visitor

I've made a new friend...

This lovely gentleman (or lady, not really sure yet) has been spending the afternoon relaxing on my porch. These pictures really don't do justice to how fat this guy really is - he's very close to bowling ball size. And he's got a really short tail as well. what a cutie :)

otherwise it's been a pretty uneventful week, i've only really started registering a world beyond my private misery from Thursday onwards, when I started recovering from the cold...

the girls had a pretty good night last night, we were at gid & min's watching mamma mia (singalong version) and we

were all bawling the songs at the top of our lungs while digesting the lovely feed that minette's prepared.

i also tried to

transfer a photocopy

onto a little test canvas using turpintine & soup with absolutely zero success. my next try will be with the contact paper method - you basically stick a photocopy face down onto some contact paper (desifix, ma) leave it for a while and then soak it in water and rub of the paper, hopefully leaving you with the plastic with transferred image which you stick onto any surface you want. hopefully the pictures of finished product will make it up here.

finally, we've had a huge news event this past week, which managed to muscle out the other current events of people protesting the eskimo lollie name and the guy that killed a policeman & killed himself two days later: Westpac made a little clerical error & gave an overdraft of 10 million to a guy that asked for 10 000. Said person disappeared with ze money, with pretty much the whole of new zealand cheering him on... Westpac has since recovered & blocked & otherwise retrieved about 7 million and will probably eventually track down the poor bloke, which faces civil & criminal action, but will surely also be hit with the interest charged on a 10 mil overdraft. hopefully the movie rights & interview fees that he gets from this will cover the expenses!

just had to share this...

hey guys - today on the way home i was chatting to my next door neighbour about their dog barking two nights back. Now I woke up about 3am in the morning with the little thing yapping away, but apparently someone actually phoned animal control & they actually sent somebody out! Can you believe that there are people whose job it is to go out at night to talk to people whose dogs are barking? this was for a first time offense as well - their dog usually sleeps in the house at night. You can apparently get a $300 fine if you dog barks at night. that is strict as!

new painted walls....

before I get started on the amazing paint job that happened last weekend - check out my brekkie that I made this morning! Eating like a king here :) like a big fat king... Celebrating the pan that Minette bought me, but i think i might just make this a Saturday tradition...



So below is the newly painted wonder that is my flat at the moment, you like?? it's a big improvement on the holes & bland creamy color it was before, that's for sure.





At the moment I'm a bit under the weather, these pictures were taken after i've thrown away a ton of used tissues - yep, got a cold. Lucky I got the painting done last week, this weekend I can hardly bring myself to rearange the fridge.

I've been drinking ginger wine & lemsip so at the moment i'm not sure if i'm drunk or feverish.

hey did you know that crowded house was New Zealand, not Aussie? i've been dying in front of the tv today & they had a Crowded House music video marathon on, followed by Green Day. not bad.

whangarei falls & A H Reed Memorial Park.

well, i've spent most of this weekend painting the flat & will wow you with the results fairly soon, just need to finish up & tidy the place up, it's looking pretty grim at the moment. I thought I'd just chuck some pictures of some of the nature stuff I've been doing so far - not a lot, I know.

this is in A H Reed Memorial Park - I'll be going back there soon... This bush is a magnificent remnant of the original Kauri Forests which were once extensive throughout Northland. The park features a canopy walkway giving a birds eye view of the forest, including two 500 year old Kauri trees. I've actually taken a picture with one of the Kauri trees - it's huge! Unfortunately I'm also on it, and and I also look huge, so it will never be seen.
the pretty girl modelling the canopy walkway is a friend of Gid & Min's that came to visit.

this is at whangarei falls - you can actually walk from A H Reed to the falls if you wanted to, it's about 35 min's walk. I've not done that yet, but I'm planning on it! And yes, that's me, wearing the latest in cascading water & greenery.

It's really very green & pretty here, there is green stuff growing everywhere, including in my flat :) I always think that if the doctors from House break into my house to see what's caused my mysterious illness, they'd probably find more than enough spores en mould that could have done it...

My place

I decided to go back to doing this in English for the unfortunate souls that doesn't speak afrikaans. You know who you are...

So here we go - this is the place I'm renting at the moment: I'm in the back of another houses' yard, with my own little car port & everything. I like the geraniums & also the jasmine hedge, that's gonna be so cool in spring!

I live in a nice enough area, pretty quiet but also fairly close to mid town.

this is my own little porch - unsightly dangling ropes since removed. I've planted some sweet peas in a pot, and it looks like they've managed to actually sprout! Hopefully I'll be able to show a picture in a few weeks to show the splendour that is my porch with sweet peas growing rampant :)

The plan is to introduce some fairy lights at some stage, since I don't have a light on this side of the house & of course they're sparkly goodness.

All SA people - note the red bin - that's where we put our recyclable trash & it gets taken in separately on a weekly basis. You have to buy specific trash bags as well, otherwise you come home to your trash bags nicely decorated with stickers saying they're not taking it.

Apologies for the rest of the pics, I'm still not too sure on how the bloody picture posting thing works. It looks like I can't move them around once I've uploaded them, and now I'm too lazy to upload them again. So below is my sitting room, furnished by the nice people of my friends' congregation. I have to say I've met the nicest people here, they really go out of their way to help you. Curtains was here when I moved in, I'm not sure if I like them or not. Still working on the color scheme as well. As we speak I've been filling in holes on the wall & am planning to paint them a tan/light mushroomy sort of color.
Next is the bedroom - also nice enough, very light. Sadly lacking in bedside tables for the bed, but the plan is to get those sorted at some stage in the future. Will also be part of the painting fest & I am definitely sure I don't like these curtains :)

lastly, the kitchen with the door to the bathroom opposite the stove. If you strain your eyes you'll see my funky turquoise kettle, which has a little turquoise toaster friend in the cupboard, also provided by the kind people of Trinity. I still need to get a bin, hence the stylish trash bag bottom right. I've been a bit depressed to see that the size I buy gets described as pensioner size.
I've decided not to take pictures of my bathroom, a girls gotta have some secrets! I have a miniature shower with a very low water pressure, kind of a jumping around to catch the stream situation in the mornings...

On the whole, I'm quite happy with the place & can see myself staying here for quite some time... Hopefully it works out that way :)