We Sleep Naked...........................

Some nights you can't be woken even with the house falling around you ... Some nights you hear a noise and you are awake and alert, just like that .... The first noise was the cat pat-pat-pat pat pat pat ing across the floor at 2am in the dead of night ... Not an unusual sound as George the cat often has a little play through the hall and into our bedroom ........ But then again the pat-pat-pat pat pat pat ing... Well thats too light for George so must be Mickey the cat for a change..... MICKEY !!!! Micky only plays if she has a mouse to run after ... AND She's in our bedroom ........

I just knew something was worse happening even then .... She suddenly bounded onto the bed beside me scaring the living beejeebus out of me ... .Pains in my chest turned out to be a pulled muscle from the reactive spasm as I leapt across the bed ...... "My heart !! The cats killed me" I'm groaning to McD as she's woken from her slumber ...

The cats not put off by this though .... Still on the trail she's now knocking books and stuff off the bedside cabinet as she stands atop looking down between the cabinet and the wall ..... Well .. no prizes guessing where the mouse is then ...

I crossed the room and put the main light on - I want to see properly for this exercise .... McD is now also up ... I'm back across the room again to the bedside cabinet .... As I start to get closer I grab the baseball bat thats coveniently handy beside the bed on my side... I peer down the gap beside the wall , eyes still a little bleery. Can't see anything at first and then realise I was looking too far down ... In beween the fallen books and water bottles there's a face with black black eyes looking directly up at me ...... It's a rat.... and my nose is little more than 6 inches from him ...........

Now I don't know if you've ever been in this position before, being face to face with a rat - I have on a couple of occasions - the one thing that always hits me is that this is an intellegent being looking back at me ... The other thing is that this intellegent being shows little fear in these situations ...... And then finally the "OOHHHHHH BLOODY HELL ITS A RAT !!!" explodes involuntarily from your mouth as your head recoils to a safer distance ......... McD is now fully awake and cursing in what I beleive to be many different languages and possibly many different voices too as the reality sinks in ....... WE HAVE A RAT IN OUR BEDROOM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A rat with pointy ears and long sharp pointy teef !!!!

McD is now saying 'throw the cat in' .... The cat on hearing this wants no bar of it and shoots off in the opposite direction and out of the house ... the catflap left swaying behind it as it exits the house ..... I think about using the base ball bat in a stabbling motion to pummel the beastie if not to death then at least an unconscious state... I peer back into the gap .... The rat's still looking back at me ..... no fear ...quite calm really - I know it's saying to me "Well we have a problem don't we...... You aint getting the chance to touch me and I don't know the way out ... So whatchya gonna do big guy ?? "

The chances of me getting a good shot with the bat are minimal to 'you have to be kidding' .... Sod it ...I start to reach down to move some of the debri .. .Rat retreats to behind the cabinet and then while I'm still moving things I realise he's just circled to the back of me and come in past my feet and arm to where he was in the first place ....... He might have no fear, but I do and again retreated hastily ..... Rat again made a move and is now under the bed ......... "Can you see him ??" I ask McD ... "No ! " " Well we have to get him out somehow...get down on the floor and look woman........" ...McD is now on all fours looking under the bed ....

"Well - That a little more of your posteria than I need to see this time of night" I comment to McD....as she's now head down and Bottom up as they say ...... "Oh very funny" ... "There's a rat in the bedroom you know" ..... (i've put McDs posteria picture in at the end....:O)

" I can't see him..." She tells me

I look around the room . No sign of him ...

"I'll lift the bed up " I announce

"He's still not there !!!

"Bugger......Where the sam has he gone !!!!! "

"McD will you see if you can get me a clear jar from the kitchen ...."

While waiting for Mcd I'm thumping around the floor trying to get the rat to flight again ..... Then I saw him ..Trying to get out from under the table but the gap there wasn't big enough ... (While I'm thinking how McD might react with a pointy toothed devil running down the hallway towards her the rat decides to abandon those efforts and take cover behind the bedside cabinet on McD's side of the bed !!!

McD returns with a clear plastic cookie jar ...Looks the part .... I take it and wedge it on the floor between the cabinet on my side and the wall at the back ..... Now again thumping around to make the rat run ....

He finally took flight and as predicted back to my side of the bed ...and Straight into the jar !!!!

"where's the lid !!! "

"Too late never mind " ...I make a rather brave dive I thought and upturned the jar with the mouth down on the carpet . Then seeing a sheet of paper on the floor (I do sudoku's before I fall asleep) I pulled the jar over the paper ..... I now have a trapped rat in a jar with the only thing betwen it and my hand being a bit of a4 paper !! .....

