Wet and windy Wellington Weekend

1.

Eating out

Friday night
We pleasantly surprised to get a last-minute invite to go out to dinner with a couple of friends from Levin who were down for an optometrists convention. We ended up going to Chameleon (at the Intercontinental - since that's where they were staying). It was in the voucher book too. I got venison. It was one of those fancy restaurants where all the mains are over $30 and then they come without 'sides', so you have to order those as well. But we thought the meals were worth it - you can tell they were superior and so rich that they actually were filling. They gave us individually wrapped Mentos fruit lollies with the bill - we agreed that was superior to plain old mints.

Afterwards I met Matt and his friends at the Southern Cross. It's flashed itself up since I was last there. Very fancy. I remember many a drunken T-coll session we used to have there, back in the Zeebos days. Ange says they have quite exquisite food there now too.

Saturday Brunch
Met Lulu and Clint for brunch. Rendezvoused at Dymocks (where I splashed out on two quirky books) and went to some sandwich place upstairs from The Body Shop on Lambton Quay. Due to my tender mouth (one of my wisdom teeth is coming through some more, and I can now understand how teething babies feel) I had the soup.

Saturday Dinner
Matt took me out to Little India. It was actually fairly average service - felt a bit rushed and they'd hover round eyeing up your plates when you were almost finished... and swoop in as soon as you took the last bite. And they told me they DIDN'T take the Entertainment card, when they DO (and it was the main reason we'd chosen to go there!). But I didn't make a big deal out of it, thinking I'd been mistaken...... Might have to go back and get a refund.

Sunday Brunch
Went to the good old Realm again with Cass and Matt. They do a good cheap hot brunch menu. I had Eggs Florentine. Under $10. I was excited to see a counterfeit $1,000,000 note had been stuck to my windscreen by someone..... until I realised it was church propoganda. Sneaky buggers.

Sunday Afternoon Tea
Cass and I dined at Elements in Kilbirnie. I got a yummy carrot cake slice, slathered with cream-cheeese icing. We enjoyed the free Cafe Culture magazines - but I found several cringe-worthy typos. Why can't people use posessive pronouns???

2.

Dramas

Ange rang me up at 8am on Sunday morning. It was one of those great opening lines where she got to say, 'Sorry to bother you - but I'm in the emergency department at the hospital and I've been on an IV drip for a few hours so they won't let me go home unless someone picks me up'. She's ok - but had another bout of doubling-over stomache pains and vomitting. Scan-time. She has great tales of having to walk/crawl there at 1am on Sunday morning and vomitting as soon as she got to the waiting room and then fainting as she was trying to get into the wheelchair. They gave her morphine. She said it made her weird.

Anyhow, she was very fragile and moved very gingerly. Poor Ange.

3.

Top Ten
a) Things that never seem to go as smoothly as they should (and I expect something to go wrong every time I try them)
b) Things boyfriends enjoy doing (other than the obvious)

My Answers
a) Setting the video to tape something and using the bloody voucher book.
b) Defragmenting their girlfriend's hard-drive and figuring out all the gadgets in their girlfriend's new car.

4.

Sorbet and Gelato

These are my favourite dessert treats at the moment. You can buy tubs of them at Woolworths and New World. Lemon sorbet and pistachio nut gelato. Mmmmm. I like to fool myself into thinking they're both healthy. That was it's ok to eat the entire tub by myself. Matt tried to share my sorbet, but I kept defeating him in spoon-duels and stealing it back off him.

5.

Bowling

Out for a romantic walk after our dinner, Matt showed me the new bowling alley out the back of Courtney Central. Good gracious - how did the buildup to that being opened up pass me by???? It's a truly grown-up alley with a big bar and sofas and large-screen TVs...... Looks like a place that needs checking out. Drunken bowling = Fun!

Now I have two ideas for my birthday.
a) Murder Mystery Night at my flat
b) Dinner and bowling in town
Not sure which one to go for. Option B would be easier to organise, but I haven't done a murder mystery in years and they're so very fun......

Clothes: Lost and Found

You will all be happy to know that I have rediscovered a cupboard full of my clothes (I had absent mindedly shoved them into a laundry cupboard, probably to give the place a superficial clean when looking for a flatmate when K. moved out - three months ago).

I had all kinds of conspiracy theories about what had happened to my two hoodies, red t-shirt and black jeans......

I like the fact that I never once entertained the thought that I had lost them myself. I never lose clothes. I was one of those kids that didn't lose anything at school - I looked after stuff good. My brother, on the other hand, was hopeless.

Hence, I have a vivid memory of him biking past me on the way home from college one day wearing one of my shirts and me being so livid that I may well have actually shaken a fist at him and yelled down the street. I didn't trust him not to lose my stuff. He knew it too - looked very sheepish and cycled off quickly. Cheeky bugger. I may very well have told on him to Mum.

Erm.

I'm not sure if this contradicts or confirms my stead-fast belief in my ability to never lose anything, but I also found a hat and cardie in the pocket of my laptop case that I had thought were missing (I assumed the mysterious hoodie thief had branched out into knitwear).

I am very happy. It's like I went on a shopping mission for a new wardrobe without having to spend any money! This is further emphasised by the fact that we have a washing machine for the first time in three months and I've done about five loads in a week (still one more to go - the woollens). I just ironed about 25 items. My wardrobe is brimming with opportunities....

* * *

Nicky

I am talking to Nicky on MSN. She did 'something' for the first time last week.

Makes you wonder.

She's going to catch up with Steve Roger again soon. Good old Steve.

Ids and Ods

I have very little to blog about. But in order to keep up with my blog neighbours, I'll make an effort! Even Cass and Ange have blogged semi-regularly lately.....

