A jolly good spoiling

I had a great birthday today. Initially I was bothered that I'd have to get up early to take my mum to the lab to get her quarterly blood test done, followed by what I was expecting to be a horrific hour at the supermarket (also with my mum). But then I thought "what the heck's wrong with spending a little time on my birthday, with the woman who made it all possible?" After that everything just got better and better.

The boy and TLM spoiled me horribly. Apart from two wrapped presents (a trendy polka-dotted knitting bag with matching needle case, and a set of Taschen fashion books), they also took me shopping at Kirkaldies.

Although TLM did get somewhat bored at that point - but that's probably because (if she is to be believed) she was so excited about my birthday today that she didn't get a wink of sleep last night. And in any case her mood improved considerably after the boy bought her a new game for her Nintendo DS.

So anyway one of the additional presents I got was a pair of leaf-green NYDJ jeans. They were so comfortable! It's all that industrial strength elastic apparently, which keeps your flabby bits in check and supposedly lifts and separates too (maybe not that last bit) - and makes it possible to bend and touch your toes without cutting yourself in half.

Having said that, when I checked out my rear view I really noticed how big my bum  looked (no doubt it's true size and not an optical illusion), which I don't get with my Mavi jeans - so I guess NYDJ jeans don't quite work magic...

I so love the fit of the new jeans that...I now consider elastic waist pants as a viable style option. It's probably not the intended outcome of the jeans designers!

a small clay nation

I found some modelling clay at Uncle Bill's (a shop for thrifty folks, like a cross between a 2 Dollar shop and the Warehouse).

So one afternoon TLM and I got crafty -

This is my creation - an alien city mayor

This is TLM's crocodile

Also from the mind of TLM, a snake, a rabbit, a penis-shaped alien tree and a boob-monster

Thrift - maybe it's genetic

We all laughed when my friend's brother, at their dad's funeral, talked about how thrifty the dad was - how he refused to chuck out his favourite armchair, and bought toilet paper in bulk. I laughed because my mum is a lot like that.

My mum used to by loo paper in cartons of 72. They rested in her spare room alongside the  equally bulk cartons of laundry powder and dishwashing liquid. (In a civil defence situation she might run out of drinking water but she'd have a spotless bum.) And she uses a pastry brush old enough to remember my first teen-angst tantrum.

So, if the new undies I bought for TLM turn out to be too small ( apparently Asian 7-8 year olds are the same size as Kiwi 4-5 year olds) - is it over the top to sew little scrap fabric inserts into the sides to make them big enough?

Attending the funeral of someone you don't know (well) - supportive or morbid?

This is an issue that I've been struggling with for the last few months, because three of my friends have lost a parent this year.

Even though I'd only met said parent a few times (when I'd known the friend for many years), I went to the funeral because it seemed the best way for me to offer support to the friend. After all, I can't whip up a casserole and I'm really no good at touchy feeling hugging (it's my Chinese upbringing probably).

Surely if they didn't want me to go to their parent's funeral they wouldn't have passed on the details to me? But when I was there I'd felt quite awkward because, unlike those who got up to speak, I had no stories about this person. There was little connecting me to them.

The boy thinks that it's morbid and not really right to go to a funeral unless you know them reasonably well.

But a couple of years ago when one of my workmates lost his dad, our whole office closed up for the afternoon to attend the funeral even though most of us (maybe all of us) had never met the dad. In that case, the colleague seemed genuinely pleased to see us.

I really don't know whether there's some definite protocol about this situation. Is it different depending on the country?

My new favourite sweater-I-knitted-myself

Here's the second-to-latest thing I've knitted - a tweedy blue A-line sweater with removable cowl and elbow length sleeves. I've been wearing it a lot - whenever it's been cold enough (even though it hasn't actually been cold much this winter. Is this what winter in Queensland is like?)

Slight more info is on Ravelry.

This might be my mostly style-y outfit right now - the sweater with a navy merino dress, black tights and studded cherry red ankle boots.

My new favourite movie of all time

When I get asked what my favourite movie of all time is, my answer is usually based on the movies I can remember - which is probably quite a small proportion of the movies I've seen and enjoyed at the time.

At various times my answers has been either "Don Juan DeMarco", "Zoolander" or "City of Lost Children" (the latter mostly for the weirdness).

It has taken multiple viewings of "Bend it like Beckham" for me to decide that - now - this is definitely my favourite movie of all time.  I saw it at the movies when it first came out and saw it again a couple of times when it was broadcast on the telly. But watching it tonight (on Maori Television)  has done it.

It's got the culture-clash theme, of which I am an extreme sucker. But there's also the impressive football skills, the larger-than-life Indian wedding spectacle, and the very, very pretty Jonathan Rhys Meyers. (And of course Parminder Nagra is just great. Since this movie I've only seen her in a handful of ER episodes. What a shame, I'd far rather watch her than Keira.) All the characters are wonderful, even the narrow-minded mums. Oh, and the music!!

It's probably the most feel-good movie ever.

As an aside, right after the movie ended the next show on Maori Television was "Monkey" - a remake of the old Japanese tv series about a Chinese myth, which used to be on tell when I was a teenager. I used to think back then how weird it was that the characters were Chinese but speaking English with Japanese accents. But the version showing tonight was dubbed over in Maori. Excellent!

Month-end catch-up

TLM's birthday was a couple of weeks ago - she turned 8.

8!

Still can't make her own breakfast in the morning and still takes a lot of nudging to sort out her lunch box, but then the bench is designed for tall adults and the girl takes a while to wake up.

Lately she hasn't been complaining as much about her friend-situation so hopefully this means she's getting along with everyone and isn't finding their games boring all the time.

We all went tree-planting last Saturday. I'd never realised digging grass-ridden dirt on a slope could be so physically hard...

Yesterday TLM did a face plant in the school playground. Thank gawd she's not smart-alecky enough to tell everyoneI beat her up - can't blame anything other than bad luck and inattention. Her face is like a mild version of Harvey Dent at the end of Batman II; pretty on one side, slightly scary on the other. Poor wee thing.

This evening I had an accident of my own, and learned that even if it's just a fruit knife - it's a Victorinox knife you don't clean it with your finger!

Ups and downs

On the upside, I decided I was sick of pretty leather-like bags that rip to shreds after less than 12 months of use, then promptly found a really good fake Mulberry Alexa bag which I loved and bought, not caring whether it was real leather or not. I've always liked this style and it has lots of pockets and stands up when I put it down.

On the downside, TLM is apparently at that age when girls learn how to make friends and negotiate the whole alpha girl dynamic that you find in groups of girlfriends. She like to do what she wants, how she wants. Although there are at least 10 people she calls friends, she sometimes complains that she's lonely at lunchtime with no one to play with. We tell her that she should try going along with what the other girls want to play and maybe they'll play her games next time - but I've no idea how much she does this and whether it works. I do know that she does have fun wither her friends and classmates sometimes.

