From the Dark Ages

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT GOOGLE READER?
Do I write long hand with a quill and pass it on to carrier pigeons then foxes then the smarties at CERN? No. And yet, I was in the dark ages with keeping up with blogs.
I actually went to each and every blog site to check on updates. Pretty much daily. And now? with a click & a whirr, any updates are presented to me on a white little platter.
I am in Love.

It might come in especially handy this month. I am attempting, yet again, to take part in NaBloPoMo (well, I-NaBloPoMo as the Na stands for National and I am not in the United States of America.) National Blog Posting Month.
Where I try to post every single day in November.
I managed, just, to get this done last year. So I thought I'd try it again. Though my hopes for success are lower this yeah.

Hurrah for lowered expectations!

One thing though, tomorrow I should be able to post photos from tonight's Dia de Los Muertos party. In honour of the south american roots of the party name (as it is really just a belated Halloween party where you have to dress up as someone dead) I am dressing up as Frida Kahlo.
But with a removable eyebrow. I'm too vain to draw it on myself.

Halloween Hair

I have issues with dairy.

I also had issues with leaving that miserable post at the top of my site (HATE). And with finding the word or. Argh.

Somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something, something ...

I seem to have the worst luck with London. I'm choosing to not see this as a sign.

Firstly, I only found out about the HSMP (5 year visa) after I was no longer eligible on my pre-London New Zealand salary.

Secondly, just as I was settling into the idea that Craig would really be sponsored to stay in London, the company pulled out.

Thirdly, they changed the HSMP to Tier 1 (still a 5 year visa) which increased the amount of money-earned required to apply.

Fourthly, finally, and just THIS MORNING they announced changes to the Working HolidayMakers Visa/Tier 5 which makes it two years working instead of one year. The one year that Craig has worked and was why we had to come back to New Zealand. And it is changing on the 27th November. If it does happen to change our visas at all, it still means that we would get back to London in early December and have to leave again 6 scant months later as our visas completely, entirely, forever-and-ever expire on the 9th of June 2009. Oh and you can't apply for WH/Tier 5 more than once in a lifetime.

This news is killing me. It is the epitome of the straw that is breaking my back.

.

In actuality, it just means that we just have to keep calm and carry on. I work and work and work and work and next year we apply for Tier 1 visas.
The uncertainty is hardest. I wish I knew that we would get back to London. I wish I knew that we would get the visas. I wish I knew that all this work and stress and planning was going to result in something other than a stomach ulcer.
I wish I wish I wish.

Remembering Paris - April 2008

Paris, je t'aime aussi.

The Gospel According to St Flickr

The geniuses at Flickr.com (heart heart!) have added a little squiggly thing to my account (and others I'm sure) which tracks views and traffic on my photos.

My top three most-viewed-photos OF ALL TIME:







Huh.

Another beautiful spring day in Wellington.

A confession ... an obsession ... a sickness ...

I seem to be addicted to Fuchsia.



a sequined headband and a large large flower



The (new) Dowse keyring



my obligatory Kiwiana



flashes in a floral bracelet



the pinkest ruby I'd ever seen



until this one.



light fuchsia earrings on dark fuchsia beads



on my fingers: Pompeii Purple by O.P.I. (really? REALLY?) and Fuchsia by Maybelline



my grown up (or not) Guess purse



shoes by Melissa. Not only are they fuchsia and near modern art, they smell like bubblegum!



two scarves and three tops



sugar skull by Love from Hetty and Dave.



a cheap little phone charm from Camden markets



the black queen from Tate Britain

by Hew Locke I think, it's about how, portraits of monarchs used to include symbols of their pomp but also of their mortality. And they don't do that anymore, there's no attempt to keep them grounded.



Fafi for MAC - Fun & Sexy, and regular old MAC - Girl About Town



my beautiful beautiful coat. And my badge is a liar, I probably quite like your art. But then again, I could be the liar.





It reaches as far as my darling hair straighteners



AND my pain relief of choice.


I suppose it could be worse. Craig isn't so sure.
But then again, I think he worries I will create a head to toe fuchsia outfit. Which I won't. Although ...

Today ...

9 months ago today I was starting work in London after our trip to San Francisco & was dying from jetlag.

8 months ago today Craig and I spent the day at the National Portrait Gallery and purchased my darling MacBook.

7 months ago today we went to an Irish Food Festival in Covent Garden and spent the afternoon in a pub. It was a Sunday after all.

6 months ago today we were lying low after our weeked in Paris.

5 months ago today I had the day from hell. It was a Tuesday after all.

4 months ago today it was my baby sister's birthday and I overheard that my London replacement had been hired.

3 months ago today I was temping in New Zealand and accidentally colour coordinated with the girl I was sitting next to.

2 months ago today I watched Craig apply false eyelashes to 16 & 17 year old girls. My baby baby sister's friends. It was their ball and he has eerily steady hands. I was also newly tattooed.

1 month ago today my darling Kat arrived in London. We took her to our favourite neighbourhood restaurant and I witnessed my second crime in London (teenage boys stealing bicycles).

Today? I removed pages from one file, wrote down the name of the pages, and put them into a different file. I also organised glasses of water & cups of tea. In between that excitement I wrote this, and, while listening to my book-on-iPhone, wrote down the first twenty words read that started with s:

starting, standard, school, showing, seen, suspect, streams,states, sudden, scholarly, sun, still, surgeons, spaces, science,starting, stirred, sun, slump, strangely

sigh

08-Oct-08

Supposedly ripped right off of Zelda Fitzgerald's cold dead hand - Lorelai Gilmore

My darling husband must have snuck a peek at my unrealistic birthday wish list. Not only did he gift me with a PoGo (!!) (That was the electronics store present. Phew.) but also the astounding amazing to-become-an-heirloom* deco-inspired ring above. I call her Zelda.

My darling mummy dearest also arranged to have my london inspiration thoughts-become-things charm bracelet soldered together to jingle jangle at my wrist. But apparently the solder-ist (?) was high because she asked for evenly spaced and it went 1-1-1-3-1-4-3-3-4-1 in terms of spacing. Ridiculous!
But they are fixing it and soon it will be back and I will use my darling macro adaptor to show you my charms.

My twenty fifth birthday passed (damn Wednesdays) with Ice Cream Cake (I am a Grown Up) and a quiet meal cooked by my darling-dear.

* for Craig's twenty fifth birthday? I bought him monogrammed cufflinks from Links of London. I think 25 is a milestone birthday.