Saturday 8 August 2015

Crazy Cat: - Activated

My desk is an absolute state at the moment, I honestly don't know how I let it get this far, but I do, and sometime soon I'll need to clean it up - but currently, I'm in the stage of "I-can't-be-bothered-ness" hehe. You'd be surprised how much of a mess a desktop and all it's essentials, a laptop, study material, pens, necessary desk essentials and Pippa creates, alas, I don't believe it'll clean itself up by itself!

I've got to be leaving for work again in about an hour/hour and a half, meant to be doing my assessments that I've suddenly gotten the enthusiasm to do, but Office is being a little unfriendly as of late. I thought I'd fixed the problem, that originally began with my email server - it reckoned there was an "error" of sorts, that it wanted to repair, but never did. Then suddenly it was fixed and working fine, in time for me to send out an email. Then today, I log back on, reading the reply, scrolling, scrolling "error". Darn. It took me a decent amount of time to read said email, because I had to just keep going in and out of the system, quickly scrolling down to the next section and reading it before it locked up again.
Then, without thinking the problem would be contagious, I opened up Word, and that too has the same problem. So, I quit, I can't spend all my time trying to fix the problem - whatever it is, so here I am, and I'll just be doing more of my assessment tonight - just the thing I want to be doing on a weekend, when I'm getting up early the next day! Gah.

These days I'm so jolly tired, and lacking all motivation to get things done, unless it's work, and after this morning, I definitely am losing my patience with those calves! It sort of gets to this stage once you're well over the 100 heifer replacement mark, and the weather starts getting crappy and the calves aren't looking the best because of it - they'll come right, they've just got to get used to it I guess and they should be grateful it's only rain and not snow! I think we've easily had over 200 calves come through our sheds, we've got almost 130 replacements, and by Tuesday about 90 bulls would've made their way to the sales over a stretch of just three weeks. It's definitely fast this year, much faster than normal and the sheds are beginning to struggle a bit, as they always do once they've had this many animals go through them. Tomorrow I'm needed to milk in the morning instead, is it bad that I'm feeling a little too relieved about that? I love my calves, I really do, they just test my patience some days, especially when the colostrum is getting sour.

Speaking of rain, I possibly mentioned here recently that we were getting low on water, well, we no longer are. Because, low and behold, Metservice were actually right about something - makes a nice change! And we had cats and dogs falling from the sky almost all afternoon and night one day this week just gone - no idea what day it was, only that it was as heavy as heck and sleeping upstairs is excessively noisy in that situation - thank goodness there was no wind. Not quite sure how much we had, probably a good 50 - 60mm which has made the difference, cleaned our outside calves off and turned all the paddocks into a big, slushy mess. Hey, can't have it the best of both worlds can you?


It really is crazy, after the sudden downturn of the Fonterra payout we are inundated with work, it's just mental - which is a good thing, but I'm just like omgosh, seriously? Another fully booked weekend for milkings? It's not surprising though, and I do feel for all of the dairy farmers after yesterdays' announcement of less than $4 per kilo of milksolids...(most people were budgeting no less than $5, so it's really serious). Most farmers are dropping their staff and hiring us instead - great for us, except now we're being over booked for relief milkings! So, thankfully we've pretty much found two new people to join our team - a girl a little older than me, and a woman in her 60's - Dad's just got to do a test milking with them this week, to prove they're capable, then they're straight into it from next weekend - phew.
It is a little scary that another recession might be in the very near future, but you've just got to keep on keeping on, no reason to sit around and wait for it to come aye?



Sometime last week I had a good skype conversation with a friend, Xj. I must admit, although I don't enjoy talking to people over skype, it was good to talk to her face to face, since I haven't seen her since she was up this way in December. A whole two hours later, the call was ended. Although some of that time was me arguing with Pippa and being shredded to pieces, anyone want a cat? It's like she just activates a part in her brain, that sends her absolutely wild - especially at night. Last night, after getting home and getting to be a little later than I'd like (get to that in a minute) she went psycho as per the norm at that time of the night, and being so frustrated I literally shut her out of my room, not quite slamming the door after her - so Mum had to deal with her instead (hehe). She's just absolutely mental, quite seriously.
Last night we were meant to go ten pin bowling with the Young farmers, then dinner at one of our "places" who had a live band on at the time, we left late and the weather wasn't great so we cancelled the ten pin and just went to a place somewhat closer, a Bridgehouse of sorts that I've decided I don't particularly like and I mostly regretted going the entire night.
We like to do something like ten pin every so often, cos it's just a bit of a release of the normalities of life, and it's relatively cheap too, add in a bit of competition, it's fun. But we went to this Bridgehouse that was packed with people, it too was having a live band going, and had some pool tables too. The meals were far too expensive for what they were, and you can't even hear yourself think for the noise inside. It wasn't horrible, I just didn't want to be there and I admit to falling asleep at the table - oops!
The band wasn't too bad, in my opinion, but the guys who went figured pool was better so out the back we went for them to do that while I just got to watch - it's really great when you get to the end of the night and THEN they offer you a game - like. I dunno. Not the best time I've had, probably too tired to care and we go out far too often it seems to enjoy it anymore - sort of gotten to the stage where I'm around these people too much and I want to see someone else for a change? *yawns*

