sara interrupted

Rural Women

2012-02-18T09:54:00.000+13:00

I've just got back from a two day leadership course with Rural Women NZ.

Yes that's the old fashioned,

elderly rural women's advocacy group

that has been around for ever and ever.

But it's also not.

There were 15 women on my course

the youngest was 27

and the eldest probably 60.

We came from across the country,

though there were a few from Marton and Marlborough.

I was it from Canterbury.

We gathered in Wellington

to listen to some amazing leaders.

We were totally immersed and engaged

in issues facing our rural communities.

We were split into two groups and

asked to do a presentation each.

Our topic was Rural Family Violence.

Fun topic, I know.

We took a good look at ourselves,

our communities and the advantages that being rural

gives to those with abusive tendencies.

Advantages like

isolation and natural community secrecy,

fearce loyality and family connections.

Makes us sound like sixed toed hillbillies.

But we are odd birds in the countryside.

We are super involved in our communities

but hold our cards very close to our chests.

We offer help at every turn

but are not good at asking for it.

We love to be social

but on our own terms,

I call it structured exhibitionism.

We focused on the Are You Ok? website

This campaign is currently running on NZ TV.

But right now I want you to stop and

really think about domestic violence in your community.

Think about it this way.

If you saw a person being hit in their backyard

would you have the courage and the awareness

to do something about it?

You'd be surprised who doesn't.

It's surprising how the question

Are you OK?

helps.

few daze

2012-02-14T13:14:00.000+13:00

I'm off tomorrow to Wellington.

I know nothing usual about that.

This time it's a for Rural Women leadership course.

I'm quite looking forward to it.

Which reminds me, I need to cancel the airport pick up.

What I'm also looking forward to

is my birthday gift from Jolly Hockeysticks Jo.

She is giving me a yummy hour or so at a spa.

I'm going to enjoy a massage and a manicure.

This time the manicure will be much more successful than

my last distracted and rushed effort.

That and I won't have to put pantyhose on 30minutes afterwards.

Even better is Jo is going join me.

Girlfriend time, yay!

And today the Helping Hands project has almost come together.

I think maybe I have too many jobs.

Helping Hands is what the Church calls our service projects

when they are coordinated and organsied by someone like me.

Someone like me being a Public Affairs Director.

Last year we made over an entire Health Camp

25th Feb is New Zealand's Helping Hands day.

The problem I've had is in Christchurch

there is so much demolition going on that there is't too much to fix up.

There are really only llittle two or three people gardening type projects.

But through connections

I've stumbled upon a project set for the same day

and is organised by someone else.

Yay!

Now all we have to do is confirm it all and

that will be one huge project off my plate

and I can relax into my three day course.

Women

2012-02-13T21:45:00.001+13:00

Last Friday night....

I went to a dinner hosted by Global Women.

It took some figuring out how I got invited.

First there was my friend who had two strong connections

to Global Women....

but it wasn't her.

Then I thought it might be through

a women's group I belong to

(not one of those retro 70s women's groups)

but nope not through them.

Then on Friday I got an email,

not long before I left for the dinner in fact

and it turns out I was invited because the

Global Women organisers emailed

a women I know

so they could invite some rural women.

I love being a token.

I am a member of Rural Women's Network.

(seriously I am)

But the connection was through Federated Farmers.

Interesting.

Anyway the dinner was really enjoyable.

There were a few women I knew there.

Nicky and Rahui,

Dessie and Ruth.

The keynote speaker was a woman called

Sasha McMeeking.

The theme was Earthquake Recovery.

I feel like the whole of Canterbury is in some 12 step programme

for earthquake addiction and we have to talk out.

Sasha talked about rebuilding Christchurch

and property rights.

To say she is a little left leaning is like saying the

Tower of Pisa is level.

She was an eloquent speaker.

But I think the most memorable speaker was

Clemency who was trapped in the CTV building

as it collapsed and burned around her.

She broken her back and was trapped for 40 minutes.

40 flipping long minutes I would think.

Clemency's message was to seize the day.

She is a young woman who had a hideous experience.

She took that and realised her dream of

owning a beauty spa.

Her only rule is no talking about earthquakes.

Which makes sense cause imagine lying there,

having a relaxing massage

complaining about how long Fletchers are taking to repair your house

when Clemency casually mentions

she was trapped in the CTV building.

Oh the slap down!

There is a small amount of competition

in the sharing earthquake stories.

I came away from a super empowering women's dinner
with women who have achieved incredible things
and are world renowned.
Amazing women and the
thing I came away with was that I missed
men.

seeing potential in people

2012-02-12T20:06:00.000+13:00

Here's the rub.

Seeing potential people can only work sometimes.

And here's why.....

Where I work we spend much of our time

spotting and developing leaders.

It's a risky endeavour.

Now this is fine when you are providing options

for people to take up as they see fit,

or not.

But it's not fine when you are employing people.

I'm a glass half full person.

I believe the best of people....

usually until they open their mouths.

Just joking.

Though I firmly believe in the quote

"It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool,

than to speak and remove all doubt."

I do believe the best of people,

I don't necessarily trust people whole heartedly

but I want to believe the best of people,

so I do.

I'm always the last one to know when

someone is doing something dodgy.

If someone tells me something I take it

they are telling the truth.

Ok that's with a cynical pinch of salt

mostly cause I know of my habit of looking for the good.

Am I making sense here?

I want to believe the best of people

but know from experience that people

when you invest expectations you will be let down.

Am I totally jaundice?

Back to the employee situation.

When you are interviewing someone

it's kind of like a first date

in that you have a list of attributes and skills

you are looking for.

And you are LOOKING for them.

Sometimes you see a gilmmer of an attribute

and you latch on to it.

Sometimes you see a different skill set,

that you need,

but isn't a priority

but you get all excited about that and go for them.

I've found is that the honeymoon period

with new employees is short.

That's when it bites.

This isnt from recent experience

and is from what I've observed more than

about anyone I've been employed.

That was self evident for the beginning.

Summer lovin'

2012-02-05T20:13:00.000+13:00

I know in theory that we should all be

out and about in the summer evenings,

but what is it about summer TV?

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

It's like TVland has forgotten to make

new programmes this year.

Tomorrow I am resolved to go and

get a Freeview decoder

and start the journey towards digital TV.

Then at least there will be a tonne of old programmes

I've never seen before.

NZ is going digital this year sometime.

I have an internal and eternal debate about

bothering at all.

TV is nasty and tacky.

A politician I once knew changed his life

by not watching the news.

Mainly because he was on it so much at that time

and the reports were generally wrong

and nasty as.

Watching the news is bad for your health.

Who am I kidding?

The worst part about TV is that it aides and abets

that thief of time,

procrastination.

cleaning day

2012-02-04T20:31:00.000+13:00

Well it was a unpacking/cleaning day.

I still am unpacking from last weekend's

trip away to lovely, cosy Puhoi Valley.

Once I had an epic nap in the morning

and read a book,

the whole book.

It wasn't the one I was in the middle of

so I need to go read that one tonight.

Once all that was done

I decided to exacerbate my dust allergy.

More than half my stuff is still in the garage.

On Friday I ran out of clothes

so I have to get sorted.

Plus all the while I'm thinking about what

I am going to say on Friday night

at the Global Women's dinner.

I received an invite

and then an email asking me to say something.

It'll be fun.

I have a 90 second spot.

That's 270 words.

That's not much.

How the hell do I do this?

I'll figure it out.

Meanwhile I hope the wrinkles fall out of my dresses so

I have something to wear on Friday.

I have a surprise trip to Wellington on Tuesday.

Monday is a holiday.

A sponsor meeting on Wednesday morning.

I can't even imagine Thursday yet.

Its been a long while

2012-02-03T09:12:00.000+13:00

Actually it's not been that long since I've blogged,

but I assure you I have beaten myself up most days

especially when you meet a really successful blogger

who post like 10 times a day.

He also gets moneys for doing he specialised thing

and that's not my gig.

I've been busy is my excuse.

My problem is I have been so busy

I'm struggling to remember what's been happening.

So let's work backwards.

Last night I attended the opening of the new BNZ Business Hub.

Their building is being demo'd in the CBD

so they built a new one near the airport

(aka solid ground)

The Hub has very groovy meetings rooms

in which their customers can use to meet their customers.

It's Koru Lounge but quiet and anyone can come in.

And fewer famous people.

I went because I was curious but also because

my friend Sue Lindsay was the speaker.

This is peekaboo Sue!

I've not heard Sue speak professionally before.

She runs these amazing courses for BNZ

called Women in Business and

Women in Leadership

that change people's lives.

(working on the theory that women pass their

education on to their families there).

Sue was fab and in the middle of the second speaker

bank girl Sonia did a face plant faint with perfect timing

so everyone could break and get another drink.

And there were gifts.

I am easy bought.

Last weekend I spent two nights with

these little monkeys.

Nonoa grandkids (playing their Poppa's guitar).

Sienna leading the singing,

Khaleo getting his wee hand in there

and Piripi trying to figure out whats going on.

In fact I believe Sienna was singing Marvin Gaye's

classic of the same name.

Unlike Houston (Khaleo's mum) they sang and played for us.

Houston apparently has the voice of an angel

but I've yet to hear it.

Kayekaye, bless her, grandmother of these ones,

made birthday fry bread.

And I know you think you know what fry bread but you don't.

Unless you have tasted Kayekayes you have no idea

how heavenly wonderful it is.

Pretty much it's based on the original recipe for Manna.

Joining me in my fry bread pig fest was Nga-ire and Dae

and an assortment of Nonoas.

I love staying with the Nonoas,

which is a little naughty of me cause my dad lives across the river.

(No I was not brought up Catholic)

I love staying with the Nonoas because

Kayekaye is so wise.

We only ever get to snatch time for conversation

but it's always insightful and

I feel at peace after my time with Kayekaye.

I am reminded of the good things in life when

I spend time with the multitudes of Nonoas.

The most important things in life are

family, faith and fun.

Love it.

Love them.

Last week on Tuesday night

2012-01-25T09:29:00.000+13:00

there was rather big deal meeting held.

It’s kind of hard to explain the big deal aspect of the meeting

cause you have to understand how the LDS Church is structured.

When I think about it’s not that hard really cause

if you are familiar with Christ and his 12 Disciples

then it make perfect sense cause that’s how the leadership of the Church is organised.

And Mormons are uber organised.

Structure, boundaries and keeping to them is fiercely important and

super helpful cause you know exactly where you stand and how things need to be with you.

I think all religions are like this but

some are less clear on what the boundaries are than others.

Personally I’m not big on rules but I am on principles and values.

I like structure because it allows me to stretch and I know where I stand.

Last Tuesday evening Elder Quentin Cook, of the Quorum of the Twelve

came to visit Christchurch with a traveling party of many.

Stake President Ormsby called a meeting for all the Saints in Christchurch

to come and listen to Elder Cook and those in his party.

This is Elder Cook's party (sans wives) so females

left to right are Mel, me, Sister Bertha and Sister Marietta -

they are the lovely Catholic nuns on the Chirsthchurch Interfaith Council

plus Derek (Unitarian) in the cream shirt and Keiran (Ba'hai) in the grey jacket.

The suits are local and international leaders.

Elder Cook is the little bald guy behind Sister Bertha.

All the Brethern (and their wives) are just lovely, lovely people.

I can truly say I know they do God's work

cause the Spirit has told me so.

I liked Bishop McMullen’s talk the best.

I think because he has a beautiful Disney voice over speaking voice but

also his talk was scripture based and insightful.

He spoke to me.

Elder Cook, who was a Stake President in San Francisco

in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

and now seems to be the disaster relief apostle,

talked about enduring and embracing change.

This was a precursor to this Sunday just gone meeting

where all our Ward boundaries have changed.

We have lost three Wards and gained two Wards –

they are different believe me.

See how complicated it is but this makes perfect sense to a Mormon.

During the meeting we had a 4.1 earthquake and

a lad projectile vomited over two pews.

I was impressed and very grateful that it was freshly eaten dinner

so it wasn’t stinky cause that chapel was muggy and close.

My job that evening was to run around

cause we had a bunch of secular VIPs -

six MPs and a few Interfaith Council members.

That was interesting.

Which reminds me, I need to call Amy Adams,

MP for my electorate and pick her brain for a service project.

That was the spiritual side of my week from an overly busy place.

I didn’t make it to Church on Sunday,

instead slept like the dead at home in my own bed.

Ahhhhhhh.... my own bed with my own linen and pillows.

I suspect two large Church meetings put me on

Church attending overload for the week.

Glad it's over.

Now I just have six days away for work starting Thursday.

I need to find some balance!

over it, so over it

2012-01-24T21:12:00.000+13:00

Last week was epic.

Busy nights and days.

Too much travel.

Sleeping in beds that aren't mine.

Strange people in my house.

Mess everywhere.

Packing up.

Unpacking up.

Here are the photos.

Wee Makere is a good way to start a new week.
After a 16 hour sleep that is.

I know

2012-01-15T21:20:00.000+13:00

that my 2012 resolution is to not talk about earthquakes,

but the darn things just keep happening.

Some hideously early hour this morning

there was a jolty something, a 5 I think,

that woke me and half the region up.

Then in Sacrament this morning there was

one that felt like the earth gave it's self a shake.

A little bit like when a dog shakes water of it's back.

Then we are packing, packing, packing up the house

to make room for the repair subbies.

They arrive tomorrow morning.

In the morning.

It feels early and tiring just to write that.

All I seem to do is see things that need repairs.

Floors that are sloped,

doors don't hang properly,

windows have gaps around them.

Makes me tired thinking about it.

Meanwhile Jess is off to Melbourne as soon as

her new job is confirmed.

Pippapotamus and LoD are in Melbourne.

Everyone seems to be in Melbourne.

Instead I'm off to Methven.

At least it starts with a 'M'.

issssues and dramas

2012-01-13T20:56:00.000+13:00

The week before Christmas,

I got the call I wanted to have.

Fletchers who are the contractors to the

Earthquake Commission (EQC)

called to say they would be at our house on the 16th January

to fix all the earthquake damage.

Fantastic!

Sweet!

Great!

Shaka brah!

Chur bro!

My house will be all better before the winter.

I do feel slightly guilty that we are getting our marginally damaged house

fixed ahead of people whose houses are worse

but our subbies are based in the different town.

Anyway last Wednesday,

three working days before the subbies arrive

they phoned to say it would be better if we weren't in the house.

I'm sorry, what now?

