Along The Yellow Brick Road

Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay

2008-06-27T12:18:00.015+08:00

About the Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay

The Tibetan Freedom Torch is a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the Tibetan people for freedom and justice, and of the commitment of people around the world to helping achieve this goal.
The Freedom Torch will be carrying a message of truth and resistance through more than 50 cities between March 10th and August 8th, at which point it will reach the border of occupied Tibet on the day that the Olympics begin in Beijing.
The Olympic torch should embody the ideals of peace and harmony for all, but this year, the Chinese government is trying to use the Olympic torch relay to cover up its brutal occupation of Tibet and abysmal human rights record in China and abroad. At the same time, the International Olympic Committee has rejected Tibetan representation at the Olympics.
The alternative Tibetan Freedom Torch relay gives voice to the true ideals of Tibetans and the dreams of all people of conscience: dreams of freedom, justice, and human rights for all. The flame of Tibetan freedom will burn in all our hearts until Tibetans are once again free to determine their future in their own land.

"Light the Passion, Share the Dream, Freedom and Justice for Tibet”

tashidelek.co.nz

This week the Freedom torch arrived in New Zealand from Mexico. On Monday (a very wet and windy Monday!) the torch came through Nelson. I had hoped to get some great shots but unfortunately conditions were bad due to the ghastly weather. Still the run went ahead and despite the awful day there was still a good turnout and a lot of support :)

The torch leaves NZ next week bound for Taiwan.

We saw a Kakapo!!!!

2008-06-16T09:29:00.006+08:00

I have to admit that up until this weekend I did not have a clue what a Kakapo was, and for the benefit of anybody else as ignorant as me I'll tell you.

The Kakapo is a bird, but it is not like any bird you have ever seen, it is so amazing, it just looks like some made up mythical creature. The Kakapo only lives in New Zealand and long ago they could be found all over the country. For millions of years NZ was only inhabited by bird and reptiles so the Kakapo did not learn the defense mechanisms to escape or combat mammalian predators. The arrival of Polynesian peoples thousands of years ago, of Europeans in the 1800's, and ultimately the pets and livestock they brought with them resulted in the massive decline of Kakapo populations from hundreds of thousands to a mere handful of birds.

Back in the 1970s the Kakapo was believed to be extinct, then some were discovered living on remote islands off the shore of NZ. These islands are the only place in the world where the Kakapo has no predators and can live safely.

Thanks to the Kakapo recovery programme there are now 91 Kakapos alive and thriving.

Back in April seven chicks hatched on one of the islands, these were transferred to a sanctuary here in Nelson to ensure their survival. Sadly one of the chicks died but the remaining six thrived. Now at 10 weeks old they are about to be taken back to their island. Last weekend the sanctuary had a big open day so everyone could go and say goodbye to them. The girls really wanted to go, so we took them up on Sunday. Honestly nothing could have prepared us for the sight of them, they have to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. If you could imagine a cross between an owl and a parrot, the size of a rooster with zero coordination you'd be somewhere near! They were truly beautiful and I feel so privileged to have actually seen them up close - And guess what? I didn't take my camera :(

The Kakapo is so rare that all of the 91 living birds have names, check them out here, and this is a link to the Kakapo Recovery Programme, it is a really interesting site, go have a look.

A Bad Month

2008-06-16T08:42:00.005+08:00

Crikey it's been ages since I posted on here.
Last month has been really crap, I think the stress of the past six months finally caught up with us. Up till now we have been pretty much working on auto pilot and really just getting on with what had to be done to set up the business, house etc.

The new international website was finally launched a few weeks ago and I think it was only then that we realized the enormity of what we have taken on. After thirteen years of trading in the UK we have a database of over 12,000 customers, we get by on repeat orders and word of mouth recommendations. In terms of promotion we don't have to do very much at all.
When we first saw the new database set to zero it was just so scary! and it really hit home that we were in a country where nobody has a clue who we are or what we do. It is like going right back to square one, and it is sobering. We have no guarantees that we can make this work.
This month has been a round of see-sawing emotions, one day we are elated by the challenge of doing something new, then the next day we are worrying about what will happen if we can't pull this off. Ultimately we always seem to come back to the old cliche that 'you'll never know if you don't just go for it.'

It is going to be a long up hill struggle and certainly the biggest challenge that we have ever faced. I am having real problems coping with the lack of technology! New Zealand is a good ten years behind the UK when it comes to Internet usage, we were aware of that but I don't think we realised how much it was going to affect us. Dial up Internet is still very common here, broadband is taking off but finding an ISP who could provide the monthly bandwidth that we use has been very difficult. We have also had to resort to hosting the website on our UK server because there is just nobody in this country who can host a site that is the size of ours. It is things like this that you just don't anticipate that makes the whole thing more complicated than it should be.