The rats now resigned to his fate and again showing little fear sits there looking out at McD and I .....

I could just put the lid on and suffocate him ... But with that not being an option just what else can a naked man with a pissed off rat in a clear plastic jar do ??

"I'll just let him go outside" I tell McD ... "He can beat the cat up another day" .... So off we go to the ranch sliders at the front of the house that lead to the decking ..... I didn't go to the back door ... I should have I guess but with Mickey the cat being out there that side I decided not to .....

As we passed through the lounge there was George the cat just waking up !! "This is your job!!!" I tell him as I thrust the rat in front of his face ...... The rat, on his hind legs as they do had started to clean his face and now all curious looks straight at George.... George got the fright of his life apparrently as the next thing he's stood high on all four sets of claws and then like a fat streak of grey he's gone ...out of the house ....the cat flap left swinging as he exits the house ......

Well we were impressed.............

So there I am at 2:30 in the middle of the night, naked as the day i was born heading outside onto the decking away from the door . It's raining and windy and barely above freezing......I lay the jar down and retire quickly ......

"you could have brought the jar back in " in McD complains....

"Yep - I could have........but the rat wanted to wait for the rain to stop" i replied.........



This is the Rat...In the Jar....Camera must have been asleep at the time as all the piccs were blurred...........







Oh!!! I lied about the picc of McDs posteria........:O)....But if you really want to see it let me know. I'll see what i can do :O)

30 centigrade Vanuatu - 1 Centigrade New Zealand

It’s cold !!

Now I know our 1 degree of frost in Wellington will be laughed at by some of you living in more extreme climes … I have no doubt that our balmy 8degrees C would have many of you rushing to the beaches for an afternoons sunbathing and swimming …And god knows I used to be one of them when I lived in the UK …. But after 15years in New Zealand I’ve gotten soft … Its cold. I’m cold. The dogs and cats are fighting for space as close to the fire as they can get in the evenings and come the mornings the cats are huddled up against the radiator looking like fat round balls of shivering fluff.

It’s cold

But even by New Zealand standards we have it pretty damned good here… the centre of the North Island have had much colder temperatures and a good dumping of snow !!! The south island had even lower temperatures and even more dumpings of snow And no electricity !! In some places no electricity for weeks !!! In the past 15years I’ve touched snow once I think … And that was on a trip back to the UK !! I hate snow ….

And that’s why I live no further south than Wellington …. Mcd’s Family live on the south Island .. Their idea of fun is to live as far south as possible … I’m sure it’s Character building … and There are some real characters down there that’s for sure :O)

Not that living further north protects you from the weathers effects. The center of the north island is a plateau and fairly high above sea level and usually prone to winter snow … They based their army camp up there – More of this Character building stuff I’ve no doubt … Then there are the volcanoes in the middle of the plateau ..No not t extinct things … They are barely dormant … With one popping its top within the last 10 years ..I know cause I drove up to it !! Well had to get a better look eh … Now where are those pictures ?? Anyway – There was snow on the volcano then so I lied about not touching snow in NZ ……. They even have ski fields on one of them … fast getaway perhaps when they go pop …….

Auckland is further North again … they don’t get snow … by the time the snow falls in Auckland it’s already melted … They get lots of rain in Auckland. And despite Wellington being the so called “windy city” Auckland does get its fair share of wind.. Gale force winds at times … cyclone winds at times…. Tornados even at times …… I tell you this because despite all this weather we have, Almost the entire metropolis of Auckland lost electricity for a day … It was windy …. A single earthing wire in a substation no less broke loose in the wind and Auckland and the better part of 1.4 million peoples houses and businesses went dark …….

Now despite living in Auckland for 8 years and loving the place, I usually take the same stance as all other New Zealanders south of the Bombay hills (where Auckland’s reaches end) which is something along the lines of a compassionate “oh dear, what a pity, never mind” said with the slightest hint of a grin that betrays any real feeling for anyone living in our major city. It’s unfair, but there you go … Aucklanders are routinely referred to as JAFAs (just Another F#$king Aucklander) everywhere except north of the Bombays .. Course I’m sure the Jafa’s have some choice words for anyone South of the Bombay’s too …. And I’m sure Kiri et.al. will tell me what they are too :O)

But now I digress …

Last Monday Auckland Lost their electricity and the South Island got well and truly dumped on with a metre or so of snow down to sea level ….

