Dear dedicated readers
Please accept my most sincere apologies for the total lack of blog entries for the last couple of weeks, which has been due to a combination of slackness (in the first instance), being busy (in the second instance) and the blog website completely mucking me about and refusing to let to write anything (in the third instance). But here I am and I am feeling inspired, so let's rock!!! Jezuz, clearly I have been inspired by Jon Bon Jovi...bit of a worry.
Well, the New Zealand Spring season has launched itself upon us with a series of ultra windy days and some stonking downpours (like right now - good job I decided not to bother bringing the washing in don't ya think?), so I have been holed up in the house & pottering. Today my pottering might even stretch as far as cleaning, for even I can no longer deny the grostesque nature of the kitchen floor (and I can't even blame the dog 'cos she doesn't come into the kitchen)(it's too small and there's too much of a risk of an embarassing, yet fatal, tripping scenario). Guessing you don't really care much about that though and would rather hear of our adventures of the last couple of weeks.
Most excitingly we now have broadband! And cable TV! So I can surf the net and watch crud as much as I want - huzzah! For those of you who also have broadband and tend to keep anti-social hours you might be interested to know that I have signed us up to Skype (handy free internet phone link), so if you fancy a free chat sign up and you should be able to find me in the directory. Jo has even managed to get the Madonna-esque headset to work, so if you do chat to me you might like to visualise me looking like a Gap employee, or a call-centre flunky (or Madonna, for the more imaginative of you, though my ability to do top dance moves is restricted by the length of the connecting cable - and my crapola dance skills).
Speaking of dance skills (or should that be 'skillz' for I am down with the kids), we ventured into the bacchanalian debauchery that is Wellington on a Friday night the other week in order to celebrate Jo's mate Ingrid's birthday. We started rather sedately at the Good Luck Bar (v. groovy, slightly scary waitresses, great cocktail list) awaiting the call from Ingrid to let us know that she was heading into town, where we met up with Hollie (another Kiwi who has recently returned after several years overseas). Moving on we headed to Pound, Wellington's 'finest' & only gay club, to catch up with Hollie's sister Abbie & her friend Sandy. It being 11pm on a Friday night Pound was almost completely empty. Actually it might have more to do with the fact that Pound is horrible, naff & hideously decorated (and that's just the clientele! Ha ha! Not really...but maybe...). Ingrid arrived just in the nick of time to save me from having to attempt to drink another glass of their house red (Chateau Ammonia 2003, I think) and we headed off, en masse, to try to find some suitable entertainment. Oh dear god.
Our first stop was Maya, a local hotspot where the lighty-up dance floor immediately sent me heading for the bar & a vodka. THe music was a rather intriguing combo of crap & rubbish and we left not long after they started playing a Grease medley/mega-mix. After a quick stop at the Ponderosa bar next door for a brief moment of sanity, we headed around the corner to the Go-Go Bar. The Go-Go Bar isn't quite as hideous as it sounds, but having temporarily forgotten the fact that NZ has more women than men I was slightly stunned by the whole 'hen night' vibe (waaayyy too many boobtube-esque tops). Much jigging was going on in the dancefloor region, but by this point I had lost the will to live and chose to sit quietly in the corner and simply observe. After carefully noting a series of interesting fashion combos - my personal favourite = the gold clompy-heeled strappy sandals with ribbon ties going up the legs a la Miss Piggy) I decided that sitting quietly and not observing might be better. We left at about 2am, only to be hit by the aural assualt of another Grease medley blasting from another bar...
Obviously I need to seek clubbing advice...
To be continued tiomorrow...
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
Scary Christmas adverts already on TV!
It's gradually getting warmer (except for today, which looked lovely and sunny, but was somewhat marred by quite a nippy breeze), but as it is now the 2nd week of November the Christmas decorations have started to appear...why do they (the generic "they" = whoever it is who thinks that it's appropriate to try to flog horrible Christmas cack 6 weeks too early) do it? Are they demented Christmas-ites who just love the festive season so much that they cannot bear to wait another minute? I was just getting myself psyched for Guy Fawke's Night and, boom!, there's a fake Christmas tree in the supermarket.
But enough of my ranting, I suppose you are desperate to hear what I've been up to for the last 7 days.
