30 Days of Me - Day 22 Why am I different

Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else


I'm with @tarasutherland on this one, introspective, self absorbed this #30daysofme stuff is sorry, but I had to be obtuse and go for the DNA answer------

What a stupid question.
This does of course!

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/techniques/hoffmangallery/dna.html

30 days of me - Day 21 A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy

That was easy, here we have beach, sea, house, garden, blue sky, sun. All of that makes me happy so imagine how happy I am when I'm here, looking out at this.

30 Days of Me - Day 20 Someone you see yourself being with in the future

Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future


Is this a trick? I've already got one you see.
I started to write out our life story then thought pictures might be better.

Starting with Batman, The rebel (age 14), Bedroom wall he painted, (remember Roger Dean?), when we were young, the day we bought our first boat 1989 (thanks Bignose), Crossing the Atlantic, Stag night in St Martin, Wedding Day in Anguilla 1994, Wedding Reception in St Martin, With Ryan 1 week old, Sailing past Dominica 1997, Digging the pond 2009.


What more is there to say? - we've been together for 26 years! It only seems like yesterday. Most of its been fun and theres heaps to do together yet. We love it.

30 Days of Me - Day 19 Nicknames

Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them.


The main one at home is 'Queenie' bestowed upon me by my family.

Maybe because I have a propensity to expect that flights of angels shall sing me to my rest.
Maybe because I'm a little bit strange.
Probably because I'm quite bossy.
She is one of my favourite characters of all time though, apparently, when they cast Miranda Richardson for the part they had to re-write her as she did such a wonderful and quirky job.


I also have my Rapper Name which is K-Dizzle, from @alansmitheejr, one time creative at work now living the dream in the 'Dam.

I think everyone should have rapper names.
Oh and then there's Kezza, KP, and Major Payne I'm not too fussed what I'm called so long as its not rude - Major Payne is kinda annoying tho' but so was Edgar, I used to get my own back by calling him Eddie, I don't think he liked it.

30 Days of Me - Day 18 Plans/dreams/goals

Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have.


Plans - work, work, work. Retire, Buy a bigger boat, sail around the Pacific on it.

Kamouraska St Lucia Feb '94

Dreams - Still need to travel more, tied in with the retiring plan I think, doing what we can afford to do before that, seeing the rest of NZ would be good though - we got here 9 years ago and haven't seen any of the South Island yet.

Goals - Apart from the sailing around the pacific thing. I'd just like to ensure as much as I can that my son continues to grow up into a nice young man. 
A goal I have for someone else. 
I'm allowed, I'm his Mum.
I'm also allowed to scare him shitless and put him off slides for life!

30 Days of Me - Day 17 Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why


When I was at primary school there was fish tank in the hallway by the admin office with a shitload of Neon Tetras in there.
I always wanted to be a tropical fish, I figured it would be easier than school.

Either that or Mother Teresa (OK so she's dead, when she was alive then)


Or maybe this guy just to have balls that big would be cool.


I sense a watery theme going on here, Hmm.

30 Days Of Me - Day 16 Another picture of yourself.

Day 16 - Another picture of yourself.


Work Christmas Party 2008.


 The theme was 'Soul Train'. I kept the shades on most of the night, virtually no-one knew it was me! I think Auckland might have sold out of Afro wigs that week - everyone had one on.
I enjoy dress-ups I probably enjoy putting the costume together as much or even more than actually going out.
I made the dress, trimmed it with feather boas and scouted around all over the place for the rest. Great night was had by all. and yes, I've still got all the gear in the dress up box!

30 Days of Me - Day 15 Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play.

Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play.


The thing is, I have an iPhone that i don't really use for music, a Gen II iPod that  I'm not sure where it is, (it does have a purple glow in the dark cover though) and an iPod shuffle that I use in the Gym. Most of my iTunes listening is via my laptop. My iTunes Library has grown to 85GB, mainly cos I've stolen all the nice music I find from other people as well as importing everything we have at home on CD. 
Sometimes I've nicked whole iTunes libraries from people - means for a whole lot of weird, wonderful and eclectic music. I surprise myself sometimes by just putting it on shuffle.


