Notes: I am in Auckland

It’s just over a year since I announced my blog break. In that year my father passed away, Shannon and I bought a house in Wellington, I went freelance, and we moved to Auckland (in that order). It’s been massive, and stressful, with very big highs and lows.

And here we are, three weeks after the move north... the novelty of Auckland is yet to wear off. I’m writing this from an exceptionally beautiful cafe around the corner from our house in Herne Bay, featuring many gorgeous pot plants in eclectic vessels. It’s all very artful and well staged, and makes me want to throw out everything I own and redecorate in the “deliciously distressed Hamptons beach house” style.

As for eats: the coffee I am drinking is ok, but weirdly acidic which is not so nice. I am not eating here because it’s really expensive moving city (quelle surprise) and at the moment I’m tilting towards saving and recouping our moving expenses, with some success I think.

Life grinds inexorably onwards

I’m currently knitting two socks on the same needle. I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do when you get to the heel, so I kind of fudged it and made a mess—I’m proud to say I was able to fix without doing too much damage. I like that I’m avoiding second sock syndrome, but really need to figure out how to turn heels with this new technique.

My kitchen here is great, so much better than the one in our house in Wellington (which will be first against the wall when the renovations come). It’s inspiring me to try new things and get excited—I want to get my Ferment on, so I’m sussing out kefir and kombucha cultures; I dug up a whole heap of recipes that I’d bookmarked and am slowly cooking my way through them; we are eating homemade bread again on the regular.

Finally: I’m hustling for work! I’m best at Plain Language web content writing and am looking for contracts or part time work. I’m keen to ghost-blog also. Let me know of any leads, or hit me up if you’re keen! All details are on my website.

Let me tell you about my budgeting spreadsheet

A Google spreadsheet is much more manageable.

My obsession with budgeting has been fairly well established by this point. But! I’m always making new discoveries, increasing my budgeting accuracy, and trying to find new ways to save.

In an effort to have a much better understanding of how I am spending my Mad Money, a few months ago I reincarnated my budgeting spreadsheet. I’m really keen on having such a minutely detailed record of my spending - firstly, it tickles my lizard brain and secondly, I now have an answer when I ask myself two days before payday: where the hell did all my money go this week?

In fact, keeping such a spreadsheet enables me to tell you that for the period 12-26 November I spent:

• 24.21% of my spending money on food
• 9.51% on coffee
• 10.31% on booze
• 38.50% on clothes (An anomaly. I must have been feeling rich.)
• 1.46% on homeware
• 13.14% on presents or donations.

I made my spreadsheet on Google Docs so that I can make updates on my phone in real time. No collecting receipts! I can make my entry on the spreadsheet between ordering and receiving my morning coffee - so no excuses for not keeping the spreadsheet up to date. (Of course, I’ve been horrible at keeping it over the fortnight before Christmas. But I am back on that bandwagon and feeling smug. Aw yeah.)

Because I am quelle generous, I have made a shared version of my budget spreadsheet that you can download and keep. The cells that are highlighted in yellow are for you to plug in your own information - there’s a space for the date and a space for the amount of money you’ve allowed yourself per fortnight. You are of course welcome to make any changes you like to your version of the spreadsheet - mine has some pretty specific categories and the pay period might not suit you.

Another recent budgeting triumph

I have some regular appointments that were annoyingly skewing my budget and leaving me broke at unfortunate times. So in November I worked out how much I spend every two months on all the appointments, and then how much I would need to put away each fortnight to cover them.

I opened another bank account for the Appointments money - and I set up a function that automatically sweeps any money over $300 straight into my savings account. It’s like magic! Magic savings.

The whole thing has been going swimmingly. Best idea ever.

It seemed like a good idea but didn’t really pan out that way

I had a plan to reward myself for not buying coffee by putting that money into my savings account every day that I bravely and maturely made the decision not to splurge.

However, this never really happened. It was a good idea though - and, at any rate, it would show in a very real and visceral way how much I could be saving if I wasn't frittering my money away on coffee. You should try it and let me know how it goes.

Spend less, save more: eating your income

Lately I've been committed to recording my weekly spend, and one thing has become painfully obvious - I eat or drink most of my money. Between grabbing a coffee and a scone on the way to work, and buying my lunch or dinner, I spend about a third of my mad money on food each pay period.

Food is good and food is important, and it's important to buy food and eat it. At home we put aside a good amount of money each week to buy food for the house and we eat really well - something for which I’m always grateful.

What I'm trying to address here is the additional money I spend on food each week, which is nearly always frittered away on snacks and food that I don’t really need. I want to avoid that feeling three days before pay day when I realise that I have have three dollars of spending money left and nothing really to show for it - not even a super fun night out. And I want to help you avoid it too. We can do it together!

So, while acknowledging that food is my one weakness, here are some suggestions - some of which I follow on a semi-regular basis, and that maybe you could follow more frequently - to stop us eating our money.

Fancy coffee is a treat

While cutting the coffee will not kill debt in itself, making a decision to drink less fancy coffee can make a difference to the amount you can save or repay. It's terrifying to think how much money I must have spent on coffee over the years. As an individual I'm sure that I've effectively propped up the entire Wellington coffee industry*, or at any rate, drunk the equivalent of a house deposit.

These days I try to make sure that I always have the makings of delicious coffee at work. If you're working for a more generous employer than I am, you'll probably already have some kind of coffee banging around the staffroom. But even if you're bringing in your own bag of fresh roasted beans, making coffee - rather than buying it - makes for a substantial saving.

Because being completely puritanical about espresso doesn't work for me, I get a coffee from a cafe once or twice a week. My work-local has a surcharge for takeaway coffee cups which encourages me to remember my Keep Cup, and thus, save the planet as well as 30 cents a pop. The upshot of this is that if I have to go back to the office to get my cup, I will stop - think about the coffee I already have available - and choose not to buy the espresso. At least, that’s the theory.