Where do you go for two weeks when you have to

continue your normal life?

I live in the country.

Our options are not expansive.

Oh that's right....

there is no accommodation for rent, lease or

borrowing in Leeston.

Only people we know well enough to stay at your house

are allowed to visit Leestonians.

I have a big Fireside Church meeting on Tuesday,

very important people are coming to tell us our Ward boundaries are changing.

Peter is flying to Hamilton on Wednesday morning.

I have meetings in Christchurch all day Wednesday.

I have a mean meeting with the bank on Wednesday afternoon in Leeston.

I AM BUSY!

I NEED TO BE NEAR LEESTON!

I NEED SOMEONE ELSE TO PAY FOR THIS!

Luckily our insurance pays for accommodation

so Mags and I will decamp to Methven.

Mags goes on Tuesday.

Me on Wednesday after all the meetings.

We'll be away for two weeks.

I wonder if the builders will feed the cats?

I am a little bit excited cause I cause I get to walk to work.

I get 40 extra minutes each day that I won't be driving.

I get to be near work.

I get to hang out with my lovely workmates.

I am little bit concerned at leaving strangers in my house.

I am not looking forward moving most of the furniture

out of the house tomorrow.

Or moving it all back in either.

I am looking forward fresh paint,

new ceilings and

a house that doesn't shake at the slightest breeze

because the piles are shonky and

I swear all the nails are wiggling loose.

I keep expecting the walls to collectively fall outwards.

I hope, hope, hope that everything goes to plan.

Ashvegas

2012-01-11T13:02:00.001+13:00

Thats what kind of dodgy smallish towns are called in NZ,

First part of the name then vegas

as in

Rotovegas or Ashvegas.

I got spend the morning in Ashvegas (burton)

as I needed a new windscreen

and have done for a few weeks

but you know windscreens are one of those things

that take time to get replaced.

I knew I'd need to spend a couple of hours

waiting for the screen to get replaced

so took my laptop and books

and my birthday chemist voucher from my dad.

It was grey as can be on the way south

then by 9.30am, sunny and hot.

I've decided those TV weather people are not to be trusted.

I walked to a cafe called Lunch

but the building had been demolished as result of an earthquake

and there was only a very tidy, empty lot

and no Lunch.

So walked further to Columbus Coffee

which is my favourite cafe in Ashvegas.

I spent an hour reading and writing work stuff

then wandered back to the windscreen place

via Farmers department store.

This is a big deal cause I am not a shopper at all.

In fact I actively avoid shops because

I hate it that some people see shopping as hobby

and a family hobby at that.

I grabbed a few things to try on.

I ended up buying four casual summer tops

and walking out of the shop with my t-shirt on inside out,

all the way down the street,

into the windscreen shop,

half way back to the office

until I stopped at a dairy to get an ice cream.

Ahhh I am a nod.

LATER: But not as much of a nod as Tinky who has worn her shirt inside out 3/4 of the day. Thanks to Rozzy she was saved from figuring it out at the end of the day and feeling like a total nod rather than just a 3/4 nod. Silliness is viral in the Young Farmers office.

It wasn't all bad

2012-01-09T22:24:00.002+13:00

in fact work today was pretty fab.

I got to work early and

the first hour was pretty hideous.

I kept reminding myself that I am lucky to have a job

which is a bit silly cause NZ isn't really having a serious recession.

I had a good first day of the work year meeting with Henery.

Tinky and I lolled in the park for lunch.

Which was a bit stinky cause Methven is an ag town

so you never know what kind of smell you are going have waft past.

Today was just fertiliser I think.

Then Emz turned up.

I knew she was coming but had kind of forgotten

by the time she did turn up.

We walked down the street in the sun to Cafe 131

and sat outside only to have countless noisy tractors with trailers,

noisy trucks with trailers and even a silent pennyfarthing bike (without a trailer) go past us.

Emz got to tell me her travel plans.

Off to Oz to visit her two sisters,

then to Alaska for a month to watch the Northern Lights

and bears with tourists.

She'll be with the tourists not the bears.

Then she has a job in Cork, Ireland on a dairy farm for a year.

How exciting is all of that.

Emz will have the best time free of all responsibility

and family and with lots of plans of visiting France and Italy.

If she can keep from falling for the Irish boyos.

When I got back it was time for afternoon tea.

I did actually do some work today.

At afternoon tea I walked in to

wee Alaya writing Happy Birthday Sara

on the newly painted whiteboard walls.

They are like normal colour and normal wall but

with clear whiteboard paint on them

so you can write and rub out stuff.
It's a scaary when you first write on the wall,
we are well brung up in our office.

Then there was a yummy chocolate cake with

those nasty non-blow out candles.

Rosie tried to help and used the cake to snuff out the candles

when one caught fire, then another, after they had been blown out already

and were lying on the plate.

Then there were presents!

A beautiful aqua bowl with a dip bowl attached inside.

Very earthen and plain

just the way I like.

And rosemary and lavender bath salts

(which I've just used and I smell great)

and a delightful tin with a cool body loofah thingy that isn't a loofah

and yummy body wash.

How lucky am I?

More than the presents and cake and wall art,

it's the love with which it was given.

I feel cherished by my workmates

and that's how we roll in the Young Farmers office.

It's not actually my birthday today.

It was about 10 days ago

but cause its between Christmas and New Years

there is usually nobody about

and mostly people are holiday busy with their lives so forget.

I had a great day on the 30th.

Lovely gifts

(Rush perfume, red earrings, plastic containers and

a divine perfectly white linen tablecloth and napkins)

a relaxed day with a simple supper with family

and they had driven 45 minutes into Christchurch,

battling the sale shoppers to get me a gluten free chocy cake.

No dramas or issues just a pleasant, peaceful day.

But to have two birthdays.

What a delightful day it turned out to be!

hi ho, hi ho

2012-01-09T07:05:00.000+13:00

Those stupid seven dwarfes

and nasty indoctrinating Disney.

I see a conspiracy here.

Work is not good.

I dont want to go back!

It will be a chocolate day today.

am loathe to admit it

2012-01-07T15:30:00.001+13:00

but there is only Sunday until I go back to work.....

and the horror of the thought

of going back to work

is depressing and distressing me.

Especially since the weather is blah

and I just know it will become summer again at 6am on Monday.

Today is very blah, in a stay in bed way

so I did.

Much to the Fisherfullas disapproval

(but secret admiration I suspect).

When I say stay in bed I mean

a wake up call at 1.20am by a very big aftershock

(damn it).

Then a restless sleep until light arrived.

Dawn was late this morning,

arriving with a gentle rain

that was like spiderwebs resting in your hair.

Mags, the woose she is, didn't want to go across the road to

feed the Fisherfulla's parent's kittens alone.
By the time we got there
(all the way across the street)
Fisherfulla and his eldest boy had arrived to do some work.

So I grabbed the Fisherfulla's boy

for a tickle-fest and the kittens for a cuteness-fest.

I wandered home to read in bed.

I have been involved with Brian Hart's

The Came The Evening for a couple of days now.

A bleak and heartrending story set in rural Idaho

(I thought all of Idaho was rural).

Bandy, a unknowing soon to be father recently returned from

that big bad ogre Vietnam follows a path he sets out on

shooting a local cop and winding up touring prisons of the US.

Meanwhile his girlfriend Iona,

pregnant, having an affair and flees, gives birth, raises their boy

with her new boyfriend/husband.

The boy, named Tracey grows up,

visits his father Bandy in prison.

With Bandy's permission Tracey moves

back to the run down ranch in Idaho that Bandy's parents had left him.

Fixing it up for his dad's return, the son injures himself.

His mother, now a widow of 40 and

a veteran of a disappointing life arrives to hover over her son.

Small town, disjointed relationships.

Things said, not said.

People so close but too afraid.

Tangled histories, intertwined with expectation and hope

only to be sideswiped by bad choices and reality.

I got involuntarily involved because of my mood I guess.

My mood reflected in the disappointments of the characters

but each character had hoped for something else, usually better.

I imagine them as shadows with shimmering golden edges,

some wandering, some walking,

all limping at times through time.

The gaps in the story added to the gauntness of the characters.

I liked Mr Hart's story very much.

Green Mile

2012-01-05T09:11:00.000+13:00

I watched Green Mile last night.

Well not all of it.

I watched The Castle

and Green Mile in the ad breaks

and when The Castle finished.

I love The Castle.

All time best ever Aussie movie.

An absolute gem.

Darrel Kerrigan defending his home against

big business and the Government when they want to

appropriate it to expand the airport.

Oh yeah did I say the Melbourne airport is right next door?

Location, location, location is relative.

The Kerrigan's coin epic phrases like

"Straight to the pool room!"

"Ya dreaming!"

"Ah the serenity"

And I'm feeling the serenity this morning in my wee castle.

Woke up super early,

sun streaming in the window.

I'm missing my bedside table at the minute

cause it has borer and

I spent a hour yesterday painting it with kerosene.

I'm not quite ready to have it back in my bedroom just yet.

That would be a case of ah the serenity as the fumes fill the room!

It's one of those blissful mornings

when it's already hot and

a wander to the vege patch reveals this delicious wee morsel

A cannonball courgette.

Admittedly we are suffering a courgette glut

all from one plant.

And we are awaiting (read: hanging out)

for the sweet 100s cherry tomatoes to ripen

so we can fry up the courgette with wee tomatoes

douse with balsamic vinegar

(a word of warning: don't inhale when adding the vinegar

you will regret it when the acidic fumes

rocket through your nasal membrane.)

I am really excited about eating this roundy courgette.

Ah the simple pleasures.

fb

2012-01-04T10:07:00.000+13:00

is beginning to not stand for facebook.

I have spent far too much time

that I can't get back on facebook.

I am very grumpy about this.

I am grumpy because I did it.

Bad, bad addictive, not even that interesting facebook.

Bad, bad, addicted me.

Well not bad bad me

just bored me,

lazy me,

distracted me.

*sigh*

I'm going for a walk to get the paper

and return to sit in the sun

and be a normal person....

or is facebook the norm now????

P.S. I haven't had much sugar for a couple of days - this may be a problem... I-must-fight-the-sugar-addiction.... oh face it I'm have an addictive personality, which is ironic since I get distracted easily.

I lie

2012-01-02T09:49:00.000+13:00

I do have a resolution and

that is to not talk about earthquakes anymore!

7 overnight makes for poor sleep

and I feel as if I'm back to the exhustion

I had two weeks ago at the start of my holiday.

That's it no more (unless it's really bad).

Stupid earthquake brain.

New Years daze

2012-01-01T14:21:00.000+13:00

Do you think we can only be grateful for the things we have when we compare ourselves to others, whom we perceive as being in less fortunate circumstances than ourselves?

I'm just pondering on this as a sleepy

summers New Years Day rolls past me.

This and resolutions.

Shall I?

Shan't I?

Isn't perception fantastic?

You can be so wrong with perception.

I've been running a fighting battle with perception

all my life.

So I'm not one to make resolutions because

generally I know where I'm going and

how I'm getting there.

I have plans not resolutions.

So I was thinking it would behoove me

to have a something uplifting to work on.

And I got thinking about being grateful.

I could start a gratitude journal.

I know one friend who when suffering from

Post-Natal Depression who kept a gratitude journal

that made a world of difference

to her experience.

But that would take discipline

which is not my strong suit.

Just before I reread the First Presidency message from the

December 2011 Ensign.

President Eyring teaches about choosing to be grateful

(who doesn't love his insightful, thoughtful lessons??).

In it he talked about being called to give a blessing to a wee preemie baby

bearly holding on to life with lots of problems.

He came away counting his own blessings of healthy and happy children.

I firmly believe that my lot is better than most's.

Not because it necessarily is but

because it helps me live my life out there in the world and

with some adventure and joy.

I have no idea if my lot is better or worse then others.

I don't particularly care to check,

other than to admire the strength, endurance, bravery etc of others,

but I don't need to know their whole story or indeed any of their story

to admire them.

I try to look forward,

check the ramifications (awesome word) of my actions,

and accept that I'll sometimes fail and other times succeed

but most of the time I fall in between and do well enough.

Is it comparing or reflecting that is required to appreciate how good life is?

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T17:03:00.000+13:00

in the summertime.

New Year's Eve is here

and being in the middle of a holiday,

which has mostly entailed getting over

Mem's visit in the week before Christmas,

I can't say I am remotely inclined to treat it

any different to any other Saturday night.

So let me tell you a bit about my family.

Say for instance you say to them,

"Let's go to the river have a dinner picnic!"

they will start telling you why that's not a good idea

or if they are feeling non-verbal they kinda mope until you just think "stuff it".

If you say something like

"There's not much on TV tonight why don't we get a DVD?"

they will say oh I've seen everything or

there's never anything good DVDs at the video shop

(that's a fair call cause since it's changed ownership

there are hardly anything you'd want to watch).

And so it goes.

The thing that makes me laugh

is when there are complaints about

how they don't get to do stuff much.

You think?

Enjoy your New Year's Eve

I'm off to get a DVD and make macaroni and cheese please.

It's super hot

2011-12-26T17:56:00.000+13:00

and we are melting.

I love hot, sunny Christmases.

They are the bestest Christmases of all.

Church did happen on Christmas morning.

We had five Wards crammed into our Chapel

since Opawa Chapel has liquefaction and

there wasn't enough time to get the building checked

before Christmas Day.

It was good to be together on Jesuses birthday.

Good to catch up with people from across the city.

Good to see people so you really do know they are ok.

Mags came to Church.

That's her once a year visit done for 2011

she may stretch it out to last her for 2012.

Actually 9.30am on Christmas Day was early,

but we had a cunning plan.

Since there are no kids and no hordes of people at my place

we have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.

That way on Christmas Day

when it's hot and naptime looks so much more attractive than cooking

we just do.

Cause we all know the best food at Christmas time

are the left overs.

My favourite is cold lamb sandwiches.

But the best thing about Christmas in summertime

are the fresh berries

(this year freaken hard to find,

too much rain though absolutely none now)

and fresh peas.

Oh I could sing about fresh peas.

I could compose poems about fresh peas.

I could write love letters to fresh peas.

Oh I just love them so, so much.

Is 4 kilos peas in their pods too much?

and more earthquakes

2011-12-23T19:00:00.000+13:00

Beautiful day today.

Sunny, blue skies.

Hot sun and a cool breeze.

I tried to get a sneaky nap in at 1pm

only to be woken up at 1.58pm

with the 5.9 earthquake 20 seconds long.

