Ruti & Zoot

Well, when i get the urge to take photos often it's cuz Ruti & Zoot have been around for inspiration....and today was no exception.

I'm currently sitting at the computer post-edit randomly choosing music to listen to on iTunes while i upload the photos, and at the moment it's on some Herb Alpert....and I have to say that it's quite cheesy. I can't even remember why i decided i needed a bit o' Herb at some point in the past on iTunes, but apparently I felt the need and it's there for the long haul.

So, on that note.... imagine that you too are listening to trumpetty 70's lounge jazz (a la Senor Alpert!) and enjoy the cute kitties below...

new bed = new nap location

pre-pounce

Ruti, looking like an angel, awwwww.....

10k Done Without Rain!

So it didn't actually rain, phew! Although there were some random(and not announced on the weather webpage, grrr!) torrential downpours earlier in the evening, but by midnight the sky was dry and although it was pretty darn humid it was still good walking weather.

We made our way to the race grounds, giggling and asking for help from everyone along the way, having not actually planned our journey very well before hand. Ooops! But, we made it there in plenty of time, safe & sound, and had fun along the way. We bought some pink accessories and did our best to avoid the obnoxious emcee/MC(i dunno?) as we waited to begin the walk.

We were well fuelled(almost too full & slightly tired, eeek!) by some tasty wagamama's gnosh from beforehand and ready to walk our lil hearts out! The crowd was a happy, peppy, pink crowd of around 1000 people and it was a strange experience mainly because we just walked along normal sidewalks in pairs and small groups, trickling along the route, and no one was very loud, even though it was an event with around 1000 participants.

And since it was midnight on a Saturday night i'm sure many a drunken geordie was slightly confused as to why our fluffy pink-ness was floating along past them.

All in all, it's something i'm very glad i did and had such a great time doing! And with everyones generousity i raised more than my target which is fantastic!!

So thank you!!!!
:)

Time For Some Ruti Portraits

Yet again, one of my favorite models and I had a photoshoot, hehe

Ruti happened to be lounging on the counter in the sun and so i ran to get my camera, of course. She was just rolling around, enjoying the counter top sun longer position, as she does, and i really wanted to try to capture that care-free look in her furry face, but i don't think i managed that exactly. I guess it was one of those "you just had to be there" moments......and at the risk of becoming a crazy cat lady i'll shut up now.

:)

Bubble Bath Self Portraits

I guess when you title something "Bubble Bath Self-portraits" you risk the assumption of it being slightly risque in the content, but really it's totally rated G as you can see. I just decided to risk water damage to my camera all in the name of capturing a self-portrait or two that i had envisioned each & every time I'd taken a bath in the last few months. It's funny really, each time i took a bubble bath i kept imagining which angle i'd snap from and how close up i'd make the shot and how it may or may not turn out...... so i decided to take the risk and bring my camera into the bathroom with me the other day finally. Yay! No damp cameras and a few good shots(in my humble opinion) which i've tweaked a bit and voila..... here they be!

And now if the grocery delivery dude would just arrive, life would be complete......or at least I'd be well fed, hehe


:)

Walking at Midnight Rain or Shine!!

On July 4th at midnight, rain or shine, I will be partaking in the St Oswald's Hospice Midnight 10k Walk! I'm so excited and looking forward to this unique event. It'll be a nice change to have the scorching sun already down(we should be so lucky to actually have bright sun in England, ha!) and be walking around the streets with the other participants in the middle of the night.

I've been training with Amanda(my fellow midnight-walker) on the weekends for a good few weeks now. We go for long walks along the coast or quayside(and chat about movies while we walk!) and we are both feeling pretty ready for the big event. We've been doing between 6k-13k each weekend and have gotten pretty good at it (put one foot in front of the other & be sure to bring snacks!).

We may not have a big cheering section on the night(everyone we know will be asleep?!) but we will just make up for it with attitude and have huge grins on our faces I'm sure!

You can check out St Oswalds Hospice's webpage to see what it is that this fantastic local charity does, and if you feel so inclined you can sponsor me using my Just Giving Page below:

http://www.justgiving.com/melissawalksatmidnight

Hello Zoot!

I am back to being sporadic with my posts, oops! Here's a post to fill the gap...

This image just screamed "Hello there Zoot!" to me, he's so funny.

He just couldn't keep his nose away from the lens and wanted to see what i was so interested in(cuz i was staring through the lens i suppose) so of course, he investigates the situation. Next would come his characteristic head-butting of my face! Ha!

Anyway, i love when i am actually able to capture a moment, mid-movement, or just a sweet expression and i think this is one of those times, even if i do say so myself. I haven't quite managed to figure out my camera more than just the "auto" function so far, but hey-ho i'll get there eventually.

