21st August to 30th August – 3 Months In

Here we are again, time to update the blog.  What is time?  How can a day go slowly for one person and quickly for the next?  Since we got out here the days have been flying past, barely giving us time to think.  My sleep patterns seem to have resumed to their normal up all night scenarios.  I am planning to avoid bed perhaps tonight or tomorrow night to see if I can’t get the pattern to alter and allow me a more normal routine.

Night Photography

Anyways, what have we been up to this week?  I have been trying my hand at night time photography again.  Aidan and I went for a hurl last Friday night and took a few pics.  I will really need to go out some night myself so I have more time and less distractions though.

(Picture: Mount Maunganui looking South)

(Picture: Chapel Street bridge)

Road Trip

On Saturday we went for a 252km round trip to Whangamata.  Some brilliant scenery and amazing winding roads although there is not an abundance of places to stop and take piccies.

(Picture: Tauranga to Whangamata and back)

We travelled up the east coast and then drove over towards Thames for the return journey.

Aidan picked up an uninvited guest on route to Whangamata.  A bee landed on his upper arm causing him to freeze.  I have never seen him stand so still or quiet in my life!

(Picture: Aidan ‘bee’ing quiet!)

The bee decided not to hang around for long though, leaving Aidan to resume his normal noisy, active life.  I did manage to get him to stand still long enough for the photo below.

(Picture: Aidan, standing still)

Upon arrival at Whangamata we stopped off briefly at the beach for yet another nice view.

(Picture: Whangamata Beach)

On the way back we stopped off at the Karangahake Gorge for a quick look. 

(Picture: Ohinemuri River)

We are planning to go back there to spend a bit more time and explore the old railway tunnels and things.  Aidan didn’t seem to sure about the suspension bridges we had to walk over after he read the sign - “No more than 10 persons at any one time”.  In an attempt to reassure him I bounced up and down which resulted in having the opposite effect.

(Picture: Aidan seeing if the bridge could hold his weight)

After that we took a detour through Omokoroa (so the trip would have been more than the 252km’s I mentioned earlier).  On reaching the end of the road we discovered the Omokoroa Boating Club which has a very familiar looking logo!

(Picture: Yet another OBC!)

So that was Saturday.

Rumble…BOOM!

The start of the week brought some brilliant thunder & lightning.  I awoke to the sound of the thunder at about 0400.  It can take a lot to wake me normally!  Amazingly enough Tania and Aidan appeared to sleep through it.  I have never heard thunder rumble on for so long.  It was powerful enough to shake the house and the local paper reported peoples windows being shattered.  The following night we got another couple of rumbles but nothing quite as dramatic as the previous night.  Over 10,000 strikes were recorded over NZ with about 180 here in the Bay of Plenty.  It managed to knock out the power to about 8500 homes although we weren’t affected.

There were more power-cuts in Mount Maunganui later in the week due to “high winds” ahem.  Please take that with a pinch of salt as the highest gusts recorded at the Airport were 70km/h or 38knots or 43.5mph.  Yep, you read that right, 2400 homes had their power disrupted due to a 38knot wind!

Catalogue of canine catastrophies

In other news it looks like dogs are having a hard time out here.  My last update informed you of the barbecued pooch.  Since then a man has shot his dog over a dispute with Whangarei District Council.  The man attempted to register his dog with the council three times but refused to supply his date of birth as he regarded it an invasion of privacy.  When the council didn’t back down, he shot his dog, stuffed it in an empty dog biscuit bag and dropped it off at the council HQ.  Man’s best friend?

Grumpy Old Git rant

My rant this week is all down to Facebook.  I currently get emailed any updates and as they were mounting again I thought I had better log in and clear out all the shite.  For those of you that don’t know, Facebook has a number of ‘Apps’ that people can invite you to take part in.  These range from one or two useful ones to a billion or two that are a complete waste of time.  As I hadn’t logged in for 4 or 5 weeks I had over 100 of these invites and suggestions and suchlike.  I do not care to be kidnapped by anybody nor do I want to join their vampire club.  Thank you for your offer of a virtual drink but what exactly am I supposed to do with it?  Virtually drink it and get virtually drunk.  Perhaps I should stop by the hospital after partaking in so many virtual drinks and ask them politely if they will virtually pump my stomach.

The thing that got my blood pressure to rise enough to make me rant about this subject was when I got an invite to, “When will you get pregnant?”.  Now excuse me but I can’t see that happening anytime in the near future can you?

