Pearl Jam makes me remember certain feelings. I like Pearl Jam.
I think I listened to it back when I was idealistic and falling in love for the first time. So songs like 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' give me pangs of .... something. They mostly make me miss how young I was. My cynicism hadn't kicked in yet.
Freakin' lovely song, though. Bless the magic of YouTube for bringing it back to me.
It's the kinda song they'd play in the final scene of a cheesy 80s movie, where the guy runs across town in the rain and yells in front of the girl's house, and she looks out the window and he climbs up the to her window, and they kiss (after some misunderstanding where they broke up 3/4 of the way through the film). That kinda cheesy good song.
I will now go back to looking for Pearl Jam songs that I can play on my uke. Damned Pearl Jam fans seem to prefer writing over-complicated tabs, rather than just writing down what chords I need to play (and avoiding E chords, cause that's the hardest one to do on a uke).
And before anyone gets geeky on me, yes, I know it's a song they merely covered, and that Hunters and Collectors have also wrote it . [edited for music geeks]
* * *
I do believe I outscored Jon at a ratio of 2:1 at Frisbee tonight, as he filled in for my team. That's TWO points for every ONE he caught. That may mean I am twice as valuable.
* * *
Evidently, putting two disprins into a beer makes it fizz up quite a lot.... and doesn't taste good either. But Michelle drank it anyhow! Trooper. She was looking a little worse for wear afterwards. But she's still alive (I checked the next day).
* * *
I like 'How I Met Your Mother'. I've only ever had a mild liking for it, as a Sunday afternoon kinda show. But, damnit, it's better than that! It deserves a 7.30pm Wednesday slot.
Barney (Doogie Howser) is awesome. I'm not a Robin fan, frankly. She's annoying and doesn't deserve the main guy (who's name I can't remember right now). And I would marry Marshall in a heart-beat. And Lilly is pretty cool, though I'm seeing a type-cast thing going on for her.
* * *
I'm experimenting with purple a little this season. I'm usually not a big purple fan (there have been long periods of time where my wardrobe has been purple-free and proud of it), but it's very 'in' this season, so there's a lot of it around. I'm liking the darker, grape-ish, shades and the ones that look like various other berries.
Got a long-sleeved purpley-red top today that has a little cashmere in it. I think it'll be in the rotation for a while. Goes well under cardigans. I'm all about cardigans, have been ever since I got one at a second-hand-store in my first term at uni.
I have never found the perfect black cardigan, though. I am still looking. Essential wardrobe item.
I have a great blue-black cardigan at the moment, and a good dark-grey one. And a sage-green one I like, and a good purple-grey one.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Who knew editing the school newsletter could be so political? I'm stepping on a number of toes in my mission to make it less crappy and more concise and more visually enticing. The editor is not a popoular person, evidentally. But damnit, I'm not afraid to make the hard calls! "You only get ONE column for sports results now!" "There's no room for blithering blathering 'thank yous' anymore!"
The only people I didn't edit too much were the principal and BOT chair's bits. I figure I have to end my power tripping somewhere, and my two bosses might be a good point.
I managed to cut 6 and a half pages of stuff down to 4, change the banner-head and insist on a booklet form instead of stapled pages in only my second newsletter of my reign of terror as temporary Publicity Dictator. I AM A RADICAL!
[Ok - so I am a walking talking example of someone who should be in one of those NZ Police ads with the slogan 'Want more exciting work stories? It may also be sad that I have been looking forward to going to the school book-club meeting for weeks (it's on the Book Thief!).]
* * *
I have somehow gotten into the habit of being late for just about everything. I forgot to set my alarm and woke up at 8.10 on Monday morning (oops) and arrived at my basketball game ten minutes into the first half tonight (the upside was that I'd gotten the wrong time, so was actually 50 minutes early for my own game and had time to go and return some overdue DVDs while I hung around for my actual game ...... ).
* * *
So far the only sport I have played this week where I didn't get elbowed in the head has been my Frisbee game. That's a pro for Frisbee, con for indoor netball and basketball.
* * *
I am having a terrible week for holes in my stockings and pants. Whoever can design a pair of stockings that actually doesn't run deserves a medal.
