Do you need a TV
Hi folks, do you know anyone who needs a TV? I am looking for a home for Tim's old TV. Here's the details.

36" JVC TV - free to good home but £25 donation to Oxfam appreciated. Picture gets a bit dark. Needs 2 people to collect because it's really heavy! Contact George on gspary@gmail.com

PS a LJ response is wasted I just never remember to log in

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Manticore
Well I was so inspired by all your brilliant blogs that i just wrote a full page journal entry. And then it disappeared.

It said

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Well I've had an evening of ups and downs tonite. I had turned down an agreeable evening with some old friends and soem excellent wine because I had previously agreed (foolishly, as I knew the minute the words left my mouth) to join a slightly scary, very Christian fellow choir member in listening to our choir concert (neither of us was singing this term). It wasn't a piece I wanted to see but she had already bought the tickets. Anyway, she never returned my voicemails as to when we should meet, and it turned out that she hadn't bought any tickets, so when I turned up (late, of course) I was left to pay £12 (and as you know I'm on a strict economy drive) to sit on an uncomfortable seat in the Gods in the Sheldonian listening to Elgar (_not_ my favourite composer). grouchy

But things got better. Waiting afterwards in the entrance for the non-appearance of my Christian Evangelist, I met so many dear old friends from choir, who then invited me to the after show party (daaahling... two elderly sausages on sticks.... as usual) where I met so many more old friends, that I was quite cheered by the end of the evening (two glasses of wine & one hour later).

And they had missed me. How weird. I had got into the belief that i've turned into some sort of irrelevant social appendage, a sort of cross between orphan annie and somebody's grandmother (don't you start, oxfordslacker), but do you know that's bollocks. I do think this Economy Drive and Quietly staying In thing doesn't really suit my psyche.

And I missed them too, even weirder. Doesn't really fit with my heartless and insensitive outlook. (I pride myself on my heartless and insensitive outlook, I really think it's the way to Get Ahead)

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That was it, pretty much word for word. Finishing with

I. Must. Go. To Bed.

G
#
I will post, quickly, before it disappears.....

Current Mood: aaargh

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Thing
Well I thought I'd breathe habot of a lifetime and actually write in my livejournal. you are welcome to add comments but if you think I'm actually going to read my livejournal you just don't know me well enough.

Anyway I wondered if any of you otherwise unaccessible persons were around on 28th Dec for a very quiet Post Christmas / Pre New Year Thing. if you're in Oxford, and not already booked up, you are all welcome to come along

G

Current Mood: sleepy

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just a quick note to allthose scaremongers who flapped about my tattoo, it's really very discreet & sensitively done, here's a snapshot the artist took.

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PS
Forgot to say (after comment below) I'm winnowing out my photos (is that the right word?) & want to get some online if I get the time & ability. On the dole from August so there's the time. then's the time. whatever

Current Mood: tired

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In Nelson (beautiful small NZ south island town, got a cornwall-stle artists/crafts movement, sea before, huge mountains behind) & went to see the World of Wearable Art today, bit of a push on the (hired) bike but worth it. Now how the hell do you put in a link? I managed it before. Anyway, www.worldofwearableart.com, wonderful stuff.

I've written pages & pages of diary but never feel like writing it up when I get to a PC . and only 3 mins left on the hostel PC. hmm. will try to get more coins & write bits up. Or not. If not - summary: Wellington was fab, saw Ivan, great eveing eating Maori food

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Well I've just finished writing up a pathetic drunken ramble I hand wrote in the back of my notebook in a Japanese bar in my first week here. It's rather drunken and very long so for the first time I've attempted to put a link in.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dchf3ctm_0pp9rq4

I realise now how much more comfortable I've got 2 weeks later - I thought I hadn't changed but actually I'm much happier - I made the room more comfortable, got to know people at the office etc. I've decided to take up my boss's offer of another month - with a bit more money so I can afford a better place in a week or two.