I am seriously considering registering www.facebookwithoutalltheshite.com and campaigning for Facebook to have a simple button, like a light switch, that lets you turn off all the crap and use the website for what was originally intended and what it could be very good at.  Keeping in touch with colleagues and friends.  So please support FWATS today by not sending me shite!

Rant over…for now.

Fizzy Eggs & Pickled Bru

Irn Bru and Pickled Eggs don’t exist.  At least they don’t here.  I have still been fruitless in my search for pickled eggs on these shores.  They just don’t seem to sell them.  It is for this reason that I have taken it upon myself to attempt my very own pickled eggs.  Stay tuned to find for the next update to find out how “Pooks’ Pickled Eggs” turned out! 

Three Month Holiday

I guess that this is us now officially at our 3 month mark.  That means that I have now been unemployed for 1/4 of the year.  I had an interview earlier in the week which turned out to be a little strange.  As soon as I arrived at the hotel where the interviews were being held, alarm bells started ringing in my head.  Nevertheless I went through with the interview and the interviewer commented on how he could see that I was a smart person.  Well, Rod, yes I am.  I was smart enough to go home and do a little digging on the company.  Every report I read said to run, run as far as you can.  The whole employment is basically a Multi Level Marketing/Pyramid Scheme where you end up earning nothing and working every hour of the day for it.  Normally I wouldn’t mention company names on here but in this case I am going to make an exception.  Purely down to the fact that they are the most ethically repulsive company I have come across.  So to anybody considering Combined Insurance as a future employer, I suggest you do a little googling first.

Smish, smash he was making a dash

That pretty much rounds up my news for this week.  Nothing much else to report apart from the usual breakages that occur.  Aidan managed to shove Eggy (my egg cup) off a teetering precipice the other night, murdering him in the process.  I do have another, matching, egg cup.  Eggy 2.  Nobody seems to care that Eggy 2 will now be quite lonely in the dark cupboard all by himself though.  Tania smashed another Pyrex dish (Un-named) tonight, I am beginning to think that it is a ploy to make room for all the crap that is being shipped out.

That is all for now, I am off to perfect my recipe for Pickled Eggs.  Tata.

15th August to 20th August – Backyard Beasts

Thought it was time I gave another little update.  I am doing my best to not leave it too long between posts.

Aaargh, writers block!  Where do I start when very little has happened?  Do I mention the pet dog that a family barbecued the other day, rant about the stupid power plugs out here or rant about driving again?

Better start with the dog story, yes?  Headline news the other day that a family had barbecued their pet dog.  They spit roasted the pet named “Ripper” and then invited the neighbours around for a nibble.  They apparently put the whole dog on to burn away the fur and char the skin before taking it off the barbecue to gut and skin it.  It was the excess smoke produced in this process that caused the Fire Brigade to be called to the scene, which, in turn, caused the SPCA to be called.  The SPCA investigated and as the dog had been humanely killed (by striking it to the head and then slitting its throat and bleeding it), they couldn’t prosecute in any way.  According to the SPCA Chief Executive, “backyard dog barbecues were becoming more common”.  I’ll save the hotdog jokes for another time.

(Picture: Stolen from somewhere)

Power plugs.  Useless.  Doesn’t matter whether they are of the two-pronged or three-pronged variety.  They are useless flimsy things.  Usually a UK plug will under no circumstances have bent pins.  Half of the time here you have to bend the pins to get them to fit in the socket!  Now, perhaps I am being slightly biased.  My first encounter with Mr N.Z Plug was when Aidan was nearly two and got electrocuted by him.  It certainly isn’t reassuring when you plug something in and watch the flashes of electricity occurring.

(Picture: UK v NZ)

So where exactly has this latest little outburst come from?  Well, to avoid the pit of snake cables that inevitably occur as soon as you have more than one cable trailing somewhere I decided to tidy up the cables behind the computer desk.  Everything is very neat now with speaker wires, power cables, USB leads etc etc all hidden out of sight.  I have mounted a 6-way power block to the back of the desk and routed all plugs to it.  But.  Harrumph.  Due to the stupid design of these things, the power adapter for the external hard drive has a tendency to work its way out of the socket.  Redesign called for!

Next rant.