I had enough time to leap out of bed,

throw my door open and stand under the door frame.

That quick thinking let me watch the ornaments fall over

and the house shudder and shake.

It's been awhile since we've had a decent sized earthquake.

By decent I mean bigger than a 5

So when this one hit I couldn't decide if it was huge

or if my memory was rusty and it just seemed so.

Turns out it was big.

Then we had another but only a 4

then another a bit bigger at 4.2,

and a 5.3

and then we had the 6.

All in an hour.

Funtimes.

Exhausting.

But the day goes on and

Visiting Teaching was on the cards

so Liz and I went and visited our church sisters.

They are all fine.

Liquifaciton is back with a vengeance in the Eastern Suburbs.

Nobody was badly hurt.

A couple of buildings collapsed but they were red stickered anyway.

Every one's nerves are fraught all over again.
When will it end?

A sunny last day

2011-12-23T09:55:00.000+13:00

Mem went home yesterday.

Before she went we took off up into the mountains

to Castlehill to climb on the rocks.

What a day in the sunny sun sun.

Those limestone rocks are much bigger than they appear.

Mem is a normal sized person

shrinking as she climbs the rocks.

She reminded me of a puppy that needed to get out

and use her energy.

Mem raced up the hill,

across the rocks

in her jandels.

She was the champion hill climber.

I was trailing behind,

actually I trailed away

sticking to the flatter pathways.

And hid out in the shade of a huge rock.

We climbed high up on the big boulders

and sat in the sun

peering over the edge

very cautiously.

See! See the jandels???

She was climbing all over these rocks

in flippin jandels.

I would make a terrible parent.

I'd let my kids run wild in jandels on cliff like rocks.

The most amazing thing about the

Castelhill rocks

was that everything was so out of proportion.

Mem is within a normal speaking voice distance here

but it looks so far away.

Excellerated house fire

2011-12-21T11:05:00.001+13:00

My word, Leeston is very exciting lately.

Late last night as we were just about to go to bed.

Punk came out to say to call the fire brigade.

The naughty neighbour's house had caught fire

and it's very suspicious.

The kids, I say that cause they are young,

were having a very small,

very quiet 18th birthday party for one of the boys who lived there.

They all got out safely.

It's good thing shoes are optional in NZ cause none of them have any now.
The house is totally munted.

This is from our front door which is at the back.

(House relocated, turned around to take advantage of the sun)

This was just after I called 111.

I was unfailingly polite to the operator

cause I was a little bit surprised to find myself calling them.

About a minute after this photo was taken

the front of the house went whoosh and

flames were metres into the sky.

This is also happening metres from my house.

Mem called out to the birthday boy

who then joined us on the deck

(there's a poem here).

He was naturally upset but even more so

because one of the girls who was visiting

tried three times to get into the tinder dry, well and truly on fire house.....

to get her phone.

The local cop finally handcuffed her and shut her in his car.

I tell ya it's all on in Leeston.

The Leeston Volunteer Fire Brigade was very prompt.

Apparently they were a bit concerned when they pulled up

cause the fire was so hot from the street.

You can hardly see but

here are the guys going into the house.

Let's talk about the house.

The house is incredibly old.

Murray, one of the firemen was brought home

from the hospital as a baby.

He must be 60 if he is a day.

It has been an iconic house because it was the home

of three brothers who were midgets.

They used to sit where my gate is now

and jump out at school kids as they walked home from school.

We called it the pig house because a mate of Oti's reckons

it looks like a pig's face.

The naughty kids moved next door

probably because no sane, self respecting person would live in it.

Between the midget sized kitchen,

the earthquake uneven floors,

the lack of insulation

and the just plain ugliness

the only reason to live there was

that the rent would have been next to nothing.

So hours later we went to bed.

Our house a little worse for sooty wear.

This morning the house is surrounded by fire investigators

and CIB police people.

We've been interviewed and will be interviewed again

for a small amount of info we have.

Looks like it was silly kids playing with fire

or maybe it was something else.

Regardless of what happened,

you can't help but feel sorry for the naughty kids.

Besides, now we get a peaceful summer without noisy neighbours.

It's been a Mormon weekend

2011-12-19T10:38:00.001+13:00

Yup, it's been busy.

First there was a baby shower.

Beautiful mother with a month to go.

I don't really know her but she is a sweet young woman.

I don't really see the point of baby showers

other than a gathering to celebrate the mother.

And this one was like that but not quite,

it was just a bit random.
A clash of cultures maybe?
The mother is Samoan as were the organisers.
Maybe they don't realise the purpose of the shower??

Then on Sunday I took Mem over to visit with her cousins

who I happen to visit teach.

I really like this sister out of the Gospel.

Cass is a good, smart woman who

has a huge heart and cares very much about many things.

Her husband is really interesting.

He works for the prison service and oversees

a new rehabilitation programme designed to ID the prisoners

needs from the day they arrive in the prison.

Then try to remedy the issues such as

literacy and numeracy skills.

Simple things really but they make all the difference.

We visited in the morning

catching up with Mem's granduncle Turei

before going to Church for the afternoon

(morning session next year!).

Before going back to have dinner

with Cass, Mark, son Ethan and Uncle Turei

plus cousin Ricky and his three kids plus two others.

Always makes me laugh with a pondering of quzzledess

when forward people like Cass ask if I'm look for husband.

I'm fine with the question.

And fine to answer

that I am.

(I should really add that I hate looking for things

and if I were Catholic,my patron saint would be Anthony

both for losing things and being a lost cause)

But then she said that her brother

the afore mentioned Ricky needed a good woman.

Hmmmmm......

Farmy Army part bajillion

2011-12-17T10:37:00.001+13:00

It's cold, it's wet and it's time for service.

I'm a firm believer that when
feeling blah go help others.

Mem arrived safe and sound,

just in time spend all Friday

packing food hampers with the Farmy Army.

I did a week or so helping to organise the Farmy Army

back in Febuary after the Feb 22 earthquake.

That was a marathon of desperation.

Personally I was in the keep moving forward mode of mental survival

and I think I still might be.

But yesterday was Farmy Army feed the Eastern Suburbs day.

We met in the PGG Wrightson Woolstore

I love the smell of raw wool and

even better the bales make very comfy seats

and make even better safety walls.

The row on the left were to be our tables

already piled with grapefruit.

Then the truck arrived filled with fruit and veges

donated by farmers.

Donated by the pallet load.
That's a lot of fruit and veges
about $20,000 worth.

Both TV newses were there filming our goings on

and having a wee battle between over who got what shot.

Only to be cut because the Nelson floods are worse

oh and by Richie McCaw turning down a knighthood.

Mem was on kumara handing out.

We thought this was all there was

but there was a whole other pallet about to arrive.

Yes she is playing with a knife.

The volunteers were chaffing at the bit.

Hurricane Helen Heddell,

the rural woman whose heart is huge,

whose energy is endless,

whose will is steel

got us all organised and the filling began.

See what I mean about the pallets of veges!

Each bag got...

1.5 kgs onions

1.5 kgs carrots

2x kumara

1x cabbage

1x broccolini
1x lettuce
and 5kg of potatoes.

We worked it.

I was so busy clearing baskets as they emptied

and making sure veges were where they needed to be for easy access.

We filled 700 bags of veges

They were big bags all captured and enclosed by wool bales.

Then we had a little break and got into the fruit...

bananas

kiwifruit

mandarins

pears

avocados

tomatoes

red peppers

yellow peppers

cucumbers

and

1.5 kgs apples

This was just the beginning of the fruit bags.

This was the end.

Just tomatoes and red and yellow peppers left.

Hey! Where did Santa come from????

Sneaky Santa.

Then because there is always work to be done

and it's usually done by people like these lovely Rural Women

who are tying up the emergency fruit bags.

We ran out of the lovely green bags.

Mem and I stayed to help some more.

To be honest I didn't even notice that people had left.

By this stage our kind of shy Mem

was in the swing of things

and nek minnute

she is up on the ute loading the heavy veges bags

ready to be delivered off to one of the Eastern Suburbs foodbanks.

Sarah in the hi-vis vest

totally got the importance of giving teenage girls jobs.

The food hampers were given to the families groups

like the Maori Wardens have collected along the way.

Keeping in mind the three Maori Wardens

who came for the pick up

all are living in over crowded, Red Stickered houses themselves,

so they got a bag too.

Oh! I forgot each bag came with a roast lamb.

All of this food was donated or

bought with donated money

via Federated Farmers.

We were given two boxes of lamb roasts that were left over.

So I called my Bishop and got as list of 24 families in need

who live in our ward boundaries

who could do with a treat

(and lamb is so expensive it is a treat).

When Mem and I got to Bishop and Mel's house

I looked at the list and must have looked

extremely dismayed

because Mel volunteered to deliver half of them.

This would normally have cheered me but

I'm supa tired and can't quite shake the feeling.

I was very relieved she did this for me

cause I don't know Christchurch that well.

Mem and I set out with google maps

and had only one double back.

I hope the gift of lamb roasts helps my ward members

feel some Christmas love.

And I very much hope that the families who got

Farmy Army food bags and bags and bags

feel better for the season.

feel not forgotten.

feel life is a little bit easier for a little while.

And just so you know cabbages are really heavy.

I am still digging out pear and lettuce from under my nails.

it's a grey day

2011-12-15T07:41:00.000+13:00

but I don't care cause I'm on holiday

or three weeks

and this afternoon

the beautiful, the smart, the wonderful 16 year old

Mem

arrives for a week.

I have a few things planned.

Baking, lots of baking.

A Christmas BBQ party.

A day of delivering food for the Farmy Army.

A movie.

Visiting teaching.

Maybe, if the weather holds a tramp in the mountains.

It's going to be fun!

in the kitchen

2011-12-13T18:49:00.001+13:00

I am standing right now in my kitchen

blogging while I make fish pie

from a Health Guide recipe I found in the Internet.

This is so not like me.

Blogging while standing or following a recipe.

Such a departure from the norm.

Also a departure from the norm

was going along to a recommended meeting

for Women on Boards.

Its a new group

(not sure how new)

that is all about increasing the number of women on

corporate boards.

Bet you figured that out already,

you smart cookie, you.

I really liked the women I met.

Strong, capable, smart women

who hold positions of leadership in their sector of their industry.

I had met Kristen previously on Nicky Wagner's campaign

(she won Christchurch Central by 45 votes - phew!)

and conveniently she was late too

so sat next to me.

The wee meeting had Morten Huse

as a speaker.

He of worldwide MBA course fame.

He has researched how women on board affect business

after Norway made it compulsory to have 40% of any board female.

Apparently business is better when

you have women on the board.

Women are fiscally conservative,

ask the hard questions

and are happy to put their necks out.

BUT

this only happens effectively when

there is critical mass of three or more women.

There probably are a few other criteria but one is enough.

I enjoyed talking with women who are serious

about good governance.

Meanwhile, fish pie is going ok.

Am not too good at getting ingredients in the correct order

but its a thick gooey mess just as it should be.

Fresh flounder from the lake,

tinned salmon from Alaska.

There's a connection somewhere there.

a bit more

2011-12-11T22:59:00.000+13:00

than I bargained for frankly.

This weekend was going to be busy

but it was made all the more

complicated

by a wee bit of an allergic reaction

to my breakfast on Saturday.

I am wheat intolerant

which means if I can, I eat gluten free food.

I can tolerate a certain amount of wheaten food.

It affects me by making me super sleepy

and different types of gluten or wheat

will cramp different muscles.

I particularly hate the lower back cramps.

They bite with a wicked kick.

Anyway a while ago I bought

buckwheat gluten free pancake mix.

It's a treat that I love.

Pancakes with lemon and golden syrup,

lovely and hot and melting.

On Saturday I cooked me up a batch

of buckwheat pancakes, like I have before.

Within minutes of tucking in

I was swelling up,

my eyes and then my neck started,

my hands and feet started getting itchy,
my face started to go numb.

My throat started getting tight.
I've never had this happen before.

I grabbed cold and flu medicine
knowing they were anti-histamines.
Gobbled that down and started scratching.
Mags came to the rescue with a bowl of water
to stop the itching and
then went off to get some real anti-histamines.
Then came the hives,
all across my chest but thankfully
I was too busy scratching
my itchy palms and soles.

She got back and I gobbled down another pill.
And relaxed a little.
The funny thing?
I was determined to read the newspaper.
I read the whole time cause when I stopped reading
I panicked.
Not much but enough that I worried
I'd hyperventilate and make things worse.
Head back and deep breathing.
My neck was red and covered in hives,
my throat was swollen.
Deep, slow breathes was all I could do.
That and read.

The medicine made me sleepy
even though it was non-drowsy.
I finally slept.
When I woke up I was much better,
shaky but better and still a little itchy.

I pondered why I would react to a food I'd eaten before.
I think it was that I had too much going on.
My body and mind were stressed and weakened.
Something that would not normally effect me
did because I hadn't looked after me.

I needed sleep, I needed rest
but there were things to do.
A Church talk that was to be filmed for BYU TV.
Not audio just images for back ground filler film.
But my talk, on the ordinances of the sacrament
needed to include stories of the earthquakes.
That's not easy talk about let alone
find the link between the two topics.

So this morning I woke up early to write my talk
and it flowed nicely.
I talked about the sacredness of partaking of the sacrament,
of the privilege and honour it is to be allowed to partake.
Not allowed as in a person gives you permission,
more that there is a sacrament at all
and that it commemorates the sacrifice that Christ made for us all.

Plus I had a BBQ for families who live near me.
We seldom are invited to things like pot-lucks
held by those in town
so I decided to invite the country folk to mine.

This isn't problem it's just a few people
bringing their own meat and a salad to share.
Enough for everyone but not too much to make alone.
I supplied a yummy potato, bacon and red pepper salad
and desert.
Well Mags made a cheesecake
and then she threw a tantrum and refused to some to dinner.
Apparently she refused to join us
because I wouldn't tell her what was going on,
who was coming,
what was to be eaten.
The reason for that was because
who the heck knew who was coming
and what they were bringing.
That's what all the fun is.

Good night was had with the Everndens
and Bee and her daughter.
We ate BBQ and salads,
cheesecake and ice cream
and watched the First Presidency's Christmas message.
A perfectly pleasant Sabbath evening.

A 4WD Christmas Party part 2

2011-12-10T10:00:00.000+13:00

So what did we actually get up to?

First we had to find our vehicles

which were hidden around Methven.

This was quite annoying and not supa easy.

So we were last out of town.

