| by Bel | 2.14pm NZ time |

Hotel room in Auckland. The sign was on some kind of enormous free-standing air conditioning unit hogging up a corner of the room. I was too scared to look at it, let alone do anything with the air intake.

Conference venue in Auckland.

Business card of taxi driver in Auckland.

(It says "Historian, Writer, Gourmet, Cook, Wine Connoisseur, Raconteur and Experienced Traveler at You Service". It does not mention that he is a taxi driver.)

And this, from Ashburton in Canterbury. We saw this woman drive in and "park" her car and I nearly fell over on the footpath laughing.

| Posted by Lou | The time is 4.30pm here in London UK |

I just had a flick through last year's blogging endeavours "30 Days of Me" and "30 Days Till 30" and thought it might be time for some updates:

The camera, aka my Diana F+

It seems I never posted any pics from my attempts at getting the hang of the Diana F+. I took two rolls of film - one of the trip I did around the time of my 30th, and the other at my birthday party. Some of the photos were pretty okay, some were middling, and others were pretty shite. But I learned some important lessons:

1) ALWAYS check the settings before taking a photo. (I accidentally took several day pics on the night setting and thus blew them out entirely.)

2) For nighttime/ indoor shots the camera must be perfectly still.

Basic things, but ones that needed to be demonstrated before being really driven into my head. I have another film from my recent trip that just needs finished off before developing that I'm hoping will have corrected a lot of my mistakes.

I shall intersperse some pics throughout this post to give you sampling of what came out.

This is one that blew out due to my forgetting to customise the settings. I do like it though - it is of a crane at the Grand Canyon that was involved in the guano mining business, and for me the blow out just enhances the surrealism I felt the place, machinery, and story of guano mining held.

My hobby, aka learning to play the ukulele

I finally got my ukulele tuned properly, and suddenly it all started to come together - I genuinely feel like I might be getting the swing of it. But also I now know that I will never be a great player... as much as I love music and have an affinity for it, I lack the natural musical talent that enables people to just fire away and create lovely sounds. (One suspects this when they find themself unable to tune the strings correctly.)

This doesn't bother me too much though - I can read music so just need to commit chords and notes to memory then buy myself a song book.

This is an attempt at capturing motion with a long exposure. I think that aspect is okay (I was a bit drunk and highly amused by how huge Cara's cocktail was so came up with this cheers idea on the spur of the moment - all things considered it is a decent result), but I'm not happy with the framing and background.

Au naturale, aka decreasing use of commercial cleaning products

As I sit here gazing around at my filthy, filthy floors I can testify that I am certainly sticking to my oath not to slather my floors in bleach and chemicals. Unfortunately my vinegar bottle is unopenable (in fact, in Glasgow there is a friend receiving physio for an injury sustained trying to open it for me...), so I haven't cleaned them with a natural product either. (I say unfortunately, but really it's fortunate to have the excuse.)

The other day I realised that my skin had become wintry again, and so without vodka improvised a natural yoghurt & whiskey face mask which worked just as good, if not better, than the vodka version. I own a grand total of zero commercial washes (for face or body), currently making do with handmade green tea and manuka honey soaps.

My recycling and rubbish volumes have increased due to being at home more often, but I figure that this is good as it's better than the large volume of waste associated with workplace eating. (Oh the guilt of nipping out to buy a sandwich that is all packaged up in a plastic container.)

This is one of the shots that turned out best in terms of colour and clarity. I took it with the lomo because, again, I felt it was a somewhat surrealist location (Joshua Trees in the desert). I wish I'd also tried doing one with the flash on and a dark coloured gel over it to try and add a colour splash to the mix.

New habits, aka doing more exercise

This is something I am constantly nagging myself about - I still find it so difficult to feel motivated to do anything more than walking. But! With so much spare time at my disposal I've been sticking to a reasonable level of activity. And I learned whilst in New Zealand that Wii Fit is something I would enjoy doing, so I think I'll try and find a more appropriate flat (ie one that doesn't have a thin squeaky floor) in July and set myself up to do that. In the meantime it's power walking and pilates.

This is my fave from the indoor shots - it definitely came out best in terms of framing and composition (I would love to say that the bird wall in the background was thought through, but it is mostly fluke), and the blur works with Martin's hilarious facial expression. (He was being Strawberry Fields.) A lot of the party pics are a lot more blurred, and didn't quite hit the mark with the framing - though I'm yet to figure out how to gain a higher level of accuracy so this might always be a hit and miss endeavour.

| Posted by Bel | The time is the morning here in Wellington NZ |


Thursday 27 January 2011 at 09.40

I got this mug for Secret Santa last year at my old work.


Friday 28 January 2011 at 08.29

I took this photo for Heather.


Saturday 29 January 2011

I had just got my eyebrows threaded for the first time.


Sunday 30 January 2011

This is not the morning. DECEITFUL LIES AND BETRAYAL.


