Project 365 - 9

wonderful encounter: Fiordland-Crested Penguin, Milford Sound, NZ.

and just because he was so special (rare viewing of an endangered penguin species, that was supposed to be out to sea already!)... he gets an extra photo! ;o)

Project 365 - 8

Indiana Cris, after conquering Ben Lommond, Queenstown, NZ.

Project 365 - 7

flying over the South Island, NZ.

Project 365 - 6

Curious surfers. Coromandel, NZ.

Project 365 - 5

Pohutukawa in bloom. Whale Bay, Raglan, NZ.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!!

How has your year started out? I started 2011 doing the 20km Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand! Am still putting the post together for the other blog, but I wanted to take advantage of a little internet time to share this:

I set my cellphone alarm for noon, a.k.a. midnight in Europe, so New Year for most of my family and friends.

Jan 1st 2011, above Red Crater, at highest point in the Tongariro Crossing, NZ

Hope 2011 is starting out well for you! :o)

Project 365 - 4

shells, waves and sister. East Coast, NZ

Project 365 - 3

jumping for joy on Mt Taranaki, NZ.

Project 365 - 2

Koru - unfurling Fern leaf in the Forgotten Valley, NZ.

Project 365 - 1

Jan 1st 2011 atop the Red Crater on the Tongariro Crossing, NZ.

Napping

Here and There and Everywhere is going to be taking a series of naps over the next month!

Monthly Movies: December airplane bonus!

Airplane bonus!

With over 20h of air travel time between Paris and Auckland, you can bet I made the most of the fabulous in-flight entertainment system to catch up on movies I missed on the Big Screen and discovering others that weren't even on my radar!

Going the Distance

Leaving Paris I decided to start with something light-hearted to help keep me awake while waiting for dinner (we took off at 1 a.m. instead of 11 p.m. because of snow issues). And what a pleasant surprise this was! A more adult rom-com than usual, both characters feel very real, and it's been a long time since I enjoyed a movie w/ Drew Barrymore so much! She makes me understand her pain and frustration at living in a long-distance relationship (she's in San Francisco, boyfriend in NY) and desperately trying to establish her career while finding a way to move closer to him.

Winter's Bone

After a night of desperately trying to sleep (and failing miserably most of the time), I realised I'd waited too long to start my 2nd choicem so had to flip through the options for something shorter. I landed on Winter's Bone (which as far as I know hasn't hit a screen near me) that I keep glimpsing very good info about across the Atlantic.

WOW! Talk about intense! The young lead Jennifer Lawrence is amazing as she desperately tries to locate her father (who skipped on his trial hearing) so she and her younger siblings don't lose their house (which he had the brilliant idea to put up as a bond), all the while taking care of the young ones and teaching them how to survive. She carries the whole movie solidly on her shoulders and does it brilliantly.

Eat, Pray, Love

I didn't want to risk missing out on this one again (previous flight), so I started out the flight between Hong Kong and Auckland with Julia Robert's latest (and thought how fitting to watch a travel movie while on a trip!). She's wonderful as usual and the movie presents some interesting ideas as to life, love and God which made me take pause, and I had a great laugh at the Italians' view of Americans and they feel they have to earn life's pleasures! (completely agree with their assessment, and am glad to be more European than American in that aspect) Oh, and I'm now curious about reading the book...

All's Faire in Love

After a decently long nap I went for comedy again to accompany brunch, and couldn't resist the lure of one that takes place during a Renaissance Fair and stars the delightful Christina Ricci! What a blast! I loved the mix of faux Shakespearean / medieval English and thought it was a really cute story! (plus I love those dresses, lol!)

So, have you seen these? Any thoughts? I just realised (looking it up on imdb) that All's Faire was from 2009! Some movies just never make it across the pond... grrrr!!!!

Monthly Movies: Autumn 2010

Yikes! What happened with my monthly movies posts??? I love writing these! I just wasn't really inspired this summer... not much worth writing about other than Inception which deserved its own "Movie Madness" post but was too busy to write (I thought I had, just realised while looking for it for a link that I hadn't!). And the fact that I didn't see a single movie in October (shocking!) is proof that having a lot of work to do and needing a bus to go to the movies... well it ain't easy! :p

I could just drop it for now and start up again in 2011 (Feb, since I doubt I'll see anything in January), and you've probably seen most of them by now, but still... My movie obsession won't let me drop it and I'm interested in hearing what you thought of those of these films that you've seen. So this post is just a combo of the Fall, not as complete as usual because some of them I only jotted down a few notes after seeing them and that was a while ago... but I don't want to leave them out 'cause there were some little (French) gems I want you to keep your eyes open for if you happen upon them!

Happy...

Wether you be in the snow

Or at the beach…

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all!

May the holiday bring you much love and joy!

Final Snowy Solstice Morning

The sun rises on my final morning here, on the shortest day of the year. It’s colourful and magical, but I’m glad to be going. I’ve had fun in the snow –as you have probably noticed from my snowbsession these past few weeks-, but I’m glad to be heading south for the summer!

Early bird catches the worm they say… although berries would be more accurate! I finally found out what happened to my snowctopus’s eyes! Indeed, I caught the culprit red-beaked:

HA! Gotcha! I hope he enjoyed his early breakfast, cheeky blackbird! :p

Strategic retreat, although at some point he’ll head back down to finish off the other eye. I should have used coal…

Tonight I’m moving out to a friend’s apartment to be closer into town. Tomorrow morning I need to get up early to take a suitcase to the Post Office to have it mailed back to Spain (all my winter stuff, plus some chocolate and other goodies), head over to the bank to get some kiwi dollars, print my e-tickets and boarding cards and then catch a 13h45 train to Lille in France from where I get a TGV to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and then… I’m off! Up, up and away!!! New Zealand and a summer Christmas, here I come!!! :o)

(this would be the end of my snowbsession of the past month... I just realised I haven't written anything that didn't talk about snow since the end of February, lol!)