Ali's blog

Testing the new post by email feature …

Ali — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:27:43 +0000

… that is available on Word Press.

Belly dancing class was great tonight. Had several nice comments about my coin belt which was very kind, given it is just a basic black one with gold coins.

So far so good

Ali — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:53:16 +0000

Second belly dancing class tonight and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one. Some moves are really hard to get to grips with, but its all good. We practiced a routine the class have worked on in the past, and that was fun, even though I wasn’t up with the moves. I am feeling really positive about this, maybe I have finally found some form of physical activity I am really going to enjoy?

So cute :-)

Ali — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:06:08 +0000

Thanks to http://fairybasslet.wordpress.com/

Alain de Botton on success

Ali — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:31:33 +0000

From a stressed shambles to sanity (almost!)

Ali — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:33:20 +0000

Somewhat shambolic start to the day today. Bella had her vet appointment at 9am, so I snuck out of bed early and locked the cat door with her inside. So far so good. I got down to the vets in time to be told, “didn’t you get the phone message cancelling the appointment”…. umm NO!!! It appears a message was left for me last week sometime – well there was no message on my home phone, or my cellphone so who the hell knows. I ended up leaving B at the surgery for a rescheduled appointment at 3pm, and I went home. After a bit of deliberation decided I would go in and do half a day – and head off to be at the vets at 3.

I was tossing up about taking a sick day today as I was feeling a bit under the weather this morning – as I had been last night. I am ok enough now – I think its just “the cold symptoms/cold that has been hanging around forever” combined with not enough sleep. But it is rather off putting feel like I am coming down with something, wondering if I should stay home because of that blah blah.

Anyway B is overnighting at the vets so she can have her dental tomorrow – this was always on the cards as we figured she might need some teeth out. I will be worrying a little about her making it through the anaesthetic – the vet wouldn’t do the procedure if there was any more of a risk than normal – but I will still worry. It is always weird if she is away for the night, so I am already counting down to getting her home.

I am still slightly pis$ed with the receptionist – she is not very friendly or very helpful at times. She certainly isn’t sympathetic. I was seriously considering making a complaint about her, but I don’t know I can be bothered. The vet (who I like a lot) will probably defend her, and it will be a whole lot of hassle I can do without. In future I will just ring and confirm appointments – I made this one a couple of weeks back so I could get a 9am appointment. I had a feeling this morning I should have rung and checked, in case I had done something dumb like got the date wrong. Must remember to listen to my instinct

The next two days are going to be rather busy with lots of meetings and two classes I am co-teaching, so I am really looking forward to getting to Friday.

I’m constantly thankful though that I do work somewhere that is flexible enough for me to make these sorts of arrangements re vets and appointments!

Changing the world, one teeny tiny bit at a time

Ali — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:04:12 +0000

Yesterday we watched the DVD of Amazing Grace which portrayed the life of anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce (the fact he also established the first SPCA is also of immense significance to me). It took the anti-slavery campaigners years to bring about change – but it was a very inspiring story, and maybe there is a message there to never give up, because things can change.

A few years ago I passed on an email to some of my friends about issues like palm oil production and its impact on the rainforest and orang utan habitat. It wasn’t an issue that went mainstream then – it’s taken Cadbury reformulating their chocolate bars to do that. Now I have friends on Facebook joining boycott Cadbury groups, and others posting comments in support of the campaign. It’s fantastic to see Auckland Zoo banning Cadbury products. In fact I see they have a list of Orang utan friendly products on their website. Palm oil is in a multitude of products – it’s a shining example of how we can have no idea about ingredients in our food, where they come from and what environmental impact their production has had. Basically anything with “vegetable fat” or “vegetable oil” could be palm oil. I am not going to pretend that I have a palm oil free pantry – but what I would like to be able to do is to avoid it, and send a message to food manufacturers and retailers, that we are actually paying attention, we want to know what’s in our food and where it comes from!

I finally got my A into G tonight and emailed my local MP about the funding cuts to evening classes. What a completely mean spirited thing. According to information I have been sent the funding constitutes something like 0.6% of the total tertiary education expenditure. Its all about life-long learning – and I am quite happy to see some of my taxes go to people heading off to learn about woodwork, massage, Indian cooking, belly dancing, yoga, tai chi, English, car maintenance etc etc etc. Can this be overturned, well Nathan Guy appears to have read my email (would any of his staff be working this late?), so we will have to wait and see

Garden madness

Ali — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:21:00 +0000

While I was up visiting Dad I bought a feijoa tree and another hebe and I planted those out yesterday. I was a bit perturbed to see that the label on the feijoa plant actually recommends more than one be planted in a garden to ensure cross-pollination. Oh well we will see if we get any fruit from it I guess. At least the hebe should survive – unlike the Safari sunshine I managed to kill (planted later in summer, maybe didn’t get enough water?). I spotted a lime tree at the supermarket yesterday, so went back and got that this morning and a huge pot to put it in. That’s all potted up now. I will really have to make sure these things get enough water. Meanwhile some crazy bulbs I had in the shed have been sprouting, even though they are just sitting piled in pots with no soil. With study etc. I didn’t get around to doing anything with them this year. Well I bunged them in some of the empty pots I have around the place, so if they want to keep going they can give it a go. As for the beetroot I planted in pots a few weeks ago – one is nice and big, the others don’t seem to have taken off. What’s that all about?

I think we seriously need a weedeater to deal to the grass and weeds along the fence lines – that will make the place look a whole lot tidier. I pulled out another one of the existing shrubby things to make way for the feijoa – they are very good for hosting weeds in amongst the bottom of them and they make the place look overgrown. I have two more to pull out but they can wait till I have something to plant where they were.

Chicken dhal in the crockpot for dinner tonight – haven’t tried that before so will be interesting to see what it’s like.

Ok back to sorting out another box full of paper crap ….

My life (or at least my blog!) according to wordle.net

Ali — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:26:27 +0000

This could be the basis of a “found poem” perhaps

Yipee

Ali — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:14:47 +0000

Found out I got a B+ for my course – what a relief!

Have spent some of tonight chucking out notes and putting away study folders.

Still a huge amount of decluttering to do – nothing changes there!

It feels like the blahs have descending on everyone at the moment – the cold grey weather is giving many of us a major dose of the winter blues. I am looking forward to going out to the girls night out on Saturday and the belly dancing show!

Birthday dinner

Ali — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:05:33 +0000

Lamb and beetroot pizza

Tonight’s birthday dinner for S was a modification of the lamb and beetroot pizza recipie from Notebook magazine (thanks Kathy!)

Constructed as follows:

Sliced a turkish bread in half
Cut side up – spread on sundried tomato and garlic humus
Added lamb (two lamb steaks sliced up finely, fried and then sprinkled with “Useful stuff” from Q Gardens – lets hope the new owners keep making it! Would have used moroccan spice mix if I had had it)
Topped with crumbled sheep milk feta
Into a 220 deg C oven for 10 minutes
Out of the oven then topped with grated beetroot mix (recipe S makes up with beetroot, lemon juice and flax seed oil)
Baby mint leaves to garnish

I added fried onions to mine as well.

YUM!! What a tasty recipe. The mint really worked well with the flavours too!