Off the boil

I’m going through an extended quiet spell – would you believe I have nothing to say? No energy to say it more like.

After 10 or 11 hours at work everyday and another hour or 2 of study after dinner, my concentration lasts only long enough to check Facebook before I collapse into my bed.

Things will settle down soon, either that or a nervous breakdown will come first. Hope everyone is well. I’ll check back in when I can.

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AWOL

I’ve had a load of stuff going on and have been incredibly slack about posting here and about visiting my regular haunts. Work is chaos, I’m doing 12 hour days plus I’ve had a log jam of assignments to plough through - I’m a terrible student and I had let myself fall behind. Rory starts his final year of high school tomorrow so we’ve had to get ourselves organised for that as well.

Don’t worry too much though ma peeps, we’ve got a lovely long weekend coming up so that’ll give me some breathing space. Soon I’ll be back posting inanities again for your reading torture pleasure.

*EDIT* Just noticed by counter widget in my sidebar; I’m new again!

 

 

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Another decade down

I know that purists will say that the decade isn’t over until the end of 2010 but it’s my blog and I say now’s the right time for a review of the first decade of the 21st century.

Here are some of the highlights according to Louise.

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2000: I started the year in between jobs but with definite prospects so no real concerns. I had a 7 year old son, no man (some things never change) and I had my eye on a house that I coveted for my very first ownership experience.  At one stage that year Rory got airlifted off his dad’s yacht after getting hit in the head by the boom – scary stuff, he didn’t know anyone for hours afterwards. The year ended with me and Rory settled into the new house, a promotion at work, a boyfriend of sorts and a brand new nephew. A perplexing choice (in my opinion) was made made by the American electorate but it was a very good year all in all.

2001: My best friend moved to Australia and the boyfriend became an ex. Horrible happenings in the US. The only bright side was that a lovely puppy, later named Bonnie, was born and adopted by yours truly. I quit smoking that year and lasted 8 months before falling off the wagon. Rory racked up over 40,000 kilometres in flights between Auckland and his dad’s place in Perth, Western Australia. I went nowhere.

2002: Met another cheating jerk. Swore off men forever.

2003: Menopause. At 37 years old. Rory turned 10 and to celebrate his dad took him to Africa to explore for 3 months. I cried myself to sleep every night from missing him though the grief did great things for my career as I worked 15 hours a day and earned another promotion. The US declared war on Iraq – I remember something about WMD? My older sister was very ill but thankfully recovered fully. I got away briefly at the end of the year to spend time (and money) with my friend in Victoria, Australia.

2004: Got to Thailand again this year – one of my very fave places to escape the kiwi winter. Also got in another visit to Victoria. Another nephew born – that made four but still no nieces. Everything else was bad that year - horrible happenings, this time in Spain and atrocities continued in Darfur. And then that catastrophic tsunami on Boxing Day to finish the year.

2005: Finally quit chewing my nails to mark my 40th birthday. Katrina struck. It was 10 years since we lost my sister so we had a party to remember her by. Rory spent Christmas snowboarding in Japan with his dad – it was my first Christmas without him and it was hard.

2006: Rory started high school. Saddam Hussein was hanged and Steve Irwin got stabbed by a stingray. Crikey.

2007: Sinn Fein and the DUP hammered out an agreement for a power-sharing government in northern Ireland. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Rory’s dad moved back to NZ and for the first time ever we did the every second weekend part time dad thing – I started to remember what a real social life was like. I drank too much.

2008: Quit smoking again (18 months now and still going strong). Got addicted to Facebook. The Kiwis won the Rugby League World Cup and the hottest tennis player ever, Rafael Nadal, is ranked #1. Somali entrepreneurs found their niche in the piracy business. I met a man with real potential until the day he slammed Rory against a wall for looking at him sideways. Got a couple of long weekends away in Australia. Started new role managing projects at work and commuting to Wellington city twice a week.  Rory had a tumour removed from inside his jaw – it was benign. I spent most of the year exhausted. Bought new house and moved in just before Christmas. Whew, what  a year!

