Monday, March 12, 2007

Its just another Manic Monday

I dont think today is going to be an especially productive workday for me. My first clue to this came about ten minutes after I got here. I had to do some bookings for my clinic for the next week, and I started off all diligently, but when I got to the fourth booking I ran out of paperclips.
There were then two options for me.... either walk out of my office and into the next one where I'm sure Cath has several bags, OR sulk a bit, put in an order to the stationery suppliers and read some other people's blogs while I waited for the delivery. Guess which one I chose.

My day so far has been so boring, to the point where I sent out a bunch of emails to people, and then I turned off my groupwise notify (which lets me know whenever I get a message by making a noise and putting up a notify icon) and I have spent most of the morning trying to guess when people have emailed me back, opening up the email screen to see if they have, and rewarding myself with ten cents if I'm right. By the end of the morning I hope to have enough ten cent peices earnt to buy myself a drink to go with my lunch. So far, I have earnt ten cents.

My weekend was pretty non-blogworthy. So Im going to blog it anyways (to run with tradition, whenever I have something exciting and funny happen I completely forget to blog....)

So on Saturday we went to the station to pick up Deb who was coming to visit us for our new bookstore opening party. After we had collected her we headed up to the new bookstore... and it wasnt open. Doesnt open until Thursday which is stupid because I have to work that day and who ever heard of opening something on a Thursday morning. So we headed off with great excitement to the mammoth awesome mega music and movies sale. Which was small. And silly. And we didnt really buy anything because nothing was all that worth buying. But we DID see an inside-out jellyfish in the water, and that was exciting enough to make up for the lack of actual real sale. And we also saw the amazing chip packet fish. They are rare, but if you look closely in Wellington Harbour you are sure to see at least one just hiding in the water.

Then we went home and my sister came round to borrow the washing machine and she stayed all afternoon so we didnt get a chance to really follow our plan of an entire coffee and chocolate weekend. Very sad really.

So instead I spent the entire afternoon putting tassles on my exciting crochet scarf that I made but cant wear because I made it in wool which I am allergic to, and also at the end of summer so its not even cold enough to wear it yet. And it wasnt until the last tassle that I discovered it was SOO much easier if I used the crochet hook to help pull the tassles through the scarf. Figures. Then i spent most of the night wishing for cold weather so I could wear my scarf shortly (allergies be damned!).

Sunday it was sunny, so I was angry coz I couldnt wear my scarf, but I had to show it to my mum and sister so I wore it anyways. I went out to my parents house, had yummy lunch and saw my Aunt who was down from Tauranga. Spent the entire time sitting in the shade because I was sick of being in the sun and sunburnt, and ended up being the only one with severe sunburn. But only on the side of one arm where clearly the shade didnt quite get to, which is still clearly entirely unfair.

After I got home I turned on the weather report which told me it was going to get COLD! Very cold and wet and snow and stuff (although no snow near me, snow is repelled by me) and I thought WOOHOO coz I could wear my scarf that I made and its cool and awesome and so what if I get an itchy neck wearing it?

And this morning it was cold. And in my office it is cold. And its yucky cold.

And I forgot to bring my scarf .

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Wake Me Up Inside

Its a loooong day at work. So very very long. Everything aches, and Im ready to go home now. And I'm TIRED!

So over Waitangi Day (yay national holiday on a Tuesday!) me and some friends went to the botanical gardens to have a picnic. Found a lovely place to sit by the duck pond and under a tree and settled down to have some food. And then the tree commenced to attacking Shelle. At first it was harmless. Just a leaf or two just landing on her gently. Then she got PELTED with sharp pointy leaves. Poor Shelle. So we had a laugh, all "haha the tree doesnt like you" and she laughed along and everything was good. Until she got pooped on by an invisible bird.

As she said, its not like the tree didnt warn her first.

Suffice to say we left the area pretty quickly after that.

Hungry Hungry I am Hungry

Which is why its really sad that my plum tastes like earwax.

Shouldnt it taste more like plum?

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Wonderful Tonight

Is it really sad that I had to look up my favourites to find the link to this website just so i could post a comment on someone else's blog? And that then when I found the link I discovered I haven't posted even ONCE this year?

Oops.

And its not like I haven't been doing anything either.

So, lets start at the very beginning (it is, after all, a very good place to start) with New Years Eve. Um, I watched TV until midnight and then I went to bed. There you go, so completely worth waiting for don't you think?

