Wednesday 14 March 2018

Dunedin: Life in New Zealand. Part 11

I got frustrated at the end of work today because of pettiness. As I mentioned previously, at work I deal with taking down the mail trolley at 4:45pm. Well about 2 weeks ago the post delivery guy from DX told me he's been frustrated at how 'late' I am upon arrival. He told me that "One of these days I'm just going to go and leave without taking the mail so as not to be late for pickup with the next client(s)".

I'm supposed to meet him at 4:45pm and it only takes a short lift ride to the basement. Maximum time duration of 2 minutes. So he's saying this, getting frustrated with me being 2 minutes late. This is petty.

Whats worse is that today I was told off by my colleague for leaving at 4:40pm, like I've been doing since the DX guy told me off. "Oh No, you need to take it down at 4:45pm as thats company policy". A 5min difference is petty.

Both sides of the argument is petty. It just is.

I emailed my manager for a straight answer. She was ill so wasn't at work today. I hope this is resolved by the time I need to take it down tomorrow.

Monday 12 March 2018

Dunedin: Life Over The Past 2 Weeks

Sabine bought an Olympus macro lens which can take close up shots.

On Tuesday the landlady organised her plumber to come over and inspect the roof situation. He says he cant begin to solve the issue as it might take a lot of effort and money, because the chimney construction is shot, basically. This is Dunedin housing for you.
Various mushrooms to mark the autumn season- seen on the way to work by Moana Pool.

On Friday my official birth certificate arrived- the one sent from Dad and not the expensive courier post one I bought this time last week. Anyway, thanks Dad it arrived!
In the evening we went to the Chinese Garden Evening Viewing! It was awesome! They had just enough interesting things happening to make it viable for for the 2 1/2 hours we were there, with activities for children, fire dances when it got dark, lanterns for the children to hold, water lilies with lights, interesting music, incense for wish making, palm fortune telling, paper fan painting, free Chinese tea, 20% off at the shop, and lots of people about. It got dark around 8:30pm and carried on becoming a better light show until closing time at 10pm. There was even a low hanging full moon towards the end of the evening that appeared, adding to the atmosphere. The children walked around in a parade of lanterns which was nice. The whole atmosphere felt right for this time of year, akin to a bonfire night parade or Walking the Clocks. Atmospheric night lighting is awesome!
This evening our bathroom door decided it didn't want to close anymore. sighhhhhh.
This lady painted a Chinese fish on Sabine's fan.

3rd March, Sat-
We went to town to deal with resending the immigration paperwork via courier post, now with my real birth certificate. Then we had a Chinese meal at the mall. The weather was nice so we drove to the ecosanctuary where there was a marathon happening. It was lucky we found a car parking space! The birds were not so interested in appearing today, apart from the South Island Robin! we saw 3 of them today and they were all curious in us. The second one we saw was not bothered by us at all, and enjoyed eating the bugs that we were turning over at out feat!
Richard came over to fix our Bathroom door. The mechanism is shot so he took it away to see if he can find something the same for a direct straight swap. I wish him good luck with this! (as I doubt it).
This evening we got drunk watching a movie called Before I Fall. I finally finished my bottle of wine that I bought about 6 months ago. Rum and coke is nice, and Midori and pineapple juice is sophisticated.
They have these limited Doritos flavours which is like lime and something else mixed together. Weird but okay. They even have another limited bag with Cool Blue and Hot mixed together. Such a shame these two UK staple flavours are only a limited run over here.

4 Sun-
We were going to meet up with Sabines work colleague who Sabine chats to, for the museum butterfly center. so at 11.30pm we were having a very tasty Re:Burger each when Sabine got a text from this girl saying that shes cancelling due to the nice weather, and doesn't want to be indoors. Sabine and i changed plans and headed to the ecosanctuary instead. Today we saw the robins again at the same places as yesterday, however today also stared tomtits, cutie fantails and lots of meanie riflemen which you could hear but not see very well.

5 Mon-
My birth certificate arrived. This one of two that I ordered from the UK. Interestingly, its a copy of the hand written version rather than a typed out version that Dad sent me. I didnt know when Dads version would arrive but I ordered this one especially as we needed it desperate.

6 Tues-
Sabine wasn't in the mood for our usual evening meals so I stopped by Subway on the way home to get her a salad.

7 Wed-
Cancelled my first birth certificate order. At least I hope so. It was an online cancellation form.
I didn't get an interview for the library job I wanted. Damn that's really disheartening for me. I put so much into my application. -_-

A Lan mobile!.. of sorts?
Kitties running away.
8 Thu-
Turns out I cant cancel my original birth certificate order. They gave me a stupid reason why they cant, even though its not being processed for a while.
Richard, the Landlord, came over to replace the bathroom door handle. Wood splinters got everywhere afterwards, and got on our newish purple fluffy mat. Its ruined :'(

9 Fri-
Hermione is using her claws a lot. Shes doesn't seem to learn despite the lessons. We need claw clippers for her. she uses them too often and they are always out.

10 Sat-
We went to town to the post office then to K Mart to see what the cat claw clippers were like. They weren't very good ones so we then had lunch downstairs, I had an interesting mix of curries. I saw a lady in front of me chose two flavours. I asked the guy behind the counter and he said you can chose up to two different ones. So I did! Even though this isn't advertised.
Then we walked to Animates to get the decent clippers.
We went to Aramoana for a walk along the spit. Its a long stretch of beach with the sea either side, and has amazing sand. Very tropical like. Sabine and I had our shoes and socks off for a time.
our footprints! XD

We then went to Purakanui to see if we could walk around the wetlands. But after arriving it seemed impossible due to very boggy sand. we headed home soon afterwards.
I let Calcifer out this afternoon using a leash Sabine bought online. Unfortunately he got stuck in a tree and I had to rescue him twice.
We watched Hotel Transylvania tonight. Was awesome!

11 Sun-
Even though the weather was nice, again, I really wanted to get the bathroom cleaned as it hasn't been done in weeks. So I managed to do that whilst Sabine struggled vacuuming. Cat hair in particular. We saw a Brown Creeper flitting around in the garden from the window during the cleaning. Sabine really wanted to get a new vacuum cleaner that can deal with cat hair, so we went to town to inform ourselves regarding them, starting at a shop called Harvey Norman, which deals with all types of things from furniture to electronics. After realising their lack of choices and high prices, we chatted to a store clerk and she suggested we try a shop called Godfrey's that only sells vacuum cleaners. So we went there, located near the Chinese Gardens. We were impressed with their ranges, and the fact you could try them out and see how they work. But the price for the decent one was.... youch. Unfortunately we need it. There are no two ways about it as cat hair is an issue, and we like a clean house. Our cheap vacuum cleaner is just not capable for the job so we had to come away with a decent one. $700 bucks. ouch. But as I said, we need this. For those that want to know what it is, its the Hoover Allergy.
After that we came home and I let Hermione out using a leach as I didn't let our out yesterday. She enjoyed pottering about. Sabine came out with Calcifer a little while later after he was apparently starting to complain about not being out with his sister.

After that we went to the Butterfly house (but not before having a yummy Re:Burger!).
This evening back at home we let our cats out again for a second time. I even cut the grass. Its grown a LOT over this week. It was really burnt this summer, especially the front garden. Its totally recovered now. :/
Sabine tested the hoover and it made the blue carpet come up like new! Its a really good ideal model for what we need. Lets hope it lasts and is well built!
This evening both cats of them were REALLY affectionate towards us. I even had Calcifer on my shoulder as I did the dishes, and they were both on our laps when we had ice cream. Cuties!