last Friday (aka the best weather day of 2011 yet!) i got to go for a ride up the maine coast. the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and maine was doing its “look like a postcard” thing.

we’re supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight and tomorrow-which, i’ll be honest, i don’t ENTIRELY hate bc fresh snow is good for snowboarding-but i’ll be looking at this picture and eagerly awaiting the return of Harley weather.

(i firmly expect to have some sort of moment in a year or two where i decide sufjian stevens is the greatest thing since sliced bread.) (and maybe in 5 years i’ll decide to be a grown-up and like wine.) (i started reading the harry potter books i think after book 5 had been published. read them all in, oh i dunno, 2 weeks or so?) (there was a girl in my hs class who had a sign language interpreter. everyone else started learning the alphabet and other signs almost immediately, and i just…didn’t…for months. maybe a year. then one day i decided to learn, and there was no stopping me.)

i’m thoroughly enjoying adding apps i’ve heard about for years…playing games while sitting around waiting for things…staying far more connected than i probably should. and, of course, keeping the internet apprised of all the minutia of my life. my current favorite way to do this is instagram. it’s a free photo app that gives you some different post-processing options. they’re all a little intense, but still a good time!

unfortunately, instagram hasn’t yet implemented a web-based complement to their app, but if you’re an instagram user, leave your username in the comments so i can obsessively enjoy your minute-by-minute life updates in pictures.

here are a few of my instagram favs from the last couple days.

tuesday at gunstock. (conditions were amazing! yay spring riding!) breakfast wednesday morning. sugar-free, low-carb creamsicle cupcakes (amazing!) and BACON!

i have a friend visiting this week, and yesterday the weather didn’t seem very friendly for skiing, so we just did a quick tiki tour of the surrounding new england goodness. (anyone who’s visited me will recognize these sights. i call it the quick and dirty encapsulating tour. )

there is a naval shipyard here (trivia fact! my dad was stationed there when i was about 4…so, i lived here before i moved here as an adult. i didn’t really remember it, so it was interesting when my parents came to visit and pointed out places we’d gone. i’d just rattled “maine” off in my list of “places-i’ve-lived” but i didn’t realize i’d returned to my roots.), and there are also copious little lobster-fishing shacks full of lobster crates, boats, and signs that hawk their sea-bugs proclaiming “retail-wholesale”…yet when you knock on their door…appear deserted. ah well! our next stop was fort mcclary state park. i love that place! so much history, and the drive through kittery point is so magical, especially in summer. (new england in march is…not..at its finest.) (in the distance in the middle and third pictures are tiny little dots on the horizon which are actually lighthouses.)

first…not my dinner…a lobster tank at fiddlehead farms. (i love the red with the turquoise blue.) my friend’s PILE of feast. i think it looks pretty hot sitting in my apartment (yeah, i have exposed brick! thanks, new england mill industry for dying down and leaving brick buildings to be repurposed!)

what are your favorite iphone apps?

and now…a little after midnight, i’ve staved off my last meltdown of the day…if i hit another roadblock, i’ll probably start sobbing in rage or rip all my hair out (kind of like jimmy on raising hope. do you watch raising hope? you should. it’s HI-larious.)

i decided i needed an escape. and since an ACTUAL trip isn’t very practical (and i just got back from one, like, a week and a half ago…), i decided to relive my 48 hours in fiji in march 2009. want to come along?

i arrived just a little bit before sunset…i’d booked a bed in a hostel on the beach. i (wrongly) assumed that all beaches in fiji are 100% magic. it was crowded and dirty, and i was warned not to walk alone after dark. except…for a little while each day, even this beach was magic. then i laid in that hammock and looked up at the royal blue of the freshly fallen night sky, the twinkling stars, the green palm fronds sheltering me…though the night was mild and balmy with a whispering breeze…and it was more magic. until i couldn’t deny the fact that i’d gotten about 34 bug bites in the 5 minutes i laid there breathing in the magic. and dashed inside to watch the full season of scrubs i put on my laptop in preparation for travel.

