Spirits high

So it's been a pretty gloomy news week in New Zealand with the country having its own mining disaster without the happy ending that Chile had; flags flying at half-mast all over the place; moments of silence before sporting events; etc. Coupled with my last blog post where I started complaining about my workload again, my outlook on life has been 10 shades of grey all week.

But they say it's all about balance right? And there have been some little things here and there which have managed to keep my spirits above the red line of despair and medication. For example:

It's Christmas shopping time (it has been for well over a month now as far as retail stores are concerned) and in trying to find something for myself (which usually means looking for snow globes) I spotted this in amongst the novelty calendars at a nearby bookstore:

After a long day at work yesterday (the day of the Big Bad News about the miners for all NZ) my friend Claire invited me to watch the local football team play at the stadium on a free ticket. Turned-out that ticket was her dad's season pass, so I had to pretend to be her dad which is nigh impossible because of the similarity in age and difference in skin colour. It also led to a few jokes about me being 'her daddy'.

And today, when I was going back to work after a lunch w/ my dad (his turn to pay! :D ) I came across a cafe that a friend of mine absolutely loves (and for those of you who can't read sarcasm between the italics: she despises the place. It might have even been one of the reasons she moved to Melbourne). Well, what was left of the cafe anyway; the place was empty and in the window was this note: http://whaleoil.gotcha.co.nz/2010/11/22/bob-jones-give-that-man-a-medal/

The second thought to cross my mind was, "Oh Linda's gonna love this!" (no italics, no sarcasm) so I e-mailed her the details and hoped that the timezone difference was enough to make that piece of news be the highlight of her day.
(the first thought to cross my mind was mainly onomatopoeia of laughing noises)

And finally, there's always YouTube: