The Unbalanced Libra..

It's been 3 days now since i've had access to the Internet..

Today, K and I went to the library again.. but only for an hour before the library closed at 530pm. And the way they "close" the library is to ring the bell and switch off the lights without warning.. I surprised cause usually in OUR libraries or any public place like shopping malls or museums, people usually give some kinda announcement over the PA system.. haha.. Here they just switch off the lights without warning.. = )

This morning, K went upstairs to do an interview / presentation with Stephen for this life coaching course that Stephen was doing. So i went out for a jog around the neighborhood. Feeling so fat and unhealthy since i came here! It was a nice jog, except that i got caught in the rain (as usual the rain just comes and goes without warning)..

We had lunch with Christine and Stephen (our current host family) today at a Thai restaurant called "Khun Pun". I told Christine that the owner's name is probably "Pun", cause Khun was a kinda salutation in Thai. = ) Lunch was not too bad. We had Pineapple fried rice, Phad thai, green curry, stir fry vegetables with peanut sauce and fried beef with rice. Topped it all off with hot chocolate and tea. This restaurant was cheaper than the one we had on Martha's birthday, but of course, it wasn't as nice.

We had a long chat over lunch, talking about the economy, politics, culture etc. We learnt so much from them, about how the influx of immigrants / foreigners is destroying their local culture and making the locals here frustrated. There are just too many Asian people here, and most of these Asian people come here and instead of assimiliating into the local culture, they set up their own little "China Town", refusing to learn how to speak proper English, and taking advantage of the free healthcare here. Christine's in healthcare, and she says there are so many elderly people from China who have never had proper health care in their lives, then they come here and maximize the free healthcare here. So much so that there are not enough resources for the locals to get proper medical care. Then there is the problem of increased crime due to the Asian gangs and triads that were never here before.

Because of all these "Asian Invasion", the bulk of the wealthy New Zealanders are all moving out of their own country, leaving only the middle to low income earners to pay for all the taxes that are providing for the free healthcare etc here. And the government is not doing much about it cause they want to remain popular and stay in office for the next 3 years. Quite a pessimistic situation huh??

ANYWAY.. they did admit that they might be biased so we should talk to more people before we form our own opinions..

After lunch, K and I came home to pick up our LPG cylinder and headed to the petrol station to top it up. Apparently, it was still 3/4 full but for some reason, our heater did not work with it. So we top it up full instead. When we arrived home to drop off the full cylinder, we saw this little creature by the driveway where we parked.. It looked so clumsy when it strutted its way across the grass! Think it's a hedgehog or something.. couldn't confirm..



After the library, K and I came home and cook instant noodles for dinner.. We managed to tap into somebody's wireless internet so here I am , blogging.. while K is watching "24" on TV.. = )

Auckland should not only be called the Land of Sails, but also the Land of Rainbows. Since i arrived here one week ago, i have seen more than 8 rainbows.. and 3 of them are full, solid. 7 color rainbows that stretch across the clear blue skies from one end to another. Simply gorgeous! = ) Just looking at them makes me really happy..

And the bathroom had one single tap that can be adjusted for both hot and cold water. Unlike the previous 2 houses we stayed in, where they had separate taps for hot and cold water. I can never figure out how to use those individual taps, quite irritating to me actually!

But of course, nothing is perfect. The kitchen had no stove, only one microwave oven. So for dinner yesterday, K and I went to Pak N Save again to buy some food for dinner. We also dropped off our job application forms and resume at their counter. I had microwaved spaghetti bolognaise and delicious golden kiwi fruit. K cooked sausages with maggi noodles. We also bought fish fillet and baked them in the oven until crispy. It was delicious. "Sleepless in Seattle" was on TV, so we ate and watched the show until about 1030pm last night. Plus, we have no internet access at the basement. Then this morning, there was no water in the house cause there was some pipe repair works going on. Sigh..

