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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • October 27, 2010

    Committing to the carless life

    Auckland is a city of cars. I am one of a rare breed who does not personally own a car. In fact, I don’t drive. I reluctantly sat my restricted licence (and eventually passed) only because upon acceptance into the journalism major, I received a letter informing me that I would require a valid licence.  (Lies! I made it through the whole year without being required to get behind the wheel in the course of my, uh, course).

    But seriously, this makes me some kind of freak. My pocket of friends were also late drivers. Many of us were poor and just walked everywhere. Others had parents who were happy to play chauffeur. Things are changing now, slowly. And to be honest, being able to drive properly would greatly enhance my employability. Particularly if I could drive a manual. I seem to recall last year vowing to learn to do by the end of summer. Ha! In all honesty, I’ve probably done so twice since then, and only because T had had a few too many.

    I get by fine without a car, but the fact remains that I do have access to our shared car, and someone to drive me around. (Good for my stress levels, other motorists, and probably our insurance.) Essentially, I now have the best of both worlds. But just what does living the carless life for real look like?

    Work

    I have to admit, I don’t know what commuting to work by car would look like. Parking in town would run me at least $100 per month, to say nothing of all the other costs of driving and car ownership. Personally, I like to let bus drivers deal with the headache of traffic.

    Public transport here kind of works like the solar system. Er. The CBD is the centre of everything, and buses/trains radiate outwards in various directions. So as long as you work in town – or even somewhere along the route into town – you’re set. Of course, the timetables may not work well with your schedule, and in certain areas, you might be lucky to get one bus an hour. Sigh.

    For me, living in the central suburbs is non-negotiable. Better amenities, a shorter, cheaper and more convenient commute. A ten-minute walk to the nearest stop is preferable; in winter, walking in the cold and wet is best avoided for health and mental sanity.

    Shopping

    I’m going to specifically talk grocery runs, because lugging around bags of milk, potatoes and heavy canned food in no way compares to toting around a couple of shoe boxes and some clothes. Trust me when I say grocery shopping is the single worst thing about living the carless life. Been there, done that.

    Yes, I was only shopping for one person, and it was only a 10 (maybe 15 minute walk) but things like milk and potatoes were a killer. Two of my first flatmates were a couple, and they often got a taxi from the mall back home. Other tenants in our street were also known to wheel trolleys all the way home.

    Proximity to work is not the only consideration for a carless househunter. Try to find somewhere close to a supermarket. If there are butchers, grocers, dairies and more in the vicinity – even better. You may find that shopping more frequently – multiple times a week, even – will save you a lot of back and shoulder pain.

    Socialising

    Buses and even trains are fine…if you’re shuttling between town and back. Which I do for work. For anything else, it’s a pain in the butt.

    Let’s say I go to Kingsland (pink marker) after work (blue marker) for a catchup drink with a uni buddy. I bus from the city (black route). But although Kingsland to Mt Eden/Epsom – aka home – is a pretty straightforward drive through two main arterial roads (that godawful cyan coloured route), the easiest PT route is to walk or bus back to the city fringe (blue route), then catch another bus (red route). Time consuming and uneconomical.

    Or out to BHB area where most my of my friends still live. It’s the same story, except the bus trip takes close to an hour.

    It pays to have mates who: live within walking distance; are generous with their rides; come to you; or just don’t like you very much.

    Verdict

    When you choose to buck the trend and live the carless life, you will be forced to live your life by timetables. This is where an accurate watch comes in. And planning, planning, planning!

    It also pays to choose your home wisely. I once lived in a very nice, newly built house, which also happened to be a very long walk away, from, well, anything. I was constantly missing buses and running around from one place to another. Not fun.

    Of course, if I was single, I’d probably have moved into the city and (reluctantly) adapted to apartment life. I’d walk to work and should I ever need to venture out of town, well, public transport would get me almost anywhere from the CBD. If I needed to get anywhere after midnight – a rare occurence these days, I’ll admit – I’d have to rely on friends or call a taxi.

    In short: Life is INFINITELY easier with some kind of access to a car. I mean, relying on other means is by far cheaper, but you lose out majorly in time and convenience. And things like spontaneous trips to the beach? Just not gonna happen.

