wah!

http://blogebrity.com/

OMG!! WTF!!!

sweet transvestites

Today I was going to write the blog to end all blogs. There were going to be pictures galore, witticisms, astute comments on society, quotes, links, you name it baby, this blog was going to have it.

And then I lost motivation- not to mention actually having time to write this beast of a blog. So instead you'll get what you're given and that'll just have to do.

Yesterday was a day from Hell and all I really wanted to do at the end was to go home and have some quality alone time and sleep but instead had to go out to the theatre as I was going to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show with friends. It turned out to be the best bloody thing I could have done. How could I possibly have doubted that classy tunes and b&d costumes would not cheer me up? I time-warped like there was no tomorrow and screamed out 'asshole' and 'slut' with gleeful abandon. So therapeutic. Of course nobody will ever be better than Tim Curry but the Frankenfurter we had was pretty damn good, in fact apart from the chorus singers being a bit strident at times, it was brill.

In other news, I had Daniel staying with me for 5 nights which was cool. I don't know what the poor lad really thought of it all- he got dragged out to the most horrible 80s Russian porn-star-styled club on Sat night for Sam's going away thing. However we are a demon dancing duo and not even the poppy music (Jackson 5 through to Backstreet Boys) and horribly overpriced sugar-loaded premix drinks would put us off. We shook our groove things till 3am or so and then staggered off home. I took him on a very uneducational tour of London which involved walking along the Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge without actually telling him anything about the sights or going in to any of the places. What a good friend I am. (I decided it was better that he just pick up the vibe of the thing.)

Right, time to do that work thing.

Shiny new computers! Left, right and centre!

After a some big time abscence, I am crawling back to repent my blogging sins, and try and do some penance for them.

First of all - since it is right in front of my face, I better say something about this:

The devillishly handsome 20" which is the new love of my life.
You can even see the whole of critic splayed out without any pesky palettes or tool bars getting in the way!
Sensational!
We also have upgraded most of the G3s in the room to brandspanking new, photoBooth laden gmacs. boo-yah booyah boo-yah!!!

It has turned mighty cold in Dunedin, A snow day will be along soon - kind of exciting, but hurting my sensitive toesies. All this cold means that a trip to the Tamahine knitwear sale is going to be occurring tres soon. I'm looking for matching hat, scarf and mittens. Preferably some sort of kookie style and colour. - You know, to display my "character".

Another keeping-warm-activity will be the margarita/mexican food/ trivial pursuit evening I will be hosting next Tuesday evening. I'm planning on a Ye Olde (in my family anyway) make your own burrito scheme, with lots of salsa, guacamole, melted cheese and cornchips. Also there will be LOTS of tequila and salty glasses.
Mostly I like hosting, and using my blender, but I've always particularly wanted to make "a pitcher of magaritas".

On the radio: ZB talkback. Ryan BH is listening to talkback for 24hours straight, in the interest of quality journalism.
In the air: not love, not smelly people but the scent of 5 new gmacs stretching their photobooth and widget legs.
Outside: Bright and sunny and about -3 degrees.

counting my chickens before they hatch

I was sure I had some meaty topic I was going to tackle today but the heat had fried my brain and all I can think of is the chance that I might have found a place to do bojitsu again. It's been almost a year now since I've swung my staff around and I didn't fully realise how much I missed it until I was home for the 2 weeks and went back to training (only the once though, I'm so soft).

For the past week or so there have been people on the streets of Richmond wearing black belts and t-shirts with 'Richmond Academy of Martial Arts' on them and today at lunchtime I gathered up my pluck and went up to talk to one of them. I have had a look around on the web for bojitsu stuff in London but haven't had much luck so when the guy mentioned that they did weapons which included staff, I was so keen and eager that I totally forgot to ask about cost. So dumb. You get one free intro class which they want everyone to do and apparently it just runs you through the basics. I'm totally cool with starting from scratch, I just want to be able to do staff stuff again and hopefully jujitsu although I'm happy with doing something different for a while.

