Browsing tag: random

It’s the little things that make me smile.

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?

Orbs explode just over my head, filling the visible sky overhead in radiant reds and brilliant blues that no photo can truly render.

I’m dancing in a $10 poncho, just sturdy enough to last the two nights.

The crowd goes wild after chanting out the countdown, echoing around the natural amphitheatre of Waterways.

How did I get here?

Slopping through 15 minutes of ankle deep mud, including a direct hit to the eye by some douchebag jumping up and down in the stinking filth. Yes, I expected to get muddy. I’ve just made it past the gates for the second time, haven’t I? But I sure as fuck was not planning on an eye infection to boot. Lucky these contacts are due to be ditched.

What the hell am I doing here? I’m Miss Priss. I don’t care how awesome the lineup at Woodstock was; I never would have survived. I’ll never make it to a Glastonbury. And if we’d been camping this NYE, I probably would’ve written off my ticket and stayed in Auckland. Thankfully, we had a house and hot showers to return to.

So I settle into the squelching miniature swamp of my sandshoes – still damp from yesterday’s gig – and hold my tongue as the muck sloshes in over the sides and between my toes.

I turn down all offers of booze and drugs. Even if I was into it, I need all my wits about me to navigate this swamp in the descending darkness. I don’t want to faceplant in the brown slush, or fall on my ass like the guy in front of me. And I’ll stay away from the massive mudslide on the other side of the hill.

We’re hollering along to Shihad, the quintessential kiwi stadium rock band. Comfort Me, Run, Pacifier.

Shapeshifter’s on, bringing the “mudstep”.

Optimus Gryme turns up the dirty dirty dnb.

I read a brilliant op-ed once that asserted “dubstep never got anyone laid”. It’s true. The shuffling and spazzing that passes for dub dancing is decidedly unsexy.

My poncho is slowly ripping down the centre of the chest, and I have to physically hold it together with my hands when the rain starts. Apart from Homegrown, the weather has been crap at all the outdoor concerts I’ve been to – Big Day Out, the Foos, and now Coro Gold.

The three skinny security guards stationed next to me start dancing. too. A drunk guy approaches and envelops me in a bear hug. I hold a can of Smirnoff for another while he videos the band on his phone, nearly nutting himself on the fence post while trying to get a better angle. He never comes back for that drink. Countless more rock up, unzip and empty their bladders a metre away.

I’m counting down (5, 4, 3, 2,1) by myself. I’ve decided to stay up on the hill where it’s relatively clean and I can rock out to just the acts that I do like. T is off with the others in the pit, getting his arm potentially broken (trouble always finds him). It’s the perfect way for an introvert to see in the new year – surrounded by others, yet alone.

This may sound like blasphemy. But we are not putting up a Christmas tree.

As a child I wanted one so bad. And we didn’t get one until I was about 15. I longed for even the smallest of trees, with even one present under it. But therein lay one of the quirks of my overly frugal parents. Thankfully, we only have one set of cousins in New Zealand, so awkwardly answering the question “What did you get for Christmas?” with “Nothing” wasn’t as repetitive as it could have been.

I even had a real tree, one year,  courtesy of my flatmate in 2006. Turns out they’re dreadful things, shedding needles everywhere and emitting particles that zero in on my sinuses… to say nothing of disposing them.

So now it seems I’ve come full circle. Neither of us especially wants one, and neither of us can be bothered with something we’re so ambivalent about. (Especially given that we don’t spend Christmas at our own house)..

It’s the kind of thing I suppose we’d get into for the kids, when we have kids. The question at that point will be do we tell them about the Tooth Fairy and Santa?

Absent for a week? What’s been going on?

Well, there’s been plenty happening around these ways

• My brother got rushed to hospital on Wednesday with a fever, vomiting blood and other nasty symptoms. Doesn’t seem to be meningitis, thankfully, but they’re still trying to figure out what’s wrong with him. In the meantime, he’s missing all his exams (he’s in his second to last year of high school) and also missed out on picking up a university level prize for economics (Mum must be pleased that at least one of us has some aptitude with “logical” subjects).