    How does your city rate on public transport? Do you or could you live the carless life?

  • October 26, 2010

    The cost of hobbies – how expensive are yours?

    Ledge Bungy, Queenstown, New Zealand

    Image via Wikipedia

    Sometimes, reading or hearing about other peoples’ hobbies make my stomach ache a little. bt. $3000 on bungy jumping? $2500 for Bathurst? Season ski passes? Dance shoes/costumes/competitions?

    I guess I’m quite lucky that my hobbies are cheap. (T’s…perhaps not so much; eventually working on cars will probably be one, and I’m thankful that that’s still years away unless we happen to find a million bucks lying in the street one day.)

    Reading: I love books, always have. But for a bookworm, I don’t actually own many. All my books have been freebies of some sort, and I don’t actually like all that many of them. Instead, I’m a total library whore; at a dollar per requested book, it’s not free, but it’s a long way off $30+ for a new paperback.

    Guitar: Initial outlay, around $650 for guitar, amp and associated accessories. Otherwise, basically free.

    Photography: I can’t really call this a hobby yet, but hopefully in the future I will. I can’t justify the expense of a dSLR, but at the same time, I feel ridiculous with my little point-and-shoot camera. Still, it’s not like I’m doing all that much with my camera at this point anyway. What do you snappers shoot photos of?

    And then we get to the expensive vices…food and travel. We both love eating out, and love going to new places. Dining out is our main form of entertainment,

    What about you? Are your hobbies big-ticket ones?

  • October 25, 2010

    50 questions that will free your mind, part 10

    (Previous installments can be found here.)

    46. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?
    Wipe my nose on my sleeve in public. No, seriously. I’d sing louder to myself as I walk home from the bus. And maybe enter an air guitar competition. But most likely not.

    47. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?
    All. The. Time. I’m a naturally heavy breather, as is T. And I often have trouble just breathing through my nose. Especially at night. I always wake up with my mouth open and dry (TMI?) like I’ve been trying to suck in every last bit of air possible. Once, when I was visiting my parents, my mum looked up and asked “Who’s breathing so loud? Do you have asthma or something?”

    48. What do you love? Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?
    People. Music. Food. I made dinner for T yesterday. What more do you want from me, huh??

    49. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?
    Errr, like Kara said, a few eventful things have actually happened this week, so quite possibly.

    50. Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?
    I’m making them. I may hate driving but I like being in the driver’s seat of my own life.

  • October 24, 2010

    How to get burgled, JAFA style

    (For those not in the know, Jafa = Just Another Fxxcking Aucklander)

    Guys, lock your doors. Seriously. I don’t care where you live or how nice your neighbourhood is. Just trust me, okay?

    Lord, I haven’t felt this stupid or sheepish maybe ever. It really sucks when you take full responsibility for something so basic, so elementary, that in fact I have decided not to admit to what happened. Except to you lovely blog readers, obviously.

    So, um, there’s no need to beat me up for my foolishness, yeah? I’ve already flagellated and lamented.

    ANYWAY. Should you wish to ignore the above at your peril, here’s how to do it.

    Sleep late. Contemplate calling in sick for a second, but realising you’re more or less better and don’t have the luxury of sick days to waste.

    Rush out, trip over the step, shut the door, but decide there’s no time to fuss with key finding etc. Run for bus.

    Come home to open door and billowing curtain. Thankfully you haven’t been cleaned out. Just a couple of conspicuous gaps where the TV and laptop were.

    Laugh hysterically at the fact that your cosmetic bag was also inexplicably taken. Sorry punks, I don’t do jewellery, and all you’ll find is a purple plastic soap holder in there.

    Scoff at the crackheads who didn’t take this, this, this, this and this, while being very grateful for the oversight.

    Fume at the fact that your most recent financial info is gone. So much for October Type-A-tracking. Looks like that will be shunted over to November instead.

    Feel ashamed that thieves saw house in this state. The I’ve-been-bedridden-and-nobody’s-cleaned-in-a-week-state. Clothes and towels are on the floor. Rubbish and recycling piled up in the kitchen. God knows what all over the floors.

