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Month: February 2009

  • February 9, 2009

    Close to death

    I was at the lantern festival on Friday night, which involved a hell of a lot of walking, cursing my phone’s crappy camera (there were so many amazing lanterns I wanted to capture!) and seeing two eight year old kids get up and do karaoke. And I can’t forget the puppeteers – they’re not like normal puppets, instead these ones are held up over the head and controlled by one hand with a pole type thing. It’s amazing how much control they have, and how much they do with just one hand – considering the other one is busy holding the puppet aloft. The most intense part was when they did something and made the puppets’ faces change; how, I have no idea! A quick flick of the wrist, a wave of the hand…I don’t know, but somehow a new face swept across the puppets, and it was INSANE. Especially considering there were three of them and they did it in sync. (May not sound that cool, but I guess you had to be there). They also managed to light a flame in each puppet’s hand. Seriously.

    As well as the usual lion dances they had a supercalifragilistic contraption – looked like a …can’t remember the name….old fashioned wooden things you launch stones and rocks from? There were about a million strings all over the thing, connected to nine little lions. Ever seen a lion dance? Well, there were NINE of these suckers, and they went hard. I was afraid the whole machine was going to break. And you should have seen how much work it was for the people working it. But it was awesome – the lions jumped, darted, swung out to the sides and the front, things I never thought were possible with string control.

    Asians, honestly – do some of the weirdest things, but they’re freakishly cool at the same time.

    When we left, there were a few cops out on the street. As we got down to the corner, an ambulance came screaming around and up where we’d come from. Didn’t think much of it, thought maybe there was a minor ding somewhere amid the traffic. Didn’t hear any screaming, see blood, or people panicking. I haven’t even been to the festival for a couple of years so thought maybe the police were just there to make sure things were running okay, crowd control – that sort of thing.

    Sunday news: someone died there, that night. Got stuck under a bus and dragged all the way up the road.

    Just as we were probably a hundred metres away.

    And we didn’t even know.

    That freaked me out more than Austin Hemmings being killed around the back from work. I mean, it was on the street our building backs onto, but I wasn’t at work that day.

    This time, I was actually not very far from someone innocent who died on the road.

  • February 9, 2009

    Random thoughts

    Girls are hard to live with.
    So are guys.
    Maybe living with gay guys is the solution?
    Cleaning rosters don’t seem to last.
    Especially when there’s a flatmate who’s hardly here and it seems unfair to place an equal cleaning burden on them, let alone split bills equally or buy cleaning supplied
    Making sure everyone is equally invested: ie paid bond. It sucks when you have over a grand and a half tied up in a place and flatmates don’t give a rat’s and don’t respect the house. Their money needs to be on the line too.
    Nobody ever wants to take out recycling. Let alone the rubbish.
    Some people eat all your food and make insane messes when they’re drunk. And then conveniently forget what they did.
    Some are just rude, selfish and inconsiderate and will flat out deny responsibility for anything.
    Some people don’t consider TP, dishwashing liquid, soap, detergent, bleach or Jif important to a household.
    Some people just should never leave home.
    For some light relief and to take my mind off my life, ihatemyflatmate.blogspot.com – it’s gold.

  • February 8, 2009

    Insurance

    Got my act together this weekend and called around again for contents insurance quotes – got one from State, AMI and ASB. We went for $20k worth of cover, jointly – AMI was the cheapest, probably because of the bundling multisave discount (BF’s car cover is with them. He was like “won’t they care that I’ve had two accidents and be like, man, this client sucks?”) Fingers crossed they renew his insurance in May.

    ASB cost more and didn’t offer a quarterly payment option (neither did State). I like AMI’s flexibility. Plus they’ve been good in our dealings so far. They also keep the quote in the system for “quite awhile”, and aren’t too pushy. ASB’s quote was valid for 30 days. State hustle you; they told it was only valid till close of business, ALTHOUGH, I could sign up now and then have 15 days or so to cancel, before payment, no hard feelings etc. However, ASB’s basic actually offered full replacement for computers under 3 years old and furniture/appliances under 5 years old.

    It’s a little confusing though, deciding how much cover we need, and whether it’s worth getting a more comprehensive plan for full replacement value of items! And not all plan are created the same. Some have free lock and key replacements, or for personal effects like glasses, cell phones etc. And the replacement value vs market value is the kicker really. Is it worth the extra?

