Lunar Eclipse

It was chilly on Tuesday night but it was well worth being outside to watch the eclipse. The skies cleared just in time for the main action and come 10pm there was a full eclipse and a bronze coloured moon. I have to say I don't remember ever having seen such an interesting event (but saying that I don't remember much these days, listen kids, when adults say that alcohol destroys brain cells, BELIEVE them. Those chickens have come home to roost.) What was I going to say next errr....

Any way changing the subject our friends are selling their house and I have done a virtual tour for them, so if you would like to look round a $450,000 house which is a pretty typical one for this area go to http://thevirtualviewcompany.com/5putakaplace. The tour takes just a few moments to load in, as long as you have a broadband connection. Short and sweet this week as I seem to have a lot of work to do at the moment.

Clean and Green?

I love the unspoilt beauty of NZ, there is contrast every where. Where we live there is of course the beach with the off shore islands, and the hills are but 15 mins drive away. Everything that has been untouched by man has a magnetic power, it draws you and holds you, your senses are overcome by the magnificence of it all. That said of course, what man has touched is at its best unsympathetic to the beauty of the surroundings.
There has always been a practical side to builders of a European origin, a kind of "I need a building to put tractors in, I've got some corrugated iron, it might be a bit rusty, but will do the job nicely." It is just a pity that said structure is next to, and draws the eye from some natural beauty. Now to the clean and green title. Litter has been discussed in the local paper, it is a growing problem, but nothing compared to the UK. What has been of concern to us, is stinging eyes. You can be driving along and suddenly your eyes are stinging and watering, and can be so bad that you have to pull over. This phenomenon seems to coincide with the spraying of Kiwi fruit. A little investigation on the Internet and low and behold, NZ allows Kiwi fruit growers to continue to use insecticides that are banned in other parts of the world. I tried not to look too hard for the effects of these sprays as I don't think I can do a lot about it, but they look prime candidates for the stinging eyes. I think I will look on EBay for a chemical warfare suit and practise holding my breath for 2 months at a time instead.

There is a natural irritant around at the moment. It is a fine yellow dust, which is in fact pollen that blows off the pine trees that inhabit Matakana Island. It causes a lot of sneezing in our household, and makes a mess on the car, but that seems to be it.
As I am talking about stinging eyes, it reminds me. I am a great fan of Natural remedies as they really seem to work, with no side effects, so as I find useful ones I will pass my findings along. If you have an eye infection, put some "colloidal silver" into it, you get instant relief and the infection disappears in 3 days, and with that tip of the day I will leave you for another week.

New Arrivals

It is always nice when you have been chatting to people via e-mail in England and then they pop in the cafe a couple of months later for a pizza and a chat. Such was the case on Monday night when Cath and family came in. Cath had found our website and we answered some questions, and now she is here and like us is another resident of "pommymoa" (papamoa). They visited an estate agent who helped them find rental accommodation, but like all the desperate agents out here, the old dollar signs fill their eyes when they realise you are a newly arrived Pom. Yes they think you have arrived with bucket fulls of cash and will only be to happy to sell you an over priced house with a 10.7% mortgage, they like to strike quick before the jet lag has worn off. They will be your best friend, maybe show you around, offer to take you fishing on their boat, by, what friendly helpful people these Kiwis are you may think. But sign on the dotted line and bye bye new friend, hello huge debt and over priced house. Renting really is the best option when you arrive, there are loads of nice houses to be had. When you have been here a while, found your feet, decided where you really want to live, be it the coast or countryside, seen were the real estate market is going price wise, then you might think about buying. If you have the money to buy outright, great, but do you really want to pay for your house four times over on a 25 year mortgage? Cath is renting and has already noted the price difference between coastal and country living. You can get a house with acres of land 10-15 miles inland for half the money of a coastal bungalow.
It is a grim time for selling houses at the moment. There were around 60 houses sold in the Mount/Papamoa area last month and there are over a 100 real estate agents operating from 12 offices chasing those sales. A lot of the agents are part time, few are very professional some are a joke. They charge around 4% of the house selling price so you will see that some will make money, some dream of making money but with those high charges the growth in private house sellers is increasing each year. There are no worries about buying privately, just get a survey on the house and a solicitor (they cost about $600 for the sale). So if you are arriving and looking to buy, take your time, and buy what you want, not what some slippery estate agent wants to sell you. As a final note, I know four estate agents personally and have dealt with several others, with this point in mind I think I have been very kind with my thoughts on them.

Customer Service?

Just a bit of a follow up to my last post here and then on to the topic in hand. At the gym I go to , I catch a bit of an "infotainmment" program called Sky "News". A bit of digression here first. I am not by any means a fitness freak but there comes a point in your life when you look in the mirror each morning, and you begin to wonder who the old guy is, that is staring back at you. I tried shuffling round a bit and if you catch the light just right you can improve the look of things, but when parts of your body begin to sag, it is time to do something about it. So I have got into the routine of dropping Georgia at school and then calling into the gym for 20 minutes graft on an elliptical trainer. After 4 weeks you will be pleased to hear that my nipples have now removed themselves from under my armpits and are making their way back to their starting position in life. While on the subject of getting older, how come I am losing the hair on my head, but it is growing on my feet! What's the story here, you get old and turn into a Werewolf? Any way in the last post I mentioned about the pharmaceutical companies and by sheer coincidence the next day Sky News invited a doctor on to the show to talk about the asthma drug "Symbicort" which has just been made available on prescription in Australia. The news presenter did not ask one serious question, like are there any side effects, is there any advantage over the current drugs, how much is it costing the Health Service. Instead it just ran like a commercial, with the presenter and doctor agreeing how lucky we all are that such clever doctors like himself have developed this wonderful drug that is now available to everyone. By the way the side effects are:

• Common side effects
  mild irritation in the throat, coughing, hoarseness, thrush (fungal infection in mouth and throat)headache, trembling, rapid heartbeat
• Less common side effects
  sleep difficulties restlessness, nervousness and anxiety dizziness, sickness, muscle cramps
• Rare side effects
  skin rash and bruising, itching, spasm in the airways, depression, behavioural disturbances, facial swelling, high blood sugar levels, chest pain, irregular heartbeats

To get on to the thread of this weeks post. I went into the local newspaper office this week thinking I could get an advertising rate card. Now not a big ask you might say, but the woman behind the desk informed me that they do not give out that kind of information. I must have had a blank expression on my face which the woman must have assumed meant I was stupid, because that is how she treated me. I rephrased the question and got the same answer. I asked how people are supposed to know how much their advert is going to cost them. The reply was that if you have an idea of the type of advert you want, that they can give you a rough idea but not a definite price, I said I knew roughly what I wanted, but I must have used up my quota of time as the woman turned away and restarted her conversation with her colleague. It is a fact of life in NZ that customer service is poor in most places, with untrained staff that really don't care and get shirty if you show signs of frustration. The worst is the retailer Dick Smiths, They have some good buys but you have to know all about the product you want before you go in. I asked once for some information and got the response "I don't know" I asked again in a different way and got the response "what I am saying to you is, I don't know" with an edgy tone, I asked if there was any one in the store that would know? "I don't know" came the reply and off he went. I could go on with more examples but I don't want to bore you. Just expect untrained, unmotivated, unhelpful customer service and you wont be disappointed.