My name is Not-Kate and I'm just tryna be a better person....(and other ramblings)

KARMA, YOU FICKLE WOMAN! BE NICE TO ME AGAIN!

I feel like Earl. Karma has it in for me for some reason. I'm trying to think of what I did wrong....... Maybe I need to make a list like Earl did. Anyone wanna volunteer a reason I need to add them to my list? I wanna get on Karma's better side (I am of course only talking about karma in the sense that the wise Earl Hickey understands it. I'm sure those people with philosophy degrees reading this will be shuddering).

I think I'll start by doing something nice for my brother. I bit him when I was three. Then I'll do something nice for a girl from college. I teased her about her speech impediment. At the time, she scratched me and drew blood in retaliation. I thought we were even, but maybe deep emotional trauma contributing to self-confidence issues wins over superficial tissue damage.

I'm also coming down with some kinda cold and we lost our netball. And I've lost my drink bottle again. I'm getting my eyebrows waxed tomorrow - if that goes wrong I'm gonna look like a freak for weeks..... I need to reverse my luck quickly!

***
NETBALL RAMBLINGS

But it was a GOOD game of netball. Clean and winnable, for the most part. And my team is just lovely. I don't think anyone has so much as given anyone else a dirty look all season. off-black gives HIMSELF dirty looks, but I don't think that counts.

I'm leaning towards calling us 'Groosh' next season. It's a word one of my students came up with when I suggested she needed to make up an onomatopoeic user-name that she could always use, 'cause nobody else would know it. That's what I do, I told them! (I like to remind the kids of just how geeky I really am every now and then, just in case they start thinking I'm 'cool'.)

***
BRAINWASHING THE YOUTH OF TODAY USING BLOGS

I have, incidentally, decided to use blogs as a classroom tool. My media classes have set them up now and I have linked them all together so they can post their articles and give each other feedback..... So far they think it's a novelty and kinda silly, but I think they'll warm to it. And it means I can give feedback from the comfort of my laptop without having to collect in work every day and risk losing it! I let them do the '100 things about me' entry as a warm-up post, while the slower girls were still finding unique user-names and choosing templates. We are two or three lessons into it now. Several girls have forgotten their user-names several times and had to start over again.....

We had some lady talk at a staff meeting and she suggested we utilise ontologies more in teaching. She told a story about how some English teacher had used it and it was a great way for that good advice you give one kid to be of benefit to MANY kids, rather than only having an audience of one. I also think peer critique is good and that it's nice to get positive feedback from each other on a frequent basis.

Also, I let them use it as a 'cheats' way to get some early interviews done. I said they could write a few questions as an entry, and people in the class could make comments that they could use as quotes if they wanted to. I think it was really useful.

Next year I'll have them set it up from week one, and get them used to expressing their ideas about media issues once a fortnight maybe, about something topical. Not worth any credits - but a good critical exercise and sometimes I think that's more valuable. We are, after all, trying to produce 'good citizens'.

****

QUIZ, ANYONE?

Me and off-black are possibly going to forge a team for a pub quiz on Thursday night. While he is amazing, we may need more than two people. Anyone keen? (Chiphead, you live far too far away - so you can't play.)

Four useful quiz in-joke terminologies:

1) 'to pontiac' (verb) is to steal someone else's glory by publicly pretending a correct answer or idea was yours, when in fact it wasn't.
History - It comes from an incident at The Office where Nicky, upon finding out that the brand of American car named after an Indian tribe was in fact 'Pontiac', pumped her fists and said, 'Yeeeeah! Pontiac!' loudly and did that 'look' to the group which means, 'Didn't I do well, team? Give me some recognition!' In a kind of delayed reaction, about ten seconds later and after everyone had said 'Well done, Nicky!' I said rather quizically, 'Nicky.... YOU wanted to put 'Cherokee'.... Pontiac was MY idea!'. She then shrugged and said, 'Was it? Oh well, too late sucker! Everyone in the pub thinks it was ME now!'
Example - You can also just use it as a general exclamation in such a situation eg - Point your finger accusingly and say, 'PONTIAC!'

2) 'loomis' (noun) is the largest fry in the bowl.
History - Nicky once stopped an entire pub quiz by, when the quiz-master made a comment about having found the biggest chip, raising her hand and saying, 'Um, excuse me Dean, but did you know that's called the 'loomis'?' He didn't hear her the first time and got her to repeat it. He then kinda frowned confusedly and said, 'Uh, moving on....question eight....' (apparently finding that hold-up totally pointless and not worth reacting to).
Pronunciation - To properly pronounce the word, you have to speak out of the side of your mouth with a mock-American-geek accent. Much like when you talk about 'giant lasers'. It helps if you are wearing 'smart glasses'.
In general, it can be used as a term to imply someone has said something very dorky in order to show off to the group, but been SHOT DOWN.

3) 'veto' (noun) is something you can earn by having been over-ruled by the group on an answer that was in fact correct. It means that in the future, at your discretion, you may over-rule the group and dictate your own answer. It is a way to placate righteous people.

4) a 'Micheal Buble' (noun) is an answer that comes from an inspired place deep inside of you, and you have no idea quite why you knew it.
History - It comes from an incident where, just AFTER we had handed in our picture round, Ken yelled out, 'Michael Buble!' as he suddenly remembered why that sultry faced brunette man in picture #8 was familiar.
Alternative - In a similar vein, in my family that is called a 'Macho Grouch' after a Pictionary incident where, as a youngster, my father had just started drawing the outline of a face and I had randomly yelled out, 'MACHO GROUCH!' Everyone on the other team suspected cheating, but to this day I say it was an act of God. I don't think I even knew who the man was, as shown by my butchering of his name........ (it was really 'Groucho Marx', but I hadn't given Dad a chance to even get to any distinguishing features).

***
THE SUN'LL COME OOOOOUT.....

Tomorrow is gonna be GREAT! I have a lot of clean clothes and a nice new bed. As one of my nicer flatmates said, rather philosophically, when I broke the news to him about the not-so-nice flatmate - 'A change is as good as a holiday!'. I get to have BOTH!

PS - no progress. I have not seen the not-so-nice flatmate since this morning, at which stage I hadn't run my decision past the other flatmates (which I thought would be a courtesy). We really are ships in the night sometimes, so the nicer flatmate has offered to tell her himself if he happens to see her when I'm not around. Gallant of him. He was really great last time we had to look for a flatmate too. I should be more appreciative of him! I'll put him on my Karma list.

Girly Shopping Day

Today we had a girly day of eating, shopping, eating, shopping and eating.

Five of us met up at Cafe L'affaire for brunch to kick it off. De-lightful!
We had:
- Many moccachinos (they serve them with Sante bars in them!)
- A berry smoothie (far too healthy, not enough cream or icecream for my liking)
- poached egg on toast with hollandaise
- bagels with cream cheese and salmon/jam (not together)
- a railway pie with gravy
- chips and aioli

And we gossipped about many a thing.

Then we went to
- Miss Wong
- Magnolia
- Popup (two of us bought T-shirts)
- Rex Royale (a sale was advertised, but we found nothing reduced)
- Farmers (two of us got underwear and others got mascare, tissues, pjs and jeans)
- Wild Pair (two of us got pairs of Sketches, I got a dotty-top)

Then it was lunch at The Dixon St Deli. I was busy still trying stuff on at Wild Pair, so only caught the dregs of Ange's satay chicken filo and chocoloate brownie. Not sure what else was consumed.

Then it was off towards Lambton Quay
- Glassons (cheap gloves - a few silly hats tried on)
- James Smith Market (a gift was bought at Mr Thank You, fairy-lights - many silly hats tried on)
- Surf and Skate (one beanie purchased)
- The Vault (one more beanie and a fancy silver laticed ring)

There was then a coffee break at Starbucks. Again, my shopping stamina was superior to the others so I went on a detour to the Levi's shop, Ruby and Riccochet, but found nothing to my liking. The others had creamy looking frappachinos. I had water to keep up my amazing stamina and not dehydrate. People were starting to wane. There was less gossip.

Then it was on down the Quay for real.
- Small Acorns (adorable stripey stretch-and-grow with pictures of pirates on it was bought for a baby shower, many lipsticks tried on)
- Cue
- Nest (a nifty magnetic spice rack, a sugar disperser and some mega-strong magnet dots)
- street vendor (earrings - I'm assuming, again I was off on my own mission)
- The Body Shop (men's shower gel as a gift, free sample of coconut exfoliator gained)

I think that's it. Phew.

We should do that more often!

Prizes
Most purchases: Savage (six purchases)
Most expensive single purchase: Ange (four purchases)
Most restrained: Holly (two purchases)
Least bossy: Lauren (two purchases)
Most bossy: ME! (four purchases)

I am going to an engagement party tonight and will wear my new dotty-top. It will make me happy. And cold. But mostly happy.

Bring back the Dance Halls

I think Boogie Wonderland is a great start. Enough of this hip hop free styling grinding beeboppping young people's music. 'Hip Hop' they call it.

