One Fine Sunday.

The weather over the weekend was fantastic. Almost had me convinced that summer is round the corner and not months away. We initially wanted to head over to Davenport but got lazy and just decided to hang around the beach on this side of Auckland instead.

We put on our shades, popped the dog in the backseat and off we went for a short drive along the beach. It was nice having the sun on my face after going through such a wet and dreary winter.

Here's Cooper thoroughly enjoying himself snapping at the wind and barking at dogs whizzing by.

We ended up at Mission Bay. Had brunch at one of the sea-side cafes. We initially had Cooper with us at the cafe (they're really dog friendly here) but he was harrassing all the patrons so we got fed up and banished him to the car. Ha!

We sat around, had mussels and wine, soaked in the sun and just watched the world go by.

Decided to free the Coopster from his imprisonment and headed over to the beach for a walk. And because I'm the one with the camera, there aren't any shots of me looking all cool on the beaach. Darn.

Spot the dog in this shot.

Sweet-talker

In every weekend edition of the NZ Herald, they'll interview someone new and one of the de-facto questions would be, "If the house is on fire, what's one thing that you would save?"

So I posed the question to Stephen over the weekend while reading the papers. Stephen looked at me and answered, "You."

He sure knows how to score points! Heh!

Family and Friends.

I've been having visitors this Christmas and New Year's.

Grandma will be arriving on her own (first time for everything) on the 20th December. She'll be staying with us for about a month or so and we'll all return back to Singapore together for CNY.

Sister and boyfriend (Cliff) will be over on the 23rd December and staying for 2 whole weeks. So everyone will be spending Christmas and New Year's here in NZ.

I've gotta start planning the intinerary now.

Can't hardly wait!!!

Sushi Party

The weather is turning warmer and the days are getting longer. And it's time to come out of hibernation. We had some friends over and had a sushi party. The head chef and sous chef were Janice and Yuko respectively. The rest of us just stood around and tried to look like we're helping!



Everyone had a hand in rolling the sushi. Looked pretty good eh? Yuko also made miso soup and fried tofu. We even had sashimi but I was too busy eating and forgot to take photos.

Here's Janice trying to cop a feel. Tsk.

We hung around after lunch, sat in the sun, had wine and played Pictionary. I realised that I am not artistically inclined at all. In case anyone is wondering, I was trying to draw Captain Cook.

A Dog's Life.

How hard is a dog's life?
Well, we ran out of dried dog food for Cooper and ended up feeding him leftovers.

Cooper hates the cold so he stakes out the heater every evening. Oh and he even has his own bed and pillow. FYI, we hauled that pillow all the way from Bangkok and just to have our dog lay claim to it.

He tags along on road trips and hogs the entire back seat. He's an extremely well-travelled dog. Very world-wisely. Here's the Coopster at Piha beach.

So whoever said a dog's life is hard obviously haven't met my prince of a dog.

And the jokes continue...

Stephen wasn't feeling too well over the weekend. He had a scratchy throat, was feverish, lethargic and whiny as hell.

I think he might have passed on his germs to me cuz I'm not feeling too great myself today, so i emailed him and told him just that. Called him the Infector.

Well here's his reply. Word for word. No editing involved.

"ooohhh ic i have a cool nickname... much like the terminator! i feel i need a theme song as well...

when you're feeling fine and don't feel like working
who you gonna call?
the infector!

when you're oh so sleepy and wana go home
who you gonna call?
the infector!

(repeats itself)

(sang to the theme song from ghost busters)"

I really should start compiling these jokes and publish a book titled "Jokes You Should NEVER Tell Anyone".

Polka-dotted

Cooper has been a nightmare to live with the last 2 weeks. He has decided out of the blue to pee in his crate in the afternoons after his outing with Michelle, his friendly neighbourhood dogwalker. I have threatened to sell him online countless times and he has called my bluff every single time! And he knows he can get away with most things by just giving us the sad, puppy-dog face and slinking along the floor, looking terribly sorry. That usually lasts about all of 2 mins and he's off bouncing off the walls again. I can't decide whether he's really smart or really stupid.

Difference between Cooper and Nugget, Cooper is smarter, braver, bouncier but Nugget is more sensitive, easier to live with, more obedient and doesn't really gets his nose into all kinds of trouble. Can't decide whether I hate or love dogs at the moment.

Anyhooz, here's a really adorable photo I found online.

p/s: I won't chance putting the Coopster in this pose cuz he'll probably gobble down the goldfish in 2 shakes of a lamb's tail! :P

Crazy Times.

Wall Street seems to be broken.

Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy.
Merrill Lynch sold itself off to BOA.
Restructuring in AIG with stocks plummeting 61%.

I wonder who will be next.

Falling Dollar.

