Kiwifruit

Well, my second stint as a wedding photographer went off without a hitch this time; mostly due to me a) buying a third battery and b) checking and double-checking and TRIPLE-checking that all three batteries were fully charged. Sorted!

But what really made the photos was how beautiful and serene Karen was, how handsome and happy Rob the groom was, how fabulously photogenic their wedding car was (a 1958 Chevy Bel Air in a gorgeous shade of turquoise blue) and how perfect the setting for their wedding party photos was – an abandoned quarry that had been reclaimed and planted out in wonderful and weird plants, flowers and trees.

After the photos were over and done with two hours later, I joined the other guests (including a fairly merry Other Harf, and my friends Ethel and Harold whose wedding I photographed in February) for a delicious buffet dinner, lots of bubbly and dancing the night away to the B52′s, The Waterboys and ABBA in my new heels and wearing several friction-holes in the soles of my feet in the process. It was a great wedding and a great reception…

And 536 photos later I have the proof.

I love how a little snowflake appears on my dashboard when the temperature gets below 3°C. And bloody hell, it should not be this cold in the “winterless North” in May!

Five Things I’m Liking Right Now

• Sex and the City reruns on The Comedy Channel – Carrie’s just met Aidan, so the big showdown when Carrie gets sprung in Big’s flat by Natasha isn’t far off! *rubs hands in glee*
• My new long black boots – they’ve got big stretchy gussets down the sides so I can actually zip them all the way up = result!
• Merino wool – be it in jumpers, cardigans or vests, it’s just brilliant at keeping your cockles toasty.
• Fires - now we’ve got both the Kent fire (which was chock-full of starlings’ nests) and the lounge fireplace swept, those logs are burning brightly at both ends of the house at last, Ooooh, I do love a good fire…
• Old Friends on Facebook – finally, after a lot of pestering my lovely long-lost UK friends Jo and Sandra joined up, and this morning I was able to watch a video clip of Sandra’s kids sliding down a snowy hill in Surrey and hear their voices for the very first time. Me loves techanolligy!

Five Things I’m Not So Keen on Right Now

• The “Tut/Roll-eyes/I knoooow, Mummy” Combo – as sported by Miss 8.8 when asked or advised to do anything at the moment. Grrrrr!
• Getting out of bed at 6.30am when it’s cold  - just one teensy, tiny more minute? Please?
• Long-lost friends in the UK – it’s great that they’re on Facebook, but I’m really, really missing them in person at the moment.
• Mud  - mud (and cow shite) on my car, mud on my shoes, mud on my new boots, boo-hoo!
• Cold Case - this show used to be in my top five to watch list, but lately I’m very hum-diddly-ho about it. Next!

What’s on your Thursday Stocktake list?

Holy moley, life seems to be being played at fast-forward at the moment – especially the weekends. This past weekend was just packed full of stuff I didn’t really want to do, such as the weekly grocery shopping, which I was landed with due to a random and essential trip to the library that I suddenly had to make at 11.30 on Saturday morning due me discovering at 11.15 that for the past week I’d been studying the wrong poet for the essay due on Monday – *facesmack*!!

Then there was Sunday – hideous, ten hours devoted to a 1600-word essay on the poems of all-new poet, Victorian priest and terminal bore Gerard Manley Hopkins and I won’t give you a hyperlink as I know there’s no way you’d be interested on what Wikipedia has to say on the man, as lord knows I found it hard enough.

Come Monday morning I still had an essay induced pair of square eyes and a Quasimodo hunch, which an eight hour day at work only contributed to.

Then there’s four more days of work, plus Brownie pick-up, Netball practice, dog-walking, swimming lessons, blah-blah-blah.

This coming weekend it’s Wedding Weekend and the weekend after that Lil’Sis is treating us to a “mystery” weekend away to thank us for putting up with her and the mob for the past eighteen months (counting down the days till they move out now!). Now, this sounds wonderful, but you know?

All I can really dream about is a very long, sweet, delicious lie-in in bed, with a cup of tea and a really good book in a quiet house, with the rain pouring down outside – no work, no essay, no garden, nothing to do but relaaaaaaxxxxx…..

 More of the bathing beauty bird here…

Why is it when you see the most stunning of photo opportunities it always seems to be at the wrong time or in the wrong place?

The early morning sun shooting gilded slices of light through a stand of misted trees when you’re more than a little bit late for work.

Autumn leaves in shades of scarlet and mustard and ruby and deepest gold decorating the trees on that busy stretch of State Highway One where, if you stopped, you’d take your life into your own hands even getting out of the car.

Or driving to work in the torrential rain and coming across the most crystal-clear rainbow, with every hue in sharpest focus, arching over an emerald green hill and into a lone macrocapra tree, cloaking it in dancing, shimmering technicolour?

I could stop for a minute and snap these moments on my mobile phone camera, but I know I wouldn’t be able to capture them.

Yep, what I really need is all the time in the world and to have my “proper” camera with me everywhere I go.

Please tell me how this is possible?

Damp. Dark. Cold. Hail on the beach and tornadoes ripping through small country towns. And it’s only May, people! There’s still leaves on the trees! The daffodils and the jonquils aren’t even peeking through! What the hell?

