blogorrhoea

alias mr pink

2008-08-25T20:40:00.003+12:00

In a weird place at the moment: zooming around being busy because, today at least, if I stop I feel sad. But it's just chemicals; no more than that: I've weaned myself off the happy pills and now it's just me, feeling more myself, feeling strange. And all the more so for having written about it here.

slaphead

2008-08-24T10:11:00.006+12:00

People keep asking whether Becca as a baby had as much hair as her sister. Here's a photo of her at about three and a half months.

Have been going back through the archives for Becca's baby pics and uploading some to the flickr page.

oktapodi

2008-08-23T08:38:00.009+12:00

Perks of working in a library: dibs on the new acquisitions – in this case, Jill Trevelyan's biog of Rita Angus. And if you haven't seen the exhibition at Te Papa, go, because, it's bloody wonderful. And free!

Klez/Slow food fest sold out. There may – may – be music-only tickets at the door but we're not sure yet. Further bulletins as events warrant.

And finally, if you need cheering up (and who doesn't with the prospect of Key as PM), this is definitely worth a go:

see mummy rationalise

2008-08-21T18:11:00.008+12:00

Sometimes we call a child precocious because they acquire a certain skill quickly, but that skill turns out to be something where speed of acquisition is not at all important. We don’t say that someone who learned to walk at four months is a better walker than the rest of us. It’s not really a meaningful category.

Above quote from this rather heartening piece: I now feel vindicated for being too shagged/busy to overschedule my preschoolers.

2008-08-11T14:45:00.001+12:00

Afternoon tea, and a trip to the zoo:

Who, me?

2008-07-30T13:30:00.003+12:00

Snapped during a protracted escape attempt: more evidence here.

joining in II

2008-07-24T11:01:00.003+12:00

Some photos from a friend's third birthday party at the local pool:

Rebecca is nothing if not thorough. And Maggie is proving to be a wee waterbaby: she starts swimming lessons this Saturday.

Now I must go b/c she is pulling the study apart...

joining in

2008-07-23T13:17:00.002+12:00

Loving work, but working mummy thing not leaving much time/energy for blogging as any free time generally spent scrubbing barnacles off the bathroom (managed this morning for the first time in weeks) or on the sofa groaning feebly in front of Project Runway (which is surprisingly compelling). So, updates when I catch my breath. In the meantime for the sake of the family will try to drip-feed photos of the girlies: bit of a backlog.

Klezmer fans: there will be a Klezmerfest on 31 August. Details here. Right: Plunket...

coiffed

2008-06-29T13:06:00.002+12:00

Took Maggie for her first haircut the other day. This was mainly to get the hair out of her eyes as it was aggravating her conjunctivitis, which has now cleared up. So she now has a wee fringe, but we've left the rest to grow out as she's getting wonderful auburn curls.

perception is inference

2008-06-28T09:25:00.006+12:00

Busier than ever, but loving it, although could have done without Maggie coming down with conjunctivitis and a chest infection during my first week in the new job. According to my entirely sympathetic manager, I'm not the first new hire she's managed that this has happened to. So the evening and weekend work may continue intermittently as I try to keep up my hours. And in the meantime, the wee'un's much improved after a couple of days on antibiotics and eyedrops. Although she's quickly wised up to the drops, whacking the bottle out of my hand as soon as I approach her with it.

That's all I have time for with a stack of work to catch up on and a gig next week to practise for, to say nothing of the state of the house. (Gaaaah...) A propos of nothing, this here is a fascinating (if a little troubling) article, which I've been reading a paragraph at a time since Wednesday. (I have high hopes of finishing it before the New Yorker yanks it.)

The account of perception that’s starting to emerge is what we might call the “brain’s best guess” theory of perception: perception is the brain’s best guess about what is happening in the outside world. The mind integrates scattered, weak, rudimentary signals from a variety of sensory channels, information from past experiences, and hard-wired processes, and produces a sensory experience full of brain-provided color, sound, texture, and meaning. We see a friendly yellow Labrador bounding behind a picket fence not because that is the transmission we receive but because this is the perception our weaver-brain assembles as its best hypothesis of what is out there from the slivers of information we get. Perception is inference.

or were you just being kind?

2008-06-20T09:57:00.004+12:00

Proof that I am my own worst enemy: this morning when I was dropping Becca off to crèche one of the teachers offered me a casual day for Maggie and I didn't take it. 'You turned down a day all to yourself the week before you start work?' gasped another mum. I know, I'm a crazy bitch, but I wanted a last day alone with with Maggie before I pack her off to daycare and go off and become one of those self-serving working mums. You know, those ones who simply don't love their kids as much as the ones that stay home with them full time. Them.

