Garage Sale! (by Carrie)

Maybe it is becoming spring, or maybe they just do garage sales all year here, but Friday we got a little notice in the mailbox: the area Bowling club (not bowling like big heavy balls and pins, but bowling like little balls, akin to horseshoes) was having a garage sale. I have to admit, I was excited. Emily and I got up and went at 8 Saturday morning--well, we got there about 8:10, along with lots of other people. Pretty much just like a church garage sale in the States--but one particularly rich with puzzles (we got two) and kitchen stuff (we got some miscellany). I got an iron. No exercise machine (we'll keep looking for that--seems like it should be a good garage sale item. that's how we got the one we had to leave in Kansas). I decided this morning I need to make a list of all the appliances we need, and check them off. We are already the proud owners of a toaster, a crock pot, an iron, and a space heater, all with funny plugs.

Manford and I also spent a couple of hours at our future home, meeting with a kitchen designer, figuring out what to put where. She will make up a plan and a price (yikes. but seems like less than it would be in the States to rip out the whole kitchen and put in a new one) and we will meet on Friday and pick out colors. We also measured the bedrooms to try to figure out how to fit in at least some of our furniture--a bed and a dresser is about all that will fit in our room, maybe a small chair, but it has one built-in set of drawers between the two closets. Joseph's room with be dominated by his Harry Potter bed, but he does everything on the bed, anyway. Manford is right, the yard is a challenge, but at least it is conveniently divided up into sections, and maybe we can tackle one zone at a time.

It's raining again this morning--the roofs here are nearly all steel, and the sound of the rain on the roof is kind of soothing...I think especially to Kiwis who have grown up with it. One house we looked at had a concrete roof (which sounds very odd, and looked a bit odd, too--the concrete was shaped like tiles, kind of, but still concrete colored), and the realtor was musing that concrete roofs were good, but you missed the sound of the rain...yesterday it started off foggy, and cleared off nicely in the afternoon, so that Emily and Manford and I explored a little in the reserve (park, basically big green area with grass and trees and a small gully) just behind our rental house. It was soggy, but a nice big place to run and play ball and hide in the copse of trees, where Emily was convinced there might be a kiwi. Hopefully it will dry out some so she can enjoy it before we move--there are a couple of these reserves near our new house, too, but not right out the back gate. There is lots of green space here--but unfortunately, most of them don't have what Emily calls "real parks," meaning playground equipment. Though her school has great playground equipment, and we could walk to it from the new house.

I'm halfway through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and looking forward to being able to talk to Joseph about it.

Work is getting busy, as I venture out and try to learn about the local mental health and family support services. I've been following our first-year clinical graduate students around as they do visits to the local agencies, and also making some of my own contacts. Last week I went to the Waikato Family Centre, which is run by an incredibly energetic nurse/midwife, and resides in a beautiful house that used to be a brothel...it's kind of like the breastfeeding resource center, plus--families can come and they help with nursing, but also with figuring how to put the baby to sleep (they have cribs and separate rooms, so they can get the baby to sleep, and then the mom can either sleep or talk to someone), and anything else, for the first year, free; they run postpartum depression groups, and screen everyone for postpartum depression (data!). I'm going next week to spend some time there, and later to interview some of the women about their experiences with the health and mental health systems, to give me some leads on what kind of research might work and needs to be done. And teaching seems to be going fine--I am getting off easy this term, and it is clear I'll have more teaching to do in the future, but it's great to have the luxury of some time both to figure out the university and to set up some research.

I hope you are all well and happy, and staying cool!
Carrie

Typing errors, I really do know how to spell by Manford

Thanks to all who tolerate my typing - I meant Martin Cruz Smith - and though it looks like text messaging I don't mean it to be. Today we meet with a kitchen designer to see what can be wrought - maybe we will just do an out with the old, in with the new! I have met with two landscape persons whom I charcterize as the butcher (lop off the heads of all the trees in the front yard) and the artiste (retain some, lop some, trim some, smell this wonderful scented flower) and am leaning toward him. The yard is sadly neglected and in this environment way overgrown - will take some pics and post 'em. Thanks for the interest says I to all who read this and may you find some joy each day!

