My First Blizzcon.

I had yet to experience a Blizzcon that is until last weekend. I had no idea what I was in for really so I read on twitter and websites and other blogs to see what was happening.

I bought the virtual ticket not long after the in game rewards were announced, Moo suggested I but it on my account to get Murkalot, so I did! About 2 weeks before I was getting just a little excited, Moo and I decided that it would be impossible to watch anything with the kids around so it sleepover time for them! We arranged for them to pay a visit to Nanna and Poppy for the weekend and we would camp on the lounge. Moo with his IT background and being the tinkerer he is, set up my laptop via HDMI so we could watch it on the tele. I even played WoW a few times before the weekend, just to test it of course! :P
So kids are sorted, big screen viewing sorted it was onto food for the day! On the Friday night on the way home we did a grocery shop for snacks and of course alcohol to indulge in.

Come Saturday morning we are out of bed at 5:30am to turn everything on and log in to my account. It all works like a charm and so begins the opening ceremony! We got to watch most of it uninterrupted as the kids decided it was a good morning to sleep in! /cheer

Nearing 9am and I had the kids fed and packed ready to go, it was about 15 mins before the end of opening ceremony that Moo dashed off with kids while I got to work! Moved the couch to prime viewing position, cleared and moved the coffee table to house food and drinks and prepared the first round of snacks.

On Moos return I made us brekky and we parked on the couch (ipad in hand) for the next panel which is pretty much where we stayed all day, pottering between the kitchen, bathroom and lounge all day. I found it so exciting hearing about all the new things coming and just absorbing all the information that was being given, new games, new expansions and enhancements! I kept thinking how awesome it would be to be right there hearing and seeing and being completely submersed in it all. Moo had his laptop set up for the ATA podcast stream which he was jumping in and out of all day, it was weird hearing on side of a 4 way conversation and seeing random things popping up in the chat room, when I could see it, but it was so fun!

Saturday afternoon, after Blizzcon had finished for the day, we had a lovely chat with Leeta from Behind the Avatar. It was great fun speaking to someone I have been following for so long on twitter who is also a fellow Aussie with a podcast, there aren’t many around! If you want to listen to the interview you can get it here.

Sunday began early, 5am to be precise! Much coffee was consumed in an effort to wake up just a little. It didn’t take long before I was back to being in awe and totally consumed by what was going on both in twitterland and on my tele. Just amazing watching the Q&A Panel and the details of the next expansion and amazed by the costumes the cosplayers had made. I also loved seeing all the photos on my twitter stream, it certainly felt like awesome community was having fun! The excitement was only accentuated by a little surprise I am planning, I so wanna spill the beans cause I am hopeless at secrets! ;)

I had so much fun that I wanna go! Moo and I were already planning on going to Disneyland one day again with the kids; we will just tie it altogether! ;) On further thinking, we are also going to try and get Moo there solo next year pending finances and a ticket which we are already pricing so we can save for it. I’m not quite sure how our family trip will go, we are planning for 2015 but I’m not sure what I will do with the kids while there but we will work it out!

Let me know what your experience of Blizzcon was. I love hearing all the stories! :D


xx Natanie.

Rainbow Layer Cake

We have a small celebration coming on the weekend. Moo's parent are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They have organised for all of the family to go on a picnic on Saturday and we need dessert so what better way for me to get some cake practice in than to make them a cake!

Relationships.

Relationships. We deal with them every day in some way whether they be professional, personal or social. What prompted me to blog on it you might wonder? I was listening to Ep #53 of Tauren Think Tank where a listener wrote in asking for help with a personal relationship that started me thinking. I'm not quite sure why this particular letter. Much of what Tauren Think Tank does is help people, mainly WoW players, with relationship issues in various forms. I had pondered  this letter and the response given from Rem and Jules for a few days, wondering what makes relationships work and how Moo and I make it work.

I thought about many aspects of my life, not just what Moo and I have. I thought about how I deal with them at work, how I treat my kids and the values I am teaching them about relationships and I thought of my friendships, both my online friends and my real life friends. I feel I do an ok job of meeting the needs of my family but feel I could probably do better at my friendships, especially my real life ones! Time and timing is most of the issue with small children still requiring naps during the day and working part time but I do think its important to have good friends! I also think part of it is that I didn't have to role models in friendships or the outgoing personality so I have had to work it out for myself. 

So after all this pondering, I came up with what I thought was a good analogy, a house of cards. Each of the individual cards needs to lean against another exerting and receiving just the right amount of resistance for the house to stand. I think in the same way, people need to both give and take for a relationship to work and I don't really think it matters why type the relationship is or how personal it is. 

