has been over a year. I hate that. I hate that more than anything. It sucks. At least we can travel. However, I shouldn't be leaving it a year, but the travel prices are freaking me out. So we are excited to see everyone in 30 days. I have got a very jam packed trip again. I don't think ever going back to somewhere that you used to live is ever going to be just a quiet, peaceful visit, but with a wedding and two pregnancies within the family circle that I'm visiting, it's so special and exciting. And just keep your legs closed together. I'll be there to kiss bellies and give lots of hugs very, very soon, but I know one baby is going to be potentially coming out shortly. But yeah, I get to see my friends and just it's going to fill my cup and that's again. I have to fly by myself, so I'm not looking forward to that. But anyway, also, friday morning just gone the morning I was going to record my podcast.
Speaker 1:I got woken up at about quarter past four. I completely forgot I actually had a award given to me by the team at Buzzsprout because 100,000 people had listened to my podcast. I didn't even talk about it that Friday morning at work just because I was so thrown off by the whole thing. My phone rang and I was just like what is going on? Who's this? The weirdest thing is that they want to send me some stuff and I don't want to give my address out. So I'm in the process of getting a postbox, which is a little bit exciting because obviously it's milestone and it took 17 podcasts to get to. They did tell me this when I was in Auckland but again, I was a little bit I don't know distracted. But yeah, massive ups to everyone at Buzzsprout and the podcast. I mean, that's massive.
Speaker 1:I didn't think this would go anywhere. I knew it would go somewhere but I didn't think it would continue on. And I was talking to my neighbour, wilson she's going to love this on the weekend and she was showing me a podcast that had like 300 episodes and I was like, holy frig, I might 17. And I'm sitting here sometimes thinking what can I potentially talk about? That people will be excited to listen to and to have as much encouragement as I do is just such a beautiful and inspiring thing, because it didn't take much for me to start a podcast and fear dinkum, it's not professional. However, it is like just my hobby and it's something that I enjoy putting out there. So to have acknowledgement and that scale, oh my gosh, I'm so proud of myself, ridiculous. So I'll let yous all know when all the bits and pieces turn up from Buzzsprout once they got the postbox.
Speaker 1:So yeah, but I last night I actually did a photo dump of things that I wanted to do and buy. And I am actually going to buy a book and I wanted to bring this up with everyone because I struggle switching off sometimes to read because I feel like my brain is just overstimulated. And a friend of mine came across a book called 101 Essays that Will Change the Way you Think and the whole concept of reading something that's like a short story but also like an essay or something is just I can do that. So I brought that this morning 101 Essays that Will Change the Way you Think. I will let you know how it goes, but I'm kind of excited about it because I hope that it will snowball how I could learn to read and concentrate and not have myself significantly distracted, where you just you know when you read the same line over and over again because you don't absorb the words. That's how I feel and I don't know how to switch that off. So there was also some skincare and some new recipes that I've done a bit of a dump on. Again, I am all about hydration and skincare, just because I am getting a bit older and I live in a really dry climate. So we'll see how that goes. I will let you know if anything works through the August podcast and recipes.
Speaker 1:What am I doing lately? Oh, I came across a puff pastry Big Mac kind of like taco. It's not a taco, though, I don't know. It's something that doesn't require. Well, it's like a Big Mac, but not in a taco form and not in a bun. So it's using puff pastry instead and I'm kind of excited about it because I love puff pastry and there was some really cool taco soups. I think August is gonna be kind of like a soup month for myself.
Speaker 1:So, as the July recap, we have significant downtime with the social media. What do you call it? Scrolling on phone. I am so past that I don't do that anymore. Like I'm not absorbed in social media land. I'm barely in that. So I'm very proud of myself.
Speaker 1:It took a lot in July to actually detach and not have aimlessly scrolling. And my health and fitness I used to spend like two hours three days a week at the gym and that's dropped to maybe an hour fifteen, I think. When you first start to get into routine, you kind of spend longer at it, and I was only saying the other day that, like you know, those two hours like 45 minutes is spent doing cardio at the start and the end of a session and a significant chunk in the middle on weights and stuff like that. So for myself to sort of curve that bend and just be like you know what I've set myself up and I'm doing really well. But also while I was away it was kind of obvious. When I'm at home and I see myself and I'm walking around, I see mirrors and things and I'm like shit, I look like a bin chicken. It's only because I'm wearing like clothes that aren't fitted like I'm walking around and track pants and hoodies and I feel chunkier and clunkier than I am. But then when I actually put on a decent outfit and I go out or I you know I went to a concert and whatever that you actually get to put a bit of effort in and feel really good about yourself. But you're just like you know what. It's not as bad as it's in my head and I am so super proud of that.
Speaker 1:So health and fitness in August is still gonna be up there. I really want to nail this for what's coming in the next 30 days to Brisbane, because I mean, to go a year without seeing your family and friends is stupidly nerve-wracking, especially when you just know that so many components of your life have changed, and I mean everyone's different. Everyone, you know, approaches things in a different way. But for me I'm like, because not only do we have delicious food and alcohol down here, it's cold and you don't want to go off the couch and actually do a walk or whatever, but it's good for your mental health as well as your physical fitness and your cardiovascular system. So keeping up with the health and fitness through August is very imperative for myself. I love everyone's enthusiasm to keep me going, but also put it back into yourself, because I want everyone to have the enthusiasm and drive to motivate and be really like I don't know happy and healthy and I know it's such a hard thing to say God, I hate myself for saying it happy and healthy, but you guys are very important to me and I just I want everyone to bask in that warmth and support one another. Tell me I'll pass it on.