* * *

I went to a dinner on Friday night for a guy who was leaving. I had that odd situation where I was stuck sitting down the 'quiet' end of the table. It really does affect your night, where you sit. And it's awkward when you arrive either very ealry (in which case you have no control over the arrangement, and just have to pick a spot and see who surrounds you) or very late (when you have very few choices left) And etiquette demands that you do not move once seats are committed to, as this would be highly insulting to your neighbours.

I actually ended up getting to know the two annex-ladies (they do the photocopying and stuff for us teachers). Kinda interesting! We went thirds in a bottle of wine. It was just me and them down the very end of the table. To my other side was the guest of honour. We watched a few people in the restaurant who looked like 'couples' and tried to decipher whether they were on first dates. That's always a fun game!

* * *

Matt was a bit sick in the weekend. I bought him tissues. It sucks not having good tissues when you have a runny nose. As a long-time allery sufferer this is something I am very sympathetic to. In the right circumstances, I would pay a lot of money just for a box of tissues. Toilet paper is just not enough sometimes.

He's been breathing germs all over me for the weekend, so my immune system will have to fight hard. I've been training it up for years - it is superior. His flatmate actually has (W?)hooping-cough. I didn't know that people in the western world still got that. Apparently there's nothing you can do about it. It just lasts for about 90 days, draining you, and then goes away of its own accord.

* * *

Here's one of those stories that you wouldn't believe if it wasn't on an official news website. Some McDonald's worker was made to be humilated and strip-searched by her boss and boss's fiance because a man on the phone claimed to be the police and instructed them to detain her. One of those examples of humans acting despicably when given 'authority' and losing their own judgement.

It's like that famous psychology experiment where they got psych students to administer harsh electric shocks to subjects when they got questions wrong. They kept going and going even though the people were obviously in pain - just 'cause they'd been told to. Also like the true-life case the German film 'The Experiment' is based on, where they set up a prison experiment, where volunteers from the public were randomly assigned as either wardens or inmates - and it quickly got out of hand. Makes you wonder. Wonder what kinda teacher I woulda been in the days of corporal punishment......

* * *

God of War is a much better movie than I thought it would be. Quite nicely shot, and not so macho as most action movies. The films that are included as previews on the DVD are all crap B-grade action flicks starring people like Van Dam and Wesley Snipes. This is a bit misleading. I think the person who matched them up with this film had the same misconceptions that I did.

Nicholas Cage plays his role as a gun-runner pretty straight, as if he is just a good salesman who might just as easily be selling cars or real estate. It also has a non-Hollywood ending which is always a plus.

* * *

I actually got a birthday card for my Grandma. I think her birthday is on the 19th. I must remember to send it now! I am ashamed to admit I haven't sent her a card in years. I am a slack-ass grand-daughter. I went through an awful teenage phase where I didn't like her - for no particular reason. I think I was taking on some of the things my mum used to moan about as asides - and somehow thought it would be loyal to mum to not like Grandma...... It got so bad that my parents threatened to not to me with them on a family trip to America if I wasn't nicer! She only had the one child, my mum, who passed away. So now me and my brother are her only surviving relatives. She's one of those people who's incredibly easy to please and appreciative of anything.

I'm gonna try and be a better grand-daughter! Must ring her up on her birthday....

My nana is kinda the polar opposite. Very unemotional and doesn't like a fuss (really - she's not one of those people who says that). Certainly that's where my dad gets his rationality and calmness from. Nana is a tiny grey haired lady (five-foot-nothing) and she got given the fingers by some big trucker when she did something bad on the road.... In reply, rather than getting flustered and scared, she actually thumbed her nose at him. If it was still the 1950s, that woulda been the height of insults............

* * *

Tuesday. Good day.

I liked today. It was an easy day. I taught two classes and got paid for a full day's work...... Shhh, don't tell the Ministry.

I played basketball. It was good too. Lots of running and shooting and passing and rebounding. I feel virtuous and fit! I was playing against students from my school and I don't think I embarrassed myself too badly. Scored some points. Kept up reasonably well. Didn't injure any small children.

* * *
But the highlight of my day was ..... Sven(with a)d's hospitality! I had a feeling my casual hint about coming over for tea-and-biccies after basketball would result in there actually being a tray of freshly baked cookies being taken out of the oven ten minutes after I arrived and me being given a selection of exotic sounding herbal teas from the T-shop. And I was right!

I asked an innocent question about whether he had forced C. to role-play with him yet (not something you'd openly ask non-RPG folk).... and half and hour later he stopped for air and C. was able to say, 'So... yes, that's actually how we met'. I actually enjoyed the speil he'd given on the intricacies of RPG, though I was disappointed that there wasn't more physical acting out of the scenarios. I stand by believing it's a great creative outlet for grownups (in theory). Certainly more structured than me and Cassie deciding to put on obnoxious faux-British accents and trying to convince people she's 32nd in line to the throne.....

I think I'd quite like to do a murder-mystery party for my birthday this year. Though, that limits the numbers and I do enjoy asking random people (those ones on the fringe of the social group, or the ones I only see socially once a year at my birthday.... like James and Meredith).

I am possibly going to a 'Nurses, Air Hostesses and Dirty Old Perverts' themed party in the weekend. Erm. I think I'm more comfortable dressing up like Helen Clark - but I'll give the slutty costumes a go, I guess. They have these little Star Trek mini-dresses at the Costume Cave.... I could go as a futuristic air hostess from the Starship Enterprise! That would be geeky......

* * *
While I'm uploading photos..... Cassie (or was it Ange?) mentioned this weekend that everybody knows someone who looks like jesus. Here's my brother in a rather unkempt phase. What a mane of hair he sported! He is a man, a hairy man.

Day One. And Counting.

