Worst Blog Ever

You know those big telecommunication boxes you will see on many street corners? Well one of the great trends that I have been seeing as of late, is that those plain-jane boxes are getting street-art upgrades. This seems to be happening, not just in Wellington, but many other cities as well; including (as we recently noticed) in Melbourne and Sydney.

This is one right outside of the Old Bank Arcade here in Wellington. Every time I see it, it puts a smile on my face!

Ever see what happens when a leaf disintegrates? Below is a photo of what appears to be nothing left but the scaffolding of a leaf that is in the process of degrading.

Kind of cool!

So I went to the optometrist today as I needed a new pair of glasses (the ones pictured are not my current ones). My current pair are three years old and are progressives and I noticed that I was constantly craning my neck up to see better, so my prescription had obviously changed enough to warrant a new pair of glasses.

Unlike Canada or the US, there are no Lenscrafters or similar entities here in NZ, so you're never going to pay as little as you would in North America unless your ordered on-line; which I'm not prepared to do as I have a feeling the craftsmanship in those glasses would be a little wanting. I could be wrong, but...

Kristie and I were out walking last weekend, and I saw a sign at an optometrist advertising a complete pair of glasses for $69.00, which is a pretty good deal! Except that the complete pair of glasses they're talking about is a single frame they found in the back room that wasn't sold 12 years ago, and the lenses that would be included are pretty much no different from the plastic things that all display pairs come with. So in essence, they are ugly glasses for people who don't need to wear glasses. As most of my friends know that I am pretty much functionally blind without my glasses, so that sweet deal of $69.00 wouldn't apply to me. Also, because of my high prescription, I need a special type of high-index lens so that the weight of the glasses remains under 7 KG. Now, add to that the fact that because of my age and my slowly hardening lenses (it'll happen to you too), I need to wear progressives. So let's just say that I will have to pay a little more than the advertised price of $69.00

How much more than the advertised price? Oh, only $1300,00 more!!!!

My eyes are so bad, that they actually have an effect on my optometrist. As it turns out, after examining my eyes, their eyes get dollar signs in them!

Thirteen hundred bucks for a pair of glasses, that as I mentioned earlier, because of my age and hardening lenses, will be irrelevant in about three years time! I could by a pretty good car for that amount of money, and it would probably last longer too!

I'm thinking of starting a Kickstarter campaign to help me fund my glasses.

Little flowers popping out of the ground everywhere on our walk on the Maupuia walkway. Gives me hope for sustained periods of warmer weather in the near future.

One of the reused cans found in Coolsville Cafe.

One of the cafes in Wellington that we have found, is run by a Canadian and they make some of the best sandwiches that we've found here in Wellington! The place is called Coolsville and it is just a tiny little hole in the wall that we've noticed is very popular with the locals.

The image below is some figurines they have on one of their tabletops.  What could be more Canadian than a moose, a dear and bear? Ok, maybe they could have a beaver too!

So, I unfriended a Facebook "friend" today. This person was someone I worked with back at Canadian Blood Services, and I have just found her Facebook posts to be more and more antithetical to my ideals.

My inner voice is struggling with the decision in some respects as there is an argument to be made that perhaps by engaging in their posts, I could provide a counterbalance to their views. Maybe I could actually provide a point of view that they may take into account, and might help temper their thoughts, if not outright changing them. In my experience however, I have not really found that to be the case.

Up until this point, I have only unfriended two other people and again, it was because I found their posts to be quite objectionable to my way of thinking. I guess, to my credit, I still have many friends on Facebook that I have differences of opinions and for the most part, we can discuss them and sometimes come to understandings.

In these three cases however, I just didn't want to put forth the effort for what I saw to be a pointless exercise.

...In totally unrelated news, the flowers below were a photo I took on the Balmain foreshore, on one of our last days in Sydney,

When we got back from Australia, it was pretty cold and miserable. In fact, it was overcast and rainy for the first couple of days. Today, we got a bit of sun, which helped warm things up a bit, despite the fact that it only got up to around 12 degrees. It got up to 17 in Kapiti, so we're a bit envious.

With today's sun, and the blossom on the trees, we're hoping for a warm spring, and an even better summer.