2009: Started the year with a new pastime – blogging. Met lots of wonderful new friends. There were terrible bushfires in Victoria so I went to console my friend. Witnessed a terrible car accident. Started reading about Tao Buddhism. Centre-right government elected in NZ for the first time in many years. I bought a lovely new car. A never ending cycle of study. Rory turned 16 and attended his first school ball, my mum and dad both turned 70, dad retired finally and my youngest nephew started school – still no nieces, have given up on that ever happening now. 

 

 

 

 

 

…and here we are nearly at the very end of 2009. That was my decade in brief; how about sharing yours?

 

 

Happy Christmas everyone.

Quick check in

Been zipping around the country for work in the last couple of days (Palmerston North, Christchurch) so have barely had a minute to call my own. Once or twice I managed to log on with hotel internet for a few minutes but then I’m so tired I practically fall asleep on the keyboard.  Heading home to Auckland tomorrow. 

Until then here’s another great Venn diagram by Jessica Hagy. Check out more at thisisindexed.com

Thank the gods for lazy carpenters

It’s a long weekend here in New Zealand, it’s our Labour weekend and we have Monday off.

The origins of our Labour Day are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in our very newly founded colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesmen to also only work for eight hours a day and, in October 1840, a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea.

Because it’s our first long weekend in 4 months and it’s spring, everyone goes mental trying to get out of town.  Last night the news was full of traffic jams north and south of Auckland yesterday. The standing joke (among Australians particularly) is that the closest we get to a traffic jam here in NZ is fighting our way through sheep on the roads though of course we do actually have real traffic jams as well.

To demonstrate my point, here’s a cool photo taken by a chap by the name of Murray Douglas which shows traffic in Auckland.

Anyway I’m very pleased to be back online without being at Rory’s mercy. Especially pleased that my warranty covered a new hard drive so it cost me nothing. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do which I will endeavour to make a start on later today. Right now I’ll finish watching the Kiwi-Kangaroo rugby league test which is underway in England. We’re in the final quarter now and the Kiwis are ahead – go the mighty Kiwis!

*EDIT* The game was a draw :-(

Arrrgggh

I haven’t slept in 2 days.

I was hoping to be much better today and because I  didn’t want to bore you, my reader, any more than necessary, I avoided mentioning to you the fall I had on Monday. 

Now though it’s reached the point where my compulsion for oversharing dictates I must do so.

On Monday evening I fell. I bruised and sprained the intercostal muscles between the ribs on my left side. It hurts. The analgesic I was first prescribed made me vomit repeatedly so I’m now taking a new one which appears to be working though I still haven’t found a way to lie down AND continue to breathe.

I spent last night standing and/or pacing watching movies most of the night. I’m so tired it is health hazardous to come anywhere near me. I only lasted the morning at work before my team begged me to go home, a request to which I ungraciously acquiesced.

I’m going to try lying down again now – wish me luck.

Another day, another dollar

 

It’s 6.25am on Monday morning and it’s almost time to start another working week.

I know I should feel lucky to still have a job and a pay check each week when so many don’t, but quite frankly all I feel is sick of doing the same thing day in day out.

 

Oh well, time to get up and in the shower, I’ve got a flight to catch. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

*EDIT*

Doesn’t take a degree in psychology to work out that me missing my flight this morning for only the second time ever, had something to do with my lack of motivation this morning. Later flights all booked and I’m not dedicated enough to try and get a stand by flight so I have ended up back at home and working from here for the day.

Lou 9.15am

Meandering Monday

Free background image nicked from Index of art.gnome.org/backgrounds

It’s 4:55am and I need to be getting in the shower shortly for my commute to Wellington for the day. I’m on a 7:00am flight this morning for my first meeting at 8:30am.

I had the most awful nights sleep, I dreamt I’d forgotten to set my alarm and even after I checked it around midnight I still couldn’t get the thought out of my head and I seemed to wake at least hourly for the rest of the night. Consequently I’m feeling shattered and my day hasn’t even begun yet.  To top off the start to my day it is absolutely pouring with rain outside – bucketing down.

Another thing I dreamt about for some reason was body parts with 3 letters – I know, weird eh?  I’ve been laying in bed seeing how many I could think of.

1. eye
2. hip
3. leg
4. arm
5. jaw
6. rib
7. lip
8. gum

What have I missed?  Surely there are more.

