Heres a couple of phtos for you to compare. The one on the far left is of Oxford Street in London, but of course it could be any city centre in the UK. Don't they all look happy!? The other one is of Tauranga town centre on Tuesday. A nice big inflatable Santa watching the throngs of shoppers fighting their way through the busy shops. Yeah, right.

It was a lovely day on Tuesday so of course everyone heads to the beach instead of the shops, which is how it should be. I love the understated hype of Christmas here. Christmas is, after all, just one day. In the UK the commercial build up to Christmas starts in September where the pressure is turned on for you to spend, spend, spend. You had to buy stuff and more stuff 'seeing as its Christmas' just to feel that you were joining in with the festivities.

People in New Zealand look forward to their summer holidays rather than the day itself and thats great. We had a lovely day strolling round the uncrowded shops, no hassle no pressure.

We used to live near a huge shopping centre called the Metro Centre and it was so busy around this time of year, the traffic queues to get in would reduce the surrounding roads to total grid lock. Then once you got there there it took hours to find a parking space then after a harrassing trawl round the shops would take another hour to get out of the car park. What a waste of time!!

Its fantastic that its only 19 days to Christmas and people here are lying on the beach, getting out on their boats or going fishing.

sunshine and sand

Firstly, being English, I have to mention it. The weather. Its been pretty fab these last few days. Every where looks gorgeous when the sun shines, lovely bright colours and clear blue skies. It really encourages me to keep up with my running in the morning and today I ran the furthest ever. I went to the local shopping mall to get my hair cut at a barbers run by 2 girls, Marilin and Denise, from Liverpool. (Yes, I did say barbers and they really only do men's hair but being multi talented they do me a sneaky cut out the back). The mall is about a 25 min run away along the beach and I felt pretty good that I managed it without having a heart attack, until I looked in the mirror and discovered my face was as red as tomato from that beautiful bright sun!

Now, talking of multi talented people, take a look at the most recent tour Micheal has just completed http://thevirtualviewcompany.com/49athena its lovely house, close to the beach.

Well, moving on. There is a strange phenomena in the shop at the moment. If you sit on the chair out the back or stand on a certain tile next to the fridge you get a strange wobbly sensation. Michael has, on occasions, been bounced out of the chair. Its a bit like on Jurassic Park when the jelly starts to wobble indicating the approach of a dinosaur. Vaguely wondering if it was an earth quake or that perhaps the Mount was thinking of reactivating itself, I decided it must be the building works that are underway out the back of the shop. There are 2 huge building projects in competition with each other. One is directly behind the shop car park and the other just over the road from that. You may not be familiar with Mount Maunganui, but it is basically a huge sand bank with an volcano ( The Mount) at one end and the ocean on both sides.So when foundations are dug out they are basically digging out a huge sand pit. There is no bed rock or clay. The builders are using a huge munching machine from Germany(see photos) which digs down into the sand then mixes it up with tons and tons of cement and water which in turn forms the retaining wall around the site. We have been assured that this method causes the least disturbance to the surrounding buildings but I must admit I have checked the shop insurance as I have a feeling the whole street is going to fall down into these 2 huge holes and be swallowed up by the sea. The holes are way below sea level. The buildings are going to be high rise apartments. The Mount is fast developing in to an even more popular holiday destination and it really is starting to come together but in the mean tine we have huge lorries, diggers and cranes driving round the streets and the sand and dust flying about is unbelievable! But at least the workmen come in for pizza! The buildings should be finished by 2009 then all the millionaires can enjoy their drinkies on their decks 2 inches from the next buildings deck while craning their necks to have a peep at the sea. Lovely!!

Well, to change subject a bit you will be pleased to know I managed to down load a new French tutorial onto my mp3 player. So now I have moved on from Monsieur Albert in the cafe to listening to Michel Thomas. If you are familiar with this guy you will know he has a unique method of teaching a foreign language which is very good and works for me. The only problem is I wish he would clear his throat! Either he is a heavy smoker or his false teeth don't fit properly. If you are not familiar with the guy then lets just say I feel the need to clear spit out my ears. Well, I'll leave you with that thought.....aurevoir, mes amis

photos

Above photo of the deserted Papamoa Beach at 9am
View from the mount summit. Papamoa Beach is off in the distance.



