Well, the shortest day of the year has come and gone, as has another birthday, and boy do I hate the proximity of those dates... It was a pretty quiet day for a birthday, but thanks to those who called, it was good to speak to some people back home.
Jo promised to take me shopping for the weekend - but I wasn't aware that looking at women's shoes properly met that criteria - apparently it does. Still, I did manage to get away with a Freeview receiver, which is a little set top box for the TV that picks up satellite free-to-air broadcasts and takes proper advantage of the widescreen TV (still not high-definition though, but very clear reception nonetheless).
Part of my main birthday present from Jo (the other half is coming next month) was already acquired* several weeks ago - a breadmaker that will be souped up for other duties (ask Steve). Still, to check if it was functional, we've baked a couple of loaves of bread and it works just fine - in fact Jo wants to get another for when I put mine to its "proper" use (that's deliberately vague, but I'll clarify in a few weeks).
*I say it was acquired because it was a $1 purchase on Trademe (broken paddle), and the seller didn't even take his dollar. Then another seller had a used bowl for that exact model for sale cheaply down in Wellington, so hey presto one $20 fully functional breadmaker, when most used ones are asking for about $70 :)
We also picked up a portable air conditioner/heat pump unit that will hopefully be a bit more efficient than the fan and oil heaters at keeping the house warm. We haven't properly got it fired up yet though, because we need to set up an in-fill panel in the wondow frame to keep the draughts out (it needs ducting out the window).
To keep in the shopping theme, we also now have (bought a week ago) a coffee table (the lowest thing ever, ony 18cm high), and a spare bed will be picked up next week, so now you have no excuse for not coming to visit us!
Well, that's enough for rampant consumerism! What else have I been up to? Work is as usual, and I often get a wet arse riding there. I'll be back in Australia next week, from 2-6th July, but I'll be up in Bandiana (out the back of Wodonga) for most of that time doing a vehicle survey (measuring up some tanks and armoured personnel carriers for equipment fitment). I might have some free time on Thursday night or Friday morning if anyone is around the Melbourne CBD and wants to meet up, but I'm not sure of the exact flight details at this stage and I'm travelling with 2 others, so it's a little tricky to plan. I should have my Aussie mobile switched on that week if anyone wants to call.
stay in touch! cheers all,
matt.
Monday, 25 June 2007
Saturday, 16 June 2007
Matty gets licenced
I went and got my licence today, so I'm now officially a New Zealander, and I get a government issued pair of gumboots and the permission to keep up to two registered sheep on the premises.
Just kidding.
It's actually only one sheep. Nah, I took the test to get a NZ driver's licence, which coming from Aus is pretty straightforward - no practical driving test to do, just a theory quiz. The test form is a "scratch and win" type affair - you scratch off the box next to the right answer and reveal a tick; a wrong answer reveals a cross.
You need a minimum of 32 correct answers out of 35 - I scraped in with a score of 33. Honestly, who needs to know the minimum tread depth for tyres (that's what the wear indicators are for!), or how far overhanging the front of the car a load can be? (We don't have roof racks, so it's pretty irrelevant.) A couple of responses were an educated guess, and admittedly I hadn't looked at the Road Code website for a couple of weeks, but it was all fine in the end.
Ultimately, this means I can drive in NZ beyond the one year allowed on a foreign licence, and it also helps with insurance premiums and excesses. I'd scan and show you the goofy picture, but they post it out in the mail so it isn't in my hands yet.
Everything is pretty normal around here otherwise. The veggie garden is going berserk (particularly the lettuce, and we have a couple of little broccoli heads poking up!). I used a few herbs in the bolognese sauce tonight, should be good. The garden is doing well, the roses are coming on strong (we had to give them a pretty severe pruning when we arrived).
By the way, here's what we were in Australia for last week: to see Jo on a big TV!
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Matty and Jo in Aus
Well it was a long week but great to catch up with everyone back across the ditch. As usual(!) we had a delayed flight to NZ, always fun when you've been out the night before and struggle to get up really early for an early flight, and it's delayed by 1.5 hours... better get used to those early starts though, back to work tomorrow. Thanks to the parents of the baby screaming in the seat behind us on the flight back. Needed that.