I figure I need to expunge this from my head or else it might torture me again tonight.

The Feelers

I went and saw this local band last night. Good night was had though now of course I have to suffer through Friday with a minor hangover to start the day. I’m also on an interview panel with 6 interviews scheduled starting at 8am this morning. Feel the joy.

Getting around to it…

It’s tough keeping up the motivation levels when the weather is wet and cold. All I want to do when I get home from work is hibernate though there are plenty of jobs I should be looking at – my overgrown garden is one such chore.

Even if I could spend half an hour of my very limited daylight ‘free’ time each day, I might make some progress after a few days. Then I could allow another 30 minutes daily for some window cleaning as my windows are heading towards being opaque.

Or not…

I think maybe I’ll leave them until spring.

Safety with a difference

Those of you who read here regularly will know that I commute to work by air a day or two per week to our capital city, Wellington. I have a shockingly large carbon footprint I am sorry to say.

Anyway, a few weeks back a brand new safety video message was unveiled by Air New Zealand and it makes me smile.. They’re not actors either, they really are Air New Zealand cabin crew. Brave, especially the woman at the end. Check it out.

Painted On

Privacy Awareness Week

The week will see a variety of programmes and initiatives hosted by public and private sector organisations from across the Asia-Pacific region to promote awareness of privacy rights and responsibilities.

I work for the New Zealand government in one of the largest government departments here so privacy is always on the agenda for us.

Privacy Awareness Week is run in partnership with the Asia and Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA), which includes Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, New Zealand and Canada.

A kiwi cartoonist, Chris Slane, has been commissioned to provide cartoons around the issue of privacy. They’re great – check out his blog.

I attach a few examples of his work (as permissible).

   

Thought provoking.

Monday

It’s 6am on Monday morning and I am procrastinating.

I don’t usually get on my computer before my shower but this morning I found myself leaning off the bed and reaching for my laptop (note to self: don’t leave laptop within reach of the bed). It’s getting cold here and I want to stay in my nice warm bed.

It’s also so frantic at work right now that my usual leap out of bed is just not a happening thing right now. I was up way too late last night drinking wine with a girlfriend and now I am paying the price. It was the second night in a row having a few wines and I am just not up to that anymore.

I have a list as long as my arm of what I need to get done today or else I might have considered ringing my boss and begging an annual leave day today and staying in bed all day.  I’m in the middle of a great book.

OK it’s now 6.20 (just wasted a further 5 minutes searching for an animated picture for this post to cheer me up) and I really have to get in the shower so I will sign off now and publish.

Have a great day everyone.

…a few of my favourite things

Crème Brulee by Chris Caldes. Photograph by Carrie Russell

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Got this idea a couple of days ago from Dade Freeman’s great site It’s My Life. Thanks Dade.

My favourite things…

- Author: Margaret Attwood
- Beverage: Ice cold Jim Beam and coke
- Cologne / Perfume: Elizabeth Arden Red Door
- Dessert: Crème brulee mmmmmm
- Electronic Device: my Nokia E71
- Food: Thai (specifically yum nua and giang panang)
- Game: Pixel Junk Monsters
- Hobby: Mosaic
- Ingredients as a pizza topping: Chicken and capsicum
- Job (you've had): my current role (Operations Mngr)
- Kind of breakfast: Eggs Benedict with salmon
- Living or dead person: my fabulous dad
- Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
- Novel: I know this Much is True by Wally Lamb
- Organic Produce: Big fat juicy tomatoes
- Programme on TV: Outrageous Fortune
- Quote: “Do or do not, there is no try” (Yoda)
- Relaxation Method: sorry don’t know you all well enough to share this – let’s stick with ‘see favourite beverage as above’
- Song: Run to the Water, Live
- Time to wake up: around 6:00am
- Unusual Talent: None (only fairly normal ones)
- Vacation Spot: various NZ lakes and rivers
- Website: http://www.youtube.com/
- Xperience: travelling (especially south-east Asia) 
- Yoghurt: no thanks – yuck
- Zodiac Sign (your own): Leo

Outsourcing

More from The Onion news desk. 

