Fi, of Kiwifruit fame caught the trans-Tasman bus (I mean, plane) on Friday (at stoopid o'clock, I might add, bless her) to come over to hang out, drink a few margaritas and revisit the odd old haunt or two in my neck of the woods!\  I have to say, I'm a little bit stoked, it's so nice to have people go out of their way to come to see me!!\  I just forget to warn them that Chez Deeleea has hot water rationing and a cat that isn't beyond breaking into the bathroom while one is sitting on the throne (note to self, remind people to lock the door).\  Fortunately in that instance dignity remained intact for all concerned...

I could give you the blow by blow account of where we went and what we did, but let's just say we had a few margaritas topped off with a pretty good turn in Mexican food, we shopped at 'the Mall' where cute pajamas were purchased for the little misses and misters at Chez Fi (can anyone say - Tar-zjay dahling?), we scarfed down the obligatory eggs Benedict ( becoming a tradition, I think...) and we spent a good portion of Saturday trekking around Manly/Dee Why and the Botanical Gardens to put our cameras through their paces, we also took in a show (amateur Treasure Island - arrrrgh me hearties) cruised Ikea, saw possibly the most 'out there' movie in the Love Guru and negotiated the city awash with pilgrims in town for World Youth Day 2008.\  (Didn't see the Pope but.)

Anyway, I really think I should let the pix speak for themselves...

\ 

1. Rock Pool, 2. Winkle, 3. Candid Saturday - Manly Beach, 4. Candid Saturday - Manly Beach, 5. Candid Saturday - Manly Beach, 6. Blue Heron, 7. Drinks at the Shore, 8. Training, 9. Rock My Moon, 10. One Shoe Off, 11. Daisy Mae, 12. Off Out to Sea, 13. Cockies

There are a bunch more over on flickr.\  Please go and check them out!

Thanks for coming Fi, was so great to have you here!\  Everyone else?\  When are you coming??

I replied to the inquirer that Wordpress was a very good option for charities and non profits to set up easy clean looking websites very quickly and at their price (as in $0) noting too that I'd be happy to add all supplied content for her at an hourly rate - I'd anticipate such a thing taking a day or so to do so the expected cost would be well under $1000 dollars. Admittedly, to gauge their commitment to the project I'd inflated my usual hourly rate to what is closer to standard tech rates. I should quote higher prices as a rule, I'm worth it, but because the business stuff is supplemental to my regular income I don't usually bother, it gets me a bit of repeat business/word of mouth etc.

Anyway, I wonder if my polite inquirer forgot that they are connected to me on one of my social networks or if the following comment on their page was a passive way of dissing my suggestion - they certainly never replied to my email. I wonder if they've even checked out wordpress and seen the great stuff on there...

"Polite Inquirer is looking for a website designer to work pro bono for their charity." (tense/gender changed toprovide a bit of anonymity)

I've done pro-bono before, in fact, one job I did has turned into a great internet friendship (hi Gem!) which is far more valuable than any monetary remuneration would have got me. But this whole situation has got me wondering once again at the sort of culture that develops in churches in which people seem to think that because you're a Christian you should cut them some kind of slack. The unfortunate outworking of this, sadly more often than not, is a feeling of being taken advantage of or worse still, actually being taken advantage of...

So, consider this next question research, given that not all my readers are church goers; Do people in your workplaces/clubs/service organisations/wider social circles have expectations on you to offer your skills/professional expertise and experience to do work for them for nothing or for a substantial discount etc? What are your own expectations on others with skills you don't have?

Truth is, it's been so long since I worked in a secular environment I wonder if I haven't lost a bit of perspective. And please, don't think I don't do friendly discounts or help for actual friends... but for people who I know who I'm more 'acquainted with' than 'friends with' I do sometimes think such expectations are a bit 'on the nose'.

What do you think?

It's still fun, and though of late posting has been sporadic, I'm sure it's only a season and the time will come when I've got all sorts of [much more] interesting thoughts than I've been having lately...

Thanks for taking the journey with me this far wibsite friends!

"I’m looking at something we can update ourselves* but want to spend as minimum** as possible because we are a charity, however, I don’t want it to look cheap***"

Gentle Reader, if at any stage you are wishing to have a site made all of your very own, without wanting to use a free thing like Blogger etc. and you think you might like to get someone like me to build your site for you (and I'd be delighted, just so you know), please don't send comments like the above. It is likely to cause me to double my hourly rate just to make you go away.

*we want a Content Management System. (Add $$$$).
**nothing.
***we want it to look like we spent a fortune on it.

*edited to fix chipmunking.

I'm all full of a movie I didn't have the energy to write about last night. It's just been released in Australian cinemas and I highly recommend it if you get the chance to see it. It's called Unfinished Sky, and is a remake of a Dutch movie called the Polish Bride. It's not in wide release which is a real shame but as I'm lucky enough to live very near the Hayden Orpheum Kaff and I took the opportunity to go.

We weren't disappointed.

This movie a love story with a bit of a thriller edge telling the story of a lonely Aussie farming widower who's life is rather drastically altered when a battered Afghani woman arrives on his doorstep. The story of their individual broken histories unfolds as, through time, they begin to understand each other and in doing so an affection develops which gives them the potential of a shared future.

The story is cleverly told, the director doesn't pander to the audience by using subtitles so the experience of watching really encourages an empathy with Bill McInnes' (yum) character because you have no better clue what she's saying than he does. The cinematography is beautiful and captures country Australia which is different than country NZ, to be sure, but echoes my history in some of the similar aspects of farm life and small town experience.

I'm no reviewer, as you can see, but I do recommend seeing it if you get the chance. It's totally worth it. Here's a bit of a taste.

Funny how making the decision to have some time out begins with this bizarre energy evaporation. It's 10.30pm and I do believe if I went to bed now I may not wake up until lunch time tomorrow.

Which may not be such a bad thing.

Snivel.

Rabbit... rabbit... rabbit... mutter... mutter... work... schmirk... bed... snooze... vomit.

Vomit a bit more...

Hack... gargle... snivel.

"Hey Dee, how are you?"

"Oh Hi! Fine thanks! No sense in complaining"

These are the oldest and youngest members of my family on my father's side. If you added their ages together you'd just go over 100 years in their combined age.