TranzAlpine and a night in Greymouth

After an early wake-up call on Saturday, we picked up Phil and Lou in the taxi and made it to the train station in good time for the 8.15am departure of the TranzAlpine. We had booked separately but hoped (and Lou had been told) that the two couples could request seats together when the train arrived. This was not the case - after queueing for ages, and being redirected to the station manager, we were informed that there was no way our seats could be moved, and we would be seated at opposite ends of the train. Since the TranzAlpine is split in the middle by a generator, allowing for no passenger passage between the two sections, this made it impossible for us to spend any of the journey together. It wasn't the end of the world, but it was annoying, particularly as Lou had specifically asked about this when she booked the first pair of tickets. I guess that it won't be resolved until the TranzAlpine service moves into the computer age and allocates seats as passengers check in, rather than on paper in advance.

Anyway, that's my only real complaint about the weekend. The rest of it was great. We were very lucky to get fantastic weather throughout, and the journey to Greymouth on Saturday in the morning sun was just beautiful. The temperature was chilly when we left Christchurch, and just dropped as we advanced through the Southern Alps. I spent some time outside on the viewing platform at the back of the train, and could barely feel my fingers when I came back inside, despite being fully dressed for winter including many layers of clothign, a coat, hat, and massive furry scarf. By the time we stopped for a five minute fresh-air break in Arthur's Pass, I knew enough to wrap up very well before going outside!

The train took about five hours to reach the west coast, and by the time we arrived, the snow had given way to temperate weather and lush green rain forests. Phil and Lou headed back on the return train after lunch, but Skry and I stayed the night in the Kingsgate Hotel. We lucked out with a $99/room last minute deal, and were very happy with the accommodation, particularly when we managed to get a late checkout and didn't need to leave until 11am on Sunday!

Our evening in Greymouth was mostly spent chatting over a few drinks. It's not a big town (and doesn't even have any traffic lights!) but we bounced between a few different venues and generally had fun. We spent quite a while chatting to a guy called Colin, who moved from Scotland to Greymouth when he was only a baby. Colin waxed lyrical about the west coast, and also introduced us, through the medium of the video playing behind his seat, to George Thorogood. Skry is now a fan, I think!

After a Sunday lie-in, we checked out of our hotel and had a delicious breakfast in a spacious and low-key cafe called dp:one. After that, there wasn't much to do but mooch around the town until our train left just after lunchtime. Greymouth does not have a lively shopping scene, it seems, or a very lively anything else for that matter. It's a lovely little town, and we both enjoyed our stay, but those craving the bright lights of a big city would do well to stay away. We did head towards the museum but found it shut, so we ended up walking around the virtually deserted port area for twenty minutes or so until it was time to head back into the main town. We did meet another couple who told us that there was a white heron nearby that might be worth photographing, but all we found was a big pile of ice left by a recently departed fishing boat. Also, on our way back through town, we found a shop selling golliwogs. I didn't even know they were legal any more - guess the PC brigade hasn't reached this part of the world of the world yet, or else people have realised that some things just aren't offensive in themselves.

The train journey back to Christchurch was uneventful. As the train didn't depart until 2.15pm, the tail end of the journey was in dusk or darkness, so we really didn't do much peering out the windows after the first hour or so. The outward journey was way better for sightseeing. But we did get to enjoy the views of Lake Brunner and a lot of snowy mountains and lush forests, before it got too dark to see outside the windows. For $115/return, I think the TranzAlpine was great value for money, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone. We had a great weekend.

We're off to Greymouth tomorrow

First thing tomorrow morning, we are heading with Phil and Lou to Greymouth. Greymouth is not the attraction itself - the reason that we're going is to take the TranzAlpine train from the east coast to the west coast, across the Southern Alps. (photo swiped from www.nzhistory.net.nz)

I'm not looking forward to getting up early on a Saturday morning, but we have high hopes for an enjoyable journey. A lot of snow fell over the last couple of days, so the scenery should be pretty, and I love train journeys anyway no matter where the train is going. Skry and I are staying overnight in Greymouth and coming back on Sunday, and I think we'll have a really good weekend. Check back here in a couple of days to find out what happened!

