InBlogNito

Wow, not even two glasses of wine and I am practically written off! I managed to get a ride home, which was great, cos I was so not into the stumbling walking home thing. Ugh. We had some wine after work and it just went straight to my head, and now I’m all aggro lol. I did however manage to make poached eggs on toast (flatmate put herbs in the bread mix… not a fan - plus it was soggy cos she put in a plastic bag while it was still warm. Plus I think she made the BIG loaf, when I always make the smaller loaf, cos it always works SO much better). See? Aggro… this is the NICE flatmate, the one I like, and I’m just thinking ‘why didn’t you make the bread properly?’. At least she made bread!! Why can’t I think like that first?

Then, when I was reading some blog posts, someone had written this nasty comment to that person about their life situation, first time commenter and all. Why would you do that?! I want to go kick their ass and it’s not even my blog… Ugh. I think I’m gonna go take my frustrations out on some intense internet gaming time Hope you alll have a great weekend! I’m doing nothing, nothing at all, for the first time in at least 6 weeks and the last time for at least another 3, so many busy weekends at the moment… I’m over it!

Remember the container of goodies I sent away a while back?

I got the container back today, full of more goodies!

Yum!! Guess what I’m doing this weekend? Yep, getting fat!! This is the most awesome Easter package, I love anything Caramello and Mini Eggs are my absolute favourite! Well done N! I asked him if he knew about my Mini Egg obsession or if it was a lucky guess. It was a lucky guess. I was sooo gutted last year, I held out for these babies till the last minute so I wouldn’t overdo it, and then I missed out! It was sad, so this year I have enjoyed two small packs and K and I shared one big packet so far, and now I have more!! yum yum yum!

I plan on having the most relaxed, lazy weekend ever. Tomorrow I’m going to clean the house and do my washing in preparation for my cousin’s visit, then will spend the rest of the day playing WoW cos I’ve hardly played at all these past few months. Then I pick up my cousin, M, and his gf on Sat and we’ll hang for the day. They are going to a concert on both Sat and Sun evenings, so I will have those nights to myself (except for A, the evil flatmate, I hope she buggers off somewhere else at least one night). Then on Monday I will take M and gf back to the airport and have the rest of the day for more warcrafting, or craft crafting (my sewing machine is being serviced so I started a cross stitch project) or reading.

Right now I’m off to the video store, not sure if I’ll bring anything home, because there’s always Grey’s, Gilmore Girls or SATC episodes to watch for the nth time, but I’ll see if there’s anything good. Hope you all have a great long weekend!

nicb at orcon dot net dot nz for the password

Lately I’ve been feeling really disenchanted with the work I do in the public service. It may be the particular role I’m in now, where it’s all reactive and very rarely strategic. It may be that government is just not the place for me. I figured I’d give it five years and see what happens, but one year in and I’m ready for a change. So when I was down south, stuck in a meeting I didn’t need to be in, I got to thinking ‘what else might I like to do?’. I came up with these options:

• Something in the banking industry. Only I checked the rate of pay for a personal banker and it was rubbish. But I’m going to see my bank person tomorrow so I might harrass him about his salary while I’m there! Or at least gain some insight into the sector.
• Sign-language intepreter. But you have to do a 1 or 2 year course (I think it’s two) in Auckland. Worst city in NZ. Dunno why a quarter of the population chooses to live there, I certainly wouldn’t!
• An editor/publisher. This seems the most viable. I’m always getting good feedback at work about how great I am at editing documents and writing letters, but there is not a creative bone in my body, so I couldn’t become a writer as such. And I checked out the necessary quals. There is a one year diploma that you need a previous tertiary qualification to enter, and it’s by interview etc etc, very exclusive. However it is at a polytech (which I think might be along the lines of a community college?), so I don’t know if it’s as revered in the publishing world as the polytech would like it to be. However, it’s worth checking out and my aunty is an editor so I can ask her about whether it’s worthwhile doing the qual first or just jumping right into an entry level job.

