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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • April 13, 2012

    Friday Five: Things I should really be doing

    Rediscover sprinting

    I’m actually pretty lazy with my running. And I know that my usual routine isn’t really pushing me (which is deliberate, because when I make things feel too much like work, I lose motivation). But working a few sprints into my runs is both fun and good for stretching my capabilities. I’m not like T – he’s an ex-sprinter despite being enormous and trying to outpace him is always an exercise in frustration – but was reasonably quick in high school myself. By that, I mean I was more of a middle distancer, but usually put in a respectable showing at the short races on Athletics Day every year, and was always on the class relay team. (I think I did around a 15-16 second 100m…which would probably be more like 20 seconds nowadays, if that.)

    Finally got T to put those new $200 trainers to good use over the crazy sunny Easter break

    Not eating so many damn instant noodles

    I have a major weak spot for Yum Yum shrimp flavoured noodles, and they’re only 50c a packet. Lately I’ve been making it through as many as four packs in a week. I need to bring this phase to an end, STAT and take a break.

    Stop being so all over the place with my blog

    And hone in on “my thing” (whatever that is) already. But that’s not going to happen.

    Stock up on ladythings when they’re on sale

    If there’s one thing I resent paying for, it’s pads and tampons. I only ever visit that aisle in the supermarket when absolutely necessary. BUT. I know I’m going to need them every month. So it only makes sense I pick up extra when discounts are going.

    Drink more water

    I’m generally pretty good on keeping my H20 intake up. But lately work has been crazy and toilet breaks/lunch breaks/getting up to refill my glass are just interruptions. (Incidentally, did anyone else have a horrible first day back after the Easter weekend? Mine was all headachey and mopey.)

    What’s something you’re working on right now?

     

  • April 12, 2012

    Things I’m thankful for: my health

    Personal finance is a bit of a passion for me. But as we know, wealth isn’t everything. And sometimes health and wealth are more interlinked than we might think. And yes, sometimes luck plays a pretty big part.

    No matter how fit you are, how well you eat – you could get hit by a drunk driver. You could get cancer. You could get Parkinson’s. You could develop a chronic condition – pain, depression, something else. And no matter how well-insured you are, that’s going to have a serious impact on your finances and all other aspects of life – in some cases, for as long as you live.

    So, while I may be halfway to blind … suffer ridiculously heavy periods … chronic hayfever … I appreciate what I have. Full use of my (weak) limbs. All my senses. I can walk, I can run, I can jump. I have no health conditions that have serious negative effects on my life. I’ve never even broken a bone. Not everybody is so lucky.

    What are you thankful for today?

  • April 11, 2012

    From checkout operator to NZ’s most eligible bachelor

    Poor old Trevor Cooper. He just won $26 million through Lotto. And he went public.

    I bet he’s regretting that now.

    He was on the front page of the paper. On TV. And apparently now he’s having to field requests from people who want money. Who’da thunk it?

    The front of a used Mark Six ticket

    (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    If it was me, I’d definitely sit on it. I might not even tell T for a couple days, if I could get away with it. I’d go to work, try to get my head around the news and think about how to proceed.

    I don’t do this kind of thing. I’m big on planning and what ifs. But those those theoretical what-ifs are always based in fact.

    But I don’t buy lottery tickets and hence will never win the jackpot. So while people love to talk about what they’d do if they won, I don’t, because IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

    But since I’ve started writing about poor old Trevor, I guess I may as well continue some way down that path.

    I wouldn’t quit my job. T would.

    We might up our wedding list by 10 or so people.

    I’d definitely turn our honeymoon into a full year off to travel (for which I would have to leave work).

    Then we’d come back and buy a house.

    There’d be money going to charity. And I’d also want to put some money back into the economy and invest in some startups. That’s not something I have experience in, so obviously I’d seek out local entrepreneurs/investors for that purpose.

    I think the big question is what we would do to help T’s family. Regular readers know that’s a sorry story. We would definitely help, but the details of that would require some serious consideration.

