I tried a new recipe tonight for a totally different type of cake. It turned out super yummy and moist and E is currently eating seconds.
Can you guess the key ingredient for this cake? Four cups of this in the recipe…
“Newspapers repeat again and again rare risks. If it’s in the news, don’t worry about it because by definition news is something that almost never happens. When something is so common it’s no longer news: car crashes, domestic violence, those are the risks you worry about.”
Finally watched the Michael Jackson movie This is it and I wish I’d gone to see it at the theatre in hindsight to enjoy the atmosphere with everyone else.
I’ve never been an obsessive fan of Michael Jackson but his music has always been a part of my life and I have so many little memories associated with him. Here’s just a few of them…
Probably the earliest memory would be primary school discos of the boys all trying to be the best moonwalker in the room.
I remember listening in awe to Bad on shared walkman headphones on my bed when I was nine years old with a boy who lived down the street. I think Mum was a bit worried about the lyrics. I remember watching him dance on TV over and over.
When I was 10, I remember spending one afternoon at another neighbour’s house dancing in front of her parent’s massive mirror to Man in the Mirror.
In my first year at high school, I made my parents wait until Black or White debuted for the first time in the world on the radio (so I could record it) before going to school. I was in awe watching the music video, seeing morphing for the first time. I remember it made the TV news headlines that night too.
My sister and I played Heal the World on repeat for what seemed like weeks. I think the video tape wore out too.
When Michael Jackson came to New Zealand on his History tour, I actually bought my first album of his (the double CD) and spent a massive $120 or so at the time to go to his concert. I honestly don’t think I could ever go to a better concert in my life – it was spectacular, something totally magical, inspiring and you just knew you were in the presence of a genius. I was in row 5, I’ll have you know. (Until the last bit of the concert where I pretty much almost fainted from lack of air and standing for too long and made a bee-line for the side of the crowd…and threw up on the grass. Oops. I was sober too!!)
Not long after the concert, my parents and brother were out and it was a rare electrical storm. My sister and I turned off all the lights in the house and blasted all his hits super loud and laughed so much. It was a fun, spontaneous night.
Thanks for the memories, Michael.
(Click for large versions)
We recently had some photos taken up on our land with the super talented photographer Sam Mothersole. I had been hunting for so long for a photographer that I liked the style of – natural, relaxed, fun, colourful photos in a space that was meaningful to us. Googling didn’t get me anywhere – I kept coming across wedding photographers, high-end fashion photographers or family photographers set in a studio with those black and white fuzzy-edges style. No thanks!! I was looking for someone who just loved taking photos of families.. someone like my friend Anastasia Chomlack (but she’s a little too far away to take photos of us, sadly). I’m pretty picky.
I happened to stumble across Sam’s work thanks to a friend on Facebook posting photos from her session and “liked” her Facebook page. Over about four months, I read her blog and watched the feedback on her Facebook page from her clients. I felt that I got to know and trust her style and knew she would be the right person for the job, even before we’d exchanged messages.
Two weekends ago, we had a fun time up at our land taking photos. Austin was a bit under the weather and wasn’t himself but he managed a smile or two thanks to Regan tickling him. Sam was such a positive, fun, relaxed person to be around and the time with her flew by as we wandered around, played with balloons, looked for rabbits oh and got some photos or two! Eli was his usual bubbly self and had us cracking up a lot.
Sam has just blogged about the photo session and I am so, so happy with the photos… they are gorgeous! Now the hard (and fun) part is choosing which ones we will get and what we’ll do with them!
Thanks so much Sam… will have you back to take more photos in the future!
On Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon show, commentator Denis Welch (MP3 recording from 05/04/11) expressed some of what I’ve been thinking about and feeling towards the NZ Herald, and why I stopped reading it on principle a couple of weeks ago.
“My theory is you can do this for so long but credibility in a newspaper or magazine is a very hard one thing and over time, the more you do this kind of thing, the more people begin to see a gap between what the story is and the way you’re presenting it is, the less they begin to trust you. You certainly begin to burn off your core readership….
Sooner or later you’re undermining your own brand and up until a year or so ago the Herald did have the distinction of being probably our most reputable more thorough-going quality newspaper and that role I think has rather begun to recede to the Christchurch Press, so no, in the long run I don’t think it helps anyone to undermine their own credibility and trade off quality for that kind of beat-up.”