The Sunday night before I found out about the south island having problems. I was due to fly to Auckland along with my boss and some managers from our 3^rd party vendors . The flight was Cancelled due to the weather down there … I was pretty happy about the fact … next flight was 9pm I’m there in the airport at 5pm …now way I’m sitting around that length of time. McD’s daughters birthday and everyone off to have Thai food … Now I get to join them … So I got a flight change for the morning at 8am ….We were to go the night before to beat the weather (fog etc) but the weather had countered that by choosing Sunday night to play up … So I might as well sleep in my own bed that night ….. Rang my boss and the vendor and told them … they could of course do what ever they wanted …. Which meant some went up that night ..My Boss went up at 6am the next morning and another vendor manager went up at 7am the next morning …And all arrived just fine …….

Not me … I wait 3 hours for a flight up to Auckland ... When I get there I have voice messages telling me not to try and get into Auckland Central ...An power blackout has caused Chaos with businesses and buildings in darkness and all street traffic lights out......I'm told to go back home ..... So thats what I did ...Walked from one airline to another queued for an hour to get my flight time changed while also berating my travel agent for not trying hard enough ...She got a flight for me about 6 people before the ticketing counter after an hours queuing .... And then caught a vey bumpy flight back to wellington .....

We didn't land the first pass .... having slid and skewed and bumped our way to the runway we over shot it and the pilot had to throttle up the engines and get us out of there !!! That does heaps for the old bodily functions I can tell you ...... "The wind change is right over the runway" we are told ...... "So we'll circle here for a few minutes till it's done its thing and try it again" the pilot tells us .....

Oh Joy !! We are all thinking .......

Holday Snaps ....... I love Markets :O)

This is Taro ..A white root crop bit like a lite potato ....

Thats Sugar cane in the foreground

These contained fish ..Big ones like baracuda etc

A busy day in vanuatu .......

Answers to questions of last entry

Strange looking picture is of a Spiders Nest !!!! Can you imagine it !! Its about the size of two fists together … Full of thousands of baby spiders .. Don’t know where mum was and no – I didn’t get that close !!!

The Tree with small fruit is a pepper corn tree !!

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I’ve had this damned cold for over a week now … Struggled for 4 days at work feeling like crap. Not sleeping right and generally feeling demotivated and fed up …… McD telling me off for not taking some sick days ………

So, with some fantastic spring weather on us both McD and I decided to take some time off .. I took last Friday off and return Wednesday, McD has taken the Monday Tuesday off.

It’s been well worth it … A chance to recharge the batteries and enjoy some much needed sunshine and Boy has it been warm !! Forget Spring has Sprung ! Summer has Gatecrashed the Party people :O)

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I didn’t get the Job I was after …. But it was a lot closer than I had thought, having lost out solely on not having as much commercial experience as the chap who got it … The Interviewer was highly complementary when discussing their decision etc .. So that’s left me feeling down that I didn’t get the Job, but good that I was up there and in the running till the end ….

But try getting back into your old job after that …especially when your not well too… .

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Garden is starting to look different …Friday saw me finally pull down the Brick BBQ completely leaving only the concrete base … We now have somewhere for a seat.. It nearly did me in as I rushed around to get it done before McD came home … I picked up an old wooden seat from the top of the garden and plonked it onto the concrete base …. And then took a picture and emailed it over to McD at work :O)










The Borders have bark mulch over them ...In another month or so they will be covered with Dahlias which are burried and waiting to sprout forth :O)



Notice in the l;ast picture McD has been graffitying the lawn !!! With the aid of the hose pipe !!!!!

Saturday we did some err Retail Therapy :O) McD needed cheering up after my not getting the Job :O) Oh Alright – I’ve been hassling for a new TV for some time now – Years !!! and since it’s our 5 year anniversary on Wednesday McD finally gave in and off we went and bought a 42inch Plasma TV… Woof Woof !!! :O) That took us the best part of a day!! In between breakfast and a late lunch :O) We’ve also upgraded the Cable TV to digital so our view pleasure will increase multifold when the TVs delivered tomorrow !! Just something else to make our getting exercise and getting fitter and losing weight all that much harder !! We will have to discipline our selves McD !!

Sunday we cleaned up the area some more and planted some standard roses in the area … Today we spent far too much time trying to make some free form planting areas as the idea is to get rid of the much suffering lawn and have some nice perennial gardens instead. Adding pebble pathways around them … However the plan has changed a little as we have now decided to have one large planting area and have large river stones as stepping stones through it …. We’ll see …



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We’ve had 2 BBQs this weekend !! An unknown this early in the season but Yum :O) I hate uncovering the BBQ after the winter .. This year it was covered in snails and snail Poop !! So that’s where the little sods are hiding !! Little deceased ex-sods now . Anyway BBQ all cleaned up and firing nicely …. Yesterday we had a seafood BBQ with Prawns in the shells, Salmon steaks and scollops …. AND While getting the seafood they they were selling Mutton Birds so we’ve gabbed a couple of them. McD will spend tomorrow morning boiling them 3 times to get the salt out and then roasting them ….. They are a bit of an acquired taste but I like them ……