I'm afraid my entire brain was used up writing the above crap so g'night folks

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Brain dead but still moving
Gone brain dead now, what am I to say? mainly because the landlady asked us to use the internet very sparingly till the 15th so I wanted to put something down very quickly without thinking , basically doomed any even vaguely interesting thoughts.

My employer offered me another month's work and after much dithering I've decided to go for it. Now got lots of plans to see things over teh weekends.

Room still grotty, but today I bought some cheap drawers, a bedside lamp and the small room looks & feels quite cheery. But it's still nasty sharing bathroom and kitchen. Oh, and a lovely pyrex dish with lid, will hold a small chicken.  

So, now yet another dilemma. I went round an partment today, only $40 (= GBP16) per week more than this tiny room.  It's small but a real flat, kitchenette, bedroom, bathroom, sitting room, nicely furnished. Woud feel very comfortable.  Has washing machine  Nice view. BUT I'd have to pay for telephone line rental and internet access (as well as the costs there's the hassle of setting it up and the downpayments etc., really stupid for a few weeks), and more flat downpayments and nonrefundable deposits, I'd have to buy a TV (my evening amusement), and it's a much longer walk to shops and the bus stops.

To be honest it's a bit academic as there are many applicants for this place and I probably wouldn't get it because they prefer a longer commitment. I will definitely fill out the application form and see how far I get. I'm probably going on holiday in the middle of the stay so I could change then.

Well most of you (UK) guys are just starting Saturday; I'm rounding off Saturday and can recommend it - as well as a very useful shopping trip (see above) I went round the flat and I went to see a genuine NZ rugby game - amateur rugby - with a colleague who used to play semi-professional and was very patient in his explanations. I really enjoyed it. I now want to get a ticket to the All Blacks, aim high.

I think I'll nip into the mall (on one of those regular buses) and go to a movie before bed. 

Oh, the e to i transformation in their pronunciation still fascinates me. A few lovely sentences for you
 
> (Colleague) My boyfriend gave me this nasty cold' (Other colleague)
> 'Are you feeling bitter?'
> (yoga teacher) 'Now sit yourselves up for Shivasna [a lying down posture]'
> (our human resources manager, very respectable man) 'I've been working
> on my dick all weekend'
 

and the all-pervasive 'Yis' and 'eh' - still fasinated by the uses of 'eh' used in what to my ears seems to be a very bizarre way

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Fejoias Rock

look it up.

I'm just hanging about waiting for a collegue to finish so we can go for an exceedingly small half after work, so thought I'd blog. I have finally got around to reading friends (& added you in Tim). My God, you're all mad. Bees, indeed. and plumbing.

I did want to make some cheap phone calls with my new international calling card but it's 7am Uk time, no-one would thank me.

Very proud of my 64 year old mother who has gone from denial that any computer can have windows (Where is it then? You obviously can't see inside) to managing her own hardware & emailing like crazy. She had a question which I couldn't answer, anybody got any thoughts? see below

Aha. friend now ready, will get online later tonite.

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My current problem is a message that pops up telling me that there is "driver incompatiblity". I went into troubleshooters who told me that there is a problem with Dell Vista and Roxio drag-to-disc.I have no idea what function that serves, or why it was pre-programmed on the machine if it is not compatible. I went to Roxio inc ,and Sonic Solutions where there was a blog with a list of other Dell Vista people with the same problem. It means that the computer is very slow to start up and close down. It`s very annoying.
Last night I tried troubleshooters "uninstall a program",found the drag-to-disc and pressed delete, whereapon a danger notice came up saying that by so doing I was opening myself to strangers. So I eventually sadly went to bed. Father thinks that if I disconnect the hub and run on battery after closing down that it should be safe to do it .What do you think?

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It's Sunday night, no really it is....
... my time that is.

Not sure if you're going to get much of a diary tonight, I've just eaten a quite reasonable lamb hotpot (considering I didn't have stock, bay leaves, celeriac or - worst of all - a casserole), now I'm going to turn in for an early night.

