Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone

Hope you are all keeping well and looking forward to Springtime. I am having real trouble getting my head round these upside down seasons. The climate change never really affected us when we were out in the Far East, we left in the summer and it remained summer for four years! But here it is so weird, Easter especially, you always associate Easter with springtime and the weather getting warmer, but it’s Autumn and getting colder and it feels like it should be nearly Christmas, but Christmas is in summer and ages away. We are used to Christmas in the sun, but in Singapore it was always hot so it didn’t seem odd, but having a winter with no Christmas is going to be really strange!

The new house is great; it is just wonderful to have space and privacy again. Our container arrived just before we moved in. We drove up the hill above the port to see the boat dock and we could actually see our container on it! (see picture) I know that’s a bit sad but it is exciting when all your stuff arrives on the boat :)

Getting the shipment cleared was hard work but we had expected that. New Zealand has extremely strict bio-security screening on everything that comes in. They are determined to keep out disease and pests that could harm the agriculture here.
You have to have a very detailed inventory that lists everything in the container; this then has to go through the ministry who will mark certain items that they want to inspect. This can include anything from camping equipment, shoes, bikes, baskets, untreated wood etc.
Even though we had been extremely careful about our packing, they still wanted to inspect all of our Christmas decorations, an air conditioning unit, folding chairs, garden tools and some packing crates. Once they have marked items for inspection you are not allowed to move them until they have been checked, and you have to pay a hefty fee for each item that they have to see. If they decide that they have to fumigate then you have to pay for that also.
You can only unpack your container at designated sites, the floors have to be concrete and situated away from any soil or plant life, and you are not allowed to open your container without a government official present (whose time you also have to pay for) he then inspects everything and ensures that the items that the ministry have to see are put to one side.

It is a lengthy, complicated and expensive procedure, however it did run smoothly and they were very professional and efficient.
All of our stuff was cleared, except for our Christmas tree; it seems it was fitted with decorative pine cones – ooops!! The men from the ministry cleared the area, donned white overalls and proceded to remove the offending articles (it was like that scene from ET were they have him in the white tent!)

Anyway he seemed very pleased with his ‘find’ he sealed everything in plastic and informed me that there were over 200 potential trees in that bag. An image of 200 lethal pine trees growing out of the living room carpet flashed through my mind, but I actually managed to keep my mouth shut!
I thanked him for not destroying my tree and he told me where I could get some nice uncontaminated New Zealand cones to replace them with.

Maybe by Christmas we’ll have time to do that :)

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Tibet - Support the Dalai Lama

We've been so busy with the new house these past few weeks that I've not had time to update this page but I will get round to it very soon.
In the meantime, the letter below was in my mailbox this morning,, I'm sure everyone will be aware of the current events in Tibet?
Please take a few moments to sign this petition, it is really important and could make a huge difference at this crucial time.

Thanks
Carri

Stand With Tibet
Dear friends,
After decades of repression under Chinese rule, the Tibetan people's frustrations have burst onto the streets in protests and riots. With the spotlight of the upcoming Olympic Games now on China, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change.
The Chinese government has said that the protesters who have not yet surrendered "will be punished". Its leaders are right now considering a crucial choice between escalating brutality or dialogue that could determine the future of Tibet, and China.
We can affect this historic choice--China does care about its international reputation. China's President Hu Jintao needs to hear that the 'Made in China' brand and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention--and we need it in the next 48 hours.
The Tibetan Nobel peace prize winner and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has called for restraint and dialogue: he needs the world's people to support him. Click below now to sign the petition--and tell absolutely everyone you can right away--our goal is 1 million voices united for Tibet:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/97.php/?cl_tf_sign=1
China's economy is totally dependent on "Made in China" exports that we all buy, and the government is keen to make the Olympics in Beijing this summer a celebration of a new China, respected as a leading world power. China is also a very diverse country with a brutal past and has reason to be concerned about its stability -- some of Tibet's rioters killed innocent people. But President Hu must recognize that the greatest danger to Chinese stability and development comes from hardliners who advocate escalating repression, not from Tibetans who seek dialogue and reform.
We will deliver our petition directly to Chinese officials in London, New York, and Beijing, but it must be a massive number before we deliver the petition. Please forward this email to your address book with a note explaining to your friends why this is important, or use our tell-a-friend tool to email your address book--it will come up after you sign the petition.
The Tibetan people have suffered quietly for decades. It is finally their moment to speak--we must help them be heard.
With hope and respect,
Ricken, Iain, Graziela, Paul, Galit, Pascal, Milena, Ben and the whole Avaaz team

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

How Stressed!!

These past two weeks have been total hell, with one load of stress on top of another. Customs, containers, estate agents, houses, banks, solicitors, you name it, it's been no end of stress.
Everything was going fine, we'd put an offer in on a house, which after a bit of wrangling was accepted on the condition of a satisfactory electrical and builders report. Electricians report was fine but the builders report brought up some issues with the roof. So that resulted in more wrangling.
We eventually came to an agreement and the completion date was set for the 6th. Unfortunately our incompetent bank in the UK has totally messed up the payment so we are now on pins not knowing if we will be moving in tomorrow or facing a penalty for breach of contract!

It is amazing how quickly things move here, it takes about a week on average to buy a house (that is providing you have a competent bank of course)

The house itself is nice, it's quite grand by Nelson standards, not the nicest house we saw! however it was certainly the largest and ultimately the most practical.
It's a 19th century, white weather boarded bay villa. Bay villas where extremely popular in New Zealand from around 1860 to about 1950. The early ones are an amalgamation of architectural styles that were popular in England and the West coast America, with a bit of the colonial India & Singapore thrown in. As NZ was populated in the mid 1800s by settlers from these parts of the world you can understand how this unique yet familiar type design came about. Anyway enough of the history lesson!
The house has the town centre at the far end of the street and the Maitai river and the Grampian hills at the other. It is a superb location but what really sold it to us was the size. It has been owned by doctors for most of its life and has had a smaller house built on to the front that can be accessed from the road and also from the house, this was the doctors surgery, but with a bit of work it will become a perfect studio and office :)
The garden is also really nice and we've got Olive, Grapefruit & Mandarin orange trees all laden with fruit. Will send you all the new address as soon as we are in and online.

Some pics below, note the leaves on the drive, nearly autumn here.