Updates & Ramblings

Well life's staying pretty busy; today I have work as usual, but then instead of collapsing in a heap like I usually do on Friday afternoons, o heading to bed early, I'll be attending a cousin's 21st in Wellington. I think I'll be pretty much going from the airport to dinner so it will be pretty busy. Then on Saturday hopefully meet up with friends, out with my aunty and cousin for a bit, and then fly home again! So I suspect it will be a long weekend, but not very restful :P Should be good though.

Music classes are going well.Private lessons are scheduled fairly evenly over two days, which is more manageable than one, but not all over the place like it could be if I spread them out even more. This term I've picked up a couple new private (recorder) students, and my times at school have shifted to the same day so I can work an extra afternoon at preschool. 

I discovered a new favourite comedian recently! I can't remember exactly how I came across him; he may have done a show with Tim Hawkins? Anyway, John Crist is pretty awesome. Probably his top three videos would be Christian Mingle Inspector, GET OFFENDED: The Fake Outrage App, and Christian Girl Instagram. I can't find the name of the girl in the last one? A few people have said in the comments section that she looks really familiar, and I agree, but I can't place her. I see some resemblance to Jessica Willis. Anyone else have any idea?

We had an interesting culinary experiment yesterday. The littlest bro very thoughtfully made his sis a birthday cake -- chocolate, with pink  icing. I don't know that he was given a specific measurement for the food colouring, so he just kept pouring until he achieved a colour he was happy with. I informed everyone present afterwards that red velvet cake was the ONLY instance in which it is permissible to use a whole, or nearly a whole bottle of colouring. As it turns out, raspberry essence has a much weaker colouring and much stronger flavour than pink food colouring!

Oh and who had the brilliant idea to introduce ads to Instagram?! First the update that blew up social media because the home feed wasn't going to be chronological anymore, and now wonderful ads! Reckon I'll be spending more time over here instead. ;)

During the holidays Susannah was in Auckland for a few days with her family. Coffee, shopping, kids program (the main church building where the actual conference was had free wifi! #score), talking -- the weekend flew by but it was great to catch up in person again. Besides, it's cheaper on the phone bill :P Now, to find a way to bring Auckland and Wellington closer . . .

Also met up with a couple of other friends during the holidays, spent a (minimal) amount of time relaxing at home, crossed a few things off my to do list, helped some friends get organised for their move down south (seriously, Auckland is growing simultaneously larger and smaller! :/) . . . and suddenly term three is upon us!

Lastly, be sure to check back here tomorrow! ;)

Diana

Happy 11th Birthday, Diana!

Feeding Lambs {August 28, 2015}

Last year some friends asked if we would be able to feed their lambs a couple of times while they were busy with a conference. Mum jumped at the chance; she had planned to take some of the little ones to Ambury Farm Park for the lamb feeding, but this was an even better opportunity!

: : Little onlookers staying safely on the other side of the gate (lol) : :

AHE Cross Country {August 20, 2015}

Some of the little siblings competed in AHE's Cross Country last year. 

Diana's Birthday Party {August 8, 2015}

TWENTY || Years of Birthdays {and the conclusion of this series}

So I had this brilliant idea to find a photo of me on every single one of my birthdays, and scan and post them on {for} my 20th this year. I think I actually started uploading late last year. For more recent years it wasn't too hard to find the photos (although some years there aren't any very good ones :P), but for the years before we had a digital camera, I haven't managed to find everything I was looking for. Apparently we've lost a lot of photos because they were stored in the garage which had a leaky roof for a long time :'( We may have a couple more in albums, which I'll consider uploading and adding to this post if we find them soonish. In the meantime, though, I'm not going to abandon the whole post because of the years I'm missing.

This will be my last post for this month, so it is also the conclusion to my series TWENTY. My birthday month is coming to an end; the celebrations are over; I no longer have to think about my response when someone asks my age. 

I didn't feel any different as a 20-year-old on July 2nd than I did the day before when I was 19 (surprise, surprise), but I know I've grown since this time last year. No doubt the coming year will present new experiences and challenges, and this time next year I'll look back and see how much I've changed. 

Thanks so much to everyone who has sent me cards, gifts, and wishes, or followed along for this series! :) July is just about over, but stick around in August for more posts on the blog -- my work schedule is pretty busy but hopefully I can make time to carry out my plans for this spot on the web ;)

: : Day 1 : :

: : 1st birthday : :

Jump a few years since we're missing the photos between here . . .

: : 8th birthday : :
{Yes, I scanned this out of an old journal}

: : 9th birthday : :

: : 10th birthday : :

: : 11th birthday : :

: : 12th birthday : :

: : 13th Birthday : :

: : 14th Birthday : :

: : 15th Birthday : :

: : 16th Birthday : :

: : 17th Birthday : :

: : 18th Birthday : :

: : 19th Birthday : :

: : 20th Birthday : :

TWENTY || Strange Musical Instruments

So music is a pretty big part of my life and I mainly work with fairly regular instruments. Experimenting with different materials and playing with sound are good things to do too, though! Here are twenty not-so-standard instruments. I had fun researching these and I hope you enjoy looking through! :) How many did you already know about?

1: Octobass

2: Sheng

A modified version playing the Mario theme song is here

3: Wintergaten

I couldn't find an image, but here's a YouTube vid for it

4: Serpent

5: Hydraulophone

This is a pretty good video of it in action.

6: Zeusaphone

See (hear) it here

7: Nyckelharpa

8: Holophonor

9: Hardingfele

10: Lur

11: Singing Ringing Tree

12: Jew's Harp

13: Crwth

14: Glass Harmonica

15: Erhu

16: Ocarina

An ancient wind instrument, the ocarina has between 4 and 12 holes,
and can be made of plastic, wood, ceramic, metal, glass, or bone.
We actually bought a ceramic one for Mum after seeing Aussie Mike Jackson perform for our homeschool group :)

17: Cimbalom

18: Balalaika

A Russian, plucked string instrument

19: Pikasso Guitar

20: Vegetable Orchestra

Lol I don't even know what to think of this ;P
Se here and here