Just a quick reminder to anyone who scrolls past my blog, whether I know you or not, nasty and/or snarky comments aren't appreciated and won't be tolerated. They'll be marked as spam, so please don't bother yourself writing them.
I myself, have a very broad opinion and at times I do like to exert my opinion on matters that are at times, controversial. However, that isn't an invitation to comment on my blog with your unwanted remarks and how stupid you think I am. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions, so this is where I like to share mine, and I know better than most that everyone has different outlooks on life.
Although I do want to one day have a blog that many people read, and I know I have to be prepared for the negative people of this lovely world we live in, but it really boils my blood when somebody stalks through my blog and hides behind an anonymous name. As I said on Facebook, (and curiously since then, these comments have stopped), this person is probably somebody I know who's for some reason got a bee in their bonnet. Who comes across a blog and reads every post, til exactly a year back (which is kinda creepy to think about) just to find something to take a dig at? Honestly, if you've got a problem, I'd much prefer if you were to express your opinions in a much more pleasant manner and don't hide behind a false name.
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It is HOT. Okay, so it's probably not that hot, being just over 20 degrees, but my gosh, that sun has some heat in it these days. Going outside is absolute madness so we try and hide away from it as much as we can. However that's kinda difficult when you live and breathe the outdoors. After all the complaining about it being summer, and how the rain was getting boring, we desperately need rain right now. Our water tank is almost to the stage of being bone dry, and it seems that overnight the paddocks have turned from looking like wet, soggy potatoes to thin cut chips. (Chicken flavoured). You look around and see brown, lots of it.
I know that unlike Canterbury, we're doing pretty well. But this definitely isn't needed to add to the stress. As someone mentioned, all the crops have been stuffed up and put in too late. The rain kept flooding the seed beds, or washing away what was already there. The ground got too wet to resow. Now all the crops have mostly turned to nothing, barely any silage was done because of the rain and because of the previous years droughts, food in general is low. This is the beginning of the end. This is farming.
Where I'm working every weekend, we're meant to have cups on at 3pm. I can be sitting around waiting until almost 4pm until the cows turn up, they take hours to walk in with the heat and extra humidity. The farmer who's usually cheerful was quite sullen today when I saw him after work. He's not quite sure what to do. The cows are dropping production from heat stress, so tonight we're milking an hour later and he's completely changed the morning and night paddocks around so they don't have to walk too far. Other options are to do 12 hour milkings, so we'd be milking about 6:30 am and 7pm, when it's cooler. The most extreme option is to milk only once a day, which if he was to jump straight into this, he'd be screwed for the rest of the season. He may as well quit now.
This sort of thing, with being a relief milking company, we're seeing everywhere. It's getting to that difficult stage of trying to keep the work place positive, however it's not particularly easy when everywhere you turn, you see stress.
It's difficult for us to plan ahead with what possible work we will get over the next few months, and into next season. With the payout being low, general farm staff are being dropped. The question is, will we be asked to do the odd fill in job, as it's a cheaper option? Will we be needed for more spraying, because we're cheaper than the helicopters? Will we get a sudden onslaught of work once the kids go back to school and uni? Lots of if's, but's, and maybe's to work around. I suppose you could say, it just makes life that more interesting.
Now with my uni plans gone awol, I'm sorta looking around going, hmm, now what? Mum and Dad were intending on shifting my room into the upstairs spare room when I left. Now that's been updated a little. I'm moving myself into the upstairs spare bedroom, getting rid of the old spare bed to make room for me. And the other spare room (that is currently being used for storage) will be stripped and relined as a sort of lounge for me. I'll be able to set up my desk and computer up there, one of our old TV's and DVD player etc. All I'll need to look out for is a couch and such to fill it for when I have people over. I'm not quite sure when we'll ever have time to do it, but sometime we will. It should be good!
This year I'll be pretty much full time working. Getting to do the majority of the milkings, and being able to help mum with her calves again next season. Where I'm working has asked if I can help them with milkings and calf rearing during winter too. We just need to figure some things out, to see if it would work OK. If that is the case, I'll be fully booked almost all day every day, for three months at least! Hey, I'm not gonna be a poor student like I thought!
Because I'm now able to afford it, I'll soon start looking out for a new 2nd hand decent car for me, before mine blows up and leaves me stranded somewhere. I'll be able to stick with the Young Farmers here, and I want to be a part of expanding Youth Group to something better and more interesting. Plans have already started, so hopefully the leaders give it the go ahead :) I know I'm now a little old to be part of youth, which is why I want to save it from the despair of having no members left.
Yesterday Dad did a spraying quote and came back with a "not going to uni present" for me. Two brown shavers! He happened to be giving the quote to the local chicken farm, so he'll bring back some more when he goes out there to spray this weekend. Meanwhile, the two chooks were named almost instantly by Mum - Tersh and Sherry...AKA Tertiary lol
What I'm going to do, who knows? I've thought about training as an AB Tech, but each time I think of it, it just doesn't give me that "buzz". It would be a good thing to train in, and exceptionally good paying once you reach your third year, depending on how accurate you are. But yeah, currently I don't really see myself doing it, even though it was always a fallback option. This year I'll just work and increase my savings some more and see what life throws at me. My arms and eyes are wide open, ready, waiting. I suppose I've just got to be patient, and at the moment, I've got a good thing already
Tuesday, 20 January 2015
Thursday, 15 January 2015
NCEA: A Little Unexpected
NCEA results....wasn't prepared for that. Wasn't prepared for dinner either. That Tegal ad has it wrong.
I was far, far too nervous to log on but Mum pushed me to do it. Typed in the log in details, held off for a bit. My heart was racing like crazy - as you'd expect I suppose, and I kinda felt on the sick side. Please be Ok, Please Please Please. Scrolled down, as you do. Didn't see that one coming.
National Certificate in Mathematics. That was it. No "University Entrance". No NCEA Level 3. What. The. Heck. Scrolled down a little more, Biology; plants and animal responses. Excellence. Biology; Speciation. Not Achieved. No. Way?!
This was when I wanted to crawl under a rock and cry for the rest of my life, I failed. At the final hurdle I failed, how? I was absolutely positive that my biology exams went fine, yes I admit that Speciation did sorta make me grasp at straws a little, but I thought that I'd made a pretty darned good attempt. The other one had me more worried, I'd filled it with all sorts of crazy, out there information. I took an extreme punt on adding in things that might've killed it for me, or might've given me a great score on "abstract thinking". Turns out, even though it was technically the harder paper, I must've done well by getting the Excellence.
All year, every year in Biology I've been getting marked with Merits and E's, why then could I fail a paper that I was expecting to have the better chance of passing? Because of that, I cut myself short. I guess I assumed that since I always did well, what would be the point of doing extra internals to cover for UE? I did it with Chem, I did it for Stats. I really kick myself for not expecting the unexpected.
I passed my other papers, as expected. Failed the chem organics paper - as expected. (Who didn't?!) I had no margin of error with biology, and yeah, it's my own stupid fault. No one to blame but myself. I thought that 2015 was going to be the perfect year. But already all the crap from 2014 is intruding, only two weeks in.