Oh well, we're back, and it's cold and wet. Not all that cold and wet, but moreso than Melbourne.
Congrats to Rob and Bec, we had a great time at your engagement party and you both looked fab.
We had a look through our house in Morton Rd on Saturday, and it all looks pretty good. Lisa and Rob are a great couple to have looking after our house, very friendly and easy to get on with.
I guess everyone who we caught up with has all the latest news from us, so there's not much point reliving every moment. Suffice to say, I had a fairly laid back week (though without enough time to really chill out), and Jo had a very hectic week and has been asleep on the floor for the last 3 hours...
Oh well, we're back, and it's cold and wet. Not all that cold and wet, but moreso than Melbourne.
Congrats to Rob and Bec, we had a great time at your engagement party and you both looked fab.
We had a look through our house in Morton Rd on Saturday, and it all looks pretty good. Lisa and Rob are a great couple to have looking after our house, very friendly and easy to get on with.
I guess everyone who we caught up with has all the latest news from us, so there's not much point reliving every moment. Suffice to say, I had a fairly laid back week (though without enough time to really chill out), and Jo had a very hectic week and has been asleep on the floor for the last 3 hours...
Monday, 21 May 2007
Rules of the Road
Where have we been? Not much exciting happening at home, just routine life that's not very interesting to report on... We bought some more stuff on Trademe: a desk and a bookshelf thingy and a simple desk chair, which means that we can tidy up the spare room a little. We just need a spare bed and we're pretty much done for furnishings. Some more of the usual screwdriver work in assembling everything... Also, must add that the 3-series is crap for trying to transport anything. The boot access and rear doors are so badly shaped that anything boxy generally won't fit. Fortunately the boxy stuff was flat packed this time. Dare I say it - the old VW Polo was actually good for something...
-------------------------
So, in lieu of our life story, let me introduce you to the Road Rules in New Zealand:
Rule 1: Bigger is Better.
For example:
Face it, if you were important, you could afford a car, and then I might give you some respect when turning into the street that you're crossing, you filthy peasant.
Rule 3: Turning.
3.1
A car turning left must give way to a car approaching from the opposite direction turning right into the same street.
3.1.1
Yes, this is true. Everyone recognises that it's this magical unique rule in NZ, but noone can explain why.
3.2
A car turning left does not have to give way to a car approaching from the opposite direction turning right into the same street, if said car is obstructed by a car travelling in a straight line.
3.2.1 Corollary to Rules 3.1 and 3.2:
If you're turning left, you must look to your right and behind you before deciding whether you can proceed. Fortunately you don't actually have to bother looking left (see Rule 2).
3.3
A car turning right into a side street must give way to a car turning right out of that side street.
3.4
Noone obeys Rule 3.3.
3.5
The centre painted lane or the bus lane is for pushing in from.
Rule 4: Smoke.
If your car isn't smoking, you must be looking after it too well. You should buy an old Magna, or a diesel, or a diesel Magna.
Rule 5: WOF.
5.1
So you've bought a nice new car, and it's in perfect condition? Well, we'll make you get a Warrant of Fitness (WOF, basically a roadworthy check, not a swear word) every year (or, if it's over 6 years old, twice a year), to make sure it's smoking just the right amount. Or still has 4 wheels. Or something. Doesn't seem to have any effect on the quality of cars on the road...
5.2
You can get a free tailpipe emissions test to check the actual filthy output of your rustbucket.
5.2.1
Even if your car is belching enough black clouds to make your eyes water, said emissions test can't actually be used as evidence to get your car legally removed from the road.
Rule 6: Jap Imports
6.1
The odder, the better. Face it, it's cheaper to buy another than repair, so you're not going to bother ever servicing it. So access to spare parts is an irellevance (though ironically, every garage has a fleet of loaner cars on hand, because they bought them just as cheaply too).
6.2
Your oddball car should have the oddest name badge possible. Bonus points for a Toyota Corolla II Super Windy G, an Emina (sounds as fun as an enema), or any Engrish on the stickers.
---------
Well, that should be enough to have you driving as badly as everyone else here. Glad to hear that you've had some rain back home, hopefully our garden is kicking on.