Better still, I use the infrequency of bought coffees as an excuse to take some time out and have a sit down before work or at lunch time. Not only do I get the caffeine, but also the atmosphere, the comfy seats, the access to glossy magazines, and the people watching. More bang for my buck, and makes it a treat rather than a habit.

Bring the basics

Keep the basics in your bag: fill a water bottle, bring a piece of fruit and a small container filled with nuts or some other kind of sustaining treat. We’re just aiming to make it from lunchtime to when we get home without blowing ten dollars on afternoon tea or buying a drink that we don’t need.

I’ve just started making Bliss Balls which are crazy delicious, but in the past I’ve also made muesli slice or biscuits that I take to work as an afternoon treat. Dried fruit and nuts or bought muesli bars are easier to keep on hand, and something that’s kind of fun if not actively completely macrobiotic is a small container of sprouts - I’m really into sprouting at the moment and sprouts are crunchy and delicious, so, win.

A moment too, to appreciate how annoying it is to buy a bottle of water - creating waste and paying far too much money for something you can get for free? Ugh.

Leftovers and freezer food

Three bean chili, rice and accoutrements

The big daily spend on food is buying lunches during the work week. I love sandwiches, but it can get boring when you’re bringing cheese and bread everyday.** I try and remember to bring a big container of leftovers, and keeping this in mind can dictate what I’ll cook at home - we eat much more bowl food and things that heat up and travel well.

I try to allow for days where there are no leftovers available by making a slow cooker pot of dal or chill beans once every fortnight or so, dividing the food into lunch size portions, and freezing these. In winter, soup is a good option - I used to work with someone who’d make soup with leftover veges (i.e. whatever was left over from last week) and then freeze the soup in resealable bags.

The problem with this plan is that you need to be fairly organised, and if you’re having a super busy weekend it’s just not going to happen. But I find cooking really relaxing, so I’m happy to prep and potter on a lazy Sunday.

These are the slow cooker recipes that I’ve used lately

• Smitten Kitchen: three-bean chili
• Cafe Johnsonia: Slow Cooker Red Lentil Dal

These Budget Bytes home-made frozen burritos and quesadillas also make good, simple lunches to keep in the freezer.

Dinner out is a social exercise

In another attempt to control my spending, I’m trying to make any dinners and lunches in cafes and restaurants social exercises. I get to enjoy both delicious food and delicious company!

Once again, the plan is to move away from considering expensive pre-prepared food a necessity and towards thinking about eating-out as an event on which it’s worthwhile to spend my money. That is, I want the experience to be one I savour and that is memorable. Not too much to ask?

Spending less on food is an ongoing project for me - do you have any suggestions to help?
Also, here is a 2010 post about the same thing: Money and the fine art of Not Frittering It Away on Food.

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*Only a tiny bit of hyperbole. Really.
**This is a lie. Cheese and bread are two of my main food groups, and I can happily eat variations on them every day. For the purposes of this blog post, however, let’s pretend that it can get boring.
***I really love doing this.

Fourteen Resolutions for Spring

I’m totally resolution-less at present since I ditched my "fifty-two things" list (which never made it to fifty-two things and which I spectacularly lost interest in). However Spring is Nigh, and spring is bringing with it the Urge to Resolve, and I can no longer fight it. It's time to make some arbitrary life changes.

I’ve made fourteen resolutions for spring. They’re mostly to do with decluttering parts of my life, taking better care of myself and keeping on top of my money situation. Decluttering because during the winter months my room seems to have become more cluttered and it’s small enough for even a slight increase in clutter to be overwhelming. Money because I have fallen off the wagon lately and I need to reassert control over my income and expenses. Modest my income may be, but it’s more than enough for me to live comfortably and have a proportionally modest social life - provided I manage it well.

In no particular order the resolutions are:

• Instigate a one-in one-out rule for my limited book shelf space 
• Return all my library items on time 
• Regularly clean my shoes, check which of them need re-soling, re-lacing or turfing and take any that need repairs made to the shoe repairer (I’ve had two pairs of summer shoes done recently so I’ve made a good start on this) 
• Have my coats dry cleaned and prepare them for summer storage 
• Wash my winter clothes and pack them up for summer storage 
• Sort through my winter clothes and get rid of anything I didn’t wear during the season 
• Turf the ratty undies
• Sell my roller skates (BAH, but it must be done. I haven’t been using them at all and I’m strapped for cash) 
• Get my bike-serviced, the crank arm fixed, and ride it everywhere 
• Restrict espresso coffee buying to Monday, Friday and one day in the weekend 
• Spend cash and stop using my debit card so freely 
• Stick to my budget 
• Be honest about how long it takes me to get ready in the morning and rework my morning schedule 
• Arrive at school on time

The rest of September, October and November look to be particularly smug months. Excellent.

Tell me if you have resolutions for the change of season?

Eating Some Food in Wellington, a review: Deluxe

Part four of an infrequent series

In Part Four, I visit Deluxe, have a savoury muffin, and continue to enjoy a cafe at which I've never worked.

NZHistory.net

Deluxe is my local and my favourite Wellington cafe: close to school and home and work. They make the best savoury muffins, vegan cupcakes and vegan sandwiches in the whole of Wellington, bar none. I’ve never had a better savoury muffin than those I get regularly from Deluxe. A contentious statement indeed! And yet, I will stand by it, and defend Deluxe savoury muffins against the inferior muffins that will maybe suggested as competitors (bring it ON!).

