The Llama's Grazings

Grumpy Pumpkin

2009-09-19T00:51:52Z

This year I have been a lot more grouchy, snappy, mood-changey and... well, I've been a very grumpy pumpkin this year. And I am not proud of that in the slightest. I miss being known as a nice person. I miss BEING a nice person...

So I decided to see what else has changed to find any correllations. I now have a wobble-waist. A muffin top. Thunder-thighs. Under-skin-insulation. I've gained a lot of weight.

SO, in conclusion, I have decided to exercise on the theory that exercise will provide endorphins, make me feel better about my dimensions, make me healthier and I will fit ALL of my ass into my old pants. I tried downloading zumba, that silly dance thing from the infomercials... no. No, I try to do what they do and they're too fast @_@ so... good ol' fashioned crunches, sit-ups, lunges and that weird thing involving lifing legs and twisting.

Also, I must remember to stretch afterwards.

Owie... legs...

Also, it be talk like a pirate day today. Yarr!

Three Days Left!

2009-02-07T09:22:39Z

Only three days left at self-service checkout... then I'm done at New World *sad face* All my regular customers are sad that I am going.... which is very sweet. A lot of the staff will miss me, too. They're such a nice bunch!! (esp. Phillip, hehe)

Quote of the day:
Little Boy: Bye bye grumpy lady!
His dad told him to say that. They weren't serious.

I will miss GNW... "Gee to the New World, babeh."

KAT -- '''aje I pue d!ll!yd afnc moy 6u!hes sdaak auohjaAa

Cruise Ship

2009-02-06T09:39:06Z

Some questions at checkout that I just couldn't answer today...

"Do you guys have any Kangaroo Jerkey? I mean, I know you have beef jerkey an' all..."
What? Did you get off at the wrong port or something? Follow your McDonalds map. You're in New Zealand.

"Do you know the current rate of exchange of American money to New Zeeland money?"
You're not Gods. You're Americans; and no we don't care about your money that much, Sir.

"Do you know if we can take nuts back onto the cruise ship with us?"
Yes. Sure. This entire island was built to serve and entertain the cruise ships. You are our lives. We are well versed in all of the cruise ship regulations. You know what? OUT.

Four more days of checkout!

Baking!

2009-02-04T03:45:20Z

I just baked a batch of gingerbread men, chocolate chip muffins, a chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies.

Om nom cookie dough...

HOLYSHITSUGARSUGARSUGAR!!!

Also, very funny comedian on the topic of Creationists: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHqOG8p0Lkc&e

llama_banana @ 2009-01-21T21:43:00

2009-01-21T08:44:22Z

I love standing around with Katie admiring tall, skinny guys. Good times at the checkout!

2009!

2009-01-07T09:12:36Z

New Years: I had two beers and woke up in East Taieri
Actually, went to a BBQ at Jo's place, stayed the night with some of our mates and caught a ride with her to work the next day. I have been working lots! Much fun!

Neo and Mjolnir: Friends! Visiting! From everywhere!
Lauren and Mike came up/down from Invercargil/Oamaru and stayed at my place for a few nights. At the same time as my Aunt, Uncle and three cousins were staying over. Eleven people sleeping in our house one night. Two in the tent, three in the guest room, my parents, my sister in her room, lauren in my room and mike and I in the lounge. Damn, I hardly got *any* sleep :P

I's so sleepy...

Open for business!

2008-12-28T08:36:53Z

Our supermarket had a 9am start. Too bad the three of us were rostered to be on checkout from 8am. Oh well, an hour of sitting in the staff room watching bleary-eyed customers scratch their heads never hurt anyone. I also got to play bouncer and let some staff in ^_^ I had fun!

Work was very quiet today. Very few customers. So I drew a huge smiley on a piece of card and entertained the other checkout girls. Hehehe. And a GIANT smiley face. Oh, working on the weekend can be fun. Although, the tallest grocery worker is still not saying two words together to me *sigh*

So, what did I achieve today? I made EVERYONE on checkout burst out laughing. WIN.

Day Off

2008-12-27T08:03:14Z

Another day off... and yeah, I made an appearance at work.

I took my little sister to see Twilight. It wasn't half bad, to be honest. Like the reviews said, all the actors took the movie very seriously and preformed well. I had fun watching it, everything was very pretty and they did bring in the depth and complication of the movie, and got through their own folklore on vampires without turning into a documentary. It was nice.