I like Boogie Wonderland because it has old-school music and you can shamelessly do your John Travolta finger-point. That's the only dance move I've ever learnt to do well. It's my signature move! And there are usually some good cheesy group moves you can incorporate (Sunshine.... Moonlight.... Good Times..... Boogie).

Even better would be if some brave entrepreneur opened up a good old fashioned dance hall. I'm sure it's been attempted and failed by someone.... but I would have supported it if I'd known! What a great excuse to wear a dress and heels. There's not much sexier than dancing with a guy who leads well and holds his hand firmly on the small of your back. Live bands are good too. And punch. Partner dancing to a ballad at Molly Malone's with some sleazy Catholic guy while the embarrassingly tipsy 30-something women elbow you in the back and jostle for position is just not the same.

I was one of the minority who was sad when the 'set dances' finished at the school balls. I liked the Gay Gordans and waltzes and foxtrots.

*Note: I cannot show pictures of school dances because I had The Fringe. Also I had teenage body image issues and shuddered at the thought of a figure-hugging dress or going strapless. I'm so much cooler now! I have four cool dresses I never wear. I have my 'date dress'. Never fails!

*****

I was of course inspired to make this post by Dancing With The Stars. Go Beatrice!

I say someone should host a group-watching of the grand finale next week. The boys I flat with are not exactly keen on the show.... I need more sensitive girly pals to watch with! Men in touch with their feminine sides will suffice. You know who you are.

******

When I have kids I am going to give them freaky toys. I was inspired by the HARM bunny I saw at Popup (my aforementioned new favourite shop). It's freaky looking. I will also encourage the reading of 'Where the Wild Things Are' and other scary stuff. Scaring children is surely part of the privilege of parenthood.

ROLLER DERBY!

So we went to the roller derby last night (me, Michelle, Sam and Cassie - Jon and Malcolm were there with their Creature buddies - evidently Malcolm has finally lured Jon over to the darkside). If you didn't hear about the derby you were in the wrong time at the wrong place - seems to be an element of luck in having got a flier at the Cuba Carnival. But enough people knew that it was a sell-out and many people (including Morgan) were turned away. We estimate several hundred were in attendance (high estimate was 500).

I liked it! There were a fair amount of tactics at play and the costumes added greatly to my enjoyment. My team were the 'Brutal Pageant' while Sam and Cassie were going for 'Smash Malice', which had a skater nicknamed 'Savage', hence Cassie's loyalty.

My team kicked ass.

I think despite all the carnage of people falling over, there were no major injuries, though I'm guessing they were fairly bruised afterwards. I like a sport where the first two rows have a serious risk of being bowled into at some point! Adds to the drama.

Good night of entertainment - though sitting on the floor for two hours was a bit not-fun. The 2/3s time entertainment was awesome. It was a disco-skater guy who did all these cool tricks.

If not for my inability to skate, I'd wanna be in the derby.

* * *

I was most impressed with Cass's self-discipline with the food and drink. She must be in The Zone!

* * *

Much time was spent debating what constituted a 'power ballad', as the U-Choose Top 40 seemed to have no idea (Ronan Keating most certainly does NOT count). I was reminded of Jon's penchant for singing Bonnie Tyler songs. And also was reminded of how truly random power ballad videos are.

* * *

The Moo's team spirit drinks were drunk. And Jon's MPVness trophy was nibbled at. He is going to frame the tin-foil wrapping.

Taking Advantage

Nicky Update: For the record, I have been for a weekend jog up Mt Vic almost every week since holidays. That's an exercising record - I have never done it less sporadically! I ran into Ed yesterday, on my way down. More accurately, I walked into Ed (he was biking up, I was walking down, having just gotten the stitch and being at one of my predetermined 'rest' spots where I don't have to jog). He looked at me and said, 'You look buggered.' I said, 'So do you.... but then, you're biking up a hill..... I swear I was actually jogging until very recently......' and felt a bit embarrassed at looking so very red and sweaty.

I possibly made a lost Asian tourist even more lost when they stopped me to ask how to get to the look-out. I pointed and gave vague directions, then watched them drive right past it.....

I went for a jog today too, even though it was starting to drizzle (usually that is more than ample enough reason to pike on going for a jog). My hair is, as of today, officially long enough to put in pigtails (though not in a ponytail, yet).

If I lose one kg I will be the same weight I was somewhere near the beginning of third form. I remember this weight, because I found weighing myself in a group situation and then having to chart it on my PE record so traumatising that every term after that for the next two years I refused to actually weigh myself again. Instead, I kinda cheated and just added a tiny bit onto that initial weight. I have no idea what I actually weighed by fifth form, but on my official fitness chart, it was about 2kg more than when I started college.

I don't think I actually weighed myself again until I was about 23 or 24 - around the time me and Nicky and Rebecca decided to have a two week weigh-off to see who could lose the most weight. Since then, I have not been 'afraid of the scales' again.

Anyhow, while that is confirmation that I was nowhere near being a 'petite' child (I was already almost as tall as I am now - early grower), I kinda like that most people will never again weigh what they did when they were 13. Being a tall, 'big-boned' child had to have a perk at some stage!

What a pity I wasn't wearing cool clothes then that I could pull out and wear again...... Stone washed jeans, baggy sweaters and cheap tourist T-shirts just don't appeal these days......

* * *

Am taking advantage of having the flat to myself. I have my music up really really loud. I haven't done that in ages - it's very liberating! No matter what you're doing, it is more fun with overly loud music. I have been tidying up my room, and jiggling about to Liam Finn while doing it. I even looked under my bed and found all kinds of things. I found two bits of paper ripped from a notebook, which I have no recollection of at all. Apparently they're snippets of things I wrote to myself while living on Hanson St in Newtown. Kinda interesting to read back on. Faux poetry. Makes me want to start keeping a proper diary.

* * *

Nicky is coming back.... some time soon. I may have jumped the gun when I said she'd be in Wellington last week. Sounds like it'll be more like the end of this week. Stay tuned. Nicky never was very good with dates (ask her about the time she got AM and PM confused and had to cry her way into getting a ticket back to English because she'd missed her plane in Auckland). Though, she has an uncanny ability to know what time of day it is by looking at the sun. To within five minutes, usually.

She's on a tight schedule, so it'll be a one-off opportunity to catch up with her, with late notice...... Not even sure if anyone who reads my blog (other than Fish and Sam) know Nicky ..... Actually, not sure if anyone actually reads my blog, more to the point......

Not that Sympathetic

Ok.... so newspaper articles have to take an angle.

But I got a little annoyed reading this one about the guy who got hit in the bus-tunnel. The article is completely sympathetic to him and his herioc recovery, even allowing him to be gracious about the police not having found the baddie that hit him in the tunnel.

My thoughts are
1. Not once does it mention that you are not ALLOWED to walk through the tunnel - there are clear signs that it is not legal. Everybody knows this. The guy was drunk. When you walk through there drunk, you know you're playing chicken with oncoming traffic. If you're doing something dumbass like that, you shouldn't then play the victim (and you should probably hide your head in shame and not court more media attention).
2. He had 20 operations, so his little drunken short-cut cost our health system a bloody lot of money. I'd much rather those doctors had spent time fixing people who didn't deserve to get hurt or sick.

I thought the journalism on that one, making him out to be some kind of hero for recovering from being a drunken idiot.... was a little 'generous'.

And yes, I sound a little whingey and righteous.... but I don't care. I live quite near the tunnel and I have had two boyfriends who drunkenly texted me after midnight bragging about having walked through it and both times I thought, 'You idiot' and had serious moments of doubting my own taste. Maybe you do that when you're in your early 20s, at uni. But these guys were both well into their late 20s and mid 30s. I guess I'm personally not that kind of thrill seeker and I tend to try to avoid ending up in hospital or dead.

The guy who actually got hit, from the newspaper article, he was 42. Idiot. If that was me, I'd be hanging my head in shame and trying to get name suppression, rather than prancing around on the front of the paper in my hospital gown saying, 'Look at me! 20 expensive operations later, I have wasted the time of many many health workers and the police officers who had to try and tidy up my drunken accident scene and find the car! I am a role model and inspiration!' Grr.

OK... again, I am aware I sound like a crackpot who calls up talk-radio at 3.30am in the morning to moan about something minor. But that one really bugs me.

I know people can be dumbasses, but should we celebrate them on the front of our capital's newspaper?

Still at school....

At almost 7.30pm. There's a course selection night. Without car use, I decided to stay and force myself to do a bit of work. Went out for Chili-Jam rice-burger with some of the senior management (and Sam). Saw Ed. He was also getting a Chili-Jam burger.

Will not be able to leave school til after 8.30pm. Stink one.

Was so cold last night that I had to sleep with my head under the cover. I don't remember doing that last winter at all......

Wasn't planning on just staying at school tonight (was going to go home and come back).... so have not got 'fancy' clothes on. Truth be told, I had a couple of periods off to work on the website so I have on trainers, jeans and a hoodie. I have a vest, necklace and boots in my bag to slightly jazz up outfit (was going to change into them when I taught my two afternoon classes.... but flagged it). Still wearing jeans though...... all the others have on their power-suits. That's just how us Media teachers roll, I guess. Pushing the limits. Rebels.