Okay, so it was a bit more exciting than that. For one we got a horrid text message from Kate saying her pony had to be put down (which really sucks, poor Kate) and for the other, it wasn't just any old TV we were watching. We had a classic movie night, and watched a trilogy of Audrey Hepburn movies, followed by Guys' n Dolls (mmm.... young Marlon Brando) and then we watched the Royal Variety Performance, and then Shelle went absolutely mental and so we decided it was time to go to bed.

Next day we went to the Prestige. Such a good movie. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are both so very hot. Hard to say anything else about it without movie spoilers but I definitely recommend going to see it.

Anyways, then, for a little while, nothing much happened, until my birthday. And yay on my birthday I had a small party, and then the next day headed off to the Sounds.

Took the ferry down to Picton on the 21st which was a very very windy day, but otherwise good. Just as we entered the Tory Channel Deb said to us to keep an eye on the water so we could see penguins and seals. But of course neither Shelle nor I did, so when Deb saw a penguin and got all excited about it we kicked ourselves and made sure we were watching the water from then on. Good thing too as just about ten minutes later the water was rippling under the leaps of a whole pod of hectors dolphins. Nothing makes you feel better than watching dolphins happily playing in the wake of a big boat.

Some time later we arrived in picton, and headed over to the water taxi company just to make sure we knew where to go later since our taxi wasn't leaving for a good 4 hours. The girl in the office offered to make it an earlier sailing, which we agreed upon and then i spent the next little while wondering if maybe the ship captain should have been consulted before such a decision was made. I wondered this as we went to the supermarket to get food, and then i wondered this as we went to a cafe and i had the WORLDS.... LARGEST.... CHOCOLATE.... BROWNIE. This was seriously huge. Picture the size brownies you would usually have, then multiply by infinity. It was bigger than my head. So i ate it, my stomach popped and I was no longer.


Or, I ate it (goaded on by Deborah) and then desperately needed to walk the whole thing off. So we wandered around Picton for a bit, and then headed off to the ferry terminal to wait for our possibly grumpy water taxi driver.

I honestly should not have worried about this guy. I dont think anything could make him grumpy. He was so laid back and relaxed and it didnt phase him at all that we were very quiet ferry travellers. I dont think he even noticed, he spent the whole time talking, pointing out parts of the sounds that he liked, giving us a quick ecology lesson, looking for dolphins and birds and just generally being a good tour guide. So that was all good.

45 minutes later we arrived at Furneaux Lodge, were shown to our cabin, and were right into our books. Had a quick scout around the camp, and saw the whole thing within about 15 minutes. Although we never found the promised library or internet cafe. But that didnt much bother us.

The next day we decided to be all adventurous and headed out for a big long walk. On our big long walk we went to Punga Cove and back, it took us about 9 hours to walk 25km, which was pretty good if you take into account the heat and the lack of water and the stops we made. We walked all the way to Punga and discovered that we should have taken a water taxi there and walked back since the taxi's only go one way. Never mind, we thought, we would be happy and absolutely fine walking back. We were right. Sort of. We made it back all in one piece, and before dark as well. But we didnt relish the walk back, and the next day it was hardly surprising that I couldn't lift my poor arthritic leg high enough to get over the door frame let alone put pants on. So when Deb and Shelle suggested walking the other way, up the hill to the Tawa Saddle, I thought they were joking. When i discovered they weren't joking, i thought they were mental.

So I let them go alone (proving my sanity), and I went out for a nice long kayak in the sea (whoops, there goes the insanity again). Which is one of my favourite things to do, but I sincerely wish I had bought togs with me. It took forever for my butt to dry off. Still never mind, it was nice and serene, and boy did my arms get tanned (or, replace the word tanned with the phrase "burned to a crisp") And I never once got run over by the various boats in the inlet. So woohoo.

The next day we had to come home. Boo. Got picked up by the same water taxi guy, marvelled at his strength moving millions of packs and crates in the various dockings we made, and then got to picton and caught the ferry.

Sadly when we got back to Wellington we discovered the weather was crap. We were completely unsurprised. Stupid Wellington weather.

Not that it mattered since I was only in Wellington overnight before I headed out to Paraparaumu and then off to Napier for YAY the Eric Clapton Mission Concert. Which was AWESOME! I cant describe the feeling of watching someone that I have idolised for so long perform so well, all I can really do is tell you my thoughts (ALL the ones I can remember having) over the night.
Prepare yourselves, its not often you get the full insight into my head. This is going to be scary and very very random...

