Hello, Good Evening & Welcome

Tuesday was not particularly remarkable. We went to the primary school for a meet and greet session with the Principal and the class teachers. A good portion of the meeting was taken up with the new "National" standards that the John (Don) Key government is hell bent on enforcing on everyone. There's a lot of hoo-haa in the press and the unions are up in arms. The nub of the problem is that it's eventually going to lead to the same crass league tables that afflict the UK. These result in some schools being marked as "failing" when in fact they had imparted a great deal more learning on their pupils than the $16,000 a year private schools, which start off with a much better educated intake. There's also the age-old issue of what level X actually looks like since this is largely a matter of opinion which naturally varies dependent on the marker and also the text. Of course, these matters are being glossed over. The school's take is that standards are a good thing, but the league table nonsense isn't.

We received a letter addressed to some one other than us. We've had a few of these, but this was a new name we'd not encountered before. It was hand addressed, which rang alarm bells. Upon opening it, it turned out to be a water bill addressed to our landlord, which had been returned as undelivered since the address in Australia was no longer valid. Rather than stick it back in the post again, we contacted the rental agent who said to pass it on to them. Apparently we're only liable for the water supply and not the various other penalty charges that were included.

On Wednesday I investigated the services of a property website called Terranet. For a modest fee, they provide all sorts of interesting facts and figures about property, including the details of the mortgagees having an interest in the property. It seems that our landlord has two mortgages on the house. This muddies the waters somewhat, as we were intending to approach the lender and apprise them of our inclination to purchase, just in case they might me interested in avoiding all that auction nonsense - assuming we can agree the right price.

Still suffering from boredom, I spent several hours bashing the guitar strings, and as a result Villa-Lobos, initially spinning in his grave at close to light speed now revolves at a similar rate to the washing machine, but with a noticeably better tune.

Di wanted to take the water bill to the agent in person, since the bill was due for payment straight away and there was a vague threat about a restricted supply. Thus we drove into Tauranga and Di went in and had a chat, mentioning the dual mortgage arrangement we had uncovered. The agent was less than impressed and recommended that even if we don't get asked to leave, we should get out as soon as possible. She's looking for another house for us, and I think as we're model tenants, we'll get first refusal.

I also had a notice that the Mirth Mobile's registration is due for renewal. $247.86 inc GST will see the thing legal for the next 12 months. There's also an option for 6 and even 3 months. In fact it looks like you can specify anything over 3 months. I won't know until I try and as it's not due until 3rd March, I shall not be rushing to do it too soon. There's no significant penalty to taking a shorter term, other than a $7.56 administration charge for renewing. Beats the UK.

Managed to run round the Mount, but the home stretch was rather stuttering.

Today Di and Vicky descended on the Warehouse to return a dead hoover and two of our patio chairs. Just as the girls were about to slip out of the door, an agency rang with details of a PHP job and I had to fill in some of the blanks on the CV. Hopefully something will come of it. The girls scooted and I was left with Vicky's kids, who behaved really well. One filled her nappy not long after the girls had departed and I was reminded how unpleasant children can be. We managed to get through two whole DVDs before they returned. Women and shops. A combination to be avoided at all costs.

This evening there was another meet the teacher event, this time at the Intermediate. Imogen's teacher is great, and tells us that Imogen's writing is way beyond everyone else in the class. Imogen was visibly proud of this and left feeling rather important. Good on her. The meeting was preceded by a sausage sizzle organised by the PTA, and we came away $10 lighter than we went largely due to a massive disagreement on which drink was suitable.

I appear to have upset Craig. He's not talking to me. He's not talking to Di, either, since she agreed with me that his recent driving performance does not rank as satisfactory.