19th October to 24th October – 5 Months in!

Welcome once again.  Here we are again, another week on.  Today turns out to be 5 months since we landed at Auckland and here we are, both with jobs, Aidan at school and settling in quite well.

Black Monday

Monday.  Which we will from this point on refer to as “Black Monday”.  On Black Monday I went to work as usual.  It was a hell of a long day though and I struggled to see light at the end of the tunnel.  Perhaps my sub-conscious was trying to tell me something, pointing towards a sign that something was going on, something was WRONG. 

I scraped and scrabbled my way through Black Monday and came to the end of the working day.  As I made my way home nothing eventful happened, it was a normal trip home.  Black Monday was nearing an end. 

It was then that I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  Or more correctly I saw light at the end of the driveway.  Huh?  Where was this light coming from?  Then it dawned on me, my sub-conscious had indeed been trying to tell me something.  The bloody tree had only gone!  Tree murderers had been during the day knowing I was powerless to defend the nice tree.  I hadn’t even had a chance to find out its name.  What I did know was that its bark was worse than its bite and it didn’t deserve the untimely trip to landfill heaven that it has had.  Hopefully it will one day live again, reincarnated as a protected species where it can live out its full life.

I present to you – The last picture ever taken of “Da Tree”:-

The next few days were either uneventful or I was in such deep mourning that I have blocked them from my memory.  I have no memories, no photos, nothing.  Please bear with me as I drain the tears from my keyboard.

Clouds

On Thursday I was rudely awoken from my slumber with the announcement that I would have to come and look at the clouds.  Errm?  Excuse me?  I have seen clouds before, indeed I make a note of looking at them regularly.  Partly because I am sad and like to half-guess what type of weather is coming, partly because they can make a mediocre photo a good photo and partly because I know if I look at them during the day then there is less chance that someone will wake me at a god-awful hour to look at them.

As I dragged my still sleeping body through to the living room I was soon wondering if perhaps I was actually still asleep.  The sky was filled with little spaceship globules that I can only describe as what I imagine the inside of a marshmallow would look like just as you introduce it to an open fire.

The photos don’t really do it justice.

(Pictures: Peculiar skies)

On Friday night we had a nice fiery sky.  Unfortunately I had sunk one too many beers to drive to a suitable spot to get a decent picture of it.

(Picture: Fiery Sky fae da balcony)

Five months in

I have kept this update quite short as the next couple are going to be lengthy.  This weekend means that we are officially 5 months in.  We also had a long weekend as you will see in the upcoming posts from Rotorua.

Tata fer noo.

11th October to 18th October …

Anidder week, anidder peerie update.

Piccies

On Sunday I went out for a little hurl and took a few pictures to make up for the lack of visual delights recently that you, the dedicated NotShetland readers, have been pining for.

I didn’t go far as we were expecting Aidan, Nan and Grampa to return at some point.

(Picture: That strange looking things are trees)

(Picture: Looking out over Waikareao Estuary)

(Picture: Looking out over Waikareao Estuary again)

  (Picture: Motuopae Island – AKA Peach Island)

Sunday afternoon brought the return of the child, eager to get back to school after his boring time up in Russell.  Actually that last sentence had no truth whatsoever apart from the return of the child…and it was Sunday.  He wasn’t exactly eager to get back to school and he didn’t have a biring time in Russell.  He had thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it by the sounds of things.

Monday was pretty uneventful.  Got up, went to work, went home.  This was the beginning of week 4 at the new place of employment.  I am on a 4 week probationary period so this week could mean a lot.

The moment we have all been waiting for!

Tuesday evening brought with it the eggscrutiating eggsitement of the Grand Pickled Egg opening ceremony.  Aidan and I were quite tentative as to whether our concoction would be edible.

(Picture: Aidan preparing the tasting session)

(Picture: The all-important “Sniff Test”)

(Picture: Taking great care to place them eggsactly right)

(Picture: The final product)

It has been a long 5 weeks or so waiting for the eggs to become ready for consumption.  Unfortunately I have no pictures of the eating ceremony for you as they were just too damn delicious to stop and pick up the camera!

