Wednesday

I'm a ray of sunshine today.

I'm working from home (what's new) with no car .

There's no bread in the house. No taro. No bananas. No bagels. No carbs. No point in going on. (OK maybe a tad dramad?)

I lost an hour of my morning on the ASOS website and coincidentally lost some money from my credit card around the same time. Weird.

The testers working with me on a project assigned me a "defect". It's not a defect. The only defect is in the workings of the brain of the person who didn't understand what was supposed to be happening. Hint: that person is not me.

BUT on the bright side ...

The sun is out in Wellington. That's on the same scale as pigs trying to fly.

The kids are both well and off to to be cared for and taught by paid professionals. Praise the LOOOOORRRRD!

I do have the Dominoes Pizza phone number, and a credit card. And they deliver. Get what I'm saying...?

Where there's a will, there's a wonderful Wednesday, wight?

Happy Humpday !!!

Sofia

So when I'm not crying about how useless I am at my job, being a wife and mother, I'm moonlighting as a wannabe food reviewer. Hahaha. Yea whatever, pei lava ga masagi ai.

Wellington is a food haven though, and when I do remember (i.e. once every couple of years) I like to share my food experiences with others who are out there searching for culinary truth. HA!! Again, ua muliga Jamie Spitty Oliver ma Gordon Fiafaikeige Ramsay.

Anyway, if you want to know how much money I don't have that I'm wasting and where I got this tummy / ass / arm flaps / chin, go and have a faikala and a laugh:

http://www.zomato.co.nz/user_details?userid=24115

A hippo's guide to surviving earthquakes

If you have been watching the news like a good citizen should (and if you live in a country where they give a winkling about the tectonic plates in New Zealand) then you may know that there have been some rather significant earthquakes around the Wellington region for the past couple of weeks now.

It has been unnerving each time the tremors hit, trying to locate the little shadow and then proceeding to dive under the unfortunately too-small kitchen table.

What we also came to realise (many, many natural disasters later) is that we have no emergency plan of action, no emergency survival kit, no real reason that we should survive if or when the mother of natural disasters (or the dreaded zombie apocalypse for that matter) hits.

So I've done some thinking, as you do, and have come up with some tips that may help other alien-carriers out there having to put up with frequent quakes:

1. Pee quickly. Unfortunately, the little alien inside you won't stop kicking your bladder or producing all that waste, so when you gotta go, you gotta go. But no more taking the iPad or Property Press in with you. Just do the deed, and get out. Coz if the house collapses around your little ceramic throne, well, gooood luck!
2. Prepare an emergency kit. Fill it with all your favourite non-perishable cravings / snack foods. Then guard it with your life, especially if there are little hands (or big ones too) that keep trying to sneak in to that particular section of the emergency kit. Have none of it!
3. Keep your smartphone charged at all times! This one is important. If food and / or water supplies run out, at least you will be able to Scramble or Candy Crush.
4. Get fit. If you reach full term and there are no major natural disasters where you need to evacuate and hike around the hills of Wellington, you will still have a fully grown alien to push out, and any physical strength will come in handy for pointing (the blame), gripping (to death) your supporters' hands, and then after the birth give yourself a mini-makeover for the all important first photo with baby.

There you have it. Extremely helpful tips that I'm sure you could not do without.

PS. Don't forget to pack your happy pills in the emergency kit!

First day wrap up

Today was my "first day at work" ... sort of. About a year ago now, we moved from Auckland to Wellington, and somehow I managed to keep my job with the Auckland company. There was the tiny issue that they didn't have a Wellington branch. Yet. So I became it. Theta Wellington, all on my lonesome self, with a proper office and everything in town but no work colleagues in it. Now that I think back on it, it seems a bit comical, like I was some mental person with the delusion of having a desk job in town.

Anyway, last month Theta Systems acquired a smaller company in Wellington, which has now become the "official" Theta Central Region (I think that's what we're called now). So today was my first day working in their office. It felt kind of weird, since I was the original Theta person, and yet I was "the new girl". But apart from that, the day actually went well. It was a massive change not having my Facebook logged on in the background, so I could switch windows when I saw a notification. Ha! But work flowed smoothly, everyone was super-nice, yada yada yada.

However, by lunch, I was ready for some "me time", so I hit the streets.