Overall though, we are still mostly optimistic and looking forward to the challenge of taking on this New World.

Feijoas

2008-05-01T05:57:00.006+08:00

One of the first things that we do when we land in a new country, is head for the local supermarket! We just love discovering strange new fruit and vegetables that we have never seen before.
Needless to say Thailand and Singapore had an abundance of weird and wonderful produce to try. I have to admit I am starting to miss having the fridge full of (cheap) exotic tropical fruit, especially 'Pomelos' they were my favorite. They are huge things, about the size of a basket ball and taste like a very sweet grapefruit. They are exceptionally hard to peel but well worth the effort.
The one that none of us miss is the dreaded 'Durian' This hideous fruit is so popular out in the East, I have to confess to never actually daring to try it, but if you smelt it you'd know why. The stench from them is stomach churning and totally overpowering.

The only thing that we have discovered here in New Zealand that I've never seen before are these things on the left. They are called 'Feijoas' they are quite popular here as a lot of people grow them in their gardens. Poppy went to her friends house the other day and came home with a bag full, so I took a picture of them! The kids love them but I am not too keen, they are very, very sweet with quite an artificial taste, not unlike Passion fruit.
Everything else here is similar to what is available in the UK except it is so unbelievably fresh.
So with no new fruit and vegetables to try, we are working our way through the local wines instead!

A Day Out

2008-04-21T14:02:00.009+08:00

Hi everyone, I know it has been ages since I last updated this, but we haven't really done much, most days been spent unpacking and working on the house. It's coming together now though, we have managed to decorate the two downstairs living rooms and both the girls bedrooms. We have also employed an architect to draw up plans for the major renovation work that needs doing upstairs. In New Zealand you need planning permission for just about everything, so until the plans are draw up and approved we can't really get on with the big jobs.
The main work is in the bathrooms, currently we only have one bathroom in the house and it is ghastly! We are planning to remove the entire roof from it and build a new gable so that the bathroom can have a high 'cathedral' ceiling with skylights. We are also turning the existing sun room into an en suite bathroom and extending the veranda upstairs to create a sun deck off the new bathroom. So we will most likely be busy for some time yet!

We have managed to get out twice though since we've been here! A few weeks ago we went to the 'Gypsy Fair' which was great. They are a big group of travellers that tour New Zealand throughout the summer months, they pull into towns along the way and make money by performing, selling crafts, reading palms etc. You should see the vans that they live in, they are so awesome, there were a couple of them for sale and the head of the group was looking for people to join them for the next tour! I tell you it is a good job that we have bought this house and couldn't afford to buy one of those vans because I would have been off like a shot. I'd so love to go and join the Gypsy's, even if it was just for a year or two - maybe next year :)

Last weekend we went up to our local Tibetan Buddhist centre, they have a wonderful meditation centre in the hills, it is an amazing place. It was their annual family music day, which was a lovely event and such a huge turn out. it has been years since I've seen so many happy and colourful people in one place.

If you check out the sidebar you'll see that I've added a few links. One is to some sites that have loads of info about Nelson, so if you want to know some more about where we live, check them out. The other one is a current weather forecast! You can see it is actually about 20 degrees warmer here than the UK but I am still freezing!!!!

Pic above is of one of the Gypsy Vans, the name on the side is 'Sewerside Farm' lol! that really amused me.

Gypsy Dancer, this girl has a really gorgeous tattoo on her foot. I am planning to get flowers tattooed on my feet soon :)

Drummer from the music day.

Lu painting a Tsa Tsa (image of Buddha) at the music day (she is going to send this to the young monk that we sponsor at Kopan Monestary in Nepal)

No Torch In Tibet

2008-04-01T02:35:00.001+08:00

No Torch In Tibet

2008-04-01T02:30:00.003+08:00

One World, One Dream
“One World, One Dream” is China's Olympic slogan. But the reality of China's occupation of Tibet is a nightmare. Thousands of Tibetans are being arbitrarily detained, beaten and killed for speaking out for freedom.

The Game is Over.
On March 24th, China launched its Olympic Torch Relay. In the next two months, the torch will travel to cities around the world in a blatant attempt by the Chinese government to gain international acceptance and to divert attention away from its illegal occupation and current military crackdown inside Tibet.

As part of its global “Journey of Harmony,” the Chinese government plans to run the Olympic torch through Lhasa and other Tibetan territories, including to the top of Mount Everest, in a propaganda campaign designed to convince the world that Tibet belongs to China. Join thousands of people worldwide in calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to immediately withdraw Tibet from the torch relay route.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T04:13:00.004+08:00

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 :)

Tibet - Support the Dalai Lama

2008-03-19T02:12:00.003+08:00

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

How Stressed!!

2008-03-05T12:23:00.006+08:00

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.