Busy Busy Week

Am doing a last-ditch effort to fix my eczema rash that has refused to go away for a good month now. I am using Aqueous cream generously every day (they now sell it at the supermarket, who knew?).

Must be something to do with the name, but it always makes me feel like I'm applying something to my body that should be put on a horse. The fact that it comes in this industrial sized 'tub' possibly contributes to that feeling also.

* * *

This week at school has been real busy for me. One of those weeks where I don't think I had a proper sit-down lunch at all. I grabbed two big crackers on my to pick up my laptop from the staffroom in the middle of a lesson, and was telling a kid that was my 'lunch' and I think she felt sorry for me. I'd been in a computer room all lunch with a) a bunch of kids I'd made stay behind to finish homework b) a bunch of kids who were trying to finish Media assignments and kept asking me for help (I had a four person deep queue of people to see) and c) random kids who saw there was a computer room open and jumped in to do some work. There were no computers free and kids sitting on the floor doing their detention. It was my self-made chaos!

And no lunch for me :( My single goal of the lunch-hour had been to check my emails for the first time all day..... and I literally didn't get time to do it. The speed of our computers doesn't help (but that's a whole nother issue).

Anyhow..... Those busy days are good. I kinda like the adrenaline. I always know when I'm in that busy-busy zone when I find myself kinda tapping my foot constantly when I'm sitting down. Probably look like I'm actually 'on' something..... It's how I feel at magazine-time when I know I have to get a million little jobs done in the half hour slot I have free. It's oddly energising. But you get pretty hungry.

I like the quiet times too... .when you actually get to sit down and make toast (instead of eating the bread raw while you're walking between classes) and read the paper and do the 5-minute quiz.

Medal Night

Me and Cass were thinking of getting a group together somehow to watch the Olympics on Saturday night. It's medal night (hopefully) when the rowing finals are.

Figure we could watch it round my place and get pizza and nibbles or try to get a booth at The Four Kings or something. Most people have the two-for-one meal vouchers from the Entertainment Book.

Just a vague plan, but let us know if you wanna come along.

[Answer] Sam wants to be a millionaire!

Go Sam! That kicks the ass of Grand Champion: Olympic Challenge (the worst game show ever!).

* * *

I am becoming an almost-regular at The Four Kings. Mainly 'cause my flatmate works there, but also 'cause they offer some good stuff. They have enough decoders that they play the minor sports, not just the rugby. So Cass and I were able to get a booth on Saturday night and watch Olympics stuff, rather than the league or rugby. And today I popped in and rather than having to watch Ultimate Fighting, I could watch the little screens, which had Olympics soccer and gymnastics on them. Sweet! And the $10 brunch is pretty decent.

* * *

Am overdosing on Year 9 Poetry at the moment. My mind is swimming in metaphors and alliteration. Help!

Little Fluffy Clouds.

I remember one of the first techo mix type songs I ever heard was a loop called 'Little Fluffy Clouds' (or possibly 'Fluffy Little Clouds') that my brother played for me back in the 90s sometime. It was cute. It had some electronic thing in the background with this repeated bit of a little kid describing clouds.

I learnt how to fill a gas tank last night. Kyle made me learn. It wasn't too hard. But it took a while to find a place that actually did it. The places on Adelaide Rd do, if you ever find yourself looking.

I have been watching films from the library. I got out three documentaries. One of them was on the houses of Frank Lloyd Wright. I've always liked his stuff (I guess most people do). This doco was on the three houses he made which he lived in. All so intricate. I had never heard about how his woman (mistress?) and her children all died tragically in the second house. They were trapped by a madman in there, and then he went and set fire to the house, so when they tried to escape they all died. Something rather horrific.

And, thanks to one of Richard's forwards, it is now offical that I am a genius. Thank you Mensa. Ok.... possibly dubious..... but I'll take it :)

Disappeareded.

I blogged before, but I must've forgotten to publish it.... because it's all disappeared into cybernity. It was great stuff too. I think I was getting fairly close to understanding the meaning of life .... and stuff.

1. Shoppaholic

My name's Kate. My friends say I'm a shopaholic. But I needed alllll of it. Ok, I wanted allllll of it.
- $50 pair of Diesel sneakers (that's 80% off!) with yellow streaks down the side. I like yellow! These ones don't make my feet go numb like the last pair either......
- Mossimo skirt. It will be excellent for work and will complement my new boots very well. It has autumn leaves on it.
- pair of pants from Max. Hey.... they fit. I've been having trouble finding pants that fit lately.
- winter coat. It's an Audrey Hepburn swingy-coat! There were cheaper ones but Ange and Cass talked me into this one...... Blame them.
- pair of tartan footless stockings (to alternate with my stripey ones under my pinafore dress)

All essential stuff!

Ange, likewise, bought a pair of cheap Diesels (better than a poke in the eye with a stick) and some work clothes. Cassie got a Care Bear carry-bag.

2. Dancing with the Saints

We went to a Saints game last night and to me and Ange's glee the half-time entertainment was none other than BRENDON PONGIA and Hayley. With all the live shows booked out weeks in advance, that's the closest we'll get to seeing our stars in person. Hayley looked even hotter in the flesh. I wish I had a dancer's body!

3. Beer of Choice

Apparently boys don't like Radlers beer. That's because they suck. Radlers is great and tastes like lollies and lime. Mmmmm! And to say it's barely better than a shandy is not an insult to me! Shandies are yummy too. My flatmate Paul likes them and he's a manly man-whore. So not all boys hate it.

4. Netball

It was another Sunday of netball. I filled in for my cousins' team again. I was buggered and half asleep most of the game, but it was ok. My cousin's kids were there again (4 and 2 year old) and they showed me their jumping skills and said they jumped good 'cause they have a trampoline at home. I said that must be why I'm no good at jumping - no tramp to practise on. They invited me 'round for dinner and to their house to play on the tramp but I had to decline, due to my second game of netball coming up...... Apparently their other nana's out of hospital (seems to be going around at the moment) and they knew a secret, that grandad was going to take her out to lunch for mother's day. They're pretty good with secrets, those two.....

The second game was my proper team, I Pity the Fool. An ironic name in that it turns out we are the fools that need pity. We are in an uber-good grade with two-shooters galore. But I liked tonight's game - it was reeeeasonably close and we certainly didn't look hapless. Justin said he can smell a victory for tomorrow night.... I love his never-ceasing optimism! Maybe to rejig our tactics we should start using Morgan and Michelle at centre and put up some more twos. Give it whirl. Justin's hit 2 out of 3 of his outside shots now.... could be a secret weapon there too.

5. Mothers' Day

Oh yeah, in my disappeareded post I mentioned that this holiday doesn't have much relevance to me these days. It's always a bit awkward when people I don't know that well ask me if I'm doing anything for it. I just say 'no' and they look at me like I'm some kind of bad-seed-daughter or even admire me for making some kinda anti-commercialism stand.

Though I guess, what with lots of other people's parents being ill lately, it's a time to be appreciative of what you've got and what you've had. Most people's parents do alright by them. I don't do anything for Lynne on this day - she has her own kids, and she's more my dad's wife than my step-mum. But I still appreciate her! If there was a Step-Mothers' Day I'd buy her a card :)

Nobody ever replaces your mum though. Dad tried to fill in some of the gaps, but he's a bloody bad mother (not suprisingly - he can't cook or figure out what you want for your birthday, or even remember what day it's on). So I guess it's just one of those days where I miss my mum, even though it's been 13 years since she passed away. It's gonna be weird when I've been alive longer with her dead than alive. That'll be when I'm 32.

Rumpus time!

I am really quite excited.

After musing over costumes, me and Reids are going as nurses. How cliched! We really tried to avoid it.

First we were going to go as mental patients. Kinda un-PC, but we had this whole going where we were going to be planning to rendez vous with aliens (or maybe we even thought we were aliens in human bodies).... and everyone we talked to, at some point we'd say, 'Are you one of them???' and look at them intensely.

Then we were going to go as construction workers (from the Wellington City Hospital). But the overalls at the Costume Cave didn't fit very well.

Then I considered being a psychologist and wearing my smart-glasses and a lab coat. I woulda had a notepad and pen all night and taken notes as I talked to people.

But in the end, the nurses costumes fitted really well. I look like a natural - Reids said it looked as if I was just on my way home from work or something (had my handbag over my arm). Put on a bit of lipstick and some fishnets and we're good to go. Single girls out at the coolest party of the year :) Watch out!

One Week To Go

This sentiment will be echoed in the minds of secondary school teachers throughout the country. No matter how long the term is (it varies between 9-11 weeks usually) the last two are always a drag. That seems to be when reports are due, plus about a million other little things. And when you're trying to do one of thsoe million little things, someone else comes in to talk to you about a new thing - or one of their things that they want some help with. Sometimes a cloak of invisibility would be good :) I think that's what i-pods are for.

I have got echzma on my chin, which only ever happens when I'm stressed (and the weather is like it is).

