Music that Pops

I just made microwave popcorn and i swear to god that it was popping in time with the music on the radio.

Freaky.

It didn't taste especially musical.

Empty Building

I'm blogging from work, because the building is empty, save for me and the receptionist. Or is it the receptionist and I? Whatever - we're here alone. Why are we alone, i hear you ask? Well it's because the rest of the slackers who work here are off getting drunk in order to celebrate the resignation of the marketing guy.

I know that sounds like they're celebrating because he's not very well liked - but they're not celebrating because they hate him, they're celebrating WITH him because they like him, but he's moving on to bigger and better things.

Celebrating seems like the wrong word to use, but i don't think there's another name for it that is more appropriate. Any excuse for a drink. I chose not to go, because someone had the great idea that having drinks on the other side of the city on Friday evening would be a good idea. I have plans already after work, and driving a 2 hour round trip to hang around for half an hour didn't especially appeal to me on a Friday evening. Sadly, i work for a bunch of alcoholics, so the idea of me not ditching work to go and get drunk didn't go over too well.

I want to be angry at my evil alcoholic boss lady, but i suspect she is getting a divorce (office gossip) and i can't help but feel a little sorry for her, so she is off the hook this time.

Sadly the highlight of my day has been a tub of yoghurt with raspberry sauce i had for lunch and a 2008 calendar that I bought at 75% of RRP. You would think the value of a calendar would decline in relation to the amount of months that could no longer be used, but i guess that's not the case. And since i only paid $3 for it, I'm not complaining.

5 o'clock can not come soon enough today...

The Hong Kong Debate

I know that I’ve mentioned many times before that I am a hopeless case when it comes to geography and history, but today has proved this for me. It has also proved that I am not alone in my ignorance. In fact I think it might be contagious, and just by being near other people, I am sucking the geographical knowledge right out of them.

I had a conversation with some people at work today about the location of Hong Kong, and it went something like this:

Accounts Lady: Do you know where Hong Kong is?

Me: Ummm…..in Asia somewhere.

Her: It’s the capital of Japan isn’t it?

Me: Tokyo is the capital of Japan.

Her: What is it the capital of then?

Me: It’s not a capital, it’s a country!

Marketing Guy: Is it in Korea? Does anyone have an atlas?

Her: Oh wait, I know - it’s the capital of China!

Me: Yes, does anyone have an atlas?

Her: It must be a country, right?

Me: Actually on second thought - I thought Egypt was in Asia, so maybe you shouldn’t ask me.

Her: I’ll ask the boss.

She rings the boss.

Her: Where is Hong Kong?

Boss Man: I can’t believe you don’t know basic geography! Hong Kong is the capital of China. You people need to buy an atlas.

Her: OK, Boss Man says it’s the capital of China. So there you go.

Me: Cool, I learnt something today!

Marketing Guy: Yeah, me too.

So I thought i had learnt something, until wikipedia told me that I hadn't.

Tomorrow I’m going to go and buy an atlas.

Will Pay Cash for Time

I have no spare time. I want my spare time back.
Lend me some?

Guilty Sick Day

Today I did something that I never do - I stayed home from work. I took a sick day.
I guess technically I was sick - I wasn't really in any sort of shape to be at work, but I’m not sure if it counts if it's self-inflicted.

I had a really big hang-over. Yes, I know how insanely irresponsible it is to take a sick day because you drank too much the night before. And I know that I shouldn't have been drinking that much on a weeknight in the first place. I just got a little carried away.

I’m not a drinking-during-the-week kind of person, but last night I had dinner with my best friend who I haven't spent time with in a very long time. We've both had other priorities, and have put off catching up for a while. Last night, what was supposed to be a relaxed dinner turned into a little bit of a piss-up.

It all started because we wanted a glass of wine with dinner, but it was almost the same price to buy a whole bottle. We gave in and bought the bottle, because we figured we were having a banquet - we'd be there for a while and there would be plenty of food to soak up all the alcohol. The trouble with this theory is that it doesn’t account for the fact that after drinking a whole bottle of wine, you're probably not in the best shape to be making rational decisions - which is what led us to getting a second bottle of wine.

Needless to say, we drank way too much for the food to counteract and ended up in a state that is totally in-appropriate for a weeknight. It doesn’t help that I am a total light-weight when it comes to consuming wine.

Now I’m feeling incredibly guilty, because I’m not the sort of person who takes a sick day for a hangover - I’m not even the kind of person who really takes sick days at all unless I’m on my death bed. I’m going to be up all night thinking about how wrong it is to take the day off for something this stupid.

I’m going to have to learn to save the drinking for the weekends...

A (heat)Wave of Visitors

Days like today are always the busiest in our house, because when the temperature tops the 40°C mark (104°F), those of our friends who don't have air conditioning come to visit.

Today was particularly busy, because not only did we reach 41 degrees, but tonight the temperature won't be dropping any lower than 30°C (90°F) which means that those who are visiting just to take advantage of our cooling are more reluctant to leave.

More sadly it means that all of the things I had hoped to accomplish before work on Monday are probably not going to get done - a day this hot only lends itself to sitting on the couch in front of the air con, and little else. Tomorrow is going to be 41°C as well, so that only leaves me with Saturday to finish everything.

