Anniversary Fun

After completely forgetting how long we'd been married we finally figured out (after digging up our old Vegas photos and looking at the date tags) that we have been married for 5 whole years.

So off for some fine Japanese dining to celebrate. Musashi in Milford is a small bustling restaurant with excellent food and service.

Where else can you get your grilled eye fillet nigiri torched table side?

Or super tender Beef Tataki

 Or Asahi beer served with a chilled mug

Prices we very reasonable and after 5 shared dishes, a bottle of sake and a beer we walked out of there only $94 dollars poorer. A small price to pay to celebrate our shared years. 10 years ago we were flatting in Hamilton, now we have our own house in Auckland. Who know what the next ten years will bring. :)

Waiheke Winter Fun

Many moons ago I got some vouchers on grabone for 1/2 price Waiheke ferry and lunch at Stonyridge winery.
My dear Nina also jumped on this deal so we were all set for a girls day out on Waiheke, Sadly the lunch vouchers were only 1 voucher for two people, so we were stuck with an extra voucher.

I'm on a ferry

So we're on the 11am ferry and Nina (an ex waiheke native) runs into some friend and yay, we are suddenly a party of four and can use our extra voucher for lunch. I liked there ferry ride, the weather was calm and I had a nice coffee. I was still half asleep but we amused ourselves with watching befuddled tourists.

Note if you have a bike or a dog you can still go on the ferry but you have to sit outside.

Thanks to the joys of NZ being a stupidly small space we now had transport on the island, a car was aquired from a friends dad after a short bus trip to surfdale and island exploration began.

Stoney ridge was packed so we booked in for a late lunch and went for a coffee and strolls on the beach at onetangi.

OMG sunshine

Met up with another friend with delightful dogs who chased  balls and dug holes till everyone was starving.

Return to the Vineyard for foods and wines yay!.......except there are a lot of very young waitresses at Stonyridge and our order never made it to the kitchen. We were starved and sad, so a complimentary bottle of wine was produced to ease our troubles, and bread and a lamb dish.  So a million hours later we finally got our meals but there were very tasty and they were very nice to us so we will forgive them.

After yakking all afternoon we were still thirsty so after one soul popped off to the ferry we hung out at the Lazy Lounge and had beer and THE BEST GODDAMN PIZZA I've ever had. Seriously, it was very good.

Then another beer on the ferry and me running my drunken mouth non-stop at Nina, who is such a good listener! Finally home for cups of tea and some pre-recorded British comedy. All in all an excellent midwinters day out.

To dear friends I have neglected.

Tea all the way from London.

My previous blog post was a bit depressing, I blog so little these days and I had largely put the post out of my mind, when in the last week I received an unexpected phone call and a long distance old timey actual hold in hand letter. Two old friends, one I am lucky to see once a year and another whom I haven't seen in a very very long time.

I was deeply moved by the concern of both these friends. It bought a god damn tear to my eye reading the first page of that letter (there was more than one page, it was an epic letter!).Funny how kind words can shake the self declared stoic.

Old friends are a funny thing, I remember recently meeting an old friend from high school for a coffee. I had ordered a coffee, but she didn't want any because she'd already had several coffees that day even though she knew she was meeting me later for coffee. (Damn we should have met at the pub). So it was an awkward start. I think she expected me to be as exactly as she remembered and seemed really "weirded" out by me. Anyway I did some stupid stuff with a boy during my last years of high school and it clouded a lot of what should have been true lasting friendships. I am always surprised when old high school friends want to add me on facebook. Especially people I haven't spoken to since 1997. 

Another old "friend" emailed me after leaving the woman he left me for. He mentioned being lonely, I think I emailed him back a much more polite version of " I really don't give a fuck why on earth would you think I would?" I got a reputation for being "cold". Although I think in versions not related back to me perhaps it was "cold hearted bitch".

Life goes on and people change a lot. And sometimes maybe it is only the memory of glorious summers of friendship that keep it alive over long distances and even longer years.

Sometimes I wonder about these long distance old time friends, I feel like my voice is like a ghost of Christmas past, reminding them of a person they no longer are, and just by my presence alone I remind them of events they would rather forget. Its as if I am the personification of the part of your brain that makes you remember humiliating events just as you are drifting off to sleep.......I'm a dirty old piece of nostalgia intruding on a shiny new life. Personally I am not big on reminiscing, the old me doesn't exist any more. I've learned from the awful things I've done and have "done my time" on them, as it where. You don't notice the day when that movie reel of regretful actions stops playing on a daily schedule in your head. Just the rare occasions when a spontaneous encore screening begins. I turn out the lights and wonder how I managed to watch that day in, day out.

