Great weekend

Taken on Sunday afternoon - the magnolia grandiflora perfume was intoxicating and clearly the bee thought so as well, as it was struggling around the flower.

For once we had fabulous weather the whole weekend - quite windy on Saturday but very hot Sunday. I spent Saturday morning at work but I didn't get as much done as I thought I would, for two reasons. The first, I just couldn't drag myself into work on such a brilliant day but the second is funny.

I. came in with me as he'd forgotten to take his boat keys with him on Friday, so thought he'd come in and ride his motorbike home. He headed off and about 20 minutes later I get a phone call - "Hullo" says a sheepish voice and it was him. I thought time had got away from me and that he was home but no. "Can you bring some fuel out to me on the side of the road half way home?" He'd been so excited that the bike had started on the first kick that he didn't stop to see how much fuel he had and just raced off. So I had an hour round trip to rescue him which really cut into my work time.

I got home about 2pm and we headed off to Lake Lyndon to meet up the D. & A. and the twins. D. has a large, old jet boat that he shares with his brother and has never used. As they're coming up to the Classic Boat Show at Lake Rotoiti with us next weekend, they were very keen to drop it in the drink in private first in case he wouldn't start. We took our boat up as well to act as a coast guard boat if necessary but everything went very well.

After we'd all blatted around the lake a bit, we drifted around in the middle with the motors off so the 3 boys could jump in off the boats and thrash around while wearing their life jackets. Then the blokes went off for a blat in the jet boat to see what it could do whilst A. and I. sat round in the sun, watching the young boys play in a mud wallow they'd found. They were thrashing around in there up to their hips like hippos and then one of them stripped right off and wallowed up to his neck!! Typical boys - the dirtier the better as far as they're concerned. I'm sure that if I was 7 I would have been right in there with them. It took a bit of sluicing in the lake afterwards to get the mud off and their clothes had to be hung on the line and blasted with the hose before being washed!

A. & I then left the blokes at the lake to do a little fishing, while we went back to their house at Castle Hill and sat round in the sun talking. It was fabulously warm - at least 25 degrees but as soon as the sun disappeared behind the mountains the temperature dropped by at least 10 degrees. The boys gave up fishing quite quickly because easterly cloud rolled in over Porters Pass and they froze.

Barbecue tea (venison - yum!) and a bottle of vino finished off a fabulous day. We headed for home about 11pm and because I was all tuckered out, I kept dropping off to sleep. Good thing I. is always the driver on these occasions. It was a slow trip home because we were towing the boat but went relatively quickly for me.

The most annoying thing about the day? I forgot to take my camera with me! I felt I carried it with me at all times but obviously not. Hence the tame flower photo.

Drive to work

A quick self portrait whilst commuting to work. After an earlier entry where I complained that I haven't been waving the camera around, I thought I'd better make a bit more of an effort.

Secretive blogging

I've told exactly one friend and two family members about this random thought blog. I haven't told my parents and even I. hasn't seen it. I'm not sure why. Its not as if there's raves about people that I might then be embarrassed about if they read them.

Maybe its the fear of rejection. I just read a hilarious post about rejections from publishers and it got me thinking about why I'm not mentioning this. It may never get better or more interesting, I may never find my "voice", it will never be full of award winning photos but does that really matter?

The whole point of this random journal is that it is mine and its convenient. Its more formal than the random journal I carry around with me at all times which is full of the bits and pieces of my life and is not available for public scrutiny. By publishing it, it means that I generally spell check it and reread it (but not always) before clicking the 'Publish Post' button.

On the days I don't feel like writing, I don't. Its not homework, its meant to be enjoyable. If anyone stumbles across it and reads it, well, good for them but that's not why I'm doing it. Ideally I'd like to write in it once a day but that'll never happen as, for a start, I don't use the computer in the weekends as a way of stopping staring at the small screen. Sometimes I feel as though I have nothing to say but will still sit down and write because I feel it can be good practice for me.

Right now I have to cease the waffle and go and finish my work!

All babies must grow & leave home

I'm annoyed with myself for not waving my camera around more at work!

In December a pair of Welcome Swallows started to build their mud & spit nest under the eaves of the tearoom but half of it fell off, leaving a big pile of mud at the bottom of the wall. Undaunted, they rebuilt the nest. Do you think, after the avalanche of mud had departed, that when they arrived back with their next mouthful of mud, they thought "What the??" or if they never noticed and carried on building?

Back to the lack of photos.

When we came back after our Christmas break, the parents were flying backwards and forwards and all we could see was a row of open mouths whenever they came home. Then, a row of 5 fat little babies. Friday last week the babies were experimenting with flying away from the nest and coming back. This week they've gone. Just like that.

It was all over so quickly.

Yucky yucky cold

I guess it had to happen - all the guys next door and I. have succumbed to a cold that one of them brought back from the States 2 weeks ago and now I'm getting it. Sore throat and earache. Not fun. Just in time for the weekend so I guess I'll be nesting over the weekend trying to get rid of it. I'm already gargling some revolting liquid to try and reduce it.

But to lighten the mood have a look at the notepad I got yesterday from a paper rep. I love getting notepads and this one has all the colours of the rainbow and then some in it. Very cheerful.



And also, by special request of the little blister: another Barney photo.



Apparently it was wildly exciting to have someone's finger waggling at him through a hole in the desk!

Bright ideas

I had a brainwave about a new business last night when I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep. Its something I could run in conjunction with my current business but I wouldn't have to do the day to day work. I'm excited but nervous and have to brainstorm and work out the logistics to see if its even feasible but its exciting having ideas like this. I know other people run businesses like this but I think I've got an "angle".

What's amazing is that I mentioned the possibility of this business when I was having lunch with L. today and she wants to be a client already, plus her husband. So 2 potential clients already and I've only told 2 people!!! I suspect pricing will be the major issue so will have to do a lot of research.