Earlier in the week, I decided to test the local hairdressers. Now that my hair has grown out, I need to find out who does a good job of styling my hair straight. I felt a little like "Tabatha Coffey" in the sense I was gauging and auditing techniques involving non-chemical straightening of hair. I've not had this done for about 5 years. In California only one hairdresser (out of 40) did a remarkable job with blow drying my hair straight. Two years prior to coming to NZ, I cut off my locks. Now I am growing it for February. The grey hair is awful - more at the front and less at the back (it's from my father). This grey has been the bane of my existence since my 20's and I would pluck each religiously. In my late 30's I accepted it's existence and it's eventual takeover.
I found a highly recommended local salon and the stylist (Kelly) was more than willing to give a go at straightening my mane. She was taken with my conversation & sense of humor regarding my hair. She admitted she never worked with so much, thick hair. For what it was worth she did a wonderful job. I didn't get it cut - just blow dried straight (it took a good hour). Then came the expected recommendations of high end hair products that are necessary to 'tame the mane'. This added to the cost but in the end I was pleased with how "tame" my hair looked:
Shame that the only places Steve takes me to are the gym and the farm so I couldn't really go anywhere to "show-off" my new look in hair.
Speaking of the farm, the week of Guy Fawkes showcased spectacular weather with snow capped mountains starting to melt; proof that warmer temperatures are apparent.
Also continuously changing is our Viszla: Rudi. His extra folds of skin seem to be making room for tough muscle with an elongated snout. He doesn't let Streak take advantage of him or his belongings.
Streak is going thru change as well...but only where her frisbee is concerned. Her plastic frisbee has been "totalled"; it flies through the air like a lead weight because she and Rudi managed to tear a gaping hole in it with their intense games of tug! In this picture, Streak is tenaciously holding on to the torn plastic frisbee and watching things going flying by. It is a really wind day; dust and objects were flying everywhere...(my poor camera took a beating).
A special delivery had arrived to our door containing some necessities from the States. Also in the care package - courtesy of Steve's mom - was a new: CHUCKIT. We saved the toy for this very moment. Streak was excited -and so was Rudi.
Later in the week, we were invited by neighbors to blow up firecrackers for Guy Fawkes. Sadly, by this time, I needed to wash my hair so back to curly hair! We grabbed our wine glasses and joined in. It was light at first - perfect to start some sparklers. We were the only two who didn't have kids - but Steve made up for that. He clutched onto his box of fireworks and only shared sparklers with the kids. The parents were very careful to monitor and teach their kids to handle the fireworks carefully and douse the sparklers in water after they fizzled out. They also taught their kids to carefully separate the garbage from the unburned fireworks. I lighted two sparklers - one in each hand with wine glass in my mouth:
As the evening light disappeared, darkness rapidly set in. The larger bomb-type fireworks were scheduled to be lit. I took photos as they went off and they looked spectacular:
A cold wind came through and it got cold really quickly. The families hung out a little longer but we called it a night. I had intended to share some salmon mousse, crackers and french almond cake with the crowd but strangely - this event was clearly not a food party. So both Steve & I came home and dined on the delectables ourselves:) Recipes can be found soon on my food blog: SPICY THOUGHTS
Happy Guy Fawkes!