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Spring in New Zealand

I’m not well today … It’s been building up on me since this morning ..My first weekend of ‘no work’ relaxation … No being on-call .. no worries about next week … It’s been a rough two weeks. Two full weeks of stressing and stress building up to Friday and then starting again after the weekend …

I’ve got a sore throat :o/ I’m starting to feel headachy…And body-achy as well.. but maybe that’s cause of the garden work .. Hope so ..I’ll know soon as if I’m ill my kidneys start aching …


I have to show this ... Now they're training attack squirrels !! When will it stop ... To quote the officer, a victim of this heinouis crime ...."The claws are very sharp" !!!!! Stay away from these Pointy eared, pointy nosed, shap clawed devils people .... Be very afraid ...

http://www.local6.com/news/4872001/detail.html?GetStory


Anyway - As I was saying .....I hate being Ill… McDs already saying ‘oh no’ as I grumble or make my ‘I’m not well’ sounds ….She hates me being ill as well......

Just typical that the first time I relax and I’m not well ..
The week before last I applied for a Client Delivery Manager Role with a NZ outsourcer … Within a day or so I’m summonsed for an interview. That was a week last Friday I didn’t want to go – The role is a good step up on what I’m doing now and knowing the Director there I didn’t want to choke in the interview or have a bad interview that might spoil my other chances with jobs more suitable for me ….If that makes sense …..But after a week of stressing Friday came and I attended the interview …I did alright .. Did some bullsh*t talking as well :O) But the importance they place on the role and the expectations of the role are just too much … No chance of a follow up on that one ………

Except they rang me the following Monday (last Monday) and asked to me attend a 2nd interview as part of their short list for the role ….. I’d not answered the cell phone when they rang ..I was driving and thought it was my work ringing … Picked it up about 10 minutes later, heard the message and passed it over to McD to hear …”Told you so” or something to that effect came from her lips … She’s pushy about me applying for jobs is McD …. I wasn’t really listening … Already in a mindless panic over the next interview and how the hell I will get through it … It wasn’t till the next day when I listened again that I found it was to be a “Panel” interview …The worst kind of interview.. 2 directors and a general manager firing questions at me ….. The gut wrenching, sweaty palm, just how can you still need to pee when you just been kind of interview. The Interview from Hell........

My only thought after that was to run screaming for the hills never to be seen again ……

4 days of researching what the role was and preparing for the questions I figured they’d ask and telling McD how it'll be a complete circus when i'm in there and that I might as well go in with a clown suit on and at least give them a laugh for their all too impotant wasted time ... Next day McD presented me with a present ! Clown face paint and a red nose !!! I was ready and equipped for a Panel Interview :O) All too soon last Friday was here and then 2pm and into the Directors office I was ushered and it was all on …

First thing they told me was how good the chap who held the role prior to his leaving was…The client loved him and regarded him as the best in his field full-stop….. I wanted to ask how come they lost him then …. It Wasn’t the time …..and then off they started rapid fire questions like what are the three most important attributes of a leader … How would your staff describe you.. What would they say you needed to improve on.. how do you keep current with the advances in technology ….What would you do in the first 3 months of getting the role….what would you achieve .. How do you intend to build the business wth the client … Question after question all needing a rounded, knowledgeable, answer backed up by experience ….

Lets face it – I did ok – but I won’t get the job …I don’t know even if I could really do the job ….But at least I didn’t embarrass myself …Well I don’t think so anyway ….

And then it was all over and it was time to relax …

And now I’m ill… and my throat is really sore ….

I spent today with McD pulling down a brick BBQ.. I can’t believe the effort they went into building it whoever it was. We’ve had to get sledge hammers and masonry chisels and put in a lot of sweat and tears to dismantle the damned thing … By all accounts its never been used ..no burn or heat marks on the brick ….Scariest thing was watching 5 foot nothing McD wielding a sledge hammer like a true destruction worker :O)

I must show some before after pics of what we’ve been doing ….

When I feel better …..

Meanwhile here’s some pictures of Ozz again …. But first here's a website dedicated to Cats in Sinks ....Don't ask me cause I don't know

http://catsinsinks.com/

If You know - Please tell me :O)


Ah Ozz ........................

Nothing to read here !! Pictures no text - Yet

Monday, August 29, 2005

I started to create this entry - Then realised the time !!!! I'm going to have QWERTYUIOP on my forehead tomorrow when I fall asleep on the keyboard at work !!

So much to say - so little time to do it :O)



Reasons To Believe Spring Has Sprung in New Zealand