Now, I want to quickly add that I want your opinions. This, I believe, is post number 97. I'm wanting to write something, different for my 100th post on here - but alas I've no clue whatsoever on what to say for it. What do you lot reckon, any ideas?

32 comments:

  1. Somehow reading your blog made me tired :p must have creep through the computer. Good that you work is busy but yeah the country overall is going to have a tough time. Ideas about post 100....in what way do you want it different? Not about your life, a topical issue??

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    1. It's a little contagious aye? Like the word "yawn" ;)

      Yep, that was mostly the idea, some form of topical issue - but what? Something that I understand mostly, so I can say something decent about it that would be interesting. Any suggestions in that court?

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  2. Yeah, that payout, everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for it, and then it comes, something like $3.85? We were just like, that's crazy... Since their top 14 staff are all on more than a million dollar salary, and the dairy farmers are slipping down to under a thousand dollars if this keeps up... The one round here is getting pretty badly depressed...

    97 posts, well done! Hmm, something special... I dunno, try your hand at a short story? Favorite lengthy funny story? Just two suggestions, see what everyone else says... (HINT HINT... Sorry, couldn't resist. :P)

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    1. Yep, it's scary and it could drop lower. Problem with Fonterra having their reserve price 15% less than the previous auction - everyone knows that, so they'll use it to their advantage. Suck really, and after watching Q+A this morning, Federated Farmers seem to think that farms are just doing their budgets and getting through, John Key said farmers need to tighten their belts and get used to it. But nope farmers are killing themselves instead, gee, you'd think they'd follow this awesome Governmental advice, right? These top dogs aren't paid their hundreds of thousand per annum income for nothing...

      Thanks, short story isn't really an option - my English teachers never liked my writing at all and they weren't afraid to say it either - so I won't put you guys through it if they thought it wasn't up to standard! Maybe I'll try a hand a poetry? Funny story, there's an idea.

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    2. They were on Q & A? Can you send a link to that? Sorry, don't have TV aye... :P
      Yeah, the Feds are just being idiots lately, not taking anything seriously. Just give them good news, no matter how invented, just make them think something's going well... John Key could always try tighten *his* belt. Ah, no, he's too busy with all his other stuff, staying in Hawaii for special little deals to make things worse for dairy and all forms of farming in general...

      Haha, join the club! My writing was never developed much, either it was too long and needed to be shortened, or it wasn't long enough to have a plot, or both. I almost flipped my lid once and was considering telling my teacher to write a short story under 500 words and make it interesting, but thought I better not... :P
      Poetry, that's always fun! Limericks are best. Always. Except when they're not. :P

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    3. The link http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/ta-tvnz-index-group-2556429 is here, it's got a few different parts to it, and be prepared for good old Winnie Peters, as he is on there. Although for a good change, he's got a good argument going on! Don't know how you guys survive without the TV, even just being able to keep up with the 6 o'clock news, I'd go crazy if I didn't know what was going on, rather than just hearing about it in other forms... :)

      Haha, so they did the same to you huh? Too long! Too short! Too descriptive - "superfluous". Not descriptive enough! Too many nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives for crying out loud. *rolls eyes* lol, if you'd told them that it would've been a good story though (to write about it) ;P

      Ever had any of your "stories" actually happen though? As a kid, about five, I saw the Sky Tower on a trip up north at the time, so later wrote a story about the sky tower catching on fire, complete with illustrations and all! What happened? The sky tower later had a major fire in the kitchen, I believe, and it was all over the news ;) I remember Mum and Dad looking horrified after they'd read my "story" a couple days prior, lol

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    4. Right, thanks for that, I'll check it out. Oh Winnie the Pooh, it'll be great to hear him again. Always an enjoyable experience, listening to him on National Radio. Not to agree with him, but just for the blunt way he deals with idiot reporters!!! :P Hehe, yeah, we survive, got the internet, and we watch the good TV segments on there. Seriously, TV has nothing good on it other than the news, and that can be got elsewhere.

