How we roll in Mt Vic

Walking home from lunch yesterday, Lil snapped this grafittied street sign on the corner of Brougham and Pirie Streets.

The adult voice in my head tells me to be outraged at the destruction of a Stop sign - that it could cause accidents, yada, yada. But the juvenile voice laughs and thinks it's kinda clever, while the sensible voice asks why I haven't got better things to worry about.

And yes, I am slightly perturbed that there are so many voices in my head.

   

Friday dash - and another Stuff Family Time piece

Having spent far too long gossiping over teriyaki tofu with Lil, I now have to spend the rest of the day playing catchup. No time for words so instead you shall have another in the Family Time series I recently did for Stuff on the very lovely Karen Fistonich (below), NZ's first daughter of wine, and how she juggles family and career (click here to read).

Happy Friday everyone...

(Pic Credit: Stuff)

A visitor from Auckland

Yesterday arvo our friend Lil arrived to stay for a few nights. Bristol was thrilled to be reunited with Aunty Lil who looked after him when we were in Seoul for work earlier this year.

There was wine, Thai takeout and so much chatting and laughing, my throat thinks I've been gargling with razor blades. Good times.

Baking with my Mother

This month's North & South Magazine runs one of my more personal pieces of writing, about years of identical Sunday afternoons spent baking with my mother (click here to read).

Photoshoot

On Friday it was my hands (!) and today it was the Brizzmeister's turn in front of the camera.

My friend Catherine owns a fantastic canine clothing and accessories company called Sparkles the Dog; I've previously done stories on her and she's gifted my various woofers all sorts of fantabulous swag over the years.

The other day two items arrived in the post - would The Hound be willing to model a couple of items from Sparkles' new Spring/Summer range? And could the Animator take the pics? It was a resounding yes to both. Bristol was a natural, turning his head this way and that and holding a pose for ages. I think I may have to register him with an agency...

  

Busy Sunday

The day started with another Your Home & Garden interview - this time with an architect and stylist and their cute beach-side cottage in Lyall Bay.

Later we crossed the city for a doggie meet up in Brooklyn and, as Sunday wore itself out, we walked down to the waterfront for Diwali, the Festival of Lights, with our good friend Faramund where we gobbled the best onion bhajis in the world. The Animator is still banging on about them.

Best of all, it's Labour Day tomorrow which means the usual Sunday night melancholy about having to haul arse into the gulag for another week (or three days, in my case) is wonderfully absent.  

Here's visual evidence of today:

  
(Pic Credits: Mereana Beconcini (house pics), Tania S from Doggie Meet Ups and Newstalk ZB)

Yowser

I am probably the last person on planet earth to see Gravity, but Holy Toledo, this film packs more of a punch than debris from a Russian satellite.

Like Sandra Bullock's character, I spent much of the movie in a blind panic, wondering how the hell they were going to get out alive. As the woman next to me commented to her mate at the end, "That is the most tense I have been for ages".

The presence of Gorgeous George did, of course, help. And the normally annoying-beyond-belief 3D somehow didn't even register. But it still took a Pad Thai and a velvety red to decompress.

Go and see Gravity now. And if you've already seen it, see it again.