A personal touch

Personal touches turn ordinary into special

This week we celebrated a very special birthday - my son's.

It's a tradition in my family no matter how young or old the person is, to celebrate with a cake. But my son does not like cake and never eats it and baking a cake is not one of my strengths. So instead I bought him a small chocolate sponge and then decided to add some personal touches to it to make it special and interesting.

Over the last month, the supermarket that I shop in was giving away little miniature groceries for a little supermarket. They looked so cute that I decided to collect them. My son and I enjoy opening up the packets and finding the little things inside. Made us chuckle each time. And eventually they came in real handy.

So here it is, a personal touch turns a very ordinary cake into something special. And this is a moment I want to treasure. My son wasn't expecting this and it put a smile on his face.

Happy Birthday my son. Many blessings, lots of love and hugs.

This is the moment 

This is the time 

When the momentum and the moment

Are in rhyme

Give me this moment 

This momentous moment ..
(from Jekyll and Hyde)

This week's Thursday Challenge prompt is Patterns - Shapes, Textures. Trees, Clouds ...

So I tried to find some pattern in my mini groceries and settled on geometry and the textures of all things dairy. So they are ....

New Zealand's Whittaker's chocolate  - yummiest chocolate ever. If you haven't tried this one, you've never eaten chocolate!      

             

Mini eclairs - absolutely divine - chocolate and cream - melt in the mouth moments.

Amazing how many things one can make from dairy.

Have yourself a very special day.


Tweet

Like my facebook page Suzy's Ilation and if one of your posts needs some tlc, add it to the goodwill thread there so I can drop by and give it some love.

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Thursday Challenge

Moments of joy

Little things bring us great joy

This week was a bit up and down - some anxious moments and some that brought me joy.

So looking back on those joyous moments, I found that it was really the little things that brought a lot of happy moments this week.

Sometimes it's just hard to pick a single moment, so here are some of them, the many moments I want to remember this week ...

Chicken noodles that my son loved so much he wants to eat them again and again - now that was a moment that brought me the most joy.

My little clip on ipod arrived - my nano decided it's had enough and is slowly fading. This time I thought I'd get a little clip on to help me with my exercise routine. I'm always picking up the nano as it drops out of my pocket so the clip on is a real treat. Wasn't sure of the colour but the green looks awesome.

A free angel reading from Angel Soulfood on FB yesterday. Most days we have the faith and in our hearts we know but just now and then the little demon of doubt creeps in and we question whether all this is true or just a straw we hold onto to give us strength to move on. 

Yesterday morning as I sipped my tea, I looked across at the hills and asked the same question - are you really there, why then are you silent. Then as I looked through my FB news feed I came across a post from Lisa Beachy - ask your Spiritual Team to prove they are around in a surprising general way. Just ask for a sign. And so I did. Soon after that Jodi Chapman of Soul Speak posted that Angel Soulfood was offering free readings and so I put my name down. 

I'm always blown away by how the Universe works and inevitably always obliges and restores my faith in it and all that is Divine. Couldn't have asked for a better sign. And the reading truly brought me great joy.

My lovely Pohutakawa tree that I thought was dying suddenly starts to bloom again. So happy I won't need to cut it down. And little Pohutakawa are peeping through. - Summer is round the corner. Yay.

So thrilled to see the little birds dropping by and enjoying the bread crumbs meal I put out for them. I love watching the birds eat. But have to stay very quiet and still as any movement sends them flying.

And last but not least, I can see the hills again - my neighbour trimmed his tree that was blocking my view. I had wished he would trim his plants and guess what the Universe obliged yet again. The storm some weeks ago must've damaged his tree and he finally trimmed it.  I can enjoy my hills again.

So grateful for the little things that bring me joy.

Tweet

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama
A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

The Festival of Lights

Happy Diwali and Happy New Year

Today (November 03 2103)  is Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated by Indians all over the world.

Diwali marks the day Lord Rama returned to his kingdom of Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. The people rejoiced and lit lamps in his honour marking the end of the dark days when Lord Rama was in exile and the commencement of Lord Rama's reign as king which was a period of great joy and prosperity for the people.

That tradition of lighting lamps or little diyas continues today. It signifies the end of darkness and the start of new things, of happy and bright days. Hence some communities (mine included) celebrate the day after Diwali as the New Year.

Diwali always brings great surprises and I had an unexpected visit from my lovely friend that brought me great joy today.

