A Nikon surprise

This arrived on my desk the other day! My boss kindly donated his old Nikon film camera and lenses to me. It came in a backpack full of batteries and film and other technical things so I'm going to have to head into a photo store and get some advice on putting it all together. Hopefully the Nikon and I can go on an adventure when the rain clouds part. How's that monster lens? Yoh! x

'Underneath my clothes your hands are freezing, but I don't say a word'

I didn't cut my hair. This is an old pic. It just rains all the damn time so I haven't been able to take pictures in ages. It sounded like planes were falling out of the sky tonight. Another epic storm. Perhaps we can listen to some music instead? Songs from my spring playlist.

11am - Incubus

Present Tense - Pearl Jam

Seasons - Said the Whale

Just a phase - Incubus

Festival - Sigur Rós

In need - Sheryl Crowe

Big Sky, MT - Said the Whale

Microphone - Coconut Records

Love Hurts - Incubus
Meet me on the Equinox - Dead Cab for Cutie

Everlong - Foo Fighters

White Blank Page - Mumford and Sons
Will you marry me? - Vonda Shepherd
In you room - The Bangles
I'm so glad my mom raised me on the Bangles.
They're pretty amazing.

Prezzies!

These are just some of the lovely prezzies I received for my birthday! I was one very spoilt panda. I was also treated to chocolates, bath goodies, jewelry, bubbles, tiaras, cupcakes, stationery and some epic notebooks. My mom wrapped up thirty novelty gifts in polka dot paper! I had such a blast opening them all up with my friends, and the next day I got to re-open everything at home. I was in panda prezzie heaven! Thank you so much to everyone who spoilt me. You guys are so thoughtful. x

  

How I fell in love with the outdoors

I was feeling pretty restless towards the end of last year. I was pining for London and wondering if I was ever going to settle back into Durban life. I'd never been an outdoorsy girl and most of life revolves around the outdoors here. One day I was chatting to an old friend and he was telling me that there is no other place he'd rather be than Durban and I thought that was so cool. He was telling me how rad it is that mountain ranges are just an hour away and it was cool to listen to someone so passionate about our hometown. And there I was, longing for crowded undergrounds and bustly streets and poky old book stores and ancient buildings...but I wanted to love Durban just as much. Of course, there is alot about the city that I do love but I wasn't feeling settled. And I knew I wasn't appreciating it as much as I could be but I didn't know why. And then I asked my friend if we could go on a nature walk one Saturday and we spent a day by a waterfall, noshing cheese crackers! It was epic and I couldn't believe there was such a beautiful, magical place just twenty minutes from my home. And so we started going on lots of fun adventures and I started to see our province in a new light. I crunched through autumn leaves, napped on river banks, hiked in a mountain, played in a snowfall and pretty much came face to face with a school of dolphins!  I feel so grateful to live here now. When I turned thirty, someone asked me if I feel panicky about not having a house and kids and all of that but I don't at all. There is plenty of time for that stuff. I'm hoping 2013 will be filled with more adventures and epic nature missions. Of course, I still love everything I did before - London, markets, book stores, thrifting, weird movies...there's just another part of life that I appreciate now. I no longer feel restless – I feel like there is so much more to explore! And that's my little story about how I fell in love with the outdoors :)

Never say no to Panda

Well this just made my day! Cheers Cath for the epic link.

31 Polaroids

I went round to visit Nikki the other night and another curious thing happened. We were sipping wine, catching up and then she said, "You have to open one of your gifts now." I was like, "Sweet!" And she was like, "I wanted to get you something that would remind you that so many people care about you." So sweet. And then she gave me 31 pictures of all my friends, printed Polaroid style - a pic for every day of the month. I was speechless. She had grabbed them from my Facebook page. There were pics of me with people that Nikki doesn't even know that well - how amazingly kind and thoughtful? There was also a pic of my mom, playing the piano. She was playing Mumford and Sons when I took the pic - more on that in a bit...so this is where it gets weird/awesome. Among the pics were two quotes Nikki had printed. I asked her, "Did you also get these off my Facebook page?" She replied, "No, I got them off Google images. I was trying to find quotes that I thought were suitable to you." I said something like, "You're sure you did not see these on my Facebook page?" She replied, "No, why?" Now, I haven't posted alot of quotes on Facebook. Maybe three in total. Well, two of the quotes she had printed were quotes I had uploaded this year. I uploaded each one months apart but they are connected..and I just could not believe that Nikki had printed these two quotes out of all the quotes in the world! The second "quote" is actually Mumford and Sons lyrics. Nikki, also did not know that I've been meaning to print alot of these pics for ages. So it was pretty much the most amazing, serendipitous gift ever. Pix, thank you so much - I love them :)

The Ren Faire

Sooo, a bunch of....curious things have happened in my life recently. I'll write about the one today. 

The other day, I was chatting online to my American friend about Renaissance Faires. I'm kind of a dork incase you hadn't noticed, ha. Anyway, I was telling him how envious I am of the American faires and how I wish we had stuff like that in SA and that if we did, I would totally go to one. He loves the ones they have in the States and he was telling me that they are next-level awesome. Anyhow, I ended up having a bit of a rough day that day so after work, I laced up my running shoes and started stomping down the pavement with practically a little raincloud above my head! I'm stomping away and then I come to a breathless stop at  this streetpole. I'm panting away, feeling like heck and then I look up and there's a streetpole sign for a Ren Faire taking place on my birthday! A Ren Faire in SA?! Now, I didn't have any real plans for my birthday. I figured I should probably do something on the actual day but I couldn't think of anything to do. But of course, now I had to go to the Ren Faire! Cath, rather amused at this all, agreed to come with me...and it was really random. Ha. So random that I felt weird taking pics....but it was a fun, silly mission and I'm glad we checked it out. A jester even made me a flower balloon for my birthday, haha. I think I need to get involved with the Ren Faire committee next year - I have big plans for minstrels, hair-braiding and beer tents!  On another note, how pretty is misty Camelot in Hillcrest? So lovely. x

Panda Photography

Candi and Andy designed this epic Panda illustration for me! His little camera says "Panda Photography" - cute! He's being block mounted for my wall. Thanks again Cands and Ands. xxx

More Dirt!

And record for most pictures in a blog post goes to....yours truly!  Le Thirtieth continued...

Willie - drummer from my first band:)

Kirsten blew bubbles for us. I will have bubbles and sparklers at every birthday till I die!

Casey made me biscuits which said "Glossary Lauren" - amazing!!
Oi!

Diffy lit the sparklers for us :)

Ans and Monique who fed me a few cheeky shots.

Photo Bomb Level: Lauren

Gordon and Moi.                 
Then it was time to walk up to another bar where I walked in on a couple doing dodgy things - my eyes. A suitable introduction to the Dirty Thirties I suppose.
I suppose this photo looks pretty dodge but it twas merely an innocent hug ;)

I thought I was being driven home but I was abducted and taken to Wand's and And's!
Of course Jolling Owl could not let the night go by without making an appearance.
That naughty owl started his own after party.

We crawled into bed at 5am and a few hours later, I had the best breakfast of my life.
Epic party - thank you everyone for such a great night. xxx