Small Pleasures AND PAINS!

Sometimes a girl has got to treat herself...... yes treat herself to 15 minutes of agony. Treat my arse.

Anyway sometimes I get my eyebrows done, its $18 but I always feel a million bucks afterwards so its a good investment. If I look a little shiny in this photo I must admit I have been slaving in the kitchen making spinach and ricotta cannelloni. SLAVING. I'm actually having people over for dinner. Shock horror.

Anyway back to my eyebrow story, I usually get a frightful eastern block woman with a thick accent and an eye for the glamorous. I walk away with eyebrows usually only found on Russian super models. But today I got a shy little Indian lady, who asked if I would like to try threading instead. (Anythings got to be better than hot wax I thought) I was very wrong.

So while I sat through paid pain therapy I asked her about her life to distract her from my watering eyes. She used to work in a Fancy hotel in Delhi, India, she made okay money but got lots of tips. She gets paid worse here. Yep, New Zealand wages suck but money sure ain't everything.

There are many cheap pleasures in life. For example eyebrow shapes $18 and new bath mats $9.95

Shiney New Things

Polarised lenses bitches!

These I officially saved up for. I bought them, then had to wait weeks and weeks, but finally they arrived. Shiny new prescription sunglasses! I have uploaded a variety of poses. All self shot because darling husband ain't home yet. And check out my awesome "work" hair. My job, it is scienticiany, and I can't have loose hair dangling down all over the place y'know!!!! My hair might fall into some acid, or a dissected bowel, or even into my eyes at some MEGA critical point. (my cousin Talia says mega a LOT on her facebook. I may adopt it.)

Man I have a big forehead.

Must be for all those scienticiany brains. HAH!

I hate having a joint Credit card

When we got a mortgage the bank didn't like the idea of us having two credit cards, so we cancelled mine and got a joint account. AND I HATE IT.

It never shows who bought what, and you can't tell who made what repayments.

Also I am crap at managing it. I think a part of me ignores the small purchases I make thinking my husband will pay for it (wishful thinking), however when I had my own credit card I was responsible for every dollar and managed things just fine. I know my husband blames me for the credit card bill never going down, always holding steady. He's probably right. (Okay, Okay, he is right but its the only time you'll see that in writing.)

I AM SPENDING CRAZY WIFE.....(the kind you read about in novels, buying Prada sunglasses and Gucci handbags while the insurance clerk husband has to take a second job and becomes weakened and sick due to working 16 hour days!!!!!!!)

Although its not that bad (I don't think I'm sending my husband to an early grave just yet), after all it's not a crazy amount, sigh, but its an annoying amount. And I loath seeing it carried over month after month.

So perhaps it is time to remove myself from the credit card world. Yes, in fact... I resign! Its a horrible system encouraging consumerism. bah. Good riddance. Goodbye cruel credit!

** It is done, I phoned them, and said, "NO MORE of your temptations cruel serpent, I repent and will destroy this foul plastic that corrupts my wallet so!" then I pressed 1 for customer service.
sigh.

All that is left to do is the ritual sacrifice of the credit card:

a) Burning
b) Microwaving
c) Chemical disruption
d) Traditional - cut to smithereens!!!!

Your vote counts!

I Liked Kayaking

In my books it really rates as a sport. Anything I can do sitting down without moving my legs has always rated highly with me. But kayaking is outdoors, in fresh air and could actually count as exercise!

For my birthday we paddled the calm waters of the Puhoi river and Wenderholm estuary. While I'm sure ocean kayaking is no where near as relaxing or pleasant, it is something I would like to have a go at. I'm sure I could enjoy some scenic sewrage and avoid the container ships on a quick punt across to Rangitoto, if I really tried!

Oh and by the way I'm 29 now. Beginning to suspect I will never grow up. All this responsible shit is stil HARD. Like saving (bah, who can do that) and home maintenance (gak! I know nothing and have to pay people to do EVERYTHING --> see saving problem, the deck will fall down before we can afford to fix it) but I am redonkulously happy. I think I got the happy part sorted now.

Off to have pre dinner wines loves to you all!

Its been a draining week. Caution - self indulgent pity party ahead.

Oh I've been tired and feeling sorry for myself.

My wisdom tooth decided to retreat below the gums, and who can blame it, my mouth is hardly the party central it was in my youth. I'd take a peek and go back to bed and my nice wamr gums too. Anyway bastard thing got my gum infected and I had to go to the dentist. Consequently I'm having the tooth ripped out in two weeks. Meantime I shall raise funds for this thrilling endeavour.Overtime funness?

So with pain and general malaise I went to work, damn antibiotics didn't seem to kill anything, and the top wisdom tooth, all sharp and new would slice into my bottom swollen gum every time I closed my mouth. I tasted blood throughout the days and fell exhausted onto the couch the end of each working day. Face infections are no fun, and my lopsided chipmunk impression wasn't winning me any fans.

(told you I was feeling sorry for myself)

The pain has mostly subsided (mostly, oh god is it still infected!!!!!?) and the antibiotics have all been eaten, my pee stopped smelling funny and now I can just focus on the pain of paying for it to be removed.

And that was my thrilling week.

