It rains. A lot.
And the weather often changes two, three or even four times during the day.

Yesterday was one of those days.

Our morning was lovely and bright and even sunny.

Then things got very very very dark and we had thunder.

And then just as I went out to go to the gym, a lovely sunset pushed its way through the dark clouds.

Four Seasons in one day indeed.

Some days I’d really like to take another big trip some where amazing.  Aside from just feeling a little stressed, the fact that I’ve finally started really going through the 10,000 odd photographs I came back from South America with (in 2008!) is probably contributing!

I’ve also started loading my paper travel diaries in to online Travel Diary posts.

In the mean time …

• Watching: Game of Thrones has started again and even though Ken and I are quite far behind everyone else, I hang out for the days when the two of us can cuddle up and watch a couple of episodes.  I remember Book Three was quite long and there was a lot of nothing going on so its not surprising that I don’t quite remember everything thats happening in our episodes right now.  But I’m hanging out for the major changes in storyline! During our Indian Summer weekend break (yes, blog on that still to come too), I watched a full episode of Bones and rather enjoyed it.  It had been coming up in my Netflix ‘Recommended for You’ for a wee while so I watched the first couple of episodes.  And now I’m watching the last episodes of Series 5.  Still not up to the part where they finally get together but at least I know its coming!

• Listening to: Emile Sand. Is she talented and gorgeous and funky as all hell or what!? And I’m also keeping that Work it Shout playlist alive and adding lots of silly work out tracks.

• Thinking About: Saving money.  As I’ve blogged before – I hate money!!!  There are two really big things that I want to do this year and they both need money.  And I need a new fridge so I really need to pull my wooly head in to get that sorted first.

• Reading: Catching up on this years 50 Book Challenge – as always, I am behind in my reading.  As of today, yikes, I am 12 books behind.  I should probably stop watching Netflix in bed and finish some books!!  I’m reading one of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt series and its quite enjoyable!  Sure the plot is a bit all over the place and today it would be considered really quite misogynist but it was written in the 70′s and I’m just treating it like a good old fashioned adventure like the original James Bond books.  Some things you just can’t think too much about!

• Making Me Happy: Feeling strong.  I try and do Les Mills BodyPump two to three times a week.  Ness and I go together on a Tuesday night and Ken and I go together (if we can) on the weekends.  I love having gym buddies to egg me along and I really enjoy this class.  Lots of lifting, around 800 repetitions per class, and some really enthusiastic trainers make it quite a lot of fun and not really like exercising at all.  Because I actually loathe the idea of ‘working out’.  I’d far rather just go and be active.  I’ve got a long way to go before I can say I’m happy with what I see in the mirror, in fact that day may never come, but I’m feeling like my body and I are getting back to a state in which we can do anything!

• Balloons over Waikato – over our house early one morning
• A care package from the lovely lovely lovely Mel
• Whispy clouds
• Saturday morning walk around Cornwall Park
• Walking in the middle of the city with sheep
• A pod coffee machine for my kitchen
• My FitBit is happy
• High Tea at the Very Vintage Day Out
• The only thing I bought at the Day Out …
• … a new tattoo from Amy Trouble
• Our passes for the day
• A photo of my nephew and my brother being a goober
• Headbands to tame the mane
• Underwater camera all set up ready to dive
• Islands silhouette
• Easter!
• Board games – the Game of Life tells me to pay to get my tattoos removed – WHAT?
• Morning gym sessions with Ken
• Love FoodBox delivery day!
• Fatty takes up more and more bed
• Silver moon while waiting for takeaways in Ngunguru
• Mikaela on the swing at sunrise
• My view for our weekend away
• Playing Last Card at brunch
• Drinking to my friends
• Wrapped up in the hammock
• Northland walks
• Someone passed out asleep in the chair

Nikon D300 Shooting Menu

Select Interval timer shooting and set interval to 30 seconds.  Set the number of images you want to capture – a couple of hundred should give you around 30 seconds of time lapse video.