    But one thing is certain. I definitely would not be going public with my newfound fortune. It can only lead to trouble.

    Do you like to daydream about winning the lottery? How would you handle it?

  • April 10, 2012

    Living in NZ: The ultimate post

    snow mountains north island - living in nz nzmuse

    When I was asked to write a post about life in New Zealand, I kinda thought “how much can there be to know?”

    Nonetheless, here is my stab at summing it all up.

    By way of context, I am 23 (25 – post updated as of Feb 2014), reside in Auckland, have lived here since I was 8, and am firmly working/middle class. Bear that in mind as your frame of reference.

    Business/employment/work in NZ

    We still largely rely on commodities – primary is a huge pillar of the economy. We’re also good at food production and science and tech/hi-tech, health and have some great web businesses (though often they head overseas or are sold to overseas companies).

    It’s easy and cheap to start a business here, though we don’t yet have much of an entrepreneurial ecosystem – connectedness is something we  need to work on. That’s slooooowly starting to change. Startup weekends have arrived here. It seems like incubators, accelerators, economic development agencies, and entrepreneurs starting to work together more. And there are more business/startup competitions popping up – the BNZ/Webstock Startup Alley, the BNZ/Virgin challenge, the government’s Business Plan competition, the GO UK business plan competition, etc.

    We have a few great success stories but we need more innovation and more risk taking. And there’s definitely consensus that many don’t dream big enough – once you’ve got the bach (holiday house), boat and Beamer (BMW) that’s where we stop. On the flipside, work-life balance is prized by a lot of us here. It’s said a lot of our startups are taken aback by the 24/7 nature of Silicon Valley when they get there.

    There’s plenty of talk about lack of capital, though I’ve talked to some who say investors are very risk averse, forcing them to look overseas for cash. On the other hand another view is that if you’re amazing enough, money is never an issue. There’s the NZVIF (which just set up a new tech fund with help from Peter Thiel), the national angel association, Ice Angels and other investment groups (Sparkbox, No 8 Ventures, Southgate Labs, Movac, Angel HQ, Powerhouse Ventures, and more). See here and here for a little more on funding – but there’s a lot of bootstrapping and a lot of mortgaging the house.

    There was the Knowledge Wave and the likes of the late Sir Paul Callaghan advocating for an economy increasingly weighted toward weightless exports driven by science and technology, but progress is slow. See here, here, and here.

    At the government level we’ve gone from the ministry of research, science and technology to the ministry of science and innovation and now to the ministry of business, innovation and employment. With any luck the proposed Wynyard Innovation Centre on the Auckland waterfront will go ahead, providing a business hub.

    There are some large companies, Telecom, Fonterra, the banks, etc; but most businesses are SMEs.

    Migrants have it tough. Employers want NZ experience and aren’t keen to take risks on outsiders (as above, they’re often very small businesses). Except, apparently, at the highest exec levels – the men (almost always men) running the biggest companies are often shipped in from abroad.

    Environment in NZ

    I’m thankful New Zealand is a relatively safe place to live. We don’t get bushfires and floods like in Australia or hurricanes like the US. We don’t have scary animals that will kill you. The Christchurch earthquake was unprecedented. The mid-lower North Island does get frequent mild quakes, however.

    In Auckland, the worst you’ll get is rainstorms and the odd random water spout. The heat isn’t extreme – summer is usually in the 20s (Celsius, obviously). We don’t get snow; that’s restricted mainly to the South Island and at heights in the North Island – ie Mt Ruapehu. We all got exceedingly excited last winter when Auckland experienced new low temperatures and, apparently, the first “snow” in decades. Here, I present a photo of what said snow looked like in our carpark at work:

    Okay, so no snow, and no tornadoes. What do we have?

    Well, everything – lakes, mountains, islands, snow, beaches, bush. You are never far from the coast, we have dormant volcanoes scattered all around the city – Mt Albert, Mt Eden, One Tree Hill etc – so usually you’re not far from one of those little hilly paradises. There are parks everywhere – so much greenery! We have amazing beaches both in Auckland and around the country, and great skiing further south. Everything! Diving! Jetboating! Sailing! Bungy! Skydiving! Snorkelling! Tramping! You name it!