I got a brand new pair, got a hole in them as I was putting them on for the first time..... noticed two more holes by the end of the day, darned them the next morning (they were high up ladders and holes, so I thought they were salvagable)... and by the end of the day I had a new mystery hole that was bigger and lower down than all the others. ARGHGHGHG, I said.
* * *
Mandarins are good at the moment.
* * *
Listening to Robbie Williams' jazzy lounge music on my car stereo is making me manically happy when I arrive at work in the morning. That is mostly a good thing.
* * *
I wouldn't mind if parents never mentioned their daughter's menstruation issues in absence notes. I really don't mind if it just says '... she was feeling unwell....'.
* * *
There seems to be an increasing number of people driving out of Hataitai who don't realise that there's a merging lane as you drive towards the tunnel. I have had to toot people who have wasted perfectly good gaps where they could have crossed over the road.....
I have become a 'tooter' this year - another worrying progression in my aging process. I only usually have to toot people when they drive stupidly either side of the Mt Vic Tunnel. That is my driving territory and I am well versed in acceptable etiquette, so when people merge selfishly when entering the Mt Vic side, or try to turn right (across the double yellow lines) into the Coll driveway, I have tooted them.
MERGE LIKE A ZIP! LIKE A ZIP!
The only people I didn't edit too much were the principal and BOT chair's bits. I figure I have to end my power tripping somewhere, and my two bosses might be a good point.
I managed to cut 6 and a half pages of stuff down to 4, change the banner-head and insist on a booklet form instead of stapled pages in only my second newsletter of my reign of terror as temporary Publicity Dictator. I AM A RADICAL!
[Ok - so I am a walking talking example of someone who should be in one of those NZ Police ads with the slogan 'Want more exciting work stories? It may also be sad that I have been looking forward to going to the school book-club meeting for weeks (it's on the Book Thief!).]
* * *
I have somehow gotten into the habit of being late for just about everything. I forgot to set my alarm and woke up at 8.10 on Monday morning (oops) and arrived at my basketball game ten minutes into the first half tonight (the upside was that I'd gotten the wrong time, so was actually 50 minutes early for my own game and had time to go and return some overdue DVDs while I hung around for my actual game ...... ).
* * *
So far the only sport I have played this week where I didn't get elbowed in the head has been my Frisbee game. That's a pro for Frisbee, con for indoor netball and basketball.
* * *
I am having a terrible week for holes in my stockings and pants. Whoever can design a pair of stockings that actually doesn't run deserves a medal.
I got a brand new pair, got a hole in them as I was putting them on for the first time..... noticed two more holes by the end of the day, darned them the next morning (they were high up ladders and holes, so I thought they were salvagable)... and by the end of the day I had a new mystery hole that was bigger and lower down than all the others. ARGHGHGHG, I said.
* * *
Mandarins are good at the moment.
* * *
Listening to Robbie Williams' jazzy lounge music on my car stereo is making me manically happy when I arrive at work in the morning. That is mostly a good thing.
* * *
I wouldn't mind if parents never mentioned their daughter's menstruation issues in absence notes. I really don't mind if it just says '... she was feeling unwell....'.
* * *
There seems to be an increasing number of people driving out of Hataitai who don't realise that there's a merging lane as you drive towards the tunnel. I have had to toot people who have wasted perfectly good gaps where they could have crossed over the road.....
I have become a 'tooter' this year - another worrying progression in my aging process. I only usually have to toot people when they drive stupidly either side of the Mt Vic Tunnel. That is my driving territory and I am well versed in acceptable etiquette, so when people merge selfishly when entering the Mt Vic side, or try to turn right (across the double yellow lines) into the Coll driveway, I have tooted them.
MERGE LIKE A ZIP! LIKE A ZIP!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday Night Procrastination Ramble
1. Helping
I resignedly helped out at a concert at school on Friday. A colleague (and friend) was stage-managing, and I said I'd come along and help IF nothing better came up. It didn't.
Good thing I was there - I ended up being the Kitchen Master. Actually, I delegated wonderfully, rather than doing anything myself, but I was the final say in all things kitchen. At one stage I also was the Ticket Master, holding all $820 from door-sales in my pocket, nervously.
