Websites that keep me occupied

So, I know I've been a bit slack in my blogs recently. But to be fair, my laptop has been having "issues" and I just can't be bothered trying to resolve them at the moment.
I've been fairly busy with life as well. So, I thought I'd quickly fire off some websites for you to check out. These are the sites that I find myself reading/looking at reguarly (for work or non-work reasons):

http://www.facebook.com/

- of course

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

- hilarious site showing photos of weird people at Wal-Mart (an american cross of The Warehouse, K-Mart & New World)

http://www.porse.co.nz/

- work

http://www.wilkinsonquints.org/

- fascinating site following a family with 7 children, the youngest being quints

http://www.1day.co.nz/ 

- great bargains

http://www.stuff.co.nz/

- news from around NZ and the world

http://www.google.com/

- google is your best friend!

http://www.tv.com/

- info on all the TV shows you watch

http://www.tv-dome.net/

 - where I watch all the TV shows. It's up-to-date with the American seasons and free.

A change is as good as a holiday

For a while I've been feeling unsettled at home. I think partly it's because I'm living in the old family home, without any of my family. Just me, my cats and my best friend - which is cool in it's self, but it's not the family I used to live with in that home. Am I making any sense?!

JP and I don't use the lounge to much - in fact we only use it when we have guests over. Normally if we watch telly we watch it online on our computers, or we're watching DVD's (usually in JP's room as he has the bigger TV and a warm heater to keep toasty by).

So I decided to make my home more 'homely' or more like it was my home with my stuff. JP moved in in Jan and it's now August, so that's plenty of time for him to move some of his stuff around the house rather than in his room. I figured if he hasn't done it by now then it's not going to happen.

I filled the two large book shelves in the lounge with all my travel books, childrens' books, teaching & psychology books, wedding books/magazines and random books I've collected over the years. I had a great time going through my boxes in the attic trying to find books to use.

I went through the boxes and my room to find all the ornaments that I've collected over the years and put them out on the mantle place. I also took all the old paintings that were family artworks and replaced them with random pictures from magazines and old calenders that I'd kept because I liked them, but had no where to place them.

There are still several boxes upstairs to go through and I haven't even opened the box of ornaments that came from Grandads house six months ago. I'm sure they will give me more things to use around the house.

Yesterday I went over to Gran's house to see what she had on offer (she's clearing out her house now that she's moving into a retirement home). I managed to collect several books - mainly recipe books and puzzle books - and small, glass ornaments that she's had for years. I took them because they are sentimental more than anything and I like that they are now at my house. And, I discovered that I'm getting her beautiful, original, persian rug, sooner than expected (it was being left to me in her will). I'm stoked!

JP can still move his stuff out and around if he wants. I can make room. But in the meantime I like having my stuff out and finally making the home more 'mine' than the family home. A change really is as good as a holiday!

Quick Week Recap

Ok, so it's been a pretty busy week and I've been sick, so here's a really quick recap of all the things that have been happening:

- I've been sick (yeah yeah, I know I said that already, but I'm recaping remember). I've had a cold, which means I then get a sinus infection, a chesty cough and very sore ears. I had to take a couple of days off sick.

- We had our Mid-Winter Educator Dinner at work. Always a big affair every year and another good one this year. Held at the Temperance Bar in town. The food was rather crappy and the team left early, but otherwise a good night.

- Went wedding dress shopping on Saturday and got some good ideas. I'm meeting Lee tomorrow after work to see another one that she has found.

- Had lunch on Sunday with the crew. Was a fun catch up and we even managed to get out a loud round of "Happy Birthday" to TC who insisted she was just 18 with 12 yrs experience.

- Had a team meeting on Monday in which a rather sick me was singled out and yelled at by a team mate. It wasn't pleasant and she doesn't believe she did anything wrong, just says I took it personally because I was sick. hmmmmm. Then had a team building excercise, which of course after the meeting, I was not too happy about.

- Started taking Vitamin C tablets (berry flavour seeing as I hate Orange flavour) and Evening Primrose tablets (good for skin conditions, PMS symptoms and flu symptoms - all of which I get). Feeling a little better, but not sure if the tablets have anything to do it.

- Gran is moving in to a retirement village and my Aunt has decided she's buying a house as a result of Gran's moving out. She's rather impulsive and only 32 hours after the decision of Gran moving, she's put an offer in on a place. hmmm. Good thing the trustees of the trust have Gran's best interests in mind.

- Dad's been getting good grades in school - well done Dad! He's been keeping me posted on the goings on in AKLD division of the family. Another area where I can only hang my head and sigh.

- Had a chat with my coach support person at work (kinda like the manager, but not) about the very uneven workloads between me and my counterpart (mine being twice as big). Also chatted about my future plans and I expressed an interest in working towards a coaching role myself. Hopefully with her support and guidance I'll be on track to pursuing this move.

- Had another Wedding Planning meeting. We're at the "lots happening, but not much to finialise" stage, so it was a rather quick meeting. But it was good to have dinner with Mum and Lee - always nice to have a Mum and Sis dinner.

- Had my haircut tonight. Cut and Colour - lovely :) I'm sticking with the dark chocolate brown - I love it. Every now and then I think of going back to natural colour, but I could never do it, I love the dark colour to much.

- JP got a new phone and it's pretty 'gay'. Thats his words. It's so light and little - it's just like a toy one you'd give a kid to play with. It's provided much amusement and teasing.