Cars, driving, stupidly.  For some reason people seem to think that fog lights are a requirement here whether it be rain, wind or sunshine.  I haven’t actually encountered any NZ fog yet so time will tell as to whether they use them in such circumstances or not.  I haven’t looked into too much detail to see whether it is illegal as it is in the UK to use them outside times of low visibility.  Surely it is?  Maybe not.  At least somebody is listening to me.  Yep, the AA has brought up the ridiculousness of the right-hand rule again.  A survey has revealed that 20% of drivers don’t even pay attention to it.  The rule was brought in from Melbourne where it was used to help the tram system.  I haven’t seen any trams around here yet.  Australia did away with the rule in 1993, leaving New Zealand as the only place in the world to use such a rule.  They reckon that banishing it will reduce intersection crashes (2560 crashes a year) by 7%. I quote, "In most cases he who is bravest goes first and gets across."

I think that is the end of my grumpy old git persona for today.

Neil gave me a call the other day to see if I would take a look at his computer which was struggling a bit.  We all popped along and pizza was ordered for those that wanted it.  I stuck to the beer, wine and garlic bread.  We might be meeting up this weekend or the next to go for a wander in the countryside somewhere.

The grass in the garden is struggling to grow where Aidan has been playing football/rugby etc.  He is under instruction to stay off it in the meantime.  With Aidan’s help we have spread a bag of grass seed over the affected area in the hope it will regenerate a little.  I have bought some other stuff to put down once the seed takes hold.  Failing that we might just need to buy another bag of bird seed which seems to still be thriving.

(Picture: Bird (seed) Garden)

Speaking of which, Tania and Aidan have been very green-fingered lately.  No, it isn’t due to bogey extraction procedures.  They actually planted some stuff…and it hasn’t died yet!  We now have strawberries, chives, rosemary, parsley, mint and things growing in the garden.

The noise created by this pair don’t seem to have distracted the bugs though.  Mr Spider came out to play for a while the other day.

(Picture: A spider came and sat down beside her)

Our friendly Praying Mantises (Manti? Manties? Mantids?) have been paying a visit these past few days as well.

(Picture: Holy Bug!)

A strange cocoon resulted in some extra investigation however.  We were expecting a butterfly or moth to emerge but when a caterpillar-like critter popped its head out we were slightly confused.  Turns out it appears to be Liothula Omnivora otherwise known as the Common Bag Moth.  The Latin name gives it away as something that likes to eat your whole plantation and needless to say it is now living in a box as a pet of Aidan’s.

  (Picture: Common Bag Moth devouring the plants)

Turns out that it is only the male of the species that takes flight.  The female lives in its bag/cocoon its whole life.  Funnily enough while I was writing this, ‘Bugs’ by Pearl Jam came on the stereo.  Listen below.

 

Not all of the critters in the garden have been multi-legged beasts.  Tania spotted this two-legged multi-coloured fellow in the tree out the back.

(Picture: Colourful dude)

Another nice sunny day the other day so we took a run over to the Mount.  We didn’t stay too long but long enough for me to take a couple of snaps.  Slightly different angle this time.

(Picture: Mount Maunganui…again)

Although I have been signed up to the curse that is Twitter for some time I have been avoiding using it.  Something just doesn’t appeal to me about it.  You tend to get a strange stalker sensation when using it.  Anyway, I have succumbed and started using it for this blog.  So anybody that tweets, twitters or twittles can now follow me and get notified when the blog updates.

Dat wid be aa’ fur noo.

6th August to 14th August – Jeez has it been that long?

I knew I hadn’t updated for a little while but I didn’t realise it had been quite so long.

So, what’s been happening?  We had Wade staying last Friday night.  We met up with him and Carol and Graham for lunch and a beer which was fine, followed by a roast and a bottle of vino at night.  Tania had a job interview which seemed to go well, unfortunately she hasn’t heard back from them yet though.

On Saturday we went to the Classic Flyers exhibition at Tauranga Airport.  Quite a collection they have on display, well worth visiting.  Even the cafe was appropriately named – “Avgas Cafe”.  Aidan seemed to enjoy it.

 (Picture: “No Aidan not the red button!!!”)

(Picture:  Too late…EJECT EJECT)

There was even a whole display dedicated to ‘Robertson Air Service Ltd’.

(Picture: Robertson Air Service – The Tiger Moth era)

(Picture: “Take ‘em out young Robertson!”)

(Picture: ‘Peerie Toots’ and ‘Little Toot’)

 (Picture: Aidan taking FU910 out for a hurl)

Entry gets you to see both the Aviation Museum and the Military Museum.  The Military Museum is the result of a collection from one man, a chap called Andy Moreland.  The quantity of exhibits is simply astonishing and highly unbelievable that one man has managed to gather it all together.

(Picture: Another hangar full of exhibits)

  (Picture: The M*A*S*H chopper being towed out for a run)

That was Saturday. What else has happened?