Books and things b Manford

Well we came in on the tail end of the dog show (pun intended) but saw some cties, and had a wonderful meal at the hme of a coworkers of carrie Wine is relativel inexpensive and generally good ere. It has been a pretty quiet week here. I came across an amazing (to me) riff on the number 9, called Nmber 9 The Search for the Sigma Code by Cecil Balmond - check it out. And have started the new Cuz-Smith, Stalin's Ghost. Any readers have recommendations for other books? We have a meeting at the house Friday with a kitchen design lad. Yesterday I met with an arborist and a landscaper - whooee, or house is in a jungle (that needs trimming, digging up, transplanting, removal) more about this as we roll along. It has been in the 30's in the am - cool to cold depending on the hmidity. I hope all is well with those who read this. I will tr for more reflection on the move and on living here next blog.

Shopping

Yesterday we went shopping. Mostly just shopping, not buying: scoping out stores for kitchen appliances and furniture and stuff. Apparently, although they call beds "twin, double, queen, king," they are not the same sizes as ours...we shipped Joseph's Harry Potter bed with mattress, so that should be fine, but we just brought the mattress for Emily's bed, thinking we could get a bed here--she wants a loft bed so she can play underneath it. We found a great one at one store, about four feet off the ground, with drawers and shelves and a slide-out desk top underneath, as well as room to play. But it's not quite the same size as her mattress. We either need to get a new mattress, or get the "king twin" which is a few inches larger than the other, and so will be a little big for the mattress...details, details...lots of options in beds, especially if you want to spend a LOT of money. Then you could get a nice platform bed with a built-in LCD tv that pops up from the footboard...don't tell Joseph about that one. Or one with a built-in dock for your iPod. I think we'll just look for a basic model, though--but maybe a king, since the queen is smaller than ours, and the king is between king and queen, but maybe we'll just get cosy and conserve room in the bedroom, which is not going to fit both our dressers, anyway...maybe we should get a loft bed, soo, so we can play underneath...watch out, and I'll get as weird at Manford. It's being upside down. Surprising things are backwards. Door locks, light switches (up is off), and the sweater ("jersey") I just bought Manford has the zipper on the opposite side. I still get confused getting into the car (usually not driving it, any more) if I think about it too much.

They probably have this array of outlandish appliances in the States, too; it's just that we haven't been shopping for everything at once, there. The appliance store we liked (they had reasonable things, too, and a nice saleswoman) had a pink dishwasher and a giant fifties-looking lime green fridge for $5000. I think we'll pass on them. Most of the fridges are small, by US standards, but have a variety of configurations (freezer up, down, and some with extra doors and drawers for various functions), and since we're redoing the kitchen, we can try to figure out what size we really need, and make a space for it. Next week we will meet with a kitchen designer (sounds fancy, but not really) and start to make a plan. The only things we actually bought yesterday were small plastic stuff (we found a store with every plastic thing you could imagine) like a microwave popcorn popper (you can get the bags here, but they're expensive) and juicer (we have a citrus tree of some sort in the rental house. I can't tell if it's lemon or orange, or a cross they apparently have here).

We did our first baking this week--oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, kind of. They have chocolate "buttons" that said they were for baking, disks about the size of a dime. I decided to try them, and the kids liked them fine, but I think I'll get the (more expensive) Nestle chocolate chips next time...and I have to figure out how to measure butter here. Butter is very cheap--less than margarine--but it comes in a huge hunk (a half kilo, a bit more than a pound in one slab). Apparantly there are lines on the package for measuring, but I had long since discarded that. I know, I can use the diplaced water trick, but I was lazy and estimated. They are mostly metric here, but still remnants of old measures on food packaging and recipes--we will have to learn to convert both ways. The oven is in Farenheit, but about half of things you buy are Celsius. I am assuming someday we will stop converting and have a sense of metrics...

Today Manford and I will go to meeting (no kids program today) and then later we will go to a dog show with another family (of the tutor--clinical training coordinator--from work), and then have tea (dinner) with them. We are bringing cake. They have no shortage of cakes here. No shortage of bakeries, either. No, we're not getting a dog yet, but I'd be surprised if we didn't have one by Halloween...

Emily says

School is great, I'm having lots of fun, and I've made a lot of new friends. I think I like sketching best. (what's different about it?) We only have like one, two teachers, but I found out that the computer teacher teaches us, but then our real teachers teach us all our other subjects. (what's your teacher's name) Mrs Tombs. She is a really nice teacher--almost as nice as Mrs. Fisher and Mrs Schwerdt. In the playground at my school they have a giant sandbox, and the playground is really fun. We are doing cross-country and it is really hard.