Houses, Houses and more Houses!

2008-02-23T06:14:00.004+08:00

This page has been due for an update for weeks now, but honestly there has been very little to report. All we have done for the three weeks since we arrived in New Zealand is look at houses – and more houses!

After four years of renting in Singapore and Bangkok we really did not want to go back into another rented house, so we were quite determined that we would find somewhere to buy before the container arrived.
The house buying process in NZ is really quick and simple; property is relatively cheap and plentiful so we did not think that we would have a problem. Thing is when you are in a completely new area you have so much to learn first, there is all the usual stuff that you need to know, accessibility to schools, transport, shops etc, then you have to determine which are the good and bad areas, what is going to hold it’s value etc. Also being in New Zealand you have the added complications of ensuring that you don’t buy in an earthquake or landslip zone!

So it has been an intensive three week crash course in local real estate and we must have now viewed in excess of eighty houses! That wasn’t too much of a trial at first because I love nosing around other peoples homes, but even I’m all ‘housed’ out. We have seen everything from tiny little sea view huts to imposing town villas. All ages, from Victorian to not yet built, and the prices have ranged from pocket money to telephone numbers!
The variety of housing available is just quite remarkable and what I love is that every single house is detached and completely individual.

One of the hardest things has been to not keep comparing everything to the UK, we have had to keep reminding ourselves to judge a property on its value here and not keep saying ‘Oh imagine what you’d pay for that in England’
Anyway we are now fairly confident that we have a good understanding of the local real estate market and we have made a conditional offer on a gorgeous old house. Not going to say too much about it now, I’ll bore you all with the details if it goes through :)

Everything else is OK, the kids have settled into school and made some friends, the new company has been registered as 'Rivendell Studios Ltd' and best of all we have our new modem, so I'm back online!
It'll be a while before I catch up on all my post though as we are still really busy getting things sorted out here. I'm sure loads of people think that I have forgotten them but I haven't honestly! I will be in touch soon.

Just going back to the new company name, I was really dubious as to whenever we would be able to get the name 'Rivendell Studios' here. You are not allowed to register a company name if it is similar to an existing company and with the success of Lord of the Rings there are hundreds of companies here in NZ with Tolkiensque names.
I really wanted 'Rivendell Studios' as that is the name of the studio building in the UK and I also own the domain name, so I was really pleased when we got it :)

Speaking of LOTR, the jewellers that made THE actual ring for the film is here in Nelson, Jens Hansen, and they have the ring on display in the shop. We haven't been in yet but there are always loads of tourists outside having their pictures taken. It must have been amazing for them being asked to do it.
Jens and his son Thorkild worked on all the rings used in the movie but sadly Jens died before the film was completed and the business is now run by his son. Have a look at their website, it's interesting.

New Zealand

2008-01-31T10:34:00.000+08:00

New Zealand

23 hours after leaving our house in Singapore we arrived at Nelson airport. Crazy, as it should have been a 10 hour journey, still it has give us a taste of what a flight back to the UK is going to be like!

The lady who was looking out for a house for us came up trumps. We sent her a text from Nelson airport to say we had arrived, a few minutes later she called us back, gave us the address and said the keys are under the mat just let yourselves in!
That is just typical of New Zealand’s wonderful laid back attitude to everything, there just doesn’t seem to be any formalities to anything here. The people are so incredibly friendly and helpful.

The house is very sweet, it is a traditional, single story, weather boarded, tin roof house set on a hillside. It is such a huge culture shock though, we are so used to being in the heart of the city surrounded by people and noise, the space and quiet here feels very strange.
The weather is gorgeous, we have arrived right in the middle of summer and it is blisteringly hot, but it is so fresh, it’s such a relief to get away from the stifling tropical heat and humidity of Singapore. I have no doubt that I will change my mind about that come the winter! It has been four years since we have seen a winter and although New Zealand’s winters are very mild it is going to seem freezing to us.
Not missing anything from Singapore just yet - well maybe our swimming pool :)

I will be glad when the jet lag has gone, still really groggy but haven’t got time to sleep it off; there is so much to do.
We went to the kids new school yesterday, they start next week so we have had to fly round trying to sort out uniforms, stationary, books, bags, shoes, so we are getting to know the local shops quite well!

We are now trying to sort out new mobile accounts, buy a car, look for a more permanent house and get online! I can’t believe how horribly dependant I have become on the internet, I honestly can’t function without it. I have always relied a 100% on the internet to run the business but I am now starting to rely on it to run my life also – it’s scary!
The first thing we did when we arrived was sort out a broadband account, hopefully the new modem will arrive tomorrow and I can start to catch up on everything. In the meantime I am at the mercy of ‘Starbucks’ so you will all have to forgive me for the lack of contact, I will be in touch with everyone as soon as I get my ‘lifeline’ back.

