I fell asleep last night watching England pretending to play cricket. I woke at about 7 kind of expecting that the match might still be going (it started at 1:30 AM) but all I got was news of the impending Tsunami about to hit NZ. I casually mentioned this to Di, and suddenly the whole house was awake and all the radios were on. The tsunami was supposed to hit at 9:45 NZ time, but when it did, it was less than half a metre high and as it was low tide, it was little more than a sneeze. The story in Samoa, where the precipitating earthquake took place was sadly a different affair.
In view of all the commotion, we delayed picking up our keys until 11:30. We drove into Tauranga and met with the agent and paid over the remaining money. We were told by the agent that we'd need to get in contact with a power company, Trust Power is the big one and just ask them to supply us. I found that we could do this on line so I sent in the meter readings, and with any luck we'll be wired up come tomorrow.
Driving back we stopped off at our favourite Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet and plumped for the bunk beds and an extra mattress. Someone will be sleeping on the floor until our beds arrive. Another $900. We drove down to the house and had the guided tour and a list of existing faults and blemishes. Having looked at the kitchen again, we had a sneaking suspicion that the fridge we'd bought wouldn't fit. We borrowed a tape measure from a gardener who'd been tasked with taking down a collapsing tree in our front garden and measured the gap. Yup, the hole was an inch too small.
So there we were again at the Outlet, and we exchanged the fridge for another one which would fit. Sadly it'ss $400 more. Sigh. Will this expenditure never end? It'll have to - we're running out of cash and the exchange rate is still rubbish.
Having the keys, we moved the bunk beds and all the pillows and duvets etc down to the house. to save a bit of time tomorrow. It was quite a laugh playing with the remote for the double garage door. I'm almost looking forward to driving to work - not that anything has shown up yet. The agency has confirmed that it is on the case, but nothing has come back so far.
After all of this excitement, I thought I'd top up the petrol in the Mirth Mobile. Apparently there's a 3C fuel duty rise happening tomorrow, although it is alleged that *all* the money is going directly into the road building programme, and isn't going to be used to pay MP's expenses or anything offensive. I'd driven just over 200K, and that took 21.01 litres. That works out to 27.1 MPG if my calculations are to be believed. I didn't think that was too bad for a 3.0 V6 on the mainly urban cycle.
As we are moving tomorrow, we're not going to have net access for a couple of days, so details of house moves, scintillating as they are, will have to wait.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Licensed to Thrill
Our NZ driving licences arrived in the post this morning. They're not dissimilar to the UK photo licence, they're the same credit card size but they're a pleasant green colour rather than the rather girly pink colour in the UK. Much more pleasant to look at and even our photos looked reasonable.
Also arriving this morning was the Wireless router from Telecom. I had it sent to the hotel instead of the house as we don't move in until Thursday. I made all the arrangements on Sunday, and everything was quite straightforward other than having to fax a copy of my passport over to their credit control people since I have zero credit history in NZ. I had a call a bit later asking if I could email it instead as they were having fax problems. I expressed my concern that a communications company was having fax issues which got them all defensive until I revealed it was just my warpy sense of humour tugging their chain. The house has a Telecom line already, so there's a $50 charge to reconnect, which saves the full install cost of $199. The router and broadband connection is free provided we keep the line for 12 months, otherwise there's a $199 termination fee, but I guess that means we get to keep the router. We've gone for a 3GB service, but this can be up rated if need be depending on how much youtubing gets done. One downside to the free wireless hotspot is that movies seem to be blocked. No surprise really I suppose.
The router comes with two micro filters, which on close inspection look very much like the ones you get in the UK. The connections look exactly the same, which makes me wonder if the integrated faceplate I left in the UK would work over here. It might me entertaining to find out. I may try the Zyxel router I brought over from the UK. Allegedly it will work over here. Watch this space.
We returned to the Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet and paid the balance on Friday's shopping spree. Ouch. While we were there, we bought another mattress - reduced in price due to a minor tear on the underside which won't cause any real issues. It's a pukka mattress not a foam job, so we're going to use it with the Warehouse bed. We also contemplated another set of bunk beds, which look seriously solid. We went away to think about it some more, $800 is still $800.
This afternoon we went to an impromptu beach party. There were 10 or so other ex-pats who had all lurked on the expat forum at various times, including a couple of teachers from Leeds who I had picked up from the Mount and dragged along to the beach with their two toddlers. They'd only been in NZ for about two weeks, much the same as us so we were comparing notes rather a lot. It wasn't the best weather, but we chatted and ate picnic food and got to know each other a little.
Also arriving this morning was the Wireless router from Telecom. I had it sent to the hotel instead of the house as we don't move in until Thursday. I made all the arrangements on Sunday, and everything was quite straightforward other than having to fax a copy of my passport over to their credit control people since I have zero credit history in NZ. I had a call a bit later asking if I could email it instead as they were having fax problems. I expressed my concern that a communications company was having fax issues which got them all defensive until I revealed it was just my warpy sense of humour tugging their chain. The house has a Telecom line already, so there's a $50 charge to reconnect, which saves the full install cost of $199. The router and broadband connection is free provided we keep the line for 12 months, otherwise there's a $199 termination fee, but I guess that means we get to keep the router. We've gone for a 3GB service, but this can be up rated if need be depending on how much youtubing gets done. One downside to the free wireless hotspot is that movies seem to be blocked. No surprise really I suppose.
The router comes with two micro filters, which on close inspection look very much like the ones you get in the UK. The connections look exactly the same, which makes me wonder if the integrated faceplate I left in the UK would work over here. It might me entertaining to find out. I may try the Zyxel router I brought over from the UK. Allegedly it will work over here. Watch this space.
We returned to the Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet and paid the balance on Friday's shopping spree. Ouch. While we were there, we bought another mattress - reduced in price due to a minor tear on the underside which won't cause any real issues. It's a pukka mattress not a foam job, so we're going to use it with the Warehouse bed. We also contemplated another set of bunk beds, which look seriously solid. We went away to think about it some more, $800 is still $800.
This afternoon we went to an impromptu beach party. There were 10 or so other ex-pats who had all lurked on the expat forum at various times, including a couple of teachers from Leeds who I had picked up from the Mount and dragged along to the beach with their two toddlers. They'd only been in NZ for about two weeks, much the same as us so we were comparing notes rather a lot. It wasn't the best weather, but we chatted and ate picnic food and got to know each other a little.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Death & Taxes
Not much to report from yesterday other than the purchase of a cheapo bed frame from Warehouse for $80. We thought we'd try it out and maybe use it as a spare if it was a bit rubbish. It was.
This morning we emailed NZ Van Lines to confirm our new address. We got a phone call about 30 minutes later saying that we'd need to show our passports - all 8 of them - for customs purposes so we wandered down to their depot which was just off Hewlett Road (everything is off Hewlett Road is seems) and flashed the passports and filled in the forms. A chat with the chap behind the desk indicated we were likely to get caned for GST on the Dyson since it was "new". Apparently if we'd taken it out of the box we'd have got away with it. We didn't take it out since we didn't want any issues with quarantine which we would have got if it was in a used condition. It seems I'll also have to pay duty on the scotch. Rats. I wondered if it was possible to get a refund off HM Customs and Excise, but a quick Google revealed that I was having a laugh. Nothing hurts more than being taxed twice.
This morning we emailed NZ Van Lines to confirm our new address. We got a phone call about 30 minutes later saying that we'd need to show our passports - all 8 of them - for customs purposes so we wandered down to their depot which was just off Hewlett Road (everything is off Hewlett Road is seems) and flashed the passports and filled in the forms. A chat with the chap behind the desk indicated we were likely to get caned for GST on the Dyson since it was "new". Apparently if we'd taken it out of the box we'd have got away with it. We didn't take it out since we didn't want any issues with quarantine which we would have got if it was in a used condition. It seems I'll also have to pay duty on the scotch. Rats. I wondered if it was possible to get a refund off HM Customs and Excise, but a quick Google revealed that I was having a laugh. Nothing hurts more than being taxed twice.
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Today I Went to Market and Bought...
This morning started off nice and bright, but later on you would have been forgiven for thinking you were in the middle of the monsoon season.
The order of the day was to find things like beds, sofas and a fridge/telly/washing machine. Our first port of call was the Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet which was situated on the ever more familiar Hewlett Road, Mount Maunganui, a stone's throw from Turners Auctions. They specialise in factory seconds, both furniture and electricals. Some of the stuff they had in was essentially new but had damaged boxes or was ordered and then cancelled. The net effect is that you get new stuff and a much lower price. We had a good nose round and a chat with the friendly Lancastrian sales assistant. He did confirm that he'd sold to lots of Poms over the years, all of them complaining that their UK spec televisions wouldn't work over here. This made me feel a little better about giving away our still-under-guarantee TV to friends.
Having nosed around a bit we went back to Bayfair and had a look round Harvey Norman. We concluded that they were well expensive and left, despite various sales people trying their best to entice us. Next stop was Discount Furniture in Tauranga, who were having a closing down sale. There wasn't a whole lot left, but we did score a set of reasonably sturdy bunk beds for $550 including mattresses. While we were in the store, all hell broke loose outside as the rain came down in buckets. Trying to insert various bits of bed and mattresses into a car with a boot (WHY did I buy it) with the rain hammering down was not much fun. Sadly we couldn't get it all in and had to make a return journey.
Back at the hotel we unloaded the bed bits, grabbed a quick sandwich and headed back to Hewlett Road, since they closed at 3. We ordered a Samsung 32" LCD Full HD TV, a fridge/freezer, a washing machine, a double bed and mattress and a brace of leather sofas, one three seats one two. This little lot set us back $5740 including delivery and GST. Ouch. Although Westpac allows you to do $10K a day through EFTPOS, not having that amount in your account kind of stops it dead, We left a $2000 deposit, and resolved to empty the savings account a little later.
Back into Tauranga to pick up the rest of the bed, only for the heavens to open again. We managed to get the rest of the bed in, thanks to a handy hole that opens up in the back seat when the arm rest in the middle of the back seats is lowered. On the way back we came across Beds R Us so we stopped and had a look around, but sadly it was a little too expensive, but there were some really nice pieces of furniture in there.
Back at the hotel again, we wandered over to the Warehouse to look at some of the $80 beds they had in there. As we have our own bed in the container, we only really need 6 beds and splashing out loads on new ones seems a bit silly. We decided we'd get four later in the week, although Di couldn't leave without buying a 100% wool king size duvet which was reduced to $54.
