It’s the little things that make me smile.
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The bright, crisp sound of new guitar strings
Freshly moisturised legs
The amazing, full-bodied promise of new cheese
A small scoop of the best quality ice cream – preferably a simple vanilla
These songs.
What’s making you smile lately?
This is Tane Mahuta, the largest kauri tree ever and a few thousand years old.
Have to say, heightwise, it wasn’t all that impressive – but at something like a 13-metre girth, that is one doublewide tree. Pity there’s no track circling the perimenter – that would be fun to run around.
Last weekend was a whirlwind around the north. Kai Iwi Lakes (not as impressive as I hoped. Possibly because it was an overcast day?) where my friend and I went for a quick dip and attempted to get on the water swing. Yes, there was a pair of swings situated out in the big lake. You would never see that in Auckland. Sadly, we both lacked the upper body strength to hoist ourselves up properly – and the boys opted to stay on dry land. We settled for flopping briefly like planks on the seats before sliding back off amid uncontrollable fits of laughter. Then a series of other beaches, never actually staying very long at one – again, the weather, and also because our hosts apparently don’t like to stay put in one place.
How’s that for a secluded beach?
Now, before we get to the links, be sure to head on over to Daisy’s blog. Why? My Friday Five confessions post continues to be one of my most popular (and most commented on) of all time. So I’m pleased to share a bit of a redux, this time as a guest on When Life Gives You Lemons.
WORK
Michelle Minkoff offers some lessons learned on being a great mentor.
Molly’s boss – aka, the son – doesn’t like to wear pants.
Lisa’s Foods shares four lessons learned from working retail.
Susannah Breslin’s tips for getting started as a freelancer.
A Yes and Yes reader special on giving up a lifelong career dream.
Financial Samurai outlines the upsides of being average.
MONEY
Melissa Wilson explains how she made it through university debt free.
Finding financial accord as a couple, via Bucksome Boomer.
Prairie Eco Thrifter on the economics of choosing vacation days.
LIFE
Well Heeled is bang on with all her observations about the traps of adult life.
An outstanding APW post on families, surnames and all that jazz. I can totally relate to everything in this post, except the coin toss part (I’m at the stage where I am happy for our kids to have his name – I don’t care about that – but I’m keeping my own).
Fabulously Broke outlines a bunch of great waysto make old clothes look new.
There will always be someone out there better than you. And that’s okay. Via Yes and Yes.
I find it strangely comforting sometimes to contemplate what I’d do if I lost my job.
The very first step I’d take is try to pull together a patchwork of jobs to get some income coming in – and I definitely would have a couple of industry starting points from which I might get a few hours a week. And depending on the circumstances, freelance work for my company might also be an option.
I wouldn’t qualify for unemployment, so I suppose we’d tighten up our already firm belts even more in regard to food and entertainment. That’s because I have a partner, and too much in savings (I *think* you have to be down to your last thousand or so but I could be wrong on that). Which leads me to ask – do you think it’s right to collect unemployment, if you could, even if you didn’t need it?
That aside, I would seriously consider taking some time out to do some extended travelling, depending on my bank balance and T’s work situation. It’s not my preferred MO, but in a situation like that, I might just change my mind.
Otherwise, I’d be reaching out to contacts at my previous company, and throughout the industry at large. It’s a small field, so I know someone at most of the major players. I might contact some editors directly, and if I was thinking about changing tacks, possibly approach other organisations that interest me (in banking, education or more generally creative endeavours beyond publishing).
Given my interest in money and personal finance, it might seem like finance writer would be a logical next step. Women’s mags often have a money column (usually done by one of a couple of media-savvy financial coaches), Diana Clement’s Herald column sometimes yields interesting stuff but by and large is pretty unexciting – interest.co.nz‘s personal finance editor Amanda Morrall probably has the most interesting job. But to be honest, most topics have been clubbed to death and trampled all over. I’m much more interested – and always have been – in personal journeys. Maybe I could brainstorm potential approaches during my funemployed days.