Frankly, I don’t believe it’s possible to have a bad bit of baking from Deluxe. The pizzas are good, as are the big bean and lentil salads and tempeh wrap things. The vegetarian foccacia has a perfect blend of pumpkin, pesto and feta, sweet and salty and cheesy. I’ve never had one of those quinoa ball things because there is something about the concept of ball-shaped foods that I don’t really like, but Eli was eating one the other day and I believe she said it was good. They make lovely sweet treats and pies and interesting sweet breads. I guess that the style of baking is similar to Midnight Espresso in terms of it’s vegetarian and vegan slant, but with the difference that Deluxe’s food is inevitably delicious and never disappointing like Midnight Espresso baking can frequently be.

The cafe serves Havana coffee, which I love. However, Havana has no strict training schedule that they give to their baristas, and the coffee served at all cafes with Havana as their roastery blend can be a bit hit and miss. I rarely have a not-decent coffee from Deluxe, but sometimes if you get your coffee at the end of a rush you can taste that the barista needs to backflush the machine or adjust the grind ever so slightly - the coffee tastes slightly dirty or burnt. Truth be told, I like my coffee a bit rough and ready so this does not make me unhappy - but if you’re some kind of L’Affare or Fuel or Mojo lover and you like your coffee smooth and predictable you could be disappointed. Keyword: strong.

Deluxe is located at the far end of Courtenay Place next to the Embassy Theatre. It’s a tiny sliver of a place with a tiny kitchen and counter area, and they only serves counter food. There’s no bathroom in the cafe and the closest loos are the epic bathrooms at the Embassy; any excuse to use these palatial pots is good by me. I’m pretty sure the front of house staff is at least partly hired on their indie cred, but are usually friendly and aren’t adverse to sharing a joke. The tall guy with the long hair and nose (John?) remembers my coffee order and doesn’t tell me off on the days I forget my Keep Cup. Suzy is a great baker and pretends to still recognise me from Fidels days, which I appreciate. I like the new girl with the topknot better than the other girl with the topknot. This morning there was a new girl with a feather in her hair. I have no idea what she’s like as a front of house person, but this coffee that I’m drinking right now is rather delicious and I thought the feather was a nice touch.

Finally: one of the things I like best about Deluxe is that it’s a well established Wellington cafe that I feel comfortable in and that I haven’t worked at. I went through a stage where I worked at a lot of cafes in a very short amount of time, and it changed my relationship with all of them - I still HATE going to Fidels. The fact I haven’t had an anxiety attack behind that counter still preserves The Mystery, and that I deeply appreciate.

Investigative Money: studying, and the fine art of living on next to nothing

My money situation has done nothing but improve since I've started studying. I think I've ranted before about how liberating the lack of money feels - my acute awareness of the lack of money means that I'm not overspending week by week, rather, counting (and accounting for) every cent. I've been very accurate with my budget, something I have been not that great at doing in the two or three months leading up to beginning study. And it feels absolutely fabulous. I really want to take this feeling of control with me into the post-study, post-debt stage of my life, and it's something I'm going to work really hard to maintain.

I could never have imagined myself saying this 18 months ago. Bizarre.

Truth be told, I've had a couple of great things that have happened that have further freed up my money situation, including the tax people being very understanding with my tax repayments (did I mention my $5000 of overdue taxes? No?). Basically, I had paid off about half of this debt and - be still my beating heart - have been "excused" from the remainder, due to hardship. That is: I rang the IRD to advise them that I would have to pay off the debt at a much lower rate per week, and they just wiped it entirely. When they rang me to tell me this, the phone had woken me up from an afternoon nap and I was absolutely convinced that I had dreamt it. I had to wait until a letter arrived before I could let myself believe. It felt like an enormous weight melting off my shoulders, dissolving into the ether, slip-sliding away ... Moral of this story: TALK to the IRD petals. TALK to the tax people. Do not run away from the Tax.

Would you like to see the Debt Unicorn?

Cunning things to notice: I am just over $1000 dollars still in debt. I'm paying off about $100 a month at the moment (down from $600) and just whittling away at it for the time being. I plan to pay off the rest in a couple of big chunks when I'm working again and then dance in my underwear for about three weeks non-stop.

Ok, so enough of the skiping already. Want to hear my top things for saving money at the moment?

• Taking a leaf out of Ange's book, I am giving myself "espresso days" and not drinking espresso coffee on any other days (unless, of course, I am given one as a treat from my Boy). So, at the moment, I'm only drinking espresso coffees on Monday, Friday and one day in the weekend. Sometimes on Monday I think "oh, I'll treat myself tomorrow instead", but my self imposed rule means that even if I shuffle my treats around I'm still limiting my treats, and given that the coffees are now like, $4 each, the limitation sure is something.
• On the rest of the days, I take my wee flask of coffee to school and drink it in the student common room. It's officially the geekiest mature student thing that I do.
• Having breakfast means that I'm not hungry during my morning break - I come home and eat something substantial for lunch, leftovers or poached eggs on toast. Lately we've had a lot of soup around. So, no buying food out, unless I'm going for dinner or some other kind of meal - and then it's a social event, which is another matter entirely.
• If I'm not drinking any coffee and coming home for lunch, and then working from home in the afternoon, I've found myself having "spend nothing" days almost inevitably.
• I'm back on the cash band wagon. I take out $100 dollars on pay day, knowing that it should be enough to last the week. And, so far it's been pretty good - I've even been able to put a little money in my savings account because there has been money in my spending account that I haven't even touched.
• I've been saving for things I want! I've thought out any big purchases I'm planning to make over the next six months or so and I know about when and about how much I'm going to have to stump up. Organisation with money is a strange and wonderful thing.
• I'm not allowing myself to owe people money. If I can't pay for it, I don't do it.
• I've purged yet more of my clothes, and have taken stock of my clothing situation. The only clothing I can imagine myself needing or wanting over the next year would be a pair of black pants (I imagine cigarette-style pants). I've taken in a bunch of my clothing to the Recycle Boutique so I should have a little money there to help me get a new pair.
• And finally - tiny luxuries make me happy. I'm trying to treat myself to something little and luxurious week by week, knowing that (like the coffee) it's a little treat to reward me for all my good work. At the moment I'm looking at my lovely little miniature roses and reflecting on how pretty, lovely, and cost efficient they are. 