Most importantly, and despite our severely restricted team numbers (basically Jo, Harriet & me), we came a glorious 2nd at The Office pub quiz last Wednesday, which means a $30 bar tab. And this is despite our almost total lack of knowledge about sport (I know about British stuff, but sod all about rugby or cricket) and a slight intra-team dispute about the name of the group that starred as themselves in 'Speed 2' (none of us had seen it, but Harriet had the gall to suggest it might be 10 000 Maniacs - for those of you who care, it was UB40). Next week we'll have one of the founder team members back, Nick, from his stint doing some professional acting. I was a bit giddy at the quiz as I'd had an attack of being energetic and had spent the afternoon doing a 40km bike ride round the bays followed by 40 mins on the treadmill at the gym and a massage. Of course, I had decided to rehydrate with beer. Also, Jo's pal Hollie (who some of you will have met in London) has now resurfaced in NZ and is living at her sister's place just up the road, so we had to catch up with her too.
We also took the houndbeast to dog school. She didn't have to do anything as we were just there to do a recce and see if we liked the look of the place, but she proceeded to suck up to the dog trainer and get loads of treats for sitting attentively at her feet. She also decided that her new best pal was a bloody huge bull mastiff called Millie and proceeded to jump all over her head. Of course, since then Gert has learned that sitting quietly will get her a treat, but she only does it on her own terms...but she's still fabulous.
On Friday morning I headed up to the cafe where Amy works to help with the school lunches - each Friday one of the local schools let's their kids order a special lunch from the catering company Amy works for ('Dusted & Delicious'). The menu is classic kids' crap - hot dogs, pizza, pies, crisps etc - and I am temporarily checking the money etc. I have come to the conclusion that any kid who spends more than $5 on their lunch is either suffering from worms or has a quite astounding capacity for junk food (or maybe they are just lardy?). The afternoon was spent visiting my recruitment consultant, Lynley, and 'discussing' my job hopes (mainly we actually talked about films). In the evening we went to check out Amy in a play, "Attempts on Her Life", at The Garage, one of the spaces at the drama school. I quite enjoyed it, but I think mainly for the groovy moving scenery and because Amy had spent so long telling me how awful it was nothing could possibly be as tedious as she made it sound.
Saturday was spent at Jo's parent's place celebrating Jo's grandad's (Jim) birthday (79th) with the traditonal beer & BBQ, where Jim almost did for himself by getting macho and trying some scary chilli pickle. Anyone who's ever met Jim will realise quite how ludricrous the idea of him being macho is...but we did agree to try to play golf with him one weekend soon. Jim and Glenn (Jo's uncle) both became quite taken with young Gert and even took her for a walk for us! Excellent, should save us some energy over Christmas. As it was Bonfire Night we had planned to watch the fireworks in the harbour from the deck at Washington Avenue, but we soon realised that there were some very pesky trees in the way, so we switched to plan B, ie go into town. Then, out of the blue, Len phoned (for he was on shift on the ferry) to let us know that the ferry would be in dock and that he could get us on board to watch the fireworks close-up - huzzah!
So that's exactly what we did.
We were on the 'new' ferry (new to NZ, but a 'previously loved' ship) so got the grand tour, including the galley, which was bloody huge and had one of the scary uber dishwashers that uses water temperatures of about 1 million degrees, the like of which I hadn't seen since I worked on a dig in Israel in 1991 (where it proceeded to regularly scald the crap out of my hands whilst I was on kitchen duty). The fireworks rocked, by the way. However, Jo & I were slightly distracted by noticing that some genius had managed to set fire to the brush on top of Mount Vic, one of the larger hills overlooking Wellington. The Fire Brigade seemed to have it all under control by the time we headed home. Gertie seemed completely unfazed by the fireworks.
Sunday saw a day of total slackness. Our DVDs of series 4 of 'Alias' and series 2 of 'The L Word' arrived the day before, so most of the day was spent lounging on the sofa watching DVDs and eating.
As for today - Monday - all I've managed to achieve is to persuade the people we bought our car from that they should fix it for free seeing as it has an unnerving judder once it gets over 3000 revs and to buy some secondhand office shelves for our study/spare room. Also I have been commandeered to assist with some more catering tomorrow, which I'm really quite looking forward to and should earn me an extra $50. Marvellous!
On that note I'll get back to some important TV watching.
Arrividerci!
S
xxxx
But enough of my ranting, I suppose you are desperate to hear what I've been up to for the last 7 days.