the next morning, i dined on the patio. i had a big stack of pancakes and a bottle of fiji water…(when in rome? er…fiji?) which, mystery of mysteries…was imported. it’s bottled at the source, shipped off to some plant in australia or asia, and then returned to the tropical island paradise. i don’t understand either. after breakfast it was time to lounge by the pool. i lounged just a SMIDGE too long, though…and as a result, i’m pretty sure i had those “tan” lines for the better part of 2009. the other result was that sitting was fairly excruciating…here’s some free advice: DON’T LET YOUR ASS GET SUNBURNED 36 HOURS BEFORE YOU HAVE TO GET ON A 10 HOUR FLIGHT. it isn’t fun. as though God were agreeing and commiserating with me, after lunch it began to rain and rained the rest of the day. i had a legitimate excuse to stay in my room and try not to let anything touch the back of my legs.

morning two dawned bright and sunny for the one excursion i had time to take. this wasn’t a real visit to fiji…it was just me taking advantage of a free stopover. stopovers are genius. next time you fly internationally, ask if there are any free stopovers available…24-48 hours in a random country along the way? ok! i was picked up by an indian man driving a minibus taxi…i’m pretty sure he proposed. i thanked him and declined. we picked up people from many other hostels and resorts and finally reached a dock on a river. this was all happening in fijian time…which, i’m pretty sure, is even slower than hawai’ian time. but everyone smiles HUGELY while they wait. why wouldn’t they? we made it onto the boat…a rag tag, decidedly non-homogenized group of tourists off to play castaway for a day. i spent most of the boat ride trying to figure out how to sit in such a way that i didn’t want to die. i never quite managed it. we arrived at the island and were encouraged to relax, take out a kayak, go for a swim, visit some sea turtles (which weren’t actually there. it was just a joke those crazy fijians play on the whiteys. which was actually hilarious, so…fair play to the crazy fijians! if you want to hear the story, shoot me an email, i’m already writing too much!) they climbed coconut palms and chopped down a green coconut for anyone interested…i tried the milk. do not want. they also showed us how to scrape the meat out…and then, THOSE CRAZY FIJIANS! they walked on fire. like…barefoot across burning coals. and then they dug up the roasting pig underneath and fed us. and then they danced. oh they danced. with swords/clubs, without weapons…with fire, without fire. lots of dancing and lots of smiles.

some of my favorite pictures from that day are the ones of the island as we said farewell. it doesn’t even quite look real. and yet…i spent a day there, so i know it is. i might go back to fiji someday…or maybe i’ll go to rarotonga or samoa or tokelau. either way, I’M TOTALLY BRINGING MY SUNSCREEN, YOU GUYS!

bye fiji…thanks for helping me kick these winter doldrums tonight.

1. the 2011 bataleon violenza…those of you who know me even a little will probably be scratching your head going…what? WHY does she like it? (pretend that was in sarcasm font.) i. love. polka-dots. i found it, and then i obsessively searched the internet for every word written about it…and then when i went to colorado last week (oh yeah, i went to colorado last week!) i got a chance to ride it. and while, let’s face it, i still kind of suck and therefore trying out particular boards is kind of pointless, i didn’t hate it! and i found it on sale! so i ordered it! and it should be here soon! and then i can zoom down snow-covered mountains on it! (i also got a crackin’ good deal on boots/bindings/helmet/goggles)

2. the KRAKEN black spiced rum…ok, a) THERE’S A GIANT CELPHALOPOD EATING A SHIP ON THE BOTTLE! b) after you pour a drink, you can yell, “UNLEASH THE KRAKEN!” it’s pretty tasty, the bottle is cute, and it’s just full of whimsy. being a grown-up is better with whimsy.

3. UGG kensington boots…SO. CUTE. and so cozy. and thanks to my short hobbit feet…i can wear the kid’s size! triple WIN! these uggs are extra awesome because unlike normal uggs, they are not made out of suede leather…suede leather + winter in new england = FAIL. i’ve been pretty much living in these since i got them a couple weeks before christmas. (they’re my christmas present from my parents, but…being a grown-up means sometimes you order your own present, and they pay you back later. if it means i get to enjoy it a couple extra weeks…i’m all good with that!)

