There's too too much to write about. And I've got into the habit of making strong coffee at home, so I'm a little giddy. Bear with me.
I was just thinking "I must blog, there is too much excitement in the news to keep to myself", whilst drinking strong coffee and fortifying myself with beans on toast, following another invigorating run/trudge up Mount Victoria with yon dog, when I espied this headline. Brace yourselves.
'Desperately Seeking A Sex Film For Cruise'.
It seems, according to the rumour mill, TomKat are considering remaking "Last Tango In Paris". Excuse me, I've just been a little bit sick in my mouth.
And if that isn't awful enough Woolies has gone bust. Where the hell are the good people of Britain going to buy their pick'n'mix now? And their really cheap plastic stuff? Luckily in NZ we have The Warehouse, which is fundamentally an industrial scale Woolworths and the biggest branch is our local, so we can go plastic fantastic nuts should we feel so inclined.
Oh, before I forget, could those of you who so desire email me your birthday date? You see I threw out the calendar with all the relevant days marked, without copying it to the new calendar, and have already caused some hoohah by forgetting strategic birthdays.
What else was I going to regale you with? The sun is shining. Which is nice. Also it makes people very sociable. During the dog run/drag up Mount Victoria there was some very jolly "good morning" bellowing at fellow outdoorsy types, a cheery "it's much easier going this way!" to the bloke struggling up the really steep bit - luckily I was flailing downhill at high speed trying to avoid my knees crumbling underneath me and much scuffing, so he couldn't thump me for being a smartarse - and a chit chat with a local builder about how much exercise the dog gets. It seems he saw me out the other day when he was exercising his pig dogs. For those who may be confused by that phrase, "pig dog" is literally a mutt used to flush out wild pigs when you go hunting, and not a generic bad guy insult from an action movie ("Die Mr Bond, you pig dog!"). Then I got all paranoid because some people like to nick dogs to use in such pig hunting shenanighans, seeing as the pigs are quite good at mangling the dogs. But beans on toast & coffee makes all things good.
On the food advice front one tip - never eat an entire packet of prunes in one day. I'll say no more.
Antenatal class was fine; mostly about breastfeeding and first aid, so now, should the nipper start choking whilst breastfeeding we're ready! I was a little disappointed in myself because I had an overwhelming urge to snigger during the breastfeeding dvd, but I blame growing up in a country that produced both Benny Hill and Dick Emery.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Running up that hill
I had a conversation on the phone today with my god-daughter, who is only a couple of months away from turning 13, and it would seem that she has never heard of Marlon Brando. In case you are at all interested, this came up because I told her I was going to name our almost here child Orlando Marlon Brando.
Anyway.
I've had a rather odd day, which I partly blame on chupachups. I woke up before the crack of dawn, sometime around 4.30am I estimate, and began thinking about how the house needed a bloody good sorting out. Now before you go all "Ohh, its because you're nesting", I think it is more likely to be due to the house being a tip and our friends Cathy & Geoff arriving tomorrow. So I managed to tidy part of the house (the more 'public' areas) whilst chatting to Birmingham on the phone and semi-fashioning a dog bed out of cardboard boxes.
Then I headed off to the drama school cafe, from whence I have been cruelly cast out, ie Liz says there is no more need for my sandwich making skills seeing as the students have all pissed off for summer, to say hello, but it left me oddly depressed and feeling a little off kilter. From there I headed to pick Jo up for lunch with the "dads", which would have been alot more fun if we'd actually been able to hear ourselves over the earbleeding squawking of many a person in the basement-like enclave of Rahzoo cafe. Though the food was okay and I suppose that is the main point of lunch. The is now some change afoot regards baby names, so those of you who I have discussed this topic with please ignore previous comments. The name is changing. I think.
Still grumpy, I came home. Though I wasn't as grumpy as I was on Tuesday when I managed to spill petrol on my arm. I decided to go all proactive and take the G-beast for a run up Mount Vic. It was a killer, but the downhill part wasn't too bad. Mostly it consisted of laborious breathing, staggering and cramp. Ho hum.
The reason I blame chupachups is because I ate one of their lollipops before I was inspired to go for a run and I don't think it helped.
Off to ante-natal classes now to learn about baby cpr. Fun.
Anyway.
I've had a rather odd day, which I partly blame on chupachups. I woke up before the crack of dawn, sometime around 4.30am I estimate, and began thinking about how the house needed a bloody good sorting out. Now before you go all "Ohh, its because you're nesting", I think it is more likely to be due to the house being a tip and our friends Cathy & Geoff arriving tomorrow. So I managed to tidy part of the house (the more 'public' areas) whilst chatting to Birmingham on the phone and semi-fashioning a dog bed out of cardboard boxes.