Well almost last cause

Emily was the chase 4WD trucky thing person

She is a very responsible person so was always the last vehicle.

She knows about 4WDriving

which explains her responsible-ness.

In fact at one point we found her driving

in small circles over, down and around

a particularly lumpy, large bank of a stream and through the bed.

For safety we had RTs and Emily had the daddy RT.

Lucky is explaining why ours didn't work.

Seriously ours didn't work.

Everyone could hear us but we couldn't hear them.

So the Boss went to town blathering on the RT

about all kinds of things.

It was part of our cunning plan to drive everyone nuts.

It worked.

We planked, ok Jase planked...

not so annoying.

We raced through streams,

Im holding the handcuffs out the window here.

(see yesterday's post for an explanation about that)

We weren't allowed to deviate from the farm track

to head off into the river bed so we had to make do

with large puddles and streams.

We, and by that I mean the Boss

climbed the tree with the handcuffs

It wasn't a high tree

but it was a dead tree

and a prickly tree so it was his job to get up there.

Then we found ourselves far ahead of the others

which may have had something to do with

this little act of sabotage.

This passes as a bridge on farms.

Least it did until we took one side way

then it was a brid.

Once we got into a larger paddock with some cattle

we stopped cause there was no-one following us.

Yes of course we had a conversation about who we would

eat first if we were stranded.

Louly went to charm the cattle

that were hanging out in the same paddock as we.

Actually this was one of our water photos.

I'm sure she has handcuffs somewhere.

Then we made a NZYF logo with stream algae.

We were there for a long time.

We got a little bored.

Once Jase had planked on the cliff,

Louly had run through the stream with the cattle,

Greasy had climbed high up on the gorse covered hill

(only to figure out later that 20 metres further on

there was no gorse, only grass).

Anyway we were bored so we did this...

we drove the ute up the hill

or tried to anyway.

One of the handy things of being with the Boss

is that you can thrash your ute,

or in this case Louly's ute.

Then cause we were still bored

we used our handcuffs to lock the gate.

But Nessie was in the first ute up

and she knows that gates have hinges that are seldomly secured.

So they lifted the gate off it's hinges and got through.

Then let everyone else through.

And then left our handcuffs there so we went back to get them.

For a minute we thought they had hot wired

the cuffs on the fence.

But they are nicer than us and they hadn't.

Our purpose turned out to be to really annoy the other teams,

but we had the best time laughing all the way.

Next year I reckon we should horse trek the same path.

May have to take a tent.

A 4WD Christmas Party part one

2011-12-09T20:55:00.000+13:00

Work Christmas Party usually equals a so so night.

Not at Young Farmers!

When this is how the organiser dresses normally,

you know the plan will be a little bit crazy

and a lot fun.

One of the exciting highlights of the staff meeting

was each of us doing a 5 minute my life profile.

Rosie loved her travels and

shared some of the hairier scrapes

and shed her clothes as she went.

Hysterically funny it was.

But back to what Rosie,

as CEO of the NZYF Social Club

organised.

Just a wee 4WD drive through the

Canterbury back country,

through Glenfalloch and Lake Heron Stations.

The weather was crap from Methven,

fine through Rakaia Gorge

and increasingly cold the higher we went,

freezing when we got to Lake Heron for the BBQ.

As Tinky is demonstrating here.

My team was the Boss,

Louly worm and her bloke Greasy

and our illustrious Board member Jase.

But in the opposite order below.

We laughed our butts off the whole way.

I will expand on our adventures once I explain

that competitive is an understatement

when we talk about the Boss.

We, sometimes lost sight of the purpose of the journey.

Actually we weren't sure of what the purpose was

so we had to make our purpose up ourselves.

Our purpose was to thwart the other teams as much as we could.

And we could.

As we went we had tasks

and then to take photos as we did them.

We had an item to include in our photos.

Ours was handcuffs (with keys).

This is Jase planking on a cliff,

cuffs in hand.

And this is Jase after we made him plank

and plank and plank so we could get a great photo.

The item we chose to inflict on another team

was a overhead transparancy.

Try taking a photo of that!

training daze

2011-12-07T20:04:00.000+13:00

I really struggle with lengthy meetings.

I don't mind them if there is a purpose

but meetings for the sake of meeting

are just not cool.

Actually doing anything with a purpose is not cool.

Resting has a purpose.

Sleeping has a purpose.

Watching TV, like actually watching a particular programme

has a purpose.

Even window shopping has a purpose.

Yesterday we, at work started

a four day staff meeting.

Yes four whole days.

Four days 8.30am until 5pm.

That's a whole lot of meeting.

It's not so bad.

Yesterday was quite fun.

The late start helped.

Mands plane was late from up north

so we played merry go rounds with utes

as we often do.

The Boss did his overview of everything PICA

then Case lead us through each of sharing

what we enjoyed, succeeded and were challenged

by work this year.

Hmmm lots of things to say

except that I have a shocking memory

to be fair the year has been a blur.

We had secret Santa at afternoon tea.

Usually painful but this was really fun.

Then Lucky and Henery ran the afternoon session.

We usually have a group session brainstorming

on something like our ideas of improving the business.

It's called making the boat go faster.

That's Peter Blake's old line about being solution oriented.

But the afternoon was a whole kettle of fun.

First they had made very professional looking booklet

with four parts.

Then they got us to pair up.

Me and Rosie bounced in together and

started throwing ideas around

and around, oh and around.

Actually we started at the back of the book

which was a Dragon's Den

elevator speech, on the spot, pitch your big idea to

Rob and Vanessa.

Who are Rob and Vanessa?

Really, they were Henery and Lucky dressed up.

For Nicca they were two people who Lucky

knew from her partner's work.

He is a rural banker so that's feasible.

Hook, line and sinker was Nicca.

Lucky and Henery did a great job.

They made a humdrum exercise really fun

and really funny.

Good on them!

Young Farmers strikes again...

it's all about having fun and being challenged.

Nigel Latta

2011-12-06T21:34:00.000+13:00

Isn't Nigel the most unfortunate name?

I wonder if boys named Nigel

feel the need to be funny to make up for their name.

Regardless of Mr Latta's first name,

he was very funny talking about parenting

while fundraising for Methven Toy Library

last night.

Nige is a clinical psychologist

and has had a couple of TV series here in En Zed

along the lines of the politically incorrect child raising subjects.

Adolescents are nuts,

kids should play unsupervised outside

(not totally unsupervised, just free like we were

with parents nearby but not hovering) and

sometimes get knocked about,

husbands are pragmatic

and it's all true.

Basically Nigel says give people some space,

give yourself a break,

go with the flow a bit.

Kids turn out ok in the end

and if you've read a parenting book,

watched one of his programmes

or gone along to one of his shows

you probably are a good enough parent.

If you get a chance to get along to see Latta live

do, he's worth it.

Nigel Latta's website

Nice work Methven Toy Library!

supa hot

2011-12-03T20:18:00.000+13:00

and loving it!

The roses are bloomin' blooming

and the veges are veging

Hanging out for the courgettes cause

they have been too expensive to buy.

Last night I went to Liza's place,

I haven't been there for a couple of years.

The reason was to visit with Alice and Alex

who I lived with 15 years ago.

I exchanged a Waikato summer for a Californian winter

after my first year at uni.

I had lived in California for three years previously

and after a year at home,

Liza called to say come over and play.
She had come over in my last year there

and hated it but went back anyway.

I ended up staying with Alice for four months.

I travelled quite a bit too,

places I hadn't been when I lived there

and a few that I had.

That's the benefit of having time away,

you get remember all the things you meant to do

but never did.

And now all these years later

Alice and Alex,

who is now 20 and was in elementary school when I was there

are here in the South Island..

They went off today over the mountains

stopping at Arthur's Pass on their way to Fox Glacier

and on to Wanaka.

So good to see them,

so good to be back home too.

And so good to munch on peanut butter cups.

Right, correct and good

2011-12-02T06:55:00.001+13:00

I woke up early this morning,

probably because I'm in a strange hotel bed,
I mean it's mine not some random's I've imposed upon.

To add to the alertness,
I slept with the curtains open.

The view of Palmerston North is much better today,

a sunny and hot day by the looks of it,

better than the last time I was here.

Foggy, grey, wet day it was.

I woke up thinking about extremes.

Have you noticed that?

So many things are right or wrong,

good or bad,

this path or that path.

That kind of thing.

I try to avoid using the word 'right'

even when confirming things in conversations,

mainly phone ones cause

you sound like a knob, or a cop otherwise.

To say 'right', to me indicates a judgement,

as does 'good'.

But more to the point,

cause I'm so consistent at sticking to my point.

To the point, it's the extremes and

the absolutes that are the painful part.

There are no absolutes.

There are always lots of options.

There are never only two polar opposite options.

The problem with this extreme world

is there is no room for fun or humour.

Humour is in the grey area.

Fun is in the grey area.

Black and white are not fun.
Things become so serious so quicky.
Where's the joy?

Rejecting absolutes doesn't prevent anyone from being

decisive or having a strong opinion.

What it does mean is that you will be flexible

want to discuss and explore ideas and options.

You'll be willing to collaborate and cooperate.

And your use of language will expand and

your brain will appreciate the exercise.

Wellington in the sun

2011-12-01T23:29:00.000+13:00

When the weather is good in Wellington,

it's a wonderfully, beautiful place.

And today the weather was fantastic.

I got to Wellington in time

to do a phone interview with Richard 'eye gouger' Loe

on his radio programme right before the noon news.

Ideal timing.

It was three minutes with three decent soundbites

on the Rural Business Network.

I met Jolly and had a quick lunch.

She was quick cause she was half way through her

mail round at the council when I arrived.

(the square outside the Council buildings,

Jolly and I did not have lunch here)

And I needed a quick lunch because

I was meeting Heather Roy at 3pm.

Heather is an unemployed former Member of Parliament.

She's been out of a job since Saturday

and she did retire so it's not like she lost the election.

It was good to catch up with Heather

as a normal person.

MPs are not normal people.

They are hyper busy, into everything,

kind of celebrities who phones go off all the time

and have randoms interrupting conversations.

Heather and I met at Foxglove

which was the perfect place on such a fiercely sunny day.

After a luxury afternoon

I jumped into the rental car

and headed to Palmerston North

to have a dinner meeting with the boys of the

Rural Business Network.

The drive took longer than I thought it would
but I made it to the Cooperage in time.
Parked brilliantly, leaving a safety margin of a metre
between me and the curb.

In the middle of the RBN strat meeting
I needed to sneak off for a Stake Public Affairs skype meeting.
Ah tu meke pretty much.

Tomorrow?
Well back to Wellington for a five hour
meeting about a NZQA review of all the ag qualifications in the market.
Hmmmmm I wanna go home!

inter the faith

2011-11-30T11:14:00.000+13:00

I am a member of the Christchurch Interfaith Council.

I know, I know...

I represent my church on this council

and it's filled with lovely, open hearted and open minded people

from all sorts of faiths.

Last night there was a meeting of the society,

which is the larger group of interfaith interested people.

The subject for discussion was

Pillow Talk - Interfaith Marriage.

So there were Catholics, Anglicans, Ba'hai, Unitarians,

Muslims, Jews, Hindu and I'm sure some others.

The interesting bit I learned is this.

For Muslims their marriage rules are

that a Muslim man may marry a woman of the Book

i.e. a Muslim, Jew or Christian.

But a Muslim woman may only marry an Muslim man.

Everyone else was pretty relaxed about it

even the Catholics

but to be fair we weren't talking about marrying in the Church

we were talking about two people

marrying who were of different faith traditions.

It did get a little fraught because one woman

asked a very poorly worded question

of Talib (the lovely Muslim representative)

that was a just a tad hostile but it allowed Talib to explain who

the people of the Book are

(cause that's a Jewish term).

Ok firstly Muslims believe everyone was a Muslim first

(this doesn't stack up in accepted history)

They have a point when they say that

their scriptures are unpolluted

meaning that when you read the Koran or Qu'ran

you should read it in Arabic as that is it's original language.

Unlike the Bible which started out in Aramaic,

then Hebrew,

then Greek,

then Latin

and then English.

That's why some churches still use the King James Bible

because it is the first English translation.

There are five books recognised as scripture by Islam,

so remember that Muslims see Jesus as a prophet

but not THE prophet, cause that's Mohammad.

The five books are

Psalms,

Torah,

Bible,

Can't remember

and the Koran or Qu'ran.

So if you believe in any of the above books

then you are ok by the Muslims.

Those members of Islam who are not peaceful

and a smidge warlike are not considered Muslims.

They are opting out of being a true believer

by their actions.

There is only one Islam,

so no sects like in Christianity of Judaism.

Muslims can claim this cause there is only one Qu'ran.

And you can't misconstrue it...

in principle.

And that's all for today.

negative post

2011-11-29T12:38:00.000+13:00

Just warning there....

I bought very cool flower shaped cupcake molds.

I bought cheater, expensive pre-mixed gluten free cupcake mix.

I made the cheater, expensive pre-mixed gluten free cupcake mix.

I used the very cool flower shaped cupcake molds.

They freaken suck.

I now have half broken cupcakes that taste yukky.

Im very unhappy and

can't be bothered to turn the photo around

so deal with it.

My back hurts too

and my hair is fluffy,

my kitchen floor needs cleaning because someone

keeps feeding the mean cats inside

and they are playing Elvira on the radio.

What is the world coming to?

Agriventure

2011-11-29T09:50:00.000+13:00

and on your feet

cause Agriventure is all about getting out on the farm

and experiencing a life like yours

with people like you

but completely different.

Last night I had dinner with

Jude, Lesley, Pauline, Mandy, Karen, Mark

and some other musketeers

who are the Agriventure board in New Zealand.

They are very, very generously giving

Young Farmers a $7,000 scholarship for an

Agriventure experience of the winners choice.

Agriventure has been going since 1965

by going I mean placing young people

in on farm jobs with families

who involve them in their own families

and they become family.

All the while the young people get to work

and be paid and learn a different farming system.

Agriventure organises their visas and travel,

when they arrive in one of the many countries you could choose

you are welcomed and introduced to your co-trainees,

delivered to your new home farm

and supported and encouraged,

toured and engaged,

challenged and involved.

All those good things for eight months,

then you go home,

add your experience to your CV

and keep in contact with all the wonderful friends you've made.

How easy is that?

Countries you can visit

Canada, USA, Sweden,

Japan, Germany, Denmark, Australia,

Norway, UK and here.