School

Brrrrrrriiiiiing. School's back in. Today, something went wrong in just about every single lesson I had. Actually, the lesson where I was winging it the most actually went the best. But after that I had based my entire lesson around a DVD that ended up having an invisible scratch in it and refused to play, some teacher who I shall not name STOLE the resource I'd spent hours making in the holidays and generously said, 'Hey - you can use it this period, I don't need it til after lunch' (and then he left it in his folder all day) and I forgot to photocopy something crucial.

All up, I had to jog (literally) back to the staffroom during three out of four of my classes to get back-up stuff. Good exercise and nice gossipping time for the kids, I guess.....

I got given a chocolate frog in the staff meeting by our DP in recognition of the work we've been doing on the magazine already. That was nice :) I am easily bribed!

* * *

Film Noir

I am teaching this to my media class as a genre. I am learning new terms like 'hard-boiled detective' and 'chiaroscuro lighting'. If anyone has any great theories of why film noir reflects the society it was produced in .... I will give you a chocolate fish for sharing that information with me!

* * *

Driving

I'm still doin' it. Drove to school for the first morning today. I went the easy-way, using the lights. I discovered this is a painfully slow route. I might try the hard-way tomorrow and merge at the tunnel.... eeeeeek. I also made myself drive the hard-way to and from netball today (it was 9.40..... I had the road to myself, baby). I tailed Morgan home down Hanson St in my as-yet-to-be-named car. I tend to call it by its number plate so far - my little DCW. Got a ring to it....

Did I mention I left my lights on at school last week and got a flat battery..... luckily Glenn works down the hill at Nissan and came and gave me a jump-start...... He'll hold that over my head for the next six months any time he wants to 'borrow' my milk/soap/washing-powder/pudding/money etc.

* * *

Netball

I liked tonight's game. I think that rookie ref is getting better, and I quite like the tone he runs the game with. He's firm but has a sense of humour. I liked watching Fish's battle with the fiesty pushy girl. She does good in those battles. I think she is always in the right.

The leapy Aussie guy annoyed me. He talked too much. He pointed out to me that I'd winded him when we collided. Get hard, mate. I wouldn't have mentioned it if it was me. I kinda tripped him over by mistake too. That's what you get for being leapy and annoying. I deal to you!

Aaron has potential, once he gets over the desire to jump and gets in that zen-like state where you wait the three seconds before you shoot. It's hard to get used to not shooting it straight away, as a basketballer. Good passer though - I like playing with people who have nice cross-court vision.

Ken was good. He didn't have any bad phases that I can remember. Praise be.

* * *

New Flatmates

So far so good. They seem nice. Probably a bit more rugga-bugga than me, but they're girls. And Kate watches trashy TV too! I have a partner is slothness! Matt is keeping up his good form in Kiwi Idol. GO THE LEVIN BOY! If he makes the final two, I might even give him a vote. That would be a first for me, voting on a TV show. Possibly not a proud moment..... but all Levin has at the moment is the giant market gardener and Carlos Spencer...... We need more.

* * *

Inconvenient Truth

The principal at the school I teach at liked the film so much that she wants to shout the entire student body to go watch it as a group (not sure where the money would come from in the budget). Nice idea. I don't know if it will get past all the cranky old teachers who balk at losing their seniors for a period. But she is a stubborn old dame once she sets her mind to something. I'm rooting for her! Field Trips are Fun!

Rites of Passage

When you are are younger, these are certain milestones you need to achieve.
1) Taking the training wheels off your bike.
2) Getting your first school bag (like a big kid)
3) Getting to write in pen at school (instead of pencil)
4) Being assigned household chores (because you're now tall enough to reach the kitchen sink safely)
5) Switching from baths to showers (why don't parents do that sooner?)
6) Getting your first watch (probably digital)
7) Having a full-on sleep-over with screaming girls (I can totally see why parents put THIS one off)
8) Getting helpings nearly as big as your dad's at dinner
9) Being given wine (watered down by a lot of H2O)
10) Learning how to tie shoe-laces (though, velcro does rule - BATA BULLETS!)

Rites of Womanhood
1) Learning how to braid and do French plaits (actually - I still can't do them!)
2) Your mum letting your rumage through her depleted make-up collection and 'play'
3) Walking around in high-heels from the dress-up box that are twice as big as your feet
4) Getting your ears pierced (I only got mine done three year ago!)
5) Shaving your legs (the end of Form 2)
6) Getting your first bra (just before Form 3)
7) Getting your eyebrows waxed and realising you should've done it YEARS ago (five years ago, never going back)
8) Going on the pill
9) Dying your hair and getting streaks
10) Discovering hair straighteners

Rites of Adulthood
1) Paying your own rent
2) Having a lease/bill in your name and having to deal with beuracracy and trying to get money out of flatmates and dealing with call centres
3) Moving flats and dealing with furniture and stairs and hills - without the help of your parents!
4) Having mounting APs and DDs in your bank account (insurance, retirement fund, charity....)
5) Grey hairs.
6) Starting to like the food and drink your parents like (fizzy drink is yuck, herbal tea is good)
7) Developing appreciation for good quality house-hold linen
8) Getting driver's licence and car
9) Having enough money to make large impulse purchases (usually on clothes....)
10) Realising that cliched relationship problems really DO exist! It's not just a myth popularised by TV and film (he's too controlling, he puts his friends ahead of me, all he wants is something casual, we're too different, he's too young, there's some kind of love triangle, he cheated!).

Rites of Passage still to come (for me.... )
1) Getting engaged and married/unionised
2) Having kids (though I've been planning the names for years)
3) Buying a house (in Wellington???? fat chance!)
4) Getting life insurance
5) Starting to watch Coronation St by choice.

Perfection

Initially, I was a sloppy driver. I would park horribly in angle parks and say, 'Bah, that'll do!'