Also, in the trailer for The Spirit, Samuel L. Jackson says, "I'm the octopus! I have ten of everything!" Biology fail.

And I now have chimchar and munchlax phone danglies. I still love pokemon ^.^

My little sister is not a cheap date. We bought lunch at the supermarket. (Yep, my supermarket.) And she got some very expensive salads. Hehe, it was fun, though :) and between Greg's gossip the last time we were in the store and looking for tall people, she saw Phillip.

Quote: ...(whisper) he's TALL.

Day Off

2008-12-17T08:57:55Z

Ah, a day off at last after 13 days straight working!

Where did I go? Back to where I work. Can't keep away from that place for 24 hours, can I? Had to return a muffin tray that was too wide for my mini oven. I am determined to bake muffins next year, even doing them 6 at a time ^_^ Returned a DVD without the DVD in the case, and tried to get a tan.

I was out in my togs, slathered in sunscreen and trying to pick a song to listen to when a bumblebee landed on my knee. Didn't want to move in case it stung me. So I just sat there staring at it, and telling it to go away. Three others landed on my legs. I was an utter hive of inactivity. They were actually really fuzzy and kinda tickled ^_^

Only a little burned!

Work Hours

2008-12-17T08:06:12Z

Work Hours!

	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
15\|12 – 21\|12	2 - 7	2 - 8		3 - 8	2 - 8		8 - 1
22\|12 – 28\|12	10 - 8	12 - 8	9 - 6		10 - 7		8 - 2
29\|12 – 4\|1	3 - 7		11 - 7	10 - 7	9 - 5		8 - 1
5\|1 – 11\|1	1 - 8	2 - 8	3 - 8	3 - 8		3 - 8	8 - 5
12\|1 – 18\|1	10 - 7	2 - 8	8 - 6	8 - 6	11 - 7		8 - 2
19\|1 – 25\|1	10 - 7	2 - 8	8 - 5	3 - 8	3 - 8		8 - 5

I CAN HAS TRIBBLE!

2008-12-14T19:41:18Z

The entire Star Trek episode of "Trouble with Tribbles" ... IN LOLCAT!

Observe! We has Tribbles and also Troubles

Common Customer Cock-Ups

2008-12-14T02:14:24Z

Work Shift: 8am - 1:30pm

A User-Guide to Common Customer Cock-Ups (Self checkout edition)

1.     Where's my money?!
"Notes are dispensed below the scanner," weren't you listening? Look down! MOVE YOUR CROTCH OUT OF THE WAY SO I CAN SHOW YOU WHERE THE MONEY IS DISPENSED. Thank you.

2.     Why won't it scan?!
"Please place item in bagging area," stop waving your tinned tuna in my face and stick it in the damn bagging area! I don't care if you want your paper under your arm, it sits on the scales. PUT IT DOWN. SHUT UP. KEEP SCANNING. HAVE A NICE DAY SIR.

3.     I don't know how to do this! You do it!
No. You.

4.     How do I pay for it?
Let's see. How about pressing 'finish and pay'? Or put the money straight in. Notes go in a slot on the right. No, not below the slot. No, not above the scanning area. Don't put two in at once! No, don't fold it! CHANGE IS DISPENSED BELOW THE SCANNER.

5.     How do I do... bread?
"Press 'Look up item' or Key in the item's code!" That button. No! Don't press it! ...You just hit onions. Wait there, I'll just void that... now, B for bread, and--no, not seven fill-a-bags, just one fill-a-... wait there, I'll just void that... now, DON'T TOUCH IT. SIT IN THE CORNER.

6.     How do I do... fruit?
'Look up item', and these are the fav... no, those oranges had a barcode. *sigh* wait there. I'll just void that.

7.     It's not working!!!
THEN TELL YOUR SPAWN TO STOP PLAYING ON THE WEIGHING PLATFORM, LADY.

Long shift is loong.

2008-12-10T09:29:19Z

Work shift: 9am - 8pm

I was going to work from 4pm, but I woke up to my phone going nuts and somebody texting me about working earlier. Being good-natured, I rolled out of bed and said 'sure' before I had fully woken up. Half and hour and toast-dipped-in-coffee later, I was off jogging to work.