Thinking of my relationship with my team leader at work, it works well because I do what she needs me to do regardless of how much I enjoy (or hate) the task and she gives (aside from an income) flexibility, understanding and time off when I need it, without question and even sends me home early on some days! With Moo I think it is much the same, we both give to each other without expecting to receive anything in return, just because we care about each others well being.

Outside of this, other not so personal relationships I feel are based on respect first, basic respect that the other person has their own ideas, feelings and emotions and the right for those to be respected. I also feel that tolerance and acceptance both are part of respect and not so much separate entities of their own. Respect is something that was enforced on me quite young, so its something I feel quite strongly about. 

I think the other important part of relationship is thoughtfulness. Thinking of how your actions will impact others before acting on them and the consequences. I'm not saying being selfish at times is bad, just that it needs to be considered how others will feel and consulting them. Acting without consultation could be interpreted negatively by the other party, making them feel dis-respected, causing conflict.

I'm glad that Rem and Jules liked my analogy and discussed it on the show. (Ep #55). It was interesting to hear their thoughts on my ideas and elaborate further. People have always been an interesting topic to me, psychology and interpersonal relationships are fascinating. This is why I love listening to Tauren Think Tank, with Rem and Jules helping others to untangle from some awkward and sticky situations. Communication is key! 

xx Natanie

A look back at May..

This week is the last that Moo will have at his current job and next week brings on new beginnings and changes for all of us! I am working on preparing myself and the kids on what will be the new normal for them and trying to get myself into a new routine, making sure I have everything prepped for them the night before. If we miss that train then I will be even later to work than I really should be. My team leader has been advised of the new circumstances and she has been awesome, completely understanding and supportive! She is happy for me to shuffle my hours a little and with any luck I’ll get more efficient, the kids will co-operate and I’ll get my hour lunch break back!

The biggest change for me is not so much catching the train with 2 kids, being totally responsible for getting them to and from day care but making sure I have prepped their dinner and packed it all ready to go, complete with water and hoping someone doesn't need to go to the toilet 5 mins after we get on! 

I have been baking and making a few things for the freezer although I need more, I am out of ideas for dinner on the go for the kidlets! Some days will be sandwiches or crackers with some sort of meat (probably ham) and cheese and salad vegies but finding interesting ideas that are yummy and not too messy is tricky! I have found a great recipe for Zucchini Slice which they like and I can load with all sorts of veggies for them (bonus points for mummy!) which I think will be a regular for them. I am into baking scrolls now, I started with cheese and vegemite and cheese and bacon which are great for a warm brekky but I think I will do others, like pizza (ham, cheese, tomato sauce, pineapple) and spinach a feta and maybe even an apple and cinnamon!

It’s also shopping week this week so I will grab a few extra snack bars, crackers and similar types of snacks for a treat seeing as though stopping at McDonalds won't be an easy out for us anymore!

In other news, my work has been lots of fun and interesting. I have delivered my first few training presentations and with lots of feedback, feel like I am getting better at it. The first session was really awful, it was dropped on me late so I was unprepared and nervous but the reviews were positive at least with how I coped in the situation. My presentations have been cleaned up a lot and better capture what is required.

Oh that car that was in at the mechanic? *gives a hearty farewell* In case you missed the tweets, my overly generous and wonderful in-laws have granted us their (much newer and nicer) car with the sale proceeds from our old one as payment. I am so excited by this, it will reduce our maintenance costs so much and we won’t be driving so much from next week so fuel consumption won’t be as much of an issue either! I feel like someone is watching over us right now. <3 We are still in the process of changing over the ownership and getting the old one cleaned up and ready for sale.

There has been lots of positive happen this past month and being on the brink of it all has me excited and nervous about how I am going to do it all. I just will, somehow, and we will find a new ‘normal’

xx Natanie



All the Changes!

So things have been quite hectic here to say the least in the past month or so. Those that follow Moogyver on Twitter will have seen that he has been on the job hunt and my work has been changing as well with the new work I am taking on. So here is a quick update on the crazy and hopefully my blog won't be quite so neglected in the future!

A First Shot at Healing.