I slept really well last night, and my blocked nose is finally cleared! Looks like things are going well now.. except we still haven't found a job yet.. = (

Right now, K and I are at the Takapuna library for the free internet access.. We went to the flea markets this morning. It was pretty similar to the Otara markets that we went to yesterday, except the people looked much wealthier here. We bought some $1 boxes of chocolate sticks there. They also sold fresh pasta which we sampled and was really yummy, but K refused to let me buy cause it was quite expensive.. sigh.. i am SOOO craving for some Italiano food!! = )

After the markets, we walked down the streets of Takapuna, went to the beach and saw this mad dog harassing 2 little toddlers until one of them fell down and cried. The mother started quarelling with the owner of the dog.. So 2 women fighting over a stupid dog.. it was quite funny.. = )

Later K and I will be going to Devonport to explore. It's supposed to be an old naval base with really beautiful scenery. We've packed our own fillet fish with cheese sandwiches for lunch later. Still not sure what's for dinner.. At the rate we are going, i will soon go crazy from missing good old normal food! Always eating bread and microwaved food.. don't know how long i can last..

Plus, i really think i might be pregnant. I am 2 months late already.. I talked about this to K, and he said we'll wait one or two more months and if i really am pregnant, we will spend all our NZ dollars and then go back to Singapore.. He said i can then have all the Italian food i want.. haha.. = P

K and I stayed at home the WHOLE day today.. We were so determined to go jogging today if it doesn't rain, and look for jobs if it does rain.

Eventually, the rain did stop for a while, then rain again, so we kinda ended up hooked on the laptop and newspapers looking for jobs. For breakfast, i made ham and lettuce sandwiches. K cooked instant noodles with vegetables for lunch. And the whole time we were preparing and eating our food, the dog kept following and stared at us, as if asking us to feed her. Somehow, after my one week stay here, i am beginning to appreciate cats more than dogs, cause cats just leave you alone. But the dogs keep following you around, sniffing you and keep wanting to lick you! Then again, i woke up this morning and found a big hole in the plastic bag that had our loaf of bread in it. And one big bite on 3 pieces of bread. I found out from Martha later that it was her cat who did it. Bummer!!

K made a few calls this morning from the job notices in the newspapers but no luck. After lunch, K went to bed. He woke up much earlier than me today, so he went to catch up on sleep. With the stupid cold weather, we didn't feel like doing anything at all, except to crawl under the warm blankets in bed!

So when K went to bed, i continued my job search. I made a few calls, sent out nearly 20 job applications for customer service, receptionist, baristas, survey administrators, paper runners and even data entry / work from home jobs. The one i most wanted was actually working for Subway.. haha.. maybe can eat for free..and healthy food too!

Martha came home from work around 330pm. She had bought some frames to frame some really gorgeous shots of wildlife animals. It was DIY so i helped her with the framing and taping of the frames. K woke up around that time, and got down to helping her with the frames too.

Then around 6pm, K and I headed out to buy pizza for dinner. We had planned to rent a dvd too, but the dvd shop that Martha was a member of was too far. So in the end, we went to buy the pizza only. Before that, we went to Pak N Save supermarket, bought toilet roll, a bottle of Coke, some ham slices for breakfast tomorrow, and apples and kiwis for fibre. We also took job application forms from the counter. Will drop them off tomorrow after filling them up. Pizza was from a Pizza Hut branch close by. Their delivery was done by car, so i thought that was a pretty easy job. But K didn't want to ask if they were hiring, for some reason.

We waited 30 minutes for our stupid Jumbo Meat Lovers which cost us $12. But i guessed it was worth it cause it was delicious and HOT!! = )

So the 3 of us had pizza with Coke while watching "New Zealand's Next Top Model." Then after that K and I watched "Mean Girls" all the way until 1030pm (Martha went to sleep halfway). Tonight is another rainy night. In fact, it's one of the worst ones i've seen for the past week. I just had my hot bath , so really shiok now..