I'm loving on my tiny, concise world at present. Of course, I'm pretty much a hermit. But, I love that as well so HEY HO.

Eating Some Food in Wellington, a review: Customs Brew Bar

Part two of an infrequent series

In Part Two, I visit the Customs Brew Bar and have a rather nice sandwich.

via Selector, part of an article about the eco-cork flooring in the place. How about that!

Friday lunch I broke my "no meals out rule" for the first time in a week, and sought out a sandwich at the Customs Brew Bar. This wasn't the first time that I've visited Customs but it was the first time that I'd eaten there - my desire to do so was entirely because there was a woman eating a sandwich when I had a coffee there on Thursday and it looked really.freaking.good.

Anyways, on Friday I marched in and up to the counter and demanded of the wait dude what "the deal was with their sandwiches", a request that he interpreted pretty well given how opaque (rude?) it was. I had a toasted roast beef, horseradish and blue cheese foccacia and it was as delicious as the Thursday woman's sandwich had looked. The only possible complaint I could have would be that the horseradish was not as fiery as I would have liked. However: still crazy delicious! For drinks I went nuts, and instead of my regular soy flat white I had a little demitasse of cold drip coffee. CALL ME A CONVERT. I wanted to drink it until I bounced off the walls.

I can't fault the service - I'd forgotten my wallet and didn't realise until after I'd ordered my lunch, but they were 100% happy for me to eat first, enjoy my lunch, and come back and pay later. Nice one! Everyone was super friendly as well which is always welcome. However, in the past I've been sitting there while a friend of one of the wait staff came in and had a very loud half hour conversation about fixed gear bicycles - shouting at one another across the cafe. Bah! Too loud! I am totally pro baristas having lives and friends and talking to their friends about their lives, but it is a bit irritating when you're sitting there alone and can't concentrate on your ridiculously wordy novel.

In conclusion: awesome cold drip coffee, the espresso is more than acceptable, I'm not sold on those new/old fangled analogue drip coffees yet but I'm willing to be convinced. Roast beef sandwich = for the win, and when friends aren't around the service is great! Treat yourself to a nice lunch there and make sure you try the cold drip coffee.

Fun fact: Customs was nominated for both best coffee and best service at the Wellingtonista TAWAs last year, which drove me onwards to explore the place, proper-like.

Wednesday List: Lovely Ladies with whom I'd love to have a coffee

IMDb

In no particular order, a list of women who I think would make wonderful coffee partners.

♥ My lovely, wonderful, funny and gorgeous Bex. I would like to have a coffee with her, and then also perhaps a couple of bottles of wine. I received texts all weekend about her trip to Washington DC, but it's not the same (wails).

♥ The fabulous Lizzie. Lizzie, you rock my tiny world, and I want to hear about your shop and your plans and the fabulosity you've been investing in. I miss you Lizzie!

♥ Peta Mathias who is a lady crush and fabulous to boot. She wrote a book, you know, called Can We Help it we're Fabulous? I've never met her, BUT I now have a possible contact, so when I go to France I will stalk her HARD CORE or - invite her out to coffee and sit spellbound in front of her like a student with her yogi. I'll be all "Peta! Lay your wisdom upon me". And she'll be like "Ginger, you should eat delicious food and dye your hair orange and move to France and be fabulous", and I'll say (while nodding) "Yes, yes, yes!"

♥ The apparently very batty Helena Bonham Carter. Batty! I should not be hungover for that coffee though, because, as is well recorded, I don't deal well with batty people while hungover.

♥ There are three internet people I'd like to meet for coffee: Alex Franzen, Bex from Thrifty Chick and Guyana Girl. For various reasons, including the general fabulosity of all. Fabulous! Also, I have been cross-commenting with GG since I first started my blog - she started hers about the same time. She's been there, man.

♥ Anais Nin - I'd sit in a stunned silence as she analysed me and told me about sleeping with her father. Also, I would admire her clothes and the way that she dresses, and quiz her about her relationship with her husband and how the hell that worked, and about Henry Miller and what he's really like. Because I can't make head nor tail of him or her or their relationship, and there's been a metric crapload written about it from both of them and from a bunch of other people too.

If you could choose anyone - who would you want to have a coffee with? I mega-cropped this list FYI.

Investigative Blogging: more about making my own beauty bits

The other week I blogged about saving money and beauty stuff (and incidentally got some awesome tips. Thanks!). I briefly mentioned that I'd started making my own body scrubs, and that I was interested in making a coffee based scrub. I tried it on Thursday.

Dudes. I am so in love with this scrub.

On pay day I went to the health food store, bought some sweet almond massage oil and some geranium essential oil, rushed home to mix up the scrub and proceeded to lovingly smother myself in coffee grinds. I've been using it for about four days now, and my skin feels soft and smooth (oh my!). The caffeine in the scrub is supposed to encourage circulation and decrease the appearance of cellulite too. Not so sure about that, but I do feel peppy in the morning.

Since the complete and unprecedented success of my adventures in body scrubbing, I have developed something of a passion for making my own beauty bits. Firstly, this is because it is CHEAP. However, it's also  pretty awesome fun, and I love hearing Shannon sound like a grumpy old man while he complains about food in the shower (evil laugh).