1. Green Gloves by the National - quite nice - I will find out more about that artist - I did, I like them http://www.myspace.com/thenational
2. Woman Trouble - The Artful Dodger http://www.last.fm/music/The+Artful+Dodger. From Southampton! the town of my birth.
3. Rock n roll Singer  - AC/DC I really love AC/DC at most times of the day or night!
4.Constant Craving  - KD Lang Is it a man or a lady? dunno.
5. Aint No Sunshine - The Jackson 5 :) when MJ was still black.
6. 'Crooklyn Clan'! - some out there Rap mix (God knows where that came from, its not labelled properly or anything.)
7. Glory of Love - Peter Cetera - I like a nice Rock Ballad in the Morning!
8. Happy Birthday - Altered Image. 80's much?
9.Open Minded - Bellcrash  cool, funky tune.
10. The Wood in the Fire - The Mighty Sparrow - I'm glad this came up - a nice reminder of the Caribbean


Now I know I like Bellcrash, the National, Artful Dodger.


Its actually a good way of weeding out the iTunes, by putting it on shuffle and seeing what comes up.

30 Days Of Me- Day 14 A picture of you and your family

Day 14 - A picture of you and your family


Myself and some of my family, as the same person was taking the photos. have to get Phil in another one then.
Last Christmas everyone came round for Christmas lunch cos we had a new house. Best time to get everyone together for the day and a good feed but WHY OH WHY do we always make enough food to feed the whole street and then live on leftovers for weeks?

Round the Table from L-R Son, Nephew, Brother-in-law, Me, Sister, Mum, Charles (Husband is photographer)

So full of dinner only the kids are moving! Me, Son, Brother in-law, Sister, Nephew, bit of Mum. (Husband is photographer again)

30 Days of Me - Day 13 A letter to someone who has hurt you recently

Day 13 - A letter to someone who has hurt you recently



Gosh I must be thick skinned - I cannot actually think of anyone who has hurt me recently.


Hah! that was easy.


Wait for the 'Letter to your parents' tho, later on in the month. that will make up for it!


: D

30 Days of Me - Day 12 How you found out about Blogger and why you made one

Day 12 - How you found out about Blogger and why you made one

When we moved to New Zealand I thought it would be a good idea to keep it updated to share with Family and Friends all over the place what we were up to, I thought it would save writing letters or emails to individuals.

How wrong was I? 

The ones that knew what a computer was are all one facebook now so thats how we communicate, the others never looked here anyway so we talk via email, Skype and the good old fashioned Telephone

Then I started the individual one - This one, so I could post all that random good shit you find on the internet that takes your fancy, then my boss started Tumbling everything so I had to have a Tumblr too then we started tweeting and its all got mixed up really.

I really don't know how I found out about it, by osmosis I think.

30 Days Of Me - Day 11 Another picture of you and your friends

Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends.

Not me 'cos I took it, so its just my friends (for that dive anyway). They were talking to me. I haven't seen them for a while, they are all probably dead now I'm sure they don't live long.

They change colour and move their tentacles in unison when they 'talk' to you.

30 Days of Me - Day 10 Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

Day 10 - Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad

I seem to have music on all the time, radio in the car, iTunes at work, home, gym. Its hard to order them by mood I tend to choose songs by the situation rather than my mood.

Driving through the forest on a summers day - Vivaldi - Spring.

At work concentrating on spreadsheets - Playlist based on Groove Armada

On the treadmill at the gym or walking along the seafront - Burst Generator by Chemical Brothers, Learning to fly by Tom Petty,

Sailing off with a stiff breeze a the start of the summer holiday - Monkey Wrench by the Foo Fighters followed by some Beethoven and maybe a bit of Frank Sinatra.

Not all of them will translate to a mood but here's my best effort.