So there you go. University, down the drainpipe, through the S-Bend and flushed away. I'll get NCEA level 3 once my final internal credits are processed, as they were marked and applied late...I dunno, I just honestly thought that this was going to all work out. I got into Colombo, one of the best halls on Campus in my opinion. I got my student allowance. Studylink gave me no grief, whatsoever. Even though I had heard that it was difficult to work with. Everything was going to plan, until yesterday.
Alternatives? Well, there are still 2 internal assessments in Biology that I could do to make up for it, and go to Uni in Semester 2 or wait until 2016. From now on I'd have to pay to re-enrol in Te Kura. I could just wait until I'm 20, and enter as a mature student.
Honestly. My urge to study at University was like this tiny little flame on a match stick, getting buffeted around by the wind, nearing the end of the stick. And then this 20 litre bucket of water is just poured on top of this defenseless little flame. Gone. I have no urge to study anymore. And the stupid thing is, I actually thought I wanted to go to Uni. I was so keen, and kinda of the opinion that it was the best option for me, that I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. There may be the possibility that four years ago I convinced myself to believe in what may just be a lie. I don't think I ever really wanted to go? I wanted to graduate, that has been my dream since I was little, knowing that I'd never get the chance to, made me push to get there.
Yesterday I was so angry and upset about it all. Today I woke up still feeling a little numb, but the burden was gone. I'm Free! I feel like bouncing off the walls. What a joke?!
No longer do I have the pressure to work, work, work to come up with the money that would've left my hands almost straight away, just to pay for an accommodation deposit. No longer do I have the worry of not quite having enough to pay for it on time. Yes, I'm peeved that I've worked almost three weeks straight with barely any time off, just to try and cover it.
Mum said, "keep thinking about uni" and I did. I imagined what my room would be like, and the people I know but have never met. Being able to spend time with the family I hardly know but desperately want to. It was going to be the best time of my life. So I thought!
Now I've got endless opportunities and no idea what on Earth to do. I've got the money to do whatever I like and time seems like it will never run out. I could do an OE, although that was never on my "to do" list. I could train as an AB Technician, and/or go to the south Island and experience farming in that region. I could study something through North Tec, Ag ITO or something similar if I so desperately wanted to. The world is at my fingertips, all I've got to do is figure something out.
My family run by the saying, "whatever happens, will happen for a reason". Many things that happen, we later find were blessings in disguise. Although they may not look all that rosey at first, later on you'll realise that actually, hey, I'm glad that happened the way it did.
All summer I've been having doubts about my exams, after at the last youth group night something was said. It was a little bit of an unusual night. Where each person had a turn in the middle and we'd all say something encouraging or describe the first thing that came to mind. If you had something come to you as a, I dunno, a vision thing whatever.
Anywho, my youth leader was like, "this may not be very encouraging, but. I can see you're very organised and you've got your whole life sorta planned out. But, just want to say that it's not gonna end the way you want it to. Your plans aren't going to work out how you want" etc etc. Someone also saw the colour yellow. Well Mum bought me a yellow Magnolia for Christmas, because she remembered what was said. And now all my plans have gone haywire. I felt frustrated at first, but now that I'm piecing it all together, I'm realising that my plans may have failed. But it's not my plans that are going to lead my life to where it should be. So now I'm really excited about the fact that the plan for me is going to plan, and here's the proof. Life couldn't be better! Next thing on the agenda, text my youth leader and tell him what happened and that he was right...
What amuses me the most about this situation is the fact that I got a "National Certificate in Maths" when, I never aimed for it. Didn't even know it existed. Maths is my worst subject. Interesting.
And the biggest bonus of this all, don't need to move out of home just yet. I'm now seeing so many negatives and realising how much I would've hated it. Would've gotten so homesick, away from the family I'm so close with, and cats I've never been without. Living in a city would've been torture for this country bumpkin. And honestly, not milking cows for so many weeks straight would've given me withdrawals. The people I milk for every weekend better not go back on wanting me to stay, I'm sure they'll be over the moon. :)
Life goes on, and it's looking fantabulous. Will look even better once my new word is added to the dictionary :)
I was far, far too nervous to log on but Mum pushed me to do it. Typed in the log in details, held off for a bit. My heart was racing like crazy - as you'd expect I suppose, and I kinda felt on the sick side. Please be Ok, Please Please Please. Scrolled down, as you do. Didn't see that one coming.
National Certificate in Mathematics. That was it. No "University Entrance". No NCEA Level 3. What. The. Heck. Scrolled down a little more, Biology; plants and animal responses. Excellence. Biology; Speciation. Not Achieved. No. Way?!
This was when I wanted to crawl under a rock and cry for the rest of my life, I failed. At the final hurdle I failed, how? I was absolutely positive that my biology exams went fine, yes I admit that Speciation did sorta make me grasp at straws a little, but I thought that I'd made a pretty darned good attempt. The other one had me more worried, I'd filled it with all sorts of crazy, out there information. I took an extreme punt on adding in things that might've killed it for me, or might've given me a great score on "abstract thinking". Turns out, even though it was technically the harder paper, I must've done well by getting the Excellence.
All year, every year in Biology I've been getting marked with Merits and E's, why then could I fail a paper that I was expecting to have the better chance of passing? Because of that, I cut myself short. I guess I assumed that since I always did well, what would be the point of doing extra internals to cover for UE? I did it with Chem, I did it for Stats. I really kick myself for not expecting the unexpected.
I passed my other papers, as expected. Failed the chem organics paper - as expected. (Who didn't?!) I had no margin of error with biology, and yeah, it's my own stupid fault. No one to blame but myself. I thought that 2015 was going to be the perfect year. But already all the crap from 2014 is intruding, only two weeks in.
So there you go. University, down the drainpipe, through the S-Bend and flushed away. I'll get NCEA level 3 once my final internal credits are processed, as they were marked and applied late...I dunno, I just honestly thought that this was going to all work out. I got into Colombo, one of the best halls on Campus in my opinion. I got my student allowance. Studylink gave me no grief, whatsoever. Even though I had heard that it was difficult to work with. Everything was going to plan, until yesterday.
Alternatives? Well, there are still 2 internal assessments in Biology that I could do to make up for it, and go to Uni in Semester 2 or wait until 2016. From now on I'd have to pay to re-enrol in Te Kura. I could just wait until I'm 20, and enter as a mature student.
Honestly. My urge to study at University was like this tiny little flame on a match stick, getting buffeted around by the wind, nearing the end of the stick. And then this 20 litre bucket of water is just poured on top of this defenseless little flame. Gone. I have no urge to study anymore. And the stupid thing is, I actually thought I wanted to go to Uni. I was so keen, and kinda of the opinion that it was the best option for me, that I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. There may be the possibility that four years ago I convinced myself to believe in what may just be a lie. I don't think I ever really wanted to go? I wanted to graduate, that has been my dream since I was little, knowing that I'd never get the chance to, made me push to get there.