Most importantly, and despite our severely restricted team numbers (basically Jo, Harriet & me), we came a glorious 2nd at The Office pub quiz last Wednesday, which means a $30 bar tab. And this is despite our almost total lack of knowledge about sport (I know about British stuff, but sod all about rugby or cricket) and a slight intra-team dispute about the name of the group that starred as themselves in 'Speed 2' (none of us had seen it, but Harriet had the gall to suggest it might be 10 000 Maniacs - for those of you who care, it was UB40). Next week we'll have one of the founder team members back, Nick, from his stint doing some professional acting. I was a bit giddy at the quiz as I'd had an attack of being energetic and had spent the afternoon doing a 40km bike ride round the bays followed by 40 mins on the treadmill at the gym and a massage. Of course, I had decided to rehydrate with beer. Also, Jo's pal Hollie (who some of you will have met in London) has now resurfaced in NZ and is living at her sister's place just up the road, so we had to catch up with her too.
We also took the houndbeast to dog school. She didn't have to do anything as we were just there to do a recce and see if we liked the look of the place, but she proceeded to suck up to the dog trainer and get loads of treats for sitting attentively at her feet. She also decided that her new best pal was a bloody huge bull mastiff called Millie and proceeded to jump all over her head. Of course, since then Gert has learned that sitting quietly will get her a treat, but she only does it on her own terms...but she's still fabulous.
On Friday morning I headed up to the cafe where Amy works to help with the school lunches - each Friday one of the local schools let's their kids order a special lunch from the catering company Amy works for ('Dusted & Delicious'). The menu is classic kids' crap - hot dogs, pizza, pies, crisps etc - and I am temporarily checking the money etc. I have come to the conclusion that any kid who spends more than $5 on their lunch is either suffering from worms or has a quite astounding capacity for junk food (or maybe they are just lardy?). The afternoon was spent visiting my recruitment consultant, Lynley, and 'discussing' my job hopes (mainly we actually talked about films). In the evening we went to check out Amy in a play, "Attempts on Her Life", at The Garage, one of the spaces at the drama school. I quite enjoyed it, but I think mainly for the groovy moving scenery and because Amy had spent so long telling me how awful it was nothing could possibly be as tedious as she made it sound.
Saturday was spent at Jo's parent's place celebrating Jo's grandad's (Jim) birthday (79th) with the traditonal beer & BBQ, where Jim almost did for himself by getting macho and trying some scary chilli pickle. Anyone who's ever met Jim will realise quite how ludricrous the idea of him being macho is...but we did agree to try to play golf with him one weekend soon. Jim and Glenn (Jo's uncle) both became quite taken with young Gert and even took her for a walk for us! Excellent, should save us some energy over Christmas. As it was Bonfire Night we had planned to watch the fireworks in the harbour from the deck at Washington Avenue, but we soon realised that there were some very pesky trees in the way, so we switched to plan B, ie go into town. Then, out of the blue, Len phoned (for he was on shift on the ferry) to let us know that the ferry would be in dock and that he could get us on board to watch the fireworks close-up - huzzah!
So that's exactly what we did.
We were on the 'new' ferry (new to NZ, but a 'previously loved' ship) so got the grand tour, including the galley, which was bloody huge and had one of the scary uber dishwashers that uses water temperatures of about 1 million degrees, the like of which I hadn't seen since I worked on a dig in Israel in 1991 (where it proceeded to regularly scald the crap out of my hands whilst I was on kitchen duty). The fireworks rocked, by the way. However, Jo & I were slightly distracted by noticing that some genius had managed to set fire to the brush on top of Mount Vic, one of the larger hills overlooking Wellington. The Fire Brigade seemed to have it all under control by the time we headed home. Gertie seemed completely unfazed by the fireworks.
Sunday saw a day of total slackness. Our DVDs of series 4 of 'Alias' and series 2 of 'The L Word' arrived the day before, so most of the day was spent lounging on the sofa watching DVDs and eating.
As for today - Monday - all I've managed to achieve is to persuade the people we bought our car from that they should fix it for free seeing as it has an unnerving judder once it gets over 3000 revs and to buy some secondhand office shelves for our study/spare room. Also I have been commandeered to assist with some more catering tomorrow, which I'm really quite looking forward to and should earn me an extra $50. Marvellous!
On that note I'll get back to some important TV watching.
Arrividerci!
S
xxxx
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Hot bloggity blog!
Sorry this is a bit late - I seem to have got very slack about sticking to my deadlines these days. One day I will get the hang of it...
I am still lounging in the realm of the gloriously unemployed and have now finished painting the hallway, thought I haven't quite managed to do the woodwork or the ceilings properly, which means it is time for me to focus on getting my career back on track. I have been rewriting my CV to make me sound much more interesting than a mere adminstrator (not that there's anything wrong with being an adminstrator except that over here it seems to be an astonishingly dull role), and have an appointment with a recruitment consultant on Friday morning. But, to be honest, I think it's more likely that I will find a role/job for myself.