Speaker 1:It's one of those things, but also a kind of a new thing I want to introduce, which I was only saying to mum the other day. Since where did that whole thing come up? Where back in the old days? It's like an old wives tale where you would brush your hair a hundred times in the evening, or something like that, to stimulate scalp and hair growth. That's crazy. Who does that now? Who has time? I mean what? So in August I kind of want to apply myself to actually brush my hair like far more than I do now. Honestly, I don't do it very much at the moment. I'm terrible at it. To be quite frank, he is in a top knot on my head, don't care, but I know that there's health and benefits to this.
Speaker 1:And I have a beautiful auntie in Milan, italy, who has this really long, luscious white hair. She's like 80 something. Oh my gosh, she's gonna kick my ass if she's not 80. But to me, like she's so beautiful and I just look at her and I'm like I know she did this when she was younger, put you know effort into her hair and her skin because she is stunning. Actually, the more I think about it, the more she's definitely not 80 yet, because her brother just turned 80 this year. No, she's gonna kill me, but I will apply myself to doing a hundred hair brush strokes every day and I've got a little calendar thing all set up ready to go. I'm super Yep, we're gonna do it. And again, I keep getting asked this, so I'm just gonna touch on it really quickly. I've got about 10 minutes before I'm gonna get pinged for my parking on my podcast Frickin' buzzspray. You can't give me an award and then tell me you're gonna find me for going over my quota per month Tinder update. So not so much on the Tinder thing. The Tinder is quite interesting. It's just more of a conversation thing and obviously I've been away so I've been able to apply myself.
Speaker 1:I actually opened Tinder in Auckland and I had 99 new matches. That was a lot. I was like I'm not gonna even do anything here because I don't want to get to know someone that lives so far away. Blah-de-blah, I don't know what I was doing. I was watching 90 Day Fiancé on Saturday and no, actually was it Darcy, a Stacey and Darcy, something on TLC channel, and one of them little train wrecks was getting a matchmaker to find them a partner and they had to do all these things. And mum turns to me and she says why are we doing this through an app and we're hoping for the best? Why don't you just go to a matchmaker? And I was like, oh, here we go. So I had a couple of Vodka, sodas and I'm already like feeling like I'm gonna go to bed. This is annoying. I signed up to Elite Singles.
Speaker 1:Basically, you fill out a profile much the same as Tinder and they actually come back to you with potentials that would match and align with what you are doing, and I think there's like eight eight prospective guys at the moment. I haven't logged back and I've been busy, but I get the emails to say that Darada has been found for you and Darada is interested in you and would you like to like get to know Darada? And I'm like, oh, anyway, susan got really interested in the whole thing and even then she was like oh, should I start one? And it's. I think it's really empowering when you can start an online dating profile and then you start getting matches that are like not, you didn't have anything to do with it, like someone just thought, hey, that person be really great for you.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes I look at my friends, especially my brother from another mother he's beautiful, but he hasn't really had rages friends and I always say to him why don't you ever hook me up with any of your mates? His response is always something stupid like it's, because none of them are good enough. But I know that deep down, like I don't know, I'm a high maintenance little bitch, no. But it's kind of exciting because at end of the day, you know, love is everywhere and yeah, I am dabbling in quite a few things at the moment and I am just sort of like going with the flow and I hope that you know in time, when you start applying yourself to things like you know, wholesome things, that something can align and people will also be interested in that with you. So I don't actually essentially want my husband to be to be listening to my podcast, because who knows what's gonna come out of my mouth in the coming months, years, I don't even know. But yeah, it is. I don't know we'll see what goes on with that one, but I'm not sad about it. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was interesting and I was kind of a little bit like under the influence. But that's fine. Crocheting is not going well, that is not taken off. I'm so sick of that damn hook. But yeah, it's just one of those things. So I think I'm gonna sort of wrap this up here.
Speaker 1:Don't have anything else more, to say more or less. I've got a really great week ahead of me, being apparently according to my star sign. It's weird. It just sort of says that you know, great things are coming. I am a tourist, stubborn is all hell. If I hate you, that's it. You're out of my life. But I think my stars for the like and I'm not really that big on star signs and stuff, don't get me wrong. It's just one of these things that if you're aware of something, then you can sort of see it happening and sometimes I think where does my personality come from? It's crazy. But yeah, I'm definitely a tourist, so we'll see what happens this week with them. That just basically says big things are coming or something like that, and I'm like, oh, I've got a cousin coming in August sometime, but he's larger than life, so we'll see.
Speaker 1:But yeah, hope everyone has the best couple of days leading into August. I don't really know what's. I don't really have anything significant happening in August. Nothing comes to mind. But I'm sure at the next podcast I'll have an absolute dump of things. Hope everyone's well, keeping warm if you're in New Zealand and take care. I will pop another pod up next Monday. Speak to you soon. Bye.