Why didn't we do it earlier?!

Just before new years 2007 my sisters and I decided to make some piñatas. They were to be for a new years party that had been proposed but not yet organized. Everyone knows that it is no mean feat making a piñata in three or so days, but we decided to give it a go anyway. When we were half way through the news reached us that the party was going to be elsewhere and we would be entertaining ourselves at home on new years eve. So we became lazy, put the half finished piñatas to one side and were content watching movies and eating olleballen [dutch donuts] as we saw in 2008.

Our dear paper-mache encrusted baloons waited in the garage until we felt more energetic. Thankfully that day came and we finished them off. My birthday was coming up so we planned to smash the one I painted then.

This is my piñata:


Yes! A strong bad piñata! I thought my idea was so orignial. But the week before my birthday sbemail 190 came out.

Look, it is Coach Z holding a strong bad piñata!


How could this be? I was shocked, annoyed but still amused.


However, the lollies were still yummy. Remember, I was the one who thought of it first.

Not feeling older yet.

I just remembered that it is my birthday this week. Most people would make a big deal, go clubbing or something when they turn 18. But not me. Quite frankly my birthday never seems to be anything special. Usually it is marked by choosing the evening meal if I get in before mum starts cooking something else. After that I blow out candles, people sing; I look sheepish and try not to laugh. Then perhaps a movie? But in truth it is nothing exciting.
The fact is that I don't think I've grown up since... well, since ages ago. Perhaps I'm like my Nana and stay 'young at heart'. I don't feel any older than when I was 15 and heck, I don't actually think I look much older. Woe is me! I was told I was going to be the tallest girl in my family but stopped growing an inch shorter than mum, Grandma and the big sister! Huzzah for heels - but I prefer bare feet.
Let me demonstrate how my birthdays are not exciting:
Memorable birthdays:
Age 2. I have a really cute picture of my birthday, cake all over my face attempting to blow out the candles. By then I had glasses and a little brother but life was still awesome.

5. One of those birthdays around there I had a teddy bears picnic. That was cool, we wore teddy bear hats and ate lunch on the floor.

8. Dress up party! my last one in Auckland and it was big. I had a big cheesy grin and was already on my third pair of glasses.

9. Christchurch. A small little party where I wore a Hawaiian shirt much to my big sister's horror. Ahh, life was good.

15. I can't remember if I did anything. Most likely invited a family around for tea. I was excited and had all these goals about my education. That year saw me finish the years school work before September, I was very proud of myself and believed I would go to University or at least work within the next three years.

16. We have all known them, those silly girls who are 16; cooing over babies, giggling and generally acting like their heads are full of fluff. I determined not to be one of those girls. I'm not sure if I succeeded, I was too busy doing correspondence school to notice. However, I did do silly stuff like wear angel wings to church, a giant fur coat or bits of pink fluffy madness in my hair. So yeah, I don't know if I succeeded there.

As you can see, nothing much exciting.

The Dentist.

I am just about to turn 18 in a few weeks. This is exciting because I can finally vote this year. Huzzah! However, there are many things I loose when I reach that apparently venerable age. One of them is "free dental care". So today I psyched myself up and went to get my mouth examined by many uncomfortable pointy metal objects. It was very scary. They made me wait for the usual long time in the excessively boring waiting room until I was finally called in. "What can I do for you today?" the young dentist asked, I was ready to answer because they always ask that question. "Well, I thought I'd better come in for a checkup coz it wont be free soon." I was pretty sure she would understand, unlike that scary dude who gave me a checkup in October. But I was mistaken. Her face started looking confused, brows knitting together she said something that I didn't really understand. It was revealed after much debate with the receptionist that I had already been for a checkup in October so I would have to pay for this one. Apparently the government only pays for one free checkup a year. I knew it was useless to argue, so I decided not to pay [ah, the stinginess, I'm just like mum] and went home. The thing is that the last dentist knew I was about to turn 18, he knew I had a tooth that would inevitably need a filling yet he succumbed to greediness and decided to wait until I would pay it myself. Because a person pays more than the Government does. However, I don't really blame him. Bureaucracy is the problem, or rather; the Government. They make it look all nice on paper "Free dental care for those under 18," - humbug. Practically speaking it is a load of rubbish. What if I seriously needed a filling? I would have to pay for it myself unless at my yearly checkup the dentist prescribed it! It is all left up to the dentist's integrity which as we all know is never that great. When I returned home my mother almost flew into a rage. How dare they take something free away from us! I reminded her that it's just like everything else that is supposed to be 'free'... schooling, health care and so on, they all have a catch somewhere. The fact is that the people providing this free stuff don't actually care. They don't care about our teeth, they just want it to look good on paper. In fact their love of money causes 18 year old people's teeth to be in worse shape than they would prefer. So I have resolved not to go to the dentist for as long as possible. Ah, my poor teeth. I have to say though, that I like my money to stay in my pocket instead of giving it to some greedy dentist. I'm not looking forward to the tooth ache that will finally drive me to go again in a few years.