The order of the day was to find things like beds, sofas and a fridge/telly/washing machine. Our first port of call was the Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet which was situated on the ever more familiar Hewlett Road, Mount Maunganui, a stone's throw from Turners Auctions. They specialise in factory seconds, both furniture and electricals. Some of the stuff they had in was essentially new but had damaged boxes or was ordered and then cancelled. The net effect is that you get new stuff and a much lower price. We had a good nose round and a chat with the friendly Lancastrian sales assistant. He did confirm that he'd sold to lots of Poms over the years, all of them complaining that their UK spec televisions wouldn't work over here. This made me feel a little better about giving away our still-under-guarantee TV to friends.
Having nosed around a bit we went back to Bayfair and had a look round Harvey Norman. We concluded that they were well expensive and left, despite various sales people trying their best to entice us. Next stop was Discount Furniture in Tauranga, who were having a closing down sale. There wasn't a whole lot left, but we did score a set of reasonably sturdy bunk beds for $550 including mattresses. While we were in the store, all hell broke loose outside as the rain came down in buckets. Trying to insert various bits of bed and mattresses into a car with a boot (WHY did I buy it) with the rain hammering down was not much fun. Sadly we couldn't get it all in and had to make a return journey.
Back at the hotel we unloaded the bed bits, grabbed a quick sandwich and headed back to Hewlett Road, since they closed at 3. We ordered a Samsung 32" LCD Full HD TV, a fridge/freezer, a washing machine, a double bed and mattress and a brace of leather sofas, one three seats one two. This little lot set us back $5740 including delivery and GST. Ouch. Although Westpac allows you to do $10K a day through EFTPOS, not having that amount in your account kind of stops it dead, We left a $2000 deposit, and resolved to empty the savings account a little later.
Back into Tauranga to pick up the rest of the bed, only for the heavens to open again. We managed to get the rest of the bed in, thanks to a handy hole that opens up in the back seat when the arm rest in the middle of the back seats is lowered. On the way back we came across Beds R Us so we stopped and had a look around, but sadly it was a little too expensive, but there were some really nice pieces of furniture in there.
Back at the hotel again, we wandered over to the Warehouse to look at some of the $80 beds they had in there. As we have our own bed in the container, we only really need 6 beds and splashing out loads on new ones seems a bit silly. We decided we'd get four later in the week, although Di couldn't leave without buying a 100% wool king size duvet which was reduced to $54.
Friday, 25 September 2009
60% Off
We drifted out of bed around 9AM this morning. I guess it's fair to say that we're over the jet lag and everyone's body clock is ticking as it should. It was a nice bright morning so I went for a run on the beach. My Garmin GPS had immense trouble figuring out where in the world it was, not really a surprise as it's the first time I've used it in this neck of the woods. It eventually locked on to the satellites but it took forever. The tide was in which made running along the beach a pain, since I seemed to be expending huge amounts of energy digging in to the sand and pushing out. I decided the return leg ought to be along Papamoa Beach Road, and this was indeed far easier, if less scenic. I made it back just before the rain started.
The Mirth Mobile's registration document turned up this morning - a nice passive green colour most unlike the garish effort we get back in the UK. Interestingly it claims the last "inspection" was at 207k, a mere 3K before the Mirth Mobile became ours, I guess this means the Warrant of Fitness
and if that's the case, I guess there's not a huge amount wrong with it.
Di was cooking pancakes when I got back, and after scoffing a load we all walked down to the beach. Everyone except stay-at-home Rhiannon would did her usual Nintendo-DS trick and tried to pretend she wasn't part of thebrat pack. We lurked on the beach for about 30 minutes watching the kids build sand castles and also watching some of the local cool young things surfing, with a fair degree of success.
Later in the afternoon, we wandered into Tauranga and visited Briscoes, a home goods type shop which was having an "up to 60% off" sale. I guess this is regular occurrence because some of the prices were rather on the high side. We managed to spend $150 on some pots and pans, a kettle, a toaster, some towels and a laundry basket.
Di decided we ought to wander over to the Rain Bar later in the evening for a couple of beers. This we duly did and it seems Friday night is disco night, or at least they have the volume cranked up. It was a strange mix of AC/DC and Abba, with a little B52s and Village people thrown in. Yeah. There seemed to be loads of women and very few blokes and I watched in wonder as the bouncers cleared the tables away so that the sisters could strut their funky stuff. I went hope feeling sober with a headache, but Di was fist as a part when she walked outside and I had to pour her back in to our apartment.
The Mirth Mobile's registration document turned up this morning - a nice passive green colour most unlike the garish effort we get back in the UK. Interestingly it claims the last "inspection" was at 207k, a mere 3K before the Mirth Mobile became ours, I guess this means the Warrant of Fitnessand if that's the case, I guess there's not a huge amount wrong with it.
Di was cooking pancakes when I got back, and after scoffing a load we all walked down to the beach. Everyone except stay-at-home Rhiannon would did her usual Nintendo-DS trick and tried to pretend she wasn't part of thebrat pack. We lurked on the beach for about 30 minutes watching the kids build sand castles and also watching some of the local cool young things surfing, with a fair degree of success.Later in the afternoon, we wandered into Tauranga and visited Briscoes, a home goods type shop which was having an "up to 60% off" sale. I guess this is regular occurrence because some of the prices were rather on the high side. We managed to spend $150 on some pots and pans, a kettle, a toaster, some towels and a laundry basket.
Di decided we ought to wander over to the Rain Bar later in the evening for a couple of beers. This we duly did and it seems Friday night is disco night, or at least they have the volume cranked up. It was a strange mix of AC/DC and Abba, with a little B52s and Village people thrown in. Yeah. There seemed to be loads of women and very few blokes and I watched in wonder as the bouncers cleared the tables away so that the sisters could strut their funky stuff. I went hope feeling sober with a headache, but Di was fist as a part when she walked outside and I had to pour her back in to our apartment.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Water, Water, Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink
What a horrible dreary miserable wet day. Fine rain all day long and mist obscuring most of the hills and the mount. It's almost like being back in Blighty except that it was merely a bit cold and not bloody freezing.
We went down to Mount College to enroll Rhiannon, but the teacher, after a lot of umming and ahhing recommended we enroll her in the intermediate school instead. The logic behind this was that she'd end up being a year younger that her classmates as she would be in year 10 after Christmas. In his experience, kids make better progress overall when they start later than earlier. Poor Rhiannon was devastated. We thought this was because she was dead set on learning Japanese which they only do at the college. While this is true, the real reason behind her tears was that she'd have to wear the Intermediate's school uniform, and in particular the anti-fashion green tartan culottes. Hmm. She has a point, the do look a bit pants (is that a pun? maybe!) but as I pointed out, everyone is wearing them and so no one's really going to take the mickey as they're all in the same boat. Having bribed her with the promise of a KFC lunch she reluctantly agreed to register for Mount Intermediate. The Deputy Principal was a little surprised to see us again, but understood our position and agreeed to enroll Rhiannon.
We wandered back home with a large bucket of KFC which lasted approximately 0.003 seconds once deposited on the table. We vegged for the rest of the afternoon and I annoyed everyone with some more practice. Bach's prelude is coming along nicely.
Craig ventured down to Bayfair, and actually left his details with the bakery. Maybe the hard time he's getting has hit home. Pigs might fly.
I sat down to watch the ICC Champion's Trophy on Sky Sports, since the Black Caps were playing the Saffers, but halfway through the NZ innings, the kids started panicking because there was no water coming out of the taps. A quick inspection revealed that none of the taps were working, hot or cold. We rang reception to report this, thinking it might well rank as an emergency and therefore could be reported out of hours. They rang back to say that the mains supply was off and that it would most probably be a couple of hours before it was back on.
Sadly it was still off at 11:30PM, so in order to make a cup of tea, I had to resort to microwaving ice cubes to loosen them up enough to get them into a saucepan to melt them properly and bring to the boil. I immediately wished I hadn't been quite so resourceful, as it was a really quite unpleasant cup of tea. Quite how long the ice cubes had been in the freezer is a question I don't want to think about.
Di stole my laptop and was last seen catching up on Facebook, and organising a meet-up on britishexpats.com, so I had to steal Rhiannon's. This was met with howls of protest, since as she was quick to point out, I'd been to the loo without washing my hands and she was making plans to disinfect and fumigate her laptop upon its return. Such a princess.
We went down to Mount College to enroll Rhiannon, but the teacher, after a lot of umming and ahhing recommended we enroll her in the intermediate school instead. The logic behind this was that she'd end up being a year younger that her classmates as she would be in year 10 after Christmas. In his experience, kids make better progress overall when they start later than earlier. Poor Rhiannon was devastated. We thought this was because she was dead set on learning Japanese which they only do at the college. While this is true, the real reason behind her tears was that she'd have to wear the Intermediate's school uniform, and in particular the anti-fashion green tartan culottes. Hmm. She has a point, the do look a bit pants (is that a pun? maybe!) but as I pointed out, everyone is wearing them and so no one's really going to take the mickey as they're all in the same boat. Having bribed her with the promise of a KFC lunch she reluctantly agreed to register for Mount Intermediate. The Deputy Principal was a little surprised to see us again, but understood our position and agreeed to enroll Rhiannon.
We wandered back home with a large bucket of KFC which lasted approximately 0.003 seconds once deposited on the table. We vegged for the rest of the afternoon and I annoyed everyone with some more practice. Bach's prelude is coming along nicely.
Craig ventured down to Bayfair, and actually left his details with the bakery. Maybe the hard time he's getting has hit home. Pigs might fly.
I sat down to watch the ICC Champion's Trophy on Sky Sports, since the Black Caps were playing the Saffers, but halfway through the NZ innings, the kids started panicking because there was no water coming out of the taps. A quick inspection revealed that none of the taps were working, hot or cold. We rang reception to report this, thinking it might well rank as an emergency and therefore could be reported out of hours. They rang back to say that the mains supply was off and that it would most probably be a couple of hours before it was back on.
Sadly it was still off at 11:30PM, so in order to make a cup of tea, I had to resort to microwaving ice cubes to loosen them up enough to get them into a saucepan to melt them properly and bring to the boil. I immediately wished I hadn't been quite so resourceful, as it was a really quite unpleasant cup of tea. Quite how long the ice cubes had been in the freezer is a question I don't want to think about.