Then one day she will tell me she's lonely and just wants someone to play with her. We parents aren't suppose to try to 'fix' this problem for her, she's supposed to learn how to deal with it herself. But it makes me so sad because when I've felt lonely at times in my youth it was horribly depressing. I hate for her to be sad and lonely.

a 6.5 earthquake, and I didn't even feel it

There's been a swarm of earthquakes and aftershocks over the last three days:
The one that hit on Friday made our office building shake and we all scamperd under our desks.
There were three early this morning, and I slept through two of them. The third rocked our bed enough to wake me up, but not so much to prevent us from going back to sleep.
The relatively big one was just after 5pm today, 6.5 on the Richter scale. I was in the car with TLM and we didn't feel a damn thing.
On the news it sounded like buildings in the city centre suffered damage here and there, and I heard that the power went out in a couple of suburbs.
But here at my place, and even at my mums place, there's little trace of the shake (except for my mum's nerves).
Lucky, I guess.

A history of the artist

In another attempt to rid my sensitive eyes of whatever's making them go vampire-red every day, I did a total spring-clean of my bedroom. This meant shifting furniture, pulling bits and pieces from wherever they'd been wedged in between furniture, and removing the rug. I mopped the wooden floor with hot soapy water, wet-dusted everything except the clothes hanging on my garment racks and even cleaned the windows (frame and glass).

The only parts I didn't do were the walls, because I'd only be able to clean the lower 5 feet of them.

At some time in the past, the boy had decided to wedge in my old paintings and sketches in behind my tea chest. so I dusted off the plastic folders and took everything out to see whether I wanted to keep anything.

Amongst the self-conscious scribbles from my art classes and my attempts at abstraction were a number of nudes which I'd mostly forgotten about, as well as a couple of self portraits which were a revelation.

In the end, I was happy to chuck out about 80% of that stuff. But I kept my favourite painting and drawing.

My knitted dress

I thought it turned out quite well. It's the cable panel dress from Designer Knitting magazine

Polar blast? Not today.

So I took a day of work today because I've felt a cold building up for the past week and last night I felt absolutely terrible (nose running like a tap, headache, stiff upper back, wheezing).

And I thought "It's probably a good day to stay at home, what with the gale force freez-ies predicted for tomorrow"(really - folks in the South Island have been shopping like the day before Good Friday, and preparing to hunker down for the next couple of days).

But...actually it's not been that cold. I turned off my heater just now when I looked out of the bedroom window, admired the lovely big rainbow in the sky, and noticed that I can't see my breath (there's no heating on in that room).

Also, I feel not too bad.Maybe it's the calm before the storm (cold-wise and weather-wise). I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

Time on our backsides

You've probably read the news stories about how a sedentary lifestyle can be lethal - that is, even if you go to the gym religiously, the more time you spend sitting, the earlier you'll die.

The first time I read about this, I was on my lunch break. I spent the following hour bent over my workstation, trying to type whilst standing. Then my lower back started to ache, so I had to sit down.

Well, I've spent the better part of the last three days on my bum, all because TLM is sick with a constant cough and a forehead you could fry an egg on (but she wouldn't eat it because she doesn't like egg). She's been on her bum all that time too, except during those moments when she felt well enough to leap about like a well child. And the boy - he seems to have caught the lurgy, so is spending more time that usual saving the world through computer gaming.

I haven't actually minded this relative inactivity, because it's allowed me lots of knitting time - which I've needed, because I'm trying to knit a dress and have already ripped it back from hip to armpit TWICE after realising my sizing was overly optimistic. And I would really like to be able to wear it while it's still cold enough to.

I did go to yesterday's World Knitting In Public Day event, where there was a small but friendly group of knitters including a visitor from Cape Town and an art history professor from Idaho.

My weekend of exploded sinuses

I thought I was having my third cold in 4 weeks - when it suddenly dawned on my that my latest cold (at least) was in fact terrible hay fever. It's the kind that has me sneezing so hard that I almost hit my head on the floor, and kinda sounds like cannon-fire.

It wasn't helped by the fact that I spent a few hours cleaning the house yesterday and had decided to finally tackle the thick blanket of dust around the boy's workstation. It was blanketed, I tell you!

On the plus side, I went to a sock-knitting workshop in the afternoon, part of the Handmade festival this weekend. I went to learn how to knit socks, but also to meet fellow knitters. It turned out that the women I did speak to weren't quite as knit-obssessed as I, and I even had to help a couple of them with their stitching!

So now I can knit socks (at least,  one miniature sock), which means I can finally use that beautiful sock yarn I bought two years ago...

Choo!

A last hurrah for summer

One beautiful Sunday afternoon we decided to go down to the beach and check out the rock pools. It was awesome.

Some Neptune's Necklace

Sea anemone

View of the fishing boats with Marine Education Centre at left

sea kelp, with TLM for size reference

sea slugs

And then there was one...

In memory of Munchy the caterpillar

About two months ago, monarch caterpillars finally started to appear on TLM's swan plant (which she's had since Christmas).

First one, then another, and so on until there were five caterpillars of varying size, chomping their way through the swan plant leaves. We were so excited to be part of the monarch butterfly life cycle!

TLM named them Munchy, Crunchy, Punchy, Lunchy and Yawny. They munched and crunched (as you'd expect) until there were very few intact leaves left.

And then they started disappearing. Punchy was the first to go, and then Lunchy, until....there was only one left on the plant. The birds must have been picking them off once they got big enough to be noticed.

Then we found one dangling from the top of our wooden fence. Hooray, we thought. It's about to become a chrysalis!

But he didn't turn into one. He uncurled, and then just hung there until we realised that the life had gone out of the poor creature. We were down to just one caterpillar after all.

Every day we go and check on Yawny, hoping he gets to complete his life cycle and become a chrysalis and then a butterfly. Hoping that he doesn't become a bird's dinner.

Knitting round-up

A peaked cap for me...

...using two buttons I bought at the Underground Market

A slightly chunky-fying funnel neck top...

with an abstract design on the back which I made up as I went

A beanie for my mum, for Mother's Day

And a wool/mohair/angora tunic for TLM, who wins as this post's cutest model.

Within spitting distance of Jermaine

The other night I took TLM with me to the opening of an art exhibition, featuring a friend, his wife, and  a third person whom I didn't know at all.

We started with dinner for TLM at a Vietnamese place called the Mekong, where she enjoyed two types of spring roll (the "normal", deep fried kind and summer rolls) - I had to take a photo of her with both cheeks full and both plates bereft.

The exhibition was packed. There was live music played by my friend and, among others, two librarians I knew from our local library (including one keen knitter). They sang songs in Spanish and looked like they were having the best time.