I have made a conscious decision to not settle for anything less than perfection. I have now on a handful of ocassions made myself get back in the car and repark because I'm not satisfied.

Today I did a parallel park up the street (but it was a huge and very easy one)... and I made myself back into it, even though I could've driven in frontways. Then I noticed a smaller and more difficult one right outside my flat... and walked back up the hill and made myself repark.

My first attempt was woeful.... but the second one was spot on! I think I was mere millimetres away from hitting the car in front at one stage though....

I have also conquered some small milestones, like figuring out how to drive through the multiple pedestrian crossings in Hataitai and how to pull across three lanes of traffic from the Basin roundabout to Mt Vic (to be fair.... 11am on a week day isn't the most challenging time to attempt this - but it's a start!).

* * *

One of my new flatmates is moving in tomorrow. Her name is also Kate J. Bound to be confusion and hilarity at some point as my grandma starts telling her all about her gall-stones, thinking it's me.

* * *

GO MATT FROM LEVIN IN KIWI IDOL!

* * *

I quite like Outrageous Fortunes. Nice when Kiwi TV doesn't make you cringe! There are a few goodies around now..... or maybe I'm just getting old and 'uncool'....

* * *

I will soon be playing basketball out at Rongatai College every Tuesday night if anyone out that way wants to invite me over for tea and biccies (... ahem.... Svend.....).

* * *

Thanks for the pretty badge, Fishy :) Maybe decorative badges are grown-up versions of friendship bracelets.... Who can I get one for next?

* * *

Argh. (You know what I'm talking about, Ange.)

Out of Context

I was walking down the street today and someone coming towards me stopped and said, 'Hi!'

He looked happy to see me.

I had no idea who he was. He may have even used my name.

Rather than admit defeat, I said 'Hi' back and pretended to be happy to see him too.

He spoke some more. Luckily, he had a British accent (so my first guess of it being my old flatmate Simon and that he had gained about 15 kg and grown a bit of a beard) was wrong.

It was a guy I work with.

I'm a little embarrassed it took me so long to realise who he was. He sits right across the aisle from me.

Sometimes I am terrible at recognising people out of context. I walked straight past a guy I dated for about five weeks a while ago. He had to call out to me and made me stop and chat for a while.

So don't be offended if this happens to you too.

I am definitely of the school of thought that rather than admit you don't remember somebody, pretend you do. It's easy to do as long as you don't use names. This works for one-night-stands too (I hear). You should hear Nicky's story about using the wrong name (due to seeing a passport on the guy's bedside table, but it turning out to be his brother's passport). Hilaaarious. She also had the fleeting thought that 'my goodness - he's much better looking than I thought' after looking at the photo.....

***

Drove to netball today. All I did wrong was drive with the handbrake on for a while and hit someone's mirror. WATCH OUT FOR ME!

Driving

I have done some brave Wellington driving without crashing!

1) I drove all the way to Wellington by myself. Except for a dicey moment on the motorway just outside Paraparam where I accidentally ended up in the middle lane, it went quite smoothly.

2) I have driven to Kilbirnie Pak n Save a couple of times. I like that. It's an easy drive. And I can buy as MUCH as I want. I don't have to carry it far.

3) I have driven to Ange's house twice. It's in Newtown.

4) I dropped Matt home tonight in Ghuznee St. It was dark and rainy. Hard to see the lanes! Other than almost hitting a bus while going around the Basin, it was not too bad.

I'm gettin' the hang of it.

Althoooough.... I have done the following things since arriving in Wellington on Friday....
1) Driven with the hand brake on
2) Driven with no lights on
3) Tried to start driving with the engine not turned on (and wondered why the car went forwards when I had it in reverse.... almost hitting Glenn's car which was parked in front of me)
4) Hit a few kerbs...
5) Parked horribly in a couple of angle parks

Doesn't feel like my holidays have really started yet. I've had hardly any 'alone' time or 'admin' time.

Watch out....

... I'm on the road!

Got me licence. The tester guy faked me out and told me this list of things I'd done wrong (so I was thinking 'oh well - there's always next time), then he stuck out his hand and said 'Congratulations - you go it!'. I was quite surprised.

I dropped my friend and her kids off home (she'd taken me to the test).... then I went to the supermarket ALL BY MYSELF! It was crrrrazy fun.

I might be buying her car off her too. It's a '98 Mazda Familia. Good nick. Just gonna get it checked out by a mechanic.

I'm loving this whole 'driving' thing. Very glad I didn't do it years ago - then I wouldn't be able to have as much fun right this moment with it.

I spent yesterday morning looking after my friend's kids (thought it was a good trade-off for her swapping cars with my dad for the day and taking me to the test and hanging round town with her kids waiting for me). Her 18 month old must LOVE me. Didn't cry the whole time. She just sat quietly on my knee and coloured on some paper and on her hands with some felts. I had to wipe her nose about 20 times. That sucks. Watched some Spongebob. That was pretty sweet. I like old Spongebob.

Oopsie and Good

Oopsie.
All along I've had it in my head that my driving test was the first day of the holidays..... I was just about out the door and I looked at the form and it said 26/9/06. That's tomorrow.... Oops. My stepmum had cleaned the car and planned her day around taking me down! Luckily I've been able to pull a bit of a car-swap for tomorrow (Lynne and Dad have a specialists appointment down in Wellington, but will take my friend Fi's car and she will drop me off in the one I've been practising in!).

Good.
I have two new flatmates sussed! Julia and Kate. Both just got back from teaching primary in the UK earlier this year. 27, sporty, from Christchurch. Only actually spoke to Julia on the phone but she sounded good enough. I figure I've had bad enough luck when I've seen people face-to-face, so that doesn't seem to make much of a difference! So from now on if you ring you'll have to ask for me by full name (we're both Kate J). They're not moving in til late next week - but at least I have an end in site and am getting (what sound like) quality flatmates. Yay!

