crazyscot

... I'm not sure what all its residents are expected to do. There's a line of homewares here called Wiltshire WonderBake, and the packaging asserts that both those words are registered trademarks of the makers.

This house was built in the early 1970s, on a small lot which seems to be the result of subdividing (possibly a sub-sub-division) of a much larger section. Depending on who you ask it might be in the suburb of Bryndwr, Fendalton, Ilam or Burnside.

The house is broadly typical of Kiwi housing stock: timber-framed, with a brick chimney that's blocked off as the wood burner was taken out relatively recently. (Older wood burners are frowned upon for their pollution. They still sometimes get smogs.) It has no central heating, wood-burner, nor heat pump, though it does have electric under-floor heating. It's single glazed and the carpets and curtains are getting thin (dating back to when the house was built, judging by their patterns). Unusually, there are cupboards everywhere, more than you can shake a stick at; it'd be brilliant for hide-and-seek.

It's very much a house of two halves. One half is single-storey, comprising a sitting room, an open-plan farm-style kitchen/diner, bedroom 4, a shower room, utility room and loo. It adjoins the other half of the property only by the hallway; you can go down a couple of stairs to the garage, or up to three bedrooms, bath and loo.

The living room is exposed to the elements on two walls, so is cold.
The kitchen/diner are exposed on three walls and a patio door, so are cold.
Bedroom 4 is south-facing and ground-floor, so is cold.
Bedroom 1 is upstairs, but exposed on two walls (you're spotting a pattern here, aren't you?).
Bedroom 2 is exposed on two walls, as are bedroom 3 and the bathroom.

It's not a very rosy picture, is it? Well it has its advantages too, and we expect the summer to be great. That is, if we don't freeze to death first. rustica and I have built ourselves a little cave in the main bedroom, which has this evening reached the heady heights of 18C; I have just unzipped my fleece and might have to take it off. However, in the rest of the house my breath condenses (it's +4 outside). When the sun comes out the upstairs heats up really quickly, which happens most days - but, as luck would have it, we're staring into the teeth of a miserable weekend with snow forecast on Sunday - which would be Chch's first for three years.

Not (yet) having much furniture is a double-edged sword. We've nowhere to sit, other than on the stairs or bed; I'm alternating standing and kneeling at my laptop which is perched on top of a built-in chest of drawers. (My back isn't going to thank me for this.) There are two airers of (slowly) drying laundry on either side of me (let's face it, it's not going to dry anywhere else in the house).

We wanted an adventure; by 'eck, we've got one!

You probably won't read about this on the news, but the earth tremors in Chch are continuing. We're told there have been an average of 25 a day since last September, though that includes all the tiddlers that you wouldn't feel. There were two appreciable ones last night; we felt both of them, and GeoNet reports they were magnitude 3.7 and 4.2. In the twelve days that we've been here, we have noticed maybe half a dozen or so. As the locals say, you get used to them and just get on with it. Official advice is to move "a stride or two" to seek shelter under a table if you can, and generally to duck, cover and hold on, wait for the shaking to stop. If in bed, stay in bed and pull the covers up to try and repel any flying glass.

It starts as a low rumbling. You don't always hear it; rustica tends to hear them more than I do. Then the room shakes. Exactly what happens next varies from quake to quake - they're all different. Sometimes you get a single jolt (the February aftershocks were like that), some of them (last night's) are lower-level rumblings that last longer.

The difference between Mw 4 (last night) and Mw 6 and beyond (the big ones) is that the big ones go on longer and shake more violently. Speaking of which, the Mw (Richter) magnitude doesn't properly express the variation in quakes; a magnitude reflects the amount of energy released, but the actual effects vary hugely as quakes happen at different depths in the crust and the waves come in different amplitudes and periods. To this end, here in NZ the Modified Mercalli scale is often quoted alongside Mw magnitudes; it's a subjective scale based on the effects observed. Last night's quakes were generally MMI 4, though GeoNet has a handful of reports around Christchurch that they classify as MMI 5.

We're not daunted. We may change our tune later if another big one hits...

We were in town this weekend sorting out appliances and furnishings and so forth, and paused to stickybeak at some of the repair work. The change across the city is quite marked: where we are in the NW there is very little damage, just the occasional bracing here and there, whereas in the north-central there is enough rubble and dust about that the wind trivially whips up clouds of the stuff. (We haven't been into the eastern suburbs, which we hear are in a very sorry state.) We were struck by the amount of damage and destruction in the central city, which is still partially cordoned off. Some of the main streets have fencing taking sections out of the traffic lanes because of unsafe buildings or walls.