    (See here, here and here for a few examples of stunning scenery.)

    Most of the country is still largely rural with that oh-so-charming farm smell. Lots of small towns are very white and/or Maori. I got a fair few stares in Whakatane along with my Indian classmate on a field trip there, and encountered surprise from T’s family in Thames upon seeing me for the first time (nothing to my face, but he hilariously recounted their reaction privately to me later on). Oh, and Maori is everywhere, especially out of the cities. A lot of place names (the ones that sound most alien to you, probably) are Maori.

    Our roads are narrow and curvy, which can be a shock for some. Driving the Pacific Coast highway in California, for example is nothing for a Kiwi.

    And we have basically no ozone layer, so you may get sunburnt in a matter of minutes. Watch out.

    Culture in NZ

    There’s a huge drinking culture. A huge weed culture. A huge culture of thoughtless driving, though by international standards maybe it’s not really all that bad (I do my bit by staying off the roads as much as possible).

    On the plus side, I hear we have amazing coffee (I don’t drink coffee so can’t comment). I love the kiwi accent, but I admit it can be hard to understand. People are pretty friendly. Perhaps not so much in Auckland; it can be hard to make friends. On the other hand, it is very multicultural and we have some seriously amazing Indian and Asian food. Not so much when it comes to other cuisines – guess it’s a measure of distance. On the other other hand, you can’t beat Wellington for being vibrant, colourful, artsy, inspiring, compact and walkable. You’ll need to like the wind, though.

    Our media are pretty parochial; you’d be surprised at what is front-page news, most likely. Radio, online, print and TV are dominated by 2-3 players, and as Seth Kugel notes, we still love our broadsheets, though we do have our tabloids too. And we have a butt ton of magazines – there’s one for every niche. And he’s right; there’s lots of walking around barefoot, no tipping (though many restaurants increasingly try to encourage it) and price tags are honest. No extras slapped on at the till.

    There’s also definitely a bit of tall poppy syndrome. We’re pretty self deprecating, but defensive of NZ (as I imagine most people are about their own country – I can talk shit about my mother, but you can’t – that kind of thing).

    Money in NZ

    Here’s an understatement: housing is expensive. We have an obsession with property, as well as a housing shortage. The average house price? More than 6 times average income. Interest rates are high, which is good for savers, and obviously, bad for borrowers.

    There is no way we can afford to buy in central Auckland; we will be forced further out (we’ll be going west).

    We currently pay $280 a week for a one bedroom with two-hob gas burner (no full kitchen). Before that, we paid $320 a week for a two bedroom place although the second room is barely deserving of the title ‘study’ or ‘office’ and we certainly couldn’t rent it out. We have a single garage, deck and huge yard. Before that we paid $250 (later $280) for an apartment -type dwelling on the bottom floor of our LL’s house (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, no lounge).

    Apartment living isn’t big here; houses are the norm. While fixed-term leases are getting more common, periodic (open-ended) tenancies still exist. To move into a place, you’ll have to pay up to four weeks’ bond (held by the Department of Building and Housing), up to two weeks’ rent ahead, and if through an agent, a week’s rent plus GST to the property manager as a letting fee (rare these days is the private landlord who does their own letting). Rent is usually paid weekly, by auto-payment (cheques are basically extinct, and we’re pretty advanced in regard to EFTPOS and electronic banking and that kind of thing).

    What most people do is rent a room in a house (could be anywhere from $100-300 a week depending on area). General market rents can be found here, although I caution that the reality is actually higher, especially in Auckland. Oh, and if you have pets? Good luck. Nobody will rent to you (the odds are very, very, very low). If you want animals, buy a house.

    Houses themselves…steel yourself for lack of insulation. I can tell you all about damp, mould and being able to see my own breath in front of me in my bedroom. Every time we’ve been house hunting, I’ve sunk into a fresh state of depression. The state of some of these places is unbelievable and downright unliveable. There’s lots of awful shabby stock, though new houses can be just as bad as old, because we had a huge problem with leaky homes and new construction not long ago. I’ve written about this a few times.