This 'academy' teaches 8 different styles of martial arts, not including weapons and is a fulltime thing as the instructors are there all day either teaching, training or out on the street recruiting. What I really liked was that they weren't accosting people so there was no pressure and the guy I talked to seemed quite nice. They have my name and number and will call me next Sunday (I'm busy until then) and book me in for an intro class. So fingers crossed that they aren't a bunch of flakes or wankers and that it all goes well. And it would be so super of it works out because the place is right beside Richmond train station and would be so handy so go to after work. Reading back over this, I sound way too calm, considering how excited I am. On the inside it's more like a berserk Aynia running around with muppet-styled frenzy going, "I get to swing around a stick again! I get to play with sticks! I get to be all martial artsy again! I get to play with sticks! Sticks sticks sticks. Yay yay yay. Hit hit hit. Happy happy happy." Think a combo between the Cookie Monster and Animal. And you never know, give it a couple of years and I might just look like April. Just. Might.

cartoonarama

You know those little moments in life that are of almost no consequence whatsoever but make you really happy anyway? I had one today- I realised that Dave, the art editor at work, was wearing a Samurai Jack t-shirt. It's like seeing someone wearing a Homestar Runner t-shirt really- total surprise and joy and finding a fellow supercool person. A massive Samurai Jack enthusiasm session followed and he has them all on DVD so guess what I'm going to be watching very soon? So ultrafly, I'm very excited. For those not in the know, Samurai Jack is mega cool. Apart from amusing story lines, I am in love with the graphics and drawing style.
I'm a huge fan of animation in general and am of the genre of fan who can forgive (almost) lack of a decent plot if it looks bloody cool. I could rant and rave about animation but today I stick to 2D. Johnny Bravo (above) is another fav- I really need Cartoon Network which is the only place where you get to see a decent amout of these guys. I would write a top10 list and put in appropriate links but I really have work I should be doing so instead I'll slap in some pics. Of the golden oldies, Marvin rates up therebecause he is just hilarious. I think the ambiguity in Marvin is part of the appeal. Given his lack of facial features, so much of his emotion needs to be conveyed by his eyes and body language. And when he does talk (which is rarely), he has this nerdy little voice which sounds like it's been choked off half way down his throat. Finally there is Speedy who I have always had a soft spot for but got far too little coverage in my opinion.

Looking back I wish to apologise for such an über crappily written blog. So many generalisations, nothing in depth, no links to chase up- so slack. I blame work for distracting me. You'll just have to show some initiative and google the stuff yourselves.

letting it all hang out

One of the things that is hard to get used to over here is the lack of privacy. Because so many people are packed in to such a small space, people have developed this weird knack of pretending they're in some private kind of bubble when they're actually in a very public place. The classic example of this is on the train. People on tube will talk across to each other about weekend exploits or relationship issues, you hear people having domestics on the phone, women put on their makeup on the way to work, it's just bizzarre All these small acts of people's private lives and they're carrying on like nobody else can hear or see. I guess you have to do this to a certain extent, you erect this private and invisible barrier so that you don't feel that your personal space (mental and physical) is being totally raped and invaded by these people you are forced in to such close contact with. But just because I understand it, doesn't stop it from being a bit surreal at times.

because they can

I'm a Mac user. I'm a Mac person even. Have been for years. Over time I have come to understand why PC people might think PCs are cool but I'm still pro-Mac . iPod, iTunes, iMac, AYNiA. I'll confess that when it comes down to it and I'm pushed to justify it, about all I come up with is, "Just because." Yes, I buy in to the image. Yes, I'm a media whore. But I'm cool with that. And now Apple have a series of ads that exploit just that. Some might say it's self indulgent but if what you're selling is an image and a vibe, this is the way to go. Check them out, they're mucho hilarious.

And for those supercool people who are in the know, there will be a familiar face from 'Ed'.

dreamz

This weekend was a bank holiday weekend in the UK. What this basically means is that Monday was a public holiday. There are about 4 bank holidays a year and I have absolutely no idea why they are public holidays. But if I get a day off work, I'm not one to rock the boat with wanting to know why.

It was a relatively peaceful weekend that involved hanging out with friends, going out for brunch and baking. What will stick in my mind most though, is 'American Dreamz' which we went to see at the movies yesterday. This movie has had quite a bit of negative feedback "This overly silly satire aims at too many targets with arrows too dull to make relevant social commentary." but I really have to disagree. I thought it was great. I sat there as the credits rolled, slightly stunned and all I had to say was, "That was THE most cynical movie I have ever seen." (Notice that I managed to speak both in block caps and italics. No small feat, let me tell you...) I went expecting a comedy. What I got was a film that hid a lot of very caustic comments under a thin veneer of low-grade humour. I can see how some people wouldn't get it. If you're really really dumb, it would seem like a cheesy funny movie. I sat there thinking that (a) I can't believe America let that movie be made and (b) it's amazing what you can get away with saying if you hide it in a joke.

