Like a moth to a flame all right ...

Captivating hula hooping ...

How cute is this guy?

AMAZING entertaining, enlightening and inspirational play

Link to Committed
Written and performed by Clarissa Chandrahasen.

WOW Clarissa blew my mind with her one woman play about her experiences of being bi-polar. She did a fabulous job of giving us some insight as to what it is like to be as high as a kite loving life and thinking that everything is perfectly shaped just for you to succeed to the low of not being able to move off the couch for 3 months and thinking of dying every single conscious second.

Hat's off to the amazing Clarissa for being so warm and encompassing as well as a brilliant comic - her timing is spot on. I had belly laughs in entirely unexpected places. Really clever use of simple but well thought out props helped heighten the experience. The lighting and sound team also did an amazing job with perfect continuity.

Bravo Clarissa and team, I really hope you are able to share this story far and wide and to help break down some of the barriers and prejudices around mental illness.

Dancing Kereru

Best viewed on you tube CLICK HERE else this format hides her noggin (head).

So cool to have the cherry blossom in flower as the Kereru visit to nom the flowers and new shoots. They're relatively friendly so OK with me (with the 200mm lens) taking video from about 3m away. 

Please click on the vid to go to Youtube to see the full frame else it will only show his body for half the vid.

Blue as an earth shadow

I'd often wondered what this wonderful blue line of light is that appears opposite the sun at dawn or dusk. Took me a minute to get my head around it being the shadow of the earth stopping the suns rays hitting the atmosphere. It's a great reminder of how small I am.
Earth shadow on Wikipedia

Matches, I've got matches

Celebrating 20 years!

Visiting good friends in Wellington I returned to my car to find a folded note under the windscreen wiper. Thought it was a ticket to begin with so was pleasantly surprised to read that a car company were about film a new advertisement and wanted to use my car. They came and took her away for a few days and a couple of people saw her on a vehicle mover all by herself on her way to Wellington for filming. 

And here it is the Everyday People ad from 1998. She's on there at 18 seconds in, blink and you'll miss her! 

And below on the Desert Road with Mount Ngauruhoe in the background.

Couple more photos in case you're remotely interested ... Mad cow automotive photos on Flickr :) Moo

Like Midas' gold

A history lesson and how we're 
Turning the world into plastic

The teacher

I watched this fun video from Tony & Chelsea Northrup recently. The 5 WORST Types of Photographers

Then yesterday at the bus stop I had an incident that reminded me of it so had to go back and figure out which 'worst type' this guy was! Reckon the closest is 'teacher'.

As I lifted my DSLR from my pack to take a photo of a church across the street this dude who was also waiting at the bus stop wandered over saying “Oh what have you got it on? Spot metering? I never take photos into the sun”. (Sounds limiting I thought as I stood in shade!).
He went on “Have you seen the photos the Huawei P26 takes? They’re almost as good as a DSLR … look look” pulls phone from pocket fumbles a bit then points phone camera directly at the sun, takes 4 photos & turns the screen to show me. “Look, look how good they are”.
Luckily his ride arrived as he was clicking so he had to go before I could respond, saved by the bell or car horn in this case! It was a lesson in saying nothing.

The Fabulous Lux Festival

Had a volunteer shift at the Lux festival and was lucky enough to be given the job of Pom and Pom minder. What a delight it was to follow these characters around, my cheeks hurt from all the laughing. 

The artist Kate Jones walked around with the performers asking children if they'd like to hold the orb and the Poms would snuffle at it making purring noises. It was all rather surreal. The laughter was infectious. I particularly enjoyed watching peoples faces light up when they saw the spectacle of these strange creatures wiggling and giggling.

A post shared by Jane Monaghan (@imajanenz) on May 21, 2018 at 1:10am PDT

Finished up with the Poms at 9pm so had a bit of time to check out the festival so sharing a few photos below. My fave was the cube 803, so clever and beautiful especially when it moved in the wind. 

To view photos large click on photo below & scroll

Cube

Pou Rama

Pou Rama

Whareatua

Bloom

Mandala by Luke Tearle
More info on the Lux site here.

Cube 803 by Toulouse

More info on the Lux site here

Ngā tautiaki o te waonui a Tāne

The guardians of the great forest of Tāne.

Link to more info Lux site here.

 

 Edge of the Universe

More info from the Lux site here.

And later I made a slideshow with video so here you can look at them all again with music from Astral Projection live at Brotherhood Beach.

Link to same movie on Lux Festival on Vimeo

“The greatest challenge in life is to be our own person and accept that being different is a blessing and not a curse. A person who knows who they are lives a simple life by eliminating from their orbit anything that does not align with his or her overriding purpose, values and inspiration. A person must be selective with their time and energy because both elements of life are limited.” 

― Kilroy J. Oldster.

Thanks to my dear friend Vishwanath for sharing this great quote. 

Shining cuckoo and grey warbler dawn

It's pretty boring if you're not into birdsong.  I find the Korimako call rather haunting.  Still, a lovely way to start the day :)

Pukerua Bay

A few photos from a short time spent at Pukerua Bay just north of Wellington.  It's a lovely spot and I could not help but feel refreshed being there beside the sea.  

Reminder to self to watch the end of this ...

Link to interview

Yay for Ted talks

Helpful hints to Remove negative self talk

These might help ...

Inspirational quotes from true artists to help you overcome a creative rut

A few shots from Waterbourne

Saturday at Waterbourne was a bit of fun.  Lots of awesome jumps from the top kite surfers and a very gusty day for the windsurfers.