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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • June 9, 2009

    We’re beginning the hunt for a car.

    It’s incredibly, indescribably sucky to be doing this. But I suppose, at the least, it happened just as the car’s warrant/registration/insurance ran out. I guess it was meant to be.

    I have no idea when my mum might be getting a new car – she’s been looking for awhile – so we’re going to go ahead and look around. There’s the car fair, Trademe, Auto Trader, Auto Base, the backpacking board, and lots more places to look. BF’s insurance rolled over on May 31, and he called to see if renewal could be put on hold until we sorted ourselves out. They gave us another month, so if we can organise a car before then, that would be ideal.

    I’m armed with my copy of the Dog and Lemon Guide, and by the looks of it, we should be going for a Corolla or similar, or a 323/626 or maybe a Ford Laser. Our budget is about $1k, so we’re not expecting great things. Just something to last till the end of year or so. Ideally I’d rather have something a bit newer with a few more ks on the clock, but in this price range it’s more likely we’re getting a beater with both higher ks and age to boot.

    BF knows someone selling a VW Golf (no idea as to age or kms, of course, brilliant), but they don’t have a reputation for being reliable at all, and would be hard to get parts for.

    Really wish we knew someone wanting to get rid of their vehicle! All we need is something cheap and reliable (and not a guzzler). Safety is really not much of a factor.

  • June 8, 2009

    Bussing isn’t ALL bad

    To be a working Aucklander is to be a commuter, and to be a commuter in Auckland is to drive.

    Tell me about it. I swear, BF would rather eat nails than get on a bus.

    I can probably count the number of times he has bussed in the last three years on one hand. The last time would have been late last year when he spent a morning at Auckland Uni taking part in a study (on party pills no less; they drugged him up, paid him and taxiied him home. We went over to a friend’s for poker that night and in his addled fudgey state he lost $20) and driving in wasn’t an option.

    Even right now, when we have no car, and he occasionally has to get somewhere, he snubs buses. He’s been lucky that he’s usually able to borrow his brother’s scooter. Like I say, are you too good to bus? I think not. But if he can avoid it, then kudos to him.

    Who in their right mind would bus when they don’t have to? Some people do. Bussing, assuming you’re on a fairly modern bus and not one of the rickety old ones, is rather restful. Occasionally I get on the bus, shut my eyes, and let my head loll in a fairly good semblance of sleep until I reach town. Sometimes I sit there and mentally draw shorthand outlines. Most of the time though, I just let go, relax and space out. I find that more restful than closing my eyes and trying to sleep.

    Like Greg Dixon says, riding the bus lets him get on with simply being the passenger. And that’s really nice. To have the freedom to watch fellow passengers, wonder about the person on the other end of their phone conversation, about the book they’re reading, about how uncomfortable their boots look, about where they live and what they do and what they’re like. You can observe them discreetly and wonder what makes them tick.

    It’s a weird little sort of microcosm to observe others in. Some are regulars; you see them on certain days of the week, or going in in the mornings and out at nights. You get to see the same faces and the same bus drivers. You almost get to know a bit about them and their routines, without ever speaking, and wonder what happened when they don’t get on at their usual stop one morning. For the nosey among us, for the peoplewatchers, there’s no better fodder for observation to be found than on a bus.

  • June 7, 2009

    We shopped at Countdown this week, and had to get things like batteries, a multiplug board and mop in addition to groceries. But with the help of my Visa Rewards Card (which is accepted there) we got out spending $113 out of pocket. Of course, I got home and realised I forgot to get any fruit, but we have some fruit salad somewhere in the pantry.

    Although Countdown is pricier than PnS, it also has some really good specials from time to time. EG:

    Cheese – 500g Anchor, 4.99. Saved 4.10 (finally prices are starting to come back down!)
    Griffins malt/wine/arrowroot biscuits – 2 for $3.50 (except you always have to buy both to get the discounted price, which can be a pain)
    Meadowlea margarine – 2 for $5. Saved 2.50
    Watties canned cooking sauces – 2 for $4.60. Saved 1.80
    Leaning Tower pizzas – 2.99 ea. Saved 2.70

    And CD are usually pretty good about scanning through the correct prices, too.

  • June 7, 2009

    Small L libertarian, big D Democrat

    TerryFeb07

    It’s rare that I ever go to talks/guest speeches/events on campus; I’m usually either in class or at work (if not just plain uninterested in what’s on offer). But I did go to listen to Terry Michael last week when he came to AUT. Not a whole lot of people turned up. Maybe about 15, which was just as well seeing as we were shunted into one of the tiniest classrooms in WT tower. One of our Grad Dip students mustered up enough interest to get him to come and speak at AUT (he’s currently on some sort of tour downunder…does he do the same speech every time? Or does he shake it up quite a bit? Surely it would get old delivering similar versions of the same spiel over and over, but I’m sure he’s giving talks at many places, not just universities, so he’d be tailoring accordingly).