I’d also definitely consider two things I would not have a couple of years ago: opportunities in Wellington, because the city is just so darn cool, and contract jobs. I used to think of fixed-term contracts as offering no security – but really, if they paid well enough and the work was right, contracting can make for a decent lifestyle and afford you more time to travel.
Do you ever consider what you’d do in the event of a job loss? If you were eligible for unemployment benefits but didn’t need them, would you take them?
Books
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I could not live without books. But I don’t care to own them, and even free ones are just clutter to me – they get passed on or donated. I’m a lifelong library lover, myself, and I can think of only a tiny handful of books I might actually want to possess (none of which I do).
Movies at the cinema
Perhaps it’s cheating, but I pretty much only go to movies on reward dollars earned from using my CC. (But I’m not *spending* anything in doing so!) I also get to go to the odd free screening through work. With regular tickets now costing something like $16, prices are just insane.
Hair removal
I have to admit I am lucky in that I’m pretty hairless (especially as I’m dark-haired). I use T’s cast-off razors (which sounds disgusting, I know, but he only uses them once or twice each) and plain old soap. Wouldn’t work for everyone, though.
Conditioner
I have the greasiest mane in the world. It really doesn’t need it. I rotate shampoos a lot and sometimes get two in one shampoo/conditioner; otherwise, if the ends really are dry, a spot of oil (coconut or olive) rubbed into the ends suffices.
Lunchboxes and ziplock bags
We do have a few proper tupperware type lunchboxes, but otherwise I rely on plastic takeaway containers and ice cream cartons. Ziplock bags, I wash out when we use them to get nuts or lollies from the supermarket bulk bins.
Glass and oven cleaner
The things you can do with vinegar and baking soda are boundless.
Bank fees
My account is entirely free because I no longer receive paper statements. I rarely use ATMs, and if I do, I hunt out ones that belong to my bank in particular (T does generally run on cash though, and unfortunately isn’t as nutty as I am about only sticking to own-bank ATMs). Credit card fees are a given, but more than paid for through the rebates I earn just for using it.
Delivery charges
It’s almost always cheaper to get in the car and drive out yourself to pick up food. (Maybe it’s different overseas.)
And there are plenty of other things I won’t pay full price for – DVD rentals, facials/massages, skincare. There’s just no reason to, between daily deal sites, discount sales, coupons and mystery shops.
What things do you refuse to fork out for?
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Bubble tea/ Milk tea / Pearl tea / Whatever the hell you call it
I know, I know. I’m Asian. Blasphemy, right? But there’s nothing good in my books about this stuff. The creepy, rubbery balls. Tea itself (I prefer tea to coffee but that’s not saying much). The weird flavour combinations. Give me a milk shake any day.
Oysters.
Ick. This is the only seafood I can think of that I turn my nose up at. It’s like the tofu of the ocean. The smell! The texture! And think of the poor baby oysters from Alice in Wonderland!
Any candy that’s not straight chocolate
Now look, nobody would ever deny that I have a sweet tooth. Health aside, I could easily exist on the two food groups of carbs and dessert. But I’ve never liked lollies. Kids would scramble to the corner dairy after getting their allowance to buy up packets of jet planes and milk bottles after school. I never did (plus, I only got an allowance for a few months). I like my food to look edible, not processed, plastic lollies. And who came up with the concept of fruit rollups?
What foods are overhyped in your book?
I have two February food resolutions:
In other news, I saw Incubus live this week and have no regrets. Here’s a review that more or less sums it up perfectly.
I’ll admit, I don’t listen to the radio anymore, and haven’t for years, so I knew nothing about their new album. Turns out I really like one of the songs – Isadore – which I had to identify the next day off this set list.
My only complaint lies with the audience, not the band. I honestly think I may prefer dealing with rough, pushy guys at the kinds of gigs I’m used to.This time around I had to contend with getting hair in my mouth from the girl in front of me, and several other girls piercing my eardrums with their constant shrill screams.
The gig itself was somewhat stripped back, almost intimate. Definitely a concert and not a show (unlike the Foos). That said, they have plenty of powerful songs as well as mellow ones. Opener Megalomanic and closer Wish You Were Here were suitably explosive, as was one of my favourites, Anna Molly. Then there were the likes of Pardon Me and Love Hurts, and oldies Drive and Are You In which really took all of us back.