I got this really cool bed that has shelves and you can take this box of the shelves out, and you can go play under it. That's all I have to say! Happy Birthday to Daddy!

happy birthday Manford

My birthday can be celebrated twice - here tomorrow, there on your Sunday. Has anyone seen Amazing Grace? Inside an egg carton is the notice "Our hens live in small flocks on lifestyle properties where they are looked after by caring farmers and are free to express their natural behavior..." I am composing a poem, Ode to a Toilet that begins "There you sit, where I sit" which is as far as I have gotten (without any other family's knowledge or awareness) and is probably as far as I should go. Hmmmm, gotta think of other ways to use my time. We were in the underground parking lot from hell yesterday - very narrow spaces, but ue survived. Carrie's coworkers don't like it either. I really value all the friendships we had in Topeka and wish I had said that more. The family is out buying the new Harry Potter book and thousands of dollars worth of gifts for me, trying to stop me from hallucinating so much! Best to all and to all a good night . Manford

Progress

We're making progress--it doesn't quite seem like home, but it doesn't not seem like it, either. We are still in someone else's house, but we can see where we're going...as Manford said, the building inspector raved about the house, built in the 60's, when they used solid materials, and it was "top drawer" then...once we get the kitchen redone, it will be top drawer again...we went to a kitchen designer store today, and saw all the fancy drawers we can get, and countertops ("bench") in all colors and textures possible. And all sorts of weird and practical sink options. The typical sink here is stainless steel, with one decent sized sink, and then a tiny one with a disposal in it, and built-in drainer areas on one or two sides...I'd kind of like a double sink, and it seems that that is quite possible, or a full and a half-sink, or any configuration, made of stainless steel, or graphite, or whatever...don't tell Emily, but you can get the "bench" in purple if you really want it. We haven't even looked at floors yet...

The yard is one of the big advantages of this house--it is good sized--about a quarter acre--in an area where many of the "sections" (lots) have been subdivided so that one house we looked at was on a section that was 200 square meters--that's a little over 200 square feet. For the land. Ours has a large grapefruit tree, and lots of other bushes and trees, some even flowering now--camelias, and we'll have to learn all of what else. It needs some attention and pruning, but provides nice privacy and should be even richer as we get into spring and summer. The builder cautioned us that when you buy plants here, and it says "grows to one meter," that means in the first year. Plants like it here.

Our weekend trip to Mount Maunganui was quite nice--it's a pretty 1 3/4 hour drive through rolling hills to the coast (the far coast), then out to a kind of penninsula punctuated by "the mount," which is a hill you can climb up or walk around. We got about halfway around on Sunday morning, then Emily had to go to the bathroom...We arrived Saturday noonish and had lunch at the Stars and Stripes Cafe--and American Restaurant. Exotic. Joseph wanted a cheeseburger, so we ordered one, but the guy convinced us that the Kiwi Burger was on sale, and a better deal, and the same thing, except with an egg on it. We ordered it without the egg, not knowing that it also had beets...I ordered a chicken salad sandwich. It was an interesting double-decker affair, with sliced chicken on the first layer, and salad (lettuce and tomato) on the second...We went to the beach in the afternoon, and found lots of shells; it is winter, and so a bit chilly, but Emily got her feet wet, and on up...then we went to the hot salt water pools, across from our hotel. They were three swimming pools--one warm, one hot,and one for kids (I didn't check how hot that was). Very relaxing, though popular. Apparently this is a VERY popular spot in the summer, and the long beach looked very inviting. There was just one lonely surfer when we were there, but two hang gliders taking off from the top of the Mount and landing on the beach.

Then, back to Hamilton, and work, and house and car...here is a picture of Manford by the house, with his new car; he is driving with impunity, and Emily likes to stick her head out of the sun roof. I am hoping this is while they are waiting for Joseph, whose school gets out 20 minutes after hers. I had my second class, and they all stayed awake, and we refilled all of Manford's prescriptions for $12. And so another week, and our first month, comes to a close...tomorrow we are having a party to celebrate the house, and the month; we will have pizza from Hell and magic bananas (Emily read a recipe in a book for chocolate-dipped frozen bananas). Sunday is Manford's birthday, and we will go to a dog show and have dinner with some friends from work.

