Tea with Tara

Having a little cup of tea over the internet with tara....

Latest happenings around here.....

Still no real work....which is really crampin' my style. We haven't heard any "official" news from production at all...but the Dominion Post here seems to think that the film will not continue. which is a real shame. seriously. We have built and painted these gorgeous sets and props, which no one will see...

i don't want to talk about it.

ANYWAY, here a few pictures from the weekend. The Cuba St. Carnival was saturday and Manuel and i walked around a bit....interesting sights but a little too crowded and chaotic for my taste.


these flags were cool though!


And so was this giant puppet person. though i'm not sure why he's a skeleton.


And these girls were dancing with drinks on their heads and didn't spill a single drop!


and THIS is the most glorious thing i've ever seen!! I wanted to take it home and name it sasha and ride it everyday....


Also, on the weekend, I finally got around to cleaning up our spare room. Now i have a nice clean tabletop to be creative on! and floor space to do a cartwheel, if i so choose.....

Homemade pizza....

And let me just take a moment to show you how cool this pizza base and sauce are. First of all, totally cool packaging: pink with a crown. (tara...do you have a pizza company in new zealand you haven't told me about?...) Second of all, the wrapper says "proudly supporting NZ poets", and includes a little poem printed on a card in each package! which makes me think i should eat pizza more often...
more updates to come. i still have my trip to brisbane to post about, and that time i met a kangaroo!

Hiking adventure in Eastbourne

On Friday, since it was a public holiday here in New Zealand (Waitangi Day)...Manuel didn't have to work, so we went on a little hiking adventure on the other side of the bay in Eastbourne. We took the ferry over with some of our Swiss friends that live here in Wellington...
Leaving central Wellington behind...




Something you don't see everyday.... these crazies were at the dock waiting to take the ferry over to the city. The rugby sevens were in town and everyone was dressed up...it's some sort off crazy carnival.
The beach on the Eastbourne side of the Bay
Giant sunglasses? Check. Ready for hiking.
This could be my dream house...and dream car.. seriously. such a cute little seaside village!
walking along the coast to the park where the track begins..
THIS was the police station! so cute!
The beginning of our walk.
A view from one of the lookout points. Gosh it was a gorgeous day


Getting higher and higher up in the mountains..
Our reward after a good day's hike! Homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream!!

When life gives you lemons....

juice them all into an ice cube tray to freeze for later use!


So I recently came into a HUGE bag of lemons...and with no immediate plans to make 5 Lemon Meringue pies, followed the advice of my cooking guru friend Wendy, and juiced them all into a ice cube tray! Now if I need fresh lemon juice, i can just defrost a few cubes:) I also zested several with my handy-dandy zester (courtesy of Mrs. Donna Martin), which I will also freeze in my little tupperware :)

Tomorrow's mission will be making something with the HUGE bag of rhubarb that I was also given.....

a glimpse of the happenings around here for the last 2 months...

So here is a picture of my freshly washed paint clothes. They haven't been getting much use lately unfortunately because of production delays...but apparently according to production management, we will be starting back "any day now.."...and according to Wellington newspapers, we already have.

And now: A few pictures from around my great city in the summer time :)

First up: Post Office Square, just outside of Manuel's office building, with Queen's Wharf across the street.


Lambton Quay. A main street in the central business district.

Manuel and I took a leisurely stroll through the Botanical Gardens one weekend. Gorgeous!

manuel strolling...

A view of the Rose Gardens from above



we couldn't stay and enjoy the roses too long because they made manuel sneeze. he is allergic to everything. everything.


This was a cute dog that was biting the sprinkler water. He would chase it around and just bite it.


THIS, my friends, is a Colossal Squid. On exhibit in the Te Papa museum. It was caught near Antarctica by a New Zealand fishing team and is almost 14 feet long! I had been trying to talk manuel into going to see it with me for about a month and we FINALLY went :)