I am not teaching three days out of five this week, because we are trying to get the website up and running. That might sound like a good thing, but it's actually more of a hassle than teaching. So that makes my week even trickier. Bleh.

Must eat more veges. Me and Reidun ventured to the markets today, in the wind and the rain, so I am stocked. Good old Levin produce from the heart of the Horowhenua.

Nothing exciting.

No Tiime

(Not even time to go back and fix that typo)

Marking to do then reports to write. And netball to play.

To focus on the good things, I am looking forward to Dave's 31st with an Olympic theme and Rumpus vs Episode, with a medical theme.

And bagels on Wednesday.

* * *

Evidentally my dad is kinda stalking Yvette Williams (the long jump gold medalist from yeeeears ago). She was apparently dropped off at the airport on the way to the Olympics by a relative of mine (great-great-great something) as someone in her family was married to someone in the Judges.

So my dad's a family tree geek at the moment, and is ringing and emailing people literally all over the world..... so he rang Yvette's son, who put him onto the lady himself. My dad has talked to an Olympic legend on the phone! Go Dad!

I think he is quite chuffed that he is one degree of separation closer to Halberg and Snell and Lovelock and that crew. They were his idols growing up.

Look!

I actually grew something. I have finally found a plant that agrees with me - the mighty succulent! Usually I buy plants that are flowering, and kill them. This time I bought a plant without flowers and have actually grown some. It's lovely!

I like how this plant sits on my windowsill and the flower kinda bends its head towards the glass as if it's peering over the Hataitai valley. Possibly it's really silently pleading, 'Let me out! Before she kills me like she did the others!' But nobody's listening, sucker :)

My herbs are doing well too. My parsley is flourishing. I like this low-maintenance gardening. Just leave the herbs outside and the rain takes care of them... and leave the succulents on the windowsill where it's sunny, and squirt them with the waterbottle every few days......

I am a nurturer.

* * *

Went on a course today. It was for middle-management. I did a Bachelor of Business Studies. I dropped my Management major after second year. I think I'd had my fill of management styles and culture analysis and whatnot. It's all coming back to haunt me...... I guess it's all useful on some level, but Management as an academic course always struck me as rather intuitive stuff. And I don't really like those moments where I see people consciously using 'techniques' they have read about - it's kinda patronising. I guess I am cynical about such things.

Thursday.

Thursdays are always busy. I have either no non-contacts at work, or just one (depeding on the week). Then there are often either department or HOD meetings after school. Then I either have basketball or quiz (or both).

Today was a no-meeting day, thank goodness.

Went to the beginning of the quiz. We started with guns ablazing! 40 points after two rounds - that is the perfect start. I earned my place by guessing that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas were the parents of two named children and that kedgerie was a breakfast dish and that the ponderous puzzle was 'the cell phone' (on the first clue!).

After that we stalled a little bit, but still came in a solid second place.

The trouble was that we had an $80 tab to spend from the previous quiz win. So I had nachos, chips, pizza, coffee and an oreo-sundae...... THEN went and played basketball. Not smart, Kate! My tummy is still unnaturally protruding right now.

Basketball was lumbering and painful (mostly emotionally). We played a Chinese team who were mostly small and quick and could all dribble and shoot well. Then they also had a few big girls whose Chinese heritage I would like DNA tested. Anyhow, they were pretty solid and killed us with a full court press (aided by having about four subs to our one) and good outside shooting. They train!

I think we actually had the measure of their half-court offence and I managed to plug up the middle and stop a lot of their drives. But we gave them the ball back a lot of times with sloppy passing. Oh well. We'll get em next time!

I had one of those satisfying teacher moments today when one of my girls said, 'Miss, I think Macbeth would be really easy to write about in the exam! There's lots of metaphors and stuff that had deep meaning.' My class were looking fairly blankly at me for the most part while we read the play and giving me the old ,'I actually don't understand a word of what he just said!' reaction. Seems to have sunk in a bit since then. Repetition and using OJ Simpson, Tonya Harding and Mugabe as real life examples hammered it in (though I warned them not to mention any of them by name in their essays - I hear it's a marker's pet-hate when those 'real life' examples are tagged on in the conclusion).

Not sure how I feel about Obama finally (officially) getting the nomination. Was talking about it with Sam tonight and he likes Obama better and thinks Hilary is a bit shifty and untrustworthy. Good point. I'd like to see her and Helen having an argument. I don't think either of them would give an inch. That'd be a good celebrity death match. I do like that when Obama did a speech for the WCW crowd he said, 'Can you smeeeeell what Barrack is cooking?' (ala The Rock styles). Politicians with cheesy pop culture catch phrases are fun!

Yum. Winter tastes good and warm and hearty.

Reidun is feeding us steak and kidney stew and baked apples for pudding.

Good for the soul!

(Not to mention the date-loaf I had with my cup of tea.)

* * *

I have been listening to the sound-track to Juno for about a month now. I tend to put a CD on in my car and leave it playing for a good few weeks before I move on. I now know every song intimately and subconsciously and will anticipate the next song correctly. Perhaps time to move on.

I am a vampire, I am a vampire, I am a vampire, I am a vampire and I have lost my fangs again.

And now it's time to go back.

Yesterday I made a small child cry. That's not a nice feeling.

I had been sharing my Grain Waves (most generously) with my nieces and nephews. They'd come over, get a handful and then go back to their play. Ruby, the 2 year old, had got a tiny little plate off her mum and had come back for a plateful. I poured them in (accidentally giving her almost all that was left). The toddled away happy. Then, by the time she got back, they were all gone. She held her plate up to me with expectant eyes, but I said to her, 'No more!' in a rather expressive voice.

She misinterpreted that as some kind of scolding and ran away. She actually hid behind the curtain, she was so upset. Oops.

We made up later on and played a game where I pointed at pictures and she told me who was in them (I think she did, couldn't really understand her). Then she walked around with a Sponge Bob poster that had come out of the magazine I'd given her sister, and kept trying to press it against the wall.... She looked most perturbed that it would not stay there. I tried to explain she needed 'sticky stuff' but I think it was lost on her.

* * *

I observed her sister, who was turning 10, being a typical older-sibling. She'd gotten a hand-held game of some sort for her birthday. She sat happily playing it most of the time I was there. Her cousin joined in every now and then.... Meanwhile her younger brother sat forlornly on the other side of the room, every now and then saying, 'Can I have a turn?' He got the whole raft of excuses and put-offs from her, most of which started with 'I just have to.....' (insert an aspect of the game, which seemed to change every time he asked).

The adults didn't want to tell her off on her birthday, but they tried every angle in the book to try to get her to share with her little brother, who as they pointed out had been waiting 'very patiently'. She defended herself with '... but he had a turn this morning!' (it now being 3pm).

Eventually I, being a more impatient secondary-teacher, sat watching her and ensured that once she had 'just' done the level she said she wanted to finish, she handed it over. None of this PC crap of waiting until she realises it's the right thing to do on her own.... I'm a younger sibling too! I felt Finn's pain.

* * *

Then it was night-flying. If you drove past Lyall Bay and saw a few crazy people running around the beach at 8pm last night flying a kite..... it was us. We had flasks of hot chocolate. It was fun. I am now good enough to mock and laugh at the new flyers who nose-dive poor bumble into the ground seconds after takeoff. I am most unkind and mocking. Last night it was Kyle and Marty, neither of whom (being athletic men) liked not being experts straight away (and having mere girls show them up).

* * *

Have had lots of cups of tea and coffee and hot chocolate this weekend.

1. Coffee at a cafe in Plimmerton to wake me up on the way to Saturday morning kite-flying (my eyelids were very heavy)

2. Coffee at Raumati en route to the beach to kite-fly (the other coffee had almost worn off)

3. Cup of tea at Hannah's birthday

4. Hot chocolate on the beach in a flask

5. Cup of Jarrah's coffee for lunch (with a Whittaker's bar dipped in)

6. Cup of tea after dinner (with sugar)

I have missed a few.

Dangling My Feet into Saturday

[totally ripped off a student there - she did a great poem about what it feels like on Friday afternoon, waiting for the clock to hit 3.30pm at school]

So, Friday was ok. Period 1 I was with my Year 13s, trying to model how to propose a topic for a feature article. I'd had two Year 12 girls come in the day before for us to interview and we were seeing what we'd do with them. One is in the Wellington wrestling league (that's WWF styles - no kidding!). She was really interesting to talk to. The other one has started writing and singing her own songs.

Then I had one of my Year 9s, and quite of few of them were away so it was a cute little class. We did jigsaw-poems where they get a jumbled up list of words and have to make a poem out of them (much like fridge-poetry magnets). They were so nicely behaved that I sat down and figured out a few poems of my own (one about a lady sitting by her husband's ashes and another about a man giving a scarlet orchid in a box to a crush, and then getting rejected and smashing it up). The pesky childrens kept coming up to my desk proudly to show me their poems and interupting my creative flow though....

