Summers garden at an end

Marigolds, finally in bloom, lettuces.

Sunday Beer Treat

Introverts Afternoon out

Takapuna is an odd little centre but I really like it, despite its efforts to pretend its nowhere near the beach.

There are a few things horribly wrong with it, but its the same affliction spread  over most of auckland. Crappy apartment buildings. Even worse, leaky crappy apartment buildings full of people who complain about the noise. 

For lunch I decided to try Sals, a new york style pizza place. Slice and a beer for $11. Montieths Pilsner or Amstel on tap. It was pretty good. Pepperoni wasn't too strong and the base was nice and salty. Would eat again!

It can be strange, eating alone, but there was someone else inside eating and reading a book by themselves so I wasn't the only weirdo in the shop. I used to be able to find a lot of alone time at home. But since its become overcrowded I've had to leave the comforts of my dwelling to find that restorative time. Its kind of ironic, the introvert has to leave the house and go out into the big wide world to be alone. 

Next was just some wandering and wondering. This was in a pop-up gallery. I guess that's where they fill and empty shop with art. I like kiwiana but this maybe taking it a bit too far. The artist is Rachel Foster. She is pretty gorgeous, I wonder if she uses herself as a model for her series of sexy ladies draping themselves over kiwi icons?

Then I had to stop in retrospace to see if there was any cool new dr who stuff. I also saw a tribble and this stormtrooper helmet. But funds are low so just browsing today. Lots of nerds in the shop today. I wish I worked there, but only on Sundays.

Walked further down to Glengarrys to check out the craft beer selections. Portofino had like 50 gabillion empty tables, I thought it was closed till I saw one occupied table in a sea of white table cloths. Maybe it sucks ass? Anyway here are the awesome beers I got from glengarry.

It started hosing down and it was afternoon tea time so I had a coffee and slice at didas....ooooooo discount with my Glengarry card! Yay. I am still amazed at how cafes cant do a ginger cruch to save themselves. I think they all buy it from the same crappy supplier. Either that or I am wrong in what I think a ginger crunch should be. BISCUITY BASE PEOPLE, BISCUITY BASE. I like a crunchy base, what can I say.

Once it mostly stopped raining I wandered down to my car, and watched the windsurfers for a bit. Cool sea air, mental quietness, it was all good.

The end.

2011 Reading List

Random thoughts I was having one day, been stuck in the drafts box for ages....

There are a lot of things in life that are difficult to accept when you are young....

1) That you are not uber smart and have many awesome original thoughts every day and if only someone would recognise you for your brilliance and pay you simply to share the amazing ideas you have.
- I'm pretty sure that I did have amazing ideas at one stage. I look back at my university essays and wonder who that person was, and holy fuck did I own a theasaurus back then? dang girl you was erudite. I can't remember the last original thought I had.

2) You are not going to live forever, in fact you are going to die very very soon. Life is extremely  extremely short.
- oh cruel world. you sucked up the last ten years of my life. I can barely remember any of it! Futher proof I am living in a simulation. Everything is rushing by so quickly, I need more time!

3) That every person you meet will most certainly not care about your uniques transcendent pain about whatever life crisis you are having.
- Essentialy we are not unique flowers. We are mere motes. But knowing this can help you to be happy.

There are a few things that I find hard to accept now that I am not so young.

1) TV fooled me (and certain friends I had) into thinking that it was natural to have close relationships with your siblings. I don't think either of my brothers even know where I live. They live nomadic lives and I have no idea about either of them. I love them both, and I really enjoy them but I'll be lucky to have one conversation with them when they are in the country.

Things feel apart as we grew up, I was jealous of their sporting achievements and social successes. They lived in a completely different world than me. During our teenage years we barely related. I bailed and left as soon as I had an offer of a way out.

How do you bridge that gap as adults? We have little in common (Apart from a fondness for the drink).
I am so proud of them both. They are awesome young men, I hope they at least know that and that I think of them often.

2) I always thought adults had all the power. Truth is they are often locked into their lifestyle as much as a child is fated to theirs. It takes extreme courage and tenacity to break free. I did not know this as a child. I thought everyone chose where they ended up in life. Its just not that simple.

3) I still find it hard to accept that no one really cares about strangers or acquaintances, but its true. If I turn up to work in a shitty mood because my life is falling apart and my shoulder hurts and I can't bare another day on the space out medication no one cares. They see a grumpy shitty co-worker all they care about is how my grumpiness affects them.

Lets face it, I'm the same. Its difficult to transcend that immediate reaction to someone's mood, as humans we always make it about ourselves too e.g. "Gawd that person is being so shitty, what did I ever do to them, they are make me feel awful for no reason, I wish they'd just cheer the fuck up"

Its a bit contradictory but if we could get to a place where other peoples moods and behaviour didn't affect us or hurt us so easily we could actually become more caring human beings. If we don''t let anyone dictate to us what our moods or feelings should be we can become islands of happiness much more capable of caring and seeing others true pain.

Learning to Crochet

I'm learning to crochet, I'm starting with granny squares, these are a bit flower power.

Another couple of designs.

I'm not super driven to create, I am more of a consumer of culture, but I always enjoy learning a new skill. I've done 9 squares and I hope to have enough to make a blanket eventually. There will be a mixture of flowers and plain white squares, its going to be proper grannyish!