Picspam: birthday weekend away

[vilakins]

All of my pictures from my birthday weekend away are in an LJ gallery, but here's a selection.

Saturday

On the way, we stopped at Drury for lunch.


Phoenix Italia, purveyor of Roman and Italian-style garden statuary


The gourmet Palazzo Roma restaurant attached, which uses their stock for furniture and decoration.

Vilagrad Wines centenary harvest festival


Local Latin band Kantuta performing. :-) Everyone has a website now.


Brazilian dance group Latin Fever.


Me with my last glass of the evening, a sticky dessert ice wine. Pie-faced -- well, it's the right shape for it anyway. :-P


The Vila Brothers band (well, two of them). Chef Kristian and wine-maker Jakob (who always wears a beanie); dark and handsome Adam is not in shot. :-(

Sunday


Alpaca at Pirongia farmers' market


Spitfire (a real one!) in the Hamilton Memorial Park. On that stand, it looks just like the die-cast metal one I have. :-)


The MV Waipa Delta paddleboat we had our lunch cruise on. A sign of the times: their URL instead of their name.


Cruising the beautiful Waikato -- you can't tell you're in the middle of a city, can you?


The Delta Tavern in Ngaruawhia on the way home -- Vila would have been delighted with this whole trip!


Back home that night, Claudia hogging Greg's pillow and looking very smug about it. That smile is not a photo manip!

And now I'm going to have dinner and watch Dr Who. :-)

Comments

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

You look lovely with your wine :0)

I love the Alpaca. At the craft fair I went to yesterday they had hand knitted alpaca socks, I'd love a pair but they were £16 :0(

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Full-face, you can see why I used to call myself a whey-faced loon. :-P

The alpaca people had several animals there and a lot of alpaca wool products they'd made: hand-spun then hand-nkitted or woven. Absolutely beautiful stuff, so light and soft, but too expensive for me. :-(

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I experienced the same last year at an antiques fair--some people were selling wonderful alpaca stuff but I couldn't afford them:(. They are so damn tempting....

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Yay!

You do look gorgeous, you!:) Vila really would've loved that trip, yes:).

Damn it, will have to post your birthday thing asap, grah...

And Claudia is lovely.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you! I am sooo moon-faced front on. And now you can see my latest hair-style: pure 50s. It's longer at the sides than usual and my hairdresser cut my fringe so short I can't hide behind it any more. :-P

Vila would have loved the whole weekend: food, wine, women (pink feathers aren't far off red fur) and song, and a peaceful river cruise with no pursuit ships. He'd like the dancers' costume, esp from behind (http://pics.livejournal.com/vilakins/pic/000r195h). ;-)

The smile on Claudia's face has to be an artefact of the flash photo. I've never seen one from in front like that; from the side she does have a sweet dolphin smile.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It's a nice face, and the moon is pretty and quite sacred to us Pagan folks;)

My tarty little sis used to be a samba dancer--just 'cause you could ponce about in very skimpy clothing:P...

And yes, Vila would so have loved that:). Aww. *cuddles Vila and you*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

When I studied Maori, I took the name Marama which means moon. :-)

My sister used to do beach bunny beauty contests in bikinis. :-P Those two would have got on well, but now she's married with kids, she's all conservative and pillar of society.

Greg and I kept joking that we took Vila with us in the back seat and he had a great time.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Belated happy birthday. That's such a lovely picture of you.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thank you! [blush] Flash overexposure is flattering.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It almost distracted me from the photo of Latin Fever. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

:-) Did you see the other one (http://pics.livejournal.com/vilakins/pic/000r195h) in the gallery which showed how little they wore from behind?

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't see that one. Thanks for the link. :) Being still on dial-up, I was afraid that viewing the gallery pics might take rather a long time.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They're all quite small too, and the gallery thumbnails must be even smaller, but I couldn't say how long it might take.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Great photos there. I love the alpaca!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They had white ones and a little black one; very cute! I'd never seen them in the flesh before.

[kerravonsen]

Yes, Vila would certainly love those Latin dancers!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

If he can't get fur, he'll settle for feathers, I'm sure!

[kernezelda]

What a lovely weekend, and what good photos. You look happy, and so does Claudia.

:)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was great; I intend to do that again. :-)

Claudia is just outrageously smug. She says hello to Duchess.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it's taken me a while to comment, but they're great photos. I love the one of you, and you look as if you're having such a good time! 'Cruising the beautiful Waikato' is gorgeous. Is that really within a city?

I see what you mean about the problems of the flash in the large space. That's a difficult one to solve completely, but I don't think they came out badly. It looks a wonderful weekend!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Is that really within a city?

It is! Admittedly the Waipa Delta was moored at Memorial Park, on the opposite side of the river from the centre of town, but that shot was taken just after we set off. The river's tree-lined so that when we were there the previous time and walking right by it, we usually couldn't see the water. They're putting in walking tracks all the way along it so you'll eventually be able to walk right across the city by the river.

I did GIMP the Vilagrad photos a bit to improve their contrast, brightness, and colour.

And it was a wonderful weekend! Now I've made Greg do a cruise, he's up for another one. :-)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos - I like the colour of your shirt!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

PURPLE! It's actually purpler than it looks; there's more red in it in RL than in the photo.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

In fact it's a real imperial purple.

I wore my purple hoodie jacket tonight too. I'm very fond of blues, purples, and greens. :-)

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Good for you - those are good colours and we're definitely heading into 'hoodie' weather. :-p

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

You look great. That haircut really suits you.

And Claudia is so cute.

I miss ice wine.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I feel a bit exposed without my usual long fringe hanging in my eyes. :-P

She's adorable, the silvery sweetie.

You don't get ice wine there? Oh no!

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

I think we can get ice wine here (definitely could in Germany), but I can't drink anymore. *sniff*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah. :-( I don't drink as much as you might think from these posts: it's a special occasion thing for me. No particular reason; we just don't usually bother on our own.