Then I saw this tallish, hairy guy just in front of me and realised it was Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords. "Of course," I realised, he is my friend's nephew so of course he'd be there. In fact this friend was the one who recommended that I go see the Conchords a few years back (pre-US tv show).

But I did the Kiwi thing and pretended he was not an international celebrity. Some would say it's because we just aren't into celebrities in NZ. In my case though it was probably just shyness (I was just as lame when I had a chance to talk to my favourite NZ artist Shane Cotton, and didn't).

Besides, I prefer Brett.

Woolly weather incoming

You can tell the drought is finally over when our laundry is once more an unmanageable mountain of unwashed clothing. I was hoping to get a couple of loads up on the line today, but of course right after it was all hung up nature decided to make a liar of the weather forecasters (who hurriedly update their forecast from sunny to rainy) - and it all came down again. Towels too, they were - nice and thick and taking an age to do in the dryer.

On the plus side, it is occasionally cool enough for me to wear my new hat (also on Ravelry).

All cleaned out

We've had a skip bin sitting on our driveway all weekend, and we've been filling it with all sorts of junk. I'm astonished that we actually managed to fill 7.5 cubic meters - almost the size of our garage!

It contains:

• heaps of crap that we found under our house (when cleaning it out in preparation for under-floor insulation a coupla years ago) - construction materials mostly
• Old ceramic dinner plates (which I tried to get rid of on Freeview, but shortly after signing up my inbox was so inundated with irrelevant emails that I've never been back to check whether there were any takers)
• A bag of rags ( we produce enough old clothes to use as rags that there's no sense in saving them up)
• the old filing cabinet I put together myself, by hand
• an old glass cabinet passed to me by my mum (and it was secondhand when she got it)
• old pillows, synthetic duvets, wool mattress liner and curtains
• old back packs (including the packs which served me faithfully through two years of OE)
• an old oil column heater (which nearly caused me to fall out of the attic because it was so damned heavy
• lots and lots of weeds
• and my friend's surround sound systems, which I didn't even know we still had (Dave L, I'm really sorry - you were right and I was wrong) and which is still up the attic because the box is massive and massively heavy.

It was rather too exciting having to be the one to go up the ladder to get into the attic (the boy couldn't get through the hole because his shoulders are too wide. No, really!) But I did it and that's enough for the next few years.

At times (generally while throwing rubbish into the skip) I felt like Derek Zoolander having a go at being a coal miner (with less posturing).

Now I'm resting, fully fed by the boy's home-baked pork spare ribs and a very large slice of framboise, with a big box of tissues because my sinuses are going absolutely CRAZY.

Oven-cleaning

The boy said to me that I should never clean the oven - rather to let him do it because it's such a dirty job (almost as dirty as cleaning poo-covered knickers, back in TLM's toilet training days? I don't think so).

So I let him. Only I never saw him do it. So last weekend I cast a layer of baking soda over the floor of the oven and covered it with a generous sprinkling of vinegar. Then I sprayed a mixture of baking soda and vinegar onto the sides and top of the oven, where the element was.

The next day I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to wipe the grime and grit (and bits of broken and baked gasket (the rubber bit which seals the heat in when you close the door).

The sides and ceiling were another story, and I had a go at scrubbing the element - just for a minute or so to remove the unidentifiable black protuberances.

The oven racks were much easier, requiring only a metal scrub and a bit of elbow grease.

So, not a great job but it definitely looked less like a stone age barbeque pit.

Later on that evening...you know that joke about a derelict old house so ramshackle that the only thing keeping it from total collapse was the termites inside, holding hands?

Yeah, the oven has stopped working. (And if I'd known this was gonna happen I could've saved myself a lot of cleaning effort!)

on the beach

I put it down to the hours of fruitless searching online, for somewhere to stay over Easter weekend which is sufficiently holiday-like and didn't require hassle to get to.

There's no other way I can explain why I managed to pay in advance for two nights in a motel just off the main road, at least 30 mins walk from the beach.

It was the kind of place you stay at when you're on the way to somewhere else, rather than the kind of play you stay at for fun.

So we left after just one night, and I didn't even realise that I'd paid in advance for both nights until after we'd stayed that first night, put up with a terrible bed (TLM was in the bedroom on a perfectly good bed, we had a sleepless night on the awful bed with the motion sickness-inducing springs - in the living area), told the manager we were leaving first thing the next morning, wandered around the beach, tried unsuccessfully to get a place closer to the seaside and then finally came home so we could all remedy our respective zombie-like states.

So yeah, I feel a bit ripped off, even though our motel unit was otherwise perfectly nice.

On the upside, we did get to play at the beach, TLM and I collaborated on some fantastic sand drawings (including a satanic sun), and there was plenty of sunshine. Plus, being away made us appreciate our home more and for just a while I stopped wishing my house was such a dump.

It's raining today. Ordinarily I'd hate that, but at the moment I'm glad that our city's water reserves have been boosted (even if just little bit).

An imperfect 12

I don't know why, but I'm only now (after more than 2 years of knitting garments for myself) starting to realise that - although I may be a size 12 around the chest....I must be a size 14 around the armpits.

This means I have to plan adjustments when I knit, in addition to the ones I already do to petite-ize the length of the torso section and super-size the waist area...

Tight armholes, begone!

Seems it never rains in southern North Island...

So we are in the midst of a drought which has hit the whole of the North Island, and even where we live which is normally never short of water.

How liberating to be able to hang your clothes up on the line, knowing for certain that they will be nice and dry when I get back from work (and not damp from an unexpected downpour). How nice it would be if we were barbequing types, because we'd be able to organise an outdoor social event knowing we won't end up shelter in a bus stop instead.

But it's a bit difficult to fully enjoy the beautiful sunny weather, because there's a drought on. That means everyone's garden is brown and dusty (unless they've got one of those rain water tanks, or are organised enough to use pre-shower water or grey water on their gardens).  I feel I should be hoping for lots of rain, so that our farmers and growers don't go out of business (since they are apparently the backbone of the NZ economy).

But - hey! At least our local tourism industry is flourishing, because Kiwi families all over the country can go camping - and not have to pack up after 5 days of "unseasonal" rain and gale force winds.

And we are going away too, for part of the Easter holidays...to the beach!

Sweat-inducing clothes shopping

The boy is a wonderful man, he really is. Today he arranged for TLM to spend most of the day with her beloved cousins so that he could take me shopping.

And when I say "shopping" I mean that he took me to an upmarket department store, chose designer clothing items for me to try on - all of which was new in for autumn (i.e. full retail price), and bought the items he liked on me. (Is that a little bit Pretty Woman?)

