God Save The Queen

It's been a while since the last entry - I don't seem to have got round to doing it. Part of this is being stuck to the laptop for most of the day and half the evening curtail the enthusiasm for more typing. What follows represents two weeks of nefarious activity. Well, I'd like to think of it as nefarious, but it's probably just plain boring. Read on and find out.

I went round to Wayne's on Monday to watch the world twenty20 final between England and Australia. Sadly I managed to missed the start (6AM), but thanks to the magic of Sky was able to skip through the action and watch England WIN. Huzzah. Shame it was a Monday morning otherwise we'd have cracked a few beers open. Always nice when England win, especially if the Aussies LOOSE.

Tuesday I met up with another web design company based in Greerton. They lack any programming ability but are very good on the graphics side. We hope to be able to do some business in the future. The meeting was a result of a referral from another graphic designer who did my business cards. It really is who you know in the country.

Thursday I attended the 7AM (why am I having all these early mornings??) networking meeting but picked up a referral from one of the members who wanted a web site. Sounds promising.

Saturday morning was spent at the Mad Butcher and PakNSave shopping for our house warming party. We had invited pretty much everybody we knew and the place was full of Pomms and estate agents. Hmm. It started at about 3PM and we threw the last people out at around midnight. Everything went well apart from one five year old who lost his front tooth courtesy of the trampoline. Tramp: 2 Kids: 0.

Sunday we cleared up but paid a visit to a friend who as a nurse, had promised to remove Imogen's stitches FOC, saving us a few bucks on a trip to the doctor. We had a lot of stuff left over from the party so we descended on V&W and insisted they spark up their barbecue. It wasn't the warmest of days, but their outdoor wood burner just about kept the shivers away.

Monday I went to chat a bout a possible web site which seemed very positive, and the rest of the day was spent shopping for cars. We visited perhaps half a dozen dealers who all seemed to stock the ubiquitous Honda Odyssey MPV. We particularly liked the one we found at Car Connexxions. Unfortunately we'd forgotten that Freya was competing in an inter-schools cross country event. She finished 11th in her age group - a thoroughly creditable performance.

Tuesday we went back an bought the car, and then tried to find some insurance. Insurance over here is not compulsory, but highly advised since you're liable to pay for the other party's car if you drive like a twit. The AA were initially miles cheaper, since they decided that Diane (it's her car, not mine - the Mirth Mobile liveth on) as a real estate agent did not need commercial insurance. We rang around a few others including a guy from the networking group who was the only one who could explain the reason for commercial insurance being more expensive: namely that it costs more to administer a claim on a commercial policy because the government takes an interest in write offs. This is because as a GST registered person, you're able to claim GST and depreciation on the car, and it's not unknown for the car to be mysteriously written off and thus act as a tax fiddle. In the end the third person we spoke to at the AA suddenly decided Di did need commercial insurance, which meant the network guy got the business.

Wednesday evening we attended a multi-country dinner at the primary school. Everyone was supposed to bring a dish from the country that the kids had been researching. Freya had chosen Sweden, and we took Swedish ginger cookies. I had also been roped into playing guitar - since it's Spanish. I was thrust onto the stage and tried to play while sat on a very small chair. The foot stool was out of the question which made things rather awkward. The lighting was not very good which didn't help with reading the music so my first piece was a bit rubbish. The second was much better and I was quite happy with it - playing from memory with your eyes shut does work it seems. I was applauded off the stage and no one threw any of the food.

Thursday - another network meeting. The quotes I'd given out seemed to have been well received. I just need to chase them up next week. I exchanged a few emails with the Greerton outfit - looking very positive here. I migrated my mobile phone over to the 2degrees network - Vodafone are really expensive and 2degrees are half the price and keep giving a way extra credit and free texts. The process was relatively painless and the number transfer took about 6 hours to complete. We took Phoebe and Freya to netball - Freya played really well but does need to work on her shooting skills. She ended up with the player-of-the-day award so it's not just our imagination. Freya's teacher was apparently very impressed with my guitar playing and wants me to give her lessons. She seems serious... blimey. Thursday evening I went to meet up with a few other webheads over in Tauranga. Rather boring, but free beer and pizza:-)

Friday I met up with another network person at his premises - he's a bathroom/kitchen warehouse. We spent a while discussing requirements and then at about 5PM he locked the doors and got the beer out. Consequently I was late home and wasn't able to cook tea. I managed a convincing excuse about customer entertainment which I think I got away with.

Saturday we finally received the invoice for the pool equipment - but it was wrong. There appear to be two of the same item. Hmm. Smell a rat here. We have had reservations about PoolCare, since they were supposed to have been maintaining the pool, yet the pressure gauge and filter basket were both knackered and in need of replacement. We've also heard a few rumours, and having met the proprietor, he seems like a wide boy who might just slip in an extra item on his invoice "by mistake". We sent a querying email.
Later we went to a party at a former neighbour's house - sadly we were the oldest ones there - everyone else was under 30, or so it seemed. We managed to talk to a few interesting people though.

Sunday was a miserable wet day. We attracted most of the local kids into the house somehow (must be the death trap AKA trampoline) and the noise level was immense. Vicky was bored and wandered round with the kids to add to this mix. Fun Fun Fun.

Monday was a bank holiday - the Queen's birthday apparently. We decided to have V&W round for nosebag, so headed into Tauranga to raid PakNSave. We also stopped in at Bond+Bond, and scored an Emachines netbook for Di. She apparently needs a machine while she's at work. Neither of us really wanted Windoze seven, and as the netbook was a mere $399 inc GST (which can be reclaimed) and it's XP powered and the right size to drop into the handbag, it seemed like a steal.

I cooked a massive pot of chill-con-carne, which V&W tore into like they hadn't eaten for a week. Both of them are now eating meat again, having given in to the cravings and got fed up with feeling anaemic. The latest graze is apparently a diet linked to blood group which means that Wayne can't drink beer - only red wine and cider. Such a shame we had several reds left over from the party.