My year in statuseses’ss’es

Strange Cravings

Smash Mash with salt – like used to have with school dinners.
Potato bake.
The bitter after taste of lemon, lime and bitters.
Fish from chip shop – either from blue barn or Captain Fries.
Rip own ears off to get peace from endless chatter.

Crying in the Aisles

At the supermaret they have an international section. In amongst the curry powders, strange flavoured noodles, Dutch biscuits and stuffed vine leaves lie the British foods. Hula-hoops, Jelly Tots, Double Deckers, Mushy peas and Jaffa cakes galore.
When I do the groceries by myself I often stray to this aisle. Nothing in it is ever on my list but the odd item will make its way to the trolley. The main problem is, while standing browsing the goodies on the shelf I usually find my eyes welling with tears. It would seem, without even knowing it, that a lot of my childhood memories are tied to these foods.
Next year Mr Pigalina and I are going over to England for a visit. I am worried that I may become a gibbering mess on the floor of Tescos.

The Pigalina’s Progress

Having achieved one goal in my life – moving from South Dunedin I am now embarking on fulfilling another – having my own library! Being a nerd child (who me?) I used to play libraries with a springy coat-hanger acting as the stamp. I think I played it by myself… (Someone at work used to play it way more professionally though with tickets and actual lending. Maybe I’m not that geeky after all).
So, here I am procrastinating in a tiny space on the floor in the room that has been designated “The Library”. I unpacked all of the books about two weeks ago and shoved them willy-nilly onto the shelves. I soon discovered that I had outgrown the three bookcases that we had. Today we bought a new bookcase which will house all of the childrens book that I have hoarded since my childhood and others that I have aquired along the way. They will go into another room for when children come to stay. (They never have yet but it sounds good doesn’t it?)
I placed my “Complete Works” books onto the top shelf of one book case, then my boxed set of Lord of The Rings books with my Aragon and Bilbo figurines (I already said I was a nerd). Then I paused. There is a big gap in the middle but what should go there? I also have the complete set of the Harry Potter Books, The Twilight Series and the Adrian Mole books but all of then don’t fit and my Adrian Mole books are unfortunately all different shapes and sizes. Plus, if I dared to put Twilight in a hallowed top shelf spot next to Lord of the Rings I know some people (who haven’t even read it) would be very scathing in their criticism.
So here I sit, wasting time to avoid the rest of my job. I still have to decide how to arrange the rest, Fiction and Non-Fiction obviously but then we must worry about height, hard back or paper back, biography, manual…

No Doubt Another Bad Licence Photo Is On Its Way

I got my full Drivers Licence back in 1999. Gaining your full licence should mean that you have it forever but no, every ten years you have to renew your physical plastic licence and pay $44.30 for the priviledge.
When I got married I still had 6 1/2 years left before my licence expired and there was no way I was forking out money unnecessarily when I had a perfectly good drivers licence.
Finally my expiration date has come around. Mr Pigalina had been asked to put a reminder in his phone – I am not as attached to my phone so didn’t bother putting one in mine. He forgot to (on the same occasion he was asked to put William (our cat)’s birthday into his phone which resulted in William not getting any birthday cards or a party hat as he forgot to put that reminder in too) and it was only when the admin lady at work reminded me that I remembered it was due.
I was apparently supposed to get a reminder and a renewal form in the mail but we have moved from South D (I know!! Hooray!!!) and it did not get sent to my new house (despite having a mail redirection which makes me think it was never sent). As I did not get my renewal form I was not exactly sure what to take with me. I tried to find the Pigalina Marriage Certificate in vain so rang Land Transport to ask them if I needed it seeing as I have a passport in my new name. They told me I did and that if I could not find it I would have to send for a new one and would not be allowed to drive as of Wednesday! So after a much better hunt I found it in a stack of old mortgage papers. (I know, it should be in a frame but considering one of us tested a pen out on the back of the certificate…). Right, finally all good to go, so off I trotted to the Licence place at lunch time. Now, at my work my manager gets anxious if people have been standing in line for about 2 minutes (seriously). I waited for about 15 mins while the people ahead of me booked driving tests, got eye exams and their photos taken etc. When it was my turn I handed the lady my THREE forms of ID only to have a form thrust at me and to be told I needed something with my current address on it. Did I not say previously that I have updated my address with these people?! Yes I did, did I say also that they had failed to send me a form that would have told me what I needed to take? Yes. How about having a board up somewhere that I could have read while waiting in the line? I could have then saved myself 15 minutes. I scurried back to my car in a rage muttering under my breath. There I found a letter from the organisation that I sponsor a child through (Moustapha – cool eh?). I hurried back inside and whizzed through my form. I then went and stood in the line again for another 15 mins hoping that my letter was an acceptable form of ID as it wasn’t a bank statement or bill. People use mailing addresses all of the time so why something showing your address is so important is just annoying.
I thought the lady was rather terse to me because she saw the angry way I had left the building but I think everyone got the same treatment. My letter was deemed OK thank goodness. Then after my eye test I had my photo taken. The lady helpfully did not tell me that the camera would flash 1000 times for red eye reduction before taking it. So after the strobe light had finished I stopped smiling and made a thinking face. Then the stupid camera took the photo. I said “Oh! I thought it had taken it”. The lady looked at the screen and said emotionlessly “No. It’s fine.” Yeah right! My last drivers licence had a scowly faced 17 year old on it who only seconds before had been doing a big cheesy grin. They took it as I composed myself to do a decent one and then they made me keep it. I dread to think what I will have to be flashing about for the next 10 years.

