we had planned on a trip to mt hutt or the like today, coz em's was desperate for snow seeing. but due to the nature of snow being cold and the like, we decided to flag this idea and go look at pretty paintings in the warm art gallery instead. then there were wanderings over to lyttleton to see the sea and warm up with toast,eggs and coffee!!! 
if you are from auckland, coming to christchurch is difficult in the sense that you can not, honestly can not, get your bearings. in auckland you are used to going up and down hills and seeing across the city constantly. for the past twelve years, the hypodermic needle that is the sky tower, has been a constant point of referral. prior to this it was generally one tree hill, mt eden, the harbour bridge, or simply just the sea.
christchurch has none of these landmarks, only the port hills, and often you can't even see those, either because of low cloud or smog, or simply because christchurch is so damn flat, you can't get an angle of view. i still get a little disorientated at times and think east is north and south is east.
my friend emma pemma is coming down from temperate akl today to visit for a couple of days. with it having been no warmer than about 8 degrees here for the last, oh i don't know how long, it was most necessary to ensure a warm bed for her to sleep in at nite. So having been using the flannelette sheets ourselves, they need to be washed and dried today. YAY for cafe's with attached laundry's. we sat, had coffee and read the sunday papers while the sheets dried. mmm - nothing like warm washing straight out of the dryer either!
after two years of studying photography, i have a fair number of photos, framed and unframed, lying around my place. unfortunately very few are actually hanging on the walls, mainly because they aren't framed....must get more done so that i don't have to stare at myself continuously!
today though i did decide i needed to put what i have framed up on the walls so it would at least remind me that i need to get more images framed.
it was one of those days where things just kept going wrong...or rather i was just having a 'clutz' day. the last straw was my desperation for a drink of fizz and i went to get the last bottle i had. i picked it up and it just slipped out of my hand - argh! it was a mess and frustrating....grrr. 
caught up with a couple of friend's tonite, one of who's birthday it was, the other is leaving to go back 'home' to aukalofa tomorrow(auckland for those not so clear on nz geography name changes). as always with these two there were plenty of inappropriate comment, jokes and laughter. what a great nite! oh how i will miss the daily name-calling. this is apparently what happens when you are a wife!!! ended the evening with obligatory blackboard photos. these friend's are definite keepers! 
my girlfriend text me today asking if i could come and take some pictures of her and the kids that she nanny's. so we trundled off to hagley park, and shot some pics oh her and the boys....go autumn leaves....in winter.
really an uneventful day. monday's are like that. beginning of the week, dragging the heels, not wanting the weekend to end, most people do hate monday's. i never used to have an issue with monday's, i guess that was coz many moons ago i liked my job and what i was doing. these day's, it's not that i dislike it, i just like my weekends more, ha!
my flatmate walked in just after dark, and announced she here car was dead, and had just walked home from the doctor's - in boots - mad girl. so boy and i took her back down the rd and jump started her car for her. i have a bit of a phobia of jumper leads....coz in my head positive goes to negative and vice versa....not so with jumper leads as we all know. i learnt the hard way when i burnt my hand, and managed to take a chip out of my mother's gold wedding ring, due to the heat, not so cool.
i got over my fear tho - with a few jumps(me that is) and got meg's car started first go....it wasn't the battery it turns out....was the alternator - stink!
it has quite obviously been getting colder of late, as i once again have a cuddly, smoochy cat. or maybe it's just the fact that he is constantly hungry that is cause of the cuddles and purrs. seems a more likely explanation for my skittish cat!
yesterday after my 'talk' at tech i had a girl come up to me afterwards and asked if she could ask me a question. not a problem, expecting something inquisitive about my work.....
'i was just wondering where you got your boots? they are amazing and my mother would love them'
i had to laugh (internally of course). it was good to know that i had quite obviously held the attention of all the teens with my amazing pieces of work - ha!
these boots though have always been receptive of plenty of comments and 'where did you get those'. i always have to laugh, as i bought them simply because they were, such, a bargin and never actually intended to wear them, except to maybe the odd fancy dress party. instead they have become one of my favourite pairs of boots and are worn often (when i don't have to do too much walking that particular day). also helps that they were under a hundy!
i spoke to schoolkiddies again today at the cpit 'have a go day'. i wasn't as happy with my talk today as i was last week...just didn't feel as prepared....funny as i ad-libbed it all last week!
still it went well enough, and i managed to talk for all the time i was allocated! now i just have to extend it out in preparation for the alleged presentation i have to give to the photog level five's later in the year
went for a drive today - coz, shock horror, there was, wait for it......sun!!!!! decided to go out with a picnic, camera's and flashes in hand....make a concerted effort to do some stuff.
well i think all our creative juices were used on this....coz by the time we went for a bit of a walk and muck around i decided to throw all my toys out of the cot and gave up. so all i got was this.....
