Saturday, January 14, 2012

Nawwww...riding in the back of a pick up (in Samoa)

It's Illegal 
who doesn't LOVE to do that - as a child at least?? lol.

That's something my kids look forward to when they think of Samoa.  So today I read in the Samoan Observer that it's illegal :(  Boo Hoo.  Has it always been illegal and the police have never bothered to police it?  Or is it a new thing?

Too many chiefs, no Indians?

I think so.  
Bit of a joke really.  
My cousins had matai titles given out on their mothers side last year. (I'm related to their dad).  Anyway, their mother was the only person alive who held this high chief title.  So it was time to pass it on.  She didn't only give the title to one of her daughters, she also gave the same title to her son.  And it didn't stop there.  The title was also given to 6 other direct nephews and nieces (some of them were brothers and sister too!!). 

So out of a possible 15 first cousins, 8 of them were given this Ali'i title.  Not to mention how many 'second' cousins got the same title.


I am no expert in this area...far from it!!   But I know enough to know that this is just ridiculous!!  Who is going to serve who?  And to make it worse imo, Half of them couldn't speak Samoan to save themselves.  Most of them wouldn't have a clue what holding such a high title involves and they sure as hell won't be contributing to anything they should be.  So what exactly is the point??


Girl Power!! 
I agree!!  Samoa needs more women in parliament.  Women or people at least!! who give a shite about the little people!  Enough of Tuilaepa and his Merry Men!! 


What a mess!
Good luck to sorting this one out *sigh*  Sad for the family involved.  I hope they can prove what they are claiming.  Otherwise...kailo :(

 

Friday, January 13, 2012

Kidlets are healing *YAY* and a Trademe vent

Worst of the chicken poxs are over and out of the way :)  My lil sister who I was supposed to go back to Samoa this Saturday only ended up with about 10 spots which have dried up already bloody pa'u fefeu hahaha!!  So there goes $100 to cancel her bloody flight - up in the thin air - *sigh*  Will prolly look at booking her flight back for next Saturday...her (she is 12) and my mr 9 are ready to eat each other alive!


Right, so a few weeks ago I blogged about how much I luuuurved Trademe - well I am hating it at the moment!!  I've been ripped off!! I bought baby some clothes before Christmas, on the 18th of Dec, paid $10 just for postage - nothing has arrived, seller's TM account has been disabled.


I emailed them a few times to ask for postage details, tracking number etc...each time I got blunt replies.  Actually - in case ya'll have time...here is a run down of the emails...

Me:25th DEC

Hi Lisa,
just wondering if you managed to send my items out yet?  Payment would have been showing on Tuesday in your account.  Nothing has arrived yet.  Can you please let me know what day the items were sent and the tracking number, had hoped to have had the items  by yesterdays mail as we are going away for a couple of weeks today.
Thanks.

HER: 25th Dec
"Everything has been sent"

ME: 29th Dec
"When was everything sent?  Should have arrived by now.  Can you at least email me the tracking number so I can try and locate the parcel.


Then she emailed me back asking for auction numbers and my address again...*sigh*

HER: 29th Dec
"I wills ort out and get back to you later i have a lot of clothes here that need to be sorted but i am sure yours was already sent."

She never did get back to me...so I emailed her again.


ME: 9th Jan
"I still haven't received any of the baby items that I bought off you despite paying $10 just for postage after you said the items had already been packaged ready for postage.  I don't know what's going on, so can you just refund the $30 I paid please.  My account details are:

xxxxxx

Thank you"


HER: 10th Jan
"Please send auction numbers so i can see if they ahve been posted i dont have any details and tm have temp suspened my account."

ME: 10th Jan
"If you scroll down you will see that I have already sent you the auction numbers and my address details and you have told me that there are items that have been sent and items that haven't been sent, though you didn't get back to me and tell if the items I paid for were amongst the things not sent yet. 

I appreciate that selling lots of things on Tm can get confusing but this is just dragging on and on and I'd just appreciate these trades finally being sorted and completed this week with either the goods sent out asap or my money refunded please so I can buy my baby  some clothes somewhere else.