4. velo orange leather saddle-honey. see…snowboarding is EXPENSIVE. you’ve gotta have a lot of STUFF for it. as a result, the BEEYOOTIFUL bicycle i bought a few months ago…it’s gotta go. i’ve got a perfectly good bicycle…that i just didn’t enjoy riding so much bc of the crap seat and old handlebar grips. this saddle is going to change all that. most people think BROOKS when they think leather bicycle saddles…and with good reason. but brooks saddles are a little tougher on the wallet…so i get the same quality, beauty, and timeless style for a friendlier price. thanks velo orange! i can’t wait to put you on my bicycle and ride you all over once the snow is off the ground. a little bit of consolation for having to put that polka-dotted beauty in storage!

things i am NOT loving…and which will not be pictured here…

1. how the winter is affecting my hands. they look like a cabbage patch doll whose hands got caught in an office paper shredder. UNCOOL, WINTER. UNCOOL.

2. having to pay street parking fees to get my car out of the undersized lot so they do snow removal…drawback of living downtown with all its conveniences, i suppose!

3. living downtown with all its conveniences! namely EASY, waaaay too easy access to half a dozen delicious cuisines…when i am on OPERATION CHRISTMAS DAMAGE CONTROL DIET. (homemade chex mix SHOULD make it on this list, bc it is responsible for most of the christmas damage, but…it’s too good. i can’t not love it.)

hope you’re all staying warm and finding a way to enjoy whatever weather you’re experiencing!

but that switch has been flipped, and after this trip, europe seems like the most wonderful and intoxicating place on the planet. (well, maybe not MOST…but it’s my current geographical craving.) i fully intend to return to europe for longer than 5 days and let the history and cobblestones seep through my shoes and into my soul.

day 5 started off on top of the alp with that crystal clear view i’d been hoping for.

from inside the room.

then had to grab one last pain au chocolat for breakfast before descending the alp.

i won’t tell you how many shots i took or how long i stood there waiting for the flag to unfurl JUST RIGHT.

i went to 3 h&m’s looking for a particular jacket…which, i could have gotten for less in the US, but i bought in switzerland on principle. i needed to have SOMETHING from my whirlwind trip to europe. i did find it, though! (mine’s red.)

after my shopping was completed…i set about exploring geneva. i only had about 4 hours until i needed to catch the train back to the airport for my flight out, but i managed to cover quite a bit of ground.

(this one MIGHT be my favorite from the day…and the water really is crazy blue.)

i love this one and the next one a whole lot as well.

these two totally don’t go together. the first one is all, “yay, pretty europe,” and the second…well, it is wrong on about 100 different levels.

JP suggested swinging by strassbourg on my way back to switzerland…in theory, this was good advice…which i intended to take. however, google maps decided that i should go through strassbourg on the way to germany…and enjoy their rush hour traffic…but it sent me back south through germany. so, on a whim, i got off at an exit. and followed signs i couldn’t read, hoping i’d find something delightful to see. i was most definitely successful…and not having ANY IDEA where i was or the name of the town added a bit of spice to my adventure.

the church on the left is in the town i came to first on my detour…it had a map just next to it…there was a castle icon, so i decided to see if i could meander my way there…i’m still not sure if i wound up there or somewhere else. ? the one on the right is in neuleiningen, the town where i finally wound up. (i figured this out by taking a picture of every sign i saw and googling when i got home.)

picture perfect german town.

wouldn’t you eat germany countryside flavored ice cream if ben and jerry’s invented that variety?

i was very happy to be standing in front of a german castle.

if these two images don’t make you want to explore, i don’t know if we could be friends.

godzilla’s practice run before he took on tokyo.

i like to think this was a prison pit. i mean, any self-respecting german castle would need one, right? on the right is the view through the bars looking up.

i am a giant dork of a wedding photographer, and i can’t help looking at this and thinking that it would be a super cool spot for a ceremony.

postcard! (seriously, fall colors…tile roofs…there is even a freaking river wending its way through the valley.)

i think this is the first hint of blue sky i saw the entire trip!