Holidays, eh.

Thusfar the holidays have not lived up to expectations.

Friday
Actually, Friday was fine. Had drinks at the Tasting Room with the extended English Department and Friends. As usual, tales of hilarity shared by Mrs A and unusually there were actually almost as many males as females there.

I then ventured on to the 'young people' staff drinks at The Cambridge. Our drinks there were gate-crashed by Cassie and Ed, which was a nice surprise. Me and Ken are very excited about a pending lawn bowls matchup with the school team. I was showing one of the girls in my Med Studs class my bowling 'form' and she showed me hers. It's ON. They're gonna wear white stubbies and visors. Me and Ken will sport full whites too. Perhaps the more traditional sun-hats and aviators.

Me and Cass went to a small cheap Taiwanese restaurant on Courtenay whose name eludes me right now. Matt decided to join us and texted me to order something 'cheap and delicious' for him. We discovered that while the BBQ-pork-rice-porridge dish was in fact very cheap (a reasonable $8) it was in fact, not 'delicious' (according to the popular concensus, though Cassie refused to taste it).

It had a delightful layer of transluscent fat on top and little cubes of perfectly square pork fat swimming in the runny porridge mixture. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Luckily they served bubble tea.

I went home and fell asleep in bed by 10pm trying to read some of my book. That was after I had to walk through the lounge to find my two exiting flatmates lounging on the couch, having not bothered to so much wipe the bench or do anything with the pile of dishes that had been there since the previous night. I ignored it and just passed through, muttering my 'only 24 more hours of them' mantra.

Saturday
Ready for an onslaught of calls inquiring about my flatmate wanted ad in the Dompost..... I was disappointed by the one singular call which resulted in an 'I'll ring back if I'm interested'. And no follow-up call.

None-the-less, I used the potential visitings of potential flatmates to ask the exiting flatmates if they could perhaps tidy the dishes off the bench which had been there since early Thursday night (shortly after I'd tidied up because a potential flatmate was coming to inspect the place). We actually had NO clean glasses by this stage - and I own about twenty drinking vessels. He was rather put out by this request, but begrudgingly did it (making a side comment about the fact that a few of the lemons in my fruit bowl were rotting.... as if that made us equally grotty).

Went out to dinner with Dad, Lynne and my brother for his 31st birthday. Monsoon Poon is fairly delicious (unlike BBQ-pork-porridge). That was the first time Matt's met 'the family'. Not sure if I'd warned him sufficiently about David (though Dave was fairly ok except for the nervous swallowing action he's developed).

Some lovely news is that my step-mum, Lynne, is getting closer and closer to finishing 'the book'. It's a monstrosity of a novel that she's been writing for years and is up to doing the second edit on. Her editor and mentor is very pleased and already has two publishers in mind that he hopes will be interested. It is very close to being a dream come to fruition for her.

Home is good because it has electric blankets, a fire and mixed nuts in a jar on the fridge (I have already helped myself to too many).

Home is bad because it has lots of dog fur and pollen. Despite what the magic box at the Women's Expo says, I AM allergic to lots of air-borne thingies.

Sunday
Having hitched a ride home with the folks on Saturday night I've spent today slumbering around. Watched lots of Sky TV - love the Food Channel which had the USA Pie Making Competition. I have a combination of miserable allergies which have made my eyes itchy and glands swollen, but mysteriously no sneezing yet, so it could be worse.

Went for a big drive with Dad. He made me go on State Highway One.... and TRIED to make me turn right into one of those country roads. I declined that offer and nearly drove to Otaki because I kept chickening out..... Split second decision making is not yet my forte at 100k an hour. I reckon I could quite happily have kept driving to Wellington, though. Following the road is easy....

Other than that I think I got some of my driving mojo back. We had to drive all around town to find a suitable parellel parking opportunity (bless Levin and its ample angle parks). Let's just hope that one doesn't come up in the test..... I'm much better at backing into driveways! Still not very good at sticking right under 50ks an hour, so will have to be watchful of that tomorrow.

I'm philosophical - if I fail I'm not actually any worse off than I was before. So I'll give it my best!

Have had three fruitless flatmate enquiries (well, one was someone calling back to confirm that they weren't interested) and the other two didn't respond to messages/texts I left with them after initial contact. Probably doesn't help that I'm not in town to show them round.

Have just reposted an ad on one site and put a fresh one on another. Here's hoping.....

Oh, the most exciting thing of the day was doing a google search on 'aramoana movie' and finding that my blog site was the fourth site listed in the results.... How strange............ [In a 'jackpot' moment, I found an article in the Sunday Herald about how the chief censor, Bill Hastings [who incidentally was my law lecturer a few times], was consulting with the community of what it should be rated when released. Perfect for my Media Studies class to use if we do a case study on it!]

Blogging is therapeutic :)

Yikes.

Just when I thought my flatting situation couldn't get any worse...... it has. I will attempt to have discretion and tact and not mention names and specific details.

That will do. I just needed a tiny little unspecific vent. Suffice to say that if you have previously met Flatmate X and thought he was a straight up decent kinda guy.... you were probably wrong. He is in his room playing loud angry music. I am hiding and hoping that if he thinks I'm asleep he'll leave me alone.

The Mind of a Teacher

My head is full. There is too much in there at the moment. Too many little dates and details and back-up plans and vague commitments and worst-case-scenarios. Something's bound to fall out.