Yesterday I was so angry and upset about it all. Today I woke up still feeling a little numb, but the burden was gone. I'm Free! I feel like bouncing off the walls. What a joke?!
No longer do I have the pressure to work, work, work to come up with the money that would've left my hands almost straight away, just to pay for an accommodation deposit. No longer do I have the worry of not quite having enough to pay for it on time. Yes, I'm peeved that I've worked almost three weeks straight with barely any time off, just to try and cover it.
Mum said, "keep thinking about uni" and I did. I imagined what my room would be like, and the people I know but have never met. Being able to spend time with the family I hardly know but desperately want to. It was going to be the best time of my life. So I thought!
Now I've got endless opportunities and no idea what on Earth to do. I've got the money to do whatever I like and time seems like it will never run out. I could do an OE, although that was never on my "to do" list. I could train as an AB Technician, and/or go to the south Island and experience farming in that region. I could study something through North Tec, Ag ITO or something similar if I so desperately wanted to. The world is at my fingertips, all I've got to do is figure something out.
My family run by the saying, "whatever happens, will happen for a reason". Many things that happen, we later find were blessings in disguise. Although they may not look all that rosey at first, later on you'll realise that actually, hey, I'm glad that happened the way it did.
All summer I've been having doubts about my exams, after at the last youth group night something was said. It was a little bit of an unusual night. Where each person had a turn in the middle and we'd all say something encouraging or describe the first thing that came to mind. If you had something come to you as a, I dunno, a vision thing whatever.
Anywho, my youth leader was like, "this may not be very encouraging, but. I can see you're very organised and you've got your whole life sorta planned out. But, just want to say that it's not gonna end the way you want it to. Your plans aren't going to work out how you want" etc etc. Someone also saw the colour yellow. Well Mum bought me a yellow Magnolia for Christmas, because she remembered what was said. And now all my plans have gone haywire. I felt frustrated at first, but now that I'm piecing it all together, I'm realising that my plans may have failed. But it's not my plans that are going to lead my life to where it should be. So now I'm really excited about the fact that the plan for me is going to plan, and here's the proof. Life couldn't be better! Next thing on the agenda, text my youth leader and tell him what happened and that he was right...
What amuses me the most about this situation is the fact that I got a "National Certificate in Maths" when, I never aimed for it. Didn't even know it existed. Maths is my worst subject. Interesting.
And the biggest bonus of this all, don't need to move out of home just yet. I'm now seeing so many negatives and realising how much I would've hated it. Would've gotten so homesick, away from the family I'm so close with, and cats I've never been without. Living in a city would've been torture for this country bumpkin. And honestly, not milking cows for so many weeks straight would've given me withdrawals. The people I milk for every weekend better not go back on wanting me to stay, I'm sure they'll be over the moon. :)
Life goes on, and it's looking fantabulous. Will look even better once my new word is added to the dictionary :)
Sunday, 11 January 2015
Two weeks through 2015, 50 To Go! o.O
I can't believe that we're already 11 days through 2015, I mean. This year is already just flying on by! What's with this?! So far this year I've been exceptionally busy with work. I've mostly been going flatstick with milkings, with twice a day milkings every day since the 29th December, with one morning off this Monday just gone. Yep, I'm tired, but I'm also tending to generally wake up at a minute to 5 every morning - so annoying, that one minute could last an hour - I eventually haul myself out of bed, but gosh it's a struggle. Yet again, it's the driving that wears me down, I actually have to put in an effort to drive, at least with milking I can go on autopilot! :P
I started milking at one of my least favourite sheds on Tuesday and had to endure it up until Friday morning. It's a 500 cow Jersey farm, 36 aside herringbone. The cows don't really like coming into the shed, or leaving it and it drives me insane trying to get them to move. I've milked in a lot of sheds where the cows are slow, but none that frustrate me so much as this one. It doesn't help that the guy I'm working with is a horrible, lazy, creepy old man who disappears during milking and won't turn up for a couple rows. It's a two person cowshed, and after 3+ hours of being abandoned for long intervals, I literally feel like sitting in a corner to cry, it's that frustrating. What makes it worse is in the afternoon, when he finally comes back from one of his outings, he'll let rip on the cows and makes out as if he's been in there the whole time like myself, suffering in the heat. It's no wonder the cows don't want to come in with him around, and the heat is so intense it just adds to the drama.
Thankfully I got the weekend off, and went to my usual weekend farm and had a great time! Dad took over at the horrible farm this weekend and confirmed everything I had to deal with. Sadly, I'm back in there tomorrow for another four days. However, I'm putting up with it and not complaining until after my time there is finished. I don't like rocking the boat, otherwise I'll then have to deal with attitude from him. Quite frankly, I'm happy to tolerate it for the next few days and clock in the 7 hours a day for two milkings - it's money that I desperately need right now.
Mum says, "just think about your room at uni and how it's gonna look once everything is in it". I say, I really don't want to think too much about that until this Wednesday has come and gone. As a friend said, "I don't want the 13th to end", well neither do I. When my results come out it's gonna be a very stressful day, and I'm seriously not looking forward to it! Dad keeps saying, oooh only a few days now! Which cops "the look" from me. They keep saying, "don't worry, you'll have passed" and all I keep thinking is "what could I have done wrong? What if my raving didn't get me anywhere in biology this year? What if, what if, what if. It's driving me nutty :(
I'm working this whole full week until Saturday morning, Saturday Mum and I catch the bus to Auckland again for my sisters hen's party that night. Nana is flying up from Rotorua and our (Great Aunty) Sue is driving up too. With the additional bridesmaids that I know, some more than others, that's the only people I'll know. I think the girl who's organised it has planned a night on the town, but Nana and Mum aren't very keen on that, so I'll be able to stay with them and go back to my sister's apartment to get some sleep. The next day is my brothers' birthday - the big 20. That night I'm back into the milking for the rest of the month. So that will clock in three milkings off for me this month, it's gonna be a long rest of the month, but I need to do it to pay my deposit on the 31st January for my accommodation. Wow, life is getting expensive these days.
Wednesday the 14th, I just want it to be over! :(
We spent our new years, the same as many other years. Working, and working around the house. Mum and Dad hired a little digger to dig some trenches. There's a wet patch/drain in our section so now there's drainage coil in there, hopefully next winter it won't be so wet out there. Dad also had some fun digging up and cutting the telecom cable. It was about five metres in from the boundary fence and only a foot deep - no wonder he hit it! Thankfully our phone wasn't affected, so we could call them to let them know to fix it. We had a tad bit of amusement when we were called back by telecom, and the lady was like, "I'm testing to see that you can call in and out, and whether you would be able to visit your neighbours to see if they've got phone?" And I'm just like, well duh, we called you to let you know, and now you've called us. Obviously we can get calls in and out. And why the heck would we visit our neighbours? It wasn't our fault! (hehe, fault)
I started milking at one of my least favourite sheds on Tuesday and had to endure it up until Friday morning. It's a 500 cow Jersey farm, 36 aside herringbone. The cows don't really like coming into the shed, or leaving it and it drives me insane trying to get them to move. I've milked in a lot of sheds where the cows are slow, but none that frustrate me so much as this one. It doesn't help that the guy I'm working with is a horrible, lazy, creepy old man who disappears during milking and won't turn up for a couple rows. It's a two person cowshed, and after 3+ hours of being abandoned for long intervals, I literally feel like sitting in a corner to cry, it's that frustrating. What makes it worse is in the afternoon, when he finally comes back from one of his outings, he'll let rip on the cows and makes out as if he's been in there the whole time like myself, suffering in the heat. It's no wonder the cows don't want to come in with him around, and the heat is so intense it just adds to the drama.
