InBlogNito

As of now (actually a week ago, I just got around to doing this), I can now be found at:

http://bloggingundercover.com/blog

After 2 and half years and almost 200 posts here I’ve decided to move the blog somewhere I can personalise it, as blogsome has zero options. They’re also a bitch to transfer from btw, about 80 posts I had to cut and paste one at a time into the new blog (yes, full history is there). Sorry about the /blog bit, I’ve been trying to get rid of it, but it doesn’t want to go! Aside from that, I’ve had numerous other teething problems that Kari has been an absolute star in fixing, without her I would have cut my losses and abandoned the new site! Anyway, it’s all go, so head on over there and check it out, and please update any links/rss feeds you have, as I won’t be posting here anymore.

 See you there!

I can’t be bothered with a proper post, but there’s a few things on my mind that I need to get off my chest:

• The airline here sucks, and because of the lack of people in this country there are only two airlines who fly between where I live and my parents. The second airline barely gets a look in cos the prices are about even and there service is crap (last time I flew with them I provided feedback and said that the airline staff did not need to boast about how fabulous they were every time they spoke to their patrons on the plane. Seriously, no less than 10 times each way they used the word fabulous). This time the other airline let me down. They have this new check in service which is working great here, but when I checked in for the return flight it printed me a second pass (I already printed my boarding pass at home), then I couldn’t just drop my own bags, I had to wait for airline staff in these stupidly long queues in an area that did not have room for queue’s because the whole point of the new system was that people would put their own bags on the conveyor. Instead they had these stupid little gates to stop people and you had to wait for someone to scan your bag. Which I know is completely unnecessary seeing as I didn’t have to do on the way there.
• I don’t get the new year’s hype. I couldn’t care less about hugging and kissing at midnight, to me, that minute is just like every other minute of the year, there is no need for such a big hoopla about it. I hate the word hoopla too, but I’m using it because it totally fits the situation. Not to mention I was in absolute agony for the ‘big event’ anyways. Blah.
• Ever since my mum switched mine and my brother’s beds, I have not slept properly at her house and usually come home in pain (lower back/neck). They are, in theory, the same bed, they were purchased at the same time and were the same make/model, cept his is a king single and mine is a double. A weekend is bad enough, but after 10 nights, I’m a wreck. No matter what time I went to bed I was wide awake by 8am (combo of factors, including the 10 yappy dogs next door that never.shut.up), and most nights were post-midnight nights, so I’m absolutely exhausted on top of the pain. Then last night I was struck with the most awful cramp (not to mention a whole week earlier than scheduled, which I put down to the terrible bed causing the lower back issues) and had to take both anti-flam’s and painkillers, yet still wasn’t overly comfortable an hour later. From now on I’m sleeping in another room when I’m there.
• My mum drove me crazy after 5 days. That is my limit, I knew this already, but I fought my instinct and thought to myself ‘no, I’ll just stay as long as I feel like it, I don’t want to rush back and wish I didn’t’. NEVER AGAIN. From now on a return flight will always be booked in advance and for no later than 5 days after I arrive. I can’t even remember half the stuff she did now (it really is trivial, but when mixed with the intense pain and crappy allergies I suffer it is unbearable), but a couple of examples. 