Special things.

Liffy-Luffy: Extra special, food brought or bought by Nana, rare yummy things.
Etymology: I used to think it was a real word, but apparently it was invented by my dutch grandparents. Strangely enough they were practiced at inventing things, i.e. they made up my Auntie's name. Every time Nana and Grandad visited they would buy "liffy-luffies" - special food or gifts that only Nana [never mum, she is too stingy] would buy. It's been like that ever since I can remember. Ahh... all those bars of chocolate, buckets of ice cream, yummy meat to replace Marmite on our sandwiches, dutch sausage and cheese! When some of those things listed might be on the average persons weekly shopping list, it was not so with us. Eww... powdered milk was on ours. It is still like that, Mum buys boring stuff unless I convince her to buy some Camembert. Nana comes to visit and our diet changes for a few weeks.
The strange thing is however, that my Nana's other grandchildren had never heard of the word until I told them. It is our special thing, our liffy-luffies. Special and unique for our family.
My little sister and I have a small list of things we want to do one day. One of them is traveling all over New Zealand documenting and rating every public toilet. We will publish the book and achieve two goals; have fun and make money. The second thing we want to do is open a shop called "the liffy-luffy" it will be full of all sorts of yummy special things.
Don't steal our sad little dreams off us.

Question 1:

Yesterday we went to ASB Classical Sparks in Hagley Park to collect signatures for the referrundum on the "anti-smacking" law. I would have gone anyway, just for the awesome music and culture. Just to let you know, Christchurch is pretty racist as far as New Zealand cities go. Down here they pronounce Maori wrong and call almost every Asian "Chinese." It is not a rare-occurrence for people, particularly Asians to be abused because of their race. So last night when it all started off with a kapa haka group doing their stuff I wasn't surprised to hear a little bit of groaning/rolling eyes coming from some people in my group [let them be nameless, by the way; I didn't know many of them.] - and around us in the crowd. Naturally they should be on stage, it was the eve of Waitangi day. Then after another rendition of the Crusaders theme song the eccentric violinist Elena [along with her awesome hair] was introduced. Someone said something about "Politically correct rubbish." i.e. that she was only chosen to preform because of her race and not because of her ability as a musician. I was a bit annoyed by that statement because she was obviously an excellent show-person which is needed at an event like that. [Shown later by the big show off Geoff Sewell]. Then later on when Bic Runga preformed several songs similar comments were made. Comments like: "P.C.ness... pah!" "Why couldn't they get someone else? Did they have to choose her because she was part Maori, part Asian to be P.C.?"...

"For goodness sake!" I felt like shouting. "Lets just sit back and enjoy the music!" I didn't care, I just wanted to listen to it, watch the pretty lights and try to stay warm. It was art, therefore people who don't understand it should just shut up, close their eyes and try really hard to listen instead of putting a reason on everything. Just for once.

I understand however, that there is a whole heap of nonsense involved in political correctness. I for one prefer to call a police-person a policeman or policewoman. But thats just my opinion. It is very acceptable [especially amongst the people who have passed middle age] to be a P.C. hater. I understand many of their sentiments, but when it verges on racism I see it a little differently.

Now for my question:
Do you think that some people just cloak their racist comments in the shroud of anti-political correctness? Or do they seriously think that people like Elena were chosen to preform only because of their race?
Just some thoughts... I will most likely read this over tomorrow and think that I am an idiot. Huzzah for the edit option.


- When Bic walked onto the stage a lady behind me asked why she was wearing a dressing gown, what an awesome question! I had a hard time keeping my laughter in.