Now i'm off to go make a vat of spaghetti sauce..... yum!

The Sweet Side of Seoul

Bean paste filled sweet & pretty rice cakes

Who knew that Baskin Robbins had such fantastic icecream cakes?

These were the celebratory "pup"cakes (Welcome Tiki!!) we found at the food court in Hyundai Dept Store in the Coex Mall on our way to see the temple across the road from the mall.

One of many afternoon treats we tried... funny how the lady who sold it to me gave me two spoons, perhaps I was meant to share it? Nahhhh!

The fish shaped red bean paste filled sweet snacks that we read about before we arrived. Of course we just had to hunt some down and try it! They turned out to be someone's absolute favorite Korean snack.

A waffle sundae topped with green tea icecream and bananas - obviously it's to share..... or is it?

So overall, there was a lot of eating while in Seoul, and I mean a ton of it. We wanted to try everything & anything suggested to us by our wonderful hosts who had the inside scoop on the "best of's." I must admit however, that we didn't end up trying the infamous dog soup, there just wasn't enough time or hunger for that one I guess, but overall, we tasted so many delicious treats & meals during our trip. Lucky for me that a good chunk of them were sweet!

I admit that I have a pretty wicked sweet tooth, and I was peasantly surprised with certain things like the abundance of green tea icecream everywhere, but I was also a tiny bit let down by the lack of "oomph" in certain sweet things. I guess different cultures have different preferences for tastes which is an interesting fact to discover while on your travels. I did appreciate the nicely decorated soft & sticky bean paste filled rice "cakes", but they just weren't sweet enough for me. But they really did look the part and if i was given a plateful of them as a gift i would be very thankful.

To sum up....my tastebuds were very pleased with Seoul's sweet side!

Seoul Vacationing....

I've been away on vacation to Seoul, South Korea to visit my sister and it was fantastic! I am a bit cross-eyed and fuzzy headed today though from the combination of jet-lag and beginning the organization of my trip photos. But above is a teaser to give a "taste" of what's to come..... hehe..... lots of food photos and lots of amazing sights to be shown(once i've finished organizing & editting them). But only a few highlights to write up & show on the blog, the rest will be on Flickr eventually. So yeah.....Seoul is an awesome place to visit even if it wasn't on my Top 10 list of places to go. I highly recommend it!

Groceries arrive safe & sound...

Playing with scenic shots directly into the sun - sometimes they work really well in my opinion.

Don't know what she thought would happen - these birds wanted more food! Ha!



So, online grocery shopping gets a thumbs up from me! It went to plan, the dude arrived within the timeslot, he had a few substitutions which was fine & dandy, didn't have to pay any more for them. I got my stuff(which will last a loooong time), and I didn't break my back or pocketbook to do so.

But i did learn something, which was my own fault, but i know for next time not to choose the cheapest option automatically. I used one of those sites that help to point out if there is a cheaper option for something that you have put on your grocery list, and i had chosen a pre-packed bag of sweet potatoes(bear with me, there is a point to this!) which was like £1.70 for 1 Kg of small sweet potatoes(ie:one per meal), and this webpage helpfully pointed out that if i requested the sweet potatoes as loose veg instead i'd save .68p a Kg, or something like that. So, ever the penny-pincher, thinking i was getting a bargain i said, "yes please! Loose potatoes work for me!" and the punch line.....instead of getting a bag of about 8 individual meal-size sweet potatoes, i got 2 gianormous potatoes together weighing 1Kg! Ooops. They still taste great, but i have to eat LOTS of potato, ha!

But if that's my only complaint, well i think i'm on to something - online grocery buying is goodstuff!!

The fun new experiences continue...

Zoot, napping in the sun
Close-up of Zoot, just woken up from his nap

Extreme close-up of Ruti, just staring

Ruti, staring head-on.


Ok, not very exciting new experiences really, but still sparkly new nonetheless!

I ordered my first ever online groceries to be delivered later this week - and for whatever reason i'm really worried that they'll decide to switch all my choices to the extra high priced alternatives and i'll be forced to grin and say thank you Mr Food Delivery Man/Woman. Inside i'd secretly be screaming "Where's my generic baked beans, i don't like Heinz beans!?" So besides that, all is well and my supplies will be brought to my door all for the low low delivery fee of £3.50, the taxi ride home from the grocery store after a big shop would cost more than that, so i'm pretty pleased! :)

I've realised that i have been neglecting one of my favorite hobbies lately due to studies & work. I hadn't played with my camera in a long time. But there are only so many hours in a day, and i plan on making more time in future, but i did get a few great shots of Zoot & Ruti over the weekend and the light was awesome, so here they are(above).

