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 )

[WhatSheSaid]

Just been on the radio they're advising people in west Auckland to stay indoors this afternoon in case of more storms/tornadoes...I have to go get dd1 from school but it's pretty calm here now, just some rain.

[Sibble]

Take care all your Westies...It was scary enough driving south on the motorway in the rain let alone tornadoes as well. Very scary.

[BobbyMcGee]

Rain and thunder stopped now, don't think I'll need to top up the pool for a while.

Air is much cooler too.

[frikonastick]

hope everyone made it safe through the tornado! goodness, but weather in NZ certainly seems....exciting....

actual real laugh out loud at the renaming of the thread whats so funny is you all dont even know the half of it!

DH and I are completely and totally aware of lunacy of the plan.

but like many things in our lives, we dont actually have much option with the living arrangements, so are choosing to be madly optimistic and enthusiastic in the face of almost certain disaster.

yay us!!

at the very least my new found friends, there is likely to be a neverending source of amusement and horror unfolding on here for your entertainment

[thelittlestkiwi]

frik- will look forward to the tales of madness. You are undoubtedly a better human than me by a million miles. If either my parents or PIL suggested this I would move to Antarctica to escape them.

Glad all are safe. It seems a bit unreal that those poor men have died so close by.

[AngryBeaver]

Christ frick, how did that get agreed upon??!
The very best to you, and you never know, it may work out ok!
Glad everyone is ok. How scary.
I have had friends visiting from the UK in a camper van and they were heading up to Aukland, was worried about them.
Ok, need some help here. Dh is having an issue at work.
He took some time off and a woman thatwas covering his work is pissed off at the amount she has had to do.
Hard to elaborate without giving too much away.
Upshot is, nasty email to dh, and also cc'd him in on another email to someone else, slagging him off.
Also seems like she has openly slagged him off in the office.

This is the problem, she is senior member of staff (more senior than him) and it seems as though she is one of these people that thrives on confrontation.

She will talk very loudly until everybody else stops talking and she is the victor!
(kind of like, I'll scream and scream until Im sick!)

She is the stereotypical american, really loud and ultra confident and WILL have her own way.

Dh is not happy at all about what has been said, but hates confrontation.
He is trying to arrange a meeting with the Boss, but she has got in there first and put her angle on it.
Any advice?!

[vvviola]

Gah. Internet ate my insanely long post.

Summary:

AB: not sure as I hate confrontation myself, but starting point would probably be showing boss the emails?

justa hope DH's aunt checked in & is ok. And answering question from ages back: yes is probably easier for my family knowing we'll be back in a few years, but think they are still worried we'll change our minds and stay.

frik you are either a saint or nuts I'd find a way to manage my parents for that long. But MIL...?

Weather still pretty unpleasant here, listening to rain batter against windows . Hope everyone is ok and it doesn't get scary again. Thanks DD2 for the pleasure of being able to observe the middle of the night weather

[AngryBeaver]

Sorry, justa,yes, glad she is ok.
He has the emails printed off to show boss.
Being all British,well, Irish, abaout it is the thing. Also, she is high up in the chain of command and has worked with the boss in other jobs. Dh, in comparison is fairly new, so doesn't want to rock the boat.
He will have to say something though. If he allows this to go unchallenged it could damage his professional reputation.
She seems quite willing to bad mouth people colleagues openly to people from other agencies, in email and over the phone.
She really sounds quite revolting.
But incredibly, well respected.
So, difficult for dh to approach.
I hate stressy work situations!

Ds1 has his first school visit today! Am quite excited.
Haven't told dd she is leaving other school yet, I don't want to make it a big deal.
I feel like a weight has been lifted though. I had visitors (complete with camper van!) from the Uk yesterday. Both teachers, they read the mission statement and prospectus and thought it looked really good!
Ds2's face was a picture when he saw my male friend, he has a beard and tattoos...he looked a bit like this infact exactly like that, he had his santa hat on!

[AngryBeaver]

oh, I ruined that joke dammit! It was supoosed to be this...

[lollystix]

AB - the politics of work are just exhausting. I've had a week of it and it's playground stuff. I do find the style is quite hierarchical and direct (aggressive at times) And unacceptable behaviour in characters is tolerated alot more.

For DH I would schedule meet with boss and take emails in back pocket. Put case forward that he thinks he's in awkward position and infer that her behaviour could be conceived as bullying as she undermines him publicly, explain the extent of the work she picked up in his absence (she will have made it seem more) and ask boss for feedback on how boss perceives DHs performance. Calm, constructive and positive throughout. Boss will know this woman is strong (difficult) so I should imagine he/she will see the bigger picture.

[WhatSheSaid]

If anyone needs cheap nappies, Baby Online are currently doing two boxes for the price of one on DryUps (they're decent enough nappies, I've bought them for four years and never had problems with them). It makes them about half the price of even the Countdown Home Brand ones.
www.babyonline.co.nz/

[AngryBeaver]

lolly totally. In some ways, NZ is great because it is "England 20 years ago". In other ways that's the problem.
The racism. The mysogism. The "bullying" personalities in the workplace. Very Uk in the 80's. Just would not be tolerated now.
I think Dh knows that his boss will understand that that is "just her", but it's sooooo annoying!
Why the hell should she be allowed to use woek as her own little playground?
Apparantly she sits in her office yelling "WHAT the FUCK, ohhh MAN, Fuck this SHIIIT!" She sounds really horrible, and I think people are just scared of being on her radar.
She is experienced and intelligent, but a vile egomaniac.

Anyway, how everyone?

[AngryBeaver]

Oooh yes, good old Enid. I got dd The Wishing Chair collection so I could read it. Not very PC is she? She'd fit right in here!
Wipes for Xmas, mmm, exotic
I got on my bike yesterday and realised why some cyclists wear those rather unflattering padded shorts.
Me bum bones are bruised after my epic cycle the other day!

[Sibble]

Anybody else finding it really hard to work in this beautiful weather. Have some reports that need to be finished by tomorrow, ds1 off school already and has friend here. Got up early to make a start, am hoping to finish early afternoon, pick ds2 up then head to the beach for a swim. Trouble is concentrating when my book and sun-lounger are calling

[Sibble]

This is soooooo cute!

[shelscrape]

Aww, Sibble that's lovely. St Paul's Church on Symonds Street is a really great place, I've been to a couple of services when I've been in Auckland for the weekend.

Well, DH is now on summer holidays. He treated me to lunch today and I came to home to find loads of cleaning had been done and dinner was nearly ready ... after 20 years the training has started to show

[Sibble]

Sorry have no idea where it is, somebody facebooked it to me and I just thought it was tooooo cute!

[shelscrape]

St Paul's is close to the University on Symonds Street, just of Wellesley Street. Here they are DH thinks they do some of the best coffee in Auckland ....

[AngryBeaver]

What's everyone doing for Xmas dinner?

[WhatSheSaid]

We're having 3 friends and their 4 kids round for Christmas dinner. We're having lamb and salady stuff as main meal. And something crayfishy to start with (dh is cooking it all, he's a good cook). Last year we had "meringue and cream and berries for afters" according to me (northerner) or "Eton mess for dessert" according to him (southerner!). Then some nice cheeses. And lots of booze while all the kids (6 this year) play in the garden.