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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • July 23, 2009

    I’m no political commentator – I’m gonna keep this short.I was really pleased to see the Herald feature a couple who were being penalised due to the stupid Work and Income rules about benefits for couples. And then today the shit hit the fan when it was revealed he was a landlord with three properties, dismantling the image of him as a regular honest bloke just trying to get by.

    Labour really have not treated this well at all, calling for universal benefits. They should have known National would pick up on the angle of “partners of six figure earners taking advantage of the system” and run with it. They should have discussed some sort of limit, which they’ve done now – far too late.

    You know what I think of the welfare rules for couples. I can honestly say that day, finding myself standing in front of the old lady at WINZ reception crying because I was frankly at the end of my rope, and didn’t know what the hell else to do because our country had failed us, was quite possibly the lowest point in my life. Being told that working and studying disqualified T from any assistance – didn’t matter if I quit my job, or dropped out. That I was expected to be able to support two people on less than one fulltime minimum wage. Dismissing the thought of applying for him as a single, because not only would that be lying, it would be damn hard to manage given our shared bank account. Considering the possibility of having to break our lease and millions of subsequent hassles, on top of a full, third year class schedule.

    Seriously, the paper could have found tons more deserving people who DON’T own multiple houses to feature. Just check out the TradeMe message boards. There are always stressed, worried people in there wondering if they will be able to get any assistance with their partner working. (One of the reasons I stopped visiting the employment board). Not people with high earning spouses. Just ordinary people on low to middle incomes trying to get by amid rising food, utility and petrol costs.

    Even if Burgess’ rental properties are mortgaged, he still has more options than some other people. I’m not saying it’s easy for him, or that owning property should disqualify him, or means he should be rolling in it or anything. Home ownership is expensive. But ideologically he certainly is not a good illustration for this debate, as we’ve already seen in the backlash. Poor guy.

  • July 23, 2009

    I have a confession

    I don’t exercise. Ever.

    Photo / National Science Foundation

    Photo / National Science Foundation

    I walk for at least 10-15 minutes on a regular day, sometimes more – like half an hour and upwards – depending on what I do during lunch and whether I have errands to run. I’m not averse to walking in any way – I’ve often walked the 15-20 minutes to New Lynn down the road because I either didn’t want to wait for the bus, or was out of bus rides and didn’t want to pay. I used to walk home from school (about 45min) and during those days me and my friends literally walked everywhere, not having cars! We could be walking for hours a day, not to mention going on bush walks and the like. Man, I was fit back then. And I’d much rather walk places than annoy other people for rides…that, and I just don’t like asking people for anything.

    But aside from that? I don’t go to the gym, but somewhere along the way, literally everyone else I know has joined one. So what’s my excuse? I’m just too lazy. I don’t WANT to go to the gym, I don’t like to exercise. I go for the odd run during the summer, but that’s not exactly “pushing play for 30 minutes a day” now, is it?

    At our old apartment block we had a little gym. In our year there, I think I used it only a handful of times, and only a couple of times alone; the rest were because my friend was keen to work out and came over just for that purpose. I guess that’s another reason I don’t like gyms – don’t like getting all sweaty and red around strangers and demonstrating just how weak and unfit I am. You know the machine where you clamp both arms behind the metal hinges and bring your arms together in the middle, in front of you? I could never even do that, even on the lowest weight. SHAMEFUL!

    It’s bloody lucky I have a fast metabolism, or I’m sure I’d be a big lardass by now, considering my slackness. I really need a fitness buddy to kick my ass into gear. I’m thinking the best thing for me would just be getting into a regular routine of jogging/running and maybe doing those exercise circuits you get at the park. I wouldn’t even know how to use any of the equipment, I bet….but that’s what BF’s for, and he definitely needs to start working out too! At least I’m willing to walk places – he’s the kind to want to drive around the corner to the shops.

  • July 22, 2009

    Diabetic diet

    A couple of weeks ago we (meaning, my girlfriends) managed to organise a night out and amazingly enough EVERYONE bar one showed up! It was my first introduction to the Chocolate Boutique in Parnell – and I honestly don’t know how I had never heard of it before.

    Here's my choc/raspberry tart - crap phone camera quality!

    Here’s my choc/raspberry tart – crap phone camera quality!