Thank you"


HER: 10th Jan
"Hi there,

it's not a matter of having a lot of things on tm, I was diagnosed with cancer two months ago and it has knocked me around the last month and my husband has no idea about tm ect other wise they would have been done and sent ages ago so now i am trying to figurer out who paid and what was sent, Also my account has been suspended as police are investigating as my partner bought me a 1200 dollar iphone for when i was in hospital and the wanker took our money and never sent the phone.
I have you items in  the post on fast post.

So sorry for the mix up.
Thanks"

ME: TODAY :)
"Hi,
Sorry to hear about what you have been going through.
Mail man has been and gone and parcel still has not turned up.  Fast post def should have had it here by now if sent on Tuesday.
Can you email me the tracking number so I can call NZ Post and track this parcel.
Thank you"


HER:
"Was not track n trace was normal fastpost"

ME:
"If it doesn't turn up by Saturdays post then you need to refund my $30.00 I paid please.  My account details are:

xxxxxxx

I have been more than patient with this trade.

As the seller, you can call NZ Post and file a missing parcel report - I can't do it as I didn't send it, I don't know any of the details, time place etc.  They will reimburse you."


HER:
"Um no they wont has it was not track n trace and as it states i dont take resonserbilty for lost items not tracked as u dont get ur money back so its a oss to the seller and the buyer, I know i sent it as i have my partner to say so as he was there."

ME:
"I have been selling on Tm for many years and know for a fact that you can make a claim with NZ Post on ANY item that goes missing in the post - regardless of tracking or not, if you cared enough to call them you'd find that out.



You win.  I hope you enjoyed spending my hard earned cash - what goes around comes around and you obviously needed it more than I did."


HER:
"U paid i sent if it hasnt turned up ring nz post it not my prob i done what i was ment to and sent it and ur hard earned cash means shit to me i have more to wprry about than a lost parcel right now and i do know for a fact no matter if you make a claim 9 times out of 10 the parcel never gets found and the dont pay out for parcels that are not tracked so i have rung them so get your facts right if you wernt so rude i might have cared a bit more but right now my sick daughter needs me more.
 
Have a good night"


ME:
"If I wasn't so rude?  I have been nothing but patient to put up with excuse after excuse from you.  It's obvious from your emails right from the start  that you have never given a shit.  I hope at the very least you bought your daughter something nice with my money - see as a gift from mine :)

As for replying to my emails...you have better things to do, so don't bother."


Ia ga...that's the story.  Honestly, I know it's 'only' $30 - but that's not the point aye.  99% of the time I do love Trademe.  It's just the once in a blue moon you end up having to deal with tossers like this *sigh*

I have blocked her from my email.  She honestly pisses me off - how the hell I managed to tolerate her crap and remain as polite as I did I don't know!


 






Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Happy New Year???

not in this house *sigh* and here is the reason why...Chicken Pox

Second thoughts - decided to blank out my poor darlings' eyes in this shot.


It actually started on Dec the 27th...last day of our family camp.  Mr 9 breaks out in spots...then a week later lil miss 8mths breaks out in spots...then a few days ago, miss 10 breaks out.  Then yesterday...my sister visiting from Samoa has a couple of spots *sigh*.

She was booked to go back to Samoa on Saturday - but I've had to cancel that.  First of all she'll be covered in spots - so no way in hell I'd let her go on the plane like that and secondly - she'd be eaten alive by the flies!!

It's been hard work looking after these kids!!  Baby has been pretty good considering!  The first 2-3 days she was VERY grizzly...I don't know how I coped, but I did.  The past day she has been 'ok'.  Still a little grizzly, but she'll sleep more than an hour in her own cot again...but I tell ya...the worst by far are the older kids!!



They are makagaga as hell!! and I'll just leave it at that lol They are being pampered and taken care of. I. AM. TIRED.


Also my monitor died on me a week ago.  Finally got around to replacing it yesterday.  Amazing what gets done around the house when there is no working PC!!


I'd love a laptop!!  Imagine all the blogging complaining on my blog I could do ;)


Anyway, kids are ok, healthy and happy otherwise...


WISHING everyone well...stay safe and keep blogging people - can't wait to catch up and see what everyone has been and is upto :)


Hmmm...after publishing the above...I thought I'd add a couple of pics of lil miss from just before her chicken pox...it's such an adorable age!! 

She has perfected her 'ta-ta' wave.  She'll do it randomly and on request :)  She has been crawling for a month now.  And is standing herself up on things then of course she falls down and usually starts crying :(.