nishatalitha

thesane and her fiancee are visiting us for the weekend, so it the improvement in weather was just in time for lots of walking around the city, although thesane may have preferred rain, as there is not proper rain in Christchurch. After a relaxing morning and sleeping in, we ventured out to shop. Well, look at things anyway. Bello, the men's shoe store, the bead shop, the wool store, sherazad... nothing was purchased. We bought lunch and an ice cream, and that was about it. Later, thesane bought a bag. However, we identified some shiny raised sequiny things that I can use on the sampler instead of importing pailettes from the US, and found crystals the right shade of peach/pink for the dress, although thesane has to work out how many she needs first.

My knee kinda aches now. I soaked it off Thursday evening, and found that although the strapping was a bit tight and very annoying, it was also helping and taking it off hurt in the same way (but not to the same extent) as taking the strapping off my hand that time when I broke it. The physio is quite pleased with how it's healing. The strapping has been replaced, somewhat looser this time, and it will stay on until next Thursday when I go back.

I also go to see the oral surgeon next week. Went to the dentist last week and was told that of my four wisdom teeth, only one of them is in a condition to keep and since there's no room in my mouth for its pair to come through, there's no point. I will get them out sometime next year; I don't have time before Christmas.

We had our team Christmas function yesterday. It involved going to the house of one of the partners, eating lots of food and general relaxing. Secret Santa happened and my person (people, since one of my lawyers emailed me from Sydney to say please buy his for him) seemed quite happy with their present. My Secret Santa gave me an incredibly trashy looking Mills&Boon by Emma Darcy (her 100th Mills&Boon book!), which was the cause of much teasing about it being too steamy for me. Having read it - and it really is terrible - I think I am going to take it into work and hand it to someone, saying it was a bit too much for me. Unless one of you lot want it, of course, in which case, feel free.

Wedding sampler has been started; the motorbike has been sold; the sun is shining; the days are long, but the work is not hard. Not at the weekend, anyway.

These things have been FAIL today:

• Waking up with a headache due to falling asleep after 2.00am this morning;
  
• Client telling us that funds would come in same-day-cleared for settlement by 3.00pm (most our other clients manage this by 10.00am);
  
• Client failing to tell us until 3.00pm today that they couldn't get funds through same-day-cleared for settlement today;
  
• Other side on settlement giving us understandings instead of undertakings;
  
• Other side on settlement giving two different numbers of balance due to be paid on settlement statement;
  
• Other side using the word "by" instead of "to" in a different undertaking also required for this settlement;
  
• Our bank having technological issues, so having to write a bank cheque once I got there to collect it because the printer wouldn't print when I finally got there at 3.40pm;
  
• Other side not managing to release the e-dealing by 4.00pm, which means that I couldn't submit it as Landonline close off is at 4.00pm and it will have to be done at 9.00am tomorrow;
  
• Having a headache all day and living on panadol like it's going out of fashion (together with several cups of coffee, a bottle of V and a few chocolate-coated coffee beans);
  
• My cat jumping onto the windowsill and spilling my cup of tea that I'd placed there;
  
• Me, at studying.

Things that were AWESOME today:

• Having pesto, salami and sundried tomatoes on my sandwich for lunch;
  
• Chocolate-coated coffee beans (I only had three);
  
• Volunteering to write up notes on the Infrastructure Bill relating to local government and having that volunteering being accepted;
  
• Listening to Elizabeth Marvelly on the bus on the way home;
  
• Talking to thesane for a while;
  
• tamarillow's lasange for dinner;
  
• Richard Cheese covering Nine Inch Nails' Closer.

Apart from a little sun Thursday morning and two hours of dryness in town that afternoon, it rained for all the four days I spent in Tauranga. I feel cheated and let down, as clearly it never rains there. Parents house is lovely, if not quite them yet. There are lovely brocade curtains. That being said, it's not to my taste - I like character houses, lighter walls and a more ad hoc style of decorating. It felt a little overbearing and oppresive and very very contemporary. But they like it and that's the main thing.

Party was good; I caught up with lots of people, both relatives and family friens alike. Spent a bit more time with my parents new Tauranga friends, who are nice, but don't have the same spark that the Oggs had. Also met my Dad's secretary who is awesome and I really liked her (of the new people I met, she was probably my favourite) and a couple of other people from Dad's work who are also friends of his and are interesting people also. We didn't talk work very much though.

His secretary and workmates snagged me, one of the Oggs and one of my aunts for the Quiz, which contained both family questions and things like: "Who were the ladies in the snug" and "Name the first names of Biggles' three comrades" and "What is the Vulcan greeting"? We won - partly because of those questions, but not by much.

I flew out of Auckland (twenty minutes late) on Sunday evening, having arrived there via my sister's new house in Hamilton. I actually liked her house more than my parents, for all that it needs a lot more work. It has a fully fenced back yard, three bedrooms, etc etc. It was much more the level I'm comfortable with. It was good to get home again.

