Well today I had plans to do a bunch of school work. Instead I finished a Garth Nix book (Grim Tuesday) and had a nap. I like naps in the weekend. For some reason if I am at home and not doing much around 3.. I feel desperately sleepy. Then I sleep for about an hour. It's a pretty fabulous time waster.
Tomorrow I am heading up the coast for some roleplaying, mixed with shopping and visiting Jenni's parents for lavender. I am looking forward to this. It will be good. Also I will buy some Bee's Knees and some Yummy Ice cream. Ooooh yes. I hope it all lives up to my expectations.
Currently I am at Beau's house. Soon we will have dinner. I love having dinner here as the food is always yummy and I don't have to do any dishes. I should do some sometime tho as his parents are always great to me. I like his family alot.
Of course the previous statement about Beau's family is probably because I am annoyed with mine. Specifically, my Mum, who told me off for Bossing Beau too much, as well as showing him off, as well as treating him like he's stupid. Apparently this is what my Thai family said I did while he and I were in Thailand together on holiday. I'm sure they are doing it for my sake.
Anyway, feel free to comment. I loves them. Special kudos to phreq who did a massive 3 comments one 3 different posts in what appears to be one sitting. YOU ROCK! ;)
Argh! Y11 (fifth formers) last period are never a good idea. Especially as the end of the week approaches. I was trying to teach them about heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation) and they kept talking to one another! ARGH! All the time! and the same ones again and again. Then, a pair of them got into a giggling fit. Laughing and laughing. I just stared at them til they stopped (one of them kept hiding her face under her blazer to stop herself, how it helps I don't know). Then one of them apologised and said they weren't laughing at me or anything. Which in turn caused the rest of the class to start laughing. ggrrr argh! I was reading Matt's blog and he has funny stories about things his students write. I have none. Boo.
Something that is cool is that my year 9s are doing a BIOTECHNOLOGY unit. Which is a bit fluffy, but then they are only Y9. Anyways, they get to extract essential oils from plants and then make them into balms or ointments or whatever they can think of that might be a herbal remedy (except nothing to be ingested). They also have to find somebody to test it on. It is pretty cool. My class are about to get up to the experimenting stage where they get to do some hands on stuff with the still and infusing oils. I want to do it and try to make soap. I've been thinking that my tupperware forms will probably be awesome for it as you can flip the soaps out easily. Yay.
What do you think about home-made herbal remedies? Or do you even know any that work well?
biddley bee(p)
Everything is OK. School is going steadily. We are almost half way through the term right now. My y10 and y11 classes have been going well this week. It's kind of scary. They had been giving me some grife, but seem sorted. We'll see if that continues for the week.
Seen Beau everyday for the past few days which is nice. It's partly because I did some laundry at his house (we don't have a dryer) and then I left it there so had to go back and get it. Sometimes I am struck by how great a match he is for me. Awww.
Jonno is going on section at a school near mine so am giving him a ride into the hutt. I'm not very generous. If I was I'd get up an extra 25minutes earlier so that I could drive to his house and pick him up. But I won't. Getting up at 6.30 (ok I 'snooze' for another 6min at least) is already bad enough.
Giffy in the (early) morning is not sociable. She does not like to be broken out of a routine. So that I can sleep in the maximum amount but still hit the motorway by 7.20am, I try and get as much ready the night before as the first 15-20 min I am not awake. Thus I will just roll out of bed, grab clothes (always at least partially selected, if only to make sure I have socks and underwear for the day ahead) and clomp to the bathroom (sometimes i feel sorry for sis who sleeps beneath me and doesn't have to get up until 2+ hours later) turn on fan heater and brush hair for a good 3min. If it is a really slow moving morning I sometimes get distracted by my hairbrush and spend a few minutes cleaning it. I then get changed and brush teeth, wash face, go back to bedroom to get any other clothes I might have forgotten (extra jerseys for the cold), moisturise, grab bag and go downstairs. I am still not ready for other people, normally not until I have got my lunch ready. Then, when my toast is in the toaster and I've had a drink, I am ready to say Hi and goodmorning.
Jonno showed up before I was ready yesterday. I was annoyed at him for no good reason (apart for he had toast in the toaster when I wanted to put mine in). He was a bit later today. Clever man.
