I feel ya

NB:
The pictures stopeed loading after one, so I will have to update this post later....

You know aynia, I totally feel you.
I was on the phone with Telecom NZ just last night. If there was another option of broadband provider (real options) I would totally change.
Basically we've blown our monthly cap, and we are falling over ourselves to give them more money to extand our cap- just a couple gigs more! please! However, the only way to do that is to change plans completely, and if you change your plan with telecom you have to be on that new plan for at least one whole month.
Which, as rude is this is, we could feasibly do, apart from the fact that telecom is rolling out a new plan at the end of this month with no cap, and no speed limit*, which we definitely want. But if we signed onto the couple of extra gig plan in the mean time, we wouldn't be eligible for the good no limit plan for a whole nother month! WTF
So I was on the phone to one of their operators pointing out the ridiulousness that is me pleading for them to take money off me, and all the operator can say is: "yeah, it would be cool if you could just buy more gigs, eh?"
ARRRGHHHFUCKING telecom!! I hate you I hate you I hate you! No wonder there shares are plummeting, with that sort of shitty plan system and customer care!
*lots of fine print about it all depends om how fast your wire can go, and peak times and other bollocks.
I think this little speil is as boring as hell when I look back over it, but I'm just commiserating with stupid big company rules.


ASPAs:
5 of us flew to Auckland for the event. We stayed at Base backpackers in cebntral Auckland. We bought disgusting Wendys late at night, we shopped at stores we could shop at in Dunedin, we looked at the Sky Tower, and then we all got tipsy and dressed up and went to the function.
At the function, student media prroved what booze hags we all are and got drunk quickly. Then some awrads were announce (including Colin 2nd for cartoonist, John Hartevelt first for Paid News Writer, Penny Colada's Behind Bars for Best Column, Dave Taine 3rd for News Volunteer,)
Then a band played, and they had a smoke machine. Which set off the fire alarm, which meant everyone was evacuated and the fire service showed up and kept us out of the building for a good 40 mins. awesome!
Then we all got to go back in, and the rest of the awards were announced:
(Best Feature writer RBH, Best Reviewer Aaron Hawkins, Editorial 2nd= for John Ong, and then Critic Best Publication!)
So, ,yes, we won best publication for 2nd year in a row - sigh* so validating.
You'll notice a conspicuous abscence of design awards. I maintain I was robbed. But if the design judges are going to overlook a complete smorgasboard of fonts on each page from some winners, and a distinct lack of whitespace, then so be it!
So here's some pics from the night:
(Yes! Thanks forasking! My jewellery, shoes lipstick and cardy did all match!)


Birthday:
I turned 23 on Saturday - it's a whole new world already I tell ya! Anji Sami had her birthday on the same day, so we combined our powers and had one mega potluck bbq at woodhaugh gardens.
The day before, Dunedin reached an astonishing 29!!!!! degrees! Wholly bajollies it was great. Then on the day of our bbq, the weather returned to its senses and pulled out some south westerlies at a frigid 9 degrees fricken freezing!).
Here's some pictures of that: NB: birthday steks that anji and I had, and cute puppy belonging to someone I didn't know.