I could only have wished for Agoraphobia, my fave song (but I don’t think it was a single), and maybe Talk Shows on Mute, which I used not to like but has grown on me since I started learning to play it. (Speaking of which, I went right home and successfully learned Drive, which was quite satisfying considering I still remember trying and failing on my chunky acoustic when I first started playing six years ago).
End ramble.
WORK
At Kalzumeus, a long read (but worth a skim) on salary negotiation, with a special focus on engineers.
Overcoming Bias voices something I wonder about – fresh grads straight out of business school going into consulting companies with no actual experience.
Business for Good explains how to network via Facebook.
Teacher Finance lays out the pros and cons of the job.
Carol Tice breaks down how to earn six figures as a freelance writer.
Don’t count on making a career out of social media, at Zombie Journalism.
Fabulously Broke tackles the blue vs white collar tension and points out that it’s a symbiotic relationship.
MONEY
Automating savings on an irregular income, at Get Rich Slowly.
Everyday Minimalist asks: Why do you buy?
Thousandaire on financial behaviours that piss him off, and why you should write off your charitable donations (Totally agree. I ended up saving my tiny tax refund from my charity donations late last year because it was a tight month, but ended up making a big donation last month, so really I think it evened out.)
FOOD
Love it! Uncooking – a super simple way to plan meals, at Stonesoup.
I probably won’t make these potato chip cookies but am intrigued nonetheless…
And Minting Nickels shares her favourite pizza dough recipe.
LIFE AND EVERYTHING ELSE
When should you be airing your complaints on social media? Via Grow.
At Small Hands, Big Ideas, some handy online tools for almost everything in life (see my favourite apps here)
Kyla Roma shares some insights into making and keeping goals.
At 20 and Engaged, some suggestions for practical wedding favours.
Twelve ways to tap into your inner bliss, by Jenny Blake.
** Click here for more info on my monthly spending roundups.**
Some notes:
Car maintenance – oil and stuff. Or maybe it was just oil. Can’t quite recall. Let’s just say fluids and be done with it.
Clothes and grooming – shirts and singlets for T, and a lipstick for me ahead of my no-beauty spend year. I also just got given a big jar of Elizabeth Arden cream, so am well and truly set.
Dining – $17 over budget. Hmm.
Donations – I know it’s not much, but it’s the most I’ve donated in a month yet. This was a cause I’ve long been meaning to patron and this was the minimum donation. In Aussie bucks, no less.
Entertainment– $30 for a hosted family lunch, $20 ice skating, $10 at the arcade, and $80 for Incubus. I know said no concerts this year unless the Chilis come, but decided at last minute (two days before) to do it. Why? I had a $100 Ticketmaster voucher I originally planned to use it to tick off my goal of going to the theatre but there are no good shows coming up and it expires in five months. This way, we only paid $80 for two. (Though if the RHCP do tour this way, I am not entirely sure I really care to see a post-Frusciante band.)
Groceries – We came back from our holiday on the 2nd, so really it was a five-week month. Not too shabby.
Holidays – $64 deposit for a campervan for our South Island trip (post coming up on that), and the rest was food and petrol toward the end of our trip over NYE.
Insurance – contents for the quarter.
Medical – doctor’s appointment for T.
T fun – An expensive boys’ birthday outing. Paintball.
Utilities – are high. T’s phone bill was $64 as he accidentally made some phone calls unwittingly. We went over our data limit with Orcon (this rarely happens), so that was $99. I locked in $81 of winter power (post coming up on our new provider) and spent $135 on electricity.
A few updates…
T was off work all month injured (really, he only went back in twice since last year, and only lasted about an hour on each of those days). We’ve received one week of payment from ACC, which pays out 80 percent of wages, and are hoping the other two weeks will be covered.
I’ve started a subaccount called Wedding. It’s sitting at $360 and will be funded by T’s repayments to me (I have fronted him money previously for his bike, for the costs of his car accidents and some other things). This makes it much easier than me putting the money into my main savings account and having to keep track of his repayments in a spreadsheet.
