Notes from the side of a volcano

Five on a Friday

1. The other weekend we went to the zoo for the first time in ages. I loved the new native displays, but spent most of the time laughing with Daughter-Two and taking photos of these guys:

2. Last weekend Daughter-Two was in her big show. She had a rehearsal on Friday and I picked her up from school, where she was walking funny and mentioned her feet were burnt.

The student teacher had taken them for PE and got one team to take off their shoes so they could be differentiated from the other team.

Unfortunately the teacher had not taken into account that it was a sunny day and the dark tarmac had got very hot.

I thought Daughter-two meant the tops of her feet were sunburnt but, no, when we got home I realised she had  huge blisters on her soles.

So this is how we prepared for the rehearsal:

Really there was nothing to do but laugh. Blistered soles of your feet? Make sure you schedule it for an hour before the rehearsal for your big show which only happens once a year.

So we made an emergency stop at the chemist's (pharmacy) ,strapped the feet up just like ballerinas have to do, and the show went on. I think it added to the whole experience for her to be honest.

And she was fabulous in the show on Saturday.

 

3. It was a busy weekend.

On Sunday we went to the Botanic Gardens to check out the art installations:

4. And also on Sunday I dragged out the sewing machine for the first time in a long time.

First to repurpose one of my many vintage scarves, for the bedroom:

Then to finally use some of the material from my stash:

She liked the dress so much she wouldn't take it off, and gave it a workout on the trampoline:

 

5. A sneak peek of what's coming to the store at Designer Digitals this weekend:

 

 

Five on a Friday

1. The other weekend we went out west on an attempt to find the walk to the Karekare falls. We never have much luck in finding tracks, but this time we found the falls easily. Only there was no walk to them, just a short stroll through the bush. Which suited me just fine. And, despite it being so easy to get to,  we had the place to ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. I've been eating the first of the produce from the vege garden - silverbeet which I steam and eat with brown rice for lunch.

 

3. We have our own "Occupy" protest on a tiny scale. Rather then "Occupy Wall St", it's "Occupy Aotea Square" and had suitable signage up for the day of the Rugby World Cup victory parade.

Daughter-One wandered down there during her lunch break yesterday and was impressed to see they had an article by The Husband pinned on their noticeboard.

 

4. We also went to the Rugby World Cup victory parade. The city was totally packed and (unlike Daughter-Two, who had a perch on The Husband's shoulders) I could see nothing. It took a long time for the parade to make it to where we were, and the crowd around us spent most of the time yelling at youths to get off the unsupported awnings and verandahs they were climbing on in attemot to get a view. So Daughter-Two got very concerned about this. It was a relief when Richie McCaw finally went past with the Cup and we could go!

 

5. A sneak peek of a new mini-kit coming to the store this weekend:

Five on a Friday

1. I've been trawling through the 1911 census in a fruitless search for my father's family. It's a mystery where they were that week in April. (If it was a bit later timewise I would just shrug and say "oh, they must have been on a package trip to Lanzarote" ... but not in 1911. They were mostly "down pit" in the towns I was searching). Interesting to see the same names coming up again and again. Lots of Freds and Toms - but every now and then odd coal miner called Lancelot or Marmaduke St. Clair.

 

2. What is it with The Husband and his ability to walk out of doctor's offices without paying? He does it every time he visits the doctor or pops in to collect his repeat prescription - leaving me to deal with it when the bill  arrives in the mail. And this week he took Daughter-two for her allergy shots and did it again. And why do receptionists just let him do it? Does he just have an air of "I have people to deal with such things for me"?

 

3. We went into the city on Sunday, and parked the car on the edge of the CBD which resulted in a longer walk than I envisaged but the chance to see some new corners of the city. I just can't warm to Auckland, but I know the problem is with me and not the city.We walked up some steps past a practically derelict hotel now housing foreign students. These guys were smoking a hookah outside, and waving to Daughter-two:

Then through the university/courts area and Albert Park:

It was a match night, so the rugby fans here for the Rugby World Cup where already making their way downtown:

4. As if earthquakes weren't enough, we are now contending with the pollution and huge financial costs of a shipwreack off the coast.

5. A sneak peek of what's coming to Designer Digitals this weekend:

 

Five on a Friday

1. The New Zealand dollar continues it's valiant attempt to break through the stratosphere and remains absurdly over-valued.

I am so over all the journalists who keep spouting the "it's a great time to go shopping" line as a result.

Sure, I have picked up a few  needed books at Amazon.co.uk (love that free overseas shipping) but unless you want to go online for everything it is still "are you taking the mickey?" time when you hit the shops.

