Visions of Elections....Sugar Plums..... and Monks......

America has redeemed themselves and Obama is President. Woo!

New Zealand have taken an interesting route and voted National. My current thinking is WTF (!) but I will reserve judgement to see what gets screwed up first.

And advertising my heritage this week, I saw that some Greek Orthodox and Armenian (!) monks were in a brawl over some slight or other at the supposed site of Jesus' crucifixion. This is bizarre for me cause it seems that they are a *wee* bit far from home on both counts and it really doesn't fit with the overweight, blustery priests from both religions that I've met. This just reinforces my view that sometimes religion can go too far.......

I've been musing alot on Christmas and what I shall get for people. Currently I have a limited selection of ideas. It's very exciting thinking that I will get to be like Santa and travel down the island just to give presents to people. I'm thinking some fairy wings may be required.

Opera and World Politics

Woo - that's a hummer of a title for a post isn't it :) If I chucked Religion in there I'm sure that would have covered all the things that you shouldn't discuss in polite conversation.

Opera. Phantom of the, to be precise. FREAKING AWESOME. I've never seen it on stage before, although have been a huge fan since I was a nugget with a walkman and figured out how to copy records onto tape. Mum regularly used to come into the kitchen to turn down "Music of the Night" while I was washing dishes.
There was a whole issue with a cancelled plane from Wellington which lead to some panic, but since everyone got here in the end it was all fine.
The whole thing is just amazing - the chandelier as it goes up, then comes down, the very active set changes, the candelabras (so cool, I want), the scary high notes that people can actually reproduce while standing in front of a full house, and the costumes (OMG the COSTUMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Although Christines costume in Masquerade was AWFUL - she looked like a cheesy barbie doll! Not at all what it should have been!
I get all goosebumpy just thinking about it. And now I want to go again... :)


And now onto the other topic. World Politics.
I've been randomly following NZ and American elections with no real devotion, and I'm interested and apprehensive all at the same time to see what the next few years will look like.

NZ - National sucks, Labour sucks, and as far as I can gather Winston is a liar. So no real change is expected. What concerns me is just HOW lacklustre our so-called leaders are. You can't even mention illustrious in the same sentence as these people! I've seen the highlights of the leaders debates and all I'm hearing is Charlie Brown's teacher (or perhaps some of Romero's zombies..... aarrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh brrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnssssssssssssss). At this late stage I am only decided that I am not voting major party, mostly cause I'm sick of Helen and I don't trust John Key.

America - remarkably more interesting since they will have a first either way they go. I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about Carabou Barbie's clothes, but hey anything goes in American politics. Personally, I'm more comfortable with the idea of Obama in office but I don't get to vote so who cares.
What I'm finding the most interesting out of this election at the moment though is one of the more recent items the reporters have latched onto and are now squeezing every last drop of interest out of. Factions within the USA have been flapping their big fat mouths about how there will be Civil War if Obama gets into office. Now I find this remarkably funny for the following reasons:

1. Some of these people were dumb enough to do this on television. Seriously, if you want to launch a War, would you advertise it? No. Most coup leaders stay fairly lowish profile until they are in a position where they have good backing and some kind of power, and then cut the knees out from under the bugger they are trying to take down. (Alternatively, you find yourself a moron to act as the fall guy. Potential to succeed while not directly implicating you.).
2. The President has control of a rather large, well equipped army. What do these dumb arses have? A couple of rifles, and Arkansas. My bet in this scenario is the army.
3. The President has control of FBI, CIA, and who knows what else. Going back to my initial point that they were dumb enough to go on television about it, I think they can probably be indicted as under whatever law there is about internal terrorism/traitor. I'm pretty sure that if it all came down to it, a couple of black bag ops would quietly go into operation. It's a big country with lots of places to disappear. Conspiracy anyone?

The potential impacts of Civil War in the current economy would make the Great Depression look like a lovely day at the beach. Although I'm sure that it would be fine for all those people who have been reinacting the Civil War every weekend since it happened.

So I'm going to sit back and watch this "reporting" for the entertainment that I believe it to be.

And this weekend Judge is up to see me! Yay.

Random Thoughts and Speeding Cartoon Birds

For some reason, it's Thursday and it's the last one in October. I'm not sure where Tuesday or Wednesday went, although I'm sure that they happened - I've got the e-mails to prove it. Even worse it's Halloween tomorrow, which means I will have to leave the house and find some cinema to hibernate in between 5 and 9 to avoid children. Although this gives me the opportunity to wear light up devil horns to work if I so wish.

So obviously we are through the "hump day" of the year and are on the rapid downward slope to the weekend/summer.

Right now I'm feeling a little bit like Wile E. Coyote waiting for the Roadrunner to smack him with an Acme anvil. Seriously, where the hell has the year gone?

Finding Old Friends

So I've had two very busy weekends and am about to have another two very busy weekends.

The weekend before Labour Day weekend I decided to scoot down to the Tron to visit Miss T for a bit of a girls weekend while her hubby was off playing snooker in Wellington.
Earlier in the year I had been on Facebook and found one of my friends from primary school who I haven't seen since she moved when we were 11. We had tried to be pen-pals, but it kind of fell by the teenage wayside. I found out she lives in the Tron too, so we had a wee (online) chat and decided that we should catch up for a coffee while I was down visiting.
So on the Saturday morning, Miss T and I bowled over to Shell's place to meet her (again), her hubby and wee boy James. We thought we would be in for a quick tactical-strike-style catch up for a couple of hours and then out again. Were we ever wrong!
It's surprising that, given Shell and I hadn't seen each other in almost 20 years and that Miss T and Shell weren't particular friends, we just fell back into really easy conversation and were totally relaxed and had a complete blast. There was quite a bit of giggling, hassling her husband, looking at photos, and laughing about old school stories (especially ones that involved us 3 white girls in the Poly Club at primary school!).
5 hours and a really good quiche after we got there (5! 5 hours!!!!), Miss T and I decided that we should leave since Shell was planning on going out later and taking an 8 month old baby out takes preparation. But we swapped numbers and addresses, and have promised to catch up again soon (which is likely to involve some kind of party in her big party shed).
As people may know, I am *not* someone who really chases after people that I knew at school since I've managed to keep in contact with the ones that I actually liked. So I'm really, really pleased that I found Shell again. Facebook, I salute you (but just this once).

