beautiful snug new shoes, woollen socks, and warm dry feet make me VERY VERY HAPPY!

a sunday afternoon date date x

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon together on a slightly rambling drive out to Plimmerton. While we were there I discovered that I love Plimmerton and we both love pizza. I especially love pizza at The Big Salami corner pizzeria. It says it serves " the best pizza in the world!' and I have to agree. Even the garlic bread was a bit special, all cruchy on the outside and deliciously buttery on the inside.
It was amazing.

The Big Meat pizza and garlic bread.

i got a love that keeps me waiting

i've never really hoped for time to pass quickly, not like this anyway. i know i'm going to have a whole lot of nights when i cry myself to sleep and i'm not looking forward to it. i'm so proud of him and i know that even though this is hard, it will be good. so good, later. but right now i just want it to be november. and i want a hug. it's almost the end of day one and oh god how i can't wait for it to finish.

found

found here

words of wisdom

it will all be okay.

strange exotic strangeness

earlier in the year a good friend of mine went on holiday to Bali and came back with two little parcels of coffee for me. one was organic coffee and the other had a few spices mixed in. after only a very little while i came to the conclusion that Balinese coffee is rather strange. it sort of doesn't quite mix together with water and the fine grounds form a thick mud in the bottom of your cup, if your not vigilant this can be accidentally consumed too. Even more strangely... I became very fond of it's unusual flavor. I was just brewing local Peoples coffee in the plunger (and i love Peoples coffee because it is super delicious) but i still felt a bit sad and missed my strange spicy coffee.

a VERY wet winter in wellington

It has been a VERY wet winter in wellington. I live in a small cave in the hills of Mount Cook and have recently found out that the rain has been flooding my bedroom for quite sometime. I wish I felt the same way about having the rain in my bedroom as Mr. Jeremy feels about the pond in his larder, but unfortunately i do not and neither does my bronchitis. Still... there's nothing like a little inspiration.

"Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher; he lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of the pond. The water was all slippy-sloppy in the larder and in the back passage. But Mr. Jeremy liked getting his feet wet; nobody ever scolded him, and he never caught a cold!"

from The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter

found

words for today. and the rest of my life. found here.

a little beauty from a weekend away

inspiration. there are no words to describe this.

i flew to auckland on thursday afternoon to go to this. there were many wonderful moments. at the end of the first day everyone in the audience made a paper plane and sent them flying all at once.

i found the rustling of two thousand pieces of colour paper being folded so beautiful.

the nature of wind

on getting an education

sometimes i learn the hard way. this can be VERY hard sometimes but at least i'm learning. tonight i'm taking advice from my father. advice that i've heard more than a few times now. to dust myself off (with or without your dignity intact, either will do just fine) and to get back on the bike (he's got a good story about his motorcycle that always accompanied this and today i do miss it).

patience is a virtue

"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Her Secret is Patience, 2009 by Janet Echelman. found here.

this is how i feel about the wind

Flight is the essence of the spirit.

It nurtures the soul.

It is awesome. Often ethereal. Glorious.

Emotionally wonderous and all-pervading. Intangible.

Louise Thaden


found in The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950 by Robert Wohl

no greater thrill

 

found here

ruff day?

“I actually attack the concept of happiness. I don’t mind people being happy - but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying 'write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep', and 'cheer up' and 'happiness is our birthright' and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position - it’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say 'Quick! Move on! Cheer up!' I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word 'happiness' and to replace it with the word 'wholeness'. Ask yourself 'is this contributing to my wholeness?' and if you’re having a bad day, it is.” 

Hugh Mackay, psychologist and social researcher

text found here

home is whenever i'm with you

there's a band practicing this upstairs in the tea gardens. i caught a few notes of it walking by and it makes me want to go run around in a field for the rest of the afternoon.

home for the weekend

i didn't go home for almost a year after the earthquake.

i guess i didn't want to see my city until i felt there was more hope. i think it's a bit like seeing someone you love really unwell, somehow it destroys your memory of them.... i didn't want to see christchurch because i didn't want my memories to change. 

what i loved about my time back home was that all the things i love most about christchurch are still there. and yes these things are different from how i remember, but somehow it's all still the same.

 the shipping crate shops on cashel street

some streets in the central city are still blocked off

i caught the ferry across from diamond harbour to lyttelton 

 i love you lyttelton coffee co.

this is the site where the building i once worked in stood.

there's a lot of love and hope in lyttelton. there are also heaps of cool people with great ideas.

so i can't wait to see it in a year from now.

by train, again

on friday james and i caught the ferry to picton, expored the picton aquarium, and in the afternoon we took the train down to kaikora. we spent a few wonderful days with my good friend, Mariann, and her family. while we where away we went diving for crayfish and paua, collected cockles for dinner, ate iceceam, learnt some excellect new card games and a lot of chips, played on slides and swings, fed the chickens, and ran around being monsters.

sleeping in the little blue caravan

He was part of my dream, of course - but then I was part of his dream, too.

from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll