Silver lining?

My darling sister is AT THIS MOMENT* somewhere between Hong Kong and Auckland.

She is coming home to attend our grandmother's funeral (we pick her up tomorrow morning!**) and because she is an adorable little inconvenience Craig and I have had to relegate our luxurious dressing room slash upstairs lounge to her, I presume, bag full of dirty laundry (she has been gone for some months now) and sleepy little head.

As such I have had to remove all my day to day necessities from that room and place them strategically around the room Craig and I currently inhabit. (It is frankly distressing how much I consider to be "necessities"***). Oh, he will just lovelovelove it when I turn the light on at 5:30am to straighten my hair, he normally sleeps until after 6:20am. Silly man.

I am finding this to be an incredibly boring job. And! Noone else is home to notice just how ridiculously lazy I am being so, in the last hour alone I have:

1. Watched 3 makeup tutorials on youtube.
2. Synced my iPhone so I have new podcasts to listen to while I get on with cleaning (ha).
3. Iced my cupcake tattoo using a fuchsia sharpie.
4. Reshaped my eyebrows (hooray for makeup tutorials)
5. Spent too too long on Twitter.
6. Realised my list was much longer than 140 characters.
7. Decided to post on this darling website!
8. Written this extraordinarily pointless post.
9. Sigh. Decided to actually tidy the room.

* I'm guessing.
** New Zealand Winter Time starts tonight. We might show up an hour early or an hour late or just on time. Who can say?
*** Copper Boom!

It hasn't been a good month for Grandparents*

My Grandmother, Iris



R.I.P.



* Craig's line.
And to be fair, his Grandfather passed away a little over a week ago, and now neither of us has any living grandparents.

Photos from the deep dark south: Part 2

Larnach Castle


(often incorrectly referred to as "Larnach's Castle")

The castle was built between 1873 and 1887 as the residence of William Larnach, politician in colonial New Zealand.



Sadly, the building, which Larnach himself simply called "The Camp," did nothing to stop his own downfall. After a series of personal and financial disasters he committed suicide in New Zealand's Parliament Buildings in October 1898*.

The castle and grounds afford breathtaking views of the Otago Peninsula.

But Whooo ... are ... you?


The Queen of Hearts.

Dotted throughout the gardens are statues from Alice in Wonderland. No, I have no idea why, but I love them.


The ... Knave of Hearts? King? I forget.
I also now have "We're painting the roses red, we're painting the roses red ..." in my head.


The Cheshire Cat!


The Queen of Hearts' Throne?


Alice!


Bull?

There seems to be little rhyme or reason with the Alice statues. For example, there is no White Rabbit, or Caterpillar. Surely they would come second & third only to Alice? Or am I just being a purist?
But seriously, there was no Bull in Alice in Wonderland was there?

Oh and you're not allowed to take photos inside the castle. Which is why these are allallall of the grounds and exterior.



Since the last time I was there (December 2005) they have done extensive work to the grounds, creating a look out and path down the cliff. I had very little idea that the Otago Peninsula was so ... intricate.









Oh course, while they do say that you cannot take photos inside the Castle, they don't confiscate your camera, and there's nothing saying you can't take photos once you're ON TOP of the Castle



Looking over (or in my case, peering between) the crenellations the view is, perhaps, even better than the lookout.





With the weather packing in and exhaustion abounding, we piled back into cars & then a shuttle and two aeroplane trips later Craig and I were back in Wellington.


* Apparently he did it in Committee Room 8. Yes, I want to try and work out which room that equates to and go check it out. My place of work does have some benefits.

No. No I'm not.

Devil board!
I abhor April Fools jokes at the best of times but at 5am (hence the darkness) my brain is really really not working yet.

I have spent too too long trying to wrangle my website feed tonight.
My head now hurts.

San Francisco
January 2008





&

indexed.com

Photos from the deep dark south: Part 1

Dunedin, March


St Clair? Perhaps.
I do not remember the name of this beach. Sigh.


Family photographs, family photographers.
(one of them is! Brian Miller, he was off collecting his (amazing) camera)


Brighton Beach, New Zealand
My darling sister Charlotte was at Brighton around the same time.
And in an even weirder twist of fate? Craig and I were there in March as well, only last year.


best viewed large.




large




I clambered about in my vintage Italian leather boots.




The light and clouds were bizarre and wonderful.
large








Portrait of the Photographer as photography tutor.

*

Tomorrow? Photos of Larnach Castle!

Week Thirteen

Sunday
Craig and I drove around and around and around, stumbling upon the place where they build trains, or at least where they used to make them. It's all run down. But beautiful.


Monday
I handwrote this post while at work and typed it up when I got home.


Tuesday
Walking down Mason's Lane after lunch with a friend. Strange 1980s street art and an empty doorway onto a second floor.


Wednesday
A very early flight to Dunedin on a very tiny plane. We checked in at 6:30 which entailed leaving home at 6am. Sleepy. Sleepy and a little terrified plane because lord that was the smallest plane I've ever been on.


Thursday
Brighton Beach in Dunedin. Clambering about & listening to reminiscences. Best viewed LARGE.


Friday
A teeny skull pin that belonged to Craig's grandfather, and has been passed along to me. I love his little skull-y teeth.


Saturday
A quiet day, tired post-Dunedin. I did visit a puppy but oh, these lilies are beautiful.


&