And here are my little lamps - in keeping with tradition - my quiet celebration of Diwali. Not quite the traditional diyas but good enough I think.

Wishing you all good health, wealth and prosperity, peace, happiness, love, and many blessings.

May your path be a joyful one and may His light be ever present.




Tweet

Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama 

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Wordless Wednesday at Abracadabra

Honouring Pink

A very pink day at work

October 25 2013 was a very pink day at work for breast cancer awareness. Work pods were decorated in pink and we all wore pink clothes or had some element of pink on our attire. There was also a bake off and the theme was of course pink. I was tied up with some work so wasn't present for the bake off sampling so there are unfortunately no pictures of that.

It's a pity that not everyone at work participated in the pink theme. We all work very hard but it's also nice and respectful to participate for causes.

So here is the pink theme of my group. Best said of course as always in pictures.

these are a few of our favourite pinks 

Paper roses - so cleverly done

pink duckies 

some very clever artistry here

This is a day I do want to remember in honour of all breast cancer survivors, sufferers and those who lost their battle with it. 2 in my family are survivors and 1 succumbed to it - this post is for you all.

And keeping with the pink and work theme for the Thursday Challenge Landscape prompt, here is a picture I took a couple of months ago at the start of Winter from my workplace. (Added a pink hue to keep it in with the pink theme)

Tweet

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Thursday Challenge
"LANDSCAPE" (Mountains, Trees, Forest, Lake,...)

Smoke in the air

Something accidentally burning - or deliberately burnt?

What an absolutely beautiful day it is today. The sun is shining, it's warm and still. I can't believe we are still in Winter (tail end of it anyway) and I'm wearing a T-shirt today. Or maybe it's already clocked over into Spring! The seasons have a mind of their own.

The garden was so tempting today. It looked so colourful and pretty so I thought I would spend some time in it and enjoy nature.

And then I looked up and saw smoke in the distance. I wondered if the fire was accidental or deliberately lit - like burning leaves or something as land there is all farm land. I hope it was controlled burning. 

It's been put out now so I guess it was either caught in time or was in fact deliberate and controlled burning.

It truly is an amazing day today. So many interesting things to see. There are sheep and cows on the hills. It's been a while since I saw them. Perhaps they were sent out because of the fire. I can also hear some ducks quacking (sounds more like squawking) but I can't see them anywhere.  

I was also looking through some archives for the Thursday Challenge prompt "Animals". But I've already posted most of them and the remaining just didn't go with today's theme. I thought I might have to give this prompt a miss, and then I suddenly saw the sheep and cows. Perfect for the theme. The Universe obliges again!  :D

I had to zoom in a lot for these pics so not very clear.  But ...

Here are the sheep 

And here are the cows

This is the moment 

This is the time 

When the momentum and the moment

Are in rhyme

Give me this moment 

This momentous moment ..
(from Jekyll and Hyde)

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama

A single photo capturing a moment

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Thursday Challenge
Prompt - "ANIMAL" (Pets, Wild, Herds, Flocks,...)
and guess what, next week's prompt is Fire!

  Tweet

Cloud

I saw the long white cloud

Last week there were many moments - some to be remembered and some to be forgotten.

I definitely want to forget the big earthquake that shook Wellington on Friday afternoon that sent the city into a state of panic and rattled many nerves. Won't go into that here but you can read my post on my blog Someday Somewhere.

And I definitely want to remember This Moment that I captured on my camera last Wednesday as I walked home from the bus stop.

The Maori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa (pronunciation here) which means "The land of the long white cloud".

That Wednesday those words flashed through my mind as I saw the "long white cloud". It actually curved right around the horizon as far as I could see but unfortunately I only captured this view. The sun was setting so had to be real quick.

So here it is - the long white cloud (Not quite white in my picture, but long nevertheless.)

This is the moment 

This is the time 

When the momentum and the moment

Are in rhyme

Give me this moment 

This momentous moment ..
(from Jekyll and Hyde)

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama 

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Thursday Challenge
"Blue" (Sky, Flowers, Hair, Water, Clothing, Vehicles, Houses,...)

 Tweet

Purple Carrots

Everyone stopped to see purple carrots!

The Saturday morning market was very crowded today. I guess because it was a really sunny Winter day and not so cold as Winter days are.

And then suddenly I came across purple carrots. I have never seen purple carrots ever before. Have you? They were the most viewed vegetable this morning. Just about everyone who passed by stopped and had a look and just about everyone exclaimed "Purple carrots!".