Sunday is second Christmas, which is going to be a nice way to end my holidays before i head back to the hollow bat cave of an office where I earn my living.

A Day Outdoors

Today I broke with all of my beliefs and did the unthinkable. Gardening.
We've lived here for about a year and a half and in all of that time, the total extent of our gardening work has been mowing the pitiful excuse for a lawn that we're trying not to grow in our backyard. And the last time we did that was the week that we moved in.

We got up reasonably early to get the deed done, and I started off by trimming some of the bushes along the front of the house. But the more I trimmed them, the more I realised they were just going to grow back again - so instead I pulled them out. It was a lot of hard work, but it was satisfying to know that I won't have to do it ever again. That's my kind of gardening.

And my reward for all of this hard work? I got so sunburnt on my back that I can't lie down without it stinging. This is why I don't believe in gardening. I find it hard to believe that people actually enjoy doing it. I think their enjoyment can probably, in most cases, be attributed to hallucinations brought on by sun-stroke.

I think I'll head over to the nursery tomorrow and see if they can sell me a couple of non-growing, non-dying, non-water-requiring plants. Do they exist?

I wonder if anyone would notice if the plants in our garden were all artificial...

The tall and short of it

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I were shorter. I stand at around 5'10" - so I'm relatively tall. In a decent pair of heels I'm over 6 feet. Luckily for me, KJ is about 6'3", so I can wear heels and still be shorter than he is. It's good because as a woman it feels strange to be taller than your partner.

When I was younger, I used to date a guy who was about 5'5". I couldn't wear heels when we went out because I would tower above him, and in a loud room I would have to hunch over so that I could talk to him. It didn't last very long.

I wonder - If I were shorter, would I see different things? I'd be looking at everything from a lower angle, so people would look different because I'd be observing them from a different perspective. Would people be less attractive? Because you would spend a lot of time gazing up their nostrils while trying to make eye contact - that could be a little off-putting, especially if they had crazy nose hair. Although if you were shorter, you wouldn't be able to see bald patches on top of people's heads, which could work in their favour - especially if they invested in a good quality nose hair trimmer.

If a tall and a short people were to walk down the same street at the same time, and you asked them the things they noticed, would they answer differently because their eye-levels were at a different height?

It's an interesting thought, because no matter what I do, I can't ever be shorter than I am now, so there is no way for me to really know if it would be different. Weeks and weeks of holiday gives you time to ponder these deep and meaningful thoughts. Time to truly think on the important things, like shortness and it's effect in the sale of trimmers for excess nostril hair.

I think I need to get a hobby....

The $2 Tradition

Reading about Badaunt's New Year tradition has reminded me of a New Years tradition that was part of my family for a very long time - I think because her descriptions of Okaasan trying to feed everyone up remind me a little of my grandmother.

On New Years Eve, my grandmother would bake a sweet-bread type cake with a $2 coin in it. On New Years Day, all of the family would go to her house and the cake would be cut into slices. One slice for the house, one slice for the whole family, and then one slice for each family member. If the coin was in your slice of cake, that meant that you would be blessed with good luck in the New Year. It also meant that you were $2 richer, which I guess is a nice way of starting your lucky year. Pity you can't bake a $100 note into a cake...

My grandmother passed away a couple of years ago and since then we haven't had a New Years cake. She was the traditional one in the family and the cook, so after she died, the tradition did too. As the cook, she was always trying to feed people up and she would never let you leave without having eaten an enormous meal and taking a parcel of food with you. She cooked a lot of traditional foods that everyone loved and that we miss now that she's gone and no one else knows her recipes. New Years always reminds me of her telling me to eat more, and of the big smile she would have after you had gorged yourself silly on her cooking.

Two Christmases

As I mentioned in a previous post, we're having two Christmases this year.

1st Christmas was regular christmas - December 25th with my parents & sister; grandparents; aunties, uncles and cousins.
2nd Christmas is with all of these people again, minus my grandparents, as my grandfather isn't well enough - because, as he puts it, he's going down the gurgler. 2nd Christmas will also include my brother, his wife and their 3 year old daughter. They spent Christmas in England with her family this year, which means that we get 2nd Christmas once they get back in mid-January.

I think it's just because everyone missed spoiling my niece, who is the most loveable, pretty and well behaved child I have ever come across in my life. This is despite the fact that she's the only grandchild so is therefore incredibly spoilt. I know you think I'm biased because she's my niece, but if you met her, you would agree.

She's such a good kid that I've actually considered just stealing her instead of ever trying to have kids of my own. I believe it's completely as a result of my sister-in law, who is an amazing mother and has a freakish 6th sense that tells her exactly what the appropriate reaction to her child's behaviour is. It's not normal. Everyone knows you're supposed to screw up your first two kids and then just let the third one do whatever they want because by then you're over the effort.

Anyway, the point that I was getting at is that because of this wonderful child, I get to have two Christmases. That means two gigantic christmas meals, two lots of presents and two lots of cheap christmas bon-bons/crackers with dodgy jokes and paper hats. And as my christmas present to my niece is a box of dress-ups, i'm guessing that we'll all be enjoying our meals, presents and crackers while wearing big fake witches noses and clown wigs.

It's going to be fun.