According to Land Transport NZ you can change the address associated with your driver's licence online. I didn't even know you could change it, so this is welcome information. Even more welcome information is the fact that you can renew your restricted driver's licence (of which mine is about to expire). This is kinda necessary (my other option would be getting a passport) since my Landonline login, which I need for work, is tied to the expiry date of my government issued ID. Of which there are three types: driver's licence, firearms licence or passport.

I picked up a couple of renewal forms (one for me and one for tamarillow today and wil get around to filling it out and paying the fee before it expires. It's cheaper than a passport.

Things that were good about today:

• Walking into work and it not raining;
  
• Finding out that insulation is going to be installed in our ceiling;
  
• Eating outside in the sun;
  
• Reading more about John Zizka;
  
• Buying a Settlers of Catan expansion pack for my brother's birthday present;
  
• Catching the 7.15pm bus home; and
  
• Leftover cake

Things that were not so good about today:

• Accidentally leaving my cellphone at home;
  
• One of my lawyers having too much work as well as a sick child;
  
• Stuff that had to be done now making me slightly late to my lecture;
  
• My lecturer throwing a mock test; and
  
• Annabelle throwing a blue-screen-of-doom hissy fit and losing all my firefox tabs. Again.
  
  It wasn't so much my lecturer throwing a surprise mock test that bugged me about it, it was that he was trying to get the timing into our heads and thus allowed minutes for the short answer questions and then took them off us. I'm used to doing my short answer questions and then going back to them after the drafting is complete, which, of course, I couldn't do and my marks reflected that.
  
  I don't think I'll walk into work tomorrow. Not because I'm tired or want to wash my hair in the morning (although both those are true), but because my books for my Wednesday class weigh a ton and I need to find my copy of the Personal Properties Securities Act and add that to the pile.

I keep trying and failing to compose a witty yet sarcastic letter to one of my lawyers regarding his lack of ability to get invoice narrations to me before lunchtime today. I know he's been busy lately with purchasing a restaurant franchise for one of our clients. That does not mean that I want to be gathering WIP and reprinting prebills at 5.00pm on the last day of the month. Especially when he has said that he doesn't have time to check them - oh, isn't it nice to be trusted - and is sure they're fine.

Gah!

Fortunately, the partners seem to have learned their lessons and were around to sign everything off, so once I had the narrations, it went pretty smoothly (apart from the bit where I remembered at the very last minute that we're giving a 10$ discount to one of our clients and had to hastily put that in).

The chair saga continues. Yesterday, a nice man from a manufacturer came in, had a look at my chair and said the only kneeling chairs on the five star castors available was the one that killed my neck when I tried it. They had one that looked comfortable, but was on rollers, so didn't have the side to side mobility that I need.

Today, they brought down a bright red brand new chair with a really bizarre curve to the back (by which I mean the back curved out a lot, very abruptly, and then went back in equally abruptly). I gave it a try, wondered why it had been sent to me and eventually sent it back up as not working for me. Apparently, it was meant to go to someone else.

Currently I'm switching between my kneeling chair and a standard office chair (which is more or less comfortable enough, thank you) in order to train myself to be accustomed to a standard chair at work again. Perhaps I can get my kneeling chair recovered or something. Oh well, I can probably get mine re-upholstered.

Our property manager has handed our tenancy over to her new partner. He's doing nothing wrong. He's even remembering to email all three of us rather than just one, which is a first for our landlords. But. His attitude is such that he's managed to annoy all three of us and the part where he said he had tried to contact us by phone, but couldn't get hold of us, requested all my contact details again, despite having phoned me at work on Monday morning and I had no missed numbers on my cell or desk phone was just FAIL.

Still, Friday tomorrow and dinner out. I'm looking forward to it.

Daylight savings ended last weekend, much to my relief. The extra three weeks either side that were tacked on were a bit much and the mornings have suddenly become a lot easier. Evenings are harder though - it's almost 10.00pm and it feels like I should be in bed (heading there soon, promise). It was dark when I got home today after my 5.30pm lecture.

We need to get firewood from somewhere before winter really hits: some split pine and split hardwood. There's a place in Petone (I think) that does the pine; the hardwood will probably hit us with heavy cartege fees as the closest place I've found is in Upper Hutt. If anyone has suggestions (beyond trademe), I'd appreciate them.

I'm looking forward to storm watching from our house, and having the contrast of being warm and comfortable inside. Additional heating tends to involve extra layers - for example I wear a merino singlet all winter - and blankets, rather than heaters.

That being said, we have a heat pump in the lounge, which may get some use and I had a call today from an insulation person who said our property manager wanted a quote from him on ceiling insulation. That would be fantastic if it actually happened.

