Knight in Shining Armour

Bought Stephen a present today. Couldn't wait for him to wear it so that I can take a photo. Too cute eh? (I'm referring to the T-shirt of course!)

Stephen & Qing's B&B

Business is picking up and will be fairly brisk for the rest of the year at Stephen & Qing's B&B! If only we charge like the other B&Bs, we'll be rich rich rich!

Tomorrow will be the official first day of Spring. The rest of the month of September will be relatively quiet. This will be the brief calm before the storm. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some studying done. (Well that's the plan at least.)

Come early October, Sunny will be here for a short trip. Toonie and WJ will be coming over towards the second half of October.

For the month of November, Ben and Rika will be visiting us from Perth. Stephen and I are planning to take a week off from work to go travelling to the South Island together. Road trip!

I have the dreaded exam on the 6th December. Please please please let me pass! Thereafter, I'm home free!

Stephen & Qing's B&B will be closed this year over the Christmas and New Year's period, although if you ask nicely, we might just hand over our house keys to you if you promise to behave and not to trash the house while we're gone.

Pahia, Keri Keri and Pink Sheep

Pahia and Keri Keri are towns north of Auckland, and the pink sheep just took us completely by surprised.

(If you haven't already realised, these entries posted today are events that have happened and pictures that were taken months and even years ago. I'm just trying to catch up on my blogging.)

We decided to splurge a little and stayed at this little beach hotel called Pahia Beach Resort. (I wouldn't exactly call it a resort since it's really small. My idea of a resort is one with sprawling grounds, huge pools, jacuzzis, several nice restaurants. You get the drift.) The rooms were pretty good, we weren't blown away but it was still nice and clean, with an unobstructed view of the ocean and it opens up to the pool. The restaurant served pretty good breakfast too. Yum!

Drove to Keri Keri during our stay in Pahia and found the oldest standing stone house in NZ.

Cooper meet Cooper

We've tried to keep this classified information and photos under wraps for the past year and a half. But the secret is out. Yes, we named our dog after our car. (And yes, I admit we aren't the most original or creative of people.)

Cooper, meet Cooper.

My Spo(r)ty Dog

Stephen woke up early this morning to catch his favourite soccer team, Liverpool play against Bolton, on TV. I walked into the den and found Cooper equally caught up in the match.

Turned my back for a couple of minutes and my very spotty sporty dog was up to his mischief again. Found him all decked out in my scuba gear, ready to go for a splash! Too hilarious!

(It was a riot getting him to stay still without trying to tear the scuba mask off his face. Needless to say, he was not pleased and it took a lot of bribing for him to keep still!)

Grandma's Birthday

Managed to celebrate Grandma's birthday on my recent trip back to Singapore. It was a potluck dinner and we each cooked and brought a different dish. I brought food too except that it was food my mother-in-law cooked. Ha! How brilliant and very shameless am I?!

Here are my favourite people...

Falling...

... sick. Feeling yucky.

Your Thoughts: Pet Dog Barbequed and Eaten

The latest uproar among the animal-lovers community involves news about a Tongan man who was found roasting his pitbull terrier-cross on a BBQ pit in his home. The dog had been skinned and gutted and partially charred when SPCA inspectors arrived. In this man's defense, it is perfectly normal to be eating dog's meat and is considered a delicacy.

Read news article here.

And here's another article in his defense. It's an interesting read.

Let me know what you think.

Is it wrong to BBQ and eat your dog if it turned violent and had to be put down anyway?

Wanderlust

This weekend will be our second trip to Mount Ruapehu and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will hold up so that we can do some snowboarding. Ok. Fine. It will be closer to the truth to say that we will attempt to snowboard because I foresee that we'll spend most of the time on our bums or knees. I would love to promise to post up lots of photos from our ski trip but I reckon I'll be too busy avoiding face-plants to be wielding the camera.

Come November, Ben (Stephen's brother) and his wife, Rika, will be flying over from Perth for a visit. We're thinking of taking a week out and travelling with the pair. The plan is to rent a camper van and drive up and down the South Island. And in return, they'll play host to us when we fly over to Perth for Christmas this year.