You may recall in an earlier post about our trundle over to Rotorua where we passed through State Highway 36 which I described as, “almost off-road/quarry driving”.  Turns out I was right, they had a rockfall the other day sending a car off the road and crushing another.

(Picture: Squished car on SH36)

(Picture:  Showing both cars)

Miraculously all occupants of the vehicles survived.  Needless to say they have closed the road in the meantime until they get it all cleared up and check for other possible rockfalls/land slips.

I hope you all enjoyed the Perseids this year.  Unfortunately in the Southern Hemisphere they never really appear above the horizon but there is still a chance you might see them when they are at their peak.  Aidan & I set off on a journey to find a prime viewing spot…just in case.  Needless to say, the sky was completely covered in cloud.  Not a star to be seen.  Just as we were about to drive off again, Aidan suddenly burst into life!  He had seen something!  As we scoped the horizon for this streaking light to reappear, our hearts beating fast and beads of sweat coagulating around our eyebrows it happened!  The beam of light, peering through the clouds, emanating brightly from the lighthouse it had set off from.  Never mind, always another year.

Still tracking our container on the good old internet.  We got slightly concerned when the Hyundai Brave left Singapore and started heading back northwards.  Turns out the container was offloaded in Singapore and loaded onto the ‘Kota Permata’ for shipment to Auckland.  It left Brisbane yesterday and as far as we are aware hasn’t sunk yet.

(Picture: The ‘Kota Permata’ hopefully still afloat)

Yesterday was an interesting day.  Parent/Teacher day at the school.  Lets just say that Aidan has promised things will improve!  Not only that but it was Lefthanders day!  Did you celebrate?  Did you take notice of all the objects around you that make life difficult for lefthanders?  Bread Knives, Tin Openers, Vegetable Peelers, Notepads, Rulers, Golf Clubs, Tape Measures, Stanley Knives, Pencil Sharpeners, Keyboards, Bank Pens, Cheque Books, Buttons on TV’s, Microwaves, goddammit even Boomerangs.  The list goes on and on.  To finish the day off we headed to a ‘Shetland Night’ in town.  Kind of weird being in the middle of New Zealand and walking into a hall to find Shetland Flags strewn around and the majority of people wearing Fair Isle ganzies!  One of the speakers was Linda Brown (nee Mouat o’ Clumlie) who did a good job of explaining Up Helly Aa to the non-shetlanders in her Jarl Squad outfit.  Aidan spent most of the night playing with her boy, in between demolishing the Tottie Soup and Reestit Mutton on offer.  Aidan was chuffed to see a picture of himself in one of the touristy brochures that were lying around for people to read.  Thoroughly enjoyed it and thanks to Ruth for bringing it to my attention.

The weather this week has been pretty sub-standard.  Weather warnings have been issued for this weekend with heavy rain forecast.  There has been 22mm of rain in the past 12 hours with up to 120mm forecast for the next 24 hours.  This is quite good though.  It has given me time to play around a little with piccy taking in the house. :)

(Picture: Self portrait, self lit, self clicked, self posed, selflife expired)

 (Picture: Aidan in a similar light)

After those exciting photos we took it upon ourselves to make a mess in the kitchen.  The following pics were taken under extreme studio conditions.

   Quite chuffed with how these have come out.  Never really attempted any sort of abstract photos before now but one of the pics from this venture has made it onto my desktop wallpaper.  What?  Oh, you want to know the extreme studio conditions?  It involved me, a tripod, a dimly lit kitchen, two metal bowls, a sink, and Aidan standing on the bench with his juice bottle squirting it towards one of the bowls of water.  A little bit of timing, a little bit of luck and a handful of photos I am happy with.  Aidan enjoyed it so much he wants to do it again so that can’t be a bad thing.

Not much else to report at the moment.  Got a phone-call from a chap that interviewed me for a job to let me know that I had not been successful on this occasion (I am beginning to hate that sentence).  He also apologised for not letting me know before now but there had been a spot of confusion over who was going to inform me.  Each person thinking the other was going to do it.  He did go on to say that out of 168 applicants for the job I had taken 2nd place.  So either he was lying or I didn’t do that badly at the interview.

To round it off with a little bit of good news, Aidan has been chosen to play for his school/class in the Annual Soccer 7’s Tournament on the 1st of September.  They recommend shin pads and a mouth guard.  Dunno about that malarky.  Shin pads fair enough but a mouth guard?  Isn’t that what teeth are for?

Will let you know how he got on nearer the time.

29th July to 5th August – Wade, Weather & Wasps

Time for another little update.

