So the mystery shrub/tree/weed that’s taken residence in our patio pot is growing tall and so are it’s friends! We’ve changed our mind from our initial guess of hebeis purpleis and also rejected Mother’s suggestion of Asclepias curassavica. Orange Sister put forth a guess of baby pohutakawa which was quite exciting, but sad because it’ll never survive in the pot if it is one … mind you she was guessing by looking at the display on the back of the camera, not having seen the photo previously posted.
So here we are … 2 months on and now much bigger. Any more guesses?
In 2010 I decided to take at least one photo every single day. It was an idea I saw on Twitter at the end of 2009 and seeing as I take a few photos I thought it would be quite fun and not too much of an addition to my day. I didn’t make the project about becoming a better photographer, I just made it about taking photos of things I saw, things I thought, sometimes interesting things, fantastic sights or memories of that day. Some days I took loads of photos, especially when we were in New York for 4 months and on those days it was really hard to distill it down to the one photo of the day.
Here are all 365 photos for 2010 in a set on Flickr – take a browse, some fantastic photos.
And now I present one Project 365 photo for each month – these were really hard to pick and the look back through 2010 was quite hard – I still can’t look at the New York photos without a heavy heart! So the photos below don’t necessarily represent the highlight of the month, they’re just our pick of great or interesting photos from those taken that month, almost a random sample – some months just too many great photos to choose from. Enjoy.
February – my sisters-in-law at the beach house on a day when the whole family was together for a professional photographer.
March – early on in the season for ‘eating in’ at Shake Shack; we sat next to this couple who we reckoned were on a first date. This just captures the essence of the place.
April – a crisp evening at one of our favourite restaurants Morells at Rockefeller Plaza when Mother & Father-in-law came to stay.
May – Park Avenue on the way to work every day.
June – one of 2 times we walked from top to bottom of Central Park, this one after the Museum Festival when 5th Ave was closed for a mile & all museums offered free entry for one night.
July – chilly times back in Wellington but spirits were high on this day for the All Whites ticker tape parade upon their return from the world cup.
August – Aidan now has the hang of his bike & this is one of the rare moments he stood still & didn’t produce a goofy smile when he saw the camera.
September – one of a couple of gorgeous spring days in Wellington after a horrid wet winter, & hundreds of photos of the harbour were tweeted.
October – Mother, Father & Niece spent the night after their south island road trip in the school holidays. She’s growing up.
November – first trip to Sydney in a while for a wonderful long weekend with Sara & Lucy.
December – the clove studded pear we made from the Martha Stewart ‘Living’ magazine I got for Christmas. Took pride of place on the Christmas table & lasted a couple of weeks.
Simon brought a grow-your-own-Xmas-tree into work today – the first time he had one I was very taken with it! Didn’t realise that was 3 years ago. This year’s was a bit bigger and I set up my camera to take regular photos of it to make a time lapse seeing as we now sit opposite each other.
The photos weren’t taken very regularly and despite the bluetac holding the camera in place I still didn’t get the tree in the same place each time!
However, The Mister managed to make a time lapse video out of it with sound track and it makes me laugh!
Remember a while back when Supreme opened their revamped Woodward Street store I went down and took a bunch of photos and commented on the little ‘exhibition’ space in the brick wall? Well the minute I saw that space I knew what I wanted to take to put there one day – and that day came last week when our Supreme Friend tweeted that he was looking for something new to put in the space.
I rushed down there with the treasure that I knew I wanted to display – just on loan – my New York prism!
Oh how easily the little Vespa model was cast aside so I could ‘install’ my treasure. We discussed all sorts of lighting and signage options but for now, one of my orange cards serves as the art credit. Feel very famous!
Well this year ours is growing something for free! This abandoned pot on the deck has had a little shrub and friends spring up in the last 10 days or so – a hebe I believe Mother? (Please don’t tell me it’s a weed.) A native New Zealand shrub. Have watered it and talked to it to tell it that it’s welcome to grow and stay if it likes so we’ll see how we get on. I suspect it’s a seed blown over from the neighbours so hopefully they won’t claim it back if it grows into a handsome shrub!
Today The Mister received a delivery at work, from He-Man! Our Tweet4yourtee wardrobe increased by 2 more items as a ‘Master of the Twitterverse’ set was delivered to him at his desk – he had no idea and I had to keep the secret that the delivery was coming and that one of the Masters of the Universe characters was doing the delivery! I’d gone around work and got various people organised to video it, including me, and Tweet4yourtee are using it as part of their social marketing … with me giggling in the background and all.
The Mister was very surprised and was a great sport! I giggle every time I watch it!
As you know I’m a fan of Tweet4yourtee shirts and this month being breast cancer awareness month they took a break from their blue, black & white (& very occasionally orange) brand colours to do a pink range with some of the shirt price going to the Breast Cancer Foundation. Not wanting an entirely pink shirt, I still wanted one and opted for the ‘I Heart’ shirt that has a pink heart …
My heart is for The Mister, @storminwalker 🙂 Awwwww!
