Friday Fragments

Hosted by Mrs4444.

Friday fragments, all the bits and bobs from the week gone by that are rattling around inside my head. Far too noisy! Better get them out via the keyboard and plonk them down here instead.

When I met up with the lovely Penny in Auckland she had a beautiful gift for me. It was a book of photography, New Zealand: Eye on the Landscape, which includes 6 of her husband Rod's photos (Rod on Flickr). I'm enjoying it so much, and it's doing an excellent job of reminding me that I managed to leave my present for Penny back in our hotel room the day we met up and it has therefore come all the way back to Sydney with me. D'oh! Note to self: go to the post office next week.

Speaking of going to the post office, I will also be sending off handmade gifts to fulfill my Pay it Forward commitment in the next week or so - I still have 2 spots up for grabs there so click through and leave a comment if you'd like to participate. The last time I did one of these I took something like 8 months to get around to sending them! Won't be leaving it that long this time.

Need a good laugh? Go read the comments on this article about Language faux pas.

On Thursday morning I got up a little earlier than I really needed to, leaving Adam in bed. I checked my emails and then went to have a shower. When I came out of the bathroom Adam was sitting in the lounge room looking slightly put out. He'd dragged himself out of bed having woken from a deep sleep utterly convinced that he'd heard me yelling down the stairwell that breakfast was on the table. He was so disappointed to come upstairs and realise that he'd only dreamed it. Apparently his subconscious had been hoping for bacon and eggs!

We almost hit the 1K mark with the camera while we were on holidays, there are 944 photos and 29 videos in my New Zealand album in iPhoto - unsurprisingly I didn't upload them all to Flickr, just a modest selection of 170 photos Here they are in a slideshow if you feel inclined to look at them all.

And if you want to read the travel blogs from the trip they're here: Auckland to Wellington, Wellington to Rotorua, Rotorua, Whangarei Heads, Whangarei Heads and Auckland.

This morning my mum rang to tell me that Sylvia had died. Sylvia and Tony lived a few doors down from us when I was very young, they had 2 boys the same ages as my sister and I, David and Michael, we were best mates for years. We were in and out of each other's houses all the time and I remember being very sad when they moved several suburbs away. Mum and Sylvia had become good friends too and our families stayed in touch with fairly regular visits. I went to David's year 12 formal with him, we, and our parents and siblings, were at each other's weddings. Sylvia and Tony moved to Tasmania some years ago so it's been some time since I last saw her and I won't be able to go to the funeral, though my Mum and Dad are both going and my sister might too. When I think of Sylvia I think of warmth and hugs and love and good food and her smile. I'm glad I knew her and I'm sad she's gone.

Don't forget to pop on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time and check out the other Friday Fragmenters' offerings!