Dog food

Here's something we never saw before coming to New Zealand: rolls of dog food, kept in the chiller section in the supermarket. I have no idea if this is a good thing or not, but it seems really common.

An update on the electrics

I forgot to update about this. An electrician came around, took a quick look at the fuse board, and said that basically the entire house was running through one circuit. No wonder it was tripping the whole time. He switched something around so we are now using two circuits, and can often run a heater without problems. I say "often" because I had the temerity to use the bathroom fan while the telly was on downstairs, and it cut out after five minutes and took everything with it, but at least the situation has been slightly improved.

Looking for a new home

We'll be on the move again soon, I hope. Skry and I are currently looking for a house to buy - preferably one that can be heated! The rental place that we're in at the moment is not well insulated at all, and many of the windows are draughty, but because the electrics are in such a poor state we're unable to use our electric heaters as the fuses keep blowing. Even one single heater plugged in on a cold night will result in the fuse blowing about three minutes later, and all the plugs going dead. This is particularly annoying if somebody is in the middle of doing something on the computer and it all just goes dead. We've been so cold in the house over the last few nights that our breath was clearly visible in the living room.

We got our landlady around to the place today (after two days of trying) to see if she thinks an electrician is necessary, although since she is not an electrician herself I'm not sure how she's able to make that call. She proceeded to spend the first ten minutes whinging about the small black marks on the wall from when we had the furniture movers bringing our sofa upstairs, and was more interested in getting that sorted than in actually addressing our problem. Given that faulty electrics could result in the place burning down, I thought that might be a priority, but seemingly getting the correct shade of Stony White being applied to the walls is more critical! She also informed Skry that she's considering putting us on ten day notice to leave the house because the stairs weren't vacuumed and there were some dead leaves on the ground outside.

As an aside, the landlady is one of those women who thinks that plastic surgery is the way forward. I'd say she's about 45 years old, but has clearly had a boob job and probably some work to her face (her eyebrows are way too high), and she parades around in tiny tight tops and little skirts that barely cover her bum. It's a bad case of mutton dressed as lamb, but she must look in the mirror and see something she likes.

Anyway, Skry finally managed to convince her that an electrician really should take a look at the wiring, because there is obviously a problem no matter how well the original installation met the New Zealand code. But we are out of here as soon as we find a place of our own. The house is freezing, the wiring is obviously dodgy, the landlady is a nutjob, and we are just sick of living like this. Oh, did I mention that somebody on the same street had airgun shots put through their window a couple of nights ago, and somebody else stole a bottle of perfume meant for me from our mailbox yesterday? It's time to go!!

Operation Entertainment Book

I'd planned to stop blogging about the Entertainment Book once we covered the price of it, as everything from now on is a saving, but I've been asked to keep it going. I'll try, anyway!

Dinner in the Bog on Friday night with Fiona and Richard - saved $19, and I thoroughly enjoyed my steak melt. That's the end of our Bog vouchers but I'm sure we'll be eating in there again.

$ 3.10
+ 19.00
=======
$ 22.10 total saved

And lunch in Speight's Alehouse today with Phil and Lou - saved $19 again and we were all stuffed afterwards.

+ 22.10
+ 19.00
=======
$ 41.10 total saved

This one was out in a shopping centre in Addington so I went out afterwards and bought some woolly jumpers and (surprisingly) some The Sanctuary shower gel and body cream. I was most surprised to find quite a range of Boots products for sale in Postie+. I guess it's all end-of-line stuff that didn't sell in the UK, but that won't stop me buying it!

Snow is falling all around us

Just started half an hour ago. It was wet and windy all day - we have a severe weather warning for this weekend - and now the snow is pelting down.

