Kiwi Way of Business

My sister is bringing her family, for one week, arriving on New Year's Day; that's two of us and four of them, so we needed to hire a car big enough to lug around all of us and the luggage. (OK, so we are kicking ourselves for not having reserved it as soon as she told us, right before we went to the opening in Wellington.)

On Saturday, Ben does these searches, finds a good deal with a not-so-little company, gets an on-line quote, but needs a bit more details, and I ring to inquire. The man says there's only one of that type left, so just book it, and then ring back. So we booked it, and got an email saying transaction is pending. (I kick myself for not ringing back immediately, but we thought we'd get a confirmation soon enough.)

On Sunday, we finally get an email, confirming booking of a smaller car, so we ring again. A woman says one last big car is reserved, probably for Ben, but she needs to check and will ring back on Monday.

There's no call on Monday. So I rang this morning, at around 7:52. The woman answers, and says she's on her way to work. I ask her to ring back, but she hasn't got a pen, but it's my fault for calling before hours anyway, so, "Ring back after 8".

It's the business number I rang, and she answered, instead of letting the machine catch it. So the onus is on me to ring back? This is often how businesses are conducted in Kiwiland. I'm telling you.

And of course at 8:05, there's no answer.

Mind you, they're all very friendly and genuine people, and even if it's not such a small company, often there's only one person minding an office, plus things are changing in some larger businesses and cities, but slowly. So I'm feeling it's my fault being grumpy, but once in a while I want to scream, "IT'S BLOODY NOT HOW YOU SHOULD RUN A BUSINESS!!!"

PS. OK, I'm a total J@ck-butt as of 8:14. I just found out the woman, Kimberley, had her car broken into this morning, and I rang her just as she was trying to get to work in a broken-into car. She rang me back, and was still cheerful and nice, but I do feel terrible. I'm such and unsympathetic, un/in/counter/non-empathetic, pathetic git!!!

PPS. And it wasn't she who didn't ring me back on Monday; it was her boss!!

PPPS. And we don't have the car, because the company released the car to someone else, and the boss was "trying to find a solution yesterday". So what if I didn't ring back this morning to find out? I recant my recanting, folks!!!

56 Days to Christmas

And I hope I can get a wee break before that. After my tax is done, (and it needs to be brought to my accountant's office tomorrow AM), I was supposed to take it easy and clean house and do a bit of gardening for the rest of the year. Clean out and rearrange my stash room, and work at a leisurely pace.

Arts Marketing rang yesterday to ask if I could contribute to a mini exhibit that's being put together next week, and of course I could, so of course I said yes, and I know I can, it's no big deal. But I'm just feeling drained, like I haven't had a good break from deadlines in about a year.

I'm not complaining, because the kind of "break" I got this year is exactly what I've been working for for over six years, and still, I need a break to recharge.

Taxing Work

I'm doing my tax returns for the year April 06-March 07. Of all the things I could do differently to make my life easier and more pleasant, this is way at the top of the list. I went to the stick-everything-in-a-rice-cracker-tin school of accounting. So once a year, I have to go through the box to try to figure out what I spent the money on 18-23 months ago.

I usually glide in just before the due date of March, but this year my accountant is going on a maternity leave, so we had to submit it before the end of October. That's Wednesday.

On the other hand, Wednesday last week when I met up with Kath Bee, we talked about housekeeping, and I honestly felt my house is in such a bad state I'd rather do my taxes than think about cleaning this place.

Lordy. Anyway, this is me looking up at Gavin Hitchings' sculpture "Vessel" earlier in the month; NDP posted a longer shot of "Vessel" on Day 2 of NDP in August 06.

OK, back to the spread sheet.

Ho Hum

Oh dear, Myron, I think the problem is the originals weren't as interesting as the experience of shooting the clouds...
This is one of the original shots before the airplane came into view. I've only cropped it.

This is a lame attempt at adding a bit of color, though I prefer it in the natural state. When I added the colors, the lines/shapes became dull, so I "sharpened" the image some.

Then I went back to the original and made it B/W, and I don't remember changing the exposure/contrast, though I might have. The cloud in the bottom-left quadrant appears clear, and I like that. Funny how, after making this version, I now see that that portion of the cloud was ok in the original also.

