Not right....

Sometimes you come across really bizarre stories in the news but this one takes the cake. It's about the third annual Festival of the Guinea Pig in Huacho, Peru. Yup, Festival of the Guinea Pig. They dress them up (more pics here ), have a little fashion show, and then they eat them. Weirded out man. Just totally weirded out.

Land ahoy!

So I got an email from a friend asking if I wanted to go to Brittany for a long weekend and this picture was attached. So of course I had to write back and say, "Fo' real? Is that where we'll be staying?!!?" Coz if so, how does a girl say no?

Budget is tight at the moment, this is true, but the picture sold me and how can you turn down the chance to stay at an old fort on an island? Well on my way home last night I was talking myself out of it but when I checked my email that evening, I was informed that the island is located near Saint-Malo which used to be an old pirate haven. An old pirate haven. Which veryvery firmly sealed the deal. Could we get any closer to Aynia Heaven?
1- island
2- ocean
3- boats
4- PIRATE HAVEN
5- old medieval fortified city
6- "one of the highest concentration of sea food restaurants in Europe"
In fact I may never come back...

Now I just have to convince my friends that when we visit Saint-Malo, it will be compulsory to talk like pirates......

Arts and Crafts Aynia-stylz

Sunday was Cake Sunday (again) but due to the request of the person whose turn it was to choose the baked goods, it turned out to be another Cupcake Sunday. I don't know what my objection to cupcakes is. I guess it's because I hear cupcake and I think fairycake which in the UK seems to mean any cupcake but to me is some sponge-esque thing (translates in Aynia Taste-bud Speak to blaaaaaaaaaaaaaah tastes like nothing) with some sweet butter icing and maybe the butterfly wing thing on top and most likely hundreds and thousands. So it looks cute but tastes like sugary nothing BORINGNESS.

But my friends seem to love cupcakes so I'm branching out and finding exciting recipies and so far, so good. Of course I end up 'doing an Aynia' on most of them. Like the recipe for coconut cherry cupcakes? Well I hate those maraschino cherries so decided cranberries would do instead and if you're having cranberries, you might as well throw in some white chocolate. And I can say, unequivocally, that my Coconut, Cranberry and White chocolate Cupcakes were a roaring success. The coconut made them reminiscent of macaroons which are yumyum yummy.

I also decided that it was time to embrace the spirit of the cupcake and went decoration crazy. And then I went macro-documentation crazy. Look at my works of art:






Hours of fun! The girls even had a go at decorating a few themselves when they came over. Fun for all the family, whatever the age.

the harsh yoke of reality

So I've gallivanted, I've holiday-bonanza-ed, I have worn of the jandal, sweltered in the heat, swum with the fishies, been on the boat and now my fling of carefree tomfoolery is at an end and it's time to knuckle down again. I got back from Egypt last Sunday and gave myself a week of token gesture exercise and eating what I want and having my room still be a bomb site (haven't quite entirely remedied that one yet...) but I have told myself that one week of post-holiday wallowing is enough and now it's back to reality. I started with a run this morning which went much easier than expected which leads me to believe that my body was, quite simply, in shock, and it is only tomorrow when I try to do the same thing that it will, with quiet indignation, refuse to cooperate. Or, because it's more my style, sabotage me in some subtle way.

Egypt (this latest jaunt was to Sharm, or more accurately Naama Bay) was great. It was 37degrees most of the time and the water was usually 28 but as long as I was on the boat and in the shade or in the water, the temperature wasn't so bad. Coming back to a muggy 26 in London actually feels almost as bad. Being by the water and on a boat (Hello, my name is Aynia and I'm addicted to boats) did its usual job of reaffirming my decision to head back down south. The decision feels right and I know it's what I want to do but as the time looms closer (and it is looming folks), I find that what I'm really going to miss is my people. If I could take my friends and associated social groups back with me, life would be perfect. The sad thing about leaving Egypt this time is that people would say, "See you next time!" and I'd be replying with a plaintive wail of distress, "No you won't! I'm moving to Australia!" I've been to Camel (the hotel/dive club I stayed at) three times now, it's where I learned to dive and in a way it feels like a home away from home. There are people there who I catch up with each time, people I look forward to seeing and I may only see them every 8 months or so but still, the thought of never seeing them again (or at least not for years and years and years- I would like to dive in Egypt again at some point) is very sad.

But I still don't regret my decision. In fact I was having one of those hypothetical, "If we won Lotto" discussions with my Mum at the weekend and I realised that even if I was suddenly filthy rich, I still wouldn't stay here any longer, I'd still be headed home for Christmas. I'd be back here for a long holiday in very short order, yes, but I'd still be headed to where the sun shines for longer and I can have quality Mum and Dad hugs on-tap. So I'm coming to grips with the conundrum of know-I-need-to-leave-in fact-I-WANT-to-leave vs want-to-take-my-possé-with-me.