In the next couple of days I have to
1) Remember to collect in 'green intention forms' from my form class. Which reminds me, I seem to have lost two of them along the way. Will have to find those.
2) Ask teachers if they have any work for a girl who's away with chicken pox.
3) Meet with magazine committee girls and inevitably have to chase down fifty people for articles by Friday.
4) Find and pilfer the school digital camera for one of my students to borrow.
5) Get the dictaphone to another student by lunchtime today.
6) Figure out the best way to save finished Freehand documents by tomorrow morning (there are complications with images and stuff).
7)

In a crazy turn of events...

Most of my 'blog crew' haven't added anything new in the past few days.... except for Ange. Ange NEVER updates her blog. Quite shocking! If anyone feels like giving advice, she is undergoing a self-imposed 'lent' and has given up her five favourite indulgences. She wants suggestions on new indulgences she can take up to fill the void.

***

Sam's Gathering

I think Sammy can be pretty proud of the turnout on Friday. Looking around, I was already feeling anxious about what I can do for my own 30th (next year) ... and doubt I could get even half that many people. Though, I could bulk it up with relatives..... Hmmmm.

Great theme. It was nice to be able to go out and not have to think too hard about what to wear (as a girl). And it was a nice wee talking point to start conversations. Also possibly a good excuse for guys to check out girls' breasts and have a context for it.....

For the record - me and Ange were there first. That means we are the most loyal friends of all! Though, at some point Ange snuck out (her alcohol lent was badly timed). Before that, I got to sneakily point out a few 'bloggers' she hadn't been able to put a face to. Well done to Leon for the tattoo idea. I told Sam me and Cass have a 1/15th part ownership of it. I shall be choosing that 1/15th carefully. Possibly somewhere on the beak.

Lots of interesting moments to witness. I got to introduce Morgue to the the netballer who he callously replaced in our team, got to see Cassie try to balance six shot glasses on top of each other (note the use of 'try'), played around with static electricity, saw Sam's lovely older sister Kate.

One interesting thing was noticing that while Sam himself isn't a match-maker, there were a lot of people at his 30th who had previously dated/slept-together. I counted at least nine people who had two previous partners of some kind at the party. And that's only the ones I knew about.
I found myself pointing people out to Ange (who knew hardly anyone there) and saying, 'Yeah - he used to go out with that girl over there' and the like.

Saturday

I watched some great crap TV with Matt. The highlight was My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss. I'm sure it's been on before, but I mustn't have watched it. It's a reality TV show with the same format as The Apprentice, but they are tricking the contestants and the boss is really just an actor. Their first task was to pan-handle and see how much they could get. It was hilaaaarious. The car-salesman was taking money off kids, the men's team had hand-made t-shirts with 'Help Chicago' hand-written on them (and they looked like the biggest crooks ever) and the Ivy League women were selling hugs.

The actor-boss got told by the producer who to fire but got to make up his own reasons. So he said one guy was too short, and you can't succeed in business if you're short... and he said the other guy's suit looked too expensive, and he said he wasn't just after a 'suit' guy.

We were laughing out loud. It was one of those episodes that had lines in it that we were still saying to each other later that day. Funny. On Saturday afternoon on TV3.

Saturday Night

I went to a gangster themed party with Matt's friends. Except Matt was a party pooper and didn't go in costme, so neither did I (flapper dresses don't suit me anyhow). We were almost the only ones not in costume. I was at least able to blame it on Matt :)

I was still wearing my 'I Stopped in Levin' tshirt, and let me tell you what - it's a talking point! It started at least two conversations. A German girl actually said 'Levin - I like that place!' which was a little odd. She'd been camping and op-shopping. Another girl, it turns out, was in the year below me at school (we don't remember each other) but has somehow gained an English accent recently so I never would've picked her as a Levinian.

The oddest thing was talking to the Scottish guy who used to work at Newtown United Video. I was what you might call 'a regular' there and also garnered a lot of fines. Me, Nicky and Rebecca had a weekly ritual of getting out two DVDs each on $1.25 Tuesday and we had nicknames for all the people who worked there. Scottish guy was one of the stalwarts.

Anyhow - last night it turned out he has known Matt for years (he said to me 'How the hell do you know this mother-f****? He's the most random guy in Wellington') but he also remembered my full name and year of birth......... I like that attention to detail. And that's after me living in Hataitai all of this year and him not having worked there for over a year himself. Anyhow, interesting actually having a chat to one of those iconic Wellington figures (to me).

Sunday

Lots of netball. That's the best exercise I've had in ages. Sweating buckets. Though, I had the worst shooting night that I've had in years. Odd. I wasn't actually nervous about shooting- it surprised me greatly any time I missed. Just kept happening again and again..... I refused to accept that I was crap, and kept trying. That must be what Tony Rampton is thinking when he shoots 3-pointers for the Tall Blacks.

My highlight was Morgue somehow losing the ball when there was nobody else around for miles and it was just dribbling along the ground..... kinda summed up that second game.

Now I actually have to do some marking. Bugger it. Bring on the holidays. Only five days of teaching to go...... COUNTING DOWN.

I'd say it's almost tennis weather too (I'm going to start trying to drum up interest in after-work tennis matches next term).

Nothing Serious

I think I have nothing meaningful to say right now. I cleaned some mould off the ceiling of the bathroom. This time I was fully clothed (for the first part where I was precariously perched on the side of the bath). So I have learnt from my mistake! I will always be fully clothed when standing on precarious bathroom perches and reaching up to vigorously swipe at mould with my ever-weakening arms.

I am settling in to watch episode #13 of season two of Scrubs. I think it's the one where Turk proposes to Carla.....

Here is my latest list of things to compile.