Then I had a non-contact and had two intersting phone messages to reply to. The first one was from some Health Dept looking into whether the indoor netball teams that played on Sunday had the same virus that a bunch of kids had gotten from the playground downstairs (and subsequently been shut down over). The second was from a TV reporter, from 20/20 or 60 Minutes (I forget which one) whose daughter is in my Media class and who volunteered to come in and talk to us about journalism. Sweet! I'm all for high profile guest speakers.

Then, lunch-time was Film Club. My two leaders have instigated a tradition of having turns bringing snacks. One of them secretly revealed to me that she was bringing afghans. She has this kinda unselfconscious enthusiasm and the way she whispered the word with this wide-eyed look made it seem like you couldn't ask for a more magical snack. And they were good. She promised to bring me an especially big one... which she did. I jokingly said to put a giant 'K' on it with cornflakes or something, so she did. Though, she improved my idea by making it 'KJ' and doing it out of silver balls. It was episode two of 'Donnie Darko'. We're having to watch in installations.

Then..... a fairly standard Media 200 class then watching 'A Bridge to Terabithia' on DVD with my class last period. Sweet end to the day!

As usual on a Friday, a small crew of English-ish teachers headed to the Tasting Room. Then, it was back to school for basketball duties. The Senior B lost but the Senior A won handily (they are 3-1, and in the top division so that bodes well).

Got home about 9.30pm and watched the tail end of American Idol with Reidun and Kyle. Then we watched that show where they have answered lie-detector questions.... we are becoming slightly addicted to that.

Today me and Reidun went up the coast to kite fly on Raumati Beach. It was fun.


I bought this brooch at a second-hand store. I like the curvy swirly bits.

I bought these two wee limited edition prints at a craft shop in Raumati. It had a bunch of little prints I would have loved to buy. Some with insects sketched, some with native trees sketched.... This is a makaka and a fucshia.

The End.

Marmite Sandwiches.

Pecha Kucha.

I liked my Pecha Kucha experience. I am looking for opportunities to force my brain to take in new stuff. There were 12 speakers. A couple of them wouldn't have passed Speechgiving 101 in NCEA ..... and thus we were glad of the 6 minute time limit. At least we had pretty pictures to look at (and they changed every 20 seconds to accomodate our short attention spans). The other 10 were all varying degrees of interesting. I liked the guy who talked about designing fonts the most. He was a pretty funny speaker, straddling a nice line between arrogant and self-mocking. He's designed fonts from scractch that are commercially used.... and stunned me with the actual number of 'glyphs' (letters, symbols or numbers) that you have to design for a complete type-face.... Somewhere over one thousand, if it's got bold, italic, bold-italic, small caps etc.........

I decided I could marry him, because he was funny and fonts are cool. On stage he appeared good looking (for a font geek). I thought as a courting gift he could make me a set of fonts based on my handwriting. That'd be cool! It would have to be my writing when I'm using a really good pen. That makes a differnece. To me, that would be about the most romantic present ever.

But at this point I will note that Reidun and I decided to flag the 50 minutes of mingling at the beginning, and to go shortly before the presentations began. Apparently (as the flustered seating-guy told us) they had been told to accommodate 90 or so people and ended up getting closer to 150, so they were having to haul benches out into the back of the theatre, behind the pillars..... We had what you would call 'partially obstructed' views. Reidun could only see the speaker if she leaned into me, but at least there were big pretty slides projected onto the wall.

Anyhow, I saw the font guy closer up later in the night and decided I would not marry him. He was this close and didn't even know it. Also, when me and Reidun went out for some fresh air (and cigarettes for her) I saw him talking to a blonde font-groupie. I had competition.

I also liked the commercial photographer who showed us pictures of them erecting the 55 wind-tower thingies up north somewhere. And the guy who did an interactive art installation where you went into a full covered (dark) bouncy castle type thing (made in Levin!) and had to creep across a crevace at one point.... and the only way to get across was to grab the hand of an actor (which mysteriously pops through a hole in the wall - like in a horror movie). If you don't hold the mysterious hand, you fall off the ledge onto a bouncy bit. And this was all set up so that people had no idea what was in the installation and had to go in alone. I like that concept that it's a solo experience.

As a side note, Pecha Kucha uses viral marketing....... and I noticed on my site-meter that someone from that site had checked out my blog on the day I talked about it. I am now recognised as part of the virus (unsuccessfully, as nobody who viewed my blog came along.....). I felt a bit odd about that.

Basketball.

We had two games of basketball tonight. The second game was kinda in slow motion. It was odd. It might not have helped that in the hour long gap between games we all had a pack of lollies each (one of the ladies in the team was selling them as a fundraiser for a kindy). I may have been on a post-lolly-low. I could actually smell my own sweat, which is rare. But on the plus-side, I scored a decent amount of points in both games. I have low expectations (on offence) and was pleased to get about 8 points in both games. In the first one I went on this odd roll of hitting jump-shots from the top of the key. Swishes. I was in some kinda zone. In the second game they were mostly from offensive put-backs. The game we sat and watched between playing was painful - 45-2 (and that 2 p0ints was in the last minute and a half). And, even given that scoreline, the team that was up actually put on a full-court press for most of the second half. That's cruel!

I am New Zealand.

I walked into the Costume Cave on Friday afternoon at 4pm. I had decided to not be a stick-in-the-mud (aka Sam-type) and that instead I would go tot the costume dance at school in the true spirit of the theme, Around the World.

I walked in and explained my situation, and the always enthusiastic lady there was doubly-excited because there was this gem of a kiwi-flag dress that there had been no takers for. She accessorised me with red gloves and a stole and I went as a kinda Lorraine Downs Miss NZ figure.

I got the coveted award for 'Best Dressed Teacher'. I now proudly own one Gold ticket to Readings as my prize.

I needeed help getting OUT of the dress, which could have proven tricky..... because the person who laced me into the corset had done a double knot. Hard to undo on your own....

Kite Flying

Me and Reids are joining the Mighty Kites (anyone seen that Scrubs episode? Season 3, episode 11). She got introduced to kite flying by her friends and has now purchased two large kick-ass kites of her own (1.5m and 3.5m). She took me for a spin with the little one today. It was fun. Kinda cathartic. You just fly the kite and kinda forget about everything but yourself and the kite and the wind for a while. I see what she enjoys about it.

She is a kite-evangelist and is keen to introduce more people to kite-flying if you're interested. Sounds like the park by St Pats in Kilbirnie and a park on the Esplanade in Petone are the top-notch windy places with lots of space for enthusiasts.

Update:

Went out again today (Sunday) with Sam and Damon in tow. Petone was a no-go, so we headed up to the abandonned school up in Maungaraki. Perfect! I love the 'whooosh' sound the kite makes when in full pendulum-like motion. I started off roughly, putting a few dents into Bumble and making Damon fear for his life as I dive-bombed the ground..... But got the hang of it as winds picked up. I still feel a little like I'm trying to tame a wild mustang...... Reidun, on the other hand, looks like she and the kite are as one in a blissful zen-like state. Sam and Damon, being more aerodynamically minded and having greater spacial awareness than me, caught on quite quick. You would think that my name (Kate) being only one letter away from the word 'kite' would give me some kind of advantage.... a kinship of sorts.... but, no.

* * *

On being newly single.

[blather deleted]

I'm ok with it. Feeling very much myself! [don't read any unintended inuendo into that]

Because I am my Father's Daughter

.... I shall detail some food events of my own (see my dad's pudding commentary below).

I have started to delve into the world of soup-making. I have always found this a mysterious and foreign thing. Why would one need that much soup? Soup is kinda yucky. It's slimy and full of vegetables (I have flashbacks of being the only one of the family who would not be served a helping of Mum's perennial favourite homemade-vege-soup as I stubbornly made the crabby-face any time it was pushed my way). But having gotten into the habit of buying packet soups from the fridge at the supermarket (not the tinned soups - I had a bad experience with one of those a year or two back and can't stomach them now), I have a newly awakened appreciation of soup. I discovered a delicious tomato soup, even. This has never been something I was fond of.

Anyhow, on our weekend tour of Levin, Reidun, Marty and myself discovered big pumpkins for $1. They decided to buy one each to make soup with, and I (not liking to miss out on things) got one too.

Then I looked up a recipe on the internet for carrot and pumpkin soup (beings as I had some carrots in the fridge) and away I went, after getting advice from various sources. I even put in my own home-grown parsley (part of my holiday plant-buying spree).

And it was nice.

I had it for lunch every day last week, in my specially bought tupperware containers. With two pieces of Vogels toast. I enjoyed it very much. Even more so because it was the fruit of my labour. It was quite a thick, sloppy texture, but that made it ideal for mopping up with the toast.

My most favourite bit of the whole process was using the blender-wand thing to turn it all into mush. My least favourite bit was the endless chopping up of pumpkin. The whole process produced a pleasingly low amount of dishes (I do not like dishes).

So tonight I made some leek and potato soup. I don't like it as much. It's green and slimy. Apparently that is the usual consistency of it. I actually don't think I like this flavour much, come of think of it. But it seemed the logical progression from pumpkin. And leeks are cheap. Is it actually anybody's favourite flavour???

