Orca on the beach

There was huge excitement on the beach at Papamoa today. A huge whale (named Nobbie, for some reason) was washed up and stranded on the beach. Loads of people rushed to help it. I've never seen one of these creatures so close up and he was HUGE! The only beached whales I've ever seen are the 2 legged variety, usually pink and on the Mediterranean beach.
Anyway, Nobbie was desperately trying to breathe and volunteers were trying to keep him wet with buckets of sea water. Someone dashed off and brought some blankets and quilt covers to protect him from drying out and he looked very smart in the blue flowery one you can see in the photo. A digger was called in and dug out a trench ready for the tide to turn and take him back out to sea. Apparently he was chasing a sting ray and got stuck on a sand bank as the tide was going out. It was a thrill to see him swim off again safe and sound and probably not too badly affected by his ordeal. But as I've said so many times before, its events like this that give me more reason to keep out of the sea.

investing in property

Having lived in New Zealand now for almost 5 years I am often asked if I have bought a house yet. It seems that you can't be settled properly if you don't own a property and lain down 'roots'. Well, we have settled here but haven't bought our own property and to be honest I don't think I ever would. New Zealand houses are way over priced for what they are and mortgage rates are far too high.
At the moment we rent a lovely sunny town house 2 minutes walk from the beach, shops, pubs and our workplace. We pay our rent each week and enjoy hassle free living without the millstones of mortgage repayments, repairs, DIY etc.
But I do believe that property can be an excellent investment and that a lot of profit can be made in a relatively short time if you choose the investment wisely.
With that in mind I have bought a beautiful brand new villa off plan in Brazil. (See picture above) Why Brazil, I hear you say! Well Brazil is fast becoming a very popular holiday destination especially in the North East near the city of Recife. We have a lot of lovely Brazilian friends in New Zealand and all of them agree this part of Brazil is very beautiful, extremely safe with a relatively cheap cost of living. There is an international airport just been built close by as well as golf courses and of course fantastic beaches. The villa is on a complex being built right on the beach front - one of the first in the area. Property prices are already increasing by 20% each year and as I got an excellent price on the villa I know that once its built (work starts 2009) and I resell I will make a very handsome profit.
The bargain prices are obviously limited to buy off plan so if you are interested then you would need to have a look now.
I am very excited that I have got in on something big at the start. Having never done anything like this before I was impressed with the way this firm helped me through the legal processes of purchasing Investment Bonds then property. It was quick, easy and not stressful at all.
So move over pizza shop I'm a property investor now!!

food for kids

With summer now on its way business in our pizza shop is on the up again. More families and visitors are heading to the Mount at the weekends. This is great for us and signals more good times ahead but with the increase in people comes the endless round of the same questions I get asked every year...'do you sell phone cards?'....'what time do the buses run to town?'...'do you do fish and chips?'....'are you from Ireland?' and my favourite 'what food do you do for children?'
I answer these questions pleasantly and to the best of my knowledge but the last one never fails to amuse me.
In our shop we have a wide range of pizzas, paninis, toasted sandwiches and burgers. We don't do anything fried and we use fresh ingredients for all the recipes. I make the pizza dough from scratch and make the burgers with fresh mince from the local butchers shop.
When a family of say 2 adults and 3 children come in to order dinner, Mum and Dad usually select a pizza each or a hot meat roll, the oldest child will maybe have a pizza, the middle one a burger but when it comes to the youngest out pops the question 'what do you have for kids?'
'Well, what does she like?' I say
'Oh, the usual things that kids like' comes the reply.
'What about a toasted sandwich or a small Hawaiian pizza'
'Hmm...do you do hot chips?'
'No'
'Wedges?'
'No'
'Chicken nuggets?'
'No'
And so it goes on. Now the point is this - why do children have to have a different menu to everyone else? Why do adults happily choose fresh baked pizza for themselves then want their children to eat frozen reconstituted chicken mush deep fried in breadcrumbs full of fat and sugar?
I know that chips and chicken nuggets and other such things may seem like an easy option to the parents of a fussy child but if they are not conditioned to having different food to adults then they would expect just to have the same food and be willing to try more. There is no reason why children should eat 'kids food' its just the TV advertisers telling us thats what they want.