So what’s new?  Again, not a lot.  Still getting used to the helpfulness of people out here.  The ‘Can I help you?’, ‘Have a nice day’ attitude can be grating at times but I am getting used to it.  In the supermarkets they nearly always pack your bags for you.  If no-one is available to help then they apologise profusely and suggest that you should be getting paid for packing your own bags.  Petrol stations are much the same.  Petrol attendants will come scurrying over to help you fill the tank.  The pumps have a function that allows you to put in how much fuel you want and seeing as the amount is always rounded up or down then you may as well get 4 cents free fuel every time you fill up!

The price of lamb is still causing me some distraught.  Living in a place that has the most lambs per head of population in the world you would think it would be cheap.  It’s not.  Why is it that you can find NZ lamb in the Co-op Supermarket in Lerwick comparatively cheap yet you can’t in NZ?  Why is Shetland exporting its lamb to Spain and suchlike and importing lamb anyway?  Why is NZ exporting that much that it is keeping the price high in its own country?  Grrr, world commodities, imports/exports, blah de blah.  Think of the carbon footprint of that poor yowe bleating away at you next time you see it.

Anyway, on to my next rant…the weather…again.  Apparently we have had a terrible cold Winter out here.  I almost sprooted my coffee all over the screen when I read those headlines.

Yes, I will admit that we have had a few frosty mornings and it has been pretty cold some nights but…but…but most days seem to no less than 13 to 14 degrees C.  we have had highs of 19 degrees in July.  Hardly time to go out and buy a sledge is it?  God help me come summer.  I may need to invest in a hot-tub and run the motor in reverse, living in an icy cold tub for the summer months.

Tania is still doing a good job of breaking things.  While she was repositioning Heathers car in the garage she managed to crack the passenger side mirror casing into four pieces.  I have managed to glue it back together and inform Heather of the damage.  Currently on the lookout for a replacement if anybody knows of any breaker yards in or around Tauranga.  Not long after that she broke a plate.  Then a roasting dish.  She will probably break me now for posting this on here.

We had Wade staying with us on Friday night on his way back to Wellington from Auckland.  He treated us to lunch and a beer on Saturday at the RSVP restaurant at Cherrywood which was bloody good.  He might be staying with us again this weekend.

Speaking of Wellington, I am heading there at the end of January.  To see AC/DC!!!!!  Lowrie phoned the other night wondering if I fancied it.  Looks like it could be their last ever world tour so it would be rude not to go.  The lead singer is now 62 and not getting any younger.  Needless to say I have been listening to a lot of AC/DC recently.

Aidan is being his usual self.  I think he may be somewhat confused between football and rugby though.  While out chucking the rugby ball back and forth he has a habit of heading it rather than catching it.  He has got the throwing and catching pretty good now though.  Speaking of which, I persuaded him to hit the wasps nest with a broom the other day!  I didn’t think he actually would but there you go.  Upon investigating the nest we found a wasp.  Unsure whether it was dead, hibernating or had died from the shock of a broom handle coming at it with speed.  Turned out we had three wasps nest.  I removed the other two and crushed them.  Hopefully it will deter the little buggers from coming back in the summer.

 (Picture: Nasty buzzy stingy things homestead)

Aidan survived his attack on insect life and went out to do a spot of skateboarding down at the park.

(Picture: Skater Dude)

In an effort to encourage exercise and weight loss with a certain young fellow, I went out and bought a set of scales the other day.  Not your ordinary run of the mill ones, but ones that let you know your fat content, water content and suchlike.  Unfortunately this backfired on me a bit as it turns out I have put on weight.  So Aidan and I are now embarking upon a weight reduction programme, noting our weights weekly and hopefully seeing a reduction in fat content. 

We took a run down to Whakatane and Ohope today for a look.  Saw lots of big birds hovering above but couldn’t do much on the photo-taking side as we were hurtling down the Highway doing a tonne at the time.  I am going to have to return to the same area with some fresh roadkill and try to get some pictures sometime.

Another bit of good news came this week.  We got word that our boxes are en-route to New Zealand and should arrive in Auckland on the 16th of this month.  They are in a container aboard the ‘Hyundai Brave’ and after a bit of detective work I discovered that the ship left Kaohsiung, Taiwan yesterday.  The ship is a new build (2008) 339m behemoth.

(Picture: The ‘Hyundai Brave’)

If you look closely you can see our container third from bottom, six along….

(Picture: New Zealand – Land of the Long, Pinky, Purpley, Splodgy Cloud)

That’s all folks!