1) Word you wished people used more often.
2) Item you bought with your first 'real' paycheck
3) Where do you stand when you're doing aerobics (or a similar group exercise)
4) Minimum number of times you'll let the phone ring before answering it
5) Something you can't do that you wish you could
6) The most fun solution to the transport issues in Wellington
7) If you were in a war, who would you want to lead your troop
8) What musical instrument do you wish you could play
9) The most random thing you've ever won
10) In group shopping activities, do you lead or take the trolley

1) Malarkey (see my list of 43 things I'd like to do)
2) A bunch of purple and yellow flowers for my dad (his favourite colours), with a card attached saying 'Take me off the pay-roll!' The one and only time I've had flowers delivered to anyone.
3) At the very very back. I am tall and gangly. I accidentally had to do a jazz-dance recital at university with two dainty Asian girls in front of dozens of people...... It was traumatic.
4) Three times.
5) Click the fingers on my right hand (I can only do it with my left hand). Dive into swimming pools.
6) Giant flying foxes. We have a lot of hills and valleys. Why not, I say, why not???
7) Either Vince Vaughan's character from Dodgeball or the mean doctor from Scrubs.
8) Harmonica. Or 'harp' as we folkies call it.
9) A furby. It came couriered to my door at uni... and I had no idea how I'd won it.
10) I often get trolley duty. But I quite like being the third-person who gets to go off on individual missions sans trolley.

Hey yo yo

Another weekend has kinda slipped by. No homework done, lots of TV watched, lots of food eaten, flatmate announcing he's moving out. I'm looking forward to feasibly getting my licence in two weeks time (touch wood) and getting a car in the near future. That will be choice and people can start claiming back on all the rides they've given me over the year. Consider me Taxi Kate once I have my own car.

1.
Crumpin' Ain't Easy

At Matt's I watched a documentary on these kinda dance gangs in the ghetto parts of LA. There seem to be two factions - the Crumpers and the Clowners. It was bizarre. The Clowners are these little clown groups who went and did kids' parties and danced and wore funky face paint.... and they were all about the hip-hoppish dancing. One of their mums said, 'In this neighbourhood you're either in the Cryps or the Bloods.... or you do Clowning'. I thought it was a mockumentary after the first few minutes, but apparently not. It's call 'Rize Up'.

2.
The Crocodile Hunter

Like Sam, I feel the need to publicly note his passing. I've seen a few episodes on Sky this weekend (I think they have a huge tribute for him going). I liked the guy, always did. He has that same kinda charm that John Campbell does, where the first time you see them you think they're taking the piss..... but that's really the way they are! He had this kinda genuine child-like enthusiasm that he communicated really well.

3.
Sam's Birthday

I'm really looking forward to this, 'cause Sam has cool friends. Should be a lovely group of people. I reckon we should go with one of my other suggestions for the theme of it, where everyone brings their best paper plane and we have some kind of throw-off competition.... in honour of Sam being a Plane Geek.

Must go now.... Kiwi Idol is on.....

It's a Twist-Off!

1.
80s Quiz

As should have been predicted, Team Judge took out the 80s quiz held at my school. Highlights were....
- the mood-music provided by a girl on a synthesizer (imagine alien noises)
- Cassie taking part in the aerobics dancing challenge (grapevine again, damnit!)
- the afore-mentioend music timing PERFECTING with a moment where my step-mum suddenly looked up with that light-bulb expression on her face; it was like something from a comic (if comic's had music)

It controversially ended in a tie (I claim the tie was fabricated just to force a Twist-off). So, me and Sam had to play Twister against two likely volunteers from Maggie's Martyrs. In short, I was glad to be wearing opaque footless leggings unders my skirt, there may be some good ass-shots of me coming, I fought through some serious cramp to last long enough to take out the other team in a mass collapse, leaving Sam the sole-survivor in his safe possie in the corner.

2.
SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!!!

If nothing else, this film has spawned some really fun in-jokes. I like to yell out '______ in/on a _______!!!' [insert appropriate living-beings and places] at any opportunity. Sometimes I'll even put the 'mf' word in there too.

3.
Father's Day

I got my dad lots of goodies....
- one of those fake spiders from the Met Shop that has a long air-tube coming it, and when you squeeze the bit on the end it jumps up
- a wee skull from Iko Iko that has slime and body parts inside it which you can make protude from it's eye-holes
- a horrific mask from the $2 Shop
- a sort of Best of Johnny Cash CD (which I have duly ripped onto my laptop and burned for my brother as well - a gift that keeps on giving!)

The CD was an impulse purchase. I figured I couldn't buy myself the second season of Scrubs and only give him gag gifts.... Damnit.

Top Ten Roles

I like dressing up and acting. Not in an 'adult fantasy' kind of way.

1.
Helen Clark
I was the Right Honorable Ms Clark at the Teachers' College production. I got to make an entrance on the red carpet and say, 'Labour supports the arts! Where's National, eh?' lots of times. I have a surprisingly good Helen-voice which I do not pull out on request.

2.
Snooperman
I was the infamous (or not) Snooperman in a form two class play. He was a clumsy journalist superhero. I made my entrance by tripping over and was so convincing everyone thought it was unscripted, but it honestly was intentional.

3.
King
I played the royal role of the king in Cinderella in standard three. It sounds like a small role, but it had the same number of lines as the Prince did (I counted) and it was the school play so I had to try out for it. I still remember my first line of 'My son, this is a sad state of affairs. What is wrong with all the girls we have brought to the palace?'. I wore my Adidas pants and a purple robe.

4.
Cleaning Lady
I was in the chorus of the highschool play as a cleaner. I wore a lovely old-lady ensemble of long johns, one of mum's 80s dresses, an apron, slippers and a head-scarf. I made good use of my duster-prop when entering and exiting scenes. While I had no lines I think my character added a lot to the play. I even had a special old lady walk that I used.

