Thanks heaps for your company this year and see y'all 2009!

Present Imbalance

This happened to me last year and goddamn, it's happened again! Our lovely neighbours last year gave the boys presents at christmas time. Now I'm only just getting used to the notion of having lovely neighbours as we never have before. So I was surprised, embarassed and mortified all at the same time when they came across with presents. I stumbled something like "I'm sorry, I haven't got your kids anything", and she went "no worries, they're only cheapies from Big W" (which they weren't). So this year, I planned early and got a combined present for her boys and a present for the family. I was sensible - I couldn't spend more on my neighbours than I would our own families, and besides we're almost in a recssion and are cutting back. But when we swapped gifts, she had a present for each of my boys that were heavy and large. I know now that we have present imbalance again.
I guess christmas is a time for giving, but how about those who haven't given as much?

Online Mistakes

My friend Kate is special to me for so many reasons, but her wit and her ability to hit things eloquently and succinctly on the button are two of her more endearing qualities. So of course in my previous post about "disappointments", she came up with the most perfect disappointments....the bad e-bay/Trade Me purchase. We ALL know about these. Kate's online purchase mistake is a beauty but I'm sworn to secrecy in case her husband was ever to find out about it (or anyone else who could have a chuckle at her expense for that matter). Just to give a taste of a couple of my own... the "leather" boots that were not only vinyl, didn't fit me, were obviously pre-loved and looked like they came from "The Uber-Cheap-Crappy-Shoe-Warehouse". Lesson: don't buy shoes online. The red leather chair (during my online chair purchase phase - I bought 4 chairs and 1 couch). Not only was this vinyl (again) but it was a horrible shape and bloody awkward to pick up - I drove miles to find some very, very bad, extremely grotty second hand shop, where a dodgey man and I manouevred this chair into my car. I knew it wasn't a keeper as soon as I saw it, but the power of online shopping is...well, tough shit. So as soon as I was home, and The Husband glanced at it and didn't even bother commenting, a new photo was taken and a red vinyl chair was relisted. The rusty handmower that didn't turn... there are so many, honestly, I think I am the queen of online purchase mistakes, which I'm sure is why Kate suggested this.
Anyone else have any good'uns????

nb: this post may seem a bit shabby but I have written it with a 5 year old screaming in my ear about how he can't put his clothes on and that he doesn't want that "job" anymore. It's going to be a long day. Maybe a spot of online shopping could be the order of the day.

Rafe's Story

I have black hair and my nose is a triangle. I have oval ears and I am tall. My lips are red. In my family there is Will and Smith and Mum and Dad. We like to go swimming together in the pool at our house. My favourite foods are Nutagrain all by itself, I have it for beakfast, I make it all by myself. When I grow up I would like to be a builder. I can build a pretend house. Builders make real houses from Monday to Friday when they work. I like to watch them build.One of my favourite things to do is to play football in the backyard with my two brothers. I do everything - playing and watching TV to see what the weather is doing in Sydney. My birthday is in the middle of winter in July. I had a party at Kids Connection with lots of friends. We had a cake with 5 candles on it and everyone sang "happy birthday".

Rafe

Disappointment

What are the things that kind of generally disappoint you in life?
I'm not really talking about the sort of things like when you've just built a website and then someone else launches a similar and better one before you. No, this is more like the kind of mundane, everyday disappointing things.
Like tonight, The Husband had picked up a takeaway (after he had not even tried to soften the blow when I suggested I cook pasta - nup, he didn't want anything I'd cooked tonight), and ate his earlier surrounded by madness of the boys pre-bedtime chaos. "I'll wait", I thought"when everyone is in bed, I'll have a nice dinner with the sunday paper and a bit of peace and quiet". So what do I do? As I'm cleaning up the boys pasta off plates, floors and chairs, I get a fork, and OUT OF THE CONTAINER, start eating WHILE STANDING. Half a pad thai later I figured I'd just had my dinner. Disappointed. I call this The-Eating-Dinner-Accidently disappointment and it happens frequently when cleaning up kids nuggets/noodles/sausages after dinner (and accidently eating so many leftovers that you realise you've just had dinner)
The After-An-Event-You've-Been-Looking-Forward-To-For-Ages disppointment is also a good one. You know the feeling when you've been looking forward to something and then the next day, you realise it's over and you frantically kind of think about the next things you've got to look forward to? That happens constantly in my world.
The Just-Finished-A-Good-Book disappointment. I always feel a little lost, a little sad and a little disappointed when it's over.
Aaah, how about The-End-Of-A-Really-Good-TV-Series disapointment, I've been watching Top Chef (Monday night) and Project Runway (Wednesday night) for ages and we are down to like the last 6 contestants. What happens after the winner is announced (and they do the Top Chef/Project Runway Reunion/Bloopers programs?). Yup, disappointment.
How about The Just-Typed-An-Entire-Email-With-The-Caplock-Accidently-On disappointment. Tempting as it is to hit send, you just know you need to retype it, and it takes ages.
And lastly, does anyone ever have The Forgot-You-Took-The-Sheets-Off-The-Bed-Until-Going-To-Bed disappointment - another regular in my house. Just as you turn off the TV, check the boys and head to bed, you see the unmade bed, the slightly cold/damp sheets still on the clothes line, and all the crap/clothes/coat hangers/kids toys you found behind the bed all lying on top of the mattress. And it's usually a Sunday night too.
Disappointed.
Any others we can add to this list?

OMG

A website has just alunched which is almost identical (although much better) to the one I am just about to sign off as complete. Darnit.
What now?
www.givealittle.co.nz is the site. Looks good and comprehensive. It's a profit making venture with venture capitalist funding of many 10's of thousands. But that doesn't matter. It's here.
Hmmm? Anyone know a home for a brand spanking new website?
Maybe Australia?

Dunedin

I have just been home for the first time in 4 years, visiting my Dad in Dunedin. The purpose of the trip was really all about my dad and spending time with him, but it was lovely to be back in Dunedin, although slightly unnerving. It's hard to put a finger on it but it kind of seemed to me that time seems to have stood still and things seemed to have a slightly shabby feel about them. Where houses were tired 4 years ago, they are even more tired now, faces that I recognise from when I was growing up are still there, just older. A bit of a time warp maybe. And cold. Did I mention cold. I left Sydney in the late 20's with Sunday reaching a bracing 10C in Dunedin. We went for a bit of a drive on Sunday and the wee townships seemed so bleak, admittedly the beachy towns around Dunedin are always going to seem bleak on a cold Sunday late afternoon, but it just felt a smidge depressing. Ok a lot depressing. I had to stop myself from asking "what do people do here?" "where do they go?" as not everyone needs something to do or go to like I seem to.
Anyhow, although I once said that my family is off limits for blogging about, apart from The Sister who is always a target, iIm going to relax my rule here for a moment. Now you girls who know my dad will appreciate this story.... imagine a lovely late Friday afternoon, a nice wee cafe bar down at the beach, a lovely chilled glass of central otago reisling and an interesting chat with Dad and his partner. So we finish off our glass of wine, I pick up the wine list to choose another glass "hmmm, what will I have this time...?", my dad stops, looks at me and says "eh? we only have one here, we don't have another, we've got wine at home". And just like that I was reminded of my fathers reassuringly predictable routines. So we went home for a glass of not as good or interesting wine.
Bless.