Stuck in the sticks

So this is kinda funny. Tonight I am at home, with all the free time in the world to write a blog post. Normally I churn one out in 5 minutes quickly on my lunch break (hence the many grammatical errors).

But tonight, having finally got myself connected to the Interweb at home, after many long years, I planned on writing a big newsy post with lots of photos of say, my Argentina trip, my new home, and of Amelie looking adorable. We are unable to upload photos at work so all the ones I have previously used have been off my phone (!) or nicked from my sister’s website, with all my incredibly artistic shots of us getting drunk in Sth America gathering cyber dust on my memory card.

But No. Because I am a cheapskate I have gone for dial-up service instead of broadband. $16.95 a month compared to about $80.00. However. My patience is being sorely tested. So far, I haven’t been able to do One Thing I have wanted to, that would justify my entire reasoning for buying a computer, a desk, and a house with an office.

So far I have been sitting here for 36 minutes. I am unable to post to my blog directly because it cannot display the log in box. So I am writing this in Works, hoping that I can email it to my work email, from my Gmail. The palaver! I am unable to send an email to my mother with ONE photo attached of my new house. I am also unable to upload my photos to Facebook. I probably WOULD be able to if I had unlimited hours, and went to bed and left it chugging away but yes, being a cheapskate, I only have 150 a month.

You Americans out there are probably snickering at the backwardsness of New Zealand technology and you’d be right to - we have one giant telecommunications company that charges the earth for peanuts, and lots of Chihuahua-like little ones that are desperate for your business, but are just Too Difficult to deal with. Do I want a home line with someone other than Telecom? Yes! Yes I do! Oh what’s that you say? I need to make sure I can get this certain signal from some random satellite situated behind what used to be Pluto but turned out to be a chunk of foam from the latest NASA blunder? I need to be home between 11:00 and 11:05 every day this week to try to catch the technician who will then install a few kilometres of wires that the cat will immediately try and chew through? My home phone has to be kept in my office? I can do what? But no-one else has that so what’s the point if I have no-one to call with it?

Meh.

Purr-serverance (lame!lame!)

So last night Basil and I got acquainted with a new addition to the house - the cat door. Yes it's taken me forever, but I finally got sick of waking up, finding the cat sitting 2mm away from my face staring at me, willing me to wake up and let him outside for a wee. At 3am.

So yesterday I got home and didn't feed him as usual. This resulted in him practically stapling himself to my legs, as in , Hey Mum, can't you SEE me? Look how snuggly I am! And I love you so much!!!

Instead we sat together by the cat door and I let him sniff it. Nothing too scary surely.

I then put his food on the other side (steak and kidney, only the best) and held the flap open. He looked at me all, Mum, you have to OPEN the DOOR. I then picked him up, held the bit of meat out through the flap, and waited till he was just about to eat it, then dropped it. He fell through it like a Slinky.

I did this a few more times and each time he got better. I then upped the ante by dropping the food through and not opening the flap. Quizzical looks ensued. I then picked him up and bunted his head against the flap. This resulted in furious wiggling and the tail wag of doom.

I gave up for a bit and fortified myself with a Chardonnay. Basil had his eighty-seventh bath of the day.

I tell you, that cat is Clean. Licky noises are not my favourite though.

We then had another go, this time coming in from the outside. Excuse the shocking pic - Basil tends to camouflage at night.

Everything was going well until, just before bedtime, I gave it one last shot. Picking up Bas and striding to the door, who should be outside but next door's enormous furry scary-looking German Shepherd Jack, hoovering up all the dropped biscuits and bits of beef. Basil grew 80% in size, and commenced to hissing and scratching, and hiding under the bed. He now looks highly suspiciously at the cat door, and I had to get up at 3am to let him out for a wee.

Anyone have any tips I can try?

Still here

OMG so sorry about the lack of updates. Truth be told, it’s not because I’ve been busy doing something interesting, which I’m sure you’re all imagining I was.
No, the reason for my absence is an enormous deadline at work, which if we don’t reach, will have bad ramifications.
So this is my life at the moment:
Get up.
Go to work.
Work like a mad man.
Come home from work.
Eat, watch TV.
Bed.
Get up.

Etc etc. It is so boring! I even went into work on Saturday, which is something I Never do. I think, if you can’t get all the work you’ve been set done in the hours you’re asked to work, there’s something wrong with your time management skills. But at the moment – the amount of work I have to do far surpasses the amount of hours there are in a day, so Saturday it was. Most unhappy.

Good things though – the deadline is Sept 30th, and my housewarming is on Sept 29th, so will be a great way to celebrate the finish. Cross fingers we make it.

What else is on my radar….the Rugby World Cup has just started in France and I’m all about the All Blacks coming to the party. It has taken over the media here and if you don’t like rugby, you’re going to be getting out a lot of DVD’s. About rugby. There’s even an All Blacks CD, a compilation of songs by NZ artists AND a recording of them doing the Haka. I thought it was a joke until they gave it a good review on our local music channel. We have a sweepstake going at work, and I’m already bringing up the rear (I always pick the outsiders – I feel sorry for them!).

Also getting ready to go the races back home in Hawkes Bay early October- need to get a spray tan and a haircut and generally spruce myself up. I’m going to – horror! – wear a dress I have worn already. This is because my bank account is emptier than an…empty thing, and hopefully, no-one will remember.

While this is very much an “I’m not dead” blog post – here is a picture of Amelie looking super adorable to perk things up. I bought her the t-shirt and the great pic is courtesy of Trish.