For those who care about actual diving things, this trip was a reasonable success for me. I went in July as it's meant to be the season for 'big stuff' and I think I had a reasonable degree of success. We did countless jumps into the blue and swimming into the blue in search of schooling hammerheads but had to luck at all on that front. In fact by my last day I was starting to think that the reef shark I'd seen on my first day was nothing but a tease. And then I hit last-day-luck. Whilst kitting up for our last dive, a whale shark decided to come and visit so we promptly ditched the tanks, slapped on snorkel gear and jumped in. You've never seen people kit up so quickly... I was told that it was only a baby, about 2.5m long but it was my first and, as far as I'm concerned, pretty amazing. (Except of course now I was to see bigger ones and closer up.) And then on the last dive we went in search of sharks and found 2 of them, white tipped reef sharks (again) but still bloody awesome. They were a fair way off, at the drop-off of one of the reefs but still, I saw them, they were cool and it was the perfect way to finish a dive trip.

But now my holiday bonanza is over and done with and I shall pretty much being staying put in London until it's time to head south. With three holidays in such quick succession, my room slightly resembles a bomb site. There have been many things that there seemed no point in packing away because I'd just be pulling them out again in a week or so. But not now. Oh no. Now is the time to pack away the sunscreen, insect repellent, ratty straw cowboy-styled sunhat, miscellaneous toiletries and holiday paraphernalia. I have to remember all my gym kit, put away the tent and diving kit and get on with life as it is. What's that? Shut up with my self-indulgent and mildly melodramatic whining? How rude! Totally justified but still, a girl's gotta be allowed to wallow for a while. So I guess this is where I remind myself that last week was my one allowed Week of Wallowing and Excessive Cheese Consumption. All that is now over and so here ends my little violin solo...

subtle as a brick to the head

I've been stumbling again and in my travels came across this website (which is really truly awesome if you're interested in propaganda posters/art)which had this image on it:

I mean dude, that's not even a little bit subtle, is it? I'm fascinated my propoganda posters. You'd think they'd go for something subliminal but really, they're about as blatant as they can be. Or at least this one is.

I'm also fascinated by the posters promoting safe sex during the war. I mean it makes things sounds really dire. Were they really losing such huge percentages of soldiers to STDs that they felt they had to advertise?


And please tell me I'm not the only one who saw this and thought, "Darth Vader!?!". Maybe Lucas was inspired by this poster.

Coz that's how we roll...

This past weekend I had my second ever outdoor climbing adventure in the UK and I can say without a doubt that this one went a lot better than the previous one. I was a lot more confident on the wall and wasn't really scared by the outdoor aspect as much although there were times when I was very aware that my brain was compartmentalising in order to keep me sane. You simply have to not think about the fact that you're 15m up a piece of rock with some shitty little hold and whole hill falling away beneath you.

Possibly my favourite sequence of photos are these two of Steve. Before is an oh-so-typical "aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh, where's the hold?!" and the after is the "aaaah, there's the hold" look of joy.


Despite being a girl who does like her amenities, I coped very well with no shower all weekend and having to run off and pee behind bushes (a tricky thing to do when you're camping in a paddock). We had brilliant weather and it was great to get out of London and do something with my weekend. I think we'll be cramming in a fair few more trips before the summer is out.

slumming it

So this weekend I'm going climbing and camping. I was quite excited about the whole thing when I heard the word 'camping'. I have fond memories of family camping trips when I was growing up and was looking forward to sitting around a fire making damper, toasting marshmallows and singing anything but Kumbaya. I know some people don't like camping but as long as I'm warm and dry, it's all good. Except for one thing- I also like to be clean and non-sweaty/stinky and I found out that we are not staying at a camping ground, we are staying in a field in the middle of nowhere with only a port-a-loo (and you know that's gonna be scary) for amenities. I must admit that the lack of running water took a slight bit of shine off my rose-tinted camping glasses but I can pack baby wipes and, as my friend Kerri pointed out, we'll be near the ocean, we can always just run in to clean off. And then be all salty.... Aaah well, it's all fun and games really. I just had to laugh at myself because I really want to be Little Miss Outdoors, I really do. I love nature (just not bugs) and I like being outside (mostly) and I like being active (as a general rule) but when it comes down to the crunch, I'm afraid that I think I'm quite fond of my mod-cons, top of the list being good cooking facilities and a nice bathroom. I'm almost ashamed of myself.

Where's Wally?

I'm internationally famous!

I was sent to Gran Canaria for work as they were having a photo competition there and I got snapped by the press when we were in the submarine looking at the divers on their warm-up test day. Can you see me?