There was back-stage drama. The highlight for me was about 10 minutes from the beginning, where the kids organising the whole thing were running wildly through the lobby at about two minute intervals, crazily calling out, 'Where's the kapa haka group? We've lost the kapa haka!' It made me laugh. (There were eventually found - crisis averted.) I joined in and yelled out, 'Has anyone found the kapa haka?' a few times too, just for good measure.
Nothing like a bit of pre-show drama, I say.
I had a two-station layout for the kitchen. I dubbed it the Double-Whammie System. One money-vessel either side of the middle divider, with a teapot either side as well. I think that eased bottle-necks that could have formed. I quite liked just standing in the back and having people call out, 'Two juices! I need two juices!' and then I'd jump to action at the juice station. I think I secretly always wanted to work in fast food, or maybe I've been watching too much reality TV chef competitions. We had rubber gloves for food handling, which was cool. And I organised signage and had directed that once the soloist was on stage it was one act til interval - so it was ACTION STATIONS! Teabags in pots! Open up the rolling-slide-thingie! GO GO GO! 'Where the hell is the kapa haka?!?!?!'
After some last minute price-slashing we still had leftovers, so I got to eat some yummy stuff. Perks! Fudge and brownies. Mmmm.
We then went to that Spanishy looking place between the backpackers and Lone Star on Tory St. for a drink and tapas. It was nice. The spicy almonds were super good. Kinda like classy beer nuts. I've always dreamed about have beer nuts since I was a kid and used to see them on Cheers all the time.
2. NBA Action
I have watched two whole playoff games. I am scrutinising the whole LeBron and Kobe thing. I'm softening on the LeBron debate - he speaks really nicely in interviews and has a lot of respect for Jordan and Bird, which earns points with me. And Kobe is pretty smooth on offence. I don't see him doing as much for his team, though, maybe. Not much ball movement.
Me and Ed's expert opinion was that Dallas was a better team, defensively and with more options on offence. But LA seemed to step it up when it mattered, which is important in the playoffs. I quite liked the Birdman guy (tall white guy with tattoos all over him - not that soft-handed, but very 'active'). The big white guy for LA had a nice shooting touch, but he was very very lazy on defence. He would double-team then kinda loaf around in the middle of the court once he eased off, rather than scrambling back to find the open man. I'm guessing he's European.
I took my uke around for Ed to touch. He's one of those people who can pick up an instrument and play it instantly. Those people suck. He is banned from my uke now. Only music-retards are allowed near it (like my band!).
2b. Kate Action
My detailed game analysis is in tiny writing since I think it's pretty dull to non-basketballers (that'd be everyone except Jon). And Jon is a guard and guards are stupid, so he won't empathise with my ramblings.
I played a basketball game last week, first one of the new season. It was ok. We lost pretty badly, which we deserved. The other team was young and quick and pretty awesome outside shooters. They didn't get too much inside, though. We switched to the 3-2 zone, which worked better against them, but the finer points of that defence are hard to teach a team in the middle of a game. We had several new players. A 3-2 is tricky in that you can easily create huge holes in the middle of the key, and the wing people have to go right down low, which they tend to not like doing. It's kinda a vulnerable defence if people don't move quickly to cover holes, it requires a lot of good instincts.
I would quite often find myself having to cover the middle of the key when it swung away from my side (which is fine, it's the right thing to do). But then the wing on my side should have dropped down lower to cover the shooter they had stationed in the weakside baseline corner (a skip pass away). Bleh. I kept finding myself having to cover the high-post or person cutting through the key, but also being aware of all the weakside shooting options they had just one pass away.... and I knew I couldn't stop ALL of their options.
I blocked a few shots cleanly - I liked the refs. They called about four fouls on the other team for bumping me from behind when I was catching the ball (going over my back), but I don't think I got any fouls called against me all game.
And on offence my team was a mess. With a few new players we were all bunching up and we often had two people running to the same wing or three people posting up inside. There was no consistent balance. And even when we got balance and I thought we could start playing a high-low offence, the ball wouldn't really move from one side to the other. It was awkward. I spent most of the time looking confused and trying to just move out of the way because too many people were running ball-side. I'm happy to play on the wing, but when the tallest player on the team is having to pop out to play safety-pass at the top of the key there's something a little wrong with the offence.
