And on this day

Bambino Coffee Company was born.

Coffee

The details:

Wellington South Kindergarten
103 Owen St
9 am - 1.30 pm

Now, the business of a name for the business. Any brilliant ideas get in quick, we'll be reviewing all the original ideas this evening.

We should be named and branded (okay dreaming) by tomorrow...

Finally

My celebrant application is posted.

And the coffee cart is having its first outing - Wellington South Kindergarten's Garage Sale on Saturday. I need to confirm with Emily what time, but I expect to see bloggers flocking to purchase lattes and suchlike.

Petone burns!

Some stinking bastard arsonist has been at work in my fair suburb. Looks like they've caught him. I thought I'd reassure you that we didn't see any fire here.

We did however see a couple of young people giving each other the bash outside our house on Saturday evening. I had to call the police, it was all very dramatic.

Don't tell anyone about this crime wave please. We want house prices to continue rising.

Okay, here is something better

Yay - I've found somewhere better to spend my money on music. Amplifier seems to have lots of great stuff.

More feets

I've tried to resist, but this search just had to be shared.

I'm fourth on Yahoo for

photos of sexy boys with beautiful feets

I must be doing something right.

Coke

I know we all hate the evil empires and all that, but despite my ethical issues with a drink of pure sugar, I have signed up with Coke Tunes. They don't support ipods (very lame reasoning on the site as to why you shouldn't buy one), but since I've ended up with a PC, that don't bother me.

At the moment they give you $60 credit for $30. Worth it just to download a few tunes I reckon. All I've managed to buy so far is Vienna by Ultravox! However for 5 cents a pop you can listen to anything. It is good fun. And I intend to restore my credibility shortly with some decent sounds.

So, yeah, WHATever

I'm not at home on a Friday night. I'm out having cocktails with lots of quite cool people who work in advertising agencies and suchlike.

If I were at home (which I'm not), I'd be probably saying what a rock and roll evening it was, starting with a little dancing with the 3 year old and (almost) 1 year old. They both thought "Sweet Child" by G'n'f'n'r was just as rockin as me. I'd probably follow up with a chaser of Inxs Rockstar. Ohmigod. Marty should win (will he Ms Hubris?). We worked out why the show is such a triumph tonight - it is because there is almost zero cringe (unlike the Idol shows).

And the other thing I might do if I was at home tonight (which I'm not - I'm at Matterhorn, or Motel, or the mirror bar - drinking cocktails and not thinking about the mortgage) - is speculate which was your most "fun" year. "Fun" in this definition doesn't include fun that you might have at anything called a "dinner party" or anything involving ones own children.

Mine, I think, was 1994. This was the year I found myself single ( the only year since I was 16). I was flatting with a gang of 6 very excellent women (imagine the day we could cry out "full house" - all double beds full), we drank almost every night (I think something was on telly on Mondays). We enjoyed $2 pints at Trekkers and Hole in the Wall, endless beers at Bodega, rock star scoring, Barneys dancing, party having.... oh it was all bloody marvellous.

When I first began the exercise I felt a) like it was earlier than it was and b) that I've surely had better times since.

And this is true. I got married in Vegas in '99, and it was a FUCKING BRILLIANT YEAR. But there is something that is great about being 21.

Quelle horreur

Shane MacGowan... unconsciously brilliant. You
can intelligently debate any topic from
theology, history, literature and philosphy...
though only while you're out of your skull on
booze.


Which fucked-up genius composer are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Thanks to Make Tea Not War for another crazy quiz. I don't know what to think really. Shane MacGowan is one ugly bastard. The drink thing is true though, the rest of the time I'm wary of other people thinking I'm an idiot.

Well, I tried

the noughties

This decade will be remembered for online calculators.

Winter blues

Here I am on my new laptop. Can you tell? It took a few days to get connected, because of course I had chucked out the Woosh info. It is a delight to be sitting here on the bed blogging away. Lovely laptop. Lovely technology.