Pirate Party at Pomeroy's

Last night we went to a pirate party at Pomeroy's bar. It was a great night - everybody put in a great effort, and the place was heaving with people in various costumes. It was obvious that some had gone to costume hire shops and got the full rig-out, but we took the DIY route and made our own. I wore the corset that was part of my wedding outfit, and the rest was sewn together from sheets bought in the Salvation Army shop! I think the whole thing cost me about $4. Skry, Phil, and Lou also mixed charity shop finds with things that they already owned, and the $2 Shop provided plenty of accessories in the form of plastic swords and inflatable parrots. (Don and Liz had only arrived back in Christchurch a couple of hours earlier, which is why they weren't in costume, but at least they could still play with the weaponry.)

Another day out in Lyttelton

Our friends Don and Liz arrived in Christchurch on Friday; they are staying the weekend here before continuing on their travels further down the south island. We took them for a trip to Lyttelton on Saturday morning, meeting up with Phil and Lou at the farmers' market (where I once again got great amusement from the Dog Parking Area) before heading on to the port to watch the ships for a while.

Although it was a beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine, there was a bit of a smog or fog hanging over the town itself. I'm not sure if that was natural fog or the produce of the wood burners that heat many houses here. There has been some bad natural fog over the last week or so, closing the airports in both Christchurch and Wellington at various times, but I think this one can be blamed on the chimneys.

After a leisurely time kicking about in town and drinking delicious hot chocolate from the Lyttelton Coffee Company, it was time to head back to Christchurch. Skry and I were invited out to a winter solstice dinner party, where we got to celebrate the fact that from here on the nights should be getting shorter and the days longer. Honestly, the winter days here are so much longer than they are in Ireland that it doesn't even feel like winter yet! But I'm happy enough for the evenings to get lighter again.

Operation Entertainment Book

Dinner with Skry in a wine bar/restaurant called Infinity. Service was slow but the staff were pleasant and attentive, the food was average, we saved $23, and the Entertainment Book has now been fully paid off. Everything else we use it for from here until June 2009 is pure savings!

- 19.90
+ 23.00
=======
+ 3.10

Wine tasting in Waipara

Taking advantage of an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon, Skry very kindly drove me, Phil, and Lou around the Waipara valley for several hours as we took ourselves on an impromptu wine tasting tour. There are some great winemakers based not to far from Christchurch, and it wasn't much more than half an hour before we were enjoying our first tasting. Most of the wineries give free tastings and a little bit of education about the different wines.

The Mud House was the only winery which charged us for a tasting, but we probably tried seven or eight different wines there, so the $3 fee was more than fair (plus it is refundable against any purchase). We were also very impressed with the friendliness and knowledge of the lady who served us there. I walked away with a bottle of their multi-award-winning sauvignon blanc and a very drinkable un-oaked chardonnay, and was more than happy with my purchases.

The other wineries we visited varied between tiny family-run businesses (Mount Cass, Torlesse, and Waipara Springs), unfriendly and pretentious (I'm looking at you, Pegasus Bay), and unexpectedly closed (Daniel Schuster). We tasted some great wines, some good wines, and a blackcurrant liqueur, and all of us really enjoyed the afternoon. It is so nice to have places like this virtually on our doorstep!

This one's for you, Mum.

Sheep and cattle in north Canterbury - photographs especially requested by my mother :)

There's no such thing as a free ride

The news yesterday and today was full of the deaths of two young men who were hitching a ride atop a freight train wagon. Apparently they were fatally injured when they collided with an unlit footbridge, which was only 50cm above the top of the freight wagon. Poor guys - I wonder if they even realised what was about to happen.

I also wonder how badly affected the person was, who found the bodies when the train pulled in to the depot in Christchurch. That can't have been anything like fun for him.

link

Wellington: the good side

After yesterday's miserable weather, we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to blue skies and sunshine. The sunshine was even quite warm! Esther headed home on an earlier flight but the rest of us met my friend Katy and her family, and had a Chinese lunch at the Regal restaurant in Courtenay Place.