Di stole my laptop and was last seen catching up on Facebook, and organising a meet-up on britishexpats.com, so I had to steal Rhiannon's. This was met with howls of protest, since as she was quick to point out, I'd been to the loo without washing my hands and she was making plans to disinfect and fumigate her laptop upon its return. Such a princess.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Tooth Fairy Down Under
Imogen lost a tooth last night. A debate ensued about what the NZ tooth fairy might bring since pound coins aren't a lot of use over here. Imogen seemed happy with the promise of a $2 coin rather than £1. I don't think she's quite realised she's only getting 88pence in real money but the really poor exchange rate is working in her favour right now.
We woke to a rather grotty day with intermittent drizzle. Not much to report, except that we enrolled all but Rhiannon at the Mount Primary, and registered everyone with a local doctor's surgery. Our cunningly obtained proof of address worked a treat. I spent the afternoon practising guitar and finally got round to watching a DVD of my performance at the Selsey Festival shot by Sasha just before we left. Didn't sound too bad, although there were quite a few mistakes.
Craig went down to Bayfair, allegedly to apply for a job as a baker that we'd spotted on our last trip, but returned full of brattitude claiming that there wasn't a bakery. Looking on their website proved otherwise but by that point he'd lost the plot and wandered off in a strop. It's like having 6 daughters.
We woke to a rather grotty day with intermittent drizzle. Not much to report, except that we enrolled all but Rhiannon at the Mount Primary, and registered everyone with a local doctor's surgery. Our cunningly obtained proof of address worked a treat. I spent the afternoon practising guitar and finally got round to watching a DVD of my performance at the Selsey Festival shot by Sasha just before we left. Didn't sound too bad, although there were quite a few mistakes.
Craig went down to Bayfair, allegedly to apply for a job as a baker that we'd spotted on our last trip, but returned full of brattitude claiming that there wasn't a bakery. Looking on their website proved otherwise but by that point he'd lost the plot and wandered off in a strop. It's like having 6 daughters.
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
No Shoes or Uniform
Having secured a permanent address yesterday, today we looked round some schools whose catchment area we are in. We visited Mount Maunganui Primary and also Mount Maunganui Intermediate which takes pupils up to the age of 14. The primary school does not have a school uniform and it seems that shoes are also optional. Shoes in fact seem to be optional for quite a large number of kids. I guess it makes sense if you're on and off the beach every 10 minutes, there's no real need to wear them. Imogen and Freya appeared to like the school, but Phoebe wasn't impressed with having a male head teacher. Imogen will only be spending a term (October through to December) at the primary school before moving on to the intermediate school.
Following a visit to the intermediate school, we decided it would be best if Rhiannon went straight to Mount College, otherwise she would end up being the oldest (and most probably the tallest) in her year. We have yet to look round the college, as unlike the other schools you need an appointment, which we have booked for Thursday.
All of the schools require a proof of address. This might prove difficult as we haven't as yet moved into the house and we don't have a copy of the rental agreement (although there's not much to have a copy of). Therefore we wandered down to Westpac and got them to change our address and print of a document indicating our address - easy peasy.
We also picked up some registration forms for a doctor's surgery which we'll return tomorrow.
Following a visit to the intermediate school, we decided it would be best if Rhiannon went straight to Mount College, otherwise she would end up being the oldest (and most probably the tallest) in her year. We have yet to look round the college, as unlike the other schools you need an appointment, which we have booked for Thursday.
All of the schools require a proof of address. This might prove difficult as we haven't as yet moved into the house and we don't have a copy of the rental agreement (although there's not much to have a copy of). Therefore we wandered down to Westpac and got them to change our address and print of a document indicating our address - easy peasy.
We also picked up some registration forms for a doctor's surgery which we'll return tomorrow.
Monday, 21 September 2009
No BRAS, Just 38D
Regular readers (there are some, honest!) will remember that I tried to buy a Honda CRV with the number plate "BRAS". Sadly I failed. However today we have signed the lease on a property where the house no is "38D". It sounds like a flat, but is in fact a four bedroom house with a double garage. A common practice over in NZ is to buy a plot of land and build yourself a house Typically you have much more land than you need for a single house, and most folks end up flogging off a bit or building another house at the end of the garden. In this case the plot has been hacked into 4, hence 38D. There is virtually no garden, but there are parks close by for the kids to play in, and it is within easy walking distance of Mount College which spares Rhiannon a bus ride, and quite close to Mount Maunganui Primary School for the rest of 'em. Rent is $390 a week, which is not too bad and unlike the UK the only fees to pay are 4 weeks bond (which we get back assuming that we don't wreck the joint), one week's rent + GST as an agency fee and 1 week's rent in advance. The rental agreement is also no more that 1 1/2 pages of A4 rather than the abridged copy of War & Peace that you get over in the UK. All rather civilised. No swimming pool though. Maybe when we get round to buying.
The agent we were going to sign with got a bit shirty when we said no thanks and threatened to charge for their time (3 weeks rent no less!) for "drawing up papers". When we considered what the agent we'd just signed with actually did (fill in an A4 form while we sat there), we couldn't see how they'd justify this. Bring it on I said - so we were looking forward to a good argument. Sadly, a little later we had a phone call saying there would be no charge. It's not like they had anything to use as ammunition anyway as we'd signed nothing.
Spent a couple of hours looking for an Internet provider this afternoon, but it keeps coming back to Telecom (the BT equivalent) as they have a zero connection fee right now - but $99 if you leave within 12 months. Most others want to charge for both connection and termination. Also Caroline gave them the thumbs up, so I guess we'll try them and see.
My trip into Tauranga to talk to a recruitment agent went well - managed to get there without getting lost and we spent nearly an hour discussing where my "career" might go and what sort of job I wanted. There are some irons in the fire now and we'll see what develops.
The agent we were going to sign with got a bit shirty when we said no thanks and threatened to charge for their time (3 weeks rent no less!) for "drawing up papers". When we considered what the agent we'd just signed with actually did (fill in an A4 form while we sat there), we couldn't see how they'd justify this. Bring it on I said - so we were looking forward to a good argument. Sadly, a little later we had a phone call saying there would be no charge. It's not like they had anything to use as ammunition anyway as we'd signed nothing.
Spent a couple of hours looking for an Internet provider this afternoon, but it keeps coming back to Telecom (the BT equivalent) as they have a zero connection fee right now - but $99 if you leave within 12 months. Most others want to charge for both connection and termination. Also Caroline gave them the thumbs up, so I guess we'll try them and see.
My trip into Tauranga to talk to a recruitment agent went well - managed to get there without getting lost and we spent nearly an hour discussing where my "career" might go and what sort of job I wanted. There are some irons in the fire now and we'll see what develops.
Sunday, 20 September 2009
This Little Piggy Went to Market
Di had been lead to believe that there was a Sunday market about 6K along the Te Puke (Pook-ee, not barf) road but we failed to find any trace of it after 12. We turned round and headed back to the Mount to check out the New World supermarket, as we had been informed that it had a "British Foods" section. Well, it did, but it was barely a shelf or two but it did at least sell Shreddies and Shredded Wheat, which are conspicuous by their absence from New Zealand shelves. They're a bit pricey at over $10 a box (that's over four quid in real money) but tomorrow's breakfast will involve Shreddies. Most of the Brit foods do seem to be expensive - for instance a tin of Heinz baked beans is a quid. We will I think be sticking with Watties, although they don't taste the same and are more spicy, although the labels look very similar so I'm guessing a commercial tie up is involved somewhere.
Not much else to say about today, except that the weather was really good, again. I'm off into Tauranga tomorrow to visit a recruitment agency.
Not much else to say about today, except that the weather was really good, again. I'm off into Tauranga tomorrow to visit a recruitment agency.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Curry Down Under
This morning was quite grey and overcast and turned into rain in the afternoon. It held off long enough for us to visit a car boot sale and a couple of garage sales we noticed on the way back. Alas there wasn't much on offer and I'm far from convinced that the Kiwis have fully appreciated the full range of sad old tat you're supposed to try and offload at these affairs. We managed to pick up a few plates and mugs which should tide us over until the container arrives.
For a change, we didn't look at any houses today. I say for a change but the the truth of the matter is that the real estate/rental sector seems to shut down at the weekend which is kind of bizarre as you might think that those who were working and thus able to afford houses would only have the weekend to look at things. Hmmm.
I suggested to Di that we tried the curry spot across the road, so we bought pizza and garlic bread for the kids. Rhiannon and I fell out over a single solitary mouthful of garlic bread which apparently I wasn't allowed to eat.
We wandered over to Mumbai Masala. The first culture shock was the poppadoms. In the UK they're the size of dinner plates. Over here they're the size of saucers. Argh! The usual assortment of chutneys and pickles was much the same as the UK, except for the "kechumber" which had to be ordered separately. The description of "Diced onions, tomatoes, cucumber with a touch of lemon juice & spices" didn't include the carrot that seemed to have taken the place of the onion, and it was indeed diced as opposed to sliced, rather coarsely. The other worrying thing was that having selected Kadai Chicken from the menu, I was asked how hot I wanted it. Not good. That's not something I've ever experienced in the UK, and rather blows any of the subtleties of the dish right out of the water if you ask for it to be laced with chili. I just asked that the chef season it as it was intended to be. The food itself was fine when it arrived, Di's korma meeting with approval and the Kadai chicken being spicy without inducing a torrent of sweat. Total cost including 4 Cobras was $84 (£35).
Following the curry we nipped across to the Rain Bar to watch the All Blacks hammer the Wallabies 33-6. I found this particularly satisfying as Di was unable to cheer for Australia as she was surrounded by bevvied Kiwis. She was just paranoid though, there were a couple of blokes sat there in Wallaby shirts, so she had no reason to keep quiet - although there was in fact nothing to cheer about as they played like a bunch of girls and never looked threatening at all.
For a change, we didn't look at any houses today. I say for a change but the the truth of the matter is that the real estate/rental sector seems to shut down at the weekend which is kind of bizarre as you might think that those who were working and thus able to afford houses would only have the weekend to look at things. Hmmm.
I suggested to Di that we tried the curry spot across the road, so we bought pizza and garlic bread for the kids. Rhiannon and I fell out over a single solitary mouthful of garlic bread which apparently I wasn't allowed to eat.
