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 .
Monday, March 12, 2007
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.
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?
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.
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.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Snoopy's Christmas
Happy Christmas Eve eve you guys! Its very nearly Christmas, and my god I've had so much food in the last two weeks that Im so very very pleased that Christmas is just once a year. It would be horrible to be completely sick of Chocolate 365 days a year (is it bad that i had to pause for about ten minutes there to try and think of how many days there are in a year??). Yup, Im sick of chocolate. If i see chocolate EVER again (for at least 4 days) I will throw up. A large amount. And probably of chocolate. And then I will see THAT chocolate and it will make me feel sick and then I will throw up again and it will be just a vicious vicious circle. It wont be pretty. Which is why its good that Im home by myself tonight.
Yup all by myself, Shelle has already gone to her parents house, and I dont want to leave Pepper here all by herself for too long so I'm staying here for a bit longer, only going out to the parents for a couple days (are you listening burglars and whistling murderers? you better be quick with the robbing and stuff, coz I'm not giving you a large window of opportunity).
So tonight I'm watching crappy Christmas movies on tv. Because Shelle hates them. Sadly the choices are limited. Theres gladiator on tv3 (Gladiator? Really? coz seriously TV3, nothing makes me think ho-ho-bleurgh than Russell Crowe. Theres NOTHING good about that movie, even Joaquin Pheonix doesnt look good)and Fear Factor
(yup, Christmas idiots) followed by National Lampoons Christmas Vacation on 2, and Midsomer Murders on 1. Murders? Its CHRISTMAS EVE EVE tv1! Its supposed to be variety concerts and cheesy movies, not murders! Better be people killed by mistletoe or you're fired!
So yay.... Chevy Chase movie is clearly the only option. And there is but one time of the year that I will ever say that. Chevy Chase is an awesome name, but sadly not so awesome an actor. But he is cheesy (nearly cheesier than Bob Saget) and its the season to be Cheesy (oh my god, the constant mention of cheese is making me feel queasy, I cant believe it).
So since I last posted (crap... when did I last post?) Ive eaten lots and lots of food, got a million and one christmas presents and thrown up nearly every day. Doesnt that sound awesome! So tonight I gave in to ALL my cravings. Now, if you know me you are going to be pretty surprised by the cravings.... check out the list
So there you go, apparently at Christmas I turn into the anti-Hilarey.
Oh, and my shameful secret of this afternoon - I watched "It's A Wonderful Life" and I cried. Bawled like a little baby at the happy ending. I was just so happy for Clarence and George and Mary and Harry and all the little kids, and the angels and the bells and the tree... And I got to thinking (although, seriously, its not like I want to end my life or anything) but would anything really change if I hadnt been born?
I mean think about it... In the movie George had managed to run a business where he made homes for the unfortunate. He swindled the rich guy who was trying to take over the town. He saved the life of his kid brother, who then went on to fight in the war and stop a transport ship full of soldiers from getting bombed. He had kids, and him being alive stopped his mum from being all alone. If i werent around, not a whole lot would change. And yes, I know there are people who love me, and I know I do a good job at work, but I've never really changed the life of anybody.
Is it too cheesy to make that a resolution for the new year?
Yup all by myself, Shelle has already gone to her parents house, and I dont want to leave Pepper here all by herself for too long so I'm staying here for a bit longer, only going out to the parents for a couple days (are you listening burglars and whistling murderers? you better be quick with the robbing and stuff, coz I'm not giving you a large window of opportunity).
So tonight I'm watching crappy Christmas movies on tv. Because Shelle hates them. Sadly the choices are limited. Theres gladiator on tv3 (Gladiator? Really? coz seriously TV3, nothing makes me think ho-ho-bleurgh than Russell Crowe. Theres NOTHING good about that movie, even Joaquin Pheonix doesnt look good)and Fear Factor
(yup, Christmas idiots) followed by National Lampoons Christmas Vacation on 2, and Midsomer Murders on 1. Murders? Its CHRISTMAS EVE EVE tv1! Its supposed to be variety concerts and cheesy movies, not murders! Better be people killed by mistletoe or you're fired!
So yay.... Chevy Chase movie is clearly the only option. And there is but one time of the year that I will ever say that. Chevy Chase is an awesome name, but sadly not so awesome an actor. But he is cheesy (nearly cheesier than Bob Saget) and its the season to be Cheesy (oh my god, the constant mention of cheese is making me feel queasy, I cant believe it).