People liked it when I blogged about food. So here is some more. Tonight for dinner we talked about having steak (yum!) but Blondie isn't going to be in. So the flat will have to sort something else out. Beau is coming over as well, so we'll eat non-flat food. I am voting for pizza. Especially because when I went to Beau's house yesterday they had some! I wants! They had Hell, and thinking about it I don't think I've had Hell since April (so over three weeks!!). I want a Grimm, chicken and pinenuts yum. But then... they had Lust *Homer Simpsons style drool* all.. the... meeeeaaat.... and also Brimstone, it has spicy chicken and guacamole and I haven't had it before!!! I am soooo hungry. I told Jonno that i'd hang around til 5 at school so that I could give him a ride, but instead, I want PIZZA!! NOW!!
Wa-ah i've been looking at the menu some more and I also want lemon pepper wedges and Pina Colada Ice cream and moooore. ALso they have these little devils running around the bottom that you can pick up and throw with your mouse! Neat!
I better go eat one of my yogurts instead..... how did this turn into a post all about food?
Yesterday at my house a discussion came up as to how people got their nicknames. Giffy is my foetus name. I was called it before I was born. In thailand pretty much everyone has a nickname which they are called all the time. For example if I was a teacher in Thailand I would be called Khunkru (teacher) Giffy, or perhaps Gif. Anyway because this is how it is in thailand, my cousins had this list of what their future cousins would/should be called (that's what Dad says anyway) and they were up to Gif (sounds like gip) on their list and Dad anglicized it to Giffy.
When I was little (maybe 7 or younger) I asked my mum what Giffy means. She told me "talkative". The lies!
What is your nick? and Why?
A blog entry to make me feel better after yucky afternoon friday lessons. Inspired by Jenni.
Ducklings
Chicks
Plushies
Marion Keyes Novels
Anne McCaffrey Novels
Y9 Biotechnology unit
Polarfleece clothing
Our Principal
Puppies
Kittens
Lamingtons
Good Scrambled Eggs
Mousse
Whipped Cream
Foam
Sis's Baby Hair
Clouds
Fluffy Duck Cocktail
Cotton Plants
Me on Homework
Blonde/grey thoughts
Sheep
Unit Standards
This Blog
Thank Jenni again.
Last night I got home earlier than expected. The year 12 soccer team I am semi in charge of was supposed to have a game, but the other team called it off... So we're over 3 weeks into the season and have yet to play, 1st week it rained and other team cancelled. 2nd week was a by (is that how you spell it?). So, I went home to find out that all the other flatmates were out and I would have to fend for myself. Luckily we had left-over rice in an oh sooo handy tupperware container. Thus I made the dish one must with left over rice, Fried Rice!!
It had rice, bacon, spring onions, brown onion, garlic, brocoli and an egg, plus sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce and pepper for flavouring. yum yum yum. I like fried rice and I like it even more when it is ALL for me! What I would also have liked to add but didn't 'cause of laziness, or lack of ingredient, was lime, capsicum and tomato. yum yum yum.
I am hungry for dinner now. I should stop blogging about food and instead plot a way of getting some!
brought to you by Jenni
Reading for me is a form of escapism. I started reading novels after living in Pakistan around 8 years of age. While living in Pakistan I had started to read Archie comics. Friends of the family had stacks of them all in the 'digest' format. Those were already the size of novels so it wasn't hard to move onto childrens novels. I don't remember or know what the first "book" as opposed to story, I read was. I do remember reading Jane Eyre at age 10 tho. A friend of mine had read it and was lending it to people so I read it too. I also read most of the Anne of Green Gable's series before I was 13. My granny used to buy them for me.
Mum used to have to call me to dinner quite loudly when I was in the middle of reading. As the oldest of 4 you soon start to develop defence mechanisms to deal with the noise of younger siblings and when I was reading I was able to ignore sound with relative ease. It used to bug Sis I remember as she would ask me questions and I'd reply yes or no and then after a few moments I'd be like... what did you say? If I replied at all.
I still read to escape. For me reading is a form of stress relief as I can get a break from my everyday life. That is why I think I like to read fantasy. It is soo seperate from my world. I don't just read fantasy. It just depends what is on hand. I recently when through a whole spate of Marion Keyes books as another teacher had a bag of them in her car and she lent them to me. They are nice and fluffy with happy endings. I like that! She also lent me a couple of Ben Elton books which were good, but not as good for relaxing as they have a whole dark seedy side.