Glen and I have just been discussing fleeing the country for the weekend. I think it is safe to say that he is thoroughly fed up with work, and I fancy being somewhere WARM for a while. There is an art fair in Sydney this weekend, but really, it is a bit too radical to just up and go... and besides, if we leave it a couple of months we'll have time to get excited about it.

We've still got masses of airpoints from when we were young and travelled constantly, so the travel itself will be free. Isn't that nice?

Perhaps we'll go to Rarotonga. I've never been to a pacific island. Glen spent his formative years in the Tokelaus, and is gagging to go back for a holiday. There is no way in this universe I am spending 3 days on the boat however.

Who would you vote for?

Che Fu or Neil Diamond?

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands

On Saturday I finally got over obsessing about laptops and bought one. It is a Compaq, and bought because

• It is goodlooking
• It met my minimal spec requirements
• It was reasonably priced
• It has iTunes (so I didn't completely give up the Apple dream)
• It isn't missing anything I wanted (which is kind of what all the above criteria says I guess)

Moments after we got the machine home, our new neighbours who I'd vaguely invited around for a drink showed up. They are a very nice couple who bought the house next door a year ago, but only just moved in.

We all got a bit too much enjoying ourselves with the beers, and then the wines. In fact they didn't end up going home until 10.30pm after a meal. Turns out we had quite a bit in common.

More bullet points (I'm in a pointed bullet point kind of frame of mind)

• She is a chemist (PhD) like my husband.
• He is a geologist and caver (like my husband)
• She and I went to the same primary school at the same time. This was very weird because it was Christchurch Steiner School, and you don't meet many people from there.

We all had a lovely time, but now I am tired and ready for my bed.

I have to get another setup disk from Woosh to make hook my laptop up, so I'm still crouched on the floor.

Damn you Bill Gates

Bearing in mind I've had alcohol.

I've had to give up the iBook dream. They're just too damn pricey; I was all keen on the 12inch iBook, but reliably informed that a screen that size is pus. DAMMIT. So now I'm gonna buy a nice Acer or something, and spend the extra $1000 on something responsible, like our growing debt, or a tattoo, or a table, or some cream to make my face look youthful and lovely. If I could be arsed, and this computer wouldn't crash, I'd set up a wee poll to find out what you guys think the money should go on. Actually I'm rooting for a nice new painting.

Mmmm. Art.

Rockstar INXS

It would be remiss of me not to point everyone in the direction of Rockstar INXS. What a programming triumph. It is well worth a watch, particularly when the only real alternative is Election thingmajigys. Boooooooooooring.

My picks:

The blond guy (Marty?) - he is good.
Ty - he is black and very good. Both Strong points in his favour.
Jordis - should win, but she is a girrrrrl, and it doesn't fit with the image.

Back to it...

UPDATE:

4 Ports later (the booze kind, not some tricky computer jargon)

And lets speak frankly - I'm a bit pissed

Anyhoo

INXS tonight.

Jordis was the best. Her voice nearly made me weep, and to be honest I usually am not into women rockers (unless they're called Kaye or Debbie or Janis or Madonna).

But I have to say (begrudgingly) that JD was the best tonight.

Lurking

I seem to have turned into a lurker. I read the blogs, but 11 months of very little sleep has meant that I cannot think of things to say, nor how to say them.

Normal service will resume in approximately 17 years.

Thankyou.

Petone Rocks

Since we moved to Petone in 2002, I have been hankering after the city. I think it is time to just get over it.

What I am probably hankering after is long nights in town, with a 2 minute walk up to our apartment at the end of the night, two incomes, Saturday morning paper in bed - and do you know, not much else. Life is funny and fun and lovely out here in Petone. We are one block from the sea, 4 blocks from every shop you could possibly need, and we have lots of great playgrounds for the children. We have several fabulous, fun friends within walking distance to have barbeques and food and drink with.

Unfortunately the pub scene out here has been a bit shabby. I'm pleased to report there is a Speights Bar opening. This may not sound deeply hip and cool, but actually I don't think I fit that demographic any longer. The bar is going to be like the one on Tinakori Rd, so I'm pretty confident it will be done well - and means there will finally be somewhere civilised to watch rugby.