When you set the camera up on the tripod (or anywhere else where it is secure and won’t move), make sure you set the focus to manual else it may hunt between images.  Also check that your aperture and shutter speed is set correctly for the duration.

For the sunset photographs below, whilst the aperture was okay, the shutter speed was decreasing in order to cater for the light as the sun went down therefore there is not as much change in the sky as I wanted.

iMovie

Import the photographs in to iMovie.
Select clip adjustments from the left side of one of the images and set the duration of all of the images to 0.1 seconds – “Applies to all stills”.

There should be no transitions between the images.

Play the movie through and ensure that you are happy with it. select some music and add a title.

Yesterday one of my friends posted this funny picture on Facebook;

I laughed.  Cats on the desk – so true.  All mine wants to do is sit between me and the keyboard or on the keyboard or generally anywhere between me and something I need to use or see.

This morning I got so frustrated with him that I looked around for something I could use … the box my dive camera lives in was about all I had.  It seems it was all I needed …

I got a lot more work done and it seems he’s had quite a nice day too – of sleeping and popping his head out every now and again just to make sure he’s not missing out on anything!

Firstly, I must confess that I am not a vintage fanatic.  I wouldn’t know where to start with the style!
I’m definitely more of a tomboy however I can appreciate the time and effort that people put in to creating their collections and to their outfits and makeup.

Miss Pinup New Zealand was being judged on the day and I am sure, looking around, that the competition would have been tough.

There were stalls and markets and workshops on all things vintage.

All About T hosted a High Tea at the VVDO.  Mel won two tickets and this is the story on how I found out about the day.

There were singers and swing dancers.

And there was something special … just for me.  What on earth would have grabbed my attention at the VVDO?

Amy Trouble!!  Amy designed the poster for the Vintage Day Out.  I own another piece of her art on paper that Cate and I found when we went and checked out the Auckland Tattoo Show.  But I added another piece to my collection on this day.

Yes, I went to a Vintage Day and walked away with a tattoo.  (Gosh I need a haircut!)

Debonaire Dos and Decadia had a styling area set up where they were doing hair and makeup sessions.

Whilst I was being tattooed, Mel got her hair and makeup done.  She looked stunning!

So next year.  Yes I am definitely going!
I found out that there was a photography competition.  You get time with the models and the cars.  And both were gorgeous.

Even though I felt dowdy and under dressed walking around, it was a lovely day and I really enjoyed it.

I will keep an eye out for the date next year and probably make a little more effort on my attire.  And take more photographs!!

I am so very very very good at spending money.  Not always in big chunks but the days when I spend $0 are very few and far between.
I almost live from payday to payday and that’s not because I have a small salary.  I’m just rather expensive to keep.

To be honest, money scares me.  I don’t like it, I’m not good with it and I wish that there was such a thing as a money tree.
When we were growing up my Mom survived, and raised us, on bugger all.  You would have thought that some of her skills would have transferred to me. HAH!
I have tried spreadsheets, hidden savings accounts, apps for my iPhone ……… limited success.

I need to pull my wooly head in.
If a rainy day happens, I don’t have a lot for it.  I’m committed to the extent that not teaching this weekend means that something has to give next week – and teaching is my second job!

It is pay day on Thursday.  Thursday morning around 1am.  See I even have the timing locked in to my brain.
We are going away for the weekend but I have created a mini budget.  And a budget for the next fortnight.  I am going to try and stick at it!

I’ve given myself a daily allowance and set a savings target.

Do you have any more budgeting tips for me?

Here are some tips from Twitter …….

@tarasutherland weekend tip – use cash rather than cards! I find I spend way less on crap that I really shldt if I actually see the $

— Georgina H (@georgie_pienz) April 22, 2013

@tarasutherland I’ve just started using cash and leaving cards at home. MIRACLE CURE. (Took me months of thinking bout it to actually do it)

— Kate Montgomery (@KateMontgom) April 22, 2013

Things have been a bit tough but I feel like I’m coming out the other end. Tonight I drink to my boyfriend, my Mom and my friends and colleagues. I can’t express how much all your support means. Cheers!