Here’s a brand new money spinning idea for the hard workers of the sub-continent coupled with an energy saving plan for over stressed Western workers…

…and this one below has has the added major bonus of a child behavioural modification technique.

We all sometimes need a little guidance about how to make our kids more ‘manageable’ around the house, especially at those times when we need some peace and quiet like after a hard day at work - watch this for an idea.

Off to the beach…

Last week the NZ Herald ran a story on annual leave entitlements in NZ and in other countries. I went digging and found some more information on the OECD situation in a 2007 European Economic and Employment Policy Brief. 

The minimum annual leave entitlement in NZ is 4 weeks a year. This can be negotiated up (just as I presume it can be in most other OECD countries). We have another 7 paid public holidays per year plus up to another 4 days depending on which day they fall on that year. Somehow it still doesn't seem like anywhere near enough.  We also have paid sick leave provisions – about 10 days a year is average I believe.

Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Italy and the UK all appear to have a 4 week minimum much like NZ. This seems to be around the standard.

In France the minimum legal entitlement is 6 weeks but this increases if you work more than the legal 35 hours per week. 35 hours? Yes you read right, that’s all you’re supposed to work each week in France. If you work 40+ hours a week you could end up with up to 7 weeks of annual leave a year.  The Scandinavians have a 5 week minimum. 

The big difference seems to be the cumulative total of annual leave days plus statutory paid holidays and on this scale, NZ and Australia fall below mid point in the range. At the other end of the scale I was surprised to find there is no legal minimum of paid annual leave or public holidays in the United States.  I am guessing that even super human Americans need a holiday periodically so I assume it is just managed in a different way. I am interested to know how it works there if anyone can be bothered sharing.

Unexpectedly available

Well my day has not gone to schedule (see twitter update on side bar) so I am unexpectedly home which is actually a major treat for 10.30am on a Monday morning.

Downside though is that it does put me badly behind with my project at work. A couple of final decisions were due to be made today so I could be prepared for project kick off on 1 April…the best laid plans and all that. I have renegotiated the start date to Monday 6th and have booked couple of crucial meetings for tomorrow via video conference instead – I hate video conferencing,. I feel super self conscious. I am alone at my end usually so I try and sit as far away from the camera as I can. Sometimes I also forget that I am ‘sitting’ at the head of the big conference table at head office (enormous flat screen LCD on their wall) and I start sending sneaky texts or day dreaming, very embarrassing when I realise that everyone is staring at me.

Anyway that’s boring shit and not in fact, what my post is about at all…

Whilst I buggered around this morning trying to get on another flight (well actually when I was sitting having coffee and updating twitter after getting too pissed off with the whole process) I heard two women talking about the seal photo on the Whitehouse website. Now I have never even looked at Whitehouse.gov but I just checked out it and there really is a seal photo taken in NZ in yesterdays blog (so I promptly nicked the pic to put here naturally). Sleeping in sun. Cute. But again I digress…

The primary point of today's post is actually about something I heard on the car radio as I drove home from the airport.

Warning: read on only if you are brave. Do not interpret this to say that I am fan, let alone a  member of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) because I am not. I do strongly agree that animals should not be mistreated (though I am a carnivore and leather shoe/belt/bag lover) but I don’t buy into PETA’s violent brand of radicalism, not by a million miles!

Well, Ingrid Newkirk is the woman who started PETA and she has today published her last will and testament on the PETA website. I am not going to publish the whole thing here as anyone who is interested will click on the link and investigate themselves but here is the gist of it:

d) That one of my eyes be removed, mounted, and delivered to the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a reminder that PETA will continue to be watching the agency until it stops poisoning and torturing animals in useless and cruel experiments; that the other is to be used as PETA sees fit;

f) That my liver be vacuum-packed and shipped, in whole or in part, to France, to there be used in a public appeal to persuade shoppers not to support the vile practice of force-feeding geese and ducks for foie gras;

et cetera, et cetera ad nauseum.

Gruesome to the max but I do have to reluctantly admit that this is a woman who is PASSIONATELY committed to her cause. I  give grudging kudos to her for that.  That will takes guts.

Keeping our kids in line

…plus the chores get done so it’s a win:win all round.