3. Ultimate Ultimate
Had a good game tonight. We beat the other Creature team. We were behind for the first half, then came back to even it up and took a 3 point lead into the last few minutes. I scored maybe three points and assisted on another (we won 11-9) and played good defence (my players didn't score any points and I got a few knock-downs). So that was good.
Their defence was a bit lax, so I was never really under pressure when I was catching, so didn't drop anything. And as long as we all took our players outside when we were near the scoring zone, it was easy enough to make a sudden cut in and be open for a blade or something.
The other team had some guys with quick hands who were getting lots of intercepts and knock-downs, but I over-passed to whatever side they weren't near and that seemed to work most of the time.
I wish players would do that in all sports more often - especially netball. When the other team has a superjumpy quick guy who keeps getting intercepts, make sure your passes lead your team-mate to run AWAY from that guy. It's pretty simple.... but the opposite can happen frustratingly often.
4. Ridiculous Procrastination
I have been procrastinating all weekend, working on unnecessary publicity stuff (school website updates, newsletter proofing) and practising my uke rather than doing my marking. Silly me! My washing is also undone. And my hair unwashed. And I have no lunch for tomorrow.
5. Optimal Quiz Numbers
I went to the Realm quiz on Thursday. Our team was way too big - we had about ten people around a huge round table. And the guy with the pen was on the opposite side to me. I contributed one answer (thanks to Michelle's crazily named netball teams I was able to fairly confidently say that 'Pikey' was a character from Snatch, not Two Smoking Barrels - not that anyone really listened to me).
It was a weird combination of people. My flatmate was there with two girls she works with, one of whom had a partner who was there with four of his friends. Then there was me and Reidun. Turns out the guys were mostly teachers, one of whom was my associate teacher on my first ever section. Odd! When we were introduced he said, 'Oh, we've already met.' And I said, 'We have?' then realised who he was and mumbled, being slightly embarrassed to be around someone who has seen me probably being young, nervous and only slightly competent (Year 12 Economics - yuck!).
I think a couple of them used to be in the team who were our arch-enemies at The Office quiz - remember Divine Intervention? Sam and Fi might, anyhow. It wasn't the Turtle Lady or Hong-Kong Phoey, but the other guys.
It was an odd quiz night, where I knew people at four different tables (old school friends of my brother's, a fellow Media teacher and some ex-students, as well as the associate teacher).
The quiz master sucked. I'd probably stop going if she ran it every week. She caused us angst with her inefficiency and arrogance. She's one of those people who thought she was funnier and more popular than she was. I think you need to realise as quiz master that it's ok, even preferable, to keep your own personality and opinions out of it. It's like being a newsreader. We don't need jokes or clues.
And when you notice people are all leaving early, don't accost them on your microphone to try and make them stay til you read the results. They are leaving BECAUSE OF YOU, dumbass.
And the people from Levin, my brother's friends, came second. They only had three people. Levin people are schmart, evidently. My team of ten people came well behind them.
I resignedly helped out at a concert at school on Friday. A colleague (and friend) was stage-managing, and I said I'd come along and help IF nothing better came up. It didn't.
Good thing I was there - I ended up being the Kitchen Master. Actually, I delegated wonderfully, rather than doing anything myself, but I was the final say in all things kitchen. At one stage I also was the Ticket Master, holding all $820 from door-sales in my pocket, nervously.
There was back-stage drama. The highlight for me was about 10 minutes from the beginning, where the kids organising the whole thing were running wildly through the lobby at about two minute intervals, crazily calling out, 'Where's the kapa haka group? We've lost the kapa haka!' It made me laugh. (There were eventually found - crisis averted.) I joined in and yelled out, 'Has anyone found the kapa haka?' a few times too, just for good measure.
Nothing like a bit of pre-show drama, I say.
I had a two-station layout for the kitchen. I dubbed it the Double-Whammie System. One money-vessel either side of the middle divider, with a teapot either side as well. I think that eased bottle-necks that could have formed. I quite liked just standing in the back and having people call out, 'Two juices! I need two juices!' and then I'd jump to action at the juice station. I think I secretly always wanted to work in fast food, or maybe I've been watching too much reality TV chef competitions. We had rubber gloves for food handling, which was cool. And I organised signage and had directed that once the soloist was on stage it was one act til interval - so it was ACTION STATIONS! Teabags in pots! Open up the rolling-slide-thingie! GO GO GO! 'Where the hell is the kapa haka?!?!?!'