    I think we’ll be fine with market value, really. Bu it’s good to know that a hundred or two hundred a year can cover your ass for so much more. Something we’ll consider when we amass stuff that’s actually worth anything. Honestly, I’d say BF has about a third of what I have – he has virtually no clothes or furniture. His tools though are probably the biggest single item of worth we have.

  • February 7, 2009

    Nifty little thing

    I noticed a nifty little thing on Fastnet today – don’t know how long it’s been around, but I don’t think it’s been long at all.

    It’s called Online Vault and is a way to store important details online within your online banking, like account details, important contacts, insurance details, IRD, driver licence numbers etc. I love doing things like that and immediately set about backing up our important info, details that would be hard to recall if say our wallets were lost or stolen. It also got me thinking about sorting insurance – I got three quotes today, and will confirm it in the next day or two.

    What else will I need? I’m compiling a list of things I need to do for insurance – like take photos, copy receipts, serial numbers, etc.

    Gotta love ASB – I think they’ve always been ahead of the game, despite their increasingly grating ads.

  • February 7, 2009

    I haven’t been very impressed with the sales assistants I’ve come across this week. We tripped it over to the Warehouse and picked up two shirts and two singlets for the boy (30%, came to just under $5 each!) Got to the car, realised we’d been charged for five things instead of four, and had to get in line at the infamous customer service desk queues. They refunded the money to my credit card – something which I think is really cool but am always a bit wary about – how can you REALLY know they returned the money, until you can go away and check your statement? Even more so with a credit card, as transactions don’t show up for a few days.

    Yesterday we spent about two painful, arduous hours at Dick Smith. We unfortunately had the pushiest, most annoying sales lady. A super fob Asian type, whose favourite phrase seemed to be “Yes, this is the same, but different” when asked about various computer models. Even when one was far superior, with double the RAM, hard drive and a way better intel chip. Pissed me off no end. That, and the fact she asked “So which one do you want?” about five times. Lady, I get that we were the hardest sale you ever made. You were annoyed. You wanted us the hell out of there but wanted your commission. You were trying to close the deal. IT DID NOT WORK. WE WEREN’T READY. And phrasing it that bluntly did not endear us anymore towards you!

    DSE needs to train their staff up a bit more. For example: one of the laptops clearly stated: 2 year warranty. One of the salesmen who nudged in was insistent it only had a one year warranty, despite the contrary evidence. He also refused to believe that the Toshiba came with a $1 camera, phone or tech pack deal, despite it very clearly being advertised in their current mailer (but for some reason not on the stand).

    Same with the fobby woman. I went to ask her what was included in the camera pack, to which she responded “that deal is finished – no more!” That’s when I nearly lost it, after her constant nagging “which computer do you want?” I pointed out the mailer was current until 16/2, there was no “limited time only” or “until stocks last” disclaimer. Lady had to go consult her manager, for christ’s sake. I always thought that advertised specials should be honoured in store, no dramas – clearly an outdated concept.

    So to summarise – I did, in the end, get me a Toshiba – and a camera with SC card, batteries, cable and bag for 849. Well, half of that, courtesy of my dear mother. It’s great to rejoin the online world! it’s a bit of a step down – the specs on my stolen Compaq were approximately double everything on this. although, I do prefer the keyboard on this one. As long as it lasts the rest of the year, I’m happy.

    I was keen on an Acer with dual core processor and 2g with two year warranty, however my mum preferred a similar Compaq with a one year warranty. BF couldn’t stomach the thought of getting the Compaq as the Acer had far superior graphics for the same price… but as I was only paying half, I didn’t really feel I could push the issue. And I went with what I’d planned to get all along, this Toshiba with the Olympus Fe-20 camera. Beggars, choosy, etc. However, I’m not keen to repeat that two hour ordeal – as much as I appreciate my mum’s contribution, I think next time I’ll suck it up and pay for it all – and choose a better computer, with longer warranty, and be out in half an hour, tops.

  • February 4, 2009

    I used to enjoy reading other people’s money diaries, but now I find myself actively shunning them. I just can’t relate! Nor do I like reading PF bloggers break down their expenditures and budgets anymore. For me, most of the week is a no spend day (that would never be a challenge for me). Maybe once a week I’ll buy lunch, but apart from that spending is generally reserved for weekends – we get paid at the end of the week, everything is bought over Saturday and Sunday and everything is pretty much spent (with a little bit banked) by Monday. Boring. But necessary.

