Dunedin: Life in New Zealand. Part 13

3 Tues-
Sabine and I went to a restaurant called Jizo for dinner. I had Katsu curry which was nice. Sabine had a noodle dish which she said wasn't that great. The prices were comparable to the mall and other eateries, so all in all not too badly priced, at all.

6 Fri-
Today there was a travelling saleswoman in the DCC staff room, selling leather bags and wallets for over $60. Why this is allowed is insane. What’s worse is that it actually worked for her. I noticed that a lot of woman in the building actually bought her things. I was left flabbergasted. Surely she shouldn’t be allowed here, but the workers in this building don’t care, and actually BOUGHT things off her! I can’t believe this sort of stupidity happened. How dumb are humans? I found out later that she was here as a way of fundraising for the DCC social club. So they take a cut of her earnings. I’m still left asking... WHY?!?!

7 Sat-
This morning I cooked eggs on toast for us both. I finally decided it was time to get the cat room windowsill sorted out. Some weeks ago we got a carpet and some double sided tape. Today I measured it out and cut the carpet to size and put in on the sill. Looks okay. I hope it holds out.
Yesterday or the day before, Sabine noticed mold on the couch that we don't use. We looked online for a way of getting rid of it, and so after buying the correct stuff, I used a mixture of alcohol and soap in a spray bottle, and by doing this outside, I brushed away at the mold and used the spray solution to get rid of it. Afterwards it was recommended to let things dry then do the same procedure again with white vinegar.
We went to town to try a halloumi burger that was been advertised in one of the cafes in the mall. It wasn't very good. more like a basic cheese burger. The halloumi wasn't grilled properly and was melting and soaking into the bun. The hot chocolate was served in a glass which turned into what can only be described as a chocolate milkshake in no time at all.
This evening with watched The Maze Runner.

10 Tues-
Weather not so great today. Hailing like crazy early this morning and later this evening too, as well as intermittently during the day. So much so the ice compacted and looked like snow. It wasn't so easy to walk to work.
Yue got his second shot at the vet later today. His first was with his original owners.

11 Wed-
After arranging with the fire wood guy, we finally got it all delivered at 4pm this afternoon. Its $85 per meter which works out at $340. This was a real bargain and I have to thank our landlady for the recommendation. The wood arrived ready split so it can go directly in the fire. So that's a bonus. Once home I moved it all from the pile on the driveway to the wood port thingy (a separate section from the car port, but the same idea). It took me an hour.
Sabine was laughing saying that she couldn't understand the kiwi guys accent when he was delivering the wood.

Our wood for the winter!

12 Thu-
After work we went to the Fresh Choice superstore near us (our first visit) just to check it out. I wanted to visit months ago but Sabine declined until now. It was a smaller supermarket with a very limited range and rather expensive. I was kinda hoping SOME things would be cheaper, but I guess not. Sabine was expecting a 'fresh choice' of fruit and veg.

13 Fri-
A truck overturned on Stuart Street at 11am-ish whilst I was at work. This was a silage truck that lost its breaks and forced itself to turn over to stop. No one was killed luckily. They were still cleaning the silage off the street when I was walking past at 5:10pm.

14 Sat-
This morning after I don't know how many months, we finally did something we should have been doing all this time: we went to the weekly Farmers Market. Its located as a part of the railway station. It was a huge event. There were food stalls galore, fresh fruit and veg stalls and even things like wine stalls and chutney stalls. A lot of things were overpriced, but the things that weren't were the things we bought.
EVERYTHING in the list below that we got is fresh:
- 'Brill' fish ; $10 for 500 grams. Comparable to Pac n Save, yet we got a lot of advice regarding what sort of fish we should buy. Sabine said that the Blue Cod is tasteless, and the woman agreed, advising us to go for the Brill.
- 4 small turnips ; $2, we have not seen them in Pac N Save, yet we feel for what we got, it was a bargain price.
- Spring onions ; $2, comparable to Pac n Save.
- Mushrooms ; $5, Also comparable to Pac N Save, yet these were extremely huge and very fresh looking.
- Bell Peppers ; $10, Incredible price. This was a HUGE pack of "seconds", which I guess is the farmers wording for 'going off' / needs to be cooked today. Lucky for us this is exactly what we did later as I'm typing this. This I feel was a HUGE bargain.
- Big gigantous red onions ; $5, A fantastic price. So fresh that the earth was still on them. Incredible looking.
- Oversized Zucchini ; $1!!!! This is the best bargain I have ever come across. It was a MASSIVE marrow going for a STUPIDLY cheap price.
- Butter Nut ; $2.50 ; oversized again. For the same dealer as the zucchini. Again this price was amazing.
- Kohlrabi ; $3, I'm actually unsure what this is, but it tasted nice a few minutes ago, like a parsnip. It was like the size of a small football.
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I'm so pleased we discovered this place. We will be here every week. For sure.
After we put the grocers in the car, we headed to a cafe that we have never been to before, yet always walked past. This is called Vanguard. I had a fruit cake with a banana smoothy, and Sabine had Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon with a hot chocolate.
After that we went to Mitre 10 for our second visit. This time to find Tarpaulin to cover the fire wood. We came across an awesome pet area which sells things for great prices. So that's yet another plus.  We then did our weekly shop at The Warehouse / Pac N Save. After that we came home and cooked the stuff we bought. Freezing it for use in the week. I also covered the wood using the tarpaulin we bought.