Been a while yet again...

Well, it's been a while since i last posted anything, but things happen in life as everyone knows and you get busy and aren't able to do the huge list of things you want to do. But i'm posting this little message just to say that i'm still around and planning to post in future, just not at the moment - ha!

So yeah, my message for today is: "Yay for mobile broadband dongles and yay for free facebook access & skype calls on your cell phone!"

Whooopeeeee!

Splish Splosh

Above: photos of my parents grandfather clock - it's a great clock & very photogenic! (taken with my new camera)

So, at 2.30AM this morning i was awakened by a form of Chinese Water Torture occuring from the flat above.... drip... drip ... drip .... DRIP! Pretty frustrating stuff to wake up to water streaming from the flat above in the middle of the night knowing that the older lady upstairs isn't really capable of answering the door herself, so you can't really go bang on the door (and who the hell answers their door when someone bangs on it at 2.30AM anyway?)

So i covered the floor in towels and moved the furniture out of the way as best i could....I couldn't really do much else but wait until I was able to get in touch with my partner (who was working nightshift), who then could get in touch with his contact for upstairs(the son of the lady) who could then look into it & figure out what was going on.

Long story short, at 6.30am the dude came over to investigate where the leak was coming from and apparently found a soggy carpet next to the kitchen sink upstairs, so it appears as though she is able-bodied enough to turn the sink on and then let it overflow. Perhaps she felt the urge to wash some dishes at 2am, but then decided to go back to bed instead, or better yet... maybe she sleep-walked to the kitchen sink and turned it on without even realizing she was doing so! Oooh! Who knows?!

Regardless of why it happened, it did stop streaming down the walls/ceiling around 7/8am, but who's to say it won't happen again? That's the scary part. When you live in a flat like this, or any shared building really, your neighbors have a HUGE effect on your home & surroundings. You may each own your own flat but if the upstairs person causes damage to the downstairs flat it's the downstairs person's insurance premiums that go up when they have to claim for the damage, it's the downstairs person who has to practically beg the upstairs person to fix things that drip over a long period of time through your ceiling but aren't urgent, and it's the downstairs person who will have to find a new flat when the older woman upstairs, who probably needs a bit more help than her family will admit, forgets to turn the stove off and causes a small fire from burning her soup, or worse. I genuinely hope she is not THAT bad in our case, or at least that they realize it darn quick if she is needing to be in an assisted living situation. Let's hope her son is right and that this is a one-off situation!

There really doesn't seem to be a way to "force" flat-owners to sort their stuff out, it's beyond frustrating as I'm seeing first-hand with my partner who owns the flat we live in. If everyone just took care of their own space and made sure not to infringe on others in a negative way, or, if heaven forbid you did cause some damage to your neighbors flat you'd be darn quick to fix it, and make sure it was fixed properly i might add, and then apologise profusely and maybe give them some candy or wine as part of the apology, that'd be nice!

Personally, I'd be seriously embarrassed if i caused my neighbor (who was a nice pleasant neighbor compared to the hoodlums you could have) any inconvenience due to my flat causing them any damage, and I'd be darn near horrified if i had a repeat problem that consistently caused damage that I seemed unable to fix(that'd be mainly because i would DEFINITELY be trying my hardest to sort it out), so all in all..... what is going on upstairs???? On behalf of my partner i say a big loud frustrated AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

And now it has come to the end of my rambling rant on the splishy-sploshy situation that occured this AM.

The End.

(Definition of these flats = one flat upstairs and one flat below, but looks like a stereotypical "house" from the outside, except it has 2 front doors instead of 1)

A Snowy X-mas & Flickr

Christmas has come & gone and all that's left are remnants of chocolate selection boxes(only the flavors that people don't like) and lots of photos which help keep the memories fresh in our mind.

Above are a couple of photos from our x-mas visit to Chicago.....don't forget to get a snap with the gorilla statue when at Brookfield Zoo, my Grandma having her favorite shake while on a drive with us, and 3 generations in one photo on X-mas!

I've recently opened up a Flickr account which i'm excited and confused by.....it's a whole new world in Flickr! But i'm excited to be able to explore other peoples photos and also to see what they think of mine. Because you see, after thoroughly enjoying my digital photography course last year, i decided I wanted to explore further. So my main X-mas/bday present from my folks this year was the next step up in digital cameras.....a DSLR of my very own to play with and discover my inner photographer with and i'm lovin it!

Check out my stuff on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissaschueler/

A belated Happy Healthy New Year to you all!!