Friends

this shows the tripod in all her glory
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It had been 25 years since I had seen him and I didn't remember him at all, when we met again in Waiuku. He drove us along the beach in the pouring rain, through small rivers that had formed, and past the remains of tree roots, exposed. We'd get closer and closer to the waves, and zig-zag around the tideline, and then when we couldn't go any further, we got out and wandered around on the black sand, feeling windswept in the rain.

It continued to rain as we walked up to the lighthouse, where apparently there are usually good views, but I could just see a blankness, a whiteness, where the fog had settled in. I remember being able to see phormium, as we walked up the steps.

We visited my aunt and uncle's house, but they were in England at the time, and it felt somehow weird being in their house while they weren't there.

That night, we stayed in Waitomo and visited a local pub, and tried out the local cider and the feijoa Archers. I had only tried the fruit, feijoa, a few weeks before, for the first time, in Melbourne.

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I floated through a cave on a boat, loooking up at the glow-worms above, mesmerised by the glowing. After that, I walked through the spiral entrance down to Ruakuri Cave, and was intrigued by stalactites, weird shapes forming. It seems so magical that such things exist underneath the ground and I wonder what else is below.

We headed onwards from Waitomo to Taupo.

Steam arose from the Craters of the Moon, and I stared at the mud bubbling and the steam, so much steam, and at the pretty colours of the rocks. I hadn't imagined the moon would have so much vegetation.

Hey guys

The headphone jack for my iPod Classic has packed in and I was wondering if anybody knows of anywhere in town that'll fix it for less than the £49 I've been quoted by various online places?

Cheers!

Another hard day at work:
( Read more... )

Hello everyone!

I would like to promote my new website if i may! First, let me tell you a bit of history about my business.
I have been handmaking chocolates for a little over 8 years now. I have held many a stall and have been lucky enough to have Robert Englund as one of my customers! I have supplied the Edinburgh Playhouse with some of my vegan creations on a few occasions and what with a new chapter in my life happening i have decided to put all my effort into making my chocolate business a complete success. So without further ado...may i present you with...


My new website.

Thanks for reading!
x

I'm headed out to the airport for ALA, but I couldn't pass this one up.

There is a Wall Street Journal article that talks about the high quality of literary YA fiction. (Thank you, Anne M. for the alert!)

Enjoy.

(I promise to post from ALA. And I'll be tweeting, too.)

Question three was borked. Rewritten to actually cover all the bases, and not be internally contradictory. Apologies to the 7 people who already filled it in!

Poll #1427776
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

None, One or More Beliefs?

Believed at some point?

Lacked in belief at some point?

Confidence in your current beliefs

I avoid eating sugar because it makes me feel awful.

It took me a long time to wean myself off of it, and I tried a number of different tactics.

Exerting self-control is rarely easy - your conscious mind just is not good at keeping control over your physical drives for long periods of time.

And saying to myself "I don't want any chocolate cake." just felt wrong - because it clearly wasn't true. I _did_ want chocolate, or cake, or whatever it was I shouldn't want.

What worked the best for me was saying "I am not the kind of person who eats cake." - changing my perceptions of who I was, and pretending to be someone else seemed to entirely bypass the quibbling of my subconscious.

And thus I'm not surprised by research from Yellowstone Park saying that when they put up signs saying "Please don't litter" it had no effect, but putting up signs saying "People who love the environment take their litter home" caused a drop in the amount of rubbish left lying around.

The first is a request - we weight it up against all of our own desires and then make a decision. The second cuts to the core of our being - we have to make a decision about whether we're the Right kind of person or the Wrong kind of person. It's fairly obvious that that kind of approach works massively well.

It was already public that the final book is being split into two halves - but what I didn't know was how it was going to be done:
( minor spoilers )

1. Today, I leave for Chicago and ALA. I honestly cannot believe I am going out of town again. I counted it up and this is my sixth flying trip since the end of May. Which is a lot for anyone, but especially someone who normally tends towards a hermit-like status, like myself. I am doing my best to rally, though, and I know I will before I get there, because ALA is super fun and I'll get to catch up with so many people. Just a reminder, if you're going to the convention, you can find me at the Penguin cocktail party tonight and at Anderson's bookstore in Naperville with Laurie Halse Anderson at 7pm on Saturday (call 630-355-2665 for more details). Sunday, I'll be at the YALSA YA Author Coffee Klatch and the BBYA Pizza Party. I'm signing at the Penguin booth, #2120, from 10:30-11:30 on Sunday. Then it's back here to stuff my suitcase in the closet and collapse for a few days. I've never been to Chicago before, though, so I am hoping to get in some shopping, which I hear is great, as well as some deep dish pizza. Oh, and wind. I will be expecting wind!

