Life

Happy 9th Birthday

Nine years ago, I jumped on the burgeoning firstnamelastname bandwagon and ventured out of the world of ISP and Geocities websites.

I had started a personal website in about 1997, back when you could say pretty much whatever you wanted without fear of getting dooced (only because it hadn’t happened to anyone yet). I started writing random articles and putting up pictures and generally fiddling around with HTML and teaching myself “the internet”. In 1999, around the same time that Blogger started serving the angst-ridden Gen X/Y generation, I started a journal which didn’t get me dooced but did get me called into the HR manager’s office at my then-job. I learned it is best to not talk about annoying co-workers and their hairy cheek moles. And on 16 August 2000, I bought this domain.

I was talking about this with a friend the other week; about how I have been doing this for so long. I remember the time where there were only a small number of bloggers in New Zealand (namely Robyn Gallagher, Dean Gray (where did he go?), Starla Jo, Ryan Wataki, and of course Olivia). It really was a pretty tight-knit and small community, and looking back over the past 9 years, it seems weird how mainstream both blogging and the internet in general has become. It seems weird to have been there pretty much right at the start and that for some unknown reason I haven’t really stopped. That is probably my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, if I stop now what does that mean? Perhaps I like continuity. I also think it will be interesting to look back in 20 years and see what I was doing, what I liked, what inspired me.

Over the years, I have noticed I write less about my personal life. I think that comes with the internet becoming so mainstream, and also when you go through major life changes you don’t really want to document the hardships quite so openly. This isn’t LiveJournal or 1999 after all. I have gone from a (relatively and comparatively) naive 19-year-old girl, to a confident and self-assured 29-year-old woman. (Eek, woman! I suppose I can’t really call myself a girl any more.) I moved to Austin Texas, got married to the fantastic Ben Brown, sadly got divorced, slept on couches for a few months in Houston Texas, sorted my shit out and stayed in Houston for a couple of years, travelled around Europe, moved to Manchester England, and in 2006 came home. This is a record of my life.

In a year from now I will do a recap of what I’ve loved about this past decade, the things I am proud of. Ten bloody years. I look forward to it.

Until then, happy birthday!

Life / Lists — No Comments
28
Apr 09

Things about my parents’ house

lace doilies
china cabinets and tea sets
LivingTV
Antiques Roadshow
knick-knacks
plastic tablecloths
malt biscuits
home-made soup and scones
cups of tea in bed (single)
teddy bears on spare beds
mirrors that require ducking down
the biggest washing machine in the world
random hearing aids
organised pill collections
brown velvet sofas
multiple foot stools
cats with human names

Life — 1 Comment
24
Mar 09

Spring cleaning

This afternoon as I was cleaning my bookcase I found my old high school scrapbook. I found a receipt taped in with the note “the first time I bought alcohol”, dated 1996 making me 16 years old.

Stay classy

1 x bottle Chardon: $6.45
1 x bottle Marquevue: $5.95
Total: real classy

Life / Lists — 1 Comment
3
Aug 08

A Recent Life Synopsis

A quick synopsis of my life since March:

I herniated a disc.
I found out I had some bone disease when I was a teenager.
I also found out I have some nodie things on my vertebrae.
I got my first cold sore which turned me into a hideous monster.
I got a trachea infection.
I got ill from the trachea infection antibiotics.
I got the flu.
I moved flats while I had the flu.
I coughed for so long I cracked a rib.^*^

In short, in the past few months my body stopped caring about me and I have been rather sick. It all started with a little stress from moving to Auckland, and then a wee little disc herniation to cause stabbing voodoo knives and the inability to walk. I am since able to walk, and can for the most part function again with some limitations.

But to look on the good side of life: I am enjoying Auckland; I am loving my new flat; my social life is excellent, and my BFF from forever will be in Auckland in less than two weeks. Goblin is also as cute as ever, even if she continues to shit on the floor because she poos with her ass hanging off the side of her dirt box. There is nothing more I love than to clean up warm, sloppy cat shit.

So anyway, hi. I am alive. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

^*^ This is unconfirmed, but I am convinced this is what I have. With everything else, what’s one more thing? Next up, EBOLA!

Life / Lists / Travel — 7 Comments
17
Mar 08

Auckland: Initial Observations

I have officially been a JAFA for precisely 16 days now. It’s starting to feel a bit more like I actually live here, instead of how it has been feeling which is that I am housesitting for someone with all my stuff and my cat, and that I am temping in someone else’s job. It’s quite an odd feeling really, and I feel like I am going to go “home” to Wellington any day now.