    Seriously. Go there if you get the chance. It’s so cute and quaint, and a great place to go for dessert or a quick sweet treat. You can also buy all sorts of chocolate goodies (which methinks would make great presents) and even sugarfree chocolate for diabetics (which was a huge coincidence, as my mum had just been wondering about where to find such chocolate – she’s going back to Malaysia to see my uncle, who recently developed diabetes).

    I had the chocolate raspberry tart; insanely rich and so satisfying. And the prices were pretty reasonable. Mine cost under $5, with other desserts running up to $7 or around $12 for dishes big enough for two to share. The one disappointment was my friend B’s chocolate  pudding, which she said tasted just like the choc fudge cake from Denny’s.

    Some of our desserts

    Some of our desserts

    We also felt a bit rushed, getting there at 9.45pm and being told the kitchen closed in 9.50! Not only was it insane trying to get an inside table, we then had to fly through the menu and quickly pick out something – not easy given the huge range of delicious things on offer. And when we snapped a few photos of us pulling faces and tucking in, the staff came over to tell us that we couldn’t take photos of the inside of the shop (not that we were – just of our food and each other).

    After that we discovered this funky retro phone booth just outside – which we just HAD to crowd into for a quick photo – and then ran down the street in the pouring rain to a pub where we chilled out for a couple of hours!  A good night all around.

    booth

  • July 22, 2009

    Weekend spending

    It’s been a  relatively spendy week. One of BF’s debts is paid off, leaving about $40 more a week wiggle room. I’m hoping we’ll be able to manage this well. I’d like to up the amount we put away every week for bills from 35 to 45. We also spend $50 in the middle of the month every month to top up our phones. In the other three weeks I’d like to put that amount (or close to it) to the Visa, to his car loan and to savings.

    After rent and bills, here’s what our spending looked like:

    – $7.80 for Subway
    – $10 for burgers (yep, we ate out TWICE. Tsk)
    – Approx $115 for groceries (90 at the supermarket, and 25 at the butcher and grocer)
    – $12 for some crazy heavy duty tape stuff, which went over the hole which appeared in the car exhaust. BF will be calling around wreckers on Monday to source a new exhaust. Huzzah…
    – And a whopping $70 for headphones *shamefaced*. Obviously these were to go with my iPod which I got on my birthday. The first week I borrowed the flatmate’s headphones, but then he wanted them back. So it was time to get my own! I was hoping to spend maybe $30. But BF insisted on getting GOOD quality ones, with the soft earbuds or else the ones that hook over your ears. I can’t STAND those things, and he realised they wouldn’t work when I wear glasses (which is most of the time, now). So we ended up having a stand off between a Panasonic pair and a Sony pair, both with the inner buds with three different sizes. Left JB Hifi almost $70 poorer, but with the best headphones I’ve ever had. They should last a bloody long time, and BF is happy – and yes, he will be using them a lot. I imagine we’ll be sharing the iPod about 50/50, so we both neded to be happy with the choice.

    We also made an extra $20 payment to the old car loan (!!) after BF sold off one of the parts. I’m hoping that since I listed it on TradeMe we’ll get more interest. I had been putting off doing so because I thought it cost $30, but in fact that only applies if you’re listing it under Cars (as opposed to creating a listing for a car part). Sweet! And that is why we ended up with an extra $30 to kick around, and why I finally gave in to BF and bought the pricier headphones.

  • July 20, 2009

    Jaded

    This isn’t a post I particularly want to write, but it’s one I need to write.

    I’m not really even sure how to phrase it, but here goes.

    I’m having doubts. I’m just feeling really disillusioned.

    I love writing. I like writing so much, I don’t even need to see my name in print – I don’t care if I get a byline.

    But it’s so not a good way to make a living. Like Penelope Trunk’s said, if you can find another way to get by than by writing, you should take it.

    So many of us went into journalism full of hopes and idealism. But once you learn more about the machine, it’s pretty near impossible to retain that.

    News is so mundane. Things get blown out of proportion. There are PR/comm types who stonewall you and irate, often irrational readers who abuse you. There are actually people who talk media-speak – who speak in soundbites and try to make every sentence quotable.