We wandered over to Mumbai Masala. The first culture shock was the poppadoms. In the UK they're the size of dinner plates. Over here they're the size of saucers. Argh! The usual assortment of chutneys and pickles was much the same as the UK, except for the "kechumber" which had to be ordered separately. The description of "Diced onions, tomatoes, cucumber with a touch of lemon juice & spices" didn't include the carrot that seemed to have taken the place of the onion, and it was indeed diced as opposed to sliced, rather coarsely. The other worrying thing was that having selected Kadai Chicken from the menu, I was asked how hot I wanted it. Not good. That's not something I've ever experienced in the UK, and rather blows any of the subtleties of the dish right out of the water if you ask for it to be laced with chili. I just asked that the chef season it as it was intended to be. The food itself was fine when it arrived, Di's korma meeting with approval and the Kadai chicken being spicy without inducing a torrent of sweat. Total cost including 4 Cobras was $84 (£35).
Following the curry we nipped across to the Rain Bar to watch the All Blacks hammer the Wallabies 33-6. I found this particularly satisfying as Di was unable to cheer for Australia as she was surrounded by bevvied Kiwis. She was just paranoid though, there were a couple of blokes sat there in Wallaby shirts, so she had no reason to keep quiet - although there was in fact nothing to cheer about as they played like a bunch of girls and never looked threatening at all.
Friday, 18 September 2009
Life's a Beach
I hadn't managed a run since I got here, so I thought it was about time I gave it a go. Not sure how far I went, but I doubt it was much more than about 5-6K, but running along the beach on a bright sunny morning was ace. I might even try again tomorrow.
We went to look at yet another house. This one has potential, but alas the décor is circa 1973! It's a bit rough but only $390. It has the benefit of no agency fee and no minimum period - we just have to give 3 weeks notice. The down side is that they can give us 6 at any time although we've asked for 8. We might yet go for this one. It has great sea views and a modest amount of garden.
I never got round to having my barnet seen to before we left the UK, so as there was a barber shop directly opposite the resort, I thought I'd nip over and get the snip. $12 for the clipper treatment seemed eminently reasonable. It turned out that one of the two hairdressers was a girl from Liverpool. I don't know which was more odd, being shawn by a brit, or finding a scouser doing something that didn't involve hubcaps. Naturally I did not express this opinion face to face, deferring to yet another stereotype and I must have been polite enough because she said she "hoped to see me again". It was a decent enough shearing, so I may well return.
We went to look at yet another house. This one has potential, but alas the décor is circa 1973! It's a bit rough but only $390. It has the benefit of no agency fee and no minimum period - we just have to give 3 weeks notice. The down side is that they can give us 6 at any time although we've asked for 8. We might yet go for this one. It has great sea views and a modest amount of garden.
I never got round to having my barnet seen to before we left the UK, so as there was a barber shop directly opposite the resort, I thought I'd nip over and get the snip. $12 for the clipper treatment seemed eminently reasonable. It turned out that one of the two hairdressers was a girl from Liverpool. I don't know which was more odd, being shawn by a brit, or finding a scouser doing something that didn't involve hubcaps. Naturally I did not express this opinion face to face, deferring to yet another stereotype and I must have been polite enough because she said she "hoped to see me again". It was a decent enough shearing, so I may well return.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
It's Worse Than That, It's a Shed, Jim
At the risk of repeating myself, another lovely morning with another 8AM start. We went to look at a house which would work OK, 4 bedrooms but no garden. Sadly only a 12 month term but we're asking for 6. The same agent, who was very friendly and helpful also had another property on her books. Looking it up on the map, Di had it pegged as no. 110. Looking on google maps it looked OK. However the map was a bit out, or Di's reading of it was and the place was basically a shed. It was also in a disgusting state, full of dogs and cigarette ends. That probably explains why the rent was only $350. We crossed it off our list.
Di's friend Caroline rang us to say that the owners of the first house we looked at would take a 9 month term. I still don't want it, as it doesn't feel at all homely, and at $450 it's relatively expensive and it has absolutely no heating. That might be all right for the next 6 months, but after that it could get a bit nippy. Also they can't let us have it until 9th October which means another $1200 to stay in the hotel.
We rang the agent for the house recommended by the hotel, and the agent could not have been less helpful if she'd tried. No way would they consider anything other than 12 months, they insisted that we produced all of our references (everyone else so far has asked for names and made contact themselves) and offers of paying 6 months up front were countered with claims that we'd just wreck the place once we'd paid. We were also a bit suspicious about the roof that was damaged in a freak hail storm back in May which still hadn't been fixed. All in all it was a very negative experience.
We decided to ask the agent for the house on Excelsior place to draw up papers for Monday. It's an expensive property at $500, but they will take 6 months and then require a rolling 3 weeks notice after that. We are looking at another house this afternoon and of course we have the advertisement this Saturday which may bring something in.
Westpac rang to say my visa debit card had arrived, but Di's hadn't. Hmm. A bit odd...and then the post arrived at the hotel and Di's card was among it. Also our AA cards arrived. Over here, you need to visit the bank to set your PIN number. We'd done this with our EFTPOS cards, but that was I thought because they were "off the shelf" and anonymous. It seems that even though you've got a personalised card they don't issue PIN numbers through the post like in the UK. A bit of a bind, but I guess it's a little more secure. We wandered down to Bayfair and picked up the card and PINed both of them.
Di's friend Caroline rang us to say that the owners of the first house we looked at would take a 9 month term. I still don't want it, as it doesn't feel at all homely, and at $450 it's relatively expensive and it has absolutely no heating. That might be all right for the next 6 months, but after that it could get a bit nippy. Also they can't let us have it until 9th October which means another $1200 to stay in the hotel.
We rang the agent for the house recommended by the hotel, and the agent could not have been less helpful if she'd tried. No way would they consider anything other than 12 months, they insisted that we produced all of our references (everyone else so far has asked for names and made contact themselves) and offers of paying 6 months up front were countered with claims that we'd just wreck the place once we'd paid. We were also a bit suspicious about the roof that was damaged in a freak hail storm back in May which still hadn't been fixed. All in all it was a very negative experience.
We decided to ask the agent for the house on Excelsior place to draw up papers for Monday. It's an expensive property at $500, but they will take 6 months and then require a rolling 3 weeks notice after that. We are looking at another house this afternoon and of course we have the advertisement this Saturday which may bring something in.
Westpac rang to say my visa debit card had arrived, but Di's hadn't. Hmm. A bit odd...and then the post arrived at the hotel and Di's card was among it. Also our AA cards arrived. Over here, you need to visit the bank to set your PIN number. We'd done this with our EFTPOS cards, but that was I thought because they were "off the shelf" and anonymous. It seems that even though you've got a personalised card they don't issue PIN numbers through the post like in the UK. A bit of a bind, but I guess it's a little more secure. We wandered down to Bayfair and picked up the card and PINed both of them.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Phonetically Challenged
Woke up at 8 this morning. Wooo! Finally getting the hang of this time zone thing. Kids woke up at much the same time so I guess they're getting there too. I was looking for my mobile phone last night in order to extract its number and enter it on various forms but was unable to find it. I still couldn't find it this morning, even when ringing it with Di's. Hmmm. My cunning plan of buying a jurassic Nokia in the UK was apparently coming to pieces. Thinking it through I'd used it to find Di's number in one of the rental agent places yesterday. I waited until just gone 9 and rang it again. This time I got an answer - I had indeed left it in the rental agent. We drove down to the Mount to pick it up.
We rang up about the house recommended by our hotel proprietors, and went round to have a gander. The tenant wants out because she's bought an Auckland business which her husband is running on his own and she only sees him once a fortnight. It's certainly got enough room and there are some brilliant views, but it's a little out in the stix, not in the right school zone (although the schools would be OK) and the kitchen is a disaster area. However, it's on the short list and we'll have to make a decision in a few days come what may. The rent's OK at $400 too.
We drove into Tauranga and went to the AA shop again, since they are able to issue NZ driving licences, and also IRD (inland revenue) numbers which we will need if were going to work or claim any child benefit payments. As UK licence holders, we are able to simply convert our existing licences over without taking any tests, practical or theory. However, they do administer an eye test, which both Di and I had trouble with. The test comprises sticking your face into a microscope like device. The problem was that neither of us could figure out where to focus, and the three sets of four letters that we were supposed to read looked like 8 with half of them overlapping each other. Eventually it all comes into focus and it's easy enough. There's also a peripheral vision test built in to the microscope thingy and on the first attempt I could only see one of the lights. This turned out to be because I was taking the instruction to "press your head on this bar" far too literally and my moosh was up close and personal with the device. Easing the pressure a little revealed all sorts of flashing lights and I passed. Huzzah. We'll have to go through all this malarkey again in 10 years time, since NZ requires you to renew your licence every 10 years. We left with something looking like a "with compliments" slip, claiming to be a temporary copy of our NZ licences. At least if we hit anything we can now claim to have NZ licences and avoid the $400 foreign licence excess.
Back home, a little more googling and lurking on tradme revealed another 4 bed house in the right area and we're looking at it tomorrow.
We used the AC on the Mirth Mobile today, and sure enough a puddle developed underneath. Interestingly the AC itself wasn't really doing very much which makes the think it's knackered. Turning off the AC but leaving the blower running provided a modest amount of not-quite-as-hot-as-the-inside air and no puddle underneath. We did however drive with all the windows down, which reveals a peculiar scraping sound when braking. Hmm. I wonder if the pads are down to the metal. The warrant of fitness (which over here is every 6 months for cars over 6 years old) doesn't expire until mid Februrary, so it wasn't issued that long ago. I guess I'll have to roll underneath it tomorrow.
Di had her first drive in the Mirth Mobile this afternoon. She's not driven an automatic before and the first few hundred yards were painful. She got the hang of putting in in drive, but sadly when we'd reached about 30 KpH, she decided to "change gear" and pressed the "clutch" down. The ABS does indeed work, very nicely. Alas my face will take a day or two for the "adnoH" logo to fade from my forehead. Having explained AGAIN that you just press and go we got back to the hotel without further incident. I did however have a vice like grip on her left leg .
We rang up about the house recommended by our hotel proprietors, and went round to have a gander. The tenant wants out because she's bought an Auckland business which her husband is running on his own and she only sees him once a fortnight. It's certainly got enough room and there are some brilliant views, but it's a little out in the stix, not in the right school zone (although the schools would be OK) and the kitchen is a disaster area. However, it's on the short list and we'll have to make a decision in a few days come what may. The rent's OK at $400 too.