I know a few people who have started their travels with Agriventure

and they have had the most amazing experiences.

Go find out more and explore the world!

a new reason

2011-11-27T22:04:00.001+13:00

to hate Nor'westers,

it drives you crazy with it's dry

forceful wind.

Now it brings a fresh kind of hell

and that's the noisy neighbour kind.

We have had large children living next door

of the 18 - 20 year age group.

First we thought they were full of new freedom type youthful exuberance.

Now we know better.

The house next door should be demolished..

water, water every and not a drop to drink....

900 buildings being demolished not 45 minutes from here

and the one next door with it's pre-earthquake

uneven floors, mould, over grown garden, thing after thing is still there.

It must be unhealthy to live in

and has super cheap rent,

which is where the large children next door come in.

Turns out they are not just large children

but junior criminals.

We've heard rumours of many things they have done.

We've seen the regular visits from the cops.

We've seen who visits the house.

We've heard the screaming fights,

the drunken fights,

the dog fights

and we have heard today for the last 10 hours

the radio,

loud and clear as a bell.

Which may be worse than just hearing

the dull thud of the beat of another non-discript 'song'.

On Friday night the large children

were out on the street

fighting each other with sticks,

actually fighting.

Not haha! play fight.

Then some guy comes along in his car and

tries to run one of them over and

very near succeeds.

He may have been a really ticked off father.

Girls are drawn to that house like flies.

Every weekend, the good girls of Leeston

stroll past the house craning their necks to catch one of the bad boys eye

and be invited in.

Stupid little girlies.

As the car screamed towards the ring leader

one of the other little beggars phoned the police!

And their nasty, ill trained, sheep worrying dog ran away

unfortunately the spoon was on the phoned with the cops

so couldn't run away too.

Oh well not too long before we can call noise control.

My luck I'll be in a fitful sleep by then

and wake up at 3am wide awake

and the neighbour's radio will still be playing

with the noise being pushed our way by the Nor'wester.

I don't live in the country to have noisy neighbours!

So much more I could say about the noisy little sods

but that would be gossip

and there's already enough of that flying around here.

P.S. National won the election, which is, y'know good. Nicky (National) is tied with the Labour candidate, exactly the same number of votes with 3000 odd special votes to be counted. Rahui, the sweetest, hard working MP for Te Tai Tonga Maori seat lost to some nob with a famous last name - very unhappy face. ACT got back in.... if you can call John Banks ACT, but no other seats so it the John Banks ACTs like a liberal for the next few months, then he'll go back to his conservative roots. Ah the politics of a couple of small islands in the Southern Pacific ocean.

How do you vote?

2011-11-25T20:24:00.000+13:00

It's election day tomorrow.

I'll be spending my day with

National candidate and List MP

Nicky Wagner

I'm not actually a National party supporter.

But I really like Nicky,

she's got a really good heart,

a good business head on her shoulders

from years in business,

excellent people skills from her time as a teacher

and she really loves Christchurch.

I can't even vote for her cause I live in a different electorate.

But if I lived in Christchurch Central she would have my vote.

I party vote ACT.

Even though they are pretty tame compared to what my politics are.

If you are courious about where you sit on the politic spectrum

go do the world's small political quiz

here

hairdressers and other danger zones

2011-11-24T13:45:00.001+13:00

Seriously,

I think I can speak on behalf of most women

when I say

we like our hairdresser.

Otherwise why would we go?

My first favourite hairdresser was gifted.

Alex, who for some reason I think was from Alexandra,

was just fantastic.

She even saved me from a horrible disloyal lopsided haircut

I got from some hideous, newby hairdresser who worked in a salon

I should have known would be dodgy as.

I was in the middle of a "my hair is too thick! Get it off my neck" moment

in the middle of summer.

Then there was the hairdresser whose salon was purple.

She was magic.

Her instruction to new hair washing assistants

was that the head massage should be orgasmic,

not like an actual orgasm cause that would be awkward

but that they should make your scalp feel awesome.

Though to be fair for woman a good head massage in the morning

would lead to a highly successful evening for some man.

Good lead in time.

Then there was Andreas from Mexico.

Oh he was gooooood.

The perfect cut for my face shape,

the perfect colour,

and the charm and flattery that oozed from that man!

And then he disappeared.

I blame the drug cartels.

Now I have Sarah

who is sweet and lovely.

Doesn't quite understand my hair yet,

as in she wants me to STRAIGHTEN it.

The caps are because I have wavy, curly chin length hair

and I don't suit straightened hair.

So yesterday we had a wee chat about how I hate flicky hair

and how I suspected that now Farah Fawcett

(Mags always adds Major)

is dead that her hairstyle is looking to be channelled

through my hair.

I warned Sarah that my fringe

(bangs for Americans, which by the way is totally weird)

would flick up while she was razoring away.

She said it wouldn't.

I got back to work and

with in 10 minutes Tinky was asking

what the hell happened to my head.

Kimba pinned the flickyness down with a paper clip.

The flicky fringe fought back

and slowly took over the left side of my head.

It only gets worse.

This morning I woke up to my hair exploding from my head.

I brushed it out and it looked like Queenie's hair Blackadder.

So Sarah has won and I've straightened my hair.

I feel blessed to have had plenty of really

great, passionate hairdressers in my lifetime.

We underestimate just how important they are,

and how much information they keep on each of us....

And as a footnote to this hairdresser story,

I was just talking to a woman from a similar group to Young Farmers

but much older and focused on a completely different area,

so not really like Young Farmers at all.

But we were talking about the Rural Business Network

and she was asking about how inclusive

or exclusive the RBN will be

because everyone

(not me)

is a little suspicious of consultants and accountants etc

being involved with the RBN.

I explained like above,

why do you go to your hairdresser?

Yes because they are good at doing hair

but more because you enjoy chatting to them

and if you didn't like them you wouldn't use their services.

Same for the rural service industry.

Everyday I write the book

2011-11-23T08:13:00.001+13:00

Elvis Costello is a great musician,

though I do find it weird he is married to Dianna Krall

or she to him.

But that's not what I want to blog about today.

Most mornings as I brush my toothypegs

a thought of what to blog about comes into my head.

Now a sensible person may take time to write it down

or be organised enough to have a pad of paper
on hand to collect these random thoughts

(though a paper and damp bathrooms don't mix)

but alas that's not how I roll.

But sometimes I remember these thoughts.

Mostly they are tip like posts, short and sweet

(not my thing at all)

Last week I had a manicure.

This is a totally foreign experience for me

in more ways than one.

Firstly, I kind of had one because I was in a city.

Leestown, where I live, has 1200 peeps and even then

I live on the wrong side of the no longer existent tracks.
That's literally speaking not as in I'm poor, white trash.
Though some may differ based on my musical choices.

We have a few shops and most are agriculturally related.

Feedstores don't sell nail polish

and the chemist only sells a limited range.

The second reason was the two manicurists

where really lovely chatty Chinese girls

(to be fair one 'girl' could have been 50,
her skin was beautiful so who knows?).

We have no chatty Chinese people.
We do have Chinese people,
but they are super busy cooking fish and chips
in a noisey as chippie shop.
But we do have chatty Iranians, Indians and English people in Leestown.

The girls were fun to chatter away to.

They laughed at my insanely tough nails

and told me my nails were cute,

to be fair they made them cute
as they cut them quite short.

Who the heck can type with long nails?

Have you seen that scary woman who hasn't
cut her nails for 20 years?

That's weird.

Anyway many of you will know this but

it doesn't matter how dry you think you bright pink

(so not me but what the hell)

nail polish is, it probably isn't dry enough.

And don't think that being organised works.

I was sitting there drying my nails when Gazza

txted to say he was waiting for me

to go to the Rural Business Network meeting.

I txted back to say I was getting my nails done,

he didn't believe me, which is a logical conclusion.

I kept trying to leave the salon but the manicurists

are stronger than they look and held my hands so I couldn't leave.

When I fianlly had their permission to leave,
I ran past Gaz to my hotel,

one thumb nail was smeared by the time I got to the lifts.

Raced to my room,

it's really hard to use your room key card and not touch anything.

Stripped off, threw on my bra,

twisted and turned to get the darn thing done up

and there in lies my lesson of today.

Changing bras and fresh manicures do not mix.

One munted thumb nail I can handle,

two not so much.

You have been warned.

Although you probably already knew this

*sigh*

As a Mormon

2011-11-22T16:39:00.000+13:00

we, the collective we are encouraged

to keep a record of our lives,

a journal of us.

But I've found when I do that it's so angsty and narcissistic.

Cringingly so.

Oh and whiney too.

And it doesn't seem to matter what I wrote

it's very "the world according to Sarajane,

good, religious Mormon woman."

Like the TV programme with Glenn Close

Sarah: Plain and Tall*.

I'm not particularly either of those,

may have something to do with having no 'h' on Sara

cause I do know a Sarah: Plain and Tall.

Good woman she is too.

Anyway journal keeping just isn't my cup of herbal tea

and I've been beating myself up a little about it.

Man, it's important to leave a record for my posterity

except that I don't have any nor am likely too.

Closest I might get is Pippapotamus having a coco baby.

But shut the front door!

I do have a journal.

I have a journal that is much more my comfort zone.

It's here, you are reading my journal right now.

Somehow you reading my words

makes it so much safer and makes me write better**,

well about normal subjects anyway.

Is farmy stuff normal?

That sheep organ post was interesting I think.

I do censor the topics I write about.
For instance there are a few people I would have liked to blog about.

People like workmates or Young Farmers or

romantic interests and interludes

(keep in mind I'm Mormon so they are tame,

the interludes not the romantic interests).

I have thought about starting an anonymous blog

but suspect it would become like my journal.

I'm a pretty positive person so there aren't too many people

I don't like and I think if I really did not like someone

I would go to town on them here if I felt like it

even if it mucked up my feel good vibe

(there is a feel good vibe here, right?)

It would be funny as.

* Actually it's not like that at all - I've never even watched that programme or movie so what do I know? Oh I do know that if you google Rural Business Network my blog comes up. Probably cause I did the website splash page and got it started.

** better does not necessarily mean spelling or grammar.

A day of tours,

2011-11-19T07:46:00.002+13:00

Firstly let me explain what Nat Com is.

In NZYF we have a Board

with four Young Farmer elected members

and four co-opted members

Each Region, of which there are seven has it’s own executive,

a chair, usually two vices, treasurer and secretary and

sometimes a Regional Executive Officer (REO)

who is semi paid for administer the Region.

Nat Com is the elected Board members,

the Regional Chairs plus each Region

gets to bring along one Vice Chair

so they alternated attending.

We have two full Nat Coms and one short Nat Com a year.

This time we are in Auckland.

North Auckland, Snell’s Beach.

I do have to say this is the third time I’ve stayed here and

the weather is always blah.

Not wet, not dry, not sunny, not really anything

just filtered daylight.

But back to Nat Com.

We spent yesterday in the Big Smoke,

I’m serious here one of our guys had never been to Auckland before and

most of the rest had only been once, maybe twice and

really all they did was fly into the domestic terminal and transfer to international.

However Cole who is a dairy farmer on our Board

is born and breed in Auckland and Melbourne.

So city folk can make the change if they want.

First stop after finding everyone at the airport was Wilson Hellabys.

Scotty, my favourite Northern Chairman is a buyer for them.

Hehad organised us a tour of the plant.

Yes a tour of an abattoir and it was really interesting.

But it's hard to look good in ompah lopmpah suits.

It was so well automated it reminded me of a Disneyland ride.

Really wasn’t that much blood, no guts and lots of singing.

My favourite photo of the day.

We viewed the beef chain (above hehe), the lamb chain

and the pig chain.

The carcasses are hung and move along

the chain passing by the workers as they do their task.

Hellerby's has 500 workers in this processing plant.

They supply Countdown and some other supermarkets

but if you live in the North Island you will be eating meat from this plant.

Don't worry they are really nice people who know what they are doing.

We also went to Wiremark.

They make fencing wire for fences, just to clarify

(though you should know by now that when I speak of fencing there are no sabres or epee involved).

Wiremark is part of Pacfic Steel and

did you know, cause you will now,

that all steel in NZ is recycled?

Serious.

(this is Jayson being serious)

They melt down a bijiliion tonnes of

old, striped cars, washing lines, I don’t everything and

it goes gets electrocuted which causes it to melt

(how scary is that?),

then they add whatever ingredients to make it

whatever kind of steel for whatever kind of use

there you have it.

(Keri peaking around Tractor)

PacSteel is a little like Pacman in that they eat up all the old steel and

own the market.

They are NZ’s second largest exporter.

And then we visited NZ’s largest exporter Fonterra.

(Sir Henry van der Hayden, Chairman of Fonterra with

Sam Williams, Vice Chairman of Waikato/Bay of Plenty NZYF)

Let me make a plug by way of explaining how Fonterra is.

It’s a co-op owned by 10,500 NZ dairy farmers

it’s not a huge faceless, corporation cause

I’m going to show you some of those dairy farmers now….

Sir Henry spoke inspirationally to us about governance and leadership.

He made a real impact on the Young Farmers.

There are more photos but it's taking an age to upload them
and I have to go organise today's meeting.

Shattered

2011-11-17T09:03:00.000+13:00

I am absolutely exhausted,

well clearly not absolutely

otherwise I'd be asleep and not blogging right now.

Even though I have only been back

in the South Island for

one day

I will be leaving again at 12.35pm.

And as usual I haven't started packing.

I have ten minutes to blog

and two hours to pack and answer work emails

and solve last minute problems.

I'm off to Auckland for a work weekend

but a kind of cruisey for me work weekend.

Firstly cruisey cause Nessie will be there

and she can be the bad cop.

Secondly cause Duncy Monkey will be there

and he can be my sanity life raft.

Thirdly cause Spudnik will be there

and he and I will make sure the desired outcomes are in place.

Fourthly because I plan on coming home with a big list of to dos

and a big list of dones.

I am a tragic soul when I get excited about having a big to do list!

But it will be a list of get things sorted, finalised and put away.

Yes! It's National Committee meeting weekend.

That magical weekend that happens only twice a year

when all the good and not so good boys and girls

who make up the Young Farmers leadership

get together to plan and resolve things for the organisation.

I'm not sure they realise that they are the actual deciders

of where and how things happen in our organisation,

but they will after this weekend.

Ohh there will be some good arguments and

a few tantrums I'm sure.

This Nat Com is at the beach in sub-tropical North Auckland.