After some last minute price-slashing we still had leftovers, so I got to eat some yummy stuff. Perks! Fudge and brownies. Mmmm.
We then went to that Spanishy looking place between the backpackers and Lone Star on Tory St. for a drink and tapas. It was nice. The spicy almonds were super good. Kinda like classy beer nuts. I've always dreamed about have beer nuts since I was a kid and used to see them on Cheers all the time.
2. NBA Action
I have watched two whole playoff games. I am scrutinising the whole LeBron and Kobe thing. I'm softening on the LeBron debate - he speaks really nicely in interviews and has a lot of respect for Jordan and Bird, which earns points with me. And Kobe is pretty smooth on offence. I don't see him doing as much for his team, though, maybe. Not much ball movement.
Me and Ed's expert opinion was that Dallas was a better team, defensively and with more options on offence. But LA seemed to step it up when it mattered, which is important in the playoffs. I quite liked the Birdman guy (tall white guy with tattoos all over him - not that soft-handed, but very 'active'). The big white guy for LA had a nice shooting touch, but he was very very lazy on defence. He would double-team then kinda loaf around in the middle of the court once he eased off, rather than scrambling back to find the open man. I'm guessing he's European.
I took my uke around for Ed to touch. He's one of those people who can pick up an instrument and play it instantly. Those people suck. He is banned from my uke now. Only music-retards are allowed near it (like my band!).
2b. Kate Action
My detailed game analysis is in tiny writing since I think it's pretty dull to non-basketballers (that'd be everyone except Jon). And Jon is a guard and guards are stupid, so he won't empathise with my ramblings.
I played a basketball game last week, first one of the new season. It was ok. We lost pretty badly, which we deserved. The other team was young and quick and pretty awesome outside shooters. They didn't get too much inside, though. We switched to the 3-2 zone, which worked better against them, but the finer points of that defence are hard to teach a team in the middle of a game. We had several new players. A 3-2 is tricky in that you can easily create huge holes in the middle of the key, and the wing people have to go right down low, which they tend to not like doing. It's kinda a vulnerable defence if people don't move quickly to cover holes, it requires a lot of good instincts.
I would quite often find myself having to cover the middle of the key when it swung away from my side (which is fine, it's the right thing to do). But then the wing on my side should have dropped down lower to cover the shooter they had stationed in the weakside baseline corner (a skip pass away). Bleh. I kept finding myself having to cover the high-post or person cutting through the key, but also being aware of all the weakside shooting options they had just one pass away.... and I knew I couldn't stop ALL of their options.
I blocked a few shots cleanly - I liked the refs. They called about four fouls on the other team for bumping me from behind when I was catching the ball (going over my back), but I don't think I got any fouls called against me all game.
And on offence my team was a mess. With a few new players we were all bunching up and we often had two people running to the same wing or three people posting up inside. There was no consistent balance. And even when we got balance and I thought we could start playing a high-low offence, the ball wouldn't really move from one side to the other. It was awkward. I spent most of the time looking confused and trying to just move out of the way because too many people were running ball-side. I'm happy to play on the wing, but when the tallest player on the team is having to pop out to play safety-pass at the top of the key there's something a little wrong with the offence.
3. Ultimate Ultimate
Had a good game tonight. We beat the other Creature team. We were behind for the first half, then came back to even it up and took a 3 point lead into the last few minutes. I scored maybe three points and assisted on another (we won 11-9) and played good defence (my players didn't score any points and I got a few knock-downs). So that was good.
Their defence was a bit lax, so I was never really under pressure when I was catching, so didn't drop anything. And as long as we all took our players outside when we were near the scoring zone, it was easy enough to make a sudden cut in and be open for a blade or something.
The other team had some guys with quick hands who were getting lots of intercepts and knock-downs, but I over-passed to whatever side they weren't near and that seemed to work most of the time.
I wish players would do that in all sports more often - especially netball. When the other team has a superjumpy quick guy who keeps getting intercepts, make sure your passes lead your team-mate to run AWAY from that guy. It's pretty simple.... but the opposite can happen frustratingly often.