The food was billed as yum char, which is basically tea and dim sum. I'm really too fussy an eater to benefit fully from the tiny and varied portions of food that were coming out, but it was interesting to try the different things. We had a constant flow of waiting staff bring over trays of hot food, and if it was something that we wanted they left a plate of it on the table and added a mark to our receipt. By the time seven or eight dishes had been added to the communal feast, everybody was getting full and it was time to go. The whole thing cost us $13 each, which was really very reasonable. I'm not sure I'd go back myself, but I'd recommend the venue to anybody who likes Chinese food as the Chinese eat it.

After lunch we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon in town. It was so hard to believe that only a few hours ago we'd been in the middle of winter, and suddenly we were back to autumn again and were even able to sit outside in the sunshine. Katy and I went for a quick flit around the shops, the others headed home on an earlier flight, and Skry and I then enjoyed a relaxing evening in town before catching our own flight back to Christchurch at 9pm. Overall, it was a very enjoyable weekend for me, a mostly enjoyable weekend for everyone else, and a great way to feel like we actually did something in the two day gap between work on Friday and work on Monday.

Ireland vs the All Blacks - wet and miserable

After catching one of the last flights out of Christchurch on Saturday afternoon before the airport closed due to extreme weather conditions (wind and snow), we arrived in Wellington and were greeted by cold but clear weather. Having spent some time catching up with our lovely hosts Gillian and Simon, we headed into the city centre and met up with the other rubgy-goers for a late lunch. After some lunch and a couple of drinks, I headed off to the cinema and the rest of them headed to the stadium for the rugby match.

Apparently the heavens opened as soon as the guys sat down for the start of the match. When I got out of the cinema at 8.30pm, it was pouring rain and freezing cold. I took refuge upstairs in the restaurant area of Molly Malone's, and sat with a book while the weather outside got worse and worse. The Irish flag outside the window couldn't even peel itself off the flagpole enough to flap in the wind. There were televisions near me and I could see the match on telly, and everybody looked cold and miserable, even the players. And despite a brave fight, Ireland lost 21-11 so there wasn't even the warm glow of victory to help afterwards.

I've never seen people as cold and wet as the crowd that turned up in Molly Malone's after the match ended. Skry was wringing water out of all his clothes, Phil and Lou looked frozen and miserable, and Esther had to go straight back to their hostel to put on something dry. I was so glad that I'd stayed indoors!

Off to Wellington tomorrow

Tomorrow we're leaving on a jetplane for the wet and windy shores of Wellington. Ireland is playing the All Blacks in the rugby. I couldn't give two hoots about that, but Wellington is great for shopping so I'm coming along for the trip. It'll be great to see Simon and Gillian again too - I used to work in the same company as Simon when we worked in Ireland - and we are very lucky to have such nice people putting us up even though they already had their own plans before I invited myself to stay. I'll try and take some Wellington photos for your amusement, weather permitting. If weather does not permit, I'll be hiding out in bookshops, pubs, and the cinema, while the rest of 'em are getting soaked at the rugby match.

A sunny Saturday in Christchurch

Saturday was absolutely beautiful - blue skies and sunshine, so warm that I was out in just a t-shirt and jeans. This was good news for all the rugby fans milling around town waiting for the game on Saturday night (some sort of final, no idea what it's the final of but it seems to be a big deal to those concerned), and nice for the rest of us too of course. There was lots of red and black to be seen in town as people showed their support for the local team, the Crusaders.

The trams were flying Crusaders flags.

Playing giant chess in Cathedral Square.

The Cathedral itself.

The Saturday market in the square.

Gratuitous shot of a cabbage tree that I spotted highlighted against the sky as I walked.

One of my favourite dinner spots, The Bog.

This area is called the Strip. It is a long row of restaurants, with a view of the river.

Operation Entertainment Book

Dinner with friends in the Bog on Friday night. I had a lovely steak melt, Skry had lasagne, and we saved $20.

