I don’t usually do this, but i took quite a few pictures at tiritiri matangi yesterday so i made a flickr show instead of uploading them here.
(apologies if some of these turn up separately in the next few weeks. i’ve not really got my system working properly yet)
so, the big news is … new zealand’s biggest bed is on sale. although i note it’s been massively reduced probably meaning it’s no longer the biggest bed
sometimes it’s best not to abbreviate the word ‘number’ with ‘no’.
esther saw the funny side of her lovely present to me so she kindly let me share it.
if you really want to mess with your brain get more than one version playing at the same time out of sync. i’ve given you some more below to play at the same time (thanks to my mum for this fantastic idea):
not quite as good as this though which is what we’re experiencing (the sun part, not rolf or his status quo chums)
i finally got to meet Andy in Auckland. He’s a friend of good friends in the UK and has been fantastic at ‘praying us in’ to New Zealand over the last year. Including one moment when i was in the NZ embassy in the UK where an admin error threatened to derail our visa process. Andy was at that moment on Twitter and a few arrow prayers later, everything was sorted !
anyway, it was great to meet him in person and find he lived up to my expectations as a thoroughly nice/jolly/welcoming chap !
here’s a man adjusting the polystyrene bits in the snow globe. it’s the second time i’ve seen polystyrene bits in the last week – last sunday night i lay on a bean bag looking up at the underside of an umbrella at sydney observatory. we had to lay on bean bags on the floor looking up at the rather basic start display projected on to the underside of the umbrella
when we got up to leave there were polystyrene bits all over the floor due to a leaky bean bag. but it looks like little stars had escaped from the planetarium
oh, and here’s the 20 foot santa where i met a friend for morning tea yesterday. you can see a much better photo of santa and a bit of history at this excellent website here
he might have made his own bag, but you can ‘make this bag’
in these days of open ness and no hidden secrets for products sold to the public, isn’t it time we started to see what really happens inside dishwashers once the door is closed ? i’d love to own an actual dishwasher with a glass front door and a spooky green light.
sadly this was only a display model in the local hardware store. but i think there’s a marketable idea in there somewhere: complicated domestic appliances with glass walls
here’s a bonus entry from New Zealand where we’re settling in just fine thanks to huge kindness from everyone we meet.
i’ll start blogging properly in a few days, but for now, here’s a picture of the windows 7 launch in auckland this morning. things happen here first because of the time difference.
looks like they were suffering from slippery letter syndrome as the LA broke away
they are also a little short of Ds so have been making do with backwards Cs. Good.
we’ve got the packers in – yesterday and today are packing things in to boxes and then the big transporter container comes tomorrow.
whilst doing our pre-packing checks i spotted this potato on esther’s window sill. not only is it quite hideous (it’s not aged well) but i suspect it would fail the NZ ‘no food’ rule.
we’re in a strange half world of things being taken away from us but still being here. we ate mostly biscuits yesterday.
it’s funny how you can summarise someone’s life in a few boxes. the words on these say it all
it’s not just people we’ve had to say goodbye to. esther’s guinea pigs, snuggly and cuddly, have been kindly adopted by her friend from school.