Things to note:

Auckland is very muggy. I live no more than a 15-minute walk to my new job and start at 8:30am each day. For the first two weeks I would walk not entirely too strenuously because at 8:15am it already muggy and hot. I arrive at 8:27am, grab my water bottle and take some swigs of yesterday’s water, take it to the cooler to refill it, and then go to the bathroom to run my wrists under cold water and daub my forehead and upper lip with a paper towel. In 2002 I coined the phrase, “There’s a rivva in my boobies,” and sadly the rivva has returned.
The coffee is terrible. I have not had a single good cup of coffee in Auckland. Everyone’s beans taste burned and bitter, and lattes arrive thin and watery, to the point I would consider going to Starbucks out of preference. That is deadly sin in Wellington, the land of delicious coffee.
Everything is very far apart. No longer can I waltz down to the post office at lunch, or quickly grab some new stockings when the ones I’m wearing run, or wander around Farmers looking at cheap make-up and new hair straighteners. I don’t work in the city centre, rather in one of the closest suburbs which although very nice is overrun with stupidly expensive clothing boutiques and many cafes selling crappy coffee. And because Auckland is so large and sprawling, everywhere seems to be a destination shop. A 20-minute drive to Briscoes, a 25-minute drive in another direction to go to Freedom Furniture, and a short drive into town for a lot of other stores that you would want to shop at if it were not a requirement to try for a ridiculous amount of time to get a car park. Perhaps I will be needing a car after all, and my poor little Vespa will need to be sold. That is as yet undetermined.
The shopping and eating choices are never-ending and fantastic. Being in a city that is 3.5-times the size of Wellington of course the shopping is going to be better. There are so many great little boutiques (that I can’t afford but can wish) and lots of stores Wellington just doesn’t have. There are loads of new restaurants to choose from, and a lot more delicious Asian foods to try which is a wonderful by-product of having a larger Asian population in the warmer north.
The houses are way prettier. At least in the area I live in. In Wellington, the areas with the beautiful historic Victorian villas have had many demolished to make way for hideous townhouses and apartment blocks. Instead in Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, most of these are being restored to their former beauty. I love going for walks in my neighbourhood just so I can look at the houses and dream that one day I am going to win the lottery that I never enter so I can afford to own a home in a suburb such as thing. However, chances are that it will never happen.

So, I’m getting along alright up here. I miss my family and I miss Wellington (good days only), but I’m sure it won’t be too long before I start replying with “Grey Lynn” instead of “Wellington” when people ask me where I’m from.

Life — 2 Comments
2
Mar 08

I’ve Arrived

Two days of unpacking, more left to go. My room is all set up, my cat is out of the cattery, and my new job starts tomorrow. I am exhausted.

Life — No Comments
24
Feb 08

When Owning Shit Goes Wrong

I have been packing solidly for two days now, although I did do a bit three nights ago as well. So far I have packed 23 boxes, with an estimated 9 more to go. This does not include the rest of the stuff the movers will be picking up: 3-seater couch and ottoman, armchair, dining table and 4 chairs, 2 bookcases, rug, coffee table, desk, dressing table, queen bed frame and mattress, ironing board, 2 drying racks, 2 mirrors, and 4 deck chairs. That does also not include the rather large suitcase I am taking on the plane, my camera gear, and my cat. That is all entirely too much stuff for one person.

During my overseas travels I managed to keep my entire life’s possessions down to two suitcases. That was it. Every time I moved I sold or gave everything away. Now I’m a little older, less hesitant to move countries “permanently” at the drop of a hat, and less willing to give up the couch I love sitting on so much, the rug I searched all over town for, the white china dinner sets, the white towelling sets. I have become the narrator from Fight Club and all I need is a massive gas explosion to set me free from my life of material ownership.

But sans explosion, I am stuck here in my house, wrapping things in newspaper, washing dishes, clearing cupboards, and cursing having all the things I wished I had when I went flatting again with not much more than a suitcase of clothes two years ago. I have one day to finish. With all this work left, I might as well give up and go back to watching True Hollywood Stories for a little bit longer.

Life / Travel — No Comments
23
Feb 08

Moving, Again

On Tuesday I am once again packing my life into boxes and moving cities. This time, Auckland. Again, I am taking Goblin. The movers will come and take my life’s possessions (although I have managed to collect more possessions in the two years I’ve been back in Wellington than the five years I was overseas) and then Gobbles and I will catch a plane. She is such a seasoned traveller. People often remark that she has lived in more cities and countries than most humans. This is true.

