msconduct

Because we work from home, there's a bit of a shortage of markers to make it obvious what day of the week it is. Monday is pretty clear (boo) and Friday similarly (FOR OBVIOUS REASONS). And on Tuesday I go grocery shopping, so that's a thing.

Wednesday and Thursday, however, are a different matter, and that's a problem because the rubbish bins have to go out on Wednesday evening. I don't think there's a single week where on those days we haven't had to question which hecking day it is and/or if it's rubbish day. We've taken to referring to these days as Thwednesday and Thwursday. That pretty much encapsulates our existential doubt.

This week I got my groceries delivered, so we had to add Thwuesday to the list. Also, we have the next Friday and Monday off. Pray for us (and our rubbish bins).

This is my bird bath, which the birds adore. Instead of a beautiful ceramic one on a graceful pillar, it's a $2 job from the dollar shop.

This was meant to be a temporary arrangement while I figured out if the birds would use it enough to justify buying a nice one. However, it accidentally turned out to be perfect as it was. The best thing about it is that it's easy to take inside to clean - something that's a lot more hassle if you have to do it in situ. I can pick it up when the lawn mowers come. And I've also discovered that apparently birds prefer water on the ground as it's where they find it in nature. kaishin108 has pointed out that this is a problem if you have predators around, and this is a good point. However, for me it was all in the placement. My bath is close to these ferns with a tree overhanging, there's a fence behind that and it's next to the garage, so they seem to feel pretty safe.

I got a photo this morning of my neighbird Mr B, obligingly chilling in between splashes so I could get the shot.

I know these US elections are a tiny blip on the radar compared to what else is happening in US politics, but it's SO NICE to have the first good political news for a YEAR!

*happy happy*

I'm not sure how much this is making the news in the US, as I haven't seen a lot about it, so just in case:

Trump abolished the de minimis rule which meant packages up to $800 could come into the US with no tariffs, and this comes into effect (AS FAR AS WE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING TRUMP SAYS) on August 29.

As a result, almost 30 countries, including mine, have now suspended package delivery to the US, because nobody knows how this stupid tariff thing is going to work or how to handle it. This applies to mailed packages, not container-loads of stuff that come in. The suspension is currently indefinite, because mail cannot resume until systems have been worked out and currently the US has not supplied enough detail for that to happen.

So if you're in the US and you ordered something recently from overseas and were expecting it in the mail, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

So much winning.

Looks like we all made it with no loss of life and not too much damage, so go team! The major casualty in New Zealand was our beauty sleep, as we all got another Civil Defence alert at 6.30 this morning. The only upside was the hilariously snarky thread on Reddit New Zealand.

I got back from my month in Western Australia early in July, and it's taken me this long to get out from under everything that had piled up while I was away to post. Sigh.

We had a fantastic month. Perth is a lovely city with stunning botanical gardens, although we didn't spend a lot of time there. Most of the trip was spent in small country towns, which in WA are separated by endless open country. I did a few long drives, the longest being the eight-hour drive from Esperance back to Perth across the interior. I covered thousands of kilometres while I was there, and it was great to see so much of a state I've never been to before and which is very unlike the Eastern states.

WA has an amazing number of national parks and an equally amazingly organised number of trails. Using their special app, we did hour-long walks through the bush pretty much everywhere we went. Getting out in nature and being active turned out to be exactly what I needed after a stressful few years.

It was winter, and we had some rain, but not enough to get in our way (good quality rain gear always goes a long way). Previously this trip was booked for last October, which is spring and wildflower season - and then I found out about WA's fly problem. If you've never encountered an Australian fly: they're maddening. They move really slowly, are hard to discourage, and worst of all congregate around your face trying to get at the moisture in your eyes and mouth. Last year was a particularly bad year for flies, and when I saw pictures on social media of people literally covered in a blanket of them, I felt I had no choice but to move the trip. I'm glad I did. At the most northerly point we visited, Kalbarri, there were a few flies even in winter. I took my hat and flynet, which were helpful, but it was difficult to brush off the few flies that landed on us and half a dozen managed to get into the car. And that's in the winter.

WA is also incredibly hot in the summer and hotter than I'd like in the shoulder seasons, so winter temperatures were just fine for us. The other advantage is that there were so few people on holiday at that time. On most of our bush walks we didn't encounter any other people. Australians are super lovely and friendly, but as someone firmly convinced that the outside is far too peoply, this was sheer bliss.

Oh, and also, despite my fears I DIDN'T GET COVID!!! There was definitely some around, and far more at the end than the beginning, but I masked on the plane and anywhere indoors and was fine. It was so encouraging to know I can travel without Covid being an automatic sentence. Travel is my life and I've missed it soooooooooooooooo much.

And now, back home I've plunged straight into trip prep again, as we're booked for a month in Japan in January. These trips were originally meant to be more than a year apart, so six months is pushing it, but I didn't want to put it off now I have my travel-fu back. And I can't wait.

Edited to add: I didn't see a single snake or spider! Most of the roos I saw were sadly roadkill, but I did see one bouncing across the road ahead a couple of times - fortunately far enough away not to hit the car.

I know for most people reading this Costco is probably just a somewhat boring fact of life, but for New Zealanders it's SUPER EXCITING. I've always been fascinated by it because of its unusual system (this is why I've been to Disney parks several times too, despite having little interest in the Disney mythos - I just love seeing different and successful systems at work). However, because we had no Costco here and when I've been overseas I of course didn't have a card, I wasn't able to visit.

