Temper Tantrums...

... came home, after another evening spent out with a friend and what do you know - carpets scrunched up against the wall, toys strewn through the house, clothing left out slept and stomped on, and every single bit of kitty litter outside the tray (including some up in the bathroom -what'd she do carry it up there on purpose?)!
That's right, Miss Yo Yo, has had enough of the so called abandonment she's been subjected to and tossed her toys (carpets and kitty litter included as toys) everywhere! Obviously she isn't being spoilt enough by the hand that feeds her, nor rubs her tummy, or lets her in and out every five minutes!
And boy did she tell me - 11 minutes 38 seconds worth, yes I was a sad woman and timed her. Not your usual meow meow conversation that we normally have, a full on top of her lungs meh! meh! meh!
Guess this means I'm in the dog house, or is that cat house?! Better get down to some sucking up and start rubbing that furry little tummy!

It's Official...

... I'm old and can't handle long bouts of socialising! Well it had to happen at some stage, I was hoping more in my 60's than 30's though.
Not even five years ago I used to be able to handle heavy drinking and partying sessions several times a week, mixed in with just going out and chatting as well as staying up to sun up! Now look at me - out socialising five times in six days and I'm a wreck (no energy, achey head, red & glazed eyes, and feeling rather delicate).
No longer, well it appears that way, can I be out and about for months on end, every day bouncing up out of bed when the alarm goes off, bright eyed and bushy tailed as the saying goes.
And to top it off - I've spotted several white hairs coming through, dang it!

What do you Say?

Not good news for my boss today, close family death. What should I say to him?
It's not like he's a close friend or a family member who I could have hugged, cried and reminisced with. I only know him through the professional working 9 to 5 that we share... I didn't even know he had a sister, let alone one married with a six month old daughter (I'm not one of those work colleagues that tells you your life story in the first ten minutes that you meet them, nor do I want you to know all of mine).
My boss is going through the loss of a friend, a husband to his sister, father to his niece, and sharing that loss with his family, all in another country. All I can offer is that I have suffered a family loss before, and can only conclude he is going through similar emotions that I had...
So all I could think of was sorry for your loss - the most simpliest, though the only appropriate sentiment that can be made... still felt like an inadequate putz though!

Miss Klutz...

... bangs head again! In my 30's and I still have issues with going through doors, walking, sitting, lying down etc etc!
Managed to smack myself well and proper in the forehead this time - painkillers required, though thank goodness no stitches!
Well at least it wasn't another oven burn! Last one of those I didn't even notice until I smelt cooking flesh! At least it hasn't left a permanent scar, guess my body is well practiced at healing itself from all the cuts, scrapes, burns, bangs, bumps and electric shocks!
And to think I was an aparatus winning gymnast!

PS: no comments re my masochistic tendancies!

Men with Bells on

Had Miss M. stay over (won't even mention how much fermented grapes we drank!) and decided to show her some of the lovely gardens and homes that are close to Woking. Well she never did see all that much of the UK seven years ago and any excuse to go hooning down though georgeous tree-lined lanes!
Spent the day wandering through a mere fraction of 1400 acres of landscaped gardens, exploring a gorgeous Edwardian house and then discovering men all dressed in white, bells tied to their legs, wearing purple braces and then waving handkerchiefs, banging sticks with each other and jigging about! There were several musicians playing the hugely popular fiddle, pipes, concertinas and my personal favourite the accordian!
Yes, it was Morris Dancers performing The Morris! They had all the components, the Squire, the Bagman, the Foreman (whom I'm pretty sure was playing the Fool!) as well as the Beast - or in this case a man sitting on a pretend horse!
All the sniggering aside for this all male dancing (this group had 70 separate dances alone!), and in 28 degrees celsius I might add!, it was all quite enjoyable, and yes a programme of the rest of the year was taken! Though I'm sure I'm going to be dreaming the bells, the bells!

Therapy

Why is it that after a couple of hours in the garden slashing, cutting, pulling and deheading plants you feel so much better?
Is it because you go in to an automation type mode, with your brain going to a separate level and cruising at 50 kilometres down a non-thinking highway? Or is it just the pure exercise of bending, stretching, kneeling, almost tai chi type movements that you make? Or is it the total destruction of another life form that you can get away with without having to go down for 15-20 years?!
I know which option I'm thinking!
How does the saying go, I'm not a vegetarian because I like animals, it's because I hate plants!

Rubbish!

