Saturdays

There is nothing yet to dissuade me from loving Saturdays.  Today is the coldest Saturday this year so far.  A plummeting 12 degrees after weeks of 25 is not nice.  However, like everyone else we headed out to buy some stuff that we needed/wanted and had fun doing it.  Today was one of those days where you laugh a lot of different things.  The mood was jolly.  And to top it off, I am off to Rust and Bone tonight which I hear is amazing.  I realise I haven't posted a movie for ages although I have been to heaps.  Let's hope tonight is different.

We went to Nood to look at this.  I wanted it sooo much (saw it online) but when I got there I found it was very plastic.  Now I am going to make one of these one day.  It is gorgeous. 

This picture is very cool.  It is like a collage made from lots of bits of paper.  Very cool

Now, this I really want.  A great price and very much needed replacement for the saggy sofa in our dining room which has a throw over it covering the rips.  I am nearly 50 and I think it is probably time for some fancy furniture. 

Moose, enjoying the Autumn air.  This was very funny.  It is the simple things.

LUXCity

There is a very nice habit forming whereby people who don't live here do nice things for us.  Some people find it annoying because they want their homes fixed and will not have a bar of anything good until the very last house is back to normal.  Some of us is broken houses on shitty streets in sad neighbourhoods embrace teh good at every opportunity and are very grateful to the lovely people who take a moment to help make life a little better.  Life is not that great if you live here and have no city and all of the above shittiness.

So, when 300 architecture students from universities in NZ decided to make us an event in the city, on a bunch of rocky empty sites that once housed buildings we just went for it.  What a fantastic event and many of us were very happy to be there doing something interesting in a place of despair.  THANK YOU.

We went early and left as the many thousands crowded in but we had such an awesome time seeing friends and connecting with bars and cafes who were on trestle tables in the rubble selling their wares.  I took some very average photos but there are some stunners floating around in cyber space so you could check them out if you were of a mind to.

Experimental balloon lights...not sure they worked out as intended but great anyway.

The music was very LOUD here and that is what dancing looks like in our house

Alex, Jonty, Nic, Pete, Oliver, Joseph and me

Shadow play

Make a wish

Routine often punctuates the weekend and I do find that rather stultifying.  So, how lovely it was to spend  breakfast at my folks place with the family celebrating my dad's 78th birthday.  After a morning of fruit, bagels, pancakes, coffee and magazine and newspaper reading  I went out for lunch with 7 gal pals to Under the Red Veranda...a firm favourite with the must have fish of the day...yes there was food envy happening.  Nothing like a bunch of women laughing and enjoying each others company with good food in a nice setting.

Ben eying up the birthday cupcakes

Great having kids who still love candles too

Rainbow candles and cases...cyte

Nic's beach themed 'Best Grandad" card. 

Now home to sit by the fire before heading out to watch the Crusaders beat the Western Force.  Living Saturdays....

Library Love

My love of libraries plus my love of Saturdays.  After an impromptu lunch of Donna Hay French Onion soup

 we popped down to Parklands Library  (not our local) with our friends Karen and Nat.  I have a deep feeling of warmth for this library as it was the first real library building I worked on and had the pleasure of leading the team  for a while.

Although I blanched momentarily at the sight of cake crumbs being walked into 'my' carpet as we entered I was soon distracted by the buzz.  Kids on computers and playing games, all the cafe tables chokka and the coffee machine screaming, lots of people in such a tiny space.  Then I ran into a neighbour from the beach and then a customer who I had served when she was a child at her local library...I was almost a child myself then and watched our children enthusing over books and excitedly running from place to place and it was just gorgeous.

We left with groaning piles of books mags, cds, talking books and even some homework material.  I love that little library and I love Saturdays.

Easter '12

My love of Saturdays just never ends, no matter where in the world Saturday is just the best ever day.  Yesterday Saturday did not disappoint with the discovery of new things that just confirm Saturday as the BEST day of the week.   Three things we found...me and Marie-Anne on a moochy afternoon around Christchurch.  After an expected delicious lunch at UTRV (a survivor of the EQ world we live in..)

we then mooched down Colombo Street to The Colombo which is slowly being turned upmarket and interesting.  A mall without being a mall.  Nice work.  Anyway, two new foody additions to the space included Cooper & Co, looked deli delicious to us

 PLUS

 where we also discovered our lovely neighbours about to indulge in macaron loveliness.

 From there we headed towards the famous Christchurch Red ZOne to indulge in a much missed Alice and Videoland adventure.  It was truely lovely to be back in the familiar building, a testament to the over engineering of Post Office buildings.  Thank you for the NZPO.  At least there will be two or three buildings left in the CBD.  I picked up a lovely light French film to spend my solo evening with. 

Tiny Alice sign with soon to be demolished McKenzie and Willis building on Tuam Street.  The 'lanes' are gone....damn it.

 And then the best treasure of the day came in the form of the Dance-o-Mat, another great Gap Filler project in the city.  I am sooo going back there at night to see the glitter ball and get my boys dancing on a demo site in front of the passers by.  How liberating it is to dance like you just don't care who sees you.  It was such fun and so windy.

We found this fantastic family dancing away and so just joined in.

Definitely worth a visit when groups of dancers are booked in.

why I love my son

Having spent a blissful Saturday morning in the mall and library with the boy I had a chance to reflect on how much and why I love him to bits...

• he loves clothes shopping and has a keen sense of style  (even though I think the real attraction is the locking mechanism on the change room door)
• he takes great interest in anything I am trying to buy, lipstick, clothes, shoes etc
• he asks great questions -' if a raisin wasn't a grape would it be a fruit?'
• in the middle of contemplative moments he offers to share his skills in counting ...'do you want me to count in doubles?'
• he sets little tests for me-with flash cards - 'how do you say hello in Maori to more than 3 people?'  with a little set of flash cards with stick figures on them.
• he sings like an angel
• of all the things he could have had for his morning tea at the mall today, he chose seaweed salad
• he still holds my hand when we are out and about...

...and so it goes on.  It is important for me to remember this on the not so great moments.

Other fun things I did today included shopping.  I haven't had the time or energy to do that much lately so today was pretty epic.  Although I went out to get boots for me and didn't get any I still ended up with great booty

• two pairs of pants for Nic from Pumpkin Patch...on sale
• lipstick, mascara and hand cream using beauty club vouchers (and some cash)
• two cds from Borders - REM (which it turns out we have - obviously a keen favorite), and kd lang
• a smiggle postcard pad
• fabric, lining, shoulder pads, thread and a pattern to make a winter coat.  Wow.  The last thing I sewed that wasn't a straight line was my bridesmaid dress for Karen's wedding
• and groceries to make a picnic for our trip to the snow tomorrow. 

I am not even going to look at the bank account.  No good can come of that.

Scooter Safari

Here is what I did this weekend while my lovely husband languished in a hospital bed awaiting an angiogram.  I loved being part of the two woman support crew for our lovely friend Justy as he put putted his way from one coast to another in all kinds of weather.  230 scooters and $107,000 for cancer foundation.  What a fun way to help others and make a difference.  Read all about it at Scooter Safari

See the TV3 Campbell live video report on the day here

My Saturday so far

This is why we LOVE Saturday and why we LOVE the sun!

BTW...post number 250. Yay me, yay you, thanks for dropping by.