I'm sitting in my slip on my balcony in the late summer heat with popcorn and rosé reflecting on my life as a "femme du une certain age" with some consternation and perplexity. When I consider what/where I thought I'd be at this point--ironically, at a high level I have basically achieved the aspirations of my early adolescence (based on nothing ( Read more... )

I form strong first impressions of a place, especially when I'm assessing as a possible home, that come easily to mind long after they've been written over with daily life. In Wellington, I remember walking down Willis St and admiring the building that is now the General Practitioner. Even once it became part of my daily walk to work, I still ( Read more... )

This morning I woke up around dawn (thanks, daylight savings?), got out of bed and went to my desk (currently a beanbag in front of a monitor on the living room floor). It was tranquil and cool. I wrote a thoughtful and heartfelt birthday message to a friend, then made coffee, had a bite, and set to work quietly and calmly. A friend got in touch ( Read more... )

This afternoon, I browsed cookbooks for a while, popped out to the grocery store for some supplies, and returned to cook: a big batch of bolognese sauce, a cabbage salad for tonight's potluck, a lentil salad for tomorrow's potluck, and a crockpot full of braised basque chicken ( Read more... )

As you may know, I have a thyroid problem. Most of the time, I take a pill every day to replace the thyroid hormone my body isn't producing, and dont' think too much about it. Sometimes, that balance gets messed up, and the changes are subtle enough, and come on gradually enough, that I don't recognize that I feel rotten. I imagine people on ( Read more... )

Today was comical--nearly revolting--in its adherence to the liberal yuppie stereotype ( Read more... )

Last weekend, I was at a festival and didn't do routines that smooth the starting of the workweek (shopping, washing, cooking, sleeping, etc). Next weekend, I will be in Wellington and also not doing them. So today, I did ALL THE THINGS. I now have ( Read more... )

It's been a productive weekend. After the earthquake excitement yesterday morning I moved clay from place to place at Jez and Andrea's house, and got to spread some of the mud floor. It was a bit like frosting a cake with a metre-long spatula. By the time we finished for the day I was well and truly exhausted. It's a nice feeling for a desk- ( Read more... )

I've had a bit of a brutal week at work. There's lots of change going on at the same time as we're trying to get a huge piece of new work out the door, conference papers are due, and had a bunch of research and writing dropped on us at short notice in preparation for a pow-wow with the aussies next week. Yesterday a colleague peer reviewed some ( Read more... )

I woke up this morning to the aroma of fresh bread and the sound of the surf while I snuggled my sweetie under a soft flannel duvet in a cozy bed overlooking the sea. What an awesome combination ( Read more... )