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February 2010 Archives
church post box
a post box (and two bollards) at a church which looks like the postbox (and not the bollards). would be good to have a teeny weeny post box next to the wooden postbox.
some building or other
i climbed up a huge staircase to get to a road just behind this building only to find the meeting i was heading to was way down the other end of the street which was at the same level as where i started so it was a big fat load of wasted effort
more weird clouds
new zealand does do clouds spectacularly well
white jandal
i was listening to a podcast recently that said that jandals were indicative of a nation's maturity. As countries become more affluent people start to buy jandals to cover their feet, and as the process continues they eventually move to more sophisticated shoes.
i love how kiwis are cool to stick with jandals so they don't get above themselves. that seems a nice national characteristic to me.
a great breakfast
last time i went to Wellington i arrived a couple of hours early for my 9am meeting so i went to the train station and had sausage and bacon and toast and an unspecified hot drink overlooking the train concourse
that was all good until people started arriving on their trains and i was like a window display depicting 'man eating sausage and bacon and toast with an unspecified hot drink'
weird charity shop window
this charity shop looks fantastic but i only ever go past it when i go to wellington early in the morning so i suspect i'll never go in which is a shame.
yellow and orange
note sure if the difference in colours on these police cars is significant. i'll make it my business to find out and let you know.
school uniform costs
someone wasn't impressed by the cost of uniform garb. it was probably the 'bucket hat' what did it. (or possibly the NZ Made Roman Sandal (singular i note, just like the Romans used to do as they hopped down the street)
the view from harbour bridge
every morning i'm guaranteed a stunning view of Auckland over the harbour bridge as my bus goes whizzing in to town. here's a view of the harbour with little tubes of sunlight bursting through a cloud like a collinder. quite fantastic.
signs
this is where the sounds come from. there's a choice of some good ones here.
caution wet floor
two things to note here. one that the sign is resting on an inflatable ring, and secondly that the shadow man's jacket and trousers are a bit too big for him
please don't drink outside
drinking responsibility means not drinking outside the shop.
super liquor is the shop name rather than a comment.
dangerous bus stop
sometimes you have to use military force to stop a bus
bad adverts
if you are going to advertise the fact you make signs then you might want to make sure your sign has all the letters in it. all those in favour say 'i'.
bollards
i felt disappointed by the lack of variety in the new zealand bollard selection. until we went to watch a local triathalon where they had pop up bollards and mini yellow weetbix ones
great stuff !
it realy is unbelievable
you've got to love the kiwi approach to advertising. click for big as usual to experience this one in its fullness
jump inside my mouth i won't bite
jump inside my mouth i won't bite - parental supervision required
(another great find from my colleague Simon)
car drinks holders
i find car drinks holders very satisfying.
something is missing
look at this sealed pack of luxury chocolates that a friend opened ! someone on the production line must have forgotten to bring their sandwiches !
body electric
there's a thermal health spa quite close to where we live. this lady stands at the entrance with mains sockets in her abdomen.
meany red legs
this bird single handedly (wingedly) cleared a whole flock of birds out the way at a beach we visited recently. it ruffled its feathers up, pushed its head back and stomped at each one in turn, driving them away like an over zealous school care takers. it was the stuff of comedy gold.
pre-slush one dollar
my work colleague simon sent me this photo. he's said he's started to do more noticing of the mundane. hoorah. another convert ! pre-slush is probably snow ? or ice ?
kitkat from the vending machine
update:
comment from cjhurst:
"says it's sorry and won't do it again."
immigration blood
did you know you can't give blood in new zealand if you lived in the UK between 1990 and 1996 ? that's reassuring !
money world
have you and your family ever spent a day at money world, the currency-based theme park ?
i'm sure there's a whole heap of money puns i could put here, but i'm too tired which is no excuse. and comments are broken still, so that's rubbish. sorry. drop me an email if you can think of any.
i thank you in advance for your sterling efforts.
i've found u
kezia read her valentimes card on sunday which said "i love letter U"
giant lanterns
they put up a load of giant lanterns near my office last week for chinese new year. by the end of the day most had blown off and there were giant red balls blowing round the street. this one landed like a giant pumpkin near the petrol station. you can see my office in the background
yellow red and green
red plastic cup in the drain
jandals
kiwis call sandals jandals. or perhaps other people call sandals jandals. either way, they are the national footwear (when you're not wandering around bare footed). and you can often see them abandoned in the street or grass verges.
update: Comment from brad:
"What really gets confusing is when the Australians call them thongs. I
remember the looks my Aussie friend got when she visited NYC and
declared that the weather was so warm in Sydney that she was "just
walking around in thongs."
