Pigs and humans are the only animals to get sunburn

Actually, that's not so random, I think everyone knows that.

Today I did two blonde things.
a) I tried to open a milk carton for about 5 minutes, then read the 'open here' prominently displayed on the other end
b) I left my handbag at le petit bouchon where Cécile and I went for lunch. (For the benefit of Chch readers, since you haven't met Cécile, pointed out so eloquently by Mindy, she is a lovely, cheerful girl who is Vietnamese, speaks French as she has lived in New Caledonia most of her life, works in Application support, doing testing and training in the applications we write for our company, and a few miscellaneous other duties, and is learning kung fu and massage and sign language, and lives with Bastiaan who is Dutch and does something technological for his job too (hope I spelt that right) in Mangere Bridge, South Auckland, in a nice big house. With 2 ferrets. And she doesn't like cooking much, and she is an ISFP according to the Myers Briggs tests we did today. And she likes blue cheese, has long straight hair that she always wears out, and looked really cool when she borrowed David's sunglasses.)

Anyway I realised I had left my handbag behind when I was about halfway between there and work. So we turned around and went back and the waitress was hurrying down K Road with it! I have no idea how she knew which way I went since the cafe wasn't on K Road but in a little mall, and when I realised I was on Pitt St and not K Road either.. but very nice of her anyway!

Le Petit Bouchon is such a delicious cafe. I had the galette Normande and it was so nice, savoury crepe with apple, cinnamon and bacon. mm mmmm. I will be returning.

Raindrops aren't actually tear-drop shaped. They are rounded at the top and flat on the bottom.

Just been in chch.

Had an awesome time at the grad ball seeing so many people I haven't seen for ages - I was excited about seeing Mindy and Carl and Matt and Charlotte there - but there was also heaps of people from school and friends from unihall, people from my classes at uni, random friends of friends, people I ski with, Nick Thorne (he has a category all to himself), just heaps of people! So that was so so so totally exciting.

I now have a nice bruise on my arm from a close encounter with a chair.

Also in the weekend: visited big n&p with Jenna as per planned, had a yum lunch as always, they're off in their campervan for a little holiday soon so that will be nice for them. Had hot chocolate and cake and discussed life with Joy in Sumner, saw parents and played piano, Jenna felt real ill so we didn't go to the 21st but instead I had dessert with Miels and Doug! Yah. and then stayed at Lisa's till this morning.

Got a wonderful massage from Cécile (works with me) this afternoon, she has a lovely house, it's really nice. And I am really pretty tired today. Mike cooked us a roast with brussel sprouts and they were delicious! I am amazed.

Should be a nice week at work this week - have thurs and fri at grad training and Matt will be up for it! cool.

Canada is an Indian word meaning 'Big Village'

I had a great day at work today. I was looking forward to it this morning cos I like the ASP.net project I am working on now, and I knew what I was going to do etc. etc. and then I got there and remembered three of the guys at work were going to a Microsoft Connect course (plus one on annual leave, and one on bereavement leave) so it would be quieter. Although with David there it's never completely quiet. Anyway today I had a caramel cafe macchiato from esquires and it was yum. So yum that I was really excited about work all afternoon and stayed till 5.45, and only went home then cos I didn't really want to walk home in the cold and dark, and besides I was cooking tea. So I cooked vegetarian lasagne and it was yum! Then I came up here to pack, paint my nails, read my book etc. Oh and Brendon rang so that was nice too. Even though I'm not normally a phone person. Did I mention I started work at 8am this morning.
Oh and the heel snapped off my shoe at lunch-time today! This was a tragic occurrence.

I had two weird dreams last night.
1) Dean and I were studying a map and we both agreed 'yeah that's where the titanic sunk' and then got a digger to dig up a bit of sea bed there and then found this coin and it was gold and silver, and we sold it for $100,000 and got to keep $50,000 each. Of course the digger was free.

2)Lisa was telling me I had to break up with Karthik because she'd stopped liking him and now hated him, cos she'd spent all afternoon with him and he kept saying that he didn't mind to any of our decisions like 'where should we eat' and 'what shop should we go to next'.

So both of those were just so truly bizarre! I was glad after the second one that I woke up and it wasn't true, but the first one.. well $50,000 would have been nice :)

Grad ball tomorrow in chch! Exciting but I hope my plane isn't delayed, that I don't miss it, etc. etc. - I arrive in chch at 7.20 and have to get all ready and to ball by 8 ish... Will be interesting. But when I'm there I am sure I will have a great time seeing Charlotte, Matt, Carl, his girl, Mindy and Darren etc..

And Saturday I am having lunch with the gps in Irwell, and seeing Joy, then going to a 21st, after which I'm staying at Lisa's, flying back to Auckland Sunday lunchtime, then having a massage by Cecile :) Which I am sure I'll need by then. Ooh how exciting. I might even meet Bastiaan! maybe.

Wow... look.. another post...