1) I’m a fussy eater yes, but it’s really pretty simple, I don’t eat great wads of meat and I don’t eat salads. That covers most of it, but when my mum was preparing a salad she was about to put camembert cheese in it and said ‘you don’t eat cheese do you?’ as in ‘I won’t put this in so you can eat the salad’. Well thanks for thinking of me, but you already ruined the salad for me with the cucumbers, tomatoes (which she knows damn well I won’t touch, those are the two big ones) and strawberries (which I love but are completely ruined by inclusion in a salad). Also, I do eat cheese, and if she took a moment to think I’m sure she would remember the 100 times she’s put out camembert and crackers and seen me eat them. Again, waste of good cheese by putting it anywhere near those damn tomatoes and cucumbers. 2) Today I said ‘did H leave his car at work or something last night?’, because I wanted a car to visit my friend, which my mum knew, and I would have preferred his (don’t even get me started on the stupid red convertible she drives). So really the question was ‘H’s car isn’t here? (confirm) Can I take yours then?’ but instead I got ‘I have NO IDEA where his car is’. I didn’t want to know where his car was, all I wanted to do was confirm it wasn’t in the driveway!! Geez….
• Like I said, 5 days was my limit, and the first 5 days were actually really good. We did a little shopping and got stuff ready for christmas, which is the part I love, then christmas day was awesome, 22 of us all around the table for christmas dinner. Plus my newest cousin (10 mths old) was there for the week, and she is an incredibly good baby, so that was cute. I was totally feeling the clucky vibe come on, till I spent the day on Tuesday with my friend and her 19 month old. Then it was all off again, don’t even want to comtemplate the idea of having kids for a very long time lol.
• I ordered some contact lenses a month ago, and was promised them before christmas. One eye’s prescription arrived but not the other. To make up for this they sent me a sample lens to tide me over. FOR THE SAME EYE. So now I have plenty of left eye lenses and no right eyes. So after many phone calls back and forth they advise me they have no idea when right eye prescription will arrive and sent me another sample lens, though this one wouldn’t correct the astigmatism I have. They sent it to the wrong address, missing the 6 off the house number. Luckily the conscientous recipient of the parcel looked us up in the phone book (very easy to do given my unique last name!) and returned the package to us. Then I went to try this stupid lens out this morning I realised it was FOR THE SAME EYE AGAIN. So now I have FIVE effing left eye lenses and no clue when the right eye ones will arrive. Not to mention they will be shipped to my parents (will try and stop this) because they were supposed to arrive there by christmas and I didn’t need them till today. So I’m continuing to wear my month old lenses, cos it’s summer so I need to be wearing sunglasses, a little hard to do if you already have glasses on. God help them if I get some sort of infection.
• For all this, I do have some things to be grateful for right now. I got paid on time by new employer so the transition was very easy and I was so cautious that I actually have extra money right now. I bought a new tv (picking it up tomorrow!) and earn enough to get cable (I don’t like paying for tv because I hardly ever watch it, but I get NO reception here so I’m sucking it up and paying for it). I got some great gifts this year (and I’m gonna say it, some not so great gifts, like the 4 bars of soap from my grandmother who has religiously given us all $20 every christmas and birthday for at least 10 years. She usually writes a cheque. My brother got it in cash, I got soap.). I have a couple of ideas which I may or may not pursue, which I don’t want to reveal right now but are essentially a foray into the online market. And I’m home, at last, and better yet I didn’t come home to god knows what sort of mess flatmates leave, I came home and everything was how I left it. Except for the new extraction fan installed in my bathroom, which is an improvement (my landlord is turning out to be kinda weird).