Carri x

We are on our way

2008-01-27T17:21:00.000+08:00

Well Friday has to go down as one of the most stressful days of my life!

The container arrived at 10.00am and at 10.00pm we were still packing it! I have no idea how we have managed to accumulate so much junk, I wouldn’t mind but we still didn’t get it all in! We had to get a lorry and a few men on Saturday morning to help us move everything that was left over down to the studios so it can ship along with all the work stuff in a few months.

I feel like we have been packing forever, we started just after Ziggi and Matt left in September, that was four months ago!
It has been difficult though, as they are very strict about what is and isn’t allowed into New Zealand. You are not allowed to take in anything of plant origin in case it contains seeds or pests. That means no dried flowers, cane blinds, rush mats, bamboo etc it is surprising how much stuff you have made from plants. They also need to inspect all sporting equipment, bikes, shoes, garden tools etc in case they have traces of soil that could be carrying disease, so all that kind of stuff has to be left accessible.

We spent Friday and Saturday night sleeping on the floor in an empty house, that was fun!
It is now Sunday morning and we are just about to leave for the airport and I am anticipating another stressful day ahead.
It was impossible to get a direct flight to New Zealand. With it being Chinese New Year and the start of the new academic year over there. Not only were all the non stop flights full, but every direct flight via Australia was full also. The only way we can possibly get there is by taking a flight from Singapore, in the opposite direction to Hong Kong, then Hong Kong to Auckland, then Auckland to Nelson. This has more than doubled the journey time (and the cost!) No doubt we will be dead on our feet by the time we arrive. That is when the fun really starts, as we have no where to go!! We can’t rent a house because our stuff won’t arrive for another month or so (two nights on the floor was enough for me) so we are going to have to stay in holiday accommodation for a while – but it is high season in New Zealand and Nelson is one of the most popular destinations, so finding any where with availability has so far been impossible. We have one of the agencies over there trying to sort something out for us but we won’t know if they have found anything until we reach Auckland.

Now on the flight to Hong Kong (thankfully Singapore Air turned a blind eye to our overweight luggage and six pieces of hand baggage!) So far so good --------

Happy New Year!

2008-01-20T08:58:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone and a belated Happy New Year!

I had hoped to be able to update this while we were out in Kathmandu but unfortunately the internet connections were just too slow to upload.

We have been back a week now but have had little time to do anything other than pack as the boat for New Zealand leaves on Friday!

Nepal was just amazing; huge contrasts though, I can honestly say that during the time we were there I have seen some of the most incredible things that I have ever seen in my life but also some of the most horrific and tragic.
After living in Bangkok for a year I thought that we had become pretty hardened to the type of poverty that you see in the world’s poorer countries, but nothing that I’ve ever witnessed prepared me for Nepal.
The hardest thing to comprehend is the amount of starving and sick children that are living on the streets. UNICEF estimate that there are around 30,000 children living and working on the streets of Nepal, and it is just tragic.

There was one particular little girl that will live in our memories forever. We found her wandering around the Boudnath stupa area. The poor child can’t have been more than three and she was quite alone and clearly very ill. You don’t see as many girls living on the street as many of them are abducted and trafficked into India and China, but this little girl had two thumbs on one hand, ironically this deformity will most likely save her from the sex traders.
We bought her some food and water and tried to find someone to help her, but in the end, like everyone else we had to walk away because there was nothing that we could do. It is just horrendous that in the 21st century children are still living like this, I can’t even begin to understand it.

On a happier note, we got to visit Kopan Monastery which was even more beautiful than I ever could have imagined it would be. It is set on the top of a hill with simply breathtaking views to all sides and it is just so unbelievably peaceful, I could have happily stayed there forever! (I am now even more determined to do one of the month long courses that they run there)

I have to cut this short and get back to the packing as we still have loads and loads to do. We have a 40 foot container booked on Friday’s boat; this one will just have all of our personal and household stuff in it. We will be coming back to Singapore in April to load up another one with the contents of the studio and all the stock!

Below are some photos of a few of the kids that we met, the first one is the little girl at Boudnath.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

2007-12-24T18:00:00.000+08:00

Hi All

Just a quickie to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

I'm sure you are all busy getting everything sorted for tomorrow, we are just about ready here, we'll be heading for the airport around 7.00am and Christmas dinner will be what ever they throw at us on the plane!

The little drawing (left) arrived in the post today from my Tibetan foster daughter, Kundu Lhamo.

Kundu goes to a Tibetan school in Dharamasala, India. She is one of the lucky ones, her family managed to escape over the Himalayas to the safety of Indian, although she is growing up estranged from her home land and her family, she is getting a good education and will hopefully have a bright future.

It just seems sad that we will spend Christmas so close to Tibet yet she will most likely never set foot in her own country.