Tomorrow we are touring a steel and wire making factory,

an abattoir killing line and will end the day at Fonterra head offices.

High heels and dead animals only go together on fashion runways really

but we'll see if I can work it tomorrow.

Photos, I promise.

Rural Business Network

2011-11-16T07:06:00.000+13:00

Oh my gosh!

Last night we held the pilot meeting for

the Rural Business Network

for the Manawatu/Rangitiki area.

Holee!

I had 29 confirmed and 60 turned up.

I only catered for 40!

But there seemed to be plenty of food

so I guess my menu choices may not have been popular.

My focus was finger food you pop in your mouth in one go.

We had Greig Shearer from C-Dax speak

and he is amazing.

Really interesting opinions on

information on farms, who should or could control that

and the impact of letting your information wander off

to be controlled by someone else

like google or a supermarket chain.

"Greig joins C-DAX with 30 years experience in the agricultural sector, primarily within the dairy industry on both sides of the Tasman, most recently leading the development and sale of Kapiti Fine Foods to Fonterra. Prior to joining Kapiti Fine Foods, Greig worked for Bonlac Foods and Bonland Dairies in Melbourne leading the international division prior to his departure"

His greatest success?

To get Kapiti cheeses on Air France.

Selling kiwi Camembert to the French,

that's what we like.

Did I tell you 60 people came last night?

I can't decided if I'm thrilled or shocked.

They were 60 really engaged, hungry people.

I think the RBN will be like the rain on parched soil,

very much needed and absorbed into the fabric of farmer's lives rather rapidly.

Thrilled cause if this is how the RBN will continue then we are on to a winner.

Shocked because the need for farmer, agri-sector network

is so needed.

I hadn't realised how much it was.

Thanks to Gazza and William for being the connectors for this event.

Next meeting 31 Jan 2012.

Next event

2011-11-15T08:15:00.000+13:00

My life is just a conveyer belt of events,

Next one is....

today in Palmerston North

we will have holding the pilot meeting for

the Rural Business Network

for the Manwatu/Rangitiki

and other assorted regions.

My! What is the Rural Business Network?

I hear you say.

Well gosh!

It's a business network for rural people.

Y'know like farmers and stuff.

We have farmers and fencers,

bankers and bull sellers,

sales reps and people who have jobs that start with S

coming along to Wharerata

(apparently a poshish venue at Massey Uni, we will see tonight,

ooo I'm kind of excited)

and we get to nibble on yummy little nibbles

(I chose them, made sure we had beef).

Greig Shearer from C-Dax will speak.

I so hope he is good cause that's what I've been told.

And I will speak,

I sure hope I'm good, cause I'll be told if I'm not.

There's lots of help for this one.

William, Gazza, Mel - I think you've met Gaz before.

We have Elaine who I thought was called Eileen all day yesterday.

She'll take our focus group.

Hmmm focus groups....

so fun.

I'll try to remember to take photos

but it is in Palmerston North

dubbed suicide capital of New Zealand

by John Cleese.

It's not really... I think.

I'm planning on getting my nails done.

Such a treat being in a big town

with shops and stuff.

Because it's important

2011-11-14T10:00:00.001+13:00

At the World Young Shepherd Challenge

(and you know by we I don't mean me)

had a variety of modules to test the young shepherds on.

There was cut ID, wool ID, equipment ID, market ID

and our favourite.....

organ ID!

Let's see if you can tell what sheep organs these might be

*hint - we have them too

Well I don't have any of these.

Aaron Cudden only has one

and Errol Flynn, that great shepherd of the Outback

removed them in the traditional way,

with his teeth.

And I met Kate from Oz while overseeing this module,

who has actually done that.

I could imagine her doing that.

This is just gross and

I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to put that clip on it.

This handy organ helps digest fat.

I suspect mine isn't working to it's full potential.

This blob looked like it was going to escape of the plate

and was the stinkiest of them all.

I kept expecting it to move somehow.

Also helps with digestion,

I'm beginning to suspect most organs do.

And is commonly digested by grandparents

along with other delectable body parts such as tripe.

This one looks pretty healthy.

I just wikied this organ and let's just say

I'm not anymore enlightened than I was before.

This one is full of love and can make your pulse race.

My favourite organ photo.

I do have to say I like eating these with bacon

or in a pie with steak.

Usually you have two and recently Jonah Lomu

ended up back in hospital cause his replacement one isn't working to well.

Which leads me to my pitch

organ donation is really important....

It's a moral choice for each of us

and can be emotive

but make your choice now and let it be known.

Not just on your drivers licence but

also tell your family if you want to donate.

Organs are only viable for a short period of time.

For more info go here to Organ Donation NZ

And don't forget to donate blood too.

It saved my dad's life but not how you think......

My big, fat Mormon weekend

2011-11-13T19:39:00.000+13:00

Yep it was all on this weekend.

Firstly Mag's friend Neroli's second son, Zac

is getting married on the 16th December.

Why do I announce this?

Cause it fits into my big, fat Mormon weekend.

Zac has recently finished his mission.

On his mission he met his princess bride,

his true love.

By the nature of missions she is a little older

so I'm sure that raised an eyebrow or two

cause all Mormons will automatically do the mission maths*.

But it's so very cool that he followed his heart

and asked for hers.

A temple wedding on the 16th is a happy ending to this chapter

but a wonderful beginning to eternity for them.

Her name is Nadia, pretty.

Meanwhile on the home front....

I baked chocy chippies for two lovely sisters

and on Saturday night dropped them off.

Ok here's how big and fat and Mormon my weekend got.

I went to Stake Conference on Saturday night.

I've done that before but as I was sitting there

totally involved and interested in what was being preached,

(although we don't really preach.

Mormons are far to staid to preachy preach besides the

Book of Mormon is not of a biblical size to thump on the pulpit)

I suddenly thought about how before I was baptised a Mormon

I would drive past busy churches on Saturday nights and

wonder what kind of person goes to church on a Saturday night.

And now I know.... me.

There was still a conference session this morning.

I got to sit in the front row so I did my best to disconcert the speakers,

by staring at them with fervent listening attention

until our Stake President's daughter

wanted me to draw on her etch a sketch

and I love drawing on those things.

Nah not really.

I am the Stake Public Affairs Director so

was hosting our VIPs.

Who were Nicky Wagner, National MP

and Rahui Katene, Maori Party MP.

All the other nine MPs I invited declined

which I'm sure was because it's election campaign time

so they were busy but by coming to our conference

you made friends with about 1000 Mormons

all in one go.

That's a few votes.

Rahui is in our Ward anyway.

She is lovely and I really hope she gets elected again.

And she is Zac's aunty.

Mormon world is liddle, liddle.

Nicky is lovely too.

She is currently a list MP and is lovely too.

Now I know being lovely isn't a reason to vote for someone

but it helps.

So this morning I was being VIP escorter

and sitting in the front row...

eyeballing the speakers.

Oh the speakers were insightful and inspiring.

You should have been there.

* Guys go on missions at 19 for two years, women go at 21 for 18 months.

Show Day!

2011-11-11T17:05:00.003+13:00

And I stayed in bed.

Let's put this into perspective.

I have a relatively easy life.

I was born into a nice white, middle class family.

For most of my childhood I had two parents

not that they co-parented much.

I have a younger brother who got into lots of thoughtless trouble

so once he was about 8

I could get away with most things.

Before that I got smacked for things not of my doing and otherwise.

I have a very much adored cute little sister.

I had a good school on offer around the corner from my house.

My home sat on a 1/4 acre section,

I had my own bedroom,

a bike,

there was always a cat and trees to climb.

I had friends who I played, with a lot.

I got a summer job when I was 12

and have always had a job ever since.

I lived a safe, happy, free, hard working life.

So here's the question...

Why is it that I feel bad if I lie in bed most of the day and

read good books,

watching interesting TED talks,

edited and suggest on a friend's research project

(due Monday).

I live a life of relative luxury

for which I count my blessings.

I have enough of most things.

I have a stimulating and interesting job

that allows to me to meet motivated and fascinating people

takes to places I would not have gone otherwise.

I have free time,

my own home.

I appreciate what I have.

I am involved in my community,

I have lots of friends.

I teach Sunday School once a month.

And even my day in bed was still busy...

let me rephrase that.

And even my day in bed was ...

ok specifically I think it's that I stayed in bed.

I worked, I learnt and I read.

Maybe the question actually is....

Why do I feel guilty for appearing to have had a lazy day?
Why don't I appreciate things that I've done today?
Why do I deny myself things that aren't even treats?

Why do I think sleeping is the exclusive domain of darkness?

Why do I think that I don't need to sleep?

That was more than one.

Last one...

how come if I were a guy I would have little problem

sleeping in cause I was tired,

watching programmes all day cause I wanted to,

helping a mate out cause he asked me to,

why?

This turned out a little more bleaty than I planned.

Sorry about that.

Geez there I go again!

This has nothing to do with Show Day.

I have never been to the Canterbury Show

cause frankly I'd rather stay in bed...

and feel guilty about it.

I will now go and clean my pantry

cause we haven't had an earthquake to throw everything out lately

so it's got a little messy.

pleasant dreams

2011-11-10T06:01:00.000+13:00

I woke up at 2.44am,

it was probably earlier than that

cause I don't have a clock

just my phone and it seems to take me full minutes

to roll over and pull the phone off the charger,

find the alert button to see the time.

Anyway I woke up from a very pleasant dream.

One of those well-being dreams

where everything is sunny and warm,

the people in it are people you like very much,

you are doing something that makes sense

even though it's not a normal thing

and you are enjoying yourself.

But when I woke

I really woke up.

Like really awake and alert

the I am so not going back to sleep kind of awake.

Though usually I have three or so books

on the go at any given time

(more common a habit than you may think...

I am not a nerd.)

none were middle of the night type reads.

So I thought I'd answer my work email.

(Ok I'm a nerd

but I'm a nerd who is about an hour ahead on my day).

One was from Mel who I 'work' with in Stake Public Affairs

or, rather she is Multi-Stake PA Director and

I am Stake PA Director.

I feel like I should wear hi-vis and have a stop/go sign.

Mel had sent an update email saying a bunch of things.

One of the things she talked about was a women of faith project

and something about the earthquakes.

I had suggested she catch up with one of the women

from my ward who

had been out with the building inspectors in the days

after the February earthquake.

Mel asked for me to tell her more

and I ended up doing this massive, middle of the night brain dump

about all sorts of earthquake related memories.

So when I finished I was pondering why I did that,

other than perhaps I needed to.

And I realised in my dream I had been the Canterbury A&P Show

which started yesterday

and it's held at the Canterbury Ag Park

where we were based for the Farmy Army.

So there you go.

Shepherd's Sprint

2011-11-09T21:58:00.002+13:00

Ok Hamish and Peter won.

Yay New Zealand!

The Shepherd's Sprint is an obstacle course race

that the shepherds did in their national pairs

Here's Northern Ireland

with Thomas in front.
I sat with Thomas at the Awards Dinner a few days after this
and he was a little ill from hanging out with our North Otago Young Farmers.
It must have playing touch rugby then having a drink.
Apparently running and beer don't always mix too well.

The first activity in the Shepherd's Sprint
was to race the other 10 teams

in setting up a break and then

to put together a child size wheelbarrow.

Once the wheelbarrow was made

they need to load a little, tiny toy sheep in it.

This had to stay with the team the whole time.

Below these guys are running put a litre of water in their bucket

to make a litre of milk from New Zealand's

premier export product....

milk powder!

Then they needed to up the milk

and do the killer activity.....

eat three wheatbix.

One and a half each of dry, dry wheatbix.

Here's Kelsey from Montana

doing it the wrong way.

Here's the tip,

chuck the wheatbix in the milk, mix it up, let it soak a bit

and then eat the mooshy mash of wheatbix.

Gross!

The team then ran like the clappers

with their wee red wheelbarrow and pet lambie lamb

to a pen where they needed to grab a sheep

(mean to be a ram for reasons to be revealed shortly)

and put a ram harness on one sheep.

(see)

Goo Scootlan!

Then, taking their little barrow the teams

one team member needed to beat cream with a whisk,

hold it over their head to check whippyness

(they all did alright)

decorate a mini-pav with cream and kiwifruit and eat it

quick as they can.

Then collect up the potatoes,

jam them in a bag,

sew it up,

the bag not the race

though the kiwis did have it sewn up.

More running,

collecting up the standards they set up at the beginning of the race

USA having lots of fun.

Uruguay running like a slow breeze.

Here's my team France.

I was dragged into being a judge for the Sprint.

I'd already judged poor old Ireland through two modules

because I am the expert in ATV safety and sheep organs y'know.

Ireland got to run through the modules that morning

because bad, bad Qantas made them a day late.

Beniot, closest, and the other guy whose names slips my mind

spoke no English which is a slight issue cause we don't speak French.

Luckily I had a paddle with a red side and a green side

so they knew when they could move on from each activity in the Sprint.

Ok I lie, they just moved on anyway.

I had their translator, their industry rep and some other woman,

who may have been a reporter

on the paddock 'helping' the team.

I even paddled the bottom of the industry rep and

booted him off the field for 'helping' too much.

Not that he listened to me.

He spoke English so he knew, little monkey.

Anyway France came fifth

which was an excellent placing.

A good day with the shepherds at the

World Young Shepherd's Challenge.

Next post will be all about the afternoon

at Totata Estate.

Ah the suspense will kill you....

earthquakes

2011-11-08T11:34:00.001+13:00

all over the place.

I am turning so cynical and unsympathetic

about earthquakes.

I mean ones in places like Oklahoma and Virginia.

I do want to be sympathetic

because to some people earthquakes

are traumatic experiences

but I also want yell suck it up!

A 5.8 and a handful of aftershocks

is a walk in the park

and the earthquakes aren't actually too bad.

Most people around here freak out because

they know what comes after the earthquake

not because of the actual shaking and rumbling....

that doesn't last long and will end.

I do feel enormous empathy for those

in Japan or third world countries who have natural disasters.

The millions and millions displaced by floods in Pakistan et al.

It's not just the water that's the problem.

It's that the bulk of the arable land is now destroyed

and for the foreseeable future

so no crops this year or next

means famine.

It's not like here where we went without

chocolate, coffee and cheese

(and a few other things like bread)

for six or so weeks.

We knew food would be there at some point

plus we had our gardens and food storage,

even if it was all over the floor.

Yes we have had 8500 earthquakes and aftershocks

Yes we have 1200 buildings that are being or will be demolished,

everyday is a snapshot of history in

Christchurch as people's past is erased.

