Crimes of Carelessness

OMG! I happened across this clip the other day and now I’m too scared to go out the house…well, okay, not really, but boy this is funny. I can’t get the clip to embed so the link is below

The 1950s were a dangerous decade. Back then you could be killed by nearly anything, and you frequently were. It was a different time. People were tougher. Today you get killed once, that’s it. Back in the ’50s you could get killed literally hundreds of times and it weren’t nothing.

 

THE LINK

 

Goodnight Kiwi

Before the advent of 24 hour TV here in NZ the network used to show this cute little clip before going off air. Now it seems parents in general don’t know when AO content programming commences in our green land so the broadcasting people are looking at reintroducing ‘Goodnight Kiwi’ as a reminder that what follows is not recommended for children’s viewing.

 

Personally, I love the clip, and when I did my TV interviews down at the Avalon studio in Lower Hutt last year I have to admit I looked up to the tower and the broadcasting dishes etc and wondered what ever happened to the little guy

 

So, here for your viewing pleasure… Goodnight Kiwi

 

Thunder and Lightning–love it or hate it?

Personally, I hate it. Ever since I was a kid, and I don’t know exactly why, but a flash of lightning is enough to totally set my nerves on edge because I know that shortly after comes the clap or roll of thunder. I think the only time I’ve never been scare of thunder was summer ‘07 when I was sitting on our deck, it was a sunny day and there was this bank of black rippling cloud that crackled and rumbled with a really different sounding thunder (or maybe it was aliens from outer spaces.) Whatever, this week in NZ we’ve had some interesting weather, not least of which has been the threat of thunder storms which has made me very edgy.

 

For me, there’s nothing worse than being awoken by a flash of light and the bang of thunder shaking the house. But I know there are some of you out there who aren’t fazed by this. I envy you, deeply.

 

So which are you? A hide-under-the-covers kind of person? Or do you embrace the storm and relish it’s power?

 

 

101 Must Do Weekends in New Zealand

I was crusing blogs tonight and visited Shelley Munro’s and was tickled pink to see this You Tube Vid of an advertisement that’s screening nationwide at present.

 

 

Want to come and visit? Word from the wise, watch the coastal roads! LOL!

 

 

Writer’s Doubts

I spotted an excellent blog, by Nicola Marsh, on the Pink Heart Society blogsite last weekend. To read it, click here!

There’s some excellent advice and suggestions.

 

I think too often we let our fears hold us back from what we’re truly capable of. Kate Walker once told me, “Be Brave!” So I challenge any of you who like to write to do the same.

When batteries run flat

Sometimes I wonder how we ever coped in our lives when just about every person didn’t have a cell phone and when land lines were used through big clunky phones with dials rather than push button key pads. At least back then we never had to face the horror of a flat battery.

 

My cell phone and the cordless phone in our bedroom both always seem to go flat on the weekend. Now, knowing that, you’d think that I’d charge them both on a Friday evening or night. Same with the man about the house, his cell phone always goes flat on a Saturday. I’ve turned off the warning tones on my cell phone because there’s nothing worse than being woken by a persistent beep to say “hey, I’m running out of juice here,” in the middle of the night–which brings me to an aside, why do these things never run flat during the day? Why, as with smoke detector batteries, is it only ever at around 2am that they start to beep.

 

Last night the man about the house had to stagger out of bed, extricate his cell phone from his pants pocket and plug it into a charger. Time? 1:50 am. That was a bit rough since he had to get up at 4:00 am to go on a fishing trip this morning. Anyway, I cast a bleary eye at the cordless phone on my bedside cabinet and guess what, it was flashing to warn me that it was running flat too. Get up this morning and check my cell phone and yep, bingo, ‘battery low.’

 

Do you have similar cycles in your household? And if you don’t, how on earth do you combat the curse of the dreaded middle of the night flat battery?

Something for nothing?

I’ve had some interesting comment on my book piracy blog and yes, there will always be conflicting views over what is perceived to be right (or acceptable because hey, it’s not murder), and what isn’t.

This guy sums it up for me. Sure, it’s not exactly the same thing, but it’s not so far removed either. 

Which are you? Early bird? or Night Owl? or Something In Between?

I’ve never been an early bird person. My eyes and my thought processes just don’t want to take it. The earliest I’ve ever willingly dragged myself out of bed to start the day was 4:00 am and then only to catch an international flight (the jetlag starts from the minute I wake up, I swear!) This week I had the questionable delight of getting up at 5:40 am as youngest progeny is trialling for an Open A netball squad at her high school. This wouldn’t be a problem if eldest progeny didn’t have an early class at Uni and had to take the kids car into Uni for the day, or if eldest progeny had her full licence and could take her sister up to school in time for 7:00 am training. And, since the man of the house came in early from night shift and was already in the depths of sleep (lucky fellow!), it fell to me to get my youngest up to school on time.

Now, you’d think that an hour and twenty minutes would be sufficient time for a sixteen year old to get ready and get up to training on time, wouldn’t you? Especially when she’d packed her bag with uniform, books, towel, bathroom gear, sandals, etc. last night. Well, wouldn’t you?

Suffice to say, my darling youngest child is not an early bird either. We made it at 6:59 am and as I drove back home, in the dark, listening to the news bulletin that I usually lie in bed and listen to before I get up in the morning I realised she must really really want a place in this squad to get up this early.

Of course there are benefits to getting up early. By rights, I should be able to get more writing done, and since both progeny finish school and Uni later, on this wretched early start day, I get a bit more time in the afternoon as well. But I’m so tired! Maybe I should nap instead

On the ‘bright’ side–I got to watch the most beautiful sunrise through my office window. There’s a bit of a cloud base and I could see golden/pale apricot rays in broad strokes breaking through the cloud here and there. If only the digital camera wasn’t in the bedroom with the sleeping man of the house I could have shared it with you all too. Maybe next week…yawn. But that will be my last shot because (yay) after next week eldest progeny will have her full licence and guess who’ll be chivvying youngest along to training in the morning! Ha! If that doesn’t get her ready in time, nothing will :D

I used to be a night owl, and there are times I still make it (usually deadline times) but now I think I’m very definitely something in between. So which are you, early bird, night owl, or something in between?

What do you like to hand write with?

Yesterday I was in our local Stationery Warehouse and had the joy of buying for myself a cartridge ink filled fountain pen. Ah, the bliss.

 I know it’s not on a par with a genuine squeezy bulb, draw the ink up from a bottle, gold nibbed masterpiece of pen engineering but I’m happy because instantly I was transported back to my Auckland Girls’ Grammar School days where such things were new and exciting and truly wondrous. (Okay, I’m getting old.) But you know, there’s nothing quite like writing with a fountain pen, in my opinion. When I trained as a secretary and learned the weird and wonderful heiroglyphs of Pitmans shorthand I again had the pleasure of a new fountain pen, this one specifically for the purpose of shorthand writing and it was pounded into us that you don’t use or borrow another’s pen because the nibs wear specifically to the user’s style.

Over the years, I’ve remained a pen fanatasist, preferring the lighter intense blue inks to the blacks or black/blues, and occasionally anything with a violet hue, and with a distinct preference for a medium to wide ball or nib.

So tell me, what kind of instrument do you prefer to hand write with? Is it fountain pen, ball point, roller ball, pencil, chalk, marker pen? The options are endless really

The Haka…as you’ve never seen it before

I was cruising friends’ blogs today and came across this gorgeous YouTube clip on Nalini Singh’s blog. I tell you, if the All Blacks did it like the gingerbread men…well, maybe the World Cup results may have been better last year