I won't be coming over for an extra week for work, so we'll only be around for one week (and even then probably fairly busy).
-------------------------
So, in lieu of our life story, let me introduce you to the Road Rules in New Zealand:
Rule 1: Bigger is Better.
For example:
- A truck has priority over a car.
- A car has priority over a pedestrian.
- A red Mercedes A Class pulling out from a side street has priority over a cyclist approaching at full speed, down hill in the rain.
Face it, if you were important, you could afford a car, and then I might give you some respect when turning into the street that you're crossing, you filthy peasant.
Rule 3: Turning.
3.1
A car turning left must give way to a car approaching from the opposite direction turning right into the same street.
3.1.1
Yes, this is true. Everyone recognises that it's this magical unique rule in NZ, but noone can explain why.
3.2
A car turning left does not have to give way to a car approaching from the opposite direction turning right into the same street, if said car is obstructed by a car travelling in a straight line.
3.2.1 Corollary to Rules 3.1 and 3.2:
If you're turning left, you must look to your right and behind you before deciding whether you can proceed. Fortunately you don't actually have to bother looking left (see Rule 2).
3.3
A car turning right into a side street must give way to a car turning right out of that side street.
3.4
Noone obeys Rule 3.3.
3.5
The centre painted lane or the bus lane is for pushing in from.
Rule 4: Smoke.
If your car isn't smoking, you must be looking after it too well. You should buy an old Magna, or a diesel, or a diesel Magna.
Rule 5: WOF.
5.1
So you've bought a nice new car, and it's in perfect condition? Well, we'll make you get a Warrant of Fitness (WOF, basically a roadworthy check, not a swear word) every year (or, if it's over 6 years old, twice a year), to make sure it's smoking just the right amount. Or still has 4 wheels. Or something. Doesn't seem to have any effect on the quality of cars on the road...
5.2
You can get a free tailpipe emissions test to check the actual filthy output of your rustbucket.
5.2.1
Even if your car is belching enough black clouds to make your eyes water, said emissions test can't actually be used as evidence to get your car legally removed from the road.
Rule 6: Jap Imports
6.1
The odder, the better. Face it, it's cheaper to buy another than repair, so you're not going to bother ever servicing it. So access to spare parts is an irellevance (though ironically, every garage has a fleet of loaner cars on hand, because they bought them just as cheaply too).
6.2
Your oddball car should have the oddest name badge possible. Bonus points for a Toyota Corolla II Super Windy G, an Emina (sounds as fun as an enema), or any Engrish on the stickers.
---------
Well, that should be enough to have you driving as badly as everyone else here. Glad to hear that you've had some rain back home, hopefully our garden is kicking on.
I won't be coming over for an extra week for work, so we'll only be around for one week (and even then probably fairly busy).
Monday, 7 May 2007
pull up a chair...
Another week down already? I hope the minutiae of our daily lives isn't too boring for you all...
As we've been pretty busy for a few weeks we decided it was time for a lazy weekend at home, watching a few videos. So it was perfect timing that the DVD/HD recorder that was a package deal with the TV we bought finally turned up on Friday afternoon. Luckily Jo was home early and could come to my work and pick it up in the car (bit hard to carry it on the bike!)
Lots of wiring, searching through menus and getting everything configured, adjusting the picture quality, and finally we slotted in "Cars" and sat down for the movie. A great movie, even if watched repeatedly, I love all the little esoteric details. The only drawback was that this is a movie which really needs a good audio system, and the tinny little speakers in the TV just don't cut it like my old subwoofer used to. Uh-oh, you can see where this is leading...
On Saturday we finally bought the dining chairs we had planned to (from a Balinese/SE Asian furniture shop just around the corner from us), so of course that night we ate dinner on the couch as usual. We have used them though, promise! :D Then we sat down for "Memoirs of a Geisha", which Jo thinks was pretty good, certainly not as bad as some people had led us to believe. I haven't read the book but I realise it's pretty hard to compress a massive tome into 2 hours, still it's well produced and filmed. Tonight we've got "The World's Fastest Indian" to watch, whilst simultaneously recording some TV shows. Pretty handy.
