Orange is not a colour, it's a state of mind

Went on a big 1 hr 45 min walk up and over The Terrace and around the waterfront this morning – town was pretty quiet and despite the huge hill at the start that took our breath away it was great to walk some streets we hadn’t in a while. Even in the drizzle!

Today The Mister received a delivery at work, from He-Man! Our Tweet4yourtee wardrobe increased by 2 more items as a ‘Master of the Twitterverse’ set was delivered to him at his desk – he had no idea and I had to keep the secret that the delivery was coming and that one of the Masters of the Universe characters was doing the delivery! I’d gone around work and got various people organised to video it, including me, and Tweet4yourtee are using it as part of their social marketing … with me giggling in the background and all.

The Mister was very surprised and was a great sport! I giggle every time I watch it!

As you know I’m a fan of Tweet4yourtee shirts and this month being breast cancer awareness month they took a break from their blue, black & white (& very occasionally orange) brand colours to do a pink range with some of the shirt price going to the Breast Cancer Foundation. Not wanting an entirely pink shirt, I still wanted one and opted for the ‘I Heart’ shirt that has a pink heart …

My heart is for The Mister, @storminwalker 🙂 Awwwww!

(And that coffee & the warmed croissant I had for breakfast at Customs Brew Bar was FANTASTIC!)

Came around a different way to the office this morning and noticed that the motorbike parking space opposite work is chocka! I’d heard Father-in-law say this a year or so ago when he was scootering to work in the neighbourhood but at the start of the work day the corner was a-buzz like bees around a clematis as the bikes rode up and down and backwards with little jerks on the throttle to mount the curb so the rider could jam it into whatever space was left. Earlier bikes parked higgledypiggledy weren’t  helping! And it was all very well when a bike was maneuvered into a spot but then it was time for some strange body contortions for the rider to extract himself from the tightly packed jumble of bikes – kind of like those scenes where museum burglars dance and bend over a laced laser security system.

And to top it all off, the parking warden was circling – I couldn’t help wonder if there was an upper limit on the number of bikes that could fit in that space, and that he was counting, or that the poor bugger who was last to squeeze his bike in with part of a mud-guard hanging over the yellow line was going to get a ticket!

Being a loyal Coffee Supreme fan girl I put on my (apparently pristine) Supreme t-shirt and headed down to the revamped Woodward Street retail store this morning to bask in its newness on opening day … hoping they’d let me in the door seeing as my loyalty has somewhat wandered elsewhere in the Supreme family of late with my blatant adoration of Customs Brew Bar and Ralph’s Brazilian beans! However, I had been going to the Woodward Street store for years and always enjoy a catch-up with the guys there so wanted to go see what all the fuss was about.

It’s a fantastic transformation! The store was teeny tiny before and other than removing 2 layers of false and mezzanine ceilings to give them room upwards, the store is no bigger but it’s totally different and very very cool. Here’s a photo from Supreme’s blog of the ‘old store’ (more here)

And here’s what it looked like when I went down this morning

It’s now a really cosy garage/workshop space with shelves of coffee stuff (some proudly displaying the new Woodward logo) and interesting little details like an ‘exhibition space’ in the brick wall – currently on display is a little Vespa model (am wondering what orange thing I can take down from my collection to display ‘on loan’!)

While still mainly doing retail and mail order beans, there’s plenty of room for a handful of people to stand around and chat and the guys will even make you a mug of coffee (in a much-loved old brown mug that you’d easily believe came from a workshop bench) from their Clover, on the house, so you can try different coffees and learn about the tasting experience.

A true coffee haven! When I got back to the office I could still smell coffee – delicious!

I had a bizzare and quite realistic dream last night that in order to overcome my fear and sickening nerves when it comes to speaking to a group that I decided to read a book out loud at work in the training room for as long as it took to read the book. I wasn’t sure what book to read, a novel, one that I knew wouldn’t have any rude bits in it, and that every day I stood in the corner and read aloud and people started to bring their lunch in to take a break and I ended up with quite a following including some hardcore stayers who listened to the whole story. I did it every day and it took months. Was obviously quite relieved when I woke up and looked at my book beside the bed and realised it had been a dream!

I wonder if I’ll ever write a book? I was talking with my team today about proof reading and the process you might go through when writing a book – whether you’d force yourself to write every day for half and hour or so then after a while see if any story was being shaped and then throw everything else away and develop one idea, or whether you’d sit down and map the whole structure out and write to that. If I wrote a book I wonder what it would be about? I think I’d love to but doubt it’s going to happen.

These photos were taken by We Do Photography & Design as official photographers on the night, and it’s with their kind permission that I show them here. For the full gallery, please visit the WeDo Rocktober site.

The stage & crowd (spot me there right up the front … stage left)

The drummer concentrating hard

Exhausted in the green room during the break

The crowd really getting into it

Me enjoying it in my own way!

Took some video footage of one of the songs on my camera at Rocktober on Friday night – had to chop the video in half to get it up to Flickr but here you go – rather a lot of footage of The Mister, but hey, that’s what I was there for! (if you want to see them a bit bigger – go to Flickr: Part 1 http://is.gd/fHRTB Part 2 http://is.gd/fHS0n)

I’m hoarse! Had a night jumping and screaming in my ear muffs, swooning at the drummer in Golden Axes making their debut performance at Rocktober last night! Wow – not my kind of thing but a great night. The Mister is SO talented – so amazing to see him in action behind the drums – hard to believe he hasn’t played for 15 years!!

Rocktober started out with me digging out some 80’s rocker photos from my university days to get into the spirit of it.

Then I wore Dean’s original Iron Maiden t-shirt to work all day, trying to pull off an 80’s my-boyfriend’s-in-the-band kind of look – I remember when Dean wore this shirt all the time!

Then it was time – The Mister was up on stage

and people were screaming and waving at the band!

God it was awfully loud, but I was somewhat protected in Father’s lawn-mowing ear muffs and it was great seeing the crowd really get into it – there were loads of people from work there including some that had left their kids at home and brought their partners out. I was really proud 🙂