evil net-nazis

Well, it has been a little while since I managed to post on the blog. I'd like to point out that it isn't due to a lack of interest on my part, though.

Unfortunately, the evil net-nazis at work revamped all our hard- and soft-ware a couple of weeks ago. They also updated all the web-marshall prohibited sites. Guess which was one of them? Yep... blogger.com.

So now, in order to post, I need to try to find a time at home when The Boy isn't already occupying the computer. Easier said than done...

So please bear with me. The Little Black Rocket and I will do our best to post at least once a week. More if we can.

back to the grind

Supposedly, taking a break means you come back to work refreshed, revitalised and raring to go. Well, having just taken a week and a bit of holiday, I can say it ain’t so. I like lolling around the house, reading books, playing with the kitten, going shopping etc. Work pays the bills, and it could be worse, but give me a winning Big Wednesday ticket and I’d quit tomorrow. No doubt about it.

going gold

The Boy and I went to the movies last night, but with a bit of a difference. It was part of a function being hosted in the Gold Class Lounge at the VillageSkyCity cinemas, so it also included an open bar and yummy nibbles.

For those who haven’t heard about them, the Gold Class theatres have full-on reclining armchairs and on-call service throughout the movie. It’s certainly an excellent way to watch a movie – curled up in a recliner with full bar and snack service just the press of a button away. As an added bonus, the function’s hosted bar continued throughout the movie, so the copious amounts of Shiraz consumed by The Boy didn’t break the bank (well, not ours anyway – maybe the host’s!). I was driving, so could only have one, which was a bit of a bummer.

It was just as well the seats were comfy, because the movie was a whopping 2 hours 50 minutes long (and not terribly gripping). The hardest part of the whole experience was trying not to fall asleep.

flavour of the month

What is it with weddings in Rarotonga lately? It seems like every second person is rushing up there to tie the knot. For the second year in a row, I’ll be heading up to Rarotonga for a friend’s wedding (different friends, obviously). The wedding is in late August and The Boy is coming with me this time. We’ve just booked our tickets and accommodation, and are looking forward to a week of fun in the sun (with a wedding thrown in).

With superb timing, she’s getting married a few days before The Boy’s birthday. This is a double bonus for him, considering he’ll not only get a trip away but he’ll actually get a warm birthday instead of the chilly winter day he usually gets. Mind you – I haven’t told him this yet, but every time I’ve been to Rarotonga, it’s rained pretty much the whole time I’ve been there… Oh well, at least it’ll be warm.

bliss

Our bed has been on its last legs for a while, so we finally got around to getting a new one last weekend. It was delivered on Friday, and the whole weekend has been full of blissful sleep. We knew the old one was bad, but having a lovely new bed to bounce on showed us just how bad the old one really was.

Nothing beats a good sleep. Well, not much anyway.

my short-term solution

Well, maybe I can’t get Monday’s banned, but I do have a short-term solution: just take them off. Between Queen’s Birthday Monday, and a bit of well-timed annual leave, I don’t have to work on a Monday again until 25 June. Works for me.

not that kind of rocket

It’s quite funny looking at some of the hits on The Kitten’s blog (http://www.littleblackrocket.blogspot.com). From time to time there are some very random hits from places like Russia, Israel, Venezuela and suchlike. They’re always very short visits – a couple of seconds, at most, and never more than one page view. I can’t help but wonder if they did a search for “Rocket” and she came up? Not exactly the little black rocket they were looking for, perhaps!

ban them!

What do you think the chances are of getting Monday’s banned? I’m sure if I started a petition I’d be able to get loads of signatures. I guess the real question is who would I send it to? Who is responsible for Mondays??

unnatural?

Here’s one in the eye for those people who say gay couples adopting is “unnatural”.

A pair of flamingos in Britain, who happen to be a gay male couple, have just become surrogate parents for an abandoned egg. Apparently, gay flamingos are not uncommon, and this couple has a well-known affection for stealing other flamingos’ eggs to raise. See more about this pink couple (pun intended) here.

