Guy Fawkes Day

This was the 2nd Guy Fawkes day that we have experienced here in NZ. It was a very colourful day as most Kiwis will buy fireworks from the supermarkets and stores and lit the sky up till late at night. Being very "suaku", we drove down the streets along Palmerston North from 9pm onwards and see the night skies being lit up by residents. Only from reports in the press, we realised that it is actually a dangerous day for the firemen and as many as 1700 fires were reported throughout the country on this day itself.

United Nations Day

TYesterdaay marked the United Nations Day and there were a gathering of about 100 nationalities at the Convention Centre in Palmerston North representing 100 different countries. Most of the participants dressed up in traditional costumes and there were lion dance performance from the Kung Fu School (and Junius is one of them) as well as drum performance by the International Pacific College.

Kathina

Yesterday, we made our day trip to Wellington and visit the Stokes Valley monastry for the kathina celebration. This is a ceremony where lay people gives robes to the monk annually. There were about a couple of hundreds of people at the monastry including Thais, Laotians, Cmbodians, SriLankans, Malaysians, Singaporeans and quite a number of Kiwis. We had a dana too where everyone bring a dish to share and you can imagine the amount of food brought into the monastry. On the way hoe, we visited one of our friend who has just moved from Tawa to Paraparaumu.

Mooncake Festival

We had a mooncake festival gathering last week at one of my Malaysian friends place. It was an excuse for a party and as usual we had a potluck. We had many anthentic food like sambal prawns, chap chai, poh piah and deserts like agar agar and fruits. The children also had a great time playing their lanterns while the adults had moon cakes with wine.

Trip to the Skifield

3 weekend ago, we decided to take a 3 days 2 nights trip to the highest mountain here in the North Island, Mt Ruapehu. We were told by friends that there will be little snow left as winter is over and the ice is beginning to melt. Being stubborn, we just decided to try our luck to see if we are still able to touch any real snow. It was a beautiful Saturday and the sky was blue. When we reached Waiouru, a desert location, we saw the majestic Mt Ruapehu just before our eyes and as we drive towards the National Park, it was a beautiful sight with the mountain just on my right as I was driving along. As we arrive at our destination at National Park, we stayed at Discovery Lodge, an accommodation in the middle of nowhere but it has a million dollar view of 3 of the North Island mountains, Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngagehoa (I cannot spell it correctly). Since it was a beautiful day, the mountain peak was there for us to see. Within an hour of checking into our room, we were driving up the mountains and within 15 minutes, we are on the Whakapapa skifield. We were so happy as we can actually play real snow, make snowman and even had snowfights. We were up there for about 2 hours as it was getting late. We were up there again at 6 in the morning where we were the one of the first ones to arrive.

Later that morning we drove to the other side of the mountains, more popular with the Wellingtonians. We stayed at Powderhorn Chateau, just below the base of Turoa skifield. The journey up this time is slightly longer but this side of the mountain was quieter. Again, we built snowman, played with snowfights but this time we did some sleding. All in all, it was a great holiday and this time next year, we will be up there again definately.

Petrol Price Drop Again

Petrol price continue it 5th drop in a month when all the major oil companies cut its petrol prices by 5 cents to $150.9 for Octane 91 and $155.9 for Octane 98 yesterday. In a short space of 1 month only, petrol prices has dropped by as much as 25 cents per litre. This is certainly good news for motorists as a car with a full tank of 50 litres can save the motorist as much as $12.50 per full tank.

J School's Production

Last Thursday, we came to the Regent Theatre, one of Palmy's tourist attraction, to watch J's school production (concert) titled Giant John. The whole school were involved from June onwards and the children spent many hours practicing the dance steps, story telling and singing. The parents were involved too including teaching the children some dance steps but many more were involved in preparing the props and sewing of the children costumes. All in all, it was an enjoyable evening seeing all the children showing off their talents and enjoying themselves tremendously.

