Zen and the art of...

...motorcycle maintenance.
Well, scooter actually - I had a problem - it refused to accelerate at all... it would start and idle, but as soon as I tried to move off, the engine would die.
Not knowing a whole lot about mechanics, but surmising it was a carburettor problem, I started to strip it down to get to the internals. Not an easy task... but finally got all the bits off... and then it was suggested to me that the standard operating procedure for two-stroke engine problems was to rev the guts out of it. Worth a try. It seemed to rev OK without me sitting on it, so I put it on the centrestand and cranked it up. Seemed to clear the problem. Tried riding it... all good. Whew, I don't know why it worked, but any fix is a good fix, so I put it all back together and off round the bays to test it out.

Clinging to summer

Another gorgeous evening around the bay (Karaka Bay, Wellington). The ferry is heading out for a tranquil cruise to the South Island.
I added some detail into the darker areas of this shot with ProHDR.

Gratuitous border

A classic coastal Pohutukawa tree that was photographed on Karaka Bay.
After adding some detail in the shadows with an app called ProHDR I gave it the sunset treatment with Camera+ and added a border called 'offset', which perhaps should be called 'overkill'.

Life in the slow lane

This is a screenshot of what our home internet connection was giving last week. Slow....like dial-up slow...ouch. We had gone over our broadband allowance at home and were throttled right back in speed.
A whole family that lives on the internet had been hit even harder by teenagers being home for the holidays.
With a new broadband billing period and school hols over, it means that our web browsing experience is a lot more pleasant now.