Meet Barney

This is Barney - a Maltese Terrier/Bichon Frise cross. He's about 3 months old and extremely cute. He belongs to T. from next door at work and regularly comes to work because he's still too young to be left alone at home for the day. He likes nothing better than to chew on fingers (but we're discouraging that), hanging off the bottom of trousers and shoes as you walk, and to destroy pieces of screwed up paper. If you don't supply the paper ready to go, he goes off & finds his own which is not necessarily a good idea. He then leaves a trail of small, ripped sections of paper scattered behind him where ever he goes, a bit like Hansel and Gretel. He's cute enough to almost make me want a dog but having one turning up at work regularly is even better: all care, no responsibility!

Pride ALWAYS goeth before a fall

What on earth possessed me to write smugly that going to bed early was the answer and that I now had that taped and could move on to bigger and more important issues?

Fri night: 1.30am
Sat night: 1am
Reason: Watching complete & utter rubbish on TV (OK, I enjoyed the Sabrina movie but could have easily rented so there were no ad breaks). Even while I was doing it I was saying to myself that this was a complete waste of time & I was going to wreck my enjoyment in the next day and guess what? I was right.

Back at work today and I feel jaded. A bit like the boys who've just come back from the States feel and look, I suspect. Madness and frustration.

When you're tired its difficult to cope with everything. Cooking tea last night I kept dropping things and swearing. I. hates it when I cook when I'm tired - he finds it a stressful thing to listen to and will often remove me from the kitchen for my own safety. The other thing I find I do is that the little nagging voice in my head keeps calling me an idiot for doing it again and how I'll never get any better and just give up now! Mostly I can reprogramme the voice but when I'm tired it takes a lot more effort.

So I'm playing music loudly on my computer and typing here rather than doing real work 'cos things just aren't working. Deadlines are being stretched but I'll just have to be flexible. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully, with a more rested body things will progress better.

What a great day

Why is it that some days just work?

Its been an incredibly productive day but I've still managed to meet a good friend for coffee (& choosing of picture frames for her prints), have a long and satisfactory chat with P. who's just back from a work trip but is still in Auckland working, and I've got work done as well. This going to bed in decent time lark that I've instituted this week must really work.

The problem with sleep I've been having is that we both get hay fever and spend the night waking each other up with sniffles and snuffles. But if you go to bed in reasonable time you still get a full nights sleep, even though its broken. This probably isn't a revelation to most people but it is for me as I've always struggled with going to bed late, usually 'cos I'm watching absolute rubbish on TV. Guidelines is what I need and now I've got a few. Life is better.

Mind you, we've had a couple of weeks of good weather with some really stunning days which always helps.

We went to the Banks Peninsula A&P Show in Little River last Saturday. Arrived at about 9.30am so got an excellent park and was in enough time to see all the pony classes. The children, most girls I'd have to say, are all so earnest and immaculately turned out. It was incredibly hot so everyone was shedding their jackets as soon as they left the ring.

Two of the best events of the day were the Fancy Dress (it was a led class and the leaders were dressed to match the ponies & riders) and the dog high jump, which drew the biggest crowd. In the large dog class a dog jumped 9 bales which is seriously high.

I should have thought to get photos but hadn't even taken my camera. I may yet have to set myself a challenge of taking a certain number of photos/year like some blog writers have done, just to make sure I take my camera with me all the time.



But I did have the presence of mind to dash back inside and grab the camera, rather than carry on getting in the washing, to record this most fabulous full rainbow. It was completely spectacular. Even I. came out from the garage to look at it.

Summer hiatus

This cicada was perched on top of one of the computer monitors when we came in to work in the first week back. He must have just hatched as he was a brilliant green and very fragile looking. I rescued him and put him out on a tree outside as he would have lasted no time inside. So not only do we have great views outside, we also have the wildlife living inside.

Because our building was essentially unmaintained for 20 years, when we moved in just over a year ago we had to wage war on various vermin. I discovered that rats find dog treats extremely tasty when they filched the sample packet my customer had given me off my desk and dragged it across the office and tried to get it out their access hole.

The good thing about that was we found where they were coming in and have managed to block it off and haven't lost anything since. Mind you, the poisongin programme might have helped with that. But I did have to sterilise my desktop, chair and everything else. The thought that there had been a rat running around on my desk was just too gross to comtemplate.