A curious phenomenon has occurred while I've been sequestered away in Canberra. Inexplicably, I have been sucked into a vortex of collecting Hello Kitty items. It started out innocently enough - one of my workmates sent me a HK picture in an e-mail, and then we started joking around about it, and then she bought me a HK clock for Christmas as a joke, while I got her a HK memory stick.
The next thing you know, I'm at the Royal Canberra Show (the Australian equivalent to a State Fair) and I'm buying a Hello Kitty showbag. They sell all sorts of showbags at the show - hence the name - and the HK showbag was one of the most popular. It included stickers, magnets, a pencil case, makeup, a disposable camera and a trash can amongst other treasures. Even the bag had HK on it (and she's now displayed in all her glory on my bulletin board), and a picture of that is on my cellphone's wallpaper.
Now other people are giving me HK items as well - some other workmates make a monthly pilgrimage to a local Asian grocer and they found all sorts of HK treats, so I had some sultana biscuits delivered in a lovely reusable plastic pouch. I've got pens with HK wearing some sort of feather boa, a lollipop and a HK bouncing around on a spring. Every once in a while a new HK item arrives - I got four HK DVDs for my birthday.
It's all a bit scary and a lesson to us all - how a joke is funny...until it becomes an obsession.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Over/Under
The smartest and best thing I ever did was move Down Under to live with The Kiwi. The last ten years have been an awesome experience - not only did I get to experience living in another hemisphere, where the phone rings twice and the water seems to swirl the other way down the drain (not to mention driving on 'the other side' of the road), but I have lived with the most amazing person I've ever known. I'll probably write about some of the experiences I've had and the differences I've noticed later, but I've always looked at this as the best thing I've done.
Happy 10th Anniversary, to us.
Happy 10th Anniversary, to us.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Stuff I've Won
For Damething
Peanuts: My Mom guessed how many peanuts were in a shop window (we helped so I claim an assist). She got tickets to see "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", a cast album and well, peanuts. It was an important moment in my young life because I figured out that there are, indeed, some things in life that are free.
Basketball Pool Number 1: I won enough money to buy a recumbent stationary bike, which made a useful clothes holder.
Basketball Pool Number 2: I won enough money to have a set of golf clubs made for me. Those I've definitely used.
The PEI Putter: Years ago I was going to work in Prince Edward Island for a few weeks and while looking at a tourism website, entered a drawing for a putter. I won. Picked it up personally. Didn't help my putting at all but it looks cool.
A Trip To Italy: Technically it wasn't a contest that I entered (it was a work thing), but I got to go because the guy that did originally win it decided to quit his job (and his trip) at the last minute. We went to Florence for four nights. I brought my friend Fishbeck because he's the only person I know that could actually go to Italy with five days notice. It was an awesome trip.
Tennis Open Trip: Not long after I moved to New Zealand, I realised that I should enter as many contests as possible because, hey, there were only 3.5 million people and about 3.49 million didn't believe that anyone actually won contests. So, I bought some beer, filled out the entry form and got a call a few weeks later that I won. We flew to Auckland, had 7 nights at a fancy schmancy B&B, had tickets to a tennis open, $1500 spending money, a dinner cruise and a Mercedes to drive for a week.
Pasta Pot: I won a pasta pot. Not sexy, but I won it.
$100 Bar Tab: I won it. In a bar. Shouted many people drinks.
Trip to Sydney: The travel agency that my employer used had a Christmas drinks function every year and gave away prizes. The first prize was airfare for two to Sydney. As you can probably guess, I won. The airline even upgraded us to Business Class. Our flight out of Sydney was delayed several hours so we were forced to sit in this posh lounge and drink champagne all morning. Tragic.
I've won lots of other little things that I can't really remember - cookbooks, free yogurt, stuff like that.
So, Damething, happy now??
Peanuts: My Mom guessed how many peanuts were in a shop window (we helped so I claim an assist). She got tickets to see "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", a cast album and well, peanuts. It was an important moment in my young life because I figured out that there are, indeed, some things in life that are free.
Basketball Pool Number 1: I won enough money to buy a recumbent stationary bike, which made a useful clothes holder.
Basketball Pool Number 2: I won enough money to have a set of golf clubs made for me. Those I've definitely used.
The PEI Putter: Years ago I was going to work in Prince Edward Island for a few weeks and while looking at a tourism website, entered a drawing for a putter. I won. Picked it up personally. Didn't help my putting at all but it looks cool.
A Trip To Italy: Technically it wasn't a contest that I entered (it was a work thing), but I got to go because the guy that did originally win it decided to quit his job (and his trip) at the last minute. We went to Florence for four nights. I brought my friend Fishbeck because he's the only person I know that could actually go to Italy with five days notice. It was an awesome trip.
Tennis Open Trip: Not long after I moved to New Zealand, I realised that I should enter as many contests as possible because, hey, there were only 3.5 million people and about 3.49 million didn't believe that anyone actually won contests. So, I bought some beer, filled out the entry form and got a call a few weeks later that I won. We flew to Auckland, had 7 nights at a fancy schmancy B&B, had tickets to a tennis open, $1500 spending money, a dinner cruise and a Mercedes to drive for a week.
Pasta Pot: I won a pasta pot. Not sexy, but I won it.
$100 Bar Tab: I won it. In a bar. Shouted many people drinks.
Trip to Sydney: The travel agency that my employer used had a Christmas drinks function every year and gave away prizes. The first prize was airfare for two to Sydney. As you can probably guess, I won. The airline even upgraded us to Business Class. Our flight out of Sydney was delayed several hours so we were forced to sit in this posh lounge and drink champagne all morning. Tragic.
I've won lots of other little things that I can't really remember - cookbooks, free yogurt, stuff like that.
So, Damething, happy now??
Post One
I have no idea why I'm doing this except that Damething dared me. It's more complicated than you'd guess, because every clever name I came up with had already been taken - multiple times (which, I suppose, is more indicative of my lack of creativity than a world-wide plot focused on making it difficult for me to blog).
I guess my first task is to come up with clever aliases for my family and friends that I may or may not blog about. I mean, you're usually safe to say "My Mom" or "My Dad" because that's a fairly anonymous alias - get a kid to yell "MOM!!" in a supermarket which will give you a good idea of the commonality of the name. But how do you talk about your beloved (without actually saying "My Beloved", which is just plain pretentious in a Melissa Etheridge-y sort of way)?
I feel that I will spend a lot of time speaking parenthetically in this blog (which, come to think of it, is how I speak in real life).
Enough.
I guess my first task is to come up with clever aliases for my family and friends that I may or may not blog about. I mean, you're usually safe to say "My Mom" or "My Dad" because that's a fairly anonymous alias - get a kid to yell "MOM!!" in a supermarket which will give you a good idea of the commonality of the name. But how do you talk about your beloved (without actually saying "My Beloved", which is just plain pretentious in a Melissa Etheridge-y sort of way)?
I feel that I will spend a lot of time speaking parenthetically in this blog (which, come to think of it, is how I speak in real life).
Enough.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)