Happy New Year 2012

Open to offers

It may or may not be over your head
It may get tricky
It may surprise you

Hey hey holidays

I have just spent a week in Wellington with family and friends and had a wonderful time. This goes some way to describing just what I did on my holiday.

The Swim Meet

This was an entirely new experience for me - the whiff of chlorine, mandatory goggles and caps, no divas and wooden clapping blocks to start each race.

Diving in

Going like the clappers

After the race

Kindergarten Christmas Concert

This was such a misty eyed event that there are no snaps and you will have to imagine the assembled mini Santas and superheroes along with some very fine party dresses and saris.  This person was all ready to sing her heart out.

 ... and eat some of the MASSIVE feed afterwards.

Transport

I spent a lot of time on suburban trains some days four trips to take the two girls to school and bring them back home.  All went well apart from the now legendary time when Ms 8 and I were so captivated by the charming French family opposite that we both missed our stop and went all the way to Wellington.  I also walked a surprising amount both in the city, around local footpaths and in the Otari-Wilton bush.

There was also one magic night galloping alongside a tall person using crutches to try and make the train to Johnsonville.  Didn't make it.  We were able to fossick around in the Tardis of the New World Metro at the station.  Great liquorice allsorts, ate the lot because we needed the energy after the manic walking.

Eating

No surprises that this happened and included delights from the Nada bakery in J'ville, breakfast at Floyds in Island Bay, the best pizzas crafted in Crofton Downs, kebabs in town and a glass of fizz at the hairdressers.  Coffee at Mojos, coffee at Mojos.

People

They were the whole point.

Proud parents  awwwwwwwww

An uncle and an aunty.  One has a stylish haircut and the other has crutches for a sprained ankle, you guess.



Mery Xmas to you and yours and best wishes for good times, good health and good fortune.



Winter encore

St Clair beach looking out at strangers. 

St Clair beach looking out at waves.

These snaps were taken on my recent trip to Dunedin and hark back to winter which has struck again today.  They have that long Sunday afternoon feeling of waiting for something to happen and are a complete contrast to the happy family time I spent getting to know grandies and their parents.

Constellation prize

When I was a kid

Selwyn Toogood used to travel
New Zealand bringing his show
'It's in the Bag'
to small towns like the one I grew up in.


There was a big prize
usually a trip to Honolulu
which sounded so foreign,
exotic and glamorous.


Even now I am thrilled
to imagine Honolulu
from the perspective of
my landlocked childhood self.


The constellation prizes
were a consolation
for missing out on
The Big One


glamorous whiteware
labour saving devices
of every description
in those giddy post postwar times.

This constellation prize I bought myself
a reward for enduring
the coldest tiny movie theatre
watching a French film

Romain Duris did not keep me warm
but these antique glass earrings
warmed my spirit.

Oh so lovely!

Although I was captivated by these crazy-ass height adjusters online, I went for these more conventional laced up beauties from the local shoe shop which were ON SALE too.

Going to New York

Yes well here we are in July already already which means that I am one year older and that it is winter and the school holidays. This added up to the need to GO OUT in Nature and take in some art as well.

Here is some manicured nature outside the window of the Pah Homestead.
To get inside, number three son and I bravely walked around the building from the car park. He was back from warmer climes and looked resolute but frozen by the time we battled our way through the brisk breeze.

I wore wollen dress, cashmere coat and scarf so found it more thrilling than chilling. There is only one entrance and it is not at the top of the steps in my snap. Go figure!

Thanks Toss, love your work.

Going arting at this grand restored house was a little fraught as I was so alarmed at their hectic website that I did not look for the opening hours. After all - who closes at 3pm on a week day in the holidays?? Yep, you got it.
There is a silver lining to this cloudy tale as we lucked into a screening of 'Bill Cunningham's New York' in a gorgeous setting in Dominion Road.

..and this is the story of how I went to New York for my birthday.

The Flood Plain

'Do you know it floods?'

'Well I do now.'

This is not the 100 year event that one neighbour said that it was, it happens every time we have relatively sudden rain. The little stream merrily tumbling past at the bottom of my garden turns into a raging torrent which detours surely across the 'lawn' then runs back to rejoin the stream.

These snaps were taken the morning after Stormy Weather so there you go, yet another post about the weather.

Stormy Weather

Friday night at Castor Bay with wet weekend in view.

Milford in the distance

Rangitoto overseeing evrything and impossible to hide from around here. I know it's another slightly off centre snap but that is what my camera loves to do.

Almost west coast wild.

Grey skies
drove home

grabbed the camera

scurried to the beach

sand got in my eyes

took some snaps

Stormy Weather is also a jazz standard and this rockabilly queen would do it proud.