Right, now that I’ve got that off my chest I’m ready to head out to the grocery store, petrol station and video store. Why are they still called video stores when the one I visit doesn’t even rent VHS? Who knows, but the one near me is pretty cheap and very handy, so I ain’t complaining about that at least. Hope you all had a great new years, if that’s your thing.

I am disorganised like you would not believe! I’m going home tomorrow, the shuttle comes at 9am and I am nowhere near ready to go. This morning I went for a walk with my cousin, which was great, then came home and cleaned the bathroom, so got that out the way. Ever since then I’ve been alternating between complete laziness (DH reruns on the couch!) and hat making. I made 3 and a half hats in the past couple of days. I almost gave up after one and a half, but I’m glad I didn’t, I’ve got 2 great hats now, one dud, and one pile of half made hat bits. Here are the two that worked out great:

I’m so pleased, this is what I was imagining! I wasn’t anticipating the hours it would take though. Now I have to clean up a huge sewing mess, vacuum, clear out my spare room (I’ve had the heater on for two days trying to dry washing in there), pack, package up a christmas present to a friend to courier tomorrow, eat dinner (have leftovers to reheat thank goodness!) and return a dvd. Wish me luck, I have a feeling it’s going to be a late one!!

Have a wonderful christmas! I don’t see myself blogging again till after, though I will have the laptop in case I feel inspired.

I really thought I had a better landlord this time round, after having three of the most useless property managers you could ever come across at my old house. But apparently not.

In this country landlords legally have to provide working smoke detectors but there were none when I moved in. I requested that they be installed - specifically one in the living area and one in each bedroom - about a month ago. It took a follow up phone call and a couple of days for him to get back to me after that to say he would install them. Then nothing for a week, so I followed up again and also asked for a second key. He came around on Friday, and when I got home I looked at all the ceilings. No smoke alarms, but the key was left on the bench. Then just now I noticed an alarm on the wall above a door way. .

WRONG. They are supposed to go on the ceiling, if you put them on the walls you have to wait for enough smoke to rise to fill the ceiling space to the level that the detector is at. So excuse me for being risk averse, but I live alone in a house where there is only one exit, I want at least three alarms (the fire service would probably recommend four), and I want them installed on the roof. Now I have to email again and tell him to do it again and do it RIGHT.

I also tested to make sure it was working, and the one ear splitting beep that emitted caused the battery to go flat, which means I have to take it down to stop it beeping every 2 minutes until I buy a new battery. So now I’m back to square one. Great.

So freaking annoying. If I had the tools to do it myself I would buy them and install them properly and wouldn’t give a crap about leaving holes in the roof when I removed them after I left, but I don’t have any way of drilling holes. Perhaps a power drill should be on my list to Santa this year!

Me: ‘I’ve been trying to cook for myself every night, so I can have leftovers for lunch every day too, but all I have is chicken in the freezer, and I hate leftover reheated chicken’

Mum: ‘And you don’t like cold chicken?’

Me: ‘No. Plus I make stuff like the satay and stirfry chicken, so cold’s not going to work anyway’

Mum: ‘If you use lots of sauce you won’t even notice’

Me: ‘Yes, I will. I can still taste reheated chicken, it tastes like… like… like yuck! It tastes like yuck.’

Mum: *pause*

Me: ‘I’m sure I have weird tastebuds that taste everything differently from everyone else, I can always taste yucky tastes in food’

Mum: ‘Yes. I know all about your tastebuds, I’ve long been convinced of they’re weird!’

 

I may or may not have been the fussiest child who ever lived and who received specially prepared meals separate from the rest of the family because I didn’t like dinner. I got over the dinner thing, but I still don’t eat salads, or any salad veges. Cept maybe lettuce. But not in a salad. And I don’t eat sandwiches either, cos they’re full of salad vegetables. And the supersonic sense thing extends to my sense of smell too, I *hate* the smell of tomatoes and cucumbers, I can’t even touch them. And yes, I know what you’re thinking… ‘but tomatoes and cucumbers don’t smell of anything really?’

So day one at my new job seems to have been a relative success! They are so super organised with new people, inductions, processes, IT, all that stuff that I am so not used to. I also now know a bit more about what I’m going to be working on, I can’t say too much, it’s never a good idea to - especially for me - but it should be really interesting. It’s really future/strategy focused, which is exactly what I was looking for, my old job was day-to-day reactive stuff.

Of course, being the time of year it is, there was a morning tea in the morning, then another team had afternoon tea and anyone was welcome to eat the mountain of leftovers. On Thursday they are having breakfast and there’s another morning tea before the end of the week too I think. My team seem ok so far, it’s a little hard to tell because I didn’t get to talk to them very much, I’m sure they’ll be great though. The only other lady in the team invited me out for coffee tomorrow, so that’s all good. One of the guys I did talk to was really interesting, we were talking about background and he just slipped in casually with ‘oh, well I was doctor for a couple of years…’ like it was ‘oh, well I worked as a bank teller for a couple of years’, you know, nothing that required years of school and a ton of cash for fees! I have to admire him though, clearly the medical profession wasn’t for him and so he moved onto something else, good on him I say. Life’s to short to have a stressful career that you don’t even enjoy!

