About two weeks ago I received an email from my local library to tell me a book I had reserved was ready for pick up. By the end of last week I still hadn’t collected it and I was about to miss the deadline for collection so I phoned the library to discuss this. I explained how I’d put off collecting a book for so long it was probably too late, the guy asked me for my name and what was the book called.  I said I had no idea what it was called but it was about Procrastination.  He at least had the good humour to see the funny side of this and laughed.

So I arranged to collect the book from the library in town, that way I could pick it up in a lunch break.  Today was the day, I headed off to the library after eating my lunch quickly leaving just enough time to get to the library and back before my lunch break was over.  On the way to the library I noticed lots of people milling around waiting for something.  I didn’t have time to wait and see what was going to happen so I crossed the road and hurried into the library.

I found the book in the holds section and went to the self check out machine.  I love that machine it’s so cool.  I scanned my card no problem but it wouldn’t read the barcode of the book.  I tried many times but couldn’t get it to recognise the book, but it gave some message about continuing with any more items.  I pressed the I’m done button and it didn’t issue me with a receipt.  After wasting more time a lovely lady came over and asked if I was alright.  I said no not really and explained how the machine didn’t issue me with a receipt so I don’t know if I’d checked the book out or not.  She looked at me like that was the strangest thing she’d ever heard, took me over to the main computer, scanned my library card and said no the book hadn’t been checked out yet.  So she did it for me… she opened the book found the library bar code and scanned it no problem.  I then realised embarrassingly I had stupidly been trying to scan the publisher’s bar code on the back of the book and not the library bar code.  Oops!!!

So after all that I was in a bit of a hurry to get back to work and not be late – but I was stuck on the wrong side of the road and couldn’t cross back over Queen St to get to work because there was a parade.  Of all parades to be holding me up it was – BOOBS on BIKES!

Of course if I hadn’t procrastinated by having lunch before I went to the library I wouldn’t have got stuck staring at all those boobs on bikes.  So how does this sound to you… upon returning to work trying to explain to my boss the reason I was a bit late back was because I went to the library to get a book out but got stuck waiting for the Boobs on Bikes parade to finish.

Technology these days is awesome. Here I am waiting for the plane to take off for Wellington and while waiting I can make a video of the plane, upload it to YouTube and then link the video to my blog so you can all see it 🙂

Shortly after take off I will even be able to use my cell phone to make calls plus send and receive text messages. Awesome.

Yesterday I did the Auckland University Heritage Walk.  It was the perfect day for it, not too cold – not too hot, beautiful clear blue skies and hardly any people around.  The walk was fascinating and very educational, well worth taking the time to do.

In a small park that stretches all the way from Symonds Street down to Beach Road, we spotted this sign.  From a distance it looked like the sign said No Smoking, but after closer inspection we realised it said No Swimming. The sign doesn’t look all that old, so it must have been recently replaced but the weird thing is… WHY?  Why is the sign there and why can’t you swim, there is no water to swim in anyway.

My guess is that originally this park led you down to the water’s edge on Beach Road, perhaps it didn’t used to be a road at the bottom of the hill but an actual beach.  So why couldn’t you swim there?  Or is the whole thing just a funny joke?

My friend Michelle emailed me today with a link explaining exactly what the sign is for.  Seems I guessed right: Click Me

Today I had lunch with a friend at a great cafe near the library in Highbury.  After lunch I decided to have a look round the library – something I have been meaning to do ever since it reopened about 2 years ago.

A very friendly lady came up and asked me if there was anything she could help me with (I had to do some quick thinking there for something that I might be interested in) so I said I was looking for books on photography, specifically Brian Brake photography.  Turns out they have several but they are all out or in other libraries, so together we reserved them all.  Of course I couldn’t find my card as I hadn’t been to a library for years, so she simply issued me a new one and this one of course is an Auckland library card which gives me access to any of the 55 libraries around Auckland, including the big one in the city.

While she was setting me up with my new card I looked round and right next to where I was sitting was a book of photos by another famous New Zealander that I had seen in the shops for $99 so I grabbed that one and asked if I could put that on my new card, she said sure and took me to the self check out machine.

I had completely forgotten how cool the library is, so if you haven’t been lately I thoroughly recommend it.  The top photo is the new library and the second photo is the view from the library.

Today I went to the Mega Mitre 10 store near Wairau Road to get a washer thingy for my toilet with Dad.  We asked someone where the plumbing section was and were politely shown exactly where to go.  Soon we found the washer we needed, it was a little bit bigger but for where it was supposed to go, it didn’t matter, I figured it would actually create a better seal around the pipe.

Then the most amazing customer service happened.  A man who worked there bowled up to us and said: “Sorry guys that’s not the one you need, it won’t fit – see it’s slightly bigger than yours.  We don’t sell the one you want, but you can get it from Reece’s in Mairangi Bay, they’re open till 4:00 today.”

Wow – I’m still blown away by the complete randomness of this.  If he didn’t observe us selecting the wrong thing, we would’ve gone home none the wiser and wondered why it didn’t work.

Because of this awesome service I said to Dad we really should buy something from here anyway.  Between the two of us we ended up spending about $40, which was ten times more than we would’ve spent on one washer.  We went to Reece’s, they had the right washer and it works beautifully.

So thank you Mitre 10 – AND they have Fly Buys.

This is the most amazing poinsettia I have ever owned. It’s nearly July and it still has several bright red leaves. Usually this type of plant has lost all it’s red leaves and just looks manky by now – of course I am talking about ones I’ve owned, I’m not talking about this plant in general.

Today started out at the movies in St Lukes – X Men, which was great. Then I met up with a friend in Titirangi to view several photographic exhibitions.

The last exhibition we went to was at the Corban’s Estate and that one would be my favourite so far. That’s were I took the photo of the church above. I must go back there one day to photograph it properly, there’s even a heritage walk we can do.

While having coffee in Titirangi my friend pulled these two amazing old cameras out of her bag for me to look at.

It struck me later as I looked back on my day and though about the cool contrasting moments I had. The exhibitions were of modern images in really old buildings. While enjoying coffee – a relatively new thing to do – I was holding an impressively old camera which belonged to a new friend. I started out my day seeing a brand new high tech movie with an “old” friend and ended my day in an old vineyard with a new friend.