finally went back into school today and sorted out my space. it had been taken over at the end of last term by the design student's assignments, so i needed to reclaim my space. i had taken down the print outs of my blog images down from my house a while ago, having decided that actually having in them in my lounge was not the best place for them. so now they decorate my space in at cpit.
i have been 'growing' my hair for about 4 years now, after many many years of having my hair short. there were numerous attempts over the years to grow my hair out, but i always get frustrated when it doesn't grow much past my shoulders. this time i managed to be patient, and it has grown well past my shoulders, but...probably eighteen months ago it stopped again. or rather, i guess, to keep it healthy, each time i go to the hairdresser whatever has grown since last time, gets cut off.
so i guess this is the length my hair will remain, albeit, going shorter.
being sick sucks! having a snotty nose is foul! especially as i get the most horrid red nose from blowing it over and over. today it feels like my head is going to explode.
flippen auckland, i swear it's something about it. i always get sick when i go up there! to be fair, it's probably the plane flight that causes it. usually i consume large amounts of roasted garlic, a good ole trusty cold-killing method of mine. forgot this time....paying for it now.
if only i could get a temp job answering 0900 calls - i'm sure i'd earn a packet!
i love sun in winter when you can lie in front of a window and suck it up. alas the only window that gets great sun in our house is in the kitchen where the table is. at least i have somewhere to lie down....terry likes it too!
headed back to the ch' early this arvo. being a non-drinker there was no hangover to speak of, just a very thick headcold, ugh, snot city!
while we had been away caf (christchurch arts festival) had started. as part of the festival this year, cpit had launched the creative industries faculty, which was created at the start of this year to combine all creative schools, within the polytechnic, under one umbrella. each of the design streams had work shown on make-shift stands designed by architecture students, along high st. along with two others, the boy and i had our work chosen to represent the photography dept. yay. it looked pretty impressive too, i have to say :)
jury is still out as to whether i like weddings or not. whether it's just i'm not a partier, or the fact that all my friends are 'stand-alone' friends, so whenever i go to one i don't really know anyone else. today's one had added pressure, being the photographer, the first 'wedding' i've shot to boot.
once again it was not a pleasant morning for boy(who by the way was helping me shoot the day's events). i was foul!! hmmm, need to work on that. finally decided what to wear, thank goodness. it helped that it was a lovely day out.
we finally got there, a little late, but then they were running late anyway - so no worries!
we went off and did our thing, and after the first few shots it was sweet as. well i'm never happy with my work, so it was as sweet as good be with my stupid standards. the ceremony was a little harder, just due to positioning etc. but we had it covered with the two of us. we also decided to use my blackboard & get the guest's to write a note and then snap them. 
some of my fav snaps of the day are on my stuff about me blog. check it out.
always on the top of my to do list in auckland is to catch up with my besty cushla and if we can make it work, her ever increasing brood of girls! i have the honour of being godmother to her eldest, saffron. isabella has the joy of being the middle child. with scarlett being the latest edition to the family.
missing out on seeing these guys grow up and being around to hang out and to help cush, is one of the things i dislike most about living in chch. luckily i do get up home reasonably often, so they still remember who i am. good ole aunty kirst' :)
annnnnnnnd, it's time for another trip to auckland. this time for our friends wedding, well civil union. in fact we're shooting it, eeek! and it's black tie, double eek! i still have no idea what i am going to wear! i have a few options, but there are dilemmas, such as;
yay, haircut time.....actually well overdue haircut time! it feels so good to be able to see again, which is kinda important, esp as i'm shooting a wedding(civil union) this weekend. oh and gotta look good!
i love my hairdresser, she is awesome. i can just tell her to do what she wants and i always get great hair. this time, lots, of layers. it rocks. and my hair feels way thinner. loving it.
i generally try to avoid writing about current events, just because generally they already have so much media attention. but i couldn't resist writing a lil about the most talked about man in new zealand right now.
his crime is heinous, his demeanor is quite frankly fucked up, and omg, his poor parents and family, having to deal with the facts of what their son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin did.
during the trial i have watched the news most nights, read the articles online(my newspaper) and why until last thursday had i not thought about going down to the courtroom, to get a 'real' insight into the case, coz com'on, the media only reports half the story(probably more like 10%), well i don't know. was obviously a bit late by then, with everything pretty much wrapped up, but to be honest it seems a bit too voyeuristic to me to go and listen to someone else's life like that.
still, the guy is interesting, you want to dislike him on all levels, what he did was abhorrent.....truly disgusting, but to commit a crime to that extent, could there really have been any intelligent thought gone into it? surely it had to be a crime of passion fueled by total insanity. oh and we all know what a narcissist is now!
