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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • May 3, 2009

    Picky, picky…

    I was recently given a really nice, stylish black wallet. I even went as far as moving all my stuff over, but once I’d completed the changeover I went right back to my old fat purple wallet with the bow. It wasn’t big enough to fit all my cards in, the layout was weird, and it just didn’t feel right.

    I get the feeling my hunt for my new bag will also be long and arduous. It’s gotta be the right size, and shape. It’s got to be cute. I want two handles, long enough to wear on my shoulder, and preferably rounded with some structure, not soft and floppy. I’d like brown or tan, with a few different pockets for my bits and pieces.

    We also got a new kettle, as our old one stopped working. The new one is strange to me. The button is in a different place and the water level strip is a totally different colour and in a different place.

    I know, I’m strange…but I like to think I’m just set in my ways.

  • May 2, 2009

    I love the Warehouse’s return policy.

    I don’t know so much about their 10c plastic bag charge, but that’s why when I bought a new kettle yesterday I decided to spend 99c on a pretty red reusable canvas bag.

    Then I got home and found our flatmate’s GF already got us another one.

    Luckily the Warehouse lets you return anything within 12 months as long as it’s in a resaleable condition with a receipt.

    They didn’t used to require a receipt at all, but apparently too many people were abusing the system. It’s still way more generous than most retailers though!

    So, no poorer than when I started (minus the red bag). I wonder if I still get to keep my rewards points from the purchase, or do they retract them along with the refund?

  • May 2, 2009

    It’s never enough

    I don’t mean to sound ungrateful in any way, especially after how hard BF’s had to fight to get a fair shot with WINZ. I’m really thankful he’s finally been approved and is able to draw unemployment. As little as it is, it is more than I expected him to end up being eligible for, what with all their crazy criteria.

    But together we’re making just under one full-time wage, and the longer this goes on the harder it gets. For one, rent goes out on a Thursday. I get my student allowance on Tuesday night, and rent from one of the flatmates at the same time. But I get paid from work on a Friday, and BF now gets paid on a Thursday into his account, so there’s no way that can make it over to me in time. Cue juggling around of money around every Wednesday evening. God forbid I ever forget.

    Wouldn’t it be easier to keep a big buffer in the account? Yes, but that’s not something I want to do. I work a zero based budget. When I first started out on my own I was used to having a cushion of a couple hundred in my daily account. Then I moved and started paying rent fortnightly, and I ended up not having any cushion – and I actually quite liked it that way. Now I’ve adopted the zero based budget, and it works for me. I know how easy it is to inadvertently spend, and I don’t want to wonder where the hell hundreds of dollars went so fast. I already kind of did that this week, transferring over $300 in anticipation of the glazier coming to fix our two broken windows. Bastard still hasn’t shown up since quoting us.

    Grrr, NOT feeling on top of it at the moment.

    Throw in the fact that I am more or less supporting BF for the foreseeable future, especially once he starts uni, and it’s pretty depressing. I don’t want to be doing that for three years, so let’s hope he can get himself a decent part time job over that time. And something for the rest of this year. I haven’t done the maths, but even 20 hours a week at minimum would be more than what he’s making now.

  • April 30, 2009

    Day in, day out

    Back in the routine. Long days at uni, get home in the dark, catch up on news, email and blogs, work on assignments. Sleep. Repeat.

    I’m thankful BF is here to help ease the load and take care of things around the house. And I’m SUPER grateful that he’s not studying as well. Imagine how he’d get under my feet if we shared a computer for assignments. Luckily, he can use the laptop all he wants next year, as I’ll be at work during the day and can get most of my internet stuff done there as well. And I’ll be free to help him with assignments and so on – I imagine I’ll find myself giving him tips next semester when he enrols in New Start, but I definitely won’t be able to give that my full attention.

    Right now, our workload is crazy busy! I’d say it’s doubled from last year, and a lot of the coursework is assessed in this half of the term. I’m finding myself constantly hungry – I just can’t eat enough! Nothing keeps me going for long. By the time I get home I’m starved and lightheaded and just want to inhale my food. And I invariably get frustrated while eating because dinner is too hot and burns my tongue. Dumb, I know, but I don’t have the time or inclination to wait for meals to cool down…need to learn to relax.

