Note on the door: Gone shopping

School holidays are over, troll boys are occupied with the workings of the world, lovely husband is still tied to his 9 to five( although it's more like 7 till 6 these days)....and I needed to breathe deeply and enter the world again.

I drove up to Auckland to drop paintings off at The Original art Sale (16-18 May, Telstraclear centre, Auckland), then on to buy some studio lights and then lunch in POnsonby. It's as pretentious and fabulous as a name such as Ponsonby WOULD be. I took Christine, a friend from pilates class, with me for the ride.. We trawled design shops, small exhibitions of oddities and several places I swore were not anything but turned out to be something. She made me laugh ...she touched EVERYTHING and would ask, quite loudly, " Now what is THIS all about?!" at some conceptual pieces. Very refreshing. It would appear that a highly groomed dog is the "in" thing to have in a design gallery. Nearly every one we entered sported this intellectual breed.

Feeling peckish, we strolled  up a flight of stairs, through some seriously S&M chain curtain ..."uh-oh," I thought, "shady as f..." ......into an asian food court and it was fabulous. I had a vietnamese noodle salad that was beyond a delight.I could have chosen from Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India.....but the vietnamese family group cooking(yes, I decided they were a family. Let me have my fairytale.) were the happiest and the food looked amazing..and it was.Grandpa took my order and money(in that order) Sister suzy cooked as her brother chopped some mint, shredded carrots and chopped chillies. Grandma brought me the delicious offering. I asked to be adopted.I am not sure the language barrier didn't work in their favour.

So, tummies full, we sauntered down Ponsonby Road, popping into galleries, decor shops, art stores, some one's office(whoops! Sorry!) and generally having a good look at just about everything. I felt very much like a country mouse but it was fine, It is what it is. I love that the big smoke leaves me giddy. Everything is so shiny and so grimy...all at the same time.

Too soon ,the clock chimed. Soon we would have to collect our pumpkins from school and resume our life. We drove home in a chatter of ideas and "note-to-self" moment.

I love my lights.4 x  35 watt 5500 kelvin daylight bulbs, on a tall stand.......yeah, baby! It's Showtime!! Now I can paint instead of sleep. Nah, don't think that will happen, but it could if I wanted.Just saying.

Yummy lunch

Easel solicitation

Dog tie at shop front