Thankfully I got the weekend off, and went to my usual weekend farm and had a great time! Dad took over at the horrible farm this weekend and confirmed everything I had to deal with. Sadly, I'm back in there tomorrow for another four days. However, I'm putting up with it and not complaining until after my time there is finished. I don't like rocking the boat, otherwise I'll then have to deal with attitude from him. Quite frankly, I'm happy to tolerate it for the next few days and clock in the 7 hours a day for two milkings - it's money that I desperately need right now.
Mum says, "just think about your room at uni and how it's gonna look once everything is in it". I say, I really don't want to think too much about that until this Wednesday has come and gone. As a friend said, "I don't want the 13th to end", well neither do I. When my results come out it's gonna be a very stressful day, and I'm seriously not looking forward to it! Dad keeps saying, oooh only a few days now! Which cops "the look" from me. They keep saying, "don't worry, you'll have passed" and all I keep thinking is "what could I have done wrong? What if my raving didn't get me anywhere in biology this year? What if, what if, what if. It's driving me nutty :(
I'm working this whole full week until Saturday morning, Saturday Mum and I catch the bus to Auckland again for my sisters hen's party that night. Nana is flying up from Rotorua and our (Great Aunty) Sue is driving up too. With the additional bridesmaids that I know, some more than others, that's the only people I'll know. I think the girl who's organised it has planned a night on the town, but Nana and Mum aren't very keen on that, so I'll be able to stay with them and go back to my sister's apartment to get some sleep. The next day is my brothers' birthday - the big 20. That night I'm back into the milking for the rest of the month. So that will clock in three milkings off for me this month, it's gonna be a long rest of the month, but I need to do it to pay my deposit on the 31st January for my accommodation. Wow, life is getting expensive these days.
Wednesday the 14th, I just want it to be over! :(
We spent our new years, the same as many other years. Working, and working around the house. Mum and Dad hired a little digger to dig some trenches. There's a wet patch/drain in our section so now there's drainage coil in there, hopefully next winter it won't be so wet out there. Dad also had some fun digging up and cutting the telecom cable. It was about five metres in from the boundary fence and only a foot deep - no wonder he hit it! Thankfully our phone wasn't affected, so we could call them to let them know to fix it. We had a tad bit of amusement when we were called back by telecom, and the lady was like, "I'm testing to see that you can call in and out, and whether you would be able to visit your neighbours to see if they've got phone?" And I'm just like, well duh, we called you to let you know, and now you've called us. Obviously we can get calls in and out. And why the heck would we visit our neighbours? It wasn't our fault! (hehe, fault)
Tuesday, 30 December 2014
A Year Ago: Reflections and whatnot
Well, I've been blogging for a good long time now on Blogspot. On the 31st of December 2013 I decided to start blogging on here, so what, that's a year ago today? One thing Mum said to me, "Don't put your whole life on there." Of course not Mum, I'm intending on filling it with my favourite philosophical posts about the world. He He, well that didn't work out too well!!! I'm pretty positive I've managed to keep my anonymity quite well, however my main readers know who I am anyways, but one day maybe I may have a bit of a crowd reading my blog! Let me tell you a secret, I speak much more on here than I probably ever do in person - hope you're feeling lucky and special lol.
So a year has gone by, I've written 55 posts, this is #56. I've had 2360 views (as of now) and general views from all over the globe. The highest portion are from New Zealand, of course, however I've also got quite a few people either passing through, or reading, from the US. China, France, Germany, Poland, Austria, Romania, Canada, Venezuela, Indonesia, and Denmark.Quite interesting :)
And wow, what a year it's been! Certainly bumpy with some very sudden twists and turns, but nothing that we haven't gotten through. But along with that there have been good things to add to the mix of life. I've seen friends that I haven't seen in years, finally met friends that I've known for years and been able to rekindle old friendships too. Sure there are the people I may have spoken to heaps in the past, but this year we've drifted on our separate merry ways, but hey.
I joined the Young Farmers, met some new people. Had some fun times, and some not too fun times and made new acquaintances out of it. I finished High School. I turned 19.
I also realised that pre unconfirmed thoughts of people aren't as they appear, and have been secretly surprised with the turn out. Almost everywhere I've worked this year has been in a happy workplace environment and I learned new things from it, which completely strengthened my confidence and abilities too!
You know, there's all that rubbish that circulates on FB about life and whatnot basically saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and makes you a better person overall" Normally I'm just like, yep, seen that before. But yeah, it's true in some aspects. I don't like to fill my life with mushy statements like that, however some of them are good!
Regarding Christmas, ours was pretty quiet. Mum, my sister and I went to the Christmas Eve carols/service. I caught up with Sam there too, which was nice to do it together. Mum and I reckon it's gonna be our new tradition! Dad and I milked Christmas morning, then came home for pancakes for breakfast. Opened some neat presents, watched the movie Lucy and had a nice simple lunch of homemade chicken kebabs and salads. I milked that afternoon and everyone went to the west coast to have a try at fishing. Normally we go to the east coast, but the tides and whether weren't right. Boxing Day came around, we spent it sleeping! (I still slept super well that night too).
The 27th was my birthday, 19 years young (eek). It was pretty simple. I don't actually know what I did? Watched my favourite recorded TV show, David Attenborough - Galapagos. Sam came over that afternoon, then that night we went out for dinner with Nick and some young farmers at our local Tavern. Jamie McDell and Jason Kerrison (from OpShop) were there, singing. So it was neat to hear them and finally meet Jamie - even got a highfive and a picture for proof! haha
Now we're just about at the end of 2014 - I honestly won't be sad to see it go! No plans for New Years, we never celebrate, just work for me! I'm on day 2 of 7 straight milkings at one farm. The afternoons are getting hot o.O and I'm beginning to feel concerned that in about 2 weeks, the exam results will be in. Every time I think about it, I swear I feel more sick :(
*raises a glass and hopes for the best*
2015, come at me! I'm prepared for the best year ever! Hopefully some big new changes, new people, new beginnings. Some cool new things happening for me next year will be sweet, Thank you!
And wow, what a year it's been! Certainly bumpy with some very sudden twists and turns, but nothing that we haven't gotten through. But along with that there have been good things to add to the mix of life. I've seen friends that I haven't seen in years, finally met friends that I've known for years and been able to rekindle old friendships too. Sure there are the people I may have spoken to heaps in the past, but this year we've drifted on our separate merry ways, but hey.
