30 Day Challenge

I've been looking for something to really encourage me to get back in to blogging. I really enjoy it when I do it, but I find I often just don't make time for sitting down and doing it. It's probably laziness and tiredness more than anything else, what can I say. So, I decided to make my own 30 day challenge. I've come up with 30 prompts and will respond to one each day for the next 30 days.

To help me along on my journey please feel free to leave comments - it really is very reassuring and motivating to know that you're out there actually reading this thing!

Without further adu, here are the prompts:

1. 10 things you never knew about me 

2. My most embarrasing moment

3. The place I want to travel to

4. My faveourite author

5. Inspiration

6. Websites I regularly visit

7. I wish. . .

8. A letter

9. Peace

10. Something I'd change

11. Childhood

12. Pet peeves

13. Love

14. My hidden talent 

15. My oldest friend

16. My faveourite music

17. Jealousy

18. A photo 

19. Family

20. Food

21. My biggest fear

22. 10 reasons why you wish you were me

23. My faveourite place

24. A joke

25. Hate

26. If I won a million dollars . . .

27. My biggest regret

28. My favourite TV show

29. Something random

30. 2011 is. . .

South East Asian Night Market

Tonight John, Rachel, Lu and I rugged up nice and warm and ventured out in to the rain to attend the South East Asian Night Market in the city. It was held along the waterfront and in one of the large sheds on the waterfront. It started at 4pm and was going in to the night.

I had heard about it briefly during the week, but it was John who found out about it and encouraged us all to go. Apparently it's been held every year for the last three years.

In the large shed was a sound stage, some local restrauants with stalls, asian emabassy stalls and a really interesting artist display of paper constructed fruit. For a donation you could fold your own fruit too. It was very detailed and very impressive.

As is fast becoming a tradition in my little psuedo-family, we bought a selection of various odd treats. Sweet, savoury or liquid. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's new and we can sample it. Some of tonights samplings included lychee tea in a can, cracker nuts, kasava pudding, and vietnamese beer.

Outside it was much more crowded around the many food stalls. There was the usual countries you'd expect to see at an asian market - Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia. And then there were several others, that was really cool to see; Laos, Borneo, Phillipines. We stopped and had a look at all the various offerings, and sampled a few treats along the way too. The Vietnamese meat kebabs were a hit with Lu, the Laos wontons were a hit with John, Rachel found a vegeterian curry from Thailand and I tried a pork bun and a noodle stirfry from the Phillipines.

Having this market at night really added something special to the event. These things are normally during the day, but this one stood out just by starting at 4pm instead of ending at 4pm. I was also able to photograph a few of the happenings along the way.

It was only after taking this photo that I realise the person that got in the way (front right) is Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. She was beautifully dressed and had her 'Mayor' pin on. She was alone, walking through the crowd, taking photos with her iphone. I liked that. That she wasn't followed by her entourage, or the media, but just getting involved in the city's event. Very cool.

While we enjoyed our dinner goodies we sat in Frank Kitts park to watch the performers and then it was time to head home to try out our other delicious goodies and to get out of the cold!

The Wizard of Oz

Last night Rachel and I attended the Gala opening of "The Wizard of Oz" at Porirua Little Theatre. It had been such a long time since I had been to the theatre, which seems so strange considering how much time I spent there as a teenager.

As a past president Dad is always invited to the gala opening of each new show. He'd always take one of us kiddies along with him, but now that he's in Auckland he passes the invitation along to me.

The gala was the same as normal - all the oldies and all those people I've known for so long, just a bit older. Wine, cheese and crackers on offer, so you couldn't really go wrong.

The show itself was great. It was the classic musical, and it was done fairly like the movie. As in what you know and love about the movie was in the show. There is nothing worse than when a director tries to revolutionalise a classic and fails miserably, but this wasn't like that at all.

Dorothy, scarecrow, tinman and lion were all fantastic and the supporting cast did a great job too. The set design was fantastic - one of the best I've ever seen PLT do. It was just stunning. The publicity poster above is a bit of an indication of how amazing it was. Even the programmes were very professional looking.

But, hands down, the best part was Toto. He was a real dog. He acted, he behaved perfectly and he even looked like the real toto from the movie. He was fabulous and I couldn't stop watching him the entire time. He barked once and he scratched once, but he always followed his cues and acted his part. Just perfect and totally worth going to see just to see him.

Catch Up

Goodness, it really has been an awfully long time since I did any blogging. I didn't realise how much until I saw the date! So, what's happened since my last blog I hear you asking, here's a quick run down:

1. I've turned 30! It's not nearly as scary as I had thought when I was 12. To be honest, it feels the same as 29, so I'm not worried at all. No midlife crisis here! I had a wonderful Sunday with breakie with John & Rachel, then lunch with friends and dinner with family. It was so nice to spend such good time with everyone. Not only did I feel very loved and cherished, I was very very full.

2. John & Rachel organised a totally awesome 'Heathers Amazing Race' to celebrate my birthday. It was so much fun! I'm waiting for all the participants to email me all their photos so I can collate them together for it's own special blog.

