Tuesday 26 August 2014

Dentist: Hmmm

The weather this week has been absolutely fantastic! In fact, it's been excellent since Thursday (if I'm correct). Yeah yeah, more rain is scheduled to dampen my cheer, but hey. The sun is out!

You're probably waiting to hear how my dental check up went...well you're gonna have to just wait and have patience ;) I'll get there soon. On some more interesting things now.....

Where I raise my calves I also milk every so often, so this weekend just gone was one of those occasions. I don't know what it is about this farm, but I really really like working there! Nick doesn't like it too much for some odd reason, so he's always happy to hand over the work to me - I quite happily take it. The shed is only small; 16 aside herringbone, a cute little cowshed, and the cows are great. I milk on my own while the farmer does heaps of feeding out, and pops in from time to time. There's a radio, so naturally, I sing along. Who wouldn't? I really like this new song out - Life of the Party - anyway I sing along and hope like heck nobody catches me out. Lol.
Yesterday I didn't need to go out again in the afternoon, seeing as there were only two pens to feed, what is the point? So "the boss" feeds them at night to save me the hassle. I'm only feeding them as she had an accident, which lead to a knee replacement...you get the idea. Anywho, it was jolly weird yesterday, saying "see you tomorrow" instead of "see you tonight". I've been there, twice a day (except for the odd occasion) for the past 8 weeks, so it is quite strange for me.

On Wednesday at Youth, our leader did have a great presentation for us Creation V. Evolution. Yet again, not many came, but for a change, everybody was voicing their opinions and ideas. It was cool! The leader mentioned Charles Darwin, Galapagos Islands...and Canaries(?) at one point...for which I had to hold my hand up the entire time, waiting for a chance to say that, well, they were actually Finches. How shocking :D The Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin, the changes of Finches due to environmental changes - it's one of my favourite biology examples. On Friday I think we're going to the hotpools - not our normal ones, so it'll be nice to go. The pools are one of our favourite trips, so usually a big group goes. Should be fun!


Okay Okay. So. I went to the dentist...and who did I see there? Amy! A fellow blogger buddy - I'm sure it was her. With a few things mentioned on here, and then putting a few things together...please confirm Amy? If it was you, that's funny. Cos if that's the case, I've kinda known but not known, yet still known you for quite a few years. Interesting aye?
Now, it actually amuses me at times, going to the dentist - because I'm not quite sure what to say when the dentist says "how can I help you?" Yeah, ummm, don't find any holes? Pretty please? I'm always stressed when it comes to booking the appointment, and then the lead up to it, and then walking up those steep stairs. But once I walk in the door, I'm like...calm. What happens, happens, I tell myself.
Then I wait, and wait and wait, they call me in, I sit on the seat, get given some sunglasses and a couple X-Rays later, a little digging around. Then...it's done.
Usually.
This time, I had the X-Rays, a little digging around. He looks at the X-Rays, then takes another! *gulps* crap crap crap. What's he found? Then the nerves kick in, my arms and legs started to shake slightly - my teeth would've chattered if he didn't have his hands in there (:P) Don't get me wrong, I've never ever had a horrible dentist appointment in all of my not very many years, but it's just the whole idea of them that stresses me out. The stories etc. So when he baffles me with good news, I breathe a sigh of relief, but wait for the unmistakable "but".
"There's no holes.....but those wisdom teeth need to come out...all four of them...infections....referring you to so and so...best get them all done at the same time...."


*sighs* I have been waiting for this penny to drop for quite a few years - ever since I left the dental nurse and saw the dentist, that first time he said "those wisdom teeth will cause issues". Not a word about them has been uttered until now, now that I'm over 18 and it's gonna cost me a fortune to get it done! Ugh! And there's no way I can avoid them now. So I was the only one of my siblings to be blessed with Dad's straight teeth, however I got Mum's sensitivity hypo/hyper somethingorother problem and her wisdom teeth too. Lucky me. Nick got slightly stuffed up teeth, but healthy nonetheless. I guess it's like a banana - just cos it's brown on the outside, doesn't mean the inside is gonna be yuck too....

Now I wait for the appointment from this oral surgeon guy...shall I hold my breath? ;)

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Frustrated: Pollen or cold?

Today's been rather lazy - to a point...Yep, I worked; three hours this morning and one tonight, but other than that I just haven't been bothered for anything at all. I even woke up at 5:30 this morning for work and decided I wouldn't be going to youth tonight - crazy aye? Just one of those days where I simply can't be bothered for anything, and the cold weather, the increasing workload and this annoying nose issue that may or may not be related to pollen has clouded my vision terribly. I dislike winter very much.

