Dang Magic

My parents have a great photo of my great uncle looking in disbelief as a polaroid photo that my father had just taken of him developed right before his very eyes.

Now, it has to be said that Great Uncle Jeffery liked to march to the beat of his own drum. He was never one to embrace technology and generally preferred his own company to that of others.

Unless of course he was to call you.

The length of his phone calls were legendary. I remember my father being able to get through an entire lunch whilst Jeff was on the end of the phone, making the odd acknowledging 'I'm-sounding-like-I'm-listening-even-though-I'm-not-listening-very-carefully' noises in between bites. And then he'd happily  pass the phone to my mother who would manage to get through what seemed like afternoons of ironing with the phone crooked into her neck.

Another one of Great Uncle Jeffery's interesting foibles was that he was incredibly tight. Spanx had nothing on this guy. The story goes that he cancelled The Listener when it went up to 52 cents (UPDATE: my sister tells me it was actually 25 cents!). Kind of ironic since he could have probably bought the magazine if he'd so desired.

I believe he left most of his money to one of the local hospitals when he died. There is now a wing bearing his name - and one day I shall go and steal a kidney dish and feel totally guilt free about it.

I have to point out that today's blog wasn't meant to be a wander down memory lane with Great Uncle Jeffery, it was going to be all about the new Shazam app I have on my phone. I'll save it for next time. Needless to say it brought that look of disbelief to my face that Great Uncle Jeffery was wearing when he saw himself develop in that photograph all those years ago.

I  wonder what his reaction to this app would have been, had he been around?

Possibly, 'You have telephones that don't have cords?'

By Another Name.

I was talking to a friend whose is a pilot in the weekend. He's recently learnt to fly and is going to fly for a skydiving company to get his hours up.

'Do you know what they call that type of flying?' Asked his wife.

'No', says I.

'Meat bombing', she laughed.

And so did I.

When Valentine's Card Are Great.

A friend of mine sent me this earlier in the week. 

Oh, how I laughed like a drain.

Work

And if you can't really see that last picture down bottom on right. It's a guy herding cats.

'Nuff said.

I know I'm fairly low down the food chain but....

My house was lucky enough to escape relatively unscathed in the Christchurch earthquakes.  A few superficial cracks, some sunken tiles in the courtyard, a water tank that needed securing and some wobbly bricks. All in all, I have been incredibly lucky.

However there have been a couple of plumbing bills to EQC and they managed to get round to do their first inspection in October. In June, they'd told me to get the minor stuff fixed and then flick them an invoice -which I did - however since I hadn't been reimbursed, yesterday I rang to see how I was progressing through the system.

Me:'Hi just wondering how close you were to paying that invoice I sent you for those minor plumbing jobs?'

EQC:'Yes, I can see them, they're waiting to be paid. They're on a priority list.'

Me: 'But that's what you said when I called you in October.'

EQC: 'Well, they're still on a priority list.'

Me:'Can you give me any idea when I might be paid?'

EQC:'No, we can't.'

Me:'But it's only $200, it seems ridiculous that you can't just pay it. All my friends seem to be getting reimbursed. Is there a problem with the invoice?'

EQC:'No, there doesn't seem to be a problem.'

Me:'Just you can't tell me when you're going to pay me...'

EQC:'Yes'.

About now I'm starting to get frustrated, but I'm thinking to myself, 'In the scheme of things you're so so lucky, so just just the front door and  suck it up'. 


Me: 'Now about my house, has there been any movement on that ? It was assessed in October and I got a letter telling me I would be informed officially in five weeks about the assessment and...it's now February'.

EQC:'Sorry, all I can tell you is that it's been assessed and it's being processed...'

Me: '...and you can't tell me when I will officially hear?'

EQC:'Exactly.'

Me: 'Except I know that it's been assessed to have $5000 worth of damage'.

EQC:'How do you know that ?'

Me:'Because one of you guys told me when I rang at the end of October to ask about the unpaid invoices.'

EQC:'I'm sorry but all I can tell you is that it's still being processed and you will hear in due course'.

Me:'And I'm picking you can't tell me when that will be....?'

EQC:'Exactly'.

Me:'Isn't there anybody who could give me a clearer idea?'

EQC:'Sorry, no.'

I have to say I had to quell the urge to get a bit grumpy and stampy about the fact that I seem to be trapped in EQC never-never land, however I calmly thanked the nice lady and hung up.

It's at times like this I believe you've to live by the 'Look-at-what-you-have-got' mantra. As opposed to living by the Look-at-what-you-don't-have manta.

Cause if I lived by the dont-have mantra I'd be really pissed off I didn't have wings (and that $200 EQC owes me).

Things that make you smile #473.

Finding the pair of shoes that you lusted over at the beginning of the season and thought 'I'm not paying that much for that little!' on sale for half price.

Let me count the ways I adore not paying for at least one of the middle men.

She's one hell of a kip!

Oh look what I found over at Popbitch. Just far too cute.

It looks like the doormouse has either just run a marathon or cleaned up Auntie Nora's sherry.

Happy Friday.

Things you'd rather not discover...

...that the silly little black sundress that you thought was quite acceptable to wear to work in the height of summer and had already worn to work a number of times is, in fact, see through.

Needless to say, that little sucker is now banished to the beach.