Ben's New Shoes

It was only recently, since the not-getting of the Warrant of Fitness for this car, that I realized, most cars don't have hub caps.

28mm Ain't Wide Enough

As-long-as-it-took-to-upload-and-post minutes ago, I thought, but Blogger conked out, so it's about 15 min ago now. You all have a pleasant weekend.

Ben's closeup; Ben's long shot.

Cake!!!

I've been known to go goo-goo-gah-gah about the baked goods and the elegant cafes in Merisi's Vienna, but look what I found in little old Nelson!!! It's the new Swedish Bakery on Bridge Street.

Nelson Arts Festival - Last Sunday

We've been posting some sculpture shots in NDP, but here are some which you may have come to expect from moi.

Blah, blah, blah. Quack, quack, quack. (And of course I'm talking about the ducks; can you see them?) Tim Wraight.

'Alone and Together' by Juliet Novena-Sorrel; probably my favorite this year, though the orange slab keeps tugging at me, too.
Hints for next year's Masked Parade, 'Birds" (there are two of them) also by Juliet Novena-Sorrel. Although beautifully executed, probably not my favorite. At all.

Absolutely no disrespect, but I can't help it; they are the same color.

Yuck. But Tim needs it.

Love the way they used dried flax flowers to cover the entrance.

The festival closed at midnight Monday, Labour Day; by Wednesday afternoon, you couldn't even tell there was a Festival.

Double Income, No Kids

I was taking to our friend Jenny at our local gallery yesterday; she asked if I sold anything at Re:fine, and I told her two. Then, out of the blue, I blurted out, "I doubled my income with those two, Jenny!"

The truth is, not quite doubled, but nearly.

Jenny's husband Gavin Hitchings is quite a famous jewelry maker and sculpter in New Zealand; one of his pieces made it into the NZ Arts and Crafts postage stamps a few years ago, and our first female prime minister Jenny Shipley often wore his fern leaf. Like Ben, Jenny Hitchings always had a day job.

Because we've been going to some of the art happenings in our little cities, we started to recognize not only some artists, but their main cheerleaders, their supporters, their spouses/partners. And they are the wind beneath our wings; ok, sometimes a jet blast. But so much wouldn't be happening if it weren't for them.

Thanks.

Dear Santa

When I was a kid, I so wanted one of these. It was probably a wooden one in those days. My parents didn't believe in toys, so they introduced me to real tools right away. Ditto with sewing machines, kitchen things, vacuum cleaner... you get the picture.

I bought a Fisher Price one for my brother once; my sister had a good time with it. A few years later I bought him another, more serious wooden set in a wooden case, but he turned out not to be a tool kinda guy.

68 days to Christmas, y'all!!!

Nelson Arts Festival - Friday Part 2

There was a free concert after the party. He's the lead singer from Celenod, a "kaneka" band; the music is "based on the traditional (New Caledonian) dance rhythms of the Kanak peoople; (sic) combining bamboo, leaves, wood percussion, guitar and polyphonic vocal harmonies". In other words, funky! Grownups and kids were dancing on the street, except...

this child, who stayed in this position for nearly an hour until Dad decided they were moving on.

On the job.

Well, that was a very good evening, wasn't it, kids?

Someone didn't want to go home just yet.

Nelson Arts Festival - Friday Part 1

Nelson Arts Festival started with the Masked Parade on Friday. It's the first time we went; all for DP. I don't like crowds, but when I do go to Nelson events, I do have a jolly good time.

Hurrey, Ben, we're late! And there's no gap for a short photographer.

Oh, look, I see Warwick, but no parade.

Joanna. She puts 110% effort into everything she does.

There were two women to my right who crept further and further to the front, so I couldn't get good mask pics; Ben's got some smashing ones, but his subjects are so clearly identifiable he's having a huge ethical dilemma.

These are Marching Girls, a New Zealand phenomenon, I understand; they are like military-style cheer leaders, or a marching band without musical instruments. Terribly cute.

Even fairies need a bit of boost to see what's happening.

Staff having a snooze on sheepskin.

