The coolness that is Robyn
I was passing through the Domain today and stopped off at the Wintergarden. It’s recently been refurbished, but it didn’t look much different to me, which I suppose is a good thing.
I took a few close-up photos of flowers, but then I looked up, inspiration hit me, and I flicked my camera into black and white and took this one:
Hey, it’s the 22nd so that means it’s my birthday today. I’m 32. This is twice 16, which has all sorts of disastrous consequences, the worst being the phrase “But I’m twice your age, sonny!”
My favourite conversational trick at the moment is to append “grandma” or “grandpa” to the end of any response to a question.
For example.
X: Did you get horribly drunk at the Christmas party?
Y: No way.
(Implication: Y is a sensible yet dull person.)
X: Did you get horribly drunk at the Christmas party?
Y: No way, grandma.
(Implication: X is out-of-touch with youth culture and is attempting to appear down with the kids, but is just demonstrating even more how hopelessly out of touch she is.)
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Teh Matt has one of those newfangled Nintendo Wii things, so I went over to his bachelor pad to play with it. (”Hey, Matt, can I play with your Wii?” = lolz!!!!) It’s really really choice. It sounds like Nintendo have deliberately made it so it appeals to a broader audience than just teenage boys.
I like that’s it’s not just about finger and wrist movements. It makes you get off the couch and throw your arms about in all sorts of directions in order to play the games. It kind of seems like a response of all that obesity epidemic lifestyle stuff.
Already I’m rather good at the 10-pin bowling game, and I even got a silver medal for shooting. I’m not quite at the point of wanting to go out and buy one for myself (, grandpa), but I’m sure the price will eventually come down and then I’ll have yet another excuse to never leave the house.
Someone needs to implant some sort of device in my brain that will stop me buying music on iTunes. It hasn’t even been open for a week and already I’ve spent over $40.
Some purchases are essential, for example “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse and “Tonight She Comes” by the Cars. And I bought the Killer’s Christmas song because, like, it was for charity.
But did I really need to pay $1.79 for Nsync singing “The First Noel” from their 1998 Christmas album? And even though I already have a Talking Heads CD with “Take me to the River” on it, was I really too lazy to get up off the couch and get the CD, instead paying $1.79 for a song I already own? Evidently yes on both accounts.
But while the New Zealand iTunes Store (or should that be iChoons Shop?) is a potential source of great musical joy, others have complained about it, and the truth is that iTunes New Zealand store does rather suck in its early days.
The range is rather limited. I want to buy the new Justin and the new Robbie albums, but iTunes have neither, just a pitiful collection of old singles and music videos.
My least favourite aspect of it is the “Local Sounds” page, featuring a really really awful design made up of a scenic South Island mountain range with a rippling New Zealand flag faded over the top.
I secretly hope it was hastily designed at Apple HQ in Australia, based on a design brief by someone whose only experience of New Zealand is “Lord of the Rings” and a South Island ski holiday, and who doesn’t know anything about New Zealand’s music scene. I really hope it’s not anything to do with anyone directly involved with New Zealand music, because that would be so depressing.
But despite the room for improvement, it’s nice that the iTunes store has finally opened and that the simple act of buying music in digital form can be a part of my everyday life (but hopefully not every day). I just need to make sure I don’t go buying any more songs that I already own on CD.
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Peter Dub Dot Dash asked around and has put together a list of people’s favourite local song of the year and music-related predictions for 2007. I contributed my part, but I refuse to reveal the awful truth behind my pick.
It’s no secret that the work Christmas party ain’t nothin’ flash, so if you want to have a good time, you have to rely on yourself and your workmates.
So we ended up in the Morepork meeting room playing truth or dare with the “or dare” component conveniently removed.
It was concluded: LL Cool J.
And then:
On the way to the bus stop after work this evening, a slightly dishevelled gentleman holding a cellphone stopped me. He said:
“Excuse me, miss. I don’t know how to spell properly. Can you tell me how to spell ‘ride’?”