First stop: Cafe Rahzoo

These guys have a massive  & delicious selection of salads, and you can pick any 3 choices for  $8.50

Next stop: Midland Park, across the road from Rahzoo, where I got my daily dose of Vitamin D while I ate my rabbit food.

This was later in the afternoon, during lunch it's all packed out with lunch-eating Welly folk

Final (and favourite) stop of the day: Whitcoulls

In the fantasy section there were a whole bunch of comfy lounging chairs, where I curled up and enjoyed a Jon Snow chapter of 'A Dance With Dragons', before buying my trusty black Collins diary for 2012 and heading back to work.

Next thing I knew my daily alarm to pick up Lyla went off. So much for stressing about my "first day". This was one hell of a sweet day.

Wintry magic

How to start this post. A week or two ago, I was taking photos of the hail on our deck and wishing for snow during what was to be the "last Antarctic blast" for this winter. The blast came and went and it started becoming warm in Wellington.

So pre-snow-wishing life continued. Lyla received her first ever invitation to a birthday party, and I mean a non-family party. Today was the big day, and off Lyla and I went to conquer the windy, narrow, badly labelled streets of Wellington to find this party. It was the chaotic affair that you would expect a 4th birthday party to be (with the added bonus of some really BADLY BEHAVED children...grrr...but that is for another post).

As we were getting ready to leave, I received a text from the man - "Its snown hea." I had to read it twice, and then check the date received. I looked outside, and it looked like it was raining, so I stuck out my hand and felt the soft snowflakes land and then melt in my palm. I was ecstatic (to put it mildly). As I much as I tried to contain myself and react in a suitably mature manner, I just couldn't. So I ran back inside to where the palagi parents were having a cuppa tea and civilized conversation and (wide-eyed and maybe slightly crazed in appearance) I shouted, "It's snowing!!"

Everyone else was excited of course (maybe not on the same insane level as me) and ran out to see the snow. The cars on the street were just starting to get a dusting of snow. Like the responsible parent I am, I put Lyla in her carseat, forgot to strap her in, and instead grabbed the camera and started taking photos. The drive home conservation was something like this... "Lyla, look outside. It's snowing!!" "Mummy, my shoes are wet."  "Everything is so white! OMG this is SO cool!" "Can I change my tights when I get home?"
Could I get more fresh? And could my kid get more OCD?

We arrived home to a completely white street, and we immediately bundled up and trooped outside to make a lazy, not-quite-so-snowmanny-shaped snowman and take more photos. However, being tropical natives, the man and I didn't last long in the snow, and before you know it we were back inside having hot chocolate (for Lyla) and koko Samoa (for Lyla's parents).

The snow seems to be melting now, but that's ok. While the snow was here, it was everything I had imagined it would be. I could not ask for more.

Staring upwards in awe

The same deck that was hailed on only a week ago

The view of the street from the deck. So pretty

Lyla and our snow guest, a dedication to David Tua :)



The perfect way to end a snowballin' session - hot koko Samoa



Lovin' not hatin'

As a change of tune from the usual complaining and whining on my posts, here are a few of my Likes for the past week or so (just to switch things up, and before that monthly time when I will like nothing and no one, and my goodness if I miss that monthly time, well...let's not think about that just now)

Nothing deep. It's Sunday, for goodness sake. And I'm sick and drugless (self-diagnosis of tonsillitis has been lifted after consulting a medical professional...pfft). So here goes:

Raspberry lemonade

This is some seriously scrumptious shiz. Since it is lemonade (i.e. juice squeezed from lemons, if only 6% of it) plus raspberries, I have concluded that this is what I will indulge on to soothe my burning throat (burning is from my cough, just clarifying...)

"Legit" lemonade


Once (the movie)

Irish busker meets Czech flower-seller on the streets of Dublin. Together they make sweet music (literally) and rekindle hope. I don't want to ruin the plot for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I highly recommend this movie.
My two favourite things about it:
1. The soundtrack: All original music (both the male and female leads are professional musicians), really heartfelt. I would buy it. Ok, no, I don't buy music. But I did record the movie on MySky, so I kinda bought it...in a way.
2. "Feel good"-ness: Of course it's a happy ending (otherwise I wouldn't like it), but not in the predictable Hollywood way. (I think it gives me secret hope that something so simple yet life changing could happen to boring old me...sshhhh)

Blog dramas

There have been plenty of dramatic breaking news stories on the blogs I follow. Funny times. Maybe not for the subjects of these posts, but definitely for me. And don't pretend you didn't have a good laugh while reading them either! And it's not particularly the news that made the post, it was the point of view and the injected humour and personality. Keep it up...you know who you are!

