There’s a decorating competition at work and our corner of the office is taking it very seriously. There are lights, bunting, (fake) festive fare and not one but two ‘Christmas’ trees.
The lovely cafe down the street that has the naughty corner now has their Christmas decorations up, at perfect head height if you sit in the window.
Remember this from a few weeks ago?
Neither of us are looking particularly great but annual check confirms one of us is in tip top condition.
I’m just back from a week in the Far North at a librarian’s hui. Amazing stories, fantastic learning from colleagues and we were very well looked after.
Reverse parked, boots up, gear accessible can only mean one thing, weavers are in the house.
I spent last weekend at the biannual weavers hui in Rotorua. It was massive, exhausting, inspiring and I took almost no photos because I kept forgetting.
This week was Halloween and creative types have been leaning heavily into the spiders.
I finally have earbuds and the best part is that, in their charging case, they look remarkably froggy.
This is what decision making looks like in our current crazy weather.
Circles of wet paw prints as Huia decides whether it’s an inside day or an outside day. Several valiant attempts at going out but I suspect I know which will win.
It’s properly spring which means a quick succession of wind, rain, sunshine and drizzle, often in combination. The final sign is the clematis over the bins being in flower.
It’s been a busy week mostly out of the office. Two days at the big national libraries conference and another day with international visitors. I haven’t conferenced in years so it took me a bit to get back in the groove but once I did it was fantastic. Fabulous to see librarians from previous lives, catch up on all the news and hear from inspiring speakers. Plus there was swag so I’m now well stocked up on notebooks, pens and support bears.
Not sure what kind of a thing but two of these have appeared at work in the past week and are now just waiting.
Literally and figuratively. The painters have been in and out all week which has meant my kitchen has been curtained off so they can do the ceiling and just the ceiling. It also means curtains to the work to find and fix the leak. It’s such a good job you’d never guess the drama.
Very slowly the hole in my kitchen ceiling is being dealt to. Several days of rain confirmed the fix was good so the boards were patched then this week we have plaster.
We’ve had it all this week; rain, wind, sleet and even some sunshine. Coughs and colds abound and we are all a bit tired and generally over it. Including Huia.
We’ve had sparkling clear days all week but that’s meant it’s been super cold, snow on the hills and frost in places it usually doesn’t settle. I finally got a good photo of the space jellyfish imprint on my window at work.
This is on the eighth floor so after much discussion space jellyfish seemed the most reasonable explanation. (It’s actually the imprint of the glass lifting suction system but for obvious reasons I’m sticking with jellyfish)
For the last six weeks we’ve been chugging our way through the next join on our big weaving project. Today it’s done! This is always a moment of great satisfaction, only eight more to go, thankfully getting shorter each time.
The massive earthquake on the east coast of Russia made us into a nation of lerts. We practice the emergency notification system every year but this one was for real.
I had a little leak in my kitchen, then a bit bigger one, then a really big bucket on the floor one. The builder is finally happy that he’s got it sorted so I now have a hole in the ceiling and a high tech moisture detection system installed.
I properly started my new job on Monday and it comes with an amazing view. I’m on the top floor of the new building and we can see it all: weather, planes, trains, cranes, ferries and traffic. Here’s a sample from Monday (with moving box)
Staff start moving in next week, including me! We’ve had our orientation tours which included a trip to the basement. They showed us the bike storage, drying room etc, etc but I was much more interested in getting an up close look at one of the base isolators.
Since last November we’ve been going through a change process at work. It’s been long and it’s been tough but as of last Tuesday we’re in our new structure. For me that means a new job which I’ll start properly this week, exciting and terrifying in equal measure.
When there’s a queue out the door you know it’s good.
And it is, to the point that I now have a loyalty card. On a wet day there’s nothing like a good pie and I can already recommend the steak and cheese, mince and cheese and the boilup.
Happy Māori New Year! Definitely no photos of the stars this year but a lovely weather shot instead.
Catching up with family in Sydney
With friends in Victoria where there may or may not have been confit duck and some very nice wines
And finally New Plymouth to catch up with weaving friends and support an exhibition opening.
The weather has been up and down so it’s taken a bit longer than first guessed but I have new paving!
Matches the pattern at the back of the house and I’m super impressed that there aren’t any tiny footprints in evidence.
The paving has been cleaned off, lifted and stacked and I now have a lovely clear area ready for the new look.
This is my before shot and believe it or not there’s paving under there. As you can tell garden maintenance is not my strong point so on Monday the landscape guy is coming and by the end of the week this should look completely different.
We’ve had two days of properly wild weather and winter is definitely on its way. There is major flooding down south and a decent snow dump. Here we’ve had raging southerlies up to 150kms/hr and tidal surges up to 12m. Luckily I’m pretty well protected from a southerly but it was so wild that water was blown up and under the window flashing in the kitchen. I’m counting myself extremely lucky that I only ended up with an art installation on my windowsill, it could easily have been way worse.
PS: this is why you keep a good selection of random containers and old towels.
Yesterday was ANZAC Day so I got up early(ish) and went to the local commemoration.
A new cafe has opened next to my regular dairy/convenience store. I’ve been in a couple of times but this morning I noticed they have a naughty corner.
Not a bad spot for a bit of time out.
It’s a bit hard to see but I got to work Tuesday sporting a high tide mark.
This was the result of standing at the bus stop in torrential swirling rain with thunder and lightning rolling around. Thanks to a proper coat that keeps me dry down to my knees at least I wasn’t sitting on a damp bum all day.
Both Te Matatini and Womad had the same paper cups and not your boring old plain ones either. Fully recyclable, beautifully decorated and multi purpose.
Definitely says something about my festival diet that two of these are ice cream and the other is coffee.
For the last few months I’ve been watching a pile of sand slowly change shape. It’s part of an exhibition at work and is designed to shift over its time in the gallery. I thought I’d taken a picture of it on opening day, if I did I can’t find it but this is what it looked like yesterday.
Epic pretty much sums up the last few weeks. Te Matatini was followed by Womad, another fantastic weekend of friends, food and brilliant music. When I got home I realised that, between those two events, my love of a good T-shirt might have also become a bit epic.
In my defence a good number of those on the right are to be gifted. Holding on to the fact that I’m supporting local businesses and artists.
After a month or more of hot sunny weather it’s feeling a bit autumnal. On Wednesday the weather app wasn’t helping - 13 feels like 3.
I’ve spent the week at Te Matatini in New Plymouth. It’s the biannual Kapa Haka festival/competition and this year it’s the biggest ever, 55 teams competing for 12 places in the finals. It’s been epic and today, the last day, is shaping up to be the same. We got here super early by our standards and joined the queue.