And our South Island road trip fund is sitting at just over $1000. Granted, we just booked flights to Christchurch where we’ll pick up the campervan, so this will go down once I make the payment to the Visa.
I’ve also decided I would really like to start investing a bit of cash into international index funds outside of Kiwisaver, and in NZ stocks that pay dividends. not sure if this will be possible this year alongside our other savings, goals, though.
How was your January? Spendy? Frugal?
I recall reading on a blog once that one thing (among a long list) that men can never understand is the complicated dynamic of female friendships.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never had a fight with a friend. Male or female.
During school, there have been times when my friends and I tried to run away from a girl who wanted to be friends with us. Real mature, I know.
I’ve had friends turn on me or ditch me for various reasons, then come back to me.
I’ve been jealous of friends striking up closer bonds with other friends than with me.
And sometimes been insecure in my place as one of a few girls in a mainly male social circle.
But a proper throwdown, shouting or silent-treatment argument?
Never.
That said, rivalry has played a part in a couple of friendships for me. I think that it was mainly one-sided (ie, in my head), to be honest. But the outcomes were very different. One I still consider a friend, if not a close one; the other, an acquaintance whose social circles sometimes overlap with mine – we can play nice together socially, but you wouldn’t catch us hanging out by ourselves.
In the first case, we instantly bonded upon meeting in school – we were both emo, introspective soulmates, sarcastic, tough, too clever for our own good. We were good at many of the same things and almost went to the same university to do the same degree. I was glad she didn’t, to be honest. I would’ve gotten too competitive, and I don’t think it would have been healthy for us. I always saw her as a spunkier, more charismatic me (perhaps what I should aspire to be in a parallel world) and in my younger, more insecure days, sometimes that was a bit threatening. Don’t get me wrong; while she can be a hard case, she has a big heart, and I’ll never forget her taking me under her wing after my first big breakup. I admire her hugely, and she’s the only person I know who’s been toughing it out on her own longer than me, having been largely independent since about 14.
For various reasons we drew apart. We studied different things, but now work in similar fields, which brought us closer together. I honestly think that we’ll be able to catch up once every three, five, ten years and still get along awesomely, no matter where our life paths take us.
In the second case, we met, I think, through mutual friends. We were good time friends, and that’s how it always was. We were part of the same crew, hanging out after school and on weekends. I thought we had a lot in common. And I thought possibly we could be good friends, if not necessarily BFFs.
Thing is, at the core of it, she was simply cold. There were some people she treated extremely well, and others who seemed just pawns to her. It was tough to relate to someone who’d never had to work for anything. She was kinda vain (and more photogenic, if not downright better-looking than me. I suppose that’s where the competition was at, in my head, but at least I always had nice-ness on my side, for whatever that’s worth). And ultimately, she talked shit about me. (There’s discussing your friends behind their backs, in private. And then there’s straight bitchy comments – not the kind you would ever utter aloud about a true friend – just while you’ve stepped out of the room, to their flatmate, of all people. Plus trolling your blog.)
I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on female friendship. And have you ever had one of a competitive nature, real or imagined?
I have long had a difficult relationship with two genres: nonfiction and the classics.
The former, I’ve come to like in certain guises. Memoirs and biographies, because I’m fascinated by people. Also, more prosaic books on trends, business and society, if for no other reason that I occasionally review them for my job.
Meanwhile, I’ve always turned my nose up at anything written, well, before my lifetime. When told we needed to include one classic on our reading list in a high school English class, I asked if VC Andrews counted. Worryingly, I seem to recall that the answer was affirmative.
Last year I ventured into some of the most challenging reading territory I’ve ever tackled. Atlas Shrugged. Madame Bovary. Love in the Time of Cholera. The Master and Margarita.
And in the last month, I went back even further to the English literary greats. Three of them, to be precise.
I started with Great Expectations. Now, I’m pretty sure I missed a lot of the second-layer meanings, especially around Havisham and her creepy old house. English was always my best subject, but I never particularly cared for diving into deep literary analysis. I just wanted to be left alone to read what I wanted.