Today I found out that I might have an extended trip to Australia, work are considering sending me over the week before we have booked to come over anyway. Probably won't be around much though, the plan is to be up in Puckapunyal for a few days. We'll keep you posted on exactly when we'll be around and free.
Well, that's about us up to speed. Here's a picture of Jo's new style as promised, pretty cute isn't she?
cheers all, please remember to drop us a line!
As we've been pretty busy for a few weeks we decided it was time for a lazy weekend at home, watching a few videos. So it was perfect timing that the DVD/HD recorder that was a package deal with the TV we bought finally turned up on Friday afternoon. Luckily Jo was home early and could come to my work and pick it up in the car (bit hard to carry it on the bike!)
Lots of wiring, searching through menus and getting everything configured, adjusting the picture quality, and finally we slotted in "Cars" and sat down for the movie. A great movie, even if watched repeatedly, I love all the little esoteric details. The only drawback was that this is a movie which really needs a good audio system, and the tinny little speakers in the TV just don't cut it like my old subwoofer used to. Uh-oh, you can see where this is leading...
On Saturday we finally bought the dining chairs we had planned to (from a Balinese/SE Asian furniture shop just around the corner from us), so of course that night we ate dinner on the couch as usual. We have used them though, promise! :D Then we sat down for "Memoirs of a Geisha", which Jo thinks was pretty good, certainly not as bad as some people had led us to believe. I haven't read the book but I realise it's pretty hard to compress a massive tome into 2 hours, still it's well produced and filmed. Tonight we've got "The World's Fastest Indian" to watch, whilst simultaneously recording some TV shows. Pretty handy.Today I found out that I might have an extended trip to Australia, work are considering sending me over the week before we have booked to come over anyway. Probably won't be around much though, the plan is to be up in Puckapunyal for a few days. We'll keep you posted on exactly when we'll be around and free.
Well, that's about us up to speed. Here's a picture of Jo's new style as promised, pretty cute isn't she?cheers all, please remember to drop us a line!
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
The all new wife
First off, apologies that there's no photos to accompany this post - Jo refuses to let me use one until it's flattering. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Jo cut a long hairstyle short. The blonde is now gone, back to natural color, and the style is pretty short and funky. Promise photos soon!
We also had some socialising this weekend. Anne is another psychologist with ADHB (though works in a completely different department to Jo), and her partner Rob is a civil (boo!) engineer. We met them at the ADHB "new international staff" night in the first or second week after moving over, and as is usual when moving far from home, we latched onto a fellow Melbournian. At least Rob is English, so there's a bit of diversity, but it's taken this long to get around to catching up with them again.
We headed out for dinner at the Viaduct area at the bottom end of the city, which is (from what we saw on a wet evening without exploring very far) quite similar to the Docklands precinct in Melbourne. There's one of the old America's Cup boats on a stand in the forecourt (one of the really bloody big ones, I think the year that the Americans turned up in an even bigger catamaran...)
Can't remember the name of the restaurant we ate at, but their specialty is the hot plate meals, where you get your meat served on a superheated stone, so you can leave it on as short or long as you wish. I chose the tuna steak which was pretty good except that by the time I'd turned it over it was already as cooked as a good piece of tuna should be, and I had to whip it off the stone and find somewhere to put it on the edge of the plate. It still went down well with a couple of pints of beer though.
Speaking of food, there's some fantastic meat here (sorry vegetarians, might want to skip this paragraph). Even the cuts in the supermarket are two inches thick! Significantly, I haven't cooked a bad pork steak yet, normally the hardest meat I find to get right. Every time I've cooked one here, it comes out as soft and juicy as ever. Brilliant.
I also bought a line trimmer on the weekend for the lawn edges that the mower doesn't get in to. Cheap as hell, electric, and far too short for extended use, it's lucky that we don't have enough lawn for that to be a serious issue. It also only came with a very short length of line, which was barely enough to go once around the lawn before it ran out. I guess that's the cost of buying the cheapest thing in the store. (as an aside, it's in the news that Bunnings will start charging 10c for plastic bags. I wonder if I can manage to convince them to honour their "better the competitor's price by 10%" policy on the basis that Foodtown's price is exactly 0 cents...? Worth trying for a laugh anyway.)
well, that's enough from me, time for bed!
cheers all,
matt.
