Staff Blog

Moya, Marketing Co-ordinator (former Receptionist) 

Hi girlies,

It’s been a long time since I've blogged but I do have some fantastical news...

Say hello to Girlfriend's newest team member...me! I’ve gone up in the world and am now the marketing co-ordinator here at this wonderful mag - OMG its fantastic!

Shows you can really get the job you want with a little but of patience and hard work.

Now, marketing co-ordinator is not just a flash name and a desk to myself (even a business card, woop woop). I've been very busy working with our Marketing Manager (Melissa) on the up-and-coming Girlfriend Model Search! This year we are doing a tour of NZ stopping off at Westfield malls in Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and in Auckland to meet all you lovelies and find out who’s got what it takes to be our Girlfriend Model of the Year 08! So be sure to check out the September GF mag (out August 4) and see what awesome prizes you can win!

 

This Saturday is highlighted (in pink of course) in my diary, as our school ball promotion winner Megan Barry is attending the McLeans College Ball. Her and her best buds are lucky enough to have their own personal Maybelline makeup artist for the night and will arrive in style with Brad from The Edge, GF Editor Pam and the Electric Confectionaires who will perform live at the ball! Her prize makes me soooo jealous and makes me think back to my ball, (go Hamilton Girl's High). Sigh, what a night.

So keep a look out for the GF girls at the Girlfriend Model Search, coming soon to a mall near you. Don't be shy, we’d love to see you!

X Moya X   

Trin & Kat, Interns

Hey Girls!

It’s Kat and Trin at the Girlfriend offices as interns for a day! It’s been really awesome so far! We began our day with a tour through the GF offices with Pam and Lucy, all of the team is so friendly and it’s such a friendly environment to work in. What makes this place even better is a catwalk right in the middle of the office!

We then went on to replying to all your lovely Bebo comments, and writing questions for an interview with a cool as band called Scouting for Girls from London who are coming to NZ in July (eeeeek!). We also helped choose the gorgeous winning bag for the NIVEA bag designing competition. Next was the really exciting part, we reviewed some perfumes that you will see in an upcoming issue of GF! Ohh!! And the office smells so good now!

We went to Queen Street for lunch and on our way back it started to pour down and our umbrellas kept blowing inside out. It was so embarrassing!!! We miss SUMMER!! It’s days like this that make us think how much winter sucks. It’s too cold and it’s always raining.

Anyway, back to our story… after we came back from lunch, Lucy gave us some surveys about what we want to see in the upcoming issues of GF and we made sure we wrote down all the hot guys we want to see blue tacked to our bedroom walls :P

Girlfriend interns

Trin and Kat

xoxo

Lucy Slight, Editorial Assistant

So it's officially winter. Pitch black at 5.30pm and COLD! I have long since pulled out all my winter essentials, flannel Pjs, thick socks, puffy jacket and fingerless gloves. I'm not a winter girl at all! The only thing that's keeping me going is planning a trip to Ohakune where I'll get to wear my (very expensive) awesome snowboarding jacket, for the first time since it's one use last winter! It's not all bad though, I've been getting out of the cold and indoors to see some awesome shows this month. The Girlfriend team went to the opening night of High School Musical: The Ice Tour at Vector arena a few weeks ago and it was awesome! I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from singing along... And yes, I left wanting to be a professional ice skater. I wonder if it's too late to start...And the other highlight of my month so far was seeing Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the musical. I've never seen so many amazing costumes and false eyelashes! Every song was a hit and once again, I had to stop myself from singing along and I left wanting to be a professional stage actress (though I think I'll be happy just buying the soundtrack and pretending.)

Hope you're all having a great month too!

Lucy xx

 

Lisa, Designer

13/6/08 

Hey Girlfriends!

Recently, I was lucky enough to see High School Musical on ice with the GF girls and OMG I loved it! I have to say I haven't seen the movies (oh the shame) but seeing the ice show has totally confirmed my High School Musical fan status! One of my favourite parts was when they wheeled a big basketball hoop out, that when basketballs fell from the ceiling, the Wildcats were slam-dunking into! while skating on ice! Amazing. Everyone in the crowd knew all the words and I so wish I had seen the movies so I could have sung along too. Have any of you seen the HSM ice tour? What did you think? If you can't make it to the show, why not get your friends round, grab some popcorn and watch the two HSM's on DVD back-to-back? That's what I'll be doing now!

Love, Lisa.