On other news, I'm trying to organise some of my friends to go to Venice for a weekend in June to celebrate my and Kerry's birthdays. Goodbloodyluck. You try to pin down 4 females down on when they want to travel, where to, what kind of accommodation they want to stay in and how much they're willing to pay for it all. Lucky I'm half German and a total OCD control freak. If anyone's up to the challenge, it's me.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot- a giant tsk tsk and disapproving head-shake goes out to everyone in NZ (except Alice, who wrote to me today, you're my fav) because NOBODY has written since I've been back in the UK. I gave out magnets, I know you have my email address. It's not fair that you get to read about me and I know nothing about you. So get writing you lazy tossers.

Please. xox

smug

So there are these images that we have been chasing for a feature for some time now and I finally got a reply from the people- in very broken English. They asked if I could speak German or Spanish so, in the belief that my rusty German would be better than their rusty English, I dusted off the old Deutsche grey cells and set to work. It was a bit of a brain teaser at times and I would find myself muttering the German under my breath but typing the words in English, but I got there in the end. And then I found a free translating thing online- oh so übercool. In fact I was quite blown away by it. You can select a range of languages and just type in your sentence, click the button and poof- instant German. So I typed in English versions of my German sentences and I was about 90% right on average. Not too shabby. So right now I'm basking in the warm glow of my German being better than I thought and also being cunning enough to find a lazy way out if it fails me. If I were a cat, I'd be purring.

diamonds are a girl's best friend

The things people come up with will never cease to amaze me. Did you know that you can have your cremated ashes made in to a diamond? No shit. In 60-80 years, this could be you. Dude. You can even have your pet done. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. I mean I think it's totally cool that you can be made in to a gem and set in a ring or on a pendant but jewellery so often gets lost and how do you think someone is going to feel if they lose you- again? I mean talk about guilt!

Dunedin misses you!

After three days of crying after you left, the Leith is struggling to hold its banks, and has turned into a raging torrent of chocolate milk.

See!

10 ways to know that you're missing NZ

1. you buy "Nature's Best" at Chch airport even though you have an iPod and not a discman
2. the first song you listen to when you get it to a CD player is "Slice of Heaven" (I lie- it was 'Lydia')
3. you find yourself bobbing your head like a muppet in time to the music
4. you wish you'd bought some cheesy t-shirt like 'I heart NZ'
5. you definitely wish you'd bought that black canvas shoulder bag with the green koru design on it. Or maybe the one with the pukeko
6. you work out how many sleeps it is till you fly back again (237)
7. you change the desktop of your computer to one of your holiday snaps
8. you start calling everyone bro and saying aye at the end of every sentence
9. you develop a sudden interest in rugby and cricket
10. you're a way to know that I'm missing NZ

the one about planes, sidecard racing and jetlag

You never know who you're going to end up sitting beside on the plane. Prior to my flight back to the UK, I had been blessed by always sitting beside people who had no interest whatsoever in talking to me. I've heard horror stories from my friend Sue who, every time she flies back to SA, seems to get stuck next to someone who wants to talk to her for the whole 10 hours or whatever it is. And they keep talking when she puts on her headphones and tries to watch a film.

Well on my flight back I got stuck next to chatty people but chatty in the good way. Accompanying me the whole way was Stan Dibben who seemed like a friendly old man and turned out to be bloody fascinating. Full of interesting anecdotes on electronics in the war, gramophones, and other miscellaneous things, it finally came out that Stan was the 1953 sidecar racing champion and he is about to publish an autobiography. I got to see the draft and was blown away by pics of him hanging out the side of a motorbike sidecar going at something like 100mph. Oh my God. You just never know who you'll end up beside. As a result, I had a horribly long flight with delays, no vegetarian meal, reroutes and holding patterns BUT I got to chat with Stan and a lovely Swiss girl who was sitting on the other side and when I got sick of chatting, I could just put on my headphones and they were nice enough to leave me alone. It was fab.