got a LITTLE too into driving european style and failed to notice that i was very nearly out of gas. don’t worry…this was taken at the gas station when i turned the car back on to show the dangerously empty tank.

every day i was there, i prayed that i’d get to see a clear view from the balcony. the night before i was due to leave…God said, “ok.” and it was still clear in the morning when i woke up! stay tuned for those images. they’re pretty freaking spectacular.

i woke up to a view of the mountains still obscured by clouds.

headed to bern to have lunch with…wait for it…a girl i met in new zealand feb 2009…when i was visiting the YWAM base outside christchurch from my 2009 nz hq in auckland. thanks to fb…we were still in contact and managed to connect for a homemade lunch of spaghetti. i got lost in bern, too. google maps were not terribly helpful…my almost-dead cell phone was, though…and worth the $1.50/minute i paid to get talked in to my destination. in my driving around the city, i saw the best. thing. ever.

that right there is a dog…carrying his master’s basket full of…whatever. i would really quite enjoy having a dog follow me around carrying stuff for me.

i finally made it to my destination in germany after…you guessed it…getting lost. did i mention it’s worth bringing a GPS if you’re gonna drive around europe? it is.
my friend JP suggested dinner at the nearby castle. because when you’re in europe…”we’re up to here in effing castles. sometimes we just long for a bungalow.” (the language might be offensive to some. but it is very very funny.)
anyway…we went to kusel castle…which is, of course, quite spectacular.

i had steak and pommes frites. which were delectable.

on the right is…um, i can’t remember the name. but it is a beer + sprite mix…which is actually much better than you’d expect. it’s named for bicycle riders…refreshing to drink in the summer without leading to intoxication and bike-falling-off-of.

and then…oh then…THEN i had the best dessert i think i’ve ever put in my face.

fresh, warm, crispy apfel strudel. omg. just…go to germany. eat some. as soon as you possibly can. the ticket over there is worth it.

then we went back and drank booze and watched eddie izzard. which is never a wasted evening.

the pictures from day 4 are a little more exciting and visually appealing. but not as mouthwatering.

shortly after taking the image on the left…i fell right on my butt…and missed landing in the stream by a matter of inches. i still had a nice snowy mud mixture on my bum for the rest of the day.

it was crazy foggy on top of the mountain which made everything seem quiet and sacred.

i saw a tiny little trail branching off the road and…decided to take it. the forest felt peaceful and serene…or like it SHOULD feel peaceful and serene…but the sound of jackhammers down the mountain a ways marred the experience a bit.

i call this “a picture of quiet”

after an evening outing to get a crepe (when in europe…), went for a walk in the snowy night.

don’t the snowflakes make this look like queen anne’s lace?

i arrived in geneva sunday morning…driving on the a1 toward the alp on top of which i would be staying…i felt exhilarating satisfaction. i highly recommend it…being somewhere halfway across the globe but self-sufficient and independent…the entire world at your fingertips. it’s one of the best things i’ve ever felt…(and i’m lucky to have felt it more than once!) (also…major props to europe…i don’t think you can even get an automatic rental. as opposed to the USA where you can’t get a manual if you ask for one.)

anyway, i arrived on top of the alp and said, “let’s drive to france!” so we did…my traveling companion said, “you know, if we do a 100km loop, we can stop in italy for dinner.” so we did. it was a 4 country day…(UK, switzerland, france, italy and back.)

a random bridge and river we encountered on our search for the motorway. signs in europe are not terribly intuitive…it took me awhile to figure them out…and hitting a new country (w/ different signs) every few hours on my drives certainly didn’t help. i spent a fair amount of time being lost. if i were going to do it again, i would DEFINITELY spring for the european maps for my GPS. on the plus side…i did see stuff i wouldn’t have seen on purpose. )

view of an alp from a tiny little french village…pulled off into a parking lot because the allure of this steeple proved to be too much for me.

another view i would not have experienced without misadventure. driving along we saw a cable car and decided spontaneously…let’s find it and go for a ride! (we did not find it…) we pulled over to take photos of the cable cars and the mountain which they climbed. my friend tapped on the window and advised me to turn around. my jaw literally dropped…if you look at the upper right corner, you can see a glimpse of what i think is mont blanc…which we later drove through on our way to italy. also…tolls in europe are a beyotch!