i don't know why i was so intrigued with something so sensational, but i guess as i said above, and like most new zealanders, this crime was so heinous, we can't help but be interested in knowing about the person that could commit such a crime.
today i had a plan, a plan to do things, things to plan.....it lasted about 30 minutes, after which i was sidetracked by the stunning weather and the fact that i happened to look thru some old work and figured i might as well go and re-shoot some stuff.
so i went down to the botanical gardens and whittled away the afternoon there taking photos.
needed a bit of flare control as the sun was low and coming thru the trees....i managed to get rid of the flare - but it wasn't so great for the photos.
another stunning day in chc.
boy & i had a bit of a late start, after having a great nite out at a friend's 80's housewarming party. omg, talk about bad, bad, bad clothes and overall dress sense back then.
we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed and went and grabbed a coffee and hung out brighton for the arvo, enjoying the surf and sun and just chilling.
another sunny day today, once the fog lifted, which wasn't until either side of lunchtime, depending where in chc you live! i had arranged to meet up with megs at the library for a coffee after she had been to the gym this morning (where as i was barely getting out of bed). our library down the road is in a perfect position for getting the sun. there were couches free and we planted out arses with a large pile of mags for some caffeine and catching up. after an hour or so, megs thought she should get on and do some stuff in the day and was intending to be soon behind her after finishing my mag. well an hour and a half later later at 3pm i finally decided i had been sitting there for too long and must get home. but oh what a pleasant way to enjoy the winter sun!
the day our friend passed away i was talking to another friend about my feelings and views towards death. she had similar views and had read this book a few years ago that she thought i might like. i managed to find it in the library and started reading it yesterday. i can't put it down at night, until my eyelids are literally closed, hence i am almost finished it. wow, i feeling like my mother is talking to me. i wonder if she read this many years ago.....it's so her.
it's interesting, when i read these books, my views, that i have had for many years, waiver. which is really strange as you would think that something written that is reiterating what you think, would strengthen your views.....
i have always believed in reincarnation and with each life we have a 'lesson' to be learned. once we have 'realised' that lesson we 'die' and move onto our next life(well not immediately). this book stated exactly this, yet i am now more skeptical than ever :s
finally managed to have a free wednesday evening, so i could stay and enjoy dinner with my cousins after looking after them for the arvo. now luca and charlotte are actually my second cousins once removed(some people consider this fourth cousin's) and their mother adrianne is my second cousin, but probably the cousin i am closest to as she used to come and stay with us in auckland during her university holiday's and work. after dinner a and i went down the road for an uninterrupted catch up. very pleasant, albeit rather late.
i have got to the point where i have written a fair number of blogs and therefore taken a fair few photos. i thought i should print out my images taken thus far so that i have an easy reminder of what i have already shot and also some inspiration. wow they look great all up next to each other!
gotta love that there have been some rain-free days for a few days in a row now. makes it feel like a chc winter again...not an auckland one!
we, well i, decided that we need some exercise and free(ish) air, so we walked into town to have a look around. nothing too much going on to be honest....it'll be a different story in a few weeks at least once the 'caf' starts (christchurch arts festival).
on a saturday tho, there is nothing better than going to the art's centre food stalls and having something to 'yummy' to eat....unfortunately with my eating restrictions these days, there ain't that much i can eat. there is always the trusted souvlaki tho...that and the film festival guide, made for a nice sit down in the sun.
i have been dreading today all week. i really really dislike funerals. i know that they are part of life, and death, but i just have this hatred of them. i want to say that it's because they are such somber affairs, but in fact i have never been to a somber funeral. most of those i have been to in my life have most definitely been celebrations of life. today was no different. there was plenty of laughter, plenty of awesome memories, and it was a true reflection of a great person.
music has always been the make or break for me. i almost said to boy last nite, i hope that they don't play 'somewhere over the rainbow', my absolute 'make me ball' song. but i thought there is no way, it's too obvious a song. i open the service list today and what is the first thing i see....and then what did i do, i swore, in a church - yeah good one kirst'! i have to brace myself whenever i watch the end of '100 first dates' due to that song......oh and what version did they play today....yup! luckily i somehow managed to hold it together relatively well. i felt the awful heart-wrenching, deep, howling sob's i am capable of come to the surface, but managed to suppress them.
i walked away from the service today with extremely mixed emotions. i am pretty pragmatic about death, i know that for the person who has gone, it is a better place that they are in, wherever that may be. but for us left here there is a raft of emotions that we go thru. i'm guilty of these, i am currently in the 'pissed off' stage....pissed off that i will never see that cheeky grin again, pissed off that i will never get to shoot the shit again, pissed of that i will never get to just hang again......and i'm not even a very close mate. the thing is, these emotions are all based around our needs, and what we have to gain, which has been taken away from us. for me that creates guilt and a bit of a conundrum in terms of where to place these feelings. i guess it is something i will never figure out, as it is quite possibly, just human nature.