Beau's Mum lent me a pretty great book the other week which I have been meaning to mention for a while. It is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It's a story told from the point of a boy who maybe has Aspergers? It's not made clear in the book what exactly he has although he goes to a special school. The book is interesting because it is all told from his view, and his view is not the view that you or I would have in his place. He is very emotionally distanced from others and it goes into how confusing he finds that and also how difficult it has been for his parents to have him as their child. Although again all you know about how his parents take it is given by his reports of incidents that have happened in his past and what he says happens during the story. One part that I found particularly fascinating was a bit about how he would have Black Days whenever he saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school. On those days he would just sit in the corner and not talk to anyone or do anything. On Super Days, days where he saw 4 Red cars in a row he would be very pleasant and more outgoing. He had noticed that environmental factors influenced "normal" peoples behaviour e.g. if the weather is all grey and rainy an office worker ( who it doesn't really effect) might get all grumpy for no other reason. So he decided that rather than have his behaviour dictated by the weather he would use car colour! Just a cool book.
Well, having hosted two tupperware parties this year I am ready for a break from it. The party I had on Saturday was going to the the last one I planned on attending for a good 6 months or more. Except someone 'dated' a party at mine so I'll have another to attend in the next few weeks. Then I got 'invited' to a meeting. Apparently Tupperware have these meetings every couple of weeks to see how everyone's been selling and to give training and to show new products etc. It was kinda nice, a bit manic as they are all sooooo enthusiastic about it. But then it's a job for them.
I also found out just before I left for the meeting that a friend of mine, who I used to work with has decided to become a tupperware demonstrator. It's a good choice for her as I think she'd enjoy the demonstrating. Also she quit her job a while back as it was driving her crazy. Same reason I quit a year and half ago. Again like me at the time, she's decided to go study. So tupperware is a good choice for her.
I'm considering being a demonstrator over summer. I won't have to be at school then which would be nice. Bad thing about it is that I would be trying to sell in January. A bad time for pretty much all retail in NZ at it is just after the massive wallet drain that is christmas.
Anyway, because she is becoming a demonstrator she is having an "announcement party". This Sunday. I will be expected to attend. Yikes! It's alright though I shall just buy one thing which I have been thinking about for a while. Ice-block forms. I can make coke Ice-blocks! Hurrah!
I like shopping, it's the spending I'm not too sure about.
I don't really feel like blogging right now. Sorry! I've been doing marking and want to get back to it.
I did have quite a good weekend. Had a tupperware party (my last one!! for a while anyways) and that was neat. Quite a lot of people turned up and got free tupperware. Hurrah! Also due to amount sold and also someone else (fabulous person that they are) said they would have a party, so I got a bunch of other stuff. Including a set of towels, which I desperately need. Towel joy.
Also got out Kill Bill V1 on DVD, watched that, then the next night went and watched V2. Which was good, except we sat in the front row of Reading Theatre 3 and that is WAY TOO CLOSE! You had to move your head from side to side to read the subtitles! Bleurgh.
Beau brough over his PS2 and we spent some hours playing the game I won at Armageddon, Space Channel 5 Part 2. It's pretty neat. The costumes in it make me and Sis want to cosplay. They also make me want to lose weight. I've been thinking about starting an extended entry thing once a week where I would weigh myself and record it. The public humiliation of it might inspire me to stop snacking and start exercising. But then... no.
Beau brought me flowers yesterday. Awwww.
Anyhoo time for marking. Please write comments and feel free to suggest blog topics.
I have this habit of thinking about horrible things. Not disgusting things, but things that make me upset and cry. Things that if they happened would change my life. I have done this for a long time.
One of the earliest times I remember is being about 7, maybe 6 as I think Mum might have been pregnant, anyway, Dad must have been away on a business trip cause I got to sleep in Mum's bed (this was like a treat that we liked to do. I stopped liking it around age 8 but I think Baby is still doing it!) and I just started imagining my Mum dying, actually lying in a coffin (alive for the time being) turning to me, telling me she loved me, and then she'd die. It made me start to cry. Mum sitting next to me was like, Giffy, What's wrong? And I sob out how I was imagining her dying.... I was a funny wee child.
Currently the horrible thing I seem to dwell on is Beau breaking up with me, cheating on me and then breaking up with me, arguing with me and then breaking up with me, getting bored of me and breaking up with me. Even though I know it isn't very likely, I still think about it and sometimes talk about it to others. Which they seem to find very unnerving. It doesn't upset me that much, I mean it does a bit when I am actively thinking/ imagining it, but the rest of the time I'm sort of like... wha- I'm soo strange!? The person who it upsets the most is Beau when I tell him that I've been thinking along those lines. But I think it's best that I tell him, otherwise sometimes when I'm feeling a bit tired, lonely and unattractive I can make myself quite sad. Remembering him saying, "that's ridiculous, why do you think about such things, all I think about is how happy we are", cheers me up considerably.