Happy  - Road trip Music stuff like The Blues Brothers Sound track, The Killers, Foo Fighters we all singalong.

Sad - iTunes Genius Playlist based on Barry White

Bored - Zone out to Chemical Brothers, Fat Boy Slim, Groove Armada.

Hyped - Pendulum - can't beat a good lump of D&B to get you going

Mad - Eminem, 2pac etc, Mutha Fucka Nigga Music (as we call it in the office)

30 Days of Me - Day 9 Something you’re proud of in the past few days

Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days

I did all my filing at home, Oh and I made this - My pies are getting pretty good these days.

Chicken and Veggy Pie

C'est tout.






 

The Tree

We moved into our new house in November and have been enthralled by the view ever since.


 We still smile when we open the curtains in the morning and see if the tide is in or out.


I spotted a tree on the horizon and decided (after seeing Avatar on New Years Eve) that we should find it.


Its not just any tree, it was really big one can you see it?

How about in the 'close up'

I thought we might find a huge Avatar tree with interesting beings living in, around and under it. so on a hot summers day (near my birthday) husband says, 'what would you like to do for your birthday?' Me: Find the Avatar tree. I had already done a bit of a reccy I'd tried to go up the back of Orewa to find it but I could see it was still miles away - across the motorway and two more valleys besides.
Armed with Google maps on my iPhone and the latest Wises map book off we set.
Gravel track pass for roads in the outback. Phils shiny car became horribly dusty. 

We saw beehives,

A bicycle made into a mailbox, 

A novelty 'Logging Trucks' sign (see earlier post for Day 7 30 Days of Me)
only a couple of signs with bullet holes in and eventually this.

OK so its not 'A Tree' its a stand of pines but we still call it 'The Tree' there may be strange and wonderful beings in it but seing as how this was the area where some bloke got done for firearms and drugs a little while ago. we didn't want to go poking around too much. 
:)
Anyway the view back to our place (nearly 10k as the crow flies) was pretty good too.


Its still magic though.
'cos afterwards we found ourselves at Puhoi and had lunch in the Pub.

30 Days of Me - Day 8 Short term goals for this month and why.

Day 08 - Short term goals for this month and why.

1. Keep up with the food tracking, cos I need to 'fitten up' as opposed to 'fatten up' which I have been doing too much of recently!

2. Writing better shit for the blogosphere. 'Cos when I was at school I had to go and see one of the Child Psycho people as I couldn't express myself, Its something I'm learning to do as I get older - took a creative writing evening course a few years ago and now I'm the 'Official Game Reporter' for the sons Water Polo Team. 

According to that website that analyses your writing style, its a mixture of Jack London and PG Wodehouse. I don't mind that at all.

30 Days of Me - Day 7 A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.

Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you.

'Impact' infers a sudden and almost dramatic effect.

Having a child is a rather sudden change so I could call the effect that having my son had on me was an impact. 

We sold our boat and moved countries to give him a better life.

We get up at death o'clock 3 mornings a week to get him to Water Polo practice.
And here I am sat at home when I should be at work cos hes asleep on the sofa coming down with something.

I'm sure there is a change at a cellular level to your being once you have a sproglet to care for. No matter how much you think it won't change your life. Believe me you are kidding yourself. Not forgetting all those gems they come out with which in his case are written down in a little notebook but these days would probably be tweeted. E.g. 'How do cows catch their prey?' and more recently 'Nature is Awesome' which was nice to hear that overused word in exactly the right context.

So 3 pics showing some of the different stages in his life so far.

Teach 'em young how to wash the car. (St Martin)

So I spot a rainbow, quick, quick sit here and look over there. Snap. Gotcha! One of my favourites (St Barts)

My, how they grow! Just last Feb up the back of Puhoi on the search for 'The Tree' Maybe I'll tell you about 'The Tree' another time.

Its awesome having one of these around, most of the time. 
Do it if you haven't already.