Fresh foods!

look at these beauties!

yummmii mushiis!!

15 Sun-
I cooked us Eggs for breakfast, then we cleaned the house. After that I went to get us Fish and Chips for lunch. The typical routine for this when buying this as follows:
Me: Fish and Chips please for two.
Chinese worker: Fysh Cheep
Me: For two...
Her: Toh?
Me: yes.
Her: Eigh-dhalla
Me: Eight dollars? Oh okay.
To be fair its not actually too bad. We wouldn't keep going back otherwise lol.
After that we went to look at a few things from Miter 10 and Bunnings, which was our first visit to this DIY Superstore. After that back to Pac N Save and Warehouse.
Tonight we watched The Maze Runner part 2 and moved the dog crate into the kitty room for a permanent placement (unpacking it though. Its quick and easy to set up).

16 Mon-
Went to the vets directly after work because we think our cats have a cold virus. Turns out that they indeed do have. Yue had to have three injections but screamed blue murder during the third. It didn't work so the vet attempted another 4 times, each time he was screaming and behaving like a demon! It was very frightening. In the end he was taken away to be injected by another vet and Sabine and I just looked at each other whilst we could hear his demonic screaming from the other room. lol
After that we got some Polyfilla from Bunnings, and a sandpaper and spatular.

21 Sat-
Fresh foods from the market / Pac n Save this week:
- Broccoli ; $1.50 from Pac n Save.
- 'Tarakihi' fish ; $10 for 500 grams. Last weeks Brill fish was excellent. It kept its fluffy, thick texture once cooked (and reheated), and was really tasty. This fish was bought from the same stall, and the guy (not a woman this time) said its better than their Brill.
- 2 packs of small turnips ; $2 each. We still haven't seen them in Pac N Save.
- 2 packs of Spring onions ; $1.90 each, from Pac n Save.
- Mushrooms ; $4.90 from Pac N Save, yet these were a pac of button mushrooms, and slightly smaller than last weeks. In fact the stall wasn't selling them this week.
- Bell Peppers ; $5, this was a pack of 4 from Pac n Save. Not as much for what we got last week, but the stall selling them wasn't there today.
- 2 Oversized Zucchinis ; $1 each! Still the best bargain in Dunedin by far. From the same seller as last week.
- 2 Butter Nuts ; $3.50 each ; not nearly as big as last weeks. Also bought from a different stall. We also noticed later on that Pac n Save sells them too.
-1 packet of 'Mung' bean sprouts ; $3 for 500g. From an asian stall that also was selling tofu.
- 2 packets of Tofu ; $4.00 & $4.40. This was a better looking deal in Pac N Save to be honest, that came in a variety of ranges.
- 1 pack of Jerusalem Artichokes ; $1 for what I would say is 500g. A great bargain from a market stall owner.
- 1 packet of Carrots from Pac N Save ; $2.90.
- 1 packet of Parsnips from Pac N Save ; $2.70.
- Mince from Pac N Save ; $12.80 at $12 per kg.
- 2 packets of really interesting chutneys from a stall at the market. One is called "Roast Beetroot with Fennel Pesto" (okay, that one is a pesto) and the other is "Olive Tapanade".
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We came home and cooked the lot! After trying a bit whilst cooking, the 'Tarakihi' turned out to be a tasteless fish. Oh well. Its got a nice texture. After the endless but fun cooking, I cooked us eggs on toast. We got this cheese and onion bread earlier, but it was just toast flavoured when it came to eating it, or rather egg flavoured cause that dominated the taste. After that I used the Polyfilla and the stuff we got on Monday to fill in a hole in the wall in the cat room that wasn't started by us, but was opened up more and more by our cats over these past few months, as a game I suppose. Anyway, I sanded it down then filled it in. We will get a matching paint at some point down the line and go over it, but I'm pleased with how flat I got the wall to be at the end, even though it was a bit of a messy job.

