I layed-over in Philadelphia for a couple of nights between conferences on my 2011 American Odyssey tour. I was most excellently hosted by Doc Karma, taking a day off from his plans for world domination (they still need a little work as they hinge on his invasion forces walking to New Zealand).
USS Olympia is tied up there, opposite the New Jersey…I was fascinated by the contrasts in decor between one of the first modern ironclads and one of the last. ornate, most definitely. Over the top…nope, just the standards of the time…
Wheelhouse
Wardroom
Even the armament has an ornate steam-punky arty feel to it…
This week’s photo challenge theme is “Treat,” an intentionally open-ended prompt. This week, share with us a photo of something that you consider a marvellous treat.
Doing dinner with my youngest daughter and her partner….
Any and all time with the twin terrors….
Kiwi sign outside the office…
About once a year…someone else gets a treat too…
Geeking out with my oldest daughter each once month when her Nerd Block fix arrives…
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Happy Place.”
In a most happy place over Queenstown 1998
One of my all time favourite ‘desert island’ books is Wilbur Smith’s Eagle in the Sky. “He’ll be in the sky” are Debra’s words when he disappears near the story’s end…well, the book’s end anyway: Eagle is one of those tales that you hope never ends, that David and Debra go on and on…
As much as I love aviation, I never got round to learning to fly but when I need to go, I go for height, up a hill, onto a mountain, some place high and quiet where I can look down and think.
My other happy place is at a keyboard or holding a pen, using words to seek and maintain balance, to put my feelings some place where they become tangible and malleable. I can’t promise the words will always make sense or that later on I might not remember the emotion behind them but they lie as reminders of places I have been, journeys I have made, people I have been…words as much a sanctuary as a windy hilltop or craggy peak…
Happy place does not necessarily mean tidy place!!!
We’re a little lucky here, that we don’t really have much of an off-season…maybe three weeks between the end of the ski season and the start of the summer season; and May and June can be pretty slow as well once the Great Walks end and the uncertainty over first snow begins for another year…
In winter the main street in ‘town’ is fully of cars either heading up to the ski field or trying to head up to the ski field is the road is closed or restricted to vehicles with chains or 4WD (pull up a chair to observe case studies in crowd behaviour!); playing in snow on the side of the road; wandering in and out of the cafes…
In summer, it’s much the same…less but not necessarily no snow…this clip went viral from the Park Facebook page as it snowed heavily on the first day of summer last year…
…but generally summer = as many, if not more, visitors, less clothing and more sun…
Summer 2014 started for us in October with a brill period of beautiful summery weather as the Great Walks opened…the first day that it was so hot we opened all the doors and windows, it started to snow…the biggest dump of the winter and we were back to winter for six weeks…six weeks where five of six Wednesdays it snowed heavily in the Village…six weeks of chaos as we shuffled, cancelled and refund Great Walks bookings…six weeks of the most intense staff training as we brought a 90% new crew up to speed…
The autumn (fall) off-season is a little more stable, consistent but no less intense…it is our main window of opportunity for maintenance, stocktakes, product development, updating brochures, possibly even a little leave, training, strategising, sometimes even just relishing the opportunity to put our feet up for a few minutes and talk ‘stuff’…
…and then the snow falls and it starts all over…
It only works with a great team…proof that paying peanuts doesn’t always get you monkeys…
…a big bone…New World Taumarunui was selling these for a dollar each – great for ‘staff’ morale and they last a lot longer than the average chew.
A couple of nights after they got these, Kirk woke me up around 3AM, whining at the front door. Sometimes he will does this when he thinks there is something outside – usually a deer – or when he needs to ‘go’. It was a clear moonlit night so I followed him outside to see what had piqued his interest.
We went up to the top of the house driveway and then a wee ways down the long driveway that runs further down the hill. About 20 metres along the way, Kirk stopped, and shovelled some leaves out of the way with his head. Satisfied, he turned around and trotted back to the house…no stray trampers…no dodgy deer…just checking that his bone was still where he had hidden it.
Having a large dog that likes to watch TV is often like getting the last seat at the movies – right behind the guy with the big hair…
This is Kirk…his habit started with dogs shows like It’s Me Or The Dog and A Dog’s Show and we could always tell with shows used real dog sounds and which relied on canned noises by the level of interest he would show. His taste has slowly broadened over the years to include animal shows, especially Country Calendar; reality shows – possibly because of the uncanned emotion they display; and the lower end of ‘B’ science fiction movies – basically the cornier the monster costume, the more he likes it….
When we let the dogs inside, Lulu will smooch around for cuddles and attention but Kirk will race around to the TV. If it’s not on, he will sit up straight (because that’s how good dogs get what they want) in front of the screen if it’s not not and cry until it’s is either turned on for him or he’s gets the messages and slouches onto his mat to sulk. If the TV is already on, he will watch for a few seconds and pass judgement on the content by either going to sleep – with the standard of modern TV, he sleeps a lot – or arranging himself so it can watch from his mat…
There are three scratches on the screen. That’s from when he preemptively protected me from an on-screen polar bear. So he’s not allowed to watch TV on his own anymore…
When I used to live here.
The World According to Me... 