random videos of kindness

Red Dwarf I,II,III,IV
Red Dwarf Smeg ups
Daria
Logans Run
Chef

Just a few of the classic titles I've collected over the years. I haven't had the heart to throw them out and there's no where to sell them any more.  I have hoarded a big plastic box full of them and a video player which have been sitting in the garage for about 4 years.   So when I saw a request on Wellington Re-cycle for a video/videos I was really happy.  Finally a place for them to go to where they'll be used! 

A fabulous lady called cynthia came around yesterday.  I had just watched my favourite TED video (see previous post) and was in a great mood when she arrived.  She wanted them for her son, aged 9, and I couldn't be happier.  I had to go through them a bit to make sure I had all the home videos myself (no euphamism!) and point out the potentially above-aged-9-rated tapes.  She was such a lovely lady - american/canadian accent and 5 kids!

I had a big smile on my face when she later sent me a text:
'Thanks again cd. My son was happy and laughing watching Red Dwarf. He said it was one of his favourites.  I heard him exclaiming, oh man! I cant believe i got all these red dwarfs!'

I can just imagine him bouncing up and down as he says it, eyes wide.  :D  Enjoy little guy!



Happiness is a warm TED

This is the best post ever on TED:

http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

That's a big claim, I know, but I think when I go back to a single post time and time again, it's gotta be good.  I get excited by this 12 minute speech every time I listen to it!  Amazing.  It supports my setting up this blog in the first place - although I saw it long after I had started this.  It makes me think of http://freshnewday.net/ the blog which I was originally inspired by - it's about finding the good thing that happens each day.  i honestly don't know how this couple managed to fit it into their busy world.

Some of the best quotes from Shawn Achor:

• Amy, you're a baby unicorn!
• If we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average.
• It is the lens through which you view the world which shapes your reality.  If we can re-shape the lens not only can we change your happiness but the outcomes as well.

Reversing the formula for happiness, positivity in the present and seeing the good in life will change your focus and give you a happiness advantage.  Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, energy levels rise.

Imagine that...

TGIFriday

Before you say anything - yes, I know it's not friday!

Last Friday Wellington turned on the charm.  It's become a chiche but cliches become cliches because they are true - You can't beat Wellington on a good day.  I woke up to blazing sunshine, clear skies and warmth.  I become a different person when the sun is shining - relaxed, positive and motivated (no change there you say!).  I went for a swim at Kilbirnie pool (the best in Welly, if you're looking for one) and came out energised and happy.  As it was so near, I decided to go to the beach; so I got a pizza from Mediterranean Food Warehouse and headed down Lyall bay. 

What more could I want? a good book, a great pizza, sun on my face and the sound of waves in my ears.  This was my view of the world for at least a couple of hours:

Ok, this stupid app has 'corrected' my photo so that it's upright - this is supposed to be on it's side, so please tilt your head to the right and imagine lying on your side - cos that's how I ended up, snoozing on the sand.  Ah Wellington, I loves ya.

Wn On Board

Yesterday a hoard of about 11 people invaded my place!  I didn't even know half of them.

Yesterday was the inaugural meeting of the Wellington On Board gaming group.  For years WN has been short of a central place for people to find out about what's going on in town in the way of games.  As it says on the website

 http://www.meetup.com/WellingtonOnBoard/:

"This is a friendly gaming group with the aim of enjoying meeting people and having fun. Anything to do with gaming - playing, designing, creating rating, collecting - we're into it. Board games, role playing, table top gaming, war-gaming, whatever your favourite flavour - here you can meet people who are into the same things."

So a group of random strangers turned up at my house to play a selection of stuff - some from my collection, some which people brought with them.  We played:

• 7 wonders - to introduce people who were new to games
• Dominion - the classic
• Marrakech - cute little rug-laying game with cute little rugs
• Galaxy Trucker - if you haven't played this, get hold of someone who has it immediately!

The atmosphere was convivial and I think everyone had a good time.  I certainly enjoyed it.  Thanks John for the bubbly to open the show with and thanks everyone for coming and making a success of it!  Here's to many more!

I have really great friends

It's my birthday coming up, yes another 10 years on the planet - let's celebrate!

So I decided to book a batch and do the weekend away thing.  I found a really great, and cheap, place on the south coast.  After being totally shocked at the prices peopel want to charge for a weekend cottage I found Ann's Abodes, a lady who just advertises on her own website (not through the holiday homes websites) and therefore is a bit cheaper than average.  Of course I had no idea what it was going to be like inside - no pictures of the rooms - but it was toally wonderful.  Wood fire, huge living area and amazing view out over the beach.  Very calm and tranquil and NO cellphone cover. 