one of my favorite things about europe is that pretty much everyone drinks fizzy water instead of flat. they ask you, “with gas, or without?”

i’m pretty sure they weren’t actually open yet, but this delightful gentleman ushered us in and served us some delicious pizza…and smiled the whole way through our comedy of errors (think laurel & hardy) conversation wherein i was asking for crushed red pepper. i felt like it would be rude to ask him in spanish…so i tried english and hand gestures…until i finally asked in spanish…which totally worked. (but before it did…i was offered regular pepper, spicy oil, and my favorite…ketchup.)

i’m pretty sure this man’s name is luigi…what else could it be, right?

pizza oven!

i was pretty exhausted at this point…3 hrs sleep in the pre-security area of heathrow’s terminal 5 doesn’t go very far…but much more excited than i look about real italian gelato!

day 2 shall be coming soon!

Also, I highly recommend Zach as expedition-master. He does things most people wouldn’t…but it makes it a way, way good time. (For instance, during low tide in NS, the morning after the wedding, we were walking on the tidal flats…getting attacked by crabs, digging up oysters…the usual. He found a shrimp…and because he was “in character” as the crocodile hunter, he ate it. I believe his exact quote was, “The regret I feel from that decision is intense and ongoing.” or something like that. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Do not eat raw, unpeeled, living shrimp.

Some of these pictures are theirs nicked from facebook, so please forgive the aesthetically inferior formatting.

My foot being attacked by a crab. He was really going after me…unfortunately for him, those boots of Sarah’s were, like…kevlar or something. A wimpy little crab wasn’t going to make much of a dent.

Then we hopped a ferry to PEI. AWESOMETASTIC fact about PEI…you only have to pay to leave there. We took a car ferry…4 people + vehicle…for FREEEE! (It costs about $45 to drive back across the bridge to New Brunswick…but I liked our ferry + bridge circuit.)

(I was having a crazy good hair day. so flat. so not frizzy. Amazing.)

Stella was totally into the ferry.

There’s a winery on PEI that shares Sarah’s last name…so that was our first top. They had a friendly winery dog that was…seriously…the cutest dog I have ever seen in my life. Also, he won points because he TACKLED zach. SRSLY. Was a takedown. It was wicked awesome. (Unfortunately, I do not have photographic evidence.)

Stella totally agreed that he was super awesome.

Zach & Sarah convinced me to take a 24 hour hiatus from my no-sugar-October-plan because when in PEI…you MUST eat Cows.

in the corner…that’s gooey mooey. There’s some crazy high ratio of caramel to ice cream.

I’m going to need to go back sometime…I was racing to beat the clock so I could still eat my ice cream within my 24 hour time limit…so, I was eating that ice cream at about 10:30 in the morning…TOO EARLY. (I KNOW! I wouldn’t have thought that was possible either.) I…I can’t believe this is even true, but…I didn’t even finish my ice cream! I threw more than half of it away!

Then it was time to head to Green Gables!

Anne’s room. It’s not at all how I pictured it!

After that we had to indulge Zach’s manly expeditionary heart…headed over to the coast for some adventuring.

Zach running down the sand dunes near Cavendish.

me preparing to run down the dunes near Cavendish.

me being awesome-but out of focus-after running the dunes.

me running out on a cliff near Cavendish. All the roads/dirt on PEI are this red color. It’s kind of awesome. Especially when it turns the ocean that color. Surreal to wake up to! O NOES! It’s a plague! Oh. Wait. JUST KIDDING.

and then we stopped in the middle of the road because a fox wanted to come say hello. (That shadow is the shadow of our car.)

This post is already out of control, so I’ll stop here, but stay tuned for the portraits of the super cute Zach+Sarah+Stella family!

*guilt, guilt, guilt*

a lot has happened this month.  i had tomme hilton and january newbanks fly in to shoot weddings with me…and oh, monday was my birthday.  my best friend came up (with her baby and almost-3-year-old-who-likes-to-sleep-in-boxes-when-she-visits)

she gave me the most beautiful fascinator for my birthday.  (please excuse the mobile upload picture.)