Apart from that, it was the usual reading up on all the policies, filling in paperwork, I must have signed my name 12 times for HR. The good news is it looks like I will get paid next week, so I’m straight into the pay cycle, I was worried with christmas I might not see a paycheck till next year.

Then, even better, I got home to find a really cute Pooh christmas card from one friend, and a wedding invitation from another friend. The one who’s getting married is someone I consider a very close friend, but I have to say I was surprised to get a wedding invitation. I’ve barely met his fiance, and he’s been a bit weird about talking about her anytime I ask. I was prepared to be written off, then he asked for my address last week and I thought ‘hmm… he’s not the christmas card type, but isn’t it a little late for wedding invitations when it’s in February?’. Apparently not, cos I’m invited! And the best news? Out the 5 weddings I will have attended in just under a year by the time his rolls around, this is the only one that I don’t have to travel for, thank goodness there’s finally one where I live! They’ve chosen a gorgeous venue for the ceremony and the reception is at a swanky hotel, so should be a great day. This also means I have two totally separate weddings in February, no other common guests, I have no qualms about recycling my outfit! Plus I can spend a bit more on something really nice, or buy some new shoes or whatever, yay!! Now I just gotta lose 20lb so I fit into something really nice….

… finding good friends, a great man, the right job… all those things. One thing I’m struggling with at the moment though is friends. I have a few close friends, rather than lots of good friends. Many people I’ve been friends with have been into things that I’m not into, so while they’re nice enough people, I find myself cutting my losses and walking away, it’s just easier and better for me in the long run. However some friends are really great friends, genuinely nice people who really care for me and go out of their way to include me, catch up when I’m in town etc. But some of them, one in particular, is really not into the same things as me. She drinks lots, smokes, indulges in illicit substances, has endless minimum wage jobs (we actually met at uni, she’s recently graduated with her bachelors), has a nice boyfriend who works hard and looks after her, but again, the dodgy business is going on with him too. And all she wants to do is get married and have kids - not something that mixes well with the rest of her chosen lifestyle. However, she’s getting her wish and getting married next February. And because she considers us such good friends, she has invited me. It’s not pity invite or a way to boost numbers, she has plenty of other friends, she genuinely wants me to be there. I’ve just booked flights to go (it’s a long weekend and in my home town, otherwise I’d be making excuses probably), I’ll dress up and buy a gift, and I am genuinely happy for her. They’re a great couple and have been together for ages, and they’re happy together.

Every time I go home I do intend to catch up with the very few people I do consider friends there, but when I’m usually there for 2 days, or 3 max, I just don’t have time. A day of rest just enjoying being home, a day with my bff and her kids and a day with my family and I’m done, it’s time to get back on the plane. So since I left for good (3 years yesterday), I’ve think I’ve caught up with this friend twice, definitely no more than three times. It’s so hard, how long can I keep this up for? Even if I do have time to catch up, I usually put it off till it’s too late, because getting drunk and going out to icky clubs just isn’t my scene, and a catch up over a coffee is turns to stories of what happened that weekend she was on whichever substance.

But it’s so hard to cut ties when she is such a genuine friend to me. What to do? For now I’m committed to the wedding at least, and it will be nice to see her on her big day… but what next? I don’t think I can stand by and watch her have kids at this rate… soon after the wedding they are also moving away, so I guess the pressure will be off when I’m there at least. It feels wrong to be relieved about it though!