30 Days of Me - Day 6 Favourite super hero and why

Day 06 - Favorite super hero and why

Wolverine - Because Hugh Jackman is one horny bugger. Not because I like the comics or his super powers. 
I've always been a sucker for a man in leather with big metal claws. :)
Oh, and when is one pic ever enough? ;) 

Yum

Yum Yum

yum yum yum yum yum

30 Days of Me - Day 5 A picture of somewhere you’ve been to

Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to

This is a real toughie.

So many pics - do I go understated and local? famous places? weird places? Arty pics? Nah lets go exotic...
This one is of one of my favourite places in he Caribbean - The island of St Vincent, where a bottle of rum was cheaper than a bag of ice! Taken in 1994. View off the back of 'Kamouraska'
The bay next door was where they filmed parts of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' (the town and the opening scenes)

 

30 Days of Me - Day 4

Day 04 - A habit that you wish you didn’t have.

Aside from asking someone else to nominate a habit they wish I didn't have here is my own choice - a bit lame  but if that's it I must be pretty awesome otherwise.

I Bite My Nails - I had some of those really thick, strong false nails painted on once, my nails grew under them but when they came off I went straight back to biting, I've never had nice enough (or enough) nails to get a manicure, I'd always go for a pedicure instead.
 

30 Days of Me - Day 3

Day 03- A picture of you and your friends.

In this picture - I'm in the yellow t-shirt hiding behind Phil, we are at Peter and Kelly's house on Boxing Day last year. I love summer BBQs with friends, perfect chillout time.

30 Days of Me - Day 2

Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name.

Hmmm, I didn't realise the questions would be so hard so soon!

Its just about the sort of things I like. that sort of thing that makes you go Eeek!, or Wow! or Eeeuuw! or even Ho-Hum.... We have a family blog which was started so family across the world could keep tabs on what we (Me, Hubby and Mr13) get up to. I found myself posting other random shit on there and decided to breakaway and have my very own blog, then I started using Tumbler more, then I started tweeting more and in between facebook has always been bubbling away in the background. So now I'm a little confused. but there you go! I'm aiming for the infinite loop - I have this blog posting to Twitter, Twitter updates to Tumbler and Tumbler updates back here. Today will be the first day that it has been joined (a bit like the Human Centipede only slightly less scary and a lot less messy.)

RISE, RISE. MY WONDERFUL CREATION.

30 Days of Me - Day 1 1/2

Its a good way to make friends with my Blog again, I'm sure it was feeling neglected.

30 Days of Me - Day 1

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself.

White Water rafting in Rotorua

1. I have lived in 7 Countries.

2. I like it here in NZ the best.

3. I have a tattoo of a dragon on my left shoulder.

4. I was born in the year of the Dragon.

5. I am 1.5 inches shorter than I was when I was 20 due to a nasty motorbike accident and a badly broken leg.

6. I lived on a boat for 7 years, during that time we (hubby and me) sailed from the UK via France, Spain, Portugal, Balearic islands, Gibraltar, Cape Verde Islands, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

7. I smuggled cigarettes between Gibraltar & Spain.

8. I sold Beer and Rum in the Caribbean.

9. I love being in the sea (or on it).

10. I survived 3 hurricanes while we were in St Martin living on our boat. 

11. I get excited by blue LEDs.

12. I'm an Aquarian.

13. I stopped smoking in 2000.

14. I value respect above all other qualities.

15. I prefer Cheese to Chocolate

30 Days of Me - Day 0

Been keeping an eye on the Twitters today and a couple of people I know are doing this 30 days of Me thingum, 
As one said it feels quite narcissistic.
Given that we all probably post this stuff on facebook or tweet it or use 4square to broadcast all sorts of random shite that may or may not be interesting to others I thought, well, why not. It also satisfies the voyeurism in me to read other posts, makes a change from pictures of cats and breakfast I suppose. Not that I would post pictures of cats, breakfast on the other hand, well....

watch this space for all this fascinating (or not) info

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song.