Bill Gates Story

Have you heard of the Bill Gates story about his encounter with a fisherman at sea? If you have not, here is a short version of it. Bill Gates met a fisherman at sea and ask him, don't you want to earn more money by working rather than just fishing the whole day? When you work hard, you can earn more money and with this money, you can buy a very big boat and go fishing everyday. To this, the fisherman replied, why is there a need to have a big boat? I do not need one, this boat is sufficient for me and beside, with this small boat of mine, I too can go fishing everyday. The moral of the story is that we worked our socks off, especially in Asian societies, to get the dream houses and cars. What we have done by coming over here is that we can work less here in NZ and still afford our dream house (unlike the pigeon hole) and big car (without paying the high taxes). We are living our dreams.

We Survived Our First Winter

On 1st September, 3 days from today, winter will be officially over. We have basically survived our first winter. All in all, winter was not as bad as we anticipated. Of course, there were reports of bad weather - floods, landslips, power cuts and of course the cold icy weather. Beside the cold icy weather (-2 degrees at night), we in Palmerston North did not suffer as bad as other parts of NZ where there was a power cut in the South Island for 2 weeks, landslides in Wellington where several houses have to be destroyed, floods in Wanganui, Auckland and Wellington and heavy snowfall in mid Canterbury and Central North Island (Desert Road) making driving very dangerous. On the plus side, we still manage to play outdoor on days it was not raining, do less gardening and weeding as the plants have gone hibernating too and also enjoy the cool fresh air coming from Antartica.

Food You Can Find in Palmy

Compared to 15 years ago when we were still students in quiet Palmerston North, more types of food can be found here in Palmy today. We were pleasantly surprised when we can get fish balls, prawns, belacan, durians and even preserved fruits (aka buah kana) at the local grocery shops. The only thing that is lacking is the hawker food like rojak, carrot cake, fried hokkien mee, poh piah, prata, laksa, satay, mee pok noodles and of course the pepper and chilli crabs. Luckily, if there is a craving for such food, we can always take a drive down to the capital, Wellington, where such hawker fares are more readily available.

House Hunting

For the past 10 months, we have been to many open homes here in Palmerston to find the ideal home. A couple of them have our fancies but we guess it was not the right time yet as we have signed a 1 year contract to stay at our current rented property. Come early November, the contract will end and we can start looking to buy our own home now. Of all the houses we looked at, we particularly like the lockwood homes, where the interior is made up of wood, making them warm and cosy just like the one at ski resorts. The problem is there are not many around and so if one is available at the desirable location, we will grab them. Wish us luck.

J - Training To be A Sportsman

J is very interested in sports, in fact he plays sports everyday, a thing he cannot afford to do in Singapore due to academic and paper chase. After school, he would immediately check if the school field is open for play (it will be close if it rain) and before long he would be change into either his baseball, badminton or soccer gear ready for action. I am very proud that he is turning into a very good sportsman too. He is much better than his peers and classmates as they join him in the play after school. He will be joining a soccer club next year and I am training him to be a very good badminton player too.

Petrol prices drop for first time in months

The strong New Zealand dollar has helped prompt the four major oil companies to drop prices for the first time in five months. Figures yesterday showed the New Zealand dollar had risen to a three-month high against the United States dollar. A decrease in the cost of the raw product has also had an effect, petrol companies said. Mobil, Caltex and BP have reduced their prices by five cents a litre, while Shell has come down four cents. BP confirmed it was dropping the price for both 91 and 96 octane petrol by five cents a litre, spokeswoman Diana Stretch said. The price of diesel, which dropped by three cents a litre on August 1, remains unchanged.

Caltex spokeswoman Sharon Buckland said Caltex was also dropping its price for 91 and 96 octane petrol by five cents a litre. Peter Thornbury of Mobil said the company had also dropped its prices by five cents a litre, after initially moving down by four cents. Shell has dropped the price of petrol by four cents a litre. Jackie Maitland, spokeswoman for Shell, said the decrease would be for both 91 and 96 octane petrol. The last across-the-board drop in petrol prices came in March this year, when BP, Mobil and Caltex matched Shell's price drop, announcing a cut of 2c per litre for unleaded and premium petrol on March 13. US oil prices slumped nearly 1 per cent to below $US74 a barrel in opening trade on Monday after the UN brokered a truce to end fighting in the Middle East. BP also decided to keep running half its Prudhoe Bay oilfield, as it replaces corroded pipelines on the eastern section. Before yesterday's drop, petrol had risen by 38 cents per litre since the beginning of the year, with diesel up 32 cents, the Automobile Association said earlier this month. Petrol prices had risen to their highest level ever, up six cents halfway through July, to $1.77 per litre for 91 octane. The price of diesel rose four cents at the same time, to end the month at $1.28 per litre. Petrol prices have risen 80 per cent in the past three years, from 95c for a litre of 91-octane petrol in May 2003.