    In Auckland, we tend to be snobbish about what areas we live in and it’s tough to get around without a car (though we get by with just one car).

    Speaking of … Cars are expensive. Car registration is pricey ($300 plus for a year) and motorbikes even more so. Insurance, too (more than $1k a year for full coverage for our 1998 car, worth $5-6k. Downgrading that next renewal). Petrol is now $2.20 a litre.

    Wages tend to be low; taxes run from 10.5% to 33%. Getting paid weekly is quite common, especially in more blue collar industries, and government/student benefits are paid weekly. We get four weeks of annual leave every year and our retirement scheme, Kiwisaver (recently introduced) is optional – if you are enrolled, your employer has to chip in and the government puts in a little every year as well. It’s common for people to take off overseas (usually the UK, sometimes Australia) shortly after graduation to spend a few years abroad working and travelling.

    Healthcare won’t bankrupt you here, nor will education. The ER is free; subsidised prescriptions are $5; and while I haven’t been to a doctor since uni (where it was either free or extremely cheap) I suppose at $40ish a pop it could be worse. There are no financial barriers, technically, to getting a university education – government student loans are available to all and if you don’t qualify for a student allowance you can borrow a certain amount for living costs (which I wouldn’t recommend…)

    Food, on the other hand… I used to get frustrated with comments on my grocery posts. No, I can’t cut costs any lower. Yes, this is what food costs. I shop at the cheapest supermarket, and try to get to the butcher and grocer separately. Let’s go over a few supermarket staples (ranges vary based on season/brand/sales)

    • onions/potatoes – from $2 a kilo
    • pasta – from $1 for a 500g bag
    • bananas – $2-$4 a kg
    • capsicums – $1-$4 each
    • cucumber – $1-$3 each
    • tomatoes – $2-$8 a kg
    • grapes – $4-$10 a kg
    • spring onions (not even proper food! A garnish!) $1 to $3
    • bread – $2 to, I don’t know, $6?
    • milk – from $3.50 for two litres
    • flour/sugar – from $2 a kilo
    • eggs – $4 or so for a dozen

    There are great local farmer’s markets, and also lots of Asian grocery shops, thankfully.

    When I first started working at a cafe in high school, a basic flat white cost about $3.50. Now coffees are closer to $5. Expect to pay $15-20 for brunch/breakfast out. At Subway, the six-inch sub of the day is $5 and meals at McDonalds and the like are around $8ish. A beer in town will be close to $10, a cocktail closer to $20. We do have good bakeries and fish and chip shops, amazing seafood depending on where you are and our dairy is second to none. And if you can find a good pie these days, well, then you’ve just experienced a key slice of kiwi life. We have a ton of great Asian food but no good Mexican food (sadface). And while you can get pizza delivered, food delivery overall is not very common here.

    What else? Clothes are expensive and poor quality. Electronics are expensive. Well, everything, really, as we’re so far away from everywhere else and don’t make any of this ourselves. We have horribly slow internet (even Stephen Fry says so) though at least unlimited internet plans have finally arrived; mobile calls and data are expensive, hence texting still rules.

    Anything I’ve missed?

  • April 9, 2012

    What we spent: March 2012

    ** Click here for more info on my monthly spending roundups.**

    Gotta admit, March was expensive.

    Clothes – New wallet for T; his was literally in tatters.

    Dining – About $50 over goal… there was a slightly pricey but excellent yum cha breakfast, food at the Pasifika festival (it’s official; not really my kinda cuisine), the Puhoi tea rooms (woot! Crossed off my life list), birthday dinner for a friend, discovering the awesome Pakistani curry house down the road, and other bits and bobs. Yum.

    Entertainment – Went to the Hunger Games! I’m pretty happy with the adaptation. I rooted for Gale in the books (I always seem to go for the underdog; I was a Jacob fan myself) but when it came to the film, became a Peeta convert. (To be fair, Gale got hardly any screentime, but he was just a bit too pretty.)