So since I last posted (crap... when did I last post?) Ive eaten lots and lots of food, got a million and one christmas presents and thrown up nearly every day. Doesnt that sound awesome! So tonight I gave in to ALL my cravings. Now, if you know me you are going to be pretty surprised by the cravings.... check out the list
- Walking up hills -- yup, I seriously felt in the mood for a walk. And then a walk on the flat wouldnt suffice. So I walked up to Victoria University and had a wander around and then walked further up the hill into Kelburn. It was pretty, but COOOOLD
- Cleaning things -- I cleaned out my wardrobe because i really really wanted to. But then of course this craving ran out so I just shoved everything back in, and its back to messy
- Spinach -- I NEEDED spinach! seriously, I needed it. It was very very important. So I had a spinach salad with unsalted almonds and a little bit of chicken. Bland, very green, and it hit the spot by far. I think I maybe needed brocolli too, but the heads of brocolli in the supermarket werent appealing.
- Water -- lots and lots of cold water. No fizzy, no sugared drinks, no energy drinks, just water
- Milk. And I hate milk.
So there you go, apparently at Christmas I turn into the anti-Hilarey.
Oh, and my shameful secret of this afternoon - I watched "It's A Wonderful Life" and I cried. Bawled like a little baby at the happy ending. I was just so happy for Clarence and George and Mary and Harry and all the little kids, and the angels and the bells and the tree... And I got to thinking (although, seriously, its not like I want to end my life or anything) but would anything really change if I hadnt been born?
I mean think about it... In the movie George had managed to run a business where he made homes for the unfortunate. He swindled the rich guy who was trying to take over the town. He saved the life of his kid brother, who then went on to fight in the war and stop a transport ship full of soldiers from getting bombed. He had kids, and him being alive stopped his mum from being all alone. If i werent around, not a whole lot would change. And yes, I know there are people who love me, and I know I do a good job at work, but I've never really changed the life of anybody.
Is it too cheesy to make that a resolution for the new year?
Monday, December 18, 2006
Only in my dreams....
So guess what I did on Sunday?
I think it would have been slightly harder to guess if I wasn't so proud of the fact I remembered I could upload a picture.
Yup, I walked the bypass. It took all of 40 seconds, but now I can say I have walked up two major roading structures on their open days since when I was 5 I walked the Moonshine Bridge just when they finished making it. Sadly, there were no clown, no balloons, no unicycles, and really not much of anything. Apparently at some stage there was protesters, but since I never saw them I guess they weren't very effective protesters.
.
.
So this week has been a busy one! On Thursday I had so many parties to go to that I ended up on a gigantic sugar high that i spent all of Friday feeling awful about. I also had a significant amount of champagne at the respiratory Christmas party dinner Thursday night. Margaret asked if I would like a glass, so of course I said yes. She bought me a whole bottle of special reserve blanc de blancs. Who am I to refuse such generosity? Its not like she could send it back. Plus we were on a boat (we took the Wellesley Cruise around the harbour, and it was a beautiful night, but still rocky) so I was already feeling a little drunk and somewhat heady (and i desperately needed to use the head, but I actually never found it) so why not get a little drunk. Although perhaps the sensible adult inside me was yelling "WORK CHRISTMAS PARTY... DON'T DRINK!" but I never listen to her anyway.
So aside from the small turnout, the inadvisable amount of alcohol, and the semi-average food, the cruise on Thursday night was awesome! We got guided back into harbour by several dolphins, the view from all sides was amazing, we could see the heads, and we went slowly around Somes Island and several bays, and the water was as flat as we could ever possibly have hoped for. If only I wasn't so tired it would have been perfect
Why was I so tired I can hear you wondering from upstairs (Linda....) well, I've been having strange dreams again. In one of them I was feeding deer, and one of them had a big red nose. I didn't think anything of it until later when I got the letter from a very bitter Santa, informing me that I was solely responsible for the poor children getting no presents this year. My deer food was so good that Rudolph opted not to go out on Christmas night, and with nobody to guide the sleigh Santa had driven into a tree and caused irreparable damage to all the presents. Oops.