I arrived back in the UK to a beautifully sunny day (apparently the first they'd had in 2 weeks) and I was so thankful because if the weather had been doing its usual grey thing, I think I may have gone home and hopped in to the bath with a toaster. I got to go to a bbq and headed home at 8:30pm when jetlag hit like a very heavy duvet. I slept a lot of Sunday and woke up at 4am on Monday. Cool. (Not.) but I think things are pretty well in sync now so fingers crossed.

to our mystery reader

Even though I am back home and therefore most of the people that this blog is directed at are now in contact with me, it is still alarming to see that there were no hits in the last day. Mystery reader somewhere in America, don't give up on us. Kitty never blogs anyway (love you Kitty! xox) but after hearing how busy she is, it's small bloody wonder that she manages to write at all, let alone make it look all minty fresh.

Writing is taking quite an effort this morning as my hands don't seem to be working properly at all. I partially blame the cold. I also blame my run (well really it's a walk) for sapping me of all my energy. Being back home is fantastic though. I have been having a fab time and have been super busy. In fact the only reason I'm updating this is because I feel some weird obligation to our mystery reader somewhere around the Ohio region. You bumped up a dot size on our little clustermap-doohacky so we're calling you a regular. Howdy. So just for you, a lot of pictures and an update. Although being back is cool, it's also kinda strange. I mean I know without a doubt now that NZ is where I want to be (unless some place captures my heart in the next year and a half) but it's strange to be away for a year and come back and it's like you never left. It's not just that the place looks the same, I can pick up just where I left off with so many friendships. Which is cool but still slightly surreal. Still- I've been supremely lucky with weather and also the tides as I've been able to walk on the beach every day. Hello, my name is Aynia and I love the beach. Although who couldn't? Catching it early in the morning at low tide there's something just so calming in all those shades of blue and grey. But enough of beaches. I suspect you want pictures.
I splurged out and got myself a fancy new haircut. Well the cut isn't as fancy as the colour. Check out my blonde bits. Oooer!


And here is my sister Julie doing Blue steel. So hot right now.


And here is Julie on the beach. Remind me again why I want to leave this?


And last but definitely not least- here is Sophie, my sensei's eldest daughter. She's grown SO much in the year I've been away it's scary. She rivals Sean and Daisy for cutest kids ever. So supercutiepie.

coming soon to an office near me...

One of the guys in the office is getting a puppy and this little darling should be in the office by the time I get back! Sooooooooooooooo supercutie! An office dog! I could go crazy with the exclamation marks!!! I intend to hide doggy treats under my desk and buy its love. Mwah hah hah.

so amazing!

This afternoon I've been on the search for macro images for our Geophoto and have come across the most amazing animal- the pygmy chameleon. (This guy really needed to moisturise.)

You cannot tell me that these are not the most amazing reptiles EVER. In fact just about all chameleons are awesome.

In fact, they are almost bumping off the weevil for my hit pick. Luckily one is a reptile and one an insect so I can keep them both. Weevils, for those not in the know, are just bloody hilarious.

I mean look at them. H I L A R I O U S.

And please excuse watermarks and lines through pics, they're grabbed from one of my fav nature picture libraries, NHPA.

Starbucks may be Satan but I'd sell my soul for a mocha frappuccino

Well maybe selling my soul is going a bit far although on a hot summer's day, I might do it for a mango frescato from Costa. Frappuccino, frescato, tomato, tomato- they're all really just different types of glorified slushies. Be it mocha shots, mango syrup or whatever you like blended up with a whole bunch of ice- it should be watery and nasty but it's not. It's yummy.

Back home, I only ever went to Starbucks once and that was when I was taken there by family friends and you can't exactly say, "No sorry, if I had a religion, Starbucks would be against it." when a nice couple is giving you a ride up to Chch and buying you lunch and they just want to stop for a coffee. And if I stopped to think about it, I have no reason to dislike Starbucks apart from the fact that they took over the Penrose building and are a huge international franchise in a city where I wholeheartedly support the small independently run cafes. But over here everything is a franchise. Cafe Nero, Costa, Starbucks, there are no nice small cafes here. But over my dead body will I succumb to the call of the frappuccino when I'm back in Dunedin. No I say, this girl has standards. (Well at least as long as anyone's looking...)

