I’m sitting in my room/shed with the door wide open, tonnes of light coming in through my windows, The Coasters’ ‘Along Came Jones’ playing, and a bourbon and coke on the go. Honestly, I don’t normally like bourbon, but it’s ok and very cold, which is needed post Afternoon of Sorting My Room Out. How can one person accumulate so much stuff in only 20 years? Well, probably more like 10, I suppose, which is worse!

This is a small room, with barely enough space for my double bed, drawers and wardrobe. There is not much left for storage so I’m having to be very ruthless about what I keep, and crafty about how to store those things. I will have enough room for a desk, providing it’s not too deep as I’d still need to walk between it and the bed. I could put my computer and some paperwork on there, plus have a small set of drawers underneath.

And guess what? I still have many more boxes in storage! Most of which have been there for about a year and half! Obviously most of that stuff I am planning on getting rid of (garage sale, anyone?), but I know there are sentimental things I will want to keep. Trouble is, I’m a very sentimental person. A beautiful card I was given one birthday long ago? Better keep that. Pre-school notebooks with my odd drawings of people (a large circle with a smaller circle on top and very long legs and arms) and other things? Oh my, can’t throw that out!

Though I must say that I am much better at letting go of possessions than I used to be. I know I will be able to rid myself of most of them, in time. When I finally start going through those boxes one day, in the future sometime, probably not this weekend or next.

Maybe I can use the incentive of making money from selling my things to motivate me to look through them all?

It’s a nice thought, isn’t it? No, I will, honestly. I’ll get it all done, weeded out to a few boxes. Big boxes, that is.

Woke up bright and early this morning; I always love it when I do that without an alarm, because it’s not, well, alarming and I don’t feel inclined to hit snooze because the idea of getting up is just so dreadful. So I woke up and it wasn’t raining, which was fantastic as the weather has been revolting the past few days. Obviously we need it though, especially living on a farm with tank water — we need refilling! It’s since rained this afternoon, but we has a good stretch without.

My sinus issue may be some sort of chesty cold because I developed a cough in the night and have felt tight, etc. in that area. I just hope it goes away soon and I wont need to pay a visit to a doctor or anything.

My project this afternoon was to put together the wardrobe I got for my room. Thankfully I had Mum helping me and we put it together with not much fuss and far less swearing (i.e. none) than when any of the men I know put things together. But, really, once you have assembled a babies cot you can assemble any sort of kit-set furniture, I swear!

Lastly, our house-barn has been without most power and all water this afternoon. Extremely inconvenient, but at least we can fill up containers at my sister’s place. My grandparent’s have come out to have a look but they can’t fix it so I believe someone is coming out to do so.

Apologies for my paragraphs being like mini-blogs; I seem incapable of writing about one thing most of the time so it all gets shoved in one post.

Sorry about ‘Mc’ing my post titles. I ‘Mc’ when I’m annoyed, plus I’ve been reading way too much of Lainey’s Entertainment Update, which is McAwesome celebrity gossip. Because even I stoop to enjoying it. Also, she’s not as McAssholey as many other gossip bloggers.

So, on to my ranting, I guess. My allergies are playing up and thus create a really enjoyable stuffiness and sore throat. At least I hope the sore throat is allergy-related and not because I caught something. I don’t want to get sick right now; I have too much to do.

Which brings me to unpacking, which I now hate with a giant vengeance, and be damned all boxes full of stuff that I need to find a place for! And it’s not even my stuff. I don’t mind helping, the problem is not that it’s not my stuff, it’s just that there isn’t much of anywhere to put all the stuff. We don’t live in a house, we live in a partially converted hay barn that doesn’t have hay in it anymore. It’s pretty cool, actually, but there isn’t much in the way of storage for our things, since only a small portion of this barn is our living space. The other part has tools, farmy stuff, a quad bike and sometimes even a tractor in it. It smells terrific!*

So storage is minimal right now and I’ve had enough of trying to fit stuff in, around, sideways and up. I’ve just had enough in general, actually. I want to go out and buy something, because everyone has a vice, and since mine isn’t drug abuse or excessive alcohol consumption I picked shopping. I thought it suited me best. Or maybe I just need a nap?