- 39.90
+ 20.00
=======
- 19.90

Operation Entertainment Book

During the week we ate out twice, courtesy of vouchers from last year's Entertainment Book which were given to us by other people. Although I can't count those towards savings produced by our own book, they are still worth noting. People tend to give away lots of vouchers at the end of the book's year when it becomes clear that they won't use them before they expire.

Domino's pizza - saved something like $9 on a BOGOF deal. However, one pizza was covered in dollops of raw garlic which was not very pleasant to eat, so we won't be hurrying back for that particular selection. I always loved Domino's pizza when we lived in Northern Ireland, but it does not seem to be made to the same standard here, and based on personal and reported experiences so far I will be switching allegiance to Pizza Hut.

The Flying Burrito Brothers - saved $20, and had an absolutely fantastic meal too on our weekly dinner date. I love that place and look forward to visiting again. We wouldn't normally have Mexican food two weeks in a row, but my chicken burrito was well worth it, and the service is always great there. It is my favourite Mexican restaurant in Christchurch.

Some photos

I usually get up for work just after 7am. Often I am treated to a beautiful sunrise, which is visible from our bedroom window. Friends and family in Ireland, this is what you get to see eleven hours later!


Last week I had to make a site visit for work, and luckily the site was very near our house so I was able to walk there. Turns out there is quite a large park just up the road, with some lovely old trees in it. Autumn leaves = pretty.

Operation Entertainment Book

Dinner at Alva Rado's Mexican restaurant on Worcester Street (a fine meal, by the way, and I took home enough leftovers for my lunch tomorrow). Buy a main course, get another free, saving us $17.50

- 57.40
+ 17.50
=======
- 39.90

Operation Entertainment Book

We're starting small. Lunch for two in Subway today, total saving $7.60.

-65.00
+ 7.60
=======
-57.40

An excuse to eat out more

Through our workplace, Skry and I got a copy of this year's Entertainment Book for Christchurch. This is a book stuffed full of vouchers and special offers for restaurants, local services, and entertainment. For $65, we get a huge array of offers for buy-one-get-one-free main courses, or money off bill totals, so I think this will be a great excuse to go out for dinner more often. The two of us are already going out for dinner together once a week, and the place we had in mind for this week is in the Entertainment Book so that's a saving straight away. Of course, we can use the 25% off vouchers for more than just the two of us, if there's a group going out for dinner, so that's good too.

I wonder how long it will take us to recoup our $65. Let's find out!

Southern exposure

So I was walking through the city centre at lunchtime, as is my wont, when I stumbled upon this unusual sight:
That's right - these girls were wearing nowt but an apron. It was part of a publicity stunt by the bath and body product shop Lush, which was encouraging people to get rid of excess packaging, and starting with its own staff! Lucky for the four or five girls in question that it was a bright and sunny day in Christchurch today, otherwise they would not have been able to stand in the street in such a state of undress. I asked one girl if she was cold, and she said she was too nervous to be cold, so maybe that helped a bit, but still they were very brave to go for it.

I can't help but notice the high percentage of men in the photograph above. Coincidence? I couldn't possibly say...

An afternoon in Lyttelton

The sun was really shining warmly today, and Skry and I went to Lyttelton for the afternoon. Lyttelton is a small and pretty harbour town about ten minutes' drive out of Christchurch, and is also home to a busy port. On arrival, we caught the tail end of what is apparently a really good farmers' market. I bought some smoked venison sausages and a caramelised onion and feta pizza, while Skry ended up with goat's cheese, free range eggs, and some sort of pie. We were both happy with our purchases, and I'll definitely be back.

After the market, we took a stroll along the main road closest to the port, and looked at the ships and containers coming in. This is where our own belongings arrived when they got to New Zealand, and we were able to imagine the journey that the container took to get from Belfast to Christchurch. There were lots of ships with Russian names and what looked like Ukranian emblems, and there was also a large Australian Navy ship. I'm not quite sure what that was doing there, but we met several very young-looking New Zealand cadets who were on their way to take a tour of the ship while it was in port. Skry was sorry that he couldn't join the tour too!