If it happens in nature, who are we to call it unnatural?

bugger

If there are gods up there, they’re laughing at me today.

I was feeling quite desperate for a “duvet day” today, but decided I really couldn’t do it. Work is really busy at the moment, plus I had an important meeting today that would be difficult to reschedule. So, up I got and came to work.

But guess who did call in sick today? The person my important meeting was with.

Bugger.

kid in a candy store

The Boy was recently given an Auckland Museum membership, which covers both of us. The Boy has an endless fascination with history and anthropology, and the museum is one of his favourite places, so it was a great present.

Anyway, we used it for the first time on Sunday. We wandered around for a little while, then decided to check out the Member’s Lounge. The look on my Boy’s face when he walked into the lounge (and saw the lovely reading room and free coffee machine) was priceless. I think he has a new favourite place.

deliciously girly

Is there anything more deliciously girly than being pampered? Whether it’s a manicure, pedicure, hair or makeup, there is very little else in the world that can make so many women feel like purring.

I decided to treat myself to a manicure at lunchtime – it’s been a while since I indulged myself, and I figured I must deserve it by now. I thought I’d try the little hole-in-the-wall nail bar around the corner from work, since they’re half the price of the bigger salons (and my budget is a bit limited at the moment). I have to say, though, they were fantastic. I haven’t had a French manicure that good for years, even at twice the price.

So there you go – the key to justifying more frequent indulgence: find a small business that gives great service for half the price, then you can go twice as often…

odd but true

I had to stop by the pet store today to pick up kitten food and litter. As I was approaching the shop, it started to drizzle. By the time I came out with my purchases, it had started to pour. Now that I’m back at work, it’s stopped raining completely.

Thinking back, every time I go to that store, it’s raining when I come out. Odd, but true.

survey this

What is the obsession that big companies have with stupid surveys? We seem to have in-house surveys coming at us left, right & centre lately. If they ever actually shared the results with us, or did something with them, I wouldn’t mind so much, but that isn’t the case. Seems to me it’s just that our HR managers have too much time on their hands and a desperate need to justify their enormous salaries.

I wish they’d send us a survey asking what we think of all their surveys – that’s something I’d have fun filling out...

peace, tranquillity and power tools?

The Boy’s latest obsession is bonsai – it’s his new big thing. He has just started learning more about bonsai, and has already created a really nice cascade.

When most people think about bonsai, the images that spring to mind are things like peaceful Japanese gardens and patient nurturing of plants over a long period of time. What springs to The Boy’s mind are power tools.

Apparently even a peaceful, tranquil and refined pastime such as bonsai can be made better by the use of power tools. Accompanied by manly grunting noises, I’m sure.

so far, so good

Happy Anniversary, Boy. We managed to make it another year, still happy and (relatively) sane.
x

shocked

I discovered yesterday that one of my cousins, whom I would have thought had far too much sense for that sort of carry-on, has had botox treatments. Not to mention another “filler” treatment (which isn’t actually approved in NZ yet). In fact, a total of $1600 worth of cosmetic procedures on her face. I have to admit I was quite shocked at the news.

Sorry, Boy – you’re just going to have to live with my wrinkles. I can’t imagine letting anyone with a needle full of poison anywhere near my face.

personal shopper

I think I should be charging The Boy some serious Personal Shopper fees.

He loathes and despises shopping, and always expects me to do his clothes and shoe shopping. Because I’m a Good Girlfriend, I usually cave and do it for him. I suppose one benefit is that I get to choose what he wears, including the swag of winter clothes I’ve picked up for him over the last few weeks. And he knows the rule – if he doesn’t come with me, he can’t complain about my choices. It would help if he was there to actually try things on before I buy, though.

Anyway… I’ve been doing some research, and have discovered that personal shoppers for men’s clothing charge at least $110 per hour. Be prepared, Boy – an invoice is on the way!

if it looks too good…

As the saying goes, “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is”.

People amaze me – they’re so willing to believe scammers. There is a scam doing the rounds at the moment that involves travel. Being in the industry myself, I received a warning about it this morning, which I forwarded to friends and family.

Despite this, some of The Boy’s workmates seem to think that it’s really all above board. Why? Because the scammer told them so.

So, go ahead – book your “free flights”. And after you’ve done that, can I interest you in some money I have trapped in Nigeria? It’s just waiting for a kind person like you to help me liberate it! All I need is a small deposit up front from you (to cover legal expenses)…

new pick up joint?

The city has several well known non-bar pick up joints, some quite bizarre. For example, you should avoid putting your bananas pointing upwards in the trolley at a particular local supermarket on certain nights of the week, unless you’re looking for a bit of action. Well, The Boy seems to have inadvertently discovered another random joint last night. And not one that would ever be his cup of tea.

I had a work dinner last night, so The Boy decided that he’d go to a movie then we’d go home together. This was fine by me, and it meant that he could see a boy-flick that I have no interest in.

Anyway, the dinner went a little later than I’d expected, so after the movie The Boy was killing some time in a nearby bookstore. He was sitting in one of the chairs they provide, reading a magazine, when the magazine was suddenly “bumped” by a set of male buttocks. After a rather curt word from The Boy, the buttocks moved away. Then, shortly afterwards, a pretty young man invited The Boy to come home with him “for a drink”. And didn’t want to take no for an answer (until the no became somewhat less than polite).

I’d like to point out that The Boy is definitely a manly man – he doesn’t look the least bit effeminate. He certainly wouldn’t normally be hit on, let alone so aggressively, by not one but two guys in a bookstore.

After this, The Boy took a look around at the store’s clientele and their behaviour, and came to the conclusion that the bookstore in question has a gay singles night on Tuesdays. Talk about wrong place, wrong time…

why?

Explain this to me, please. Why, when we spend a fortune on super-premium food for The Kitten, does she still insist on supplementing her diet with bugs? Nothing on legs (or wings) is safe from the little black rocket – if she can see it, she can catch it. And if she can catch it, she will eat it. Crickets are her favourite, but if they aren’t available she’ll make do with any old creepy-crawly. So much for feeding her only the best…

a bit of random trivia

In case you ever wondered, being “kissed” on the cheek by a beluga whale feels like being softly head-butted by a half-inflated volleyball. Really.

are you sure this is all ours?

Since our new place is much bigger than our last one, and has much more storage space, we decided that it was a good time to clear everything out of the storage unit we share with my parents. We thought if we at least got all our boxes into the new house, we could sort through them and see what we should keep and what we should get rid of (and hopefully be able to give up the storage unit altogether).

Sounds like a reasonable plan, doesn’t it? Well, I’m sure those boxes are part rabbit, because they seem to have been breeding like crazy in there. I didn’t think we had that much stuff in storage, but apparently we did. Half a truck load, in fact. Some of which hasn’t been touched in ten years.

At the moment they’re mostly stacked up in the guestroom waiting for me to pluck up the courage to attack them. It’ll certainly be interesting to get them all opened up and see what’s inside. I guess you could say it’ll be half like Christmas and half like Halloween – good but scary!

a new experience

I talked The Boy into trying something new last night. No, don’t let your imagination run too wild – it was just a restaurant!

I’ve always really liked Chinese steamboat food. How it works is you sit at a table that has a big pot of broth sitting on a gas burner in the middle. You order what food you’d like, choosing from a range of meat, seafood, veges and noodles. The food comes raw, so you drop it into the broth to cook (a few pieces at a time) then eat it as soon as it’s ready. After all the food is cooked and eaten, you drink the “soup” that is left. Yummy!

The steamboat restaurant my family used to go to closed down years ago, and I’d never found another one. I was sitting in the car a couple of weeks ago, waiting for The Boy to get coffee from his new local, when I happened to see a sign that said Steamboat Restaurant. After a few loud squeals of joy, I told The Boy we had to go. Soon.

