Thursday, July 05, 2007

Rating

Online Dating

This has made me want to try harder as Shazzle's is R for Restricted

Pissy Pinot

Pinot has a new trick. I call it "the pissing indoors trick". I don't like this new trick very much (particularly as my place is so tinchy that you couldn't swing a cat - pissy or otherwise - so the pee pong gets overpowering REALLY fast). "Maybe she has a kidney infection," suggested my Mum. So I took her to the vet and it turns out she doesn't like the trick very much either.

My cat has an anxiety disorder. She is not peeing, she is spraying. This is becasue she is unhappy in our new house (two neighbour cats like nothing more than beating her up when she's outside and glaring at her from the other side of the window when she's inside) and recent activity (having the place water blasted and spending a whole day cleaning the inside and rearranging all of the furniture) have tipped her over the edge into full on nervous breakdown mode.

My cat is actually mentally ill. Da baba.

So she spent the night at the vet's last night (to be extra sure and rule out the kidney infection) and she will be on cat Prozac for the next month. The vet told me to check all vertical serfucases for pee stains. Walls, cupboards, bookcases.... BOOKCASES.

If we had a fire and I lost absolutely everything, assuming I got my cats out, the only thing I would mourn the loss of would be my books. More than my photos even. I have shipped books from Ireland at huge cost. I have a couple of first editions, I have some books with inscriptions that are sentimentally very important to me. I also have books form NZ that mean a lot to me, or, are just downright, fucking great books.

When I got home first stop was the bookcases.

Bedroom bookcase.... clear
Bookcase by TV.... clear
Bookcase by dining table........ . . . . . . . .

The left hand side wasn't so bad. She had peed up against some cookbooks, some of them from overseas, but all in dust jackets. The right hand side has a complete works of Shakepeare and Oxford Book of American Short Stories that will never be quite the same.

Monday, July 02, 2007

It never rains but it pours

I'm a toastmasters right? I've mentioned that here before. I do a leetle bit of public speaking. In my own time. For my own development, peace of mind etc.

Sometimes I do have to use it at work. Or I use elements of the shit sandwich to couch feedback. But it's not like it's a lifestyle choice or anything. It's just a now and again kind of thing.

Well.

Last week I got invited to speak at a conference. I should qualify this immediately by saying that they seem to have just emailed every single comms person in New Zealand. I would not like to give the impression that I was head hunted or specifically sought after as this would be blatantly misleading.

So anyway, I accepted. I'll be giving a 45 minute presentation on internal communications during change with five mins Q&A at the end. Ha. Hilarious don't you think. In a kind of , "What the FUCK was I thinking kind of way." And then I got the agenda and saw who my co-presenters are. Oh I see. I won't go into it, but these would be well known industry types.

Today the secretary at my Toastmasters club asked me if I'd be keen to be involved in a Toastmasters fundraiser. Every year there are competitions and the NZ champ goes to the States to compete in the worlds. As TM is a not for profit, they hold fundraisers to raise money for the airfare, accommodation etc.

Sure, I'll be involved.

And then he sent me through the agenda for the event:

Robin Grieve Current NZ Champion
David Nottage 1996 World Champion
Brett Rutledge 1998 World Champion
Ivan Pivac Blind speaker on Hitchhiking and motivational speaker Kevin Prohl Four times NZ Toastmaster of the Year MC and speaker
Kathy Torpie Inspirational speaker
Clinton Jones Humorous speaker/motivational speaker
Lorraine Breheny Humorous speaker

Apparently I will be delivering a seven minute 'humorous' speech followed by and IMPROMPTU session with David, Brett, Robin and Kevin.

Hahahahahahahahahaha (to be read in a high-pitched, bordering on the hysterical tone).

Fuck.