Wings Over Wairarapa

C-17

de Havilland Tattoo - Complete!

First of all, forgive the terrible photos below - it's not easy to photograph your own right arm with a phone, even with the aid of a mirror. I will of course post a clear photo when it's all healed up, but I couldn't wait to share this now - especially since those of you who follow me on Instagram and the like have already seen it.

Finally, finally, I got my tattoo finished! It had been black and red (left) for over a year due to my own laziness, and I'd kind of just gotten used to how it looked. Once the artist, Simon Morse, moved to his own studio recently I decided to book in and get it finished - if I'm going to stick to my one-a-year plan, I had to finish 2011's before getting 2012's, right? We'd established the Tiger Moth would be yellow, but other than that I left the colour decisions up to him.

The middle photo was taken about two thirds of the way through yesterday's sitting, when I got up to have a stretch, and Simon ran his idea of the blue by me. It's probably just because of my AS, but in each of the three tattooing sessions I've had, the pain from keeping my body still is way worse than the actual pain of the needle!

I love love love how it looks with the blue background - eventually I think I'll be adding to this arm, so I didn't want anything too border-y if that makes sense. I can't wait until it's healed so I can post some better pictures - the detail on her headgear especially is so perfect.

If you want to check out more of Simon's work, you can view the Dr Morse INC Facebook page here, and also check out this article on his new premises.

Tumble

It's days like this I wish I had an amazing digital camera - it's frustrating to have such a spectacular sight before me and not be able to photograph it effectively with a point and shoot. The Red Checkers flew over Wellington this morning, and it was beautiful to watch.

I had tickets to go to the Ohakea Air Show with my parents over the weekend, but I was not at all up to it unfortunately, so it was nice to get a small taste of the aviation action today.

I am sorry that I haven't been posting anything on here. Over the past couple of weeks I've experienced a lot of back pain again. In addition to all the limitations that puts on me, it's really not doing anything to help my emotional/mental wellbeing. To be honest, I'm scared as hell.

I want to keep blogging, even through the difficult bits - especially through the difficult bits actually, it can be quite therapeutic. But I don't want to turn this into a pity party, because that wouldn't do you guys or myself any good. Perhaps measured honesty is the best way forward for now.

More as soon as I'm up to it... I have a lot of ideas, but not a lot of energy to carry them out at the minute.

WRE - AKL

My view from seat 01F... stoked! I'm glad pilots don't have rear vision mirrors because my leering and grinning through the whole flight probably would have freaked them out. So fun!

Great Outdoors

Your eyes don't deceive you, that's Wallace outside. I kind of didn't have a choice in the matter anymore- after that time he went missing overnight, he escaped two more times. And of course, once he'd had a taste of the outdoors he wanted to go back. Definitely frustrating for the reasons I outlined in this post- going back to an apartment is going to be really difficult now that he's not indoor-only. At least in our old apartment it was all he knew, and he couldn't escape. But oh well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I've let him out for a couple of hours the past few days, and so far he's content exploring our yard, and comes back inside frequently to check in and reassure me... probably. He's getting microchipped soon, and Charlie bought him a cheap bell collar yesterday until we get him a nice one with a new tag. He'll only be allowed outside when I'm home during the afternoon, so I'm not tooo concerned.

This afternoon he's been a little perturbed by the Red Checkers flying over the city, and drips of rain falling on him.

So Fly

My little sister Emily turned 20 last month, and her flying instructor friend surprised her with a flight over the Manawatu in what I believe was a small Diamond aircraft. She just emailed me some pictures from the flight- SO JEALOUS!

PS: I just discovered this is my 250th blog post! Woohoo. Much respect to my friend and former colleague Laura, who told me yesterday that she read the entire thing within a matter of days...!

Sneaky peeks

Had the first session of my second tattoo yesterday afternoon! Took just over two hours, and Simon the tattoo artist got all the line and shading work done, plus coloured in the DH-88 with such a perfect shade of red- hoping it stays a similar tone once it's done scabbin' and itchin'. The Tiger Moth is going to be yellow, but not 100% sure about the rest yet. Have my next appointment in a couple of weeks! Will definitely post a clear photo once it is all finished, but for now you can squint at the blur and admire Wallace!

PS: My flatmate Matt also got tattooed by Simon yesterday (field trip!) and you can view photos of his tattoo/follow him on Twitter.

Geeks

I am my father's daughter... he has a million bajillion model cars/trucks/motorbikes/planes etc. I bought this cute little Air NZ Boeing 737-300 model today (I don't think Dad would ever describe his models as 'cute', so we can all breathe a slight sigh of relief).