"Wow its hot here"
"oh hey that guy over there is sleeping under his sombrero"
"I wish i had a sombrero"
"The word sombrero is kinda weird"
"where did the word sombrero come from"
"why did Tui decide to make bright orange sombreros?"
"heh.... sombrero sombrero sombrero sombrero... oh crud someone is talking to me"
"oh ewwww people are smoking cigars"
"oh gross my hair reeks of cigarette smoke"
"hey, heres dad with picnic bags"
"mmmm wine"
"heh, aimees hat is huge. and floppy. and i want one"
"ow, my hat is too small it hurts my head a little"
"my hat used to fit my head i wonder what happened?"
"maybe my brain has grown"
"what happens if it keeps growing"
"will i get a mutant head? and look like that guy on lambton quay?"
"will people call me mutant head girl?"
"people are mean"
"but not very smart. mutant head girl isnt exactly creative"
"oh hey its the opening act"
"Bob Dylan is his influence? oh dear"
"he got his stance on politics from Bob Dylan? Huh? What is that, Vietnam war bad, love good, lets get the politicians to do drugs?"
"oh yay a new act"
"oh this is that Brooke Fraser song, i dont know if i like this one or not"
"oh yea, thats right, i do like this one"
"hey, its a band"
"Pearl? Ive never heard of them"
"Pearl is good. Must buy their album"
"I know this song. does that mean I know Pearl"
*out loud* - Hey dad, Do I know this song?
"of course, damn now Im going to be teased"
*out loud* - Yes I knew it was the Rolling Stones. Duh. I just wasnt sure if it was old or new
*out loud* - Whatever. They didnt play ALL their songs at the concert. I bet you dont know ALL the songs anyways
"bet she doesnt know even half
*out loud* well name them then!
*out loud* well you are just so bloody smart arent you

"i should have kept my mouth shut shouldn't I"

"these guys are really quite good. its very hot"
"oh look that lady just fell down the hill"
"i cant believe how drunk those people are"
"i cant believe how much cigarette smoke there is here"
"urgh my throat feels urgh and breathing isn't easy... never mind heres Eric Clapton"
"well this kind of sucks, i cant see much through Jerry"
"yay for Grant getting Jerry to move"
"hey, see that tiny dot, its ERIC CLAPTON!"
"why is nobody else singing? dont they know this song?"
"hey, nobody knows this song.... losers"
"this guy is GOOOOD"
"i love Eric Clapton"
"Mrs Hilarey Clapton"
"Mrs H Clapton"
"Do i really need to marry him to get all his money"
"this music is amazing"
"i wish i could be the backup singer. i would be really good"
"hey look, with him sitting right there singing this song, its exactly like the album cover of Unplugged"
"yay for binoculars. thanks dad. the little dot is now obviously Eric Clapton. OH MY GOD IM AT AN ERIC CLAPTON CONCERT AND HE IS SINGING RUNNING ON FAITH THIS IS SO AWESOME"
"WONDERFUL TONIGHT its wonderful tonight... its the start of wonderful tonight"

*out loud* yay!!!!
*out loud* coz its wonderful tonight
*out loud* i just know alright. i bet you it is wonderful tonight

"phew. i was right it is wonderful tonight. the tiny dot on the stage is singing my favourite song. heaven. thats what this is. heaven indeed. im so happy"
"bet next will be layla"
"heh, it is layla. im so smart"
"i LOVE this song"
"this concert is awesome"

"wait, what? he is done already?"
"if i cheer any louder i wont be able to breath"
"my throat hurts"

"YAY! encore"
"i love cocaine"
"crossroads"
"woohoo"
"oh he is done"
"yay"
"hmmm.... i think i cheered too much i cant seem to stop coughing"
"so this is what its like for most of my patients"
"i dont like this asthma thing"
"sleep good"

so there you have it, my brain. its a scary place to be in. So the concert was great, the being unable to breath afterwards was less good. But I'm mostly all fixed now it was just a combo of the smoke and the excitement and the heat and the cold i already had, and me being me, of course something bad was going to happen. But hey, I SAW ERIC CLAPTON. LIVE. AND HE WAS WONDERFUL.

But i didn't get to marry him and have all his beautiful money and guitars.