 

Melissa Mazur, Marketing Manager

6/6/08

So....I have had a great week and really looking forward to the weekend! I received my 10th call working at Youthline (yes, I also work at Youthline) and I am being assessed by my buddy next week so I can go solo on the phone - very exciting after all the training and hard work - its great to be helping people!! I also have had my mate Waz from Melbourne staying with me and it has been lots of fun sightseeing with him. This weekend we are heading down to Rotorua to go luging and visiting the Polynesian Spas (love it!) and then it'll be a sad goodbye on Sunday afternoon when he heads back to Melbourne!  

Lucy Slight, Editorial Assistant

Now I know it's only the beginning of April but here at Girlfriend we're already amping for New Zealand Music Month! The May issue is out now and it's jam packed full of all your fave NZ musicians so I thought I'd share with you my weekend of Kiwi music. 

I was lucky enough to see two awesome NZ bands live this weekend. On Saturday night I went to see The Checks MySpace secret show and it was amazing! They were supported by the White Birds and Lemons who I've never heard before but now I'm a total fan. And it goes without saying really, that The Checks were out of this world! I'm quite a Checks fanatic (I even own the t-shirt) but have only seen them once before at Big Day Out so it was wicked to see them again at such a small venue. You could just see the girls swoon as front man Ed Knowles graced the stage and the crowd went ballistic the whole time they were on. Now I'm even more of a fan than I was before and I've practically had The Checks new album on repeat since Saturday... I think I'm in love.

 

So I rocked out on Saturday then on Sunday I took it down a notch with Fat Freddy's Drop at Grey Lynn Park in Auckland.
Now my very musically-knowledgeable friend Kath tells me that they haven't released anything new since 2005, so I think the park was just full of people set to hear some new tunes. As soon as the band started people just stood up, rushed forward and started getting into it. They played a couple of old faves and a whole heap of new stuff, and it was a great way to see in the first day of daylight savings! And check out the little trombonist in the Spiderman costume, he was the cutest little thing I've ever seen!

 

So now that I've had my Kiwi music starter, I can't wait for the main course! Bring on Music Month, it's going to be awesome!

 

  Rachel Bone, Picture Assistant

Time for a new blog and possibly a new pic - this ones getting a little boring.

I'm always a bit nervous when I go to blog.... To be honest I am not too sure on the whole concept.

I hear it's an exciting time for all of you who are going to the ball? Even talking about it makes me excited - its your one night of living like a celeb - and you get the most gorgeous pics. I still dust off the old album and reminisce every now and then.

One thing I definitely have loved about the balls is the dresses. Some of you may think you will only wear it once - but hey I can not even count the amount of times I have thrown one of my friends in the gowns and taken photos of them (btw, click here to send pics of you in your dress to the mag!).

On a more serious note - ladies please be aware when you are catching taxis - Not too long ago I was catching a taxi with a group of friends and when the boys got out to get money the driver sped off with us in the back. If it wasn't for the stunt my friend pulled - who knows what would of happened. So please do not go alone- check out the drivers id and do not take a unidentified taxi.

Anyways thats it from me - gotta go sort out a new pic from myself.

 

Moya, Receptionist

Hey girlies!

Today (*tears welling*) is the end of summer - technically. I came to this realisation as I pulled out last years's skinny jeans with a sigh. It's time to cut back on the shorts and cute summery tops - it's all about jeans for the next six months.

I'm sure someone just turned the summer switch off, and I'm not too happy 'bout it to say the least! Summer always seems to be way too short - not enough beaching and (for those of us that have to work over the summer) not enough time to spend just hanging around, lazing in the sun.

Trying to look on the bright side though there are going to be some positives this winter. I've just moved into a new flat which, being closer to town, will mean less of an early morning start and possibly some exercise in the form of walking to work (I say possibly), which is always on the to-do list!

I gotta say though, this winter's fashion is making me feel much better about looking good while actually being able to stay warm! At the front of my future winter wardrobe will hopefully be a bright red maxi coat, they are so hot right now (check out Katie Holmes' TDF one below)! :) Ahhhh fashionable warmth!

Till next time girls don't forget everyone's wardrobe deserves new clothes this winter - especially mine!