As I looked at the side bar the other day, I realised I’ve had this blog now for two and a half years!! That’s a fairly decent amount of time to keep something going. Sure there’ve been times when I’ve hardly written a thing for months, but I’ve also written 192 posts in total. I did the math, that’s 192 posts in approximately 913 days, about one post every 4.75 days, not bad for someone who probably wouldn’t label themselves a ‘blogger’ (I have a blog, but don’t consider myself a blogger. Yeah I know that makes no sense).

I was also looking at the side bar and remembered my About Me page never showed up, even though I wrote it. I figured I can blogroll it, but then I end up last on my own blogroll, and I can’t seem to reorder said blogroll. I’ve also had the same design for 2.5 years and I’m sick of it, but don’t like any of the other blogsome options. I also *love* the snow that people have on their blog at the moment, and the themes other blogs have, whether their ‘regular’ theme or a holiday theme. So I’m thinking… maybe it’s time to step it up a notch? The trouble is, I have no idea how! There’s something about wordpress, and something about selfhosting… but then I’m lost. So if anyone knows of any good blogs or articles on how to set up a blog in say 5 or so easy steps I’d be keen to read it. I’ll also do my own searching in the mean time. That’s task number one for you all, so time to speak up!

I also need to delve into the financial side of things. I know (or think I know) it’s not a huge cost, but there is a cost nonetheless. Task number two: I’d be grateful if you wouldn’t mind sharing how much your blog costs, or even some ideas on how to keep costs down or links to any good, cost effective options if you don’t to talk specifics.

At the moment I’m really enjoying the writing, and I’ve really turned things around this year and toned the general ranting and bitching down and tried to think and write in more positive ways. I’m a less-than-tolerant person, things will alway bug me more than the average person and this is a great way to vent, so I can’t ditch that attitude completely, but right I’m happy in general and happy with my writing here. Appreciate any assistance you can give!

Thanks

Word of the (now) wise: if you watch this movie, play this game (a LOT) and read this book all in one weekend, you will have crazy dreams and sleepless nights! I didn’t sleep at all well this weekend while housesitting, and even being back home last night I woke up a bit. I’m sleeping really heavily on my shoulders (I don’t know how this works, that’s the only way I can describe it!) and so they hurt and wake me up, I switch and a couple of hours later the same thing happens. A trip to the Osteo will help, but I’m leaving it till as close to christmas as possible. I will also be subconsciously thinking about leaving my current job and starting my new one. I’ve got 3 more days of work left and a few tasks to finish. Today I have meetings all day, but kinda spread out, so I have half to one hour between. This is not conducive to being productive, but in the interest of efficiency I’ve decided I can utilise this time and will sort and file emails. A stupid task which needs to be done and is really time consuming! I’m hoping even with the meetings in between I’ll still get most of them sorted today.

I just felt like posting… didn’t really have anything in mind, but I wanted to write something. Goes to show how much NaBloPoMo month paid off! Anyway, then I thought I’d talk about my neighbour. Last house I was in there were two little 1 bedrooms flats underneath us, the first neighbour was really friendly and introduced herself, then moved out a month later. Her replacement and the guy on the other side never said boo to us the whole time. They had to walk right past our front door to get to each of theirs and still never said anything, even if I smiled or said hello. So when I moved in here I decided to go right ahead and introduce myself to the neighbours downstairs. I already knew it was a couple and they’d been here a few months. She came to the door and was totally shocked to find her neighbour was actually introducing themselves! But we had a little chat - turns out her and the bf had broken up and he was going to move out. Then I haven’t seen her since, and he was obviously still here cos his car was in the driveway every day. Seeing as I’ve been here a month now I figured maybe they got back together. But then the other day, and again today, when I got home, his car was gone, so he might have finally moved out. I also saw her briefly the other day, and she made a point of making eye contact and waving (I was in the car), so it’s nice to know we’re on friendly terms, it’s good to at least know your neighbours by name, especially two single girls living so close together.

Now… if only I could find my christmas card list I could get on with the next productive task. Hope you all have a great week!