Poppy & Lu have left a Christmas video message for everyone on Poppy's blog, check it out www.poppysplanet.blogspot.com/

Happy Christmas

Carri x

WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-17T18:12:00.000+08:00

Just had an email from the New Zealand immigration office, our business plan has been APPROVED and we're in, yay!!!!!!!!
Talk about efficient, it is less than three weeks since we submitted the application! Now we have to send our passports to the immigration office at the end of January to get our visas and permits stamped in them - that's about a week after we get back from Nepal. So we are going to land back in Singapore and have to arrange a container shipment from home, a container shipment from work, flights, sort out banking, bills, car, finish packing etc. Then the kids start school a week later and we have nowhere to live and a business to establish. Oh my God this is going to be super stressful - help!

Injections

2007-12-15T12:26:00.000+08:00

Just been to have our Hepatitis A and Typhoid jabs, it would have been a quick and easy procedure had it not been for the children. They behaved like a pair of overgrown babies and both of them screamed the surgery down. It took so long to calm them that we ended up getting a parking ticket!

One thing I will miss about Singapore when we leave, is the health service. Everything is just so simple and straightforward. Almost every shopping area has a health centre, if you need to see a doctor you just walk in, there is no need to be registered or make an appointment. You do have to pay but it is often not much more than an average prescription charge in the UK, and the hospitals are just something else. Forget all notion of what you expect a hospital to be, you would swear that you were in a five star hotel. Vast reception areas with lavish marble floors and columns, huge floral displays and uniformed doormen, the hospital we go to near work, Raffles International, even has a grand piano in the entrance area! don't ask me why, it is bizarre. My favorite is the women's hospital, the car park is painted bubblegum pink and all of the nursing staff wear pink uniforms, it's like a toy hospital, you half expect doctor 'Barbie' to come and examine you!
In Singapore there are two national obsessions, shopping & eating, and they don't let a trivial thing like a life threatening illness get in the way! Most of the hospitals have a shopping mall and a varied selection of restaurants on site. The hilarious thing is that in the restaurant area there is invariably a branch of MacDonald's, in a hospital!! still I guess it's good for business :)

Carri x

Christmas in the Himalayas

2007-12-11T08:36:00.001+08:00

Firstly, apologies to everyone for my lack of emails, I have been so bad at keeping in touch lately. With all the turmoil here with the immigration applications I am afraid everything else has been taking a back seat.
We got a letter earlier this week from New Zealand immigration just letting us know that they had processed the application and requesting copies of mine & Steve's birth certificates. We are just about to go to the solicitors and get those certified so we can forward them to Wellington. They reckon that the application will be allocated to a case officer in 2-4 weeks, so it is going to be mid January before anybody even looks at it.

We have spent the last few weeks just going round in circles trying to decide what to do next, do we go to New Zealand and wait for the outcome there or do we hang on in Singapore. Staying here is the most logical choice but with nearly everything packed in boxes now and all the furniture wrapped for shipping it is pretty depressing. So in our usual impulsive manner we have decided to do neither and we are heading for Nepal instead!

We fly to Kathmandu at 9.00am Christmas morning, we will be coming back sometime late January. Our outward luggage allowance will be mostly taken up by boxes of clothing and toys that we are taking to one of the many orphanages out there. This is all stuff that the kids have grown out of in the four years we have been out here, it seems such a shame to throw it all out when there are children so badly in need. Before you all think that I have turned into Mother Theresa, I have to admit to an ulterior motive - travelling out to Nepal for nearly a month with no clothes means that I have to buy them while I'm there!!!! and as it is Nepal I will be in my scruffy element :)

I was a little concerned as to how our kids would react to 'giving up' Christmas, we have not been able to decorate the house this year as everything is packed and we don't have a clue where! Christmas presents have been restricted to one or two tiny gifts that can be carried in hand luggage, and now Christmas Day will be spent in transit. However I am really proud of them, they have taken it all in their stride and are really fired up by the idea of giving rather than getting.

There are a few other things that we plan to do while we are there, as well as all the obvious tourist stuff and the amazing photographic opportunities, it will also be a chance to visit Kopan Monastery which is the heart of the FPMT, founded by our beloved Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa (Follow the links if you are interested) Also earlier this year we started working with a factory in Kathmandu that is producing the most gorgeous corsetry for us, so it will also be a chance to meet them in person and check out the working conditions in the factory.

So now we've got stacks to do before we go, it's back to the hospital for a load of injections, I don't even know if we need a visa for Nepal, better get on with some research! I promise I will be in touch with everyone before we leave.

Namaste

Carri x

Lama Yeshe - Portrait available from http://www.heartofthemoon.com/

Lama Zopa - Singapore 2007 - Taken by Carri

Its Gone!!!