Been here in England for nearly nine years now and I still can't understand a 'natives' attitude towards rubbish. I was bought up on being a tidy kiwi, whilst I'm sure the English are bought up on being a litter bug!
Perhaps it's down to having street cleaners twenty-four seven, though personally I think it's a general lack of respect that they have for everything around them (it's not where I'm at so why should I care attitude!). Major top of the list annoyance are those that just drop their cigarette butts whever they dang well please (they're made of fiberglass and they will not decompose!), even out the windows of their cars, pity the poor cyclist who gets it in their face! Then it'd have to be chewing gum.. let alone chewing with their mouths half open, like a cow chewing cud, they then drop it all over the pavements, stick it under tables or even worse to the seat that you've just sat on and it's now a permanent addition to your jeans!
After that it's the well I can't see a rubbish bin closer than an arms drop away so I'm just going to leave all my non-wanted chip packets, takeway containers, newspapers, tissues etc etc right here! A great addition to the parks, street and garden fronts for sure, not!
Case in point the Fat Boy Slim concert in Brighton a couple of years ago. The resulting rubbish was an absolute disgusting putrifying disgrace and I bet the rats that night gorged themselves to death! Consequently Mr FBS decided not to hold a free concert on the beach again due to the effect it had on the environment, good on you I say Mr FBS, and it's a shame that a lot more people don't stand up and say enough is enough you dirty rabble and put it in the bin! The same thing happend again at the Foo Fighter concert in Hyde Park.. except our little patch of ground was all clear, just the grass, with rubbish in a supermarket bag from a like minded concert goer, nice one Mr P!
Then you have the whole impact on wildlife and your rubbish. It doesn't take more than five seconds to cut the plastic rings holding your four pack together and you'll know for sure that some otter, seal, bird, or fish won't get it caught round their neck, have it slowly being grown over as the creature grows, slowly starving to death as they can't eat!
At least I know that even if I have to carry my empty water bottle / sandwich gladwrap / apple core around with me for the whole day, I'm not a litter bug and I'm doing my bit for recycling and composting!

Sunday Afternoon Champers...

... what an absolutely faboulous way to end off the weekend, or start a new week depending on whether your a Sunday starter or Monday starter of course!
Sitting outside with a georgeous woman for company, indulding in some lovely vintage champagne, yummo paninis, scrumptous chips / fries (depending on whether your English or American) and relaxed conversation! (one that was finished 7 years ago and started again just now!) Though how the time flies, and it is time to say fond farewells and catch the train to head home again.
Just as well that there's another Sunday coming up to indulge in the same thing, or in this case Friday - loving having you here Miss M. and can't wait for the next installment!

Loving Life!

What a fabulous week it's been so far... taken on a great project at work, to do with Best Practice and will bore you to sleep in two seconds flat, that's not in my job description at all! Loving this company that bought us - the fab people, opportunities to take up what you like (as long as it wont be detrimental to your own work of course), the alcohol allowance and of course the free bar!
Had a friend in London for a flying visit that I haven't seen in nearly five years! So good to see you again Miss A and I'm sure you'll be fine with whatever choice you make, and of course you know that I'm here, whatever you decide.
Also caught up with another friend, who I haven't seen in over a year (that's cause he's such a slacker with the keeping in touch thing, aren't you Mr T?!). Great night though and of course you will be keeping in touch at least every six months instead of eighteen now wont you!
And it's only going to keep getting better... Foo Fighters in Hyde Park on Saturday, featuring Motorhead and Queen's of the Stone Age, bring it on! Then meeting up with another girlfriend who I haven't seen in nearly seven years!! Can't wait Miss M!
It sure has, and will be, a very social week (quite unlike me, and Miss Yo Yo is getting rather cantankerous about it!) - thank goodness it's pay next Friday!

Shoes...

... why don't I learn with shoes? Why is it that winter shoes are usually ugly, though comfy and the gorgeously dainty summer, show your painted toenails off ones are some kind of torture device?! Spent the day in a dainty black pair and now have blisters on every single toe (and NO, they weren't pointed toed ones, they were rounded!) and managed to avoid the ball of the foot blisters by remembering to put in the gel pad. Last time I forgot and had the most amazing blood blister under the entire ball of my foot.
Now these shoes I've had for five years, you'd think I would have given up by now and got rid of them eh? Nope, I like them and they're comfy for about half way to the train station in the morning and then all foot hell breaks loose! Plus the fact that by the time it takes for my feet to heal I've completely forgotten the whole foot fiasco blister pain thing! Why can't they make the inside of these shoes like the gel pads that you put in them? Or even better, install little rockets so that you just float along above the pavement! Would save a lot of blisters, hobbling along like you've got some kind of crippling condition or having to walk in bare feet!

Possums!

