It was a glorious weekend in Christchurch--woot! The weather was just stunning. It was so great to see the sun and get outdoors!

This week ahead is a busy one here in The Plotting Shed. I have a deadline to meet, more story to write, a festival to go and an extra poppet to mother for most of the week.

I'm also out and about a bit online. I'm so thrilled to be helping the wonderful Kate Hardy celebrate her 50th book with Harlequin Mills & Boon! Kate is the most amazing writer and also a fantastic person and friend. I'll be on her blog with a giveaway on Tuesday August 28.

I'll also be at Tote Bags and Blogs on Tuesday with another giveaway :)

And with the sun hopefully continuing to shine (and Spring only just around the corner), I'm planning on putting a few more things in the garden around the Shed--we lost a few trees in the snow this winter. Plus, I'm getting out the summer-fun toys and giving them a clean-up so they're ready to use in the next few weeks. Yay!!!

Hope you've got some fun plans for the week--let's have a good one :)

A Cuppa in Christchurch

My BFF and I have been BFFs since we were six. I’m not going to tell you exactly how many years that is, but (gulp) it’s over thirty! I feel so totally lucky to have a best friend who I’ve known so long—we have so much shared history and know each other so well. It’s very cool.

And as most of you probably know I live in Christchurch in New Zealand – here in Chch we had a series of devastating earthquakes over the last couple of years and our city is in the process of demolition and rebuild. It makes for an interesting time.

Anyway, so BFF and I went to school here in Christchurch and University—and while we both had stints overseas, we’ve both come back to the city and settled here. We actually live around the corner from each other. But, as we both have kids and careers, life is hectic busy, its so easy to fall into the trap of not catching up as often as we’d like. So in order to prevent such a tragedy occurring we have a regular coffee date one afternoon a week—damn good idea, right?

For a long while we went to the same café—handy, local, good. But parts of Christchurch are pretty dynamic right now—there are pop-up shops and cafes springing up everywhere (you’ve never seen so many converted shipping containers in one city)! So we’ve made a pact to go somewhere ‘new’ each week—and support the new endeavours in our city.

We went to a new pizza/bar yesterday that’s right in the city—in fact it’s called CBD. Brand spanking new (there were still tradesmen working in one corner), it’s right on the edge of the central city (much of which is still cordoned off from the public) – so there’s a lot of space around it from cleared sites and a million road cones. But it was awesome—super yum flatbread with hummus and olives, nice big booth seat for us to sit and natter in, and friendly staff. Yay!

I hope you have a BFF around that you can go have a regular cuppa with :)