All the more ironic given that yesterday with the kids was the sort of day that by the time J got home, halfway through Arsenic Hour* I was coasting glassy-eyed towards bedtime on my fantasy in which I stow away on the midnight ferry to the South Island, where I spend the rest of my days picking fruit, a leather-faced bunch-back crone with a mysterious past and am improbable moniker. Maybe I'll take up chewing tobacco, if they still grow it down there. Jack, when he got home, was solicitous. 'Maybe you'll get a casual day for Maggie tomorrow?' he offered hopefully, moving all the sharp objects away from me while reflexively covering his private parts with a saucepan lid. Last night, I could only hope. This morning, I was - relieved, I guess - to take her home with me. For one more day.

*Hell Hour, Jungle Hour, Feeding Time at the Zoo...

2008-06-15T12:50:00.005+12:00

I tried to transfer them but I think I cut them off...

(More new photos here.)

all change, and more wooping!

2008-06-12T14:03:00.009+12:00

I'm getting three poems published in Takahe. The editor called them 'deliciously grotesque', which was pretty gratifying. They'll be appearing in either issue 64 or 65.

Equally gratifyingly, if unexpectedly, the Parliamentary Library have offered me a job. I scored well enough, apparently, on the pre-interview test that they were willing to overlook my lack of a professional qualification, and invited me in for an interview anyway. Turns out that my experience working in educational publishing makes me a good fit for the position of Resources Librarian. And they've even agreed to let me work part time, three days per week. The childcare is organised: come August, Maggie will attend crèche on the same three days as her sister, and until then a wonderful friend has offered to look after her. So I start on Monday week! They actually wanted me to start next Monday but that's J's first day at Weta Digital and I thought staggered starts a better option lest too much change all at once blow our fragile little minds.

woop woop!

2008-06-11T23:07:00.004+12:00

Maggie took her first step today, in the kitchen. Tbh I think she was trying to charge me (dinner was, apparently, too long in coming) but after that all-important single step she promptly flopped down onto her arse. Still, as her very proud big sister put it, hooray for Maggie!

2008-06-04T21:40:00.003+12:00

(Created by Jack.)

shaped exactly like a thingy

2008-06-03T20:13:00.004+12:00

A propos of nothing in particular, here's an erotic poem about an artichoke.

perfectly simple

2008-06-02T09:32:00.006+12:00

The delivery is like the wedding - the important part is the marriage Source

phone tag

2008-05-30T09:25:00.002+12:00

One of the (very few) Mommy blogs I read, Emmie says it all.

Incidentally, you know that legend about a mother being able to distinguish her infant's singular cry amongst a thousand others? Utter bollocks. Although I have been known to confuse Maggie with a car alarm.

party girl

2008-05-25T16:39:00.001+12:00

More party photos here.

i am one

2008-05-22T20:55:00.002+12:00

I was given to understand there would be cake.

(Happy birthday, angel.)

maiden mother crone

2008-05-17T09:29:00.016+12:00

God bless teh internets moment of the week: Last.fm is the best thing ever. Fun with tags and playlists and Similar Artists and the weird and wonderful stuff that pops up on the jazz violin and klezmer stations. And excellent to have on while whittling away at the huge amount of bibliographic research that occupies what I laughingly refer to as my spare time.

This week's minor irritation: went for an xray the other day and it turns out I have the beginnings of osteoarthritis in my hips. Wtf – I'm only *ahem* 41. Still, this would explain the crone-like hobbling if I try to walk further than the local shops. Or at the end of a day's hefting small people about. As long stompy contemplative walks are my de-stress activity of choice, am going to have to think of a plan.

More cheerily, if unbelievably, Maggie will be one on Thursday. Party's next Sunday; catering to her current obsessions, am planning on making her a cake in the shape of a choking hazard. Or possibly a rubbish bin. Or maybe even a toilet.

quote unquote

2008-05-14T09:32:00.007+12:00

It's got to sound spontaneous, and it takes 22 drafts to sound spontaneous
– Lynley Dodd, creator of Hairy McLary, interviewed on National Radio yesterday. Also:

LD: They're not allowed to speak.

Interviewer: Why not?

LD (whispering): Because they're dogs.

dumbass declaration du jour

2008-05-01T13:22:00.005+12:00

In the music industry, this kind of thing would be called 'file sharing', and technically illegal," the author Jeanette Winterson wrote of book-swapping sites recently. – Source

This may be a strain of Schadenfreude: I find it oddly comforting when someone I've had my doubts about proves that they are indeed a silly, spoilt bastard.

few and far between

2008-04-27T19:44:00.002+12:00

More...

diabolical liberties

2008-04-14T10:20:00.007+12:00

Maggie gets her teeth brushed for the first time:

This is turning into a photo blog; I've been a bit busy lately with work stuff of various kinds. And music: spent yesterday afternoon in a recording studio in Featherson doing overdubs for the Rebs' forthcoming studio album. As yet untitled, although suggestions abound (Rebel Kvell? No? OK, how about Kibbitzed, Bothered and Bewildered? Then again, maybe not...)