holidays!

Gosh it's been awhile!
I have been busy studying for my exam, but all that's over now, so gratefully glad! It's time to go crazy! Flying on the crazyness of my mind, being free all the time!!!

I've been listening to Linnkin Park and gosh...I'm loving it! I haven't listened to them for ages.

I just don't know what to do with myself—there's so many options, so many possibilities!

Time to fly!

4 year anniversary

4 years ago today my dear sweet (now) husband asked me out to be his girlfriend. I can remember every detail. I remember where we were standing, in which town and what he said. It was a wonderful moment, I will treasure it always in my heart. It was funny actually because he kissed me (just a light kiss on the lips) before he even asked me out. We were talking about the fact that it had been 4 years since we started dating. I asked him if he remembered our first kiss, he didn't. So I told him the story of our first kiss, he didn't believe that it was before he asked me out.

I really can't believe it has been 4 years, its gone so fast. So much as changed too. I am glad we are together and stronger than ever.

Ah, but now you want to know the story of how it all came to be...
Perhaps in another post, another time.

Poem

What intrigues you, dear cat,
as you sit upon your rock,
inspecting
What do you long to capture
will you jump, or
will you sit?
You sniff the air so fresh,
contemplating your next move.
You sit upon your rock
so proud, so bold,
yet you do not move.
What has captured your attention?
For I cannot see your intrigument.

I composed this poem after a short refreshing walk in the cool air with the lovely warm winter sun on my face. I happened upon Tiger perched upon a rock and was inspired. I broke out into poem right there and then as he sat upon his rock ignoring me as I spoke my poem to him.

Fresh water

We fill up our water from this natural spring in the mountains, its fresh and lovely tasting. Every time we drive up there to fill up there is almost always at least 4-5 cars waiting to fill up. It is rather popular. Some people have a trailer load of empty bottles to fill up. It's kinda frustrating for us if we are in line behind them as we only have 6 bottles to fill.
We have been drinking this water for over a year and had no problems. Its lovely water to drink. At least it doesn't have all those nasty added chemicals - chlorine, fluoride and whatever else is added to water these days. I cannot stand the taste of tap water - it tastes salty and chlorinated to me - not fresh at all. If we ever move, we are so getting a water filter.

A new pet!

We now are the proud owners of a lovely goldfish. We got him from M's workmate who is sadly moving to another city due to various issues. The poor thing hadn't had a clean tank in awhile so we gave it a clean for him. Not that reflects his previous owner - she looked after him fine.
She called him Kingkong, so I guess we will continue to call him that.

Tiger has been rather intrigued by Kingkong, he tries to get as close to the glass as he can to see if he can catch him. I'll be watching Tiger though and making sure he doesn't eat Kingkong.

Strange Ivy

We just had someone come to our door asking if they could cut some of our Ive off our fence. We were rather confused. It is a weed - people want to get rid of it! We want to get rid of it! People amaze me with their randomness - I am glad though. It makes me laugh.

SNOW!!

It's snowing on the Mt of (....) in (....) he he. It's lovely, lots of amazing soft, fresh fallen snow.
Della, myself and M (husby) went to see the snow yesterday. It was wonderful and very cold. There was a huge amount of snow, the road to the top of the mountain was closed. It started snowing when we arrived which made for a lovely blanket of fresh fallen snow.
I took my cloak up, Della and M were taking photos of me wearing it. It was fun! I haven't had much chance to wear my cloak yet, its not the sort of outfit one wears just anywhere (unless I want to scare people). There are more photos here.
We are going up again tomorrow to spend more time at the snow and take more photos.

What happens when no one is looking

Over the weekend (as posted previously) we had Harry aka the orange kitty visit us. Tiger does not like Harry at all. Whenever Harry is around, Tioger looks agitated and annoyed. He hisses and growls at him on occasion too. Harry is of course totally oblivious to Tiger's dislike of him and chases Tiger around. Tiger does not like this at all and has batted at Harry with his paws, to warn him away.
On Monday (it was a long weekend so M was home) we were both at our computers doing stuff. I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. I peeked out the window, there was Tiger and Harry lying in the exact same position next to each other, one on each chair. I raced to tell M. M laughed so hard when he saw them. M said, "quick get a photo. Where's your camera?" "It's right here," I replied, pointing at my camera. M grabbed my camera and took photos - all the while taking care not to disturb Harry and Tiger. When M had finished I got a few photos too. Throughout this time Harry and Tiger did not notice us taking photos. I'm sure if they did, Tiger would have started hissing and growling.
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of Harry and Tiger lying in the exact same position. It's still hilarious though, Tiger had been so adamant that he disliked Harry...

Bulkness - cat food and other bargains

I am somewhat of a bulk Queen. I love buying in bulk - I simply cannot help myself. I have been known to buy 9 kgs of washing powder in the past. I walk past something really cheap in the supermarket (that we need) and I cannot resist grabbing multiples. I dislike buying small packets of things when I can buy big - uber Big! It works out alot cheaper in the end anyway. Which brings me to explaining the photo.