This weekend, after much research, I infected Jo with my enthusiasm and convinced her to indulge in some Serious Sunday Night Fresh Food Facial Pampering. We drank some port and mixed up a bunch of different scrubs to see what was the most effective. Our conclusions were:

♥ Baking soda zit paste: Jo tried this. She wasn't sold, but agreed that it seemed to make the zit fractionally less red and sore.

♥ Sunflower seed exfoliant: The oil in the sunflower seeds came out with the water and made a lovely gentle, soft scrub. Very pro this exfoliant.

♥ Baking soda and oatmeal exfoliant: Ouch. Way too harsh, unless you are fourteen and desperate to strip your skin of any oils. I am now fearing a horrible horrible breakout of rosacea unhappiness. Never again. The term "burning" springs to mind. Maybe I used too much baking soda.

♥ Egg white face mask: It was universally agreed that egg white was the winner on the day. MMMM silky smooth facial parts!

Recipes for beauty bits mentioned in this post (because I care)

(These first two recipes come from a Sunday Star Times magazine article)

♥ Coffee Body Scrub: 1 cup coffee grinds (out of the pot is fine), 1/4  cup sugar, 1 Tbsp Sweet Almond oil. I've also been adding a couple of drops of Geranium for smelling yummy and for extra revitalising. WOO!

♥ Oat and Sugar Body Scrub: 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup honey and oil. (I used cooking oil the first time I made this. I strongly recommend you don't follow my lead because EW.)

(From my baking soda book: The Wonders of Baking Soda. I have no idea where this book came from originally, but my dad gave it to my mum and my mum gave it to me. The copy I have has no author or date of publication)

♥ Baking soda and oatmeal exfoliant: whiz a handful of uncooked oats, some water and a handful of baking soda in a blender. Probably best to keep in an airtight container if you want to use it for a while.

♥ Baking soda zit paste: mix up a paste of baking soda and water, roll into a ball and press balls on to spots and let them sit there as long as possible. This looks kind of freakish.

(From an awesome website that I'm in the process of properly investigating)

♥ Sunflower seed exfoliant: grind up 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds and mix into a paste with water. I've put a whole bunch of ground sunflower seeds in a jar and I'm just going to add water as I go. Also, I'm keen to try a couple of drops of chamomile or lavendar oil in the mix, as I hear that they are good for rosacea. Perhaps I could mix with cold chamomile tea?

♥ Egg white facial mask: whip egg white until it's foamy and paint on your face with a brush or your fingers (I used a clean foundation brush). Let it sit until it feels tight and wash it off with cool water.

At the end of this whole process I followed up with my Trilogy Rose Hip Oil, which I'm hoping like hell will calm down the baking soda harassed part of my face. PLEASE.

On Monday, I drink all the coffee.

Top to bottom: Ffffound, Bellen, Toothpaste for Dinner, Bellen again.

Also, did you hear? No more Bellen! *sad face*

Arohanui: On Friday, where I list a bunch of stuff that I ♥

via Married To The Sea. I have all of these symptoms excerpt the insomnia, but that's only because of the laudanum

♥ My Boy is here this weekend! He’s taking a break from the epic work trip around the North Island, and I plan to scheme with him about trips and budgets in between teacups of whiskey and kisses.


♥ Discovering a cache of cheesy pop songs on my computer at work. The computer I use still has the previous owners iTunes library loaded up on it and imagine my joy to discover a bunch of Beyonce, Destiny’s Child and Kelis music that I would never confess to wanting to own. I am on a permanent ‘Single Ladies’ loop now, and it makes me happy.

♥ Surprises! My Boy sent me a parcel of sliver and a super sweet note, and I also received the first letter in Mister Black’s letter sending project. So a good week for exciting stuff in the mail, indeed.

♥ Coffee coffee coffee always and forever. You’re my number one, Coffee.

♥ The women I skate with. I confess, skating often puts me at my wits end, but I can’t dispute that I have met some seriously awesome women through derby. My Smash Malice buddy Rocket Queen is rocking my world at the moment - super supportive.

♥ Seeing peeps during lunch breaks, still a novelty after the dread Hutt experience that was my previous job. I’ve caught up with Mon who I haven’t really seen since my Ricochet days, I saw Jessica and her husband and brand new baby earlier this week, and have plans in the works to see Bella and Sarah and Matthew.

Honourable mentions:

♥ Wearing homemade clothes ♥ toasted sandwiches♥ IM with Bex ♥ mixtape CDs ♥ Milk Crate ♥ pre-pay coffee cards ♥ enormous bottles of whiskey ♥ my terrabyte drive (geek) ♥ rediscovering the power of conditioner ♥ knitting tattoo plans ♥

Bonus extra awesomeness, because it never gets old:

GPOYW - Now with extra caffeine for extra fun

And here I am in one of my favourite poses:

This weekend in Pictures

SATURDAY: Woke up late at the Boy's place and watched Breakfast at Tiffany's, finished knitting a sock and luxuriated. Mm, luxury.

Then a coffee at Mojo on Cambridge Terrace. They've changed their Spanakopita recipe and it SUCKS in comparison to how good their old one was. Boo! Wrong pastry BOO! I saw the girl who was my favourite barista until she left Mojo Summit.

At home I pulled a bunch of yarn from my New Zealand Yarn Sampler box and made two bracelets and started a bookmark (finished the bookmark Saturday morning).

Better shots of the bracelet that I knitted from my handspun VIntage Purls merino

SUNDAY: More knitting. I made this very pretty sleep mask and lined it with some floral cotton I picked up at an op shop at the end of last year. PRETTY! I now I can feel like Audrey Hepburn while I'm luxuriating in bed.

Later the lovely Boy came over for Valentine's Day dinner. I made delicious awesome Spanakopita from this recipe on Recipezaar.