Today I didn't have to teach. The kids were all out on "work-day" which is a bizarre fundraising thing where they go and work somewhere for a day and the school gets the money. It's been going on at my school for a while but this year is the last year. I did not get the day off, oh no, instead all the staff had a course to attend on managing difficult students. The speaker was pretty good. She was funny and also had some actual strategies that we could use. Hurrah!
I've been grumpy since yesterday because of Beau. Normally on a Tuesday he comes over and since he is currently on holiday I was expecting him to stay over as well. But he didn't. He also didn't call me or text me to say what was up. Eventually after trying his home heaps and buzzing his cell a few times I texted him and he was like, oh, I've been busy roleplaying. Now he normally roleplays on Mondays and Wednesdays, plus the Buffy game that I'm in. I wouldn't have minded him roleplaying, if only he'd warned me first. Poot I say! Then he sent me a lovely text saying that from now on if I ever wanted him he would drop whatever to be there for me. Also another text saying that he would be at my house by 4pm today to hang out with me. Of course he turned up at 5! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!
Ok I feel better now. Today is Beau's sister's 21st, which I had forgotten about, but I already had a present sorted and I'd kept the night free. I'm tired tho so I might not stay for the actual food. Especially when I look at the time and dinner doesn't look that close.
Things to cheer me up today. Chelle called to say she can make it to my Tupperware party this Saturday. Beau told me there is a wig shop in the James Smith's Market. Also Sok came back from Japan and a flat party is in the works! She brought me back TWO t-shirts for my birthday. One with incredibly good engrish and another one that says... DO YOU WANT ME TO POISON YOU? Hurrah. I planned lessons for tomorrow.... other things.... I get to go to Beau's sister's 21st and I gave her the present and she liked it (that is something to be happy about, she is fussy and not shy about it)! I might take Blondie to the movies this weekend. I have Bailey's at home.
This week I have been thinking about Bailey's alot, the desire for it starts shortly after 5pm. I'd probably be a bit concerned, but all I want is one glass. Ahhhh. I must buy Bee's knees. Tasty like Bailey's but much cheaper! Ta-asty!
Yesterday, Saturday, I had a lovely day.
First I got to sleep in with Beau. Bliss. Then I went up Kapiti coast with Jenni and visited with her Parents for a while. They are nice to me. Also I asked them if they had any lavender cuttings I might have for my third formers who will shortly be trying to make essential oils. They were more than happy for me to have some.
I went out with Jenni's Dad and he hacked at three plants and I got three shopping bags worth and also one of rosemary. Lavender is a bit like a weed for them, it even grows in the gravel of their driveway. Jenni's Mum then gave me a little live Lavender plant in a pot. I also think there's a rosemary plant in there. Yay! Soo sweet smelling and good. My car smells pretty divine after lugging all that back to Wellington.
After that we headed over to Matt and Debz house for some Roleplaying (a hobby I fully endorse and enjoy). We're playing a game with a Buffy setting. No slayers have shown up yet and only one vampire so far, not that any of our characters saw it. I'm really enjoying the game, especially as I haven't played in games before with several of the people in our group. It's really neat seeing what idea's and comments other people come up with. If you want to know more about our game you can look at the link on the side of my page.
Anyway, on our way there we went to Lindale farm and I bought delicious ice-cream and cheese from the Kapiti Cheese shop and I bought Bee's Knees Cream Liqueur at the Honey Hive. Yum. The ice-cream was creme caramel flavoured and to start with it seems nice but pretty unexciting, until you realise that you can't stop eating it until it is all gone. Soo tasty! Bee's Knees is a bit like Baileys and when I realised it was Matt's Birthday it was open for all to drink and celebrate with. Very tasty. I shall have to get another bottle!
After roleplaying we had pizza and watched Hellboy. Well I only watched half as I had to drive home by 10 so that I didn't turn into a pumpkin. What I did see I quite enjoyed and I got into bed around 10.30 with a nice book and a happy feeling.
Thank you to those people who contributed to my nice day. I don't mention you all by name as I'm not sure how you feel about being written in a blog.
:)
I think that in many ways I haven't given up childish things. I still like toys, cartoons, cake and candy. When going to a mall I like to have a look at the latest toys and I like childrens clothes. Soo cute. It's not just me but my friends too! But the thing that make's me act most child-like is my family.
