A lot has happened in the past week, and I'm trying to separate thoughts enough that they make sense in seperate categories. For better or worse.

Candace was in Auckland over the weekend for a work presentation. When she found out she would be flying up, she made arrangements to spend the weekend with me. We had a great weekend, all told. We did heaps of little things, and had some great food along the way. There was a BBQ, a trip to the sky tower, a hail storm, some shopping, a bunch of art galleries, and a few hours of chocolate making and tasting.

And when the whole thing was over, I fell into a coma. I literally slept 10 hours sunday night, which is more than rare. It doesn't happen. I was definitely worse for all the sleep, too.

We learned a few things along the way. I can't remember what all of them are, but one of the important ones was this: Always keep your eyes open for what's in front of you. You may not be in a place that you expect to have what you need, but it might just be there anyway.

With Candace's trip to Auckland, she brought a painting that I had commissioned from her. A few months ago, I had given her a few photos that I had taken. At least one of the pictures had really good colours, and at least one of the pictures had a good skyline. In the end, she painted a wonderful composite of the images that I provided.

It's an entirely personal view of Christchurch. While the perspective does not actually exist, I can recognise the skyline as it was from my balcony, and the river from trips around Hagley park. The ducks weren't there in my pictures. She threw those in for free.

Some of her other works can be found here. They share very little resemblance to the painting in front of me, though. With permission and digital camera, I may add a link to the painting.

Over the same weekend, we were walking around the markets in Aotea Square. As we were passing a booth of paintings, I noticed that the painting that I was interested in was actually still there. I had looked and didn't see it the weekend before. I pointed it out to Candace and she seemed to like it. The lady working there told me that she was allowed to drop the price a bit. Instead of $380, I could have it for $320. I was definitely interested, and Candace was more than willing to give me permission.

So now I have two new paintings. Candace's is still waiting to be hung, which is waiting for me to get hooks to hang it with. The other one (I will try to track down the name of the artist) is already hanging upstairs.

Now that I think about all of this, I think it's time that I get some insurance for my flat and contents. While none of the pieces that I have are overly expensive individually, they are starting to add up. Combined with the personal value (three of the five pieces were done by friends), I think it's worth protecting.

Update

After talking to the lady that I bought the painting from, I've gotten permission to photograph it and put a couple images online. I'll have to borrow a digital camera sometime soon. In the meantime, you can find samples of the painter's work at StratasOils.