Yesterday, K and I went to pick up our second car from the Taiwanese couple. Again, they were super nice to us. We had hot tea, prawn crackers, and fresh Kiwi apples again. And they cooked lunch for us. It was instant noodles, but delicious cause they put a lot of ingredients: Eggs, Vegetables, Prawns and crab meat! They also gave us lots of namecards to find jobs and good food at cheap prices. And when the lady knew i had nose problems, she gave me a whole toilet roll to put in the car! To top it off, they lent us their steering wheel lock for the car, offered to lend us wool blankets and clothing if we need some, and gave K a packet of Taiwanese brand cigarettes when they found out he smoke. The cigarettes were really cute. When you look into the stick from the end that you put into your mouth, you can see this little red heart shape. So cute right! = )

I really love this Taiwanese couple. At first, we thought they were nice because they want us to buy the car from them. But even after we had paid them, they still gave us things and still so hospitable!! Maybe this is our good karma since we hosted a Taiwanese girl in Singapore before and were really nice to her.. haha.. hopefully we will meet more people like them!!

After we picked up our car, we went to visit Goong and Pui. We had some difficulty finding her house, cause all the unit numbers were so similar. 2/390 and 2/390B were 2 different houses. So got a bit confused there. We chatted for about an hour or so over hot tea. I went to see Goong's new born, so cute!! And very very tiny.. Pui said Gary will be coming over in the week of 22nd May, so we're looking forward to meeting up with the two of them again!

Tomorrow we will be moving to our next host family. For this one, we will have our own bedroom with attached bathroom. Plus, this family only has one dog. Hopefully, it's a small one.. Crossing my fingers!! = P

It's our 6th day in Auckland. I'm beginning to get used to the weather here, and didn't wear my white winter jacket the whole day today.

K and I woke up at 830am today, just so we could catch Martha before she left for work. Yesterday we missed her cause we woke up late at 11am, so thought it won't be so nice if we missed her again today.
I had warm baked beans with 2 slices of white bread for breakfast, while K had ham and lettuce with chocolate spread on his bread. Apparently, Martha is like K. She hates baked beans. K says baked beans are the fave food of the UK, and that's why they fart a lot.. haha.. = )

Martha left for work around 930am, and K and I surfed the internet for a while before we headed out. First stop was to view this car that we spotted on Trade Me. It was the best thing that happened to us today. The first car that we bought had some problems with the fuel tank leaking, and the front lights going on and off on its own. So we had been looking for a second car for the past few day but with no luck. Until yesterday, but because yesterday we didn't have time to meet up with the car owner, we delayed it until this morning. The car owner was a Taiwanese couple who had moved to Auckland more than 15 years ago. They were really really nice to us.. but of course that was not the only reason why we bought the car (yes, now we have 2 cars!). The car itself was very well maintained, and it was clean inside, unlike the first car we bought. The first still had trash inside when we bought it, and K and I had to go to a self serve machine to vacuum the car yesterday. But it was quite fun though! = )

Anyway, the couple invited us into their house for some hot tea. The moment I entered their house, I wanted to shift into their house.. I could really see and feel the difference. The house is so clean!! It's really interesting to see how an Asian's house and a local house can differ so much in terms of cleanliness. I mean, so far, both the houses I have stayed in are really dirty with lots of dust, cobwebs, and of course animal fur. This Taiwanese couple had a dog too, but a really small one with a pathetic bark = ). And it was locked outside in the garage rather than in the house. So no animal fur. Perfect!! And they have really nice smelling toilets, and a washing machine!! I couldn't find any washing machines in my first 2 houses. Interesting.. they probably bring their clothes to the dry washers every week or so. So we had hot tea, and then really fresh and delicious New Zealand apples and oranges and chicken biscuits to go with the tea. We chatted with the couple for nearly 1.5 hours. They were so hospitable, they even helped us to look for jobs and car insurance. We called a few places on the spot using their phone. Apparently, they know quite a few people. They have a daughter who is studying fashion and had worked in a fashion retail outlet before. According to them, the outlet needed people who could speak Mandarin, so they promised they would ask for us. Then they gave us the number of this golf course resort owned by a Taiwanese and we called them immediately, but were asked to send in our resumes by email. They also told us how we could install this program called VOIP Busters for really cheap calls overseas.. And the best thing, the offered to cook noodles for us for lunch. So nice right!! But they also mentioned they were quite bored with nobody to talk to, so maybe they wanted our company also. But we declined the lunch offer. I just didn't want to impose on them too much, although I regretted later.. haha..

