Up to Day something (64?) – Big Update

Once again I have neglected you poor readers who are obviously teetering on the edge of your seats awaiting another exciting notshetland update.  Well here it is.

Over the past week or so since I last updated the blog a few things have crossed my mind that I think deserves commenting on.  The first being Mobile Phones.  Or rather, the use of Mobile Phones whilst driving.

In NZ you can still legally use a mobile phone while driving.  I didn’t actually realise it was still legal to do so until I read about it in the newspaper.  Since then there have been big debates about it and it looks as if the NZ government are going to implement a law banning the use of mobiles by the end of the year.  One of the punishments being bandied about is to confiscate the perpetrators phone and then post it back to them, along with a fine.  In this day and age where people cannot leave the house or function without their mobile to hand I can see how this could be very effective.  A cunning way  to make people think twice about using their phone whilst driving.

Also in the past week or two have been birthdays.  Lots of them.  Happy birthday, Euan, Emma and Me to name a few.  Unfortunately my birthday celebrations had to be a subdued affair due to me having an interview the next day. Interview?!?!  I hear you say.  Yes an interview.  It will be a week tomorrow since the interview and they said that I should hear back from them at the start of the week…not looking great.  I haven’t got my hopes up too much as the total number of applicants was 168.  Even to get as far as an interview is pretty good as far as I am concerned.  Still waiting to hear back from a few more applications, so please everybody, cross your fingers, legs, ears or anything else you can cross.

On Saturday we took a hurl up to Waihi to show Aidan the gold mine.

 (Picture: Aidan at Waihi)

(Picture: Aidan with some dude) 

After that we went down to the park to have some lunch and let Aidan feed the ducks and little birdies.

(Picture: Little birdie full of bread)

(Picture: Aidan feeding da ducks) 

Once we had finished scoffing, we headed towards Waihi Train Station, bought a return ticket to Waikino and hopped on the train to trundle along the Goldfields Railway.

(Picture: Wir train!)

We sat in the Open carriage EA3868 built in 1911 and admired the scenery as we were dragged along by the diesel-powered engine.

(Picture: Halfway between Waihi and Waikino)

The trip takes about 30mins each way with a turnaround of about 15mins in Waikino.

(Picture: The view from the carriage)

Saw some kind of hawk gliding overhead but, as usual, had the wrong lens on the camera.  All in all I think a good day was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Pictures: A happy Aidan trundling along the track)

On Sunday we went up to McLaren Falls to trek along a short bushwalk to see a waterfall.

(Picture: McLaren Falls waterfall)

We drove along and saw some kind of Cockatiel/Parrot/Budgie type things flying around which I couldn’t get a picture of due to me driving at the time.  After that we went down to the waterfront so Aidan could feed some more ducks and things.

(Picture: Aidan with the Black Swans)

(Picture: A sole rower)

After all that we headed to Carol and Grahams where we had been invited for grub.  Grub was good, beer was good and then it was home to get Aidan chucked into the bath before school the next day.

In other news, I have now uploaded the monthly 2006 photos to twabble.blogspot.com and have uploaded a few aircraft submissions to the CRCShetland website.

Day 53, 54 & 55 – Another week, another update

As many of you have probably realised by now, my tipple of choice out here is known as Waikato Draught, it has a similar aroma and flavour to that of my favourite tipple back in Shetland – McEwan’s Export.

The other night I decided it was about time I found out some of the history regarding Waikato Draught.  I am glad I did.  Did you know that back in 1864, and I quote, “The God Father of Brewing in the Waikato, determined Scot Charles Innes arrives in New Zealand”.  The man responsible for Waikato Draught turns out to be Scottish, McEwan’s Export is Scottish, can anybody see the link here?

Anyway, as I donned my monocle and studied the history a bit further I came across an astounding discovery.  In 1899:-

“Charles Innes loses his life after mysteriously

drowning while bathing in one of his vats”

Now then, excuse me but can anybody think of a better way to die? :)

So, my favourite tipple out here is concocted from a Scottish Blokes bath water, nevertheless it tastes all right to me.

Tania and Aidan brought some gifts with them when they returned from Russell.  Louise had been good enough to provide Tania with new placemats and coasters after she had shrunk the last ones.  They feature Shetland Scenes which is nice.  She also gave Aidan a Shetland book and Tania a picnic rug.  The picnic rug turns out to have a lot of history,

“This pure New Zealand wool rug was made by Wellington Woollen Co. at Petrone. 