I joined the Young Farmers, met some new people. Had some fun times, and some not too fun times and made new acquaintances out of it. I finished High School. I turned 19.
I also realised that pre unconfirmed thoughts of people aren't as they appear, and have been secretly surprised with the turn out. Almost everywhere I've worked this year has been in a happy workplace environment and I learned new things from it, which completely strengthened my confidence and abilities too!
You know, there's all that rubbish that circulates on FB about life and whatnot basically saying, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and makes you a better person overall" Normally I'm just like, yep, seen that before. But yeah, it's true in some aspects. I don't like to fill my life with mushy statements like that, however some of them are good!
Regarding Christmas, ours was pretty quiet. Mum, my sister and I went to the Christmas Eve carols/service. I caught up with Sam there too, which was nice to do it together. Mum and I reckon it's gonna be our new tradition! Dad and I milked Christmas morning, then came home for pancakes for breakfast. Opened some neat presents, watched the movie Lucy and had a nice simple lunch of homemade chicken kebabs and salads. I milked that afternoon and everyone went to the west coast to have a try at fishing. Normally we go to the east coast, but the tides and whether weren't right. Boxing Day came around, we spent it sleeping! (I still slept super well that night too).
The 27th was my birthday, 19 years young (eek). It was pretty simple. I don't actually know what I did? Watched my favourite recorded TV show, David Attenborough - Galapagos. Sam came over that afternoon, then that night we went out for dinner with Nick and some young farmers at our local Tavern. Jamie McDell and Jason Kerrison (from OpShop) were there, singing. So it was neat to hear them and finally meet Jamie - even got a highfive and a picture for proof! haha
Now we're just about at the end of 2014 - I honestly won't be sad to see it go! No plans for New Years, we never celebrate, just work for me! I'm on day 2 of 7 straight milkings at one farm. The afternoons are getting hot o.O and I'm beginning to feel concerned that in about 2 weeks, the exam results will be in. Every time I think about it, I swear I feel more sick :(
*raises a glass and hopes for the best*
2015, come at me! I'm prepared for the best year ever! Hopefully some big new changes, new people, new beginnings. Some cool new things happening for me next year will be sweet, Thank you!
Tuesday, 23 December 2014
The Final Christmas Rush!
'Twas the day before Christmas Eve, and all through the house....not a creature was stirring...umm, nope, it certainly isn't quiet and peaceful here! So much is going on! Mum and I have stopped for a short break in between doing the typical Christmas preparations. What's on the agenda for today? We're cooking the second ham (the first we're giving to the lady who's currently milking for us), it smells divine with the red wine and plum sauce combination.
This year, for a change, we're having a fruit salad - not the most cheapest dish to make (my gosh, the price of fruit!) but sometimes it's nice to do something different. And with a couple of basically everything (apart from Kiwifruit, which is gutting), it should be delicious!
We've also been doing some chocolate making, and we decided that chocolate dipped marshmellows would be yum, and a nice addition to a selection of chocolates I'm giving two of my friends for Christmas. Homemade chocolates are cool, but you really need the patience of a saint to spend hours doing it, colouring the white chocolate and carefully putting it in the moulds etc etc, it gets frustrating and kinda boring after a while - no wonder we don't do it often!!
Tomorrow I'm back milking for another three days straight over this Christmas period (money! :D) and so much more needs to be done tomorrow. Can't really cook the desserts until Christmas eve, so the pav, chiffon (secret family recipe) and trifle will get done. My sister and her fiance are with us this year, so she's boning out the chickens to make our own kebabs (we tried some last night - omg! Yum!) Just a general tidy up needs doing too. It may not seem like a lot, but after a while it seems like a mountain load of things to do!
There are Christmas carols at the Causeway tomorrow night, so I'm meeting Sam and Chantelle there; 12 years in the area and I've never been! :O And I'm meeting them tonight to give them their gifts, and will probably go and see some more christmas lights at the same time. On Friday we finally caught up - after many months, and since it wasn't raining we bought some hot dogs and chips and went to the beach, time passed so fast but it was nice to see them. On the way home we stopped in at a house who had gold coin donations (sponsoring the local school) to look at their light display, it felt kinda weird waltzing onto somebody else's property, after 9 o'clock to look at decorations! It wasn't as good as the one on the main highway, but was still pretty neat :)
And Christmas came early for the local tyre shop today. Yesterday my car failed it's warrant due to needing two new front tyres!? :( It definitely wasn't what I needed to be hearing, this car has cost me the Earth in repair bills this year - I know cars cost money, but gosh! So today I went and bought some cheap new tyres, it's only a little car and I only drive locally. Doesn't need anything special, but the guy was good and cut $20 off each one for me. However when I came to pick it up, he had had to do a wheel alignment, as it was dangerously out of whack. Another $70 into the kitty, but hey. Gotta be safe, aye? Now I've just gotta get used to it driving differently to what I'm used to...
I can't believe that in a few days time I'll be 19 - the year has passed by so jolly fast. I've used my ID once and I feel really old and weathered in a way - especially after the year we've had. But I also look at myself in the mirror, and think. You're not 18! I see people my age all the time, and they actually look their age. I feel like I got to 15 and haven't appeared any older since!
But at least I can go to work and have people realise straight away that I'm nice and old, mature and know what I'm doing. It's good to get respected everywhere I go. One farm I've worked at since October, actually prefers me over everyone else, and it's a real pain if I can't make it to them and have to swap with someone else. And it's odd to think they prefer me, with about a decade of experience milking cows, over someone like Dad...but it just so happens to be my favourite shed, so everything works out! Dad was also told the other day that I milked "like a machine". I've never thought of myself as a good, fast and consistent milker - sometimes I wonder whether I'm milking too slow, and holding people up! But apparently not, but hey - at least I do a good job :)
My birthday should be good, I get two days off and haven't really got anything planned - it's better that way. But there is a Jamie McDell concert at one of the local Taverns that night, so Nick and I are going, and hopefully a bunch of the Young Farmers will come along too - some of them reckoned they would. Hopefully it's good!
Oh and also, we had a YF TenPin Bowling and Lazer tag the other night. I fully failed with the bowling, but Lazer....hehehehe she's The Man (actually that was my gun name ;) ) and I completely won. Was so stoked to have beaten everybody - shooting people with lazers is fun!
Aaaaannnnnd One more thing before I go - I will be meeting my friend XJ around New Years, when her family comes up this way for Christmas. I've known her for four years through correspondence, and finally we're meeting 'in person". Quite exciting :)
Hope all my readers have a lovely Christmas!
This year, for a change, we're having a fruit salad - not the most cheapest dish to make (my gosh, the price of fruit!) but sometimes it's nice to do something different. And with a couple of basically everything (apart from Kiwifruit, which is gutting), it should be delicious!