This past weekend my husband and I were driving to closest biggest shopping mall (around 40 min away) and we stopped to fill up petrol as the car was almost empty. Right next door to the petrol station is a bulk pet/stock food & supplies store. I said to my husband "I will go and check it out while you fill up." He nodded, knowing we needed cat food. I wandered into the shop, it was cold. It was one of those open, cement floor places with no heating. I wandered around trying to find the cat food section. Eventually I found it, the section didn't have alot of range. There was mainly cat biscuits, not tins. This was fine though as we needed biscuits. I looked at the range of cat biscuits and the prices. By this time M had finished filling up and was looking at the cat biscuits too. We worked out the price per kilo for each of the different brands. We worked out the cheapest one which is the one pictured above. It was $26.90 (AUD) for 8kg, which works out to be $3.40 per kg.That is quite cheap. We decided we would check out the price per kg in the supermarket of the same brand before buying it. We had to buy other items anyway.
We left the shop, continued driving, arrived at our destination and did the rest of the shopping. We looked at the prices of the same brand in the supermarket, it was around $7.50 per kg - what a difference. We finished the shopping, drove back and bought the huge bag of cat biscuits. We were a bit worried that Tiger wouldn't like them - as he is super fussy, but he loves them. I think 8kg works out to be around 4 months supply of cat biscuits too.

Other items I have in bulk (or have bought)
Wheat 20 kg (we have stone mill grinder - so can grind our own wholemeal flour)
Rice (Basmati) 10 kg
Lentils 3 kg
Brown Rice 5 kg
Chickpeas 4 kg
Red Kidney beans 3 kg
Honey 3 kg
Black beans 3kg
Toilet paper 8 double length rolls
Olive oil 4 litres
Sesame seeds 3 kg
Linseed 3 kg
Cashews 2 kg
Pumpkin seeds 2 kg
Sunflower seeds 2 kg
Shampoo & Conditioner 6 lots of 300ml bottles (they were $2.95 each on special)
Fruit Juice 2x 3 litres

As you can see I like to stock up. I dislike having to run to the shop all the time and buy pathetic small overpriced packets of the above items. When I can buy them in bulk for much cheaper and it lasts for ages.
I have even considered buying 12 bottles of tomato sauce because it is $1 cheaper per bottle than buying it in less than 12. This is not just any tomato sauce, it is homemade style sauce from a lady who sells them in markets. It is the best tomato sauce I have ever tasted, better than the disgusting artificial crap in supermarkets (which doesn't even taste like tomatoes). This actually tastes like tomatoes and has a small amount of spice to it. Its fantastic. The company is called Hells Breath, she also makes chill sauces.

I have inherited this buying in bulk and finding bargains trait of my Dad. If there is something cheaper out there, my Dad will find it. He buys lots of stuff in bulk. He has even bought chilli sauce in bulk. I remember having a 4 litre bottle of chilli sauce and a 5 litre bottle of tomato sauce often in stock when I was a child. He also would buy a whole box of bananas (the huge boxes that bananas are shipped in) and freeze most of them. He did the same with tomatoes, peaches, pears, apples - whatever he could find that was cheap and able to be bought in bulk.
He also bought all the beans, rice and wheat in bulk. We always had huge buckets full of wheat, beans, rice when I was child. Pretty much anything that could be bought in bulk, we had in bulk.
My Dad also has a knack for finding bargains, as I do too. However he can take it to extreme and spend hours comparing and looking for something cheaper. I however do not so much. I do like to compare prices and shop around, but not spend hours doing so.
My parents also used to bottle all the perishables they bought in bulk. So as a child, I had unlimited access to bottled peaches, tomatoes, apple sauce, feijoas, apricots, and ...can't remember what else.
I can remember having weetbix and apple sauce for breakfast - I loved apple sauce.
Oh yeah...I remember one other thing my Dad bought in bulk, probably the best ever actually.
He bought Swiss chocolate (cooking) in bulk. Dark, and milk chocolate in 2 kg blocks, absolute heaven. My sister, brother and I used to sneak into my parents walk in wardrobe and steal the chocolate, oh so naughty but oh so yummy! It was more my Sister and I actually. My Dad used to hide the chocolate from us, but we would always find it. After we took it, he would usually find out and then make us pay for a new block. It was worth it though as we had more chocolate, he he (so naughty!). I think we had to pay $20 NZD per 2 kg block. I don't know if I ever paid it all back to him either. I think he forgot about it after I left home.
So there you have it, the history of the bulk Queen.

Orange kitty - hooded and dangerous

We had the privilege of having the lovely orange kitten visiting us again this weekend. He was here for the whole weekend. On Friday night we had a Della around for tea. Whilst my husband was preparing tea - I did help, (which was fantastic and scrumptious mini pizzas) we (Della and I) had the wonderful idea of putting the orange kitty into M's hood. We put him in and he stayed there for ages. Long enough for us to get a photo of him sitting there in wonder and confusion.
After about 2-3 minutes orange kitty decided he had had enough and proceeded to reach his sharp claws up onto M's shoulder's. M let out a screech of pain while we rescued him and took the orange kitty out of M's hood.

We found out that the orange kitty has a name. His name is Harry - after Prince Harry.