$4.75 ($4USD) for a green pepper? Um ... maybe not

The other day, after our trip to the movies, I popped into the posh department store next to the cinema so Daughter-Two and I could use their very nice restroom. I noticed they had NYDJ jeans in stock. I bought some in the States (for about $75USD) and they are great. How much in the store here?

$335 (about USD$290).

No thanks.

 

2. We just got back from a flying visit to Wellington, where Daughter-One was checking out the university and halls of residence (aka dorms) in case she decides she wants to get even further away from us next year.

We had a record snow dump this week, and we had a great view of Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe from the plane:

The mountains you can see from Wellington were also totally white, the first time I have ever seen so much snow from Wellington.

She loved Wellington of course. It's several years since she has been there. I love it too. Everything there seems that little bit more funky. Even the Greenpeace charity collectors are a cut above. (We were both in fits of giggles after passing a French one doing his questionnaire routine with someone he had stopped on the street outside the Paris crepe stall - "Would you describe yourself as an animal lurver?" in a totally delicious but perhaps slightly over rich accent).

3. We were staying right in the city centre, but next to the Boulcott St steps which lead up to the university. When I was a student in Wellington I stayed briefly in the halls at the top of the steps in one of the old houses which have now been knocked down and replaced by an unfortunate late 80s/early 90s cheap looking block. I had a converted cupboard in the old house. It was so small there was only room for the tiny bed and a cupboard made from untreated timber with a faded curtain hung in front of it with thumbtacks. Downstairs was, bizarrely, a dumping ground for old stoves and the front room was full of about 5 of them rusting away.

The newer halls (see the orange building below) are definitely a cut above:

We sat and ate lunch by the historic graveyard which the university is now encroaching on before wandering around the campus a bit. (That's them under the arrow):

Here's the view they were looking at:

Just so she didn't think it was all designer buildings, I took them down some more steps to Adams Terrace, where I flatted for a while at the risk of Vitamin D deficiency. (Two minutes walk up very steep street and steps to the lecture theatre, but at the cost of never seeing the sun).

Then we took the cable car back down to Lambton Quay and had a walk along the waterfront and the city library.

The next morning we had a quick walk around the Cuba Street area and an hour in Te Papa (Museum) before the flight home.

 

We found this groovy caravan which seems to be a mobile dress shop. I leant my case against a building while I took a photo, then noticed it was red-stickered:

We quickly scarpered (would be just our luck for an earthquake  to hit while we stood and gawped at the sign) but not before two things occured to me:

- why stick up a big notice saying "Earthquake Prone Building - Do Not Approach" and then add two columns of small print that you cannot possibly read unless you do approach and stand there for some considerable time reading.

- surely it is an "Earthquake Vulnerable Building" not "Eathquake Prone"? Unless it sits on some unique metre-long constantly moving faultline of its own and, while everything around it stays still, it rattles about like the earthquake simulator in the museum.

4. We arranged for someone to come and feed and walk the dog a few times over the 24 hours we were away. I gave very careful instructions but still felt very uneasy and had visions of him being locked in the house alone if the dog walker somehow couldn't open the door. And then we returned home dragging our bags and I went to open the door .. only to find the key I had given the dog walker stuck in the lock. WHY can't I have useful premonitions? Like the lottery numbers maybe?

It would have been a total disaster pre-renovations but now we have two other doors we can use to get in the house, and when I got inside the dog was perfectly happy. The dog walker texted to explain the key disaster had happened after her last visit luckily.

 

5. Here's a sneak peek of the new kit coming to the store at Designer Digitals this week:

 

 

 

 

Five on a friday

1. Do you ever get the feeling, when you have come home from a big trip, that it was all a bit of dream and even looking at the photos is like looking at someone else's photos now you are back to day-to-day reality? I've found that the perfect way around it is to make a photobook of the trip and you get to relive it day by day. So far I've only got day one scrapped:

 

2. Thanks to Linda from DD, who brought along her book of a wonderful holiday in France, I have been converted to the idea of printing it 12 x 12 (ie coffee table book size). I am sure Daughter-Two will approve even if the bank balance does not.

3. Today I went into Newmarket with Daughter-Two to pick something up, and we stopped into The Warehouse for a new schoolbag. She has mentioned that a lot of the girls in her class are now too cool to play "pretend" and I read last week that the age when bullying and teasing by girls really gets underway is ten. Though I hope that it will be different at her small and so far very "bully-lite" school. However, even though she is still only 8, most of the girls in her class will be turning ten so I reluctantly decided it was time for the spotty pink "Little Miss Sunshine" backpack to go. She may well love it again when she is a teenager, but ten year olds don't tend to get tongue-in-cheek retro styling so best not to give them ammunition. She picked out a black one with a hot pink graffiti style print. But at least the writing says "angelic"so it suits her.

