Sunday update: January 2019

I’m really going off Christmas. When I think of “Christmas” as just December 25th I have a load more holidays. Suddenly the 24th and 26th aren’t eaten up by last minute shopping, tidying or em, tidying up again. They’re just days after all; plain old ordinary days and I like thinking of them like that. I’m not a grump around Christmas, but I do seem to have managed without any decorations, trees or even presents for 2018. Just having my family around for a meal is all I need, and I don’t even mind which meal it is!

I read (and recommend) Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari earlier this month. The author talks about our “shared imagination” that is the framework for much of our world, and beliefs such as Christmas (and other religious high days) are included. It’s one of the many arbitrary dates which exist only in our agreement and with that I have officially become an old lady (got off my lawn you damn kids!!).

Kristy’s birthday brunch with the Barnaos, Youngs, Parkers and a Pugh or two.

David, Tandia and Simon on the Nintendo Switch for digestion-sake.

“Sapiens rule the world because we are the only animal that can cooperate flexibly in large numbers. We can create mass cooperation networks, in which thousands and millions of complete strangers work together towards common goals.
One-on-one, even ten-on-ten, we humans are embarrassingly similar to chimpanzees. Any attempt to understand our unique role in the world by studying our brains, our bodies, or our family relations, is doomed to failure.

The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mysterious glue that enables millions of humans to cooperate effectively.”

— Yuval Noah Harari

Christmas Brunch - everyone in attendance and lots of brekkie foods.

“This mysterious glue is made of stories, not genes. We cooperate effectively with strangers because we believe in things like gods, nations, money and human rights. Yet none of these things exists outside the stories that people invent and tell one another.

There are no gods in the universe, no nations, no money and no human rights—except in the common imagination of human beings. You can never convince a chimpanzee to give you a banana by promising him that after he dies, he will get limitless bananas in chimpanzee Heaven.

Only Sapiens can believe such stories. This is why we rule the world, and chimpanzees are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.”

— Yuval Noah Harari

Cosy home

The living room is so “not cosy” at the moment. In a burst of enthusiasm while the kitchen was being gutted we started pulling off the wall paper and built-in fireplace in the living room. Then we found the wallpaper in particular quite hard, so we stopped. Now we have this stripped wall aesthetic and knowing us, it’ll be like this for another 25 years!

End of counter with vintage Junghans clock and random old barometer, along with Tivoli radio’s home until the shelves are installed.

But the kitchen is fantastic. It’s cosy and lovely and even has light shades now I finally made a decision. The dining room pendant light ended up being the very first one I liked. It kept with me through all the shops and all the Pinterest boards - I just loved it from the start so over the Christmas break we bought it (on sale! oh yeh!!) and I am so happy with it.

Chrome and glass pendant dining room light - kind of looks like an upside-down snare drum.

Vehicular status

So now I own two Mini Coopers. What am I? A millionaire?? The 2004 Mini that was involved in the accident at the end of last year just came home from the panel beater just the other day. Getting parts for European cars takes time, apparently. That or maybe because I’m wasn't screaming on the phone it took an entire month to get my car back.

It didn’t really matter because I bought a newer Mini in the meantime. What a difference ten years makes in automobile technology. The newer car has sat-nav, auto-everything, a smart sunroof, a fabulous stereo system. I’m soooo happy with it. Now I need to sell the 2004 car but now it’s back it feels like I’m trading in a puppy or something. It’s a great little car and I hope it ends up with a good home.

Whimper.

2004 vs 2014 Mini Coopers.

Cosy home: kitchen update

The kitchen is nearly done. So close, in fact, you might actually think it is finished.

It’s been just about a year since I walked into JAG Kitchens in Botany and met Hannah Brown. What an amazing project manager - one of those thorough people who never miss a beat or lose their patience. I sat with her and told her about my kitchen. I’m not sure she really believed me until I sent through photos later that day. She called me immediately she received the files “You poor thing!” Yes, our kitchen was neglected and suffering from half-arsed short-term solutions. This time, I was gonna do it properly.

And I did.

I knew we’d have a nice new kitchen and dining room by the end of the process. What I didn’t understand is that it would change the way we used the house completely. The kitchen didn’t used to be somewhere people stuck around in for long. It was cold and dark and always messy. Now it has become the heart of the house. It’s a pleasure to work in, hang out in, eat and read and type blog posts in. It has become the conservatory Greg always wanted and never even knew he had. We don’t eat out nearly as much because cooking in our fully functioning, gorgeous kitchen is such a pleasure.

Plus, I learned a lot. About organisation, tradie-management, that I could trust my design choices. Turns out they’re not so bad after all.

The vision I held in my minds-eye for so many years is now a reality and the decisions made along the way were the right ones. Even the couple of times I had to push a little harder than I thought I’d have to: I was right.