This included an eye-wateringly expensive Jane Daniells long sleeve top and a gob-smackingly expensive possum-merino knit jacket (in biker jacket style, but - y'know, tasteful).

I love the jacket and one other item (black cropped jeans with heavy metal bling on the back pockets). And the boy loves the other ones (even if I'm not so sure myself.

But I am very uncomfortable with spending up so large on clothes, even if they are pieces I really like and even if I didn't have to pay for it myself.

And I can't help thinking that that amount of money could have gone toward doing up our decrepit bathroom.

I wonder whether women in TV makeover shows - the ones where you get a big wad of cash to spend on a new wardrobe - ever worry about whether they would have preferred to get the money and put it toward a new bathroom.

Probably not.

Chinese New Year - a family affair

TLM has been in a Chinese dancing group over summer, with practices culminating in a performance at the Chinese New Year festival day on Sunday. This year she got to be in the parade too.

Here's a picture of her bun. It was my first successful attempt, with the help of a "doughnut" and a great many pins (her hair is less than shoulder length).

The boy was roped in to be a parade marshall, which meant he could walk around in his normal imposing manner and give scary looks to people who got too close to the floats or the vehicles towing them.

And me, I got to sit in the back of the drummer's float (which would have been hellish if my ear's hadn't been cleaned out) and give out water to dehydrated dragon dancers. Watching these guys and gals trot around in formation under the hot sun and with arms held aloft most of the time, I could really appreciate how hard a job it must be. It's just as well the boy didn't get roped into that, 'cos he'd have had to train for months to get into shape.

I would have liked to stick around for the performances after TLM's but they were hot and tired and wanted to go home and eat sorbet. Fair enough.

I've had an earful

This is what happens when you are a hyper-allergic person with a tendency to collect rock-hard bits of wax in your ears:

• they throb and make your head feel like they're full of fingers
• you can hear the sea
• the insides of the ears get itchy so - as much as you know you shouldn't - you dive in there with a finger and poke around, looking for whatever it is that's tickling them.
• You go a bit deaf. You're probably a bit deaf already, but now it's really noticeable because when you walk your footsteps thunder inside your head and drown out everything else...
• everything else except for that plastic bag which makes a terrible racket so you stop trying to fish out whatever it is (your lunch maybe, or your sunhat)
• then, if you haven't done something about it by now, the pain comes.
• you visit the doctor in case you've developed an ear infection. Because that's, like, serious (permanent hearing loss!)
• where, if you're unlucky, it takes several visits to several doctors (because they are part time and you can almost never get the same one twice in a row) before you're told that all you needed was a severe micro-sucking to remove the build-up.

I texted the boy, who was worried about me because I was up all night feeling little stabbing pains in my left ear, "doc says just maxi waxy ear sucking booked".

Turns out those places that specialise in this sort of procedure are very busy (imagine working in a place where you spend all day sucking out ear wax!) so I have another 40 or so hours to put up with before blessed relief (I hope) comes. 

Bolero!

I finished a bolero today, made in Rowan Cotton Jeans yarn, in purple. It's still too hot to wear it, although I could have done with it last night when we were out at dinner (with the boy's aunt and uncle from the UK.)

More knitty details on Ravelry.

Next up is baby gear for a workmate whose partner is due in May. I've already started a couple of items but they are on hold until I find out whether vegans approve of wool...

Accidental fun

I had to force TLM out of the house today. She's been such a homebody - partly because she spends so much time at school or after school care, partly because she loves indoor activities (e.g. watching DVDs and playing computer games), and partly because she can't get to sleeps poorly at night.

We went to Te Papa and went on one of their virtual rides. I wonder how long that's been available...the museum has been around for decades and I only just knew about it yesterday! There are two rides and I chose to the one least likely to cause motion sickness. You get into a capsule which "descends" into the depths of the ocean, into the crater of an undersea mountain. I never realised travelling downwards into the ocean would be so rocky (or maybe they do that on purpose to appease young audiences?).

Then we went out to the wharf where Rugby Sevens high-jinks were still in full swing. We saw Roman gladiators, Smurfs, super heroes, and more. Funny how on certain occasions men like to dress like women and women like to dress like...um...teenagers who've just discovered their girly charms.

A Latin American drum band, also dressed Sevens-style, had everyone dancing along behind them as they progressed along the wharf. Even I broke out some moves, but TLM must have been embarrassed because she kept trying to hold my arms down.

And then, just as we'd got in the car to go home, we passed the park and spotted several highly intriguing bouncy castle thingies. One was a Jurassic Park bouncy castle, and three or four others were rugby-based obstacle course bouncies. TLM and I had a go at the bouncy shark, which is basically a really steep, fast slide. I screamed all the way and thought I was going to overshoot the end and kick some poor kid in the face (but missed).

Also, a shout-out to the boy's aunt and uncle who were in town yesterday. We had a truncated dinner with them at Chow (TLM was restless and fuss-making so we had to leave), but I really enjoyed meeting them and recommended iconic Kiwi foods such as hokey pokey ice cream, fish and chips and roast lamb with kumara wedges.

Holiday bonus

TLM was due to start school the tomorrow, and we didn't have a stationery list yet for her new class. So while she lounged about in her nightie (it was 9.30am) I went to the school website to see whether I could find a list there.

I couldn't find it - but what did catch my eye was the humungous notice on their homepage announcing that school was starting TODAY (apparently a slight change in start date made some time after their late-2012 newsletter).

TLM may act a bit slothfully when she's on holiday, but I have been very impressed at her ability to get ready quickly when it's really important. Within minutes we were headed down the hill to school, her new backpack loaded with lunch, a drink and an Asterisk omnibus.

And - bonus - this was followed by about several hours of completely free time for me!!

What I'm doing in my summer holidays

I took a week and a bit off before TLM goes back to school, hoping to catch some summer with her before we are all shut in until Easter.

It's just as well that we decided to go to Matiu/Somes Island on Tuesday, when I saw what a beautiful morning it was - because since then the weather's been rubbish. It's been warm, but muggy or rainy. Actually, almost exactly like the weather we "enjoyed" between Christmas and New Year - the last time I had a few days off work. I think the universe is trying to tell me something.

TLM still had fun though.

Yesterday we went to Petone for a bimble after dropping the boy off at work. We were about an hour early for the shops to open, so went for a walk along the Esplanade. TLM made the most of the sandy and shell-covered shore, and built a sandcastle before burying it again (for someone else to find, apparently). Then, the shops opened and TLM bought a cute little mouse (probably intended as a toy for a kitten) from the Cats Galore shop. The only shop I wanted to visit was the Holland Road Yarn Company, but it was inexplicably closed. It's probably just as well as I would have ended up buying lots of yarn I don't need.

