Hoki Dokey

We got a call from the tax office this morning, telling us that our claim for child benefit would be processed more quickly if we faxed through copies of the residence visas. I was a little taken aback that a government department would be that helpful on its own initiative. I simply couldn't imagine it happening in Blighty. Alas they couldn't accept email, it had to be a fax. It's not easy to fax a passport without copying it first, so I foresaw a trip into town. But then I thought I might try faxing from the laptop. I had annoyingly forgotten to pack a modem lead, but fortunately, I found I could take the house phone to bits and plug that lead into the laptop. Once that little hiccup was resolved, I whipped out the digital camera and zapped the required visas, inserted all the images in an openoffice document and faxed it. It seemed to go through OK, but time will tell.

We received an invoice from TrustPower, who wanted us to pay a $150 bond. Apparently we get this back in a year's time when we've proved we're credit worthy. It's a pain to have to lay this amount out, but that's they way it's done over here.

I tried to increase our data limit on the broadand with Telecom. The online form refused to accept my details, so I had to ring up. Alas the person I spoke to thoroughly confused me with talk of credits and back charges and all sorts of nonsense and basically said it would be better to do it at the end of the month. Not a very impressive experience. The guy wasn't a Kiwi and I began to wonder if NZ has it's own version of the much maligned Indian call centre.

We managed to get Rhiannon a pair of gym shoes from Rebel Sports! After a lot of mucking about and trying on different sizes, we finally found a set of pink ones in the reduced section for $40. We had been looking at anything up to $200, so $40 was a bonus. Di managed to find a couple of back packs as well, and was cheeky enough to get one reduced due to a small stain.

We've had some trouble with the sofas. First Di lent on one of the arms and it made a loud cracking sound and now has a dent in it. The chap from the outlet came out and had a look at it and said he'd be in touch with the manufacturer. Then this evening, Imogen did the same on the two seater. Hmm. I suspect the whole thing isn't very well built and we may have to send it back whence it came. I checked up on the appropriate legislation and it does appear to be quite similar to the UK so we should be able to get a refund or a replacement easily.

This evening, being Thursday, we had hoki and chips for tea. A very delicately flavoured and succulent fish. Yum. Also I had to take the waste disposal to bits since it seemed to have choked on all the spud peelings. When I had it apart, it was clear that banana skins don't get chopped up, they just turn into a big knotted mass that bungs the pipes up. Guess bananas will have to go in the bin from now one.

Craig has a trial at a restaurant tomorrow morning at 8AM. We think he's doing breakfast and if successful he could be the first one working.