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.

Banking - the big rip off

Its not very often I read books on financial matters. In fact I don't think I had ever read one previous to a little book called 'At What Cost' by Robert Anderson. Michael got it from the library the other day and as it was small, with big text and cartoon pictures in it I thought I would have a read through.
It was pretty interesting I can tell you!
It gave a basic insight on the huge scam that we are all being conned by the big world bankers to ensure countries and the people are crippled by debt. Debt is of course the way we are are being controlled. We want things so we have to work, pay tax, borrow more, pay interest, work more, pay more etc. etc
I have often wondered why the Government can't just print more money for public projects or infrastructure and apparently they can but the foreign banks insist that the Governments borrow money off them at huge interest rates. Why do the Governments do this? Well basically because the banks own the Governments and they ensure that the leaders are bought and sold before they go on to 'lead' the country.
New Zealand was one of the last countries to have independent banking right up until the 1980's when the Labour Government came into power and sold off the small independent banks to the big boys such as ANZ and Westpack.
Up until this time New Zealand financed its own money lending and interest on loans was kept within the country to the benefit of everyone. Now it borrows from foreign banks and pays back obscene amounts of interest to them and of course we pay for that with increased food and petrol prices and high taxes. It just doesn't make sense.
But it is one of those situations where you feel a bit powerless. What can be done about it? I suppose awareness is a start.
A lot of British people come to New Zealand unaware of the taxation system here with its no free pay and high interest rates on mortgages and loans and then to discover that the reason for it is to pay off unnecessary interest to international banks is tragic.

telecom grrr!!

The most annoying things about using the internet are waiting for pages to open and files to download. We had Telecom broadband and it was so slow I seemed to spend half my life watching that little 'wait' circle going round and round and round.
It got so slow that the computers' screen saver came on before a page had opened.
The speed got noticeably slower in our new house so we complained to Telecom but they told us there was nothing wrong with the connection or the line so it must be our computer - what a cheek there was nothing wrong with our computer in the old house! And how on earth a man in India knows that there is a problem with my computer is way beyond me.
So to save me wasting my life watching that little circle go round and round we have had the phone disconnected. This means we save $90 per month, I don't get infuriated with the computer and I don't get stressed talking to Telecoms' useless costomer help desk. AHH I feel less stressed already!
We now use a mobile plug in device now and it works fine.

travellers return

Well, we are back. The holiday is over and the heat, sunshine and sangria are well behind us now. What a fantastic time we had!! Spain was hot, dry, hassely, noisy, beautiful, peaceful, friendly and hostile all in one package.

Fuengirola on the Costa Del Sol is home to over 52,000 Brits looking for a new life in the sun.

Meeting up with some of our family there after 4 1/2 years was great and to witness their new lives in a foreign country was very interesting. One of the biggest hurdles was the language. At least moving to New Zealand we didn't have this problem and it really brings it home how much of a barrier a foreign language can be when living, not holidaying in a foreign country. Things like sorting out your telephone connection can be a major headache and everyday occurrences such as trying to tell the checkout girl in the supermarket that the juice she charged 3 euros for should only be 80 cents as it was on special offer just end up leaving you feeling exhausted and frustrated as you hand over your 3 euros. Its at times like these when I realise how pitiful my knowledge of the Spanish language is. These constant daily events of normal life result in the expat community rallying together to help each other out which leads to the fact that you are a British person living in Spain rather than a British person living with the Spanish people.

Fuengirola town was a small fishing village which succumbed to huge tourism development but quite a lot of the original village still survives if you look for it. The narrow streets and pretty church squares are there in amongst the bars and high rise hotels.

A relatively short drive in to the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada took us to Mijas and Frigialana which are 2 traditional white Spanish towns. They are spectacularly beautiful, peaceful and soaked in history with steep stepped streets built into the mountain side only wide enough for a donkey. We relished in taking in the architecture and atmosphere which is lacking in New Zealand.

One day we had a trip to Gibraltar which is of course still British. Seeing the monkeys that live there for real was a treat especially for Georgia!

One of the thrills for the expats though, is to go to Morrison's supermarket and Marks and Spencer's for 'English things', neither of which had any appeal for me. But again I think this has something to do with living in a totally foreign country.

Spain has a lot of appeal, beautiful scenery, lively people, excellent weather plus family living there and we were very sad to leave but we left with mixed emotions because its not as if we were returning to an ugly country. New Zealand is beautiful and peaceful and to be honest the constant noise and hassle in the main towns in Spain was very tiring. But New Zealand is so far away....

take a break

There is a definite air of excitement in our household at the moment. But it is the sort of restrained excitement that bubbles under the surface that could erupt into hysterics at any moment. The reason is, of course, is that we go on holiday this Sunday to visit Michael's brother, Bob and his wife, Tricia, in Spain. They moved there 3 years ago and have settled very well. So apart from the thrill of meeting up with some family again (first time in 2 and 1/2 years) we will also have the chance to see how they have coped with emigrating and setting up their new life.

We booked this trip 5 months ago and now with just 5 days to go last minute preparations are in overdrive. The cases have been packed and un packed at least 20 times, Michael's pile of clothes to take is bigger than mine so I'll have to do more shopping, Georgia's moaning that there's nothing in her wardrobe because everything is 'put away for holiday'. But on the whole we are pretty well organised. Just got to remember tickets, passports, money and everything else will fall into place.

Just to add a bit more pressure I needed to buy a butane gas cartridge for my cordless hair tongs so I headed to the chemist who had no idea what I was talking about, neither did Harvey Norman Electricals, Noel Leeming Appliances, Kmart or Farmers Department store. Its the usual story that shopping in New Zealand is just so much harder work than in the UK. You cant just walk into a shop and expect to get what you want, you have to put in a bit of effort. Anyway, Linda suggested Guinness Appliances which sells kitchen equipment and what do you know they knew what I was after! But they didn't have any. But they would ring me as soon as they got them in. That was 3 weeks ago. Oh well.