4. I have a new kit that works for both boys and girls coming to the store at Designer Digitals this weekend. Here's a sneak peek:

 

5. Yesterday we took a ferry ride to summer. I told Daughter-Two I would take her out for the day  in return for letting me work for the past five days, and I had it in the back of my mind that we could go to Motuihe island. A quick check online told me that it was going to be the first and last really sunny day for a long time so I decided that was the plan. Which left me an hour and a half to:

- walk the dog, feed the dog, feed the cat, hang out the washing, bake a batch of gluten-free rockcakes to take with us, pack a picnic lunch, drinks, snacks, swimming gear, towels and sunblock, walk to the bus-stop and discover there were only buses to the mid-city not the wharf, catch a bus, run down Queen St in the city scattering tourists in our wake with Daughter-Two screeching "eee, eee", run into the ticket booth to find all three ticket clerks either on the computer, on the phone or talking a tourist through a brochure while pretending to be blind to the queue of restless people glancing nervously at the boat outside...

.. and we made it easily with, ooh, at last ten seconds to spare.

Running down Queen St the first thing we noticed was that a cruise ship seemed to have literally come to town!

 

The boat trip was fun if a little chilly, but the island itself has a micro-climate of sorts so it was a real kiwi summer out there. We swam, had treasure hunts, explored the old quarantine station cemetery and the olive grove and saw lots of birds.

 
 
 
 
 

Coming back we stopped briefly at the Orakei wharf which was packed with fishermen and their "supporters" (seems to be a family affair)

 
 

The, as we came back into the wharf downtown, we went right under an even bigger cruise ship and I couldn't stop taking photos of the flags while Daughter-Two tried to get as many tourists and crew to wave back to her. (The few tourists leaning listfully over their railings seemed a bit fedup - I guess you would only be on board in harbour on a beautiful sunny early  afternoon if you were sick/tired/bored with travelling/had a huge row with the wife ... maybe she cheered them up).

 
 
 
 
 

digital scrapbooking New Zealand, digital scrapbooking photobooks travel

Gannets and Teddy Bears

Last Sunday we went out to Muriwai to see the gannet colony.

It was easy to find, since we just followed our noses.

The smell was something like a toilet that hadn't been cleaned for months .. at a fish market.

The gannets were a noisy lot, and were either guarding their one spot on the rock, or gliding past on air currents at top speed.

Daughter-Two loved them and decided she would rather like to be a gannet.

But I think she smells better as she is.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

New at Designer Digitals

The Teddy bear digital scrapbooking kit as promised earlier. This was fun to make.

 

Plus two new double page mulit-photo templates in the same series:

 
 
Here's how I used them:

 
 
 
 
 

 

aargh

Continuing our series of "things to do for free ... bceause we have no money right now", today we went on a tour of the Port of Auckland.

The Port of Auckland is actually at the end of Queen St (the main street in the city centre), right beside the train station.

It is surrounded by the famous "big red fence".

 
 

Actually, it has faded so much in the sun, it is more like the "big pink fence" but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

We arrived at Captain Cook gate and found a lady pirate attempting to rouse some response from some boys who were staring at their feet or staring out to sea - anywhere but at her. Then she spotted Daughter-Two and said "aargh! A new pirate recruit". Daughter-Two immediately gave a bow then did a little bounce as she alway does and let out a hearty "aargh!".

"Aargh, I like that bounce" said the Pirate Captain, "do it again me hearty".

So she did, and got some treasure (a sweet). The pirate captain offered the treasure chest to me, then whipped it away saying I had to say "aargh" first.

The rule about talking like a pirate is you have to do it with conviction or not at all, so I let out a hearty aargh. "Fabulous! Again me hearty!" she said (frankly she was pushing it by this point). And The Husband followed suit.

By the time we were on the double decker bus touring the port, the entire party was "aarghing"
like a bunch of parrots with  congested throats.

 
We weren't allowed to get off the bus and we weren't allowed to take photographs (curious that the security was so much tighter than for the Naval Base open day last month).

I did get some photos from outside the red fence though.

Most of the port is covered with parked cars, imported from Japan. (Cars more than a few years old are pretty much worthless in Japan, so they are piled onto ships and sold to us here).

 
 
 

Yesterday we went to the Parnell Rose Festival, and broke our spending drought to pay for Daughter-two to go on the "reverse bungy", which she loves. And she also loves dancing!

 
 
 

The sale continues at Designer Digitals. Don't miss out on the chance to save 30% on everything in store.

New product has been added today, including the new "Hint at it" brushes, and all my other kits, paperpacks, worn edges, templates and elements are on sale.

 
digital scrapbooking products, digital scrapbooking New Zealand

 

 

 

 

A muddy arty weekend

We continue on a mission to do as much for free as we possibly can, filling every weekend with no cost outings and expeditions around Auckland.