Then later in the week I dreamt that my boss was forcing me to do Lung Function tests on a baby elephant. And if I didnt get good results she would fire me. I spent ages trying to get the nosepeg on that little trunk, and then trying to convince her to put her mouth aroud the mouthpeice was a trial as well. And as for her blast technique.... well, lets just say if your boss ever asks you to test an elephant, its a thinly veiled excuse for firing you.
At least I didnt have such a strange dream as one of my patients. She is on anti-depressants, and I think that might have caused it. She dreamt she was married to George Clooney (well, really, who hasnt) but she caught him having sex with her sisters dog (who was, of course, pimped out to him by the chemist). She forgave him and all that, and everything was all fine, until she developed dog aids. And then there were all these tests and treatments and it was terrible. So I guess the moral of the story is, If you are going to marry George Clooney, make sure you never let him go to the chemist alone.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Joy to the World
Wow, a new post, and I'm sure its been less than a month since the last one...
Um, not a lot has really been happening, except that I just switched to blogger beta version, and apparently its a lot easier to do things, only it was never really hard to do anything to start with, so I'm not really that excited about it. Oh, and thanks to Schnozz over at schnozzfest
(http://www.schnozzfest.com/blog/ check out her NaBloPoMo story, its awesome) I also have Google reader, which makes checking blogs at work that much easier. So woohoo for that, a new, easier way to avoid doing work. Like I needed one.
We went to the Christmas Carols in the Stadium on Saturday. Very cool. They were using the PA system that had been set up for the Elton John concert tomorrow, but they were clearly unprepared for such a system because golly gee that was LOUD! Deb and I couldn't hear anything but fuzz out of our ears for hours afterwards. The carols worked much as they always did, all the people that were there purely to be seen were down on the grounds, wandering back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards (there was a lot of walking clearly) wearing completely inappropriate clothing and being scorned by those sensible among us who were there for the carols and were dressed warmly (and also secretly envied because of the self confidence and large groups of friends, two things I never really had). Nick Tansley (a local radio "celebrity") was running the show and basically every carol was set to some random beat he had found on his electronic keyboard. I bet you never heard "Away in a Manger" as a march before...
Anyways, the best part of it was that the brass band section were all dressed up as super heroes. There were the usual culprits, Batman, Robin, Superman, and then there were the ones tailored for the younger crowd, like Mr Incredible. Then there were the less usual culprits, Virgil Tracy from the Thunderbirds and Zorro. And then there were two completely new superheroes. There was Pink Super hero woman lady thing... and Captain FartyPants. Now, Fartypants' had a very obvious super power, but I'm not sure what Pink Super Hero Woman Lady Thing had as her superpower, but perhaps it was the power of wearing pink. Because there was a lot of pink. It would definitely blind her enemies.
Oh, the other best part (shut up, you can too have several best parts, its not a competition) was the fireworks. We were right under them and couldn't see them. But I'm told they were good. If only they had pointed them out to us before they sang Mariah Carey songs over the top of the bangs (Mariah Carey can drown ANYTHING out, even a sonic boom).
Hmmm... what else? Oh, on Saturday we had people round, and after they left we discovered poor Logan (the backwards eared bunny) had been tied to the top of the Christmas tree. People, this is not the best way to convince the kitten-cat not to attack the tree. You cant tie her favourite toy to the top and then expect her to leave it be. So the only way to stop her trying to climb the tree was to make the tree come to life. Its very hard to attack something that shakes and growls at you in a very big boomy voice.
Also, I baked. But we had none of the real ingredients, so I improvised a bit. Or, a lot. We didn't have eggs so I used Greek yoghurt, I had a banana I needed to get rid of so I put it in my blueberry muffins, we didn't have baking powder so i used a teensy bit of baking soda. They still turned out edible. But my hokey pokey cookies were the best. The recipe (not from the book obviously) is as follows....
Um, not a lot has really been happening, except that I just switched to blogger beta version, and apparently its a lot easier to do things, only it was never really hard to do anything to start with, so I'm not really that excited about it. Oh, and thanks to Schnozz over at schnozzfest
(http://www.schnozzfest.com/blog/ check out her NaBloPoMo story, its awesome) I also have Google reader, which makes checking blogs at work that much easier. So woohoo for that, a new, easier way to avoid doing work. Like I needed one.