i was in one hell of a foul mood today. poor boy received the most of it. i think i was trying to psyche up for the events of tomorrow, not really a good excuse but it's how i roll. whenever there is a stressful situation coming up, rather than talking about it i just become this stubborn, grumpy biatch. won't talk about it, or rationalize it, nope, it's all about me! when there is no one around to deal it out to it's fine, coz i just get on with things and cope, but oh the poor soul that is around and has to deal with me on these days......it's always good for the photos tho!
today cleared in the arvo so we(boy and i) decided to race up the hills to do some shooting...little bit of landscape and maybe another one of our 'co-ops'. by the time we got up to the top of th hills it was flippen freezing, like bitter! the sun wasn't really anywhere to be seen either as clouds had come down on the horizon and hidden the sun! i got a coupla goes at a southern alps pano...it's ok.
we did get quite a nice little 'co-op' done tho. hmmm these are becoming a little addictive.....need to progress them tho.
not a day of note.....just ya av tuesday. tried to build up my collection of 'portraits', but just ended up with this.....very 'girl with the pearl earring'ish. did a better job last year me thinks....
i am usually pretty good and get my taxes done relatively soon after 31 march each year.....generally coz i get a refund. this year i wasn't so good and left it to the last minute, or rather nite! ugh. it's actually not too bad as most of the work is done during the year, but there are still things you have to do at the end of the year that take time. still can't complain, another refund this year :D
After the emotional stress of yesterday, today was a very low key day. i struggled to get to sleep last nite, not being helped by the blaring music coming for the community centre next door....and bad music at that! mugshots def. the state of play today!
'life is short', 'make the most of life', 'life is what you make of it', 'live every day as if it were your last, because one of these days you will be right'......such cliched quotes that we hear over and over again. each to be taken with a grain of salt, or rather not at face value. all our lives are lived the way we want them to be lived(most of the time). at least in this country, we generally have the ability to make our own decisions which shape out lives.
today i received a text, that then created the utterance of many of these quotes. one of the guys from school(tech) had a brain aneurysm last nite, and the scenario was not good, he was unresponsive, so basically braindead. i received news later in the day that he had been pronounced dead. he was 24.
death is so often a reminder to us that we need to treasure every moment of every day or value those around us, not think there will always be a next time, make the most of every day and so on. I have been thru death many times now, and i still do not do things any differently than i may have otherwise. i am unmotivated. i pass by opportunities continually. i rarely make anything of a day....it's all just ordinary. but that is what life is for a lot of people, just ordinary. but also, for many of them, they are happy that way. that is the point of life, isn't it, to be happy, to enjoy doing what you are doing each and every day, or is that just another cliche? i guess we don't ever now the true meaning of life, but if we are happy while living it, that's got to be a good start right?
it's definitely something i am guilty of not being, but something i very certain of that our friend was!
i found a few quotes today when searching for some 'life' quotes'...... 
the life we lead must be worth living
unknown
So much of our time is preparation, so much is routine, and so much retrospect, that the path of each man's genius contracts itself to a very few hours.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
Booker T. Washington
i don't know what it is, but i always seem to be out every night during the week, but when it comes to the weekend i like to stay home and do nothing much at nite. friday nite's are good for this, coz there is reasonable crap on the telly, oh and rove. tonite was an exceptionally good episode with some great guest, most notably sasha baron cohen aka bruno. he was hilarious. oh what a great way to end the week. if you missed it - you have to watch it below or here
some days all you want to do at the end of it is relax and have a bath. tonite was the nite for me......face mask and bath.
ignition is the end of year 'festival' at CPIT, celebrating all the creative schools work from the year. it showcases the students work for families, industry and the public to see. over the past few year ignition has become more and more of a all-year thing to encompass all creative events throughout the year, to the extent where there is now a full-time manager.
last year a magazine was published to coincide with the end of year events. this year they are publishing a mid-year magazine to publicise and build up the work that is being done. the third year graphics students for an assignment in the first half of the year had to create magazine pieces. i was interviewed, some of my photos were requested.
a week ago i got a call from the student doing this mid-year mag....they wanted to run a synopsis piece on me and could they take some portrait pics of me. sure not a problem. then i thought about it. i'm renown for my self-portraits. i am currently doing a self-portrait a day for a year....surely i must have something. so i went thru all my images from this blog. ten, just ten, actual portraits that i felt were suitable. wow, i feel like i have done so many more than that, rather than in situ. gotta rectify that one! starting now
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