That was a bit of a shock, to realise there are still places with no cellphone coverage - but we got over it very quickly :}

I'd just like to say a huge thankyou to the 7 people who spent the weekend with me playing games, walking up to the light house, and eating vast quantities of food, I had a fabulous time with you all.  I really enjoyed the startrek crew we became - great costumes even if the mystery itself was a bit convoluted!

There's only one question remaining - how do I get through all the leftover humus, chicken and cheese without ending up twice the size I am now??!!

Thanks James, Sarah, Sharon, Brent, Adrianne, Lisa and Paul, I love you all.

The seasons turn

It may look like a patch of dirt, but this morning this was foot-high with weeds of all flavours, including a horrible creeping thing that grows over everything else if you give it 2 seconds. 

I was talking to a friend on Monday and he told me he was digging holes for fence posts and getting hesian netting up outside.  I was thinking about it and realised that the weather IS getting better and as a consequence, it seems, people are getting out and doing stuff in the garden.  So it's true what they say, spring does affect our mood and our tendancies.  Goodbye to the cold and wind and cold of winter, here come the good times.  I know from living in Brisbane one year that I love the summer, but that without the winter I really wouldn't appreciate it.  That doesn't mean I have to be here for all of it - I'm quite happy to gallivant about the place (overseas) for several weeks of winter but come back to heat pump, scarf and hat so that when the sun shines (like it is today) I can love it with all of my heart!

What's in a walk?

Yesterday I went for a walk.  What's so special about that you say?

In New Zealand we are so spoiled for places to go and enjoy nature.  I have several walks I do near my home so that I don't have to get in the car, but sometimes it's just worth driving 30 minutes to get to one of the many parks around here.  Although everyone likes to complain about the New Zealand government, in many ways they have done great things for us.  Our National Parks are nothing to be sneezed at.  We went to Rimutaka Forest National Park and it was so easy - just drive up to the carpark, follow the signs and in 5 mnutes you can't see more than a few meters for all the trees, ferns, and climbing plants.

It's absolutely fantastic that I can drive half an hour from my home in the city and be in native NZ bush.  There are so many countries where you simply cannot do that.  People have populated so much that it's just impossible to get away from them!  Thanks DOC for beautiful, dense, green, lush, and yesterday squelchy New Zealand native parks.

Friends

My friend Adrienne came around yesterday.  We sat and talked for a while and she is blooming.  She recently moved out of her previous home, lost 30kg and seems to have started an entirely new life.  I am so jealous!  She has always been the kind of person who rallys a group around and oils the wheels of conversation - a connector, I believe they're called in some circles.  We had a beautiful vegetarian dinner (she's a veggie) and played a quick, fun dice game.  All the way through I was thinking to myself that I am so lucky to know her.  I am really glad that I can count her among my friends.

Thanks Adrienne for being my friend and I'm looking foward to having you at the batch for my birthday weekend.

Seeing things from a different point of view

I'm a neat freak.  There, I admit it.  I simply can't stand it when I visit someones house, there's stuff all over the place and I suspect that there may be a 2-week old sandwich behind the couch.  I once visited a boyfriend in my twenties and started to clean up by doing the washing up - I got a good telling off.  So I am very cautious about spreading the tidying bug when I visit people.

I was therefore very suprised when visiting my current boyfriend today.  He had a friend of his coming over from out of town and we were getting the place ready for her arrival.  It started small - change the sheets, vacuum the floor - but we decided to move the couch.  Then his friend arrived, a little early, and was so encouraging we spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning behind everything.  We rearranged the furniture, grouped all the books & DVDs, filled up the recyling bucket and created a big pile of all the 'things which didn't have a home'.

Through it all all he gave me big hugs and thanks for making him sort it out! I was a little worried that I was taking over his place, but he was so happy to have it tidy, not have cables all over the place, sorted out several bunches of random paperwork and found a home / recycled the big pile of 'things'.  We did a great days work and could be justifiably proud of what we achieved.

Sometimes one mans pushy is anothers motivation.  Thankyou you for making me see me from a different perspective.

luv, ceedee

Mentors are awesome

You know how sometimes you just meet a person and your life gets better? 

I am so thankful for having met Pete Tansey, my Agile mentor.  That doesn't mean he is particularly limber and does cartwheels and/or backflips btw - Pete is my Agile Coach, he knows vast amounts about working in on Agile projects and is brilliant at making me look at something in a different way.  Many's the time we have bantered about how to get people thinking differently or what options there are for this or that scenario and he never fails to widen my thoughts and give me confidence in something I might not have been too sure about.  Pete's just one of those people that people love to talk to because he is so down to earth and always interested in what you are up to.