    He’s head of a programme that teaches journalism students about politics in Washington, an ex press secretary and reporter. So he talked about the history of American media and touched briefly on party politics. But what was most interesting was how he described his own stance. Small L libertarian, big D Democrat. Something I thought was kind of contradictory at first – aren’t those two at odds? – until he explained it a little bit more. Here’s another quote:

    “Government: out of my bank account and my bedroom, away from my body, and out of the backyards of the rest of the world”

    The good stuff came after he finished speaking, and engaged in debate with a few of our lecturers – true blue lefties, the pro-welfare kind that Michael eschews. Sadly, I had to leave to go sit my media law test and missed most of it.

  • June 6, 2009

    Puzzled

    by two things.

    On John Boscawen’s billboards, ACT advertise themselves as putting Mt Albert (taxpayers) first.

    So they don’t support stay-home parents? Children?

    But apparently they would support beneficiaries, given that beneficiaries pay tax on their benefits.

    Seems odd for a right of centre party.

    And secondly, the sign above the doors in buses that state “Read doors cannot be used while buses are on school services. Please exit via the front door.”

    Eh???

  • June 5, 2009

    Why living with other people, quite frankly, blows

    I thought today I’d share some of the more memorable moments in my 3.5 years of flatting. Honestly, some of the people out there are unbelievable! How anyone can be so impervious as to basic courtesies, I just don’t know.

    Flatmates getting crunk on a cask of red wine, and spewing over the balcony onto lower neighbour’s balcony.

    Finding remnants of fish (meat and bones) in a pot under the sink, and finally understanding where that rank smell in the kitchen had been coming from.

    Flatmate throwing dishes and cutlery in the bin if they remained unwashed for more than a few hours.

    Having my phone stolen off the living room coffee table on the day I moved into my first place.

    Flatmate’s cats running all over the place, leaving dirty pawprints in the bathroom/bathtub (left for me to clean up).

    Flatmate’s cat biscuits ending up all along the border of the kitchen floor (also left for me to clean up).

    Flatmates leaving lights on all night.

    Running out of toilet paper because nobody ever wants to cough up for any. And empty toilet rolls left all over the floor because apparently placing them in the bin by the toilet is just too hard.

    Flatmates filling up ashtrays outside, then simply dropping butts on the ground because they can’t be bothered emptying the containers.

    Flatmates spewing out windows and leaving vestiges of vomit on windowsill (leaving for others to clean).

    Flatmates never, ever cleaning the toilet.

    Flatmates leaving fruit peels, cutlery, mail, in fact almost anything, outside indefinitely on makeshift table of tyres and wooden plank.

    Finding cutlery, rubbish, food scraps and socks behind and under lounge furniture.

    Flatmates buying fruit and veg, then leaving in fridge for months to rot.

    Ditto for beetroot. Except far, far worse, because beetroot somehow ALWAYS drips out of the can and stains everything around it.

    Flatmates cooking in the oven, then leaving the tray covered in a inch of solid grease.

    Flatmates being happy to utilise the stove, yet not once in months wiping up oil/food scrap buildup on it.

    Flatmates breaking your prized (and supposedly unbreakable) special edition drinking glasses. Hiding them in the bin for you to find and blow up about.

    Okay, gonna stop there! Or I will seriously never be able to bring myself to live with others again. The less I dwell on the bad, the better, right?

  • June 4, 2009

    Car woes, part one zillion and nine

    Life without a car in Auckland, frankly, sucks.

    Possibly not so much if you live, work and play in town, but otherwise?

    During the week I get by fine like I always have, unless I need to go somewhere out of the ordinary. I bus into town in the morning and I bus back at night.junker_car

    But on the weekends? Things like going grocery shopping, doing laundry, or visiting friends or family is damn near impossible. We’ve been borrowing BF’s brother’s car/scooter, but in an NZ winter, trust me, you want to be covered up outside. Flatmate’s car’s rego and warrant have run out, not to mention the broken taillight and the scraping wheel guard. Not something you wanna drive, or be caught driving (for things like broken lights they slap the fine on YOU, not the registered car owner).

    We live about five minutes walk from the bus stop. The bus will get us to town, or down the road to New Lynn where we can shop at the ridiculously overpriced Foodtown. We can’t bus to Pak n Save, or even Countdown. And let’s not get into what a bitch it is to lug a week’s worth of shopping on the bus and then from the bus stop, across two busy roads and to our house. The same kinda goes for bussing down to the laundromat; it’s not so much carrying the dirty clothes there, but lugging the wet, heavy clothes on the way back. We were set to hit the laundromat last week when we had the car, except it had already closed. So now we have about a month’s worth of laundry needing to be done :(. I did do a bit of handwashing this morning, which is currently on the line (hopefully, given the crazy winds and rain this afternoon) still dripping.

    We so need a car. And definitely before August, when our lease ends and we’ll need transport to look at new places (we plan to move to a totally different suburb) and to move.

    Here’s where we’re at. Dead car. $2000 left to pay it off (probably about what it’s worth now). $1300 to fix, not to mention all the other little things wrong with it. Urgh.

    I would love to get a half decent car for 5-6k (which would involve borrowing, sadly, and isn’t going to happen). So it’s going to have to be a beater in cash (ie, next nothing, which is all we can afford).