It was to have been presented to the Queen Mother on a proposed visit to New Zealand in 1949.  The visit was postponed because of Her Majesty’s ill health.

The Manufacturers’ Association decided to present the rug to Dr. Val Armstrong of N.Z.D.S.I.R because of the assistance and financial savings due to his advice.

Dr Armstrong was leaving to join the staff of the New Zealand Embassy in Washington DC, USA as Scientific Attaché”

Dr Val Armstrong was Tania’s grand-father.

On Saturday night we were invited over to Neil’s for tea and a few beers which was fine.

Today I finally managed to upload the last of the aircraft photos I have from Sumburgh Airport.  This brings the photograph total to 201 planes and 103 helicopters from 19 countries.

I have been planning for a while now to expand on the website and allow contributions from other people to add to the list.  Simple rules apply, the aircraft needs to be one that doesn’t already appear on the website and needs to be photographed at or around Sumburgh Airport.  So if anybody has any old pics lying around they would like to contribute please head over to the CRCShetland Aircraft Photo Contribution page.

I have added a form to the website to make it easy to submit photographs for inclusion.  I will hopefully be able to add more about the history of Sumburgh Airport as time goes on.

Cheers fer noo.

Up to Day 52 – Living in a Zoo

The last few days of solitude were quite uneventful, Tania and Aidan have managed to trek back down from Russell arriving back on Monday night.  The house is once again like a zoo!

The Russell Birdman Festival appeared to be a hit with Aidan. He attempted the Spaghetti eating competition thinking that it was an all-you-can-eat contest and not a how-quick-you-could-eat-one-bowl-and-then-put-it-on-your-head contest.  He won the beach-comb competition though, earning himself some sweets and stuff.  He also managed to catch a 4kg Porae while off fishing.

 (Picture courtesy of Tania: Aidan swimming in Russell)

Stewart  enjoyed his 60th birthday bash, even managing to survive the shock of Louise appearing out of the blue when she was supposed to be in Fair isle.

(Picture courtesy of Tania: Louise surprising Stewart)

While Aidan and Tania were away the little birdies seemed to make a return to the garden.  The either liked my choice of music or they liked the relatively peaceful surroundings.

(Picture: A Silvereye pinching one of the berry-things off the bush)

Speaking of birdies, we have discovered what the first bag of birdfeed contained.  After it having been scattered due to the breaking of the birdfeeder we now have a couple of growths of very healthy grass.

(Picture: The birdseed garden)

On Tuesday Lowrie ventured North to meet up with me for a couple of beers.  It was good to catch up with him, we will hopefully have a bit more time next time.

On Wednesday Caleb came over to play for a bit with Aidan before Aidan had to go and get an injection in his forehead.  At least, that’s what I told him.  The response, “They canna dad…it’s bone!”, didn’t detract from the worried look on his face.  He survived the Hep-B jab in the arm even though he reckoned they had to put the needle all the way in.

(Picture: The scene of the crime)

Thursday was spent pottering about town doing very little.  Took a couple of snaps and that was about it.

(Picture: Aidan looking out from Memorial Park)

Today (Friday) we decided to head to Hamilton Zoo.  It was very overcast and threatening to rain when we set off but after we passed over the Kaimai Range it soon brightened up.  It was a fine day out to round of the School holidays.  Aidan is back to school on Monday.

(Picture: Aidan in a grump)

  (Picture: Baby Zebra)

 (Picture: Aidan at teatime)

 (Picture: Giraffe)

(Picture: Tigger)

(Picture: Rhaidanocerous) 

After today I realised that home life is nothing like living in the Zoo.  The Zoo is much quieter!

Day 43, 44, 45 & 46 – All alone still

Spoke to Tania earlier and it looks like I am going to be home alone for a few more days.  There is a pretty crappy forecast over the weekend with a sub-tropical storm predicted over the north of the country making driving conditions look pretty bad.  You wouldn’t think it looking outside just now.  I have the door wide open and the sun is shining.

So what can I tell you about the last few days?  Very little really.  Got a reply from one of my applications.  Looks like the selection process for that post could carry on into August sometime.

Amazing what a few days peace and quiet can do around here.  The little birdies are back in the garden again.  They might attempt to eat from the new bird-feeder once again.  Stewart and Aidan have apparently built a bird-table so we shall see if that attracts them.