Today we did lots of chores, but spent lots of time making pictures. I propped up my drawing board on some newspapers so that TLM could paint as though on an easel. I think we produced some great abstract works... Unfortunately laying down newspaper on the kitchen floor was not such a great idea. It stopped the paint from going on the floor, but now I have newsprint ink all over it!

A veritable knit-a-rama

I finished a few knitting projects recently...

A cute slouchy beanie

An adult-sized children's cardigan (maybe that contrast blue was not a good idea...)

A similar cardigan in completely different yarn and colour (much more age-appropriate)

A neck warmer

And another neck warmer

I'll have to wait a few months before I can wear any of these, except for the beanie which is cotton. I just cannot stop knitting.

When the child's away, the parents will play - kind of

"You could go out of town! Have dinner up the coast!" my sister-in-law said, just before driving away with our only child for an impromptu sleep-over.

Ooh, yes. We certainly could. We don't get away much, with or without TLM (but especially without). The boy used to love it when we went to Rotorua for the weekend and stayed somewhere with geothermal pools.  And the weather forecast for the weekend was really promising.

I was so excited by the possibilities that I washed the dishes prematurely (rather than waiting till nightfall) - so that ants wouldn't get into them while we were away.

Well, we didn't go away in the end. I wanted to go for walks but the pale and sun-shy boy couldn't find his hat. So we went into town and went shopping for a new one. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping almost as much as the boy does - I found a new sunhat for me,  and the boy, after much searching, found a cap to fit his enormous (but handsome) head. He also found a new designer hoodie, two designer t-shirts and some Calvin Klein undies (much-needed, trust me). (Later, the boy told me that his highlight of the day was the look of horror on my face when the saleswoman told us how much all of the boy's new clothes cost. If you'd have been there, you would have looked like that too.)

Then we went for a drive an a walk at Percy Reserve, shopped for groceries and returned home for some relaxing reading in the sun before the boy cooked me a nice dinner (crispy duck with courgettes and capsicums, plus warm turkish bread).

Afterwards I read in the news that majors roads up the coast had been blocked off for roadworks, so I guess it's just as well we didn't decide to get out of town.

Fury

I'm absolutely furious about the woman in India who died recently after being gang-raped and viciously beaten by six cowardly men. It's a good thing that as a result,  huge numbers of people in India have been demonstrating to show their anger about a culture which encourages this sort of atrocity to happen - including police who refuse to take rape complaints seriously. It will be no surprise to you that I think the rapists/murderers should be executed, as punishment to them and to set an example to other men who think such brutal and disgusting behaviour is okay.

So now I will try not to think any more about it or I will explode.

Yes, this is the droid I've been looking for...

The boy is really, really hard to buy for - but three weeks before Christmas I looked around online and found the R2D2 lego set and knew he would love it.

I was at work at the time so I thought I'd wait until I got home before ordering it online.
But in the few short hours that passed, New Zealand seemed to have completely sold out of the buggers.

The Warehouse, who'd 6 months earlier sold me the boy's birthday (a Millenium Falcon lego set) present at a welcome discount price and delivered super-promptly, had let me down.

In desperation I went to the main Lego website and ordered it from there. These guys are based in Europe, I'd never ordered from them before, and I was acutely aware of the fact that when you order online from a foreign site you aren't covered by NZ consumer laws (this is what I mean by desperate).

According to Lego folks, as long as I ordered it by 8 December it would get here in time for present-opening day. It was the 6th. Phew.

But a week went by and the status stayed at In Process. After previous experiences with Fishpond, I was sure this meant that they didn't have any in stock and were probably fishing around for one - and if they didn't have one I wouldn't find out until weeks later!

So TLM and I went to look for back-up presents. We found a cool grey t-shirt screen-printed with the image of an enormous sandfly. It was very New Zealand but in a non-kitshy way. Score!

Two weeks went by and I realised the boy was not going to get his R2D2 lego. The stress was getting to me (you could tell because everyone in the office now knew of my plight). I emailed Lego to find out what the story was, then went looking for another back-up present. I found a Star Wars origami book, including the necessary papers at the back of the book. Score!

Lego replied to my email stating that the status of my order had been updated to Shipped. Hmmm...it's supposed to take up to 13 business days to get here. There are only about 6 of those left.

Then, on the Friday before Christmas, a large, plain brown box appeared at our door. It had arrived! On time! The boy loved it!

Hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas.

A Christmas-lunch dinosaur

It's a tuatara. Cool, huh? They're nocturnal so you don't often see them during the day. (BTW This was at Zealandia - not on the streets.)

Merry mischief at the office

On of my workmates has been off on his holidays since
a week ago. This is what he'll see when he gets back...

Thunderpants are go!

I'm wearing my Thunderpants today (my first Thunderpants purchase) and they're great. They're pretty, comfy and they don't go up my bum.

I should get some for TLM.

My sandal-less feet

I have a wonderful pair of sling-backs which I bought on sale a year ago. They are blue with touches of silver and charcoal, have just enough heel to feel dressy but plenty of support so I can walk home in them after work. These shoes manage to be comfortable, flattering and elegant (in my opinion) at the same time.

They are so flattering that they have fooled me into thinking that I had attractive feet.

But there's nothing like trying on the latest strappy summer sandals to wipe out that rosy fog from the glasses eh?

I tried on four pairs of open-toed sandals - some had thin straps, some had thick straps. Some has a cheesy flower on near the toe, some had a covered heel. They ranged from grey to blood red to black.

All of them gave me hobbit feet. Well, they probably didn't give me hobbit feet - more...revealed them.

My feet aren't hairy - don't get me wrong (apart from a few toe hairs that I will never post a photo of on this blog) - but they are wide and sturdy, like the feet of someone who spends most of their time lugging rice on their shoulders whilst striding barefoot up a Szechuan mountain. Or something.

Anyway, the point is, my feet don't look very nice in sandals and that's why I'll be wearing sneakers this summer...and my sling-backs.

Happy Hobbit Day!

Today was, of course, the day of the world premiere of The Hobbit. It was a big day for us because we don't get a lot of those around here, nor the celebrities who appear at them (unless you include occasional cast members from Shortland Street.

Yes, there's been the odd sighting of Martin Freeman or Andy Serkus in the last few months (apparently), but they aren't exactly a familiar sight - unless you work at the New World supermarket just down the road from the Stone Street film studio. So it's still a thrill to glimpse a famous face in person.

I wouldn't have minded being there today, up against the barriers protecting the red carpet and the beautiful people who trod on it - except I would have had to camp there overnight to get a good spot (i.e. with a view not blocked by tall people with big hair and loud friends) and have extreme patience and a really strong bladder or some friends to mind my spot while I sought the nearest servicios (that's toilets, if you've watched Dora the Explorer).

