rain and work

Posted on Wed 14 March 2007 at 07:26

Seems like I'm never at work at the moment.

I changed my shift pattern recently and have been really enjoying that but was asked if I minded working with a different roster (I am on roster 2 and asked to join roster 4) as they simply need the staff on there.  This bothers me not a jot but means I worked lates Mon and Tues, off today and Thurs, Lates again Fri ans Sat and ealy Sun and Mon.  To be right, if I could have picked a team to work with, it would be the one I will be working with so - as they say here loads - "it's all good".  With me being off sick a few weeks ago, then having a day off last week, then the shift pattern change, I hardly seem to have been there at all.  And what a bonus when I checked my last pay slip - as I should have worked a weekend but was off sick, I still get paid the weekend enhancements that I was entitled to and the same for my holiday Saturday off.  Yippee!

Talking of things they say here - they have some archaic phrases still in common parlance.  The only person I knew in Britian who still used the phrase "far out" was my sister Fiona (sorry mate!).......here, everyone says it.  The words "true"  and "Choice", litter a Kiwi's conversation as an agreement, in the manner we scots would say "aye".  "Sweet as" occurs in nearly every exchange.  I have to bite my toungue every time I hear it as I always want to ask "sweet as what?  Sweeties perchance? Or "Lollies" as they say  in NZ!  The original phrase is "sweet as a nut" but the end bit seems to have been lost along  the line.  And for your edification - going off at a tangent as usual - "it sucks" is a shortening of the phrase "it sucks like a sucking chest wound", which is pretty grim when you think about it.  Incidentally, the above is not meant to offend Kiwis (or Fiona!), just an observation of how things are here.

The diet and healthy lifestyle jobbie is seriously ticking me off at the moment.  When I was poorly the other week, I ate nothing for days and then only ate soup for about a week (more of which later).  I lost about half a stone - actually saw 9st 6lbs for the first time in nearly a year.  But of course that has started to go back on in spite of my best efforts.  I did a bit of internet research into low metabolism and have now commenced drinking geen tea and taking a metabolic-rate-raising pill.  Now I know as well as the next person that exercise is required for a healthy lifestyle.  YAWN.  So I swim a mile most days I am on a late shift or off (every day at the mo!).  So why do I not lose weight??? 

Talking of swimming, have a smile at my expense.  I put my vest and briefs swimming suit (all swimming suits are called "togs" here!) in the dryer yesterday so I could wear it later that day.  And it shrunk!  I tried putting it on in my bedroom and the lining bit that covers one's chest covered approximately 1/3 of my ample bosom.  I did a bit of arm windmilling a la back crawl to see if it would be possible to wear anyway - not a hope as they fell out over the top.  I then noticed the strap adjuster thingies were at the front as I had put it on back to front!   Hey ho!

I have had a real soup 'thing' recently.  Started when I was poorly and has continued.  So recently we have had: tattie soup; lentil soup; broth; leek and potato; courgette and potato (Jury's still out on that one) and vegetable.  I take a large flask to work as it stops me laying waste to the fridge when I come home.  All this soup has put me in mind of the poem in the book Struwelpeter by Dr Heinrich Hoffman.  I was introduced to this book by my mother as a young child.  It contains cautionary tales for children ie do as you are told or BAD things will happen to you!

I would like to dedicate this rendition to my mother...

So, with no further ado, let us commence

Ahem.....

The story of Augustus who would not have any soup

Augustus was a chubby lad. 

Fat ruddy cheeks Augustus had and everybody saw with joy, the plump and hearty, healthy boy.

He ate and drank what he was told and never let his soup get cold.

But one day.  One cold winter's day, he screamed

"Take the soup away! O take the nasty soup away!  I won't have any soup today"

Next day - now look, the picture shows how lank and lean Augustus grows!

Yet, though he feels so weak and ill, the naughty fellows cries out still

"Not any soup for me I say.  O take the nasty soup away!  I WON'T have any soup today".

The third day comes - Oh what a sin, to make himself so pale and thin.

Yet when the soup is put on table, he screams as loud as he is able

"Not any soup for me I say.  O take the nasty soup away!  I WON'T have any soup today"!.

Look at him now the fourth day's come.  He scarcely weighs a sugar plum.  He's like a little piece of thread.

And on the fifth day he was dead.

Melissa feels like that about soup!

The weather has been above our expectations recently, considering it it is now Autumn.  It has continued sunny and hot for most of Jan, Feb and this far into March.  Until Monday.  My God, when it rains here, it rains - no half measures!.  It has been torrential and that is no exaggeration.  I left the car round the back of the hospital on Monday late shift and got soaked to the skin going to get it.  I was so wet it wasn't worth trying to hide from the rain any more and I had to have a shower when I came in.  Even so, it wasn't cold!  And the rain has had a knock-on effect on our gully plans as well.  We went out on Saturday and spent piles on tools to set about the gully with.  Axe, mattock, chopper, slashers, pruners,  hammock.......no, that was just wishful thinking!  And a f**k-off enormous backpack weedkiller thingie.  Even got two different types of weedkiller to put in it........but it has to be dry for a while before you put it on and hopefully dry for a good few hours after application.  Ah well, the best laid plans.....  The week after we moved in, the garage flooded.  Luckily, we had very little stored down there (the garage is under our bedroom and don't I know it if Steve goes to work on the motorbike and I am still in bed!).  The chap who we bought the house from turned up a week later with a plastic seal that he had bought, forgotten to fix and then moved to his new address.  Steve put the seal on and given the sideways rain that we have experienced recently, I am inclined, so far to give it 10 out of 10.

Melissa had a parent's evening yesterday.  She seems to have settled well and be doing well.  I wouldn't have expected anything else but it is good to hear.  Again, it validates our move here.  She has started guitar lessons at school (take note Shane!) and tells me she enjoys that also.  She had "food technology" today, which translates into good old fashioned cookery to you and I!  She made stewed fruit and when I asked where it was, she informed me she had eaten it and very good it was too.  Which goes to prove the point that you are more likely (as a child) to try something new if you have made it yourself.  Well done Melissa.

The British Expat site is a great place to 'meet' new friends.  I have just had a call from Spackster aka Jac, ( I asked her permission to mention her before writing this) to let me know she had arrived safely in Auckland to a lovely reunion with her Adie and pets.  She reports the rental is good and she is knackered!  I have many people on this site that I regard as friends although I have only met 2 of them.  I feel most of us are a little cyber community who support each other when needed and share our ups and downs.  It is great to keep in touch with family and friends but also good to know there is someone out there who comepletely understands what massive changes are going on in your life.  So, to all BE members who read this - I value your comments and support.   I keep forgetting to add that a good few weeks ago BE wiped all comments that weren't added by BE members, because of massive spamming activity on other blogs.  I was really sad that they hadn't  informed us bloggers that this was on the cards, because I would have taken a copy if I had know.  I don't want anyone to think that I personally took them off.  I loved reading them.  However, if you would like to continue adding: Shane, Shone and Janie predominantly, you could always register with BE (you don't have to post on the main forums) and then you could post comments. 

Dear me, I do go on!

Karen B