Then in 2019 when I went to Seattle, susandennis was kind enough to take me to her local Costco. At last! It was so much fun. So imagine my excitement when Auckland's VERY OWN COSTCO opened in 2022.

Except...I didn't really need a membership. A lot of what Costco sells, like packaged foods, I never buy. The pharmacy was no big deal because most of our prescription drugs are a flat $5. And it was too far away (about a 30 minute drive from me) to make it worth going for petrol [gas].

What's more, after it had been open a while, it had had so much of an effect at dampening prices in local stores that it apparently hasn't been so much of an amazing deal as it was when it started.

This was disappointing, because I still really wanted to go, but couldn't bring myself to pay for a membership just out of curiosity. However! This year I managed to talk myself into it, because I'm going to Australia soon and I'm renting a Land Cruiser that is thirsty in the petrol department, so I wanted to buy Costco fuel. Also, in January I'm going to Japan and thought it might be fun to see what a Japanese Costco has in stock. (This might seem like a weird use of time in Japan, but I'm going to be there for a month and won't be prioritising Costco over more Japan-only stuff.) Also, Costco is clearly one of the good guys when it comes to employers and so I didn't object to giving them money (an important factor these days).

Now, there are probably some people who think these are fairly thin excuses. Shhhh! They were good enough for me, so I bought a membership. As I own a business I got the slightly cheaper one (see, I'm saving money already) and today I set off to pick up my membership card and have a nosey around the Auckland store.

The first surprise was how crazy it was. When I went to the Seattle one, it was just, y'know, a shop. That people went to in a normal kind of way. However, this is our only Costco, and New Zealanders are cosmopolitan types of people who know about Costco and couldn't wait for it to get here. (Our first IKEA is opening soon, and I'm wondering how many years will have to pass before I can get in there without being trampled to death as well.) I knew our Costco had been a madhouse at the weekends ever since it opened, but that apparently demand during the week had settled down a lot.

So I was NOT expecting, when I got to their parking building on a Friday morning, to have to drive round and round in a queue of cars all looking for a park. I haven't seen demand like that since I was at the UK's biggest shopping centre two weeks before Christmas.

Eventually we got in, and man. It. Was. Busy. I dread to think what it's like at the weekend. But it was fun! I wasn't expecting to buy much, and it was true that not everything was cheaper (the famous toilet paper was significantly more expensive than the similar quality product at my local supermarket, for example).

But I found enough stuff that I needed, would keep or freeze, and was significantly cheaper to end up spending $650. Sounds like a lot, but I don't expect to return for at least a year. In this, I couldn't be much further away from the typical Costco customer, who makes 30 visits a year and spends $100 each time, but I bet a lot of New Zealand customers are more like me than like that. I know a lot of people out of Auckland have memberships and visit once a year to stock up.

Costco has recently partnered with DoorDash to offer delivery, so unless I find out the DoorDash founders are massive Trumpers it's possible I might shop with them more that way. A half-hour slog each way through Auckland traffic was pretty offputting. However, even if I never spent another cent at Costco, and putting aside the savings I made today, the membership cost was well worthwhile for the sheer entertainment value.

The severe storm currently barrelling across the Pacific at us has just been upgraded to a tropical cyclone. Which at least makes me feel we weren't wasting our time today putting away outdoor furniture and clearing a couple of gutters, things I've learned the hard way are much easier to achieve before heavy rain and gale force winds are lashing the property.

Last year I reluctantly had three very large Leylandii cypresses cut down, precisely for this kind of situation. I was worried we'd have fewer birds in the garden, and we do. And we miss the shade on the deck, which we've had to partially replace with a Temu shade sail, which isn't as good. But they were partially dead and only going to get deader, and I was terrified that a strong wind would bring them down on the house, or worse, on a neighbour's house. I loved the trees and I miss them, but I don't miss that terror. And when the forecast turns bad I'm aways relieved that the trees won't be an issue.

Now all I have to do is worry about two friends who both have houses on sloping sections being flooded out. One of them had to have all her carpet replaced last time there was a similar storm.

Back from the beach. The weather was perfect, the water was warm, the location was beautiful, and best of all with internet turned off I didn't hear about the Felon and f'Elon once. I found that hoping they might spontaneously combust while I was away was very soothing.

I really needed a break to get a bit of distance from worrying nonstop about America, worrying for Canadians and Greenlanders, and worrying for my own country once the Eye of Sauron falls on us as it eventually will. Sitting on the balcony gazing at the waves gently breaking on the beach gave me space for reflection that they have been doing that since long before the emergence of humans and will no doubt be doing so long after we disappear. For the sake of my mental health I'm hoping to be able to hold onto that sense of perspective as the current catastrophe continues to unfold.

1. Are We Becoming ‘Numb’ to School Shootings?

I'd certainly like to know if Americans think they are. Obviously we don't have any in New Zealand: we've had only two mass shootings in our history, one of which was carried out by an Australian who came to NZ specifically to commit the atrocity, and neither were school shootings. What it must be like to fear being shot at school, I honestly can't imagine, and the vast numbers of them simply defy belief. I can't imagine anyone going to school or their families could ever be numb to that possibility, surely?