11 hours, mostly on checkout. Three breaks. Very, very tired now. There were many special deals, so many customers were there. At the end of the day when the boys rounded up the last customers, it was like lifting a stone and trying to count the slaters.

"What time does New World close?"
"Eight."
"And... what time is it now?"
"Eight."

Oh, and all new gossip is out! The 'guys' in grocery were saying that someone dared me to go out on a date with [see previous journals].
I really hate being the last person to know about my own love life.

In any case, I know nothing of this date. Oh dear.

"

Bunny?

2008-12-07T05:43:13Z

Work shift: 8am - 5pm

If there's a freakin' huge que for the self-service checkouts, DON'T WASTE TIME by getting your TWO YEAR OLD to take FOREVER to scan and bag your items. It PISSES US OFF.

I woke up this morning and stumbled blindly from bed to shower to coffee. When I opened the door to the kitchen, however, I found a little present from one of my cats. A bunny! Was it cute? I had no idea! It's head was missing! Yep, headless bunny. I lol'ed. Good times!

In other news, I have fingerprints! :D we have a new clock-in system at work where you scan your finger to sign in. It kept telling me I had no finger prints (to which the boss jokingly said she'd have to let me go and let me pursue a life of crime) but it's reading me now ^_^ *happy*

Also got verily tipsy at Jo's flat-leaving drinks. We played Circle of Death and I've Never, in which I ended up having to drink a lot to my experiences in Canterbury... hehe. It was good fun ^_^

Chemical?

2008-12-03T10:50:10Z

Work shift: 3pm - 7pm

I got up relatively early, did chores and went sunbathing with Toby (my cat).
Fake tan lotion also good! Yay, chemicals!

Work was insanely busy. At the self-service checkouts I had to do all the regular fun things:
- Put out new bags
- Fix the damn machines
- Check ID for alcohol
- Point out where the cash goes in/out
- Fix the damn machines
- Help a customer find where 'Ciabatta' is listed
- Fix the damn machines AND I'M ON MY WAY, SHUT UP
- Clear a jammed printer

anyway, all that and having to fold/stuff and distribute pamphlets of local propaganda. Yay! I didn't stop moving about frantically for two hours straight! Gah!

Mad, mad monday!

2008-11-24T08:15:39Z

Work shift: 3pm - 7pm

Highlight: One of the shelves in the wine fridge by the self-service checkouts gave and wine bottles smashed all over the place. White wine, too. White wine that went all over the floor of the self-service checkout area and started evaporating. It doesn't help to be a cheap drunk when there's wine in the air; I had a very happy smile on my face for a while.

And then the construction workers outside started doing a chemical spray of the new concrete. That stank! And it got me dizzy. Drunk and high, that's what checkout does! WeeeE!

Oh, and I am the self-service checkout supervisor, I supervise alcohol transactions... but I'm not supervisory enough to sign receipts for staff purchases. Huh? Well, I've been told off. And I do such a good job at the self-service area, too. I'm learning how the machines think. And, as a party trick, I can talk in stereo with the machines as my friends do eftpos transactions.

Please swipe card on the pin-pad to complete transaction.
Please select card type.
Enter your pin.
Processing Now.
Thank you for shopping New World!

Work!

2008-11-23T21:33:58Z

Is Win.

Sumner Beach

2008-10-24T22:24:22Z

I was at the beach yesterday. Best day *ever*

A big group of us took a day off to spend at the beach. Basically the whole hub group; me, Mjolnir (mike), Chief dog (alex), CharlitheUnicorn (charli), LeVentNoir (tim), Fionaisawesome (fiona), AlChemist (alistair), Zinzan (matt), Momich (daniel), post (charlotte) and Kelly.

We got on a bus and stopped off at PaknSave. It was like kids in a candystore with credit cards. So many lollies. It was just epic. We got the most unhealthy picnic ever, and then had to catch another bus out to Sumner for the beach.

We were at Tunnel Rock beach for the day, in Sumner. There's this massive rock with a series of caves in it that one can walk through. At high-tide it's pretty hard to get out the other end of the tunnel, but we still managed. I had been there before when I was little, and it's such an awesome place.

I was wearing a pair of shorts I had cannibalised from a pair of jeans. They were quite short, these shorts. I didn't bring a spare change of clothes. I don't think Tim knew that when he dragged me almost waist-deep into the water against my will. I got plenty of revenge, though. I slapped him hard enough on the back to leave a red handprint.