So its part fear and part shame at my youthful nonsense that I don't stay in touch like I should with people from my adolescence. (Also it was a pretty shitty time family wise and these memories are very intermingled. Its hard to compartmentalise and not dreg up too many carcasses from the deep)

Regrettably (and it is with genuine regret) I am guilty of not tending to the precious friendships I have from that time. I am not a super great friend, I am a hermit of sorts and decline or postpone invitations and never get in touch, but I don't mind listening to troubles and pouring you a tea or scotch. or sitting in on a winters night eating curry and watching some ridiculous movie together. I pay attention to the snippets of your lives leaking onto facebook and twitter, wish for more news and think of you often. But if my friendships were plants they would be withered, in need of water and sustenance.

Perhaps this is the winter of greater effort, to find if I can have a small place in the hearts of other people, and let them know of the secret place in heart where they have always been.

Painkiller Addiction? I am now a crazy person. Warning - rant ahead. Don't read.

I'm really struggling with the use of certain painkillers at the moment.

On days that I take them I find I am relaxed, happy, pleasant towards my co-workers. I feel as though they let me be my normal happy self, free from the constant pain that otherwise leaves me irritable tearful and generally unpleasant to work with.

Some days I don't take them. I do this very deliberately, to see what its like without them. To try gauge how much I really need them. Those days have been difficult. I am slower at my job. I don't stay a second past my knock off time and I find I am in pain all day.

The pain killers I take are effective for about 4-6 hours, so even in the afternoons as they are wearing off I don't feel worried, because I know I am going home soon.

I don't take them at home or in the weekends.

I only seem to have needed them in the last two weeks as I have returned to the dreaded machine that caused my over use injury in the first place.

Anyway, I know this type of painkiller can become addictive. So as I am down to my last two, I find myself nervous about asking for more. The occupational health doctor never perscribes anything on  repeat. And I have to go and ask (beg) every month for the next lot of anti-inflams, nerve calmny things, losec to take with the harsh anti-inflams and quality painkillers. The nerve calming things give you dry eyes and dry mouth but are supposed to help dampen the pain signals. The anti-inflams turn my stomach hence the need for losec. The only things that I feel work without side effects is the painkiller.

The pain killer feels like the only effective thing I have in my arsenal. They still haven't approved my acc (private acc type insurer actually, my work doesn't use acc) claim, its been months (since October 2010) and I got a letter two weeks ago saying they were still deciding. Perhaps they are afraid I want money? I don't want compensation, I want to keep working! I want effective treatment! Lack of acc approval means I am limited to what treatments I can afford. I can get physio at the hospital for free thank goodness. However some of the treatments I have received have been less than ideal (juggling therapy anyone?) 

 My private health insurance wont cover anything unless its absolutely sure work insurance/ACC (whatever) wont cover it. I end up with little choice into how my injury is actually treated. Its dis-empowering and depressing. I am just about ready to cash in my meagre savings for some private treatment and second opinions. 

My occ health doctor, who does he work for? His main job is to keep hospital staff off acc and in work, or so my boss says. So what does that really mean? He doesn't work for his patients best interests? Perhaps Occupational health doctors should be independent contractors because I don't really trust him. (It turns out he's part of the panel that approves/disproves my claim.)

I have never had a proper diagnosis. At first it was definitely muscular, when I laid down for my first physio treatment it was obvious which shoulder was in pain, without even touching it. A swollen and raised shoulder blade was fairly obvious. Now they say its just a pain issue, Just a PAIN issue? wtf. I think I damaged my subscapularis muscle.Sprain or tear or aggravation I don't know. Anyway all the exercises they gave me in the beginning made things a lot worse. Imagine having a sprained ankle and being told a couple of games a of tennis a week should fix it right up. I think it should have been immobilised and rested. But in the beginning I was advised to continue as normal.

My right hand grip is now weaker than my left, for a right handed person this is highly unusual. I cannot do a lot of my normal activities. (This leads to sadness.)

I just pretend at work that I feel fine, I try anyway. Chronic pain can't be "seen" I suppose and is difficult to sympathise with. I just tell my co-workers I'm fine. People get sick of hearing anything else. The correct answer is "fine, thanks"  and finish with a smile.  Sympathy only lasts for a short amount of time in the work place anyway. They are kind people, and they ask after my shoulder, "How is your shoulder?" but why should I burden them with the truth? They just want to be kind and asking shows concern, but beyond that.... what can they do or help with. I appreciate it every time they ask after me. But I refuse to unload my pain onto them any more. I sound like a broken record. (A crazy broken record)

This whole thing has turned me into a crazy person. I feel emotionally weak, I have lost all my resilience. 

I am not me any more. I don't think I have been for some time.

I havent blogged since my shoulder packed up.