      Yup, exact same! I gave up... Haha, I was so tempted at times, but I held my peace. I did that a lot with my English teachers. Like the well publicized moment of "this will be an E", then comes back N. That was just -_-
      Lol, that would be creepy! Nah, I never had anything like that. Only two stories I ever did was a bike ride, which happens all the time anyway, and a salvaging a truck, which was based on true events anyway... :P

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    5. Lol, good old Winnie, he certainly got his point across ;) TV, yeah the only good thing with it is being able to watch it and the only thing that disturbs it is really bad weather, and not the internet connection...

      Oh I just sat on the phone with a scowl on my face listening to them tell me that it still wasn't good enough. Heck, I wrote almost the same thing in an essay I wrote as a mock, was told it wouldn't pass, yet got M in the exam, says a lot huh? Haha yeah, creepy, yep.

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    6. Okay, watched the Q&A thing last night. Winnie was in fine form... :P
      Actually reminded me of the leaders debates a bit, tbh... Ah, yes, but every since we have had wireless, it has worked like a charm except for some cattle (Dairy cows, ironically... :P) eating the cable at the transmitter... :P

      The trouble with English is it depends more on the marker than anything else. Once when I had three teachers in 1 week, all of them saw the exact same piece of work, and each gave totally different feedback...

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    7. He definitely was...the dairy cows aye? Sure your beefies didn't tell them to do it? ;)

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    8. It was definitely dairy cows, being grazed during the off season on a sheep farm, actually.

      Oh, and di you hear that Foreign Terror put the dividend up as well? Just to make things even worse for your poor little NZ farmer, and just great for about pretty much everyone else... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11493616 if you didn't see it...

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    9. Hmm, yeap, so it was the sheep who told them to do it?... ;)

      Yeah, heard about that I did. Lovely...

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    10. Hmm, you ever seen sheep and dairy cows together? They don't get on too well. The cows might have done it to spite the sheep, maybe try and blame them, but I doubt it. They woulda just been complaining that they weren't getting quite the same TLC they were used to... ;P

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  3. Ever thought of having a break from study and work? *coughcough visit down south coughcough*

    2 hours and probably would have gone on longer if we had started a bit earlier or you didn't have work the next morning. :P Glad to hear that you don't have water problems anymore, though. I was woken at four this morning from a hailstorm, and didn't get to sleep for about an hour. It was so loud on my roof, I couldn't hear myself think.

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    1. Yep, I have thought of taking time off, but right now at this point in time I can't leave everyone in the lurch when I'm relied on so much, not only at work, but around home as well. Mum would go nuts without me at the moment :)
      But it's an idea, I won't forget it :)

      Haha yeah and if Mum and Dad weren't just across the landing too, would've hated to keep them awake, was a good chat though. It's nasty aye? Especially if there isn't much roof space to mask it....wished I still live downstairs!

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  4. Sorry if this is repeated, Internet connection played up when trying to post.
    The tpp trade thingee
    The NZ flag debate
    The NZ anthem okay or room for improvement
    How BMW's are financial pitfalls ;-)
    Why it isn't a good idea to wear a lion outfit the next time you go to the dentist.

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    1. Oh nice ideas! I'm not too keyed up on anything to do with trading so I'll skip that. NZ Flag and anthem, I may be a little biased as I disagree completely with the change....
      BMW's financial pitfalls, hehe, you'll keep ;)

      But that last one, very nice, I could definitely work with that one. Thanks!

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    2. Haha, the ol Transforming Producers to Poverty one could be a bit controversial... :P Especially for dairy. NZ Flag, did you see John Carr's suggestion, the existing flag, with the Real Estate-type "Sold" across it? :P Sorry, anyway. was the anthem actually a serious suggestion?

      The last one, why isn't it a good idea? I thought it'd be a very good idea, provided you weren't wearing pink bunny rabbit slippers as well...

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    3. Yeah, I think the anthem was a serious suggestion, that is another thing I think is pointless changing...

      It's more of the topic that would be interesting to write about, where I can see both sides to the story. Haha, it would be funny to go into the dentists wearing that...with a fake gun hanging over your shoulder ;)

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    4. but, why do we need a new anthem? I hadn't even heard about the idea until I watched that Q&A thing you sent... If you want that much different, why don't you just change countries???!!!???