I gave him an R, I, D and E, and he thanked me and continued writing his text message.
The Herald on Sunday had an article today about the so-called man drought. You know, the bit where single gals complain about how there ain’t no single fellas around no more.
The man drought meme started last year with a report from KPMG that revealed that there were 24,000 more 30-something women than men in New Zealand.
The report also included the deliciously alarming fact that, “A 32-year old Kiwi woman in 2004 had as much chance of finding a male partner her own age as did an 82-year old woman.”
The blame was put on men leaving for overseas (not Australia - it too has a similar situation) and not returning, or returning having married a foreign lady. Tsk Tsk.
The Herald on Sunday’s covergirl is a 22-year-old make-up retailer who says, “There are just no guys around. There’s a definite drought.” She and her “gorgeous and smart” co-workers have all noticed this.
And, even more tragically, it appears that the single guys out there aren’t up to scratch: “They need to have good taste in music … and shoes. They have to have the whole package, and they rarely do.”
Oh no! If a pretty 22-year-old shopgirl can’t get a boyfriend, what hope do I have?
Then an older woman (40), who is dating a divorced man, offers up some advice to the younger generation: “If you find someone, go for it. Don’t muck about. Get in quick”.
She also notes that, “A lot of my single girlfriends are really beautiful, intelligent girls, nothing wrong with them. But they just can’t find a man. [The men are] all taken or else total geeks.”
Now, I know more than a few geeks. Some single, but many of whom are in long-term relationships with really lovely women. And funnily enough, many of these geek guys wouldn’t want to date one of these “beautiful and intelligent girls” simply because if you’re going to, say, curl up on the couch with your loved one and watch season two of Buffy, you want to do it with someone who doesn’t think it’s juvenile nonsense.
When I think about all the 30-something serious couples I know of, it’s mainly people who started going out when they when in their 20s. And talking to the single 30-something guys I know (and I know quite a few, and some fairly hot ones too, as it happens), none of them seem really all that desperate to get paired-up, and especially not with the sort of lady who is openly desperate and complains about there being a man drought, no good men available, and biological clocks, etc. Not many guys want to feel like a “oh, he’ll do” boyfriend or glorified sperm donor.
But with single women, I really think it all comes down to perspective. You can get all miserable about there being not enough blokes out there and, oh, what an awful, bleak, lonely life awaits, and how your barren womb will ache. But what if you don’t take that attitude? What if you accept the possibility of never marrying and of being single forever, and instead focus your life around all the positive aspects of that, rather than the negatives?
It’s a situation that looks like will be a reality for many New Zealand woman, but just because you end up single, doesn’t mean you have to be a miserable old maid with 12 cats. Get out there and enjoy things. Spinster 4 life, yo.
I was down at the shops early today when I overhead a small boy and his mother who were waiting at the pedestrian crossing.
Boy: “That car’s been through the mud.”
Mum: “Which car?”
Boy: “That one.” (He points to a gleaming, spotless red car.)
Mum: “The shiny red one?”
Boy: “It’s a Holden.”
Oh, yes. One of those Holden fans. You can get Holden bed sheets, which I pray don’t come in any size bigger than single. But if NZDating is anything to do by, they probably do.
Yes, Holden lovers, for whatever reason, are all over NZ Dating. I once saw the profile of a nice young man who had been forced to put a warning on his profile that he would not respond to any lady who had “angel” or “Holden” in her profile.
A quick search reveals the following number of NZDating users have “Holden” somewhere in their profile:
Men: 230
Women: 140
Trans*: 0
* NZDating offers “trans” on the gender drop-down list, but I don’t know what it means. Transsexual? Transgender? Trans fatty acids? Oh, we can laugh, but if some Holden-loving trans fatty acids created a profile on NZDating, they’d have no shortage of replies.
I don’t suppose putting “public tranzport luvva” on your NZDating profile would do much.
