Margaret Parkinson

My son had the same problems but when we went to the seaside he was always a lot better. However he has never grown out of the hay fever. He is now 47 and has just returned from a cruise with no problems at all.

You will have to live in boat house

June

msi geek

I have been living in NZ for 2 years and "dying" to get out of here. As a Kid, I had read a lot about NZ and took up a job offer only find the real NZ - "VILLAGE".

There are certain words that are NOT found in the Kiwi dictionary:

Competition, Performance, Quality, Processes...

I had the honour of working for the National Airline of NZ (Air NZ) who had outsourced its entire IT Infrastructure to some unheard small kiwi company to save money, not considering any multi-nationals IT firms who also think about Quality and Processes.

They just moved from Windows XP Service Pack 1 to Service Pack 2 and 90% of their machines crashed (running on luck - temporary workarounds and patches) - even school kids in other countries would do better that the IT Pros here.


These villagers will never improve. I am even scared to fly that airline after what I have seen happening !!!

janek

You are not held here against your will are you??
don't die before you leave, spare us that....

What's the Kiwi Dictionary? Do you think they have copies in the public libraries? I would like to take a look....

I can't see how working for Air NZ would be an honour, they pay you, you work to the job description, there is no need to feel honoured.

Are you a school kid or just another 'IT Pro' ?

Many 'IT Pros' migrate to NZ, how many work for Air NZ? or were you the only clever one there? All the the rest were native IT Pro's and you had to suffer them ? No, no need to answer that.......I know what the answer will be.....

Bo-Jangles

The New Zealand Dictionary http://www.fishpond.co.nz/Books/Refe...t_info/583520/ used to be issued free to all new migrants who signed up for the now defunct Kiwi Ora program, but readily available at all bookshops and libraries.

janek

You have directed me to a website selling a New Zealand dictionary, not a Kiwi dictionary, it states that it contains New Zealand words and phrases.

It is not an English dictionary nor a Maori dictionary, English is spoken by the majority of people in New Zealand and if you refer to an English dictionary you will find the words:

Competition, Performance, Quality, Processes...


The statement below is utter nonsense:


"There are certain words that are NOT found in the Kiwi dictionary:

Competition, Performance, Quality, Processes"...'

luvwelly

I'm beginning to doubt the nationality of the last few posters......why are you taking the expression so literally?.....to say words are 'not in their dictionary' simply means these characteristics are not apparent in the particular society. I don't actually agree with the original sentiment but am puzzled at the way this thread has gone

KoalaCaroline

I would agree with the previous thread too. What has this arguement got to do with my original thread about NZ. Life is too short, stop being so petty.

janek

I apologise, however I did not take the topic about asthma/damp housing off thread, that was done by misi geek.

If there is asthma in the family it could be a good idea to stay away from a lot of these new fangled house cleaning products that are launched onto the New Zealand market.

Large companies like P & G are known for experimenting with the population base in this small country and they release all kinds of products, mainly aimed at the home-maker to keep germs at bay.
There's one on the tv at the moment with a woman cleaning kitchen surfaces with a piece of chicken, the advert. then goes on to say that if only the consumer would purchase something similar to a baby wipe they would have a germ-free kitchen. This imo is over-packaged/overpriced hyped up product,
I have never looked for it in the supermarket, so cannot be 100% sure who has produced it, but it is the type of thing these multi-nationals like to put around.

However the 'school of thought' on this seems to be the more sterile our environment the more asthma.
That doesn't answer the damp house problem though, buyer/renter beware I guess, the only damp house I lived in was in Sydney, Surry Hills, paid through the nose in rent, ended up with bronchitis, but I think it rains there more that it does in Auckland.

KoalaCaroline

Hi, I didnt mean for you to apologise. You have nothing to apologise for. Thanks for the tips I will definately take them onboard. Have to admit I have just watched a programme tonight on people moving to NZ or OZ (tonight was about NZ) it looked lovely and the houses they looked at didnt look damp to me. Do you know anything about the smog issues in NZ?

janek

Yes that is often the way, these places never do look damp, therein lies the problem, the place I rented in Sydney had freshly painted white walls when I moved in and within about 3 weeks all the mould started to creep through, but this was an old so called character property and they have bigger risk of damp.

Most damp properties will smell of damp also, even if the landlord has done a paint job, although I don't remember that on my Surry Hill place, but we looked at a few character properties here in NZ and some of them were pretty 'high' [musty]. We have a damp free home now, but it is in a sunny location. Try to get a place with as much sunlight as poss., but I am in Nelson, some places in New Zealand can be very cloudy or smoggy.