So this weekend past was the long weekend. Hurrah the holiday drought has ended! Ahem, but apart from that, Sarah, Alistair, Em and Jess came to visit. Actually they came up for a family reunion but I like to think I was all important enough for them to visit! I have rather missed all the higgledy piggledy noise and mess and hugs. I have forgotten how cool it is to have kids around. I'm all hugged up for the moment, but has made me miss Wellington again..... :/ Which means that I miss everyone.... :/ Damn you all for not moving to Orcland with me!

But to tide me over, I have Nic and Becks up this weekend for Phantom (YAY!!!!!!!) and Judge coming up the weekend after that just for the double-hockey-sticks of it (More YAY!!!!!!!). And then Xmas is coming so I'll be down in Wellington to visit for AGES (well 2 weeks but that's ages in my world at the moment).

So hugs and kisses to everyone, and I will see everyone soon! Unless of course you are overseas somewhere, cause then I won't. ;)

The Good, The Bad, and The Undateable

Good things:

• Charlotte has finally made it home out of hospital. Hurrah Little Fish.
• Nic loaned me the good version of Persuasion.
• The Evil League of Evil Application: The Embezzler. Congrats to everyone involved esp Morgue and Tec. If Joss doesn't pick this one, I don't know what is wrong with him (not that I'm biased or anything).
• A friend has announced she's pregnant. Woo! Especially so since she was starting to get a touch paranoid (*grin*)
• I'm going to visit the city of the future (Tron) tomorrow. This trip I've managed to get time with Miss T and will catch up with a friend that I haven't seen since Form 1. V. exciting.
• I finished my first strategy document ever. And apparently it was good.
• I finished writing my first RFP document ever. And apparently that was good too.
• Work paid for some trips to Wellington which meant I got to see a few people unexpectedly.
• I found some friends through work to play Munchkin and Apples to Apples with.
• "My" girls come to visit next weekend! I'm very excited.
• The Phantom has started at the Civic. Also v. exciting. And I get to go!
• Judge comes to visit soon!
• Xmas is only weeks away and I'm on holiday in Wellington for 2 whole weeks.
• The tax rebates. Took long enough and might actually have some benefit on my savings.

Bad Things:

• Charlotte was in hospital :(
• Babylon AD. Don't do it to yourself.
• The neighbours got burgled, which has made me slightly paranoid about locking things.
• I've been lacking hugs. I'm starting to go into serious withdrawl.
• I've put on weight again and current exercise levels are not balancing it. And I don't want to spend bundles on joining a gym cause I have yet to find one I like.
• I haven't been to dancing in ages cause I've been so busy that I'm finding it hard to actually get to classes.
• I haven't talked to my brother in ages. I'm feeling like a very bad sister.

The Undateable:

After considering my pathetic lack of love life, I decided to give the virtual dating world another whirl. I don't consider myself to be a supermodel in any way/shape/form (unless you count the generous cleavage), but I'm not some huckery-mole either.

So after putting myself out there, I managed to talk to some bloke and arrange for coffee. The obvious next step when you are spending considerable time chatting to each other. Not a problem!, I hear you say. It's just coffee! LIARS, all of you. I got STOOD UP. Luckily it was at the coffee place in Borders so I made myself feel better by buying a new book.

So following all of this I have continued my search for someone who I might make friends with, with a potential to date, with a remarkable lack of success. I swear that I must have some kind of glow in the dark sign on my forehead that says "DON'T DATE ME". Obviously this means that my very stylishly modern uber-pessimism superhero overundies (with hi-beam anti-dating labelling) have particularly successful. I'm glad to see Not-Kate is having more success than I am, cause someone has to be.

Poor Baby Whale

(I've finally figured out how to change my timezone! Hurrah!)

I've been avidly avoiding the stories about the baby whale on TV, on the various websites that I view, and in the newspapers (even though I don't see a whole lot of those). But this morning I saw on the NZ Herald site that vets are going to euthanise the poor little blighter because he's starving, and my pathetic girly hormones kicked in and I started to tear up.

In my logical brain, I have a voice saying it's for the best, cause you don't want a starving baby to suffer.

In my illogical, girly brain, there is a big storm of pathetic sobbing saying don't kill the baby whale, get a whole lot of milk and get a really big baby bottle and just attach it to the bottom of a yacht.

This is why I don't watch animal movies. I worry too much about the animals and just can't cope with all the drama.

Edit Note: It's 3.45pm and I've just been told that they put poor baby whale Colin down. More tearing up. :(

Amusement

1. There is a man that rides a bike around the streets near work. He's put a lawnmower motor on his bike and rides around pulling wheelies all the time. I'm guessing the wheelies are so that he doesn't accidentally apply the breaks to the wrong wheel.
2. The end of my student loan is in sight. Mwah ha haha. My last statement suggests that I should be free and clear leading into the beginning of the next tax year. There is a lot of happy happy joy joy about this and anticipation of the future freeing up of more funds.