Gran Canaria was gorgeous. I feel slightly bad that I saw nothing of the island and spent all of my time in Peurto Morgan where the competition was but once you've woken up, had breakfast, gone for a dive, come back and had a late lunch, well it's 3pm which isn't really the time to be heading out in the blazing heat. It makes much more sense to grab a book, have a read, hop in the ocean when it gets too hot, come out to dry off, hop back in when it gets too hot, come out and have an icecream, hop back in the water... I think you all get the idea. I had an absolutely brilliant time. The Spanish people are so lovely and I think there is some genetic component in me that starts pumping out endorphins as soon as it sees marinas packed with boats.


I'll post some more pics later...

we're all muppets

One of my friends posted this picture on Facebook and managed to tag just about everyone in the pic from our group of friends. The two grumpy old men are their flat's landlord(s). Some are remarkably apt and seeing it, I haven't laughed so long in a very long time.

So who am I? Well I must admit that I had to google it as I didn't know the name but had some vague recollection of a suitably insane character and it turns out that Phil couldn't have labeled me more aptly if he tried. I am Lew Zealand, renouned for my boomerang fish act. Yeah, you heard me, boomerang fish.

And since I'm off to Egypt tomorrow for a week of sun, sand and fishies, this entry will have to tide you over. Peace out. Oh yeah- and it's my birthday on the 10th so send some love my way. ;-)

new kit glory

My new BCD and boots arrived today and as my sister might say- oh lordy lordy, they are beautiful. Sure, this is mainly because they are new and they are mine but still... And they match my wetsuit, oh the colour-coordinated glory. I am going to be buoyant as all hell but I will be looking goooooooooooood. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I might, just possibly, be looking just a little bit new-matching-bit-geeky (and not in a good-geeky way) but I'm sure I'll get over that. In fact everything will be new except for my fins and reg. Hmm.... I think I shall ask for a nice first intro dive to test them all out.

game on

I don't think I mentioned our flat's mouse adventure about a month ago. A little guy (I'm assuming, I called him Stuart anyway, I mean what else you are going to call a mouse?) appeared in our living room/kitchen (it's open-plan) and it took me and Sean about half an hour to get him out. Well we put him outside and I foolishly thought that that was the end of it. Little did I know...

Last Friday night I heard a scratching noise inside the wall under my window and thought, "Hmm.... I bet that's Stuart." so I got up, thumped on the wall and said, "I'm trying to sleep here!" and the noise stopped. On Saturday, I came home, laden with groceries and as I stepped into the living room, this little furry bundle came streaking out from under the sofa and made a mad dash to squeeze himself under the washing machine. I couldn't help it, I literally did scream like a girl. Well more of a short, sharp shriek but it was far girlier than most noises I make and had me yelling, "Oh for the love of God! Stuart! You can't live here!"

Now killing Stuart is not an option. As far as I'm concerned, it's not his fault that our house is warm and dry and has potentially unlimited food sources but the reality is that we cannot live together. If nothing else, I'm very possessive about my food and I suspect it's not entirely hygienic. So I bought 2 very expensive sonic rodent repellent things which you plug in to the wall and are meant to emit a sound that humans can't here but is bad for rodents. I also got 2 humane catch-them-alive traps. And for a while everything seemed okay until last night I came home from climbing, walked into the kitchen and turned on the light and ZOOM Stuart legs it out from under the washing machine and dashes up into some hole i never knew existed underneath our cupboards. In fact I thought he had disappeared into thin air so I dropped to the ground and had my face pressed against the floor trying to find him when I see two little paws appear over an edge and a little nose stick its way out and start sniffing. It would seem that me post-climbing was far too easy to smell as he retreated.

He's just way too cute though, I'm an incurable softy but cute will not save him. This has now become a battle of the wits. Clearly these sonic things aren't worth sh*t so it's game-on with the live traps. Where can I place them to catch him best? What does he want to eat? Dried apricots seems a no-go and so far choccie hasn't worked so I think I'm going to have to go for the cheesey cliché.

However the day he makes it up to the cupboard above the extractor fan and starts in on my baking ingredients it will be game over. Nobody messes with my baking ingredients.

inspired

I can't help it. I had to share this picture with you all, mainly because it makes me think of Calvin and Hobbes and the ones where Calvin acts like a dinosaur and pulls ridiculous faces. Admittedly, boosting brightness and contrast and sharpening things in photoshop helped but the result is, I think, very Calvin. I haven't been able to find the exact picture to compare but I think you guys will get the idea:


One of the many things I'm looking forward to when I get to Oz is having my Calvin and Hobbes collection with me once more. It's genius.

Handbag Friday

I've already commented on the danger of looking at handbags on Etsy but I have a long holiday weekend coming up and I'm thinking I should sew for a day. Hit opshops on Saturday, sew on Sunday, it could be great. SO of course I headed to Etsy for inspiration and now all I want to do is list things that my friends should get me for my birthday. You may notice a theme in pretty things that catch my eye, I totally blame my father for my obsession with owl designs which has somehow extended to a general avian theme...


