Monday, May 31, 2010

My Mind

My mind is me. It sees things as good and bad. It moves my body around this world. It controls what I say, and how I feel. It thinks many thoughts in a day.
My mind holds secrets. It sees things in ways that you may not. It is the sum that is greater than my other parts.
My mind has the power to change my life.

Cold Rain

At least for now, it's stopped raining in Christchurch. It got to the point that when it did, I was actually surprised to see the ground was dry.
There were a couple of days were I felt couped up inside, and even though it was (marginally) warmer at our flat, I went for a walk. It was nice to be bundled up; I felt rather like an eskimo - nicer still though, was to get out and about. My friend Joh has often talked about it - it's far too easy to hibernate during the winter months, losing contact with people, and just letting life slip by because it's too cold. My dad has a number of quotes. The most applicable now is 'The less you do, the less you want to do'. It does take a determined effort to get out and do things, but it's worth it. Missing out on a whole season of changes and things to see is a shame.
As I walked around the wet, grey streets of central Chch, I remembered something I was told while on Outward Bound. We were sailing, and it was rainy and freezing. Our instructor told us 'You can be cold, wet and miserable; or just cold and wet.' That made me smile.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Shoes

It's been raining a lot in Christchurch lately, which means water on the ground, which means wet feet. Bleh! I've been wearing my leather dress shoes , which are impressively waterproof.
One of my favourite feelings in the world is when you're walking, and you become aware of how comfortable your shoes feel. Your feet feel blissful, like they could just submerge in to non-existence, and you're able to just float around on a cloud of comfort.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Things I Love Friday - emotional colouration

I couldn't really think of a good title for this post (and I was probably going for a blog-title pun), so I'll just try and describe it.
Simply, I guess it's just how whatever way you're feeling inside really alters how you see the world outside. It's pretty noticeable once you have a think about it, and seems to manifest itself most gloriously when you're in a good mood.
When you're feeling great and really aware of it, everything around you seems better. Colours seem brighter, girls look prettier, the air is clearer and smells sweeter. It's the best thing, just an escalation of goodness until you feel like you'll pop.
I know that it's the same when you're feeling crummy, and it's pretty easy to get in to a bad loop of seeing how crummy things seem. If you're feeling down, I hope you're able to feel better. Remember, it's the good little things that make everything else worth while.
Feel free to send me an email if you'd like to talk about anything - superchai @ gmail dot com

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Darkness

The other night, T'nealle, Melinda and I went for a bike ride/night photo trip. We went to St Albans' lovely Abberley Park.
These shots were done with 2s exposures, and well, I don't know much about photography, so that's it for 'specs'. I did try and 'catch' the flashes from the girls cameras, which worked quite well I think.


























































This empty swimming pool terrifies me, and reminds me of House of Leaves

Friday, May 14, 2010

Deja vu

This afternoon, I listened to some old recordings of my radio show while I worked on a biology project. I got a really strange feeling - a funny mix of deja vu (from sort of remembering what I did say) and familiarity (knowing what I would say).
I had a similar experience over the weekend, where I recounted a lot of my life to Beth. I've not really talked about or 'dealt with' a lot of things that happened in my life between the ages of 18-22, and she was the first person I've given a full run down to. Or at least, as full as I can recall. It was that sense of familiarity again, where parts of your life just drift by, and get brought up when you think about something related to it. It isn't a very linear story.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Wellington. Again

This past weekend I flew up to Wellington and spent four wonderful days there. It was quite impulsive; I missed Beth heaps, and the next time I was going to be passing through wasn't until August.
It was so great to see her again. It felt like ages since we'd seen each other. Is ten weeks ages? I think so.
We went to a gig each night, and I was very impressed by all the bands I saw - Mammal Airlines, No Aloha, Seth Frightening, Grayson Gilmour, The Sing Songs, Jordan O'Jordan.
We went swimming in a fancy spa, ate yummo foods, watched some movies, tried to catch leaves, and talked about 'where we were at'.
It felt good, and it feels like things make sense again. On the last day, we sat on the balcony, and watched the sun set. It felt like a fitting analogy for the whole trip.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Night pictures





Monday, May 3, 2010

Leaves

A leaf fell from a tree. It's autumn; this happens a lot. This particular leaf though fell as I was walking toward the tree it once belonged to. On it's once in a leaftime trip, it drifted down, and passed in front of my eyes. I had groceries in my left hand; I stuck my right out in front of my waist.
The leaf dropped in to my hand.
I felt elated. It seemed like a real miracle. Beautiful things happen everywhere, and I hope you get to experience them. Maybe it's just a matter of opening your eyes. Or your heart.

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