Oh dear after my evening of drunken emailing (Thursday?) I got several emails of commiseration, gosh I must have sounded maudlin, sorry about that.. I think I was just struggling to adjust to room size; it is a lot harder to downsize than to ?upsize. Am now much more comfortable & have bought trendy echt New Zealand wall hanging so the tiny room looks quite nice. Except it keeps falling down (the wall hanging, not the room!). I'm also realising th eadvantages of the location, supermarket and shopping mall are only 15 minutes away, as is  the city centre.

I went to a work party on Friday; it was a very educated affair held for some overseas Fair Trade representatives, on best behaviour (hard
work) but nevertheless had fun and the food was lovely. I think I may have left the second half of my audio book in the car of a kind person
who offered me a lift, who was flying to (I think) New Mexico the next day, i.e. probably irretrievable. So, do I listen to the first half anyway so as Not to Waste the Money? or give it a miss because it'll drive me mad?

I took a ferry across to Devonport this afternoon (after a very efficient morning doing laundry, cleaning the blinds etc.). Devonport is a relatively olde-worlde little port less than 15 mins from city centre by ferry - quite nice souvenir shops and the obligatory ex volcanoes, one of which I climbed, fantastic views, must take the camera next time. After a week of 21 degree sunshie it rained for the first time today here. I  still can't understand why it keeps getting dark so early here, I seem to have a seasonal block and can't make myself believe it's not summer

Have a lovely morning, how weird, you are feeling all morningish when it's quite obviously bedtime

Oh I forgot to check if I had any messages. Let alone learn how to see someone else's livejournal. Next time maybe.

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G'Day folks

and Nyah to all those of you who thought I would forget my LiveJournal promise and/or forget my login details. Which, actually, includes me.
I can't be bothered to rewrite what I put in my email to non blog friends (yes there are such people) so part of this is nicked from them:

It's 11am Sunday morning in NZ, warm clear weather (20 degrees?) and I'm thinking about having a second breakfast - I've had healthy muesli but could fry a small sausage too, it being Sunday. I haven't managed to get my laptop internet to work so am emailing from the shared computer in the sitting room. Room is OK but small, having worked out my finances I think I can afford a larger one if it becomes free. Slightly struggling with living in shared accommodation, I feel very middle aged and fussy compared to the other residents, also feel slightly like I'm camping, when you get to my age you rely on those home comorts y'know.

Grant (my new boss) took me to lunch with his family yesterday, he and his family are lovely, very 30-40s middle class, very like friends I know who Done Good and now take little Rosie to ballet on a Tuesday ( 4 lovely well brought up children, eat family meals at the table, home made with lots of fresh fruit, Rose, John, Isaac and Emily, says it all really).

He drove me round some of the main sights after lunch; basically Auckland is one huge suburb with a tiny commercial district of high rise glass buildings but otherwise nothing but clapperboard bungalows / 2 storeys in light coloured wood with nice gardens & often own veranda, everything very spaced out, definitely a car owner's city.  He pointed out a government attempt at high rise council flats and it only went up to 3 storeys... . I also saw a council house, it looked more like a small holiday villa in its own grounds than a UK council house.

Auckland also has several round shallow hills with bowls, ex volcanic craters, very green & grassy and with the remains of Maori pas (fortified settlements) which are now public parks - I think i'll wander up to one this pm, because it's finally cloudy (it's been cloudless and >20 degrees, lovely for some but a bit of a suncream hassle for me, I miss that Oxford smog). Actually the air here is crystal clear, it's like real life HDTV, amazing. And everything is very green. But it still has a strong streak of Englishness so I can't help thinking 'I wonder why people are so keen on planting exotics in their gardens' - of course they aren't exotics out here - and 'Gosh the munucipal planting uses house plants' - of course they're not house plants!