I think I’m done ranty McRanting. (Yes, I do feel better, now!)

*Obviously not, but I thought I’d better make sure it was noted sarcasm. Internet misunderstanding and all.

I’ve finally got my laptop hooked up to my sister’s wireless network, so now I can come and go as I please, online-wise. I haven’t seen how far the wireless coverage goes around the property, but if I can sit in the car or the shed outside her house that’ll be cool.

Finally getting to read some backlogs of stuff. I read way to many blogs… I probably had about 50 posts to read, missing out several, and that was only a few days worth. I am a geek and you know it! But I know there are people with way more to read, so I suppose I should consider myself lucky, non?

In other news, my room is coming along nicely. Got my bed in on Thursday so that’s handy (and comfortable); I don’t get woken up at 5am when Mum comes into the barn. I also moved my drawers in today and hopefully tomorrow morning we will go and get a wardrobe since my room doesn’t have one built-in. I live in a small, white box, the walls of which are lined with the same stuff that fridges and freezers are lined with. So the joke is that I live in a freezer, but fortunately it’s not cold! The walls kind of make me want to go and buy those soap crayon things kids use in the bath, lol.

My sunburn is sore today, particularly on my left shoulder. I feel like such a dork for even getting burnt, but I just did not even think about putting sunscreen on while helping unload the moving truck. I spent most of my time in the shade but the time I did spend in the sun was obviously enough to do some damage. I don’t like getting burnt (who does?) and my grandma had some skin cancers removed last year, so it’s concerning. But, for purely vain reasons, I am now going to look like a dickhead with these big-ass tan-lines that are so obvious!

Aaanyway, nothing else of much interest to say, except that my youngest nephew is the best 2-year-old ever and my niece is the most beautiful baby ever, who is also very chubby! Her bum is so chubby and big and fat and adorable. And her face is chubby and squishy and lovely to kiss. And she smells nice, too. Aw, man, she’s just perfect! I’m the luckiest auntie around.

P.S., I’m taking my 11-year-old nephew with me to see Kings of Leon in March!!!! I am so excited for this, holy crap.

I’m sunburnt! My shoulders, chest and nose, because I spent hours in the sun helping to unload the truck. How very intelligent of me… Oh well, it’s not that bad, so as long as I moisturise often it’ll all be fine and dandy.

The drive to Auckland was very long, nearly nine hours, and we got stuck in road works often. Tiring to boot. Mum and I were zombies by the time we got here.

So, we gave a lot of stuff to sort through… But that’s ok, the weekend will be put to good use!

I need to buy a wardrobe since my room doesn’t have one. Can’t really unpack anything until after I have one and my drawers are moved in there.

Sorry this post was all over the place, but I’m kind of in a hurry.

Tonight is the last night in this house. I’m not really sure how I feel about it; I’ve always been a sentimental person and sometimes the most random things set me off onto a nostalgic journey of epic proportions. I suppose this journey is bittersweet because, although I didn’t enjoy much of my time in this town for various reasons, it is a nice town and does have some great things about it that I’ll miss.

In a way I think I should feel like I’ll miss it a lot, or that I know I will begin to miss it eventually or feel like I took it for granted. However, right now, I am just thinking about how I can’t wait to leave. I can’t wait to get to Auckland, to see my siblings, my niece and nephews, my family, my friends. I can’t wait to say “I need x, y, z” and be able to go to a store nearby and find it all without much struggle. Small towns are not easy to shop in, not easy to find things to do in (unless you surf, which is the case in this small town).

It doesn’t really feel like we’re moving, either, because we’ve always gone to Auckland often over the years, so it just feels like on of those times. The only clue that we’re moving are the stacks of boxes and lack of anything but furniture around.

Anyway, time to me to go to bed! I added Twitter feeds to my sidebar and I can update those from my mobile, so that’s neat. Better not use that if I’m drunk…

I was taking some photos of our house when these flowers caught my eye in the garden.

On a side note, I’ve just discovered you can only have 200 photos viewable on flickr, so now some of my photos have “disappeared”. I’m rather piqued about this! Though of course it’s a great idea to get more people to buy pro accounts, something of which I am seriously considering as most of my photo uploads are now on flickr and I would like to keep it that way.