Calcifer kitty on my lap

Kiwi chocolate easter "egg". On sale!

This was also on sale! A really cute marshmallow easter chick inside a chocolate egg. 

More fresh foods this week! YUMMY!

Cute Kitties on Sabines lap!

Yue is sometimes a scarf 

My first wall hole filled!...lets see if it lasts, or if the cats scratch at it again...

22 Sun-
Today was a lazy day. We cleaned the house then went to town to the butterflies. We wanted lunch at Re:Burger but they said its a 20min waiting time, so we instead ate at the Mall. I had a yummy curry and Sabine had a Chinese. I also ordered some chips.
Calcifer has adopted Yues skill of jumping onto my shoulder and staying there. Even Hermione has tried it a few times! Also, after every shower, Calcifer loves to inspect my freshly clean feet. He sniffs them, then lies down on them. So cute!

Ours cats new album cover. I think only Christopher and Dad will understand this.

we havent seen these two in here in quite a while :3

Dunedin: Life in New Zealand. Part 12

One night in mid March we were woken up to cats screaming at each other outside the house, just by our bedroom window. Lucky it was near our time to get up anyway as it was 4:40am. It wasn't our cats. In fact when we let our kitties into the front room, Calcifer had a big bushy tail, like he wasn't sure what to expect in there.

March 17th, Sat-
This morning we called the landlords over as Sabine has been worried about the tumble dryer that she noticed was only hanging by one hook on the wall in the washroom. So both landlords came over and I helped Richard take it down to his car. It really was only hanging very flimsily by one hook. Kinda dangerous. We don't use it anyway. I hope the landlords understand. They were nice about the whole thing anyway.

Calcifer being squashed by Hermione

After that we went to the Ecosanctuary to see the family of Takahe get fed at 11am. It was cold but they were walking by our feet which was kinda awesome actually. Then we went to a few of the bird feeding stations. There were 7 Kaka parrots hanging out in one area which was nice to see. Oh we also ate in the cafe. That was nice. At this point I would call this cafe our most frequently visited here in NZ. It has a gorgeous view out the windows that stretches for miles across the hills and mountains in the distance. I had an interesting green tea with Manuka honey.

We were going to go to the butterflies for a bit to get some warmth, but there was no decent parking so we carried on for a weekly shop at Pac N Save / The Warehouse. After that we hung out at home and Sabine walked around with Calcifer in the garden. Hermione was trying to jump up on the kitchen surface so we put her in quarantine. She was meowing like crazy as I was doing the dishes. Well she needs to learn.

We watched Hotel Transylvania 2 tonight. It was not as awesome as number 1, but still a good laugh.

18th, Sun-
We spent this morning sorting out the spare room, decluttering and organising it. Hermione is jumping up on things, behaving like she was never taught how to behave in the first place. Its deeply frustrating.

We went to the museum where I saw a Glass Wing butterfly. Very small and unusual. Then we had a Re:Burger. Yummy! Then we walked to cat adoption day and saw more kittens. Sabine is interested in a third, more friendlier cat like Calcifer.

Glass Wing Butterfly

We bought a small cat tree from K Mart, and some other things. Then we drove to The Warehouse for bedding seeing as the bed is now usable in the spare room, and so the kitties can sit on it.

Then we went to see another kitty up around Costorphine, and we were suitably impressed with the situation there. All kittens were adorable, well looked after, happy, and playful around humans, including us as strangers. The tabby we saw was really cute and playful. Incredibly so. We have decided to take him on Wednesday. He will be 10 weeks old as of that point.

After that we went back to K Mart to buy 2 scratching posts.

This evening Hermione attempted to jump on the kitchen again, for the second time today. She was instantly banned to her room for the remainder of the evening.

19th, Mon-
I had an interview with the DCC in the Building dept today.
The landlady organised a builder to come over and actually fix our roof properly. Some type of thick water resistant paint was put down on the roof.

