KT and Coffee: May 2014

Friday night was movie night

It had been a hell of a week but we had made it. The plan was for a movie out. We made our way home putting the work week to rest during an enforced drive time. We knew that once home the energy to leave the house was just not going to materlise.
Take away and movie at home it was. A choice seconded by the cats who were very happy.
This was our Friday night choice

When I saw the first movie I was horrified. Killing children, what is going on. I found it disturbing and I worried as this was a popular set of books. Does fiction need to be this brutal I wondered. At this point I had not read the books and a wise friend did point out at least it's reading.

Now I have read the series. I skim read and have too poor a memory for any meaningful comments to be made right here and now, but it made me feel differently about the movie and in this instance added to the expereince of the two.

The books and movies debate is a great one but for this series I am contented. The movie last night stuck chords that have echoed with me over my working week, that of powerlessness and of being a pawn in the games of others. It was not all gloom though there was teamwork (even if you are not really sure who is on your team) and perseverance. A wise choice to wrap up the week then.

Walk 36 - Hahei

They were two autumn beach days. A crystal clear sea that we swam in, a warm sun that we slept in and a walk.

On the southern end of the beach is Te Pare Historic Reserve, which was once the site of two māori pā, Hereheretaura Pā and Hahei Pā.

You can take the route through an ancient pohutukawa grove to the pa sites or as we did and stroll along the beach and up the steps onto the hill. It was a warm afternoon and we sat taking in the views all around, allowing our minds to wander as we watch the sea and the clouds.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hahei

Walk 35 - Waitakere Dam Walk


I don't know why, but I do find a dam rather fascinating. It may be the dam buster in me!

In the long long weekend we did manage some walking. Not so much as you'd notice or that the clothes are any looser, but let's not think about that just now. I wanted a walk that wouldn't kill me or depress me. I know I'm out of shape - no - I am a shape, I'm just not very fit at the moment. We are (as I frequently mention I know) blessed, there are walks for all sorts at our fingertips. So off west it was. Here to be precise. A road down, then heaps of steps, then along the old railway track. Quick stop for tea and cookies, then an amazing 'oh my I'm having an Indiana Jones moment' end of the track. Actually not the end of the track - we could have continued along for several hours. No, the turn around point for us. The steps up killed me - in that good way - the way that you know you are doing yourself some good but the end is in sight. The road up was a long and winding road. I kept my head down and kept breathing. Hurrah. Out of breath, soaked up the scenery. I think about 6km. I know, but it's better than the couch. Oh and it was so nice to be out walking midweek.

On the dam, it caught my eye, there were loads and it said 25 on all of them...what does it mean

The dam through the forest. Rather hard all this green.

There is really little need for a map on a walk like this, but it's a habit. I'm not apologising, I'm proud. I always have a map.

My autumn leave obsession.

The Indiana Jones moment

The bridges reminded me of our Otago Rail Trail adventure, but these were more slippy.

There is that dam again, less green this time.

Friday night is movie night

I have written many a time about the great cinemas that New Zealand has and what an enjoyable experience going to the movies is. We would happily call ourselves movie fans. No particular genre preference, though I am a great fan of pure escapism in the form of really silly movies. Adam loves the animation movies (or cartoons as I still call them). I love a thriller, particularly one with politics or spies thrown in, Adam leans more to the horror type thriller. We both love action adventure with things blowing up and if it happens to have this man on the big screen then all the better.

We will often end our working week with a night at the movie....hence Friday night is movie night, so why not share the movie love with fellow web land movie lovers.

So Friday night saw us

Watching this movie
At this cinema

Watching the trailer on IMDB the words 'food porn' seem to preside, the close up sizzle and ooze was enough to get me to movies. The story has everything on the 'usual suspect' list:
the fractured yet amicable family
the demanding and unreasonable boss
the loveable side kicks
the ridiculously good looking women
the cute child
and a man full of hopes, dreams and passion.

I loved it, it made me smile, I loved the food, I really loved the social media learning curve/generation gap theme going on. I may even get a twitter account after this movie.
Our original plan after the movie was to grab a take away pizza. Oh no, not after this movie. Picked up the food and we made our own pizza.......thank you Chef.