South D’s Ice-Cream Man

Go to the beach in South Dunedin (sorry, St Kilda) on a hot day – do you see the Ice-Cream man?
Sitting in your garden on a hot day do you hear the Ice-Cream man?
No.
Sitting by the fire at 7.30pm on a cold rainy day in winter do you hear the Ice-Cream man?
Yes, he just went past.

How the Ice-Cream man expects to make any money is beyond me. I am yet to see him and only ever hear him on days or at times in the evening when Ice-Cream is the last thing on my mind. No children rush for monkey blood on a hot summer’s day in my ‘hood. They don’t get a chance.

Was Pak n Save trying to tell me something?

(I have a feeling this will be long. I haven’t blogged in a while, the urge to write is strong in this one).

Last week, at least one month overdue, I decided it was time for new boots, I could wait no longer. I had been walking around on shiny plastic nubs of heels that were dangerously slippery surrounded in ragged pleather as the real heels had worn down long ago. Also, all the rain we have been having lately had started to seep in through the ripped soles (I get good wear out of things you have to agree).
Usually I will buy all of my shoes from Number 1 Shoe Warehouse for $40 or less. However as I seem to get through pairs quickly I asked the ladies at work how much “real” boots cost. They all said over $100 with one having spent around $300! Good gracious, I certainly wouldn’t be spending that much.
Off I trotted to town and as I passed EB Games the siren call of cheap Xbox goodness lured me in. I left with Lego Indiana Jones. That’s fine, I told myself – Mr Pigalina will play it too and it was second-hand.
Off to the shoe shop – boots on sale – hurrah! I bought a pair that made my size 10-11 feet look tiny and they had $220 off. Great bargain hunting said I. Heading back to the carpark I passed a shop and a necklace caught my eye. I carried on only to turn back and buy not only that one but another too (total was $27.50 – pretty good price eh?)
Anyway, back at home despite getting some bargains, I felt a little bad for my spree and told Mr Pigalina I would not buy my lunch for a week to make up for some of my impulse buys. Mr Pigalina was handed my cards to take care of so that I wouldn’t sneakily buy any. I lasted 2 days on soup and could take it no more.
Today I went to Pak n Save hallowed supermarket of South D to buy my lunch. I also had a few other bits for home so I had a trolley. I had less than 12 items so I headed for the self checkout however the EFTPOS was down on them so it was cash only. I felt too cheeky standing in the express lane with a trolley as I usually complain about the old ladies who do just that and I would have been blocking the main thoroughfare. Every checkout had at least two trolleys queing up. I joined one que and the lady operating the till was slow and gossipy and there were three people ahead of me. I went right down to the other end of the shop and found a better que. The lady in front of me went to pay and was told “Oh sorry, EFTPOS isn’t working” Nooooooo, I thought, I have just spent 10 minutes in ques. Luckily we were all able to put our items through, suspend the sale and then go to the Customer Services booth to join another que and then pay. 20 minutes after getting all of my purchases together I left to walk in the pouring rain back to work to eat my sandwich.
I think Pak n Save was trying to tell me that I should have stuck to my self-imposed food-from-home diet. I only had two days left.