A repetitive movement at work, that I have been doing for 11 years now finally caught up with me. It caused a burning pain that just got worse and worse. Constant stabbing and burning, no position would relieve it, many sleepless nights were had.

Through the Occupational Health dept  I was able to get a couple months respite from doing the movement and treatment to heal the injury. I busied myself with doing all the other tasks there are at my job. I was not sitting around with my finger up my bum.

I have now reached a place where I can live with the pain. Its pretty good, with the right drugs. Some days its not even there at all. Sure there's a few side effects but its a small price to pay.

Now that the two months is up I want to slowly ease back into this motion. I used to do it for 5 hours a day. I suspect if I went back to it at that level the nerve would flare up again and I would be back where I started.

So I suggest to my boss that I start off slow, maybe just do it for an hour a day, building it up over several weeks. But that went down like a lead balloon. Its all or nothing apparently (yay cliches!) Well one day of doing this task from 7am till 12:30pm (with a break for a cuppa!) has flared it up. Its okay for now, but a couple weeks of this and I might go back to where I was. I have to hope like hell I'm healed and my body adapts to this movement.

Its been made clear to me by my boss that there is no place for me in the lab if I can't do this one task. I am devastated. I am dedicated to my job, but totally unsupported by my boss and have been thrown on the scrap heap already. I know that legally I can't be fired for getting a work place injury. But I love working where I do. I am really worried about what's going to happen. Maybe I'll be shuffled off to file medical records in the basement.

Its a stressful time.

The months and month of chronic pain had taken their toll on my emotional state and now this. I got to say my emotions are very close to the surface these days.

Probably start crying at NZ post ads now.

Internal travels

A well know fact about internal travel is that it's actually faster to fly to Wellington than to drive to Auckland airport. I allocated 1.5 hours to make the journey and yes we made it on time (just), but the traffic is so unpredictable that every halt on the motorway was, In my mind, a delay dooming us all. Cursing my husbands every navigational decision, sometimes out loud and often in my head, it was a wonder our marriage survived the journey. I have "being late" anxiety issues. Lucky for me my husband has faith that the crazy will end once we reach our time critical destination.

Self check in with Air New Zealand is awesome, no queues, looks futuristic (this is important, its 2010!!!!!)  and super fast so it removes all my fears that we will get stuck at the end of the line and miss the flight. Also its ridiculously easy to use so even if you've been sitting in the bar for the last hour, getting your boarding pass should go smoothly. Hopped on the plane and got to watch the new  rugby safety video, it makes me cringe and proud to be a New Zealander at the same time. Just like Rhys Darby. Actually he should do the next video.

In New Zealand being famous means jack shit. So you're on TV, what else can you do? There are very few personalities that are endeared to the public just for being on TV. So no one Bats an eyelid when Mike King or Kevin Milne takes a seat. I didn't see either of them waiting at the gate so the bastards probably have koru lounge memberships. I'd flash some air nz exec my boobs to get a membership, but that's as far as I'd go... probably. They have free booze y'know.

If you ever go to Wellington use the Airport Flyer (a bus) to get into town, they use the bus only tunnel, its faster, cheap and they have free wifi. It runs through the heart of Wellington and can get you pretty close to most hotels. I made my husband book the Duxton. Its central and the room came with bubbles and breakfast for 2 @$199. Duxton makes you think its a flash hotel, its nice, but fairly dated. Bathroom is nice though.

Of course you are NEVER, ever, EVER allowed to check in early. Even if they have clean rooms available. So we went to absorb some local culture at the art gallery and eat down at the waterfront. Macs beer bar for a antipasto platter and a pint, a good way to spend an hour.

The whole purpose of the trip to Wellington was Beervana. Organised by the brewers guild it is an evening full of win. Once again my favourite beer was the organic Green Man Celt. Such a perfectly balanced beer. My favourite festival beer was the Mata Hangi beer. The flavour was smoky and sweet with hints of kumara and roast pork, was I imagining the pork flavour? Maybe, but a brief glance before moving on to the next booth tells me the ingredients were roasted in the ground with a hangi, awesome. I also tried some barley wine, which was not to my taste. Back again to the Green Man stand I tried their tequilla beer, very good. I'm not adverse to a fruity beer and wedge of lime complimented this beer rather nicely.

After many many more beer tastings we stumbled back to the Duxton, barely 100m away (location of your accommodation is extremely important in vacation planning). Of course it was then the best time to enjoy the complimentary bubbles and after that (being in no state to leave the room) the hotels excellent room service. Well excellent tasting, not excellent prices. Actually it was pretty salty. But the lamb was good and tender and lots of it.

Hardcore that we are we still managed to wake up in time for a cooked buffet breakfast. Mmmm  bacons. Chilled out reading the paper and then back on the airport flyer making it in plenty of time for our flight.

