hair clips from the eighties unite.

i'm lying under the sun on my trampoline with othello (my macbook), a book - the time traveler's wife, and a glass of water spiked with one WHOLE lime. watchout. this equation is near perfect.

the other day the date was 8.8.08. did you notice? on that particular date i thought about what had occurred on that SAME day, exactly 20 years ago. the local public library in timaru (my hometown in nz) was having a contest where the 8th, 80th, 88th, you-get-the-picture, patron would win a prize. i heard about the promotion and not being one to miss any opportunity to win a prize, i asked my mum to braid my hair. eight rows at the top, splitting into eight single braids, splitting into eighty eight tiny braids. needless to say, it took a little time to construct this masterpiece.

and then off i trotted to the library to claim my amazing prize. you should note that i assumed that all this trouble i'd gone to would land me a prize. you should also note that i was 9 years old and so the fact that the contest had nothing to do with a creative way to pay hommage to the date didn't phase me.

so i show off my fancy hair do to the librarians when i walk in and they are amused but in no hurry to make a really big deal out of it. so i loiter. i distinctly remember idly walking around the child's section, looking up every now and then as a little pointed reminder of 'hi people. i'm still here. and i want a prize' - i didn't say it, but that is what my eye contact was implying. not very subtly either.

after a lot of rummaging around behind the desk one of the librarians finally called me over. it was my moment of glory. anticipation mounted and with baited breath i was ready to gracefully accept my prize. perhaps a mac donald's voucher or a roald dahl book, or sweet lord could it possibly be a gift certificate to a book store (the ultimate prize in my nerdy 9 year old existence)?!

i was handed a pencil sharpener in the shape of a duck. a little plastic painted duck sharpener. in my head i'm thinking 'are you serious? do you know how much i had to endure to have this pile of braids on my head?' but of course i smiled sweetly, accepted my 'prize' and promptly left.

twenty years later i'm still a bit bitter.

but NOT as bitter as i am about the camera i nearly won on 'what now'.

'what now' was a kids tv show on saturday mornings. the hosts would do live giveaways each weekend where you would have to call in and be caller number whatever to win. i definitely was a winning caller one time but when i said my name, the host balked at having to repeat it on live tv so she HUNG. UP. ON. ME. and some generic named child won the camera that was supposed to be mine. MINE i tell you.

and finally there is one more prize story to share.

i once entered a coloring competition sponsored by the timaru herald newspaper where you could win a custom bed in any design you wanted. castle? underwater? spaceship? you name it, they'd design it. so very carefully i colored, didn't stray out of the lines, shaded parts of it to show tone and depth. and then noticed the restrictions - you had to be ten or under to enter. well, this was a problem. i was eleven. roshan, my brother, was seven at the time. so i put his name down and sent it in to the newspaper.

ROSHAN WON.

they had obviously been very impressed by this 'seven' year old's talent. the newspaper even wanted to publish a PHOTO of him next to his custom bed. and that is the story of how i cheated, and my brother won a racecar bed that i was insanely jealous of.