In a week’s time I start my new job at a software company in Ponsonby. I will have moved into my new flat in Grey Lynn. The wankicity of having purchased a brand new Vespa with an Italian-designed Momo helmet in 2006 will be realised when I then scoot over to my boyfriend’s house, to Richmond Road Cafe, to the supermarket, to the video store on Ponsonby Road.

In a week’s time, I will already be missing my sister and her children (6 and 5-months, both absolutely adorable) and her daily phone calls to me at work that always start with her saying, “Hi. It’s me. What are you doing?” and me replying, “Working!” will cease as these will now be toll calls. I will miss having weeknightly dinners with my flatmates in front of 72″ of Shortland Street. I will miss games nights with Jake and Carly, because they are silly and make me laugh lots. I will miss chin-stroking at gigs with Cole. I will miss the good days in Wellington, where the saying goes that you can’t beat it.

This aside, I am also really quite excited. I love going to new places, especially places where I don’t know every second person and their cousin I went to school with. I am looking forward to not having quite as aching joints in winter (yes, I really am getting old), I am looking forward to rain that doesn’t fall sideways, I am looking forward to the thousands of new cafes and restaurants I get to experience. And I am most definitely looking forward to having a boyfriend I see more than once every fortnight.

I will never be Just Another Fucking Aucklander, as they say. I will always be from Wellington, and Wellington will always be my home, a place I know like the back of my hand. But Auckland will soon be my sixth home, after Wellington, Austin, Houston, Manchester, and Antwerp. And I’ll definitely continue to make it south of the Bombay Hills and beyond.

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14
Feb 08

Happy Love Day

Almost a year ago I met an amazing guy called Duncan and fell in love. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, and I was completely head over heels. I remember the first time I realised I was in love with him as clear as it was yesterday; lying in his bed next to him watching him look at me, trying to take a mental photograph of his beautiful eyes (greenish/blue-gray with yellow around the pupil) and thinking to myself how wonderful he was and how he made me feel like no one had ever before. I felt like my heart was quite literally going to explode in my chest. It took some time for me to get the courage up to tell him how I felt, but it wasn’t hard because I was sure he felt the same about me.

The last year has truly been the best year of my life, and I have never been so happy. Sometimes I feel like I have to pinch myself to check that I am not having some super awesome romantic dream after watching a stupid and cheesy Hollywood rom-com. In the past year we have:

Danced to Shapeshifter outdoors on the first weekend we met, followed by another time, and then another time
Been chased by rabid Tongan dogs while riding pushbikes
Gone on a surprise weekend away to a secluded bach, courtesy of Duncan
Visited the biggest tree in New Zealand
Introduced each other to our families with no dramatic consequences
Travelled to a 5-day drum and bass festival for New Years where Duncan DJed, requiring me to wake at 5am, which I did because I love him and his lush beats
Day-walked the start of the Abel Tasman track
Seen a whale
Conducted a failed Tongan kava ceremony in the bathroom of our fale on Fafa Island
Gone shopping for jeans together no less than 28 times
Taken photos of each other “levitating” while jumping on a trampoline, resulting in me acquiring a bung knee
Become frequent flyers and professional travellers
Quite obviously danced to lots of drum and bass together

I have also become completely smitten. I have had so much fun, and can’t wait for all the fun 2008 will bring. Baboo, you are the best thing to ever happen to me. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Life / Rants — 2 Comments
27
Jan 08

Largely, People Are Retards.

The other day on my way home from work, I was waiting at an intersection for the green man to give me permission to cross. It was rush hour and people were trying to squeeze the most out of the amber lights as possible, which of course means cars stuck across the intersection when the light finally turns red. A woman had stopped her car right on the crossing in front of me, with some cars pulling up behind her. A guy on the other side of the road sensed she wouldn’t be moving, and as the green man flashed at us he proceeded to cross behind her stuck car. At this moment, she suddenly started reversing without checking her mirrors, almost hitting the guy crossing. He jumped back and then walked in front of the car, as he probably should have in the first instance, although this would have put him right in the intersection where cars were turning. As I pass, I look at her, point at the man, and mouth, “You almost hit that man.” She obviously wasn’t trained in the art of lip-reading, so she wound her window down to talk to me. I walked over and repeated, “You almost hit that man.” She looked at me and said, “Yeah…well?”

Yeah, well?!

“Yeah, well, that would have sucked. The nightmares and demerit points would have sucked too!”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t and even though I am a stupid driver I’m okay until the next time! Praise the Lord!”
“Yeah, well, did you hear that joke about the pope and the donkey? Hi-larious!”

Yeah, well, you are a retard.

Ani MollerZero content, 100% of the time