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Showing posts from November, 2020

All The Family Huddled Around A Glowing Laptop

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The times when the kids were growing up it was a tradition to have the laptop on and the Northern Hemisphere family watch as the presents are open. A lot has changed since this photo in 2017, the kids are young adults, my Dad is in a home, the Swedish side aren't allowed to travel to Wales due to COVID, and I won't be around the kids this Christmas Day. It's not so much the change, the kids were always gonna move on and with the divorce new rituals have been created. It's more that it's happened in 3 years, 2017 seems both a long long way away (as does January, remember then?), and yet close enough to touch. Whatever your routines are be prepared to change them, but keep the rituals . 

Dedicated To All The Kick Ass Women

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It's Sunday, these flowers are for you. Have a gorgeous day. 

What You Doing For Christmas?

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It's the question on everyone's lips here in AoNZ, "So, what you doing for Christmas?". This year I'm having a gorgeous time staying in Wellington and just chilling. Whilst it may not have been a tough year it's taken a lot of energy to make it so and I need a rest. But, what about you, what are you doing for Christmas?

Simpler Times

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Putting on #WellyTech at the stadium was a big undertaking but it pales into the background of what has happened since this photo was taken. Pithy lesson #525: No matter how hard you think life is right now, it's gonna get harder . Hmmm, maybe this instead - No matter how hard life is right now you will survive . Or maybe, today are the memories you'll look back on fondly , that's the one.

Don't Do That

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 " George. George - don't do that. "

How To Be A Woman

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As a man it has been, and continues to be, a source of wonder to see how most women exist in this decreasingly manmade world. The planet is for everyone, the world was grabbed by men. It was into this world 15 years ago my daughter was born. With joy I have been able to stand by her, get to know her, and learn from her, as she has grown into the ongoing change the world is experiencing. I am so full of pride and love for her it can sometimes burst out the eyes ♥️ Happy birthday!

Playing Card Mike

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A New Year's Eve in Monmouth back in the mid-1980s. For some reason we had decided to dress as the The Queen Of Hearts (that was Shaun) and her pack of playing cards. I can't remember why. On a side note, at the Nags Head we bumped into Carol Decker from T'Pau (lived down the Wye Valley if I recall). She was very taken by Shaun's costume, LOL

Caption This

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Leave your comments 👍

The Time Path

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Back To The Future parts 1, 2, and 3 time journey outlined.

Golden Taste

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I'm not a sweet toothed person but every now and again a chocolate goes down a treat.

The Colour Of Lights

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Cinema Class

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The upstairs Embassy cinema foyer is a glorious place with the ability to go from bustling hubbub to nostalgic peace within seconds.

Coffee City

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Nothing says Wellington more than, "getting a coffee". This is Mojo State which is 80 metres from Mojo Old Bank 😜 Let's grab a coffee next time I'm in town - what's your favourite place?

We'll Finish It Later

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Back of Wellington High School [September 2017]

We Don't Know How Lucky We Are

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It's a COVID shit show in many places around the world folks as the second wave crashes over the 'Western world'. Let's keep our proverbial gumboots on New Zealand! 🎶If it weren't for your gumboots, where would ya be? You'd be in the hospital or infirmary 'Coz you would have a dose of the 'flu, or even Pleurisy If ya didn't have yer feet in yer gumboots🎶

European Touch

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It tickles me that this study in British Empire building, smack bang in the middle of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, and adorned with the Imperial sounding words Association of Australasia Limited* conjures up a Parisian street feel for me. Just feels European, and that tickles me. For those wondering where exactly it is, it's the Old Bank Building, as seen on the corner of Customhouse Quay and Hunter Street. * The full title is of the now defunct life insurance company, The National Mutual Life Association of Australasia, as owned by AMP / AXA, "As of 2011, Axa was the second most powerful transnational corporation in terms of corporate control over global financial stability."  (source: Wikipedia: AXA . And AXA is a French company, so it is European after all 😜

ИƎMƎ⅃TИƎᎮ

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The other side of GENTLEMEN

Pub Resident

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Some work gone into this Alien bust eh, I wonder where it lives nowadays.

High Score at 10,800,000

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Star Trek pinball game at the now closed Photonflux.

Wire Horse

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If you zoom right in to the centre of this sculpture you'll notice, as I did about 10 minutes ago, something quite cool. This is hanging in the Spark building on Willis Street from the ceiling above Mojo Central cafe , wander in and look up it's bloody cool.

Getting Away

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Sometimes you've just gotta get away from it all and go to your happy place ✅😂

Waiting Room

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The foyer of Te Papa is quite something, especially that window.

Here's Looking At You Kid

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I'll be honest, I've seen CASABLANCA a million times and I adore it, and yet I still don't really know what the phase, "Here's looking at you kid" truly means. Definitely sounds affectionate, positive, and hopeful. Hey, the USA, "Here's looking at you kid", you did it!

Dead End Campaign

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"Weird photo!" I was looking for a shot to become my daily share. "August 2017, why on Earth would I take this boring photo?!" The blue at the end of the deserted alleyway caught my eye. "What IS that?" I zoomed in ...

Peoples Coffee

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  Peoples Coffee now serving

Underlying Anxiety, You Feeling It?

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"There's definitely a country-wide level of underlying anxiety", has been a sentence I've heard from more people I care to count. Are you feeling it? I have to be careful saying such things as my own circumstances can lead me to paint the world a tad darker than it may be for everyone else. People do seem to be feeling a low level hum of tension in both their own lives and those around them. Is that a thing you're experiencing? Of course we can intellectually rationalise why this may be. A simple list of words, COVID, Trump, racism, Brexit, and the granddaddy of them all Climate Change (did I miss anything, oh Russia, social media, conspiracy eejits, and there's bound to be even more) it doesn't take much to know why we might be struggling with the world. Remember, this anxiety is here in Aotearoa New Zealand, a country that has weathered many of the travails. I'm writing this on a balmy seashore as many people are leaving their offices to go home, to

Grunge Filtered Gingerbread Men

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With the Grunge filter I suddenly headed off down a horror movie feel with these quite sweet Gingerbread figures at the local bakery .  It's what a love about my daily photo , I just let the editing take me where it will, which sometimes doesn't work but now and again it totally does.

Red Path Of Power

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A forest path deep inside the seat of power.

Snowy Mountain Tops

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Flying back to Wellington from Christchurch in July 2017 and the mountains put on the show.

Miramar Before The Draining

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When the whitey's came to what they called Wellington and dished up the land a certain person called James Coutts Crawford constructed a tunnel to drain the Miramar water into Evans Bay. He had also renamed Watts Peninsula to Miramar, who knows why, I'm not sure what was wrong with the original name Te Motu Kairangi ... whiteys eh. Here's what the Peninsula looked like (artistically speaking) before all of this in the 1840s. [Heaphy, Charles] 1820-1881 :Birdseye view of Port Nicholson, in New Zealand, shewing the site of the town of Wellington, the river and valley of the Hutt and adjacent country, taken from the charts and drawings made during Col[one]l Wakefield's survey, [1839] and now in the possession of the New Zealand Company. Drawn, lithographed by T. Allom [from a drawing by Charles Heaphy]. Printed by Hullmandel & Walton. London, Published by Trelawney Saunders, [1843?] source: NZ National Library

Thermal Pool And A View

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Aaaaaaand, relaaaax

Heading Into The Hills

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The drive to Hamner, never disappoints.