We hope you are all well and happy, and staying cool!
Carrie

two of everything and more and less by manford

We now have dibs on a house - just waiting on clearance from an attorney and some money from the states - pictures to follow if we can figure out a small glitch on the other computer. Described in real estate terms as a "hidden treasure" this 60's house with a late 70's addition has three bedrooms, two baths, a computer nook "heaps of storage, practical (this means small and somewhat outdated) kitchen, established treed lawn (trees really need trimming), wide backyard (relatively speaking) and a double internal access garage..." It is within walking distance (about 4 - 5 blocks) of the kids school, on a corner lot. A stell roof. We got a very favorable (favourable) report from the building inspector yesterday. The roof could do with a paint job and there is a need for painting here and there, and we will hope. fully get a kitchen redo. Before we move in. We will need two sofas, two chairs, a washer (front loading) a dryer, a bed for Emily, a bed for mom and dad, possibly an upgrade on a shower, a big trim of lots of vegetation and high tree limbs, and no doubt other stuff. I am inactively seeking gainful employment if I can find a way to work with dizzy patients - I really don't want to sell hearing aids anymore, which is what current audiology positions are for. We shall see. Hope all who read this are well and happy. I think this move away from the nest I created in Topeka is a good one for making me know what is important in life - health, friends, family, spiritually. Carrie will probably write up our weekend trip to the East coast.

No house for now...off to the beach

We didn't get the house...the owners didn't get the house they were bidding on, and decided not to sell after all. So we're still looking. Looked at another one on the same street, just a block farther from school, that seems promising--also four bedrooms (small ones), two living areas, nice patio, and a pool--small, but that's good--but it is being put up for auction August 15. Not sure whether we want to have that much uncertainty. No one else has registered interest on the other one we liked, so we have that as a possibility. We are taking the weekend off from thinking about it and going to the beach.

It is a beautiful, clear and crisp (frost this morning) day, and we're going east a couple of hours to Mount Maunganui, known as "the mount," where there are hot salt water pools and supposedly lots of things to do. I think the mount itself is a dormant volcano, but don't tell Emily. You can walk around or up it. or to the beach. or to the hot pools.

I finished a week of classes feeling good about it--actually I just have one class to teach, but sat in on a couple of other "papers" and a visiting lecture from a guy from New Mexico that was very interesting. And some meetings, and meeting people, and trying to figure out the department structure and politics. That may take a while. People remain very friendly and helpful.

And we finally had pizza from Hell. Check out their website: www.hell.co.nz They even delivered. Joseph had Gluttony (double pineapple, double ham, double cheese), Manford and I had Limbo (vegetarian, but with bacon and blue cheese...) and Emily had 333 (kids one-topping). They have some quite bizarre sounding combinations. But what do you expect? I somehow doubt this chain would go over without controversy in the US. The box says "we are hell bent on providing the best damn pizza and service around..." It also says "dispose of the evidence." It was pretty good. By the way, even pizza hut has pizzas like Chicken, cranberry and brie.

Stay cool! we will take pictures of The Mount--
Carrie

Back to Class--wait, Paper, or something

Well, I just had my first session (class?) of my developmental psychopathology paper, and it felt like it went well. There were 18 students there--a good size, though there are 24 signed up, so we'll see how it develops--and several who seem willing to speak up (in a good way). Only three men--brave souls; we'll see if they stay. Nice classroom, with all the techie stuff well-organized and seems to be working (once I figured out how to turn the lights on, which was not that simple). Close by, on my floor, just the other side of the staff tea room. Now I have to try to figure out the online system for communicating with the class. students. I think they understood my accent...

I am also finding my way around campus a little bit, venturing out--quite near my building is the student union, which has many conveniences--I found the hairdresser yesterday, and she cut my hair barely perceptably, but decently. There is a pharmacy, dairy (which means convenience store), a couple of banks (not ours...), travel agent, at least three eating places, and apparently there used to be surf shop, but it closed. The rec center--wait, centre--is also there, and Manford plans to join and work out there.

Manford and kids are now at the Mall, where Joseph is seeing the Harry Potter movie (5), and we hope Manford and Emily found something else to see or do. I am envying Joseph, but the first show was exactly during my first class, and, though tempted, I couldn't quite work it into the syllabus. outline.