Houses Falling Off the Hill

Due to the bad weather (heavy rainfall) we had recently, 4 of the houses in the Lower Hutt were on the brink of falling off the hill due to landslides. So the bottom line is if you help and afford it, do not buy houses on the hill.

Singapore Shuttlers Came to Town

Yesterday, the Singapore badminton team came to Palmerston North to play a friendly (test the kiwis called them) against the NZ team. Several of the top players like Susilo, Kendrick, Li Li and Yanmei was not here but was surprised to see a few youngsters like Derek Wong and Neo (real Singaporeans) came to play. Initially, I was not sure who to support - my country of origin or my adopted country but decided to cheer on the Singaporeans as they were outnumbered at the Arena 3. For the record, the Sinpareans won the game 3-2.

10 NZers Dead After Weekend Accidents

10 people were killed on the road over the weekend as the weather turned nasty throughout most of the country. In Palmerston and its surroundings, 4 people died - 2 in Foxton and another 2 near Palmerston North. Experts have blamed these accidents to the weather as well as drink driving as the two main causes for the casualties.

Friendly Fielding

On a lazy afternoon and have nothing in mind, we decided to take a drive and have a look at Fielding, a town which is only 16km out of Palmerston North and one which we have not visited since we arrived in NZ. The journey was very pleasant, a straight highway 45 and it took us only 6 minutes to drive from Palmy to Fielding. Once we reach Fielding, we were impressed by the little town having modern shopping like the Warehouse, Woolworths, Wright Price Fielding and fast foods like Kentucky, McDonalds and Subway. We were also impressed by the beautiful old buildings that were restored and filled up most of the town centre. In all, we were happy we made the short journey north.

NZ Lifestyle

We have moved to NZ for close to 10 months now and we are really enjoying life here. As one of my Malaysian friend noted, NZers lived the lifestyle of millionaires. What he meant is that even though wages are low (in comparison to Singapore) with high income taxes, NZers are still able to live like millionaires because they live in big bungalows (at least 500 square metres) and drive big cars (at least a 2 litres car) and each adult is able to own a car. In addition, he also noted that nobody does work after 5.30pm. As for recreation, NZers have beautiful parks and big open land for children to roam about. For golf players, a game of golf only cost $12 for a 18 hole game. Last but not least, he also mention that one tend to live longer in NZ because the air is fresher and the life is less stressful.

Lunch NZ Style

While many of you back home have many choices of where to eat out during lunch hour at the hawker centres, the same cannot be true for folks like us down under. There are cafes and lunch bars where they sell sandwiches, pies, cakes and burgers. However, the cost of eating out can be expensive as a sandwich may cost as much as $3 - $5 and it is usually not enough. What most kiwis do, including the adopted ones like ourselves, is we packed our lunch. It is healthier and at the same time cheaper than eating out. Even offices and schools do not have canteens as most employees bring their own lunch. However, in some offices, they do have vending machines selling sandwiches and drinks.

Why are Kiwis Good at Sports

For a small population country, the Kiwis are extremely good at sports. They are world champions in softball and netball, great in rugby (remember the All Black?) and have produced many champions in triathlon and long distance running. They are also not too bad in cricket, basketball and equestrain.

I think this is partly due to the great outdoor of the Kiwis. They spent their weekends playing sports at all levels from the beginners to the professionals levels. Everyone have a chance to play a sport if they have an interest in. In other words, if you wish to play soccer, you enrol in a soccer club and they will put you in the lowest grade. From there, through proper training and coaching, you rise through the ranks and play for the better teams within the clubs.

In schools, Kiwis children do their long distance running after lunch. They are also encourage to play in the playgrounds in every opportunity and this help in their motor skills.