Jokerman

That's fairly accurate. I worked for a large corporation (not air nz) and they also crashed the system by a windows upgrade : no testing beforehand to see what might happen.

Competition? Yes, I am at college now and there is no such thing as a 'good' grade, you either pass or you don't, which removes any incentive to excel because at the end of the course the worst person there will have the same qualification as the best person, and the course is geared to making sure people pass so the quality is not that great. In the UK if the no-hopers fall by the wayside thats just tough, or was when I was at college in the UK. Here, it's almost impossible to fail. NZQA....

Performance? To me it's important NOT to give good performance for fear of the "tall poppy syndrome" biting me on the arse ("Who does he think he is?"). As long as you find the water-level you'll be OK.

Quality...hmm, bodge, bash, biff. Loadsamoney!! That is the Kiwi number 9 wire philosophy.

Processess... Ha, don't make me laugh. I recently worked in an IT consultancy who didn't think sourcecontrol was needed. Needless to say, one day the code dissapeared, and panic followed ("Where is the work?").

Is all this a bad thing? Not neccessarily. But if you are looking for German efficiency in the work place forget it.

BEVS

HHmm.

If you are concerned about damp and cold,your answer is to look for a new build house or build one yourself. That is perfectly possible here. There are sub-divisions of new housing all the time. Many of the new build houses have the required insulation and also double-glazing. Heating is typically a heat pump in these houses.

We do have an older house. It is 30 years old . It was built well and is not at all damp, however , it only has a wood burner and rooms can become cold. The place is angled quite well for sun, which is an important issue here. It is sheltered from the wind.

One of the reasons we moved to a village was air pollution. With so many wood burners being lit in Winter, you do find a pall of smoke pollution in the air. You can see it hanging in the air and smell it like bonfire night. (Ironically, our only source of heating right now is a blummin' wood burner )

I would imagine some folks would wish to counter that by stating that the UK has traffic pollution problems. That may be so, but feeling the need to compare that shouldn't detract from the pollution caused by wood burners here in NZ. I'd tend to agree about the chest infections possibly brought on by poor housing standards. Cold and damp environments will effect health & so someone whose child has asthma should avoid such housing and possibly consider keeping away from older suburban areas where wood burners are the norm.

A new sub-division of modern new build houses should be fine IMO.

msi geek

Well, at least somebody agrees with me

A german guy in my office ran away within two months, used to German perfection and finenese.

New Zealand turns to Germany for IT workers
http://www.workpermit.com/news/2006_...it_workers.htm

These Germans may teach them a thing or two, but do the Kiwis want to learn?

Trust me - take an oxford dictionary - cancel those 4 WORDS - resultant is a Kiwi dictionary.

Air NZ computers run on luck (as well as Mission Critical/Business Critical applications), hope their Airplanes do not !!!

They had always used gen-i but after Telecom bought it over - clash of big attitudes - telecom and air nz are loggerheads as who is the definitive NZ Brand - air nz decided that they have nothing to do with Telecom and outsourced its entire IT infrastructure to some unknown small privately held kiwi company - Quality ??? - Does anyone know such a word here?

The problems with Kiwi people is resistance to change - what makes countries like US, UK superpowers is that they may be good, but always want to get better, always open to ideas and improvements.

It is always the attitude that counts - my American boss here rightly told me - do not argue with these villagers and learn to enjoy...

PS: Always utter a prayer before boarding an Air NZ flight.

NZ a 'giant transit lounge' for Australia

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4624831a10.html

scrubbedexpat094

I have to agree with this. Many Kiwis don't seem to get that we live in a global economy now & NZ can't compete unless it updates it's ideas/practices. Having said that, I have a number of Kiwi friends who do 'get it' & are as frustrated with the intransigent Kiwi mind-set as the rest of us.

Small island mentality, I'm afraid.

Jokerman

To a point... my conclusion with kiwis and getting them take your ideas on board is to cajole them into thinking that they thought of it in the first place. That way it's ok. If, for example, I said : "In Manchester there is a metro tram system, that's what Wellington should have to replace the clapped out bus service", that statement wouldn't win me ANY friends with my kiwi work-mates who might well reply : "Well, if Manchester is so great why don't you go back there then!" (or words to that affect). So you have to be tricky.