Marmageddon is over!

by Stephanie Posted on 20/03/2013

marmageddonFinally! I have Marmite again!

Because of the shortage due to the 2011 munter (earthquake), we haven’t had New Zealand produced Marmite available for nearly a year. Finally, today, we were able to purchase it again!

My work has a limit of two per person per day and it is also on approval, so I spent most of my time on Self Scan today approving Marmite and telling people that it was probably going to be on approval for a while yet. Which it will be.

But I have Marmite again! And it smells so freaking good!

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Two and a half months have passed…

by Stephanie Posted on 18/03/2013

…since I last posted an entry here. That is definitely slack on my part.

Nothing much really happened in January, apart from becoming another year older.

In February, I went to Oamaru for a weekend for a cousin’s wedding. Mum picked me up from the bus stop and as we were heading towards our motel, she started telling me about how a simple oil change for her car turned into a completely new engine! To say that she was pissed off about that would be an understatement. We were nearly at the motel when she remembered that she hadn’t stopped off at a bottle store so I could get some beer (even though she had some in the fridge at the motel) so we headed back into town and she started telling me about this guy who happened to be around at my aunt’s house when Mum went there earlier – he had been at my uncle’s funeral in February 1980 (I was a year old at the time) – and she had said that if he saw me, he’d probably ask me questions about how I fit in. I couldn’t find my beer (Peroni) at the bottle store so I settled for a 12 pack of KGBs (vodka and lemon). We got back to the motel and started watching some of that week’s WWE action as Mum wasn’t able to see it at all that weekend and we also started on our drinks.

My aunt sent Mum a text, saying that they were at the Northside pub which we walked to as it was less than five minutes walk from the motel. We stuck with what we were drinking at the motel and it was scary when I went up to the bar the second time with Mum’s money to get more drinks and the barman was all “The usual?” As it happens, the guy that Mum was telling me about happened to be there and he figured out who I was. He was telling me a bit about my uncle too.

A few of my cousins, including the one who was getting married, were there also so it was great to catch up with them too.

The wedding itself was lovely. The weather was perfect and the reception afterwards was pretty good too. I will admit that I did get pretty tanked – apparently I fell asleep on my aunt’s couch/sofa after getting back from the reception but I don’t remember that. Then again, that side of the family are pretty big drinkers so I guess I take after them in a way.

A few days later, my sister sent me a text telling me that she was going to be induced on the Thursday afternoon. I didn’t know she was in Christchurch until I checked my Facebook on my cellphone at the reception and she’d sent me a message, telling me she was in Christchurch and that I needed to text her. I did that and she told me about possibly being induced. As it happened, she didn’t need to be induced because her waters broke at 5am on the Thursday.

When I started work that day, I wanted to talk to my boss about being able to keep my cellphone on (since the earthquakes, we’ve been allowed to have our cellphones physically on us when we’re working but they’re not allowed to be on) just in case my nephew was born that day. I wasn’t expecting him to be born that day but I was helping a customer on Self Scan when I felt my cellphone vibrate in my back pocket and I could tell from the vibration that it was a text message, not a phone call. So I told the girls at Self Scan that I was going down to Customer Services to check my phone. I did that and found that the text message was from Mum and she said in it that she’d just spoken to my sister’s partner and that my nephew was born about 25 minutes earlier.

So I’m still getting used to being Aunty Steph but I’ll get there.

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2012 meme

by Stephanie Posted on 05/01/2013

What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
Went to Melbourne, Australia and finally got to meet up with a friend of mine who lives there.

Did you meet any of your important goals this year? What are your goals for next year?
I don’t really make them so no.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
No. This time next year, my answer will be yes.

Did anyone close to you die?
No.

What countries did you visit?
Australia.

What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
More money.

What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
31 August: Going through ANZ Stadium. 1 September: flying from Sydney to Melbourne for the first time. 3 September: going through the Melbourne Cricket Ground. 4 September: meeting my friend Marcey for the first time.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a promotion at work after the bullshit that had happened a few weeks beforehand.

What was your biggest failure?
Cutting down on my alcohol intake. I did manage a month without touching it later in the year but my willpower snapped.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
When wasn’t I sick? I had several colds, a bout of gastroenteritis in May, problems still with my neck and shoulder and basically felt more run down than usual – Mum put that down to the amount of mould that was in my flat. Not to mention the panic attack I had on the shop floor at work on 6 December.

What was the best thing you bought?
My Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs fleece blanket and teddy bear at ANZ Stadium.

Whose behavior merited celebration?
Can’t think of anyone.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
She who shall not be mentioned.

Where did most of your money go?
Rent, bills… you know, the usual.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to Melbourne, finally meeting Marcey, going through the MCG and ANZ Stadium.

What song will always remind you of 2012?
Gangnam Style, haha!

Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? The same
b) thinner or fatter? Thinner, I’d say. I don’t have scales to weigh myself at home although when I went to the doctor regarding my gastro bug, the scales there said I was 58kg (128lb) and I’ve never been that heavy in my life.
c) richer or poorer? Poorer, taking into account the number of times Mum put money into my bank account so I could afford to eat and get new shoes.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Not stress out over money.

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Stressing out over money.

How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent Christmas with my mother. If she didn’t come up here, I would’ve spent it by myself.

Did you fall in love in 2012?
Yes. With Melbourne.

Read any good books?
The Fifty Shades trilogy. I liked them.

What was your favorite TV program?
WWE

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
She who shall not be mentioned.

What was the best movie you saw?
Titanic in 3D – and I’m saying that because that was the only movie I saw at the theatre last year!

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Erm, none?

What did you want and get?
A PlayStation 3! Mum asked me via text message what I wanted for Christmas and my answer was “A PS3.” I’m very happy, haha!

What did you want and not get?
More money.

What did you do on your birthday?
Bugger all.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More money.

Who kept you sane?
My workmates, especially when all the bullshit happened.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None.

What political issue stirred you the most?
I don’t follow politics at all. I just don’t vote National (our version of the Republicans).

Who did you miss?
My cats.

Who was the best new person you met?
Can’t think of anyone!

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
Pass.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
Pass.

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2013

by Stephanie Posted on 04/01/2013

Here we are, four days into 2013.

My mum came up for Christmas which was nice because I would’ve ended up spending the holiday by myself if she didn’t! We went to the mall to get our food and Mum’s booze (I’d gotten a 24-pack of beer when I finished work on the Thursday before) and although I live a short walking distance from the mall, we ended up taking the car because we weren’t too sure just how much food and booze we would end up getting. Mum let me drive which was nice as I haven’t actually driven a car since she was last up at Easter! The mall car park wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to me so I was pleasantly surprised when I got a car park with ease. Getting out of it was easy too and it helped that the person waiting to get into the car park gave me more than enough room to get out. More often than not, they don’t and are just about right up your arse.

I had work on the 23rd and 24th and Mum would have tea waiting for me when I got home both days. Christmas Eve wasn’t actually as hectic I thought it was going to be – it was steady all day but I was grateful when 6:30pm rolled around though.

Christmas present wise, I got a wind chime (which is now hanging on a hook on my bedroom curtain rail), a copy of “You Know You’re From Christchurch When…” 2, two PlayStation 3 games (Assassin’s Creed III and InFamous [the packaging says InFamous but the disc and instruction booklet say InFamous 2 so I think someone made a boo boo]), an electric blue PS3 wireless controller and the best present of all – a 500GB PS3. I’ve had a PlayStation previously and I still have my pink PlayStation 2 but I was really happy to get the PlayStation 3 because it meant that I could finally play the one Blu-ray movie (Scarface) I had for the first time in months! Setting it up on my wireless network wasn’t a problem but I had to get the box for the modem so I could get ‘the network key’ because I didn’t know that off the top of my head. I wanted nothing more than to give it a hammering but I didn’t. Not until Mum left anyway.

I was going to spend New Year’s Eve at home by myself, with the intention of doing some washing and cleaning, possibly watching a movie and drink. But I got to the point where I was so freaking bored that I very nearly went to bed at 8:30pm! However, my ex-flatmate invited me around to his place because he and his flatmate were drinking also and were watching Stargate from the start so I though “Bugger it.” I replied to his text message, grabbed some beers from the fridge and made my way to his place. As soon as I made it to the driveway (well, so far up because there is an old persons’ home to the right when you’re walking up the driveway), I cracked open a beer because I was technically on private property in a liquor ban area – basically, we’re not allowed to have open bottles/cans of any kind of liquor when on the street.

I had a margarita, some of my beers, a screwdriver (at least I think that’s what it was, haha!) and a “girly” Vodka Cruiser. I say “girly” because it was Coconut Ice flavoured and it was something that neither my ex-flatmate and our friend would touch. It smelt and tasted just like Coconut Ice too. We were done drinking by about 12:30am and after trying in vain to get hold of a taxi company, I ended up walking home at around 1:20am. It’s not normally something I would do at that time of the morning but I was getting tired and I wasn’t prepared to wait three or so hours for a taxi to arrive and my ex-flatmate couldn’t drop me off because he had been drinking. I walked in the door at around 1:40am, sending my ex-flatmate a text to let him know I’d made it home safely and promptly came within a couple of centimetres of walking into the kitchen door! Now, I know I said I had just walked in the door but still!

As for New Year’s resolutins, I tend not to make them nowadays. Although something I want to improve is my habit of leaving stuff all over the place. My living room looks like World War 3 has taken place and my bedroom isn’t that far off either. If I get off my arse and clean my bedroom, I am hoping I can find the memory stick for my digital camera because I have no idea where it is!

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