It's the simple things ...

Today was quite a nice day.
Sometimes Mondays can be like that.

Week Thirty-Seven

Sunday
Father-Darling took us to Bella Italia for Father's Day lunch - I came away with delicious Limoncello Slice.


Monday
Craig chose Monday night to go through our accounts. Masochist.


Tuesday
I allowed a co-worker's daughter to colour in my cupcake tattoo.
I wasn't expecting the whole thing to be coloured in and then I had to spend all day looking like I have a ridiculously bad tattoo.


Wednesday
Our train was cancelled in the morning so Craig and I ended up driving in to work.
I quite like it, it's half an hour of hanging with Sir C & the music we listen to instead of jabbering commuters.


Thursday
In these shoes I am 5'5.25" (4 inch heels) and it's quite a different experience. Also? they last featured on 365 in 2009 on a Thursday.


Friday
Catching a late train. A grey day and a very grey mood.


Saturday
Meringue coffee (actually? it was just a latte) at Flax Café, Petone.


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Rose Tattoo: Work Shirt Edition

So I turn my head away.

I hate the sunsets here.
It's just another day ending in a country I find suffocating.

(photo from January 2008)

USS Missouri

USS Missouri, Pearl Harbour
27 August 2008



We were on a tour which took us all around Pearl Harbour*. It was a little strange to be touring the USS Missouri after the glorious dead of the USS Arizona.



But all the pomp and waving stars and stripes quickly moved that little black cloud onwards



Until ... oop - there it is.


* I wish I'd been able to take a photo of the FBI building in Hawaii - it looks like it has windows, like any other office block type building, only it's on the edge of nowhere and the windows are all filled in.

Week Thirty-Six

Sunday
It rained and it rained and it rained and it rained.


Monday
I had another day off work and I spent it watching movies I've seen many times before. And one that I'd never seen*.


Tuesday
Reading a good book on the train (The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch) with Craig by my side.


Wednesday
Trying on beautiful clothes that, ultimately, I did not buy.


Thursday
The morning spent at a Speed Reading course. It was surprisingly interesting and effective.


Friday
After work drinks lead to a later than usual train ride home.


Saturday
Visiting a vintage store I came away with a glorious kitsch souvenir scarf from Rome and a vintage camera. All for under $5.


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* Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

It's a Mulligan thing...

In our family, a card depicting a stern catholic nun, the inscription a thanks for the familial trait of pedantry, and a box of boutique beers and cheese makes a pretty good Father's Day present.

Tattoo: Ewww Edition

This is my Rose Tattoo 5 days into the healing process.
Yes. It itches. A lot. No, I do not scratch it. Yes. this is EXTREMELY annoying.

(Shh, Mum, it is still totally worth it)



But more than anything else, it reminds me of this:



Ironic really, as it's the result of an addition to my personal colour scheme.

(cute notepad from www.nutandbee.com)

USS Arizona Memorial

Craig at the USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbour
27 August 2008

I'm still alive: a Rose Tattoo story

Sir C and I flew all the way up to Auckland for ever-so-slightly under 48 hours in order for me to go to Sacred to get a new tattoo.
It was all because of the internet. I put the call out for recommendations for colour tattoo artists in the Wellington area and the internet came back with one recommendation. I asked about Auckland? New Zealand? Anywhere? and I received many many more.
The only person who received more than one was Dan at Sacred Tattoo.


My best "I'm not nervous at all" face (HA)

I took in the idea of a traditional rose tattoo, sans stem & avec curlicues, in shades of pink (FUCHSIA!), the size 8cm squared to 10cm squared, and these photos:



The lovely Dan talked about what I was looking for and drew 3-4 different traditional style roses (after each one I proclaimed "I love it!" and then amazingly the next one was even better) and talked me into ... bit larger than I was originally thinking.



But oh, he was right.

...

And then there's a gap ... Craig had to hold my hand while the outline was tattooed.


The shading was much less painful.


I love the reflection in my glasses.


I think Dan is adding the gold to the leaves here. But there's a little bit of blood in the way, I'm basing it on the ink on the paper towel.


The next day I covered it for brunch (a fresh tattoo is not brunch appropriate) but couldn't help peeking at it.


And! I lovelovelove how it peeks out of the sleeve of a regular t-shirt.


And on Sunday? the yellow bruising came in.

But I love it. So much.
The painterly black shading and the three (four?) different shades of pink. Dan says the colours will really come into their own more as it heals. The curlicues and veins in the leaves are actually dark-grey to the outline's true-black, the three (four) different shades of pink, the different shades of green etc etc.

This tattoo definitely makes my others look like babies. I cannot believe how worried I was about the cupcake! But, as Dan says, a little trepidation is healthy. Otherwise you can be caught unawares by the pain.

I was caught a little ... by the post tattooing pain. I thought it would be like my others, a little itchy and after three days it would still feel a little raised but otherwise just like skin again.
This time it feels more like sunburn. It aches, every so slightly, just enough so I forget and over extend my arm and then the pain, the tight-skin sunburn kind of pain.
But of course, I'm not complaining. Because it's my own damn fault.

And totally worth it. Adoration abounds.



By the way? Dan and Sacred Tattoo were amazing.
I felt like Dan helped me design my own tattoo based on quite broad general ideas, and their hygiene and safety procedures were unlike anything I've experienced before. I had to fill out a form with any allergies or medications, that I understood tattoos were permanent (Yes! Seriously!) and that I had agreed upon the design with the artist, Dan even showed me the sealed packaging of the one use needles (At my earlier tattoo appointments I'd seen them open the needles and seen the empty packages but still).
And after all that? it worked out to be cheaper than I had been quoted.
The internet is amazing.


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Craig and I were sitting in Starbucks post-tattoo and I was bouncing up and down in my seat, peeking at the glad-wrap covered tattoo and Craig smiled and shook his head:
Me: What? I just love it!
Craig: We're going to have to come all the way to Auckland for any other tattoos you want aren't we?
Me: Yip! Well ... maybe.
But if they are colour? then Yes. Definitely yes. Dan was worth the flight.

Week Thirty-Five

Sunday
Watermelon Gelato from Gelissimo in Eastbourne aka DELICIOUS.


Monday
Exhausted on a Monday night, eating peppermint icecream and looking at my flickr contact photos.


Tuesday
My e-cup self is very very excited about this.


Wednesday
I spent about 15 minutes packing my bag for Auckland.
It looks empty here (and it really was) but the addition of a hairdryer and GHDs meant it was quite heavy after all.


Thursday
Looking at my faux-brogues in shame after missing the bus.


Friday
A cool apartment building being constructed just off K Rd.
(Yes. This was tattoo day. But Craig took all those photos!)


Saturday
Mount Taranaki (AKA Mount Egmont) as seen from the plane on the way back from Auckland to Wellington.


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Bed head and Beauty mark in Auckland.

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Tattoo photos tomorrow, I promise!