100 Strangers #39: John Assyriaan

This is number 39 of 100 in my 100 Strangers photo project.

This is John Assyriaan from Wellington, NZ, Hair Stylist. Born in Iraq, he moved to Wellington 6 years ago where he went to school for Hair Styling, and now works in the city at one of the hair salons. He's the second Hair Stylist in my 100 Strangers project.

Having a couple weeks off work for the holidays I decided to venture down into the business district as it's not often I get to wander around there during the day when the city is busy. Midland Park is a popular spot for people to spend their lunchtime and just generally chill and soak up a bit of sun during their work breaks. It's next to a busy shopping street on one side, and several office buildings on the other. There's a grass lawn surrounded by trees and benches offering plenty of room to sit and relax. It was a nice sunny day (it's summer down here in the Southern Hemisphere) so I wanted to find a Stranger out on the lawn.

John was out having a smoke break and out of everyone on the lawn he was the one that stood out due to his shiny bold patterned shirt. He had a bit of time on his break, so he lit up another one and sat back while I snapped a few shots.

"What was the last thing you ate before becoming Stranger #39 John?" ...mixed meat kebab.

Thanks for participating John.

You can see the alternate portraits of John in my 100 Strangers Alternates set, and you can see my other strangers in my 100 Strangers set, and strangers from other participating photographers in the 100 Strangers flickr pool. Learn more about the 100 Strangers photo project here.

Christmas In The City

Well if you didn't already know it, I've decided to spend Christmas in New Zealand this year. Although it's the time of the year I want to go home the most, I decided three roundtrip flights to North America in 6 months wasn't my idea of fun. Anyways, I'm just chilling in town the first week, going to hang out with some fellow Canucks for Christmas BBQ, and then taking a road trip up to the Northern end of the North Island the second week. So this will be my first Christmas in a "no snow zone" for as long as I can remember...and to be honest, it kinda sucks...it just doesn't feel like Christmas without the snow and the cold. Sure it's nice to walk around in shorts and tshirts, and to have to apply sunscreen before leaving the house, but it just isn't the same...oh well...I won't be complaining about warm sunny weather on my roadtrip!

So this is what Wellington looks like at "Christmas time". Pretty balmy looking eh? Midland Park is always a busy spot for the downtown crowd at lunchtime. It sits out front of what I believe is the Vodafone building. So when the weather's nice, the lawn is always jammed up with workers trying to grab a little sun while dining. It's a nice little spot. The one thing I did find kinda strange was that parents actually let their kids play in the fountain like it's some sort of water amusement park. They weren't even wearing bathing suits, I think they were just in their underwear. I don't know if it's allowed or not, but nobody seemed to be complaining, and nobody came to tell them otherwise. Now I wonder what would happen if it was a grown man playing in the fountain in his underwear...haha...I don't think he'd last very long. Ah little kids have all the fun :)

So what is this exactly? No it's not some goofy picture of a shiny Christmas ornament...it's a goofy picture of ME shooting myself in the reflection of a shiny Christmas ornament...except that it's so scratched up you probably can't even recognize me. Oh well...