Don’t forget to turn off your lights for Earth Hour 

8.30pm Saturday night your time

Goosebumps

I am still home today and still feeling nasty, though not quite so bad as yesterday. In between frantic, but less frequent, dashes to view the porcelain sculpture, I have been reading my book, browsing blogs and watching a bit of TV.

It’s only 11am and I am bored already.

I should now be logging in to my work e-mail and seeing what’s there but I figure what the heck, it’ll wait…

Instead I am going to share a weird, tingly story that mystifies me to this day. All my friends refuse to listen to me talk about this anymore so I’m going to share it with my friends in cyberspace.

In my early 30’s I had a short stint as a part time nanny but I was not a very good one. What I mean is I was responsible and all that and really liked the kid I cared for but I just didn’t really love being a nanny and I think it’s one of those jobs that’s actually more of a calling that a job. It fitted in nicely with what I needed at the time as I was studying part time, Rory was 3 and I could bring him with me for the couple of days a week I was needed.

Anyway…

I was lying on the lounge floor playing with Rory and with 4 year old Imogen when Imogen’s mum, Sandra arrived home to their small farm 30 minutes south of the city. As she came in the front door she called out “Hi, where are you all?”. Her coming home unexpectedly was not unusual so we just continued playing and I yelled out to her in the hallway “Hi, we’re in the lounge”.

I heard her walk up the hall into the kitchen, open the fridge and then she asked “Have you guys had lunch yet? Shall I make us some sandwiches?”. I said that would be great and then heard her taking things out of the fridge and getting some plates and glasses out of the cupboard. 

A few minutes later the Lego zoo that Imogen, Rory and I had been building was complete and so we washed up for lunch. 

When we got to the kitchen the breakfast bar was set with plates and glasses and the bread, butter and some sliced ham were set out but Sandra was nowhere to be seen.  The fridge door was hanging open. While I started preparing sandwiches for the kids, Imogen went to find her mum. A couple of minutes later she was back saying she couldn’t find her. I called out too but still Sandra didn’t respond. Now I was worried, had she fallen or something somewhere in the large house? After unsuccessfully searching  for her again myself, I rang her flash new cell phone (it was still quite fancy having a cell phone here in NZ in the mid 90’s).

Sandra answered sounding flustered. She couldn’t talk right now as she was just going into a meeting with a client in the city and she was late and still needed time to prepare for her presentation.  “Is it important?” she asked me. I was speechless. And completely and utterly spooked. And I still am to this day.

Rory and I never set foot inside that house again.

Commuting

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that sometimes I commute to work by air. It’s about an hours flight to Wellington, our capital city. The regularity of travel depends on what’s going on at work. Sometimes it’s only once or twice a month and other times it’s at least one day a week.

If it sounds like a flash job believe me it’s not. 

I had a 7am flight this morning which means I got up at 5am and reached the airport feeling tired, coffee deprived and hungry at about 6.45am. As usual I arrived too late to grab a decent cappuccino and something to eat before boarding.  The inevitable queuing for the x-ray machine (and the grumbles when my bangles set off the alarm) was followed this morning by sitting and waiting in the plane while they hold up the departure for some Member of Parliament flying to work for the week.

Anyway, by the time I’m ‘enjoying’ the crappy offerings they call coffee on the plane, I’m usually in full on work mode and doing some reading to prepare for the days meetings. Not today.

I found myself sitting next to a woman in her sixties, who was in NZ from the UK and was on her way to a town north of Wellington to stay with her son and his family who emigrated here a couple of years ago. She was so excited about seeing him and her grandchildren that she could barely sit still.  I’ll call her Doreen and she was adorable. She entertained me for the whole flight with stories of her son growing up and why she’s decided to stay put in the UK when her only child and grandchildren have moved to the other side of the planet.

Doreen said she couldn’t stand the thought of leaving the village where she grew up and got married and raised her son and, most importantly I think, where her late husband is buried. She told me that she visited him everyday and a friend had promised to keep up the daily visits while Doreen was away for a month in NZ.

When we landed and I was in a taxi heading to the Wellington office, I reflected on the conversation with Doreen and I felt sad that she was tied, albeit apparently willingly, to a place that kept her from enjoying the living.

Life’s too short.