So things are getting kinda chaotic all of a sudden. I wasn't expecting Winter to be so harsh or sudden. I still haven't adapted to the lack of sunlight or the cold, and it's taking forever.

I struggle to wake up before 9am, and I run out of energy by around 5pm in the day. I'm used to Summer and being able to do stuff 8am-1am. For quite a few days in the last month, I simply haven't gotten out of bed until 2pm, by which time the sun is almost gone.

Tomorrow I have to take two cars to get fixed, and give a presentation on my work at Massey (I haven't yet practiced it). I also have to drive down to Wellington in the evening for the weekend. And somehow I need to mark nine 40% assignments by the end of this weekend, before a long band practice on Sunday. Our new flatmate is moving in this weekend. Hopefully I will receive my new power supply tomorrow, so I can fix my desktop PC before next week and get my Subversion server running again.

Next week I need to practice lots for our next Solfonic gig at The Station on Friday, before driving down to Wellington Saturday morning to catch a flight over to Sydney. But before I do that I have to write two short (2-3 pages) papers for a conference in Auckland later this year.

I don't like Winter. Everyone stays indoors and goes to bed before 11pm. Nobody is online to chat to lol.

I suppose right now I'm mostly just stressed about the marking. I don't know how long that's going to take. And also stressed at myself for not adapting to Winter yet. I've still got a cough from two weekends ago which is also bothering me.

Just before 10pm last night, my kitty Mental got hit by a car while playing on the road outside our flat, and died instantly.

She was a lovely unique kitty and I miss her very very much.

I adopted Mental about four years ago when I moved into the Bryant St flat. We spent a lot of time doing crazy silly things, like carrying her around in boxes and washing baskets. She loved sleeping on keyboards, sleeping on my dressing gown, and peeking through my window in the morning. She liked climbing in my car, but didn't like going for a drive. When we lived in Bryant St she would walk with me to the supermarket, and welcome me home with meows.

A big thank you to the lovely strangers who quickly took her off the road, found me, and told me what had happened.

I haven't lost a pet before, and it is not very nice. I was in a horrible state this morning. But everybody has been really supportive and caring. Thank you.

I'm no longer going to be actively using my 021 cellphone.

Somehow in two weeks I have gone through $20 of credit (a lot for a poor student). The culprits? A recurring TXT2000; sending two international text messages; and trying to send two e-mails (of which only one worked). One e-mail costs $2 to send on Prepay!!

I've had this phone since I was 15!! and have been a strong supporter of Vodafone ever since I connected. I stuck by them while Telecom introduced their $10 text plans, convinced that Vodafone would beat and match them (they never did). But now it's just not worth keeping the phone topped up.

I can't afford any of the phone plans. ($40/month just to be able to send e-mails!?) So I won't be sending any e-mails or browsing any web sites while mobile from now on. Which is a huge pity -- being online everywhere is such a massive productivity boost!!

Here is hoping that Telecom releases a reasonable prepay data network in the future.

Or I move out of this backwards country.