Supposedly 'cute' marsupial that was introduced to NZ in 1873 for the fur trade. Now you're probably wondering what on earth am I talking about possums for, well.... the amazed comment was made to me, after someone reading an article on NZ, that there's over 70 million possums residing in the forests (and occasionally on the tin roof at 3am making more racket than a two year old with a dum kit!). That's about 20 possums for every person in NZ!
The next comment was no wonder you kiwis just about spit nails when talking about them and actually aim for the little blighters if you see them on the road. I once managed to convert a possum enthusiast from going ugh at seeing them squished on the road, to cheering another one biting the tyre and losing!
By possum sceptic I mean that they didn't realise how destructive they are to NZ flora and fauna (in some areas they have eaten whole canopies of native forests, as well as competing with native birds for habitat, food, disturbing their nests and eating their eggs and chicks). They also spread cow tuberculosis and eat the giant land snail (4.5 inches in diameter belonging to the oldest land snail family that originated 200 to 300 million years ago, are carnivorous, as well as cannibalistic!).
Now you're probably thinking, what about the possum in Australia. Well now, funny thing that... they're actually a protected species there! Yup, that's right protected! The trees in NZ did not have spines, prickles or poisionous leaves for protection and there's also dingos and forest fires to keep the population under control.
That's the thing about NZ flora and fauna... before people arrived there were only two mamals, the short and long tailed bats, and everything was either a bird, insect or lizard. Yup, there were no cats, dogs, rats, weasels, deer, hedgehogs, horses, cows, sheep, etc etc until they were introduced. Hence NZ having about 10% of the world's endangered birds living there (most famously the world's only ground borrowing, flightless, nocturnal and growling parrot, the kakapo, and the world's only alpine parrot, said to be one of the most intelligent there is, the kea - naughty bird that likes to steal window wipers and remove the rubber from around the windows!).
Just think, that in one night it has been estimated by the Kiwi Conservation Club, that 70 million possums can eat about 20,000 tonnes of vegetation - that is about the same weight as 190 million burgers!!
I've put up a pic of this supposedly 'cute' marsupial - can't see it myself, eyes are too close together and what is it with that nose?!

English Country Roads....

... not motorways, neither A roads, nor even B roads, I'm talking about the lanes here. Those roads that are just a tarmacked track! Love them, absolutely love them!
Nothing better than going 70 miles an hour, in a small car, along roads where you can't see over the hedgerows, are windier than an afro and if you meet a car coming the other way, one of you is going to have to reverse to find a passing spot!
The real fun is the cornering, like being in a rollarcoaster car (well this small car is more like a glorified golf cart!) and making wheeeee noises as you go round them, absolute pure adrenaline fun!
Also very beautiful.. especially where the lane is tree lined and they're meeting over the top, like a latticed arch with the sun coming through the leaves and the awesome colours - even more so just as the sun is low on the horizon and you have that lovely golden pink tinge splashing through.
Though they can be rather scarey late at night, and more so in the winter with the trees leafless, the headlights stopping at the hedges, outlining the skeleton like trees and the odd animal's eyes reflecting back at you as you go buy. Just as well not walking them or I'd have to keep checking that the headless horseman wasn't coming!

Home...

... not sure why, yet at the moment I am being asked by many people, friends, colleagues and even strangers, why on earth am I living in England?
To me it's easy - I absolutely love living here! Sure there's a few things that I could do without (crime, idiots, traffic congestion, smog, and rude people - though you get that in virtually every country), and at the moment there are more things here that I would miss.
I love being able to go to the variety of plays / musicals / miscellaneous shows that are always on; the number of museums is just phenomenal, I'm pretty sure I'll never see them all, and they usually have free entry; the variety of music groups / individuals is just fantastic and usually cheap (unless you're a Madonna fan!). In New Zealand you just do not have the scope of the entertainment that you do here, nor do you have the range of restaurants, and unless I decided to live in the North Island, the weather is pretty much the same as in the UK. The daylight hours in summer are nearly two hours longer at the end of the day (fabulous to watch Shakespeare in the park, sun setting as the play finishing and amble off to the tube in still warm weather!), though in winter it starts getting dark at 3:30pm - though what the heck I'm at work 5 days in 7 so that doesn't really matter!
The food may be a lot fresher in NZ, though if you go to the markets and farms here in England you can get some pretty darn tasty food! Even the wide variety in restaurants is incredible, well not in Woking (Nepalese, Chinese, Indian and all the major takeaways and that's about it really), up in London, from Eritrean to Polish, to NZ to Russian! It's great fun taking a stroll through Soho or down King's Road - both people watching and aroma smelling!
Scenery wise, NZ is incredible... as no doubt everyone knows from watching the various films made there (LOTR, Narnia and that Samurai one with T.Cruise).. a couple of pics that I took here from a trip back, stunning aren't they! Though the UK does indeed have some stunning scenery of it's own, not yet photographed by me, though will be!
It's just at this point in time, apart from all my family being there in NZ (cept Uncle R who's in Dublin), it does not hold any appeal, though in 5, 10, or 80 years time, who knows!