• We’re all moved in! We just need a few more things – some kind of shelf or cupboard to fit into this cubby in the kitchen that we can perch the microwave on (the fridge was too big to fit), a coffee table for the lounge, perhaps a bedside table and I’d also like a lightweight portable dining set that we can put outside but still bring indoors. It’s great having a garage and waking up to sun streaming in everywhere – our old place faced west and was surrounded by trees/fencing, and despite being insulated, the ranchsliders were always dripping with condensation in the morning.

• I heart Orcon, our internet provider, and have had no problems with them to date – but the move has been one huge hassle. It was meant to be same day and seamless, but here we are a week later and still no internet or phone. First they told me they were waiting on Chorus/Telecom to do something with the lines, then told me the order had been mistakenly put through as “change of plan” rather than “change of house”, and THEN the plan I was on would now cost me an extra $10.71 a month (a special partner discount through my now former employer). So that’s where we’re at.

• As a result of the move – truck rental, new fridge, food, mini-housewarming BBQ with a few friends and family (plus the lack of broadband at home) our finances are a shambles. I don’t even want to think about it. I’m keeping up with the bare basics through surreptitous logons to my internet banking at work, but I cannot wait to get connected so I can get back into the swing of things.

• I will breathe a sigh of relief later next week once certain deadlines are over. But don’t get me wrong; I’m still digging my work, and I’m grateful for it – that I’ve always had an idea of what I wanted to do, that I was both good at it and enjoyed it, worked towards my goal and been lucky enough to have amazing opportunities come my way . I tell you, there’s nothing more depressing than talking to people stuck in the Monday-Friday drudge. It would be fine if they had some semblance of plans or dreams or aspirations, but simply hoping to win Lotto is not going to get you anywhere.

 

Wine-ing

• I love summer – I don’t love my nails growing at supersonic speeds! (I keep them short for musical and contact lens purposes)
• WTF is up with Ultimate Guitar and making tabs unavailable out of the US? Those tabs are tabbed by random players – they don’t belong to the artist or the record company. BOO.
• And on that note, I brought the new Sony S tablet home to review recently – the perfect size for plopping down next to me and playing Youtube vids of songs to help me learn. Only practically every video I opened was unavailable on mobile devices. Again. WTF?
• Interns with better blogs than me. I’m never going to blog about politics and major social issues, but maybe I can get a regular book blog going on my neglected Tumblr.

Love-ing

• Raise and more importantly, promotion for T!
• Writing some rockin’ stories. Kind of tempted to link to some of them here.
• AMAZING raw fish salad courtesy of some of the boys at work. I’m not a huge fangirl of the dish, but this was just as good as the stuff we had in Rarotonga.
• The car sailing through its warrant of fitness. Phew.

Three quick takes for a Tuesday:

• Unlike most (but very typical of me) I don’t have a strong opinion about the Occupy movement (which has just reached New Zealand). I don’t believe we have as much cause for complaint here, however – our university and healthcare costs don’t even register in comparison to the US. Our minimum wage is almost liveable and unemployment benefits don’t cut off like they do in America. While it’s been said that the lack of specific demands is actually a bonus to the movement – ie, it’s more inclusive – it’s also a weakness. I was interested by these two links, however: Business Insider’s guide to why people are pissed, and We Are The 1%. (Also, giggled at this.)

• Perhaps it’s a bit early to call it, but I believe the Rugby World Cup will be ours. We can take France. I didn’t know if we could beat the Wallabies, but there you go – and that, in my completely unfounded opinion, was the big hurdle. I’m actually glad that my plans to go away this weekend will probably not happen (the friend I was to stay with may have to come back to Auckland on Sunday…) because I want to be around for the game and hit up town after victory! It may be a Sunday night final, but the Monday is Labour Day. Nice.

• The Rena oil spill continues to drag on, and it’s breaking my heart. Look at the images of blackened birds and tell me that we don’t need to reduce our oil reliance. Selfishly, I’m also upset about my summer break – we’re going to the Coromandel over Christmas and New Year’s, and quite frankly, if we won’t be able to swim and fish, it all seems a bit pointless. Down with oil. The beach at the Mount has reopened, though, so that’s hopeful.