Mostly, I'm looking forward to Easter. Two short weeks and four days off work will really help. Even though I'm making up less time at work this year, I'm having to think more about my lectures and I seem to be tired a lot more. Of course, the general malaise could have something to do with the time of day I'm posting. I am currently in my flannel pjyamas, dressing gown and slippers and they seem like good things to be wearing.

I've started walking to work in the mornings on a semi-regular basis. While this didn't particularly wake me up today, I'm finding it's a good way to start the day. Whether this continues into the middle of winter I have no idea...

Work is rather busy at the moment; I could have easily worked overtime by an hour or two each day this week, but haven't (got other things to do with my life), which makes me busier still. Spent all day working on this one matter which has six settlements tomorrow. I want it over and done with. Currently I hate residential conveyancing. Bloody subdivision!

Also, I want to get off an hour early tomorrow. Fortunately you can't do anything in Landonline after 4:00pm, so I might make it, depending on when the funds come in and when we get the instructions to discharge the mortgage from the mortgage holder. Worked for too long before lunch; I should know better than to go at 1.45pm because that's just too late for me and I almost always feel like crying at my desk for the half hour beforehand, particularly if I'm doing anything to do with numbers.

If I'd wanted to be an accountant, I would've done bloody accounting.

On the other hand Digger archives went live late last night or today, so I can reread those at my leisure. If you haven't already read Digger, you should do so.

And good news about the Kakapo!. One of my favourite birds and the population has finally reached triple figures!

Have to work out the easiest place to get the gas bottle for the bbq filled before Saturday afternoon. I keep meaning to call places from and keep forgetting.

Got hit in the glasses with a frisbee on Tuesday night. Friendly fire. As a consequence, my right eye has been a bit swollen the last couple of days; not much, just enough to make wearing glasses decidedly uncomfortable and leaves me with the choice of having a headache from not wearing my glasses or having a headache from the pressure while wearing them.

Took yesterday off work, did a lot of housework and got really bored from not being able to read or go on the computer much. Was mildly entertained by the Jehovah's Witnesses who called. I'm terrible at getting rid of such people - I get the fact that I'm a Christian and belong to a Baptist church out there and then see what tack they take.

This lot tried talking about the name of the LORD as written in the Bible, and why you don't see Jehovah written in the Bible anymore. *shrugs* Unfortunately for them, I'd already heard both reasons they gave and don't see why, if you show respect in the use thereof, it matters whether His name is written the LORD, I AM, Father, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, or the Holy Spirit. Which name is used where if often important, although neither they nor I went into that, because it can show which aspect of Him is foremost, but the who and how that is being referenced is what's really important, not whether you use YHWH, the LORD, Jehovah or Adonai.

This is not to say that I don't occasionally argue finer points of interpretation at times, because I do quite happily. It's just as I get older and I mellow, some of the specifics become less important in favour of the general.

September is the insanely busy month in my flat - indeed, we're into the busy-ness by the end of August. So why, if we were sane, would we be thinking about moving in a few weeks? Place is out in Karori; I haven't seen it myself, but tamarillow and maudlinrose say that apart from the location and the timing, it's everything we could want. I'm going out to see it tomorrow after work.

Has anyone else had problems being overcharged with Snapper on the Mairangi bus route going into town? It's worth checking your balance, as both maudlinrose and I have been. We've both called about it and the people at the other end of the line have been both nice and sympathetic, but so far, ultimately unhelpful.

On the other hand, problems with Snapper triggered a spate of awful fish related puns this afternoon; I got some odd looks when I was cracking up as silently as I could at my desk.

I've rediscovered that watching something from my bed before I go to sleep is actually a better way to wind down and get into the mood for sleeping than reading in bed is. It's a lot easier to stop watching something when your eyes can't focus anymore than it is to stop reading a book. I'm much better about not watching another episode than I am about reading another chapter. I must keep this in mind after I've finished Read or Die and Witch Hunter Robin.

More work stuff: I rearranged PJS' office yesterday so that files are now all in alphabetical order. I'm currently doing DMH's office. She's away skiing in Wanaka at the moment, so I left it in a mess at the end of the day. She recently did a purge of stuff and has left me with a pile of stuff to put into new folders, so I rather think she's going to end up with more folders on her shelves than she had to begin with and that's with me getting rid of things easily available online, like the LINZ Acreditation Standards.

I've been reading Margaret Mahy young adult books recently; the ones I never read when I was a teenager. After all, what older book of hers could possibly compare to The Changeover. Wasn't hugely impressed with some of them. Catalogue at the End of the Universe was neat - Tycho is an awesome character - but Angela is too prickly for me to connect with. On the other hand, Memory, which I read today, resonates with me. Not so much like The Changeover does; more in the way that Chalion or maybe The Silver Metal Lover do. For the most part though, I like her short stories and children's books better.