I think I can safely say that we were both delighted with the results and it is definitely something we will be trying again once we have eaten our way through these two jars.

Tuesday also brought a nice little surprise for Aidan.  His whole class from Dunrossness Primary School had each taken the time to write him letters.  He is going to have a lot of writing ahead of him to reply to them all.

Boom boom shake da room

Wednesday was also fairly uneventful – Apart from the 5.5 magnitude earthquake that shook the Bay of Plenty.  We slept through it.  As did most of the Bay of Plenty by the looks of things.  It occurred at 2.55am and GNS Science reckoned that it could be felt across the central North Island.  Or maybe not.  It was centred 10km South West of Matata at a depth of 150km.

Shagged by a rare parrot

On Thursday I stumbled across a clip of Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine in New Zealand searching for the Kakapo Parrot.  Quite amusing!

 

Who turned out the lights?

On Friday I opened my eyes and for a short while thought I had not been eating enough carrots.  My eyesight was failing me, until we realised that we had no power.  Darkness.  Was this a tsunami or an eruption or the “Big One” they keep mentioning?  Nope.  Turned out that the telegraph pole at the end of our road (that has been leaning at an odd angle for some time) finally toppled.  Thankfully the hot water tank had enough heat for my shower.

This was also the end of week 4 at work.  They haven’t sacked me yet so I shall presume that I passed the induction period.

On Saturday Tania and me were both working extra.  Aidan and  Caleb went to the swimming pool and then Caleb stayed the night at ours.

Sunday has been pretty uneventful as well – Lets see what next week brings.

- Oh yeah, one more thing.  Tania wouldn’t let me take her photo.  Silly girl.

Good night!

4th October to 10th October – Beggar all!

Thought I would throw in a quick update even though I have nothing interesting to share.

Once again, I have failed to take any photographs this week so those of you that can not read will have to employ someone to dictate this to you.  Then again, you won’t be able to read this so the last paragraph will be of no significance.

Like I said, this is a brief update, mere ramblings more than a delectation of indulgence and I would like to kick it off by mentioning the Harvest Moon.  Did anybody see it?  Apparently here we get it at a different time of year but the Full Moon this month was a big ‘un and could be attributed to the same Harvest Moon.  Anyway, that was Sunday.

Monday – Tania got a job.  Whoop whoop – well done Tania!  She seems to be enjoying life back at work but I am a little concerned as to where this leaves me.  I was getting used to having the doting little housewife to prepare everything for me.  Will this now come to an end?  Might I have to fend for myself again and try to figure out the difference between lemon and lavender washing up liquid? Time will tell.

This week we also had the coldest October day in 23 years (since records started) with a  maximum temp of just 8c.  A little further south from here, along the Napier to Taupo road, 600 people had to be rescued after being snowed in.  We didn’t see so much as a flurry.

On Thursday we had another Tsunami warning.  Looks like the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management had taken note of the criticism after the previous Tsunami warning and made sure that everybody knew of this one.  Unfortunately, somebody along the lines had managed to get 40cm mixed up with 0.4cm or something suchlike.  Needless to say, nobody noticed the impending doom that had been thrust upon us.  Still, better to be safe than sorry.  Aidan was out on a fishing boat when the warning came through so he would have been able to ride it out!

Aidan returns tomorrow and he is back to school on Monday.  The holidays are over again and life might return to a semblance of normality once again for a short while.

Apart from that I can not think of anything even remotely exciting to share with you.  Tania in her green fingered expeditions has seemingly decided that planting, watering, feeding and nurturing the seedlings is not enough.  She has started talking to the plants now as well.

Yun is aa fur noo.

20th September to 3rd October – Two weeks of exciting updates!

Why does it always rain on me?  Or not…

Something that I have noticed is the lack of rain that we had been getting.  We have over the past week or two been getting some much needed rain.  For instance last month we didn’t see rain until the middle of the month. 

(Picture:  Graph explaining my last sentence or two) 

Spring is here though.  We have been getting daily highs of 19/20 degrees C up to 23 degrees C.