I had been thinking for a while and discussing with Moogyver about trying out healing. The decision was; do I try it out on Natanie, my Paladin or would it be better on my Priest Teily? I decided to go with the Pally, not quite sure why although I do feel more comfortable playing her than I do my poor Priest. Moo was able to find some time and set me up with a very basic healing set and helped me set up talents. I had a good tip from our GM to download Healbot, which I did and I am so glad that I did. I read a bit on the spells, talents and a quick how to heal guide before jumping in a setting up my Healbot and making my own Glyphs, cause I can do that! ;)

Healbot all set up and chatting to guildies they decide get a group together so I can practise! <3 We decide to run random Heroic dungeons so I don't have too much going on and no attitude if people die. What do you know the first is Scarlet Monestary! My ilvl isn't all that high, 407 not not a lot in the way of mana so much has to be conserved! I follow them around clicking away at healbot and using any procs as they pop. Awesome, no one has died! That is until we get to the courtyard trying to pull too many at once. Our poor tank is having lag issues and is low ilvl as well but we persist and after 3 wipes we have it sorted! It wasn't until the end of the run I find out about the low ilvl tank, not that it would have mattered anyway! We wipe once more after someone *whistles* no not me.. forgets to interrupt the rez spell. Once more and all down and no one dies of my causing (I hope)

We decide to do another random and its Temple of the Jade Serpent that pops this time. This, by comparison was easy, even if Moo did pull Sha before any of us were ready! I was quite low on mana when he pulled but they held their own and I was able to keep healing right though without being completely out of mana! I even get a gear upgrade from the Sha for my healing set. It was great fun and I was having to concentrate lots! :D A somewhat successful attempt, even if I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing!

I have since used some valor points to buy 2 more pieces which has pulled my ilvl up a bit more and I will at next opportunity head to the reforger to make sure I have the stats in the right places. All I need for her now is a different transmog set and lots more practise!

I'd love to hear any tips on Holy Paladins or some great resources you have found. Oh and throw me some fave transmog sets too ;)

xx Natanie

Sydney Royal Easter Show 2013

Each year around Easter, the Royal Agricultural Society run the Sydney Royal Easter Show. The idea of the show is to "bring the farm to the city" and show city kids what happens on the farm, learn about the animals and how food gets from "paddock to plate". 

The Game/Life Balance

I have read 2 blogs in the past week relating on how to balance real life with game time.

The Epiphany

It happened. This morning. I got up to shower ready for work and those darned scales caught my eye. Eh, should weight and make sure I am doing ok, I think as I begrudgingly step on.

Changing Career - Part 2

I completed the second part of my course on Tuesday. As a whole I really enjoyed the course and it has been great being able to learn in a classroom setting again.

My Changing Career

You may have seen me post on Twitter recently that I am going through a career change. It has been in the works for a while.

Transmog update

 Moo and I went hunting again last night for a transmog sword. His suggestion was the Arkadian Claymore, a very paladin-y looking piece, and BONUS its an awesome glowing one, so pretty! We needed to go off to Halaa to the blade vendor to get it. We get there to find out (of course) that its Alliance controlled so we have to defeat all the guards to regain control for the NPCs to pop. Luckily, being level 90, we can mow down the guards easily without needing to do bombing runs with the wyverns, old school style.

 We get halfway through hitting the guards to then have a Pandaren from Aman-thul come and help us with the last of them and then sit by the flag with us until it changes over (thanks cross realm zones!) Its a long time to just stand and wait, but we were able to kill some time dancing and playing fetch with Moo's pet eagle!

 The NPCs popped finally, and I grab my sword from Coreiel only just before some alliance fly in and start the process of changing it all back again. Thankfully our PvP flags had dropped by that time so we couldn't be killed for fun!

 We took off back to the transmogger and fixed up my sword and this is what it looks like..

We spent the rest of the evening running through Onyxia's Lair for the mount Reins of the Onyxian Drake, Gruuls Lair for the Hammer of the Naaru to use as alternative to transmog, but it did not drop and Moo and I had a picnic in Dalaran for the Lonely? achievement. 

What do you think of my new outfit? 

xx Natanie

Transmogging

I have been having a hard time trying to find time to blog so here is one with what I have been up to in WoW!

Moo has been after the Lightbringer armor set for me to transmog forever and we have finally run two of the old raids to grab the pieces this week. He had finally nabbed the last piece that he needed for his own t-mog, and the gun, Wolfslayer Sniper rifle, he was after so it was onto my set!

Life living in Australia.

I had a Twitter follower ask what it's like to live in Australia so I thought I'd dedicate a post to my day to day life, answering questions so you can compare to how you live. :)

Waffles!

I got a little bored this afternoon. The kids were being good for a change and I had started to think about dinner. I have this habit, if I find a recipe I plan on trying, I leave the page open in my browser. Its kind of like a reminder for me to do it. I am so glad I did today!

My travels in Azeroth

I started in World of Warcraft many years ago although I have had many extended breaks for various reasons, children being two of them. This is a bit of background on how I got into WoW and where I am at now.

2013 Goals!

So I thought seeing as though its the beginning of the year and I am just starting out in blogging I would make post #2 more about me and my goals for this year.

Welcome!

Welcome to my first venture into blogging! I am Natanie, wife to Moogyver, mum to 2 boys (Sprocket and Gizmo) and part time employee. I reside in Sydney, Australia.