Monday 31 January 2011 at 08.39

I look like a pinhead. I often feel like a pinhead.


Tuesday 1 February 2011 at 08.38

That's my swipe card. This is the first job where I've had a swipe card.


Wednesday 2 February 2011 at 08.17

Muffin from Clark's. It had huge chunks of feta in it. HUGE.


Thursday 3 February 2011 at 09.20

Huh? What? Sparkly nail polish, who me?


Friday 4 February 2011 at 08.59

Trying to show off my Peruvian glass bead bracelet.


Saturday 5 February

That headband stayed in my hair for about 2 seconds longer and then it kept creeping back and falling off which ANNOYED me greatly.


Sunday 6 February

I look like this pretty much 89% of the weekend.


Monday 7 February at 09.14

My hair goes sideways as much as it goes downwards and that's the way I like it.


Tuesday 8 February at 09.10

Goodness. How terrifying.


Wednesday 9 February at 08.17

Been in the job a month, so thought I would start busting out the oversize earrings and ridiculous headscarves. I really should have waited until after 90 days, huh.


Thursday 10 February

Team away day. For some reason this evoked a canine baring pose.


Friday 11 February at 07.57

Yellow nail polish (horrid, gluey stuff which I binned immediately after battling on the last coat) and new ring from Lou.


Saturday 12 February at 10.36

At Lou's sister's place.


Sunday 13 February at 08.51

In Martinborough! Just woke up and fresh as a daisy. That has been stood on by a cowpat-encrusted gumboot.


Monday 14 February at 08.22

Trying to show off my beloved necklace. I of course managed to cut off half of it.


Tuesday 15 February at 08.10

Bahahahahaaa passport photo!


Wednesday 16 February at 09.13

Yes, my hair is now long enough for a side plait. Wow.


Thursday 17 February at 08.21

These earrings were a 'farewell present' from colleagues at a job where I was made redundant. I didn't wear them for years because of the negative connotations. I'm glad I did keep them!


Friday 18 February at 08.56

I got three different unsolicited compliments on my hair this day. Go figure.


Saturday 19 February

Freshly touched up hair.


Sunday 20 February

Is this the only one where I am smiling with my teeth? Do I secretly hate my teeth? Weird.


Monday 21 February at 08.27

I almost always now pair this dress with a red cardigan. Here your retinas have been spared.


Tuesday 22 February at 08.26

WGTN printing press necklace. Chickenwire shirt.


Wednesday 23 February at 10.31

Uh. Yeah. Hi.


Thursday 24 February at 08.13

Leopard print does this to me.


Friday 25 February at 09.00

Pretty but scared?

Posted by Bel. The time is 9.15am here in Wellington NZ

Et voila, here is the photographic evidence, as requested!


Before:

Unfortunate lighting makes it look as if my hair was two-tone, or a botched home dye job or something, WHICH IT WAS NOT sheesh.

I usually dye my hair myself with ammonia-free organic based dyes, which you can get from health food stores. The amazing thing about these is that a) they don't stink to high hell and b) they don't burn the crap out of your scalp. This actually makes it a bit hard to tell if they are even dying your hair! But the product is lovely and they fade out very naturally, rather than a harsh regrowth line.


Way before:

(Hehehehehehee)

After:

JOKES!!

After: (Fo reals)

I call this "Messy Bun, After the Rain (August, 2010)".

This one evokes all the horror and versimilitude of a passport photo. Fun.

Close up shot. As if we were standing awkwardly on a bus together.

I got my hair did by Dom at Wildilocks on Cuba St. Highly recommended! Ignore the scary mannequins in the store window and check them out.

They have lots of organic products in stock and use ammonia-free dyes which are better for your head and for the environment. (A chemical is still used to activate the dye, but it is a fruit acid, rather than a chemical chemical.) I like the idea of going somewhere where their main focus is outside of the mainstream - my do was tame by their standards; the woman next to me was getting her hair bleached out in preparation for white dreads being put in - and she was a pagan witch/legal administrator.

Dom also did my hair all fancy for my birthday a few months back. I don't really have any good photos of that either - none that do it justice - but to give you an idea, here is the crappy PhotoBooth photo I took to show Lou after having texted her incessantly about it:

Aah PhotoBooth. Causing people to have dodgy eye levels since ages ago.

It was a bit bouffant and a bit curly-loopy and a bit Joan so all in all quite lovely. No matter that I took in this photo as my reference, I was still very pleased with the glamorous final result.

PS please also note my Frida Kahlo cushion covers that were a gift from Lou! Awwhh... Lou.

Posted by by Bel. The time is 11.52am here in Wellington NZ.

America's presence in Afghanistan is having many influences. The emerging skateboarding scene is one of the more positive ones.

Noah Abrams has documented with stunning images the Afghani youth and how they are reclaiming the bombed out buildings of their homeland for recreation. Interview here about the project, and more photos on his website.

[via GOOD]

Posted by Lou. The time is 9.35pm here in London, UK.