    Fines – the second of those two speeding tickets

    Groceries – all good, moving right on…

    Health – new running shoes for T. Ouch.

    Holidays/events – Taking T’s brother out for his birthday.

    Rent – Five weeks in March. Ouch.

    T fun – Xbox stuff. A BB gun. Getting his RC car fixed. And other miscellany. Good thing only one of us is a spender.

    Vehicle – T hasn’t been taking his bike very often, and there were two days I had to drive out way south for a conference, so I’m happy this wasn’t actually higher.

    And an update on our savings goals:

    Our road trip fund: $2300 (minus $450 on flights and campervan deposit, paid for)

    Wedding: $535

    How did your March go?

  • April 7, 2012

    Link love (Powered by faulty tech and early dawns)

    I was super excited by Quickflix launching in New Zealand, especially with the free introductory month (where you put in your credit card details, of course, so they can nab you should you forget to cancel before your time is up) and introductory price of $9.99.

    However. The range is crap. The new releases are $6.99.

    We pay for Sky TV (the boy’s choice). We can already get new releases for $6.99 on there. Some months we put the movies package on, when there are good films showing. In terms of price and offerings, Quickflix doesn’t really seem to offer anything more.

    What I want is up-to-date releases at a decent price. Is that too much to ask?

    What is Netflix like, dear Americans? I hear it’s the bees’ knees. I can’t even browse the Netflix site to see what I’m missing out on, because it detects how decidedly un-American my IP address is.

    Blast from the past

    New feature! Every month I’ll highlight some of my fave posts from the same month in previous years.

    One year ago I ran my first 10k, pondered a certain money mindset I’ve observed among the perennially broke and mused on the great balancing act of life

    Two years ago I was thinking about the perils of living out your life online, and what it would be like to live on my own.

    Okay, now to the links!

    MONEY

    Cents of a Country Girl recounts her adult financial journey in Money through the Ages.

    BrokeTo shares some of the silly things she’s done to save money.

    The Financial Blogger talks us through the costs of blogging for a living.

    Similarly, Alexis Grant shares the different ways she makes money online.

    A lovely post from Revanche on marriage and moving to joint finances.

    Finally, thanks to Canadian Personal Finance for including my post (Personal finance topics I’m SO over) in this week’s carnival of personal finance.

    WORK

    Berrak may not have a degree – but that’s not holding her back.

    Untemplater asks: how much of a payout would it take for you to leave work?

    TeacHer Finance on lessons learned from crappy jobs.

    Lost Gen Y Girl shares career lessons learned from the Hunger Games.

    Great advice from Michelle Asp: Worry less about what you’re saying and more about understanding what’s being said to you.

    Passion never earned anybody a paycheck. At Life Without Pants.

    LIFE, etc

    A handy post at WordPress on how to turn your blog into a book.

    Jill at Stratejoy pens a love letter to her body.

    Shannon asks if marriage is more than a piece of paper.

    From Grow: is social media making you a lazy communicator?

    Great resources here at Yes and Yes – how to stay smart.

    Loved this from Blue Milk on happily ever after in marriages.

    Aloysa shares five tips on surviving life in ghetto suburbs.

    I’m not one to talk about other countries’ politics, but had to share this from right-winger Rachel on the Republicans and Planned Parenthood.

    Nicole is Better on how to turn jealousy around.

    Way to make me feel old, Kim! Perfectly Cursed Life recounts some pop culture milestones that I guarantee will have you shaking your head.

    FOOD

    Pasta-free eggplant lasagne, via Funny about Money.

    Iowa Girl makes orange-glazed poppy seed muffins.

    And Stonesoup whips up a no bake chocolate peanut butter cake.

    Happy Easter, everyone! I’m still to make any plans – what are you doing?

  • April 6, 2012

    Friday Five: Turning it around

    Something a little different this week: five quick questions for you guys (mostly either/or ones, but I reckon the way you answer reveals a lot about you)!