      Lol, fake gun at a dentist... Make sure its a *tranquiliser* gun... :P

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    5. Because apparently the national anthem is not an anthem, but a hymn. And we can't have a hymn being called an anthem, you know. That's just not PC!

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    6. I think what they should have done is taken a nationwide poll whether or not the majority wanted the flag or anthem changed. And if they did, great, let's find an alternative. If they didn't, then use the 20 million, or whatever it was, for something else... Like fighting poverty in NZ, or improving state housing. Seriously! It absolutely riles my temper when they go and spend 20 million on something like a new flag when they're always going on about the urgency of the nation's poverty and dereliction of the state housing and national motorways. And of our country is in debt, where the heck did they get 20 million from and why on earth would they spend it on something that doesn't need to change! If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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    7. We don't, same as not needing a new flag. Politicians love to do the unimportant stuff. :-)

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    8. It is easy to take a nation wide poll, why they haven't done it I don't know...ohhhh wait! It will COST THEM MONEY! Gee, fancy that. They could've easily sent out a quick flyer to every mailbox/voting age person in the country and whoever is passionate about it would've replied. Passionate for/Passionate against - they would've gotten a good population to work with, it's pretty easy statistics, why not?

      The whole idea of changing the flag, and now our anthem is ridiculous, a waste of time and money. No one will know who we are, not that many people know our flag and anthem anyway, but that's the same in any country. It's unfair that we as a country are the laughing stock for the rest of the world who think we're a pack of idiots - are the rest of the countries in the world changing their flag? I don't think so, take something, stick by it. And I'll be voting dearest JK out of government on the next election...

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    9. I never even voted him in the first place. But I'm not getting into any politics. All I have to say is the prefix poly- means many and a tick is a blood sucking insect, food for thought.

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    10. just a quick note, they did a referendum I think it was on the flag, which the majority said they didn't want it changed, but they still went ahead to explore the changes. Also, Anon, Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy more tunnel. ;P

      I just Googled, too. Hymn and anthem are synonyms, and churches can sing anthems as well, so...
      The trouble is, if you get JK out, who's gonna be replacing him? We need some sort of party that can actually stand up for NZ rather than their own personal interests. Like that's ever going to happen, I would add to Xj's very true comment, that the Beehive isn't called that because they are working, but because we get stung...

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    11. I liked the Conservative party because they did have family interests at heart. But then that thing happened with Colin Craig (does anyone even know exactly what did...?), and their name is tarnished.

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    12. Yeah, Conservatives were good while they lasted, but they kinda became targets of the media for being "Christian".
      What happened with Colin, was basically something trivial, which was blown into something big. An interview in a sauna, nothing indecent, nothing at all to cause concern, but probably a bit silly and thoughtless. But the media can take hold of anything. With his secretary, that is hard to say, there's about 5 sides to that story, but I personally think it was just that Colin has quite a strong personality, (How else did he become such a successful businessman?), which does cause him difficulties when he's working with others, and means he's not the easiest to get on with. I dunno, I wouldn't totally right them off yet. See what's happened by the next election.

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    13. Umm he has admitted to "sexting" his secretary. So yeah bit of a opps moment there :-)

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    14. Did he actually admit to that or was that just what someone came up with? There's been a few "invented" charges that people say he's admitted to (right down to even sleeping with MacGregor), which he has then later denied. Either he has a bad case of changing his story, or there's a lot of invented stuff out there. This interview colin-craig-my-wife-said-she-didn-t-want-any-sext-messages-from-me-q03516.html kinda throws doubt on that story. I dunno, he still denies sexual harrassment, so... But he's definitely had oops moments, MacGregor did quit, so obviously something was up, financial or not, and the interview with Farrier was yet another one...

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    15. The interview with Farrier was quite good albeit more than slightly unsightly. I am pretty s re he admitted it and by that broke the confidentiality agreement he had with his ex secretary. Will do some digging and see if I can find a link for it.

      The problem with Christian based political parties is they tend to be of their own downfall. Take Graham Capill for example. Having been involved in 'church politics' myself there does seem to be a lust for power/control which is sad really.

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    16. Thanks, yeah, I overheard it once, but then never heard anything else, thought if it was true, they'd have made more about it, but I dunno. Let me know if you find a link, I'd be interested to read it.

      Aye. To have a truly Christian based party, based on Christian values and existing solely on a belief to do what's right, without a hint of power hunger, seems to be an unachievable utopian ideal. You can't legislate morality, as Craig says. That element of control is a difficult one, and I'd say it's Craig's biggest downfall, as apparently quite a few people find him controlling, which is, as you say, quite sad.

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