We had an impromtu climb up the Mount last week and as usual I was well prepared for these occasions with jandals on my feet. We climbed up some deserted old goat track which was reminiscent of a mountain path on some Greek Island. At this time of year different parts of the mount can be completely diverse from lush native bush to baked Mediteranean hillside to English forest.
We managed to get to the summit ok and enjoy the views and get down in time for a nice cold beer before openning the shop for the teatime rush!

safe

For the past few weeks I have been trying to get fit. I dont like the gym and totally hopeless at any sort of aerobic class so I decided to start running (well trotting, really) along the beach. I have increased the distance from 10 minutes to 25 minutes and I am starting to feel fitter. Its great to be out in the sunny mornings and it fits into my daily routine so I am quite likely to stick with it. However, running can be a bit boring even if the view is very pretty so I started to practice my French via my MP3 player. Unfortunately I am the worlds worst at anything technichal and I am having real prbolems down loading some new lessons on to the player. I am getting a bit tired of 'Monsieur Albert goes to the cafe'. So today I decided just to run and not listen to anything but my thoughts..... There wasnt a lot going on there either. But anyway, what did strike me is how safe I feel in New Zealand. Theres no way in the UK I would run by myself along a deserted beach (or road, or field) every morning. But I don't feel nervous here at all. Anyone I do see generally just say hello and thats it.
We have several Brazillians that come in to our shop for pizza. They are a very happy, loud friendly lot and 2 regulars Michelle and Roberto like to pop in for a chat. They have been here for 2 years now and miss their country, family and frineds a great deal. When I asked them why they stayed here they say that although they love Brazil and it would always be their home they feel safe and free in New Zealand. A feeling of personal security and freedom are so important.
I read the local paper every day and although as the population slowly increases in New Zealand so does crime. But the fact that domestic violence and petty crime still make headlines here means something. Heres an example. On Saturday, a youth saw an oportunity and stole the cash box off the bus in town- front page news. It has now been decided that the bus stop in town is a rough dodgy place with chewing gum on the ground (heaven forbid) and mean looking hoodies hanging around intimidating people. So the paper sent a reporter out to talk to people waiting at the bus stop to see what they thought. The reporter asked 3 ladies in their 60's and one teenage boy and none of them felt intimidated, one lady thought they could tidy the place up a bit and one thought security cameras might be a good idea. These findings made headline news the next day! Two days of news out of a bus stop in town is pretty impressive.
Anyway, long may it stay that way.

the first post

Hi, this is Joyce taking over from Michael with the blog. Michael has been working really hard with the new business which is starting to pay dividends now. So with that and writing a book and making pizza something had to give or the brain cell would definitely go into melt down.

I started writing out Christmas cards yesterday even though it only seems 5 minutes ago I was writing out last years cards. Time definitely seems to pass quickly in New Zealand. Why is that? I think it might have something to do with the fact the seasons are the 'wrong' way round. How can summer be heating up in November - it must only be July. How can Christmas only be 40 days away when Georgia and her friend are playing in the pool out side? Then suddenly its January and a new year begins.
On the theme of Christmas, I love the fact that the Hype is very low key here. Yes I know the Warehouse and Kmart have the Christmas stuff on sale now but it really is nothing compared to the UK where Xmas starts in September and by the time the day does arrive your sick of it all!
Christmas and New Year are the busiest time of the year for us in the pizza shop so it all passes in a blur any way.
Now to change tack a little bit Georgia starts intermediate school in the new year. Intermediate school is a sort of half way house for two years between junior school and secondary school which I think is a brilliant idea. Well, we found out this week that she has been selected to be nominated for the GATE class. Great! Whats the GATE class? Apparently it stands for Gifted and Talented something or other and is an accelerator class for kids from different schools who show extra potential in certain areas. We were given a form to fill in which didn't explain a lot but asked questions about Georgia's personality, interests and strengths. I filled it in but wasn't 100% sure about a couple of issues or even what this GATE class involved. So we had a word with her teacher who explained that it was a class for gifted students and that all kids wanted to get into it because 'all the nice kids' were in it. Hmmm, I was a little uncomfortable with this statement. Does that mean that all the other kids are not 'nice kids'? Anyway, she told us to make up a portfolio of all Georgia's best work, all her certificates and a resume. When Georgia took it into school another teacher said 'oh no we don't need all that we just need a letter off Georgia stating in her own words why she wants to be in the GATE class.' Talk about misinformation! It all seems a lot of hassle to me and puts pressure on the kids at a time when starting a new school is traumatic enough. Georgia, as usual takes it all in her stride and has written her letter. I've told her not to worry about it or get stressed, not that she ever does worry or get stressed. Georgia learns more out of all the books she reads anyway and school is a bit of fun for her, which is how it should be.
Well, that's it for now, I need to pop out for some more Christmas cards!