♥ Campus A Low Hum - Day One ♥

It's taken me ages to write all of this and now I'm worried that it just reads like an appalling story written by a small child ("And then I went to the Zoo, and then I had an ice cream, and then I rode on the train"). So. Just saying.

I cadged a ride with the Boy up to Bulls the day before camp started and decided to have an early night, which mean that I woke up full of PEP and VIM on Saturday morning, CALH Day One. It rained all Friday night and on and off for most of Saturday, but in an effort to be mature and responsible I had checked out the weather before I left (indeed, obsessed over it) and had brought a pair of gumboots and some awesome plastic ponchos that made me look like I’d just been picked up from the drycleaners.

I spent the first part of the morning haunting the canteen and looking forlornly towards their espresso machine (i.e. the Teat from which I Prefer to Suckle) because OH MY GOD I NEEDED COFFEE. This need was a combination of the beer I’d drunk the night before that was still hanging out with me, and all that fresh out-doorsy air.

Shannon and the RNZ crew were working the first part of Saturday and the rest of the people in my tent party (Bex, Luke, Bryna, Peter) had bustled of to Marton for gumboots and umrellas, so I was left to my own devices. I lurked ex-workmate Ange and gf for a bit and then wandered off to look for Lippy with whom I was supposed to be doing skating stuff. As soon as I started looking for her she appeared like magic and we managed to get a skate in and try out the floor before attending life drawing classes, which were being run by a friend of Lippy’s.

Lippy and Me getting arty with ourselves

This was great, but apparently it was vitally important that I made a dick of myself during this class, mishearing “gesture drawing” as “jester drawing” and thus making a douchey-smartass comment completely inadvertently. I’m actually blushing just thinking about it. Anyhow, it turns out that I’m not as shit an artist as I thought – with the right patience and guidance, two beers and my Derby Wife by my side, THIS is what I can achieve:

Dude! It kind of looks like a person and not a series of blobs!

It was already well past midday before I got around to seeing any bands – the first I saw was Parking Lot Experience who were a bunch of guys from Melbourne. I can’t remember anything about the music, but I can tell you that they made a very impressive human pyramid on stage and then performed a Chinese dragon dance that became a conga line.

We had a quite a nice relaxing afternoon and evening featuring more alcohol (a theme for weekend), gumboots and a deep and meaningful between Bex and me (kisses darling). At some point after we’d drunk copiously we noticed what the time was and toddled off to see the Dodos play. Shannon and I ended up perched on the edge of the stage which was awesome fun; he gave a boost to a small girl who was trying to climb on top of a stack of speakers. That was one of the most fun things about Camp – even if you were doing something that was basically kind of dumb, there were no grown ups telling you what you could and couldn’t do (with the exception of climbing the water tower. That was Verboten). Oh, and as always the Dodos were fantastic to watch! I enjoyed this gig much more than when I saw them at San Fransisco Bath House at the end of 2007 because the sound was just too loud for me. I ended up having to stand right at the back of the bar and even then my ear drums were quivering with fear.

After the Dodos had played, Bex and I changed into our toga/sheets for the Orientation party which had been billed, essentially, as a non-ironic bogan fest. We danced to some seriously bad 90s music in the gym, including that KORN track about doing it all for the nookie (still stuck in my head). I was disturbed at the amount of nostalgia that the music and the situation made me feel and I felt strangely affectionate towards the situation instead of horrified. Indeed, I was thrust back in time to 1998 when I went to all these trashy parties with Hayley and her Chilton friends, parties that also featured a whole bunch of gross Hutt Boys and a fair amount of RTDs. Dude, I was THERE again. I was feeling it. I requested "Barbie Girl" from the DJ.

 VIA Sean

Later during the Orientation party, having cleared an enormous dancing space for ourselves, Bex and I decided it would be an awesome idea to slide around on the floor on our knees and I promptly bruised myself on top of an earlier bruise I’d got from roller skating.

NEXT WEEK: A crocodile, two holes, and I actually see some bands.

This Weekend in Pictures

  

Saturday: Bella and affogato and sock knitting in the sunshine at Caffe Eis by the Frank Kitts Lagoon. Birthday drinks for Kate later in the evening.

Sunday: My mum, and then Bex and gin and hiding from the rain at Duke Carvell's.

The sad tale of Petunia, the tea-cup pig that wasn’t

During the Christmas break, I had a beautiful dream. A dream involving the ownership of a pet pig called Petunia who was pink and lovely and affectionate. Ah, lovely Petunia. She was fairly large and wiggled her bottom when she walked.

When I woke up I subjected Shannon to a discussion of Petunia. I talked about walking her in the city and having a coffee at Deluxe with her tied up under the table. And then I started thinking about tea-cup pigs! They’re adorable! And little!

I thought: I could have a tea-cup pig called Petunia! And she could ride in the front basket of my bicycle! And instead of being a crazy cat lady I could be a crazy pig lady!

It was a wonder that I managed to get back to sleep with so much excitement, but I did thank goodness. I slept in till midday I think.

That day, I thought about pet pigs. I thought about Petunia. I thought about hanging out with Petunia, and Petunia sleeping on the end of my bed and grunting excitedly when I came home from work. Petunia was so real I could almost touch her. So obsessed was I with conceptual-Petunia that I decided to do some research and make Petunia a reality.

It was then that my dreams of Petunia fell down around my ears.

Firstly, did you know how expensive tea-cup pigs are? They’re ludicrously expensive. Also, breeders recommend that you get more than one because they’re herd animals and they don’t like being alone – which ends my plans of leaving her at home while I’m at work. Also, twice ludicrously expensive is stupid amazing expensive. Also, they grow to be reasonably large – about the size of a small spaniel. Also, I have no idea where one can get a tea-cup pig in New Zealand.