Fix the Weird Beer Situation lady!

On Sunday we were having a totally hot, sweaty, non relaxing time in mission bay and it was beginning to make my husband grumpy. So I thought we could remedy the situation with a beer at a local cafe. This is what we got..........

Mmmmmmmm Beer served in a glass with ICE and a wedge of lemon. I mention the fact that there was ice in the beer to the management. And that I find it a little weird.

Apparently it was the waiters second day. Did we get replacement beers? Did we get discounted beers? Did we get free beers.....No no and no.

Did we have a good laugh about our icy beers? Yes.

In other news I went for a run today, starting to get that fitness feeling again. Now that its not quite so hot. It was a pathetic attempt at a jog really, but at least I'm getting my steps up!

Steps so far today: 12,756

Corporate Funness

Work work work, its not enough that I give them a third of my day in exchange for cash, no, now they want me to be healthy too.
As part of some sick twisted brainstorming session in conference room one (basement, windowless under gastro) it was decided that the workforce must be healthier. So we are all taking part in the corporate version of the 10,000 steps plan. Everyone gets a free pedometer!!! YAY ITS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THAT PAY RISE I WAS HOPING FOR! We are in teams and we have to walk the length of New Zealand. (Figuratively).
Although I am a chubby monkey, I am a busy little chubby monkey and manage 10,00 steps without doing much extra. So I have been increasing my goal by 1000 steps each day. Some of my colleagues are lucky to break 5000 steps. Whats really been surprising is how effective the whole scheme is. Everyone is wasting precious work minutes by comparing pedometer readouts. People are walking more and taking more exercise. Some workers are even wearing the goofy free t-shirt on their lunch breaks and walking round the block!!!!! Its a million degrees outside. We are all so sweaty. Its awesome.
Steps today: 14161

I need some large old tiles

My squash, a bit late planting (okay waaaaaay late) but its gone berserk. Lots of little squashes all spilling out on to my lawn. Apparently I am supposed to put a tile under each squash ( I want to call singular squash a squish), this stops them rotting on the ground if you have some damp weather and lets face it, its Auckland, we know damp. So it the hope of actually maturing some squash before the weather turns completely any donations of tiles will be most appreciated!

My tomatoes are producing overtime and dying overtime too. Pests and giving their last life essence to produce good fruit has them all fallen over and yellow. The recent rain had led to a few splitting on the vine, I just add those to the compost. Wont be long till I rip em all out and plant some broad beans to replenish the soil. I don't know if I even like broad beans, but I imagine them sauteed in some garlic and butter and it sounds delicious.

Love is Pancakes

Nothing says "I Love You" like pancakes and bacon. Opting for a brunch date at the paper moon cafe was excellent idea. We chat and I have a cup of coffee and two cups of tea to Zeds single latte. I harass him about joining kiwisaver, he smiles and tells me how gorgeous I am. Its love all over again.

I have long dropped the idea that Valentines day requires some kind of super date or extreme gift. But just because the day is so commercialised is no reason to ignore the chance to let my darling know how much I love him. In fact there is no reason to skip any opportunity for declarations of love and moments of affection. A year of such love makes valentines day seem superfluous though.

Its raining today, the bedroom window was left open out of humid habit and I awoke to find the cat licking the windowsill. Yes windowsill water is apparently tastier than bowl water. I completely understand, there is nothing like fresh rainwater, as a child I would run my hands through fresh wet bushes and suck all the rain drops off my hand. It tasted like freshness and trees.

Today I am going to read books.

Don't click on the link!

Yeah its hot, and we're ALL sick of hearing about it, so this wont be a post about how sleeping with the fan causes my husband to dream about hurricanes, or how every time I leave air conditioned work I feel like I'm walking through a sauna to get to my car or how I drive the car the LONG way home to sit in air conditioned comfort for just a few minutes longer.
No this post isn't going to be about any of that.

Actually I've forgotten what this was really going to be about.

General catch up?

Suddenly I am enjoying reading again. I went through a phase were every book I picked up was bad. But after some awesome summer reading I'm back into it again. Yes back to falling asleep in awkward positions, thumb slowly dying because its stuck in a thick hardcover book and the circulation is dwindling. Darling husband faithfully removes glasses and puts book away even though most times I mutter something ungrateful to him, half asleep. then with a kiss goodnight I am back asleep again, always waking up AMAZED at how my glasses are magically on my bedside table and book bookmarked.

pg13 picture of susie sleeping! (what has been seen cannot be unseen!)

I also love beer. I tried stopping beer to see if I would lose any weight, after 3 ish weeks with no beer I still was the same. So I am back on the beer but have joined the gym. The perfect compromise. Its a fancy gym, they call it supervised training (or "oh GOD oh GOD oh GOD MY ARMS!" really it should be their slogan). Its hard to drive home sometimes.

I am super pleased with GMK's management of my kiwisaver fund through these fracked (and if you aren't watching the new battlestar you SHOULD BE!) up financial times. Every things on the up this month. I am confident of seeing good returns this year. I also LOVE their monthly reports, so detailed and emails to remind me to go look at them. $ 67.59 worth of google shares! Yeah I pawns the interwebs!