Growing winter greens.

Over winter I grew a few salad greens in containers on my front deck, this was surprisingly successful. With all the rain no watering was needed and I could pick salad greens any time. Winter also means almost no pests! Well certainly no aphids, there were a few brave snails. These can be dealt with by hand no nasty chemicals needed.

I bought the plants as seedlings on sale at kings plant barn.( I suck at growing things from seed). While they were pretty slow growing at times I still got plenty of value. This is my corn salad, a mild small leaf green. I planted six of these. Occasionally I'd pull a whole plant but mostly just cut off bunch of leaves as needed.

And this is the mizuna, its just going to seed. I should have grown this in a bigger pot. This is often sold in the herb section, but it grew well over winter.

I also planted some perpetual spinach, which I hope will perpetual all over the place saving me from buying any more. As long as you pick the right types of plants you can have fresh salad all year round. Its easy as bro!

HRV - installed, home value increased?

My house is old. 1960 old, well, er, *cough* thats not that old really. erhm. Anyway.
This winter the condensation has been particularly bad and the amount of mildew and mold growing in the place has just been a nightmare. Washing the windows and net curtains is like an exercise in level 1 decontamination.


I JUST COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE.

So I went hunting for a dehumidifier, they were expensive and power hungry. Just like me! I can barely afford me let alone a dehumidifier as well, so resigned to weeks of saving I went home to dream about my fantastical dehumidifier.

That night we received a mysterious phone call around dinner time, the universe had heard my call for a drier home and had sent the HRV telemarketer! We agreed to let them look at the house and two weeks later we have a ventilation system. Top number is roof temp, lower number is house temp, bottom number is kept high to make sure any available heat is pumped into the house. Of course when its cold in the roof it just switches to ventilation mode so we don't freeze our nubins off.

 It cost a packet, but they have a payment plan. First item we've bought on credit since ...since.... our car the one we had before this one? Anyway. Here we are indentured to the man. But our home is dry and awesome. As a nice bonus everytime the roof temp gets above the house temp it pumps all the warm air down. It was a balmy 18 degrees in our house today!  Breakout the short short and TANK TOPS!

Anyone Can Buy Shares! Its Not Expensive or Elitist.

The other day at work I mentioned that I got a voucher in the mail for some free KFC, it had been years since I've tasted and I was moaning that the Potato and gravy wasn't as good as I remembered. Someone asked where the voucher came from and I mentioned that I was a shareholder and it came included in the annual report.
So one of my co-workers scoffed, "How can someone who claims to be poor own shares?"
While I do find our finances tight due to large mortgage repayments and child support this is no barrier to owning shares, its a lot cheaper than you think.

My Restaurant Brands shares were purchased for $304 dollars. (They are now worth $468 due to KFCs increased profitability woot!) You don't have to buy thousands of dollars worth however you can't buy just one share either. In New Zealand we have minimum buy numbers which mean depending on the value of the share you have to buy a certain amount.

Number of Units	Price (both figures inclusive)
2,000	Where the price does not exceed 25 cents
1,000	Where the price exceeds 25 cents but does not exceed 50 cents
500	Where the price exceeds 50 cents but does not exceed $1.00
200	Where the price exceeds $1.00 but does not exceed $2.00
100	Where the price exceeds $2.00 but does not exceed $5.00
50	Where the price exceeds $5.00 but does not exceed $10.00
25	Where the price exceeds $10.00

The only problem with buy small amounts of shares is the brokerage fee. Minimum brokerage is around $30. If you only buy $200 worth of shares the brokerage is quite a high proportion of the investment. It takes a while for return on the investment to cover the cost of buying the shares. Some companies have a dividend reinvestment program, you dividends are automatically used to buy more shares at no cost to you. Currently my Auckland airport shares have this feature. Its the only good thing about them, under-performing bastards.
ASB and National Bank have very easy to use online share trading accounts. There is a very short learning curve and you can be buying shares online before you know it.

See all Gallery Photos on Trademe with Firefox and Greasemonkey!

I like browsing Trademe for cool stuffs, like this.

Recently Trademe has upped the Gallery price to $0.75, this means a lot of awesome $1 reserve items like the one above are being listed without a photo.No photo's until you click through to the auctions makes for slow tedious trademe hunting. You'd be surprised how many "awesome" and "retro" things are just crap and ugly when you click through to them. So in an effort to save time I've installed a neat little script that makes every listing a gallery listing. This makes browsing trademe AWESOME. No more little grey cameras.
Here's what you do

1. Use Firefox. (You are already....right!?)

2. Install greasemonkey addon, found here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748/

3. Install the TradeMe Photos script to greasemonkey. Get it here:
http://userscripts.org./scripts/show/10349

Super easy.