    I’m hoping my mum gets a new car really, really soon. She’ll be happy to pawn hers off on me for cheap, and I’ll be happy to take it. BF is all set on having a manual, but you know what they say about beggars and choosing.

  • June 4, 2009

    Downtown dining

    When I heard one of my best friends changed the venue for her 21st to a Viaduct restaurant – a Thai one, no less – I was wary.

    We all know what kind of, uh, patrons the Viaduct clubs are famous for. As for restaurants, they’re all overpriced and usually get mediocre reviews at best. Especially “ethnic” ones.

    tom-tom-gai

    It was a Friday evening. I’d left the house at 8am, been to classes, been to work, slashed on a bit of makeup and flipped my head upside down to try entice a bit of body into my pancake-flat hair. I was on time. No, make that seven minutes early. She’s notorious for being late to everything, and this time was no different. The six or so of us who got there on time waited 40 minutes for her. I was tired, hungry and grumpy. And stressed, of course, I’m always stressed. Did I mention stressed? This has seriously been the most stressful year of my life. Moneywise. Uni-wise. Flatmate, landlord, house, car, neighbourhood…you name it, it’s gone sour-wise. Except very, very few of my friends live in the real world. They live in the comfort of family homes, and as much as I love them, uni and family problems are the extent of their stress. They don’t understand what it’s like to actually be a grown up, for lack of a better expression. So I just try to smile, shrug and say I’m fine, because it’s a celebration and all. It’s not the place or time to launch into my woes, even if I wanted to. I don’t want to burst into tears or anything, so I keep quiet.

    Our table was long and thin and there must have been about thirty or so of us. I was the third to order. And I was, for some reason, second to last to receive my food. All I can think of is that soups must take a hell of a lot longer to make than other dishes. At least it was good, I’ll give em that.

    And then it came time to pay. She’d told us to bring cash, so I got out a $20 note and made sure I kept under my limit.

    Except that someone, somewhere had made the decision to split the bill EQUALLY.

    Fine. $20.43 is not that much more than $20, and my dish was (I think) $18 or $19.

    One of my dear friends duly paid her $20.40 in cash, and another kindly pitched in 40c for me.

    The waitress then pointed out that we were short and insisted on extracting a further 10c (no more 5c coins here) from BOTH of us.

    Never mind the fact that ONE SINGLE 10c would have covered BOTH of us for our 3c shortfall.

    No, they HAD to have that extra 7c from us both.

    It was seriously the last straw for me that day, and I had to walk away to take a brief timeout. Thanks to my friends who stumped up a further 10c on my behalf.

    Sorry, I know this is incredibly petty to whine about. But so were they for doing what they did. It’s really not the amount, it’s the principle of the matter, and that that was blatant overcharging for no reason. No two ways about it.

    Wasn’t planning on returning anyway, and definitely won’t again.

    Sorry, WangThai. You FAIL.

  • June 3, 2009

    My plan was to buy me a dress for under $50 for my friend’s party next weekend. The only stipulation is we can’t show up in black! I was keen for something in one of these colours:

    twelve-by-twelve-dress-9 red_white_dress 819_10_1

    Combed Recycle Boutique, the chain stores, the crazy minimall of Asian fashion shops in Atrium on Elliot and DressSmart.  But nup, no luck.

    We did however, scoop a major bargain for BF at the Dickies outlet in DressSmart. Grey Dickies pants (go for well over $100 retail, were $69 at the outlet branch, and $52.50 after a further 25% special Queen’s Birthday discount)! Something I’ve been wanting for him for ages, but Dickies aren’t cheap. So instead of buying me a dress I don’t really need (I still don’t know what I’m wearing for her birthday, but I’ll sort something out…two of my dresses are too casual, one is black, and the other two far too formal; might have to work the separates), we got him some sturdy, NICE pants to wear to the party.

  • June 2, 2009

    Mrs Micah had a fab post about “bragging and blogging” the other day. One of the things she said is that it can be tempting to put an overly-positive spin on things or filter what financial information you share with others. So true! When I spend money I know I shouldn’t have, I often don’t want to post about it. Or I might want to mention what I bought, but not the price. When things aren’t going as well as I’d like, I prefer to keep silent and not dwell on them (except for days I’m REALLY down in the dumps, in which case you’ll get posts like “pit of despair” and the like).

    It definitely is easy to write about things you’ve done right. Like having enough saved to pay for insurance, rather than just putting it on the CC.

    It’s not so easy to write about seeing your savings go down because you had to pay for a broken window to be fixed, or for ridiculously high class fees, or because your LL hasn’t paid his share of the bills (true!). Or the fact that putting $35 aside weekly to cover utilities just isn’t cutting it anymore – with price rises and our usage going up, we need more like $45. But have I put that into action? No.

    I’m just feeling very overwhelmed. I feel like a little cartoon character who just gets more and more crap piled on top of them, trying to hold it all up and keep it together. But I’m only one person and I can’t keep it up. I need some of these stresses to go away, and if that doesn’t happen and they just keep on coming, I am so due for a breakdown.

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