    Realise what a parlous grip on reality you actually have. Order pizza.

  • October 23, 2010

    Link love (Powered by long weekends and golden dumplings)

    Today, I’m over it.

    Stop writing posts about:

    • How to save money at the grocery store
    • Why buying a new car is a waste of money
    • Why renting beats buying

    Basically, any topic that has already been done to death a thousand times.

    And write more interesting posts. Awesome reads, like the ones below:

    WORK/CAREER

    One journalist offers an insight into working life behind a paywall.

    The female half of Newlyweds on a Budget explains why she’s like a “professional job-getter”.

    Some insights on how to promote books via blogs, thanks to Alexis Grant.

    Small Steps for Big Change, a professor no less, writes about ability vs desire in the success equation.

    Do you need a bookkeeper? What do they do anyway? Find out at Jargon Writer.

    MONEY

    Leslie at 27 And Frugal struggles with money issues and family guilt.

    Thousandaire Kevin tells us why you should never get in a fight over a dollar.

    PR Firewall blogs about why he went to college but you shouldn’t.

    LIFE

    I had just been pondering the difference between goat and feta cheese, so this was timely:

    Aloysa at The Kitchen Sink shares her experience of mixing relationships and the workplace.

    Dana at Pushing Thirtyy on dating a man raised by women. It’s not as bad as you might think.

    At Minting Nickels, Lindy cuts back on drycleaning and learns to iron.

    Molly at These Little Moments reflects on her journey of motherhood.

    LL at Shiftless and Lazy has scored a book deal. Living the dream!

    Not That Kind of Girl shares a pictorial rendition of the night she hung out with her middle-school crush.

    Diary of Why blogs about why she was never homecoming queen.

    Distractible Jane wonders whether having expectations spells certain disappointment.

    And at Stratejoy, Lindsey crafts the “about me” statement she wants to write in five years’ time. I’d love to do the same, if I had any idea how I wanted it to read.

    eemusings on the web

    Thanks to Dough Roller for including me in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance roundup!

  • October 22, 2010

    On relishing the simple things

    I can go for weeks without seeing anyone but coworkers and T.

    I’m pretty boring, really.

    Can I help it that I’m not interesting in playing drinking games and getting trashed?

    Or that I decided long ago I couldn’t be effed with fake friends and don’t get invited to parties?

    I almost wish I had moved to a different city, heck, country, even, so I’d have an excuse not to have much of a social life.

    Right now, about the most regular thing on my calendar is weekly pub quiz with a team from work. And you know what – I like it that way.

    I like being able to come home, relax, cook, read or blog or do freelance work, before getting to bed at a decent hour.

    I like having my odd days off to myself, to sleep in, to run, play guitar, read the news, clean the house, buy fresh produce from the corner shop, bake, take photos. Like Shopaholly writes, even though this doesn’t sound like much, sometimes it feels like there are never enough hours. And I’m not even counting the really boring things, like clipping your nails or scrubbing the oven or making the effort to rub rosehip oil into your pigmented scars.

    I like my relatively quiet, peaceful life. This is what relaxes, recharges and fulfils me.

    And I’m not going to apologise for it.

  • October 21, 2010

    Guest post: The charm of travelling

    As readers have probably picked up around here, travel is one of my big dreams – and now that I’ve hit my emergency fund target, it’s actually a dream that’s now a speck on the horizon! So I’m stoked to bring you this guest post by blogger Bella Paige.

    Travelling is taking you out of your comfort zone so delicately – capturing your attention in the surroundings rather than the self; opening your senses to new joys; making you live for the moment; teaching you tolerance, awareness; and – possibly transforming you into a travel junkie who never gets enough of it.

    I haven’t travelled much – yet, but have done enough to not hesitate to pack and go at any time. In order to get to that point, however, I had to confront my mediocre view of the world and accept things the way they are, rather than constantly compare and evaluate them.

    So, here I was: A nineteen-year old high-school graduate from Europe going to pursue a college degree in the United States of America. That was my first time abroad, and all I knew about the U.S. was from the movies and the Internet, which I thought was enough to get excited about.