2007-11-23T06:20:00.000+08:00

At long last! we have actually submitted our LTBV (long term business visa) application. I just can't believe what a long, stressful and expensive task it has been. We hold business visas for Thailand and Singapore so it is not like we are new to the process, but the New Zealand one is so tough.
We have twelve years business experience behind us and two established limited companies and we still found this application really challenging! I guess that New Zealand immigration are just really trying to weed out the time wasters at the offset (however I think the thousand pound application fee successfully does that!!!)
On top of the application fee we have had to have a financial forecast prepared by a New Zealand accountant and all of our supporting documentation certified by lawyers here in Singapore, so it is certainly not a cheap or easy route in.

Anyway it has gone and the waiting game begins, they reckon it will be three to six months before we get an answer so we are living in limbo till then!

We have made good progress with the packing but have still not decided whenever to take a chance on shipping all of our personal stuff to New Zealand and risk having to ship it back again if the visa is turned down. It is most likely that we will ship the stuff over though, because even with shipping costs and having to pay the tax on everything when it goes in, it will still be cheaper than storing it in land scarce Singapore, and at least we will have access to everything, I must admit the prospect of living out of a suitcase for six months is not appealing!

It would be so much easier to just to stay in Singapore and wait for the outcome, but if we do that then the kids will miss the start of the new school term, and as they have not been to school for six months already we don't want to keep them out much longer.

We have managed to keep on top of the home edding and I think they have really benefited from it in some areas, maths and science especially, six months of one to one learning has brought them on leaps and bounds in these subjects.
English, surprisingly has proved to be much harder to teach at home. They are both extremely proficient in grammar but Poppy seriously struggles with creative writing while Lu is the opposite, she is extremely gifted and is determined to become an author. So I have trouble helping them both but for different reasons and there is very little outside help available here, Singapore so desperately needs to enlist more English, English teachers!

Please excuse me if I am not in touch with anyone for a few weeks, after spending so long on this visa application my work has seriously slipped and it is going to take me a while to catch up on things, will be in touch soon.

Carri x

Overdue Update

2007-11-12T18:51:00.000+08:00

Sorry everyone, this is a long overdue update. Things are just so stressful here at the moment, progress is slow but we are starting to get somewhere at last.

The children have been officially offered places at Nelson Intermediate school and we have enrolled them for a term as international students. We submitted their student visa applications earlier this week and the immigration office has been in touch with us today with a query about their birth certificates, hopefully we should get that ironed out tomorrow and the application will go through smoothly.

The big issue now is whenever we are going to have to apply for an interim Guardian visa. Our business plan and business visa application is just about ready to submit but we can't send it in till I have my new passport, that won't be until the 19th. Once the business plan is in, it can take three to six months to be approved, but the new school term starts the first week of February, it is unlikely that we will have our visas by then and until we have work permits we can't enroll the kids as domestic students, that is why we have had to pay the fees and get them in as 'international'.

The children are not allowed to study in New Zealand without a parent or Guardian present, so it is possible that we will have to apply for a Guardian visa to cover us until our business visa is approved. That is IF it's approved! we are confident that our business plan is a very sound one, but you never know do you - and that is where the big stress is coming from because we just can't plan anything until we get that official 'yes' We daren't take a chance on shipping all our stuff over there until we get that visa because if we don't get it, we'll be shipping it all back again! on top of that, without the visa we will have to pay tax on everything we own going in.

These are all issues that we can get around, the thing that is causing us real problems right now is the fact that it is summer in NZ and peak holiday season, Nelson is one of the top tourist spots in New Zealand and finding any accommodation there at this time of year is proving to be truly impossible. We can't take on a long term unfurnished property because we can't ship our stuff over and all short term furnished accommodation is fully booked up or astronomically expensive.

When we have visited New Zealand in the past we have stayed in a hotel for few days to get over the flight, then hired a camper van and headed off. It is a fabulous way to see the country and we all love living on the road. So we have even looked at the possibility of living in a camper until we can find something more permanent, but again most of the vans are booked up and the only ones available are way over priced.
We are currently toying with the idea of buying our own camper van as soon as we arrive, that way we will have somewhere to live and transport all in one! it is a crazy idea but it may be our only option.

UPDATE - Just been down to the immigration office and the kids have had their student visas approved and stamped into their passports. We don't need to apply for a Guardian visa as they have only given the girls permits until May, but that will be long enough for us to find out whenever our business plan will be approved or not.

Carri x

Halloween

2007-11-01T17:54:00.000+08:00

Just some pics from yesterdays Halloween fancy dress do, Poppy is a Rag Doll and Lucinda is - just Lucinda!