(And that coffee & the warmed croissant I had for breakfast at Customs Brew Bar was FANTASTIC!)
I’m hoarse! Had a night jumping and screaming in my ear muffs, swooning at the drummer in Golden Axes making their debut performance at Rocktober last night! Wow – not my kind of thing but a great night. The Mister is SO talented – so amazing to see him in action behind the drums – hard to believe he hasn’t played for 15 years!!
Rocktober started out with me digging out some 80’s rocker photos from my university days to get into the spirit of it.
Then I wore Dean’s original Iron Maiden t-shirt to work all day, trying to pull off an 80’s my-boyfriend’s-in-the-band kind of look – I remember when Dean wore this shirt all the time!
Then it was time – The Mister was up on stage
and people were screaming and waving at the band!
God it was awfully loud, but I was somewhat protected in Father’s lawn-mowing ear muffs and it was great seeing the crowd really get into it – there were loads of people from work there including some that had left their kids at home and brought their partners out. I was really proud 🙂
Before posting about my 4th stint on jury service this week I looked back at my last week of service – it’s all pretty much the same! I had to spend 2 mornings there this week – Monday and Thursday, both days was balloted into the jury room and on Thursday was called up to be juror no. 12. The closest seat, the shortest possible walk-time for the lawyers to scrabble through their lists to find my name then check me out. As I approached the jury box the lawyers were giving me the once-over as they normally do so I returned in kind: I made full, stony-faced eye-contact first with the defense lawyer, then with the crown lawyer before approaching the box and using an almost imperceptible shake of my head declined the bible being offered with as much disdain as was socially acceptable and then taking a step up to my seat. “Challenge defense!” Oh! Guess my stare-down worked. For whatever reason I reckon that put them off – probably thought I was some kind of staunch, no-nonsense ‘modern’ bitch of a woman who would have no mercy and no likelihood of wavering on a guilty verdict. Either that or they saw my Xero t-shirt and decided that I was a goody-goody brown-nosing my employer, eager to please and given the larger number of women on the jury already would be easily swayed to their way of thinking and would side with a guilty verdict no matter if I had my own doubts.
There was a massive wait on Thursday, over an hour, while a previous trial finished and the 40 of us waiting for the jury box ballot just had to sit in the waiting room and not leave the premises. Hmmm, right over morning tea time. Out came the milk arrowroots (plain cookies). I really wanted a coffee. So I tweeted thinking one of my followers might work nearby and could deliver a coffee. The Mister tweeted back that he’d do it! Couldn’t believe it and texted him not to as I was beginning to get nervous that we’d be called into the jury room while I was ‘illegally’ outside getting the coffee. However, next minute I got a text that he was outside! So I formed what I’d say in my head if the court attendant asked me where I was going when I got to the lift (cigarette break (those people were allowed outside!)) and also what I’d say if someone asked me if I went all the way around to Fuel to get it (was outside for a cigarette break when a friend walked by, we got chatting, I was lamenting the lack of good coffee so they offered me theirs, oh how nice!) braced myself, and set off downstairs. No-one stopped me, it was great to see The Mister unexpectedly, no-one asked me where I’d been when I got back and the coffee was goooooood. So I didn’t have to lie in court!
There was the same collection of people as previous visits, people who I’ve come to think of as those in our city who don’t have anywhere else to be or aren’t so important that they can’t give up a couple of mornings a week to sit around waiting. I know that’s a dreadful generalisation but that’s what it feels like. It’s totally different than any of the other ‘public’ activities and meetings/conferences I’ve been to lately – no tapping away on laptops (I think there was 1 in the group of 130-ish people) and a handful of iPhones. It struck me as rather ironic (if that’s the right way to use this word Castle (!)) that the jury attendance induction DVD had a whole section specifically on the importance of attending jury service, what you learn by taking part with testimonials from people who’ve done it and said it was interesting and an important part of keeping our democratic society going … they should put that online or send out the DVD to people with the summons! If we showed up to do jury service we probably already realise all that so the message is wasted on us! They need to get some fresh blood in there!
A couple of people of note – the 3 ladies that brought along knitting the second day and formed some kind of knitting club (am SO doing that next time) and the woman that sat near me very loudly sucking her way through an entire packet of Mentos lollies, bashing them against her teeth and slurping. I cannot believe she didn’t realise the sound was audible outside of her own head!
So, this is what band practice is all about – Rocktober on 1 October. There’s an invite-only launch party at 7.30pm, then the main event at 10.30pm. Launch party features The Mister’s band, main event features DJ’s. All loud banging crashing rock music!
Get your name on the invite-only guest list either by emailing the organiser dave@rocktober.co.nz (tell him I sent you) or adding your name to their guest list in Facebook.