P.S. ONLY 3 SLEEPS TILL I LEAVE FOR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S. Check me out getting all funky with the font colour.

the one where I complain a lot

I fly home on Friday. That's like 4 days away (today not counting becuase I'm in it)- in fact by my counting logic it's really only 3 because Friday doesn't count because that's the day I fly out. Or maybe it does because I only fly out at 10pm (which is nowhere near midday which for some reason is the time I've thought I was flying out for the past God knows how many week- I must be mental). At any rate, it's bloody soon.

How was your weekend? It had to be better than mine. Saturday was fine but Sunday- well let's just say that's a day I'm never getting back. Sunday was The Boat Race. This is the annual rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge and little known to me, is just an excuse for everyone who can cram in to London to relocate to the banks of the Thames and get absolutely stark raving drunk. And when you're the sober person trying to squeeze your way through the masses for half an hour to get to a bunch of other people only to find out that you went the wrong way and have to go back and then squeeze through more people in mud and get trodden on and then end up at a marquee where HORRIBLE dance remixes are blasting at such a volume that your head actually vibrates and hurts, well it ain't such a fab time, let me tell you. Take a look at that image of the crowd. I walked through that. If you don't see any free room where anyone could possibly get through, that's because there wasn't any. And I missed the race. It started out well enough, as you can see from the pics of Jen (Aussie girl and a travel beer, small surprise there), Kez and Sam. We were initially in Putney (where there was room and we had a view) but then went to Hammersmith which was near the middle of the race and that's where everyone was. But I'll stop there, all I can really add to it is more grumble grumble, whinge and moan, oh woe is me, etc etc. I will let Sam and my muddy shoes say the rest.

Hiassen could not have written better himself

I had other things to blog about today but nothing of real consequence until I came across the article below in today's Metro. If I had a devil and an angel on either shoulder, one would be telling me that this is not something to laugh at and is a real tragedy. The other would be rolling around on my shoulder, holding its belly as it laughed with tears streaming down its face. Say it with me folks- natural selection.


Hopefull it's scanned well enough that you can read it when you click on it...

Also, for those who don't get the Hiassen reference- tsk tsk I say. Get youself educated.

an entry that speaks of eyes and endorphins

Well I figured out why my eye was sore and I've got one word to say to you: conjunctivitis. Yicky. I woke up this morning with one eye gummed shut and thought, "Oh. That's what it was..." So this morning after the gym I promptly took myself over to Boots and got some golden eye ointment. Conjunctivitis is definitely at the top of the list of things I don't want when I fly home. Everyone at work is dropping like flies with one flu or another and I'm just trying to keep away. I only have 12 days in NZ. I can't afford to be sick.

We had daylight savings on Sunday and I swear it's thrown my body clock totally out of whack. Usually I'm the one to scoff at people who complain about losing an hour of sleep but this year it's me. I've really been noticing it at the gym too. I had to have a little talk with my body this morning which went along the lines of, "Dude. We have a deal, I drag this lazy ass out of bed and make it run/cycle/row and sweat copiously and in return I get my daily rush of endorphins. But as of late there's been no rush so be a honey and hook a brother up would you?" And maybe it worked because today things were much better. Or maybe I was just feeling smug at heaving my way through 2000m on the rower in 10 mins. (Which for me is a very decent effort.)

Ooh- and pictures of my new hat hotness. I have two shots for you- one from the front and one from behind to show the cute tassley thingy.

my eye hurts

I'm trying to get back in to wearing my contacts but right now all I want to do is scratch out my right eye. They were fine up until about an hour ago and now my right eye just itches but I don't have my glasses with me and have to keep the contacts in anyway and I'm getting a headache and I blame our horrible dry office and I'm all sore and grumpy and tired and want some sympathy.

Poor widdle Aynia-kins.

At the weekend I went down to Poole to see my cousin and her family and I had a lovely time. I'll admit to being a little surprised- I was apprehensive about staying with people I did not know at all and had no link to whatsoever apart from the fact that our mothers are sisters. But Charlotte was cool, her partner Neil is a total laugh and the kids are cute. And it turns out my aunt was there too so it was all good. It pissed down all weekend but that didn't stop three stubborn Irish women (note how I'm all Irish when it suits me) from going out in the wind and rain and having their umbrellas blown inside-out and getting completely soaked. It was a riot.

