Miniature Wellington - Tilt Shift Time Lapse

Awesome video of Wellington! So amazing that I know most of the places depicted here. It's such a compact city, you can get around and discover much about it.

Glow-worms all aglow

Jo-Lo and I found ourselves among friends at the entrance of the Botanic Garden on the night of 20 July. We were there to check out the glow-worms which become prominent at certain times of the year.

Spring is the best time to see it apparently, but there's no time like the present! I've never seen glow worms before (and never have my other companions, so we were quite excited about this). I imagined it will be similar to fireflies, only they wouldn't be floating mysteriously about.

Ulingan Project: Please help

Dear friends,

Do you have good quality kids' stuff you no longer need?

Please consider donating these items for the kids at Ulingan.

We are trying to collect items which we can send to the kids (in behalf of Project Pearls) in time for Christmas:

• toys (not battery operated please) 
• children’s books (pages/cover intact, no scribbles) 
• clean clothing (suitable for Manila climate)

The Time-Travelling Gift Box

"Wow, has it been 7 years ago already? I can still remember Jo-Lo's celebration in Baguio when he turned 1!", one of our friends exclaimed when she saw the photo we tagged her in Facebook where Jo-Lo was opening the gift from her.

It's a gift that was given to Jo-Lo for his 7th birthday... when he turned 1.  On his first birthday, we thought it would be fun if the guests also brought along a small gift which Jo-Lo will open when he turned 7!  Why at 7?  Because it's a milestone birthday for a Filipino boy (the other birthdays are 1 and 21).  And some gamefully wrapped something up, which we stored in an airtight container, to be opened 7 years later.

This is Jo-Lo's Time Travelling Gift Box.

Who would have thought that not only would it time-travel, but it would cross over to another country as well?  When we visited the Philippines back in 2010, we brought along some stuff back with us here to New Zealand, and the gift box was one of them.

We couldn't help but smile and reminisce that this box and its contents are now 7 years old.  I was actually thinking that on Jo-Lo's 7th birthday we would ask the guests to bring something again for when he turns 13 (officially a teenager).  But who would have thought we'd be celebrating his 7th in another country?

Kiwi Slang (part 4)

And here's the last part, covering S-Z

Sammie – sandwich

Scab – unlawfully demand somebody for food or money

Scarfie – university student

Scrogin – trail mix of nuts and raisins

Scull – to drink quickly

Sesh – a period of time when marijuana is smoked

Section – plot of land

Shake a leg – command to hurry up

Kiwi Slang (part 3)

This is taking longer than expected to complete... but here's the second to the last part! Covering L-R


Lamington – sponge cake cube, coated in icing, covered in dried coconut

Lift – elevator

Long drop – outdoor toilet built over a hole in the ground

Loo – toilet

Lolly – any sweet or confectionery

Local rag – local newspaper