She had a Q. Look

1.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!

I went to a trivia night at the Jewish Centre on Webb St last night. Fish and Sam and Cassie took me along to be in a team with them. It was jolly good fun. I won a spot prize for having the coolest birthday date in the world.

But my highlight of the night was between rounds. This is when one of the hosts got up and auctioned off a service to the patrons. Previously someone had paid $40 to have a haircut, babysitter and dinner cooked by members of the synagogue......

The item up for grabs was now two nights in a holiday home in Paekakariki. Apparently it sleeps up to eight people. I had half-heartedly said to Cassie, 'Hmm, Posse outing? We could all chip in $10.' But it quickly got over $80, so we were too late.

It got to $100 and started stalling. Instead of going up in $20 increments it went to $5 ones and limped its way up to $120.

And then all of a sudden everything was in slow motion and I saw the host looking in my direction.... Cassie had raised her hand and was yelling out 'Ooooooone huuuundred and fiiiiiiiifty dolllllaaaaaars!' (in slow motion, I say again). It was like a scene from a war movie, but I was too late to dive across and pull her hand down (much like the soldier would throw themselves on top of a grenade or force a loaded gun out of someone's hand).

My head turned towards her (in slow motion) and I said, 'Whaaaat the helllll are you doooooing?'. She seemed slightly hysterical and enjoyed the eyes of the synagogue being upon her for her moment in the sun......

The clock ticked slowly and the host made his way through, 'Going once...... going twice......'

And praise the lord, someone said, '$155!'. At this point all eyes swung back to Cassie to see if there would be a bidding war. I actually physically held her arms down this time (no exaggeration). I saved her $160.

So now whenever you see Cassie, feel free to raise your bidding-hand and yell out, 'ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!'. She will laugh with you. Of course, it all brings back memories of our 'Cash Battle' TV stardom, where she was the official team captain and there was the controversial 'late bid call' that cost us the match.

We just got a contraption at work that allows you to play videos and dub them onto the computer (and write them to DVDs later). I might put my two TV quiz show appearances onto DVD so I can send them to anyone who happened to miss my glory.

2.
NEXT BLOG
I accidentally discovered the next-blog button on the top-right-hand-corner of the screen which takes you to some random blog. I clicked on it by mistake and luck would have it that the blog I went to had exactly the same formatting as mine, but was in German. I thought I'd somehow translated my blog to a foreign language and was wondering how the hell I would fix it.... if it was fixable. Nicky's cell-phone has been in Spanish for years because she is incompetant and accidentally changed languages once.

I tried a few more and was mildly amused for a while. I even made a comment on some kiwi girl's blog (she had been to a uni ball and everyone else paired off and she felt lonely - I empathised).

I quite liked this one:

Name: A Decent Man
From: Indonesia
About me: This blog is just for my interest, to fulfil my desire to write to myself. So if you accidentally stuck into this humble world, just leave in peace. I am not a creative designer nor guru in webdesign; I am not a good writer nor a famous person; I am just a humble and decent man.

3.
NETBALL
I liked netball tonight. It was a good and clean game. First one in ages. I like to credit the ref (who used to be head girl at the school me and Ken and Sam R teach at).

We had an awful patch in the second half where we couldn't pass the ball, but on the whole I liked our flow and our defence was great.

I always find it eerie playing on that court when you can hear the music-box sounds coming from Jungle-rama next door. Feels like you're stuck in some Chucky movie or Children of the Corn.....

4.
I WISH I KNEW WHERE THEY WERE, BUT SADLY THEY ARE LOST (OR THIEFED)......

- My stripey beanie from K-Mart. While it was cheap, it matched almost everything I ever wore. I lost it about three years ago and have never quite found a suitable replacement. I have spent a lot of time and money attempting to do so. It perhaps got lost somewhere at indoor netball.

- My bike. It was an infamous occasion when my bike, which I hadn't used for years, got stolen from our flat a month before I was to ride it in a triathlon. Nowadays I would actually find it quite handy for biking to work. It would be one way to avoid the fumey tunnel a bit. Sigh.

- My mum's earring. She had this really great pair of jade earrings in an art deco drop style. I was parading around in them as a child and one fell off (they were clip-ons). It was outside in the long grass and couldn't find it anywhere. Months later Mum came into my room and patiently said, 'Kate, do you know where my other earring is? I don't mind if you lost it.... I just want to know what's happened to it so I can stop looking for it.' She gave me the green light to admit my sin..... But I lied! I said, 'No Mum, I have no idea!' It has been on my conscience for years, particularly now that I'm older and would actually have loved to wear them myself!

5.
RETURN OF THE ANGE

She has finally added to her blog for the first time in ages. Those of you who gave up checking could find up to THREE new entries.