The other good news is that a very nice looking Tulsi has just opened on Jackson St too. I think this suburb is set to get quite good quite soon.

Happy 1/2 birthday Wanda

Crikey, in 3 days this blog will be 6 months old. I'm writing it now, because I'm bound to forget on the 18th.

America 1 World 0

America seems to be winning. It has finally created a real, walking, talking, living Barbie doll.

I mean, have you seen the "These Boots are Made for Walking" video?

I'm just like Pretty Woman

You know in Pretty Woman, when Vivian tries to shop in Rodeo Drive, and those bitches won't serve her. Well that was us. Except we weren't buying clothes, or grasping wads of cash, or in fact prostitutes trying to tart ourselves up.

We were just a young family trying to buy a nice little iBook.

I spent the morning doing some hardcore research on Alan's recommendation. Everything persuaded me the iBook was the way to go, and how exciting as they're brand new out this month. So we went out to Harvey Norman (I'm much better at being a bitch and bartering in those big stores), and I got the chap to knock $100 off, and he went out back to get it, and they DIDN'T HAVE ONE. He claimed it was gone, but the guy at Noel Leemings said nobody has them in yet, so I'll try MagnumMac tomorrow.

I'm very excited. I played with the one in the shop a lot, and people kept looking at me like they wished I'd move. No way Jose - that baby is mine.

Shopping! Help!

So that I don't have to bore everyone forever about how my computer drives me craaaaaazy with freezing and being large and uncooperative, perhaps you can spare a moment of your time to give me advice.

I am now thinking what I need is a laptop, which will discretely tuck away while not in use, and also act as a music storage device which we can plug directly into our amp. I'm also thinking that I'll set up a network with my computer I already have (which can go and live in our sleepout). I'm imagining that the laptop can then be wirelessly connected to the computer and the internet will go through that. Have I lost you yet?

This is infact turning into one of those posts I'll think seriously about deleting because it is so boring.

So I need a laptop. And I want it to cost about 4 cents. We had a look in the Sony shop today. Wouldn't lotto be nice?

And what do you reckon about second hand laptops? There seem to be some good deals on trademe - like the Vaio I saw at the Sony shop - which was about $3700 - is going for about $1500 on trademe. But then am I buying the same problems we're having already?

I'm very interested in what all you lovely people (well, I guess you might be total psychos actually) use and rate.

Young love

Check out this delight (thanks popbitch).

It is workplace safe, but has sound...

The Menu for tonight

This is a tiny bit of a cop-out, as I ran this very same menu last weekend. Much less stressful to not have to think though.

Dolmades
Nuts
Marinated vegetables

Spiced Parsnip and Coconut Soup
Baguette
Egerton Olive Oil

Beef and Red Wine Stew
Roast Kumera and Yams
Carrot and Coriander Salad

Orange, Almond and Coconut Cake with cream

And about 30 litres of wine (not sure what everyone else will be drinking).

I am very excited. I have even ironed a tablecloth.

The wormed turned (off)

Who can watch those politicians with that frickin line leaping all over the show?

That said, Peter Dunne made it jump way higher than anyone else. The man is a worm-charmer.

My 15 minutes are here

Well, I almost peed my pants when the August 05 copy of the HVBM (Hutt Valley Business Monthly) arrived in the letterbox this morning.

I'm eager to seize my 15 minutes, so am in negotiations with Spielberg, Oprah, Murdoch. The usual.

More Celebrity Vitamins

Far be it from me to make any allegations about anyone famous...

I have just witnessed Ms Coc-Kroft (do you think she was really once Cock-Roft?) on the telly admitting that she takes selenium.

I guess this is what has made her go orange.