Yeswterday (Saturday) we went to Tahuna Torea reserve, on the recommendation of a friend. I even looked up the tide tables so we got there at low tide when it is possible to walk across to the spit (reason to love Google #1099).

There was hardly anyone there, despite the fact that it was an absolutely perfect, and very warm, Spring day. I was kicking myself because I forgot the camera.

"Kicking yourself?" shrieked Daughter-Two "Can I see you do it?". Nothing makes her giggle more than a figure of speech now she KNOWS they are not be taken literally but she still gets the image very vividly in her head.

So we walked along the bush path and across the boardwalks through the wetland area, and then across the muddy area which at high tide is beneath the sea.

Honestly, it was like being a very teeny tiny person attempting to walk across a recently iced chocolate brownie.

Added to that, The Husband kept saying "Wow, what a great place, what a view, you should have brought the camera".

I would have kicked HIM had I been able to lift my mud-encrusted foot from the ground.

Fabulous place though, I can see we will be back again.

With the camera.

Today we went to the new art gallery in the historic Pah homestead in Monte Cecilia Park. A "helpful" docent enthusiastically handed Daughter-Two a quiz sheet with pictures and installations  she had to find then answer questions about. At first my heart sank - we wouldn't be leaving till she found every one, preferably in the exact order they were on the sheet (plus one of them was an installation which she was rather nervous of approaching). But actually it turned out great - the number of artworks was just right, she loved answering the questions and having to go on a search meant we actually found a couple of rooms we would otherwise have missed. (It's a bit of a rabbit warren). While we were there, an elderly man was telling the bored-looking young woman behind the counter that when the homestead was a boarding school he was sent here to live as a 7 year old. All very Hogwarts (but a lot less fun I imagine).

Speaking of rabbit warrens, the best part was spying all the little rabbits in the park coming out from their holes under the absolutely gigantic trees.

 

She had us running up that hill to the hometead. It's steeper than it looks. Last one (The Husband) was a rotten egg.

 

 

New digital scrapbooking supplies  from Designer Digitals

New in store this week at Designer Digitals:

 

Here's how me, Anke, Jen, Stacy and Elena used it:

 

 
 
 
 
 

I finally got around to scrapping the photos from our big renovation project (HOW did I remain same living like that??) and I made an element set for the layouts.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Also, a new "In Distress" paperpack and new template:

 
 
digital scrapbooking kits, digital scrapbooking templates double page, digital scrapbooking New Zealand

Walking in Sunshine

Just to show that spring really has sprung on this side of the world, I took the camera with me on my daily walk to collect Daughter-Two from school:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In the Navy ... (Plus Halloween and hand-drawn frames for digital scrapbooking)

Am having trouble keeping my eyes open today. Spent yesterday exploring the Devonport Naval base and traipsing up and down the narrow corridors and metal stairways of HMNZS Canterbury, a very large "MVP" ie multi-purpose vessel. (And today we went to the Ambury Farm Day, along with half of Auckland it seems. Luckily/incredibly we got there early so Daughter-Two managed to get onto the bouncy castles without too much queueing before we checked out the animals and made our escape. There was a steady stream of cars and people arriving as we left, and I remarked to The Husband that by the looks of the faces of the parents you would think they were refugees plodding along fleeing from invaders rather than heading for a fun family day out. I think everyone finds it exhausting).

 

People taking advantage of the freedom to wander around the naval base and the ships = hundreds

Sailors posing for photos with small children = many

number of seagulls attempting to steal chips during our break for lunch by the waterfront = a gang of 20

 

balloons, stickers  and temporary "Navy" tattoos given away = hundreds

number of games of "paper, scissors, rock" played while queueing to board ship (and again today at the Farm Day) = far too many for us, never enough for Daughter-Two

 

Knobs, dials and levers just begging for Daughter-Two to fiddle with (potentially setting off sirens, starting the engines and driving the ship into Devonport Wharf?) as we wandered about the Bridge = dozens

Security = apparently zilch.

(well, none evident. And I am not saying that is a BAD thing - after all  it is probably a realistic response to the level of threat in New Zealand but it was interesting, and I did wonder when, if ever, it will change). 

 

 

(Daughter-Two in a police car, having sounded the siren and the air horn and now amusing the officer by giving a commentary on her day so far through the loudspeaker system).

New at Designer Digitals

A brand new Halloween digital scrapbooking kit and new hand-drawn digital scrapbooking frames in store this week at Designer Digitals:

 
 

 

 

 

digital scrapbooking New Zealand, digital scrapbooking NZ, digital scrapbooking kits, digital scrapbooking Halloween.