Because we had our first car with us and I didn't know how to drive, we agreed to pick up the car tomorrow instead. I am so happy we met this nice couple. = )

When we left their place, we headed to buy some fish and chips for lunch. The fish and chips were recommended by the Taiwanese couple. They also told us that we could get a really nice view from this place called the Ladies' Bay (which is really close to their home). So that was what we did. The fish and chips were really cheap, about $5.60 for a big piece of fish and lots of fries. By the time we got to the bay, it looked like it was going to rain, but we decided to head down the stairs leading to the bay anyway. I took a photo of the sign just before we walked down the stairs.



30 seconds after this photo was taken, K noticed a huge rain cloud blowing in our direction, and immediately shouted: “Run, car, now!” We started running just when the rain started to pour.. haha it was fun.. We thought we had to eat our lunch inside the car again today. But about 3 minutes later, the rain stopped. The rain is really crazy here. It just rains for a few minutes, then stops. Cause the wind is so strong, it blows the rain cloud away easily.

So when the rain stopped, we made our way down the stairs and finally had our fish and chips at the bay. It was not VERY nice, but still one of the more “holiday” things we've done so far, having fish and chips by the big blue sea in nice weather. We had a few pigeons again for company. They were just hovering above us waiting for the food we will leave behind. But of course, we were not going to waste a single cent of the $5.60 we paid!

After lunch, K and I just sat there on the breakwater for a while, took some photos, then headed back to the car. When we reached the car, we saw a full solid rainbow. It was beautiful. Second time in my life I've seen a full rainbow.. so nice.. = )

We headed to Auckland city after that around 330pm. We were supposed to meet Yuri for dinner at a Japanese restaurant at 6pm. So we went to Martha's office to park our car. Then we followed Martha out to the park to bring her dog for a walk. Then we headed to the city to walk around before meeting Yuri at 6pm.

The original plan for dinner was at a really expensive French Cafe downtown. But I didn't want to have French, so I suggested Japanese instead. Also, my Malaysian colleague was also supposed to meet us, but in the end, only Yuri turned up cause the other guy had to clear some work. Which was all the better cause we could talk more casually since I know Yuri much better.

We had sushi, chicken teriyaki, beef shabu shabu, edamame and chawamushi.. Best meal i've had so far. It was not very cheap though, but I wasn't complaining since ExxonMobil was paying!! = P

By the time we finished dinner, it was around 845pm. K and I had to walk past a very dark and lonely park to get back to our cars. For the entire walk back, I was quite worried for our safety. I had my umbrella and whistle in my hand, and K had his swiss army knife in his. It's strange how K makes me feel nervous like this. I never feel like this when I travel alone overseas!! I guess I am really lucky nothing has happened to me so far. = )

We reached home around 10pm. Martha was still awake, and so was her dog and cats. We chatted for a while, and arranged for her to fetch us to her office. We had asked the Taiwanese couple to meet us there with the car. K and I are planning to settle the car stuff tomorrow, then come back home to look for jobs. Then in the evening, we will celebrate Martha's birthday with her.

So far so good.. things are starting to feel more like a “Holiday”, although I am still irritated by my blocked nose. It hasn't cleared since I arrived in Auckland!! The skin on my nose is peeling from all the tissue abrasion and sniffing.. sigh..

Our second host stayed closer to the city area. Martha was a lady in her 50s i think, and self employed. In fact, she has a really interesting business - Funeral Services.

Her house is a simple 2 storey house, with the living and bathroom at the bottom, and bedrooms upstairs. And she has a huge black Great Dane, and 2 cats. More animal fur on my clothes..

Actually Martha had prepared our bed on the living room sofa, which folds out to a queen size bed. But K and I decided to take her spare room instead, even though it has a super single bed only, cause it was much warmer! Plus, i didn't want her big dog jumping on me when if I am sleeping in the living room!

I had much better sleep in my second home. For some reason, the room was much warmer even without a heater.

Yesterday, K and I went to Martha's office in Auckland city. She had another bird in her office. She showed us around her office. There was an underground room where she put some very nicely done coffins, and some church benches for small scale funeral services. It was very interesting for me to see all these..