    Still, at least I don’t have the Mondays from hell anymore. Back in first year when I was working 20 hours a week over four weekdays, along with classes, I was stretched ridiculously thin. Mondays were a 12 hour day, plus two hours of commuting. Work from 8.30 to 12, a one hour break from 12 to 1, then three straight hours of lectures until 4, then a dash to my second job from 4 to 8.

    You can imagine how fast I wolfed down my lunches during that precious one hour!

  • April 30, 2009

    How do you know what you can really afford?

    Apparently we in NZ are the third most indebted country in the OECD. That’s scary. No wonder we don’t get 0% financing here, or ridiculously low mortgage rates or car loan rates. I guess that’s why the default rate for a regular Visa or Mastercard is 19.95%.

    It’s sort of reinforced to me how important it is to save. Single Ma had a really interesting post recently- she wanted to go to the Food and Wine festival, but decided she couldn’t afford it.

    Even though she has money in the bank and a fully funded EF.

    So a commenter wondered, why would she say that? She can obviously afford. Surely at least she could pull a little from her savings.

    But that’s dangerous. Where do you draw the line? A concert ticket here, a road trip there, a shopping spree….keep withdrawing little amounts “just this once” and you could easily have nothing left, FAST.

    An EF is for emergencies. Fun things like shopping, holidays and festivals should be budgeted for. They should have their own savings account, not be taken from your long term account. And how do you know if you can afford it? I thought about this for a little while before coming to the conclusion: If it doesn’t work into your day to day budget, you can’t afford it.

    Like that commenter said, it’s the kind of thinking “but I have enough in the bank to cover it! I deserve it!” that keeps you living the paycheck to paycheck cycle.

    I think that’s where BF is still at, and I hope to teach him otherwise.

  • April 29, 2009

    A nice surprise

    I find that the older I get, the more aware I am of race, culture, and ethnicity – not just me, but others around me.

    Recently I’ve realised that a lot of bloggers I follow and look up to are of varying ethnic backgrounds. This has come through in different viewpoints on wedding gifts, attitudes towards money, and attitudes towards supporting family. It’s been really interesting to read all the followup debate, and learn more about customs which mean so much to people of certain cultures.

    I think it’s interesting, though, that my default perception of people is to assume that they’re white. What does that say about me? And society around me? Have I been conditioned to think that white is the “norm”? I really shouldn’t have been surprised; we live in a diverse world, and I went to a school with something like over 30 different nationalities.

    But I’m glad to have realised this. It’s hard to not see people who look like you represented in the media. To not have role models to inspire you. To be considered an “ethnic minority” for the rest of your life. It’s nice to feel a little more at home in the blogosphere.

  • April 29, 2009

    Cleansers

    cetaI’ve been using Cetaphil on my face for a few weeks now, and will probably continue to do so. People seem to either love it or hate it. I can’t say I love it, but it does what it’s supposed to, and doesn’t aggravate my skin!

    It certainly is gentle. I still don’t understand how such an artificial formula can be so non-irritating. But it is! It even makes a good body wash for rashes or otherwise irritated skin, which is handy. The downside: it doesn’t always feel like it’s cleansing. It won’t deal to heavy makeup, but luckily I don’t wear much, and it’s usually worn off by the end of the day. Sometimes I feel like it’s leaving residue behind. Maybe that’s just because it’s not stripping my skin, but my Sukin organic wash was super gentle without feeling icky.

    Then again, when using Cetaphil, I actually don’t feel like I need a moisturiser afterwards, which is in theory a good thing. I usually do massage in just a little moisturiser, because after awhile my skin feels a tad tight, but I could live without it, which is something I’ve never experienced with any other facial wash. My skin is moisturised, calm and POSSIBLY ever so slightly less red in the cheeks. Seriously, when I can afford it, I’m going to see a dermatologist. I’m pretty sure I have rosacea, and surely there’s something I can do about it. I mean, it’s not terribly extreme, but it’s noticeable, and it would be nice to have an even skin tone rather than permanently pink/red cheeks (though at least I’ll never have to buy blush, haha).

    4.5/5. It’s more substantial than my Sukin cleanser, comes in a much larger bottle for the same price, and is nonirritating. Plus you can use it on the rest of your body, especially if you have eczema or anything like that.

    sti

    The other new thing I’ve been using is St Ives Apricot Scrub (the blackhead version). I like it as a scrub: it’s gentle, smells nice and is a pretty orange colour. The granules and walnut shell irritated a lot of reviewers, but as long as you’re gentle and aren’t scrubbing hard on your face, I haven’t found any problems with it. You do need to make sure you rinse thoroughly, though.