boyf is doing a shoot for a friend's portfolio at the weekend. so tonight we went into the studio to do a test with me being the model, with make-up! ugh. i'm not big on make up at the best of times and definitely no good at dramatic make-up(or muck-up as i usually call it). we had a fun night tho, and he managed to make me look pretty good...(final images to follow....at some point). i decided to record the evening by time lapse....still working on compressing it, but here's a sneak look
a year ago today my lil kitty, indy, collapsed on my floor. i took him off to the vet not expecting the worst. the vet gave me hope and i left him(indy) with the vet to do some tests & then later exploratory surgery. he ended up having a huge ball(basically) of pus in his belly, which the vet managed to drain....apparently it took a while. i got the call to say all was well....then 15 minutes later another call to say he had gone into cardiac arrest and needed to be put down. sad day. bad mother.
it took me over a week to go and pick him up and bury him. amazingly i am still in the same house (i don't seem to stay in flats for so long) so the memory was def more real than if i had been somewhere else......rip lil indy boy
i was playing around trying to work out a pic for today....not quite sure what made me do it but i thought i'd bounce the flash off the round mirror in my room - loving the effect
some days you just have to get out of the city and smell the fresh country air. i have decided it is better to do this in summer, when the air is warmer.....alternatively many more layers of clothes are required, unless you are doing some form of exercise while enjoying the fresh air...exercise - yeah right!
anyway - we went for a drive out west today to enjoy the countryside and check out the alps with some snow on... photos of these can be seen here (i really need to get a bigger version of the pano up somewhere). joys of having a boy who also is a photog, is that you have the option of using two dif camera's for sp's.....so actually grab a shot of me shooting. proving i do shoot other things on the odd occasion, besides me :)
every so often (usually every three months tbh), i get sick of the way my room is arranged and have to rearrange it. unfortunately with the room i currently have there really are not many choices for where the bed can go, and hence the rest of the furniture.
having two exterior walls in a rather old house doesn't help so much either, especially as my room is south-east facing - doesn't get so much sun! luckily having my newly discovered bed warming device, i have allowed my bed to be by an exterior wall this time, and man it makes the room feel bigger. yay! i just hope that it really doesn't get too cold over on that side of the room!
i have weird feet. well mainly toes. they are all squished up and i most definitely don't look like i have four bones in each of the smaller four toes. my small toes mean i have a small, overall foot size, barely a ladies 6, more a 5. i personally have never noticed how small my feet are, but everyone these days seem to comment on them....hey guys, have you not noticed i'm barely over 5'1"....i ain't gonna have big feet!
i have even been told that i won't be able to have natural birth, because my feet are so small....apparently that means i have a small pelvis. lucky i am not planning on getting pregnant, ever.
(peeling nail polish doesn't help either!)
tomorrow it's 'have a go day' at polytech. basically schoolkids get to come and hang out for a day to see what goes on and try their hand at a variety of courses. being the artist in residence, i, with some of the other students, get to gives talks to the kiddies about the photog course at cpit.
as per usual i left it to the last minute to get my presentation ready.....flippen did the whole thing in keynote and then went to save it and discovered i only had a trial version, so it wouldn't save....grrrrr. had to redo it in powerpoint! so the verbal part is going to have to be ad-libed, i'm much better that way anyway.....man i hate speaking in front of others.
tonight adam & i went over to our friends house for dinner. i made a rather delightful dessert that managed to keep us all quiet for at least ten minutes....a hard feat for us four....although i am surprised we all still had a full set of teeth after.....my syrup was a 'little' overdone 
so i may have been a, tad, naughty while i was in akl and done a little bit of retail therapy while i was there. for this i blame erin, as it was her birthday and i needed to purchase a present for her, therefore i had to enter a shop to do this.
in my defense, i have been wanting to get a new piece of jewellery for a while now, and these were just so cute.
boy and i were in this great shop in kingsland, mixt. it only stocks made in new zealand items, old and new. the rings are circa 70's and were do-it-yourself kits sold back then. i was struggling to make up my mind as to which ring i wanted, so the owner gave them both to me for the price of one.....we like that kind of store :)
wow - i made it. 100 blogs....holy crap. ok so some have been a little late, but still i got there...will i make the next 100 tho?
this project has definitely been harder than i expected. trying to keep the photos interesting and different is not the easiest task in the world. somedays i do just have to go 'bugger it', and simply 'record the day'.
the writing is much the same. but adds a whole other element on top of the photo....oh and more work!
and then there was sun - wow. after two days of grey and rain it was great to have some sunshine and be able to get out and enjoy it.
we went for a wander around the viaduct and then met a friend and co for a catch up. as much as i dislike the viaduct, it was great being able to sit and enjoy the sun, while drinking coffee, of course!
it was so nice we were a bit naughty and skived off a few talks we were going to go to. wandered around outside instead and chilled.
day was finished off with a pleasant dinner with my pa and step-ma. always love someone else cooking dinner for ya....tastes that much better i reckon.
today was again full of galleries and photography. it was a bit more fulfilling than yesterday at least with some more interesting images to look at and talks to listen to.
we actually started the day wandering up to the french farmers market in parnell, just for a little look....all a bit boring for me these days as i can't eat anything too exciting, so it was probably a little more self-torture than anything! but i hadn't been since i lived in akl, so wanted just to have a nosy.