This morning I went for a lovely walk around Cornwall Park (the base of One Tree Hill) with Ness and Pam.
When I woke up, it was raining. For a moment I couldn’t work out what that noise was … haven’t heard raindrops in the morning in a while!
On the way to the park, the sun came out and it truly was a beautiful morning.

Nell and I used to walk around here when we both lived that side of the bridge – before the South America trip.

There were people and sheep all over the place!
It’s quite amusing to see sheep, and sometimes cattle, grazing in a park in Auckland city but there have been some there for as long as I can remember.

A lovely start to the day and a walk is always better with friends.
FitBit said about 6km, RunKeeper thinks 8km. I’m inclined to believe FitBit …. RunKeeper has a weird bit that I am sure we didn’t walk!

Now I get to get my butt in to gear and get my dive kit together. We’re off diving!

Octopus Resort is in Likuliku Bay on Waya Island at the bottom of Fiji’s Yasawa Island’s chain.
And this is where I first tried scuba diving.  And kava but that’s a whole other story.

I have already blogged about my learning to dive experience ( Breathing underwater isn’t just for fish ) but that wasn’t the be all and end of of my first trip to Fiji. We were excited before we even left New Zealand.
I love this photo and have it framed in my bedroom – just to remind me some days of what extremely happy looks like!

Nell and I flew in to Nadi and spent a night there before the shuttle took us to Lautoka and then the boat took us to Waya Island.
Just down the road from our hotel was a bar called Ed’s Bar.  After we had swum in the pool and drunk beer whilst swimming in the pool, we tidied ourselves up and headed down the road for dinner.

And a few games of pool.  And some dancing.

There are a lot more photos of the aforementioned dancing.  But I think they are safest left on my computer.

The next morning the bus came to take us to Lautoka where we caught the boat to Waya Island.

Arriving in Likuliku Bay was like arriving in paradise.
It’s quite different now but in 2006, the bure’s were barely visible past the beach.  I’m sure the water is just as turquoise though!

On the bus trip and the boat trip out, we started chatting to some of the others heading to Octopus Resort with us.
As a result, by the time we sat down for the kava welcoming ceremony that night, we were well on the way to forming the Super Saturday crew with Martin and Sam and Suzanne and Roger and Sheree and Andrew.  I’m still Facebook friends with most of them today!

The next few days went spent lying by the beach in the morning, snorkeling and reading.  And then there was the reading for the course.

On the Sunday we were invited to take a short (but very very warm) 15 minute walk over the hill to the village of Nalawaki for a church service.
The majority of the people that work at Octopus Resort are from the village so it was quite an honor to be invited over to see their village and participate in their day.

At night, the skies are amazing.  We’d often have a few cocktails (or some duty free gin) at the end of the day and sit on the huge deck between the bar and the beach.
The resort faces west so the seas and the sands change colours slowly with the clouds making shapes in the light.

One night when we went out night fishing, when I was about half way through my course, I saw this ….

Nell and Andrew and Tim and I went out night fishing one night with a group of the local guys. They were also showing us how to hand fish just using reels. I don’t remember us having any success at all but it was fun all the same!

During the day I would do my pool sessions in the pool in the centre of the resort and then in the afternoon we could take the boat and go out diving. Tim was doing his Open Water certificate at the same time but there was just the two of us.
Jodie our instructor is still at Octopus – and every now and then I see her pop up on their Facebook page. One day I hope to get back there and see her, and dive all those wonderful sites, again.

My first trip to Fiji was so memorable. Even 7 years later I can remember so much of it and I’d love to repeat all of it!

Waya Island, Fiji, 2006

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My Travel Diary is a collection of photographs and comments from diaries I wrote whilst traveling.  Whilst I will always keep the diaries, I love reliving those experiences and writing about them here makes me very happy.  Events, television shows and songs remind me of certain places, so I’m picking them out at random.