We drove into Tauranga and went to the AA shop again, since they are able to issue NZ driving licences, and also IRD (inland revenue) numbers which we will need if were going to work or claim any child benefit payments. As UK licence holders, we are able to simply convert our existing licences over without taking any tests, practical or theory. However, they do administer an eye test, which both Di and I had trouble with. The test comprises sticking your face into a microscope like device. The problem was that neither of us could figure out where to focus, and the three sets of four letters that we were supposed to read looked like 8 with half of them overlapping each other. Eventually it all comes into focus and it's easy enough. There's also a peripheral vision test built in to the microscope thingy and on the first attempt I could only see one of the lights. This turned out to be because I was taking the instruction to "press your head on this bar" far too literally and my moosh was up close and personal with the device. Easing the pressure a little revealed all sorts of flashing lights and I passed. Huzzah. We'll have to go through all this malarkey again in 10 years time, since NZ requires you to renew your licence every 10 years. We left with something looking like a "with compliments" slip, claiming to be a temporary copy of our NZ licences. At least if we hit anything we can now claim to have NZ licences and avoid the $400 foreign licence excess.
Back home, a little more googling and lurking on tradme revealed another 4 bed house in the right area and we're looking at it tomorrow.
We used the AC on the Mirth Mobile today, and sure enough a puddle developed underneath. Interestingly the AC itself wasn't really doing very much which makes the think it's knackered. Turning off the AC but leaving the blower running provided a modest amount of not-quite-as-hot-as-the-inside air and no puddle underneath. We did however drive with all the windows down, which reveals a peculiar scraping sound when braking. Hmm. I wonder if the pads are down to the metal. The warrant of fitness (which over here is every 6 months for cars over 6 years old) doesn't expire until mid Februrary, so it wasn't issued that long ago. I guess I'll have to roll underneath it tomorrow.
Di had her first drive in the Mirth Mobile this afternoon. She's not driven an automatic before and the first few hundred yards were painful. She got the hang of putting in in drive, but sadly when we'd reached about 30 KpH, she decided to "change gear" and pressed the "clutch" down. The ABS does indeed work, very nicely. Alas my face will take a day or two for the "adnoH" logo to fade from my forehead. Having explained AGAIN that you just press and go we got back to the hotel without further incident. I did however have a vice like grip on her left leg .
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Nowt Doing
Another nice day - hit about 20 degrees. Woke up at about 5:30 and made tea and facebooked etc. drove the Mirth Mobile down to Bayfair with the aircon switched off and introduced Craig to Westpac. I also asked them for a proof of address which we'll need for converting the driving licences over to NZ ones. You can do this at the AA shop in Tauranga, or at participating post offices apparently. The only slight fly in the ointment is whether we can change address again without having to pay. Googling revealed that you can in fact update licence details on line and also change car reg details too. Our account manager at Westpac gave us the number of a letting agent that might be able to help with finding a house and said we were to say she'd sent us. It always helps to have a reference.
Having exhausted agents in Papamoa/Bayfair we wandered down to the Mount and parked up. We'd taken Rhiannon with us this time and of course we could not get past the ice cream shop without expending more cash to keep Madam from complaining and whining as only she can. A tour of the agents revealed very little that had 4 bedrooms. It's starting to look a bit grim.
Drove the Mirth Mobile back to the hotel. No evidence of any leaks, which as we'd not used the AC all day (and had all been hanging out of the windows) makes me think the puddling was condensation running out. Went to the Papamoa library (across the road from the hotel) to print out a few copies of the IRD tax number form I'd downloaded from the government website. Apparently this can be processed by the AA as well. It makes you wonder if there's anything they don't do. Fixing cars, probably.
Having been feeling a bit glum about finding a house following another call from an agent who'd told us NO WAY would anyone let 8 people into a 3 bed house (we thought we might use one of the two receptions as a bedroom), we had a call from Caroline who had placed a wanted add in the accommodation section on our behalf. We couldn't figure out who the "approved professional family" were. Also, the hotel's proprietor has a friend who is renting a bed house but wants out of the tenancy which we might take over, so that's one to look into. Finally, following some advice from one of the agents, Di registered on TradeMe, the Kiwi equivalent of fleabay. Apparently a lot of rentals get posted on there and sure enough a few we'd not seen before popped up. Lots to look at tomorrow it seems.
Phoebe's swimming is continuing to improve, she now swims right across the pool. Di was also seen to bathe this afternoon. Sadly I was banned from pixelating the moment on pain of death, or worse. Cathy knows;-)
Having exhausted agents in Papamoa/Bayfair we wandered down to the Mount and parked up. We'd taken Rhiannon with us this time and of course we could not get past the ice cream shop without expending more cash to keep Madam from complaining and whining as only she can. A tour of the agents revealed very little that had 4 bedrooms. It's starting to look a bit grim.
Drove the Mirth Mobile back to the hotel. No evidence of any leaks, which as we'd not used the AC all day (and had all been hanging out of the windows) makes me think the puddling was condensation running out. Went to the Papamoa library (across the road from the hotel) to print out a few copies of the IRD tax number form I'd downloaded from the government website. Apparently this can be processed by the AA as well. It makes you wonder if there's anything they don't do. Fixing cars, probably.
Having been feeling a bit glum about finding a house following another call from an agent who'd told us NO WAY would anyone let 8 people into a 3 bed house (we thought we might use one of the two receptions as a bedroom), we had a call from Caroline who had placed a wanted add in the accommodation section on our behalf. We couldn't figure out who the "approved professional family" were. Also, the hotel's proprietor has a friend who is renting a bed house but wants out of the tenancy which we might take over, so that's one to look into. Finally, following some advice from one of the agents, Di registered on TradeMe, the Kiwi equivalent of fleabay. Apparently a lot of rentals get posted on there and sure enough a few we'd not seen before popped up. Lots to look at tomorrow it seems.
Phoebe's swimming is continuing to improve, she now swims right across the pool. Di was also seen to bathe this afternoon. Sadly I was banned from pixelating the moment on pain of death, or worse. Cathy knows;-)
Monday, 14 September 2009
Musical Beds
Last night I dozed off on the Z bed (we're in a three bed apartment with two double beds and two singles). Rhiannon therefore slept with Di, although she refused to sleep on my side, something to do with me being a stinky unclean bloke or something. I woke up again at midnight, so I decided to fire up the laptop and watch the text commentary on the Monza GP. A 1-2 for Brawn GP. Turned back in around 2 and was actually woken at 6 by the tribe switching on the telly and the lights.
This morning was another bright and sunny day. Craig and I got the 36 Bay Hopper in to Tauranga and visited the AA shop. There seems to be some sort of tie up with the AA and the government department of transport, since they have all the licence transfer forms that we're going to need to get an NZ licence. Having joined the AA I plumped for some TPFT insurance. There's a $400 excess and an additional $400 excess because of our non NZ licence. The policy also covers us if we're hit by an uninsured driver so long as we get the registration number - this alone makes it worth having. I was quite pleased that the AA seemed to think the $2900 I'd paid for the Mirth Mobile was well below the book price which was around $7000. My initial concern that the $1500-$2500 guide price from the auctioneers indicated that I might have paid over the odds appears to be unfounded.
Fully spammed up we got the Hopper back to the apartment and took the Mirth Mobile out for a jolly to look over a house on Excelsior Place, right along Papamoa Beach Road. This was a very exclusive area and the house was barely 2 years old. A very large 4 bed house with a carpeted double garage. The agent indicated we were in with a shout as the owner is a bit choosy, however the rent is $500 a week which is a little more than we want to pay. We also took an exterior look at a house on Papamoa Beach Road but it was a bit rough. Another house that's not yet on the market on Arabian Drive looks promising, and the rent is only $360 which seems more than reasonable. The house with the pool on Motiti Road was actually a bit small, and not even the novel electric sliding gate and garage door made me think it was worth it. The house next door is actually up for sale and might well be what we're looking for. The pool was nothing much to shout about and swallowed what remained of the garden space which was pretty non existent.
Having viewed all the houses we wandered off into Tauranga to visit the Pak 'n' Save - a local supermarket chain which is generally a lot cheaper than the likes of Woolworths. Diane also managed to find a pink (as opposed to blue) car seat for Phoebe from the adjacent Warehouse, but at a rather steep $59. I was delighted to have found a box of PG Tips, but looking at the box when we got it home, it transpires the best before date was 2006! Hmm. We brewed up and it tastes just fine, but perhaps we need to be a little more careful in future.
We also noticed that the Mirth Mobile seems to be leaving a trail of water behind it. It isn't engine coolant, since it's completely clear. The current suspicion is that it's condensation from the air conditioning which we were running at full tilt, and it was certainly much worse later in the evening when it was cooler and there was presumably more moisture in the air.
This morning was another bright and sunny day. Craig and I got the 36 Bay Hopper in to Tauranga and visited the AA shop. There seems to be some sort of tie up with the AA and the government department of transport, since they have all the licence transfer forms that we're going to need to get an NZ licence. Having joined the AA I plumped for some TPFT insurance. There's a $400 excess and an additional $400 excess because of our non NZ licence. The policy also covers us if we're hit by an uninsured driver so long as we get the registration number - this alone makes it worth having. I was quite pleased that the AA seemed to think the $2900 I'd paid for the Mirth Mobile was well below the book price which was around $7000. My initial concern that the $1500-$2500 guide price from the auctioneers indicated that I might have paid over the odds appears to be unfounded.
Fully spammed up we got the Hopper back to the apartment and took the Mirth Mobile out for a jolly to look over a house on Excelsior Place, right along Papamoa Beach Road. This was a very exclusive area and the house was barely 2 years old. A very large 4 bed house with a carpeted double garage. The agent indicated we were in with a shout as the owner is a bit choosy, however the rent is $500 a week which is a little more than we want to pay. We also took an exterior look at a house on Papamoa Beach Road but it was a bit rough. Another house that's not yet on the market on Arabian Drive looks promising, and the rent is only $360 which seems more than reasonable. The house with the pool on Motiti Road was actually a bit small, and not even the novel electric sliding gate and garage door made me think it was worth it. The house next door is actually up for sale and might well be what we're looking for. The pool was nothing much to shout about and swallowed what remained of the garden space which was pretty non existent.