We parked our car outside her office, and while she left to run some errands, K and I explored Auckland city. We went to the War Memorial Museum (which was another interesting expeience), then to University of Auckland campus and then to Queens Street where we meet up with Anne for coffee. Before coffee, I popped into an ASB branch office, and managed to put my name into K's bank account to make it a joint account. Apparently, this branch accepted credit cards as my 2nd identification. Stupid.

During my coffee conversation with Anne, we bitched to each other about how much we disliked Auckland. She hated the city life, and the lack of diversity cause there were so many Asians here, especially Chinese people. She didn't feel like she was in Auckland. I bitched about how things were not going too well for me, how boring this place was, how expensive food was (a normal food court meal is at least NZ$8-9), and the bloody cold weather. = P

After coffee, Anne headed back to campus, while K and I drove back home. On the way back, we stopped by the supermarket and bought some groceries at this place called "Pak N Save". Apparently, the things here are the cheapest among all supermarkets. And they don't provide plastic bags. If you want bags you have to pay 10 cents each, and pack your stuff into the bags on your own. Cashier won't do the packing for you. Of course, we didn't know. So we ended up with all kinds of loose grocery items in the car.. haha.. Dinner was maggi noodles for the past 2 nights.. food here is really expensive. Don't know how we are going to survive if we don't find a job soon.. hai..

Today, we slept late. Woke up around 11am. Martha had left for work so it was just her pets and us. We made breakfast - cereal and apple juice, used the net for a while, then headed out to settle some more administrative stuff. We went to the Inland Revenue office, applied for our IRD number (based on my credit card) cause the first time we tried at the post office and they didn't allow me to apply cause i only had my passport. We still need to wait 2 weeks before we get the stupid number.

After the IRD thing was done, we went to this sushi bar and packed some sushi for lunch by the beach. But the rain had to come. So we parked our car by the beach and ate inside the car instead. We had a few pigeons for company as they sat on the front of our car and watched us eat through the wind screens.. it was nice.. So far the nicest things i have done since i landed in Auckland.. The past few days has just been too many administrative things! Don't feel like i am on holiday at all!!

After we finished lunch, the rain stopped so we stepped out and took a walk around.. There was a rainbow at the horizon, and this humongous bird by the rocks, which i took pictures of, of course!

K and I headed back around 530pm and went to the supermarket again, this time to buy dinner (cause i refuse to eat maggi noodles again), and sun screen. Still can't believe i forgot to bring my sun screen. The sun here is really horrible.. so strong!!

I have just finished eating my dinner : Microwavable packed fish with mashed potatoes..

Martha just came back.. will continue blogging tomorrow.. Hopefully it will be a fine day tomorrow!! = )

Kia Ora! That's "Welcome to New Zealand" in the Maorian language..

We arrived at the airport after about 8 hours flight.. Ek, S, June, my sis and mom came to send us off at Changi Airport at 6am in the morning.. so sweet right!! Ferzana and Elsa came too, to see Keson off. My sister actually cried at the airport.. hai.. so like her.. make me want to cry too. She wrote me a letter, which i read on the plane. Feel so bad that i have to lie even to my dearest sister.. Oh well, sometimes, we have to make some sacrifices and do certain things in our life that are against our conscience. As long as we can live with it.

On the plane, i met a Soka member. He was the flight steward serving us on the plane. What a small world. Actually, i found him familiar the moment i saw him, but i didn't say anything. Who knows, he came up to us while serving us drinks and said we looked familiar too. Think we met during one of the NDP training when i was still in Soka then. So we kinda had special service lah on the plane.. he kept asking us if everything was okay, then even gave us postcards to write to our families and friends. When we alighted from the plane, we passed the postcard to him for him to post for us. So nice right! I also managed to watch 3 movies on board: Paul Bart - Mall Cop, InkHeart and 3/4 of Twilight..

My dramatic life started the minute i landed in Auckland Airport. At the immigration, i was told i couldn't pass through, cause my Visa letter was done using my own passport number. And i had with me my new passport. We ended up waiting outside the immigration area for like 45 minutes before we were finally let through. Lucky our plane landed early, otherwise, my host will be waiting outside for very long! So we got our luggage, went out to arrivals, and saw our first host family - George, Jane and Kathy. It was raining then, and the drive to their house from the airport took about an hour. This family is very chatty, which was good, cause I was quite tired from the flight then.