We also had some socialising this weekend. Anne is another psychologist with ADHB (though works in a completely different department to Jo), and her partner Rob is a civil (boo!) engineer. We met them at the ADHB "new international staff" night in the first or second week after moving over, and as is usual when moving far from home, we latched onto a fellow Melbournian. At least Rob is English, so there's a bit of diversity, but it's taken this long to get around to catching up with them again.
We headed out for dinner at the Viaduct area at the bottom end of the city, which is (from what we saw on a wet evening without exploring very far) quite similar to the Docklands precinct in Melbourne. There's one of the old America's Cup boats on a stand in the forecourt (one of the really bloody big ones, I think the year that the Americans turned up in an even bigger catamaran...)
Can't remember the name of the restaurant we ate at, but their specialty is the hot plate meals, where you get your meat served on a superheated stone, so you can leave it on as short or long as you wish. I chose the tuna steak which was pretty good except that by the time I'd turned it over it was already as cooked as a good piece of tuna should be, and I had to whip it off the stone and find somewhere to put it on the edge of the plate. It still went down well with a couple of pints of beer though.
Speaking of food, there's some fantastic meat here (sorry vegetarians, might want to skip this paragraph). Even the cuts in the supermarket are two inches thick! Significantly, I haven't cooked a bad pork steak yet, normally the hardest meat I find to get right. Every time I've cooked one here, it comes out as soft and juicy as ever. Brilliant.
I also bought a line trimmer on the weekend for the lawn edges that the mower doesn't get in to. Cheap as hell, electric, and far too short for extended use, it's lucky that we don't have enough lawn for that to be a serious issue. It also only came with a very short length of line, which was barely enough to go once around the lawn before it ran out. I guess that's the cost of buying the cheapest thing in the store. (as an aside, it's in the news that Bunnings will start charging 10c for plastic bags. I wonder if I can manage to convince them to honour their "better the competitor's price by 10%" policy on the basis that Foodtown's price is exactly 0 cents...? Worth trying for a laugh anyway.)
well, that's enough from me, time for bed!
cheers all,
matt.
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Snells Beach
Hi again readers! I heard that some people (OK, maybe only one) were waiting expectantly to hear about the family lunch last Sunday. We drove up to Snells Beach (about 45 minutes north of Auckland) for (my cousin) Jenny and Stuart’s housewarming. Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera, so these pics are off my phone.
As usual we arrived fashionably late, but it was a very casual afternoon and everything was still being set up. We last saw Jenny’s house when we visited NZ in November last year, and at that stage it was a bare frame. It’s almost completed now, just a couple of finishing touches to go. But it looks brilliant and I’m sure will be worth a fortune if they ever sell it – the view alone could do that, let alone the 3 bedrooms, huge living space, and full set of modern fittings.
Polished floors everywhere, so shoes off at the door. Claire was there with her clan, though Michael was down at Eden Park doing some rugby training. Gillian and Michael Harris were up from Wellington. Gillian prepared a huge feast in the kitchen while Michael Harris worked the barbeque. Jo took up the challenge of a game of Monopoly with the kids (which ended up disintegrating into sibling violence between Michael-Lydia and Moana), while Stuart and I retired to the home theatre (with huge projector) to watch the V8s from Puke.