Going back to see my parents I slip into roles that I occupied as a child. Like, I'll complain about getting Mum a glass of water, even tho it's no big deal and I only have to do it every couple of weeks or so when I go see her, and I owe her soo much more than a glass of water. But I still feel compelled to go, Mu-um! Not only that but the way I intereact with my brother is just shameful. I can't let any comment he says go. I just get all angry and annoyed with him. It's really stupid alot of the time. Then after he says something mean I not only get mad, I feel I have to get even. So I'll say something hurtful back and he has quite low self-esteem and I know it. Not only that but I also know that as his big sister he does respect my opinions on some level so he gets quite hurt. SO I inevitably feel guilty about the mean things I say... later. Yet, I can't manage to stop myself the next time. I am getting better about it. I'm more able to walk away or just smile and tell him I love him, but if he keeps nagging me and saying I'm stupid or that he's been talking to Mum or Dad or my Auntie or whoever and that they have said something harsh about me, I tend to snap.
It's horrible how it's the ones you love and know you well that can hurt you the most.
Sis and I went to it last night to support our Baby Sister who is still at WGC. Unfortunately they didn't win, they placed second and apparently Baby is a bit depressed. She has devoted the last three months to it, with practises at least twice a week. They had the theme "a woman's worth" which is a fine theme but the whole girl power thing had already been done by St Mary's earlier in the night. Not as well done tho. WGCs dancing and costuming was amazingly tight! Well rehearsed and well choreographed. But they were let down a bit by their props.
Wellington College won with a fantastic number which went under the theme of "Protest" very relevant! They started in India with protests against the british regime and they had all these boys dancing Bollywood style! The british were represented by Boys on stilts opressing everyone with huge hats and huge clubs. Then they moved to south africa with a Boer War type of thing with these funny looking little settlers with big guns and "african tribes" with shields and spears going against them. It was then the All Blacks tour in South Africa with an All Black up against a Springbok, but then they cut to NZers of the time (in dated looking clothes) protesting with Police with huge Riot shields pushing them back. Their last one was of communist china where they had a bit of a Martial Arts Demo and then the Chinese all got into formation and made a tank a smaller boy came on stage and they tableaued Tianamin Square! In the background they had these big boards with pictures from each of scenes which were then turned around and joined together to make a dove symbol and the student started teaching a Boer some hiphop moves and then they all piled on stage and did some hip hop dancing! Sooo good!!
There were some other ones worth note, Tawa College had a neat theme of In the Attic. It had stunning props and costumes (including a person in a dragon outfit that got chased off by a pointy hatted princess holding a fire extinguisher) but their dancing was not on par with WGC and Col. There were two intermediate schools that were so cute because of smallness.
But the strangest and funniest for me was Paraparaumu College, who did their performance around Captain Planet and the Planeteers! Extra freaky considering I had just read Jenni's Blog entry on the Planeteers earlier in the day. Soo bizarre. Especially the Blue Painted boy who was Captain Planet. All the planeteers were represented and they had ugly wigs on. They said that battling Pollution was a metaphor for trying to deal with all the real tough issues that face teenagers, eg Depression, Change (I forget the rest).
I wish that I had gotten involved in StageChallenge when I was at school. The school that I teach at didn't have an entry so I was free and happy supporting WGC. I hope Baby feels better soon.
You know what I mean, the little stories parents tell you to make you stop asking why, or to cover up that they don't know the truth, or to make you do stuff. Examples from my life include:
My Mum told me that I must not swallow the seed from a Custard Apple (in Thai called Noi-na) as it would grow in me and I would die. This is a highly seedy fruit. When I swallowed one at age seven and went crying to my Mum she told me that THIS particular seed wouldn't grow into a tree and kill me, But, any other seed would.
At 6 when my Mum was pregnant with the youngest in our family Dad cooked dinner. It was fried eggs and some other stuff, I forget. Mum got two eggs and I only got one. I asked Dad why and he said it was because she was feeding two people, herself and the baby. I was happy with that until I noticed Dad had two aswell! Who was he feeding???
Sometime before age 7, Dad got Mum a glass of water with ice cubes in it. I wanted ice too. I asked Dad where the ice came from. He said from the tap. I asked him if I could have some from the tap too. He said, no, it wasn't cold enough. The next day I asked Dad if it was cold enough for me to have ice, he said no. I accepted this and did not think about it again until I was 16!! When I confronted Dad with this, He laughed and laughed and said, well its true, it's not cold enough for the ice to come out of the tap. Mean!!
Please comment and add your own. Perhaps you are even planning on spreading stories like this. A friend of mine has a great one about the people in the radio.