    TP. Do you go for what’s cheapest, or splurge on the nice stuff?
    I have a couple of brands toward the cheap end of the range I rely on, but if the likes of Purex has a good sale price, I’ll fork out for it.

    Do you need 8 hours’ sleep a night, or do you get by on less?
    I’ve always been one of those people that needs lots of sleep. Without a full night of rest, I am not a happy camper. In that sense, I take after my mum, not my dad.

    Rollercoasters. Love them or hate them?
    Hate heights, hate being upside down. I’ve been on a couple in my life and think I’m done.

    Spicy food. Yay or nay?
    I looove spicy food. However, my tolerance only goes up to medium heat at most. I also can’t have it too often, because once it gets past my esophagus, let’s just say the rest of me isn’t so enamored with spice. And I usually can’t exercise that day without feeling ill.

    What’s your favourite physical feature?
    I have good legs, though they bruise easily.

    You?

  • April 5, 2012

    Books I’ve enjoyed recently, via Mindy Kaling and Caitlin Moran

    I recently lapped up the memoirs of two very funny, very intelligent women.

    You should read them.

    Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? – Mindy Kaling

    Like me, a daughter of immigrants. Asian. And (not like me) deliciously witty. She is my hero.

    Oh, and I want to be her friend. That is all.

    “I wish there was a song called ‘Nguyen and Ari’, a little ditty about a hardworking Vietnamese girl who helps her parents with the franchised Holiday Inn they run and does homework in the lobby, and Ari, a hardworking Jewish boy who does volunteer work at his grandmother’s old-age home, and they meet after school at Princeton Review. They help each other study for the SATs and different AP courses, and then after months of studying the news that they both got into their top college choices. This is a song teens need to inadvertently memorise. Now there’s a song I’d request… The chorus of “Jack and Diane” is: Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone. Are you kidding me? The thrill of living was high school? Come on, Mr. Cougar Mellencamp. Get a life.”

    “There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it.”

    “Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life. What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.”

    How to be a Woman – Caitlin Moran

    I am a feminist.

    I don’t understand women who don’t consider themselves one. It irks – no, PAINS me – when women start a sentence with: “I’m not a feminist, BUT…”

    I understand the term has a bad rap.

    But as Moran puts it:

    “You might be asking yourself, ‘Am I a feminist? I might not be. I don’t know! I still don’t know what it is! I’m too knackered and confused to work it out. That curtain pole really still isn’t up. I don’t have time to work out if I am a women’s libber! There seems to be a lot to it. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?’
    I understand.
    So here is the quick way of working out if you’re a feminist. Put your hand in your pants.
    a) Do you have a vagina? and
    b) Do you want to be in charge of it?
    If you said ‘yes’ to both, then congratulations! You’re a feminist.

    Because we need to reclaim the word ‘feminism’. We need the word ‘feminism’ back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29 per cent of American women would describe themselves as feminist – and only 42 per cent of British women – I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of ‘liberation for women’ is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? ‘Vogue’, by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF SURVEY?

    These days, however, I am much calmer – since I realised that it’s technically impossible for a woman to argue against feminism. Without feminism, you wouldn’t be allowed to have a debate on a woman’s place in society. You’d be too busy giving birth on the kitchen floor – biting down on a wooden spoon, so as not to disturb the men’s card game – before going back to quick-liming the dunny.

    I can only hope this strikes a chord with readers of the “I’m not a feminist but…” ilk.

    Because really. What part of modern life as a woman do you not appreciate? The right to work, and in an industry of your choosing? The right to choose to marry, and who, and whether to change your name? To have children, and how many, or not at all? The right to own property?

    Look, I have never read any classic feminism texts. I read this because I love a good memoir and Moran is a writer I look up to. We don’t have much in common. She grew up poor, I didn’t. She grew up fast; I was a late bloomer. She started out as a music journalist; I quickly ditched that idea when I realised I don’t like most of today’s music.

