Fruitiness

Well, according to all the purveyors of doom and gloom, after this weekend Summer will be gone and Autumn upon us. Now I don't believe this for a second. In my opinion it's still Summer until it stops being typically warm and, well, summery and Labor Weekend has not a thing to do with this.

It is at this time of year that nostalgic New Englanders (ie all of them) begin to wax lyrical about their favorite time of year, "Fall". They speak of such things as the innocent joys of apple picking - and here I must pause momentarily for a rant.

For those of you in the rest of the world, people in New England actually pay orchards to let them pick the apples... Yes, I do mean that instead of the orchards paying workers to pick the apples, otherwise sane and savvy people pay the orchards for the "pleasure" of being manual laborers. It makes no sense!

OK, rant complete (on that topic at least). So with fruit on my mind I bring you my list of most nostalgia inducing, most missed, and just plain yummiest fruit from home. In no particular order...

1. Feijoas
2. Cape Gooseberries

3. Passionfruit
4. Rhubarb

5. Tamarillos
6. Hmm, did I say Feijoas already :)

Mmmm, fruit...

Scanner!

Sweet! My flatmate has a scanner! Actually, he's had it the whole time he's been here, but I only just found out today. So here's a doodle. No doubt one of many to be digitized :)

Demolished for a motorway bypass.

I loved the house I lived in for six years while at uni, but I'll be the first to admit it was not pretty. So it was probably a good choice from a PR perspective to demolish it first. It made it look like they were doing the community a service rather than carving a community in two.

Construction on the motorway bypass that had been fought since the 60's was kicked off in late 2004 with the demolition of 323 Willis St.

A girl was there to chain herself to the bulldozer - I always said I'd lie in front of the bulldozers if the time came, but I'd been in Boston for 3 years by then.

I know there's only a couple more days...

but that pink was driving me batty. So here's a variant for the last few days of October.

Only 5 more days of pink!

:)

My eyes are excited.

Sprogs!

I've been away from home for so long that I have "cousin in-laws" who I have never even met and now not one, but two "junior cousins" (first cousins once removed is a little cumbersome to say)!

I don't normally get gooey over children, but not having siblings means no nieces or nephews (at least not by blood), so these little guys are the closest I've got.



Mikaela, who looked rather like Daniel last time I saw a photo & the man himself, Daniel - 1 day old!

Scrapblog

Think I might be cheating a little here - this is actually a post from the other blog I've been working on, but it was supposed to be just a test ground for templates etc.

I had an idea to find a wood finish background and plaster it with stickers, graffiti, & a blog title as part of a blog template. In my search to find the ingredients I found Scrapblog [beta] (of course it's beta, it might even be beta 2.0).

You're supposed to put pictures in it too, but I was so enamoured with the backgrounds & "stickers" that I didn't even get to the pictures. You can even embed them in your regular blog - but I found for my purposes (only displaying one page) that taking a screen shot & cropping it in Photoshop worked better.

I'm still here...

It has been a week, but I am still at it. Just "doing it" somewhere else. Honing my design skills (& therefore html & css skills - although I think both the words honing & skills give a false impression) in another location.

Check it out - ya know ya want to (it's not pink, I promise).

Fun with Fotos - Mexico, July 2006

More photos from my Mexico trip in July, tricked out with the help of fd's flickr toys. Will add titles once I get my files in order.


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In the Pink

Check it out - I'm Pink for October!

Anthropology Museum, Mexico City

It was an overcast day when we visited the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, but Photoshop took care of that for me :) We spent hours at the museum & still didn't even get halfway round!




















The fountain in the courtyard was amazing.

Bovine Liberty, Mexico City

We found this statue on the way back to the hotel, on the outskirts of Chapultepec park. I don't know what it's real title is but "Bovine Liberty" seems appropriate.

I've been slowly uploading the photos from my trip in July to Flickr but it's slow going. I hit my monthly limit very quickly.

Food, glorious food - Wellington, NZ

In my Internet wanderings I came across the blog of a couple from San Francisco (in the US) who were moving to Wellington (in New Zealand). Turns out their new apartment will be not that far from my old place, so I just couldn't help put my 2 cents in & comment on how much I miss the food & the coffee. Well, I was asked for my recommendations, so here's a selection of some of my favorites...

WARNING: It's been 5 years & a month (almost) since I came to the States, so the opinions I am about to espouse may be horribly outdated, or just plain wrong by now.

Logan Brown, corner of Cuba & Vivian St's.
Loved Logan Brown. Not somewhere I went all that often as a poor student, but the food was heaven.


Matterhorn, 106 Cuba Mall.
Was a great place to go any time of the day or night. Good food, a big wine selection, ditto for the cocktails, live music, & a lively night out.



Tupelo, 6 Edward St.
This you might need a little help to find. I think it's technically a bar, but has good food as well as a good selection of drinks. The service and the decor give a cosy & intimate to the place.

A Sampling of Malaysian...
Satay Village, 58 Ghuznee St (just round the corner from Cuba Mall).
Cheap and yummy Malaysian food. their Chicken Rendang was always a favorite of mine, & Roti Chanai.

If you want to see your roti being hand tossed & cooked all in front of you, which is pretty impressive, Roti Chanai on Victoria St between Dixon & Manners St's is the place to go.

Kopi, 106 Willis St, also has some very good Malaysian eats, it's a bit more expensive but you don't have to BYO.

A few Cafes
Midnight Espresso, 178 Cuba St - An iconic Wellington cafe, for the coffee, the hot chocolate, & all the yummy goodies they have up at the counter.

Krazy Lounge, Cuba St - I particularly remember liking their brunch a fair bit.

Clark's Cafe in the Wellington Public Library - I don't specifically remember the coffee or the food, but it was a nice place to sit and start a book you just borrowed or gaze out at Civic Square.

Nikau Gallery Cafe, at the Art Gallery, Civic Square - Good food, nice surroundings & reasonable prices considering. Outdoor dining available.


There are sooo many good cafes, & restaurants, not to mention the bars, try them all!

Oh Lily Baby

My Siamese dream when she was just a baby - and not yet mine.


















Are you ready for your close up?

Terrible picture quality, but what can I expect from the camera on my phone? I really, really, really... really want a digital camera. Maybe soon...

Newport, RI, USA (too)

Summer '05.
Not the most flattering view, but my hair was really long huh?

STOP, THIEF!

Some bad, bad person stole my credit card info and tried to buy things with it. I don't know how they got it, I still have the card. Luckily the credit card Co is on the ball about these things and gave me a call tonight after they noticed some dodgy transactions. They were really nice about it too.

Ha! Not a very smart criminal though. Tried to buy delivery pizza - so I called up the pizza place and got the address & phone number of the person using my card. I see a visit from the boys in blue in their future. You just shouldn't mess with me!

Wondering how someone got the info though... Well, once the police find out who this person is maybe I'll be able to work out how it happened.

My Siamese Dream

Newport, RI, USA

A little something from last summer. Walked along the cliff top in Newport. Got some great photos of architectural details.

Mexico City - Entry to bull fighting arena

Supposedly the largest in the world - according to our guide, who kindly assisted us to bribe one of the police officers guarding the place, so we could take a peek.

Looking back I realise I totally missed the sly aspect of the, er... transaction, just boldly handing the cash over to the officer. I have since learned the handshake & slip 'em the cash method.

Ahhhh!

Success!

The lovely Lily keeping her sweet self clean in the sun. Possibly the only creature less coordinated than myself.