A spectacular view

I think the world around me is beautiful and spectacular and I take pictures of it when I can.

[justanotherprole]

"None of us really know the meaning of life and have to constantly wonder if the decisions we're making are really for the best or are really meaningful. Teenagers feel like this. Young adults, middle aged, and the elderly all grapple with this, too. Those who don't or think they don't are simply the ones who've decided to stop thinking about it. They've found a philosophy for their lives that they agree with enough to let it be their guiding light and focus on other things instead. You could say its wilful ignorance, but I'd say its pragmatism. Wondering and worrying and doubting have never, themselves, been of any use to anyone. Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living," but that's not really true, to me. The unexamined life is not worth living when it's a blind life, but the examined life is just as not worth living when it's a life of analysis paralysis. So stop and think, of course, but don't forgot to, or be too afraid to, act as well. Thoughts and actions are only worthless in the absence of the other."

[justanotherprole]

Happy 16/10/14 sunset everybody. 

[justanotherprole]

How I understand the Blood Moon phenomenon- Sun rays pass through the Earth's atmosphere which is spread out around 80kms above surface -> the reddish part of sunlight's spectrum is essentially filtered out --> reddish light enters the atmosphere and refracts towards Earth's surface and again when it exits on the other side of the Earth which sends reddish light on to the moon. (source:http://earthsky.org/space/why-does-the-moon-look-red-during-a-total-lunar-eclipse) 

Don't care really, look at how bizarrely beautiful the moon looks in red.  

[justanotherprole]

Camping out at Murdering Bay in Dunedin, even in peak winter, is pretty magical. 

[justanotherprole]

I took pictures of a few famous faces (Kate and William, Richie McCaw etc), the moon, and Signal Hill.

We are enjoying quite a pleasant winter. Dunedin is as beautiful as ever.  

[justanotherprole]

I cannot study with this outside my window!!! They were like moving paintings...

[justanotherprole]

One of my favourite walks to do in Dunedin is to the Ross Creek reservoir, 4.5km from the university. Seriously, what an enchanting setting, in the sleepy suburb of Woodhaugh. It's a proper privilege to be able to access places such as these without having to travel long distances. 

[justanotherprole]

I went on a little hike by myself two weekends ago. I was meant to go with friends, and was severely irritated when all three pulled out without any prior notice. Everything tends to work out in the end though, with situations such as these, and I ended up quite happy. This is the sequence of events that afternoon:

1. Finished work around noon, put on my walking gear and bag pack, and went to said friends' house. At this point, two friends pulled out. The third said he needed a break; after heavy hints that his break would extend into hours of sleep, I huffed away to take the Otago peninsula route where I was trying to locate a freshwater inlet called Tomahwak Lagoon.

2. I got really lost. I was having difficulty finding the place (I took a spontaneous "short-cut") and kind of stumbled into a large cemetery, good thing it was a hot, sunny afternoon (Pictures 1-3).

3. I walked to a high point and unexpectedly found a beach. It turned out to be St Kilda's beach, and it was pretty desolate at the time, although people do go there (Pictures 4-7).

4. FINALLY found the lagoon (Picture 8). It was kind of a let down. 

5. Went back to the beach and two dogs nearly bowled me over because they were pretty keen for a swim. I quite like the last two pictures. 

I got talking with an elderly couple from Zimbabwe who kindly gave me a ride back into town (I was knackered after wandering around lost for about four hours). 

All in all a great day, I saw a lot more while I was lost than I expected to see! 

[justanotherprole]

I know I never went to Hogwarts but this is good enough. 

[justanotherprole]

"Cultural identity status - It's Complicated"

I came across this passage in a book (Family Matters by the superb Rohinton Mistry) and it so accurately captures how I feel about my cultural identity. I grew up in a Middle Eastern country and have lived in New Zealand since adolescence. Enid Blyton, in the following piece of writing, is a metaphor for all of the non-Indian influences that have shaped me.

"But Enid Blyton is fun for children," said Roxana. "It doesn't do any harm."

Yezad said it did immense harm, it encouraged children to grow up without attachment to the place where they belonged, made them hate themselves for being who they were, created confusion about their identity. He said he had read the same books when he was small, and they had made him yearn to become a little Englishman of a type that even England did not have. 