We went to the Christmas Carols in the Stadium on Saturday. Very cool. They were using the PA system that had been set up for the Elton John concert tomorrow, but they were clearly unprepared for such a system because golly gee that was LOUD! Deb and I couldn't hear anything but fuzz out of our ears for hours afterwards. The carols worked much as they always did, all the people that were there purely to be seen were down on the grounds, wandering back and forwards, back and forwards, back and forwards (there was a lot of walking clearly) wearing completely inappropriate clothing and being scorned by those sensible among us who were there for the carols and were dressed warmly (and also secretly envied because of the self confidence and large groups of friends, two things I never really had). Nick Tansley (a local radio "celebrity") was running the show and basically every carol was set to some random beat he had found on his electronic keyboard. I bet you never heard "Away in a Manger" as a march before...
Anyways, the best part of it was that the brass band section were all dressed up as super heroes. There were the usual culprits, Batman, Robin, Superman, and then there were the ones tailored for the younger crowd, like Mr Incredible. Then there were the less usual culprits, Virgil Tracy from the Thunderbirds and Zorro. And then there were two completely new superheroes. There was Pink Super hero woman lady thing... and Captain FartyPants. Now, Fartypants' had a very obvious super power, but I'm not sure what Pink Super Hero Woman Lady Thing had as her superpower, but perhaps it was the power of wearing pink. Because there was a lot of pink. It would definitely blind her enemies.
Oh, the other best part (shut up, you can too have several best parts, its not a competition) was the fireworks. We were right under them and couldn't see them. But I'm told they were good. If only they had pointed them out to us before they sang Mariah Carey songs over the top of the bangs (Mariah Carey can drown ANYTHING out, even a sonic boom).
Hmmm... what else? Oh, on Saturday we had people round, and after they left we discovered poor Logan (the backwards eared bunny) had been tied to the top of the Christmas tree. People, this is not the best way to convince the kitten-cat not to attack the tree. You cant tie her favourite toy to the top and then expect her to leave it be. So the only way to stop her trying to climb the tree was to make the tree come to life. Its very hard to attack something that shakes and growls at you in a very big boomy voice.
Also, I baked. But we had none of the real ingredients, so I improvised a bit. Or, a lot. We didn't have eggs so I used Greek yoghurt, I had a banana I needed to get rid of so I put it in my blueberry muffins, we didn't have baking powder so i used a teensy bit of baking soda. They still turned out edible. But my hokey pokey cookies were the best. The recipe (not from the book obviously) is as follows....
Hokey Pokey Cookies
- Some random amount of margarine (we didn't have butter)
- Approximately 1/4 cup of milk (recipe called for a tablespoon I think)
- Lots of golden syrup
- Some sugar (recipe said 1/2 cup, I used around twice this)
- Flour
Put margarine, half the sugar and milk into a pot. Squeeze in a generous amount of golden syrup. Turn on element. Wait for margarine to melt.
30 Minutes later realise margarine isn't melting, notice pot isn't getting warm. Wonder what is wrong but decide to give it some more time.
20 minutes after discover smoke coming from element next to pot. Realise wrong element is turned on, and that hot element has some crusty leftovers on it that are just about on fire. Turn off hot element hope it doesn't catch fire, turn on element under pot.
Stir until margarine melts, taste ingredients, add copious amounts of golden syrup. Taste ingredients. Mmmmm syrupy. Add rest of sugar. Stir until sugar melts. Add more golden syrup. Taste. Yum. Heat until nearly boiling. Taste. Ouch hot, run cold water and put tongue underneath
Take pot off stove. Hunt desperately for something to put hot pot on but, since unable to find anything, hold pot for twenty minutes waiting for ingredients to cool.
Prepare to sieve flour into pot. Discover that you have no sieve. Decide to use colander instead. Discover colander not a good replacement for sieve.
Clean flour from bench. Add some fresh flour to pot. Stir. Add more flour. Stir again. Add more flour. Stir some more. Keep adding flour until you have a consistency that will allow you to roll it into a ball. Add more golden syrup. Taste. Discover slight floury taste. Add more golden syrup. Taste. MMMM good.
Roll into balls of varying sizes, put onto an oven tray. Crush balls with a fork (laugh evilly as you do so). Realise you have forgotten the baking soda and this is the biggest your cookies will go, squash some more.
Put oven tray into oven. Cook until you become impatient. Take cookies out of oven. Eat one. Run water and place tongue under it. Leave cookies to cool.
There you go, hokey pokey cookies. That taste like squishy fortune cookies. Yum.
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