My second point to make is that it is perfect weather to buy (or bake, if you're so inclined - I am not yet into the baking as it is not as fail-safe as soup-making) date loaves. Yum! With a bit of butter, it makes the perfect buddy for a sweet cup of tea. Pak 'n Save makes a good one.

Also, I have resorted to a favourite winter treat of buying a three-pack of Sante bars to stir into my hot drinks and lick the melted chocolate from. Mmm.

It is no longer salad weather.

I shall put on my winter layer of fat.

That means the skirt I have worn to work twice this year, due to having bought it over the summer with the genuine intention of losing 5kg at some stage which would have meant it would fit just right, may never fit me ever again (I wore it today and had to take tiny little lady-steps for fear of ripping the seams).

* * *

On a different note again, I bought the sound-track to Juno and am rather enjoying the 'Anyone else but you' song that ends the film. I can now play it on the guitar because it only has two chords...... Jolly nice! My students from the FC (Film Club) tell me the singer is actually black, which is very surprising.

FC will be watching 'Across the Universe' this week. On the down-low. It's going to be a word-of-mouth club that only cool kids can join (by our own definition, in which cool=quirky). At the moment, to not overestimate the popularity of the FC, it is just me and two students. But we talk fast like the Gilmore Girls. It's a fast-talking club. Slow-talkers need not apply. Future requests at FC include 'Donnie Darko' and 'Amelie'. I shall also force them to watch 'I am Not Scared', which they will love (they always do!). It's art-house all the way, baby. If only 'Magnolia' wasn't R18 I would show them that (but just watching the first scene with Tom Cruise reminded me of why it is R18, given the reckless abandon with which he uses the 'c' word).

Kate is short for Bob

My hair sure does dry a lot quicker now. That's a bonus.

* * *

Today with my Year 13 Media Class I had my first day of term holiday-media-report-back lesson. We talked about films we'd seen, grind-house, the Austrian guy and why we were fascinated by it, the Obama-Hilary race and how it's been covered and the sympathetic view of psychopaths in 'Dexter' and how that links into the current state of mind. That kinda lesson will not get them any credits in NCEA ... but is always fun.

* * *

I'm gonna invest in a kick-ass heater this winter. I'm sick of being cold in stupid old Wellington flats. I bought two new heaters last winter but they're both pretty useless.

* * *

Tomorrow is bagel-breakfast at Wholly Bagels. Yum.

School Night

Tonight is a school night - gotta get up early tomorrow. As per usual, I have put off all school work that could have been industriously done during the holidays until today. I shall take on Reidun's attitude of just accepting my procrastination patterns for now, rather than trying to resist them. They are semi-functional!

* * *

Tomorrow lots of people will likely comment on my new hair-cut. It is rather shorter. I am hoping for comparisons with Katie Holmes (because we have the same name anyhow - and I will even settle for a 'poor-man's-Katie-Holmes' comparison), though I only really got the hair-cut because I had a bob in Standard 3 and 4 and quite liked it, looking back at the photographs. There are few haircuts that suit my thick hair! And straighteners help it suit even better :)

I went to the hairdresser and said, "I'm thinking of some kind of bob...." and at that point he took over and said, "I think that would look a-mazing on you!" and starting gesturing his hands about indicating how long it would be and said to just leave it to him.....

At this point I got nervous.... especially when he cut the first bit of hair at the back and it was up to the bottom of my hairline (which he tidied up with clippers at the end). Eek! It was like a scene from Edward Scissorhands where hair was just flying around and the hairdresser seemed to get some euphoric pleasure from it. My face may have been frozen in fear.

Might I add that I do not look at all attractive when in the middle of a haircut, wet hair sticking to face and starting to form cow-licks and bright lights highlighting the bags under my eyes. Luckily my hairdresser is not one for small-talk (which is why I keep going back) and just let me watch in horror rather than trying to engage me in inane chatter to mask my shock and distract me from his destruction of my hair.....

Anyhow, by the time he finished I was.... still not sure about it. Hairdressers insist on showing the finished product without letting you put your hair behind your ears, so it frames your face in this rather dramatic and un-natural way..... Oh, and he gave me a fringe. Ever since high-school where I had The Fringe (which I realised the faults of in later years) I have mostly avoided such things. But before I could open my mouth to protest he had gone from shaping the sides of the front to snipping me a fringe in one fell swoop without any warning.

Once I got home and inspected it properly.... and experimented with putting it behind my ears.... I liked it better. A good change, anyhow.

I shall now be trying to appeal to that minority of the male population that likes freakishly tall girls with short hair......

* * *

Thanks to Ant for cooking us (me, Cass and Ange) dinner last night. We played Buzz and Singstar while he toiled away in the kitchen. He pointed out that we are perhaps better at Singstar (or at least more tolerable) when drunk. Or perhaps that was when the audience was drunk. Anyhow, we were quite terrible and I do believe there is video footage out there to prove it which may be used against us at a later date. At any rate, I proved time and again that rap is not my genre. I still don't even get how Singstar scores a song with rap in it - I felt like I was doing a good job with Summertime, then it kept telling me I was 'awful' and 'bad'. Harsh judge!

Honey, the new puppy, kept jumping up on me and Ange. She got cuter when she tired out and just sat on the floor at my feet shaking my hand (it's one of her two tricks). I got her to shake my hand five times in a row before she tired of it.

* * *

I have learnt two new songs on the guitar, for the first time in ages. I forget how fun it is! I learnt 'New Soul' (the song from the Apple ads) and 'Hey There Delilah'. Both very easy.

Holidays Week 2

I got me some new plants. I see what Reidun is addicted to now. I got a little row of succulents on my window-sill, a yukka and some herbs growing on the doorstep. I'm not too optimistic about the herbs surviving, but the others are known to be 'hardy' plants.

* * *

The best things about boyfriends is that (sometimes) they work in the CBD and can take things back to the library for you :)

* * *

Now I'm watching bits of some TV series DVDS: Boston Legal Series 3, Scrubs Series 6 and The Best of MTV Cribs (odd choice - but oddly fascinating to watch). You can't buy taste.....

Movie time

It being school holidays, I have consumed some viewing pleasures. Here are a few. I may have already mentioned them in previous blogs, but humour me like you'd humour Uncle Peter when he's telling you the same story for the fifth time. Just nod and smile.

Atonement

I feel very uncultured for saying this, but I didn't love it. Apparently the book is better? It kind've ambled along and perhaps I would've cared more if I'd found any of the characters particularly likeable, but Keira Knightly often plays rather unsympathetic people. It was ok. But..... not something I'd watch again in a hurry.

Into the Wild

I liked this one a lot better. Perhaps went a little longer than I would've liked, but had that nice Eddie Vedder sound-track to hold it together (which Ed played as mood music when he had a few of us over for dinner recently). It had a heart-wrenching little ending.

Fracture

Last night I went to get a DVD with Marty. We were quite disappointed with the selections in the new release section. Marty does, however, have a talent for being able to give a quick synopsis of any movie I point at. So I was quite convinced when he said this film was about Gwyneth Paltrow, whose father had alzheimers, and she falls in love with a man who reminds her of her father...... Sounded preferable to Evan Almighty, which was the second choice. We then got in the car, and along the way home Marty realised it was a completely different movie to the one he had summarised. This one was like a modern take on Silence of the Lambs (in that it had Anthony Hopkins as the genius bad-guy who takes a liking to some young and hungry law enforcer, or lawyer in this case). The dialogue was awful at times and the plot kinda jumped around (Ryan Gosling's character seems to form a 'serious' relationship with a woman he has met all of three times, for about 10 minutes each time.... possibly would've been a better film with that plot element left out altogether). Cliff Curtis plays a role in it, he is the earnest cop who tries in vane to find the murder weapon, which has disappeared. Basically the whole film is trying to answer the question of 'where did the gun go????' Anyhow, watchable on a Sunday night, but not amazing.

Big Love

I have worked my way through the first season of Big Love, which was only 13 shows long. While I don't expect it's an entirely relaible look at paligomy, it's kinda different in an intersting way. A nice ensemble cast and most of the characters are developed along the way. Chloe Sevingy's character is a talking point - I absolutely hate her, and Marty finds her charming. She is the 'traditional' wife. Has its funny moments. And it has one of the few theme songs Marty doesn't fast forward when he's watching a DVD of a series.

Basketball

Not sure what's going on here. None of us look

Changing Rooms

I just don't understand some shops. They must WANT you to buy their clothes, but then they seem set on designing the most unflattering lighting and mirrors they can. Not to mention the doors or curtains that always have a tiny gap in the side, so the sales assistant can see you standing there in all your half-naked glory trying to wrench on their clothes.

My recent experiences are that Cue is horrid. Somehow the lighting showed up cellulite I had been oblivious to and the low angle didn't do anything for me either. And Paris Texas is good. I love that they have a special butt-mirror where you can see what you look like from behind. This view is most enlightening. They made me want to buy everything I tried on in the shop! Great mirrors.