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Dearest (few) readers, I need your help. I have a very bare ‘goodies’ section at the moment and I am having difficulty thinking up what to put in there. I have a list of things I thought might be ok, but looking over it now they all seem much less interesting. One of the ideas I will be keeping though are a couple of craft projects, but I need to do them first so I can take photos and also illustrate instructions, so they wont be appearing for some time.

Below is a little survey I have created to see what sort of things you look for and appreciate in a visitor/goodies section. I think I will be able to come up with better things if I know what my readers like.

If you have a few minutes, please copy and paste the text below and fill it out in a comment. I will be eternally greatfull! (Look, HTML coding already done for you. Yay!)

<strong>Do you like to see a visitor/goodies section on websites that are more blog-based?</strong>
<strong>Do you prefer visitor content that is predominantly text-based (articles, tips, jokes, etc.) or graphic-based (avatars, wallpapers, etc.)?</strong>
<strong>What are some examples of visitor content that you enjoy viewing?</strong>
<strong>Anything else you'd like to mention?</strong>

Thanks for any and all suggestions you might have.

This post was originally titled ‘Music videos (and songs) that make you laugh’, but it evolved to be more about old videos from the 90s of songs I really loved back then. It began with me not being able to get a song out of my head, one that’s only a couple of years old, to somehow ending up in the early 90s…

I haven’t been able to get this song out of my head for a couple of days. Every time I hear it or see this video I collapse into laughter. There is also Tutti Frutti Summer Love.

Not the funniest video but The Ketchup Song always gives me a giggle, probably because I actually really liked it when it came out. Haha!

Anyone remember This Is How We Party by S.O.A.P? This is from 10 years ago, and I have to say it seems really innocent compared to how music sounds and what the videos are like nowadays.

This is ‘Rough Enough’ by Popsie, a European girl band from the late ’90s. I got their album in the summer of ’98 and spent a significantly large amount of time in my room dancing to it. I believe this was their first single, called ‘Single’. I really loved them. That was the summer of Popsie and Aaron Carter.

Billie, better known as Billie Piper, the one who was on Doctor Who, had quite the pop career ten years ago. This particular song was one I liked a lot back then.

Going back earlier to TLC with their video for ‘Creep’. I made my mum make satin pjs for me because of this video! I was probably 7 or 8 at the time. Except mine had quarter-moons with smiling faces for buttons.

Usher! I didn’t really like him all that much when I was younger, but I totally like this song now. Or I have this thing where I hated a song when it came out but like it now purely because it reminds me of the time back when it was released.

Ok, I should probably stop now before I spent all night doing this. By stop, I mean stop posting links. I probably will keep looking all night…

Note: I wrote this yesterday but forgot to publish it to the blog, so you’re getting it now.

I’m feeling decidedly unmotivated today, which presents problems as I need to finish packing my belongings up this weekend and want to help my mum with stuff as well. We move on the 19th so it would be better to get as much done this weekend instead of leaving it to the last minute, which I’m prone to doing with most things.

I hate getting into these slumps of no motivation, for obvious reasons. It’s not at all fun, that’s for sure, but I just can’t be bothered. I’m tired, my neck is a bit sore and causing headaches, it’s hot. I don’t want to do anything! It’s so annoying. It’s like my default mood is “blah” instead of happy. I’m existing, not living, which sucks.

At least it’s fixable though, by making myself do stuff, and I tend to feel more lively and motivated when I’m in Auckland, which is where I’m moving to.

Speaking of which, it occurred to me recently that anyone following this blog might be confused about the move, so here is a brief explanation:

I was born in Auckland, skip to age 12 and my family moves to Gisborne. Over the last 8 years I’ve spent lots of time in Auckland as we’d go there several times a year. In September 2007 I moved to Auckland and stayed there until March of this year, when I came back down for a holiday. After that my situation in Auckland changed and I decided to come back down to Gisborne for the rest of the year, until the move back to Auckland. Incidentally I have probably spent more time in Auckland this second half of the year than I had anticipated, because my mum and I have been back and forth for various reasons and we spent about 2 months there, from July to October, when my eldest sister gave birth. So, next week we finally move, or I do as Mum will come back here for a bit as my dad still has a month of work left. The End!