We've also been doing some chocolate making, and we decided that chocolate dipped marshmellows would be yum, and a nice addition to a selection of chocolates I'm giving two of my friends for Christmas. Homemade chocolates are cool, but you really need the patience of a saint to spend hours doing it, colouring the white chocolate and carefully putting it in the moulds etc etc, it gets frustrating and kinda boring after a while - no wonder we don't do it often!!
Tomorrow I'm back milking for another three days straight over this Christmas period (money! :D) and so much more needs to be done tomorrow. Can't really cook the desserts until Christmas eve, so the pav, chiffon (secret family recipe) and trifle will get done. My sister and her fiance are with us this year, so she's boning out the chickens to make our own kebabs (we tried some last night - omg! Yum!) Just a general tidy up needs doing too. It may not seem like a lot, but after a while it seems like a mountain load of things to do!
There are Christmas carols at the Causeway tomorrow night, so I'm meeting Sam and Chantelle there; 12 years in the area and I've never been! :O And I'm meeting them tonight to give them their gifts, and will probably go and see some more christmas lights at the same time. On Friday we finally caught up - after many months, and since it wasn't raining we bought some hot dogs and chips and went to the beach, time passed so fast but it was nice to see them. On the way home we stopped in at a house who had gold coin donations (sponsoring the local school) to look at their light display, it felt kinda weird waltzing onto somebody else's property, after 9 o'clock to look at decorations! It wasn't as good as the one on the main highway, but was still pretty neat :)
And Christmas came early for the local tyre shop today. Yesterday my car failed it's warrant due to needing two new front tyres!? :( It definitely wasn't what I needed to be hearing, this car has cost me the Earth in repair bills this year - I know cars cost money, but gosh! So today I went and bought some cheap new tyres, it's only a little car and I only drive locally. Doesn't need anything special, but the guy was good and cut $20 off each one for me. However when I came to pick it up, he had had to do a wheel alignment, as it was dangerously out of whack. Another $70 into the kitty, but hey. Gotta be safe, aye? Now I've just gotta get used to it driving differently to what I'm used to...
I can't believe that in a few days time I'll be 19 - the year has passed by so jolly fast. I've used my ID once and I feel really old and weathered in a way - especially after the year we've had. But I also look at myself in the mirror, and think. You're not 18! I see people my age all the time, and they actually look their age. I feel like I got to 15 and haven't appeared any older since!
But at least I can go to work and have people realise straight away that I'm nice and old, mature and know what I'm doing. It's good to get respected everywhere I go. One farm I've worked at since October, actually prefers me over everyone else, and it's a real pain if I can't make it to them and have to swap with someone else. And it's odd to think they prefer me, with about a decade of experience milking cows, over someone like Dad...but it just so happens to be my favourite shed, so everything works out! Dad was also told the other day that I milked "like a machine". I've never thought of myself as a good, fast and consistent milker - sometimes I wonder whether I'm milking too slow, and holding people up! But apparently not, but hey - at least I do a good job :)
My birthday should be good, I get two days off and haven't really got anything planned - it's better that way. But there is a Jamie McDell concert at one of the local Taverns that night, so Nick and I are going, and hopefully a bunch of the Young Farmers will come along too - some of them reckoned they would. Hopefully it's good!
Oh and also, we had a YF TenPin Bowling and Lazer tag the other night. I fully failed with the bowling, but Lazer....hehehehe she's The Man (actually that was my gun name ;) ) and I completely won. Was so stoked to have beaten everybody - shooting people with lazers is fun!
Aaaaannnnnd One more thing before I go - I will be meeting my friend XJ around New Years, when her family comes up this way for Christmas. I've known her for four years through correspondence, and finally we're meeting 'in person". Quite exciting :)
Hope all my readers have a lovely Christmas!
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Christmas Countdown ?
We're nine days until Christmas and my gosh it's hard to get into the spirit, Currently, we're all hibernating inside for as long as we possibly can, and avoiding the horrible wind and dreadful rain! Over the weekend it was pouring down and it's getting super boring! How can one feel happy and bouncy and excited for Christmas, when it feels like winter and all you want to do is snuggle up and sleep?? We should be getting over 20 degree weather these days and we're sticking at around 12, it's certainly not fun at all. Nine days til Christmas, there isn't long for this weather to sort itself out!
Friday Mum and I (stupidly) went into the city town to do some groceries and christmas shopping. I've got all of mine done now, except for Mum and thankfully there were so many specials that I probably spent half as much as I could've! Great for saving :) Annoyingly, it was pouring down in there, so whenever we went somewhere, we got soaked. We struggled our way around Pak'n'Save, which is still under redecorating and since they've moved everything and because we haven't been there for such a long time, it was a "where is....?" situation. And we also didn't think about the fact it was FRIday, so of course it'd be busy! *rolls eyes*
Sunday morning I went to milking and didn't bother taking any wet weather gear, regretted it. The guy, Tom that I milk with sometimes, told me I'd be a drowned rat by the end of milking, and yep. I definitely was! Since there is no backing gate, you've gotta go into the yard to push the cows in. Usually when it's not raining it isn't so bad, but it was exceptionally painful and wet. Didn't help that the cows didn't want to go up! So as I left I didn't realise how wet I actually was - wearing good old shorts and singlet underneath overalls so I didn't get too hot (lol), then realised I was literally soaked through. Lovely! Tom suggested to go home and put myself through the drier - I probably could of too!
Yet again, dinner at the beach plans THIS Monday were cancelled because of the weather. Although I love going to the beach after stormy weather to see what's come in, I wouldn't want to stick around very long with this hammering wind...So, fingers crossed, Friday may be better suited. But this time we've got a back up plan of getting dinner at the restaurant in case of the rain.
Mum and I are slowly getting Christmas things sorted. Today Mum made two sponges to freeze for the Trifle, yesterday we processed all the biscuits and fruit puffs so it's easy enough to slap the Chiffon and Lolly Cake together. We also cleaned out the second fridge today, sounds weird having a second fridge aye? It's too expensive to run continuously so we turn it on at Christmas so we've got spare places to store all the extra food. We've mostly good sorted and figured what we're eating over Christmas. Basically just got to cook up the last of our ham a couple days prior and cook the chicken on the day. Mum even managed to get the barbeque trays cleaned - not that we've used the BBQ yet, with this weather and all.... -_- I put up the Christmas tree the other day - it looked great! Now, it kinda looks pretty depressed and droopy. It's a fake tree, and Frodo has climbed all through it. No, she doesn't have the excuse of it being her first Christmas. But there's nothing more heartwarming than seeing those normal cat eyes go huge and dark, filled with wonder and excitement. Love cats at Christmas. Don't love the damage they do though!
I've also tried and tried to get into reading, but I really am struggling quite a lot. It's mad! I've been trying to get through Death Comes to Pemberley since my last blog post, but I'm only half way through it, more than a week later. Every time I go to read it, I get distracted after a few minutes, or I have to force my eyes to stay open. Then when I do start to get into it, it's kinda boring? I won't write up the review Bianca. It probably IS a good book, it's just difficult to get myself back into reading, after so many months of not doing it. It's also difficult to read a book, based on Jane Austen, knowing that she didn't write it and having to read through all the reminders of what happened. It's just a very different author style, but I'm sure I'll get into it - eventually. We actually found the DVD for it, so I bought it - hoping if I could watch it, then it might make reading it more interesting. That's a whole other story!
