Spot the difference

The street yesterday:The street this morning:
Bags are packed, see you in Haiti! ;>

Yucky

Ladies and gents, allow me to present the first snow of the year (and also my first snow in the last 5 years or so), as seen from my kitchen window this morning. If you feel like saying "oh, that's lovely" or anything of the sort...keep it to yourself! I'm packing up to move to the Carribean.

On joy and acoustic awesomeness

I know you guys don't care much about this, but I've just got to share the awesome experience I had last night: Haggard live! All 16 of them, bless their talented souls! A truly breathtaking show of fire, musical mastery, wild headbanging, humour and magic. No use describing it, you would have had to be there, but here are some pics and a clip.

Missing...

... the blue blue sky, the insanely straight hedges, Cadbury chocolate (oh! the chocolate), the unmistakable smell of Rotorua, the unmistakable pizza at Ciccio's, chasing pukekos around the lake, "Cheers mate!" on every corner, the butter (no, my name is not Anchor like the butter), Indian food, the hot water beach, stupid customers that smell of horse, being called a dickhead (affectionately), strawberries in January, the river walk on a Sunday afternoon, Spotlight (my long lost friend...), the overweight bunny under the chestnut tree, my queen size bed, funny Maori words, pissy beer and sweet wine, the cheap craft magazines from the lotto shop in Frankton, the funny Indian dude from the Frankton lotto shop who insisted I was Indian too, yucky fish and chips in Raglan harbour, the vibe of Wellington, the haka, movie nights, Grandmother's Garden, everyone's obsession with boats and rugby, lots of soy sauce, pohutukawa blooms, the friendly cat across the road, strangled vowels, "guess the person" games at work, victorian houses, the mouthful of Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, sushi, "she'll be right, mate"...
Missing NZ... and yes, you along with it :>

Catching up

Things have been happening quicker than I can post them here, so I'll start catching up by showing you last weekend's trip. Autumn, fortresses and mountains - just the thing to put a smile on any good Transylvanian's face.

First stop - the fortress of Aiud. I had driven past it many times before, and now I finally got a chance to see it.







On we went, to a valley I could only locate on a map rather vaguely. However, we must have chosen the best time of the year to see it. Pretty, aye?



I just had to show you this naughty tree!

And on we went, further on the map of vagueness and on to higher cliffs. The ascent took about an hour and a half, and those of the group who were blessed took off paragliding from the top. The less fortunate of us got 2 hours' descent on wet slippery rock.



One long long day, a grazed knee, a filthy pair of jeans and 2 jellified legs later, I had a good stock of high quality photographic art to show for it. Something like this: