Tag Archives: Wellington

“The boy can deliver it.”

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Groceries delivered - job done. Grazie mille.

Groceries delivered – job done. Grazie mille.

One thing we needed to do early in our stay was to shop for groceries. This meant a trip to the alimentari in the village – a walk of about 1km – but importantly, the same distance home with arms weighed down with shopping bags. Not a problem until you realise the temperature is about 28 degrees and quite humid, and the walk is predominately up hill.

Thankfully the lovely staff at the store recognised us from years past – asked if we had the dogs with us – sadly not this time, and made the kind offer that “the boy” could deliver the groceries – si, graze mille.

You cannot understand how happy that made us feel – as we added another few bottles of beer and tonic and water and bread and vegetables to the order.

The delivery address was confirmed using a picture of the villa we had on our phones – yes, next to the madonna on via Marconi. What is that villa like inside? More photos and discussion about decor and layout. It’s spacious, yes, very nice.

The walk back was a delight and as promised “the boy” – looking a little hot and bothered – delivered everything an hour later. That was worth a generous tip.

 

What is wrong with this picture?

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Porsche in a row
It’s not simply that both Porsches are making visits to the Powerhaus for repairs at the same time. It’s something to do the with back of the 911 being way up off the ground.

That’s right dear reader, the engine that usually resides in the back of the 911 is currently across the workshop bolted to an engine stand awaiting surgery.

The Powerhaus medical team of Reuben, Dave and Reuben are working on a fix for a faulty oil return valve – hopefully which doesn’t involve stripping the engine down any further.

The 356 (which still has it’s engine attached, thankfully) is waiting for parts for a starter motor which are coming from the US. So with luck, that will be home in the next few days. The wait for the 911 will be a little bit longer.

So close and yet so far

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The tyranny of winterToday was a beautiful sunny winters day in Wellington. But as some of you know, our place is shaded over winter and all we saw of the sunny day was tantalisingly beyond our front fence.

It must be time to plan an escape to the sun.

 

Winter is here

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Poppie in front of the fireIt’s one day after the shortest day of the year and winter has arrived in Wellington.

The temperature today peaked at 8 degrees celsius and is currently sitting at 5 degrees celsius. There is a southerly wind straight from Antarctica hammering the front windows and the rain is showing signs of turning to sleet.

What better night to light the first fire of the season – and for Poppie to rediscover the delight of a warm hearth.

It’s been a while since a puppy shot has featured

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This morning young Bella quietly disappeared upstairs. Time passed and, as often happens, we suspected she was up to no good – but it turned out to be the opposite. She was curled up on the bed, on our pillows, asleep.

So not only was she rudely woken up but she then had a camera shoved in her face.  What does a girl have to do for a good sleep around our place?

Colourising old photos

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I’ve been playing around with colourising old black and white photographs using Photoshop. The technique is quite simple – if a little time consuming – and makes use of various blend modes to overlay colour on black and white while retaining the detail of the photograph.

Rather than trying to mimic a colour photo, the technique replicates the days when colour photos were simply black and white prints that had been hand coloured. Part of the fun is selecting the colours for clothes, backgrounds and the like. There is no reference colours so it’s all up to the imagination.

Below are a few examples of what can be done – using shots of various members of the family – well mainly me from many years ago.

 

Spot the problem

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356 stuckI was driving home Thursday night. It was a beautiful evening, the rain that had hung around all day had cleared. It was still and clear. I had just picked up the 356 from the Powerhaus where it had a new ignition switch fitted and it was running like a dream.

All was well with the world.

I was winding around the hills of Wellington on one of those narrow roads that is only wide enough for two cars when a bus approached from the other direction. A bus always looks big but on narrow Grafton Road it looked huge. The only option was for one of us to mount the pavement to let the other pass. As the bus approached I realised that was going to be me. But no problems, it was a lovely night, there was room for both of us.

I used a driveway ramp to get my left hands wheels up onto the pavement. All went we’ll until my front and rear wheels dropped into the gap between the driveway ramp and the pavement and I was stuck. Completely stuck – I couldn’t move forward or backward. No amount of power would free the wheels.

Bugger.

A call to the AA rapidly had a service vehicle on the scene. The bemused AA man admitted that this was a first for him but with a gentle pull the 356 was free and the journey home was completed without incident and only a slight denting of pride.

 

 

Bella on the landing

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Bella has taken to sitting on the landing and watching what is happening below. She won’t come down or go up, she just sits – unless there’s something on offer of course. Like a treat.

 

A month of birthdays

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February is always a big birthday month at our place with both Jean and I celebrating another year passing. So blogging, quite rightly, takes a back seat to presents, cards, celebrations and birthday cakes.

Every so often there is a “big birthday” which warrants extra attention and this year it was one for Jean. There was a gathering of friends and family from all over the country and a night of merriment and good cheer. Followed by a day or so of quiet recovery.

To everyone who sent Jean and myself best wishes or who were part of the celebration, a huge thank you.

 

Two months with the new iPhone 6 Plus

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IPhonesAt the end of November, Jean and I decided to shout each other new phones for Christmas. The iPhone 4S that we each had were showing their age and the new iPhone 6 was beckoning.

Having heard about short supply and 2 week delay in delivery, we went shopping at the end of November assuming we’d get phones just before Christmas. As it turned out we walked out of the Spark shop on Lambton Quay holding two new iPhone 6 Plus’ which were active within a hour. Well done Daniel from Spark, two happy customers.

As a side note, we were Vodafone mobile customers but after their cock up with Jean’s roaming in Italy in August and the 59 minute wait on the phone for their call centre help a week or so prior, we were moving. Sorry Vodafone, you’re losing the plot in terms of support and as a result you’ve lost us as customers. By the way the 59 minute wait ended only because I hung up, not because they actually answered.

After two months using Apple’s biggest phone, I’m pleased to say that neither of us would swap them for anything. And so far, both phones are unbent and undropped and have become a necessary part of our lives.

And yes, bigger is better. The idea of using our 4S phones to sit and surf the net wasn’t an option given the screen size, but the 6 Plus is regularly used to do just that. In fact I no longer carry my iPad around as the 6 Plus has become the computer in my pocket.

The landscape mode – where you can swivel the phone 90 degrees and the desktop follows is great and the ability to use a split screen for mail and browsing is also a bonus.

It’s fast too, with all apps running without any lag and video and photos looking superb.

The downside of “Plus” is the stretch required to reach the top of the screen. Apple thought about this and with a double tap of the Home button the screen slides down for easier access but at times it is cumbersome to use and two hands are needed.

My litmus test for size was the ability to slip the phone into a jacket inside pocket. It fits perfectly and the lightness and slimness both help to not make it feel bulky.

Would we go back? No way. And now all we need to go with it is “the watch” – so roll on April.

 

A post with something for everyone

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Bella with Pop in backgroundIt’s not often a single post can appeal to a range of different interests – but this one really hits the mark. It’s a picture of the dogs in our front yard but it offers so much more.

For dogs lovers it’s Bella taking some time out from patrolling the front gate with Poppie still on guard in the background. She’s wondering why I’m lying full length on the grass – hence the quizzical look.

For gardeners it’s a study in lawns – check out that lush green growth clipped to perfection and standing to attention – defying a hot and dry Wellington summer’s afternoon which is arguably one of the best summers anyone can remember.

For photographers the shot was achieved with the camera flat on the grass and was one of about 30 shots taken as the girls wandered around.

The camera used was my Nikon D7000 with a Nikkor 18 – 70mm zoom lens set to 50mm, the aperture at F9 to keep Bella in focus and to throw Poppie slightly out of focus, and the  shutter speed at 125th of a second to freeze any rapid movement. In Photoshop I replaced the original image of Poppie with one from another shot so she was looking up, cropped the shot using the rule of thirds (Bella’s head is about 1/3 of the way down the shot and 1/3 of the way in from the right), removed the distracting bright round hole in the gate, sharpened around Bella’s face and generally corrected the colour. Simple.

I’ve included the original shot for comparison.

 

2014 – the year that was

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It was a fun old year at our place. As always there seemed to be a lot happening but when I look back at the photos we’ve taken, our trip in August and those puppies – well Bella mainly – seem to dominate.

Puppie sleepover

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Last weekend was a big one for Poppie and Bella – they had two friends sleepover.

Macey and Georgie came to stay and for two days our house was a sea of moving Bichons. Wherever you looked there was a pair, or three, or four dogs playing, eating, sleeping or barking at the gate.

It was great fun for all involved and Sunday night our girls slept well, completely exhausted.

Bats out for Phillip Hughes

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PutOutYourBatsI’m a cricket fan. In fact I’m sitting watching the Black Caps play Pakistan as I write this and waiting for Kayne Williamson to score his double century – hopefully.

And as a show of support for the late Phil Hughes, today, the bat was out.