The funniest thing happened the other day, although this was not funny for the guys it happened to, their boss, or the company that owns the building.

While sitting at my desk I heard a big crash outside. So I got up to look out the window to see if I could see anything. There were two guys standing on top of an atrium roof. One was on a cell phone shaking his head the other was furiously scrubbing the roof with a broom and because it was a very windy day, their ladder had blown over – smashing a skylight and leaving them a bit stuck up there. Luckily one of them had a cell phone and must have called someone for help.

About 10 minutes later a guy dressed in a suit turned up and helped put the ladder back where where they could secure it to the building properly. 10 minutes after that two more guys turned up to cover up the broken skylight hole with a bit of wood.

A bit of excitement for the afternoon 🙂

Last weekend I went away with a group of people to experience something called “On Yer Bike”.  It was AWESOME, I loved it.  Basically you rent a bike from the “On Yer Bike” company in the Hawkes Bay and ride to a whole bunch of fabulous vineyards trying as many wines as you like.  Because you’re on a bike you don’t even have to worry about drink driving – but you do have to worry about falling off your bike.

The company provide you with a bike, helmets, maps, packed lunch, backup support and a collection service to gather up all the wine you have purchased so you don’t have to worry about it getting broken or heavy while riding around.  All this for just $50 – it was well worth it, I totally recommend it and would love to do it again.

After lunch at Te Rau our first stop was the Huka Falls.

Huka Falls

Ever since visiting the falls many years ago and missing out on photographing them, I had wanted to return one day to photograph them.  Unbelievably all those years ago (before digital cameras) just as I was about to take a photo I realised I had run out of film!  Luckily there is a shop at the falls which sells stuff and back then I could buy film.  I loaded up the film, got all excited and then the battery went flat.  The shop did not sell the type of battery my camera needed, so I was doomed.

Rothmans Art Deco Building

It has been a dream of mine for a very long time to go to Napier and take photos of the famous Art Deco buildings in Napier.  On our way to Havelock North we made a special stop so I could photograph the most iconic of all the Napier buildings – the Rothmans building, now called the National Tobacco Company building.

On Yer Bike

Originally uploaded by beejayge

At the start of the bike ride it was a bit like the Amazing Race on TV, coz everybody rushed towards the bikes to make sure they got a good one. Funny thing was I had raved to everybody for days how I wanted a bike with a flag, coz it would be just like when I was 12 years old and had a purple “Chopper” with a big orange safety flag. But when I tried to get onto a bike with a flag, I got stuck with the flag caught between my legs, felt very stupid and rushed for a bike without a flag, giving everybody the excuse that the seat was too high on that bike and never mind I could do without a flag!

After all that wine tasting this is what I bought.  A wee collection of goodies from my favourite three vineyards.

Lionel Ritchie has re-recorded one of his huge hits from the 80s with Guy Sebastion to raise money for two very worthy charities: the Queensland floods and the Christchurch earthquake. I had a feeling I would like the song but didn’t care too much how good it was, I just wanted to buy the song as another way to donate money to the earthquake appeal. But I love it.

I love it so much that today I decided to go to JB HiFi to buy the single again on disk which would cost more than what I paid in iTunes but it would be a worthy cause, however; they told me if it was realeased as a CD it would cost money to produce and ship it so they wouldn’t make as much money for the charities as they would from pure sales in iTunes.

I realise this is a very good point but I still think it would be nice to have the actual CD.  Apparently they don’t sell singles anymore, but I’m sure they do… at the Warehouse.

Anyway… you should all have a listen and buy it as a way to donate a liitle bit more to the earthquake appeal.

Click here to visit iTunes.

Heroic Gardens

Originally uploaded by beejayge

On the 6th of March – about two weeks ago – I went to the Heroic Gardens Festival. As always it was a wonderful day out and even though I went to many of the same gardens it didn’t matter, because there’s always something different. It’s also nice to see how things have grown or changed.

This morning I had two lady friends come to my place for brunch. Now as you may know I don’t cook so the thought of trying to cook breakfast for three people was overwhelming. However it all went really well, everyone liked the food and one of the ladies even said: “Well how am I going to top that when it’s my turn”. Yay!!!

You may also know I can’t multi-task and trying to cook and listen to the conversation was just too hard so I switched off my listening skills and concentrated on the food. This however turned into hysterical laughter as I miss-heard a fairly commonly used phrase and had to ask my friend to repeat what she just said. She is a very lovely lady with much class who certainly doesn’t have a “potty mouth”. So imagine how shocked I was when I thought I heard her say: “Well Barb, what can you do, you have to laugh or you’ll FART”.