Nonetheless, I found it a true-blue page turner and tore through it in a couple of days. Dickens’ prose was clear and spare and Pip immediately stole my heart, as did Joe. While a lot of it was predictable, for sure, and many coincidences too tidy by far for my liking, I really couldn’t find much fault with the storytelling or the plot itself.
By contrast, Jane Austen’s Emma was laborious, to say the least. The endless exposition! My word. The obsession with class and marriage, the inane dialogue, the lack of any real depth to the characters and their lives, I could understand. There may not have been much of a plot as such, but I quite enjoyed the characters with all their flaws, and seeing just where they all ended up. It’s Gossip Girl, really, set in a different time.
The actual narrative, though, was so fussy, so overwrought I could not help but revert to skimming of the worst degree (a friend suggested Austen by Twitter might agree with me more. Sounds like a fantastic idea, actually). And I don’t think I missed much in doing so.
Ditto for Jane Eyre. My complaint about Charlotte Bronte is similar; I loved the story itself. I do like a heroine with a backbone and while sad misfit Jane starts out a bit of a wimpy child, she’s quite the iron woman by the time she’s, well, my age. Forget Mills and Boon, this is a romance for the thinking woman.
Again, though, while an enjoyable tale of love, life and hardship, the prose was a real slog to get through at times. I’ll admit, I don’t have much patience for long-windedness. When younger, I hated reading books that had no illustrations at all. Today, I don’t require pictures in my novels, but I do prefer at least some dialogue on every double page spread. When it comes to beautiful prose, less is more in my view – it stands out more that way.
What are some of your favourite classics?
Image by airdiogo via Flickr
Life is hurtling by.
It’s terrifying.
Here’s what’s going on, one month on into 2012.
Getting balance
I’ve crossed off a few things off my life list – making pasta, ice cream and mac and cheese from scratch, for starters. Between the cookbooks I’ve been given and the blogs I read, I have no shortage of recipes to keep me on my culinary toes. Bonus: it’s a good way to practise photography.
I started learning Daughter by Pearl Jam, which includes a pretty funky tuning.
I’ve also looked into volunteering opportunities and reached out to a few, so we’ll see if any pan out.
Elsewhere, I have a weekend trip coming up in a few days (hurrah!) and fitting in runs, reading, guitar and relationship time. Surely this can’t last?!
Getting ahead
I headed back to work on the 5th. This gave me a couple of days to get settled in and get ahead before the full daily routine resumed. And it gave me the chance to get organised with my files and folders on my work computer – something I BADLY needed to do. Now to keep it up…
I’ve signed up to Ramit Sethi’s (of I Will Teach You To Be Rich) Dream Job course. Most useful IMO so far have been his email scripts and videos with mock salary negotiation skits – I picked up some great phrases for future use. For all the things they teach you at uni, email etiquette in business communication is not one, and for all the negotiation advice to be found, actual wording is tough to come by.
I’m getting more active on my IRL Twitter account, making an effort to reach out and engage; getting more active in LinkedIn, now that I’ve found some groups that aren’t so spammy and full of self-promotion; and commenting on the odd industry blog under my real name. This does make it a pain switching between accounts. A work in progress, I suppose.
And I’ve hopped on the Codecademy bandwagon, in particular, the Code Year programme. Basically, they email you every week with a list of exercises to complete. By the end, the idea is you’ll be competent in Javascript.
And just for fun, I’ve started up mock forex and stock portfolios on Investopedia. It’s unlikely I’ll be doing either of these in real life, but improving my financial literacy can only be a good thing, and a simulated environment is the best way to start. In picking my companies, I did some research on the likes of CNN Money, where you can find information on companie – financials, forecasts, etc. Of course, when it’s play money, you don’t necessarily take as much care as you would with real dollars, and it wasn’t till I’d bought about 10 stocks that I realised I was being charged $20 a pop on each transaction. (To date the extent of my individual stock investment experience has been in the Neopets stockmarket. Remember that site?) And I’ve done the same on the NZX, but the size of the stockmarket would seem to limit potential returns.
So, how has the year started off for you? What are you doing to make the most of it?
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