Um hi there

I added a new link on that lovely sidebar to your right. Don't use it. Definitely do not click on it. I am sure you will regret it. Please heed my warning.

My weekend was fantastic, and so I just have one thing to say about that. I TOLD YOU SO! I told you it was going to be great and it was! The only bad thing was when I got a blister. But I got free cake. What is better than free cake? Not much.

The cake was in celebration of Christchurch city's 150th birthday and it was of the carrot variety, with pineapple and walnuts and such delicious creamy icing. I remember when I made a carrot cake, that was delicious too. I love cream cheese icing.

I also love mushrooms. I had a wonderful epiphany the other day that just because Darren doesn't like mushrooms doesn't mean I can't just cook them and not serve them to him. And just like that my life went from average-good to GREAT. Mushrooms are yummy. They are like little puffballs of flavour goodness. I cooked them with a bit of garlic, butter, bacon and a dash of milk and sour cream and it was almost the yummiest thing I've ever had. Yum! I now have only 5 left but you can bet your bottom dollar I'm eating them tonight. Maybe with a chicken pasta.

Oh I almost forgot the new road safely theme of this blog. Everyone, drive on the left. Unless you live in America in which case definitely do not drive on the left. Oh and if you are on a one-way street you can drive on either side, but I'd recommend the left, just in case someone else forgets it's a one way. Right well I'm glad I could clear that up for all of you.

Love from Mindy

ps Don't use the link. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THAT LINK!

Road Rules

So I had the biggest victory of my life yesterday. Hmm well maybe not the biggest, the biggest might have been something a bit deeper like, well I can't think of anything so lets just assume this is the biggest. Thought, then it will make my life look very un-victorious. Oh well nevermind.

So here's the story. There is this dodgy T-intersection near work, where the lower part of the t has a 4m (at least) wide island in the middle of it. I have always wondered if the give way rules apply normally in this case. Here is an image of the normal give way rules where the dotted line means that car has to give way (I am the blue car):

Anyway I asked Earl at work and he said as the traffic island is so large and basically separates the one road into two one way roads he doesn't give way. I agreed with this policy and this is what I've been doing. Now a few days ago I did this and someone shook their fist at me. Because this is such a questionable intersection I thought it odd that someone would be so sure of themselves and the rule in this case that they actually got mad! Like if someone did what I didn't agree with I could see how that would happen and wouldn't get mad because it is a confusing intersection, but this person got mad. So then I decided to get to the bottom of this and started a poll. I asked Earl (again), Mum, Dad and Darren and we all agreed we didn't need to give way. Also if we did it would mean stopping at least 6m before you actually want to turn.

So then I got on the phone to the LTSA and they told me to ask my council, and so I rang the council and they told me to ask the LTSA, so I waited another day, rang the LTSA again and got a very helpful woman who really took her time to understand my question... and more importantly give me an answer! And guess what... I was right!!! The red car has to give way as the traffic island means it's not an uncontrolled intersection and the red car must give way. I made a picture of it to help you visualise. (Again the dotted line means that car has to give way).


So now I might ask the council to put a give way sign there so no one ever shakes there fist at me again!

Aren't I a geek?

In other news work is going ok, a bit slow at the moment. Things are going great at home, Darren hasn't been in Akaroa this week (yay!) , the fishie babies are good and my eye is still puffy and swollen.

I am going to have a great weekend. Hope you all do too!

Love
Mindy

2 New Babies!

Hi All,

I had a great time in the weekend. Over to Beth's with Jeremy, Charlotte and Jo on Friday night. Real nice time, ended up just talking till 2.30!

Then on Saturday we drove up to Hanmer as Mum and Dad had rented a house there. We went for a ride on those four person bikes which was fun. There were 7 of us so we got two and had races, even though the rules specifically banned doing so. But really what would have been the point otherwise!

Pools on Saturday night. They've grown a lot since the last time I was up there! Very nice and not so crowded, althought that might just have been because the rugby was on.

On Sunday we went round the back of Hanmer and found an awesome tobogganing slope so even though I hadn't bought any snow clothes that was tons and tons of fun.

Then when we got home we found two new baby guppies! Yay! They are in their wee isolation tank all safe from being eaten by other big nasty fishies.

Ok have a nice day everyone!

Love Mindy

Well...