Lunch was out on the deck. Very pleasant if you managed to get a spot in the sun, but a cold breeze kept threatening. Stuart cracked the top off a magnum of 1996 Manuwera(?) Antipodean, an awesome drop if you find it (and a wheelbarrow full of cash – it’s something like $300 for a (standard size) bottle). All in all a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
--
I spent last night downloading several episodes of Supernatural for Jo on bittorrent, but it’s chewed through our internet ration pretty quickly (the torrent uploads count as part of the usage total)! Oh well, will just have to stay away from YouTube for the next few weeks…
It’s now ANZAC day, so I hope you’re all enjoying a pleasant day off. I did some gardening – gotta keep on top of the lawn! – while Jo took care of the inside. The hedgetrimmer took out the extension cord pretty easily, and blew a fuse in the process which took about half an hour to find. I tried to find a shop open to replace the cord (or at least the plug) and get some fuse wire, but they take public holidays pretty seriously around here. Guess I’ll have to wait til the weekend…
--
For the tech geeks: NZ is just about to start free-to-air digital broadcasting next week, though initially only via satellite. Fortunately the previous tenants here had Sky TV so there’s a dish on the roof that we can plug straight in to. Just need to get a receiver box, and we’ll be good to go, finally justifying the widescreen TV! (for some shows anyway) Pity the signal won’t be in high definition for some time yet, damn backwards country this is!
--
Melbourne
Advance notice to all: we’re back in Melbourne for a week at the start of June. We’re hoping a few people might like to come and see us on Saturday 2nd at Liz’s house up in South Morang. Probably just a casual afternoon drop-by-whenever afternoon, maybe lingering into dinner.
We might be around for the second weekend of June if Jo’s work organises some hospital/rehab centre attendances the following week, and we can rearrange the flights accordingly.
Well, that about brings you up to date (without boring you with too many mundane details). Send us your own stories if you’ve been doing anything interesting. (Frankly, any news from our friends is interesting!)
As usual we arrived fashionably late, but it was a very casual afternoon and everything was still being set up. We last saw Jenny’s house when we visited NZ in November last year, and at that stage it was a bare frame. It’s almost completed now, just a couple of finishing touches to go. But it looks brilliant and I’m sure will be worth a fortune if they ever sell it – the view alone could do that, let alone the 3 bedrooms, huge living space, and full set of modern fittings.
Polished floors everywhere, so shoes off at the door. Claire was there with her clan, though Michael was down at Eden Park doing some rugby training. Gillian and Michael Harris were up from Wellington. Gillian prepared a huge feast in the kitchen while Michael Harris worked the barbeque. Jo took up the challenge of a game of Monopoly with the kids (which ended up disintegrating into sibling violence between Michael-Lydia and Moana), while Stuart and I retired to the home theatre (with huge projector) to watch the V8s from Puke.
Lunch was out on the deck. Very pleasant if you managed to get a spot in the sun, but a cold breeze kept threatening. Stuart cracked the top off a magnum of 1996 Manuwera(?) Antipodean, an awesome drop if you find it (and a wheelbarrow full of cash – it’s something like $300 for a (standard size) bottle). All in all a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.--
I spent last night downloading several episodes of Supernatural for Jo on bittorrent, but it’s chewed through our internet ration pretty quickly (the torrent uploads count as part of the usage total)! Oh well, will just have to stay away from YouTube for the next few weeks…
It’s now ANZAC day, so I hope you’re all enjoying a pleasant day off. I did some gardening – gotta keep on top of the lawn! – while Jo took care of the inside. The hedgetrimmer took out the extension cord pretty easily, and blew a fuse in the process which took about half an hour to find. I tried to find a shop open to replace the cord (or at least the plug) and get some fuse wire, but they take public holidays pretty seriously around here. Guess I’ll have to wait til the weekend…
--
For the tech geeks: NZ is just about to start free-to-air digital broadcasting next week, though initially only via satellite. Fortunately the previous tenants here had Sky TV so there’s a dish on the roof that we can plug straight in to. Just need to get a receiver box, and we’ll be good to go, finally justifying the widescreen TV! (for some shows anyway) Pity the signal won’t be in high definition for some time yet, damn backwards country this is!
--
Melbourne
Advance notice to all: we’re back in Melbourne for a week at the start of June. We’re hoping a few people might like to come and see us on Saturday 2nd at Liz’s house up in South Morang. Probably just a casual afternoon drop-by-whenever afternoon, maybe lingering into dinner.
We might be around for the second weekend of June if Jo’s work organises some hospital/rehab centre attendances the following week, and we can rearrange the flights accordingly.
Well, that about brings you up to date (without boring you with too many mundane details). Send us your own stories if you’ve been doing anything interesting. (Frankly, any news from our friends is interesting!)
love all,
matt and jo.
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