There has been a lot going on in the NZ economy. Financial companies are going bust, leaving poor old men and ladies broke without their retirement money. Property market has gone under. Cost of food is rising, and spending is falling. The Reserve Bank has been cutting rates left, right and centre. To cut a long story short, it's quite a mess!

All these events have resulted in a falling New Zealand dollar. The NZD has fallen 13% over the last 3 months and now sits weaker than the Singapore dollar! I'm mentally calculating how much money I've lost. #%@&$%)*

Currently, the exchange rate is at 1SGD to 1.069NZD. Previously it was approximately 1SGD to 0.9NZD.

I guess now I can go for my $70 haircut here and not feel so bad about it since it's equivalent to $65 back in Singapore. That's a discount of $5! That's my silver lining! Ha!

Stepford Wife.

Being here in NZ, on an expat package or not, is really not as easy or glamourous as some might think. It's really difficult starting all over from scratch.

It takes time to get to know and get used to the way of life here, the culture, the people. Also there is the uphill task of looking for a job, securing a job, learning the workings of a new market, building up credibility within the new company, building up business contacts and relationships all over again.

It is extra tough doing all this without the support network of family and friends. Making friends here too is not as easy as it is as compared to say when I was in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a blast and a year went by without me even noticing. Here in NZ, making friends and keeping them is extra hard work. To top it off, Stephen is constantly travelling. He's away at least once a month. This month for example, Stephen flew out to Tahiti last Friday and will be arriving back to Auckland on Sunday. He'll be flying out again on the following Monday to Hong Kong for a week and back only next Friday. So when he's away, I'm on my own in this too-large 4-bedroom house. (And please don't even mention starting a family. I can't handle a bawling kid alone with my husband gone half the time.)

Not to mention the fact that New Zealand is so isolated from the rest of the world that flight tickets out are usually really expensive, making even going home for a visit difficult. (Flight back to Singapore will set you back about NZD2000 and it's a 10 hour flight.)

I don't think I'm whining too much about living here in NZ since I've lived and worked in a number of cities around the world. I can honestly say that New Zealand is by far the most challenging of the lot. And it's realy taking a lot out of me to stay on and not throw in the towel, pack up and head on home.

Only Cooper has come up on top of this. The entire house is his playground, and the front yard his toilet! He gets plenty of rubs, hugs and cuddles, and basically gets to follow me almost everywhere I go.

I'm not usually in this mood but it has been a trying few months.

Time Travel

Stephen flew out to Tahiti for a meeting today. Tahiti is one of the islands of French Polynesia. It's a hop away from Bora Bora. I know what you're thinking - that it's not fair right?! My sentiments exactly! Who goes to Tahiti for work?! Bloody smokers, that's who!

Anyway, Tahiti is 5 hours by flight but they are 22 hours behind Auckland, which basically means that if it's 6pm Friday in Auckland, it's 8pm Thursday in Tahiti. The only reason why I'm outlining this in detail is because my very brilliant husband couldn't really get his head around the time difference.

And after thinking long and hard about it, he finally got it. Yes! Well now that he's figured out the time difference, he's completely fascinated by it. He even came up with his own little jokes.

Joke #1:

Stephen: Don't tell me what's on the news or what's going to happen on Friday cuz it's still Thursday here and I want Friday to be a surprise!

me: *forced laughter*

Joke #2:
Stephen: I'm so tired. Time travelling is exhausting!
me: (I didn't even bother to laugh on this one. I just rolled my eyes several times.)

As you can see, my husband brand of humour is erm... very unique and not exactly the funniest. He has his moments though but this surely isn't one of them.

Weather Report (again!)

I know I know... I have developed a perverse obsession with the weather. I just read a weather report online that in the month of July, we have had 22 days of rain. This basically translates to 9 dry days in July and out of which maybe we had 2 days of sunshine in a month!

Now you know why I'm so down in the dumps all through winter.

NZ Model Citizen

I've accumulated 2 traffic tickets for using the bus lanes within the same week. Each fine is NZD$150. I've also gotten a parking fine for NZD$40. That's a grand total of NZD$340. All in a month's work. Thank you.

You should have heard me curse when I received the summons. I swore to hell and back. I'm pretty sure the neighbours heard and probably slapped their hands over their children's ears. I would have made a sailor blush (not to say that all sailors are brutish and uncouth but they are notoriously known for their talent for cursing).

NZ model citizen or not? Well it really depends on how you look at it. On one hand, I have been blatantly flouting all traffic laws but on the other hand, I am contributing to the revenue of the country which is definitely much needed considering the current economic climate.

The traffic fines plus the amount of money I pay in taxes (they have a tax rate here of 33%) will feed a small country. Okay. Maybe I exaggerate. A small island of people. Whatever the case, there is serious outflow of cash here without even me having to spend any.