Oh happy Friday

Off to Whakatane for the weekend!

Have had a very busy week, working mostly, but have managed to have some fun.

Highlights included:

Book buying (well when I say buying I mean voucher spending)

A Julius Shulman book of course!

And the latest book by Alain de Botton

Film Society Screening of Agnès Varda short films.

The Rita Angus exhibition at the City Art Gallery

A delicious curry dinner last night, a tax return and the first 3 pods on the broad beans (not much luck there so far due to the lack of bees, but things may be improving)

Have a good weekend everyone, till next week...

Photo day no. 2

Here are some more photos:

A strawberry in my garden.

The furiness of the leaves is something I hadn't noticed before.

Nana's amazing orchids 1 (first use of the tripod) and 2

I know this photo is a bit out of focus but I like the graininess of it and all the empty space.

As you can see I am still learning about photography and since I only have a run of the mill digital camera there are limitations. This week I am experimenting with the tripod and programming my own settings.

P.S. Told you my Nana's orchids were amazing. She says the secret is neglect, they don't like attention - who would have thought!

Build mode

I just read that James May from UK's Top Gear is building a LEGO house.

Insight on National Radio yesterday looked at waterfront development in Auckland and Wellington. And they interviewed one of my Planning colleagues from the university.

In NY state they are planning to build a Woodstock Museum. The design competition winner has proposed a building made from sustainable materials including hemp, and with a pattern on the side of the building that will spell out 'peace'. - I kid you not.

I have just started listening to Smart City Radio, it's pretty good.

Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans four years ago (on the 29/8/2005). After watching the Spike Lee doco I was wondering: what has happened since then? Apparently not a lot, if this 4th anniversary round up is anything to go by.

The city has regained only 75% of its pre-storm population, approximately 36% of the houses are empty and the feral chicken population is out of control.

Makes you think about the permanence of our cities. Maybe LEGO houses are the answer...

Source: ArchDaily

Site I like

I was trying to find the site for Build Your Own New York when I stumbled into Coolthings.com.

So many goodies (too many actually) My two favourite items were:

The Frames Wallpaper

and

The Dunk Mug

In the neighbourhood

For some reason (i.e. one not known to me) the retailers in Eden Valley have decided to join forces against tagging. What has resulted is some colourful and interesting new graffs, which are sure to scare those tagging hooligans away.

This one is so clever, I only just got it now!

It may well have been inspired by the efforts of Dan Tippett and DLT at the Kingsland Train Station. Unfortunately if you want to see this mural you'd better get there quick, 'cause its days are numbered due to numerous changes being in our neighbourhood made for the Rugby World Cup. A real shame if you ask me.

Thanks to Timespanner for making sure this was brought to our attention and for the photos. On the plus side thanks to our forward thinking community board has made sure their will be plenty of new art works from Dan and his crew gracing our neighbourhoods blank walls in no time.

What I have been doing while not blogging

Here's a brief update:

Have seen two movies - Coco Avant Chanel and Sunshine Cleaning. I liked the first one more than the second one.

Coco Avant Chanel is not a good movie if you actually want to know about Coco Chanel. But it is a biopic so I guess a bit of embellishment is to be expected. I really liked the costuming and set design. Audrey Tautou is fantastic. I like the sincerity she brings to this role. But I thought the ending was a bit abrupt and over-laboured.

Sunshine Cleaning was just okay. Once again a poorly ended movie. I am guessing it must be a hard task to come up with a good ending for a movie... maybe?

Also went alone to one of the talks in the series of Mayoral Conversations. Last night was Rita Justesen talking about the revitalisation of the Copenhagen waterfront. Unfortunately, the venue was truly appalling. Aotea Centre 'conference facilities' are not good at all. The room was the wrong size and shape, so no one could properly see or hear the speaker. The screens for projecting the presentation on to were too low. As a result everyone was bobbing side to side, up and down and arching their necks to see. I would like to point out that it is advertised on The Edge's website as being "New Zealand’s premier conference destination, an unrivalled complex in which to do business." I beg to differ. So as you can tell this was a big distraction in being able to enjoy the event.

My conclusion on the mayoral conversation series: Don't go. The wine is no longer good, the venue isn't likely to be either, the speakers are okay, and the dumb questions people ask are likely to annoy you. In the future I am planning to watch them on YouTube.

On the up side, I am now thinking of adding Denmark onto my list of places to go. It looks pretty. Copenhagen - "It's Chic. It's Exciting." And it has interesting architecture. Maybe my love of architecture and interest in urban planning is thanks to my Danish ancestry?!

Some photos of Copenhagen from: VisitCopenhagen.com

My new favourite icey treat

Don't think I am trying to sell you something (just sharing, honest) but...

I can't wait for summer so I can fully enjoy Smooze. They are vegan, gluten free and delicious. I am totally addicted. Turns out I am not the only one either. My only hope is that the claims they make on the package are all true!

Source: New Leaf Vegan Society