Xbox Live is Cheeky

Mr Pigalina and I got Xbox Live Gold subscriptions so we could play Guitar Hero with Mr Pigalina’s cousins. (Yes, they live only about 1km away). Anyway, it was easier to get online with complete strangers all over the world than those guys and as a result we never played online with them once. Plus I had somehow become bamboozled while signing up and missed out on the one month for $1 deal and paid over $10.
To sign up you just hop online. To cancel my subscription I had to google the phone number (only after Mr Pigalina tried and failed to cancel his subscription online) and phone (toll free) America. So today we rang and the call lasted for 20 minutes – though this is pretty good as I have been on hold longer for places such as Inland Revenue.
I had to tell the man my Xbox Gamertag (Pigalina – could you guess?). I had to tell him the last 4 numbers of the credit card I used to sign up – Mr Pigalina then had to give permission to speak to me again as he was the card holder. The man then asked for the full name I used to sign up “Pigalina .” I replied. “No, your full name” “Yeah, I think I actually signed up as Pigalina Dot – Pigalina Fullstop.” Turns out I had – I never expected to have to be telling anyone though. What was my phone number, my full address, my reason for cancelling? Mr Pigalina – whose Gamertag is sillier than mine – coz mine’s not silly – then had to go through the same questions.
Far out! I thought I had only signed up for a month but I had signed up for an ongoing monthly subscription. PLUS I had to do the mess around in order to cancel it. I wonder what else I have signed up to that will be as hard to get out of.

Sha(no)more

I remember where I was when I heard Princess Diana died, I remember my 9/11 moment – hell I even have a Freddie Mercury moment (I cried when the radio played “The Show Must Go On” – I was 9!).
Now there’s a Michael Jackson moment to add to the list
I went into the staff room for morning tea yesterday which was doubling as a farewell for a guy leaving work. A soon as I opened the door someone announced that M.J was dead and this continued as each new person entered the room. The leaving celebrations were swiftly over-shadowed (not to mention Farrah).
My manager was straight online to check if it was true, another lady rang her husband who, she reported, sounded quite distraught. Another’s husband could not be reached. I rang Mr Pigalina who didn’t seem to care and already knew! I asked him why he had not been on the phone straight away to deliver the news – he said that he hadn’t wanted to deliver the bad news over the phone.
It appears that his whole office didn’t give two hoots while half of my office was in a frenzy. There is even a tribute party being planned for next Friday (dress code – one glove).

OK so MJ had a lot of controversy in the last few years but there is no denying that his music is fantastic. Mr Pigalina’s Dad apparently sounded rather upset on the phone when Mr Pigalina called him about an unrelated matter. He said “These people, you don’t know them, but they are always a part of your life.” It’s so true. I had a Moonwalker sweatshirt which I wish I still had – I would have made a cushion cover out of it. It is imortalised on Mum’s wall in a photo where I am wearing it complete with triangular pants, a bum bag a bob hairdo. I had the Thriller album on tape and Vincent Price’s voiceover would creep me out, I used to have to fast-forward through his cackle. When I was about 6 I went to a friend’s house and we put on her Dad’s Thriller video and then swiftly hid behind the sofa in terror. I remember watching in awe as the faces morphed into each other in the “Black or White” video. Let’s not forget the fabulous Jackson 5 which is my good mood music if I ever need a boost. My sister and I have had many a sing-along. A guy at high school could Moonwalk and I remember him once Moonwalking across a rown of desks at lunchtime. And who hasn’t spent time trying to perfect the Moonwalk themselves? (Don’t lie).

We all have our Michael Jackson memories and while his descent into scandal and ridicule over-shadowed his past achievements I am going to remember the fun that he has brought me over the years. Now, back to the video hits marathon on C4.

Just Had to Report a Copyright Infringement

Someone had taken a post, one about a bad day I had, and posted it on their own site. Whhhhy? It’s not as if anyone cared about my bad day in the first place so why replicate it?