But as soon as I found out that there was a statue of three giant trolls displayed down that way, I resolved to walk down there in my lunch break to see it. I did wonder whether it would be too crowded, that I would ended up under some sweaty tourist armpit.

But I went anyway, just for a look-see. The first thing I noticed was how many young people there were. It's not like the city usually looks like a really big retirement home or anything, but there were a LOT of young people. More than I have ever noticed in one place before (well, since my last live rock concert). Maybe it's just because everyone seems young these days 'cos I'm older...

Anyway it wasn't that crowded as there were still a few hours to go until the start of the celebrity runway.

Those trolls are great! Their skins look real and leathery, and even have hairs poking out. I didn't take any photos though because it just seemed a bit uncool when everyone else is doing it. You can check out what they looked like on the link about half way back.

On my late introduction to skinny jeans

(Actually, it's quite hard to find jeans which aren't skinny legged.)

I went and bought myself a couple of pairs of skinny capris, in white and lilac. They're capris, but on me they are a perfect ankle length.

Anyways, when I wore them with similar-toned longish tops, I was quite (mentally) comfortable. After a few more wears, it now feels weird when I wear wider-legged jeans. It feels like there's too much fabric flapping around. Funny what you get used to.

The other thing is that with the skinnies, the fabric (which is firm, but soft), wraps itself snugly around my legs and it kinda feels like they are keeping the flabby bits from moving around too much - hence, a feeling of skinniness.

At last, I get why women, even those of unmodel-like proportions, have been wearing them for the last few years. All you need is a top that covers your un-perky bum and enough concentration to walk around without sticking it out too much.

...though they aren't so much fun in hot weather. I may have to look for some linen trousers once summer gets under way.

TLM's first Brownie camp

When TLM had a temperature on Tuesday I was worried she'd caught the "strep" that seems to be going around her school. But we never heard back after the doctor took a tonsil swab, so it must have been a virus after all.

Two days off school did the trick though, and she made it to Brownie camp after all.

The boy and I were full of ideas on how we would spend our child-free weekend.

Then my head started to hurt and my forehead felt hot...

Still, we managed to spend Saturday doing the sorts of things we used to do pre-TLM. And that turned out to be mostly the same kinds of things we did post-TLM.  We went out to lunch, read freshly-bought magazines, went shopping, rented a DVD...

A bit of a yawn compared to, say, dinner at a flash restaurant followed by movie or theatre. It was all I could manage, but even if I were well it would not have been a bad day at all.

The boy went to retrieve TLM this afternoon, and she was full of stories about what they got up to (archery! orienteering! making stuff out of bits of paper! learning the song "Found a peanut"!)

But when I later asked her what her favourite part of the weekend was, she said it was "eating cornflakes".

A denim jumper

I knitted this out of some Rowan Denim yarn which is 100% shrinkable cotton. It really really grows - to start with the hem came down to about mid-hip on me. If I don't machine wash and machine dry it soon, it will be knee length...
More details are on my Ravelry page 

Peonies

The boy brought home a bunch of peonies the other day - the petals were in tight little bigs.

Then they bloomed.
They've since transformed into face-sized, papery-yellow blooms.
It's a bit like have different flowers.

Home and away

Last weekend we went to Matiu/Somes Island, staying the night in one of the houses there and returning to the mainland the next morning. We went with Make tea not war, who came up with the idea in the first place.

TLM and DOTH (Make tea's Daughter Of The House) get along like a house doused in petrol and set alight by an unsuspecting male model. I could tell because they didn't go to sleep until about midnight and and were running about like an elephant stampede well before dawn. Well before dawn...

On the Saturday, we went for a walk around the Island, visiting the lighthouse (now automated), the animal internment building (sort of an Alcatraz for cows and sheep, except they were mostly innocent), and the tiny cave to where an unfortunate Chinese man was exiled because they thought he had leprosy (and the white lepers refused to have him).

It's also where Germans, Italians and Japanese people were interned during World War II.

So yeah, a lot of history on that bit of rock and kind of a best kept secret around these parts.

And two days later I had to go to Rotovegas for work, for three days. Ah, the smell of Rotorua...

Cake, cake...and more cake

Yesterday I shouted morning tea for the office because it was my birthday. I brought in caramel slices, strawberry slices, chocolate cake and afghan cookies - all home made by the baker at Midnight Expresso.

Unfortunately I'd bought enough cake for three times as many office staff as we actually had in the office. So throughout the day we (mostly me) picked at the leftovers.

By the end of the day I was totally caked-out and was willing to restart that sugar-free diet that I abandoned last year (after one week).

Then I got home and my wonderful family shouted Happy Birthday!

And presented me with an enormous cake...

The sewing mojo returns

Daylight Saving time started yesterday morning, and I found myself up at the crack of dawn (7.30 am DST).

It was only after about two hours of reading the weekend paper and generally pottering about, that I realised I could actually do some sewing.

Sewing! After about two years of not having time for it!

It was partly brought on by the fact that hand knit clothes are far too warm for summer temperatures (even the low-ish temps we get around these parts), unless one is willing to knit something lacy out of something lace-weight. I'd wandered around the shops but all the tops were really oversized and down to my knees.

So on Sunday morning I started making a sleeveless tunic out of some China-blue linen-blend fabric from my stash of mostly remnants and discarded jeans (from my refashioning heyday), using a very simple - some might say shapeless - McCalls dress pattern.

When I got to the hem I had a flash of inspiration and turned it into a curved hem - shorter in the front and longer in the back.

It was all finished a couple of hours later (it was a "one-hour" pattern) I wore it today and it was appropriately cool for the office's hothouse temperature.

And now I'm all excited about the possibility of making more simply-shaped tops in lovely fabrics.

WOW!

Yesterday TLM and I went to the World of Wearable Art show for the first time.

A fantastic show - such imagination. Such joy. Such beauty. And I haven't even gotten to the part about the entries!

There was so much to see, and the background activities every bit as interesting to watch as the up-front stuff.

And I wish we had more that one set of binoculars because if you're sharing with three other people (my sister in law and niece came with us) you're going to miss out on a bit of detail(though we had great uninterrupted views).

One of my highlights was the dancing performed as a backdrop to the Avant Guarde section. It looked a bit hazardous for them to be floating up and down chairs in those long dresses but they made it look ethereally easy. Another was the kitschy space rocket that signalled the start of the Bizarre Bra section.

The only bit that seemed slightly "off" for me was when the male dancers were got up in tuxedo jacket and teeny tiny shorts. It just smacked of "male stripper" to me and not quite in keeping with the general wholesomeness of the show.

TLM got a bit tired and overwhelmed around the second half of the 2-hour show, but she was very good and made it through to the end without complaint. If she'd been sitting next to me instead of two seats down (next to her cousin) I would have gathered her up onto my lap and given her a mixture of cuddles and commentary.