When we reached their house, we just unpacked our sleeping stuff, bathed, and headed to bed.
We had agreed to meet for breakfast the next morning around 9am. Our room was actually in another house. They had 2 houses, one where the couple slept, and another where their 2 daughters slept. Their eldest daughter had left to work in Melbourne, so we slept in her room. The room was quite dirty, and it was super cold. And we didn't have a heater! I didn't sleep well at all the whole night cause it was raining. I woke up with chest pains, like my heart was frozen or something.. so cold!!

Next morning, we overslept, and woke up at 1015 instead. We were woken up by George. K had set the alarm for 830am Singapore time.. haha.. So we quicky got dressed and went to the main house to meet them. Jane had cooked a sumptous breakfast for us. Fresh eggs, bacon, bread, butter, fruits, croissants and orange juice, followed by hot tea after that. My first New Zealand breakfast was delicious!!

The family's house occupies about 3 acres of land. They have a garage, 2 houses, a garden with a huge treehouse, and something like a mini farm. They also have 3 big dogs, 1 fat cat, 6 chickens, 2 sheep and 2 little pigs called Renu and Vegas. The pigs were like running around the house, so cute!! Apparently, they were not very worried about the Swine Flu cause the pigs are their pets and not from Mexico.. = )

During our 2 day stay with them, i had so much animal fur and dog hair on my clothes that i gave up trying to brush them off. Don't understand why the people here love to have SO MANY animals..

After breakfast, we headed out to the nearest Westfield Mall. K and I got ourselves a prepaid sim card from Vodafone. We also set up a bank account. Second drama episode. Apparently, i need a 2nd form of identification to set up a bank account. But i only have my passport. Credit card was not allowed. So in the end, only K had a new bank account. When we went home, i sent out an email to arrange for my IC to be brought here by Pui, who was coming on Thursday.

We had planned on buying a car, but there wasn't enough time for car shopping. George's colleague and the girlfriend (both from China) was coming over for dinner, so Jane cooked up another sumptous meal for dinner. We had roast chicken and lamb, cooked rice, stir fry vegetables with oyster sauce, and roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and rock melon. Delicious. I was so happy to eat something Asian so early in my trip!

After dinner, we played the Wii that George bought in the afternoon, until about 12 midnight. I was so tired and kept asking K if he wanted to go to bed, but we thought it wasn't so nice since the 2 guests were still around. I managed to keep awake for about 30 minutes more before i gave up and announced that we are going to retire for the night. I was thinking how rude these 2 Chinese guests were, staying at people's house and refusing to leave even though it was so late! It was then that we realized they were sleeping over for the night. So stupid right! If we had known, we would have gone to bed much earlier instead of waiting for them to leave!! haha..

The second night wasn't much either, it didn't rain the whole night so it wasn't as cold. But still no heater. I learnt that their heater run on gas, which was expensive so that's probably the reason why there was no heater. They also seem to love the rain, cause their water comes from water storage tanks, so when there is rain, their water is free. Otherwise, they have to pay for the water.

The third day, we went car shopping. Their car sale was like an auction market at a huge carpark, where people just park their cars there and put up notices on the prices, mileage travelled etc on the windscreen to advertise. We saw a couple of cars we liked, took the namecards, and then headed for brunch at Denny's. K and I gave our host family a treat for their hospitality. We called the dealer for a White Ford Modeo that we liked, but then was told the car had been sold. It was fated i guess!

After brunch, we headed to Westfield Mall again to buy controllers and more Wii games, and then back home. During the drive, i was so tired i fell asleep. When we reached home, K and I packed up our luggage and hung around the main living room with the family, playing Wii and surfing the net for more cars.

In the evening, we left our family and said our goodbyes. George drove us to meet a car owner, and then to our second host family.. We bought the car finally. It was a really good buy. Can't say what car it is, keeping it a suspense for now cause somebody reading this blog will be sharing the cost of the car.. haha..