4. Ridiculous Procrastination
I have been procrastinating all weekend, working on unnecessary publicity stuff (school website updates, newsletter proofing) and practising my uke rather than doing my marking. Silly me! My washing is also undone. And my hair unwashed. And I have no lunch for tomorrow.
5. Optimal Quiz Numbers
I went to the Realm quiz on Thursday. Our team was way too big - we had about ten people around a huge round table. And the guy with the pen was on the opposite side to me. I contributed one answer (thanks to Michelle's crazily named netball teams I was able to fairly confidently say that 'Pikey' was a character from Snatch, not Two Smoking Barrels - not that anyone really listened to me).
It was a weird combination of people. My flatmate was there with two girls she works with, one of whom had a partner who was there with four of his friends. Then there was me and Reidun. Turns out the guys were mostly teachers, one of whom was my associate teacher on my first ever section. Odd! When we were introduced he said, 'Oh, we've already met.' And I said, 'We have?' then realised who he was and mumbled, being slightly embarrassed to be around someone who has seen me probably being young, nervous and only slightly competent (Year 12 Economics - yuck!).
I think a couple of them used to be in the team who were our arch-enemies at The Office quiz - remember Divine Intervention? Sam and Fi might, anyhow. It wasn't the Turtle Lady or Hong-Kong Phoey, but the other guys.
It was an odd quiz night, where I knew people at four different tables (old school friends of my brother's, a fellow Media teacher and some ex-students, as well as the associate teacher).
The quiz master sucked. I'd probably stop going if she ran it every week. She caused us angst with her inefficiency and arrogance. She's one of those people who thought she was funnier and more popular than she was. I think you need to realise as quiz master that it's ok, even preferable, to keep your own personality and opinions out of it. It's like being a newsreader. We don't need jokes or clues.
And when you notice people are all leaving early, don't accost them on your microphone to try and make them stay til you read the results. They are leaving BECAUSE OF YOU, dumbass.
And the people from Levin, my brother's friends, came second. They only had three people. Levin people are schmart, evidently. My team of ten people came well behind them.
Monday, May 18, 2009
My Cold
Phase 1 - The Tickle
On Friday and Saturday I had a slight tickle in the back of my throat. Not sore - but it kinda rattled when I coughed a few times. I knew something was coming.
Phase 2 - The Throat
I woke up 7am Sunday morning to a sore throat. It hurt when I swallowed. I had slightly delerious dreams about having stay home from work, but forgetting to ring in and then running in to work at 10am in my jeans (that have holes in them - most inappropriate). Quite anxious dreams.
Then a lady I work with rang at 10am, while I was still in bed, to tell me she'd just bought a ukulele for our band. My voice came out in a pathetic croak. I got sympathy.
I felt slightly better by the end of the day, but woke up to a few coughing fits during the night.
Phase 3 - The Nose
Today, I went to work. Mainly because I'm a martyr and have only taken one sick day in seven years. I hate preparing relief and I feel guilty at the stress I'd cause the relief person ringing up at the last minute..... It's silly, I know. Anyhow, I walked around school with a croaky voice and a pocket full of tissues (I had to rethink my outfit, after not having pockets in my original choice of cardigan). And since I've gotten home my sneezing has increased. I now have little piles of shredded tissues all over my floor.
I went to the supermarket to buy ginger, lemon and honey so I could make yummy flu-drinks. They were good. They stopped my nose from running temporarily.
I'm at that stage when you have a slightly hot forehead and you just wanna kinda stroke your own face. That sounds odd.
I take the runny nose phase as progress, though. My body is expelling the bad stuff!
I hate being sick. I had to have a nap at 7pm and missed Shortland St. There are a lot of kids off sick at the moment - must be a bunch of early winter things going around.
* * *
While I'm ranting about news stuff..... The whole Christine Rankin stuff makes me angry. I actually do protest to someone working for the Families' Commision when they have had a high profile affair that well and truly wrecked a home.
I understand the attitude that private lives can be separate to public lives. But I think when you are high up in a political organisation that has a moral and ethical focus, that you actually are opening yourself up to such scrutiny. In those jobs, you are a figure-head and you do hold up your image as part of your selling-points. I had no respect for Bill Clinton around the time of the Monika Lewinski saga, since he had sold himself as a moral, family man in order to get elected.