Well since Jenna arrived yesterday I spent today getting ready for the grad ball next weekend. oh we bought and watched The Return of the Kind last night on dvd - 4hour mammoth effort, we made some nice thai soup and rolls for tea too. So today we went shopping, looked at shoes and foundation and hair accessories with no success, but Karthik did organise his suit hire so that was good, and we had a coffee somewhere too. Then came back and sp[ent literally an hour choosing an italian restaurant in Auckland at which to dine - yes we are that fussy. I wasnted it to be outside the CBD so that Jenna could see a bit more of Auckland, she wanted it to be nice so we had to check cuisine and other internet reviews... plus I was streaming music at the same time so the internet was slow... and the streaming was bitsy cos I don't have broadband! Yet. Anyway I'm kind of disappointed on the shoe front, means we'll have to venture to Newmarket or somewhere tomorrow and I did want to do something fun and toursity with Jenna since she's come all this way, not shop the whole time! Oh well if it's nice weather we'll go to Waiheke, otherwise the art gallery, or maybe museum? and we have to see Tanya tomorrow so must remember to ring her and go visit. plus we can go out for brunch, and go to a couple of shops in newmarket/parnell in a last-ditch effort to find something nice black and with straps and not a 10-inch stiletto heel!!! that fits. You wouldn't think it was that hard.
So off to Cafe latte tonight in Pt Chevalier, hope it's good :) Actually any good recommendations for nice places to dine on future occasions welcome...

More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.

Today was a really good day. Had my pdi (performance development interview) which was interesting - an hour where I get to talk about work and me and what I think, like an interview except you've already got the job. Also played touch (we lost, again) which was fun, and when I left work early to go to the doctor's I wasn't even that excited because I was still enjoying myself at work. Also passed my work instructions on working outside, on construction sites and near moving machinery. Funny. Ellen and I cooked tea tonight, a creamy chicken dish on rice. Yum. Ellen did a super job of cleaning the kitchen today and it looks awesome. Jenna comes up tomorrow! That will be exciting. I actually don't have much planned for the weekend, except buy some shoes, see if I still fit my dress, and find Karthik a suit or something to hire for the ball. And maybe Jenna and I can go somewhere exciting. If the weather is nice Waiheke island might be a goer, but if not then maybe the art gallery, or shopping, or some nice cosy cafe...

Ok don't have a lot to say today but thought I should get back in the habit of regular posts for the one or two people who actually read them! Although to be fair, if I wrote more then people might be more encouraged to visit and read...

A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

But how big is a glass? Still, quite generous of the cow I thought.

Sometimes I feel really stupid. In fact, at my job, I feel really stupid quite often. I was looking at an installed version of a C# project today and wondering where the source files are. Um Lara... still on the website under the 'source files download' link...oh well. In doing computer science I have probably picked the thing I am the worst at. Well, apart from say being a swimming or golf instructor, or an acrobat, or a builder, clothes maker, hmm yeah that's about it. But then, I don't feel particularly talented at anything these days. I can't think of anything I'm *really* good at. Yes, all you people who know me will think this is weird because of my good grades ra-deee-rah etc. No, I'm not depressed or unhappy, or whatever - I'm serious. I don't feel naturally talented at anything, except I think quickly in a lot of situations, and learn things well, and do well in exams. Basically when it comes down to it, that's what I'm good at - exams. And you can't be a professional exam-sitter as a career. I don't think I'd like the stress aspect anyway. That all said, I really like my job. I feel satisfied when a customer is happy when I write a program for them. I wrote a C# application (the gui was not my best work ever, but I was learning the language, and had a tight deadline - it looks and works just fine but the code is not even close to elegant) and I've written many documents, and quite a few asp pages, and am just learning about ASP.Net at the moment for my latest project. Maybe I chose it because it is hard for me and I enjoy the challenge. Maybe the challenge aspect is what is motivating me to start learning lots of languages. I keep hoping to find the time to read my Russian and Chinese textbooks again to learn it again so they stay in my head, and I bought a $10 learn spanish cd, am slowly learning Norwegian from a book that I bought (the recent arrival of my flatmate's Norwegian gf may help that a bit) and today succumbed and bought a book on learning Hindi for beginners. Oh and my workmate has taught me some punjabi. I can say 'Sat Sri Akal' (hello), 'dhanwaad' (thanks) 'kol goi nahi' (you're welcome) and 'bhraji, chun gei ho' (spelling?) - which is 'hey bro, how's things?' - not that I can understand the response, unless the body language is nice and clear.

Ok I'm going to go to bed now.. my last night in my little room with it's balcony and harbour view... I swap with Mike (with afore-mentioned norwegian gf) tomorrow so he has more space and I have to pay less money - save $40 a week so that is exciting! I might start buying more books. Am reading 'A suitable boy' and am up to page 1003 of 1369 or something so am getting there - quite involved in the lives of the characters now and really want to know who Lata will marry! It is a good book and very eye-opening for me reading about indian culture, especially Muslim culture which i previously knew very little about. But at the start I was very confused between all the characters' names, and there is quite a lot of politics in it too.

Went out for tea tonight at 'Delicious', an italian pasta restaurant on Karthik's road. Very nice - I wasn't very hungry so we shared wedges and then I had soup and some semi-freddo for dessert (wine-flavoured and very yummy). When I say 'I wasn't very hungry' I mean 'I was completely and utterly full' because our secretary, Margo, screwed up our morning tea roster and assigned two people to today so we had a huge morning tea at work and it kept me going all day (I kept snacking all day on it) plus I had an icecream late in the afternoon (I ended up outside Mr Whippy and they had passionfruit icecream... what could I do...)

I wonder if this is a long post compared to those I used to write last year. I must just be in the mood. I am so sleepy though! Had planned to do all sorts of things but talked to my flatmates and then replied to an email and then read Ollie's and Karthik's blogs and got inspired....

Hey I bought a printer the other day! Very cheap - under $60 - got it through Karthief and it arrived today. So I might open that tomorrow. Very exciting. And I got my passport the other day. And I got an invite to a 21st from this girl in youth choir!

Ok I really am going to bed now before I collapse and die.