Coffeehouse.co.nz

It’s been really quite windy here for a few days now. Like annoyingly windy for an annoyingly long time. I’m not sure how many days it’s been, but it’s a few, and it looks like carrying on for a few more too.

Where we are it’s been an annoying gusty, irritating wind that even the sound of starts slowly winding us up the longer we have any doors or windows open.  And we need to have some open now and then as this new apartment gets too hot (especially if we’re cooking) if we don’t.  So we’re up and down opening the door, then slowly finding we’re grinding our teeth and tensing our shoulders more and more as everything rattles and blows everywhere until we eventually have to shut it again, and then the heat builds up again and the cycle continues. ARRGGHH! It’s not helped by the fact that we’ve only got one outward facing wall, so if the wind or rain is coming from that quarter/third of the compass we’re a bit stuffed. And it seems to have been for the last week.

The poor plants on the balcony aren’t liking it either, but at least they seems to be staying upright. Some of their poor leaves are taking a battering smashing themselves into the edges of the pots though. Poor babies!

It has reminded me of living in Windy Wellington, where I lived for many years. I’ve not really thought about that for years and years, but the latest weather has definitely brought back some memories. From that site link: “Wellingtonians learn to live with the wind, some claiming they like it.” Like it?! Bollocks! I never met anyone there that ever admitted to liking it. I would have to admit to getting used to it, though. But I suspect you can get used to anything if you have to deal with it long enough.

I guess it could be worse. It could be a real gale, like we used to get regularly in Wellington, especially when I lived on the top of a ridge in (I think – it’s been a long time now) Khandallah. There, when there was a real wind, the window, the tiles, the bins outside, all used to rattle all night, and if there was any rain it sounded more like hail on the windows. I say “all night” because I suspect I’m not willing to try to remember what it was like going outside during the daytime…

But I kind of wich there’d just be a big blow here and it could perhaps be all over?  It’s just getting too damn annoying now.

Yay!  Looks like I’m the proud owner of a Kiwi classic: a Thermette!

Mum grabbed me one at auction this week. Waddaya mean you’ve never heard of them?! Bah!  Check out the Wikipedia entry, or a current distributor’s site (no connection to me).

I can’t wait to get back to NZ so I can go camping or fishing or driving and stopping  at a picnic area for an excuse to fire it up!

Who needs gas stoves! Bah! Where’s the fun it those?!

I got home from work today and caught a glimpse of the blog entry called ‘First signs of life’… Well I’m really talking about the pic Mike posted with it.

My first thoughts were that a goldfish had died, and Mike had buried it and given it a headstone.  Then I remembered we’ve never even had a goldfish over here!

I remember some at home and when they died and needed to be flushed or buried my older brothers used to say ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust, may this goldfish not rust‘.

I hope Mike has more luck with the  chilli plants!

As Jo thought, I seem to have given up smoking. At least I haven’t had a cigarette now for (checks clock) just over a full week.

So that’s the hard work done then, I think. Actually, while I wouldn’t say it’s been easy, it hasn’t been as hard as I’ve thought it might be either. Probably helped by the fact that I’ve been smoking the lowest nicotine content cigarettes for ages now, so the drop isn’t as bad as it could have been.

I can’t tell you if I’ve done it the easy or hard way by not using any NRT patches, gum etc., but replacing nicotine with nicotine somehow doesn’t seem like it’s going to help in the long run, so cold turkey it was. And so far I seem to have managed to avoid replacing it with anything else either, like food or gum etc.

Why, and why now?  I have no idea really.  I just seemed to get the right amount of information on what you need to do to quit, and what you’re going to have to deal with when quitting.  I recommend Alan Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking to anyone.  Even if you don’t stop when you’ve read it a lot of what’s in there just rattles around in your brain building up a bit of momentum for when you are randomly ready to give stopping a go.

I guess a constant prod comes over time from others at work quitting or attempting to quit.  Somehow someone who actually smokes quitting seems to have a lot bigger impact than someone who doesn’t telling you you should stop. Not that we talk about it much.  Those of us that are quitting/just quit at work seem to just be doing it in our own way, and talking about it seems just to make things harder, as we’re used to talking outside over a cigarette. Not really the best support network you could have!

Sites like this one are quite good to read too, as they help to understand what’s gong on: http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Symptoms.html But there’s a really fine line between helpful advice and too much doom and gloom that might just put you off even trying.  Some sites really go too far down the scary track!