A beautiful sunrise this morning

21st, Wed-
It rained all day! Luckily the roof is fixed so no leaking anymore!
We picked up Yue, our 3rd kitty today. The residents of the household were kinda sad to see their "Tiger" go. Well he's ours now, and is named Yue after the character from Cardcaptor Sakura.
Sabine bought a huge cage to go in the spare bedroom but the little fellow can fit through the bars at the bottom so we can only open it up and hope he doesn't mess around with the room even though we have no choice for him to run loose in there. We cannot let our other two cats meet him so soon. They need to get used to each others smells first.

Yue- Our new kitty!

Pronounced like the letter 'U' and then 'eh'. Chinese for 'Moon', But named after the character from Cardcaptor Sakura 

Calcifer hanging out around me

23rd, Fri-
I didn't get the job that I was interviewed for on Monday. Regarding my current position I had to ask my managers manager because I've heard nothing, but he said that an extension is happening and that he forgot to tell me, and was annoyed with the financial manager in our department for not processing the purchase order for my extension with Select Recruitment.

24th, Sat-
We let the kitties play with each other today. Calcifer gets on fine with the little one, but Hermione is hissing and growling. Actually she isn't so bad. she seems to be making some progress.
We cleaned the house. Sabine wanted fish n chips so I went down and got 2 lots for us for lunch.
We watched The Lovely Bones this evening.

Mushrooms and Toadstools are everywhere at the moment

26th, Mon-
Otago day! I had a day off work, even though Sabine had to work. This was my first day off without Sabine around since September.
I went swimming today at Moana pool. Its a pretty big complex and it wasn't so crowded. I used a one off swimming ticket given to me by Dan, the guy whose job I replaced back in September. At the time he gave me this ticket saying he wouldn't be able to use it. I actually thought it was a pass valid until June, but it turns out it was just a one time pass.
After that I had a nice Subway sandwich.
Hermione seems to be getting more used to Yue today. They were even playing together, finally!

Midweek, Sabine got a cold. Lucky we got some Campbells soup in the house! I prepared one for her. This is the condensed kind that isn't around in the UK anymore.

29 Thu-
The singer Ed Shereen is in town and its as busy as never before. Its jam packed full of people. Its so weird how crazy this city is just for one pop act. Coming from Brighton in the UK you would have top pop acts all the time yet nobody would bat an eyelid at them. Sometimes I would come across a poster for a cool band and be like 'Oh, they are in Brighton hu?' AND THATS IT! Here, and the city is going nuts for ONE GUY. If anything it really makes you realise JUST how isolated this city is from the rest of the world.
I found Once Upon A Time Season 6 online on iTunes for a bargain price of £10 so quids in! Have it!

This is the mural of Ed Shereen that cost our council over $8000.

An awkwardly taken photo of our kitties sleeping on us

30 Fri-
Good Friday. Another day off work.
Today started with me cooking eggs and bacon for us!
After that we had a lie in, and spent the remainder of the morning playing with cats.
We went to the Ecosantuary, and had lunch there.
Sabine cooked an amazing Spaghetti Bolognaise for dinner.
Then we watched a movie called Nim's Island.

Lunch at the Ecosantuary

An NZ South Island Robin

Also at the Ecosantuary

31 Sat-
Hermione was sick this morning over the carpet. Poor kitty! We have no real idea why, though Sabine says it may be a reaction to the kidney in the new food can she is using. We both helped clean the carpet.
We visited a place called Shag Point, which was one of the shoreline landmarks we had yet to visit. The weather was bad so we headed back and had a hot choccky at the railway cafe at Palmerston.
After that we visited the Dunedin Botanical Gardens which had glorious weather.
This evening we watched Fly Away Home.

April 2018

1 Sun-
Easter Sunday.
The clocks went back in the night.
I cooked Sabine eggs on toast, and I had eggs and bacon. Sabine wanted the eggs and not so much the bacon. She says that eggs remind her of Easter time.
We went to the Ecosanctuary, where I saw a TomTit chase off a Black Morph Fantail. Quite a cool, rare little bird with white cheeks. If it were a Pokemon it would be a shiny.
After that we visited the peninsular to do some more bird spotting.
We watched Mulan this evening.

2 Mon-
Easter Monday so yet another day off work.
We went to Starbucks. We wanted to go to Re:Burger but they were closed, so we tried the restaurant at the museum. They had a lamb burger which we both had. The chips were good but the burger itself was naff. After that we visited the butterflies.
We went back to the peninsular to get more shots of birds. There was a beautiful kingfisher but the camera couldn't focus on it. It was just too far away.
This evening we watched Pocahontas.

A butterfly wants its close up shot.

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.

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!