I kind of gave up on tea-cup pigs at this point and decided that I would look at kune kune pigs instead, which are equally adorable, a lot more accessible - in fact, there is a breeder in Pauahatanui, which is about half an hour’s drive away. However, kune kune pigs proved to be a dead end as well! They live for like 20 years and end up weighing about as much as I do and dig up your garden something terrible so probably not that ideal for a rented property. I can’t imagine many land lords being totally cool with me moving in with a pig of any description, for that matter.

No pigs for me until I’m a stay-at-home farmer’s wife.

A few days later I saw this picture on Tumblr:

I thought: SQUEE! A possible Petunia substitute! because pugs are almost as cool as pigs, and dogs are a little easier to deal with (insofar as they aren’t as weird a pet as a pig is and are less likely to freak out a potential land lord). Also, it’s a lot easier to find pugs in New Zealand than it is to find tea-cup pigs! And a pug named called Petunia is would be adorable too! And she’d still fit in the front basket of my bicycle!

And then I started researching pugs and OH MY GOD they are a perfect example of the disastrousness of pedigree breeding. Did you know something like 80% of pugs will have to have an eye operation at least once in their life that New Zealand Pug Rescue bills at about $600? I can’t afford that! They’re wheezy and bad for asthmatics and they need lots of attention.

Thus:
Pugs are not for me.
Pigs are not for me.
And Petunia remains a lovely dream.
RIP Petunia.

A hunk of burning *Arohanui!*

Did you imagine jazz hands around the *arohanui*? That’s what I was trying to convey with the exclamation marks and the asterisks. Today I am very tired because I did that thing where I stay awake really late for no apparent reason but I’ve decided to distract myself from that (and from work!) by writing a list of Things I Love. Oh, and check it! Today is actually Thursday.

• My new KeepCup has arrived! It’s rather pretty – charcoal and pink and it is absolutely the most perfect size for my soy flat white in the morning and I’m not using takeaway cups anymore! I’ve had a big Thermos cup for the last few years but it’s so insanely huge that it’s hard to work out how far up to fill it with espresso, and so I gave up on using it (so bad). But my KeepCup handily fits in my bag and is exactly the right size. Also, I’d like to make a knit or a crochet sleeve for it to make it even MORE pretty. I have some sparkly aqua yarn that is very fluffy and 80s. An option?

• I’ve decided to purge my belongings in an effort to have less stuff to carry around – and I already love the way things are shaping up! I know I mentioned this yesterday, but it wasn’t until last night that I successfully rearranged my shelves (by colour) and noticed that now my two bookshelves are nowhere near full. Cleaning out clothes is less inspiring, more emotional and far more difficult. But I’m doing it, dammit! And I know from experience that it feels good too, once it’s gone and I can’t feel the weight of my belongings hanging like a mill stone around my neck *dramatic pose*. I LOVE PURGING MY STUFF.

• My food fad of the moment is macaroni cheese, and The Pioneer Woman has made my skirt fly up with the recipe for Gourmet Macaroni Cheese that she posted before Christmas. It has four (four!) different kinds of cheese in it. It’s a good thing that big butts are healthy (it’s true - I read it in the newspaper).

• Lately, Tumblr has been a huge source of inspiration for me in terms of images and looking. That is, I can live without the song lyrics and angsty prose and poetry but I love love love looking at the pretty images. It was Tumblr that spurred my need to arrange my bookshelves by colour. It was Tumblr that inspired my desire to overhaul my wardrobe so that I only dress as though I were a character in I Capture the Castle. Apparently, Tumblr has a lot to answer for.

honourable mentions: Rupert Everett travel history documentaries; knitting socks; reciprocal cooking arrangements; waking up with the Boy; a changed template for my blog; toasted sandwiches; wearing make-up to work (I feel much more grown up and professional); making resolutions; choosing audio books via Audible using recommendations from Goodreads; finding a flatmate; and anticipation!: Spinsters’ Knitting Club this weekend and Camp A Low Hum the weekend after that.

End of the Christmas break for me.

I’m back at work and am existing in a liminal zone between twiddling my thumbs, procrastinating and doing incredibly irritating nitpicky work. Quelle surprise - tres boring. My first day at work was an epic adventure in comedic misadventures AND REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING. Items:

• Tried toasting left over panettone in the toaster for breakfast, whereupon the panettone promptly jammed and filled the kitchen with smoke and I spent ten minutes digging burnt bits of it out of the toaster with a knife.
• Buses were replacing trains and thus public transport was running late. Also, knitting on the bus made me feel motion sick removing the only enjoyable thing from my trip to work. Also, I forgot my iPod, so no happy audio books for me.
• Upon arriving at Petone station for a transfer, my carton of soy milk exploded in my bag and soaked me and everything I own with soy milk. Everything I owned then smelt of rancid soy milk and I smelled like rancid soy milk for the whole day. Joy.
• Upon arriving at work, I discovered that I had left my swipe card on my dresser. The main entrance gate was locked, and I was forced to crawl under it on the wet ground.
• When I tried to have a cup of Bad-Workplace, Any-Port-in-a-Storm coffee I discovered that the soy milk I'd been able to recover from the Terrible Soy Milk Accident was soured and gross.
• NOELLE MCCARTHY ON THE RADIO. so.annoying. In fact, the National Radio summer programme is pretty ghastly all round, and especially in the morning - I can be somewhat indulgent of the awfulness of Matinee Idle (the awfulness being the point of it), but Summer Noelle is a killer. I repeat: so.annoying.

AND (piece de resistance):

• During the week I was away, my boss created extra work in an already complicated job by telling me to do something different, causing a series of annoying problems that I now need to sort out so that I can go back to doing what I was doing in the first place.