I'm going to try and read a book. I hope I remember how. The books I have taught thus-far this year have been ones I am very familiar with. So all I've had to do is thumb through to the relevant sections.

Now I remember how the children feel..... a whoooole book..... but that'll take hooooooours.......

Holiday list of things to do

1. Dye hair (done)
2. Do loads of washing that have been accumulating for last three weeks of term (done)
3. Watch Atonement (rather a spontaneous choice at the video store, done)
4. Buy only healthy food to make up for the sins of the morning-tea muffins and late-night-marking-chocolate (done - Flakes were on special for 68c - but I put it back)
5. Wax legs (done, with no major injuries)
6. Get haircut (not done)
7. Get car serviced (not done)
8. Go on road trip (done - Levin counts if the people you travel with are not locals)
9. Sleep in (done - I said goodbye to Marty at 8am and never looked back - got up at 10)
10. Read a book (not done)

I'll think of some adverturous things to add in there.

I might even go vacuum the kitchen. What a productive day!

Wedding II

Yesterday I journeyed to Levin for my second wedding of the year. This one was for my school friends, Louise and Clinton. It is a cliche, but the bride looked her best (all glowing and stuff). Both Lou and Cass looked radiant on their big days. And Clint and Lou were both just smiling all day.

So that was nice.

I was a bit of a loner at the reception. At the actual ceremony I had run into an old school friend, Merv, who was crashing. But he scarpered fairly quickly afterwards. So, at the reception I was having to sidle up to people I went to school with but barely knew. I crashed an entire family grouping. I stood trying to be discreet, sipping my champagne and keeping an eye out for fancy snacks being passed around. Unluckily for me there were huge delays due to gas ovens not working, and we had to all stand in the lobby for a good hour beforehand. I was all mingled out by then!

I was really the only one from 'our' group of friends at school there. The others were from Clint's 'other' group of friends - the outsiders. I guess he was a geeky-rebel at school, so these varied social groups reflect that.

Anyhow, I was seated at Table 8. It was the equivalent of the kids' table (since it was a no-children reception). It was me, some cousins and the brother of Louise and three young optometrists she had gone to school with. Though, it was rather thoughtful that she had placed me between her brother (who I know through basketball) and a guy who I'd been in a class with at intermediate (though, not spoken to since).

I made the small talk and once I'd had a few wines it was fairly easy to gab on to Simon about all kinds of trivial details. He lives in Wellington, but commutes a few days to work in Levin at the optimitrest there. I would say if there was a bad boy of optometry, it would be him.

Though we were the kids' table, we drank barely any of the wine! I had about 2/3s of a bottle, but the other two bottles were barely touched. That's what happens when you're an optometrist or young married peoples, I assume.

It was one of those ocassions where I felt very conspicuously alone. Surrounded by couples. I mentioned Marty a couple of times in conversation with one of the young optomitrests, so they would know I was not the desperate single girl at the wedding (not this time, at least). As the flow of conversation would have it, the two times he came up were about his penchant for watching wrestling and how he requested Vanilla Ice at the last wedding I was at. I think that made them feel even more sorry for me........

Anyhow.

I have very sore wisdom teeth. Both my bottom ones are coming through in a very uncomfortable way. They have been coming through in bits for years, causing only minor pain. But this time..... OWWW! The last three nights I've woken up with a throbbing jaw and the whole of my mouth has hurt. I got up at 3.30am last night and raided Dad's house for pain killers. I found a whole cupboard of drugs.... but I feared they were too strong for me (Lynne has chronic pain) and I didn't recognise any names except Voltarin. So I took one of those, hoping it wasn't some super-drug version that would have weird side effects on me, and a couple of Panadols. That helped. And I slept with my head propped up on three pillows since it didn't seem to like blood rushing into it.

Anyhow, I'm using Bonjela, like the babies do. It's good stuff.

Back to the wedding. I had to cut everything into tiny little pieces to eat it, since my mouth is not opening wide due to widom tooth swelling. And then I'd wince when I went to chew it. So it may have looked like I was hating it.... but quite the opposite, it was really nice food. I had the honey-glazed salmon on some yummy rissotto concoction. Then we got a selection of little baby-deserts that were all yummy. And the wedding cake was chocolate. Mmmm!

Anyhow. My teeth hurt. I'm off.

And my spell-checker is not working..... so excuse any errors!

The Long Walk Home

So we decided to the Round the Bays walk this year. My new flatmate was doing it with a friend. And Reids decided she might try it too, but needed a buddy..... So when we walked past the registration place yesterday I got co-erced into going into it with her.

I like team sports. I'm not so much an individual sport person. And walking/running are not my strengths (as my 'Glacier' nickname would suggest).

So anyhow, I was slightly drunk last night. And woke up this morning a little worse for it..... and would have been agreeable to flagging the whole thing and considering it an $18 donation to some worthy cause, effort-free.

But we went. As we approached the bus stop, we saw all these uber-fit people in proper running gear. They had short-shorts and white singlets and toned legs. I was wearing a baggy t-shirt and long shorts. I was hung-over. We were both intimidated.

But once the race started it was all on. For a while we kept a leisurely pace.....

Until we looked around and realised, in a single comical glance, that we were being beaten by two kids walking along eating chippies, a blind man with a cane (I kid you not) and people pushing prams as they walked. Our pride became dented.

At this point we decided to try and pass 100 prams before the end of the race. So off we zigged-and-zagged, picking off prams like a hyena picks of the weakest gazelle. We got up to ten pretty quickly, in about 500m.

But then we met our nemesis.

She was a woman in a red tshirt, pushing her pram along. She looked introverted, possibly socially awkward, but intense. She had a certain solitary grit about her. We would come up alongside her, ready to pass, and she would suddenly dart away from us, putting on a sudden burst of speed. It seemed she knew what we were doing and she wasn't going to stand for it. Brings to mind that movie quote - 'Why won't you just die?!?'

We figured out pretty quickly that she worked in bursts. She would get a little ahead, but we would soon pick her off and she seemed destined to burn out eventually. And so our game of cat and mouse went on for another 5km, from Oriental Parade to Greta Point. *

We would be feeling confident, thinking we had burned her.... but then one of us would glance back and warn, 'Red Shirt's coming!' and we would have to step it up a gear. It was like some terrible horror movie, where the villain keeps rising from the dead, just when we thought it was safe to rest again.....

And then she started running.

Now, Reids and I had sworn not to run. It seemed like cheating, when you were doing the walking section of the event. It seemed like the people who were running bits were just too chicken to enter the running section, and trying to look like heroes by having the best times in our section. We resented them.

But at Greta Point, 1.5km from the end, we had to run. I have never actually seen Reids run before (bung knee, she has always claimed). But before I knew it, while I was power-striding along, she started jogging. She said it was the only way she could keep up with my long strides, and that Red Shirt was getting away and so it was the only option. This was how badly she wanted to win this battle - she resorted to Public Running (third only to Public Speaking and Death in terms of world-wide fears, surely).

And then, when that wasn't fast enough to do the job, we were both jogging. We passed Red Shirt pretty quickly then, and started walking again, thinking that was her final burst. I had brought up a sweat for the first time in the race.

And then we heard the wheels, coming up quickly from behind. That tell-tale buggy creak, and we could tell it was getting closer.

And she passed us again.

We started jogging, nose-to-nose with her. Reidun dropped off but I could hear her behind me, yelling out, 'You can do it, Kate! Go!'

And it was just me and Red Shirt (and thousands of others), 500m from the finish line. It was my Chariots of Fire moment. Me and the middle aged lady with a pram, one-on-one.

And then, after an intense 50m or so, I gave up. I know I could have taken her. But that battle will have to wait for another day. I slowed down and waited for Reids, and we both shrugged it off, conceding that Red Shirt wanted it more than we did. She'd earned it.

We had never actually made eye contact with her, but she knew it was a race. I could sense it.

She is my new pram-pushing nemesis.

Wherever you are, Red Shirt, let it be known that I shall have my revenge on you! This isn't over yet!

Although, I'll admit that if she's not wearing the red shirt or pushing the pram, I may not be able to recognise her ever again. Cunning! Just like Superman's indecipherable glasses-disguise.....



*I got to reach out to a helper-person for a cup of water (like they do in marathons!) and without pausing to drink it properly, chug it down and screw up the cup, dropping it unceremoniously in the gutter (not realising, along with hundreds of others, that there was a rubbish bin especially set up, a little further on, oops). I felt like a professional! Another life-long goal has been achieved. Next, someone has to sponge me down (like they do in boxing....).

* * *

This is cool. The origins of battle-raps, I'm thinking.

Whoa.... or this is even better! Clay Aitken does theme songs........

Going back to school means.....

1. Not being able to freely wear jandals every day. I added the word 'freely' there because I may well still try and wear them, until a 'general warning' is given to staff and directed at me. I'm a rebel like that.

2. Having to get up before 10am every day. Ugh! I quite happily push Marty out at 7am saying, 'Get up! You don't want to be late!' and then go back to sleep for a couple more hours at the moment.