Sightseeing done, we stopped in a small cafe and enjoyed a hearty lunch. I had a delicious ham and vegetable quiche, Skry had some sort of Indian style filled pie, and we were both full and happy afterwards. It was lovely to be able to sit outside in the sunshine with our jackets off, and imagine that summer hasn't quite departed just yet!

Hello Winter

It's winter here in Christchurch today. All night it alternated between heavy rain and hailstones - enough to wake me up more than once - and today the trend has continued. Our house has no central heating and right now we are trying to stay warm with one tiny four-fin oil radiator, with limited success. It's only able to heat the small study, so I am barricaded in here with four layers of clothing, a long wig (for head insulation purposes), and a hot water bottle.

Here's my view:Pretty grim, isn't it?

The balcony is currently covered in hailstones. Don't think we'll be using the outdoor furniture any time soon!

This week's new wig

Too lazy to write a proper entry, so here's a picture of the wig I got yesterday. I wore it to work today and got a great response. It feels great too, really soft and silky against my face.

More adventures in wigs

I took the plunge about a week ago and wore my newest wig to work. A few of my colleagues knew that I wore wigs sometimes but none of them had ever seen me in one.

I was the first person into the office on the morning in question, and I sit near the door, so everybody saw me as soon as they arrived. Every single person who knows me by name stopped to ooh and aah over my gorgeous new hairstyle. This included all the men as well as the women - and you know how rare it is for men to notice a change of hairstyle! I freely admitted that it was a wig, because I know I'll be going back to my usual hair and also switching to other wig styles when I feel like it, and everyone was really shocked. Nobody had suspected that it was anything other than a really expensive salon job.

Several of the women asked if they could touch it, and were all very impressed by how realistic the hair felt (and this is just a synthetic non-mono, nothing fancy). And my boss asked for a photo of the colour so she could ask her hairstylist to match it! Throughout the whole day I was bombarded with compliments, which has never happened when I've changed my hairstyle before.

Nobody appeared to think that I'm terribly strange for wearing a wig, and quite a few people seemed openly envious of how easy and cheap it was for me to achieve a look that would be very difficult and expensive to get with my bio hair. And now that I've come clean, I can wear whatever style I want! I've already ordered a blonde version of the one pictured here, so you can look forward to seeing me as a blonde bombshell whenever that arrives. Or perhaps I won't show you at all, if it looks awful...

A cycle in the sunshine

It was a beautiful day today, so we decided to take advantage of everybody being off work on a Sunday afternoon and went to the park. Hagley Park is just on the other side of town and is a lovely place to take the bikes, although strictly speaking I don't think we were supposed to cycle in the Botanic Gardens part of it. There were lots of other people enjoying the warm sunshine and crisp autumn air, and nobody seemed too bothered by us on our bikes, so I don't think we caused a problem anyway.

Skry and I cycled to the park by ourselves and met up with Phil and Lou there. They had done something I wished we'd thought of in advance - bought takeaway food and had lunch in the sunshine. After they'd eaten, we all met up and took a meandering route through and around the park for half an hour or so. Even though it is definitely autumn, and the weather has been both cold and wet recently, today was a jeans-and-tshirt day and we were all wishing we'd brought sunglasses too. It was a really pleasant afternoon, finished off with a refreshing pint of Nally's cider (incidentally, way better on draught than it is in bottles) in a local bar before heading home. More Sundays should be like this one.

Adventures on TradeMe

Over the last week or two I have been gradually building up my presence on TradeMe, which is the New Zealand equivalent of eBay. Only people in NZ and Australia are able to buy and sell there, but it is extremely popular, to the point where eBay wasn't able to get a foothold in the market here at all.

