conceptual oyster

Around the world with two suitcases and a drawl thick as blackstrap molasses...

29 May 2006

hurricane warning

hey, nothing too new here, except that the building handyman has taken to going around his apartment in his birthday suit with the blinds OPEN... his livingroom is a straight shot from mine!

also, it was a sad day yesterday in Welly!!! spirits were quite low after the wellington hurricanes lost to the canterberry crusaders in the final match of the super 14 rugby tourney (i've been following the super 14 for a few months now... http://www.super14.com/)

now, today i was going around on my errands etc...and noticing lots of black eyes, busted eyebrows, and swollen lips....then i remember chatting with a kiwi friend on life in america and new zealand....and her saying that domestic violence, etc...is always quite high following the rugby... go figure...and related to this, if you get a chance to see once were warriors...do it
http://www.finelinefeatures.com/warriors/wasynops.htm

now, i'm quite hungry and will prepare dinner...southern style!

17 May 2006

why do i do this?



































okay, so i finished the vest from loop-d-loop inspired by the medeival bodice...
isn't it a beaute!
just too bad it doesn't fit! that's right, too small (subject to be addressed in later blog...) especially around the bust line...this is a first.
so after a few choice words, pouting, and conferencing with the other local knitting gurus...
i'm re-knitting it onto larger needles, only i hope they are large enough to make a size difference...
oh well, such is life...

16 May 2006

7.1 out to sea

http://www.geonet.org.nz/x2568629g_l.html

seriously, keep us in your prayers....for no more big ones and no tsunamis

deep breath.....okay, exhale...20 seconds

oh boy....
i really want to call home,
but of course it would be the middle of the night and you would be worried if i did...
but we just had an earthquake...
the biggest one yet (that i have experienced), it last a good 15 to 20 seconds...
i know this doesn't seem long...but with the errie-ness of the earth moving beneath you...it's long enough.

i woke early yesterday morning and thought it was simply the wind, but checked below (the link) and it was a quake...a tremor in comparison to what just happened. no everything is fine yet indescribeable, but seriously uneasy feeling...i even have that woozie feeling after an elevator ride.

weird.

(p.s. even the big black housefly living in the walkway is a bit shaken it seems...)

http://www.geonet.org.nz/recent_quakes.html

(p.s.s....in savannah and greenville we had hurricane parties...why aren't we having earthquake parties??? perhaps they come with no real warning....but actually, i think i heard the club down the street just give a big shout....shout another kiwi word)


shout: to buy, to treat one, to celebrate. (ex. we just had a quake...i'll shout you a beer)
http://www.nz-immigration.co.nz/lifestyles/slang-words.html

12 May 2006

station identification

alright, just when i was 'warming' up to the ways of the kiwi...winter hits. it's way cold, i mean cold...i would take a picture of myself bundled, but the cold makes you lazy. so damn the stupborn kiwis and their resistence to the international building code, insulation, and no central heating. yeah, there's only so much tea a person can drink you know. i just found out, that they do sometimes use lambs wool bat for building insulation...which seems a really keen and eco friendly-ish alternative to the pink stuff (and it's pretty)...however, i asked today about the R factor....R2.6. brilliant... no wonder there is an epidemic of 'sick kid syndrome' in NZ, no wonder my neck hurts, and folks are generally grumpy on days like this. that is until they make their ways to the local pub...hotel bristol has a lovely wood burning stove.

aside from shivering in a heatless half a million dollar penthouse...it's great knitting and DVD weather and i think i will pop in a video (5 for 10 bucks for one week) and work my way down the home stretch of a lovely tweed vest...

the management


http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/93436.html

p.s. currently off the bookshelf: garden of shadows by VC Andrews, it's a prequel to flowers in the attic.....remember that one, talk about teenage nostalgia

03 May 2006

quest for kiwi...where the wild things are



the color is bad, but doesn't this remind you of illustrations of one my favorite books as a child...where the wild things are?













http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0060254920/002-9184310-7838438














um, this is not a kiwi...
but still a pretty cool bird
















a very large mushroom housing brainy, carpenter, and papa smurfs.
my foot as reference



quest for kiwi...the breakfast sweets


eatting my ( cold ) hot cross bun on Easter Sunday















the pancake rocks later that day
















"dude, where's my car?"
and why do I look like the last samurai?














up close and personal with the glacier

01 May 2006

gosshhh





















thanks!!!

quest for the kiwi...the sheep


here they come...














here they are...














there they go...

part one of a made for blog series...the quest for kiwi

it's going to be ages to get all the photos i want online, so you can look for regular updates for a while...of pics, so you really don't have to read much.

gone walk about...long walk, for an aboriginal its a period of spiritual enlightenment spent alone, a walking trip or tour, gone missing

for the school holidays (apparently an official 'study break'...you'd never know this by the students' stress levels upon returning to class) i finally went on a proper walk about in new zealand's south island bush. the photos are in no particular arrangement (this blog is not orgainisation friendly) but wnat to make a time line...in time

it was so much fun, and the nature more beautiful that description and the photos do no justice...you can't imagine the vastness of space and colour at all,
but here are a few attempts to share...















thank you sheep for your wool that keeps us warm!!!
this is our car, i stepped out to have a look and as you can see, i cannot return jsut at the moment, i never saw so many stressed out sheep in my life...and the dogs keeping them in order! it was really neat, i really thought we were going to get another passenger in the car with us.















finally i got to see real live seals, a plus on our never ending quest for the kiwi...long story, but here these guys were hanging out near kaikoura waiting for the women to return in a few months so they can...you know. but in the mean time, seems they are just hanging out swimming and resting up...they are sooo cute, i love them, however, the odour is X-treme!!!
















so here's the crew, simone, amanda, fausto, standing in front of the franz josep glacier. very interesting, we managed to get much closer, but can't find that pic...it was a little scarey at times. it's really reminds me of that christmas special with heat miser and bergermeifter meifterberger...
you know.
















this beach was really pretty and relentless, i walked down to the water and found the terrain almost like quick sand...but it wasn't sand at all. a wave got me and i was wet and finding stones in my clothes for the rest of the day.