- Overheard some rumours at work of people complaining about me - again, not very pleasant. I've decided to ignore them - if they can't be adult enough to discuss their issues with me directly, then it's their problem not mine. As a result I've noticed some strange behaviour from one colleague - she's been very off and rude with me. I'm not to concerned - I'm not that fond of her. It's just odd.

- Ordered more medication for my cat Sixteen. I get a new lot each month and this month when I picked it up they told me that I'd have to bring Sixteen in for a check up before the next repeat. Why? I ask, Is it because you told me that Sixteen would only live for a few more weeks and the medication would keep him comfortable? And that was the beginning of Feb! My cat's doing the "Up yours Vet!" hehehehe. Love it.

And here he is, isn't he lovely!:

So, not such a "quick" recap after all, but it's been a long long week!

Snail Internet

Snail Internet just doesn't sound right, but that's what I have - Internet access going at the speed of snail mail. And, snail mail is probably the fastest way to reach me at the moment, hahaha.

JP and I are on a good internet plan, with mega amounts of whatever it is we need to keep us running, however we appear to have run out this month. I blame the cold weather and it getting dark earlier for the fact that we have used it all. To be honest, it's probably all the online TV I watch.

Anywho, it refreshes itself again on Thursday, so it's not to long to wait. Hope you can cope without my very insightful/crazy blogs until then . . . . . 

Dress Shopping

My sister is going to be a beautiful bride!

Yesterday, me, Mum and Lee went for teh first wedding dress shopping expidetion. We started at a place in Stokes Valley that allowed us to take photos (not that I'll be putting any up just on the off chance that Morgan reads this!). We had the place to ourselves which was nice. The second place was a little more traditional and the last place was very traditional and your standard/normal type dresses.

This trip was mostly about trying to get ideas. Straight away we realised that Lee is not a 'white' wedding dress kind of girl. She's better in the ivories, creams and champagne colours. In white she looks washed out, but in the tinted colours she looks tanned.

Then, we decided that Satin just isn't our friend. The slinky dresses, while beautiful and sexy just weren't "enough" for Lee. Lee needs a funky dress for her funky personality.

The last two places wouldn't allow us to take photos unfortunetly, but understandable. It does make it difficult to remember what dress was what.

The first two places let us go through every dress, pick out the ones to try on and them try them on. But at the third place we went to was full of grumpy looking brides with their grumpy looking sisters, plus the grumpy looking sales girl who so clearly wanted to get home from work that she rushed Lee through the process. In fact we weren't even allowed to look through a third of the dresses before she was rushed into the changing room.

We found a few that were lovely and one that may be a potential winner. We'd make a few alterations and add a few flourishes of course. There's still a few places to go look at, hopefully with a few more funky dresses, but at least we've got some direction now.

The other thing we investigated was making our own headpieces for the bride and the bridesmaids. I hope Lee realises I wasn't kidding about the bright pink butterfly and feathers! Oh and we may go for chocolate brown of the bridesmaids instead of Olive. All a work in progress of course. Check in again later for more details . . .

Dinners & Drama

We do a big social event dinner at work twice a year - at Christmas and in the Middle of Winter.

Last time it was the end of November and my Grandad had died that morning. I still went to the dinner. I didn't stay long seeing as I'd been awake since 9pm the night before.

This time I'm sick. Got the full on cold, earache, sore chest and general feel-awfulness. I'm still going. I don't plan on staying long - will probably make a quiet exit just after dinner.

Something seems to happen every time we have a dinner - should I be worried?

Being Poorly

I'm Poorly. "Poorly" is a term used by my best friend slash flatmate to describe being unwell. So instead of telling you I'm Sick, I simply tell you I'm Poorly. I do the know where he got it from, but I'm poorly and can't be bothered trying to tell you .

I hate being 'poorly' and I hate having to take time off work for several reasons.

1. Today is the first day of the month, which means there are reports due today.

2. It's the last Thursday of a pay period, which means all payroll changes and calculation changes are due to the payroll team today.

3. It's EM's last week in our office and I'm going to miss her when she's gone next week and now I've missed a day of her being there. And, as a result of missing this day I've had to ask one of my other colleagues to help me out with a wee "we'll see ya round" secret pressie thing for her. (I'm fairly certain she doesn't read this, but if she does I'm pretty sure she already knows we'd do something for her.)

4. I have no sick leave pay left - my next allotment kicks at the end of July, so I'll have to take today as unpaid or annual leave, and seeing as I can't afford not to be paid, I guess it'll have to be one of my few annual leave days that I was saving for a short road trip to the Waikato in a few months.

I spent last night and this morning stressing out about the first two points, frantically emailed all these instructions and requests to my counterpart (who came back to work today after 3 days off) to get stuff done for payroll. By the time I got to lunch time I was so stressed and tired I had a sudden epihany -

Sometimes my life is allowed to be about me.

I'm feeling pretty terrible, and my workmates will be able to cope without me and if they can't, then tough, I'm poorly!!

So I spent the rest of the afternoon tucked up in my trackies and hoodie, in bed with the heaters on, a box of tissues, two very pleased to have someone home with them pussycats and some dvds.

Tomorrow night's the big Mid-Winter Dinner social event that we host for our Educators every year. It's a big deal and always lots of fun. I really don't want to miss it, so I'm determined to go to work tomorrow. Whether I make it to the dinner or not is yet to be seen, but I would have to be pretty damn poorly to not go. Fingers crossed everyone!