I've been trying to come up with things I can make which do not require vast amounts of material, and which are easy to ship. Jewellery would have been the obvious thing to start with, but the beaded jewellery market seems to be saturated here, so I thought I would carve me another niche. Baby gear with skulls on it seems to be an untapped market, and I truly believe there are customers out there who are crying out for such things. I can make bibs and burp clothes without using a huge amount of cloth, and I'm also making little gift tags which hopefully people will buy along with their bib orders.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get enough sales to at least pay for the cost of materials! It'll never be a big money spinner for me, but I'd like my hobbies to start paying for themselves for once.

The flatness of Christchurch

As a (short-distance) cyclist, I really appreciate how flat most of Christchurch is. It's no wonder that there are so many bike commuters here - getting to work in the morning is almost effortless, unless the wind's blowing in your face, because most of the roads are almost completely level. Yesterday Skry and I went to a barbecue/party that was 7km from our house, and we thought nothing of taking the bikes there and back rather than getting a bus or taxi. I know 7km isn't very far in the bigger scheme of things, and somebody who cycles a lot would barely register it as a blip, but I have never cycled to a party before. My beloved Princess is a joy to ride, but she weighs so much that going up even the slightest incline leaves me a red-faced sweating mess, which isn't generally a good party look :)

Here's a contour map of Christchurch, courtesy of Google Maps. The contour lines are drawn every 33 feet.
So long as I stay away from the hills, cycling should be my preferred method of transport!

A sample of NZ news

I saw this in the Press the other day and thought it bore repeating. Enjoy!

'By the time I'd got some jocks and shorts on and running shoes he'd have been gone.' Constable Tom Taylor.
The thin blue line developed flesh tones when a naked off-duty Balclutha policeman foiled an attempted car theft after he leaped from his bed and chased the offender.
Constable Tom Taylor didn't think twice about leaving his regulation police-issue pants on the bedroom floor when his property was threatened. His lack of coverage has attracted coverage of a different kind in police magazine Ten One.
Mr Taylor said yesterday one of his colleagues had sent the story to the magazine. "It's good to have nice workmates." The saga began after he was woken by his wife one morning when she heard noises outside their home. "My wife woke up and thought a car out in the street had stopped or run out of petrol." He then recognised the sound of his wife's car's starter motor being turned over.
"It was a hot, hot night," he said, explaining his lack of attire.
His instincts as a police officer over-rode any thoughts of modesty, he said. "By the time I'd got some jocks and shorts on and running shoes he'd have been gone." He grabbed a torch and raced outside to grab the offender, who had managed to roll the car only a short distance out of the carport. The offender then fled with Mr Taylor legging it in hot pursuit.
His wife, suitably clothed, arrived outside shortly afterwards. Mr Taylor deputised her on the spot and asked her to cut off the villain at the gate to their property.
When the offender ran into her she grabbed him by the collar, he said.
"He was making some sort of feeble explanation as I caught up with them." However, Mr Taylor's nudity startled the offender who dropped two bags he was carrying and fled into the darkness. "Man he could move." A check of the bags found identification that revealed the offender was a "thieving git from Christchurch", Mr Taylor said.
The tale took another twist when Mr Taylor's wife spotted the offender hitch-hiking north of Balclutha. Police gave him a lift to the station shortly afterwards.
In explanation, he told police he had tried to reason with Mr Taylor, whom he did not realise was a constable.
"His words were, 'the angry naked man wouldn't listen, he just got more and more angry with me'," Mr Taylor said.
The man was charged with trespass and unlawfully interfering with a motor vehicle. A court appearance is pending.
(Original article here.)

DVDs on the cheap

While we lived in Northern Ireland, I made many purchases from Amazon, but I rarely bought DVDs. I had plenty to watch on television without building up a personal library. But since we have moved to New Zealand, we've come to the realisation that television here is not always very entertaining, and both Skry and I have been buying DVDs instead. This can be an expensive habit, as they aren't particularly cheap here.