And afterwards we had massive ice creams.

Online shopping while you're home sick

I spent an awful lot of time online while I was home sick. I pretty much alternated between 'Net surfing and knitting.

By the time I was back at work, I had nearly finished my denim sweater with spiral eyelets. Unfortunately I discovered a mistake about 40 rows back which has set me back another week.

I also went onto TradeMe and bought some lovely aubergine cashmere yarn. Unfortunately apparently aubergine means "brown". I can probably make it work if I combine it with lots and lots of purple or blue yarn though.

I also bought some brown jeans from Wallis in the UK. They were meant to be burgundy, and probably in a certain light they are - but mostly they just look brown.

Buying trousers and jeans online was such a dumb idea. I thought I was safe by buying from a store where I'd successfully found a pair that fit me really nicely. But apparently it's impossible to make everything of the same size, the same size.

And then I do have a history of being too lazy to return stuff that didn't work out.

Maybe I can knit me some trou...

In recuperation

The good thing about my current bout of bronchitis is that at least it hasn't been as bad as the almost-pneumonia of 2-3 years ago. This time around my throat doesn't hurt so much it feels like I'm swallowing razor blades.

The first round of antibiotics didn't work - after 5 days I was coughing up blood, which is a first for me.  but now I'm on a broader spectrum drug which is working really well. In fact, after taking them for a couple of days I keep waking up thinking "today I could go back to work" (and then I take TLM to school and getting huffy and puffy on the way home so I know I'm not quite there yet).

It's a beautiful day today, a wonderful day for sitting in the sun and getting better. I really think that I might be ready to go back to work tomorrow (otherwise my library books will become overdue).

In which TLM reaches a new milestone

We hoped it was an unlucky fluke when TLM got horribly airsick on the way home from the UK last April.

But, no. TLM is now a motion sickness-prone kid.

The morning they took off for a weekend in Nelson the weather was, in the words of the airport folks, adverse. In plain English that means that your trampoline was likely to end up in another part of town. So it was a rocky take-off and poor TLM held it all together until she got off the plane in Nelson. Then she threw up on the tarmac, which fortunately was being washed already by the rain.

She also got car sick on that windy road between the airport and the place they were staying. ("You won't need to pack any extra clothes for just two days - just pack spare undies and socks" - eek!)

So that's what TLM meant when she told me her throat hurts whenever she gets in the car. It hasn't put her off being a car passenger though, because if we give her the choice of a 15 minute uphill walk home after school or a 5 minute drive, she will still choose the latter.

I am famously vulnerable to motion-sickness so I guess in that respect she's her mother's daughter.

Three strikes

Right after TLM got over her chicken pox, a cold virus was already waiting to pounce.

It did, and it got me too.

And in between, the boy managed to get conjunctivitus in both eyes.

Maybe it's just Spring, or  maybe it's having a kid who doesn't live in a bubble - or maybe we live in a sick house.

On the bright side, I have discovered Knitting Daily on YouTube, TLM is still well enough to enjoy making imaginative space craft with lego, and the boy is still terribly handsome.

Spring

I've very ambivalent about Spring. One the one hand, it's a sign that summer is on its way. On the other hand, it's a time of hay fever eyes and wind gusts strong enough to blow your duvet cover into the neighbour's bank yard.

We have a lovely bunch of daffodil on our dinner table. Bought when they were a bunch of buds, I was happily surprised when they all bloomed. They do smell a bit like homeless people though, which puts me off my food.

TLM is pretty much completely over her chicken pox. There are still a few marks where spots used to be, and I got a little worried when a co-worker show me a chicken pox scar from when she was 7 (she's now 30-something) - but there's no point worrying really. If it's a problem when TLM's older she can also slather herself in expensive scar-removal creams or something (which she will pay for herself, by crikey!).

She has this weird habit of removing her leggings as soon as she gets home, and thereafter (until bedtime) gadding about in a t-shirt, undies and a blanket. Like she's expecting to get invited to a toga party soon or something.

I'm knitting something in pre-shrunk Rowan Denim yarn. It's going to be slow going because I'm developing OOS from too much knitting. What will happen if I have to give up knitting for the sake of being able to grasp? 

We are going away for the weekend soon. Hurrah! Flying off to Nelson and staying somewhere off the beaten track, in the middle of the off-season. TLM will be delighted, as she does have a thing for all mod cons - something we don't quite have at home.

Thoughts on the pox

TLM is still spotty, but she hasn't had any new clusters of spots since about Tuesday - so I'll take that as a good sign.

My mum assured me that I had chicken pox as a child - I myself had always thought that I'd had measles, from my memory it could have been anything spotty and itchy (like scabies!) - while the boy definitely has had it. There is always the chance of getting shingles though...

And for the last two days I've been hearing ads on the radio for a $200 vaccination against shingles.

Coincidence or what?

TLM turns seven

She had a more exclusive do this year, inviting only four friends from outside of school. They met us at McDonalds for an early tea of fries and lemonade (none for me thanks, only the threat of a hypoglycemic blackout would induce me to make a meal of McDs - but the staff were lovely!!).

Then the boy and I herded our gang of excitable girls and tweens to the local planetarium by way of  cable car ride. The other passengers were impressively tolerant.

We watched Dawn of the space age, which is quite good even after the third viewing. The low point for me was the bit about the first dog to go into space, who was marooned in orbit with the car window permanently closed and the hot sun forever baking. The high point was at the end when the "camera" pulls back and back and back, showing us how nano-sized we really are compared to the universe.

And then the girls rampaged around the exhibition area with their balloons and high pitched squeals, quietening only for long enough to look at lovely Saturn through the really big telescope.

Her girlfriends gave gifts of books, Star Wars lego, craft kits and role-playing games.

There was one present, however, which she did not appreciate at all.

For on the next day, the universe gave her chicken pox.

A summery winter weekend

What fantastic weather we had last weekend. I took TLM and her scooter to the beach yesterday and she played in the sand and threw long ropes of kelp into the tide. People were strolling up and down the Parade, enjoying the warm sun and indulging in ice cream - the "proper" kind that comes in a cone.

I couldn't help remembering that at $4.50 per small scoop, it probably worked out 9 times as expensive as it used to be in my younger days. But in those days you didn't get gourmet flavours so I guess it's not a fair comparison (plus, it was a heck of a long time ago).

In the meantime, TLM's seventh birthday is coming up. We're going to break with tradition and not have a party as such. Just get a few of her non-school friends together (the ones she doesn't get to see much of) and go up to the Planetarium in the evening. Hopefully it'll be a clear night and we'll all get a turn looking through the gigantic telescope.

I've already given her the first early birthday present - a mood ring. We used to have those when I was a kid. Some things are just classics I guess.