Anywho, life goes on. Work began at 6am this morning for a change (not) as Mum and Dad were having a sleep in. So off I went with my brother to feed Mum's calves and then mine afterward...feeding calves with Nick is...at times, extremely frustrating and tiring. However, it wasn't too bad. Nick (like many males) has not an ounce of patience for calves, but it wasn't too bad today. I came home and almost needed a bucket under my nose as it was running like a tap, then Mum and I sat down to last nights' MKR. We already knew who left because good ol' facebook spoiled it for us - you'd think we'd learn?
I went and had my hair cut to clean it up somewhat, then while I waited to be picked up I went and bought a milkshake of all things at one of our many cafe's in town. How stupid am I, to buy a milkshake, in winter? Ummm...it was disgusting so only had half before I ditched it. Why didn't I use my noggin and get a hot drink? Honestly.
Then, if my brain hadn't been too foggy already today, I checked my email and realised that I'd completely forgotten about my biology tutorial today. I seriously needed to go to that one, they'll record it of course but it's pretty boring watching a recording.... :/

I said I wouldn't go to youth tonight cos I'm just so tired and was struggling to keep my eyes open all day and wasn't keen on people - until one of the leaders let us in on what he was going to do tonight, so I changed my mind - funny how that happens aye?

On a good note though - I finally went and did my soil samples that I am so behind on; haven't sent them yet though... Also, I gave up on my current chemistry assessment and moved onto another topic - and I'm getting it! Yay! I've also pre-applied for Massey so I'm in the system now and I'm mostly done with the accommodation application.
This is the start of my 8th week on my calves and they're almost finished! Only about 15 cows left to calve now, but if I don't know any better they'll take weeks and drag out. Now my afternoon work is very minimal, and come Saturday I'll only have one pen and any newbies to feed twice a day. It's going good still :)
It's gonna be jolly weird once I'm done as it's beginning to feel like my "home-away-from-home", if you will. I haven't gotten into any trouble yet, but there's still time! Lol
The people there, well...they're a little - umm...- slow(?) to catch on to a joke? I'm not sure how to describe it, they're not stiff, just...yeah. So I say something smart and it takes them a while to get it and a little longer to decide whether they'll laugh or not...so I'm not to sure when or whether to ask them when I'm moving in (as a joke, of course!)

What else, what else?

One of our old homeschooling families is moving out of town - to Taranaki of all places. Often on a Friday night the Mum's will get together and have dinner at one of the restaurants around here. Last Friday it was the personal farewell of this particular Mum, and I took the advantage and caught up with two of my friends while our mothers caught up. It was nice to see them! The older girl is now a full time working vet nurse and the other has just finished school and is working at a pharmacy. Now we're trying to organise to catch up more often - for lunch perhaps? But it's so hard to work around work! Back in the day of homeschooling, if we wanted to stay over for a night or three we'd just call and it was done. But now, "I've got this" "I've got that" and then trying to work around my work which is very...difficult and constantly changing. They've got particular days, and I guess you could say I've got sorta "on-call" work.
One of them has October 18th off work and is suggesting that as the best possible option...but we're still in August! Argh! Just to add to the day, week, month, no wait - year - of so many things that are frustrating!



I've got the jolly good trip to the dentist on Monday, so until then.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

The weather really sucks these days....

I'd just like to say that, unlike what I first thought, my last post has received so many views! About 60 in fact, which of course, probably doesn't seem like many, but in fact, it is. Last time I wrote I was sort of, grasping at straws if you will, on what to write? So I just came up with a jumbled mess (that's what I thought) and for a change I shared it to my Facebook. Then Mum shared it to her facebook and voila! Lots more views than I'd normally get and some good comments. I'm not saying that sharing to facebook is the answer to more followers, but it is getting myself out there - even if amongst friends. A successful post - if any!

What have I to say this time? Nothing too philosophical I promise ;)

Last Wednesday was youth group and we watched a good movie called "God's NOT Dead" and it was a good movie.What I liked about it was that it actually seemed real and I dunno, it was somewhat able to be related to. Not so much that I could actually relate to the characters struggles but more so that it wasn't just like any old movie that everybody wins the prize and everyone lives happily ever after. It was realistic, which is what I liked most about.
Youth is quite sad these days as we've lost a lot of members who aren't too dedicated. It's not that they don't come on the bible study nights, because they don't even come to the fun things any more. Really, there's just about 10-15 of us max who go every week while others just come and go as and when they please. I say it's sad because the leaders are putting so much work into youth, and when they've got something good to say, it must be frustrating when those that need to hear it, aren't even there. I know a lot of them have work on which holds them back, but it sometimes seems that when one person out of a friend group doesn't go, none of them do. But I guess that's just this generation teenagers. Generation Z. Not quite as bad as Generation Y who are as lazy as they come (no offense intended). Gen Z seems quite...hot and cold. I guess that's probably our flaw.