It was just awesome being at the beach again. The water felt soo good. Being from Dunedin, I was the only one who didn't think it was freezing. Alistair and Tim charged into the water, got up to their shorts and ran back out shrieking something about shrinkage.

We also buried Tim in the sand and turned him into a mermaidman. He had huge boobs capped with 50c pieces, and Momich crafted an impressive 'addition' to the mermaid*man* (we're so mature). I artistically made a sand arm gripping said addition and then we put sunscreen on it to make it look even more disturbingly funny. We lost the 50c coins, though...

Zinzan spent the whole day digging a huge hole. By the time he was done, you couldn't see the top of his head when he stood in it. I used it to hide from Tim when I stole his glasses after he had dragged me into the water. My pants got wet!

Alex tried to show me how to take a proper fall from what Judo he knows. This consisted of me asking "So, alex, how do I fall?" and Tim replying "like this!" and tripping me over. Alex got Tim in a proper hold and all Tim could do was try and break his ribs. It looked like they were having more fun than publically allowed ;) and Matt threw Alex over his shoulder, which was pretty awesome since Matt was the shortest guy there, and Alex was definitely the tallest.

And this random golden retriever just stayed with us the entire day. We named him Rupert. Well, I named him Rupert. He was very friendly, and just hung out with us. We called his owner's phone and left a message saying where the dog was and that he was fine.

We went sunbathing after lunch. It was very warm by then, after starting out quite cold. I was on my back in the sand with an mp3 player and sunglasses. Sand kept blowing in our faces. Tim had a tshirt on his face, and suggested I do the same. He got a slapped stomach for implying that under my tshirt was a scary monster.

Fiona had a pretty swimsuit! I gave her my leaver's hoodie on the bus back home because she was cold and she fell asleep on me, much to the amusement of the other males on the bus. And I managed to convince Mike to go wading in the surf. It's just too cold for people born closer to the equator than Dunedin, I suppose.

Momich and post spent most of the day sunbathing. Momich in all his God-like wisdom deemed the water too cold for going in and just let his hair shine for us, like a lighthouse on the shore. We love his hair.

I was constantly walking between the campsite of towels and food and the water. I spent ages just walking around the water. It felt sooooo good. So theraputic and relaxing. The only parts of me that got sunburned were my nose, cheeks and ears. But they aren't too bad. Tim got pretty badly burned on his back, and Alex's face is pretty pink. And so many cuddly little sea anemone!

Haven't had such an awesome opportunity to catch up with my friends in ages.

Photos

Now.... about those exams on monday <_< >_> ...

Life Update

2008-10-09T06:47:08Z

print: Hello World!

Last week of lectures next week, and then it's all go for study and exams! I've actually been doing pretty badly this term. Bad grades, no motivation, lots of moping etc. Thankfully all the guys wanting to go out with me have gotten bored and wandered off. I can get some study done, now. W00t.

FLAT: I have my flat sorted out for next year. I'm flatting with three very fine people; Alistair, Fiona and Tim in one of the sweet new Ilam flats, with a nice view of a bus stop on Waimari Rd. Most of my mates from Rochester and Rutherford are going flatting in the Ilam Village flats as well, so we'll still have the epic parties. I just need to buy an oven. I require oven to bake epix foodz like 'c4k3z' and 'g1ng3rbr34d m3n'. Lol.

JOB: To all those cool cats in Dunners... guess who's got a full time job in New World. I KNOW. I am actually pretty stoaked, although I will have to say goodbye to the blue smock. I'll be given a green uniform outfit to wear and walk to work in. Oh, I look forward to catching up on all the 'gos' with the old folks. I will have to stop making obscure physics jokes, though... *sigh*

MOVIES: Just watched Cloverfield. It is awesome.

FUN: Playing with liquid nitrogen, playing pokemon leaf green on my laptop between classes, BassHunter's new album, watching whatever TV series I can imagine, accidentally letting 'Pokemon master' play at full volume on my laptop, many innuendo puns, being taught the basics of judo by alex, RnR formal dinner.

^_^ I start work on the 5th of November. I will see you all then! ^_^

LOL!

2008-09-03T11:07:47Z

Linked to me by Katie:

:(

2008-07-07T00:32:46Z

The guy from Dell came over to give my laptop a new fan. He was very nice and he fixed everything up properly and left.

