Banksy in Dunedin

Dunedin has a graffiti problem. Taggers will add their mark to just about anything. For me, it's become a new obsession to find interesting graffiti around town, to become fluent in the nuances and subtleties of the art form. And there are some. A good graffito is like a flower in bloom: it could be gone the next day, painted over, lost forever.

People here really really hate it. Earlier this year, a 15-year-old tagger was stabbed and killed by a man who saw him spray painting his fence. And there isn't anything artful about spray painting the word Smoke on every house, wall, fence and public building you walk past. It's the visual equivalent of littering.

Nevertheless, some of the graffiti here are art. They have humor and irony and technique. Over the next few weeks, I'll share some. Here's a favorite, in the style of Banksy, half hidden down a damp forgotten alley on George Street. Could it be a Banksy original? Maybe. Banksy pops up everywhere from London and New York, to Rome, and the West Bank, but it's unlikely he found the time to claim a dark wet alley in Dunedin.

It's fun to imagine that perhaps he did. (ck)

Me and Emeline ...

... in the next life.

I'm the one on the left. Obviously. (ck)

Longer Days

Despite the recent hail, the days are noticeably longer now. The wind still whips loudly around the house but the extra few seconds of light each day brings are definitely appreciated. There is hope. The day we leave the house without wrapping ourselves in scarves and gloves and coats and hats is approaching. (ck)

Brain Adventures

This is what it's all about: here's the median eminence of a mouse brain. I stained one protein with a green fluorescent dye, and another protein with a red dye. Can you guess which proteins they are? No, of course you can't!

I'm very relieved to see the yellow areas, where both proteins are present. That makes it very cool. Looks like I've found a cure, folks! All I have to do is write this up and they'll award me a PhD. And a Nobel.

Kidding. (ck)

Welcome to the southern hemisphere

I heart second trimester.

Second trimester is just what most of the women I've spoken to and read from have said ... it's like magic!

All of the sudden, hocus pocus and poof! ... I feel like my former, pre-pregnant self again! (Almost!) It's amazing how pain and discomfort are feelings that aren't really committed to memory very well. If you're not sure what I mean, try this little thought exercise: Do you northern hemisphere folks remember what the blistering cold of last winter felt like? As I sit on the couch with a hot water bottle and blanket, in a room with the heater blasting, I am unable to remember what last year's extreme heat in Cincinnati felt like.

This is how I feel now that I'm in my second trimester. I can't seem to remember how nauseous and uncomfortable I felt in the first trimester. (And you better believe that I'll be savoring every moment until my third trimester.) I can barely remember thinking, "Is this what pregnancy is like? Those women who say "I love being pregnant" are liars. And nobody likes liars. Maybe they've all forgotten what the first trimester was like and only remember the magic of the second trimester.

What's also magic are my new pants. My new, elastic, maternity pants. I heart my maternity pants. Chris is jealous. He wants a pair, too. (ETK)

Sean Connery

Apparently, Baby Tolod-Kemp is now about the size of a beefsteak tomato. A couple of weeks ago, when we had our scan, it was the size of a small lemon. We're hoping that, one day, it will no longer be compared with fruit.

Our midwife gave us a book of baby photographs taken inside the womb for us to look at. I think there was a printing error: the first half of the book is full of photos of strange, bright-pink little cave fish, and hostile-looking aliens with gills. Emeline tells me this is what babies look like as they develop.

I'm not sure.

We have so much to look forward to; I don't know what our baby will look like, but the one on the right in this picture looks like it has a mustache and bushy white eyebrows, and shares more than a passing resemblance with Sean Connery ... so I'm guessing it'll look like that. (ck)