3. Work is manic for me at the moment - WINZ changes, new enrolment forms, report reductions to do and basic 'interesting' office dynamics to contend with. Nothing I'm not used too, and it does make for a non-boring day.

4. Mum is moving! This week I've been over to pick stuff up and take home with me. Yesterday I go all of her pantry stuff which led to John, Rachel & I cleaning out our own pantry in order to make way for all the new things. Today Lee & Morgan are taking away her furniture. And on Wednesday morning Wayne & Mum get on a plane and fly back to Aus.

5. Mum & Wayne announced their engagement. Wasn't too much of a shock considering Wayne talked to me about in Australia and Mum & I had been talking about what kind of wedding they will have. But nice to have it made official.

6. I booked flights to go to Australia for a week at Queens Birthday. Cheap flights were hard to pass up and I figure that in the middle of winter I'll be wanting a break. And I wanna go before my nephew arrives!

7. Sixteen and Bunker are still here, but seem to be declining week by week. :( But, they are still here, so lots of cuddles are being had.

8. Stupid day light savings. I hate that it gets dark at 6pm. Hate it.

8 things in 3 weeks. I'm sure theres more, but that does seem like an awful lot! I'll blog more appropriately soon, but for now I must dash. More moving of things around this house to do. . . .

Developing a photography style.

I really enjoy photos of people that are taken when they don't realise they are being photographed. It sounds a bit voyueristic, but I promise it's not. I like to capture the ease, the innocence, the honesty of the moment. To capture the moment for the moment and not a posed moment with a plastered on smile, but a real moment.

So far I've mostly done these of people I know, and mostly from behind so they don't know I'm doing it and so they don't jump into the automatic pose or completely jump out of the shot.
I wish I was brave enough to take photos of strangers where it might be obvious that I'm doing it. So far I've discovered that the beach is a great place to take photos of people without them knowing that I'm photographing them, friends and strangers alike. I plan to broaden my horizons and my shoulders in order to gain more shots and opportunities for shots.

And I also like these photos in black & white, or some variation. Somehow it brings another layer of innoncence and calm to the photo that I like.

Here are a few from my collection:

Saturday Bike Riders.

Porirua, New Zealand

My best friends checking out the beach.

Santander, Spain

Jackie, Jessie and Jake heading to the beach.

Callala Beach, NSW, Australia.

The whole family heading to the beach.

Callala Beach, NSW, Australia.

Worshipper at Mosque.

Muscat, Oman.

Rach, John and Lu walking to our photo shoot location.

Titahi Bay, Porirua, New Zealand.

Dating, With the whole family in attendance.

Muscat, Oman.

Jessie vs the Ocean.

Callala Beach, NSW, Australia.

Jackie contemplates the waves.

Callala Beach, NSW, Australia.

Jackie, Jessie and Jake heading to the beach (again).

Callala Beach, NSW, Australia.

Baby Kicking

I felt my wee nephew kick and move!

While I've felt unborn babies kick before in a fleeting "quick it's kicking, feel this" type moment, I've never really been close enough to someone to spend a good 25 minutes with my hands on their baby belly, so this was quite the novelty.

Brutus (as he's affectionately referred to at the moment) was woken up from his nap when Lee laid down on the couch to look through my holiday photos. After some gentle prodding he rolled around and slowly woke up. I could feel him moving around and kicking every now and then. It was awesome! and so magical.

Little Brutus is already so loved and I made sure he knew his Aunty Heather was there and just so excited to feel him and can't wait to meet him in a few months.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

I love Scavenger Hunt Sunday, each week the prompts give me something new to try and make me get out of my comfort zone. And now that I've got a little more spare time on my hands I can get back into participating each week. Yay!

1. Camera Phone

I don't own an iphone or any such gizmo, just an old cell phone that has a pretty basic camera built in. I'm an avid reader of Mortal Muses and they've been blogging about camera phones being perfect to capture those one-off, everyday memories and this is exactly what I caught when I was packing for a trip and my cat jumped into my suitcase in a galant effort to make me take him with me. So cute and so funny, but he wouldn't have stayed there long enough for me to grab my camera. Good thing I had my phone handy. It's not the most artistic and it's definetly not the best picture ever, but it captured the moment forever and that's what's important.

2. Camera

My 4 year old friend here loved learning about and using my camera. While most of what she took photos of was either exactly the same as the 20 before it, or involved her feet, she did have fun. And I got to take this gorgeous wee photo of her with my camera (from my compact camera that I keep in my handbag 'just in case').

3. Shoes

I didn't think my shoes were that interesting until my 4 year old friend spent hours playing dress ups with them.

4. Chair

I took this photo of my Mum and I love it, but I love how the chair works so well and makes the photo that much more interesting.

5. Imperfection

I did a photo shoot with these three yesterday at the beach. While it was a stunning day it was also windy, meaning we ended up with lots of these unusable photos (or imperfect ones if you will). These imperfect ones gave us some laughs and helped me to determine which photos were the 'perfect' ones. It's the imperfections in life that make life interesting, and it's the imperfections that allow us to recognise the perfections.