Money.  There’s a strange thing.  Apart from having a lack of it, did you know that New Zealand doesn’t bother with anything less than 10 cents?  The coins that are distributed are $2, $1, 50c, 20c and 10c.  Anything below that gets rounded up or down. e.g. $9.97 would be rounded up to $10 and $9.94 would be rounded down to $9.90.

(Picture: 10c, 20c, 50c, $1)

Yesterday I took a run out and about in the car, picked up Aidan and Tania’s medical history from the doctors and took a couple of photos.  I headed over to Fergusson Park for a look.  Loads of people there enjoying the weather.  I still haven’t got used to seeing people running around in shorts and t-shirts and queuing at an ice-cream van when it is the middle of Winter!

(Picture: Looking North-ish from Fergusson Park)

I was thinking it was about time I did a new Hollywood Poster for this Shetlink thread.  For those of you that don’t know what this is about here is a little explanation.  Somebody came up with the idea of what would Hollywood Posters look like if the films were made in Shetland.  I have contributed quite a few now, and have uploaded them to my CRCShetland site.  Just click on the ‘Next’ link to scroll through them.  I will hopefully have descriptions up soon.  My most recent poster was this one:-

(Picture: Back to the Foo Tour) 

This features Elma Johnson, a prominent tour guide in Shetland, and refers to her appearance in a spoof documentary by John Shuttleworth called, ‘It’s nice up North’.  In it she is shown to enjoy a tipple.  The original title is of course Back to the Future.

So now you get the idea, any suggestions?  It is either that or revive another, similar, thread - Shetland Magazines.  The idea is the same but it is magazines rather than movies that have been produced in Shetland.  My most recent creation for this was:-

(Picture: Penthoose)

This of course relates to the ‘Mens Mag’, Penthouse but looked at from a Shetland angle.  So any ideas?

In other news, I have uploaded the 2005 monthly pics to twabble.blogspot.com

Tata fer noo.

Day 39, 40, 41, 42 – Eek, another 4 day post

I think I am going to have to stop posting the day numbers as it is just confusing me and really has little bearing on what has been going on since we got here.  We’ll see.

So, I suppose that there is loads of stuff to tell you since I last posted?  Nope, not really.

As Aidan and I were leaving the garage the other day he let it slip that, ‘Mom had scraped the side of the garage door reversing out the other day.’  As I paused, had a rethink, did I hear correctly, ‘What?’  Upon stopping the car, getting out and then noticing the black mark on the bumper and a similar mark on the wall, I realised that I had indeed heard correctly.  She kept that one bloody quiet!!  No real damage done though, more a scuff than anything else.

Speaking of the car, we have done over 1000km since we got it and it is still running.  That can’t be a bad sign.  The mileage will have gone up quite a bit now as Tania and Aidan have driven off to Russell with it.  Turns out that a tornado hit a little West of them earlier in the day when they were driving up.

This leaves me home alone for the week!  Peace, quiet, silence, doors & windows opened without fear of spiders creeping in, telly to use as monitor and music to be played without headphones being a requirement!

I have been left a few tasks to complete while they are away which I think I am managing all by myself.  Get rid of the rather large spider in the bathroom:-

Hoover – done, washing – done, tidy-up – done.  Tania had informed me that, “Their should be enough for a white-wash”.  What’s that then?  I was of the understanding that a white-wash was something you did to a house that needed painting.  Seemed a waste of time to separate out all these clothes when the machine has a thing called mixed load.  A mixed load was exactly what I had, in it went.

On Sunday I decided to go for a little drive to scope out possible photo-taking opportunities when the weather improved.  I ended up out at Te Puna, in between the showers the weather wasn’t too bad.  The showers were heavy enough to put a car off the road I had been driving along.  It paid off though, I found a spot that should be good for getting a better pic in the future.

(Picture: Mount Maunganui from Te Puna)

Nothing to report on the job front apart from some more people saying they have nothing going at the moment.  My P45 along with my payslip turned up on Monday.  You have to love the guys at my previous employment for their strange yet endearing sense of humour:-

(Picture: Sir Craig Robertson OBC BAR – Address deliberately obfuscated)

I am sure you are all concerned that I am eating correctly and looking after myself properly while the rest of the family are on a jaunt up north.  To allay your fears I thought I would take a photograph of the culinary delight that I had for my tea last night.  This is proper man food, none of your namby-pamby pasta or such-like nonsense.  This is the culinary delight otherwise known as, “Wattie’s Big N’ Hearty Beef & Beer Soup with a side plate of Waikato Draught”.