(brides looking for something special for your wedding day hair-do…check out that link.  lo boheme’s etsy store has some GORGEOUS bridal fascinators.  i covet…most of them.)

today i had a shoot on a garlic farm!  the wonderful allison and jon gave me some of their (very own, handmade) garlic powder and some of the largest non-elephant garlic you’ll ever see.  (pictured behind the garlic are some of the apples i picked for my day-after-my-birthday traditional apple-picking outing.  if you live in the northeast and have never tried macouns…hurry up and rectify that!  best apples EVAR.)

and, for allison, my loyal blog-reader and guilt-inducer…here are a couple teasers from today!

if not, you should probably watch it. 100 times. and laugh every single one of them.

anyway, the last few weeks were a whirlwind in gwynland. (funny story: i used to know a girl named gwen land. ok, not that funny, but…mildly interesting.) my sister came up to visit from mississippi (does anyone else go m-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i in their head when they type that word?) with my nephew. we hung out in nh, and i took her to all the delightful restaurants we’ve got. (the culinary offerings in columbus, ms…well…SUCK.) then we headed to upstate ny to see the parental units. my mom’s cat just had kittens, and while i am a sucky aunt and took no pictures of neffypoo (in my defense…he’s got separation anxiety, contracted a cold on the plane, and was away from home and routine. he was delightful once you take all those factors into consideration), i am a good…um…kitten aunt? (if it’s my mom’s cat, that would make it my feline sister, yes? so her babies would be my kitten nieces and nephews? right? i mean, assuming i want to have some sort of slightly creepy familial relationship with them. which i don’t. because that’s weird. totally.)

enough parenthetical expressions. KITTENS!

i think the one on the far right is the cutest.

i won’t tell you what my parents named this one. it’s funny, and not offensive, but TOTALLY not politically correct.

this one’s the runt…and it’s also the most fearless and friendly. it will explore anything…in a bumbling 5-week-old-kitten sort of way. dad named it inspector clouseau, natch.

i kind of can’t stand looking at this picture. it’s unbearable. as my friend becky would say, “sugar headache of cuteness.” i suggest pairing it with an insulin shot.

the poor mama cat lost her ruff, and now she looks RIDICULOUS. all pin-headed and, um, voluptuous? curvy? everywhere else.

i also tag-teamed an engagement session with tammy last week. i’m going to try to get a few of those up here, soon, because it was fun times!

i didn’t even bring my camera, but i did email their photographer to ask for a couple of the funny dancing shots…my date was TOTALLY cute

becky and i are totally amused that we unwittingly made the same face/did the same thing…(also, yes, she DID just have that 5 month old baby in the picture.  and yes.  i DO sometimes hate her.  and yes, it does pain me to put a picture of myself next to her.  there…are you happy you dragged all that out of me?  i need a counseling session now.)

anyway.

i got najib from the breeder’s a couple weeks ago…he’s settling in quite fine (except for running under my feet and getting stepped on every now and again.)

i also just got a new lens in the mail, so…here you go:

on day 18, my friend jeremy from college was going to be in town for a day (which was confirmed, oh, the day before…so i was scrambling to find a car!), so i picked him up fron the airport, and showed him a few of my favourite sites in my neighbourhood.  after, of course, we went back to my flat so he could nap on the couch.  those trans-pacific flights are pretty wretched.  however, it was raining, so we didn’t feel bad crashing (why do flights have to get in at 7am?).  AND…by the time sleeping beauty had awoken, the rain had stopped, and we had nothing but blue skies.

first stop was, of course, kebab stop…then we walked up mt eden.  auckland was built on auckland volcanic field…so, there are about a bajillion extinct volcanoes dotting the city.  they’re referred to as “domains”, which is essentially city/government property set aside to be a park in the city.  these parks are kind of hilarious, because they are frequently home to livestock.
yes, that is a cow, and that is the central business district skyline, a scant 2.5 kilometers away (about 1.5 miles)  (i had my camera set on taking black and white jpegs, which disappointed me when i got home, because this was way cooler in colour.)

