adventures – Page 7 – helenthura.com

August 12, 2016September 25, 2020

Hawaii Day 2

Day 2 was all about the Flamingo 🙂

Lots of them and some other animal encounters at the Honolulu Zoo 🙂

Komodo Dragon

Black Rhinoceros

Look a Fujifilm disposable camera!

Oh sweet gum

Peach Faced Lovebirds

Peach Faced Lovebirds

Superb Starling (Lamprotornis superbus)

Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus)

Mosaic Flamingos

Slender-tailed Meerkat

Klipspringer

Some form of antelope, isn’t that striping on the flank gorgeous?

Oh Zeeeeebra!

Zeebra!

Hello Giraffe

Lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor)

Beach Umbrella … also works an umbrella when an impromptu tropical rain shower appears

Indian Elephant and Diamond Head

American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

How far to other zoos?

American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

Me and another great mosaic at the zoo

After getting a bit rained out of the Zoo, I headed back to my classy looking hotel for a nap before heading off to Ward Village to have a browse through the shops and area.

After Ward Village, I headed through Ala Moana where I stumbled across this most wonderful reproductionÂ dress on display in Bloomingdales. This dress is part of the Alii Gown Reproduction Project which is been run by the Friends of Iolani Palace. This dress is a reproduction ofÂ Queen Kapiolani’s lei hulu (feather lei) gown which she wore to Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1887. I have lightened the darks a bit in the below photo to try to show the exquisite detail in the bodice. The dress is the most beautiful black velvet with yellow feather embellishments. I would love a dress like this, the detail, the fabric, the cut, the train, the drape, everything! I spent a good time walking round the dress soaking it all up. Refer to this article for more detail.

On the walk back to my hotel, I went past this the Tradewinds Hotel and was totally in love with their breezeblock entry way 😀

And well you can’t have a visit to the USA with out some blueberry pancakes from IHOP 😀

And with a very full stomach, it was back to the hotel and that was Day 2 of Hawaii 😀

May 10, 2016September 25, 2020

Hawaii Day 1

The Easter long weekend normally means a trip somewhere, or kind of somewhere

last year it was a trip to the spare room as I prepped for a CA Capstone workshop the following weekend.

the year before it was ?????????

the year before that it was Penang

This year it was Hawaii with two of my friends from uni days Sam and Justin.Â We flew with Hawaiian Airlines because well 2 x 32kg bags ….vs 1 x 23kg with Jetstar. Â Ok so that last bit was more something I was excited about than the others and that may only be because well I brought home some groceries … ok really I bought home a whole bunch of pop tarts, like a lot.

Hawaiian does a cracker of a flight out of Brisbane to Honolulu, a perfect flight for an after work escape on a plane to the middle of the Pacific. Why is it a cracker? Well because the departure time is 9:45pm. Thank you very much HA444. That not too late but not too early flight which means you can leave work at 5pm, go home finish packing, grab a bite to eat and make it to the airport in time. Â Ok so that dinner might only be a jaffle but still … and anyway you will get some sort of snack on the plane once it takes off. The flight takes about 9hrs so again a pretty perfect after work flight because you know that halfway through the first movie you will be fast asleep albeit not in pyjamas and not curled up in your own bed but still you know that when you wake up, you will be a whole lot closer to those islands in the middle of the Pacific, HAWAII! Please, click here to continue reading 🙂 “Hawaii Day 1”

December 27, 2015September 8, 2020

A cold, cold walk on Christmas Day

It has become somewhat of a tradition in our family to go for a walk or a stroll after lunch on Christmas Day.

This year, Karl and I took Stella for a walk round town. Christmas Day was mighty cold for Reykjavik, the weather bureau recorded -9.7°C at noon on Christmas Day! A vast difference to the 25.4°C or so that was observed in Brisbane at noon on the 25th.

We went down to the harbour and then strolled back through the “west side” home to get ready for Christmas Day dinner with Kata’s paternal family.

As it was Christmas Day we wore Santa Hats for the walk, sadly the Santa Hats were not wool or super fleecy so did not really provide optimum warmth :/
Karl and I on the jetty
Please, click here to continue reading 🙂 “A cold, cold walk on Christmas Day”

August 9, 2014September 8, 2020

I love this building

I go to work everyday in a Harry Seidler designed building and everyday I pause in the lobby and take it all in.

The space, the glass, the lines, the acoustics, the everything.

I love it all.

There are shadows .

There are lines.

There are curves.