the view from bus window
my buses to and from work usually throw themselves round the street violently so i can't take photos. one day last week the combination of bus driver and traffic jam resulted in these photos
happy valentimes day
kezia insists on called it ValentiMes. she knows it's Valentines, but she prefers Valentimes. and so do i
the freaky child mannequin changes clothes again
this is the freaky child mannequin from the local shopping maul which i'm stalking
she's got a couple of friends in the next window too
one is dressed as a snake.
i think the snake girl killed the lion girl
scroggin
scroggin is a great word
the bollard gang
time to move out of the way. this could get nasty
red lolly green lolly
Comments are still broken, so here's a manual update:
Carolyn says "Shame the green one wasn't yellow"
Dave Funkypancake says "good point. i shall make it my business to find one"
fish of the moment
sometimes fish choice has to be more granular
massive shoe sale
this mannequin seems very annoyed that she has to stand in a window selling massive shoes cheaply
hidden bollard
can you see the hidden bollard on the cliff edge ?
we were so lucky to spot one in its native nesting place
fluffy beach thing
lovely yellows against the blue sky
lemmings
watching this from afar was like that game of lemmings. a steady stream of people climbing the stairs and dropping off the top.
cloudy beach
it's not referred to as the land of the long white cloud for nothing
beach barbie
there was a lady watching me taking this picture. i wasn't sure whether she was discusted or amused. perhaps it was her barbie ? either way i made haste and went about my business.
the frog party
kezia had a birthday recently so esther organised a frog party for her. it was totally fab. i'll let the pictures speak for themselves
the blues
we went to the local stadium to see 'the blues' football team who were doing some signing
when we got there it turned out they were a rugby team
that serves me right for not doing my homework
rather than queue for an hour to get things signed we took a few photos
this chap was prowling the area trying to queue jump
but he was quickly sent to the back of the queue
a friend here told me that it's quite amazing how close you can get to sporting stars over here and she was right. if you know who they are (i don't) then you're likely to bump in to them all over the place, and not just (free) signing events like these
wild chickens
we live a bit out of town from the main part of Auckland - we're not rural by any means, but we're close to it. you can get all the way from my office to our home without leaving any urban streets containing houses for example.
but within a few short minutes drive you can be out in the sticks (or the 'wops' as they refer to it). and one of the great thing about that is you see a lot of wild chickens wandering about.
this was a particularly large one in an ice cream shop carpark.
no narking
good general advice for anyone in a relationship.
don't forget your suitcase
there's something excellent about how new zealanders do their signs. they add much more detail than you'd get in a typical british slapshod sign.
take this chap for example.- he's got trousers, separate feet and hand a rather broken arm with a suitcase hanging from it.
the extra detail don't always make for a better picture, but they are great to look at
beach blender
not quite the same level of human remains as on the streets of london, but new zealand has its own junk to share
slightly wonky
toilets - would suit hunchback
recycling
i liked the hidden pressure of the 'can't be bothered' sign
beware of sudden noises
sorry if you are inconvenienced by our sudden noises.
the text in black would made an excellent slogan on a kid's t-shirt
hokey pokey
great serving suggestion. pile your ice cream on top of a load of baked beans
it's a real kiwi favourite
apparently
ycles only
nice how they stopped the double yellas to fit the words. i think i took this photo along with the one below during our last full day in the UK when we went out for a walk with our fanatic friends tony and tanya.
great friends. great days. great road markings. great country.
UPDATE: My great friend Andy from back in the UK wanted to leave a comment, but they are broken so he sent it by text message instead !
He wanted to say "bin and gone" which is inspired and much better than my title ! Thanks Andy
mac's gold
i went to the fantastic laneways festival yesterday. it's the first time the festival has visited Auckland and there were a number of teething troubles. but the bands made it
the venue was a pay and display carpark in the centre of town. at least it didn't get muddy in the rain
the dirty three, the phoenix foundation and surf city were my favourites
but the absolute bestest were echo and the bunnymen (despite the sounds being messed up so the keyboard was waaaay too loud).
the title of this post refers to some lovely kiwi beer called Mac's Gold which jane bought me today and is a nice echo and the bunnymen reference too.
kezia's green photo
kezia took this photo whilst on a day out with jane last week to the local bot garden. she spotted the green lady near the green sculpture and grabbed the shot. bit out of focus, but great seeing.
slippery swirl
kiwis seem to do signs much better than the brits. their signs have more attention to detail. like the thumb on this chaps flipper. although i fear for the swirling abyss
bollard with glove
it's a pile of funkypancake faves just outside my office
yes we are open closed
i find signed which start with 'yes' rather sarcastic. my proof is here. yes we are open. closed.
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