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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • November 22, 2008

    It never ceases to amaze me how seasoned professionals can answer a one sentence question with a ten minute speech. They sort of go around the question and deal with related issues and context, before (usually) getting round to answering the crux of the question.

    I assume it’s like learning to hold interviews and answering media questions. They never just give simple answers; they always elaborate with examples, anecdotes, etc, and avoid direct questions they don’t like by going ever so slightly off topic yet still keeping in the general gist.

  • November 20, 2008

    Being done with uni for the year is freaking awesome. I don’t have anything I NEED to do in my weekends/evenings. However, on my to do list

    Get new guitar strings/get back into playing

    Weed, rake up garden

    Get lawn mowed

    Organise contents insurance

    Read books on the list I compiled last week

    On Friday I actually dusted in our room (first time since we moved in, disgusting, yes?) and was revolted at the thick dark dust on all our surfaces. And I organised my stuff on top of my dresser and drawers (really want new dresser, but can’t afford one. Come to think of it, I’d like a fabulous new closet with tons of room, sliding wire racks, heaps of storage space, etc. but hey.) I even threw out a bunch of stuff – bottles, makeup, other detritus – unheard of for a hoarder like me! And without feeling a single pang of loss. I guess after starting to put together a story on spring cleaning your makeup bag I thought I should put that into action for myself. It’s disgusting that I have lipsticks from back in intermediate school.

    It also leaves me lots of time for blogging (obviously) and thinking… like, maybe I’d like to get into publishing some day. It first occurred to me after reading Marian Keys’ The Other Side of the Story and thinking Jojo had a pretty cool job and wouldn’t it be fun being a book agent? But I couldn’t do the whole selling thing. I’ve never been in retail/sales and I think that’s for a reason. Then I thought maybe I’d like to be a reader, going through all the manuscripts sent into agencies by wannabe JK Rowlings and Dan Brows. I love reading. What could be better than getting paid to read? But you’d be reading all the crap stuff (99%) and I wouldn’t ever want to lose my love of books. Plus, readers are low level and presumably low paying jobs, and by the sounds of it, it’s hard to move up. And I’m not confident I could pick hits as my reading taste is sometimes a little eccentric. I could get into editing – but it’s a bit dry, really, and my grammar is passable but nothing special. Spelling, though, I’d cut up. I always wanted to be in a wicked spelling bee…

    It’s just amazing to realise just how many different kinds of jobs there actually are out there – ones you never really consider or hear about. You tend to think you’re restricted to the main degree areas, like business and law and engineering, etc, but there’s so much more out there (albeit less common ones).

  • November 20, 2008

    Back in the days

    Oh how I love Facebook!

    Someone’s been uploading our old primary school class photos to our school group, and it’s a constant source of amusement. my inbox has been full every night this week, blocked up with all the comments from people. especially funny was our year 6 photo with everyone reminiscing about memorable moments and particularly THE BOY, not surprisingly as he was rather infamous at school throughout childhood, and adolescence too i suppose. so i laughed, and laughed, to read people saying “oh how we used to wind him up” and “i hear he’s a good guy now” and “yea him and E are are a happy couple now, she’s been a really good influence on him”.

    he really is my marcus flutie.

  • November 17, 2008

    Suburbia

    A couple of months ago I decided I want to live in Royal Oak, probably after graduation. I based this on the assumption I’d be working in town and the boy staying with Bantrans in Penrose. See Royal Oak is on major bus routes, isn’t far from the city at all (just past Epsom after Newmarket) and close to Onehunga/Penrose, has a small, crappy mall, lots of shops, Ollies, PaknSave, and One Tree Hill. In other words, about as handy as it gets!

    But if he ends up working in Avondale next year I’m thinking more along the lines of Pt Chev. The western buses along there are always late but there are probably others, and they stop right outside work. It’s a hop and skip to Rosebank past Waterview (sort of) close to Mt Albert shops and Pak n Save, library, beach, the Pt Chev corner shops, and is just a nice area.

    Then again, who knows what else could change in the coming year?

  • November 17, 2008

    Christmas

    I have been saying I don’t want anything for Christmas, in the spirit of frugality. However, after a little thought, I came up with a few things I’d like – little luxuries I wouldn’t buy for myself, and I wouldn’t mind getting. Hereby:

    New pillows

    MP3 player (with decent capacity, say 5-10G)

    Makeup bag (something sturdy with a few different compartments)

    Money!

  • November 16, 2008

    *sigh*

    What I’d give to have a cleaner! When I have my own house I’m going to hire someone to come in once a month or something to take the annoying tasks like cleaning the oven, the cabinets, windows, dust etc for some reason lately everything house cleaning has seemed to take ten times as long, everything gets dirty so much quicker

    It’s all just made so much worse by our bird curse. They fly in and crap on our carpet. It’s happened twice now! Bloody windows. We have these huge, tall 1960s ones; the friggin birds must just fly straight in because they leave so much room open.

  • November 15, 2008

    Silly season

    It’s officially allergy season!

    I just can’t fathom why I was okay last year despite constantly wearing my contacts (I had absolutely no probs with them, long days aside. It must be the abrupt change in seasons. One night I was sleeping wrapped in blankets the next night, next to naked throwing off the duvet.

    It’s bad, bad bad. Right from getting up in the morning, through till the afternoon (the WORST). Unlike the first time I had weird eye probs back in August (around 2pm every afternoon, without fail) this starts first thing, and apparently it’s due to the most pollens being around from 5-10am. Websites advise wearing close fitting sunglasses or filter masks. Yeah, right. Why not just go around in fullblown SARS gear? Then there’s also the dreaded afternoon grit. Feels like gravel under your eyelids. Even after taking out my lenses and switching to glasses I can still feel it there for awhile. Under circumstances where an individual is probably going to be exposed to a workplace environment with gas or airborne material, protection is important . There are an enormous sort of different mask for smoke available to suit different conditions, and to make sure that staff are safe, it’s necessary to know which sort is required that situations, so as to supply the simplest possible protection.

    Why don’t I just go back to glasses permanently for awhile? Well, with contacts I can wear sunnies (apparently I have slight UV damage so it’s important to me and I swear the sun gets brighter every weekend! Sorting out sunnies when you wear glasses is easier said than done). No worries when it rains. No tears when I cut up onions (we love onions at our house). No more constantly pushing my glasses up my flat nose especially at the end of the day when I start to get a little greasy. I just feel better and more confident in my contacts – is that such a crime? Yes, it’s vanity, pure and simple, and I’m not willing to give it up.

    I’m so looking forward to the day when I can wake up again and not find my eyes glued shut together and bloodshot like the bat from hell!!!

  • November 14, 2008

    Restaurants and the web

    I really wish that all restaurants had their own websites. Come on, get with it! And if not at least put some info up on menumania or dineout. I’m one of those reconnaissance freaks who likes to know every single thing about a place before deciding to eat there. I want to know where you are, preferably with a map – I like to know exactly where I’m going. I want a menu, I like to get an idea of exactly what the food’s like. And what the prices are.

    These days it’s almost a crime to not have at least a basic webpage, IMO. All the sort of larger, better places do – it’s the ethnic ones that often don’t (pity, as those are the ones we like to try)

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