telescope + camera = fun

MrT bought a simple telescope a little while back. It is quite work intensive to get focused on anything other than the moon but I am surprised how good the views are when they can be got.

The highlight has been seeing Jupiter with its marbled details as well as three moons. It is however extremely hard to take a photo of.

We did however have enough patience to take this picture tonight with the help of my little camera and MrT's old tripod. (oddly enough the best results with the camera is with it set to Food mode on cold colour offset. Time delays are also essential).

You can just pick out the moons "belly button" in the top left.

a day off of work feels like a guilty pleasure

I have been very busy at work lately. Lately being the past two months. Busy as in working late is the norm. Busy as in I haven't been to RWFL for longer than I want to admit because i have had to start too early most days.

Now I was expecting all the busy-ness to be tidied and submitted and finished by last week (which it wasn't - not my fault).... So Mr-T and I agreed to take today off of work and spend some time getting some wedding planning done and try have some quality time together instead of deciding with arguments are expired.

So today we achieved:

• a kick off visit to our wedding venue's in-house wedding planner
• opening a wedding savings bank account (yes yes this is many months over due)
• preliminary looking for a wedding florist (friends - we are looking for suggestions. we really don't mind spending our money with people you personally know) 
• brunch - well I had breakfast and MrT had lunch so it counts as brunch
• signing my new lease and paying a whole chunk of money as a deposit
• near bankruptcy for the next 10 days (see above)
• a whole afternoon nap

Now I am cruising the internet catching up on blogs and things while MrT chats to his neighbours. We'll be having left over pizza from last night for dinner and mojitos. And the best thing is that we have still another 2 days of not going to work while we enjoy the same two days of weekend as everyone else.

I feel guilty that my work colleagues have to finish the project without me but this taking leave thing feels pretty good and for once it is really great to have a weekend for weekend fun things like reading and eating lunch with friends and seeing family instead of running from shops to event to errand to groceries to house cleaning to sleep to work.

I could get used to this :)

Frankie's new housie

So I finally found a new place to stay. (truth be told this happened about 2 weeks ago). It is in the same complex as some friends of mine and as I had previously admired the total awesomeness of the house they lived in and the pretty gardens and nice location - I totally jumped at it when the letting agent told me the same complex had a unit up for rent.

It is approximately the same size as my current arrangement aside from a smaller second room. However I get a pseudo-personal garden and pretty flowers to look out on on both sides.

The added bonus (which was purely by co-incidence) is that my old varsity buddies happen to be almost right next door (and they have the second cutest little one year old child in the world (see posts circa 13 September) )

There are a few issues such as the apartment isn't brand spanking new and shows the effects of some wear and I will have to actually water the garden myself and living almost next door to your friends means that your friends get to see what your day to day less than tidy more than messy routine is like.

But overall I see a nice potential in this place to settle for a little while. The landlord wants to sell in the end but hopefully this time it will co-ordinate nicely with my pending nuptials or else that MrT and I may decide it will be a nice fit for two :)

I will be moving house later this month so Ill post pictures of Frankie's Castle 2.0 soon enough.

I can only hope this enthusiasm and excitement will see me through the hard work of packing and moving house...

Not so secret

So - everyone who knows me, knows I am not that fond of dogs. "Not so fond" in that MrT faces a very difficult battle ahead to convince us to Ever own a dog as a pet. Not that never owning a pet dog is a foregone conclusion but I have pre-conditions to the types of dogs I will tolerate and these pre-conditions are strict. I am known to go to visit friends and spend most of the visit avoiding the hosts pets.

Anyway - back onto the topic...  wanna hear a secret? I was very tired and grumpy on the way to Brownies yesterday and battling with bad traffic. On way, short cutting across Parkhurst, I saw a guy walking a pug. The pug was trotting along with its head bouncing around and it was So Adorably Cute that I practically fell out of the window of my moving car waving and smiling at the dog and dog walker person. It kinda sorta maybe may have brightened the entire rest of the day.

ugh... I am so embarrassed with my lost convictions.