Stress levels here are running really high at the moment, we are drowing in forms and red tape, will post a big update after the weekend - Catch you all soon

Carri x

A Little Progess

2007-10-28T07:18:00.000+08:00

This week has seen a bit of progress. We decided on a school for the girls and submitted the application forms.
Choosing a school long distance has been a little tricky but thankfully there aren't too many for their age group in Nelson so we managed to narrow it down quite quickly.
We have gone for "Nelson Intermediate School' This looks like a good sized school but it only caters for year seven and eight, so we think that two years there will serve as a good transition period from primary to secondary school.
The headmaster seems very nice and he has been extremely helpful. They are happy to take the kids on as international students initially and then allow them to stay on as regular pupils should we choose to apply for residency - but that all seems a million miles away right now.

We should have manged to wrap the school thing up this week but thanks to the incompetence of UPS we are still hanging on.
The application forms, along with last school reports, character references, letters from the children and confirmation of the bank transfer for the application fees were all completed and shipped off last Saturday. They should have arrived on Monday and we had expected to hear from the school shortly after. We hadn't heard anything by Wednesday so we called the school, it turned out that they had still not received the application!
The next few days were spent chasing UPS in Singapore and New Zealand trying to locate the whereabouts of the package. It was Friday before we heard from Auckland to be informed that they don't have a UPS office in Nelson and it had been passed to a third party courier.
This was a whole new thing for us, we are so used to shipping with UPS and everything arriving with 48 hours, so this was a bit of a reality check and a real example of what living and working in a small town is going to be like! it is certainly going to take some adjusting to.

Anyway we have been assured that it will be delivered on Monday and the headmaster has promised to get straight back to us as soon as he has had chance to look at it. He does not think that there will be any problems with getting them both in (but then he hasn't seen Lucinda's school report yet!!!)

We also managed to get off to the hospital for our medicals this week and we will get the results of those on Tuesday. I was quite relived to get that out of the way but I'll feel a lot better when we have the results, this is where it could all come grinding to a halt!
Will let you know how it goes -

Take Care - Carri x

Now Where?

2007-10-21T07:26:00.000+08:00

It's almost four years since we first left the UK for Bangkok, at the time we never regarded the move as permanent.
For the survival of the company we had to move the manufacture out of England and the only way to ensure high quality and ethical working conditions was for us to be on site.
In the end Thailand proved to be a difficult country to work in, the people were wonderful but the government was not entirely helpful to foreigners and the infrastructure also made working impossible at times.
After only a year there we moved everything over to Singapore.

Singapore has been a breeze, our business visas were issued very quickly and we have had no problems getting them renewed. Should we wish to apply for permanent residence here, it would almost certainly be granted.
Singapore is a modern, gleaming city where everything is spotless and runs like clockwork. It is a very safe and extremely easy place to live. On the surface it is hard to see why anyone would want to leave!
I guess it depends on the type of person you are though, for us it has some major downsides. It is very over crowded and quite impossible to find anywhere to escape from people. Property and cars are simply unaffordable and the censorship of everything from Internet to TV is extremely irritating, the entire 'arts scene' is government controlled and there is very little room for genuine artistic freedom in the country.
Our major problem though, comes with the education system. In Singapore education is everything, all of the schools here are just huge conveyor belts churning out endless streams of obedient cloned genius's.
There is no disputing that the standard of education here is second to none, but the regime is worlds away from schools in the West, and consequently it is rare to find expat kids successfully integrated into local schools.
International schools are in abundance, with every country and curriculum well represented, but the fees are extortionate and very often the standard of education is well below par (It is also interesting to note that the government does not allow Singaporeans to attend international schools!)

Throughout their six years of primary education Poppy & Lucinda have attended four different schools! Two in the UK, one in Thailand and one in Singapore. We did worry initially about what effect this would have on their education, but they don't seem to have been unduly affected and I believe that what they have gained in experience, far outweighs the little they may have missed in the classroom.
However, primary school is now coming to an end, next year they will be in year seven and starting their secondary education. It is essential that we settle now for a few years so that they can get through high school with little interruption.

BUT WHERE??!!

For the past year or so the main topic of conversation in this house has been 'Where do we go from here?' Do we stay in Singapore, go back to the UK, or Europe, America, Australia????
We have now established working relationships with companies in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Nepal, so we are really free to move on and run things long distance.

When we first left England our mantra at the time was 'If things don't work out, we can always go back' We have since come to realise that going back is the hardest thing to do!
Returning to the UK for us would be the logical move, we have an extremely successful company there and we would be earning a lot more money if we were there running it ourselves rather than paying other people! It would also be wonderful to be close to friends and family again.
But there are things about England that I just find unacceptable, amongst them: violence, crime, the racial and religious intolerance etc.
When you live with these things everyday you come to accept them as normal, you think that it is just life and something that you have to put up with. It is only when you move away that you realize that it is not normal and other places are very different.
Returning to England would mean going back to a life of fear, always having to look over your shoulder and then there is the weather!!!