The Boy had never tried Steamboat, and was frankly quite dubious. The look on his face as we sat down and they brought the pot of broth over was classic. Nearly as good as the look on his face after the food we’d ordered arrived, nicely sliced but completely raw. The good news is that once he actually tried it he loved it, so I won’t have to struggle to get him back there.

See, Boy? Sometimes, different is good.

little black rocket

Well, there is no denying The Kitten is loving the new house. So much more room for her to explore and all sorts of odd corners for her to poke her whiskers into. Plus the fact that we still have boxes and suchlike everywhere, which make the place one big kitty-jungle-gym.

But I think the thing she likes best of all is that she now has room to get up a bit of speed when she’s racing around. Her personal motto seems to be “never walk if you can run”. Well, one of her personal mottoes, anyway (along with “if the fridge is being opened I should be getting fed”, “who cares if it’s 5 am – if I’m awake then you should be too” and other such gems).

So beware of the little black rocket rushing around the house. It only has two speeds – dead run and dead asleep.

how can it be May already?!

I don’t know where this year has gone – how can it be May already? Unbelievable. So much has happened in the first four months of this year, I’m starting to get a bit desperate for a moment to stand still and catch my breath.

We’ve just moved house again, which wasn’t really planned. Our lease was up for renewal and, since our landlord was proving to be a bit of a Dodgy Dan, we thought it would be sensible to at least look around and see what else was out there before we committed to renewing the lease. As it turned out, that was a great idea. We found a place 5 minutes down the road that is twice the size, and on a full size section with garage, for the same price we’d been paying for our wee split villa with no off-street parking. I guess that means we’re well & truly suburbanites now! The timing could have been better – we moved a few days before I had to leave on a business trip to the USA. Not fun, but worth it in the end.

The Boy is beside himself, though – he now has an official “man cave”. The smallest bedroom is all his, and he is having a great time turning it into “Boy Space”. He has set up his computer table, a desk, all his books and his other guy-toys, including dragging our enormous old speakers out of storage and hooking them up to our old stereo. Boy Heaven indeed! Now all I have to do is convince him that his ugly ceramic cows would look much better in there than in our living room…

procrastination king

I have to say, The Boy really is the uber-procrastinator. Never mind “why do today what you can put off until tomorrow”, his motto is more like “why do today what you can put off until next year”. Or, better yet, get someone else to do for you.

A classic example of this is today: he has finally taken one of the suits he brought back from his last trip to Brazil in for the alterations it needs. His last trip to Brazil was in September 2005.

With skills like that, I think he can proudly claim the crown of Procrastination King. If he gets around to it, that is.

what did we do without it?

How did we ever manage without internet banking? Yes, I’ve just been paying bills online, specifically phone & electricity. I was remembering what a nightmare it used to be having to go down to the post office and line up for at least half an hour (on a good day) to pay those particular bills (since I never remembered early enough to have time to post a cheque).

Internet technology may have disadvantages, not the least of which is the amount of time The Boy spends online, but it certainly makes life easier in a lot of ways.

the cloud inside the silver lining

I’ve just been told that my company is sending me on a week-long business trip to Milan, Paris and London. Sounds good, right? Ordinarily I certainly wouldn’t complain about a free trip to Europe, even if most of time will be taken up with work.

I guess you could say that the trip to Europe is the silver lining. The cloud is the fact that it is going to be in February. Yes, February, which is the height of summer here in New Zealand and the depths of winter over there… I’m not very good at really cold weather at the best of times, let alone when I’m leaving my nice hot summer for it, so I’m not entirely sure how I’ll go.

It is a good excuse to have to hit the shops for the new winter season clothes that are starting to appear, though. Sorry, Boy, but I really have to go shopping – it’s a work thing, what can I say? By the way, can I please have your card??

upholder of the law??