Working for a Living

What else?  Oh yeah.  Got a job.  So how has that been going?  Well, not too bad really.  Seems like a decent enough bunch of folks to work with.  First Day at Work – Met some old bat coming towards me on wrong side of road.  Two lanes going one way, two lanes going the other way.  She had to choose one of the lanes that wasn’t going her way didn’t she!!!

Anyway, managed to avoid her and made it into work on time.  Was glad to see that free tea & coffee was in abundance at the new work.  Not only that but also freshly ground coffee,  Cappuccino, Latte,  Mochaccino, Hot Chocolate as well as soup and a selection of things I can’t pronounce.  All for Free!

Work Day 2 – First of many tests.  Which I apparently did well at.  I also found out that 50 CV’s were considered out of which they employed two people (including me).

Work Day 3 – More tests

Work Day 4 – One of the blokes at work organised a Hangi for lunch.  No, this didn’t involve rope and less desirable members of staff.  A Hangi is a traditional Maori method of cooking.  Basically a big hole is dug in the ground, a bunch of rocks are thrown in and a large fire is lit.  Once the rocks are sufficiently heated the grub is thrown in and covered with soil.  This is then left for a few hours to cook.  We had chicken, lamb, kumara and veg.  It was bloody good.

Work Day 5 – First day on the phones.  It is also Mufti day.  The last Friday of each month is a jeans and ganzie day.  No shirt or dress breeks required. Day 5 also means that it is Friday.  Friday means it is the weekend!  Woohoo.  I have never really had a reason to say, “Thank christ it’s the weekend”, before now as all previous employment has involved at least an element of weekend work.  Working Monday to Friday and getting the weekends off is a novelty in itself.

It’s the weekend!

This weekend also brought with it Nan & Grampa who were down to help gut the garden and take the boy back up to the Bay of Islands when they left. 

This is always a joyous time for me as I can have intriguing in-depth conversations with Nan about such exciting things as provisioning Stena Stair Lifts and suchlike.  This conversation came about after Tania and Nan were deciding whether a bed or a sofa-bed would be more suitable in the spare room along with some bookshelves.  Nan proclaimed that we might have a decrepit old grandmother staying at some point who wouldn’t be able to climb over the end of the bed.  I pointed out that if the decrepit old grandmother wasn’t able to get over the end of the bed then they wouldn’t be able to make it up the stairs either so the garage would have to suffice.  Needless to say this comment went down incredibly well.  Hence the stair-lift suggestion.

(Picture: Nan-mobile)

Morrinsville

On Saturday we took a hurl up/across to Morrinsville to meet a couple of Shetlander-types that Nan knows. 

(Picture: On the road back from Morrinsville)

Emma & Davie were fine folk and even donated a few fresh eggs to us.  A much needed beer was most appreciatively necked along with some scones before we headed back to Tauranga.

Save the trees!

Like I mentioned earlier some major gardening works have been taking place.  I am considering employing Greenpeace to form a picket line around what is left of the foliage in the garden.  A mix of Shetlander with no trees and lumberjack Kiwis results in perfectly fine foliage being cutback or even killed off entirely!  Every day I returned from work the garden had taken a different shape.  Stewart did a brilliant job of building a raised vegetable garden for Aidan though.  I am currently campaigning to save one of the trees in the garden that is under threat of being chopped down as we speak.

Code Red!!

Yep, New Zealand went Code Red the other day as a result of the earthquake off Samoa.  A Tsunami warning was issued for all coastal areas along with an element of confusion.  The Rescue Helicopter was deployed along the Bay of Plenty coastline with a megaphone to tell people to get off the beaches and head for high ground.  The local paper had huge black headlines warning of the impending doom that was about to strike.  Buildings were evacuated, roads were closed.  The 1m Tsunami when it hit was like a fairly calm day on da Wast Voe Sands.  Still, it has prompted the various regions and official bods to speed up the current draft plan of what should happen when a real Tsunami strikes.  The few Geordies living in NZ were left confused when the Toon Army didn’t materialise as hoped.

Nowt else to report

That is all for now.  We had Heather, Stu, Carol & Graham over for grub one night this past week which was good.  Aidan is having a great time up in Russell, my second week of work was fairly uneventful, they haven’t sacked me yet.

Be sure to tune in again for another exciting episode!