A bit of investigation a few weeks ago led to the revelation that the Amazon UK site will ship DVDs to New Zealand. Because the destination is not in the EU, they take off VAT from the purchase price - an instant 17.5% discount. Shipping is very reasonable. And the New Zealand government doesn't add any GST or duty charges at this end unless the total value of the order is above $400, because it's just not worth their while. Result? Cheap films!!

Today I received an order which I placed with Amazon on March 29th, for four boxed sets and two single discs. The whole lot, including shipping, cost me a mere £52.36. That is less than I would have paid in Ireland, and it has come to me from the far side of the planet. It's madness, but madness that is working in my favour!

Convertible Dress

While looking for something else last week, I saw a dress for sale which touts itself as the ultimate black dress - a dress that can be worn in many different styles, for many different occasions. It's not a new idea - there was a similar dress around in the 70s - but it seems to be in fashion at the moment. Although this sounded like a great idea, I wasn't keen to spent $300 on a piece of clothing, so I went online and looked at alternatives.

Having found a tutorial for making a similar dress, I headed to the fabric shop and picked up four metres of stretchy black material for $32, and got to work. Cutting out the pieces was dead easy - a circle of fabric for the skirt, two long wide bands, and a small narrow band. Because this sort of fabric doesn't fray, I didn't bother hemming any of the edges, so there are only two seams necessary - one to complete the circle and one to attach everything else to the circle. This should have been a doddle, but unfortunately my sewing machine threw a wobbler at the thought of sewing anything with a bit of bounce to it, and kept skipping stitches. I think I need a finer needle for this sort of work, so that it doesn't move the fabric down but pokes right through it. Anyway, I ended up hand-stitching everything, which is a bit frustrating but meant I was able to get cracking straight away.

Having assembled everything, it was time to figure out how to wear the thing. I haven't done this very successfully so far - I can twist it into lots of lovely styles, but most of them involve an awful lot of bare back, which isn't very practical if there's a bra underneath.

Anyway, here is today's style, which I will be wearing out later. If it all stays in place I might even try this in the office tomorrow. We haven't got our washing machine sorted out yet as we have to get a plumber to attach it, and I am running out of clean clothes, so something new would solve that problem!


Convertible dress - front:
Convertible dress - back (sorry about the crooked sleeves, didn't notice those at the time):For $32 and an hour's work I am pretty happy with it. I wouldn't have got anything more wearable for $300!

Slow cookers

When we got married about 18 months ago, one of the presents that Skry and I received was a slow cooker. I can't remember where I got the idea of putting one on our wedding list, as I can't think of anyone else I knew at the time who had one, but it was a very welcome gift and we have got lots of use out of it.

The beauty of the slow cooker is that is can be left on overnight, or all day while I'm at work, without using up much electricity at all (about the same as a light bulb, I believe) and without requiring any attention. It's so nice to come home from work and smell dinner ready to eat, or to come downstairs in the morning and have a hot lunch ready to pack up and take to work. Since we moved into our new place in Christchurch I have used ours quite a few times, and our friend Don (who is staying here at the moment) also bought one and uses it often. We are all very domesticated, aren't we?

My favourite recipe at the moment is extremely simple:

• one tin of creamy tomato soup (the dreaded Wattie's brand, but more tolerable than their tomato sauce)
• two chicken breast fillets
• sliced carrots and potato and onion if I can be bothered
  

1. Switch on slow cooker.
2. Place chicken (on top of veggies if using) in base of pot.
3. Pour soup over chicken.
4. Replace lid on pot.
5. Leave for 7 or 8 hours.
6. Wake up/return from work to find lovely tender chicken in a thick tomato sauce, ready to be eaten with mashed potato or chips.

Don has being getting very creative with sausage and vegetables, so I think I'll copy him soon. Maybe chuck in some lentils - there are some great ideas on allrecipes.com so I just need to go shopping and then do my Nigella routine. Now that the nights are drawing in and the colder weather is somewhere around the corner, it'll be good to have a store of comfort-food ideas to see me through!