Yes at least 5000 families will lose their homes and land.

Yes we are losing 1000 workers a month

just when we need them most.

Yes there are 250,000 shaky people who all

know someone who was killed on Feb 22nd.

(Christchurch is really small)

It's our new normal.

So if you happen to have a earthquake

with a couple of decent aftershocks

good on you.

It's a rude surprise

not the end of the world.

Will return to normal broadcasting shortly,

just having a get off my chest day today.

World Young Shepherd's Challenge

2011-11-07T21:43:00.002+13:00

In Oamaru this past week,

it's been all on for the

young shepherd's of the world

who have been competing in the

World Young Shepherd's Challenge.

First came Digger's sheep

Bevan and Rosie welcomed them.

Look how happy they were to be out of that stinky truck.

And even more sheep.

These ones are from Totara Estate.

In the middle of these sheep

is a lazy, dopey merino

who wouldn't stand for me to take his photo.

Below is Rozzy, Rosie and Duncy Monkey,

Rozzy is responsible for pulling the Challenge together for

Beef+LambNZ

Rosie is the crazy brains behind most of the modules,

Duncy is the brawn

(those bales of straw had to get there somehow).

Then the shepherd's themselves arrived.

Australia, Wales, Scotland, Uruguay, Argentina,

USA, England, Northern Ireland, France and New Zealand

Ireland got caught up in the Qantas strike

so didn't arrive until the end of the first day.

22 competitors from countries that play rugby.

All there to win the inaugural

World Young Shepherd's Challenge

thanks to French sheep breeders and

New Zealand trade ambassadors who sat around

have a few red wines coming up with a cunning plan

for the French to come to New Zealand....

to see our sheep.

Lucky and Aunty Shirley ready to work hard.

We wore white shirts,

the competitors wore black.

Helper boys wearing what they arrived in...

And did the haka in their gumboots.

It was perfect.

Waitaki Boys' High Young Farmers

welcomed us with their school haka.

A sterling job they did
all day helping us and

watching the big boys compete.

An awesome welcome!

Green shoes and shearing sheds

2011-11-03T13:48:00.000+13:00

I was sitting watching a shearing competition on Tuesday afternoon,

panting because shearing sheds

are freaken hot places

while I took photos of the international teams

shearing Digger's hoggets.

They don't really invest in lighting in sheds

so there is usually some sort of skylight

letting the sunshine in,

helping to bake us a little more.

Makes for great light for photos though.

Isn't that great light?

Aren't they cool shoes?

I got them in Napier and I love them.

I loved them even more

when I wasn't wearing socks

and they didn't stink afterwards.

It's good day when you are running around all day

and your feet don't stink.

Marooned

2011-10-31T09:35:00.000+13:00

at home this morning,

cut adrift from going to work

but not from working.

Tomorrow is the start of the

World Young Shepherd Challenge.

Yes hard on the heels of

THE RUGBY WORLD CUP

is the world cup of shepherds.

That can be in lower case

because we own the trademark and logos

and probably won't get too upset if you use them in relation to our event

however should you decide to organise your own

young shepherd oriented type event with teams from around the world

I suggest you come up with your own name.

Please note: Americans, a world event is

one where there more than one country participating

unlike baseball's world series.

Anyway I was meant to go down to Oamaru

tomorrow at the crack of dawn

which I quite like cause it would be just be me and the trucks on the road

but I need to pick up Bevan

who is the The Contest Committee Chairman

from the airport so

I'm at home,

a little disorganised

by that I mean I have lots of jeans packed and no tops,

I'm still in my jamas needing a shower

and for some reason my wireless internet is not working.

But I'll get it together,

I always do.

Next couple of days are going to be awesome.

It's Rozzy's swan song as Contest Manager,

Hills takes over on the 15th,

(I don't actually know Hills

other than by reputation but she will be a welcome asset to NZYF

as she has been President back in the day...

not really that far back only about 10 years ago

and I suspect she shares my healthy attitude towards unions.)

We have 11 teams from around the world,

an excess of Argentines teams for some reason,

maybe they travel in packs.

I'll take lots of photos so you can enjoy the fun and games.

Turns out we will be at Totara Park only one afternoon,

the afternoon I have to leave earlyish to take Bevan back to the airport.

Actually I think my whole responsibility is to drive Bevan around!

Home on Wednesday

and back to Oamaru on Friday

for a black tie dinner.

The thing that will preoccupy for the next couple of days will be

should I wear the little black dress with the belt

or the one without.... hmmmm????

Ohakune

2011-10-30T11:36:00.000+13:00

Is a place.

To be fair Ohakune

is a place I have spent some time

albeit when I was under 10.

My memories of Ohakune are

visiting my Pop at his house

where he lived with my Nana.

They moved there because Nana's sister

Aunty Nola lived there with her family

and they owned the service station/garage

My Pop had worked for the railways

so they had never really settled anywhere.

Ohakune was as good as anywhere.

I remember pasting PVA glue on my hands with my cousins,

waiting for it to dry and pealing it off.

We had stolen my uncle's model glue to do it.

My cousins where older and bad influences.

I remember being dragged up the mountain to Whakapapa

when it was just a snowy field

that much older 2nd and 3rd cousins

worked at grooming the field ready for skiing.

Back then you drove as far as you could then walked.

I hated that cold, cold walk.

I spent that time imagining myself as a Russian princess

escaping across the steeps,

through blizzards and hip deep snow

and not in a Doctor Zhivago way.

There was hip deep snow but

I wasn't very tall at the time

or now.

Anyway enough about parental neglect.

On Sunday Shauny and I went to Ohakune for lunch.

I had to drag him out of the house

so he took his revenge by taking the back road home.

Funtimes in the ute with Shaun.

He did try to scare me on the gravel road

but I was talking at the time

and kept doing so

and he didn't notice that I was less than impressed.

I did wonder that if we came off the road in a grizzly crash

who would find us.

And came up with no-one.

On the way we stopped at Shaun's dad's place

in a valley where most of the family still live.

And of course I can't remember the name of.

We had a pleasant chat about neighbours, logging gang things,

broken machinery, forestry, theft, renegade sheep, theft,

probably rugby because THE RUGBY WORLD CUP final was that night.

Then we headed home,

with a stop for final game supplies.

By the time we got home,

there was enough time to cook and eat dinner

(parmesan crusted chicken breasts)

and then it was all on.

I had forgotten how tormenting final games were.

The All Blacks against France.

Scrappy, fraught game but a win none the less.

All Blacks 8-7.

Phew!

I don't think Shaun would have liked me crying on his couch had we lost.

Happiness and peace descended upon New Zealand

as the audience in Eden Park erupted into flames

with excitement.

'haps

2011-10-29T22:14:00.000+13:00

I left Napier on a warmish Friday last week.

Heading south to Woodville

so I could visit a shop called

Frocking ... something...

a dress shop anyway.

I heard about this Suzie Johnson and

her revamp of an entire town.

The town is Shannon so anything would have helped.

And now she is working on Woodville.

Suzie started a shop called Oosh Lala

selling clothes that suit Kiwi lasses

Big boobs, big hips, shapely lasses are we.

The Woodville shop had some nice clothes

with nice prices but by the time I had got to Woodville

a loo was more on my mind than a changing room.

Ah the powers of a women's bladder.

I held on all the way over the Saddle Road to Feilding

and threw myself on Massickses mercy before we went to lunch.

Finally after two days of cold food

I got a decent meal at Focal Point in Feilding.

A delicious beef salad,

light but filling,

tasty and wholesome.

Massicks did too.

He has a bad case of hero worship of me.

It's ok though he can usually keep a lid on it.

I must admit I did kind of choose the beef salad

because I was have a need to eat the appropriate food

when I'm with people who grow that particular thing.

Since I was lunching with a beef farmer and

a Beef+LambNZ Extension Manager

my compulsion was great.

They, however had seafood chowder.

After an hour of chatting about the Rural Business Network,

luckily this was the reason for the meeting

otherwise that would have been a very long social chat,

I jumped in the giant car

and took a new-to-me back road coming out at Vinegar Hill

and State Highway One.

Took a right and headed north to...

Taihape!

I have no problem admitting that I had to txt Shauny for directions to his house

even though he had already given them to me.

He had been having a contractor's nightmare afternoon.

Not long after lunch the newish drill started jamming while he was seeding lucerne at Ohakune.

I was just did a search for a seed drill image

but I will assume you are as unappreciative of farm machinery

as I am so I haven't embarrassed myself by adding an image here

because it will be the wrong one,

for sure.

But here is a paddock Shauny seeded previously,

not at Ohakune though.

Anyway Shauny was a little, tiny bit tense

and told me where to go..

to his house in the hills

and that he would be home at some point.

All I can say is thank goodness he had family photos up

in the lounge and Young Farmer shirts on the line,

otherwise I could have been in anyone's unlocked house.

By the time I had been to the supermarket,

chatted to Dae for 45 minutes,

driven up winding roads

it was beautifully dusky.

So I took advantage of that and snapped a photo or two

of the view from Shauny's house.

I love gum trees,

almost as much as cabbage trees.

I can't say I exactly waited for Shauny.

It was more like relaxed and watched TV.

I miss watching TV.

It's been so long since I've just blobbed out in front of the box.

I was so relaxed I couldn't be bothered cooking dinner.

It was dark by the time Shauny got home

and he had to go back to seed the paddock the next morning

and contractors are do it til its done kind of people.

Saturday morning I woke to an empty house and

the clouds rolling down the hills

So I escaped back to Taihape

happily spending three hours wandering the shops.

Ok I mean an hour in the shops and one hour each in cafes.

Highly recommend Soul Food cafe

(on the right side when you are heading south through Taihape).

Looks ordinary but I was working on the ethnic food theory

that if the locals were eating there it would be good food.

And it was.

I love corn fritters and

Soul Food cafe does gluten free ones.

Love that!

Other highlights of Saturday

were that I had the awkward situation of being in a shop

and breaking something.

While buying a silicon baking mat

I knocked over a little glass oil and vinegar bottle set.

The lovely shop lady,

who turned out to be Shauny's stepmum,

was nice enough to not make me pay for it.

Other highlight was the amazingly accurate drips from shop eaves

that dropped directly down my cleavage.

Not so highlighty.

Oh I remember the highlight,

baking and Shauny coming home for a good long chat

that had us laughing.

He is a good mate,

just to clarify.

it's not quite Taihape...yet

2011-10-28T21:18:00.002+13:00

Sorry it's been ages since I've blogged.

Too busy.

Where to begin...

at the beginning...

Flew to Napier Wednesday last week,

thought I'd booked a little zippy car but instead

stood in the car park clicking the

key clicky thing

in the direction of the little zippy cars

but no joy.

I was with the Boss

who was rolling his eyes

because this is what I had been upgraded to.

How was I meant to know this is an XR6?

Cars are a foreign language to me.
However the cost of petrol is a common language across the world
and $125 to fill it was a case of blue language.

The Boss and I enjoyed a really interesting conversation

with Neils from AgResearch about mental health on farms.
Not great, I'm afraid.

Then onto Hastings A&P Showgrounds

to host the first pilot meeting for the Rural Business Network.

(don't worry there will be more about that later).

I am so challenged when it comes to parking.

I truly loathe carparks.

That was fun doing the old networking thing with the

Hawkes Bay Chamber of Commerce

and wide eyed (non) young farmers.

Excellent feedback from the farmers

even if there was an almighty thunder storm

while we were in the marquee

overlooking the equestrian arena.

During the feedback session I ran

it was cold, cold, cold.

We could see our breath hanging in the air

as we nibbled club sandwiches

and got down to business.

We saw the farmers off,

the Boss and I went dinner with some guys from Palmerston North.

We knew them, it wasn't super random,

maybe just a little bit.

We went to some restaurant in Hastings with cold mashed potatoes.

Not good.

The next day, Thursday

not that warm in Napier.

Do you see a theme?

Stormy cold in the marquee,

cold mashed potatoes,

cool weather in the not sunny Napier.

Can you?

Wasn't actually that cold,

seriously

coming from the South Island I know about cold.

Well more than they do in the Hawkes Bay,

but not as much as Nessie in Central Otago.

I was busy in Napier though.

Bought new shoes,

found the best hot chocolate I've had in an age,

had lunch with a lush

and dinner with April.

Lunch was at Shed 2 near the port of Napier.

A marginal steak sandwich was had,

the lush supplied good conversation and interesting tidbits

and brought his dogs along.

Mostly I liked the view...

Afterwards I hid in the giant car for warmth

and watched the catch be brought in.

I was most fascinated to see how the crane

maneuvered around the park cars

including mine.

My slow and gradually warmer afternoon with nothing much to do

involved a walk along the port watching boats

and you will just have to look at the photo sideways

cause there's an error with downloading photos from my camera to laptop

And would you believe I was still late to pick up April for dinner.

Ok with the photo above that's not a surprise.

I did sneak in a blissful nap,

a totally comatose nap.

April has been exiled to Hastings

from cosmopolitan, bustling Wellington

as all others who have Masters in Library Science are exiled to small, provincial towns*.

Let's just say jobs are few and far between for those in the library sector.

April was delightful and gave up a pivotal episode of Dr Who

so I was very privileged to have her company.

I only hope she has been able to catch up with that

it sounded quite exciting

even to me a non-telly watching people.

And that was my time in Napier/Hastings.

* Provincial is entirely different to rural towns such as Leeston.

Taihape

2011-10-18T21:26:00.001+13:00

Have I posted about Taihape before?

Taihape gets a lot of hassles...

for being Taihape,

I guess.

But it is the destination for my Labour weekend.

Well via the Hawkes Bay A&P Show!

Yes I know I live in the South Island

and the Hawkes Bay and Taihape

are in the central North Island

but heck it's the

Hawkes Bay Show!

I have no idea what the weekend holds

but between the Hawkes Bay Show!

and staying with Shauny in Taihape

something will pan out.

Now if I can be bothered to pack.....

in my neighbourhood

2011-10-17T22:08:00.000+13:00

the people you meet when you are walking down my street,

in my neighbourhood

are basically fine people.

I mean you can't tell who is an axe murderer

and who isn't.

I do actually know a couple of murderers

and you do too most likely.

Different ones to the ones I know though.

My point is we don't really know

what goes on behind closed doors

or inside cars

or what happened to someone

this morning, yesterday

or last year.

This evening I attended

a neighbourhood watch meeting.

