Turn back the clock!

As the jokes says. "Welcome to New Zealand please remember to turn back your watch 20 years."

In the same vein Dennis was part of a production called "Turn back the clock." A play about life in small town New Zealand. This was his first real performance and he did great!

He had a few lines of his own, and picked up a couple from performance to performance when his peers were out at previous commitments.


It was hard work. He had four weeks of practice, with two of those during school holidays where he was at practice six hours a day.

There were four performances of the play. Chris and I went to the first dress rehearsal together. Chris went to the second performance, and I to the forth. It was fun to watch how the play improved from performance to performance and see the children's confidence increase.

A great show it was!

Kiwi's

Yesterday my cell phone started to fail. Could no longer recieve text messages and if you lived down here you would know just how bad that is.

So I walked into the store that I purchased the phone (owned by a mate I may add) and as my friend was in his office door closed on the phone I walked in and spoke with the staff. I explained the problem and they spent 20 minutes getting it all working again. I was quite pleased with their willingness to help and work through the problem.

Now as the owner was my friend I more or less expected that treatment. However when I got home I saw that this is typical.

Our refrigerator, which we had purchased used from a company in Lower Hutt that refurbishes such things, was not working right. It took us about a month to figure out that something was wrong with it at which time we called the company we purchased it from, and we called them again, and again ... spoke with someone ... nothing ... then called again and again ... then the manager came by the house one day (Saturday prior to the big soup I recall because I was kneading bread when he arrived.) The manager took five minutes to tell us it is more than simply replacing the gasket we need a new fridge as this one is not working right at all. Then he left with an apology for not getting back to us sooner.

Then we heard nothing until today, well yesterday but Chris didn't tell me.

A new refrigerator showed up. 100% money back on the other one we had purchased just paying the difference as Chris wanted a bigger one now that she has had three months living with her first choice. :)

There you have it my experience of Kiwi's. They are good for their word, no reason to put it in writing their yes means yes, their no means no. I remember choosing not to ask for it in writing, to trust him. As my upbringing in the states makes me want to get it in writing. I didn't do that am am very happy that I came across as one who went with the flow and trusted.

At the end, after waiting two months for the new refrigerator when the old one was no longer under warranty, it was done with a smile.

Old friends

Today I got together for a coffee with an old friend Chris from the Ministry of Health ...

Has anyone else noted the irony in that? Only been here two years now ...

Chris and I meet at a training session for Managers in the Civil Service about NZ Law (note word 'Law' not something mamby-pamby such as 'rules and regulations') for purchasing goods and services. That was the Wednesday of my second week at Health, so 30 April 2008 I met Chris.

Now he is an old friend. I was musing on that as I made way home today and saw all the familiar sites and sounds of Wellington this new city is no longer new. My new friends are no longer new. I am making the transition to home here.

Chris is still at the Ministry of Health, which is going through yet another restructure, this time Chris is 'affected.' (for those with a short memory, or recent readers of my blog, this means Chris is out the door soon unless he can land another role.)

I feel for him having been there very recently. And more importantly I feel for him as Chris was one of the few guys who made a point to stick with me as I made my transition from Health last year about this time. He has been a real friend for me, I hope I can do half as much for him.

I started by shouting the coffee.

Late

Well it is late here in New Zealand. I am very very tired after a long weekend. After Dennis Soccer Game Saturday morning in the rain I spent the rest of the day hanging around the house with him. We played a few games together but mostly I found myself cleaning things up and getting all those typical weekend chores done, including ironing (I hate ironing.)

I had to pack everything in on Saturday as I was at Tae Kwon Do for a good six hours today, Sunday. I had a pre-grading practice in the morning and my red belt grading in the afternoon. Boy was today ever hard. Five 2 minute sparing rounds do take the wind out of you. Not to mention having to roll-dive over some unfortunate kid (he was shaking as I was running towards him.) Forms galore, power tests, self-defense, and pre-arranged sparing. Oh my it was a workout.

I also baked two batches of sourdough bread this weekend, made dinner both nights. Grilled a Chicken Saturday, and made Pizza today both were good if I do say so myself. And I made breakfast today, sourdough pancakes (they are the best I have ever tasted - I am liking my sourdough starter.)

So now the house is clean, movies have been watched, bread has been baked, and the kitchen is a mess for my wife to deal with in the morning.

I am going to bed. Have to get up and mosey into the client bright and early in the morning.

Maybe we will post some pictures on the blog again soon. I think our camera broke when my wife tried to take a picture of me sparing this afternoon. Probably just as well as there is now no evidence of the event!

Fourth of July

Dennis and I went to Island Bay on the 4th of July. We had some time to kill between Church and going over to a friends house. I thought that Dennis would like to through some stones into the ocean and I wanted to see the snow topped mountains on the South Island. So off we headed South!

The trip to the southern shores of the North island took a wee bit longer than planned (mostly because I made a wrong turn.) So I got out of the car at Island bay.

You can see above why it is called island bay, there is a wonderfully small island, this picture does not do it justice at all. This being wellington I ran into Stuart Marshall, someone who use to work for me at the Ministry of Health. Stuart and I chatted for a while and Dennis finally asked me if I was going to stand there and talk, or go with him. (A very forward question but handled quite well.) I asked Dennis what we would do and without hesitation he said.

Make a SAND CASTLE!

So we did.

That last picture I gave my little cell phone camera to a passer-by. And after this wonderful picture was taken I retrieved the phone only to find out by the daughter of the photographer that this picture was taken by a professional photographer.

Only in New Zealand!

Auckland

I went to Auckland this past week for a couple of days. The trip was chocker full of work and I did not get out to see the city at all. It was airport-cab-office-cab-hotel-cab-office-cab-airport.

I really enjoyed the flight home. My seat was taken by Patrick which was find by me as I was able to take the isle seat (so much better than a window.) The good new is that this started a conversation which lasted the entire flight home. Patrick is an English immigrant who has been here five years longer than me. We compared notes about culture and ended up on the topic of home ownership where we compared and contrasted customs in three countries. Quite the interesting conversation.

This particular flight had the added benefit of a couple of amazing flight attendants even by New Zealand standards. I generally are impressed with how personable people in are here in general, flight attendants in particular, but these two were just great. They had me laughing throughout the flight, I suppose it helped that I was sitting in the front row and talked to them a bit more than the average.

Here they making everyone's trip more enjoyable during takeoff.

Rose Garden

On Friday we, the family, got together for lunch at the Botanical Gardens. As you may remember our first home was quite close to the gardens and we spent quite a bit of time there. For Chris and Dennis this was a drive back to the old neighborhood. For me this was a short walk, Kilometer, up Bolton street.

The Botanical Gardens are at the corner of Bolton, Salamanca and Wesley Roads. My client is in Pastoral House top of the The Terrace at Bolton St.

Go ahead and use Google Maps to find above intersection, and then see the quick walk I had. Alas the deception that is Wellington! Here is the view of the harbor from a well bit up the hill from the same location.

You can see Pastoral House, the white building directly at the bottom of the street. The one with the water over the top, in case you are wondering the one that is about 20 stories tall. I took a walk up the hill

Rose Garden - 2

But it was certainly worth the walk. Lets face it nothing is better than the beautiful rose garden. Unless it is enjoying a meal with your family in the garden!