William & Buzz, and Ron Mueck (warning – contains synthetic realistic nudity)

My cousin William (from Palmerston North) was down with his partner Buzz and their little’uns – Blake and Anna. As expected things were relatively haphazard but absolutely lovely to have them down.

Blake certainly reminds me of myself a bit – or at least what I was like as a kid. Ridiculously competitive. While I realise the stock response here will be “you still are ridiculously competitive”, I think I’ve tempered my temper somewhat. Blake was a keen player of “tag”.. but also has a very inventive imagination. Every time I “tagged” him, there was some reason why it wasn’t allowed. So I caught him unawares and he started chasing. After half an hour I was knackered, and forced to give up. Good legs. Good commitment. He’ll go far.

There has been an exhibition of Ron Muecks in the art gallery. I’d never heard of him before, but he’s an Australian, and creates lifelike representations of mostly nude humans in various scales. They’re really very lifelike and usually in some pose which draws the viewer into the art. Quite clever. Apologies if looking at these pictures gets you in trouble at work ;)

There was also a waiata going on outside (Maori song) which was kinda part of the buskers festival which happens this time every year.

Good times.