This was called by neighbours because

in the middle of our streets,

next to my house

is the most scuzzy little cottage

in the universe.

And in the scuzzy little cottage

lives a couple of 18 year old boys.

They do things that 18 year old boys do.

Like play music all hours of the night,

have bonfires in their backyard all night,

have random people who scream

insults at each other in the middle of the night,

they climb on their roof and

have fisticuffs on the street outside neighbour's houses

in the middle of night.

My favourite is

they go skateboarding on the very non-smooth road

in the middle of the night.

They are generally terrible, thoughtless, threatening neighbours.

So the pommie chick down the back called a meeting.

Most of the neighbours came,

except, obviously the boys in question.

And we sat in Pam and Tony's lounge

basically complaining about the noise and the disruption

these boys cause.

The pommie chick told us that she knew they were on bail

and that they had weapons.

I think she may have known this cause her husband is a screw*.

Cops have been called

and Aaron,

the cop was invited to this evenings meeting

but must have got busy with a crime

probably sheep rustling**.

What I found most interesting about the meeting

was that most people just wanted to sit around complain.

They didn't want an action plan

or to know what to do.

They wanted some else to sort the problem.

So I am, Mel is and the Claw is too.

We each have an assignment

and will report back to the next meeting

in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, poor Mags

has an abscess on her jaw

and looks like she has a goitre.

Will try to get a photo.....

* Corrections officer by profession as many people who live in my town are.

** Don't laugh, it's a serious issue around here. Sheep are worth quite a bit of money at the moment.

fraught

2011-10-16T21:29:00.001+13:00

The whole of New Zealand is on edge tonight.

I don't even like watching rugby

but playing those Wallabies

at the holy grail of

Eden Park

with so much hanging on this quarter final

the All Blacks have to,

have to,

have to win.

This is painful!

I wish the Australians would just

evaporate.

And then there is Piri Weepu.

Man that photo just cracks me up.

Love it.

Dark horse that Piri is.

Maybe he isn't and

the media have been rabbiting

on about him and his skills for months.

Piri is the man.

Piri is a master of the universe.

Piri is fantastic.

Piris a dad who picks

his daughters nose in public.

Ahhh cute!

Ok almost finished.

THE RUGBY WORLD CUP

is almost finished that is

and I will hyperventilate if we don't win tonight.

I DON'T EVEN WATCH RUGBY.

Quade Cooper is a tosser by the way.

LATER: We won, we won, we won! 20 to 6 - thats all.

Envirotown 2011

2011-10-12T14:07:00.000+13:00

So it's October so it must be...

Ellesmere Envirotown

Responsible Business Awards!

Monday night it was all go

as 57 businesses based in Leeston, Dolyeston and Southbridge

came to the community room behind the library

to collect their certificates.

There are three categories you can achieve

bronze, silver and gold.

There is platinum but nobody down our way has achieved that.

Basically Mags has gone around and

used her social currency to encourage businesses to enter the awards.

This year, our second she has added in about 15 new businesses.

These are this year's Golds with our guest speaker

the wonderful Heather Roy MP

(that's her on the left without a certificate)

And our silver winners

with Heather on the right...

Look at the all shiny, happy people who are doing well by the environment

and have positive sustainable practices

and are all living and working in our

little district of Ellesmere.

We kind of rock it out here

on the Canty Plains.

Well done Mags for working hard getting

the awards going for this year.

It's been hard work but worth it.

Thanks to Mel for MCing and

Heather for speaking so well at a our little evening.

This stuff is what community is all about.

an eventfilled few days

2011-10-11T10:02:00.000+13:00

You can tell when I'm overwhelmed,

cause blogging is the last thing on my mind.

Ok so the job interview (shhh!)

was fine.

It was weird to be interviewed by people you know

and Im pretty sure you don't normally go and

have a drink with one of the interviewers afterwards.

Plus my never ending 'flu

(confirmed by a doctor channelling Patch Adams yesterday)

reared it's stoopid head at about 1.17pm on Friday

so I drove with a foggy head,

meet Nig and Suzy with weepy eyes

and blocked ears

at the overrated Dunsandel Store

(I say that cause I always it to be so much better than it is

and it just never is).

Then, as usual thought I had plenty of time

but didn't so ended up zipping along to my interview.

I struggled to finished my sentences or find thoughts.

I couldn't answer a question or two

but they would have been fibs* anyway.

What a space cadet I was.

I don't know why I applied for that job other than

the organisation seems like it would cool to work for,

the people you'd work with would be great,

the role is smaller than the one I have now

(more than one 'flu a winter gets you thinking)

and the pay is way better than what I'm on now.

Oh and a cooler car than what I've got now too.

Only thing is

I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FARMING.

Actually I probably know more than I think I do,

that's what I told them cause it's true and Im honest*.

Then on Saturday,

the day the weather threw up on Canterbury,

I dragged my sick carcass to Supervalue to pick up

teenage boys to take them over to the Christchurch District Final.

That's Contest to you,

the first of the season.

Where I sat in a room with Dave and Victoria

interviewing young Contestants as part of the District Final.

22 ten minute interviews.

By the end I couldn't see properly

cause I had such a headache

but the sun had come out, it had warmed up a bit

and I was almost at the end,

my bed was calling....

when those flipping teeenagers wanted to go to the buzzer quiz round.

So I dropped them off,

went to the supermarket

and bought chocolate.

My diet has gone off the rails

but the weight stayed off cause

I have no appetite so one mouthful of chocolate does the trick

for an enture day's meals.

Man I was glad to get home

and crawl into my unmade bed

and sleep for a solid five hours before getting up

to watch not one but two rugby games.

I don't actually remember the games though.

Too tired I guess.

Shhhh!

2011-10-07T11:56:00.000+13:00

I have a job interview this afternoon.

I know on a casual Friday too.

It's quite hard to keep something like that on the downlow

when you come to work dressed to succeed

and everyone else hyper cas.

Except for Rozzy

who always looks stylish.

It's going to be a strange interview

because it's still in the ag industry

and the ag industry is quite small

so I know one of the interviewers socially.

I hope I can keep a handle on being flippant.

I hope the other interviewer doesn't think

"how would this chick fit with our demographic?"

Cause contrary to appearances I fit with every demographic

if I really try.

Even a nasty bikie gang demographic,

if I wanted to.

Or a Taliban demographic,

though that wouldn't be super hard cause you'd be wearing a burqa

so could probably get away with a bit.

I forgot to post about a new demographic I belong to

which is the Christchurch InterFaith Council

(see fitting in with the Taliban isn't so far removed,

not that the Taliban is in NZ,

we would know who they were cause

they would be the ones whose eyes have been

burned from their skulls as the slappery, half naked girls

prance past in their way to the mall

and in the middle of winter).

The Christchurch Interfaith Council

are the super, loveliest people in all of Christchurch.

I will post about them and what we get up to

as time passes.

As least I'm using my degree now.

And will let you know what happens this afternoon.

Am also meeting with the Fencing folk.

True

2011-10-04T13:58:00.001+13:00

This is so true The Silence of the Dying,

it's hard to imagine how it can be different.

We are so focused on 'being' happy

we forget that life is about all emotions

and most importantly it's about

people.

Oh! My work is sooo hard

2011-10-03T15:24:00.001+13:00

seriously hard, hard work for Young Farmers staff.

I work my fingers to the bone,

my butt stuck to the chair,

RSI is on the way from typing endless emails,

walk the sole off my shoes from endless airport corridors

while I travel to the big smokes of New Zealand

to raise money so I can get
more staff,

more opportunities,

more funding,

The A to Zed of me

2011-09-30T08:15:00.001+13:00

This is a viral post - thanks to Laura up at Our Wee Farm

A= Age; really do I have to? Am dealing with a significant birthday coming up - big breathes, big breathes.

B= Bed size; Queen and you know how I love my bed. Oh how I love my bed, polar fleece sheets, extra pillows - did you know I've only had two duvets in my adult life because it takes me a year to find one I like so have to look after it to make it last and last.

C = Chore that you hate; I loathe, loathe taking the rubbish out. Cannot tell you how much I loathe that.

D= Dogs; Not so much - I always think I want a dog and love the dogs of other people - Tommi, Puke, Grizz, Manny - but I know I'm a cat person because they look after themselves and don't need much. Maybe I should emotionallly invest in a goldfish - even lower input.

E = Essential start to your day; To sound like a complete priss, first thing is reading the news on stuff.co.nz, this makes my eyes ache and I must stop doing it. I then do my bidness and then do pilates or yoga and read and meditate. The cook breakfast, shower and go to work - oh and get dressed of course.

F = Favourite colour; yellows of every hue but to wear dark blue

G = Gold or silver; gold

H = Height; 5.6

I = Instruments you play; hmmm tried piano, clarinet and the all time classic, the recorder. So not a practice type person. Unlike Pippapotamus, nobody bought me a $1500 saxophone before I started lessons - resale on saxophones is very good.

J = Job title; this week it's Network Manager - this is likely to change next week.

L = Live; Leeston out on the Canterbury Plains.

M = Mother's name; Margaret HERMIA, yeah we know. You can call her Mags.

N = Nickname; Cee from my Dad and Punk but I'm not a nickname sticky person.

O = Overnight hospital stays; When I was about to turn 5 I went to hospital to get my tonsils out. The nurses kept giving me breakfast and I would say "nil by mouth" (I probably didn't but Mags is a surgical nurse so we were well versed in surgical protocol) but they would insist, because of course I was a naughty kid who just didn't want porridge. In hindsight what was probably happening was they were deliberately keeping me in hospital under instruction of my family's doctor and my aunt who was the Matron on the kids ward because, get this - my Dad had just got out of hospital after having a vasectomy, my brother Punky Pete was in hospital getting a weird cyst cut out of his throat and Mags was about to give birth to Pippapotamus who arrived on December 20th, yes all of us in hospital in the two weeks before Christmas - Mags stayed in over Christmas with brand new Pippapotamus who I wanted to call Snow White.

P = Pet peeves; Spitting in public, pomposity, arrogance, taking the rubbish out, cold feet, skinny jeans.

Q = Quotes from a film; Im a book person.

R = Right or left handed; Right right.

S = Siblings; Pippapotamus (now in Brisbane) and Punky Pete (in the 'tron right at this minute, but usually on my couch - will write a fun, fun post about that one day).

T = Time you wake up; Last week it was 5.45am with a bounce in my step, this week with daylight savings starting it's more like 9.30am. Just joking, not really, maybe...

U = Underwear; Gs

V = Vegetable I hate; pumpkin, punkin, what ever you call the darn thing - that taste, the texture, the really hard to cut skin (not hard to cut my skin when I slipped), the orange insides - yuk!

W = What makes you run late; sheep and cows on the road but I'm not really ever late.

X = Xrays you've had; I had a greenstick fracture that I got when I fell out of barn loft at my Dad's mate place. Luc is a doctor and had the same attitude as my family and said it was nothing - it was a little more than that but not much.

Y = Yummy food you make; Pooh's chocolate chip cookies

Z = Zoo animals; I know someone who has pet giraffes which is pretty cool (they have their own full time keeper and get to be free roaming across their farm). Zoos not so much.

Thursday Tip

2011-09-29T20:08:00.000+13:00

Today's tip to make your life just a little easier is....

Don't be surprised when your peal off mask

doesn't set when you spread it on your face

and lie back in a steaming hot bath to await

the delicious peal off step.

It just will not dry and set.

surrounded by socks

2011-09-26T20:15:00.000+13:00

I emptied out my sock drawer

because I'm on this get rid of things kick at the moment.

I have done four drawers so far

but my sock drawer is just too hard.

It started last week

(I know, it's taken me since Thursday to do four drawers!)

when I came home in a vengeful cleaning mood.

You know the kind where you are actually in a foul mood

and you know you are going to take it on someone or something

so the bathroom cupboard bears the brunt of your frustrations.

Least it did for me.

So that's four drawers and one larger cupboard since Thursday.

I also tackled, albeit half heartedly

the laundry.

Do you clean your laundry room often?

By often I mean once a year.

I think often in my house means once every five years.

At my house in Hamilton

I cleaned the laundry at least annually

because it opened out on to our huge, sunny deck

so when ever an urge to clean hit me,

and it did periodically while I was on the deck in the sun

probably feeling guiltily about lazing around in the summer sun,

I'd clean the laundry.

Once I even painted the floor in a black and white check.

A tile look but with paint.

I think I had been reading a Martha Stewart magazine.

But the laundry received my attention because

it was close to a place where I received my cleaning inspiration.

So proximity = cleanliness in my life.

I think I'm going to stop blogging and

shove all my socks back in the drawer.

Out of sight, out of mind.

Also an excellent theory of cleaning.

home again, home again, jiggy jig

2011-09-26T17:37:00.000+13:00

I spent a wonderful two and a bit days in Queenstown

thoroughly enjoying

Suzza and Wazza's hospitality.

I stayed with them in their well appointed, bespoke* home

from which the magnificent vista of Coronet Peak (skifield)

and Cardonna (also a skifield) can be viewed, breathtakingly.

Conversation flowed,

AB rugby was watched

(trounced France - voila!)

Richie Mccaw was capped with his 100th game cap

by the very ill and very strong Jock Hobbs.

Enough to make you shed a tear or two

except that we call had varying degrees of colds

so we had in fact been involuntarily crying the whole evening.

I ate bread

(sudden intake of breathe, with horror)

Oh did I eat bread!

Warm, crusty, artisan bread

with nothing but melting butter that made my saliva glands

weak with anitcipation for it's divine buttery, yeasty taste.

Not unlike the knees of any red blooded woman

when viewing Sonny Bill with his shirt off

(admittedly after seeing so many photos of Sonny Bill over the last couple of weeks,

his shirt off but over his head.

I have realised this image in fact is a perfect way

of viewing him in all his buff, run like the wind glory).

My golly goodness warm, crusty bread dripping with butter

and a big, fat All Black win

and Mccaw's multitude of moments of well deserved glory,

good friends, new and old(ish)

plans for the future

(nope not moving to Queenstown,

my moisturiser bill would be too huge)

a comfy chair

and the softest pillows on my bed was bliss**.

If Suzza and Wazza ever invite you stay at their place,

take them up.

Lovely hosts thems were.

* Bespoke: Tossy, overused word to describe timeless, elegance and craftsmanship - a good word all the same and oft used by our man on the telly programme Grand Designs.

** I was not in bed at the time of said bread eating but had to mention the blissful, softness of good pillows in a bed warmed by an electric blanket - ahhhh.