Neighbourhood Art Installations?

We were coming out of the driveway yesterday and noticed that the neighbours had an interesting thing happening on their family car. At first I thought it must have happened by mistake, but no, she's properly strung on there.

I forgot to mention another encounter with some urban art. When Mum and I were in Wellington for the Police concert, we lived on Cuba St. One evening we were walking past Logan & Brown, which is a restaurant in a building with distinctive brickwork. Perched between the bricks was a sculpture we dubbed 'Mr Wellington'.

Here he is perched onto a little vase to stop him from rolling around. I picked him up half expecting him to be stuck to the wall. Ruey says that it's a 'thing' to have urban artwork up in the city in places where people pass by everyday, that artists want people to interact with their installations and see what reactions occur. Another street installation I've seen is Microclimates which was an event in in Youthfest 2007 in Taranaki. I saw one in the gutter of a street corner and another nestled under a cafe window. Really neat, especially lit up.

"Taking art out of the studio and onto the streets. Using natural materials, such as plants, stones and wood, you will be challenged to create and light a miniature ‘installation’ on the streets of New Plymouth."

It's an interesting concept, especially as these examples are homegrown. You feel pretty special spotting these around the city.

This weekend I also have found Felt which is a NZ version of Etsy, a place on the net that you can buy and sell craftwork. There was a small spread in the new craft magazine, worldsweetworld which is fantastic. It's modern and inspiring, this issue tells you all about recycling and also some different projects like upholstering with billboard vinyl and how to turn Corona bottles into cool tumblers.

Button Girl

Yi Lin was home for the Easter holidays, so we decided to celebrate her birthday a little early before she headed back down to Dunedin. For everyone who doesn't know, she is a bit infamous for liking buttons! So this year, her presents were a little bit button-themed. Button earrings, button purse, button bracelet, button bag, button tin with button biscuits. Plus a few non-button things to keep it healthy.

Here is the birthday girl at Sophie's, 'the best little steakhouse in town'. Sophie served us dinner herself. I love that her cafe is covered with lots of photos of Sophie and local celebrities... The meals have funky names too, like the John Wayne, Rhinestone Sophie, The Hudson, and The Fat Bastard. I am not kidding about the last one - it's a burger!



I made a button-themed bag to house Yi's present. I had to trek to her favourite button hunting shop, a great little vintage place that has been there since my high school days. Warren and Vanessa from Tete-a-Tete know the Button Girls well and let them sit on the floor and sort through the button jars. Amazingly, it can get addictive finding cool buttons. Mum and I found some beauties in Wellington.

Thank you Ward 1A! Today was my second-to-last day and I was given these gorgeous flowers. They survived 2 bus trips and a 5min walk on a 27 degree day. Yes sirree, hot but nice.
I did my visa biometrics yesterday and got into a bit of a flap. I had to change my Melbourne date forwards and move my London date back (into early May) to allow for my visa to be processed. But all's well now, and I'm booked into the Nunnery backpackers for Thursday. I'll say hi to Brother Francis (the cat) for you, Denise! I am excited about travelling soon.

Happy Easter

I went on a 'library binge' and picked up a honey of a book. It's called 'I Love Pictures',about the photography of Tim Walker. He does very whimsical, exotic fashion shoots which are often featured in Vogue. They're just so much fun, and very Lewis Carroll. He often features the model Lily Cole, who I think does some interesting work.



I have been busy with the knitting needles. Supposedly, I'm using up my leftover bits and pieces, but making things is a bit of an addiction! So I have 2 more scarves and a new belt, and tired but flexy fingers. I would love to have a store or gallery of some sorts one day (it's fun to have your work in other people's shops but I guess it is about creating a space of your own), but I don't think it's practical at the moment while I'm on the move and I don't know where I'll end up yet. It's something to keep on the dream list.

Melbourne is again on the cards for April 5th. (Yay Mel!) I'll miss the new daylight saving switch which now will happen on April 6th! Keeping on the whimsical note, here's the lovely Visit Melbourne ad which happens to be one of my favourites. The Joana Newsom song, the Sprout and the Bean, sticks in my mind all the time. I would like to visit Gertrude St again - there are some interesting shops and galleries there. Also a must is Klein's on Brunswick. I had a fab time there last time testing out the Demeter scent library. Don't think I'll try 'Dirt' or 'Funeral Home' again, once is enough. I couldn't get enough of the ones called 'Wet Garden' and 'Thunderstorm'. I hope I might make it to the Rose St Market,and maybe get to cook some food from the Queen Victoria Market too.

More Travel Plans

Here's a funny poster we found at the mall... I think this must be true for many women?

I have a return ticket to Melbourne for the middle week before I'm planned to head to the UK. My flight to London will perhaps have to be put back 2 weeks as I'm waiting for a few more important bits and pieces to go through, but I am waiting to see what happens in the meantime as things might pull through in time. Mel is heading to Melbourne to retrieve some of her things from when she lived there, so she asked me along. I thought it was too fun an offer to resist, though I have been careful with my OE travel funds. Places can be so different with a local friend.

I haven't been and seen The Other Boleyn Girl yet, as I ended up going to the Art Gallery to see the Morris & Co. exhibition instead. Lots and lots of ornate textiles including embroidery, carpet, curtains and even a quaint 'gardening dress'. This is a curtain material called 'Evenlode'. Most of this collection comes from one Adelaide family who commissioned Morris & Co. to furnish 7 of their houses. And no, apparently they didn't believe in feature walls back then, so imagine!


8 more working days to go, and Easter is next week. 4 months seems to have passed by quickly. Although this has been one of the tougher rotations of my career so far... I've just gotten used to juggling around working closely with so many people including student, new graduates, assistants, and orderlies, not to mention my 25 bed ward. It's been a good learning curve.

The Other Boleyn Girl

I'd really like to see this movie in the weekend - I watched most of 'The Tudors' last season. Hopefully I'll get to Rialto Cinema with the big cushy armchairs! Hurray for Friday, have a good one everyone.

Cheesecake

I made my favourite cheesecake recipe x2. One went to Mum's staff morning tea shout at Roydvale School, and the other is waiting to be eaten... The good news is that I'm just about back on normal food too, not just yoghurt, icecream and soups.

This is the first one I've done in a springform tin (being a hostellite/flatter in the past, I've made do with a biscuit tin). Strangely this time round the base fell in a bit at the edges instead of standing up as usual. Well, Mum says it's 'cute'!

Thirsty

I am NBM (nil by mouth) waiting for my appointment to get my wisdom teeth out today. I am an eensy bit worried... many more people have bad wisdom teeth stories than difficult labour stories, it seems... but mostly relieved to be getting it over and done with!

To give myself some perspective and incentive, I bought my ticket yesterday. So, so far the plan is leave Chch via Sydney and Dubai on the 20th March. I may become a bit unstuck if my working visa application doesn't go through by then, but luckily I get date changes free of charge on my 'blue ticket'. It was fun booking the ticket through STA at the uni campus because the person who served me got genuinely excited about my OE. I'd interrupted her lunch, but she was full of helpful information. She is very enthusiastic about having a window seat flying out of Dubai, apparently it's amazing.

I have the rest of the week at home to recover, then hopefully back on the job next week to see my student through her exam on Monday. It's been a learning curve for me to teach a 4th year student, more fun than I thought it would be though! We have had a few interesting patients, including 5 amputees at one stage and a 92 year old NZ house-hold name. 3 more weeks from Monday to go at the hospital, including Easter.