Dilbert

A couple of months ago in the Dom Post there was a Dilbert cartoon that made me laugh. I can't find the picture anywhere, but here is the text:

First window:
"You have a bad case of computer rot" (Dogbert's Technical Support)
Second:
"Your computer is designed to become slower and more unreliable over time so you have to upgrade"
And the third:
"But if you would like some false hope, I can tell you how to defragment your disk drive"

Relevant today, because somehow I have managed with updating and spyware removing and defragging and antivirusing - to make my computer work again.

Happy day. Now Cuisine isn't freezing on me anymore, and I can click on links to stuff.

Workstation #2

In case any of you were wondering why my updates are a little infrequent at this stage.

Polarfleece

I have joined the Kindy committee at Finn's kindy. I went to my first meeting last night, and noticed some way through that I was the only person not wearing polarfleece.

Some good news

I got IDed at the supermarket. Very chuffed. Take that 10 years in 10 days.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa

House of Ill Communication

Not much to say, and there won't be until the boys get over their:

Ear infections (both)
Chest infection (Malo)
Conjuctivitis - ugh (both)
Rash (Malo - but not meningitis -whew)

Not a happy house here in Petone. Now I'm going to rest. There is going to be a looooong night ahead.

Memoirs in 10 Bullet Points

I read in the paper that David Lange said he won't die until his memoirs are published. I realised I will never publish memoirs as a) my life, while great, is not interesting reading for others, and b) I can't imagine anything more boring than writing the damn thing. I have kept every christmas and birthday card though, in case someone wants to write my biography and needs to know who my two attentive friends have been each christmas.

So I came up with the Memoirs in 10 Bullet Points. But you know what? It is frickin hard to do. So while I think about it, I want you to all think about your own Bullet Points.

Glen lay awake half the night thinking through his (which are far more meaningful and intense than mine - none involving pashing and alcohol) - and he doesn't even have a weblog. I may have him at Wanda Harland as a special guest.

Niger

We've donated some money to Save the Children for aid in Niger, but I read in the paper it is going to take 2 months for any aid to reach. I read a Paul Theroux book a while ago, which actually I hated. He is a bit of a wanker. He alleged that aid was partly responsible for the mess Africa is in. Some of it of course made sense, for example he talked about how aid organisations created huge farms for the Africans to work on, but it ruined their own small-holdings, which were far more sustainable.

Now, I can't believe we should sit by spending hundreds of dollars on delicious meals at Matterhorn when we could be helping. Does anyone know the best way to donate for the money to actually get where it needs to go? If I thought I could actually save some lives, I'd like to do so more.

Matterhorn oh yeah

Saturday was a big day for us Petoneites. The day started with my trusty hairdresser showing up to cut mine and my sister's hair. Slight glitch in the plan with the scissors left at home, but I now have a very nice new colour. Quite rock n roll in fact.

We had art group in the afternoon. Very convivial, and our turn to get the money (yay) and we got the last piece we bought back. It is by Sam Broad who is very clever and you should buy some of his stuff. Ours is called Robot Patu I think. We've actually got 5 or so of his pieces now, so you could say we're pretty big fans (and friends in case you haven't guessed).



By 4.30pm everyone was gone and we were left with a few bottles of opened wine, some cake and an appetite for destruction. We invited the neighbours around, and they in turn invited us out to Matterhorn.

Now here beginseth the rave. I have never in my whole life had such a delicious meal. I had the King Salmon entree, and it was so so so good. Melty in the mouth, tasty caviar tasty dressed oooh ahhh delicious. Helped down with lashings of Nautilus Pinot Gris. For my main I had Eye Fillet with yummy things that the wine has helped me forget the detail thereof. I do know that I have never enjoyed a restaurant meal so much in my life. Oh, actually I did have a very good meal at Il Casino once. Actually I've had a few very good meals, but my death row meal would definitely now be from Matterhorn.

And Newsboy was there. I was very restrained and only walked close by him once.

Scooter!

Today I was very brave and putted around Hikoikoi Reserve on the vespa for the first time. It was great. The main reason I stopped being a wuss was because I saw a picture of Paris Hilton on one. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to look like the ho. I just figured that if she could do it, so could I.

Next up I'll have to film a porno.