It’s been raining every Saturday for the past three weeks, and I’m desperately hoping that this cold, consistent rain gives up the ghost come next Saturday in particular as there’s two important events on that day: my cousin’s wedding down in Auckland and Kay and Richard’s wedding up here in Whangarei.

I’m gutted that I’m not going to the first wedding – not only do I miss out on seeing my cuzzie Tony tie the knot, I also miss out on seeing my cuzzie Stu, recently back in New Zealand after ten years in England, freshly divorced and (apparently) accompanied by his new girlfriend who is according to sources is a very nice girl even though she is a little bit older than he is.

As for Kay and Richard’s wedding, I’m on Official Photographer duty again, and this time, before I leave home I’ll be double-checking no triple-checking no quadruple-checking my camera batteries are fully charged. I might even get myself a third battery, just to be extra, extra sure.

Now, if only I could stop the rain, even for half an hour, around 3pm, on the 23rd of May?

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwifruitfi/3517069191/” title=”Mum and me by Fi@PhotograFi, on Flickr” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3517069191_29748d35b5.jpg” width=”320″ height=”400″ alt=”Mum and me”/></a>

Well, it’s been a bit of a funny old week. Let’s just say all is not well in my new job, and I won’t elaborate further. But I will say that I am not happy. At all.

And that is all I’m going to say about that.

So today I thought I would have my run-of-the-mill, routine, guaranteed to de-stress Saturday.

A bit of a lie-in with a new magazine or two, a cup of tea, some scrambled eggs on toast, some extensive weeding in the gardening, some pondering of the view on the verandah at lunchtime accompanied by the latest round of rural newspapers that our bonkers, I own-the-road postie delivers (“Country-Wide”, “Rural News”, “Straight Farrow”, “Farmers Weekly”), more weeding, more weeding, a bit more pondering (this time, sitting against one of the big old macrocapra trees that serves as a windblock to our house), more weeding, then a nice long hot shower and a sesh on the PC for a couple of hours (scanning in a collection of autumn leaves I collected during this afternoon’s pondering, a Facebook quiz or two) and now, dinner: salad, herbed roasted potatoes, pan-fried rump steak and Tegel’s finest chicken sausages.

I’m feeling better already.

In lieu of a deep and meaningful post (one of which I have slowly brewing) here’s a Humpday Meme instead. Yep, yep, yep.

What are your current obsessions?

Tracking down an internet provider that will deliver decent rural service! Enough of the hamster-speed when I’m paying for broadband!

Perusing colour charts for our upcoming bathroom renovation. It’s been over two years since we tackled a room and this one (currently painted in a shade of “antique rose” with highlights of “speckled mould” and sporting a beige plastic heated towel rail that doesn’t heat) is well overdue for a makeover.

Searching Whangarei Library’s stock of photography books for old ads for anything to do with photography so I can stealscan them.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?

I’ve got a pale blue hooded sweatshirt from Gap that I bought about twelve years ago that I wear to death. In fact, it’s probably moulded into my shape by now and wouldn’t fit anyone else.

What’s for dinner?

Last night’s dinner was Chicken Cacciatore with rice, courtesy of Lil’Sis. I am so going to miss having our dinner cooked for us when we get home from work.

Last thing you bought?

A large flat white coffee and a savoury muffin from the café down the road from work. Delish!

What are you listening to?

The radio’s playing Feel by Robbie Williams.

If you were a god/goddess who would you be?

The female version of Bacchus? Bac-chic?

Say something to the person who tagged you:

Jo, I am incredibly envious of your trip to lovely Spain! Sangria, paella, sunshine, aaahhhhh….

Favourite holiday spots?

Devon, England (clotted cream, skittles, ferret racing), Rarotonga (snorkeling in crystal blue seas, cocktails and hibiscus) and Waihi Beach, NZ (boogie-boarding, fish ‘n chips, boysenberry icecream, sand in your togs)

Reading right now?

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. It’s about a 30 year-old New York lawyer who has an affair with her best friend’s fiancé. Funnily enough, I ended up liking her character despite this.

Four words to describe yourself.

Introspective, generous, impulsive, easygoing.

Guilty pleasure?

Movenpick Chocolate Icecream and Kikorangi Creamy Blue Vein Cheese. 

Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?

Something About Mary and Creature Comforts (Nick Park, the creator of Wallace & Gromit, uses the Great British Public’s voices under the guise of plasticine pigs, pigeons, dogs and frogs to pontificate on the world and everything – brilliant), Oh, and Kev. Miss him, miss him lots…

First spring autumn thing?

An open fire roaring in our lounge. Simply the best thing about autumn and winter.

Planning to travel to next?

The Gold Coast, Queensland or Nelson, NZ.

Best thing you ate or drank lately?

Barbecued chicken marinated in dark plum sauce at L & S’s place on Saturday night.

Flower of the moment?

Canna lilies. Round our way they are absolutely the quintessential ground cover for large patches of recently cleared bits of garden that you can’t be bothered weeding.

Favourite ever film?

Like Jo, it has to be The Shawshank Redemption. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is definitely right up there too. Oh, and I have a nostalgic soft spot for Four Weddings and a Funeral

Care to share some wisdom?

The most happy, balanced people you will come across have retained the right amount of child and taken on the right amount of grown-up.

Ok, so who should I scream “tag you’re it” at?

Feel free to pinch!