Diana

Fourteen years has now passed since my beloved Princess Diana passed away in Paris. Her death was the first 'celebrity' death that knocked me for a six. I was devastated. I was completely heartbroken. And, I was truly shocked at the level of my grief for an amazing woman I'd never met or even seen in real life.

Diana changed the British monarchy for the better. Out went the stiff upper lip, the haughtiness, the lack of real human connection. In came fun, laughter and style.

Her portrait is amongst my favourite belongings on my piano <3

There are so many things I'd like to say, but once again I'm blogging from my iPhone (which is a total test of perserverance). Instead, I'll leave it at this:

Diana, you were known as "The People's Princess". To me, you were a fairytale princess who became the most beautiful shining star in heaven.

Rest in peace

100% Blogged from iPhone

Jeepers! Blogging tonight is gonna be a challenge.

Several months ago whilst in a very 'friendly' mood, I shared my Speights with my beautiful white Sony Vaio laptop. I didn't realise that the Vaio had a sensitive system and was allergic to gluten (there's gluten in beer, right?).

Anyway, the Speights somehow sucked up into the screen and created a black hole the diametre of an average mandarin. To cut a long story short, I needed to find a gap in my study timetable and PR work to send it away. Today was that day, 366 days after purchasing it.

My beautiful Vaio has now sailed off on the courier. I'm fairly certain it will be written off. I hope I backed up everything correctly on the external harddrive :(

God bless insurance. And, God bless iPhones. How would I get my blogging fix without one?

I know you're wondering if have I learned anything from this episode? Why, yes...yes I have. Lesson: Don't share Speights with gluten free sensitive system Vaios. They'd probably prefer something less upsetting, perhaps Ginger-ale or Green Tea.

Meow...woof!

I had an absolute BRAINWAVE last night, and decided to blog the idea so it would be time-stamped for eternity.  As long as I get the credit for this idea, I'm happy for someone else to turn it into reality (and give me a freebie).

Firstly we have to go back in time to 1pm on the 14th June 2003.  I was innocently walking through the cattery at the Waikato SPCA, minding my own business. As I peered into a cage I'd looked in the week previously, the occupant looked up at me with two HUGE eyes, one blue and one yellow.  The week before the occupant had been curled up in a muddy ball fast asleep.

As our eyes made contact he said "Maah!".  I glanced at his information sheet.  It basically said something along the lines of "single white male".  I wasn't interested.  In my mind's eye, I wanted a grey, shorthaired female cat who I could name Roberta aka Bobcat or Bob for short.

Here was an extraordinarily fluffy white male with unmatching eyes, a pink nose and a caramel coloured chin.  The fluff was endless...fluff from here to kingdom come.

I walked on down the corridor and the single white male called out after me "Maah. Maah.  Waaah aaah maah" or something to that effect.  I turned back and asked him if the SPCA had reinstalled his voice-box. He kept gazing at me and "maah maah aaah waaah"ing. 

The attendant said "I think he likes you, how about I let him out for a walk around".  Before I could say a thing, she'd unlocked the padlock and he stepped out in all his fluffy glory and started (I kid you not) catwalking up and down the corridor, waggling* his tail.

Eight years later and this blue-eyed fluff ball is without doubt the love of my life.  We're addicted to eachother, so much so that my sister worries for the two of us.  He makes me laugh and laugh...he has such a funny little sense of humour. And yes, he still talks the legs off an iron pot.

But I digress.  The brainwave, wtf is the brainwave I hear you ask?  This:

Someone should set up a business whereby people who didn't get their pets as juveniles can send in a photo and in turn photos of their pets as kittens or puppies can be generated.  Kind of like a Benjamin Button photographic process for pet lovers.

I think my blue-eyed fluffy darling would have been the cutest thing ever as a kitten.  He was approximately 18 months old when he moved in. Whoever abandoned him in the first place should be ashamed, but without that occurring, he and I would never have met. 

Anyway, I'd love to have an image of what he may have looked like as a kitten.  Someone, make it happen.  With the right marketing, you'd be sitting on a goldmine.

*Waggling - its hard to explain how he does it, but think of him forming a question mark with his fluffy tail then immediately reversing the question mark, and so on and so forth, repeatedly.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Postscript: A friend on twitter tweeted me this image. Awwww! Thank you so much Martin, it made my day.

Wish someone had told me that earlier, ow.

There are countless blogs on the internet that offer suggestions and tips as to how to improve your life/business/marriage, etc, etc. They drive me crazy.  But, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I say.  So, here it goes...my top 3 lifestyle tips:

1.  Invest in blackout curtains
Even if you never own the house/caravan/trailer/car in which you regularly sleep, buy some blackout curtains.  They are honestly the best thing ever invented (even better than curly fries dipped in aioli and sprinkled with rock salt, and that's sayin' something).  I'd bet my last dollar that John Donne would have killed for blackout curtains when he wrote the following in the early 1600's:

THE SUN RISING
by John Donne

Busy old fool, unruly Sun, 

Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us ?

I had to analyse that sonnet at university (just to clarify - that was my first attempt at university, a combined Law and Arts degree.  Ended up getting a waaaaay better Business degree in the end). Anyway, in our English Literature tutorials, we spent so many hours on Donne's works, that ever since then I've automatically quoted those first few lines to myself whenever I've been woken up by that annoying blazing orange thing way up high, in the middle of the sky.

Seventeenth century sonnets at 6.13am after downing a case of beer in the previous 12 hours?  Yup, its all fun and games inside my head on those particular mornings 8-/

2.  Hide an emergency $20 note from yourself

My friends and I began doing this when we first started hitting the town.  All you need to do is fold up a $20 note and put it in a section of your wallet or purse that you generally don't look in for cash.  Twenty bucks can get you out of all sorts of strife.  It'll pay for a taxi, food and (these days) can be used to top up pre-paid phones.

There is NOTHING like finding that magical $20 note when you're drunk, sitting on the curb and just need to get home. 

The magical part? The cash didn't appear when you were at that last bar, it appeared when all hope seemed lost.

3.  Take up a hobby you enjoyed as a kid

Remember the good ole days before mortgages, bills, credit card debt and needing to work full-time?  Life was all about school, soccer practice, birthday parties and your next new set of wheels (of the bike, rollerblade or skate variety).

One of great things about being a kid was not being afraid to try something new (especially if the popular kids were doing it).  And nah, I don't mean secks, drugs and rock'n'roll, I mean music lessons, playing sports, delving into fine arts.

My sister and I kept ourselves flat-tack after school with with piano lessons, clarinet (for me), trumpet (for her), netball practice (for me), soccer practice (for her), ballet, gymnastics, Girls Brigade, Sunday School, horse-riding, cooking, sewing, water-colour painting and origami classes.  Hell, I even had Mahjong lessons!

In the last few years, I've started playing the piano again, painting watercolours (of cats and deer, mainly), doing some origami and have taken up tap dancing.  All of these things have made my life fuller, and definitely more fun. 

Many of my school friends who I've connected with on facebook have also reaped the benefits of going back to activities they enjoyed as kids.  A couple of them are even posting their Nike app running times to keep the other runners inspired. 

So, drag out Mum's photo albums, check out the stuff you were doing as a kid (except eating worms, Perrin) and pick up one of those activities again.  I swear you'll wish you'd done it sooner. Promise.

Pinky promise, even.