The Boy has the joy of Jury Service to look forward to all this week. He had his first day today, and was less than impressed by the people and by the lack of organisation. After waiting around all morning, he was told he wouldn’t be needed today but come back tomorrow.

He had some rather pithy remarks to make about the huge waste of his time. He also made some rather pointed remarks about the type of person to be found hanging around the courthouse, but then what did he expect?

I don’t think I’d like him to be on the jury if I were ever to be on trial. Although he has many fine qualities, fair and impartial are certainly not words I’d use to describe him. Put it this way – he was giving a monologue this morning and laughing like a loon at it. It went something like this:

“Guilty!!”
“But Sir, we haven’t started yet”
“Guilty!!”
“Sir, can you please wait until you hear the evidence”
“Guilty!!”
“Sir, please refrain from making judgement until the end of the trial”
“Guilty!!”
“Bailiff, please remove this man”
“Guilty!! Guilty!! Guilty!!”

Need I say more?

high revenue weekend

So, how much money do you think the police will make on the roads into Taupo this weekend? And how many drivers do you think will get those last few demerit points on their licence and be taking the bus for the next six months?

Yes, it’s the A1GP in Taupo this weekend (http://www.a1gp.com/), and every petrol-head in the country seems to be heading that way. The Boy and my dad are both down there today for the practice day, having left at the crack of dawn this morning (The Boy has taken his bag of essentials with him: sunscreen, sunglasses, binoculars, camera and, most essential of all, his big Brazilian flag). Apparently there wasn’t too much traffic, but there were a ton of cops and speed cameras on the road.

Come to think of it, my last speed camera ticket was just out of Taupo, on the way home from a friend’s wedding a few years ago. But hey, its pretty hard to do 100 km/h when it’s the middle of summer, the sun is shining and you’re on the open road in a convertible. Mind you, that ticket did make the weekend away a bit more expensive than I’d anticipated…

dangerous delusion

As you may have heard, a vaccine has been developed for cervical cancer. Well, sort of. The vaccine prevents certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus which is apparently linked to 50-70% of all cervical cancer cases.

At the moment, Australia and the US are both instituting vaccination programmes for young girls (around 11 years old), and New Zealand is considering doing the same. The vaccine has been approved for use here in NZ, but the next changes to our national vaccination schedule aren’t likely until 2008.

Anyway, back to the point: a vaccine that prevents a virus that is linked to up to 70% of all cervical cancer cases. Fantastic, isn’t it? Well, not according to some people in the US, who say it just encourages promiscuity. After all (according to these rocket scientists), “if you are good folks who raise your daughter to be chaste and pure until she reaches her marriage bed, she won't need this”. To quote the billboards: Yeah, Right!

In the western world, most parents who think their daughters won’t have sex until they’re married are dangerously deluded. Besides, even in the incredibly unlikely event that she is a virgin on her wedding day, who knows where her future hubby has been…

Why would you take the chance?

softy dad

Since the arrival of our kitten a couple of weeks ago, I can definitely say The Boy is Softy Dad.

We went to the supermarket on Saturday for the first time since we picked up the kitten. Getting The Boy past the pet section was a mission and a half. He was going crazy over all the toys and was pretty much ready to fill the whole trolley with loot for his little girl.

After about 15 minutes of negotiation, we managed to compromise on a “tickle stick” – a long flexible stick with a bundle of bright feathers on the end – and a few little treat meals to supplement her regular kitten food.

They were good choices, though – she goes bananas over the tickle stick and wolfs down the food. Well done, Softy Dad – I’m sure your little baby appreciates the efforts.

his kingdom for a coffee…

One thing The Boy is missing about living in the city (in fact, probably the only thing) is having a coffee shop right on our doorstep. The closest coffee shop is 10 minutes or so walk away, which is apparently a lifetime to a caffeine addict desperate for a fix.

We’ve made a couple of excursions to check out some of the local options, with varying success. There is one wee café which has quite nice atmosphere and food. Apparently it also has ok coffee but, since I personally think the only good thing about coffee is the smell, I’ll have to take The Boy’s word for that.