Thankyou Pete for always being ready to listen and for your inspiration and openness.

http://twitter.com/agilepete

VirtuousNess

Feeling extreemely virtuous, I cleared out my 'present box' (the one with all the things I buy on the spur of the moment, thinking 'that'll make a good present' and never find the right person for), jewelry case and unwanted gift store.  I even rifled through all my stuff in storage (once again) to come up with a whole load of stuff that i could GIVE AWAY! 

Yes, the blinding realisation came that there are all sorts of things that I don't need/want and can't sell but are in perfectly good/new order, and would make excellent presents for others.  Including some of my once-treasured Monopoly collection - NO, REALLY - it turns out I don't need 30+ games of monopoly,  who knew!  None of the rare ones, of course, ahem, ahem, but hey, there's loads of kids who don't have monopoly, who could use it much better than me.  So, looking at the pile I've created I'm feeling pretty good about my generosity this Christmas, and ignoring entirely the fact that I don't have all the presents for the family sorted yet.  Still, I am two shopping bags of presents closer to the being the Christmas fairy.

Have a Happy Christmas all you budding entrepreneurs!

the tiger awakes

I guess I should take it as a compliment - I got called a cougar tonight.  At the petrol station a bunch of loud teeny-somethings called out "Hey cougar!  in the purple".  I guess it means the days at the gym are paying off - but also made me feel old!

I love to cook!

I have just been to see Julie & Julia.  I LOVED it! 

It inspired me, made me think 'what am i doing with my life?', all the things that the hollywood boffins would expect.  Anyone who knows me already knows that I love cooking.  Certainly way more than the changes in parliamentary power, which is what is distracting me on the TV right now!

It is certainly very cool that someone can start a blog and come from obscurity doing something they love, to be what they want to be.  But more than that, I can't help but identify with Julia Child when she went to that all-hallowed cooking school in gay Paris that she was doing something she loved, and doing it with gusto.  I have certainly thought about it in the past (doing a full-time cookery course), and then I think to myself "there's no point because I don't want a career as a Chef" - but as a good friend of mine once said - Do it for the love of it, not for the rightness or wrongness of it!

I am not proposing to drop everything and return to college!  I think for the short term, an invite to friends to come and have dinner, and continue experimenting in the kitchen, but you never know what could be coming around the corner.  Live my life so that i don't regret that I never did something - that's what I want out of me.  That's all you can really ask for.

the good fruit

I saw this pear and had to buy it because I thought it was beautiful.  The leaf is whole and gives it a rustic note because of the colour.  The tones seem to compliment each other and I just liked it.

waterfront man

Yes, it's been a while - sue me!  I went down to the waterfront today after work.  The weather was fantastic this afternoon, so on the drive home I decided to take advantage of it and get outside.  The waterfront in wellington is so beautiful in the spring evening sunshine.  I took my camera and just as the sun was setting I took a whole load of photos of a statue near the marina.  The light was great, but my camera wasn't!  Most of the shots were fuzzy.  But I managed to get this cool one of the hands of the man who is straining into the wind.  sometimes it's the little details that stand out.  Sometimes the evening, the feel, the light is just so calming.  I love Wellington!

Appreciation

I can't think of anything nicer than coming back to your desk, or house, or room, and finding a little note from someone.  So thankyou to the little fairy who left this on my computer on friday.  I'm glad that some people are absolutely loving having Phoenix, the application, working for them!

Phoenix flies

I was at my desk yesterday and the curtains were drawn, when I looked up and saw the little phoenix on the top of my monitor, against them - just the right combination of colours.  Amazing how something small can make you feel happy.

The phoenix's were created by my friend Alan who is, let's face it, obsessed with origami.  Thanks Alan, appreciate the time and effort that went into creating 70 of them for go-live.

Commitment

One of the things I really don't give myself credit for is my commitment.  When I do a job, I do it to the best of my ability and don't think twice about going beyond and above just the basics.  This gets brought home to me when I don't get the same in others.  I was at work today until 9.30, just to get some testing done.

It's all worth it when I get a comment like one from Andrew earlier today - "I've used Phoenix today for the first time, and I'm a fan".  (Phoenix being the IT system we've built).  Thanks Andrew.

Easy like Sunday morning

There is nothing like a Sunday morning - whether after a night on the town (like this weekend), or just a nothing-planned weekend.  I love the feel of waking up on sunday morning, sleeping in til you wake up naturally, and the sense of possibility of what could happen today.  I am free to go to the market, go for a walk along the shore by the sea, or potter in the garden and enjoy the space - and time.  There is potential in a Sunday morning to achieve all sorts of things.

almost ready for go-live

Spent the day at work - uurgh - but that means that we are as ready as possible for monday, except for the data corrections which require a developer.  I do get a great deal of satisfaction out of organising.  This is one of those situations where having all the dots and crosses in a line (to mix metaphors!) is not only possible but required!  It is a great feeling at the end of the day to have everything squared away.  Yesssss!