Having viewed all the houses we wandered off into Tauranga to visit the Pak 'n' Save - a local supermarket chain which is generally a lot cheaper than the likes of Woolworths. Diane also managed to find a pink (as opposed to blue) car seat for Phoebe from the adjacent Warehouse, but at a rather steep $59. I was delighted to have found a box of PG Tips, but looking at the box when we got it home, it transpires the best before date was 2006! Hmm. We brewed up and it tastes just fine, but perhaps we need to be a little more careful in future.
We also noticed that the Mirth Mobile seems to be leaving a trail of water behind it. It isn't engine coolant, since it's completely clear. The current suspicion is that it's condensation from the air conditioning which we were running at full tilt, and it was certainly much worse later in the evening when it was cooler and there was presumably more moisture in the air.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Mounting Excitement
It's 5AM and yet again I am awake and unable to sleep, as is Di. Got out of bed and made tea and lurked on Facebook and upset the UK Saturday night contingent. I signed into Skype and ended up talking to Michelle, Di's sister who I promptly passed on to Diane. The sound quality was absolutely fine with minimal delay - no need to pause between listening and speaking. As this worked well, I thought I'd try and get Mum on the blower, so having poked her with a text message to turn it all on and a bit of mucking about we established voice contact. Huzzah! Having chatted for about 20 minutes, we tried enabling video, which again required a little fiddling about with webcams (unplugging and plugging back in) and hey presto. The quality was as good over this free EOL hot spot as I've seen anywhere and apart from a sticky start up, it all worked really well. I can honestly say I was rather impressed. I was even able to show mum the swimming pool! We've booked another call for Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening in real money)
Today was a bright sunny day, T shirt weather, a marked contrast to yesterday. We decided that today we'd do holiday type stuff and visit Mount Maunganui. We caught the increasingly familiar Bay Hopper (this time a no. 30) to the mount. Mount Maunganui is an extinct volcano, and it's possible to climb to the top, but we decided to content ourselves with walking round it. This still takes about 40 minutes. About half way round we stopped to observe a coupe of seals sunning themselves on the rocks. The kids found all sorts of crabs and shrimps in the various rock pools and the beaches seem to be covered in nothing but shells. The water is really clear - a marked contrast to the sewage filled opaque ooze we're used to back home. Afterwards we wandered round the shops, bought ice cream and fish and chips and then got the bus back to Papamoa.
After we got back, most of us jumped in the pool for a lark about. I discovered that the deep end was in fact too deep to stand up in, as it's over 2 metres deep. Phoebe's swimming is coming on really well, she needs to use her arms and legs more, and not panic when she knows she can't touch her feet down, but I think over the next couple of weeks she'll have it cracked. Phoebe has also turned remarkably brown in a very short time. She's not burnt, but it serves to remind us how strong the sun is down here.
Here are a few webcams to have a squint at. Best viewed in the evening if you're in the UK.
Today was a bright sunny day, T shirt weather, a marked contrast to yesterday. We decided that today we'd do holiday type stuff and visit Mount Maunganui. We caught the increasingly familiar Bay Hopper (this time a no. 30) to the mount. Mount Maunganui is an extinct volcano, and it's possible to climb to the top, but we decided to content ourselves with walking round it. This still takes about 40 minutes. About half way round we stopped to observe a coupe of seals sunning themselves on the rocks. The kids found all sorts of crabs and shrimps in the various rock pools and the beaches seem to be covered in nothing but shells. The water is really clear - a marked contrast to the sewage filled opaque ooze we're used to back home. Afterwards we wandered round the shops, bought ice cream and fish and chips and then got the bus back to Papamoa.
After we got back, most of us jumped in the pool for a lark about. I discovered that the deep end was in fact too deep to stand up in, as it's over 2 metres deep. Phoebe's swimming is coming on really well, she needs to use her arms and legs more, and not panic when she knows she can't touch her feet down, but I think over the next couple of weeks she'll have it cracked. Phoebe has also turned remarkably brown in a very short time. She's not burnt, but it serves to remind us how strong the sun is down here.Here are a few webcams to have a squint at. Best viewed in the evening if you're in the UK.
Friday, 11 September 2009
The Mirth Mobile
We all woke up early again and finally gave in and got out of bed at about 6AM. The plan of attack for today was to wander back to Turners and have a go at buying a car at auction. Diane had her heart set on a Toyota Rav4, but I was more interested in a Subaru Forester, or the Honda CRV, especially when I spotted the number plate! It was a rather grey morning, and we caught the 33 bay hopper to Turners. By the time we'd spotted our stop we were a quarter mile past where we wanted to be. To add insult to injury it was raining quite hard.Checking out the Rav4, it was no go since the thing only had 4 seats. A Honda Odyssey was next on the list since this is supposed to be an MPV, but the back two seats didn't seem to be there. The Forester was very clean and tidy. It turned out to be an ex government vehicle so the service history was beyond reproach. We had a quick test drive and all seemed well. It was a manual transmission which met with Di's approval. By contrast the CRV was automatic and apparently had its shift in the "wrong" place, according to Di. Expected price for the Forester was $6000-$7000. We bid on it, but it went to $9300 in the end and that was a little more than I was wanting to pay for a cheap runaround. I bid on the CRV (OK, on the numberplate ;-)) but Di dragged my hand down forcibly. I also got side tracked into a frenetic text message exchange with Rog back in the UK, where of course it was Friday night in the Waverley. The accuracy of the Rog's text gradually deteriorated - no prizes for guessing why.
The last but one lot was a 1999 Honda Accord VTi-L. This is a "Sedan" body, i.e. a car with a boot in plain english. It had a warrant of fitness (WOF, like the UK MOT) and registration until December, and being a 3 litre V6 the 200,000 KM on the clock didn't really matter. We didn't fancy walking home in the rain, so we bid on it and managed to get it for $2,900 plus fees. The beastwas duly named the Mirth Mobile and driven back towards Papamoa, with a few interesting detours due to some slightly dodgy map reading and general directional challenges courtesy of Di (although she blames me). It's barely off tickover at 50KM/H and pulls a piddly 1,700 RPM at 70. I doubt it's ever been thrashed hard - it would be challenging to do so with the low speed limits and such a lump of an engine. Craig thinks it's an old man's car, but strangely the AA refused to quote for insurance with him on the policy. Clearly the AA know something he doesn't.
The Mirth Mobile is an automatic, 
which is a shame, but lots of cars over here are. Manual transmissions are the exception. It comes fully laden with leather interior, air con, cruise control, remote central locking, all round electric windows and CD player.We do need to get some motor insurance though. I got a quote off the AA for $113 TPFT. In NZ insurance is not compulsory, which is rather scary. As far as I can work out, personal injury is covered by the ACC scheme, but damage to property is your problem, hence the need for insurance. If you manage to drive into something expensive, you have to cough up if it's your fault and writing off a $30,000 plus vehicle that's not even yours isn't to be taken lightly. For that piddly sum of money (about £50) it seems stupid not to get covered.
Instead of driving straight home, we drove a little further along Papamoa Beach Road to look at a house that was coming on the market next Monday. It was loads better than the other one we looked at, only 4 beds, but it was on the beach, had a pool, fully furnished (a bonus since otherwise we have to rush out and buy beds, white goods etc) and just looked the business despite being a bit further out of town. But that should not be a problem as there's a bus stop outside and we've now got the Mirth Mobile, right? It's also a mere $30 more than the other one, at $480 a week (£200 in real money which is less than we were paying for our poxy shoebox back in the UK!)Unfortunately Caroline wasn't well and to cancel on us, so *I* cooked tea (spagbol) while Di surfed for houses to rent. Everyone sloped off to bed at about 7ish, leaving me to watch the Rugby on my own with a few Sassy Reds for company. Perhaps I shouldn't have watched. The AllBlacks lost by 3 points, but then again they gave 3 points away with a naughty after the whistle totally unnecessary shoulder barge. Tsk.
No Sale
After a couple of calls it transpired our vendor wasn't happy with $1999, but did offer $2500. On reflection I thought this was a bit much, as the Toyota was quite elderly and had a lot of miles on it. I declined the offer and all liability with it.
We went shopping in the morning and managed to expend $200 on food at the local Woolworths. That's right, folks, over in NZ Woolies is still in business but it is primarily a food shop and nothing like the stores that used to be in the UK. I also bought a USB wireless adapter in an attempt to improve the dodgy signal I was getting with the carbus adapter. This proved to be a result and the "EOL_FREE_Hotspot" now gives a constant signal.
Di had made contact with Caroline on the expat forum. Caroline is a rental agent and she had the nod on a 5 bed house in the right area coming up in the next day or two. She offered to meet up and show us round, which she duly did. The house was an extended bach (a beach hut, pronounced batch, not bark) and although it had five rooms of a good size, it had no garden and didn't feel at all homely. The owners were looking for a 12 month rent, but we only offered 6. They apparently started playing silly beggars and it looked like they were getting a bit greedy, judging by the call we got later from Caroline, so on balance we decided to leave it. After viewing, Caroline dragged us to the pub across the road from us, and got the beer in. I like her already. She invited us to bring the kids along on Saturday PM, to meet a few folks and watch the All Blacks play the Springboks which seemed like a fine plan.
Phoebe and Freya, exhausted by the days exertions crashed out on the camp bed. I guess jet lag gets you even if you're very young and full of bounce.
We went shopping in the morning and managed to expend $200 on food at the local Woolworths. That's right, folks, over in NZ Woolies is still in business but it is primarily a food shop and nothing like the stores that used to be in the UK. I also bought a USB wireless adapter in an attempt to improve the dodgy signal I was getting with the carbus adapter. This proved to be a result and the "EOL_FREE_Hotspot" now gives a constant signal.
Di had made contact with Caroline on the expat forum. Caroline is a rental agent and she had the nod on a 5 bed house in the right area coming up in the next day or two. She offered to meet up and show us round, which she duly did. The house was an extended bach (a beach hut, pronounced batch, not bark) and although it had five rooms of a good size, it had no garden and didn't feel at all homely. The owners were looking for a 12 month rent, but we only offered 6. They apparently started playing silly beggars and it looked like they were getting a bit greedy, judging by the call we got later from Caroline, so on balance we decided to leave it. After viewing, Caroline dragged us to the pub across the road from us, and got the beer in. I like her already. She invited us to bring the kids along on Saturday PM, to meet a few folks and watch the All Blacks play the Springboks which seemed like a fine plan.