I thought I should probably write a post this lunch hour. Since a lot has happened. To make it easier I'll just give you a bullet point list, also I like bullet point lists.

• My car finally died.
• I finally took my car to the fixer man (auto electrician) and he fixed it! And now it is all better!!!!
• My baby fishie called Frankie, is still doing great.
• I was sick at the beginning of last week and sicker at the beginning of this week, and I got real grumpy about it! I seem to be doing better now but still not running again yet.
• In combination with being sick my eyes and their red, itchy, flakyness got really bad, and on Monday and Tuesday I could hardly see the eyelids were so swollen (ok so I didn't say this would be a pleasant update).
• Today my eyes are finally starting to look normal again! But as I'm so excited I'll probably ruin it by putting makeup on them and making them worse again... but I miss wearing makeup! Weird eh?
• Oh also in combination with being sick I have some humungous mouth ulcers that make it hard to eat. (Ok no more gross body observations from now on).
• I bought a new dvd rom for my computer and installed it last night.
• Darren is now working on a job in Akaroa so he was away Monday and Tuesday nights and it's likely he'll be away a lot from now on, maybe even whole weeks. I got lonely but the house got clean.
  
• SCRUBS IS BACK ON TV!!!!!!!!!!!!
• My hair is no longer blonde. Or brown. It's kind of a purply-red. I suspect it will be a very dark brown by the end of the weekend.
• It is snowing and hailing today.
• I am selling Darren's games on trademe (it would be funny if this was without his permission, but it was his idea). Anyway we're putting the xbox ones on first and then we'll move to the pc ones. So if you like games check them out, there are tons more coming too I will add more tomorrow. There is a handy link to your left if you want to have a look at them.
  
• I have started making a teddy bear. He's going to be gorgeous!

Also I didn't want to put this on my list as it is not the same sort of thing as the other things but my best friend from primary school died last week. We lived next door to each other and spent almost everyday together from the ages of around 5 to 10. Then I went to a new school (she was a year behind me at school) and we sort of stopped being friends. So I haven't really seen her in 14 years. When I was at her funeral I sort of felt guilty about this but then not all friendships are supposed to last forever. Also we had such different life paths. But yeah it was very sad, and it was a lovely lovely funeral she obviously had lots of people who loved and admired her a lot. I saw my primary school principal which was nice. And Amy and Claire were there with us. It was weird seeing her parents too as obviously I'd spent a lot of time with them growing up.

Ok stay warm everyone!

Love
Mindy

Baby Update

Hi! Just a quick update. I went home at lunch time and checked on the baby and he/she is still doing well. Additionally I bought another 3 guppies (need to get the Mum pregnant again) and 3 neons as we've lost a couple in the last fortnight. They were on special, really cheap, got all those fish for $16! I've paid $12 for a single guppy before!

Here is a picture of guppy fry (that's what baby fish are called). My wee guy looks like this and is about 5mm long. Also I've found out that if it is a guy it won't get it's colours for awhile yet, so we'll wait and see. I'm hoping for a female though so she can have more babies.

New Family Member!!!!

Hi,

I know it's been awhile. And I'm sorry. But anyway I have some very exciting news. We have a new baby fishie!!! I looked in the tank last night and saw this tiny wee cutie swimming around!!! It's a guppy, not a colourful one unfortunately. But still!! It makes me feel a bit better too as fish tend to have babies only in favourable conditions and I've been a bit worried about the tank as so many fish have disappeared lately, and some have definitely died. But it must be ok if fish are reproducing! Now don't get too excited because unfortunately we don't have another tank so I can't take the baby out to raise it until it's big... this means the other fish might eat it, but I'm hoping it's a survivor!! It's survived all last night as it was still there this morning.

Other news, my parents have just been over to Australia (lucky things) and they bought me back some gorgeous perfume. Also a very cool bikini! Thanks Mum and Dad! We had Becky to stay with us (family dog) so that was fun. But she sneakily got on the bed a few times and made it a bit muddy. Also she whines like anything at tea time.

Oh Darren and I have been sick too which is yuck! But we're both a bit better now. But I have this horrible eye condition which cleared up for a bit but it's back (since getting sick) and my eyes are constantly stinging and itching. Poor me.

Also it's Darren and my 2.5 year anniversary today. Happy Anniversary hun!

:)
Mindy