    I guess if you tracked our weekend spending it might be quite shocking – we spend a bit on eating out (we might spend on four or even five separate occasions on a bad weekend) and occassionally have cause to buy the odd toiletry or piece of clothing. But otherwise everything is allocated to essential things and there isn’t much discretionary. So when I read about people’s coffee and alcohol binges, or shoe purchases, or gym memberships, I’m just like, whatever – that’s such a different way than the way I’m accustomed to.

    It’s been hard for me to resist spending recently, though. I usually go through phases – I’ll have a total drought, then need to stock up on clothes, shoes, underwear etc (some are worn to be almost see through, but I love them and refuse to give them up). And right now there’s so many things in stores that I want, RIGHT NOW, so I’m avoiding the shops altogether.

    For a tightwad my inner shopper is surprisingly stubborn.

    As much as I think, I work hard, for once I’m making decent money, and BF is working, and I deserve something nice…I can’t justify it right now. Not when we don’t know how stable his employment is, when I’m back at uni in a month, and have fees to pay, insurance to buy and a laptop to replace, and we are looking at getting away for Valentines weekend…..if we DID have anything spare I’d try to find cheap tickets to Eric Clapton of Kings of Leon or stock up BF’s wardrobe – he desperately needs it although he may not agree with me. But seriously, he has two pairs of shoes, three of jeans (none of which are very nice now) three pairs of boardies (ditto, as they’re all worn to work), several work shirts, two semi decent shirts and no nice bottoms at all. It’s not often he has occasion to dress up, but when he does (as he did recently) he shouldn’t have to BORROW pants and shoes!

  • February 4, 2009

    Bureaucracy at its best

    Can anyone make sense of this, seriously?

    fees

    Just thought I’d check my timetable online again, and my “online transactions”. Behold, this numeral work of art.

    The exact same thing happened the last two years, they invoiced me, scholarship office couldn’t pay it for some reason, they sent out a new invoice, cancelled my papers, reissued them…..AHHHHHH.
    Why? Why all this faffing around, cancelling and reissuing my fees, for absolutely no reason and with no discernible change? At least I’m not paying late fees – it’s the university’s problem on this one.

    Thank the stars I won’t need to go through this again next year, or deal with Studylink. Woohoo!

  • February 3, 2009

    What the future may hold…

    With one month left before going back to uni, I’m hoping everything works out in terms of BF’s employment. IE, it continues, with minimal drama. I’m not liking him contracting, at least not this way. He’s at the mercy of someone who’s rather finicky and high maintenance at times, and hard to deal with. He’s also meant to be paying tax on his behalf, so I’m going to keep track of his hours to make sure he actually is deducting tax.

    I really would prefer if he was back at the old company, although we have no idea what’s going on and even how many people are still there. I wonder if his health insurance still covers him? The company seem to be still paying his premiums, so…

    In the meantime it’s paying down debt and socking some away in the EF.
    He really needs around 6000 as an EF for three months (well probably less as in such an event things like savings, fun, etc would be cut down). It’s such a large sum, and we’ve got a loooong way to go! I’m continuing to look after it all. He still has such a long way to go – although he is learning, and trying. Last week he didn’t have enough for gas as he wanted to enter a draw to win a 200k hotrod in the mall. I was pretty mad at him for that, but he felt extremely down about it for days and wanted to try again this week without messing it up. Managing cash is hard, but for some it’s even harder to manage plastic, and it’s proved to be so for him.

    I just don’t feel comfortable with this lack of security! I want things to be stable, and as much as that’s unlikely in this climate, I don’t care. It’s going to be a long, busy, stressful year for me, and worrying about paying the rent and bills is not something I wanna add to that load.

    Still, what can I do, apart from wait and see, and cross my fingers?

  • February 3, 2009

    Big thumbs down to the New York Times

    I’m not impressed with the NY Times. Now you have to sign up to read everything. And while it costs nothing, it’s something I cannot be bothered to do – yet. Signing up for things is a hassle. It takes time to fill out all those fields, and then a confirmation step, and no doubt it will somehow end up in unwanted spam/ads in my inbox. But I’ll probably succumb very soon…there were about ten different pieces I wanted to read this week. I like Maureen Dowd, and their feature type, home and living, lifestyle and random stories. So, how gutted was I to see ‘to continue reading you must be a member’ on every single one?

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