Either way, I’m stuck where I am for the rest of the year, I need that long to weigh up my options and save appropriately, because whatever I do, I can’t get into more student debt. There is an online option for the publishing course, but I’d rather attend classes.

As a 4th option I could move into strategic policy work proper and continue with the public sector where the money is relatively good at the lower levels and there are great benefits.

So that’s my thoughts at the moment…. all other’s two cents worth are more than welcome, just leave a comment. 

Hey! I’m back! At last, it’s been a while, I just haven’t found anything inspiring to write about (not that I’m ever particularly inspiring/inspired!). However, I’ve had a good couple of days. I’ll share once the bitching part of this post has ended. I just arrived home from 3 nights away and found the mail on my bed. Power bill, high, and also included a letter which basically said ‘we advise you to stay on your same plan because we don’t know enough about you’. Thanks for the oh so helpful info. Next up, a new credit card. Issue date: beginning of January. How the heck did it take so long to get to me?! There was no date on the letter (isn’t that like the first rule of letter writing? Write. The. Date.) and the previous card was issued not two weeks before the last one. Plus they said my old card would expire in a couple of weeks. Is that a couple of weeks after the issue date or a couple of weeks from the day the mail arrived?! Cos I’ve been using that card with no problems. WeIrD. I’m ringing them tomoro to say ‘wtf?!’. Then right after that I’m ringing my parents health insurance company. I rang with a simple query, mostly unrelated to my current policy, and gave them my address for some one-off info to be sent. Today I find they have sent me a huge package of information addressed to my Dad. I never said ‘update my details’. I certainly never said ‘update my whole family’s details, even though they live in another city and haven’t moved house in ten years’. *sigh*. How can all three pieces of mail cause me to waste so much time sorting out other people’s BS mistakes?!?! At least it will fill in the morning at work tomorrow!

Now, onto the great weekend. I headed south for work on Friday, turns out it was kind of a waste of time for the organisation because my colleague went early and did almost everything! Nevermind, I got to meet an awesome friend of mine, finally. He’s the one who always sends me stuff and remembers my birthday. You know the one, I sent him some home baking a while back. So N and I went out for dinner and it was like we had met already in the past, cos he was so familiar. We’ve spent heaps of time chatting on msn and the phone, and using webcams, so it was totally cool. Right before he was due to show up I started getting a little nervous and thinking ‘omg, what if I have NOTHING to say?!’. Turns out I couldn’t shut up (thanks to the house sav blanc no doubt!) and I probably told him stuff he’s heard a hundred times before, but he’d listen as if it was the first time. Then he took me to the airport (arrived 15 mins before the plane was due to take off! I was a little panicked lol) and I went to my next destination (home city). Then a little later I was thinking ‘hmm… I’m sure N’s birthday is in March, argh, I hope I haven’t missed it AGAIN!’. Checked on Facebook. Sure enough, 6 March, totally missed it. I’m the worst friend ever! He paid for dinner and everything and I couldn’t even remember to say ‘happy birthday’. I suck. So I emailed him apologising profusely and he said ‘it’s ok, I had some easter eggs in the car that I clean forgot to give you at the airport’. Uh, thanks, but that doesn’t make me feel better!! He bought me dinner AND easter eggs and I didn’t even wish him a late happy birthday…. *sigh*. I’m a disorganised wreck. This is just one example, I also left half of what I needed back here. I had to race out to the gas station first thing Saturday morning (in my mum’s Merc) to buy tampons. See? Disorganised wreck.