Moya

 

Lucy Slight, Editorial Assistant

Hi my name's Lucy and I'm an addict. I'm addicted to celebrity gossip. Now some of you may think that this is not a proper addiction, but if I don't get my daily goss fix I feel like I'm missing something. It's even got to the point where I call celebs by their first names only and just assume other people know what I'm talking about. Even GF Ed Pam questioned me the other day when I said "Did you hear that Ashlee might be pregnant?" (but she did actually guess I was talking about Miss Simpson) - though the rumours have since be proven false but I'll keep you updated!

Anyway I think my addiction is way healthier than some and I reckon you've got to have a few vices! But I've definitely learnt something from my addiction. When I was younger I thought celebs lived the dream life. I mean, they could have pretty much whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it, no questions asked. But now I know that's not necessarily a good thing. Just look at Britney (surely I don't need to add her surname!). She was living the dream and now it's all gone down the toilet. And is there anyone in Hollywood who hasn't been to rehab?

So although I know my addiction won't go away anytime soon (and I don't want it to!) I feel it's given me a better appreciation for the simple life - and not the one starring Paris and Nicole!

Anyway, must go Perez calls xx

Rachel Bone, Picture Assistant

Is summer still here? I am looking outside the window and it's pouring with rain, but it's still muggy as. I hope summer isn't over as I have been enjoying this weather so much. It is my first year for a long time that I have not been working in the weekend.

The best thing about summer is the events, especially the free ones that are held over summer. I went to Groove in the Park on Waitangi day and had such a wicked time. I have also enjoyed going to all the wine and food festivals that are on... even if you are not old enough to drink you can still go along and eat nice food and dance to good music. I've had a little bit of a love interest this summer (as much of a cheesy cliche this is). I always crack up at how in the early stages of a relationship you go out and do lots of great spontaneous things, but before long you are back to chilling in front of the TV. Maybe it's that you feel more comfortable with each other, or the fact that your lifestyle is costing too much. Otherwise it could be that the two of you just become too damn lazy. Well whatever it is I am going to attempt to battle the temptation of falling in the rut. I'll keep you informed on how it goes.

In the meantime get out and enjoy what summer we have left - it doesn't feel like it is going to be here for much longer. 

Lucy Slight, Editorial Assistant

Happy New Year girlfriends!

Man this weather is getting HOT, it finally feels like summer...
It was great to have nearly two weeks off over Christmas to enjoy some of the amazing weather. I went up to Te Arai with some friends, and we stayed in a big old house in the middle of nowhere. You couldn't even see it from the road coz it was up a massive gravel driveway so we had total peace and quiet (well sort of!)

Some of the guys (and two gutsy girls) we were with jumped off a massive high rock on Te Arai beach into the surf but I was way too chicken to try and the water was freezing! But we went swimming in a dirty looking lake (which I think looked dirtier than it actually was...) and it was really nice, except when our legs got caught in the seaweed!

The rest of the time we just sat around on the front lawn of the house and ate way too much food. Our dinner on New Year's night consisted purely of meat and bread. And I'm talking A LOT of meat. One guy made a six-meat sandwich and actually managed to stomach it! I only had two kinds and that was meat enough for me!

But we're back at work now and getting started on the next issue, which is exciting. Hope you guys all had a wicked Christmas and New Year. Oh, that reminds me, I really should take down my decorations!!

Enjoy the amazing sunshine,
Lucy X

 

Rachel Bone, Picture Assistant

What can I say, it's that time of year- and how quick did 2007 go? It's all fun and games from here on in - parties, family get together's, long days in the sun and barbecues. THIS IS MY FAVOURITE TIME OF YEAR!!!!

I don't know if it's just me but everyone seems a lot happier / carefree, maybe it's the thought that yes, you do not have to wake up and go to school - or just because it's the season for giving - it's any ones guess.

Have a great holiday and Happy New Year
Love Rachel

 

Katie Morris, Fashion editor

Getting a shoot together can be a lot of work... getting a shoot together in another country is just insane! We were lucky enough to get to fly over to the Gold Coast for the Model Search Winner's first eight page fashion shoot for the January issue!

With a very small team of four we headed over the ditch. The shoot was to be all done at Dreamworld, so with the photographer Jackie driving and me giving directions (certainly NOT one of my strong points) we made it there safely AND on time!

The day was just amazing; we got perfect weather, and everyone was so friendly. GF ed Pam was also in the Gold Coast so we got to catch up with her! Our winner Viarni (pictured) is just amazing, I had so much fun hanging out with everyone. I got to pat a tiger cub, meet Spongebob and have a go on their new ride. Wouldn't it be nice to get to do this every month?