Kuini - funny story from my childhood

A little background first (for the photo)
For most of my childhood/teenage years grew up in NZ, living on the North Island. When we (my family) lived in Kerikeri we had 12 acres of land with a lovely big house. We had room for lots of pets, cows, chooks and a horse. It was a wonderful time during my teenage years.

I had a dog called Kuini (pronounced Queenie - its Maori), we got her from a Maori family and they had already named her. Another name for her was Hamu (which meant greedy). She was a lovely dog. We also had two cats, one of which had kittens about 2-3 times during the time we had her. This particular time she had 3 kittens, I think 2 died and 1 lived. The one that lived was spoilt by her, she kept feeding it till it was about 3 months. Then she got pregnant again and kicked the kitten/cat out. The kitten feeling sorry for itself, looked for the next available mother, Kuini. Kuini set about motherhing the kitten, loving it and then producing milk for it.

Yes! Producing milk. This dog had never ever had puppies before and she produced milk for a half grown kitten. I couldn't resist photographing this incident - which are the above photos. This happened about 7-9 years ago. It is an amazing story. Not only can cats and dogs get along they can also 'mother' each other. Amazing!

Another story involving Kuini:

We often bought alot of calves and raised them. This involved feeding them milk and caring for them. My Dad bought about 22 or calves and a 15 or so calf feeder. A calf feeder is a container that one puts the milk in and there are teats for the calves to drink from.
The calves had to be fed 2 times a day at first and then once and then were weaned.
After the calves were fed, they would want to suck your fingers. My dad and brother would often let the calves suck their fingers. I wasn't so keen on it. On particular day, my dad called us all out to the top paddock (it wasn't that far from our house) to have a look at Kuini. There's Kuini, standing there, a calf either side of her and sucking her ears (she had quite long ears for a little dog). She's just standing there enjoying it. It was hilarious and so cute.

Animals always have a way of making me laugh and showing me the odd things in life. I enjoy that.

Take two!

Just after I posted my brain holiday post. I had a look at it in my blog setting just to see how it looked. You all do this, come on. Just to see what your blog looks like.
Anyway...I clicked on the picture and then tried to close it by going to the red dot on the left corner of the picture - duh!! Try it. Click on the picture in my previous post, look at the red dot on the left corner - if you use a Mac, it will be confusing.
I have to laugh at myself, what a character I am.

Brain holiday

Yesterday I was trying to reformat an external hard drive from MAC format to FAT 32 or MS-Dos format. I wanted to get some stuff of my husband's computer (his is a PC), it was too big for a USB and his DVD burner is broken. I had recently formatted the external hard drive to MAC format. I hadn't written anything to the hard drive yet. Anyway, back to the story. I went to Disk Utility on my computer and tried to find where I could change the format. I had changed the format on other hard drives and USBs before, so I knew what I was doing. This particular time I couldn't see MS-Dos. I talked to my husband on Gmail chat to get some help. He was at work. We chatted for quite awhile as to what it could be. Then I decided to send him a screenshot of the list of format options, he found the problem straight away. I was so oblivious to the MS-Dos thing, I didn't even see it. It was there all along. My brain decided to go on holiday for a bit I guess. *Giggles*

Later that evening...
I am getting my computer ready to move downstairs, which is where my husband and I spend our evenings now as it is alot warmer and easier to heat. We were going to watch Star trek (M's fave - I'm kind like yeah whatever, plus we need to watch it and send back to QuickFlix). However, bit off track there. I eject my external hard drive and proceed to unplug everything including my mouse and key board. At this point my husband walks in and says "Aren't you going to turn your computer off first?" I reply; "Oh? Yeah, that's right." You see I have to lean behind my computer screen and unplug everything. By the time I got behind there I had completely forgotten that I hadn't turned my computer off. So I go back to the front of my computer and see that it is still on. After he says this I try to move my mouse, it doesn't move. He says to me "You unplugged your mouse." I reply, "Oh yeah, thats right." *blushes and giggles* I crack myself up sometimes.

Tiger takes over my desk

Yesterday while I was trying to study, Tiger took over my desk. He lay on my keyboard, stood in front of my screen, turned the brightness of my screen down and switched between screens about 10 times. I think he also tried to look at a photography site. It was frustrating at the time, hilarious later on. Attention grabbing cat.

The craziness of cats once again

On Thursday when I was studying and the incident with Tiger happened in my previous posts. Tiger was being all happy and affectionate. While he is a cute cat and cuddly. When Tiger is purring and affectionate he has a tendency to dribble. Which is gross, but I try to ignore it. This particular afternoon Tiger was rubbing up against my cup and dribbled in it. I wrote a note to remind myself that this had happened. I knew that I would forget what had happened and use the cup again. Anyway I got absorbed in my study and got alot done. I took a break and did some housework. When I had finished, I started looking for my cup. I then remembered it was in the study. I went and got it, saw the note and laughed. I had totally forgotten the incident with Tiger and would have definitely used the cup had I not written myself a note. At the time of writing the note, I was almost laughing at myself for how ridiculous I was being by writing a note. After this had happened, I was glad that I had written a note. What a funny one I am.