It's not as morbid as it sounds, but the idea of having any kind of Indian cultural identity has always felt uncomfortable for me. 

[justanotherprole]

Dazzling sunset over suburban squalor

[justanotherprole]

I took an admittedly proud picture of my first apple pie today. I based my recipe off Jamie Oliver's, tweaking things slightly (tons more cinnamon, different apples, addition of vanilla bean, left out lemon zest, sprinkled on raw sugar for a crunchier crust) but the result was a great tasting pie although a lot more practice needs to go into making it look more visually appealing. 

You might wonder why it has KEEN and a U on it. Well, the U is meant to be a horseshoe, the symbol for luck, and KEEN is a social app that my friend is working very hard to promote at the moment, and will be leaving Dunedin tomorrow. Best of luck to him, and KEEN. 

The eight of us scoffed most of it down, leaving a mangled slice for our other friend who was still at the office at 11pm working on the app. 

I like pies. They are friendly foods that induce comfort and relaxation, the extended effect tends to bring out the friendlier side in people, it brings people closer. I just don't think a salad could achieve this. 

[justanotherprole]

You can never have too much Queenstown. 

[justanotherprole]

[justanotherprole]

I went on an impulsive walk to St Clair beach yesterday, a place quite easy to fall in love with, given not only how scenic this beach is, but with the unassuming vibe it exudes. You'll find a mixed bag of people here: surfers, the older Dunedinites out for an evening walk, families with young children, students wanting a change in scenery, loved-up couples with their dogs and so on.

I got there when the tide was quite high,and the sun was on its way down. The first moon picture was taken when it was still quite bright obviously but I thought I'd try the zoom on my camera anyway and it's incredible to see how it's not merely the crescent our human eyes see, you can see the shadow the sun casts, and seeing it as an actual space body kind of blew my mind, even though I've always known it to be this huge satellite orbiting the Earth.

I got progressively more excited seeing actual craters as it got darker, even though it's not very clear. I'm laughing now thinking it's funny that a picture of the moon elicits this response in me, when astronauts people have actually stood on that cracked surface. 

Anywho, I stayed out there on a bench until it was dark, and truly, there's a lot to be said about Dunedin when a single young-ish female can walk home 6 km completely safely after dark, only slightly nervous while walking into a band of rabbits that scampered off when they saw me, two of them boldly stopping to give me this sort-of stare down as I walked past. Random sight, especially in an urban part of town.

To finish off, on a totally different tangent, I'm unimpressed with Burgen's recent advertisements (I saw a billboard on the way home). This is a brand I've always respected, due to the high fiber content in their bread, in flavours and varieties I thought were skilled and imaginative (Pumpkin and Chia seed, hollaaa) but then they start using sex to sell this bread. 

A good Burgen bread sandwich is like a party in your mouth, and it helps keep you regular, that's what's sexy about Burgen bread, not a team of models and stylists trying to sell you their image to make Burgen bread more appealing. 

It doesn't dignify good bread to start selling it like this.

I'm really not a prude but there's a time and place! 

[justanotherprole]

Find me a better "I'm not impressed" face. I dare you. 

[justanotherprole]

Auckland graced me with this stunning sunset as I arrived there for the weekend.  

Fast forward three days and I was back in Dunedin, casually walking around on a sunny evening. I took a few nostalgic pictures of Cumberland street, the street I lived on in my first year of university, namely of my hall of residence (and directly opposite, regretfully, the liquor store and BP we frequented) and the Alhambra fields we'd loiter around in, at literally all times of the day. I wouldn't live the first-year student life again, recalling it is somewhat difficult, a blurry haze of classrooms, exams, but mainly of parties and embarrassing one's self. It was a poignant time in my life though, feeling a pit of fear as I left the predictable warmth of home and adapted in figurative cold water (and of course, literally really cold weather), found a "Dunedin family", initially hating the place until the end of the year came around and Dunedin had grown on me like an enormous benign tumour. Dunedin's charm and easy pace and make it genuinely difficult for me to contemplate leaving this city for good. 

Moving on, the current vibrancy of the hydrangeas tickle me pink (sorry for that awful pun) although in all seriousness, I feel we overlook these gorgeous bouquets that seem to meander literally everywhere.