Luxury toilet paper is no luxury

When I was at primary school, the loo paper that was supplied in the kids' loos was smooth, shiny and a lot like baking paper (except we didn't have baking paper when I was at school - presumably people just baked on metal trays and washed them afterwards).

At university I joined the tramping club. It was mostly populated with geology students - rough 'n' ready sorts who initiated themselves in the chunder mile and weren't too sick to go for a hike in the woods the next day. The guys used joke about how, if there wasn't a long drop nearby, you'd have to do your business amongst the tree ferns and wipe your bottom on something leafy that wasn't bush lawyer (I forget what it's botanical name is, but you don't want to wipe your bottom with it!).

The toilet paper we buy for home is the double layer stuff. No fancy prints or crossword puzzles. No quilting, no scents. But thick and strong (and here I will refrain from jokingly referring to thick and strong individuals, whom I'm sure we can all think of) and does the job.

The loo paper at my work, though. It's airy and featherlight, delicate.

It's like Tinkerbell's loo paper (but bigger and without the sparkles).

a couple of finished projects

Possible too late now, I "finished" this cardigan. I say finished because it's got all it's bits and pieces knitted an assembled. But it isn't really finished because the front edge curls back unatractively when done up. so I will need to work on it to fix that.

This cat turned up much more successfully (although that might be just because it's so slim). It's got lots of flaws, most of which TLM has already pointed out. Like, the ears are too big, the tail seam is really obviously and has already come unstuck from the side of the body, and one arm is more muscular than the other.

Censorship madness at The Warehouse

The highlight of many of our weekends is a visit to The Warehouse (yes, we are lame). We all check out the DVDs, the boy checks out the computer games, TLM checks out the toys, and I keep up with the Rachel Hunter Collection.

This time around we selected some DVDs to buy - Disney's Fantasia 2000 and a Star Wars Clone Wars collection for TLM, and Hot Fuzz on Blue Ray for the boy.

But when we got to the counter, the sales clerk explained that sorry, he could not sell us the Hot Fuzz DVD because it's PG13 and we were clearly accompanied by a person aged under 13 years.
I replied that we had no intention of letting TLM watch this DVD - she had two new ones of her own. But the sales clerk said no.
"Okay, I'll leave her around the corner and come back alone", I offered. But he still would not be allowed to sell the DVD to boy and me, because he'd seen TLM with his own eyes.

So we walked away with only the kids' DVDs.

Crazy.

Being blobby

I've taken a week off, for the second week of the school holidays. I had a list of fun things that we were going to do together:

• visit the observatory on open night and look through the giant telescope
• make crystals
• Go see Brave
• hang

Since the weekend, we've really only managed the last one.
This is due to a combination of TLM catching yet another bug, and TLM staying up all night to read instead of going to sleep like a good girl. And it probably doesn't help that I've been a bit insomniac myself recently.

The observatory open night is tomorrow - hopefully the sky will not be completely overcast as it has been lately, otherwise we'll only get to see cloud.

The chrystal-making will depend on whether I can get hold of any copper sulphate, sodium carbonate or borax. I still remember making copper sulphate chrystals at school and how pretty they were.

As for going to see Brave, TLM already went to see that last week during her school holiday programme. Still, she could go see it a second time and not be as scared during it.

Just hanging is pretty cool though.

Paua and ginger

 Of course, this top (which I just finished knitting) would look great on someone with model-like proportions; on me it probably only looks warm and colourful.

But I really enjoyed making this and it's very comfy and if I can just pretend that I've got a narrow waist then it will all be fine.

It's got cables at front and back, and the edgings are in twisted rib.

The gory details are on Ravelry.

Is it customary?

I always find myself watching Border Patrol on the telly, which is an Australian reality show about the Customs people in an Aussie airport. They are the folks whose job is to scan the bleary-eyed people who've just come off a long-haul flight and pick out the suspicious-looking ones.

For some reason, most of these people are Asian and the rest seem to be Middle-Eastern. Now, I would be the first to admit that the occasional homesick Asian will try to smuggle in an illegal taste of home in their strangely lumpy luggage.

But white folks aren't all innocent you know - like, Schappelle Corby was white and she got caught with a load of drugs in her surfing bag. Though that was in Bali. Maybe the Balinese think all white people look suspicious and the Australians think that all Asians and Middle-Easterners look suspicious.

It seems to me that certain races are being targeted just because they aren't white.
Or is the stereotypical goody-two-shoes Asian just a big fat myth?

Winter shopping

The Kathmandu chain is having yet another one of its big sales, and since we've been suffering galeforce southerlies, icy rains and 7C air temperatures (that's without the wind chill factor), the shop was extremely busy today - I'm talking queues for the changing rooms and queues at the checkout counter.

The boy wanted to buy TLM some leggings (I haven't been buying them myself, because she is always falling over and putting holes in the knees. Instead, I've been patching them). We did - TLM also ended up with a jacket to add to her impressive collection, as well as matching top and bottoms thermals and some woolly socks.

Then the boy went and bought himself a few things.

All the while, I was thinking that I've knitted various items to keep my family warm - yet they still prefer to buy factory made. I staunchly avoided buying anything for myself (until I got to the Warehouse, where they were selling merino tops $39 for two  - that's cheap for NZ) because I've been knitting steadily to increase my wardrobe of handknitted winter clothing.

Oh well. I can't expect other people to appreciate my efforts as much as I do.

Prometheus

TLM had her first Pippins over-nighter on the weekend - we dropped her off at the designated Girl Guides location at 2pm on Saturday and didn't go back to get her until 1pm the following day.

That's a whole lot of child-free time.

I spent the afternoon with my good friend who was visiting from Taiwan; we drank coffee, ate cake and talked about our respective obsessions (her - tap dancing, me - knitting and TLM).

Then the boy and I went out for tea at our usual pre-movie eating place (The Hog's Breath) and went to the movies.

I was tossing up between Prometheus and The Avengers - the former because it's by Ridley Scott (I loved Alien and Bladerunner), the latter because it's by Joss Wheden (who is god). Basically, the movie I chose was the first movie I could find on the Internet which was definitely being screened in 2D rather than 3D. I am one of those unfortunate folk with unequal vision, who get headaches after using 3D vision glasses.

As for Prometheus? Well, I enjoyed it. It was a space horror with a feisty heroine, a spooky atmosphere and a totally unnecessary reference to the evolution vs Creationism argument. As far as I'm concerned, there's no argument, so why can't we just treat the possibility that humans were created by super-humans as just another speculation? Why does the plot have to serve as a Creationist manifesto? If you ask me, there's an awful lot of unnecessary religious references in science fiction. But I did enjoy the movie. Though maybe we should have gone for the Joss instead.

When we went to get TLM on Sunday, she announced that she didn't like overnighters - and that the highlight was the cheese.