Worst part so far has been having to limit coffee a bit.  Instead of going for a walk to have a smoke at work, going to get a coffee is another decent reason to stretch your legs. But apparently as your nicotine intake drops, you need about half the caffeine that you previously did to get the same caffeine hit. And I’d believe that from my experience over the last week. So I guess getting glasses of water might just have to do for some trips.

So, now that the almost-kinda-not-really-hard-work is done and the first week over, now I just have to keep up the slightly easier work for the next few weeks, then the really easy bit for the rest of forever…

Hopefully I’ve not been too cranky for Bec, but she can fill you in on her side of things if she feels the need.

I seem to have come across some stupid people lately (including our landlord, of course), but today I found a new one…

The last thing you want to move when you’re shifting flats is stuff you don’t need to.  Especially when it weighs a bit and you’ll just have to get rid of it after moving. So, as Bec was out at leaving dos, and as I has a whole heap of other coins to take to the bank to be transferred to light, paper money I thought I’d empty out the piggy bank that we’ve been using to hold the bedroom door open when we’ve wanted a bit of air through and bag it up

WHO IS THE IDIOT THAT THOUGHT THAT JUST BECAUSE Y0U PUT MONEY IN A PIGGY BANK YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO GET IT OUT AGAIN!!!!

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

About an hour struggling to peer through the wee slit with a blunt knife in hand,  I finally managed to get it all out.  If it wasn’t for Bec’s old habit of saving all the £2  coins she was ever given, I would have given up after about 5 minutes! And if it had gone on for about another 10 minutes longer I might have “accidentally” dropped it on a large, heavy hammer….

Megan, are you reading this?!  I think it’s all your fault really as I seem to recall we inherited this from you when you bailed leaving all your 2p coins behind!

I can see why now!

But at least that’s a little but less  weight to transfer to the new place. Assuming I can be bothered to take it to the bank before then!

Autumnal.  I think I like that word.  It just seems to roll out of the mouth nicely.

However, I’m not quite sure I like what it refers to.  We seem to have moved almost straight into autumn this week.  While we had a nice sunny weekend for a change, it was still cold enough to require a jersey to sit out in the sun.  The nights are a lot colder. And the days are getting very noticeably shorter.

At least the trees aren’t yet changing colour to make it really, really obvious that the summer is over.

Let’s just hope it’s a blip this week, and we’ll be back to some Indian summer weather for at least the rest of this month.

Somehow I doubt it though!

Yup, that’s right. It’s the last long weekend of the year here.  No respite from work until Christmas after this.

So how did we spend it?  We’ve really made the most of it so far!

First highlight: Another puzzle!

But somehow we managed to lose 2 pieces, or they were never there to begin with.  Not sure which is the most likely.  But it did mean we filled in a few more minutes searching the house for them.  Not to be found, unfortunately.

And then, for added excitement, we made some chutney! Some courgette chutney, to be precise.  Getting in practice to use up all the extra vegetables that we’ll no doubt have when we finally get a vege garden and go mad planting stuff.  Can’t tell you how it tastes yet.  It needs to brew for a few weeks in the fridge first.  I’ll try to remember to give you an update when we try it.  It’s nice to have something to look forward to, isn’t it?!

There’s still tomorrow left though.  Who knows what exciting things that will hold!

Just while you’re still waiting for us to get around to writing about our holiday…

We often joke that New Zealand national news is all about cats up trees. Well, here’s something even better!

Light-pawed Tigger wreaks havoc with the laundry – 02 Aug 2008 – Christchurch and Canterbury News, Sport and Weather from NZ Herald

And Bec thought her cat was a bit odd collecting pegs!

It now seems I have a bit of a personal tradition when I go to the States. Dump a pair of boots!

This pair were nowhere near as good as the last pair, but it’s still sad to see them go. But they were really getting past being comfortable. So they stayed Stateside with all the nappies.

This entry is just a note of appreciation to the nameless woman that saw that I only had one item while waiting in the supermarket queue, while she had a big full basket, and let me go first.

Thank you! It made me think that niceness isn’t quite dead here yet. Just!

To be honest, I’ve thought about doing the same every now and then but I always suspect that I’ll let the guy with just his loaf of bread and milk jump in front of us and end up waiting while he counts out the exact change in 1 and 2p coins (losing track twice and having to restart)… Maybe next time I’ll let him. What goes around should come around. Maybe it will help kick-start a small niceness wave in the city.

Although I suspect it might only last until the next time there’s tube trouble on a hot day!