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.

No snaps, no news, no life?

Hammy New Year to you! Actually it has been a very hammy and desserty holiday up until today which started with a strict walk and no dawdling to shift some of that ham and dessert. 'It's not what you do one day, it's what you do every day' so I am in for a lifetime of walking!

In this house there are no cameras and so there are no snaps to share until Tower insurance send me a letter. Good things take time and I have been waiting a while now. Oh well better get some perspective, at least I haven't been in an earthquake and had my house demolished.

So if you can't see what I have been doing
does that mean that I haven't been doing anything
or does it mean that what I do doesn't count
unless I can show you?

I think it means that I prefer to put up a snap and a sentence or two rather than rabbit on about My Holiday.

MH started with a very warm, relaxed Xmas at the beach with family which involved getting the new togs full of sand boogie boarding at Ohiwa and the treasures of the Opotiki retro shop. I can't go on in that linear way so here are some other stars; the Mercer cheese shop which deserves a whole entry of its own, the fabulous dinner at The Chateau which rescued the formulaic 'welcome' from the terminally disinterested receptionist who seemed to be having a tiff with the porter, the foresty drive home along the edge of Lake Taupo with a quick dash past Tok and Tirau to Hamilton and home on the expressway.

What is the difference between a motorway and an expressway anyhow?

Wellington was eating and drinking on the new deck and marvelling at the Brian Brake exhibition at Te Papa with a number of other touristic things to entertain the Netherlander in our midst.

And did I mention New Plymouth? Catching fish, walking the entire walkway in the sunshine and seeing the fairy lights at Pukekura Park. No. Well I did them all.

Thanks to everyone for making it all so great, a wonderful start to the year which kicks off with three of our households moving. Spooky. It is obviously time for shifting.

End of holiday comp

Where is this?

Prize of my choosing for the winner. Good luck!

Malling, not squalling

The end of the school holidays feels like this.

Retail, it's war out there and prisoners are being taken in the malls.

Iliveinabigcity.com

It's so big it has sculpture and very tired people.

Big buildings, gosh what is that one to the left of the middle?

I see now.

Well although I have had a car written off and a house ransacked I have not been as comprehensively done over as investors in South Canterbury Finance. This building is in my big city and I can imagine that it will soon be renamed or torn down or even more likely, turned into apartments.

My big citywhich is about to become a supercity although I am less sure of what that is. Perhaps something like the picture above, lots of glitz and BIGNESS and one old building left at the centre. A bit like a caramel in amongst more trendy ephemeral chocolate treats. Read about a campaign to save the St James theatre here in Norkland. It was a brilliant space and the Film Festival used to be held there. More recently I saw Gilliam Welch and Dave Rawlings and it was faded but still fabulous. Bring her back I say!

Cheers to General Store at 54 Customs Street who have a Happy Hour from 3-6pm on a Saturday. Roaring Meg and a stonkingly good time. Go there. They are very pleasant.

Double whammy

Sometimes you get lucky. As I drove home from work last week another car, pursued by the police, crossed the centre line and smacked into me. I am fine but my car is not.

Timing could have been worse too, just around 5pm turning into West End Road with other commuters behind and in front. I was towed by GHL Recovery and Salvage and his wife gave me a lift home too. The panelbeaters at A1 Autofinish have her now. Haven't heard from the police although I did crack and phone Central to get a file number at about 10pm the night of the accident so I could make an insurance claim.

I did consider speeding along Great North Road to get their attention but decided against it.

That same night a couple driving home from the gym in Christchurch were not so lucky and were killed in a different police pursuit. Time to review the protocol.

Now for something more uplifting, thanks Nature for this beautiful sunrise.

Any other princesses out there?

This is for all of you.

It is parked in Wellington and this was taken after a wonderful dinner which started with a superb elderflower martini at Floriditas.

My son visited some weeks later and the bedroom was still there. He didn't have the martini so it is not essential.

Tell me a story about it!

See gull on holiday

Let's start the holiday snaps with something reverent.

Kirking around revelling in the vaulted ceilings, they don't make 'em like that any more.