5.
The Tornado
In a desperate, yet clever, attempt to match-make me and Mr Ball the kids cast us as The Tornado in their pantomime of The Wizard of Oz. We had to circle around Dororthy holding hands, whilst dressed in toilet paper and rubbish bags. My finest moment - we won the staff performance award.

6.
A Tree
One of my English classes realised at the last minute that they needed a teacher to be in their pantomime. They asked if I wanted to be a tree. I took my role very seriously and brought a few branches I pulled of a tree on the way to school and made a mask with leaves stapled to it. I even wore a green tshirt and brown skirt. I stood on stage for ten minutes dutifully holding up my branches, which slowly got lower and lower as my arms started aching. Being a tree is hard.

7.
A Zombie Cheerleader
Me and Sarah were zombie cheerleaders in our netball skirts and white face paint with dripping 'blood' at the T-Coll Halloween party. We went to Barney's like that. We were drunk. I then walked home to Berhampore like that.

8.
An Angel
Cassie insisted on being the Devil, which I thought was well-cast, so I had to be the Angel. I had just that day broken up with a guy and got a wee bit drunk.... so I may have not acted as dignified and angelic as I looked.

9.
A Piggie
I was a pig in a Year 9 camp play, one of three pigs. I had a toilet paper roll snout. I ad-libbed a bit and hammed up falling over and pulling a few people down with me.... comedic genius. Mr Ball may have been the Big Bad Wolf.

10.
A Pirate
I was a pirate at the Camp Quality Disco last year (as was everybody else). I had a very convincing 'Argh me hearties!' and a moustache.

I Now Know How to be a Woman

I went with Cass, Ange and Lauren to the WOMEN'S EXPO.

Here is my take.

1.
A woman needs to have good breath and soft skin.

Free Stuff
When you first go in, after paying $10, you get a bag of brochures and samples. Unless, that is, your name is 'Ange'. They seemed to leave the Extra gum, Colgate toothpaste and a few other things out of her bag. Sucked to be her.

Apparently to be a woman you need the following
- Two sachets of Dilmah jasmine tea
- A threepack of Extra Professional spearmint gum
- Two sachets of Palmer's Shea Butter formula hand-cream
- One sachet of Palmolive Naturals shampoo and conditioner
- One complimentary Healthwise magazine
- Two Tena ultra-thin mini pads with wings
- One tube of Colgate Sensitive
- A single tube of Nestle Double Blend Hot Chocolate mix

2.
Women like being given advice that is purely intuitive and based on magic boxes.

Three of us had varying experiences with a psychic, tarot reader and Quantum Philosopher. I will let the other two tell their stories if they want. They are good.

Mine is.....
Cassie had told me you could get allergy tests at the expo, which had appealed to me greatly. I get a lot of allergies and would find it useful to know exactly what they were from.

So I arrived at the stall and was imediately seized upon by one of the 'trainees'. She made me fill in a form that identified things such as how many glasses of water a day I drink, what I rate my stress levels from 1-10, how many kgs overweight I am, and how negative I feel about life. I was already starting to doubt the scientific validity of my allergy test.

She then dutifully typed it all into her laptop and explained that soon I would be placing my hand on the small black box in front of me, which was linked by a cable to her laptop. The box was about the size of a hand, with red lights on it and a metal plate on top. It did not look very magical.

But apparently, the magical box would be able to measure the pulses being sent from every organ in my body and it would shoot allergins up into my hand and see how I reacted to them.... Hmmmmm. I played along and kept my hand on there for a few minutes. I even thought I could feel things being sent up my arm. I may have been imagining that.

Then she gave me the results.
- I need to eat less, chew more (I agreed with that)
- I have good adrenil levels ('great' even - I am dubious about that)
- I have good brain functioning (I agree)
- I am fairly well hydrated but could drink a bit more water (sure, why not)
- My oxygen levels are good (this apparently links to my good brain function)

As far as allergies go, she said I was one of the best ones of the day (at this point I really started doubting her). My only above-average readings related to food allergies and smells (she noted on my sheet that I have a very sensitive nose). Apparently the following foods are ones I am paricularly sensitive to:
- mint
- asparagus
- honey
- white wine
- fish
- red delicious apples.

Apparently they can tell you even more if you go in for a full reading. I got all that info for only $20. To get that I have to go to the actual salon, which is called 'Karenz Health and Beauty'. Hmm.

What made me most dubious was that dust allergies didn't even show up and that's my worst. But I will be watching out for the evil mint now.

Kate is a cynic.

3.
Women like Food.

Fair enough. I got some citrus fudge (same as I had at the Craft Fair a few weeks ago) and some Belgium Chocolate Truffles. They are the most divine thing I have tasted in recent memory.

They prompted me and Ange to assert that chocolate IS in fact better than sex. These just melt in your mouth. And there's not the time and messiness factor of real sex.

4.
Women like cleaning.

Cass and Lauren marched around proudly with their Shammies. They got three giant shammies (the size of small bath towels). Next time there is a spill at your house, you'll know who to call.

5.
Funniest Moments

Ange: What'd you learn about your allergies?
Me: Well apparently I need to chew more. That's true - I do eat fast sometimes (note: we are both eating gelato we have purchased and Ange is finishing hers faster)
Me: Hmm, but I like things that need licking, then I'm very slow.
Cass: HAHAHAHAHAH.

Lauren: Where's your shammy, Cass?
(Cass looks around wildly and realises she's lost it somewhere in the Expo)
Cassie: I LOST MY SHAMMY!
(Cassie actually drops all her bags and runs back into the expo)
Me and Ange: HAHAHHAAHAHA

Ange: Apparently the psychic says my great grandmother is watching over me and guiding me.
(for hours afterwards, any time Ange is in a bind or mentioning something dodgey)
Me/Cass/Lauren: What would Great Grandma think, Ange?