Someone explained that they turn red when you boil them so obviously he must've had them before. My friend bought a couple so will have to find out from her what she thought of them. Unfortunately I'm allergic to carrots (yep, a very strange allergy) so gave them a miss. Besides which they didn't really look very appetizing and were very pricey at $3.99 per kg.

But I did take a picture. So here it is ... purple carrots.

This is the moment 

This is the time 

When the momentum and the moment

Are in rhyme

Give me this moment ...

(from Jekyll and Hyde)

Sharing another aspect of my city - a rainy day in Wellington. And as usual I've never noticed the colourful "umbrella" until I saw this picture in my archives! Will have to drop by and check it out.

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Thursday Challenge - prompt:
"RAIN" (Rain, Clouds, Umbrella, Splashing, Water Dripping/Flowing,...)

  Tweet

This Moment - SIMC - 6WS - Games

Taking our minds off some discomfort

Recently my son had some teeth extracted in preparation for his orthodontic treatment which started last week. So he was in a lot of discomfort. I guess it will be a few days more before he gets used to the new braces and the teeth settle down.

I took some time off work to be with him and we spent a few hours a day playing board games. We're a board games family and enjoy spending some time together this way.

Some of our favourite games are Cluedo, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly and Scrabble. We also love solving jigsaw puzzles. Well this week it was Scrabble all the way and a great way to take his mind off his teeth.

And these are the moments I want to remember. Why you may ask does one want to remember the discomfort? Because that makes me remember the fun time too and it makes him a stronger boy for the future.

It also brings back memories of my childhood playing scrabble with my grandfather and grandmother.

Share your moments too and if you love playing board games let me know which ones.


 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember

Enjoy life

Enjoying life even in "dark" times

Thursday evening at around 6.00pm the storm hit Wellington - gale force southerlies (from Antarctica) bringing torrential rain, freezing temperatures and scary gusts that shook the house.

Apparently the wind reached 200 kmph which is 3x gale force as defined by the NZ Metservice and was the worst storm to hit Welly in 45 years. No wonder it was scary.

The bus stop is 2 minutes from my house but by the time I got into my house that evening I was soaking wet. Even my thick New York winter jacket didn't help to keep me dry or warm.

And then at around 1.00am the power went out and we had 18 hours of no power in freezing temperatures.

I had to go into work just to charge up my phone in case we were stuck without power for sometime. There was carnage everywhere. Huge trees had toppled blocking roads, roofs ripped off houses - unbelievable I was stunned to see them strewn around and the wind was just horrendous but at least the rain had eased up a bit. The temperature however was still freezing.

Then my house alarm decided it wanted to join in the drama so went on the blink and started screaming. I had to rush home and call an electrician to re-set it.

Yesterday (June 21)  was the shortest day of the year so it got dark so early. By about 5.00pm we were in darkness.

So there we sat in our lounge with our trusty little lamp giving us a little light and the gas heater (thank goodness for that) giving us some heat.

And then I started to laugh - after all the drama and whinging, I suddenly  saw the funny side of it all and embraced the moment. Humour saved the day, we laughed at how the 3 of us sat there silent, listening to the sound of the wind, wrapped up in blankets and resting peacefully while we waited for the lights to come on.

 It gave us all a chance to look at life differently and it certainly taught us the art of patience. "Make hay while the sun shines" took on a whole new meaning.

So rather than complain, we just soaked in the darkness and the sound of the wind and enjoyed the  time given to us for a little bit of rest.

And strangely, these are the moments I do want to remember - they remind me that we do survive and adapt even in uncomfortable and unexpected situations. Friends just rally around and provide comfort even if it's through a text or two. Thank goodness for mobile phones and 3G coverage that kept us connected.

18 hours after the power went out, we got it back again. Oh the joy! And just so relieved and grateful that there was no damage to my house or in fact to any in my street. Thank You Lord.

And here is my little lamp that gave us a little bit of light and comfort. Helped us enjoy life in those dark moments. (June photo a day prompt for day 22 - enjoying life)

And here are some stormy pictures
(taken from the TV One and TV Three News Videos)

waves rose 15meters at Days Bay

car park

Katherine Mansfield's beach home - KM was a NZ writer born in 1888.

Supermarket sign crashed to the ground - one of my neighbouring suburbs

Petone railway tracks

 Linking to: 

 This Moment - Soule Mama

A single photo capturing a moment 

A simple, special, extraordinary moment 

A moment I want to pause, savour and remember