    But literally, almost every word in this book resonated with me; I found myself agreeing with almost everything she verbalised. (Not everything; I don’t think there can truly be any experience like parenthood; I’m not sure about her pole dancing > lap dancing argument and while I admire Lady Gaga’s trailblazing and ability to pen perfect pop songs, she certainly does do a hell of a lot with her clothes off.)

    Behold:

    “I have a rule of thumb that allows me to judge … whether sexist bullshit is afoot. … It’s asking this question: ‘Are the men doing it? Are the men worrying about this as well? Is that taking up the men’s time? Are the men told not to do this, as it’s ‘letting the side down’? Are the men having to write bloody books about this exasperating, retarded, time-wasting bullshit? Is this making Jeremy Clarkson feel insecure?'”

    “Recently, it has behooved modish magazines to print interviews with young women, who explain that their career as strippers is paying their way through university… If women are having to strip to get an education — in a way that male teenage students are really notably not — then that’s a gigantic political issue, not a reason to keep strip clubs going …what are strip clubs if not ‘light entertainment’ versions of the entire history of misogyny?”

    “I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that centre on the sanctity of life. As a species, we’ve fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don’t believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain and life-long, grinding poverty show us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we’ve made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred.”

    BRILLIANT.

    Hence, why I devoured this in a day.

    I enjoyed greatly her chapters on birth (the first is terrifying, the second redeeming. Power to those who want uber natural births. However, for most of history childbirth has been lethal for women. I want hospitals, doctors, and all the drugs thanks). On lambasting the ridiculousness of fashion. And her intriguing hypothesis of pop culture as an indicator of the shift in power towards women. Although if Beyonce is the best we can do, please bring on the 22nd century, when hopefully females can actually run the world rather than assault our eardrums with songs about running the world while dancing suggestively in skimpy clothing. (I haven’t seen that particular music video, though I have seen the Glee version. Forgive me if the video is not actually like that; however, all of her others are, so I feel pretty safe in generalising here).

    When I was in high school, my father told me soccer wasn’t a sport for girls. For years, I silently (never out loud, I’m Asian) shouted “Fuck you, Dad” in my head whenever I recalled that moment.

    Now I simply hold that memory in my head as a reminder. My daughters will never hear that from their parents, and hopefully, never from any human being at all.

  • April 4, 2012

    Road trip. It’s happening

    Milford Sound

    Milford Sound. Image via Wikipedia

    Hurrah! Our South Island road trip is taking shape.

    To date, we’ve booked a campervan – $660 for two weeks in September – and flights.

    I’ve paid a 10 percent deposit ($66) and for flights to Christchurch and back for two ($372). If I was willing to wait until very close to the time and stalk Grabaseat for last minute deals, it’s likely we could have saved maybe $30 per flight, but I’d rather lock it in and forget about it.

    We chose to go with checked baggage flights, because along with clothing and toiletries for two weeks, we’ll need to bring bed linen (but the kitchen is equipped, thankfully). After scouring both Webjet and Mix and Match, I determined when the best times to fly were and on what airline.

    I wanted to fly Air NZ both ways – we’ve flown Jetstar before and not personally had any major issues, but the last time the airline managed to send everyone’s checked baggage on an entirely different plane, messing up lot of travel plans (luckily we only had carry on). Initially, I booked our flight down on Jetstar because of the flight times and the cheaper cost, and our return on Air NZ, but when Jetstar went and cancelled its morning flight on me a few days later, I asked for a refund and booked us on an Air NZ flight down. It means we’ll have to wait around a little at the airport, because of their flight schedule, but it does give me some peace of mind.

    (NB: sometimes it pays to make a snap decision. The first time I called Jetstar, the rep was practically encouraging me to take a refund, rather than rebook on another flight that same day, but I was too paranoid that Air NZ wouldn’t have any suitable flight times. Instead, I ended up calling back later after checking Webjet again, and had to actually ask for a refund this time, as the rep didn’t offer that up as an option.)

    Wanaka

    Wanaka. Photo via Wikipedia

    I opted not to take the campervan company’s insurance option, in favour of booking our own travel insurance. Which reminds me – the insurance rep who gave me my quote hasn’t got back to me. Must chase. Don’t they want my business?