There's been a big change with our "home theatre" system -_- a while ago Dad bought a blueray player, and a new TV when ours died. I never really understood it, because I can live without watching TV. Anywho. So ever since then we hadn't actually watched any movies. Chuck this one in, sweet as! Umm, where's the volume?? Hehe. In the end it was realised that the picture was transferring through, just no sound. Dad did heaps of testing and playing around for a few hours, does the disc actually have sound?? Yep, apparently. Ok, try this. No, try that. Yes!, wait. It eventually got all figured out, and by now I had to go back to work, so we couldn't watch it. This was Sunday night, Mum and Dad went to the movies to see The Hobbit and Nick and I went a young farmers get together. Didn't turn it all back on until yesterday, hmm, no signal and no sound! Mum and I gave in, and turned it all off again. (We aren't very technically minded and it's better if we not touch anything in case we accidentally do something!) Last night, turned it on. Hmm, Dad yet again spends an hour or so on it with Nick, unplugging everything and resetting all the stuff. And then, we have sound!! Woohoo. Turn it off, sound's gone. Sort it out again. Mum and Dad watched Breakfast this morning, yet again. No sound. So it seems that every time we turn it all off, the sound goes. Absolutely no idory why, but LOL!
I'm finding it a tad amusing.
Friday Mum and I (stupidly) went into the city town to do some groceries and christmas shopping. I've got all of mine done now, except for Mum and thankfully there were so many specials that I probably spent half as much as I could've! Great for saving :) Annoyingly, it was pouring down in there, so whenever we went somewhere, we got soaked. We struggled our way around Pak'n'Save, which is still under redecorating and since they've moved everything and because we haven't been there for such a long time, it was a "where is....?" situation. And we also didn't think about the fact it was FRIday, so of course it'd be busy! *rolls eyes*
Sunday morning I went to milking and didn't bother taking any wet weather gear, regretted it. The guy, Tom that I milk with sometimes, told me I'd be a drowned rat by the end of milking, and yep. I definitely was! Since there is no backing gate, you've gotta go into the yard to push the cows in. Usually when it's not raining it isn't so bad, but it was exceptionally painful and wet. Didn't help that the cows didn't want to go up! So as I left I didn't realise how wet I actually was - wearing good old shorts and singlet underneath overalls so I didn't get too hot (lol), then realised I was literally soaked through. Lovely! Tom suggested to go home and put myself through the drier - I probably could of too!
Yet again, dinner at the beach plans THIS Monday were cancelled because of the weather. Although I love going to the beach after stormy weather to see what's come in, I wouldn't want to stick around very long with this hammering wind...So, fingers crossed, Friday may be better suited. But this time we've got a back up plan of getting dinner at the restaurant in case of the rain.
Mum and I are slowly getting Christmas things sorted. Today Mum made two sponges to freeze for the Trifle, yesterday we processed all the biscuits and fruit puffs so it's easy enough to slap the Chiffon and Lolly Cake together. We also cleaned out the second fridge today, sounds weird having a second fridge aye? It's too expensive to run continuously so we turn it on at Christmas so we've got spare places to store all the extra food. We've mostly good sorted and figured what we're eating over Christmas. Basically just got to cook up the last of our ham a couple days prior and cook the chicken on the day. Mum even managed to get the barbeque trays cleaned - not that we've used the BBQ yet, with this weather and all.... -_- I put up the Christmas tree the other day - it looked great! Now, it kinda looks pretty depressed and droopy. It's a fake tree, and Frodo has climbed all through it. No, she doesn't have the excuse of it being her first Christmas. But there's nothing more heartwarming than seeing those normal cat eyes go huge and dark, filled with wonder and excitement. Love cats at Christmas. Don't love the damage they do though!
I've also tried and tried to get into reading, but I really am struggling quite a lot. It's mad! I've been trying to get through Death Comes to Pemberley since my last blog post, but I'm only half way through it, more than a week later. Every time I go to read it, I get distracted after a few minutes, or I have to force my eyes to stay open. Then when I do start to get into it, it's kinda boring? I won't write up the review Bianca. It probably IS a good book, it's just difficult to get myself back into reading, after so many months of not doing it. It's also difficult to read a book, based on Jane Austen, knowing that she didn't write it and having to read through all the reminders of what happened. It's just a very different author style, but I'm sure I'll get into it - eventually. We actually found the DVD for it, so I bought it - hoping if I could watch it, then it might make reading it more interesting. That's a whole other story!
There's been a big change with our "home theatre" system -_- a while ago Dad bought a blueray player, and a new TV when ours died. I never really understood it, because I can live without watching TV. Anywho. So ever since then we hadn't actually watched any movies. Chuck this one in, sweet as! Umm, where's the volume?? Hehe. In the end it was realised that the picture was transferring through, just no sound. Dad did heaps of testing and playing around for a few hours, does the disc actually have sound?? Yep, apparently. Ok, try this. No, try that. Yes!, wait. It eventually got all figured out, and by now I had to go back to work, so we couldn't watch it. This was Sunday night, Mum and Dad went to the movies to see The Hobbit and Nick and I went a young farmers get together. Didn't turn it all back on until yesterday, hmm, no signal and no sound! Mum and I gave in, and turned it all off again. (We aren't very technically minded and it's better if we not touch anything in case we accidentally do something!) Last night, turned it on. Hmm, Dad yet again spends an hour or so on it with Nick, unplugging everything and resetting all the stuff. And then, we have sound!! Woohoo. Turn it off, sound's gone. Sort it out again. Mum and Dad watched Breakfast this morning, yet again. No sound. So it seems that every time we turn it all off, the sound goes. Absolutely no idory why, but LOL!
I'm finding it a tad amusing.
Monday, 8 December 2014
6 books, who's gonna be lucky #1?!
I would say that summer is panning out to be absolutely beautiful - but today I wake up to rain and a text from a friend saying our dinner plans on the beach may just have to be postponed. But oh well, that is life!
And this rain is blimmen brilliant actually - a bit of rain every couple weeks throughout summer may just keep us from drought this year, as it is, summer has started late up here - which is a good thing! With the payout dropping and continuing to drop, we are noticing that we're losing some big typical summer time jobs. It's not great, definitely not great, but so long as this dry factor stays clear this year, things may not get as bad as they could. Fingers crossed anyway - it's been a crappy year farm wise. However these things just come with the territory, you soon learn to expect them.
