BACK IN GODZONE

I'm back in New Zealand after living the last 6 months in York.
Actually Yorkshiremen call Yorkshire God's Own but they can't spell it like we do.

I arrived back in Auckland on Thursday after 36 hours of travelling (included 11 hours stopover in Hong Kong).
Normally a long stopover like that would be a hassle but in Hong Kong you aren't held captive in the airport terminal like in some countries and I was able to take the train into the city. Now I'm over being impressed by big busy cities - to me they are all the same - busy, noisy, sometimes dirty with lots of shops and tall buildings (Vienna and Prague were pleasant variations though), but I took a bus up to The Peak which was very impressive.

I've read a few novels set in Hong Kong, the best being The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre. It was neat travelling around streets and seeing places as featured in the novels.
On the way back to the airport I stopped off at Kowloon. This is an older version of Hong Kong , very Chinese and grubby, rough as guts with every street seeming to have a different theme - fish, meat, vegetables, gold, jade, shoes, socks, clothing, etc. including prostitution where I got propositioned several times.

Our Auckland apartment is now untenanted so I stayed there Thursday night before heading up to Whangarei on the 7.30 bus the next morning.
Wow! The stunning view of the Hen and Chickens, Mount Manaia and the other Whangarei Heads features never fail to amaze. As the bus crests the Brynderwins it's all laid out in front.
The good feeling was palpable.

The house and more importantly the cat were in good nick and I set about moving back in after being 2 and a half years away. I did a couple of car trips from lock-up to house (about half hour each way) before realising that it'd take about 30 trips.
I hired a van on Saturday and did two 12 hour days making 9 big van load trips to get everything out and in the house except for paintings and artwork that I'll bring over gradually as I set the house up.
I was bloody exhausted at the end of this as there were lots of boxes and some heavy furniture.
Anyway all done now.

Those useless bastards Sparks (Telecom) let me down. I arranged with them, 2 months ago from UK, to have phone/internet set up. "Yes, yes" they said," no problem" and confirmed that the phone line would be working from 30 December and all I had to do was plug in the internet modem.
OK? Well I plugged in the modem which had been delivered but there was no action. There was no phone line (but this didn't stop the bastards sending me a bill from the 30 December to January 16!).
I spent 5 hours on the phone (Vodafone cellphone) talking to recorded messages, waiting and talking to people who were obviously outplaced to other countries).
"Yes, yes" they said "you have connections - it says here on the computer screen"
"No, no" I said "I bloody well do not, I'm in the house holding on to the damned phone and it just goes beep beep"
"Oh dearie me" they say before cutting me off.
This happened three times hence the 5 hours until I threatened escalation and demanded that a serviceman came to fix the problem This was Friday.
I got a serviceman on Sunday midday who took two hours fixing line problems (not in our house but external ones).
Problem now fixed and I'm refusing to pay anything until 17th January when I finally got a phone connection.

Shhesh! But to be honest they were no worse than Bell in Canada and BT in UK. What is it with these telecommunication companies? Oh, I know, they are staffed by Noels and Colins.

The Old Girl is doing the reverse in York - packing up the apartment and arranging sending furniture we bought back to NZ.
She leaves this weekend and was supposed to come directly to NZ but now they want her back in Canada!
Fortunately this is just for a week or two and she should be back here early February. Travels over (I hope). All her winter gear is packed though so the minus 20's in Toronto will freeze her whatsits.

I see that things are a bit different here now.
There is an Auckland exodus with people selling up their overpriced properties and moving out to outlying areas. Well, maybe an exaggeration but I'm told that the property market in Whangarei is buoyant with many Auckland buyers.

Richard (of RBB) has finally flipped and now only writes in Italian. Poor Shelley if he only speaks it .... hold on, that might be a blessing as he only speaks rubbish anyway.

Second Fiddle has taken off his clothes and runs around the neighbourhood waving his arms about.
 Well, that's christians for you.

Petone Ponderer has finally seen the light and fled Petone for Northern climes. Very sensible that.