I have wayyyy too many things to talk about, so I’ll be getting my bullet point on today:

• I am so, so in love with food right now. T and I have recently established a bit of a weekend tradition, which involves Mediterranean-style lunches of breads, olive oil, dips and cheese. So delicious, I could cry with happiness. Is it wrong that food brings me so much pleasure? I don’t care – anything this amazing can’t be bad. If I could do nothing but read, cook, eat, run and write forever, I couldn’t ask for more.

• Yet, my appetite appears to be shrinking. I’m not quite sure why. It might be the fact that many days I’m just too busy to eat lunch until mid-afternoon, and that’s confusing my digestive system?

• And on that topic: how do you morning exercisers do it? I cannot run for a couple of hours after eating – it just does not work. I’ll admit, I have gone running first thing before breakfast in the past, but I can’t go very far before needing to head back. Running after work is more viable, especially since I’m not practically crawling home light-headed from hunger these days like I used to (see above point). In fact, I went for a solid half-hour jog last night at 6.30 without even starting to lose momentum.

• Week three is going well, grocery-wise: we’re right on target for budget, even with about $20 of non-food items (lightbulbs, sponge, tampons, cotton buds, etc). Add to that $10 for herbs and veggies, and $15 for a huge salami at the farmer’s market.

• I’ve been having these recurring dreams about high school. Dudes, I have been out of school for five years! Why is this happening? And specifically, they involve my one-time best friend. I can only attribute this to the fact that we saw each other again for the first time a few months ago. But again – why now, and not then?

• This week I realised just how long I’ve been blogging, and how long I’ve been following certain bloggers. When they mention an incident that happened a year or more ago and you specifically recall reading the post they wrote at the time…it’s a bit of a shock.

• And finally, speaking of blogging, WELCOME BACK RED!

Comments from a couple of people this week got me thinking. What hours are facilities generally open where you live? I’m in a big city, but nightlife and retail is pretty limited; there’s not a lot open after hours that don’t involve drinking or overpriced movies.

Banks – Business hours, with branches inside malls usually open weekends too

Post offices – Usually business hours

Retailers – Roughly 9-5, usually 10-4 on weekends, with late nights on Thursday and Friday

Museums/galleries – Business hours

Cinemas – Movies run from mid-morning until maybe midnight

Supermarkets – Some are 24/7, others open till about 10pm

Butchers/grocers – Usually business-ish hours, and weekends

Bottle shops – Open til about 10pm from memory

Bars – I wouldn’t know; I’m long gone by whenever they close, though I’m told its quite early compared to other countries

Petrol stations – I think most stations I’ve ever known of are 24/7, although at a certain point they shut down the kiosk and you can’t go inside – only pump, pay through the window, and leave

Call centre hours vary – some services are available weekends and evenings, others…are not. And if you head out on a late-night jaunt, be wary of certain big parks/local volcanic mountains – they’ll often close up the gates during the night and you don’t want to have your car stuck in there until the morning. Typical Auckland.

Solid perfume (not as strong as liquid, doesn’t get up my nose and stuff my sinuses for the rest of the day)

Skirts (Pants are so hard to get right! So many pain points, so many things that can go wrong. Waist. Butt. Length. Crotch. Cut.)

Fish oil (aka, my crack)

Carbs (I have a furious metabolism and burn through food so fast it’s not funny – I usually eat as much as T, who’s twice my weight and size. Hunger doesn’t creep up gradually on me; it hits me with an ominous rumble, and then you better get a meal into me before I go on a rampage. As much as I love veggies, they just don’t keep me going very long – and sometimes, there’s nothing but meat to hit the spot and fill you up for the rest of the day. The mileage difference for me between a vegetarian and a meat lunch is astounding).

Red lippy (I’m not much for makeup but the one thing I rarely leave the house without is lip colour [I’m incredibly pale and need to brighten up my face]. I was all about gloss in my teens, but I like not having to constantly reapply, and not getting my hair stuck to my mouth on a windy day.)

What are your five must-haves this week?