And the highlight of the weekend- I found a hat on sale that was exactly the same as one I had bought in Richmond on sale and it was all blue and lovely and I looked supercutey in it but I lost it when I went to the London Aquarium and it was cheaper in Bournemouth anyway so now I have my hat back (picture coming soon) and I'm so happy. The weekend was worth it for that alone.

10 sleeps till I leave for NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Virtual Critic

W00t!1!!

Virtual Critic for 2006 is up and running. You should check it out here.

Just latest issue at mo,, but more soon.

P.S. Aynia, don't know bout mappy thing, it might just be lame-o sometimes. It seems to work for me the 10-15 times I click on this site each day...

deadlines

Well it's deadline day for us here at Geographical and this has been one hella stressful issue. I won't be sad to see it gone. In fact there is still a smidgeon of stress hanging over me in the form of niggly bits and pieces that I don't want to go in to. Basically it's not like the good old days of Critic that laugh in the face of copyright and just grab any old thing off Google image search. *sigh*

Even getting to pop out at lunchtime (at the early hour of 2:30pm) to buy a book for my 2nd cousin didn't help. He turned 4 yesterday and I'm going down to visit his family this weekend and I thought I should bring a pressie. So at lunchtime I headed down to my favourite kiddie's bookshop and said I wanted a pirate book for a 4yr old boy. The people who work there are great- I was taken around and shown a range of books but I had to get 'Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs'. With a title like that how could you NOT? Also the pictures are way cool.

Alas the thrill of Captain Flinn and his piratical dinosaurs is not enough to rid me of this nasty hairball of stress building in my insides. God I just want this issue to be done.

P.S. TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S. Kitty my love- I don't always get that cool map thingy coming up in my sidebar. Do you know why that would be?

It's that time again...

Proofing time!

So I have a little bit of time to click on my favourite blog again. And notice how big the big dotty thing is on the map? Yeah, that's because comicallysans is on my "micro break web surfing routine". I click it about once an hour or something.

And I have NO idea who we know in South America, or along the entrie East Coast of America...


I think it has just started sleeting outside, which sucks for two reasons. One is that it's the first really stormy sleety night of Autumn, so all the pretty leaves on the ground will turn all mucky and smell yeasty; and the second reason is that this morning it was a balmy 17 degrees, so I put on a cute little pink sundress which I now have to run home in. Brrrrr

love you long time

spring?

With my mouth still tingling from the chilli I just had for lunch (home made and supergrood), I thought it was time to catch up on blogging. Fresh air and sunshine can wait.

It would seem that the British version of spring (think September/October in relative NZ terms) does not involve a rise in temperature but merely extended daylight hours. This weekend that's just passed was freezing- and I'm talking 2 degrees (can't find the shortcut for the symbol) and I was bundled up to 'Nam when I trotted over to my friend Sam's place on Saturday night. (See picture at left- and that's a long woolen coat I have over my hoodie folks.) I have decided that from now on I will have to bring my camera with me whenever I might be walking back from Sam's late at night. Weekend before last as I was walking home I saw a lacy g-string hung over one of the poles of a fence and last weekend there was a fox curled up in the middle of someone's front lawn. Moments that will live on only in my memory thanks to my lack of camera at the time.

This week has been almost as good as Xmas, I've been getting that many pressies. Kerry came back from 3 weeks in SA and brought us all back kitschy ethnic pressies- so glorious! Then I got a puffin badge from Ali (no camera with me=no pic) and all week long I've had packages arriving from Amazon. AmazonUK is having a massive sale at the moment so I did a stock up on pressies for myself and others and took requests from family. As a result I don't know that I will succeed at just bringing back a daypack any more and even if I do, I'll feel like a smuggler. Oh well. I'm also starting to compile a list of stuff I need but should hang out for until duty free- headphones, new watch, makeup. I'm gonna have to get to the airport ultra early just to get all my shopping in. That's the way to start a holiday! ;-)

16 SLEEPS TILL I LEAVE FOR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To answer your question Kitty my sweet, I will be in Dunners from April 9-21. I only get 12 days in NZ due to bloody time travel/zones/bollocks. I feel gypped. I think most of the pressies I bring back will be picked up from Duty Free as airlines never care how many DF bags you're carrying but they can get shirty about hand-luggage. It'll fab to see everyone again- I'm looking forward to shenanigans and high-jinx.