Well it's almost 10 am, I'm still in PJ's, haven't had breakfast and I'm already writing my blog - lol. Makes for a nice change! Usually by now, over the past week I would have been recently home from milking, pulling out dried up pieces of cow poo from my hair and wondering how long it'll be until it's actually worthwhile washing it - as I had to milk every day, all week. Running low on water and gas, doesn't make for a nice combination - oh the joys of summer! But hey, today is the first day of no work for me, since Monday, it's been good money wise - but not so great sleep wise. Gosh, the driving just takes it out of me! It's nice not to be up at 5am for a change - but my alarm clock just loves resetting itself back to that time, even though I changed it for 8. *rolls eyes*
I spoke to my chem teacher last week about the last of this work that I've been finishing up. He finally passed the redox, after I had to edit Zinc from Zi to the proper Zn (who does that?! Even spell check on here knows what's right and wrong lol) and he gave me an excellence! Even though I told him I didn't care for the grade - just the credits being in on time. But oh well. He gave me more suggestions for the 1080 report, so yesterday I fixed that up some more and sent it back, saying that's the last of the editing I'm ever going to do, so just mark it. So he's marking it officially today. I get the feeling he's just been pushing me on that one, to get me a higher grade on that too. I didn't do all that he suggested, but most of it. Term ends for the correspondence school tomorrow, so he's no choice but to just get it over with. So once that's been put through, I just need proof of credits so come January if they're not "officially" on NZQA, I should be able to get UE by showing them this proof that they're in, just not "in".
Now I can clean up my office - it's a pig sty - literally. Actually it's probably not that bad - it just needs to be sorted properly, pack up all my school work and file it away in a deep dark room - like the attic.
But that won't be getting done today. Why, you ask? Well there's just the small factor of having books to read! Yes, it's true, I've plenty of time to read now, and I can't wait to get into them. I've had a couple books on my Kobo waiting for me, and still had money on my account that I put into Kobo months ago. So the other day I went wild, and bought three more books! hehe So now the books I've got to read are "The Book Thief", "Death At Pemberley" which is a new release spin off of Pride and Prejudice by P.D. James - apparently he's been studying Jane Austen for years - so that should be really good!
There's "Reconstructing Amelia" by an author I've never read before, but it looks good - I'll get back to you on that one though. "Little Miracles" by Giselle Green, "The Prodigal Sister" by Laura Elliot - two more new authors. and "Secret Lives" by Diane Chamberlain - one of my more favourite writers.
Last Christmas when Mum and Dad got me the E-Reader I wasn't keen - but it is convenient, I'll give you that, and yes, books are much cheaper this way. There are still those really special series that I'll get them all as real books - cover to cover. But I've accustomed myself to this way too. And the great thing with Kobo is that it gets to know what you like, and gives you ideas that it recommends for you. Which is how I get onto these new authors, cos they're similar to what I already like. I do think that I'll be rereading the Mortal Instrument books though. Instead of having to wait for them to become available, I've got all nine books at my fingertips. So I think I'll be going back to starving myself all day, most days, as I'm too engrossed in these beautiful books. It'll be a happy time - until anyone hauls me away from them. So word of warning, I've been waiting months for this, I've finished my schoolwork forever, I deserve this, so stay clear...unless you've got chocolate! :D
So right now I'm thinking of hunting down that chocolate sundae I didn't eat after maccas last night, grabbing my Kobo and getting into it....the questions remains though...What do I read, FIRST?!??!! o.O
And this rain is blimmen brilliant actually - a bit of rain every couple weeks throughout summer may just keep us from drought this year, as it is, summer has started late up here - which is a good thing! With the payout dropping and continuing to drop, we are noticing that we're losing some big typical summer time jobs. It's not great, definitely not great, but so long as this dry factor stays clear this year, things may not get as bad as they could. Fingers crossed anyway - it's been a crappy year farm wise. However these things just come with the territory, you soon learn to expect them.
Well it's almost 10 am, I'm still in PJ's, haven't had breakfast and I'm already writing my blog - lol. Makes for a nice change! Usually by now, over the past week I would have been recently home from milking, pulling out dried up pieces of cow poo from my hair and wondering how long it'll be until it's actually worthwhile washing it - as I had to milk every day, all week. Running low on water and gas, doesn't make for a nice combination - oh the joys of summer! But hey, today is the first day of no work for me, since Monday, it's been good money wise - but not so great sleep wise. Gosh, the driving just takes it out of me! It's nice not to be up at 5am for a change - but my alarm clock just loves resetting itself back to that time, even though I changed it for 8. *rolls eyes*
I spoke to my chem teacher last week about the last of this work that I've been finishing up. He finally passed the redox, after I had to edit Zinc from Zi to the proper Zn (who does that?! Even spell check on here knows what's right and wrong lol) and he gave me an excellence! Even though I told him I didn't care for the grade - just the credits being in on time. But oh well. He gave me more suggestions for the 1080 report, so yesterday I fixed that up some more and sent it back, saying that's the last of the editing I'm ever going to do, so just mark it. So he's marking it officially today. I get the feeling he's just been pushing me on that one, to get me a higher grade on that too. I didn't do all that he suggested, but most of it. Term ends for the correspondence school tomorrow, so he's no choice but to just get it over with. So once that's been put through, I just need proof of credits so come January if they're not "officially" on NZQA, I should be able to get UE by showing them this proof that they're in, just not "in".
Now I can clean up my office - it's a pig sty - literally. Actually it's probably not that bad - it just needs to be sorted properly, pack up all my school work and file it away in a deep dark room - like the attic.
But that won't be getting done today. Why, you ask? Well there's just the small factor of having books to read! Yes, it's true, I've plenty of time to read now, and I can't wait to get into them. I've had a couple books on my Kobo waiting for me, and still had money on my account that I put into Kobo months ago. So the other day I went wild, and bought three more books! hehe So now the books I've got to read are "The Book Thief", "Death At Pemberley" which is a new release spin off of Pride and Prejudice by P.D. James - apparently he's been studying Jane Austen for years - so that should be really good!
There's "Reconstructing Amelia" by an author I've never read before, but it looks good - I'll get back to you on that one though. "Little Miracles" by Giselle Green, "The Prodigal Sister" by Laura Elliot - two more new authors. and "Secret Lives" by Diane Chamberlain - one of my more favourite writers.
Last Christmas when Mum and Dad got me the E-Reader I wasn't keen - but it is convenient, I'll give you that, and yes, books are much cheaper this way. There are still those really special series that I'll get them all as real books - cover to cover. But I've accustomed myself to this way too. And the great thing with Kobo is that it gets to know what you like, and gives you ideas that it recommends for you. Which is how I get onto these new authors, cos they're similar to what I already like. I do think that I'll be rereading the Mortal Instrument books though. Instead of having to wait for them to become available, I've got all nine books at my fingertips. So I think I'll be going back to starving myself all day, most days, as I'm too engrossed in these beautiful books. It'll be a happy time - until anyone hauls me away from them. So word of warning, I've been waiting months for this, I've finished my schoolwork forever, I deserve this, so stay clear...unless you've got chocolate! :D
So right now I'm thinking of hunting down that chocolate sundae I didn't eat after maccas last night, grabbing my Kobo and getting into it....the questions remains though...What do I read, FIRST?!??!! o.O
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