The Guest Room is OPEN

Your verdant view.

A view of another kind.

Inviting huh? The kimono dog is pretty excited.

Holiday trifecta

Anzac Day coincides with Easter Monday this year. This is the memorial in Takapuna which will be covered in wreaths tomorrow.

I don't have any war stories from my parents so I rely on Gaylene Preston's Home By Christmas and her other work to get a sense of what it may have been like. If you haven't seen that film, I recommend it. There will also be more of her work projected LARGE at the Auckland Museum.


In the meantime I will eat another Easter egg off the installation in the living room. The ones above are very pretty, solid china and plucked from a White Elephant stall.

But Easter is not all about chocolate and marshmallow is it? No - hot cross buns are also important. Ate some pappy supermarket special chocolate ones and they didn't really taste of anything and dissolved instantly. But Wild Wheat made some wonderful ones although I feel sure that the Number One Son probably made some beauties of his own to feed the rellies.

Got out and walked around the Centennial Track in Milford to shift some of the damage.

Try not to

about the past .

Mellow fruitfulness and all that

Down on the flood plain of 'The Water Runs Through it' formerly known as the bach, there are loads of leaves from the two poplars which may once have been a fence line. There are a few leaf haters out there I realise but I love them. Deciduous trees drop their leaves and reveal as much light as possible and perhaps more of the neighbours across the ditch in the winter. I just wish I could rake them into little mounds and set fire to them and then go indoors and eat chestnuts or knit something complicated by a fireside. Autumn brings out the cosy or gezellig in me. I have not gone down the preserves road although there has been baking. The days are still warm and there is enough political intrigue and good cricket to keep everyone amused.

It has been a long time since the last post and in typical Kiwi fashion I make my re-entry talking about the weather. I attribute this to my dad who wrote diary entries which were about nothing but the weather. He also had a few pinups which were not trees or leaves.

Soon it will be the school holidays and time to write a few more entries which may progress beyond the weather and move on to people and places.

Instament 2, outside and downstairs

Side view. This gets morning sun, outhouse looking part is the bathroom and the kitchen is on the left hand corner and the lounge bit on the right hand corner. Window down the bottom belongs to the spare room which is crammed with everything else that you can't see in the pictures.

View from the road. There is room for another car and the front door is ajar.

Back view with newly installed clothesline. The overflowing stream comes up to the green pole.

Left bottom window is the one in my study, the one on the far right isn't there on the inside as it has been sacrificed to have a shower over the bath. The deck upstairs looks great and gets the afternoon sun.

Going downstairs, first flight.

This is what is at the bottom, two little steps up to the main bedroom and the spare bedroom. The laundry, study and bathroom are on the same level below the steps.

If you were confused, this may help to sort the levels, to the left the second flight of stairs, in centre stage is the laundry complete with sink.

My study which is much smaller than it looks here and much darker too. The bookcase is one wall and the edge of the desk is the other.

Close up of the steps and just an indication of how much stuff is crammed into the spare/guest bedroom. Not quite ready for sleepovers yet. Lino to the right is the bathroom and there is a toilet just before you get right into it. Visit and see. To the left is my study.

Bathroom. There is also a vanity with a large mirror which faces the right end of the shower/bath.

The main bedroom, I just can't call it the master bedroom, the chair marks the edge of the room. The wardrobes work well but we are getting more sets of drawers as there are still little piles of things left over.

So there you have it - upstairs, downstairs and outside of the new downsized bach.

Here it is, instalment one, the top storey

View from the front door last week, more typically there would be a runner and a couple of cyclists and a few cars. We are on the other side of the street from these mansions and are much more modest in appearance. There is a great cliff /walk/ park beyond them.

Front door is to the left and this is the TV/music lounge which gets the morning sun.

Turning a little you can see the stairs to downstairs in the distance and to the left of that, is the kitchen. Stripes from the venetian blinds have turned the sofa into a zebra.

Getting the picture? Magically everything fits. I think we will be happy here.

Kitchen in all its glory, the stove has a booklet which is just as well as I couldn't figure out the symbols by Bosch.

View out the kitchen door to the morning sun deck.

Now you can see the afternoon sun deck with a familiar table and more plants are out there. We will go downstairs next time, just turn around a bit more.

Yep, room for these and the deck runs along to the end of the window.

The dining space.

So I have been standing pretty much in the middle of upstairs and showing you around. On the right is the telephone table which used to be in the hallway and is now opposite the front door. Cougar cardi at the ready with Crown Lynn treasures and opshop tray.

It has been described as 'cute' and 'pretty unique' by the SKY technician.

The upstairs part is a great space which works well, downstairs is a little curious and will be in the next instalment.

Probably some pix of the outside may be helpful too.