I'm onto Week 7 of calf rearing, I think I've been there every single day, morning and night for the entire time - give or take a morning or night feed where somebody else has done it. Like Saturday afternoon when Mum went for me - but I'll come back to that.
It's going well still, the calving is slowing down and I think that the recorded calvings are coming to a close and suddenly a whole heap of natural matings (where you let a few bulls into the herd to do the rounds) are upon me. On Monday arvo, I arrived to find 6 new borns in the shed, when usually I'd get one or two. It's exciting to get a bunch like that. Sort of like an adrenaline rush, because; honestly, I don't actually KNOW why! It's just is. Anywho, they're going really good (touch wood) and that makes me happy :) I'll be heading down there soon to carry on. I'm not quite sure how much longer I'll be there for to be honest. In a couple of weeks there will probably be another couple pens on once a day feeding, leaving perhaps two pens for the afternoon feed. Which probably means they'll take over in the afternoons....I'm not too sure. And, don't quote me, I think their son may come back from uni soon for mid sem break, so he may take over...I'm not sure....I'll probably be there another 4 weeks at least. But hey, it's work, and if I didn't have it I'm not sure what I'd be doing! Probably going stir crazy at home with no work!!!

It is a little concerning when things happen like the milk payout drops...because sooner or later the farmers might start actually considering whether they really need us to cover. I know they'll definitely need all the spraying done, but they may be a little less easy going with holidays and relief milkings...but as we were reminded yesterday - it'll be this time next year that'll be the problem with the checkbooks closing. But hey, what can we do other than round up more work? It's good to stay positive for as long as possible!!

There was a biology exam prep tutorial on this morning for plant and animal responses. All of us were there bang on time, but there were issues from the teachers end - it must've been so jolly annoying, but us students just took it as it came and laughed. Took the advantage to chat a bit more while we waited.There were things like the teacher couldn't even log on, then we couldn't hear or see him when he did get on, then he couldn't share any documents to the screen. Then it was good, but as soon as he pressed record - everything went crazy lol. I think it was 10:15 by the time most of the problems were sorted and it carried on for two hours after that! *yawns* However this teacher is very....passionate about his subject. He seems to get onto a good stride of explaining - and then suddenly he remembers something and loses it all when he tries to explain everything all at once. Which is quite funny to watch!
     We've got two more tutorials for each exam paper, and then I think one tutorial on exam techniques which they do every year but they're still good to watch. And then the practice exams will be upon us. This year I want to try to do one or two, maybe not to send in, but rather to just practice at home and send them to my teacher to ask if I'm on the right track. I dunno, I'll see how I go. I've still got 7 bio booklets to go. 8 chem and three stats internals to sort. It's really important that I pass these exams, because it'll be pretty darn mortifying if I don't.

Meanwhile, applications for accommodation are open for Massey and pre-applications are open for enrolling. There's so much to do!! :O


To the fun stuff though - on Saturday we had a fun afternoon/night at youth down at the railway station. Yet again, only 10 of us came. However, it was still a good time. We began with a game of crab soccer - don't know what it is? Okay...imagine ten people navigating around the floor on hands and feet (face up of course) kicking (or attempting to) a ball around. Hmm...yep. I've got a nasty blister on one hand from the carpet!
     Next, because we were in teams of five, we split up and had to transfer peas from one bowl to our team cup...with a straw...and if you dropped it you had to eat it. Ugh, the floor, who knows what's been on it?!?! I only dropped one pea. It was a race to fill up the most peas.
Game 3: apple bobbing! (NO!!) then using our (wet) face to pull a a piece of banana out of flour. Resulting in faces covered in clay o.O
Game 4: The guys in the teams held a balloon covered in shaving creme and the girls had to shave it all off without popping the balloon.
Game 5: two people from each team had to drink two cans of coke....through somebody elses' sock. I've actually got a video of this! Yuck.

Over all, the losing team had to have what was apparently the worst challenge - a frozen t-shirt put on you by the other team. Our team lost, but because they were teams of five and there were only 4 t-shirts....well. That and the boys could easily take off their shirts, and the other girl had spare clothing. Lucky me!! :D

After that, we played a few rounds of Mafia, then had some fish'n'chips for dinner, then we watched Need 4 Speed. The rule was that nobody could leave until 11pm, but seeing as I had to drive and I like to stick to the 10pm rule (and I had to be up early to milk at 6am) I was let off and got to go at then end of the first movie. Not sure what they watched after that though....

Sunday 3 August 2014

Independence, Sexism, Wars. A whole lot of rambling honestly...!