The other bags are cool but I want these two, the one above and the one below, BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD. They are gorgeous. What is it about a nice handbag that gives it the ability to make the world a better place? Like a good pair of shoes really.

Right. I have to stop now. Enjoy the weekend folks.

grumble, bitch, moan and wallow

Maybe it's the word wallow that brings to mind this kids' book which my sister and I loved while we were growing up, Piggy in the Puddle. And in fact just thinking about it and googling it and I've found some of the lines. The rhyming is pure, simple, ridiculous genius and is going a long way to lightening my foul mood (which I'm swimming in at the moment until my fingers go all pruney). So I shall share some of these wonderful rhymes with you all before I proceed to bore you to tears as I vent.

See the piggy
See the puddle
See the muddy little puddle
See the piggy in the middle
Of the muddy little puddle
See her dawdle, see her diddle
In the muddy, muddy middle
See her waddle, plump and little
In the very merry middle.

and other gems such as "squishy-squashy, mooshy-squooshy, oofy-poofy nope".

And now to rant: the comedy of errors that was my morning can really be summed up as such: read till 1am so slept in and ran late, missed train by 2mins, next train delayed by 15mins, very late to work, phone ran out of money so couldn't tell anyone, weather which looked sunny when I left home has turned windy and overcast so I'm FREEZING in my skirt and jandals and don't have a proper jacket to keep me warm after climbing (or on the way to climbing). All I have is a piss-weeny cardi) and my gmail still isn't working properly and I don't feel I can justify taking lunch off for the gym as I was so late and want to run away at 5pm to climb and in general I am in a Foul Mood. Being cold really doesn't help. I'd change in to my 3/4 pants I have for climbing but they're all chalky and scodey from Mon night. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even the thought that I'm getting another press trip- Gran Canaria this time (June 19-24 so really soon) isn't cheering me up. Fester fester fester. Rot rot rot.

ripped off

Through my blog explorations, I came across this website. Now I think this stuff is pretty cool and I was really chuffed that it was based in Oz so I went to their site to check prices and OMG some very bad language started coming out of my mouth. That is once I'd finished with squeaking indignantly at an almost supersonic level. (I have that horrible feminine tendency to go quite high pitched when excited.) Now price equivalents between countries can be tricky. I've found in my time here that some things are the equivalent once you do the converting whereas some things are the same price without, ie somethings I'd pay £30 for here and pay $75 back home OR something I'd pay £30 for here I'd pay $30 for back home. But these canvas prices nearly stopped my heart at how expensive they are in Aussie. Over here, you can get a 100cm square canvas for around £130* (AUS$269) but the same thing in Aussie, from my quick scan of the internet, could cost me AUS$495 (£190) which is RIDICULOUS. As I calmed down a bit and hunted around a bit more I found www.ntdgraphics.com.au who seem to have prices similar to the UK but still, I cannot believe the price that some companies charge for this. I may well end up printing things here before I head south and save myself the headache...

*although one of the girls at work said she got one about that size for £80 somewhere.

Valencia

Well this trip was by no means what I had expected at all and in some ways was disappointing but it was salvageable. It bucketed down 90% of the time but we had one sunny afternoon where we got a city tour and I got to see some truly insane architecture.

This is their new Palau or art centre. I could write essays on this building. Essay upon essay upon essay, and actually enjoy it. The whole complex is simply insane and amazing and I was grinning like an idiot as I walked around it. My one regret is that I didn't go inside any of the buildings and didn't get up close and personal with the Palau. The arching item over the top is meant to be a feather and appears completely unsupported from almost every angle.

I'm easing you guys into this but you can start to see how this place has a very sci-fi feel. These buildings are fantastic mix between robotic/ alien/ and natural forms.
I'm sure this guy is a dormant autobot whose name would be Ladybug. Or maybe Beetle.

I cannot remember the name of the artist but this reminds me so much of black and white drawings that my Dad has in a book of sci-fi/futuristic architecture. I can't believe that someone did drawings as proposals for this design and people looked and it and went, "What the hey, let's do it!"
And this is where Futurama meets Gaudi.
Gaudi. Gaudi. Gaudi.*


This row of what looked to me like giant urinals was easily 20m long and they are easily 2 high and all mosaicked. Holy shattered tiles Batman, that's a lot of mosaic.
See? Urinal.


There wasn't much graffiti in Valencia, which surprised me given how much I'd seen in Barcelona but I found what I could.






These signs in a park made me laugh. I'm still trying to figure out what some of them mean....

This made me think that it should have been a door knocker in Labyrinth.
*But of course not really Gaudi.