Growler

Gizmo stalking my pie.

Soon

A supermoon from my front balcony

Super pretty moon tonight!

A forest in sunlight as viewed from the hot tub

It’s a lovely day in Titirangi, and the flu I picked up during AWOL is almost gone. 😁

Growler on the roof

It’s a bit windy and rainy up here in the hills.

Sure, get up on the roof during a storm to rescue the chimney brush that’s trying to fly away. What could go wrong?

A view from the hot tub into the forest on a bright sunny winters day

It looks like a lovely day. I might sand, prime, and fill 640 screw holes in the new cladding. Ugh.

(The cladding we used previously had hidden screws and was lovely, but Abodo was such a nightmare to work with that we’re using a different (but visually similar) cladding on the rest of the house.

Brian on an airplane with dramatic beard lighting

Grant and Ron

Bears beers event

Yay! Dave! 🥰

Hello Melbourne!

Andy, Brian, Grant at dinner

Dinner out with the lovely Andy, who is visiting from Tasmania.

Growler with the first food he’s eaten in 48 hours: leftover KFC. It did not end well.

This was an extremely poor choice. I have regrets.

Growler, exhausted and feverish, in bed.

Well that sucked. Something I ate gave me the shits, and I ended up spending all of yesterday going between bed and the toilet.
Human bodies are gross.

A red rubbish skip, or a Cybertruck without wheels. Hard to tell.

Could the owner of the red Cybertruck please move it? You are blocking access to the garage. Thank you.

I suspect not

Growler being butch and doing building stuffs

Whoops, that wall should have lining.

Spotify is subverting the masc builder paradigm and I am here for it.

More renovations. The builders have no idea what I’m listening to. Then again, I don’t know what they’re listening to either.

Looking through a window at Brian making dinner

I have the best husband, inside making dinner while I soak in the hot tub.
I suspect he hasn’t figured out I’m here. 😜

Traffic.

Such fun.

Morning sky

Good morning! It’s such a lovely day, I might go and sit in rush hour traffic.

More renovation, of course!

Now repeat for Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, etc... all the poor countries that can't afford US goods but export vast quantities of cheap products to the US.
This is clearly a simplistic view and ignores the immediate upheaval and pain that will likely happen in these countries. But long term?

If Bangladesh is forced to rethink its dependence on low-wage exports, it might pivot towards regional trade, value-added production, and stronger labour rights- starting to reclaim the wealth that’s long been siphoned off by Western consumerism.

For decades, Bangladesh has remained poor while Western brands reaped profits from cheap labour and weak protections. But this latest disruption could change the system.

Has the US just sown the seeds for the dismantling of its exploitative, consumer-driven supply chains?
Bangladesh, like many poorer countries, has been hit with high US tariffs calculated using a blunt and simplistic method.

20 minutes of modelling (starting with a downloaded template for the fitting ends)

6 hours of printing. Excuse the stringing and blobbing, my 95A TPU is moist and needs another 10 hours in the dryer, but I'm impatient.

Peyronies is no laughing matter.

It works! Literally 45 seconds to do a job that usually takes me 30 minutes of dirty, sludgy, ladder movingy drudgery.

I hate cleaning gutters, so I leave it until they're sludgy and I have to get the ladder out and get my hands in there. Bonus points for leaving it until they're overflowing in a rainstorm!
...so I made a thing so I can blow out the gutters whenever I'm leaf blowing the front and back decks.

Cute and colourful and showing shoulders works for you. And for me. 😜

Mostly empty wardrobe, getting ready to renovate the big bedroom.

It begins

Autumn sadness: we are no longer making enough solar power to reliably run the house, so I’ve switched the batteries over to winter mode (allowing them to charge from the grid using cheaper overnight power)
😢😢

Pretty beach with blue water.

Just awful here. Send help.

Growler with wine by the river

Growler and Satyrlad sweaty and tired in the car after 4 hours of hiking

Back to the cottage for a rest and wine. It’s not awful.

Beach is muddy (tidal) but pretty

Clear water, muddy shore

Shaun is somewhere up there

I hiked most of the way to the Dukes Nose, but then there was a beach and signs saying the rest of the hike had “handrails on the vertical rock sections” so I have chosen to stay here and nap while Shaun does the energetic stuff.

The view from the cottage door

Morning time scruffy Grant

Coffee time

Afternoon relaxing

A quiet weekend getaway with the lad. The riverside cottage he chose is gorgeous, I might have to bring Brian back here.

A pack of pup players

Pups! At Eagle bar last night. 😍

Jesus. Warn me first please, I could have been in public and put someone’s eye out!
…I wasn’t (and I’ll give you one guess where I am) but still. Woof!