What should one make of everything that's going on in the world as of late? Fatal plane crashes, war between Israel and Gaza, Gareth Morgan wanting to eradicate cats from NZ entirely, NZ land being sold to Chinese buyers, Ebola in Africa. It seems like the whole world is in a bit of a shambles - especially when one crazy guy wants to eradicate every cat from the country just to save the native birds - oh please.

But really, I'm questioning what this is all about? There's the Chinese who have tonnes of money but no land who want to buy the land off kiwis who have tonnes of land but no money. There's an out there crazy disease spread in Africa - but two Americans who caught it have been taken back to America just to receive the treatment that is not available in Africa (seriously?). Who on Earth knows what Gaza and Israel are fighting about, all I know is that civilians are suffering and it just seems all very pathetic. What has the world come to? I guess the rest of us can all sleep happy in our beds, because rest assured - somebody will create an app that will sort everything out! *claps hands ecstatically*

Of course, of late I have been considering the possibility of a WW3 and what will exactly happen. The youth of today will be hauled off the couch and sent out to fight. But they won't be fit, they won't be healthy, the boys will all think it's fun and games because they do this all the time on xBox and the girls will probably have a tantrum about the whole thing and expect that stomping their feet will get them somewhere. Right now all my mind is seeing is a whole heap of people out there having a war with their smartphones and tablets. Bang bang - oh wait, my battery is dead. Crap.
     Even though I pride myself in being and acting all "grown up and mature" I think the world is soon going to turn into something even I'm not prepared for. All I know is that I'm not handing my cats over to Gareth Morgan to kill. End. Of. Story.

I WILL go down fighting.

A few weeks back a documentary called Gloriavale was on TV. It was about a part of New Zealand that nobody really knows about and there is a community there who seclude themselves from the world (probably for the very reasons mentioned above). I think there are about 500 (?) of them living there now. They live together, each family has about 10 or more children (children are a blessing), they do everything together. The women do womanly duties like cooking and cleaning and the men run the dairy farm, do all the building and maintenance etc. Nobody gets paid, all the money earned by the community, goes into the community. They live for God's Will. They do everything for God's Will.
     Mum and I actually agreed that yeah, that'd be a pretty cool way to live. No stress, no worries. Nothing. Of course I'm not too sure about having no independence - as it's all very sexist and women are ranked under the men. Yes, they learn - they follow NCEA. They marry within the community. I believe that if I was BORN into that sort of lifestyle, then who wouldn't enjoy it? If that's all you've known, but even though I agree it'd be a good way to live, I don't believe I could stand to not be able to do what I want to do. There's no freedom to read any book you like, a woman couldn't choose to milk the cows over doing the cleaning. I think I'd prefer NOT to have 10 or more kids or stand for being below the men. Just couldn't do it, although it would be a good way to live. I also don't think I'd like it as they didn't appear to have any pet allowances there...

I stand for equality, which is why I strive to work as hard as guys do to prove myself worthy. Recently we were asked to do a job for a lifestyler - digging up flax of all things. Originally it was organised that two of the guys would go down there to do it, but as you know, things change and my brother was sent down with one of the girls we've recently employed. We thought it was going fine, but when Mum introduced me to the client and suggested that I would also come down the next day to help get the job done, the client got a bit miffed. "I was told that two blokes would do the job," said she. Mum and I ended up leaving for home again without really having said anything in return to that comment, and it wasn't until later that I realised how absolutely peeved I was! It was the continued comment that really got to me, which went something like, "I know my own strengths and I know that women just can not cope with this sort of job." - while gesturing at yours truly. How. Jolly. Rude! I'm glad I refrained myself at the time, from calling her an utter cow, but later on I couldn't stop thinking it!
     There have been so many occasions where I've been doing something that apparently seems a little too hard for me and one of the males has offered they help me or do it themselves. Of course Dad and my brother would never dare say this sort of thing to me, it's always another member of staff, or a client or somebody and it drives me mad! I'm not little! I'm not going to snap! I am VERY capable. Do you think perhaps, that I should carry around a sign whilst doing a job a male would do, that declares that I do not want any help? Would you think that maybe this will make them realise? No, I don't think so either.
     Which is why I love my job so much at the moment - the farmer never ever offers me help. He's seen me lugging buckets of milk, seen me lifting calves off the trailer and into the pen, seen me milk difficult cows and he never ever helps me out which I'm eternally grateful for! Yes, the Brazilian that works there once 'rushed to my aid' when I picked up a calf that was, quite honestly, as light as a feather. However all I could do was smirk when I saw him struggle in with the larger calf. I think now, what happened was that he wanted to take the smaller calf instead! hehehe oh dear.


Yeah, I wasn't really sure what to write today, but this has helped - getting it all out of my head.