Men in Suits

Now I'm not talking about those thinking omg, omg, OMG on their wedding day, neither those being reflective at a funeral, nor those in the Royal enclosure at Ascot wondering how on earth they ended up in top hat and tails on a 29 degree celsius day in June!
I'm talking about those city men in suits, those dodgy suits standing in bars eyeing up women half their age, if not more. The ones on the tube that wouldn't give you a seat if you had a broken leg, one arm, were pregnant and had to hang off the hand rail! Those very same ones that stand right in the middle of where the tube doors will open on the platform, waiting to throw children and little older folks out the way to get a seat!
Well all I can say is watch out for this woman! Managed to get my own back, in my own special way of course... when the doors opened and the suit barge was about to happen, I politely said "excuse me, let me off the train first". And guess what, you guessed it, barge about to take place anyway, so I take my 3 and a half inch heels, plunge my full body weight on to his, what looked like extremely soft expensive leather covered instep, smiled sweetly and said "next time, wait mister". The woman behind me grinned and said "have to remember that one"! The poor suits eyes nearly ran over, bottom lipped atrembled and I bet you he will never do that again!!

True Friends...

... those amazing people in your life that will hold back you hair while you throw up in the toilet after drinking too much, accept you for all your finer points (as well as the cringe worthy ones that you barely admit to yourself), support you in whatever you do (even if they know you're making one of the biggest mistakes in your life), and are there picking up the pieces of you when it all goes wrong.
They may come and go at various times in your life, though when really needed will be there for you, will listen to your seemingly silliest fears from the otherside of the world at 2am, cry when you do and laugh when you laugh. They'll never get upset if you forget to thank them, will just give you a hug for the joy of hugging and will do anything in their power to see a smile from you.
I am truly lucky to be able to count my true friends on the fingers of one hand (maybe a couple of fingers spare). I hope you can say the same - I'm not talking just friends here, I'm talking the true friends that will pick you up like wingless angels, put you on your feet, brush you off and say good on ya!
The one thing a true friend will never do is disappoint you. Just friends can, a true friend never will!

London in the Summer Time...

... love it! Where else can you stand on a bridge with bagpipes playing to one ear, Jamaican kettle drums playing to the other, looking down one side of the river then the other and taking in more tourists sights than anywhere else in the world!
Wandering around London during summer is one of those experiences a person should not miss... just about every conversation around you is in a different language, a huge variety of dress (and for the females that usually means not a lot) and expressions on faces (my gawd so many people, did you see that, how old is that building?!), as well as the occasional whiff of sewers, mMm. Plus all the buskers are out - from the weirdly painted to those weirdly dressed (and of course there are those doing both at the same time!), some you wonder what on earth and others just doing 'normal' singing.
Going around Covent Garden is pretty much like playing human dodge cars, and at times you wonder why on earth did you come this way and not the one street over that will virtually be empty of people! More than likely it is because at least half of London is meeting the other half at Covent Garden tube!
My favourite part would have to be the South Bank... from Waterloo to St Katherine Docks. There's always something going on - from the book stall, to free music & theatre, to people people watching and grabbing a free lunch at Borough Market, trying all the food at the stalls! And of course ending up at The Dickens Inn (dating from 1799 and used to be a spice warehouse!) for a well deserved beverage and some pub grub!
My only dislike about London in the summer time is that for some reason men who look like they're about 7 months pregnant, and have paler skin than fresh snow, insist on taking their shirts off and walking around... please don't!

Tequila...

... shiver down the spine why do we shot it?! Why do we insist on throwing this drink, from the hearts of the blue agave (a succulent, not a cactus.. there is a difference!), back in a group of friends at a bar? Must be some kind of macho thing as I have not yet met anyone who can not screw up their face and go garrrgghh after downing one! Best thing about them is the salt lick and lime wedge! As long as ya not doing the weird sniff the salt and squeeze the lime into the eye slam, now that is taking machoism a little to far!

Emissions...

... from China making it to NZ... how bizarre is that!?! Apparently all the technological advances in China, and the resulting huge increase in their carbon emissions, is meaning that NZ has increased carbon rates as they're floating across from China!
Mind you, England experienced something similar, though not as harmful to the environment, when a mysterious yellow dust covered cars and windows (pollen and smoke mixture) that had come across from Europe - the pollen from Denmark and the smoke from fires in Russia! Though it did effect those folks with pollen allergies and it certainly didn't help the drought with everyone having to wash it off everything!
And just weird, a highly venomous yellow-bellied sea snake, related to the cobra and found off the coasts of Africa, Asia, Mexico, Central America, South America, Australia and Hawaii, washed up on a beach in NZ. Thing is it was still alive, the other 35 found since 1930 were all dead, which put everyone in a spot as there are no snakes in NZ, not allowed them even in zoos, so what to do? Would you want it released near your beach?! Send it to the Aussies I say, what's one more venomous snake to a country so full of deadly creatures that it's easier to list the non-deadly ones!