WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW: PART 5!

[AngryBeaver]

Look at us Chatty Cathy's!
Justa oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
(I'm not sure )

[xMinerva]

Will try and remember everything.

Nits: haven't had them yet, which I'm quite surprised about as there was a couple of outbreaks at ds1's nursery back in the UK and he had longer thicker hair than most of the girls at the time. Dreading the tiny itchy bastards though.

Sorry to hear about your car accident vvv glad to hear you are all ok though (minus shoulder pain)

Just caught up on the last post about your sister sibble great news that all is well. Will keep fingers crossed for you all for 6months time.

justa that's so crap about the theatre tickets. How can they justify needing wheelchair access for the huge price hike. Makes me as I'm sure it does you.

We're going to see Red Hot Chilli Peppers at the Vector in Jan (or is it feb?) can't wait. Might see if we can get tickets for stone roses too.

Went out last Friday as we found a baby sitter, didn't get in until 3.30am and didn't go to sleep until 5am. Ds2 was up at 6am. Saturday was a bit messy

I was back at the docs with another urine infection this week, thank-fully not as bad as the last one a few weeks ago were I felt like I was dying.

Spent most of the last few evenings wrapping the dc Christmas presents. Not done on purpose but the house is going to look like a wooden toy shop come Christmas Day.

justa and vvv. Got my own bank/card now so hopefully no more situations like last time I met you both. Will sort that out for you when I see you next.

[Sibble]

OK old fart alert - we are getting Neil Young tickets

[AngryBeaver]

justa I will talk to dh and see if the paper would be interested. Outrageous!
Wish I could say yes to coffee...our nits can make their own arrangements

Am so jealous xminerva. Love the chilli's
Not overly keen on the Roses, associations of a time of being very stoned and a bit depressed and not really liking who I was.

sibble Will google Neil Young! Not sure who he is. I have heard of Neil Diamond?!
Age means nothing though, Dh loves the aforementioned Neil Diamond.
And he is definitely not his era, more my Mums...who doesn't like him!
This is getting complicated and rambly. Have a good time anyway!
Does anyone have any recommendations for lunch in Auckland? Picking Mum up at 11. Will have all the kids

[WhatSheSaid]

Neil Young's great. I used to listen to the album with "The Needle and the damage done" on loads.

Now I feel like I hardly listen to music as when the noise of children has stopped for the day the quiet is just SO NICE I don't want to listen to anything else .

If anyone is planning another Tesco order - they are still doing the free shipping - it's 20% off all clothes till Monday, code is XMASCRACKER.

[WhatSheSaid]

X posted with AB. So you are picking her up from airport so want lunch somewhere close to there? Butterfly Creek is really close by I think and the cafe has a good playground, you can use it without paying to go into the whole thing.

[xMinerva]

Sorry justa probably a bit late for coffee now, but free mon or wed next week if you're up for it?

Ds2 been waking at 5am every morning for about 3/4 weeks so am trying "wake to sleep" from tonight.

Yes thank-you WSS need a few bits for the boys and me now.

[vvviola]

I think the Pak'n'save in Albany might be doing their wine week at the moment...

Am about to lose it with MIL. Left both kids with her for the first time today for about an hour at a park. All went really well, except: both DH & I asked her to make sure they wore their hats in the sun. We were all sitting in the shade at the time so I showed her the hats in the bag. Came back to find the hats had been put away into the car and neither child had worn them despite being in full sun for most of the time. And I had to ask her 3 times before she even went to her car to get the hats. Am very unimpressed but biting my tongue.

[WhatSheSaid]

I find visitors really don't get the strength of the sun thing sometimes. Whenever my lovely sil and bil visit, they go out in the garden during the first couple of days, during the hottest bit of the day and lie there stretching out their arms and legs to get as much sun as possible - the way you see people doing on ther lunch hour on a sunny day in the UK. After about 20 minutes they come in looking really surprised and saying "wow, the sun's really strong isn't it!"

[vvviola]

Oh I agree WSS, I've been preparing my parents for it.

The thing is though MIL is a Kiwi, so I would have thought she'd know better.

Anyway, lesson learnt. Next time I won't trust her to put their hats on when they go in the sun, I'll put them on myself before I leave. even if they are inside

I have to say, with my Irish skin I'm very wary of the sun here. It really is incredibly strong.

[vvviola]

I've bit my lip so much it's bleeding at this stage. DD1 slightly burnt on cheeks & scalp, DD2 on cheeks.

Oh, and for anyone looking for Christmas decorations I can recommend Kmart. You can even get pink and purple decorations thanks DH and DD1 They cost half nothing & are pretty decent quality.

[thelittlestkiwi]

Vvviola- that sounds so annoying. How long do you need to bite for?

I've had my first experience of out of hours drs today. Waited about 5 mins but it cost $97! Really wish I had seen my GP on Friday now. I think I have a UTI- all the symptoms and blood in my urine but every time I've had one of these the test has come back negative. Dr gave me antibiotics anyway though.

Under 6's seen free though which is nice to know.

[vvviola]

Well, permanently I suppose

She's not staying with us or anything, and it's actually DH I'm biting my tongue with, as I don't think a rant starting "your bloody mother" will help matters, when he essentially agrees with me but is a bit calmer about the whole thing

[WhatSheSaid]

Those planning to have a real tree - we normally put ours up quite close to Christmas as in the heat they can dry out/start to die quite quickly. Well, not that it's particularly hot today but you know what I mean.

My other piece of advice is don't have a chocolate Santa on top of the tree and the tree in full sunlight as I did the second or third year I was here...melted Santa all over the floor

I've just been looking up Carols by Candlelight/Christmas nights at libraries etc. Starting to feel quite Christmassy now :)

[WhatSheSaid]

Er, well it's more late afternoon/early evening than nights really, two of our local libraries have 5-6pm Christmas song and story sessions. There are a few carols by candlelight in various parks in the evenings. And I'm prob going to Christmas in the Park next week but more as a child-free catch up with friends than to see the various Shorty St stars on stage in Santa hats

[underthemountain]

Sorry to interrupt but wondered if I could find out some info? Haven't been home for a gazillion years and we were thinking of getting some NZ dollars on one of those prepaid atm cards you can buy (are they any good?).

My main question being-are NZ atm's still mainly free or do they charge you for withdrawing cash??

Thanks!

[WhatSheSaid]

I don't get charged for using my own bank's ATM but if I use a different bank I get charged ($1 a time I think). I'm not sure about the prepaid cards, sorry.