There is glass, lots of glass.

And most importantly, there is the wave. Love the wave.

February 11, 2013

Feb-ru-ray, the first ten days but no cake

I’ve got four days left at my current job before I embark on a big change and go off to be an accountant. I’ve made three cakes to farewell others in the last 10 days and I’ll be making another one tomorrow night for one of the guys who is posting out on Wednesday. All those cakes will be in another post shortly…

On Saturday I went up the coast. After having my farewell party the night before. I was very good and only had four drinks all night. One of those was a frozen apple pie cocktail. That wasÂ divineÂ Just like drinking an apple pie. So, so, so good. Â Saturday was not classic beach weather but the water was nice and the waves were quite decent. An old Woodfordia friend was having a vintage garage sale on Saturday -> thus the reason for the trip up the coast. I picked up the mostÂ divineÂ Osti shirt dress. So, soÂ divineÂ and just the loveliest colours. A photo may appear at some stage.

Going back to the day before, Friday. Friday marked Chan’s last day working for the company and it marked a week left for me with the company before I change jobs as well. Big things abound for the both of us this year. We’ve been desk buddies etc for the last 18mths 🙁 We met up for one last coffee atÂ Pour Boy, the best coffee consistently in our end of town.

I took my first box of stuff home the other day. That’s the first time it really hit me that I’m changing jobs. Nothing says change like packing up five years of your work life and then walking out the door with an archive box filled to the brim. I’ll bring another box home tomorrow and that should be just about everything I think.

I’ve got my eye set on a few events later this year which mean I need to get my fitness back to a pre-uni and pre-flood level. I moved away from Asics GT 2100 series that I’ve lived in for the past x years and picked up a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 9. OMG, I enjoyed my Asics but these shoes are like playing in a whole new ballpark. They’re light, just the right bounce and by darn they are blue.

Just like almost every other house in SQLD, the Â mock oranges have flowered and then of course it rained so off came all the petals. Will have to give the patio a very big clean on the weekend as those petals almost bake onto to the tiles. Fun times. People keep commenting on the scent when they visit but I smell nothing 🙁

Chan finally had dinner at Catcus Jack’s after hearing the rest of us at work rave about it for for the past few years. Chocolate Nachos, so, so, so good. One time we will go to Cactus Jack’s and have dessert first I think.

Last Sunday, I finally got my beach wish for the summer. Blue skies, great weather, open beaches, perfect water temperature and darn decent waves. I’ve tried a couple of times this summer to go to the beach but every time I’ve beenÂ thwartedÂ by crap weather, closed beaches or last minute plan changes. The girls at work near on couldn’t believe it that I finally got my beach day.

Just loved this detail on the Ladies change rooms at North Burleigh.

I picked up a tray of strawbs at the start of the month for $9. Hello strawberry jam!

Strawberry jam, cooling so I can test it for set.

Strawberries, sugar and lemon juice waiting to become jam.

Glass jars all washed and waiting to go in the oven before they get filled.

And one last picture for this lot. A snipped of one of the baby quilts I’m making at the moment 🙂 Just love that May Gibbs fabric.

There we have. The first ten days or so of Feb-ru-ary in photos.

January 15, 2013

A visit to the Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens

In the family I’m from a stroll round the local Botanical Gardens is always in order when one goes visiting a new town. There’s new plants to see, old ones to admire and just a lovely time strolling the paths.

Of course one of the few things on my must do list for Christmas in Hobart was a visit to the Gardens. le Sigh. I love those gardens. I didn’t get to fully explore the Japanese Gardens this time, just had a quick rush in to take photos of theÂ Ginkgo biloba.

Oh and a little snap of theÂ Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum cv. Utsusemi) as well.

Highlights included this Rhododendron Azma in the Rhododendron Terraces

Mum and Margaret did a lot of this. Botanising we call it, both of them with their BSc hats on.

My favourite area of the garden on this trip was probably theÂ DeciduousÂ Lawn and the Oak Collection. Â I had a very nice time taking photos of backlit leaves. The angle of the sun in Tasmania makes it so nice for taking backlit photos.

Like this one (unlabelled tree).

or this one (English Oak Hybrid (Quercus x robur))

or this one (Pyramidale Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)).

My most favourite photo of the outing was this one, a very quick photo as we got back to the cars. Taken just like that because the light was just right. My cousin Erica and her little bear.

Aren’t they just special?

If you want to check out the rest of the photos from our jaunt to the gardens, head over to Flickr to my Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens Set