Europe was an option, we have a very strong customer data base in Europe and we all love Italy. The problem with Italy though is a lack of international schools in the areas that we would like to settle, that means that the kids would have to go to a local school and study in Italian. As their knowledge of Italian goes no further than 'Margareta pizza' that is also out!

Then there is America - again we have a massive customer data base there and it would be an extremely good business move for us. Problem with America is - well it's America!

Australia - We're too old!

Canada - Too cold.

India - This would be my personal choice, I would dearly like to spend some time in India, but with the children about to embark on high school it would really not be fair to them.

Which leaves us with New Zealand - Where we have very few customers no chance of manufacturing locally and we are an international flight away from anywhere else in the world. The most unlikely place of all but the one we have our hearts set on!
We have been to New Zealand a few times now and we all love the country dearly. The landscape is just exquisite and the people are so friendly and down to earth. It would be a wonderful place for the girls to grow up and for us to eventually retire!
Although we don't currently sell a lot to New Zealand, there is a lot of interest in what we do and it is possible that if we were based there then we could create a niche for ourselves. We can certainly move the design studio and the American export over there.

Before we can go to NZ and start working though we need a business visa. Problem is the school year in NZ starts in February and it is impossible for us to put together a business plan and have the visa approved before then. We really don't want the kids to have to start a new school halfway through term so if we are going to go we have to go now.
We are able to get permits that will allow us into the country in order to research the business opportunities there, but as we would not be residents the only way that we can get the girls into school is to enroll them as international students and pay the fees.

So what we need to do now is find a school that will initially accept them as international pupils and keep them on as locals should we be granted residency.
We can't apply for student visa for the children until we have a guaranteed school place. Once we have that, we then all need to have official medicals and x-rays to ensure that we do not have any contagious diseases or illnesses that would be a burden to the health service. Only then can we actually apply for the visa. I also need a new passport as mine runs out in June and your passport has to be valid six months past your permit expiry date, so I need to apply for a passport before I can apply for a visa.

At the moment we really don't know if we are coming or going. If everything goes to plan then we need to have all of our personal belongings on a container ship that is leaving on the 18th of November, that is the last one that would get our stuff there in time for Christmas, giving us time to find somewhere to live before school starts.
The shipping company are putting pressure on us to book the container space on the ship as it is filling up fast, but we can't do that until we have the permit and we can't apply for the permit until we have the medical and we can't have the medical until we get the school place!!!! You start to get the picture? It's chaos!

And if it doesn't come off? well it's plan B - only right now we don't have a plan B!!!!

Will keep you updated - Carri x

As I put a picture of Poppy on the last post here is one of Lu that I have just reworked. Taken a few years ago at a Tiger sanctuary in Thailand.

At last, a blog!

2007-10-17T18:28:00.000+08:00

Hi Everyone

Hope this finds you all well ...

Finally, I have got round to setting up a new 'Blog Page'! I really regret not starting one when we first left the UK four years ago because it would have served as a wonderful record of the time that we have had out here in South East Asia.
I did set up a blog earlier this year that attempted to record the bizzare journey that we have been on, unfortunately it got a bit long winded and read more like an autobiography, so I scrapped it!

Blogging is a superb, spontaneous way of keeping in touch with everybody on a regular basis. As you are all aware, I am an atrocious letter writer! Unfortunately I can never remember if I have already told somebody something or not, so I'm sure you all get letters from me that say exactly the same as the previous one and you just think I'm going senile! Hopefully with a blog I can simply recount things as and when they happen, then I don't have to remember them!

Blogs are also a brilliant source of information. During our years of 'globetrotting' other peoples blogs have been an invaluable resource to us. Guidebooks and information packs for expats are undoubtedly useful, but advice from people who have actually 'been there' is priceless.
So hopefully this blog will also serve as a resource for anyone who may be embarking on the same journey that we have made.

Most of you know that we are going to be leaving Singapore very soon, however we are still not sure when, where or how! so I am going to use this blog to keep everyone updated on day to day events as they happen. I'll still keep in touch by email, but having a blog as well means that I don't have to write the same thing over and over again.
It is also handy for you guys that actually have a life and don't have time to write lengthy emails to us! you can stop by, catch up and just say hi, that way, hopefully we won't lose touch so easily.
I am going to try and write every few days, well at least once a week (or two!) If any of you know your way around computers, set up a feed so that you will be automatically notified when the page is updated. Don't ask me how to do it though, I haven't a clue!

Finally, the very best thing about a blog is that I can post loads of pictures! I don't have anything relevant to this post so I'll just put up a new piece that I have been working on of Poppy - like it?
That's it for now, catch you all in a few days - Carri x