it was incredibly windy up there that day!
i told jeremy this was going to be his cd cover…but, uh, he’s not really a musician. so.
after dinner we headed over to mission bay for overpriced swiss ice cream. mmmmm. we stopped and climbed up bastion point first…it’s got amazing views of the city and of rangitoto, and there’s a bunch of old bunkers up there that are fun to explore. it was getting ready to storm and in fact rained on us a bit when we were up there, but the colours were freaking incredible.

then, um…day 26 or so…i went w/ my former flatmate andy and his relatively new wife beks up to long bay.  it isn’t a particularly exciting beach, but it was a hot day, and we were all feeling fairly lethargic, so an outing of any kind was a victory, really.  it was nice to float around in the coolish water and relax.  i left my camera in the car (better in a locked “boot” than unattended w/ a beach towel, right?), so these are photos from the car ride home.

victoria park market was one of the VERY FIRST places someone took me my FIRST time in nz…way back in 2001. (gosh, nearly 8 years ago! crikey! (and yes…i say crikey when i’m here. and knackered and munted and aye and all sorts of other funny words.)) i liked the way the angle of the road positioned it in relation to the sky tower…basically the symbol of the auckland skyline.

that’s it for this post…next up will be my trip to the south island!

*seamstress services
*furniture (i’d be picky, though!)
*frequent flier miles!  (always.)
*beauty regime stuff (uh…haircuts/eyebrows/highlighting…etc.)
the way i do this is…i know the monetary value of my services/time…you figure out the monetary value of your product/service, and we swap.
NB:  please don’t suggest this to me if it is not your trade.  for instance, “i used a highlight cap once on my friend!” doesn’t count as being a qualified hairdresser.    (though i’m sure your friend’s hair turned out nicely, and she was lucky to have you do it.)
and, because i am a photographer and this is my blog…here is a random photo from when i was in florida last october.

all of these images were taken within a 3-5 minute walk from my front door.

(i’m sorry, i know you can’t see the whole thing w/o scrolling…i don’t normally do that, but i had 9 images, so it made a perfect grid.)

there’s a park 2 houses down from me…i think auckland city’s branding/design is pretty nice. it’s very consistent, too…yes. i know. i am a dork for noticing that and thinking it’s worth commenting on.

i took the first image on my way out…the leaves were backlit and magical looking…when i got home, i realised i’d taken a very similar shot on the way back in with the sun lighting the leaves from the other direction.
it took a lot of patience to make friends with this cat, but it finally came close enough to let me pet it. i miss kitties. i think i’m headed down the road to becoming a crazy cat lady. o noes!

when i was almost back to my house, i turned and took these two photos of the sundrenched pathway. it looks sort of serene and magical, right?

today is day 9, and, um…i’ve barely done anything. but hey, i blogged, so…that’s something, right? now i need to go buy ice cream. it’s one of my korean flatmate’s birthday, and he and his wife have been cooking for almost 2 days. they keep saying, “you don’t need to bring anything!” but they’ve made about 40 dishes. i think i’d better.

i have tried half the kebab places in auckland, i think (not THIS trip), and kebab stop on mt eden road is the best. well, that i’ve found. i’ve had 2 since i got here. (it’s a 30 minute walk up the hill and back down…TOTALLY WORTH IT.)

so, here is how you eat a kebab.

1. go to kebab stop (corner of mt eden road and valley road)

2. they will give you a foil wrapped kebab in a little paper sack (and a napkin). a-like so:

3. i prefer to leave it in foil (this is also the best method for eating burritos. incidentally…every guy i’ve ever eaten a burrito with whips the wrapping right off and is then left with a pile of filling and soggy tortilla for the last several bites. every girl i’ve ever eaten a burrito with leaves the wrapper on for more strategic and cleaner consumption. what do you do?) and therefore just rip the top part of the foil off and continue ripping strips off as i go.

4. eat. (this is kebab eating as modeled by reuben, the flatmate who drove the incredible exploding car.)

i’ve only seen something similar to this once or twice in america, compared to here where kebab places are as plentiful as fried chicken stands in mississippi.