Phoebe and Freya, exhausted by the days exertions crashed out on the camp bed. I guess jet lag gets you even if you're very young and full of bounce.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
First Day in NZ
The body clock thing hadn't yet settled so everyone woke bright and early at about 6AM. Apart from Freya who woke up at 12:30 and 4AM when she switched the television on AT FULL VOLUME.
The order of the day was to activate the Westpac account so that we could access our dosh and buy a SIM card for my phone and Craig's. My insistence on continuing to use a jurassic Nokia 3410 paid off since it works just fine, although allegedly it may not work in the stix as it's not a tri-band phone. It works just dandy in the town though. We got the Bay Hopper down to the Bayfair shopping centre. Bus fare was a mere $2.50 per adult and $1.50 per child. Apparently a saver top up card can be bought and that gets you 20% off your fares if they were not cheap enough already. We hadn't quite made it to the bus stop, and were obviously looking like foreigners, waving maps around as the bus driver just stopped and waited for us to cotton on. The Bayfair centre has about 100 stores including Westpac and the Vodafone shop and thus we were able to achieve two objectives in one hit.
Westpac were very helpful and issued us with online banking access and EFTPOS cards on the spot. They were also prepared to take on Sam and Craig, who would otherwise have trouble proving their address. They did of course try to quote us for all sorts of insurance etc, but that was only to be expected. One of the culture shocks about banks over here is that there's no such thing as free banking. For example a standing order costs $2 to set up, checks cost $0.35 if you have a cheque book and there's a deposit fee for each cheque. If you manage everything online you avoid most other charges, but that includes online statements only. They also let you withdraw up to $10k per day which seems to be pretty reasonable and more than a lot of other banks.
We had lunch at Bayfair - there are half a dozen food outlets including a Chinese noodle type thingy that pushed out huge plates of noodles for $9. Sadly McDonalds was the order of the day for the kids. Nothing changes.
After lunch we decided that buses were not really the way to go as house hunting would prove difficult. I thought we ought to rent a car for a couple of weeks so we decided to walk home and try the rental place "around the corner" on Papamoa Beach Road. By the time we'd got to the turn off for Pacific Palms and having seen no sign of the rental place we went home. Diane went to try out the new EFTPOS card and paid the balance of our three weeks rent which went through smoothly enough. She spoke to Mike the proprietor who recommended that we went and bought a "flicker". Apparently a lot of tourists buy a cheap car at auction and then "flick" it back to auction when they're done. The local auctioneers is Turners Auctions. The name amused, being the same as the "character" who ran the pie shop where Craig used to work back in the UK. We were a bit late to take the bus so we rang for a taxi to take us there. This was bargain basement day and there were quite a few old nails about, but we bid on a Toyota Estima MPV and won the right to "negotiate" for $1500. Apparently if the car doesn't make its reserve, you have to haggle with the owner and see if they'll agree. We agreed to go $1999 (avoiding an extra $100 buyers fee) and waited. No response could be had from the vendor, so we went home. Unfortunately buses tend to stop running about 6ish, so we were looking at another taxi ride. One of the Turner's staff lived in Papmoa and very kindly gave us a lift home.
The order of the day was to activate the Westpac account so that we could access our dosh and buy a SIM card for my phone and Craig's. My insistence on continuing to use a jurassic Nokia 3410 paid off since it works just fine, although allegedly it may not work in the stix as it's not a tri-band phone. It works just dandy in the town though. We got the Bay Hopper down to the Bayfair shopping centre. Bus fare was a mere $2.50 per adult and $1.50 per child. Apparently a saver top up card can be bought and that gets you 20% off your fares if they were not cheap enough already. We hadn't quite made it to the bus stop, and were obviously looking like foreigners, waving maps around as the bus driver just stopped and waited for us to cotton on. The Bayfair centre has about 100 stores including Westpac and the Vodafone shop and thus we were able to achieve two objectives in one hit.
Westpac were very helpful and issued us with online banking access and EFTPOS cards on the spot. They were also prepared to take on Sam and Craig, who would otherwise have trouble proving their address. They did of course try to quote us for all sorts of insurance etc, but that was only to be expected. One of the culture shocks about banks over here is that there's no such thing as free banking. For example a standing order costs $2 to set up, checks cost $0.35 if you have a cheque book and there's a deposit fee for each cheque. If you manage everything online you avoid most other charges, but that includes online statements only. They also let you withdraw up to $10k per day which seems to be pretty reasonable and more than a lot of other banks.
We had lunch at Bayfair - there are half a dozen food outlets including a Chinese noodle type thingy that pushed out huge plates of noodles for $9. Sadly McDonalds was the order of the day for the kids. Nothing changes.
After lunch we decided that buses were not really the way to go as house hunting would prove difficult. I thought we ought to rent a car for a couple of weeks so we decided to walk home and try the rental place "around the corner" on Papamoa Beach Road. By the time we'd got to the turn off for Pacific Palms and having seen no sign of the rental place we went home. Diane went to try out the new EFTPOS card and paid the balance of our three weeks rent which went through smoothly enough. She spoke to Mike the proprietor who recommended that we went and bought a "flicker". Apparently a lot of tourists buy a cheap car at auction and then "flick" it back to auction when they're done. The local auctioneers is Turners Auctions. The name amused, being the same as the "character" who ran the pie shop where Craig used to work back in the UK. We were a bit late to take the bus so we rang for a taxi to take us there. This was bargain basement day and there were quite a few old nails about, but we bid on a Toyota Estima MPV and won the right to "negotiate" for $1500. Apparently if the car doesn't make its reserve, you have to haggle with the owner and see if they'll agree. We agreed to go $1999 (avoiding an extra $100 buyers fee) and waited. No response could be had from the vendor, so we went home. Unfortunately buses tend to stop running about 6ish, so we were looking at another taxi ride. One of the Turner's staff lived in Papmoa and very kindly gave us a lift home.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
T Minus 10 Seconds..
And so now it's Monday and today we leave. Last minute frantic disposal of all the rubbish, mattresses and the bits that people on Freecycle said they were going to collect but never did. Both vacuum cleaners were collected but not much else. Our landlord decided he wanted to inspect the premises himself, rather than letting the agent do it. We smelt a rat, especially when he seemed desperate to turn the oven fan on to expose the appalling noise it's made since we moved in. As we pointed out, it's always done that and the appliances are his responsibility, not ours.
Sasha appeared at about 11ish with some chocolate sustenance for the journey and a DVD memento for future perusal. He also insisted on taking a photo of us all - a final picture before our departure. I whisked the BFG round to Mum with an assortment of stuff, kettle, toaster and the like. A tearful farewell and another attack of the wonders (what on earth are we doing) before legging it back to meet the taxi and off to the airport.
The journey to the airport was unremarkable, except for our driver's nasty habit of driving 10 inches from the car in front. Although out flight was at 9PM at night, I wanted to try and get a door seat since you cannot apparently book these in advance. Well, it seems that even though we were the first in the queue for check in, all these seats and even the bulkhead seats were already taken! Quite how that actually works is another question which perhaps I'll put to Air New Zealand in due course. The argument is that you have to be an able bodied adult so that you can open the door in an emergency. Quite how the old granny who was sitting in the seats 5 rows in front of us would manage in a crisis is a moot point.
Sitting around in the boarding lounge at Heathrow, I thought I'd try and scope for wireless networks. Loads of 'em, but they're all pay-as-you-surf. Sigh. Perusing the duty free, Di went for a bottle of perfume and I treated myself to a litre of Quarter Cask Laphroaig. The flight took off on time and 12 hours later we landed in HongKong where they do have free WiFi. I guess Chinese hospitality trumps English. I managed a Facebook chat whilst waiting to board our flight to Auckland, thanks Brian. Getting through the HongKong security was more troublesome than Heathrow - Craig had his nail scissors confiscated (why he had a full manicure kit is another question) and my tiny and inoffensive nail clippers were deemed beyond the pail. Quite what the Chinese have against nail care remains unclear.
Another unremarkable (other than Freya's endless vomiting) flight saw us land in Auckland at around 9AM local time. We got our visas stamped and got through customs without problems. We had a 3 hour wait for our connecting flight to Tauranga, which was in a Bombardier Q300 which has propellers! We were sat near the wings and got to see the landing gear retract and extend which was entertaining for the couple of seconds it took. We also got to see the tyres smoking on landing!
Once we'd collected the luggage we went and found a Taxi. We in fact needed a minibus with trailer. At this moment, disaster struck as I managed to drop the frog on the floor, with unfortunate fatal results. It had survived 12,000 miles and I go and drop it 10 feet from the taxi. Such a waste of fine haggis juice :-(. The taxi cost us $50 which was a little steep, but apparently rates are higher for more passengers and if they use the trailer.
At the resort, the kids ripped into their suitcases to extract bathing suits and promptly headed for the pool, which is heated. Much water was thrown about all over the place. It all petered out at about 4PM, and most of us died at about 6ish, only to wake bright eyed at 6AM.
Sasha appeared at about 11ish with some chocolate sustenance for the journey and a DVD memento for future perusal. He also insisted on taking a photo of us all - a final picture before our departure. I whisked the BFG round to Mum with an assortment of stuff, kettle, toaster and the like. A tearful farewell and another attack of the wonders (what on earth are we doing) before legging it back to meet the taxi and off to the airport.The journey to the airport was unremarkable, except for our driver's nasty habit of driving 10 inches from the car in front. Although out flight was at 9PM at night, I wanted to try and get a door seat since you cannot apparently book these in advance. Well, it seems that even though we were the first in the queue for check in, all these seats and even the bulkhead seats were already taken! Quite how that actually works is another question which perhaps I'll put to Air New Zealand in due course. The argument is that you have to be an able bodied adult so that you can open the door in an emergency. Quite how the old granny who was sitting in the seats 5 rows in front of us would manage in a crisis is a moot point.
Sitting around in the boarding lounge at Heathrow, I thought I'd try and scope for wireless networks. Loads of 'em, but they're all pay-as-you-surf. Sigh. Perusing the duty free, Di went for a bottle of perfume and I treated myself to a litre of Quarter Cask Laphroaig. The flight took off on time and 12 hours later we landed in HongKong where they do have free WiFi. I guess Chinese hospitality trumps English. I managed a Facebook chat whilst waiting to board our flight to Auckland, thanks Brian. Getting through the HongKong security was more troublesome than Heathrow - Craig had his nail scissors confiscated (why he had a full manicure kit is another question) and my tiny and inoffensive nail clippers were deemed beyond the pail. Quite what the Chinese have against nail care remains unclear.
