well, today i’ve been at a conference for the design industry. it’s funny going to someone else’s industry’s conference, but it’s what jane kindly gave me for my birthday. and it’s been excellent.
i still got my usual bus in to town (if i go in any later i don’t get a park at the park and ride), so i started the day with a slap up breakfast and a read of the paper. nice.
then it was over to join the rest of the 2,000 people in the auditorium to listen to listen to 6 fantastic speakers. there was someone from Pixar there to talk about how they make their animations from concept to completion, and there were a couple of english designers (one who works with sound, the other with light), someone who does typography for books and magazines and things, an internal designers (of business buildings and outdoor spaces) and an international fashion designer. and it’s compared by Te Radar who makes me laugh.
then, at 7pm i wandered down town in the rain to join the subtle mob
this consisted of a few 100 people following instructions played to them from their MP3 players. We had all previously downloaded the track and pressed play at 7pm. people were meant to be in couples and there were two different sets of instructions. the idea was it was like watching a play where the actors were the other people doing their instructions. normally it’s meant to be quite subtle and you just blend in, but because there were so many people it didn’t really work like that !
it was good to be part of, even though i was just on my own.
here are some real pilots congregating outside the flight centre. if i’d been using my other camera this would have been a great photo !
when i got home kezia very excitedly showed me her Reading Award for doing some excellent work on her hangi diorama.
she was very pleased !
and they both had good days at school and swimming.
jane’s car key snapped off in the car door which was a bit unfortunately. they seem to go for old fashioned keys on cars here – i heard it was because of all the trips to the beach during which is the same reason all their money is waterproof. but i’m not sure. they might just be old fashioned.
anyway, it happened as she parked up outside a cafe to meet a chum from school. so thankfully her friend drove her back home so jane could pick up the spare to drive the car back. she also managed to extract the remaining key bit from the lock at home with tweezers, so the only cost is getting a replacement key cut.