Poison of the Month

Couple/three times a year, I rush to the dairy section of the supermarket fridge and grab a couple of containers of those chocolate-flavored yoghurt's/cheeses, (OK, you got me, a six-pack). On Thursday I thought I deserved better, so I picked up two sachets of the do-it-yourself choc puddings. Yesterday, finally, I got out my set of white cocotte to make sane-sized servings. Then I read the instructions: eat it on the day you make it. So, I had to follow the instructions and made the lot into my dainty Soba bowel, didn't I? Besides, Ben's blood sugar level has been high these few days, so I didn't get to share it with him. Lordy.

The stuff was exceptionally sweet and powdery and I could even see the red food coloring while I was mixing it, so it gets 1.5 stars out of five, though I'll probably still make/eat the second sachet. I like the way the sun shone on the cocottes, like a heavenly suggestion.

Orchids, Y'All

I was kind of crazy busy for 13 months up to this Thursday, so not only is the house in a hidious mess (and I woke up to a house I didn't recognize on Friday!!), but I've done a little less than 1/100 of the bare minimum work in the garden. So no surprises my orchids have been doing their darned best all this time and I noticed it for the first time this week. See the middle pot - there was a shoot coming out in late winter, I thought, but I think it just dried up. Darn.

This one is for Myron's Baby Sis, and Rita's Little Sis, and JAM's Big Sis.

My Sister

My sister rang me out of the blue and we talked on the phone for three hours this afternoon. We do this maybe once every 12-18 months, and see each other as often, though she texts me, and I email her, and we have a family-only blog.

She's 6.5 years younger then me, and our brother 6.5 years younger than her, so it's as if our family has three subsets of families. I was the only one that lived in the US with my parents, and with family friends later, and the only one that went to a private, convent school, so there are a lot of things the younger siblings don't understand about me. When they were young, they often called me "a strange Westener".

Supposedly as you get older siblings' age difference matters less and we're supposed to have more in common, but both of them have kids, I don't. So love them as I do, and I've always bought expensive presents for them, I don't feel close to either, and they (especially my brother) see me as a semi-parental figure.

But then our parents are getting older, and our bodies are getting older, so we had enough to talk about for three hours, and it was fun.

I had Dr Phil on the TV, (it was an episode where Jennifer's Jeffery does a runner - it might have ran in the US between 6-18 months ago), and I really wanted to watch it, but it's always nice to chat with one's sister. I got nothing else done all day, though.

Been There, Done That

Or had it done to me, more like.

It's not the gown that's uncomfortable...

There were at least four of us that I know of, one after another.

Doc Adrian and Nurse Barbara; he's terminally cheerful.

What I should have done is to shoot the outside of the tiny and cute (there's no other word for it) Manuka Street Trust Hospital, but I wasn't really thinking of good blogging yesterday morning.

Oreo Cookies - Just the Cookie Part

I've been looking for an oreo cookie recipe, just the cookie part sans the cream, because there is simple never enough cookies in cookies-&-cream ice cream. I've seen one somewhere that just didn't sound as dry as the store-bought ones, so I didn't keep it. Does anyone have a genuine Oreo Cookie recipe that works? And if it includes the cream bit, no worries, I can work around it ;-)

Thank you in advance.

Intrigued by Cropping

I'm forever intrigued by cropping. I don't really do a whole lot of photoshopping, mainly because I can't be bothered, but also because I feel so dishonest. But I am intrigued by cropping.

This is the original. I lightened it up a bit, and then started playing with cropping. I wanted the eye to focus on the carpet, but still give the feeling I was peeking though a door to the "inner sanctum".

This is the one I'm thinking of posting on NDP.

The last two don't seem that different to me, but compared to the original, the funny wall/partition and the chair (?) stand out more. Is that because of the lighting or the cropping?

My method is hap-hazardous; I just do several versions of random cropping and then fine-tune the one I like so I see what I want to see, but not the distractions. How do you do it?

And I apologize for the hidious example; I was still feeling effects of the anesthetics.

Japan Before I Was Born

Abraham Lincoln (this is his real name) has a DP in Brookville, Ohio. Yesterday, Ben found another blog of his, called Sendai-Shi. Abraham was stationed in Japan after the war and is now posting photographs from that era. I didn't know the Allied Forces were all over the country, as far north as Sendai. I also think, if memory serves me, Yokohama in the early 60's looked not too different.