    I know there’s bureaucracy in any job. I know there are commercial concerns and I know there will always be people who you can never fully satisfy. People whose perceptions are so out there, people who are determined to infer things that aren’t there. I don’t just mean nitpicking, I mean straight up crazies. I know accountability is part of having any job, and as much as I fear screwing up and getting the facts wrong or misquoting, I would rather do that than be crunching numbers and potentially making errors which could spell catastrophe for a company’s bottom line. (Did I mention I went through a bunch of my old crap and found my old Stats workbook and exercises? I looked through them and actually recoiled. Then I threw it out. Not that stats has anything to do with, say, accounting, but maths is maths to me…)

    People may look down on those who work in community news. But you know what, I enjoyed doing human interest stories. I enjoyed working with real people, with genuine, honest, humble and down to earth Kiwis.

    I don’t really know where this is going… I just needed to get some stuff off my chest. And just lastly, if anyone out there is struggling with shorthand….freaking A, you’re not alone! It’s bloody impossible to keep up. I’m so not at the stage where I can do it without thinking – it requires concentration, which slows me down and makes it faster to use abbreviated longhand. Bring on second semester!

  • July 18, 2009

    We’re moving!

    Not moving house, unfortunately. Not yet, anyway.

    No, we’re moving floors at work. Our whole team is moving three floors down. Instead of being on the editorial floor, we’ll be downstairs among technical, SEO, advertising and marketing types.

    It’s a strange sort of position we’re in. Our department is obviously in the business of news. But we’re online, not print, so we have links to the flashy and burgeoning Online team (the aforementioned advertising/marketing/branding/IT/SEO types). It’s a tension between the two, a balance between editorial, and making money, and optimising..uh…webby stuff.

    I’m not quite sure how it’s going to work yet. When it comes down to it, I think we have closer links to the newsroom which outweight the benefits of being seated with the rest of Online. (Plus, do they have enough room for us? What will happen to all our old desks and computers? Will they welcome us to their floor?) We’ll all have new phone extensions, PCs, and god knows what else. New facilities (their floor is much nicer than ours). I hope it all goes well; we’re all pretty wary at this stage, so we’ll have to wait and see.

  • July 18, 2009

    Sorted!

    Knowing that I’d be going away on field placement for a week has been sort of weighing on the back of my mind for most of the year. But I’m scheduled to take that week as paid leave, so as long as I remember to get the forms signed by the boss, I’ll be covered!

    That just leaves the past two unpaid weeks to be accounted for. I sure as hell don’t know how people can afford to take unpaid internships for months at a time!

    Over the past few months I’ve put away maybe $150-200 in anticipation of that, and I worked a full week last month which I got paid PROPERLY for (hurrah! I was afraid payroll might not be able to handle the increase in hours, and I’d have to spend ages chasing them). I must say, it was weird being at “work” now and not getting paid for it. I was there as an intern, not as a staff member, and in that capacity was there for free. It’s tiring, it’s draining, but such is the nature of gaining work experience and “furthering my career”, as the boss says.

    Out of the extra I made for working that whole week (which included a little overtime) I socked away another $350.  I’ll still be getting student allowance for the two weeks, so I just need around $170-180 pw ($340 – 360) on top of that. Easy breezy; don’t know why I was so worried.

  • July 17, 2009

    100 things to do before you die?

    Call me unambitious, but I don’t think I could even do 50.

    I want a career, marriage, house, kids, blah de blah…. Aside from that, what are my aspirations? I guess they mostly boil down to experiences, and by experiences, I mean mainly travel. Here’s my (unfinished, rough, susceptible to change) attempt to list places and things I want to go/see/do:

    • Skiing in Queenstown
      Zorbing…anywhere!
      Vegas, Grand Canyon, California, NYC, maybe parts of New England
      Waiheke
      Road trip around the South Island
      Stay in Northland (Kauri Cliffs!!) Dolphin watching.
      Mediterranean – not fussy
      UK
      Parts of Europe – not too fussed
      Hong Kong, Malaysia
      Cruise
  • July 17, 2009

    Days like this I thank my lucky stars I take the bus to and from town. Honestly, I think I would go insane if I had to drive myself. People are RUDE. They tailgate, fail to indicate, park where they ain’t supposed to, and cut you off freely. My walk home from the bus stop takes less than five minutes, and takes me round a corner on which there is a pretty average sized roundabout. Took me only a couple of minutes to pass through there, and for almost the entire time I was bombarded with the sound of cars honking. Impatient drivers, conducting arguments through their horns, ripping through the air every few seconds! I’m a really jumpy person. I HATE loud noises, especially loud, unexpected, shrill car horns. I was not pleased by this and spent the rest of the way home muttering about asshole Auckland drivers.