Two hours later, the laptop warmed up. Got too warm. Crashed. Out cold. Twice.

:(

SNOW!

2008-06-07T06:30:41Z

Snow, snow, flippedy-snow! :D

:D :D :D :D

It's SETTLING. There's so much snow that it is settling on the wet roads. Well, before everyone went out and made snowballs ^_^ FUN!
I threw a snowball at Freya. Hehehee. ^_^

The one photo I did not get was of the three girls that went out in dressing gowns and bikini sets. I laughed my ass off when one slipped onto her ass, dressing gown flying open. Flashes went off, many cameras ^^

PHOTOS:

^_______________^ HAPPY

..wtf? Did my floor just go to a restaurant, as a floor, without me...?

...again?

Never screw with an Epson C2000 laser printer cartridge. Just saying.

2008-06-01T22:11:01Z

Ilfar's boss found out that it would be cheaper to buy a new printer than to replace his yellow cartridge in his printer, so he was going to just throw the printer out. Ilfar, being the lovely guy he is, asked if we could have it. We, because he has no place to store a printer which was about one cubed meter of metal and plastic.

So we got it! Yay! And we spent 15 minutes dragging the hefty bugger up the stairs and into my room. We plugged it in... and it had an error. We tried to find out what it meant online. Tried to fix it ourselves, and then decided it was probably almost completely dead, so Ilfar let me take it to pieces.

Joy! I was having so much fun; I borrowed screwdrivers from Jason and just started taking bits apart, bits off, breaking things when the screws were too tight and wouldn't come out... it was fun. I stopped for dinner when a piece of metal bit into my finger. Blood everywhere. Stupid metal. And the manual said that the toner was poisonous... The internet said it was just an irritant, though, so I wasn't too worried. My hands are all swollen and sore today, though.

Ilfar's favourite part was when I got my fingers jammed inside of it between two sharp plastic plates. I was threatening him with castration if he touched me or the machine. He thought it was very funny. ^^;

The FIRST thing to screw up, was Jason's screwdriver snapping in two. Crap.

Then the magenta toner decided to commit suicide and blow up in my face. PINK, EVERYWHERE. And this is laser-printer toner, so it's powder. Pink, frecking powder all over the carpet, walls, me, my tea towel, up my arm and across my face. I chucked the toner cartridges in the bin, but that just made more mess, and people outside my room starting going ape about 'who spray-painted the floor pink?!'

X_X;

I had to call the duty tutor to ask to use the vacuum. Everything is tidy NOW, but last night involved several trips to the skip, two vacuuming sessions and a whole lot of little cuts and scratches on my hands. They're pretty sore right now, and band-aid-ed!

But I got some pretty sweet switches out of it, and a whole pile of screws, and at over 25 springs of assorted shapes, sizes, metals and k-value. I am very tired. Big lab-test tomorrow, too.

Crap.

...And that's why no one should ever, ever screw with an Epson C2000 laser printer cartridge.

But it was really, really, super-dooper fun ^_^

Stress

2008-05-30T21:59:51Z

Up till midnight every night doing assignments, dogged by nightmares of the most disturbing quality and just too damn tired to care anymore.

I'm in my chemistry lab... and I just don't care if I don't do the last two problems. I've finally just lost my perfectionist drive, now I'm just trying to get through this damn semester... and it's just uphill from here. No wonder the Engineering RA at my hall looks like death warmed up, he probably feels like death warmed up.

PLUS I have to go on a diet. Belly like Jabba the Hutt. And you know what? Weetbix tastes like glue. Bleah.

And I've been trying to budget, but it's going nuts. Sanity money is called that for a reason. I tried to give myself a budget, and stick to it, but I've gone mad doing so, and I've gone over the limit. So, I plan to increase my budget and work solely on cash. To put it simply; since moving to Christchurch I have bought myself two pairs of cheap earrings. The rest is stuff that I *need*, and presents for others. These purse strings are strangling me.

On the bright side, I have ordered my music like everyone else on the Hub has ^_^

llama_banana @ 2008-04-25T19:26:00

2008-04-25T07:31:57Z

I found my cellphone.

It was in my jeans pocket.

Which I had just folded, with the rest of my washing.

Which I had just taken them off the washing line.

...After I washed them in the washing machine. My cellphone is dead.