I think in the private sector, you don't need to be held up to such scrutiny. You are mainly there to make money, and how you do it and what happens in your social life is far less relevant.
Students I taught knew about the Rankin affair, since there were kids involved their age - I remember them asking me surreptiously who Rankin was the day after the suicide. I wondered at the time why there were suddenly asking that, but then I heard rumours from other sources later in the week and it all made sense. From what I'm hearing, it's one of those worst-kept-secrets in Wellington that she'd had that affair (though, I'm sure rumours have room for error - but a lot of sources seem to be on the same page with this one). And these rumours have not just surfaced now, or since she married the guy - they have been around long before that.
Last week, when she was appointed to the position, I wondered how long it would be until they became the focus of the news stories - seemed a little hypocritical to be holding herself up as a champion for children and families with that hanging over her head.
It seems a little self-serving to deny it now and it seems a little suspicious for Key to say that he'd heard nothing of it until after her appointment. He's had a few embarrassing underling slipups recently - I wonder how long he can keep up the whole 'we all make mistakes - but I'm loyal to my people' stance.
On Friday and Saturday I had a slight tickle in the back of my throat. Not sore - but it kinda rattled when I coughed a few times. I knew something was coming.
Phase 2 - The Throat
I woke up 7am Sunday morning to a sore throat. It hurt when I swallowed. I had slightly delerious dreams about having stay home from work, but forgetting to ring in and then running in to work at 10am in my jeans (that have holes in them - most inappropriate). Quite anxious dreams.
Then a lady I work with rang at 10am, while I was still in bed, to tell me she'd just bought a ukulele for our band. My voice came out in a pathetic croak. I got sympathy.
I felt slightly better by the end of the day, but woke up to a few coughing fits during the night.
Phase 3 - The Nose
Today, I went to work. Mainly because I'm a martyr and have only taken one sick day in seven years. I hate preparing relief and I feel guilty at the stress I'd cause the relief person ringing up at the last minute..... It's silly, I know. Anyhow, I walked around school with a croaky voice and a pocket full of tissues (I had to rethink my outfit, after not having pockets in my original choice of cardigan). And since I've gotten home my sneezing has increased. I now have little piles of shredded tissues all over my floor.
I went to the supermarket to buy ginger, lemon and honey so I could make yummy flu-drinks. They were good. They stopped my nose from running temporarily.
I'm at that stage when you have a slightly hot forehead and you just wanna kinda stroke your own face. That sounds odd.
I take the runny nose phase as progress, though. My body is expelling the bad stuff!
I hate being sick. I had to have a nap at 7pm and missed Shortland St. There are a lot of kids off sick at the moment - must be a bunch of early winter things going around.
* * *
While I'm ranting about news stuff..... The whole Christine Rankin stuff makes me angry. I actually do protest to someone working for the Families' Commision when they have had a high profile affair that well and truly wrecked a home.
I understand the attitude that private lives can be separate to public lives. But I think when you are high up in a political organisation that has a moral and ethical focus, that you actually are opening yourself up to such scrutiny. In those jobs, you are a figure-head and you do hold up your image as part of your selling-points. I had no respect for Bill Clinton around the time of the Monika Lewinski saga, since he had sold himself as a moral, family man in order to get elected.
I think in the private sector, you don't need to be held up to such scrutiny. You are mainly there to make money, and how you do it and what happens in your social life is far less relevant.
Students I taught knew about the Rankin affair, since there were kids involved their age - I remember them asking me surreptiously who Rankin was the day after the suicide. I wondered at the time why there were suddenly asking that, but then I heard rumours from other sources later in the week and it all made sense. From what I'm hearing, it's one of those worst-kept-secrets in Wellington that she'd had that affair (though, I'm sure rumours have room for error - but a lot of sources seem to be on the same page with this one). And these rumours have not just surfaced now, or since she married the guy - they have been around long before that.
Last week, when she was appointed to the position, I wondered how long it would be until they became the focus of the news stories - seemed a little hypocritical to be holding herself up as a champion for children and families with that hanging over her head.
It seems a little self-serving to deny it now and it seems a little suspicious for Key to say that he'd heard nothing of it until after her appointment. He's had a few embarrassing underling slipups recently - I wonder how long he can keep up the whole 'we all make mistakes - but I'm loyal to my people' stance.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
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