(Picture: A meal fit for a King)

In other news, I have managed to get the monthly pics for 2004 uploaded over at www.twabble.blogspot.com

That’s all for now folks!

Day 35, 36, 37 & 38 – Whoa 4 days!

So there have been a lack of updates this week.  Mostly down to very little incidences of interest happening over the course of the week. 

Aidan and I have been making paper planes like there is no tomorrow.  He is going to have to get some practise in as there is a Paper Plane flying competition at the Annual Russell Birdman Festival when he is up visiting Stewart in the Bay of Islands.

Whilst conversing with Ryan on Skype the other day, I was reminded of an article which I read recently discussing how far we have come with technology in a relatively short period of time.  165 years ago, Samuel Morse dotted and dashed his way into the history books by transmitting a signal from one town to another.  Now you can click on a link and seconds later be looking at and talking to somebody at the other side of the world.  We truly do live in an amazing age when it comes down to technology.  No doubt if somebody reads this in another 165 years time, they will laugh at how primitive everything was in 2009.

So what have we achieved with this modern technology that we possess?  It enables us to talk shite to our colleagues and friends around the globe.  It enables us to find out that they may have some derivative of swine flu with little chance of contracting it ourselves.  It enables us to know that ‘home brew’ seems to be an effective combatant against the virus.  Mainly, it allows us to keep in touch.

(Picture:  Ryan nursing his illness)

 

(Picture:  Swine Flu Bru!)

I am unsure if it is the wet weather that we have been having but my old git cynical side has been working overtime.  One such subject that has caused me a mini-rant or two is the topic of School Fees.

You see, in New Zealand the government appears to be proud of the “free” schooling that it provides.  However, the schools all request that you pay ‘School Donations’ or suchlike.  Each school seems to use a different term but in general, ‘School Donations’ is the recommended usage.  You do not have to pay it.  It is entirely voluntary.  We recently received an invoice for the school fees.  Ahem, I mean ‘donations’.  We are not entirely sure if it is for a term or for a year as it doesn’t say.  It lists:-

GENERAL LEVY DONATION 1 CHILD	$45.00
TECHNOLOGY FEE	$15.00
TEXTBOOK FEE	$20.00
SWIMMING POOL LEVY	$5.00
Amount Owing:	$85.00

How can it be a voluntary payment when they end the statement with, ‘Amount Owing’?  How can you possibly owe somebody a voluntary donation?  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I don’t have a problem with paying it.  At the end of the day it is for the good of the school and my child that all parents contribute as much as they can.  What does annoy me though is the sneaky attitude that most schools seem to go about receiving the ‘levy donations’.  What is wrong with an open, honest request for payment?  Not exactly providing an honest stance for the children to look up to are they?

This isn’t a direct dig at Otumoetai Primary by the way as all schools in NZ are guilty of it.  Some of the schools in poorer areas are really struggling as the parents can’t afford to stump up the fees that are required for the day to day running of the facilities.  A little more thought (perhaps a leaflet) explaining what your donation contributes to, the length that your donation lasts for and perhaps even a little time taken to ensure that the letter is addressed to the correct person (any idea who Miss Foffre is?) would go a long way.

I don’t know the solution and can’t even think of any decent alternative strategies that could be used but a bit more honesty from the government downwards wouldn’t go amiss.

Anyway, that’s the end of another little rant.  It has been a lovely sunny day today.  I have undertaken another little project.  I decided to shake the cobwebs off an old blog of mine www.twabble.blogspot.com and use it to post a photograph each month.  The plan is to pick out my favourite photo each month and post it to the blog.  I have raked through my piccies and decided to start it in June 2003, following it up to the present day, June 2009 and then updating it each month thereafter.

The photos I upload will be in no way technically perfect and some months may have to be skipped due to a lack of photos.  Some of the pictures will only have some sort of meaning to me while others may tell a story.  So far I have uploaded 2003’s content and I hope to get more uploaded tonight.  Keep an eye on www.twabble.blogspot.com for updates.

Took a couple of pics of the wasps nests today, so I might finally get around to removing them tonight.

Righty, better sign off for now, I’ve got to go and run Aidan to his School Disco tonight.  Cheers.