The Last Post

This is my last post, I am handing over the laptop to Joyce. With any luck you may get a different perspective on things. I await with interest to see what she comes up with. For me, there seems so many things to be done and so little time and blogging is not on the top of my list. I will let you know when the book comes out though. Adieu.

While the cats away.....

Georgia went to school camp this week for 3 days. It was a trip up to Waihi gold mine and she had been really excited about this for weeks. She came back on Wednesday and if you need to know anything about the gold mining industry in NZ she is the one to ask. One surprising fact was that they need to powderise 1 tonne of rock to extract 3g of gold! Georgia's trip coencided with our Tuesday day off, which means we can have the whole day somewhere as we don't have to be back at 3pm to pick her up from school. But where to go? I only wanted to drive for an hour or so, the choices seemed to be Whakatane (not a lot there) in one direction, Paeroa in another direction, there is even less there but they do have a giant sculpture of a bottle of L&P, I think of it as a shrine to type 2 Diabetes. Oh no I can feel a tangent coming on! Type 2 Diabetes is of course a growing problem, the more chemical/sugar/water combinations people drink, the bigger the problem. It became an epidemic with the stroke of a pen, when someone decided to change the threshold for having type 2 by lowering the resting blood sugar measurement from 140 to 126, 2 million Americans became diabetic overnight, and they didn't even know. The drug companies knew alright, lots more money to made now. While I am digressing here is another interesting thing, the obesity epidemic is caused in part, by fizzy drinks and ice cream, however the biggest culprit is the stroke of a pen. Someone had the bright idea of deciding you were obese by using a mathematical formula to calculate your BMI ( the formula is something like, times your height by the square root of a triangle, add your weight and the age of your Granny's budgie, then take away the number you first thought of) If your number came out at 30, you are obese. (using this formula, all athletes, body builders and Brad Pitt are clinically obese). I prefer the old fashioned method of determining if someone was obese, the tell tale signs were a garage full of broken bathroom scales and the "cafe phenomena". This is when the suspected obese person stands up after having a latte and a double chocolate chip muffin with caramel sauce, if the chair is still firmly clamped to the persons back side as they wobble down the street, then they are obese. (The next phenomena is the cafe owner legging it after them, armed with a tyre lever to try and get their chair back.)

The other possible direction was Rotorua, and this is indeed where we went (you may have already guessed this by the photo, which is the photo you always see when you see pictures of Rotura, as it is the only building in Rotorua that merits a photo). Rotorua attracts the biggest number of tourists in NZ, they come to see bubbling mud pools and steamy hot pools. When you see them you are almost taken back to prehistoric times and it would be no surprise if a Diplodocus popped his head round the corner. (thinking about this, it would be a bit of a surprise really, but at least its head is about 5 minutes away from its feet, so you would have a bit of time to scream and run away) . It was however cold and cloudy but Rotorua has a museum (hooray) the museum is the building in the photo and is an old bathhouse, it was quite interesting. You could see the history of the Spa Bath industry, there was a section on the big volcanic eruption in the late 1800's that killed 120 people and wrecked the growing tourist industry and a section on the Maori Regiment. It was also warm and had a cafe that sold huge cheese scones for $3.00. We had a bit of lunch in the French Cafe (Joyce likes to practise her French), had a walk on the lake shore and then came home. It was a good day out.