Gull likes to sit on Robbie Burns head and give him a cowlick you would never want.

Then flies off to look for ... fish I expect.

One Moeraki boulder and if you really care, I have plenty more snaps which I could show you on a slow winter whisky evening.

I grew up in the King Country a long way from the sea. I love crashing waves like these at St Clair beach. Look really carefully and you may see a wet suited surfer just on the brink of THE BIG ONE!

Not a cheerleader in sight

Takapuna beach at lunchtime in winter with Twilight teens in hiding.

More dramatic view, tide in and not a cheerleader in sight.

Growing more fond of the Shore and may even investigate living there. Taka closes down after 5 o'clock and everyone can run, bike and dogwalk to their heart's content. It's quieter and somehow that is becoming very important.

It's Auckland innit?

Flash cars and street art

Just Fu-Ling around

Love the chairs and the food is wonderful, plentiful and well priced. Lots of Chinese people eat there and it is opposite the flash new station, er transport hub, in Henderson in the heart of Westie territory.

Prices $39 for Peking duck but get there early, aroundabout $18 for a whole battered fish. Lots of greens and tofu for those so inclined.

Agave actually

... and just beautiful. These little flowers are all up the stem and start opening at the bottom so that by the time the top is flowering the bottom will have finished.

Mrs McGinty's plant

Over the long weekend which celebrates a Royal birthday I hope that I will be watching this flower while many others will be running to the shops in a retail frenzy.

It grows taller every day and is making a bid for the bathroom window.

I am not afraid.

See what I mean?

Wellington, ah yes

Stayed here at The Cambridge Hotel last weekend and a fine time was had by all especially the bloke who kept knocking on the door looking for Vince at about 5 in the morning. It was a bit Cheech and Chong but otherwise everything was lovely and the ensuite had BATHROOM written on the frosted door to stave off any confusion that it may have been a closet with a shower, toilet and basin in it.

Queen Victoria kept a stern eye on the goings on in Courtney Place.

This is in Petone should you ever need the Tongan High Commission. Also in Petone is a fine ladies' dress shop where I bought a pair of black pants which I wore on Friday. Yes, I had to have them taken up since I left my Husqvarna on the kerb for someone else to love.


This is Otis Hall's painting of one of Wellington's icons and I like it very much. It was above the bed in our room at The Cambridge and there were more pictures from the school that he went to around the place.

Went to Home by Christmas by Gaylene Preston at the Embassy. Recommended.

Due to rips in the fabric of time and changes in circumstances we won't be coming to live in Wellington as soon as we had hoped but we will still visit so lock your spare room!

Lovely city, lovely times with lovely people.

Hue and no cry

This is how they offer you a drink of water at Hue.

They have Harpers Bazaar, Marie Claire and House and Garden in neat glossy rows. They have a chandelier and wonderful colouristas who are specialists because they do nothing but colour hair.

I went to their Franklin Road salon and had the kind of experience where you feel better when you walk out than you did when you walked in. There is no idle chatter amongst the staff about their Friday night, their shifts or gossip about friends or soap stars. They seem interested in you - and your hair.

Loved it, recommend it, please be kind to yourself and go there. Unbelievably it is cheaper than all those chains of salons out there and a quantum leap in service and relaxation.

Did I mention the vibrating chairs at the basins? Bliss.

'I seen the little lamp' - Katherine Mansfield

This is the new star of our bathroom and it is a little beauty. Made of plastic, easily put together by two dolts - or one dolt with three hands -and created in New Zealand.

The light is glorious with just a touch of 6o's coffee lounge.

Picked out harmoniously in K Road at Iko Iko on a Sunday afternoon.

Autumn and high jinks in the pavilion

Marilyn watches

as the girls get ready

Betty bouncing

Ella leaping

A few snaps of two girls' exuberance on an autumn day in the Hamilton Gardens.

Marilyn was more subdued, probably overawed by the splendour of the tree. Of course, for those in the know she couldn't possibly have seen the girls so perhaps was miffed at missing out.

Being eternally two dimensional was probably not so hot either.