Final wintry blast

NZ is experiencing what will apparently be their last wintry blast (don't quote me on that, I got the news second hand from the hubby, hardly Jim Hickey).
How is this good news? Well, it usually isn't, but I figured since I'm already sick and it's already freezing cold anyway, this is my last hope of seeing snow this year. So I'm back to my super fob styles of excitedly watching the hail with my nose pressed against the window, hoping it would soon turn into snow.

All hail the hail

National party

Yea, I bet you didn't see this coming! A brown person giving props to the National party. Well this week I received my tax rebate, which is 33% of all my donations from the last financial year. This was usually capped at $630, but this cap was lifted when National went into power. Makes sense, the more money you have, the more you donate, so naturally this would keep their supporters happy. On a personal level though, I do give a lot to non-profit organisations, so receiving the tax rebate this week meant I could give some joy to my long-suffering credit card, if only until the next relative dies.


On that note, I hope you all have a great week ahead. God bless you heaps, peeps! (including all the annoying ones...hehe!)

Shuffling along

When we decided to move from Auckland to Wellington earlier this year, I was quite excited. I had big ideas of how my lifestyle would change, how I would become "artsy", how I would work less and take things slow, how when asked about the weather in Welly I would chirpily reply "You can't beat Wellington on a good day!"

Four months down the line, and I realise that I haven't progressed much down the planned route. In fact, I can't really remember all that I thought I would be doing by now. I mean, I'm awake working/blogging/Facebooking at 12:30am. That's still very much the Aucklander me.

So after a quick memory job (really quick, like half a minute) here are my unfulfilled Wellington goals:

1. Buy clothes - How I am still squeezing into my pre-childbearing work clothes I do not know. Actually, I do. I can only do that for a couple of tops which were really loose fitting and are now tank top looking. I'm getting grossed out just thinking about it as well, don't worry, I'm not offended that you are.

2. Go to the museum - I mean, isn't that what artsy Wellingtonians do? I have no idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

3. Spend more time at the park with Lyla - My excuse is the cold wind, which is quite a legitimate reason, except for the really warm sunny days when quality family time still consists of me on my laptop, husband on his laptop, toddler watching TV.

4. Sleep at least 7 hours a day - Ha! Funny, how did this make it onto my list.

5. Save money - How do you go from a single income family to being a double income family and still not have money? It boggles the mind. One day when I decide to look through our bank statements I might be able to find some answers.

6. Join a life group - This is due to 100% slackness and a multitude of excuses (which I can't remember now, so don't ask). But I guess I will have to get a life first, then I can share it with others.

7. Shave my legs regularly - I reconsidered this goal, and then realised that since I never show my legs/tree trunks anyway AND it's freezing cold here, why should I?

8. Buy a Smart phone - So it's got nothing to do with Wellington, but I want one, and I don't have any other lists at the moment so here it is. I guess it's related to goal #5 which was supposed to feed into my shopping account.

9. Stop having road rage - Is there special road rage counselling? I drive like I'm in a mad rush to get somewhere really quickly that I'm late for. The majority of the time if I stop to think about it, I'm just driving to work. Why on earth am I nearly killing myself to get there? Then I'm driving home, where washing, cooking, cleaning and more work is waiting. Again, why the rush? Still working on it. So if you're late to go when the light turns green, when you give way to more than one person while you're in front of me, if you switch lanes unexpectedly without indicating, if you don't merge like a zip, or if you keep going through the intersection and then stop midway because the other side is all queued up and you block me going the other way and I miss my green light - if you do any of those things and you get beeps and glares and hands waving in the air and fingers pointing to the head (translated as "use your brain") from a brown female someone in a black Mazda wagon...there's a good chance that would be me. I'm a work in progress.

Those are only a few that I can remember and have the energy to list. Maybe I'll think of some more later. Or maybe not.

Sincerely,
Same old me