Journey was OK, the long flights (which I was worried about) were just fine but I really regret opting to change at LAX because they make you pick up your baggage, go through umpteen security checks and then check it in again, gosh my case was heavy, I had bruises all down my  legs when I got in the shower on arrival. And then because of a delay they changed my follow on flight from Quantas to Air NZ without
warning and didn't tell me where to check in for Air NZ, so I spent some time wandering about with the world's heaviest suitcase at 4am UK
time, very very grouchy.  And to top it off I left my favourite blue (Budapest) necklace in one of the many security checks.

But I have to say the Air NZ flight was extremely comfortable & everything went off very smoothly after that, could have been a lot
worse.

Managed to catch a streaming cold on the journey though, felt absolutely awful yesterday, hard to tell what's jetlag & what's cold
though, although I ended up with a temperature you don't get that with jetlag do you? I do feel a lot better today but to be honest really
not 100% - i really really want to be on top form on my first day at work, send me a health vibe will you. Grant also gave me a melatonin tablet which really helped with the jet lag. 

I also plan to Experience the Wildlife and take photos of plants etc.. New Zealand is very odd. It's very, very English in lots of ways, it's as I'd imagine England to be if it were as civilised as Germany: no litter, all public spaces clean and pleasant, no real signs of deprivation, but everyone has an English attitude and you can choose between Midsomer Murders and House on the telly. 

Am determined to be sociable to new colleagues on Monday because I'm staying near a street with some really nice restaurants & wine bars and don't want to sit in them by myself.



 Have run out of things to say, will update you later. I think I wil go for that sausage now

George

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Back in the mists of time....
...I set up a LiveJournal, then totally and absolutely failed to keep it updated. I'm amazed I remembered my password. I've just been browsing most recent friends entries and I think I said this before, how can you have that number of thoughts in one session, my mind is usually a gentle blank...

Anyway am v late for dinner, colleague said he'd help me with the awful driving practice at 6.30, it's 6.40 and I'm still at work so that's out. I just got a First Post from ingridiana (um, how do get that funny blue line? God, I'm so technically inept I astound myself), I was pushing her to post out there in the ether because in Real Life transport out of her Rustic Village (well, Garsington) is limited and the ether is timeless & everywhere. Also I told her there are definitely other Diana Wynne Jones fans probably outside Garsington though.

Well. half day tomorrow (hurrah!). I'm going to spend the long weekend ferociously cutting panes of coloured glass & shouting at my mother. I'm realy looking forward to it. starting with trip to Reading tomorrow to a wonderful shop where they sell glass, glass and more glass

bye now. if you're there at all that is

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Some people
have nothing to do all day ? I've just managed to get into my Friends journal entries page for the first time, my God, how do you all get the time to write all that stuff? what do you do all day? I mean, not do all day? Except all I have to do is read the journals then I'll know. I feel like I've been invited around to some familiar friend's house for a quiet evening & a very small joint and now I've got here I find they're all into the hard core stuff. Hmm. Maybe too good a simile. I will now Just Say No, log off, Turn Away from Satan. and i can go & find more picutures and waste a happy moment tommorrow pasting them in

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So this is Beer
all right not quite the subtlety of the first one. I will avoid Me completely & go back to Default

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And we thank th ehighly talented cleanskies for providing the art work

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It's growing on me
Like a terrible mould. There are so many little windows & gadgetty bits & choose your preferred colour here bits... you could spend hours of pointless redefinition. And Friends. never have got the hang of them. i did find some, Tuesday night, but I lost them all by Wednesday morning, so I hereby apologise if i havent't recalled somebody

I will go and browse. Haven't got as far as looking at anyone else's journal yet. But now is a good time, I'm supposed to be finishing a vital piece of work for the divisional manager, so I need to keep looking as if I'm typing.

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Extremely crap
Have now lost the will to live. Can't seem to view my own LiveJournal, let alone anyone else's, and started to download a client & make it prettier but it was all in Russian! Though that would add a certain panache to the page and you wouldn't lose anything even if you couldn't speak russian. I'm tired I'm hungry I've had a terrible day and I'm going away to drink heavily

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