    The excitement, however, vanished the moment I landed on the foreign land: “It is nothing like in the movies” came to mind instead. Nothing like I ever imagined.

    The thing about travelling is that you start paying attention to the greatest detail. And what do you think were the first things I noticed when I arrived in South Georgia? It was the creepy Spanish moss on the trees, the squirrels, the fire ants, the empty streets, the large green-grass areas in front, back and in between the houses, and not a single human outside. “Where’s the people?” I thought.

    It appeared that this small South Georgian town comes alive when all the students return at the beginning of the semester – which was about to happen in the next couple of days. These were the longest two days in my life during which I had all these crazy ideas about going back to Europe. When I weighted the efforts and money I invested to get to this point, however, I changed my mind and decided to give it a shot.

    For months, I couldn’t free myself from the urge to criticise the Southern accent, the food, the weather, and the people who were greeting me without even knowing me.

    Everything was so much better back home. I was in “the phase of denial” as I was calling it, and have to admit, this negative attitude was pretty exhausting.

    To brighten my days, I was travelling as much as and whenever I could, and so I found myself partying on a  boat in a lake in Atlanta, walking at Oceans Drive in Miami, tubing on a river, canoeing in a lake with alligators, riding the highest at the time roller coaster in Ohio, taking pictures from The Empire State Building’s top in New York, smoking hookah in Washington D.C., eating lots of big fat juicy burgers wherever I went, watching 4D in Universal Studios amusement park, playing beer pong with the locals, camping, and so unbelievably much more. Not to mention the people I met from all over the world and all the stories I heard about how they came to America and what their cultures were like.

    All this officially brought me out of my comfort zone, and for a first time I was not fighting to stay in it. Instead, I fully opened my senses to the taste, smell, rhythm and look of life across the Atlantic, and became part of it.

    That’s the thing about travelling – it makes you feel like you belong to the world, rather than to a specific country. Wherever you go – will always meet people to be your friends, and will find places, foods, customs, etc. to be your new favourites.

    The Spanish moss was not creepy anymore, and I even found it charming, especially when the trees were blooming in the spring. I loved the smiley faces and the people greeting me without knowing me. I tried to feed the squirrels, and enjoyed the quietness in the town when students were gone at the end of the semester. I was in “the phase of acceptance” as I like to call it.

    I’m back in Europe now, and I miss everything there was on the other side of the ocean. I did not simply get used to the life there, but learnt how to feel comfortable even outside my comfort zone – the transition was dynamic and smooth – and that’s the charm of travelling.

    I’m going on a trip again, soon. I can’t wait to see what else is out there and maybe this time I will head to Australia and New Zealand. After that, who knows. It’s an addiction I never want to wean myself off.

    Bella Paige blogs at Visa First and TransferMate.

  • October 20, 2010

    A letter to myself

    blowing my nose

    Image by Gus Greeper via Flickr

    Dear Body,

    Why do you hate me so?

    I am eating better, exercising more, sleeping more and less stressed than quite possibly any other time in the last ten years. Yet this is what, the fourth? fifth? time that you have succumbed to some kind of cold/flu bug this year alone. A new record.

    You want to remind me when the seasons are changing? Your friends, the sinuses do just fine a job of that.

    Thanks to you, five days of sick leave a year just isn’t cutting it. Everytime I feel that heat in my throat, that ache in my limbs, that fuzz in my head, my heart sinks. BF tells me to man up and power through it. I always do. I go to work and soldier on. Until inevitably a couple of days later I give up and take to bed.

    If I’m lucky, you’ll strike on my ‘weekend’ and I don’t have to sacrifice precious leave. Just a clean house and general sanity. Sickness wreaks havoc on the budget; meds aren’t cheap, you don’t want to / can’t cook, and there’s nothing in the house to make soup or other comfort foods with anyway.

    You’re a weak, yellow-bellied traitor and I would gladly trade you in in a heartbeat. Especially for one with better eyesight and upper body strength.

    Buck up and get it together.

  • October 19, 2010

    Kids say the darndest things

    There I was, chilling out in the garden, making the most of the sun and watching T’s nieces frolic on the trampoline.