we had gone in that direction to check out the whitcliffe art school's exhib, but when we got there it was still all closed, so we headed up to parnell for brunch instead and accidently came across a delightful exhibition which was like a short film in it's imagery and storytelling.
headed back into town and saw more works that were interesting and inspiring. after more caffeine we went and listened to a talk by patrick reynolds, a renown architectural photographer in nz. although that is his work that is mostly seen, he has produced some amazing fine art over the years. he is also a very interesting speaker and i was pretty impressed to be honest.
the highlight of my day tho had to be dinner! burger fuel! man i miss it! they really do the best burgers out. yum!
another 'mini-break' this weekend, in auckland this time. not so much of a holiday, but a trip to check out all the photographic exhibitions that are on as part of the 'auckland festival of photography'. instead of staying at my papa's this time, as i usually do, we(boy & i) stayed at my friend's place downtown which overlooks the harbour and the port.
it is perfect for getting to all the galleries we want to check out over the next few days! yipee!
today we actually did a bloody good job of getting around a fair few exhibitions, none that particularly did much for me. once again the majority of works were documentary in style, my personal pet peeve. i guess i do need to be a little less cynical though as in reality, the camera is a documenting device that took over from the many portrait artists, that prior to the invention of the camera did paint simply to record life.
the thing i find most annoying these days about photos (and i admit i found myself doing it today), are the questions you receive.... 'is it real?' 'have you photoshopped it'....in my case today analysing the photos to work out how they were maybe done, as opposed to just appreciating them. maybe i do have a slightly more valid excuse for questioning works, being a working photographer and all!!!!! 
more blue skies today...oh i love it! even tho it was on the chilly side of things.
what's autumn without a corny autumn shot??? ok so i missed by a few days as we are no officially in winter, even though it's felt like that for a while now! It was a lovely sunset tonite so i headed out to capture some of the end of day light, and what is left of those amazing autumn colours.
getting up before 5 to catch a domestic flight is very uncool i have to say. if i was going somewhere exotic (and warm), meh who would care. but just to head back home is insane.
i have this terrible habit of booking flights and thinking that is not such a bad time, but of course neglecting to think about the, being there 30mins before and the getting to the airport, which in this case was an hour round trip due to having to catch a shuttle and pick others up along the way.
so by the time we were back in christchurch we had already been up for three hours and it wasn't even 8am yet. poor megs had a full day ahead of her. luckily i didn't so much, except for cleaning....which i went off to do in the early arvo, and then offered to walk the puppy - was i mad? i had been walking all weekend, and am not anywhere near used to any form of exercise these days....so i already had rather tired and sore legs. oh well, it was a nice day and i wanted to enjoy it. in saying that it was cold still and i was regretting the decision to walk the dog after not so long.....we managed to drag the walk out to close to 40mins after which i went home and collapsed on my bed.
last day of 'holiday', mini-break as the brit's would call it. went to catch the train into town, but it wasn't running, so ended up on a bus....not quite so exciting.
my good friend mike text me just as i arrived in town, so we hooked up and had a great catch up, as we do every year or so. mike is one of my oldest friend's and is not the best on the communication front, hence only see/ hear from him if we happen to be in the same city.
of course being a public holiday there really wasn't too much open, except for the retailers! so i did round two at te papa after wandering semi-aimlessly around the city hoping to come across the odd gallery open...no such luck. oh well....there is always next time.
today i went up to my uncle's place in waikanae to catch up with him. i hadn't been to this place before. the last time i visited him, he was living in masterton.
today was more unbearable than yesterday, so we spent most of the day inside catching up. john is an artist so it was great to discuss some work with him. his good friend jeavons was also there & he is currently studying ceramics, so i was surrounded by extremely knowledgeable artists :)
john has a dog cosmo - cutest dog...who can sing. it was so hysterical, but so awesome. john sings to him and cosmo starts singing (howling) along with him! it's fantastic.
even though it was nearly zero degrees, having a dog means you can sit around all day, so we all wrapped up, coated up and took off with umbrella's to take cosmo for a walk. it was a lovely walk along the river...until it started sleeting......really, really brrrr
yay!!! weekend away!
meg's and i headed up to wellington today for a three day trip to our lovely capital, for some rest, indulgence and art appreciation!! I haven't been to welly for a good number of years so was rather excited for a weekend of fun. Unfortunately the weather wasn't going to aid in my enjoyment of the weekend....brrr it was cold, oh and of course windy!
today we mooched around the city, looked at the shops, popped into te papa to see the 'collosal' squid... and a great exhibition they currently have on 'we are unsuitable for framing'. the title of the collection taken from the work of barbara kruger’s image of the same name. a great collection of works by kiwi artists focusing on identity, gender, sexuality & mythology. the collection contained numerous works of photography which was great to see....oh it was awesome.
we went via the super on the way home, decided a nite in was called for and hence cooking dinner at home. at the super we found the cutest 'mini' veges..... small things, amuse small minds! we decided that a mini pumpkin needed to be purchased....ha...hence me sitting on my bed for the next three nite's, with the pumpkin.....nothing to do with cinderella!
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