Ooh and finally- the blog is lookign hella-tight Kitty. Ka pai. Also that map link thingy is ultrafly. Who do we know in Sth America?

Fiddly diddly

As you can see, I've been fiddling with how this blogs looks... I can't decide if this is worse or better, kind of "minty fresh', is what it reminds me of.
I've also added a nifty little link in the side bar which is a map that shows where all are hits are coing from. I mean, if we have any that isn't us...
You'll also noticed the old links list was clensed somewhat, so please add yours again!

Fet's Emily came to visit yesterday. She is leaving the country in a couple of days to head over to ye olde England, so maybe you can have a Fet and Emily party! Apparently Fet has an interview for a job at Cambridge University Press, exciting!
But more exciting is that Aynia's comign back! Yay! Can you email me dates of when you'll be in Dunedin? I want to plan some exciting yee-har fun!

I'm in the process of making Issue 5 (OMG) and putting old issues on virtual critic. I forgot what an absolute fricken chore VC is, so will take me hours and years of my life to do it. But will be up soon, I promise!
Issue 5 is the "Middle Age Rampage Issue". Basically the ODT has been beating up (and off) over 'the student menace', so we went in search of middle age menace... or something llike it. Basically it was just an excuse for John, Hayden, Ryan and myself to hit the South D. pubs. You name it, we went there: the Cock and Bull, The Southern, Heffs...
Here are some sneaky pics of our night, you'll have to read the ariticle to see the rest. Booya!

<------ Some dude we met at 'Heff's' who wanted us to think of an excuse to tell his wife to explain why he was so late coming home.

<-------- AHA's 'Take on Me' at The Southern. They had $3 drinks, and a karaoke list in comic sans.

<-------- John and I won $20 on the BlackJack table at 3am. Woot!

<------- 'Come on Aileen' at Brimstone!

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Well I'm going to have earned my Guiness by the end of today. Which looks like it will be about half an hour away. Not too shabby. Most of the office is away today at the Outdoor Show so it's pretty much just the art department and a few stray animals. It's been a weird mix today of being quite chilled out because the office is empty and stressed out because I actually have a shite load of work to do. I even got up at 6:15am so that I could get to the gym before work which I was starting earlier than normal too. At home we've run out of gladwrap, tinfoil and baking paper- basically all out kitchen handy bits and pieces. So last night I told Sarah I'd grab them at lunchtime as after work I was going to the pub and she gave me A Look and said that maybe I should just leave it till Saturday because I'd probably leave them behind in the pub. Good point. Tonight I'm headed out with one bag only and even though it is my backpack, I'm sure I can remember one bag. Fingers crossed.

And finally, this is the Calvin I got this morning:

Have a good weekend!

There but for the grace of God...

This morning I picked up the Metro, a free newspaper that you usually find on London transport and flipping through it, came across a story about 6 people who have "fallen ill" (more like- have got seriously fucked up and could well die) while partaking in trials of a new drug. Check out the BBC website for stories on this in more depth. This had probably been on the news but I never get home in time for the news so the Metro this morning was the first I'd heard of it.

"First they began tearing their shirts off complaining of a fever, then some screamed out that their heads were going to explode."

"The head of volunteer Ryan Wilson, 21, swelled to three times its normal size as his limbs turned purple. The trainee plumber, who was being paid £2,000 to take part in the trial... begged doctors to put him to sleep because he was in such agony. Medics says chances of his survival are slim."

Now it's not Iike I had a close call with this or anything but it still seriously freaked me out. When I arrived in the UK, it took me 6 weeks to find work and by the end I was seriously strapped for cash, had borrowed what I could from whom I could and was pretty much at the stage where if I didn't get a job by the end of the week, I was going to have to change the date of my return flight from 2006 to ASAFP. (And as a self-defensive disclaimer, it's not that I'm an unemployable bum, it was a hard time to find work in general. Thank you terrorists, you did wonders for people wanting to hire foreigners. Nice one.) So I was looking for anything- secretarial/catering/pubs/cleaning etc. And I saw some ads for test subjects for drug trials and I remember thinking, "Well why not? It's bloody good money, you're stoney fucking broke, you're quite healthy, you'll be fine." But something stopped me. Thank Christ. And I've known people back home who, as poor students, have done drug trials and they've been fine but my advice- don't.