We are bidding on a house! It is across the street from Joseph's school (from the fields, anyway), and so only about two blocks from Emily's school, also across the street from a park we haven't explored yet, but which seems to have a long bike path and a lot of grass. It has four bedrooms--one quite small, but ok for video games and guests, and also both a living room (aka Lounge) and a family room (which could serve as another guest room) and a small office. The rooms are a bit small than the other house we're considering, but there are more of them, and it seems congenial...needs a bit of cosmetic work, such as taking up the carpet, which has wood floors under it, and I'd like to refinish them, and putting in a better fence (it's on a corner; next door in one direction is a huge overgrown barrier of ivy and other unknown plants, which might have been nice at one point but is now out of control and huge in some places and holey in others). So if we get it, we will close in mid-August and have some time to get some work done. But the owners are waiting to see if they get a house that is being auctioned tomorrow, so it may be a few days before we see how it comes out.

Back to work.

tv or not tv - by manford

Free tv has some local programs (e.g. Australian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire) and quite a few US ones - e.g. The Simpsons, Ugly Betty, The New Adventures of Old Christine, The OC, My Name is Earl, Desperate Housewives, Wife Swap, Gray's Anatomy, American Chopper, Mediu, Stargate. There are 20 pay tv channels, including National Geographic and the History Channel, Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. No PBS clone that I can find. Lots of American movies - e.g. tonight, Hitch. Things are rolling along. The weather was perfect today, and we had lunch in a nearby town with Carrie's department chair - an Australian by birth. His wife fixed a tart with plums from her tree! Yummy! With ice cream, custard and whipped cream for the tartness. I am getting the hang of driving a little more. Our car started sounding a bit like a threshing machine a couple of days ago, but seems to run ok. Will get it checked out tomorrow. Wednesday Joseph will see the new Harry Potter movie, while dad and Emily see something less scary. Tuesday Carrie has a doctors appointment - not sick but to have someone who can write perscriptions. We are still house looking. May all who read this be well.

Still learning the language (almost a week at the University)

Staff means Faculty, and Faculty means School; Paper means Course, and Course means Program; Essay means Paper; Marks means Points, and Points means Credits; Semester means Semester (surprise!) but for kids in primary and secondary school, it is "term," but we mustn't use "term" for University Semesters. I'm almost finished with my outline (aka syllabus). The real fun starts next week!

Joseph's Blog

Happy 4th of July! Even though here it's the fifth. I've been here two weeks now and I've had three days of school, almost everything is different here even the schools. The school is spread out over a large area and everything looks pretty much the same, the lunch is extremely long, about an hour, and they have an extra day on the schedule. The two week brake started just about as I got here so I was only at school for a couple days and didn't learn much since all they had was tests and end of the year stuff. For the past couple of days I've stayed at home and played my video games which only started working a few days ago because I need a transformer and a special type of TV. The food is kind of different here and there are no good hamburger places, there are not many crackers I like, and we haven't found a Chinese restaurant. I don't know what more to say, Happy 4th.

What I have learned by Manford

Happy 4th of July. I have learned that an unbalanced load in the clothes washer makes it stop, display an error message and play a little tune. We had a beautiful double rainbow this am. It rains lightly much of the time here, with a blue sky - going black or gray and sudden downpoors are common. We have made quesadillas several times - tortillas being easily found in the grocery store. We had pot stickers Carrie bought at a nearby asian store - they turned out to be vegeterian, not pork but tasty. Water and gas pressure are stronger here than at our former house - where will be held a tag sale this month, but I don't know the date - do you? As they say, if you don't remember the Alamo, remember the Barbers. We think of you often.

Clockwise/sounterclockwise revisited by Manford

After exhaustive research watching larger amounts of water go down the drain than in the past I am now convinced (pretty much) that when it does go in a circular fashion while draining water goes in a clockwise fashion. Regarding other stuff, Emily is enjoying going fast on her new bike, while dad gets his heart rate up trying to prevent her from running into the dryer and the renters car parked in the carport. It did not rain last night for the first time since we have been here. I have mapped a route to Carrie's work I can drive with minimal fear (mostly left turns, or pretty easy right ones). I have a small shopping list today - glue, a ball and popcorn - wonder what Carrie and the kids will add. Bought $20.00 worth of petrol and only got 12.74 litres - did not check tyre pressure. So US $3.00 a gallon not so bad, relatively speaking. Will enroll Emily in a Winter reading program tonight - more about it later. And MANY THANKS for all who who have replied to our blogs and e-mails - it really helps to have some continuance (sp?). Hope you who read this aren't beginning to grow webbed feet. Manford