    I don’t normally leave it on for a whole minute as suggested, although the longer it stays on my face, the more likely the salicylic acid starts to tingle. Which means it’s working….only, I haven’t actually seen a difference. WAHHHH. My blackheads haven’t budged, although my skin feels nice and smooth and hydrated. I may as well have bought the normal formula.

    3/5. It’s a nice exfoliant, but doesn’t do the blackhead removing thing it claims to do.

  • April 28, 2009

    I actually NEED to go shopping!

    Today I realised something: I really, really badly need new underwear.

    And a new bag.

    I’ve had my silver handbag for, oh, three years? It only cost me about $15 and has held up pretty well, but is starting to wear pretty heavily. The fabric is fraying and the underlayer is showing through around the seams.

    Maybe something along these lines…

    arva-ground-serpent camille-large-red_resize image1l 1

    As for underwear, well, when when things start to lose their elasticity and go seethrough…..

    And I’m due for a couple of new bras – just can’t afford it!

    The $60 refund I received from DTR came through, but it’s going to have to go towards just paying the bills this week instead of paying for new contacts.

    Why? Well, mainly because of our huge power bill. Now that we know the culprit (the evil power sucking water cylinder, soaking up electricity yet not heating our water…what’s the point of paying exorbitant power bills if it’s not delivering you any benefit?), once it’s fixed our bills should return to normal. Yay!

  • April 27, 2009

    Future plans

    BF might be studying next year.

    Yep, just as I graduate, he might be entering uni.

    He’s thinking of doing teaching – primary, intermediate age. Maybe secondary later on – apparently with a B.E you can also apply for certain secondary positions, and I’m trying to get in touch with the faculty to find out more.

    If he did early childhood instead, he’d get a free ride plus spending money. ECE is an area of major shortage at the mo; or he could do a technology degree, then a one year grad. dip., and get that paid for as technology teachers are also in demand.

    But he doesn’t want to do either of those, so we’d have to look at other scholarships. And of course, student loans.

    I know in the States there are lots of grants for First in Family….people who are the first in their family to attend uni.

    Can’t find any in NZ, although I’ve only had a cursory look.

    Anyone know  of anything like that?

    (I think because anyone can finance their degree with a loan here, scholarships are way less common….)

    He’d probably do the New Start course part time next semester, to ease him into the routine and get him entry into next year’s intake.

    It’s just over $300 and is only one day a week. It also covers a range of topics, so it should be fun and somewhat  interesting. I’m sure he can achieve a B+ with some work. It’s held at the city campus, although they also hold classes out west in Te Atatu at Rutherford College, which will probably suit better…free parking…closer to home, possibly. Although, who knows about traffic….he’d be in rush hour, going the wrong way…

    Apparently they’re having record numbers sign up though – with the economy the way it is, everyone’s wanting to retrain.

    The administrator said there are so many showing interest, they may have to cap their numbers! So he should enrol early.

    So, exciting prospects….

  • April 26, 2009

    Bored?

    A couple of my friends dropped in last week when I was sick. I wasn’t super pleased at first, cause I looked and felt like hell, was unshowered and sitting in bed in my daggy old PJs. But the thought was appreciated, and then we got into watching random shit online. Like this UK ad for shavers (thanks Ginger) which I originally heard about in this column by Tracey Barnett, but was too lazy to hunt down myself…imagine how stoked I was to stumble across it without any extra effort in the blogosphere.

    If you haven’t I recommend you check out the Evolution of Dance on YouTube – def good for six minute of entertainment! (Apparently part two sucks, though)

    And then we got all retrospective and hunted down old 90s – mainly one hit – bands.

    So if you were into 90s cheesy pop, kill some time and watch these!

    For your pleasure…

    Link love!!!

    Dream – He Loves U Not
    O-town – Liquid Dreams
     Lfo – Summer Girls (Seriously, whoever wrote this should be shot)
    NSync – Bye Bye Bye (I still think this video kicks ass :P)
    Hanson – MMMBop
    Spice Girls – Wannabe
    S Club 7 – S Club Party (Never a good idea to namedrop yourself, let alone in the title)
    Steps – Tragedy (BeeGees cover)

    I love me my classic rock and glam metal, but 90s manufactured bubble pop has a special place in my heart. Not ashamed to admit it!!

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