The other place we’ve tried was pretty dismal. Put it this way – I don’t think their cleaner is in danger of dying from exhaustion, judging by the amount of work it looks like he/she does. It wasn’t as disgusting as Brucie’s (but then what is??), but it definitely had a somewhat unwashed look.

I guess The Boy is just going to have to make his own or put up with my meagre coffee-making skills more often than he used to. On the plus side, think of the money it saves…

watch this space…

We all know that there are differences between males and females, beyond the obvious physical ones. Any two people can have the same experience and not only describe it differently, but take different things from it, and this is generally even more so from male vs female perspectives.

The Boy, being a mad blogger and internet addict, has suggested that we make a blog from this – one where we each write postings about our own perspective on the same outing and/or experience.

So, we’re looking into this at the moment. We’ve found a very appropriate website address and name, so now all we need to do is decide on our first topic and sort out the details of how the site will look.

Watch this space for more details…

spiritual?

The Boy discovered a website yesterday (as he does) with a quiz that asks a bunch of questions about your spiritual and humanitarian beliefs and then tells you which religions are most compatible with those beliefs. They rank 27 religions, and number 25 on The Boy’s results list was Catholic. This is pretty funny, considering he actually is Catholic.

His number 22 was Islam. That really should have been number 27, because I know there is no way The Boy could ever be Muslim. Not because of any of his spiritual beliefs, but because he could never in a million years give up bacon… Think of Homer Simpson in a drooling daze, and you’ve pretty much got the picture.

Interestingly enough, 4 of our top 5 results were the same, although in different order. Considering he is Catholic and I’m completely non-religious, that isn’t what I’d have expected. Some of the religions on the list are pretty random, though – many of them I’ve never heard of, and some look more like pseudo-cults to me. I’m not going to be rushing out to join any of them, anyway.

If you’re interested, the site was http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html. One way to kill 5 minutes, I guess.

ruining the boy’s day

I completely ruined The Boy’s day not long after we got our kitten. He was teasing me about giving her too much attention and saying (jokingly) that maybe we should take her back. He asked me whether I’d be able to take her back to the SPCA, to which I replied that knowing there was a chance that she’d end up being put down, no I couldn’t.

He was completely appalled, and was really upset for days afterwards (and still is every time he thinks about it). He had no idea that the SPCA put animals down if nobody adopted them within a certain time frame, and thought that any unadopted animal would just be kept there for as long as it took. While I’m very sure the SPCA would love to be able to do so, there is a limit to their space and resources, and it really isn’t possible.

Fortunately for our little girl, there is no way The Boy could give her up – he is completely wound around her little paws. Unfortunately, not all animals are so lucky.

the new addition

Back to work today, dammit (since we failed to win lotto over the holidays). I must admit it was a bit hard heading out from home today, not least of all because we had a new addition to the family just before New Year… But no, the ‘p’ in ‘pj’ doesn’t stand for ‘pregnant’ – it wasn’t that kind of addition. Our new addition is a gorgeous wee black kitten.

The Boy & I have been discussing getting a cat for a while now, and it’s something The Boy has been really hanging out for. It wasn’t possible while we were living in a shoebox (aka a city apartment), but we’d agreed that when we moved we’d find somewhere that would allow a cat.

So, 10 days ago The Boy and I took a drive out to the SPCA to choose our new ‘baby’. Well, actually, I think she chose us. After she’d come trotting up demanding our attention, to the point of climbing up the inside of the wire cage to get closer to the potential hugs, we couldn’t really say no to her (a theme that has continued, I have to say). She certainly seems to be thriving, and has grown astronomically since she came home with us. I don’t think she stopped purring for 3 days after arriving, but I guess anything is better than a shared cage at the SPCA. Although the SPCA staff are certainly very caring and professional, it isn’t the same as a home of your own.

No doubt there will be more Adventures of the Crazy Kitten in days to come…