Lessons learned

1. Write everything down and keep it in one place - those decisions made in discussions on site: write them down as they’re decided. Your builder has a lot on his plate, you can’t expect him to remember every little thing you said to him. Keep everything in one place, from the paint chips, the business cards, the instruction manuals that come with new appliances; put them in a folder or a box or a drawer (we used one of the new kitchen drawers) that both you and your tradesmen have access to and know where to look should they need to. That way things either won’t be forgotten, or can be a reminder that doesn’t cost extra money because it’s there, in the box/binder/drawer: evidence of the decision.

2. Talk talk talk to your tradies - ask them questions about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it that way, if they’ve done this kind of work before. We had an instance early on when we were just letting them do what they were doing. After a while we found out that the bench cutter, for instance, had cut the bench around a bend in the wall. Had we known about the bowed wall earlier, we could have fixed it before the wall was gibbed and the tiler found out he couldn’t work with a wall that bowed. It’s not a matter of not trusting your tradesmen, it’s a matter of creating a culture of communication.

3. Take lots of photographs - not just for your blog, but so you can see how far you’ve come and where those studs/wires etc are and used to be. We relied on photos I’d taken more than a few times over the course of the project especially when problem-solving the bowed wall and deciding the best way to fix it.

4. Understand it’s going to take longer than planned - I don’t know about where you are, but there’s a building boom/tradesman shortage in Auckland. Sometimes our builder had to deploy his troops to other more pressing jobs and we had to just be okay with that. While the job took longer, being more relaxed about timelines meant for less stress. We don’t have small children to contend with but those “pressing jobs” sometimes were families who needed work done faster. Give and take.

5. Order early - appliances and tap-ware often have to come from overseas and have a lead time. Our pot filler had a lead time of 10 weeks to come from Italy. We left ordering our kitchen appliances until we needed them thinking because they are manufactured in New Zealand it wouldn’t be a problem, only to find the manufacturer had ceased providing those models that very week we were going to order them and we’d have to wait 3 months for their new stock. Order early, order often. You can always sell items or return to the manufacturer/store if you change your mind.

PRO TIP: you might not know all the details at the beginning of the project. Decide what you care about and work around that. I cared about my “nod” to country style, the pot filler and the plantation shutters. They were my non-negotiables. Everything else I could compromise on. I made decisions quickly and didn’t fret over anything other than those things.

It was only a kitchen, after all. I’d had the pits, anything else was going to be better.

Status check - November

QOTD: 

What excuses would you have if your employer gave you everything you asked for to get your job done?

Listening to

I work in an open-plan office during my day-job. Most of the time most of us are "heads down" and working quietly; concentrating on what we need to concentrate on. Sometimes we need to speak to each other and do so in quiet tones - or at least try to - aware of the quiet of the floor. Sometimes though, noise will bubble up in those shared team breaks in the rhythm of that comes with shared office spaces. These bubbles of noise don't always coincide with mine so I've started wearing headphones and listening to rain to help minimise noise. Not every one likes white noise but it works for me and rain, in particular, helps to get me right into the groove of work. (I used to use a cat purring but that is so last year.) Only trouble with listening to rain is the discombobulation when leaving this sound-scape to a sunny warm November day; but I get over it.

Watching

Tonga come so close to advancing in the Rugby World Cup (RWC). Tonga has never been a contender in the RWC and yesterday they played England in the World Cup semi-final. For the last month the streets and cars of Auckland have been festooned with Tongan flags fluttering their support of Tonga's bid. Sadly they lost to England 20-18 in a controversial finish that will live in infamy. If you were in Manukau over the weekend and wondering why the traffic was so amenable, it's because everyone was at Mt Smart Stadium cheering Tonga with all their hearts. To be honest, I don't think Auckland's infrastructure could have handled Tonga winning yesterday but I still really wished they had.

Reading

Look it's just not happening. There is no reading going on here.

Making

Today I am making a couple of the final decisions needed to start the process of making a new kitchen. This "new kitchen" has been 22 years in the making and I am on tenter hooks thinking that now, in the very last few hours of this process, something will derail it and it won't happen. The few steps left to take are: choose handles and knobs; confirm bench top material; pay deposit. Pray for me please.

Working on

Ms Fox Woods and I have been communicating via video. Sending what we call #vletters to each other each week. I've been loving it, especially the "receiving Fox's #vletters" part. I feel that I, in particular, still have a lot to learn about communicating and hope that our Monaco Video project will continue into the New Year and for quite some time to come. I listen to Fox and she is such an incredible interpreter of interesting things she's read or uncovered. Between my memory and my intellect have so much to learn from her. If you'd like to tune in to find out what interesting things we talk about check out MonacoVideo.tv

Thinking about

Next year. I'm not wishing this one away but the restructure at work has fallen in my favour and I'm so excited for what we can accomplish in 2018. I can't tell you any details (even if you were interested) until it's official in December but it's all I can think about at the moment.

Maintaining

Rabbit health. Lady had two operations - one on each ear - after a chronic ear infection was detected. She's been inside so long I think she's become an inside rabbit. She's litter trained herself, taken over the dining room as her own. I can hear her ripping newspaper in the dog crate (her "cage" though it's always open) which is one of her favourite hobbies she works very hard at most days.

Lady Parker rearranging her flooring.