Two days and the University

Well, I've been to work two official days now, and I have an ID card, a parking sticker, will soon have an IRD number (like SSN), and great tea privileges. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful, actually to such an extent that it was quite hard to get any work done the first day for the people coming by and chatting, and taking me down to the staff tea room. The tea room is an excellent convention--it is for the whole building, which is large and contains all of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences--in other words, all sorts of departments. It is a medium-sized room with tables for eating lunch, as well as chairs in a couple of circles where several gather at about 10:30 and 3:30 for tea. There is free tea, coffee, hot chocolate, etc, for faculty, staff, and Ph.D. students. There are snacks for purchase. I was introduced to people from sociology, Japanese, religion, "societies and cultures" (which actually includes sociology, anthropology, and some other stuff), and philosophy.

I have not yet have the entry card I need to get into the building early (before 7:30)--they've "organized" it for me, but also seemed quite surprised that I might want to come after (or before) hours. I take this as a good sign. I've been working on the syllabus (here known as outline) for my course (here known as paper) and trying to decide what kind of papers (here known as essays) to assign (god knows what that's known as here). As you can see, I am discovering a few more language issues. I spent quite a bit of time on the first day going through e-mails, since they gave me an e-mail address back in December, and have been sending me all the regular department announcements, including things like minutes from meetings. I was interested to look at the minutes from the department meetings, at least for the last few months, to see what issues came up. However, when I mentioned this to a couple of people during chat, I got some very quizzical looks. I realized later that I used the term "faculty meetings," and "faculty" refers to the whole school; apparently hardly anyone really goes to faculty meetings, and it would be quite odd to be interested in their minutes...the department faculty is the staff, and those are staff meetings.

It was a beautiful day between rain showers yesterday, and I walked up to the building where HR is, starting to get my bearings a bit. There is a small stand of redwoods just in front of my building, just to make my California heart at home. I will now see if any of the pictures I took do justice to it...

cars, dvds and breakfast from Manfords point of view

We are looking at BMWs and Volvos this week - they are less pricey here if you stay away from the new ones. In order to attempt to preserve my santity (we currently only have Chicken Run and Chronicles of Narnia on DVD and they have been watched, I believe, about 2 million times) we will visit a DVD rental store tonight.Hamilton is a town divided into East and West sections, and the West is generally more costly - e.g. $14.50 for a full breakfast with eggs, meat, toast and hashbrowns and a cup of coffe with steamed mils is $3.40. Pastries are 3-4 dollars. On our (East side) part of town we have found a small shop that sells wonderful lemon tarts (Carrie can tell you the name) for a dollar. Today was Carrie's first day at the University - her first class is July11 by which time we hope to have a second car for getting around town in and not being so hard to park as our minivan, since the new Harry Potter movie comes out that day and I need to take Joseph to the theatre to see it. Rain but not flooding. May all who read this have a peaceful day (or at least an hour). Manford

Sunday greetings from Manford

We had a lovely sunrise this morning - gold clouds - after a rainy yesterday. We got a transformer and tv for Joseph and by golly his X-Box 360 works! We relooked at a couple of houses - and a new one yesterday. The new one very nice two story with a huge store room off the garage, a lovely garden and yard and landscaping and a rumpus room downstairs and up the remaining living space - three bedrooms (one en suite - bathroom attached that means), an fairly good sized study, kitchen, large living dining are - very nice but asking 580,000 Ne, w Zealand dollars and the surrounding neighborhood not so nice as it, so no for us. There is another, single level house with a large family room and a smaller living room and a scruffier yard more to my liking, three bedrooms two baths we are thinking more about - within walking distance of the kids school and not so costly. The last look was a swell house with wood floors and high ceilings and just great but farther from school and work so probably not a go, either - and asking in the 500s for it, too. Joseph's tv only cost 168.00 NZ dollars American equivalent around 124, not too bad. Washers and dryers and fridges cost between 800 and 1200 NZ dollars. We bought half a cheesecake for Joseph's half birthday yesterday. This is a pretty disorganized blog. Will try for more style tomorrow.