Another unremarkable (other than Freya's endless vomiting) flight saw us land in Auckland at around 9AM local time. We got our visas stamped and got through customs without problems. We had a 3 hour wait for our connecting flight to Tauranga, which was in a Bombardier Q300 which has propellers! We were sat near the wings and got to see the landing gear retract and extend which was entertaining for the couple of seconds it took. We also got to see the tyres smoking on landing!
Once we'd collected the luggage we went and found a Taxi. We in fact needed a minibus with trailer. At this moment, disaster struck as I managed to drop the frog on the floor, with unfortunate fatal results. It had survived 12,000 miles and I go and drop it 10 feet from the taxi. Such a waste of fine haggis juice :-(. The taxi cost us $50 which was a little steep, but apparently rates are higher for more passengers and if they use the trailer.
At the resort, the kids ripped into their suitcases to extract bathing suits and promptly headed for the pool, which is heated. Much water was thrown about all over the place. It all petered out at about 4PM, and most of us died at about 6ish, only to wake bright eyed at 6AM.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Last Day in the UK
A rather busy day. More vacuuming, tidying etc. The washing machine's new owner came and collected it. Phoebe and Freya were deposited at a friend's house and the rest of us except Craig went to Lionel & Wendy's for a BBQ on the beach. Wendy presented each of the girls with a St. Christopher. Thanks Wendy! Much food was consumed and finally we left to pick up the girls. More cake and a glass of wine while picking them up and exchange of email addresses. We're hoping Phoebe will be able to keep in touch with her best friend Posy, but at this age who knows whether they will.
Finally we popped round to Mum's place and deposited some items that we weren't taking with us. Mum was quite emotional, no surprise there and I must admit it's one of those awkward times when you feel much the same and begin to question why you're doing it. Back home to wait for Sue and Kev to pick up the telly and yet more tidying and packing and off to bed.
Finally we popped round to Mum's place and deposited some items that we weren't taking with us. Mum was quite emotional, no surprise there and I must admit it's one of those awkward times when you feel much the same and begin to question why you're doing it. Back home to wait for Sue and Kev to pick up the telly and yet more tidying and packing and off to bed.
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Party!
The occasional Saturday morning hangover failed to rear its head, which was useful since there was lots of cleaning, tidying and taking things to the dump to do. Also I needed to visit the Waverley and put up some decorations in preparation for the evening party. Good job I turned up since Rog and Ben had no chance of reaching the required height, necessitating usage of my mutant limbs for this purpose.
The evening was great fun, if a little sad but we had a damn good time and I seemed to get away without buying much beer all night, which is always a bonus. I was called upon to make a speech, which was totally unplanned but I managed to get away with it and not upset too many people. I must be loosing my touch. Annoyingly I managed to misplace the camera, a double annoyance as I made a point of stopping off to buy spare batteries en route to the Waverley. Thus I've had to resort to thieving images from Facebook. Thanks Lisa! Amusingly Roose and Jo, our erstwhile neighbours turned up at our house with loads of beer and were most perplexed to find a total lack of noise or anything else. They checked twitter, only to be met with "party" as the single solitary clue to our whereabouts. They made it eventually, and wobbled home so all was well in the end.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Trucking On
The container lorry came and was loaded and all out stuff left for Tilbury. That's the last we'll see of it until 22nd October, or maybe a couple of weeks after that depending on the tide, pirates etc. It was rather sad seeing all your worldly goods being taken away in one foul swoop. It kind of makes you feel insignificant. My last Friday night at the pub was tinged with a little sadness. Poor Rog seems to be taking it particularly hard.The rest of Friday was taken up with cleaning and tidying ready for our impending departure.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Boxing Clever
The last week just seems to have flown by. Not sure where it all went. I did spend a considerable time in the garage sorting out my late father in law's tool boxes, chucking out all the whitworth and bsf spanners and saving the occasional metric offering. Anything that's been "outside" has to be disinfected with "Vikron S", a ministry approved disinfectant (available from SPR centre for a couple of quid) which leaves a strangely unsatisfying smell of pretty much nothing. One wonders how they'll be able to tell it was used at all.
Thursday evening saw my farewell "training session" with the Rotary Road Runners followed by a pub meal in the Ship. A good turnout including a few faces who haven't managed to make it for quite a while. Strange how a shortened (or indeed completely obviated) session and the promise of beer makes folks turn up.
Friday saw me playing Dowland's King of Denmark's Galliard at the Selsey Festival. The rehearsal was hideous but the actual performance was not too bad. No one noticed when various semiquavers argued among themselves about who should be played first. I managed to make it down to the Waverley for 10:30 and got a couple of beers in. Alas, two supposed "mates" dragged me off to another pub, and then back to their spot for more beer and pizza. Strangely I was a little worse for wear the following morning but sprightly enough to return for a meal with the gang later that evening. However before we went out to stuff our faces, we parted with three of the beds and the sofa and chair. Thus telly now has to be watched from the floor which is not at all comfortable.
Sunday saw the remaining members of the family turn up for lunch which passed off without incident and was strangely enjoyable if a bit odd given that it probably will not happen again. On the plus side I was spared having to watch Button and Hamilton tripping over each other at the Spa GP.
PSS arrived today and stuffed all of our possessions (except for the laptop!) into boxes and wrapped up everything else. It's really quite depressing to see your whole life crammed into a series of identical boxes from which the only escape seems to be the tip. It somehow dampened my enthusiasm for the whole NZ thing and got me wondering "what the hell were you thinking". Maybe this is because roughing it starts now - there is absolutely nothing to sit in other than the stairs, no where to eat, and most of the computers are packed. Argh - I have to use Windoze. Tomorrow night our mattress will have gone and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get off the floor.
I needed to go out in the BFG this evening, so we coned off the bit of the road (with a few spare cones left over from the Rox festival a couple of weeks back) in preparation for the container lorry arriving in the morning (8AM). Within about 0.0001 seconds the filth showed up and got very shirty about the "theft" of their three cones. Maybe it was because Craig answered the door that they decided to have a go but it seemed well out of order. They didn't seem to get the fact that the cones were only being borrowed and we were going to take them back. It beggars belief that they got so miffed. I guess it's easier than nicking whoever murdered the Polish bloke outside my Mum's flat a month back, or getting their fat butts moving when there' s a drunk exposing himself and wandering around in YOUR back garden without 20 questions (after they bothered to answer the phone on the THIRD 999 call). Just don't ask. Useless. Makes me glad I'm going again, so perhaps not totally useless but close enough.
I am still SIMless as the fleabay item got too expensive especially when you consider that there's no credit on it. I'll just have to buy one when I land. It's not the end of the world - I can now keep in touch with most folks via Facebook - yup, I've finally given in and signed up.
I've finally got round to buying some dollars. The rate is in the pan, but what with us actually landing next Wednesday it seemed prudent to buy some now, what with the inexcusable delays that banks seem to be unable to sort out. Annoyingly the rate went up by 5C pretty much the moment I bought. Good job it was a mere £10k. Loosing out on $500 dollars is one thing, loosing $15,000 is quite another. I'm beginning to think that I might actually have to consider working more of a priority than perhaps I otherwise might have, and only transfer if it becomes necessary.
Thursday evening saw my farewell "training session" with the Rotary Road Runners followed by a pub meal in the Ship. A good turnout including a few faces who haven't managed to make it for quite a while. Strange how a shortened (or indeed completely obviated) session and the promise of beer makes folks turn up.
Friday saw me playing Dowland's King of Denmark's Galliard at the Selsey Festival. The rehearsal was hideous but the actual performance was not too bad. No one noticed when various semiquavers argued among themselves about who should be played first. I managed to make it down to the Waverley for 10:30 and got a couple of beers in. Alas, two supposed "mates" dragged me off to another pub, and then back to their spot for more beer and pizza. Strangely I was a little worse for wear the following morning but sprightly enough to return for a meal with the gang later that evening. However before we went out to stuff our faces, we parted with three of the beds and the sofa and chair. Thus telly now has to be watched from the floor which is not at all comfortable.
Sunday saw the remaining members of the family turn up for lunch which passed off without incident and was strangely enjoyable if a bit odd given that it probably will not happen again. On the plus side I was spared having to watch Button and Hamilton tripping over each other at the Spa GP.
PSS arrived today and stuffed all of our possessions (except for the laptop!) into boxes and wrapped up everything else. It's really quite depressing to see your whole life crammed into a series of identical boxes from which the only escape seems to be the tip. It somehow dampened my enthusiasm for the whole NZ thing and got me wondering "what the hell were you thinking". Maybe this is because roughing it starts now - there is absolutely nothing to sit in other than the stairs, no where to eat, and most of the computers are packed. Argh - I have to use Windoze. Tomorrow night our mattress will have gone and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get off the floor.
I needed to go out in the BFG this evening, so we coned off the bit of the road (with a few spare cones left over from the Rox festival a couple of weeks back) in preparation for the container lorry arriving in the morning (8AM). Within about 0.0001 seconds the filth showed up and got very shirty about the "theft" of their three cones. Maybe it was because Craig answered the door that they decided to have a go but it seemed well out of order. They didn't seem to get the fact that the cones were only being borrowed and we were going to take them back. It beggars belief that they got so miffed. I guess it's easier than nicking whoever murdered the Polish bloke outside my Mum's flat a month back, or getting their fat butts moving when there' s a drunk exposing himself and wandering around in YOUR back garden without 20 questions (after they bothered to answer the phone on the THIRD 999 call). Just don't ask. Useless. Makes me glad I'm going again, so perhaps not totally useless but close enough.I am still SIMless as the fleabay item got too expensive especially when you consider that there's no credit on it. I'll just have to buy one when I land. It's not the end of the world - I can now keep in touch with most folks via Facebook - yup, I've finally given in and signed up.
I've finally got round to buying some dollars. The rate is in the pan, but what with us actually landing next Wednesday it seemed prudent to buy some now, what with the inexcusable delays that banks seem to be unable to sort out. Annoyingly the rate went up by 5C pretty much the moment I bought. Good job it was a mere £10k. Loosing out on $500 dollars is one thing, loosing $15,000 is quite another. I'm beginning to think that I might actually have to consider working more of a priority than perhaps I otherwise might have, and only transfer if it becomes necessary.
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