3. No more leisurely lunches and shopping trips with the other teacher-folk and no more meeting Marty for lunch in town with the other worker-bees.

4. Having to get used to my own hand-writing again.

5. An onslaught of new names to learn. I'm teaching two Year 9 classes and two Year 12 classes (a year level I have missed teaching each year, so they'll mostly be unknowns too).

6. Ironing.

7. Morning and afternoon traffic.

8. Having to greet everyone at work with chit-chat and small-talk about how the holidays went. I shall try to pre-prepare three varying responses to cover all questions. eg - 'Did you have a good break?' or 'Did you manage to get away?' or 'What did you get up to?'

9. Being the same as everyone else! It's fun getting to gloat and make average corporate types jealous of our job for once, while we have our mammoth holidays.....

10.

Done.

Cass got hitched without a hitch.

Now Ant is trying to quit smoking. So if you see him walking around look miserable and

Bye bye, Miss Savage!

One more sleep.......

The social event of the season is toooomooooorrrrooooow!

Exciting!

Went to the rehearsal yesterday. I figure all I have to do is watch what Laura does (she's the middle bridesmaid and I'm the last one). I get to be escourted around by Scott. That's a good deal. He's the tallest.

Me and Scott (mainly me) whispered a lot during the boring bits of the rehearsal, where we weren't involved. I told him about how we did a gospel version of one of the readings .... and it was great. I double-dog-dare Laura to do that reading tomorrow - and I promise I will join in with, 'You tell 'em, sister! Love is king!'

Today we have to get our nails done and finish all the party savours for the reception, possibly setting up the reception too. Busy busy busy! And hence I am up at an UNGODLY hour (for a holiday day).

While I wait to wash my hair dye out, I shall blog.

Just realised another reason why we've never had a girl in the sleepout before...... girls have waaaaay too much crap! Our already cluttered flat now has even more stuff. And I think Reidun will keep having small hernias until it is all put away in a more organised manner.........

On the plus-side, we have had no rats or mice this summer!

* * *

Marty's gig.

The comment was made that Marty looked Jack Johnson-esque (must've been the jandals). To me, this is high praise!

* * *

Two days until Cassie's wedding! I intended doing a rather thorough bridesmaid diet.... but plans have failed. Food is too good. Exercise is too hard. I actually managed to lose some weight last week.... only to put it all back on (chippies are good!).

And thus my stomach will protrude a little. I like to think that my imperfections will only bring more attention and adulation to the blushing bride..... and thus I can justify not looking more fantasmic :) It is a generous thing on my part, really.

I think Cassie will look gorgeous. She is healthy and has the longest hair she's had the whole time I've known her. Very girly! And she will glow (literally) with all her sparkles and glitter.

I'm sure I intended doing much more other stuff in preparation for her wedding.... January goes by way too fast! Morgan is right.

* * *

Basketball starts up again tonight. Always takes a while to readjust to shooting a heavier ball than in netball. And it makes me puff. A lot.

* * *

Oh.... and school starts back soon. Ugh! Work! Getting up early! Only good thing is that Julie is back at East.

I told her to apply for a job that came up at the end of last year (after she had worked at St Mary's for a year) and she did..... and then I heard no more. So I assumed that she hadn't got the job (or else surely she'd have sent me the 'Got it!' text.... or something...). This surprised me greatly, as our HOD has nothing but high praise for her from her last stint at East.....

Turns out Julie is just a slacker and assumed I knew somehow. So, yay! Always good having a friend on staff. Julie is super-easy to work with. And we find the same people annoying, so can share the odd raised eyebrow during staff meetings.

Oh yeah, and the accountant at school thinks last year's magazine was the best one he's seen at East. High praise! He liked the way the kids wrote the articles - more in their own voices, rather than formulaic..... I was just surprised that anyone actually read the articles. And I think we've finally found a printer who's easy to work with and reliable and reasonably cheap. So that's one less stress for this year's project.

* * *

Marty and I are finally at the same place in our Gilmore Girls watching patterns. Both up to Series 7. The final series. I have read bad reviews of it, as the original creator left the series that year.

* * *

I love jandals.

* * *

The Week in Three Oopsies

I just reread my previous entry. The last line was something about going off to wax my legs. The above picture is the result of....

Ooopsie #1

I heated up the wax in the microwave. It was still a bit thick. So I heated it some more. Now it was too liquid and piping hot - too hot to use. So I gingerly carried it up to my room .... and tripped on the stairs somehow. Hot wax sloshed out of the container and onto my hand. At this point I probably screamed out an expletive. More wax was spilled as I waved my arm around in pain. This wax only went on the carpet.

I ran up to my room and used my trusty water bottle to douse the pain. More expletives were uttered. I wiped away the wax with a towel.....

Only to look down and see that I'd also wiped away the skin off my thumb. Owww, I thought. I debated the merits of cutting it off or pulling it back over the raw bit. I went for the latter option.

I have since realised there are many things it is awkward to do with a big gauze plaster on your thumb. Things such as applying sunscreen to the back of the opposite leg.

Oopsie #2

It was Cassie's hens night on Saturday. Many photos are on facebook.

I had the huge responsibility of having to find a restaurant for us. I duly booked Grand Century for 7pm. I figured you can't go wrong with BYO and a lazy susan......

So me, Ange and Lauren turn up at 6.50 and are seated in the window. We amuse ourselves for a while by perving at the boys walking past (some of whom Ange knew, by chance) and drinking our wine. By 7.30 we started saying, 'Bloody hell - where are the others???? Slackers....'

By 7.45 I got a phone call from Cassie. I answered with, 'Where are you???' to which she replied, cryptically, 'Where are YOU?' We then went on to echo each others responses with, 'At the restaurant....'

Now, we had been sitting by the door the whole time. No way could they have snuck in without us seeing.

Turns out they were at the OTHER Asian restaurant on Tory St, Eastern Sunrise. They too had opened wine and were sitting there cursing US for being late. They thought, 'Typcial Kate!' - which greatly offends me! Besides which, I was arriving with Ange, which means you will inevitably be early.

So they had to sheepishly offer to pay corkage and slink out of their restaurant (after spilling wine on the table) in front of a Chinese clan reunion of about 200 people.

Good times!

Oopsie #3

Yesterday was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon. Marty and I fancied an outing to Day's Bay. He suggested going on a wee bush walk. I couldn't be bothered wearing sneakers (having gotten blisters recently) so said sure, as long as I can wear me jandals.

So off we went, in our jandals. Note that I was slightly hung over and had neglected to properly rehydrating - figuring I would have an icecream later on.

First of all we went the wrong way, to the Duck Pond. It was a short walk. Rather trecherous and cliffy. We came to a dead end and decided to take one of the side-paths which went up-up-up and had been etched into the cliff by some child's hands and feet. I took off me jandals and put them on my arms. Up I climbed on all fours. I was very impressed with my balance and agility.

We then found this path went nowhere in particular. And we would then have to climb down one of these trecherous mountain paths, like mountain-goats would. I had just watched the documentary Out of the Void, so I felt like one of those adverturer guys, knowing that one wrong step could cost me big time. Got down ok.

Walked past some kids getting stoned and heard the mutter of ... 'works at East....' After a quick glance I couldn't recognise any of them. Walked onwards.

This time we took the correct path. It was a 45 minute walk up to Ridgeway Lookout, or something. It started off nicely enough. We sighed and said, 'This is more like it!' A canopy of native trees, a trickling stream. A few little upward slopes, but that's ok.

Then the path changed and became very steep. I figured it was a brief climb..... so up we went in our jandals. I was getting thirsty by now. The water in the stream looked tempting. Marty drank some to show me it wasn't poisonous, but I still didn't trust it.....

We climbed up for a while. Then every corner we came to was another climb. Then some steep steps. We realised at this point that maybe jandals were inappropriate footwear. I had visions of us breaking our ankles and being air-lifted out like hapless English tourists. A few people passed us going down. They were dressed in tramping shoes and had day packs.

Marty had a hat on. That was our only piece of useful equipment.

But neither of us being quitters, we kept going up. At this point I had to have a wee stop or two. Too puffed.

Then some people coming down told us there was another four hours to go..... or there was a nice seat with a view about five minutes up the path.

We opted for the seat with a view. That seemed doable. Though, we realised that five minutes tramper-time was probably more like 20 minutes layman-time. We kept on trekking.

We are proud to say that we did overtake four people at this point.*

And finally, sweating and dehydrated and squinting in the sun...... we emerged at the seat. It was a lovely seat. I had, for a good ten minutes, begun to think it was a mythical seat that didn't really exist.... as Marty kept thinking he'd caught sight of it further up the path, only to be wrong.

Indeed, it was a lovely view. We wished we had brought a camera (not to mention water and a pair of good shoes). It made us realise we had walked up a long long way, for an afternoon stroll.

And down we went. Going down in jandals is actually more trecherous than going up. There were a few close calls. Towards the bottom, where the path flattens out again, we passed a few people coming towards us in jandals. We tut-tutted and gave each other a knowing look. Fools!

And that's how you do it Naenae-styles.

* Two children, a mother and grandmother.