    What’s next? Arranging my leave from work and mapping out a rough itinerary for our two weeks.

    We pick up our campervan in Christchurch, and then want to loop the South Island, hitting the likes of Dunedin, Queenstown, Wanaka, Milford Sound, Nelson, Marlborough Sound, etc. If we end up loving the lower South Island and don’t have time to cover the northern half, that’s fine – we can catch up on that anytime, it’s not going anywhere.

    To be honest, we aren’t planning on doing much. We definitely fall on the lazy side of the outdoorsy continuum (hence two weeks should suffice). Think more sightseeing – penguins at Oamaru, the Moeraki Boulders, the Catlins, Mt Cook, Franz Josef Glacier, whale and seal spotting in Kaikoura – and hopefully enjoying some fresh seafood along the way…

    The only places where I’m thinking we might do organised activities are at Milford Sound for sightseeing on the water, and skiing either around Queenstown or Canterbury. So I’ll have to arrange a skiing package, or at least research it. We’ll need to hire all the gear and potentially get a ride up the mountain. Need to figure out which mountain to go up, too (there are many. But we won’t have the time nor the energy to do more than one – we’ve only been to the snow a couple of times ever in our lives so really a day will be enough and we’ll be wiped).

    I’ve started on a rough itinerary, which will also need to include possible campsites – free, and paid (to recharge, empty wastewater etc), like nzcampsites.co.nz, holidayparks.co.nz, nzcamping.co.nz, and doc.govt.nz.

    Campervanning will give us the freedom to stop on the go without having to worry about making it to a prebooked accommodation or worry about finding a bed for the night. Granted, the new freedom camping law passed does place some restrictions on that – in places where signs explicitly forbid stopping – but we have a self contained vehicle with full bathroom facilities so will have as much freedom as possible. And T insisted on a manual, turbo diesel van, so hopefully we won’t be the dreadful lot slowing down everybody else on the open road.

    Any tips to share on campervanning?

  • April 3, 2012

    Life planning on crack: Career, kids, family

    T recently said (somewhat jokingly) “You’re turning 24 this year. Better start thinking about when we’re going to have kids…”

    24 is scary. 24 is firmly mid-twenties. It’s nearly a quarter of a century. And it feels far older than how I feel inside.

    Mainly due to him, I’ve already bumped down my planned kid-having age from early 30s to 28-29. And that doesn’t seem so far away. I am so nowhere near ready for it, and is five years enough for that to change?

    We all got together recently for the birthday of a friend, S. She’s a doctor, or pretty close to being one. One of our other friends, F just got married and just started a corporate career, and plans to have kids once she gets her CA. All of the girls in this group want their kids young, and to stay home with them for at least some time. Including S.

    Medicine and child-rearing. Two very different lifestyles, neither of them conducive to the other. She is perfectly suited to medicine, but the family thing is just as important to her. We mapped out her professional trajectory on paper (from house officer to registrar to fellow to consultant – the US names are vastly different) and tried to determine where she would fit in two kids. Apparently some people take a few years out as registrars to get their PhDs and have their kids then (!), as that seems to be the best window to take time out in.

    The last newsroom I worked in, only the most senior people – almost all men – had spouses and families. The hours just aren’t conducive to it. Medicine is even worse. S can’t have the kind of life she wants (or any life, really) in surgery, so she’s thinking about pursuing radiology or anaesthesia, which have more regular hours, (though they may be harder to get into). It’s something I pointed out to her back in high school, but I don’t think the harsh reality really hits you until you’re faced with it. Ah, the march of time.

    I’m also really interested to see what happens to the rest of my girlfriends in the next couple of years. As I said, one is married. Another will probably be engaged soon. Three more literally have plans to get married in the next two years, but haven’t met anybody yet. And they may well end up having arranged marriages – a tradition I can’t help but wonder how much longer will continue quietly in Western countries, albeit in increasingly more informal ways. Probably longer than you might think.

    Did you factor in family and kids when planning your career? Have you thought about when they fit into the picture?

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