27 May, 2011 in Personal, Thoughts and Reflections by Aonghas

Winter Weather

It's hard getting up in the winter.

For the last couple of weeks it has been increasingly more difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Whenever that starts happening, it’s usually a sign that winter is on its way back. Usually I set my phone alarm to ring at 6:30am every morning (except on the weekends!) but to be honest, I usually sleep right through it. I’ve tried different approaches to waking myself up, like having my phone just out of arm’s reach so I have to turn it off by getting up, setting multiple alarms at random intervals after the first alarm and having my phone close to me so it’s louder. Although some of these methods work at times, I find myself becoming used to the same routine until it’s ineffective. For example, when I tried to set multiple alarms, I’d start half-waking up just to turn off the alarm subconsciously before going back to sleep. All of this is made harder during the winter months when it gets colder! I like to blame my reluctance to get up out of bed in the morning on the fact that our house isn’t insulated enough, but I probably shouldn’t be making excuses for what ultimately is more likely just laziness.

Once I pull myself out of bed to get ready for uni, there usually isn’t enough time to eat a proper breakfast (terrible, I know!) so I’m out the door and on the bus in a matter of minutes. Waiting at bus stops in the rain can be annoying too, depending on the wind direction. If the wind blows the rain towards the bus stop, I’m left huddling to the back wall of the bus stop because I’d get wet if I stepped out any further – not to mention that the seats would be all wet too. Luckily most of the time, my bag is packed with an umbrella so it keeps my head dry. What I always worry about though is that when I am holding my umbrella, all the rain will run off the back of my umbrella and on to my bag that’s sticking out the back! I usually feel safer strapping my bag to the front of my body so that I can see if it gets wet or not, but then I end up looking like a weirdo. In the rain.

I never know what to do with a wet umbrella when I finally reach uni because I can’t exactly put it back in my bag, but I don’t want to have to carry it around all day either. Thankfully most of our lecture rooms have air-conditioning so I try to find a position in the lecture theatre that has a bit of air flow so that my umbrella can dry as it lies by my feet on the floor.

Puddles forming everywhere is another product of rainy winter weather. Especially those massive ones on the curb near intersections. Whenever I approach a large puddle, I make mental calculations in my head as to whether or not I think I can jump it. Usually I chicken out at the last minute, mainly because of the embarrassment I’d bring myself if there were others around who saw my failed attempt at jumping over a puddle.

Ironically, as I’ve been typing this post, the weather has gone from being overcast to being somewhat sunny and clear. Good one, God. I like Your style!

22 July, 2010 in Home by Aonghas

Rainy Days

Usually our smaller cat Mao Mao sleeps in the lounge overnight until the early hours of the morning when she walks down the hallway and wakes my dad up to let her out. Tonight she went for an early sleep and just woke up about 15 minutes ago to have something to eat before, presumably, wanting to go to the “bathroom” outside. She was meowing at me and circling around my legs until I went to the back door to let her out, but she just sat there looking out at the cold rainy night.

Mao Mao didn't want to go out into the rain but she needed to go to the toilet!

It was raining on and off earlier today but tonight it’s just gotten worse. We used to have a litterbox inside when Mao Mao was younger, but after she trained herself to wake our dad up in the morning to let her out, we figured she grew out of it. After sitting at the door staring blankly at me for over 10 minutes, I guess the urge to relieve herself finally got to her and she darted out the back door into the rain. I hope she doesn’t get too wet. Maybe we should bring back the litterbox for winter nights like tonight.

19 February, 2009 in Home by Aonghas

Help Me, I’m Lost!

You know I never thought it would actually happen to me. People joke about it but I never took it that seriously. Until today. To cut a long story short, I got lost in some random-looking suburban area that I had never seen before and I felt stranded with no sense of direction whatsoever! How did I get to be there you ask? Well, what happened was…

I caught the slightly earlier bus home at 4:15pm and I was feeling a little dozy from the early morning start etc, so I fell into a half-conscious state of mind in the bus. I tried to stay awake enough to realise where the bus was so I could get off when I needed to, but obviously the sleep took control and before I knew it I was asleep on the bus. The next thing I remember was waking up as the bus was going down a hill on a street that I couldn’t recognise.

The first street signs I saw didn't really help

My initial gut feeling was that we were already in Swanson somewhere so I pushed the stop button on the bus in an attempt to get off the bus before I was taken too far away from home. The bus driver stopped and I got off. I only realised that I actually had no idea where I was, as the bus drove off into the distance. With no street signs around, I decided to make a start up the road to try and find out where I was. I was pleased to see a street sign up ahead, but when I got close enough to read the signs, the two streets Waari Ave (the street I had just walked from) and Awaroa Road made no sense to me. I still had no idea where I was!

By this stage, I was trying to keep my cool (though it was becoming increasing more difficult), knowing that I still had my cell phone if I needed to contact anyone. I sent Calum a text telling him about my situation and he said he would try to look for a map somewhere.

I figured that orange-looking building in the distance was Westcity

That’s when I realised I had Google Maps on my phone! Fortunately I still had some credit left of my phone so I connected to Google Maps and it told me where I was on the map (within a 900 metre radius). I zoomed out on the map and worked out that I was actually in the back of Sunnyvale somewhere, near the Waikumete Cemetery. I continued up the road I was walking and eventually I saw the back of the Kelston Community Centre and Great North Road emerging in the distance. “Finally, civilisation!” I thought to myself. It felt as if I could breathe clearly again. I walked all the way home and ended up reaching my house at nearly quarter to six. So much for the earlier bus, huh?

And just for the record, I’m not the only person in my family who has done this! My brother Hamish had to walk home from a bus stop near Waikumete Cemetery coming home one night from uni because he fell asleep on the bus and woke up thinking he had missed his stop. Also, my dad forgot to get off the bus one night coming home from work and ended up walking home from Lincoln Road! It must be Calum’s turn next!