    But at the same time, I love to hate the bus. There are a few blogs around devoted to Auckland public transport. Auckland Bus Stories, Auckland Trains, Auckland Transport Blog. which ALL have plenty of fodder thanks to the outrageously terrible system we have. But my gripe today, surprisingly, is less to do with buses or driver, but PASSENGERS.

    Specifically, passengers who get on the express and then try to get off during the non-stop zone.

    People, it’s called the EXPRESS for a reason! It says so right there on the timetables, and on the digital display on the front and side of the bus next to the route number.

    Sometimes, there is even an extra physical sign saying “express” in the front window, and believe it or not, some intelligent and frustrated drivers even resort to reminding each and every person “this is the express” as they board.

    Does this stop the problem? Nope. Not on your life. There’s always someone who pushes the buzzer sometime along Sandringham Road, at which point I cringe and hunker down. The poor confused person then edges down to the front, has quiet words with the driver, and slinks back to their seat.

    I don’t know what else anyone can do, except CHECK and DOUBLE check. ASK if you’re not sure. I’m so sick of the same thing playing out every day – people getting upset because they can’t get off the bus – and I know everyone else, drivers AND passengers, is too.

  • July 16, 2009

    Leather, laundry and decluttering

    I was admiring a friend’s brown leather jacket the other day – it was absolutely gorgeous, I would LOVE one just like it, and she got it cheap in Morocco. And then our other friend started talking about fur, which we all agreed was wrong and that killing animals just for their fur was cruel.

    But then I thought, what about leather? I wouldn’t think twice about leather.

    I don’t think I actually own anything that’s real leather; certainly not bags, and I doubt any of my shoes. Isn’t leather on the same level as fur? (And then there’s eating meat, I suppose….a whole another can of worms). Why do I think fur = wrong and leather = good?

    * * *

    It’s been about three weeks since we’ve done laundry at our place. This past weekend, BF’s mum and brother borrowed the car. It got broken into while out with them. That kind of killed the day and although we went food shopping, neither of us could be arsed hitting up the laundromat. And of course the weekend before that was my crazy birthday weekend 🙂

    So I was pretty much out of clean underwear, BF was out of clothes and our sheets and cover needed a change. Thankfully BF took care of that today. Although it’s a pain no longer having a washer, I think the laundromat is pretty good value for money. At least, the one in New Lynn in (I think it’s Buzzy Bee or Bizzy Bee laundromat, if anyone’s curious). They have decent sized machines which take a good load of laundry for $3.50, and have massive washers for $5.50. Then there’s another one up in Lynfield which has tiny machines (around 5.5kg) and then the large ones, which they charge $7 something for! Not cool.

    I like how our clothes come out nice and soft, but not at $7! We didn’t even have an especially huge amount of washing, surprisingly enough. BF went to the Lynfield one and got totally ripped off. Thankfully, he remembered to bring washing powder. Even the New Lynn place charges an exorbitant amount for detergent, and they use far too much of it.

    * * *

    If we’re going to be moving soon, we need to start culling stuff. Like the random desk we have, for starters, my old computer screens, our crappy old couches, and not to mention the other crap flatmates have amassed (like four tyres…) and won’t get rid of themselves. I also need to get rid of some stuff that my mum gave me. Two printers (so old, they don’t use USB cords and hence I can’t be bothered making use of them), some boots, some shoes and a few other bits and pieces. Don’t get me wrong, she has given me a ton of useful things in the past, but she doesn’t strike gold every time. My plan is to do a drop off at the Salvation Army. My one fear is she’ll then see the stuff there. After all, she frequents it a lot, and often buys stuff from there. Not just for herself. I’m positive some of the things she’s given me have come from there – I know my rice cooker has. So fingers crossed she doesn’t come across the rejected goods a second time round!

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