alkaline-kiwi's blog

Another picture of yourself


From April last year. I have no idea who the hat belongs to but I find this photo quite amusing.

A picture of you and your family


A photo of me with my parents at my graduation. That's my Dad Paul on the left and my Mum Christine on the right.

My Dad had quite an influence on my interest in classic rock music and quite a few of the bands I like now are ones he blasted on our home stereo when I was a kid.. so loud that my Mum could hear it walking home from the supermarket.. which might explain me being hard of hearing at times. I love my Dad for his loyalty and his sense of humour while at times just not funny means he looks on the bright side of life. He lives in Reefton with my stepmum Shelly and my two step brothers Liam and Jordyn. My stepbrothers are still kids and I'm the sister that gives them books. My heart swelled with pride when my stepmum told me they took some of the books I gave them to show and tell at school. "Our sister Kirsty gave us these".. its enough to make a bookworm cry tears of joy.

I take after my Mum more than my Dad according to my sister. Mum is quite a bit more serious than my Dad (though she does have a sense of humour.. which is fairly warped at times like mine). She taught me cooking and baking (I'm better at the former than the latter) and encouraged my love of reading (though before when it was 'don't read in the dark you'll ruin your eyesight' it is now 'do you really need so many books?')
I am fairly close to my Mum and we talk on the phone at least once a week. Now that she has Facebook I can talk to her more often.
Mum lives in Greymouth with my stepdad Kevin. The amusing things about my stepdad could fill a blog all on their own. Kevin has two kids, both older than me.. Nicky who lives in Christchurch and Ray who is overseas.

I also have a younger sister Mishae. We really used to clash when we were younger but now we are pretty tight. Mishae never fails to make me laugh and says what she feels which can be highly amusing.
Mishae is mum to an adorable baby girl called Miley. I adore my niece and think she is just something else.



Like her auntie Miley loves books which I always buy for her. I look forward to her getting a bit older so I can gift her some more of my favourites.

Another picture of you and your friends


This one was taken around April last year on Queen Street while waiting for the Airbus for Jay to go to the airport. Was after the BookCrossing convention.. am using this photo as I don't have my external hard drive near to go looking for pictures.
On the left is me with my ITC keys hanging around my neck. I think I might have had course that day which might explain the black jacket.
Next to me is Kevin and Jay, who I have talked about previously. Two of the nicest people I know.
We all share a love of books, Questionable Content, chocolate and random odd conversations that go late into the night.

A picture of somewhere you’ve been to


To be honest it was hard to pick out something to use for a place I have been to. I wanted to use one from one of my trips to Melbourne but most of them were of people. Then I found this photo I took of the entrance to Missing Link Records, which is the most awesome music store I have ever visited.

I am a bit of a music nut and I made sure that on my first visit to Melbourne back in 2005 (with my then-boyfriend and his family) that we popped by this store. While they waited outside I went quietly hyper over the music and magazines they had. Ended up spending quite a bit on music.

The second time I went was in October 2007 when I was over for the Australian BookCrossing Convention. This time I had more money and time to browse.

Melbourne is a city that I want to go back and visit. I have enjoyed both my visits there and have had amazing experiences there. I have also got a bit of an addiction to slurpees from the 7-11 as depicted by this photo here taken on my second visit.

A picture of you and your friends


I have different groups of friends and the friends featured in this photo are those who were part of the Wellington to Christchurch road trip for the BookCrossing Convention held in Christchurch April 2009.

On the left we have Kevin. I first met Kev at the Melbourne BookCrossing Convention in October 2007 and since then he has been an awesome friend who I chat to online just about every day. He's huggable, geeky and a booklover so we get along really well. After the convention he stayed up in Auckland with us for a couple of nights. I refer to him as Aussie Kev, as my stepfather is also called Kevin.

Then next to Kev is Jay who is my BBFF (or BookCrossing Best Friend Forever). As I mentioned in my first post of this challenge I first met Jay at a BookCrossing convention in Wellington. Jay is such a smiley and positive person who is a lot of fun. She also knows how to cheer me up and there have been times when she has completely surprised me, like sending me flowers when I had been having a rough week, or calling me for my birthday when she was in America for their Summer.

Then of course that's me in the white BookCrossing tshirt.

Next to me is my sweetie Erik. I first met Erik in late 2003 when I started going out with someone else who is one of Erik's close friends. The story of how Erik and I started dating will be saved for another post but we have been together for coming up to 3 years in January. Without getting too mushy Erik makes me laugh and cares a lot about people. His motivation and plans always inspire me.

Next to Erik is BookCrossing legend Pete aka Skyring. I met him at the same BookCrossing convention that I met Jay at.
Skyring is always good fun and he's famous for his hugs and generosity. We talk about books and he makes really lame jokes which I roll my eyes at but he is really a funny guy. The New Zealand BookCrossers love him so much that they declared him an honorary kiwi.
I love reading his blogs and he has several. My favourite would have to be Hello it's me which he co-writes with Jay.

At the far right is Janice or MissMarkey. The rest of us on this road trip all knew each other to some extent but MissMarkey from the UK was someone new to us. It did not take long for everyone to click. Don't let the sweet look fool you, she's a bit of a rebel (posing for a photo on top of a parked police car in Christchurch for example). I talk to her online whenever I can and hope to catch up in person again one day. When we parted ways in Christchurch at the end of the convention she gave me a copy of one of her favourite books with a nice note.

So that is some of my friends and I could post a lot more about them, or my other friends (most of whom I don't have many photos of). I did have a lot of fun writing this post though.

(Just ignoring the fact I have not posted since June...)

A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

The photo of me was taken by either Erik or my Mum at my graduation earlier this year.

1. One of my earliest memories is getting a pot plant stuck on my head around age two or three.
   
2. I think I am fairly good at cooking but not so great at baking.
3. I'm a cat person and hope that when Erik and I move somewhere that allows pets we will get a cat. I have a soft spot for tabbies.
   
4. I'm frequently mistaken for a lot younger than I am.
5. My birthday is five days after my Mum's.
   
6. If you take the first two letters of my first name and the first two of my last name it spells KIWI (which Erik tells me merits as an interesting fact)
7. I don't know how to drive a car. When I was living in Greymouth I would ride a moped around and living in Central Auckland I normally don't need to travel far.
   
8. I'm a geek of the book and gaming sort. Also maybe slightly addicted to the Internet.
9. At a guess I would say I have roughly between 200 and 300 books in the apartment. One day I will count them and be shocked.
10. I've won both NaNoWriMo (2009) and SocNoC once (2010) and going to go for NaNoWriMo again this November.
    
11. When I was younger when I grew up I wanted to be a vet, then an author and then a music journalist. Out of those I still want to be an author but have added a few new things to the list.
    
12. I like to put my headphones on, choose some favourite songs on my iPod then sing and dance around the apartment. Anyone who sees me is highly amused.
    
13. I met my best friend at a BookCrossing convention in Wellington.
    
14. I like t shirts especially cute, funny or band t shirts.
    
15. My favourite colour is blue.