And thanks to Myron, we also have Yokosuka Now and Then; this naval base is only about half an hour away from my parents' house, but I admit I've not been anywhere near there; we kids are instructed in no uncertain terms to stay as far away from the American bases as we can, both by the parents/teachers, and the Forces.

All day I've been remembering the huge dogs that guarded the bases, the soldierss homes surrounded by white picket fences, (not Yokosuka, but a now-defunct residential base somewhere near Isogo somewhere,) and big cars. I better stop thinking about them now, because it was quite terrifying to have fenced American bases in the middle of our towns, and soldiers in combat uniforms talking loudly. This would have been in the 60's and 70's, well into my time.

Goodness Me!

The procedure.... is Thursday, so starting today, I'm pretty much on white bread and water. I went to buy white bread, probably only the second loaf in the time we've been in New Zealand. First I couldn't find them, then I was baffled by the variety of white breads available. Come to think of it, I think the idea is to eat food that rushes out of the body, so I should have gotten the high GI kind?

Whatever!! I do hate its flesh-like squishiness, but I just stuck two pieces in the toaster.

Giant Stinging Jellyfish

The nation is in mourning. We had to go to the Saltwater for breakfast again. On our way back, we had to take a short walk on the beach, in the rain in the wind.

It must be a new kind of giant jellyfish. And on NDP tomorrow...

Congratulations to France & England, commiserations to us and the Aussies. Just a *&^%$ day for Downunder.

Wine Making in Enkirch, Germany

More specifically, I have a question about barrel-making. Can someone help me here, please?

Spring in Nelson

Really nice sign guy told me how he was doing this job on a very bumpy surface. More here.

Smell the testosterone? Altough women don't stand outside in the wind comparing the sizes or the shines of their machines, there is a good number of women bike fans, too. One of the clubs meet at the Saltwater every Saturday morning for breakfast.

Second last day of spring holidays, NMIT campus. It's excruciatingly unfortunate that one outdoor ashtray is at the center of my pic, but that's life.

An Earthquakette

We had a tiny earthquake this morning, at around 8.15. First I thought I heard a bit truck. Then my right wrist was shaking, and because I've been having problems with it, I thought it was me. Then Ben asked if his body was shaking. Then there was a tiny jolt, and it was all over.

Just now, the radio said to report if we felt the earthquake, so I did, for the first time. There's a GeoNet site with info on quakes and eruptions and all kinds of drama I love, (admittedly when it happens afar and I get to watch it on the telly.) Here, you can find "our" earthquakette at the top or the list for now; child's play compared to the "regular" stuff back home, though.

What is it with Polygamists?

We're hearing a lot about trials regarding open polygamists in the US nowadays. Is that true? I thought one wife was enough to keep you in the straight and narrow, but they need a pack of them, all in the same house? It cannot be just men thinking with their appendages.

God and Deception

Yesterday a Jesus-peddler came to my door at around 11AM. Perfectly groomed, handsome and polite, but a man alone. I, on the other hand, was in my usual work gear tearing my hair out. He took one look at me and asked if I didn't understand English (not if I did understand English), and proceeded to ask if I spoke Chinese. I jumped on the wagon and shouted, "No, no, no," in rapid succession, and shut the door, swiftly.

Half a day later, I thought, if only I could mimic authentic-sounding Chinese but speak total nonsense, I could have made him believe the Chinese he learned must be a fake one.... But I'm not quick like that, and I can't do accents.

I don't have problems with another man's or woman's faith, especially when they are not of the crusading kind. I have huge problems with God being pushed on me; I did my 10 years in a convent school already!!

Friend Trish was in New York a couple of months back, and heard on the subway a older man tell a younger woman, "In the Pygmalion scheme of things, she was my Doolittle and I Eliza." We cracked up because it sounded so Woody-Allen-esque. Do people really talk like that?

It reminded me of my first boyfriend Joe, who liked the nonsensical WA comedies of the 70s, in contrast to the "romantic" kind post Annie Hall. He used to talk like that, too, but I think it was tongue-in-cheek. But with Joe you never knew; he claimed he spoke Elvish.

Apparently he's a successful personal injury lawyer.

Kiwi Blokes, Eh!

Here.