On the plus side, things have been much better since and have included the discovery that Supermarket brioche is almost like real brioche if you heat it for 20 seconds in the microwave. In fact, it's almost good. Also, tonight is New Years Eve! And I have absolutely NO PLANS AT ALL except hanging with the Boy and this is filling me with inestimable joy. I want to knit and watch old movies and eat and drink and then we can kiss at midnight and go to bed.

First Christmassy Weekend of 2009

bryna, jo, bex, me

Despite some impressive gale force winds, I managed to experience some sunshine this weekend and had my first Christmassy weekend of this December – strawberries and mussels and drinking too many bubbly things in the sunshine! Saturday I woke at the Boy’s and went out craft shopping for the last bits and pieces I needed to finish some presents I’ve been making (glass eyes and florist wire). While I was shopping I put down the tiny key that locks the back wheel of my bicycle and lost the key. I then had to leave my bike on Marion Street and travel home on the bus, pick up my spare set of keys, change my clothes, tidy my room and otherwise ready myself for Bryna’s family Christmas party in the evening, to which I would have to travel via the Marion Street Craft Store, where I would jump on my bicycle and ride it up to Roseneath. Did I mention how much I hate missioning about in the weekends? And also how it always ends up happening. This is a case in point as I was well organised until I lost the tiny key and my organisation went BLAM KAPUT DEAD. “UP to Roseneath” is no kind of throwaway term. Bryna assumed I was walking, gave me the “via Grass Street” directions and as I didn’t correct her I ended up carrying my bicycle (which weighs 20kg+) up an almost vertical zig zag ramp and stair walkway. There were many stairs. I didn’t count them all because I was too busy trying not to die of asphyxiation and burning muscle pain. The party itself was lovely, and although I was a bit intimidated by the glut of small baby-type people at the beginning of the evening, I found that a litre of Boysencider and four glasses of fizzy wine helped me to over come this. Peter made a Belgian feast and fed us deep fry and mayonnaise and I ate too much smoked salmon. Also, the deck was quite sheltered and we were able to enjoy some sunshine! I LOVE SUNSHINE. Summer begins very slowly in Wellington, so any chance to lounge around in beautiful Vitamin D makes me very happy. I rode (rather wobbly it must be said) from Bryna’s to the Boy’s place where his flatmate Dave was having a combined “not-Birthday” and “not-Christmas” party. Thus, it was not especially festive, but I did see Bea and Henry who I haven’t seen for ages and was very, very happy to see (there were more friendly lovely types there, but it was Bea and Henry that made me squee rapturously). Parties filled with people I haven’t seen for weeks always make me think of summer and Christmas and I feel about 50% more festive! I suspect this is due to end-of-University-people-coming-back-to-the-City associations. On Sunday I had another full day, first meeting Mon for market shopping and coffee and gossip, and then attending the Inaugural Spinsters’ Knitting Club Craftinoon Tea. The wind was still gale force but the sunshine was around (at least, I managed to convince myself I was seeing sunshine while I was being blown about. It could have been an optical illusion). After wandering about Chaffers Market, Mon and I went to Sweet Mother’s Kitchen where I ate a pulled pork po boy sandwich. By the way - OH MY GOD I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF THOSE THINGS. They Taste So Good. The Craftinoon Tea was good fun, I drank many Bellini, finished some Christmas present projects and taught some (very) basic crochet skills to Megan. Bryna invited us to her apartment as the weather was due to be so awful (nixing outdoor crafting plans) and it was so sweet of her – especially as she seemed quite tired and hung over. She still managed to be a gracious host while preventing her small son from dropping buttons into glasses of gin and bashing everything in sight with bamboo knitting needles. That’s some kind of talent and I am infinitely impressed. This week is my last week of work before Christmas and I still have a bunch of Christmas presents to muddle through as well as attending the pre-Christmas festivities to which I’ve committed myself. It’s beginning to look as though it might be a busy one – thought I’d try out busyness for a change and see what it feels like.

About this sort of time, since 2005

So, I've been keeping this blog since 2005! Can you believe that? Maybe I should have a five year anniversary party for myself next year. It should have a theme. Do you have any ideas for the theme? Please suggest me some, maybe in the comments. Themes are AWESOME. This is what I posted here about this time (give or take a few days) every year since 2005:

• 2005: "In Which Sarah Meditates Upon The Role Of The Kangaroo In Australian Society"

I was in Adelaide, with only a few days until I left for the West Coast road trip (which was fab). I had a great meal. I spoke about a song I'd made up while having a bad trip and driving through the Adelaide hills.

• 2006: "Suspend the Bitching"

I was in Wellington, I was working at Fuel and making coffee. Caffeine and sunshine had made me relentlessly cheerful.

• 2007: "Old Bill's Bach"

I was leaving for the weekend with Victoria (now in Europe somewhere), Ange (now shacked up deep in the heart of Newlands) and Bex (who is just as gorgeous as ever). Those were fun times. I'd like to do it again.

• 2008: "Who? What?"

A list with the craftiness! And the ranting! And a picture from a French New Wave movie!

Wow. I was in Australia such a long time ago now, and my "few months of getting myself together" has turned into "a few years of settling down". It's a bit scary.

EDIT: Bex can't post comments when she's at work, but she emailed me and it MUST be shared...

I think that your celebratory blog anniversary should have a SCP-theme, so that all guests must dress up as a direct reference to one particular post. Possibilities could include a kangaroo, Anais Nin, a derby girl, a moustache (or a moustachioed individual, Dirty Sanchez or similar), Dr. Robert Ersek, your mother, Agatha Christie, Guyana Girl, Edith Piaf, a cupcake, a peggy square and a grieving mime.