    Then M looked my way and asked: “Why did you say you would break up with him if he didn’t find work?”

    I can tell you that of all the things I might have expected to hear out of that child’s mouth, this was right up there with “Why are you voting for Colin Craig?” or “Why are you moving to Madagascar?” (Neither of which I have plans to do, by the by.) – The little ones, having a ball on the toddler trampoline, they will sleep well tonight!

    I am pretty sure I’ve never actually said that out loud. To anyone. Yes, I’ve voiced sentiments along the lines of “something needs to change by the end of the year” and “lordy, please figure out what you want to do with life, or at least the next few years; heck, the next 12 months, even”. In person, and on the blog.

    I’ve never blurted out: “Get a job, or it’s over.” And if I have, it’s most certainly been in the heat of the moment, and somebody should give me a hiding, because kicking someone when they’re down like that is – or should be – below even my pettiness.

    Anyone who’s experienced unemployment knows what I mean. It’s not easy for either party.

    What if we’d reached December 31 and nothing had changed? Yes, something would have had to change. Probably in the sense that we might have started to live apart. Not the end of the relationship, just a different living situation. Cold? Selfish? Perhaps. But at some point, I’d have to say enough, I need to put myself first financially.

    I’m just very glad I didn’t have to make that decision. (Of course, it’s only October, and things could easily take a 180 by year-end. Touch wood.)

  • October 18, 2010

    The one where I channel my inner bogan/pop-punk-indie kid

    I was so close I could see the sweat. Feel the flames. The air was pungent with beer, cigarette smoke, bourbon, perspiration. Underfoot, the crunch of broken cups.

    Yes, I have seen Kirk Hammett live, in the flesh, making his eleventy million guitars sing, just a couple of metres away. And I possess a pick distributed by Hetfield’s own hands (not by my own diving and subsequent trampling on the floor, but a generous colleague I ran into outside who had a prime spot).

    How much more inspiring can it get?

    My legs were still killing me from all the jumping two days later… my calves hadn’t been that tight since the first time I went for a run this year. But, I think I emerged unbruised, which is good enough for me.

    The closest  I got to the stage was one back from the barrier, behind a girl with dreads (I greatly detest dreads on chicks, heck on guys, either. On human beings, full stop) who annoyed the hell out of me by turning around every ten seconds to look at someone behind us. But it wasn’t as crazy as I thought; Vector are pretty strict on crowd behaviour and didn’t hesitate to kick out people. I did at one point punch a shirtless guy who slammed into me too many times while moshing, though I’m not sure he even noticed.

    On the set list: Tons of classics including For Whom the Bell Tolls, One, Fade to Black, Enter Sandman, Sad but True, and more (T was especially stoked by the inclusion of  Seek and Destroy). I reckon it would have been perfect if they’d played Unforgiven (either 1 or 2), and I’m quite partial to their cover of Die Die My Darling. Apparently they did play Unforgiven the second night; I almost wish I’d thought of trying to buy tickets to both shows! When you live in NZ, seeing Metallica live is kind of a once in a lifetime thing.

    Paramore, while an entirely different beast, was also off the hook. There’s nothing like a packed stadium all singing along to the same song, or the crowd waving lighters and cellphones in unison to an acoustic ballad.

    There is something about the buzz of performing that I love. I am not a performer, but a little part of me wishes that I was.

    It made me realise that two things I love – behind food and travel – are things I spend hardly anything on. Namely, books and music.

    What am I doing about it? Well, obviously I’ve just been to (and paid for) two concerts. There’s nothing like the atmosphere of a live show. I want more of that. And next time a band I love comes to town, I won’t hesitate.

    I’m also clearing out my book collection, which consists entirely of freebies and donations. Consequently there are very few items in there that I love. I’m tossing the chaff and clearing out my shelves. I might even buy a few reads that I know I’ll return to over and over again.

    One thing I do feel bad about is the fact that T wanted to buy a band t-shirt; I told him to wait until after the show because he’d be too hot to wear an extra layer, but the line for the merchandise stall at the end of it was plain ridiculous. Or should I just be grateful we didn’t spend the $45?

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