On that note could I ask a favour - what do you think I'd be good at? A couple of people have suggested that I could have a go at writing properly (as opposed to just blogging), and I've always had the teaching Egyptian Archaeology thing bubbling under, but god knows if I'd actually be any good at either of them. Any suggestions gratefully received. Ann found this great travel company that takes people on 'spiritual' journeys to Egypt where they get to meditate in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid, but quite why anyone would want to meditate in a grave in the middle of absolute tourism mayhem is beyond me. In fact, we came to the conclusion that any involvement I had with this firm would probably be limited to raising of one eyebrow and pointing out to them how very very wrong they are. Best I avoid them, methinks.
Perhaps I should start a travel firm which takes people to Egypt simply to show them the archaeology? Crazy idea, no?
Aside from the work situation, I have suddenly realised that I have signed up for gym membership and should really start getting my money's worth out of it, and that I have the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge in 4 weeks and have done sod all in the way of training for about 3 weeks. So this afternoon I have decided that I will cycle the very long way to the gym (I can make the bike journey about 35km), and then do some form of gym work before I go for a massage. Do I sound like Lance Armstrong? I'd put good money on the fact that I will be unconscious by 8pm. And then tomorrow we're meant to be going sea-kayaking...luckily it's a tandem kayak, unluckily Jo is going to make me sit in the front so I can't slack off. Bugger.
But, I'm thinking that my unemployment gives me an ideal opportunity to get back in shape and healthy. Then I can leap and frolic like one of those jolly ladies that appear on sanitary wear adverts. Huzzah!
Gertie the dog is still going strong. Took her to puppy school last night and she spent most of the time leaping on the head of a truly massive bull mastiff and sucking up to the instructor for treats. She seems to have quite got the hang of the fact that trying to run really fast whilst on a lead results in fantastic backflips, but strangely seems to enjoy this as she certainly isn't stopping. She is very lovely though.
Going to skeddadle now and do vast amounts of PE. It's been nice knowing you.
love
S
I am still lounging in the realm of the gloriously unemployed and have now finished painting the hallway, thought I haven't quite managed to do the woodwork or the ceilings properly, which means it is time for me to focus on getting my career back on track. I have been rewriting my CV to make me sound much more interesting than a mere adminstrator (not that there's anything wrong with being an adminstrator except that over here it seems to be an astonishingly dull role), and have an appointment with a recruitment consultant on Friday morning. But, to be honest, I think it's more likely that I will find a role/job for myself.
On that note could I ask a favour - what do you think I'd be good at? A couple of people have suggested that I could have a go at writing properly (as opposed to just blogging), and I've always had the teaching Egyptian Archaeology thing bubbling under, but god knows if I'd actually be any good at either of them. Any suggestions gratefully received. Ann found this great travel company that takes people on 'spiritual' journeys to Egypt where they get to meditate in the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid, but quite why anyone would want to meditate in a grave in the middle of absolute tourism mayhem is beyond me. In fact, we came to the conclusion that any involvement I had with this firm would probably be limited to raising of one eyebrow and pointing out to them how very very wrong they are. Best I avoid them, methinks.
Perhaps I should start a travel firm which takes people to Egypt simply to show them the archaeology? Crazy idea, no?
Aside from the work situation, I have suddenly realised that I have signed up for gym membership and should really start getting my money's worth out of it, and that I have the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge in 4 weeks and have done sod all in the way of training for about 3 weeks. So this afternoon I have decided that I will cycle the very long way to the gym (I can make the bike journey about 35km), and then do some form of gym work before I go for a massage. Do I sound like Lance Armstrong? I'd put good money on the fact that I will be unconscious by 8pm. And then tomorrow we're meant to be going sea-kayaking...luckily it's a tandem kayak, unluckily Jo is going to make me sit in the front so I can't slack off. Bugger.
But, I'm thinking that my unemployment gives me an ideal opportunity to get back in shape and healthy. Then I can leap and frolic like one of those jolly ladies that appear on sanitary wear adverts. Huzzah!
Gertie the dog is still going strong. Took her to puppy school last night and she spent most of the time leaping on the head of a truly massive bull mastiff and sucking up to the instructor for treats. She seems to have quite got the hang of the fact that trying to run really fast whilst on a lead results in fantastic backflips, but strangely seems to enjoy this as she certainly isn't stopping. She is very lovely though.
Going to skeddadle now and do vast amounts of PE. It's been nice knowing you.
love
S
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