2. Because of all this coming and going I am SO behind on my TV it's ridiculous. I mean, I have TWO episodes of Weeds to watch, a show I usually can't wait even five seconds to get to. While in Cape Cod, we had the most basic of basic cable, most of which was showing Michael Jackson coverage, so I was glad we'd brought along some DVDs for the few times we wanted to just relax for a little while. What really did the trick? The Office. Thirty minutes, season three, and it always made me laugh out loud. I loved it so much I bought season four to take with me to Chicago. If I have a free moment and am not sleeping (unlikely, but possible) I'll be all about the Scranton party. Ain't no party like a Scranton party, cause a Scranton party don't stop......

3. I've written here off and on about our trials and tribulations with the deer and how they've made it SO hard to have plants and a garden. This year, we put up a fence, but I was hesitant to get my hopes up that they, and the rabbits, would not find some way to scale it and pick everything clean, as they always do. But it worked! We have had greens and beans and squash and now I have sunflowers and zinnias. It's amazing. Check out the latest bounty:

This week, I made the first batch of spaghetti sauce using our tomatoes. Man, it was good. I am planning to make a LOT and freeze it for the winter. We're like pioneers! (Okay, pioneers with a freezer. And, um, a coffeemaker. But whatever.)

4. One of the results of all this traveling is that I have TOTALLY missed out so far on one of our serious summer rituals, watching The Tour de France. Normally we are in from Stage 1, but we were gone, and now we are trying to both catch up AND avoid spoilers because of the time difference, which is not easy. But Lance is riding again, which is SO inspiring, and by all accounts it's been really exciting so far. With me gone this weekend, I have a feeling my husband will watch nothing BUT cycling. Break out the red wine and blue cheese, we are touring!

5. Do you ever feel like so much has happened, and you wish you could just go back and SLOOOW it all down so you could enjoy it all over again? That's how I feel about the last month or so. I mean, taken alone, ANY of the stuff that happened---the book hitting number one, being on GMA and Today and in EW, me on NPR---would be huge. But altogether, with the traveling, it's just like a crazy big fun blur. But it has been fun, so fun, and I'm kind of sad to see this leg of it all end. I wonder if once I'm home, or even next month, it will be too late to try to still savor it all? Eli and Auden would say no, it's never too late. I hope they're right. On a sort of related note, I was reading US Weekly last night and there's Lauren Conrad, whose LA Candy came out the same day as Along for the Ride. First, she does NOT look all fried and exhausted like I do. She is cute and fashionable and fresh-faced (in my defense, though, she also does not have a toddler. Just saying.). But in one quote, she says, "I'm almost done with my second book!" And okay, I'm not trying to be competitive, but WHOA. I haven't even started my next book yet. Uh-oh. Guess it might be time to get back to work?

Have a great day, everyone!

As much as it pains me to ask this...

Does anyone know where in town I can buy Twilight merchandise? I'm doing this secret swap thing online and my partner is *obsessed* by it apparently. Stationery (notebook/pens) would be ideal, but I'll consider anything.

Thanks!

Title: Saving Rainbows
Author: carotiscommunis
Genre: sci-fi
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,190
Summary: Yolanda Peru details her mission to capture rainbows.
Author's Note: Comments of any kind would make me so very, very happy. Please and thank you. :D


click to read Saving Rainbows


Cheers,
xoxo

"all types of touching, kissing, and holding are seen as sexual foreplay rather than accepted as ordinary means of communication that carried different meanings in different contexts..."

i want to explore this more in my life

I spent an invigorating hour this afternoon watching the database majestically migrate across nominal space from one server to another, doubtless in the same, humming, overcooled room. Not that I'd know, it was on the other end of the phone, where a man called Stephen reacted to my having a series of quick tests ready to run while he listened in with faintly bewildered surprise. Maybe people just usually don't bother checking, and spend the rest of the month ringing back and shouting.

It safely dodged the crocodiles, so I went back to the vast read/research list which hopefully will bring me up to stage on IAG and checking the information schedule for the next few months. Which was when I found out that National Samaritans Day is on my birthday. I mean, I don't begrudge them and the whole 24/7 thing makes it an obvious choice, and yes, OK, but nevertheless it was a real Saturday's child moment.

Got home to discover that we'd achieved wall and Handy Andy the Indie Builder came round with some beer to regale us with tales of backstage boosh and relieve us of some of our savings. Upstairs, last night's sealant fit had made the shower uglier but less inclined to wash water down the wall. Me last night: I thought the black stuff between the tiles was dirt, not gaps! More learning from last night; check how to get silicon sealant off your hand before your hands are covered with the stuff.

I harvested my first aubergine. Tim used it to bulk out a kedgeree. It was delicious.

Evening folks!

Plans for Sunday night? Cancel them - this will be way better!
Free hard rock gig at Henry's Cellar Bar this Sunday (12th July)

Lineup: Februus , Dead On The Live Wire and Safe Search Is Off
It's all going down at 7:30pm

How much 'free' can we give you?
Free entry! free CD's! free USB sticks! Free love! Oh my!

Hope to see you there! :)

( Flyer and Facebook event link under cut )