Then I headed off to the drama school cafe, from whence I have been cruelly cast out, ie Liz says there is no more need for my sandwich making skills seeing as the students have all pissed off for summer, to say hello, but it left me oddly depressed and feeling a little off kilter. From there I headed to pick Jo up for lunch with the "dads", which would have been alot more fun if we'd actually been able to hear ourselves over the earbleeding squawking of many a person in the basement-like enclave of Rahzoo cafe. Though the food was okay and I suppose that is the main point of lunch. The is now some change afoot regards baby names, so those of you who I have discussed this topic with please ignore previous comments. The name is changing. I think.
Still grumpy, I came home. Though I wasn't as grumpy as I was on Tuesday when I managed to spill petrol on my arm. I decided to go all proactive and take the G-beast for a run up Mount Vic. It was a killer, but the downhill part wasn't too bad. Mostly it consisted of laborious breathing, staggering and cramp. Ho hum.
The reason I blame chupachups is because I ate one of their lollipops before I was inspired to go for a run and I don't think it helped.
Off to ante-natal classes now to learn about baby cpr. Fun.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Is it weird?
that everytime I sit down to add something to the blog I have an overwhelming urge to make a cup of tea? Or is it some OCD type affliction? Anyway, I'll be back in a moment or two. Luckily now I have moved my office downstairs & it's alot easier to make tea. Well, it's not easier, that makes no sense, it's more convenient.
Would appear that I am in a grammatical mood today. Lucky you.
Of course, you know what blogging means - yes, I should be working. But, and this is a big BUT, I cannot be arsed. Though I'm sure I'll get around to it later, at some point, maybe.
I've had a couple of emails from my lovely friend Patti, whom I used to work with many moons ago when we were bright youngs things wasting our lives at EH in London, and is now very sensibly living in a lovely apartment right across the street from Trader Joe's somewhere in the USA (I'm being discreet, so that she won't get stalked). When we first met she was married and I was shacked up with an ex, something we were both far too young to be doing (oh how we wasted our youth on them!), and we bonded over a mutual streak of jaded cynicism and love of coffee. Somehow, we ended up in very different places, and we went through a couple of years of 'estrangement', possibly because we became flatmates at a point in my life when I was fucked in the head, but I still consider her one of my most reliable sounding boards. She's very cool and has a fabulous sense of self (though I'm sure she'd deny it) and one of the few people I actually want to impress.
Why am I going on about this? Because I'm about to become a parent. And I never really considered that I would be.
When I was a little girl, something that seems rather alien in retrospect, I spent most of time wanting to be a cowboy, a viking, Spartacus or Starsky. Oh yes, I was very very much of the gay. In fact, when I came out to my mum she said that she'd known that I was gay since I was about 5 years old. So, no sexuality crisis for me. This meant that I never really thought about having children; when people ask me if I'd like to give birth I can honestly say that it's never been something I've aspired to. Likewise I'd never really considered parenting, cos, you know, gay.
Anyway, then I managed to somehow get myself into a good healthy relationship with a straight girl from New Zealand (see how my general neurosis/commitment phobia truly tries it's best to heap me with rejection?). Almost ten years later and I'm just about realising that not only is this relationship working, that it may actually last and that I am in fact married - as you can tell I am remarkably thick for someone who teaches - but that I am about to become a parent. In about 10-12 weeks.
Stay with me, there is a thread here. In her email Patti mentioned her lack of maternal instinct and, if I am honest, I never really considered that I had one either. But perhaps I do. Here's the evidence -
- I love my dog and once got very shouty at an old lady who hit her with a stick
- I have become quite keen on the supermarket and doing domestic cookery type things (roast chicken this evening, in case you're interested)
- I bought, without prompting, some baby blankets
- I saw I baby today and thought "I want one of those", which is probably just as well, all things considered.
Actually, that's crap evidence isn't it? I'm just relieved that I didn't see the baby earlier and think "oh shit". Ha ha ha!
No, the truly important news is that there's a new Bond movie out next week. Nice.
Would appear that I am in a grammatical mood today. Lucky you.
Of course, you know what blogging means - yes, I should be working. But, and this is a big BUT, I cannot be arsed. Though I'm sure I'll get around to it later, at some point, maybe.