A long long weekend

Having decided to stay local for our leave, that is what the holiday felt like. A long, long weekend.

Porridge in bed
Soaked up the wisdom at the Auckland Writers Festival
Feeding the ducks at Western Springs
Exploring here
Cat time
Made some cookies
Using this site to make a photo book
Lots of gardening
Getting a WOF on the car
Cleaning house and enjoying the new sofa
Dinner with friends and discovering a word game I might actually like
Camping in the van for two nights here
Painting the bathroom bright yellow
Acted like tourists here
Swimming in the sea (yes, in May, in New Zealand)
Falling asleep in the sun
Sitting on the beach watching the the sky changing to dark
Signed up for this course
Walked here

Weekending in extreme over 14 days.

Strange Times

A strange thing has happened. A decision made. And there was no doubt in my mind. I had to choose between a trip to the South Island (could have been anywhere, we had two weeks annual leave and the country to choose from), or a new sofa that I had been hankering on about for some time.

A rift in the universe may have occurred as I choose the sofa. A decision Adam could not understand. We have two fine little sofas, why change, why update. We brought these off the folks moving our of our house as we moved in. They are supportive, still in good condition, fit the room, adequate and I would never ever have brought them. I hope someone out there understands. The new sofa idea has been in my mind for some time, a vision if you like of how I can update the little rental we call home. I did point out while searching that we have a perfectly splendid and lovely sofa in the UK that we could transport over here...well, that idea met less of a response than the idea of a new sofa at all, so I gave up on that one and continued the search. We found one that is what we are after (we had a list) and will just fit into the room (I reckoned) and I was given the choice - holiday away or sofa. No, I can't have both. Oh.

The sofa was brought. I got a little discount and then played really pathetic when they told me I'd have to wait 6 weeks for delivery. The sad face and the begging look may have helped but the kind man arranged a sofa to magically appear within a week. The delivery guys did look a little concerned because it really did just fit. I think it's perfect. The cats think it's perfect. Marvellous choice. Now what did we do with two weeks in Auckland.

Getting around

What to do on a rainy day, well, finding old draft posts and tweaking them slightly is one option I guess. This post first formed several years ago after finding one of my photos on someone else's blog, this made me think about my growing internet use - Pintrest, Flickr etc. Guess now you have to add Instagram and Tumblr to the list. Blimey.

Not sure why I didn't deem it worthy back then, maybe I thought I would find lots more 'bits of me' but I haven't looked again. I don't tend to worry to much about my photos being taken, maybe because I have such a low readership and my photos aren't that good. I think the best of everyone, maybe naive, maybe optimistic, maybe I figure life is a bit too short....Anyway, enough rambling. Given I wrote this back in 2010 I thought I should check the links - not all working but I've left the original draft and added comments in italics.

Well here (link not working anymore) from a trip to Memphis, and if you scroll down a bit on this blog (working and still credited to me) there is a mosaic photo I made of our potted Christmas Tree. My Nigella mincemeat photos and blog seem to have made it to this site! (now this one is looking very odd, and clearly not my mincemeat photos but I didn't stay there very long). A photo from the aforementioned Memphis trip was added to the Schmap (still there, hurrah) site, they asked in advance and it was rather exciting, but you have to really hunt to find my photo now. As for the networkedblogs site, I had no idea really (still not much of an idea).

To the Zoo

Our annual Auckland Zoo pass has been well used. This time it's with a friend and her son. He leads the way and as we have a child in tow I don't see why we can't wear the Tasmanian Devil mask and do the quiz and learnt a lot about Tasmanian Devils - did you know they sleep for around 19 hours a day.

Of course Adam had the mask first

The new Tasmanian Devil at the zoo

Share that mask

Lunch time

My turn with the mask

The prize for the best mask face

The motley zoo crew

Walk 34 - Brick Bay

OK, a little backtracking, this was our Easter Sunday outing. The autumn call to Brick Bay Sculpture Trail was answered. The rain held off until the end of the trail so we could concentrate on taking photos. I seemed to more interested in leaves than sculpture. There you go.