Anyhoo, onto home city, and it was so great to catch up with my friend and her kids. I did remember their birthdays and gave one of the girls a cute little handbag (totally regifted from my grandma, it’s cute for 5 yo’s, not 25 yo’s ) and a necklace, then took my friend out to see The Other Boleyn Girl. Was actually pretty well done, with all the costumes and accents and stuff, but not anything to rave about overall. I also bought the kids easter eggs, and when I was passing the lotto kiosk I grabbed a ticket on the way through. Checked it this morning while I was passing by another kiosk with my mum. Turns out I won!!! Not 1st division, I’m far from a millionaire, but a nice little bonus to stash in the bank for a rainy day! Lucky my bank is open on Sunday’s in the mall so I walked 20 metres from the kiosk to the bank and put most of it right into my account. So did a little more shopping than anticipated, and paid for the coffee seeing as I couldn’t very well feign poverty. Made it home tonight, eventually, cursed the mail, wrote this, now I’m off to bed. I’ve got just enough time to get in 8 hours sleep. Night!

So here it is, stage one of my new project complete, one quilt top:

Hmm… probably could have cropped that at the top. However, no time now, I’m off to work in 15 mins, but I just wanted to share this little masterpiece with you. I’m very proud of it and can’t wait till it’s finished and on my bed, it looks fantastic already. Just have to get batting and a back piece, quilt them all together in a sandwich-like fashion, then bind the edges. At any stage from this point on you can get someone else to do the finishing. And lots of people do apparently. Tempting as it is, especially given the classes are done and I’ll be winging it from here on in, I want to complete the whole thing start to finish myself. It’s not as good a story if you tell people ‘yes, I made the top, but then someone else did the rest’. 

I’m bruised, bitten and burnt all over!! In the last 3-4 days I have managed to slip over at work and bruise my knee, twist my ankle in a pothole I tripped over, got bitten by the neighbours cat quite badly, and then got hell sunburnt while waiting for the bride who was more than half an hour late! Even after Kari’s warning, I still didn’t learn my lesson and got quite badly burnt on my chest, luckily I was wearing make up with SPF so my face was saved. The bruise on my knee isn’t bothering me, but the ankle was quite sore and annoying during the two hour drive each way to the wedding venue, and my arm is very sore! I’m a little worried about infection, but I’ll leave it a day or two and go to the doctor if it even the smallest hint of infection shows itself. I still have one month left on my student ID, which means I can go to the Dr free for the rest of March, and it’s close to work, so no problem to take off for half an hour if I have to.

Apart from all that, it’s been a good weekend. Another long one thanks to the wedding being held on a Sunday, I stayed overnight and drove home this morning. Every idiot and his dog was on the road though, I was getting so annoyed!! I pulled over at the beach and took a walk around to try and ease the pain in my foot and calm down again, then got a chai latte before hitting the road again. Luckily the road from there back to town is basically one long passing lane, so it’s easy enough to avoid getting stuck behind someone annoying. Now I’m avoiding the annoying person at home, I gave her the ’shape up or ship out’ talk before I left yesterday. Apparently she needs ‘guidance’ about what we want her to do around the house. I suggested she use her eyes and brain to work it out, it’s pretty straight forward - if it’s dirty, clean it! So we’ll see what happens…. I came home today to find her taking up the other half of the table that I’ve been using as my sewing table. Trouble is I need the whole table! Quilting is time, money and space consuming. I relocated to the study and took over other flatmates study desk for my cutting board lol. Now I can hear the tv blaring through the wall. *Sigh*. I cannot wait for this lease to end in November so I can finally move in to my very own place, I’m totally over flatmates. I can also smell something really gross, so I’m guessing the annoying one is cooking dinner for her sister. She cooks everything in the microwave. I know I’ve said this before, but it just smells sooooo disgusting!!! Chicken and mince should not be cooked in the microwave. Ugh.

Anyways, enough of me bitching, I have to get back to my quilting, class is tomorrow and I have to live up to my nerd reputation and have all of my blocks done by then

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Now playing: Iron & Wine - Wolves (Song Of The Shepherd’s Dog)
via FoxyTunes   

Guy to his friend in a wheelchair: "I’m stretching my legs while I’ve got the chance, before I have to sit down for three. whole. hours."

Also - don’t go see There Will Be Blood. It’s long and tedious with bad music borrowed from movies of a whole other genre. I wasn’t on edge. I was bored and irritated.