I've had a couple of emails from my lovely friend Patti, whom I used to work with many moons ago when we were bright youngs things wasting our lives at EH in London, and is now very sensibly living in a lovely apartment right across the street from Trader Joe's somewhere in the USA (I'm being discreet, so that she won't get stalked). When we first met she was married and I was shacked up with an ex, something we were both far too young to be doing (oh how we wasted our youth on them!), and we bonded over a mutual streak of jaded cynicism and love of coffee. Somehow, we ended up in very different places, and we went through a couple of years of 'estrangement', possibly because we became flatmates at a point in my life when I was fucked in the head, but I still consider her one of my most reliable sounding boards. She's very cool and has a fabulous sense of self (though I'm sure she'd deny it) and one of the few people I actually want to impress.
Why am I going on about this? Because I'm about to become a parent. And I never really considered that I would be.
When I was a little girl, something that seems rather alien in retrospect, I spent most of time wanting to be a cowboy, a viking, Spartacus or Starsky. Oh yes, I was very very much of the gay. In fact, when I came out to my mum she said that she'd known that I was gay since I was about 5 years old. So, no sexuality crisis for me. This meant that I never really thought about having children; when people ask me if I'd like to give birth I can honestly say that it's never been something I've aspired to. Likewise I'd never really considered parenting, cos, you know, gay.
Anyway, then I managed to somehow get myself into a good healthy relationship with a straight girl from New Zealand (see how my general neurosis/commitment phobia truly tries it's best to heap me with rejection?). Almost ten years later and I'm just about realising that not only is this relationship working, that it may actually last and that I am in fact married - as you can tell I am remarkably thick for someone who teaches - but that I am about to become a parent. In about 10-12 weeks.
Stay with me, there is a thread here. In her email Patti mentioned her lack of maternal instinct and, if I am honest, I never really considered that I had one either. But perhaps I do. Here's the evidence -
- I love my dog and once got very shouty at an old lady who hit her with a stick
- I have become quite keen on the supermarket and doing domestic cookery type things (roast chicken this evening, in case you're interested)
- I bought, without prompting, some baby blankets
- I saw I baby today and thought "I want one of those", which is probably just as well, all things considered.
Actually, that's crap evidence isn't it? I'm just relieved that I didn't see the baby earlier and think "oh shit". Ha ha ha!
No, the truly important news is that there's a new Bond movie out next week. Nice.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Patti Thompson...
you're just a maverick!
Was trying to post a photo of a puppy to calm my nerves, but the bastard thing won't work.
Bugger.
Was trying to post a photo of a puppy to calm my nerves, but the bastard thing won't work.
Bugger.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Why some people are just manky bigoted arseholes...
I know, I know, I'm supposed to be out there skipping with joy because Obama won the presidency, but I still have some of the grump left in me, and for a variety of reasons.
However, can I first say thank fuck Sarah Palin is not the vice president of the USA. For a minute there I was very very afraid.
Right. Back to it. My current "issues".
1. Superdrug doesn't exist in NZ, which means I can't buy the only face scrub that stops my skin going beserk.
2. Superdrug does have an online shop, but they won't have any of the aforementioned scrub for a few months.
3. Since I drastically cut back on my alcohol consumption (it was making me crazy in the head) I have developed a fetish for Chew-ets Original Dark Peanut Chews - these appear to be being phased out in NZ.
4. Our fuckwit student neighbours kept launching fireworks all through the night; the dog was not pleased and kept us awake.
5. I've just made a cup of tea & realised that I am almost out of sugar.
6. A very good friend of ours has been 'retrenched' from his job.
BUT here's the biggy
7. California, and a couple of other US states, have just voted to permanently ban gay marriage. In fact some states, I think Arkansas is one, has made it law that no relationship except marriage between a man and a woman has any legal validity at all.
What a bunch of small-minded, homophobic, bigoted, not really getting the message of Christianity, badly dressed (that's a guess), scummy manky shitheads.
Oh, I do apologise for not being considered equal or human enough to be allowed the same basic rights as you.
Perhaps I shouldn't lose my temper? After all Jo & I have only been together for 10 years, marginally longer than my brother and his wife (just using you as an example, hope you're okay with that?), and yet it is obvious that our relationship should in no way have the same status as theirs. Why? Because we are dirty lesbos, I presume.
Yes, I do live in NZ and not the USA, but this kind of thing just drives me nuts. Just at a time when everyone is getting their knickers in a twist about "change", they have to go and spoil it by behaving in such a scaredy cat "gays are threatening marriage" manner. And, pray tell, how exactly are we threatening marriage? I've never even met marriage, let alone threatened it. Are they worried people will stop getting married in case we think they are gay? I don't get it. I thought the point of it was to make a public declaration of your commitment, which subsequently has evolved into a complex series of legal commitments and rights mainly associated with property & inheritance.
