making sense of the seasons here

Posted on Wed 16 May 2007 at 02:22

Still struggling to make sense of the seasons here.  If June, July and August are the winter months here, then May must be equivalent to November you would think.  If that is the case, this is above and beyond my expectations.  Although it gets quite cold at night and was dark today by 5.30pm, it is warm by 10am and still warm enough in the early afternoon for short sleeves.  Last week I sat out on the deck with my book for an hour or two in shorts and a T-shirt.  I forgot sun-block as I hadn’t anticipated being out there that long.  My face was all red by the time I came I had to go to work – I looked really embarrassed – as indeed I should because only a fool (or a mad-dog or Englishman!) goes out in the midday sun without sun-block here.

The heatpump is great, seems like a sound investment.  Adding heating to a Kiwi house can only add to your investment I think.  The bathroom heating has turned into a saga however.  The electrician came last week and fitted a double plug socket in the girl’s room and he was meant to fit  a heated towel rail and wall mounted heater in the bathroom and a security light out the front of the house.  No. Not finished last week. Because he managed to drop about 20 kilometres (minor exaggeration!) of drill bits into the wall cavity.  So by the time he ordered more bits and it was convenient for me to have him come again, it was this Monday.  He finished the bathroom this time but I wasn’t happy when he presented me with the bill: he had only done 3 of the 4 jobs he had estimated for (to be honest I couldn’t be bothered with his dicking around any more) and it still came to $70 more than he originally said.  Won’t ask him again, especially as he drilled an extra hole for the heated towel rail and never once thought to point it out to me…….

We went to Auckland on Sunday.  That was the first time we have been there since we got here, If you follow me!.. We went to see Jac and Adie, who started off as ‘cyber friends’ and are now the real McCoy!  Now, I was told last week at work, that when you see a pair of shoes thrown over the overhead power-cables here (yes, they still have them here!) it usually indicates a ‘tinny house’ (drug house, so named for the tin-foil-wrapped drugs dispensed there) in the near vicinity.  We saw a pair as we went down the road past their house to turn round.  On mentioning it to them, they said there was another pair on another road equidistant in a different direction…………what does that tell you?!!!!  South Auckland gets a lot of stick: it is meant to be low rent, really rough and basically not where your average Pom would want to be.  Jac and Adie seem to be enjoying their neighbourhood: they get on with their neighbours, feel safe walking their dog and don’t generally have noise problems. We certainly had no problems in the short space of time we were there.   We had a lovely visit and were made to feel very welcome.  Melissa ate an ‘adult’ size portion of lasagne:  I am still so very impressed that she (a) managed to eat it all and (b) didn’t explode in the car on the way home.  Thank-you Jac and Adie, we had a really lovely time.    And their cats!!  We are now used to delicate little girly kitties…………..I swear, their big male cats are the Blues Brothers!! Big bold bad boys!! They put our girlies in the shade!  Oh, God, the meeting of the kitties would be like  a feline version of West Side Story!

I had two UK phone calls in the same day yesterday: My lovely Shane (No 1 son) in the morning: thank you Shane; and my brother Pete in the evening:  thank you so much for that, both of you; makes me realise that although I am not there, I haven’t been forgotten!

 Right, there was more planned for this entry but I have to go away and do some revision!