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Published: July 20th 2008
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This fortnight was the wettest of our time so far in NZ. Frequent gales, black skies and lashing rain made us shiver and wish we had central heating (but over here few people do, it seems).
We all moved house on Saturday 21st June to just down the road, because the girls from whom we sub-let our room were fed up of the house being so chilly, as well as the mould growing on the ceiling, and the old kitchen with its sink awkwardly positioned right in a corner. It would be great in the summer but it was a draughty place so we all agreed on the move.
So our local grocer is no longer the legendary Chinese enterprise that is
Tai Ping, it’s now an Indian place called
Khyber Spice Invader, with a focus on Indian more than Oriental (or even New Zealand) foods, such as frozen Bengali green lentils and “Pee Pee” brand coconut milk, and Horlicks that has been produced in Mumbai.
This last week, we caught up with John and Laura a few times. We first met them on the TransMongolian Railway in September, and again for Christmas in Thailand. They’re
still on the same trip and not due back home for another 10 weeks! Highlights included a tour of New Zealand’s biggest brewery,
Lion Brewery, going for pizza & beer in a Kiwi music bar (and seeing John’s chair collapsing under him as the four spindly legs slid in opposite directions), and them both coming round to our place for slow-cooked stew with lots of wine.
We learned loads of interesting things on the brewery tour, principally because John and I were the only two people there and were able to ask about how their beers compare to others in the country and John was quite cheeky asking which ones were the most profitable. Most surprising was the fact that
cans are the best receptacle in which to buy beer from the supermarket, because they best protect the contents. Green bottles, despite often being the colour of choice for the most premium lagers, are the worst because they allow the light in. Lion Brewery used to sell a lager in both green and brown bottles, where the contents were exactly the same but the price of the brown bottles was set deliberately lower; however they had to delist the
brown-bottled variety (even though the contents were better protected) because of poor rate of sale, due to customer perception. And when you're in a bar, it’s best to order beer from the tap rather than from a bottle (but only if you can guarantee the cleanliness of the pipes!), as it won’t have been heat-treated / pasteurised to make it last longer. I also learnt how to pull a good pint (about time) in the free bar at the end of the tour, the first beer being like Mr Whippy but the next one much better.
The day of the brewery tour was also John’s birthday, and that night we had a double celebration as I finally found a job I wanted and an employer who didn’t mind that I had no previous New Zealand experience and that I only had a 12-month visa. The company is
ReckittBenckiser, the manufacturer of such zippy products as Lemsip, Strepsils, Gaviscon and Veet (men’s variety also available). It is a sales role, at a more junior level than I originally envisaged taking, but with good options later on. The only downside is that the products are not as interesting as working at
a food company. It’s not the same to get samples of carpet cleaner and hand sanitiser as it is to get M&S muffins or Branston pickle.
In my first week, I have been instore helping to set up branded cardboard display units to see what happens at the sharp end, and also have inputted discounts on a supermarket’s website that customers will get at the checkout over the next few months across a range of products all over New Zealand - one wrong figure from me and everyone could be getting unintentionally large savings!
So 14 months out of the mouse race has come to an end; no more lying in bed drinking cups of tea and reading novellas until late morning (not that I did anyway, but I may as well cultivate an image of lost otiosity), and no more midday repeats of
Cold Feet from (the year) 2000 to enjoy, as I take my place at an unearthly hour on the commuter bus to the west of Auckland to earn an honest wage. Welcome back to reality. (Yes, it’s about time, I know!!)
In July 2007 we were in Rio de Janeiro and so, due
The ingredients for a great birthday
Jazz, Monteiths beer, tapas and the missus (not in that order) to time differences, 2008 was that first time that I celebrated two birthdays in the same year. It was also the first birthday that I was on Facebook, and was chuffed to have got a few messages on my Wall, thanks to everyone who sent a post. In the evening, Paula took me to a small bar,
The Ponsonby Social Club, where that night there was jazz, and we had tapas and local beer. Mum and Dad kept up the family tradition of giving novelty socks as a present (Homer Simpson this time, through the post) and Alex sent a jumper over from Australia, which saves me a chore - I spilled concentrated fabric conditioner over some work shirts which has left indelible marks, and I needed something to cover them.
*****
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