Or is it because married couples pay less tax in alot of places and they're worried about losing the revenue from taxing the infamous "pink pound"? Because you know all gay people are rolling in cash...
On the bright side this legislation may be overturned as unconstitutional, because fundamentally it is a small group of people denying rights to a large group of people. This explains it better -
“If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our constitution. Proposition 8 suffers from the same flaw – it removes a protected constitutional right - here, the right to marry - not from all Californians, but just from one group of us,” said Jenny Pizer, Senior Counsel with Lambda Legal. “That’s too big a change in the principles of our constitution to be made just by a bare majority of voters.” (a clever lawyer person in San Francisco)
I should revel in the fact that this clearly demonstrates that the Americans, despite many protestations of the opposite, do in fact understand irony. Particularly Mr Obama who acknowledged in his Chicago victory speech that gay people were in fact alive and voting in America. Maybe he'll do them a favour and give them some other rights too.
And if I am really really lucky, NZ will embrace this time of "change" and in our general election on Saturday vote out a perfectly good Labour government in favour of a right wing twat simply because "it's time for a change". If you're interested in why he is a twat here's one simple example - he wants to sell state/council housing to the incumbent owners because he claims everyone has the right to own property. What a tosser. He also thinks increased literacy would cut crime. Wanker.
I am now going for a lie down in a darkened room.
However, can I first say thank fuck Sarah Palin is not the vice president of the USA. For a minute there I was very very afraid.
Right. Back to it. My current "issues".
1. Superdrug doesn't exist in NZ, which means I can't buy the only face scrub that stops my skin going beserk.
2. Superdrug does have an online shop, but they won't have any of the aforementioned scrub for a few months.
3. Since I drastically cut back on my alcohol consumption (it was making me crazy in the head) I have developed a fetish for Chew-ets Original Dark Peanut Chews - these appear to be being phased out in NZ.
4. Our fuckwit student neighbours kept launching fireworks all through the night; the dog was not pleased and kept us awake.
5. I've just made a cup of tea & realised that I am almost out of sugar.
6. A very good friend of ours has been 'retrenched' from his job.
BUT here's the biggy
7. California, and a couple of other US states, have just voted to permanently ban gay marriage. In fact some states, I think Arkansas is one, has made it law that no relationship except marriage between a man and a woman has any legal validity at all.
What a bunch of small-minded, homophobic, bigoted, not really getting the message of Christianity, badly dressed (that's a guess), scummy manky shitheads.
Oh, I do apologise for not being considered equal or human enough to be allowed the same basic rights as you.
Perhaps I shouldn't lose my temper? After all Jo & I have only been together for 10 years, marginally longer than my brother and his wife (just using you as an example, hope you're okay with that?), and yet it is obvious that our relationship should in no way have the same status as theirs. Why? Because we are dirty lesbos, I presume.
Yes, I do live in NZ and not the USA, but this kind of thing just drives me nuts. Just at a time when everyone is getting their knickers in a twist about "change", they have to go and spoil it by behaving in such a scaredy cat "gays are threatening marriage" manner. And, pray tell, how exactly are we threatening marriage? I've never even met marriage, let alone threatened it. Are they worried people will stop getting married in case we think they are gay? I don't get it. I thought the point of it was to make a public declaration of your commitment, which subsequently has evolved into a complex series of legal commitments and rights mainly associated with property & inheritance.
Or is it because married couples pay less tax in alot of places and they're worried about losing the revenue from taxing the infamous "pink pound"? Because you know all gay people are rolling in cash...
On the bright side this legislation may be overturned as unconstitutional, because fundamentally it is a small group of people denying rights to a large group of people. This explains it better -
“If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our constitution. Proposition 8 suffers from the same flaw – it removes a protected constitutional right - here, the right to marry - not from all Californians, but just from one group of us,” said Jenny Pizer, Senior Counsel with Lambda Legal. “That’s too big a change in the principles of our constitution to be made just by a bare majority of voters.” (a clever lawyer person in San Francisco)
I should revel in the fact that this clearly demonstrates that the Americans, despite many protestations of the opposite, do in fact understand irony. Particularly Mr Obama who acknowledged in his Chicago victory speech that gay people were in fact alive and voting in America. Maybe he'll do them a favour and give them some other rights too.
And if I am really really lucky, NZ will embrace this time of "change" and in our general election on Saturday vote out a perfectly good Labour government in favour of a right wing twat simply because "it's time for a change". If you're interested in why he is a twat here's one simple example - he wants to sell state/council housing to the incumbent owners because he claims everyone has the right to own property. What a tosser. He also thinks increased literacy would cut crime. Wanker.
I am now going for a lie down in a darkened room.
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