Our major trip will come next year. Stephen and I have decided to go on a month-long backpacking trip to Asia. We're looking mainly at travelling to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. And perhaps also spending a couple of weeks volunteering in one of the developing SE Asian countries teaching English, or building houses, or whatever we can find. That would be the travel highlight for that year. Can't wait!

Did you know...

... that it is illegal for parents in New Zealand to smack their children for correction or for whatever reason?

Wake me up when September ends.

Going back to Singapore was a good break for me. I missed the food, the partying, missed the hustle and bustle of city life, missed my friends and my family the mostest! As thoroughly enjoyable as my trip was, it also reminded me that Singapore is no paradise. I think I've acclimatised to the life here in NZ. People back home walk too fast, drive like maniacs and aren't exactly the friendliest people around. I dread driving in Singapore. I think if you measure my blood pressure before I get in the car and after arriving at my destination, you'll probably be able to detect a significant increase. (The most recent episiode, I had Vatsan in the car with me and let's just say that he probably won't be hopping into any car that I'm driving any time soon.)

So I've decided that since I'm here in New Zealand, and won't be for too long, I should make the most out of it.

Laundry list of likes and quirks in NZ:

- clean clean clean air

- the luxury of getting 8 hours of sleep every day (think about it, when was the last time you managed to squeeze in 8 hours of sleep in a work day.)

- of being able to start a conversation with a stranger on the street and not have someone look at you funny

- healthy living - no nightlife means no partying, no late nights, no excessive alcoholic binges, no hangovers, no ugly mascara-smudged eyes next morning (I can't say I'm ecstatic about this point but I have a funny feeling my mom is thrilled with this.)

- a pack of choco milk a day (too lazy for breakfast and milk is cheap. Again, another point to make my mom oh-so-happy since she's been going on about osteoporosis and whatnots.)

- daylight savings and summer days (I'm really looking forward to daylight savings at the end of September. The days will be longer, and warmer, the sun the sun the sun will be out out out! Ooohh I can't even begin to tell you how much the sun affects my moods. Summers in NZ are glorious days. Way too short, but glorious nonetheless.)

Is it Summer yet?

/Quote of the Day/

Regular naps prevent old age...

Especially if you take them while driving.

Back!

Yes I'm back after a long hiatus from blogging. No idea what I've been so busy with. Was in Sydney for a week, and back in Singapore for a week and a half. Apart from that, nothing much has happened. Life is still same old same old. But yes, I'm back and you'll be hearing from me on a more regular basis now, I promise.

Service Nightmare

I have to say that even though we go on and on about how crappy service is in Singapore but it can never be as bad as in NZ. Service centres are closed over the weekends and evenings. Customer service can be absolute crap sometimes.

Here's a classic example - I called Vodafone today to enquire about the charge on my bill for their data plan and this is how the conversation went:

me: I did not subscribe to the data service but there's a charge of $15 on my bill. Why is that so?
girl-on-the-phone: You used the data service.
me: But I didn't subscribe to any such service. Why am I paying for something that I didn't subscribe to?
girl-on-the-phone: Well you did use it and thus you have to pay for it.
me: Is there a way to turn the service off?
girl-on-the-phone: No.
me: Will there be a message or warning if Vodafone live kicks in on my phone.
girl-on-the-phone: No.
me: Is there anything you can do?
girl-on-the-phone: No.
me: Can I speak to someone who can help me? Is there nothing you can do to help me with this issue?
girl-on-the-phone: I'm afraid there's no one here who can assist you.

Then, of course, even though I've developed a higher tolerance for stupidity and lousy service after living here in NZ, I completely lost it. I mean seriously. What is this girl thinking talking to a customer like that? I went on a tirade on decent customer service and how she is not even attempting to help me resolve the issue. I went on to rant about getting her manager to play back the call and come back to me with an adquate explanation for such shabby customer service blah blah blah. I was on a roll. You would have been proud.

After 10 minutes of ranting and raving, she finally decided to attempt do her job and made an effort to answer my questions. Bloody hell.

/Random Thought/

Isn't there something really sexy about a guy who is well-read?