We visited not the central cathedral, but the Catholic basilica which is outside of the cordons. The building has been shored up in a MacGyverish fashion with shipping containers and what looks like bales of hay; they are taking the dome down gradually, presumably to keep it safe like they have done with a number of church spires around town.

As we walked around a couple of blocks, there were a number of rubble sites and some further red-stickered buildings with scaffolds and shoring. Portaloos here and there indicated a lack of functional sewerage; yet a couple of blocks to the south were a couple of supermarkets carrying on as if nothing had happened and one of the main thoroughfares.

Kia kaha, Christchurch.

You folks back in the UK have it relatively easy with banks. Here, we are paying a $5 monthly fee for our current accounts, a $10 annual fee for our VISA debit cards (note: EFT cards are free, but can't be used abroad or online), and then there's the small matter of transaction fees. To set up an automated payment [standing order] or direct debit? Five of your finest New Zealand dollars. A bill payment costs 50c to make, or $2.50 if you do it via a teller. To withdraw from another bank's ATM? $1, possibly plus a fee if that bank charges one for non-customers to withdraw. A non-NZ ATM? $7.50, plus 2.25% forex loading.

This morning I went to withdraw some cash from my current account. This is thankfully free, as it's covered by my monthly subscription. The ATM hummed and hawed for a while, printed me a receipt showing that I had made the withdrawal, didn't give me the money, told me that my card might be damaged, returned the card, and promptly went out of service. Thankfully, despite being a Sunday, the adjacent branch was open, so I went to a teller with a glum face. He showed me that the system had generated an immediate credit for the failed withdrawal, checked my debit card (brand new! only used for 2 transactions!) and found it didn't read properly in their on-the-counter reader. Great. So we have ordered a replacement card. This would have cost me $15 (and the over-the-counter withdrawal 25c per $100) but they waived it because it's obviously their problem.

It doesn't bode well for the reliability of their system. Nor does the fact that the two transactions I made using that card yesterday have been posted to my savings account. Now, here in NZ you can link a single card up to a current (cheque), savings and credit account; before entering your PIN the keypad asks you to select which account. I am 99% sure I selected current, and the receipts for those transactions confirm this. Something funny is going on, so I've emailed my contact at the bank to ask, essentially, wtf?

And then this evening I went to set up an automated payment for the rent on our house. Hahahaha. No, that's more than my online limit (which I don't think I've ever been notified of) and I have to do it via a branch. Sigh! Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, back to the bank I go...

There are many jobs going and businesses for sale in The Press (Christchurch daily paper). This one caught my eye. I suppose I ought not to be surprised; sex work is decriminalised here in NZ within certain parameters, though it remains controversial in places. Incidentally, 021 indicates a mobile number, so there are no clues as to location to tip off the NIMBYs...

We are slowly getting the hang of this place. There are a couple of shops and takeaways nearby, squirrelled off down a little street. There's a noticeable price difference between the dairies/superettes ($7.50 for a loaf of bread and 2l of milk!) and the supermarkets.

We've been to see one house, and have two more viewings today; we've also started trying to get our heads around what's available at two of the larger malls nearby and the different ranges at the three major supermarket chains. I've got my IRD (tax file) number, which involved a rather long queue at an AANZ office [*] over towards the dusty, earthquake-battered side of town.

[*] Yes, the AA. Here they act as agents for Land Transport NZ for all your tasty driver and vehicle licensing goodness, as well as carrying out a number of services for the IRD, passport office and so forth. They offer mutual memberships from other AAs across the world... except the UK, whose AA cut themselves off from the others a few years ago. Duh.

Speaking of cars, we've also been to a car dealer to see what's around and available. We're contemplating a Mazda 2 or Mazda 3, if the price works out OK; there's something to be said for arranging a lease-like finance deal to cover the 2 year horizon we've set ourselves for deciding whether we're staying here long-term. Most cars in NZ have auto boxes as there just isn't the resistance to them here that we see back home. I have at times been a good bunny regarding this country's wacky right-of-way while turning rule - and also completely screwed it up at others. rustica bought a copy of the Road Code, which I ought to study as well.

The motel room is nicely appointed with modern fittings, though (as ever) it's a motel room. The very new toaster beeps five times before springing up. I wonder if it's a relation of Talkie the Toaster.

And yes, it is 0730 here. The jet lag is slowly moving in the right direction, but I've still been awake since half past four. The first vestiges of Sunday's dawn are just starting to appear.

Tonight we fly
Over the houses, the streets and the trees
Over the dogs down below;
They'll bark at our shadows
As we float by on the breeze.
Tonight we fly
Over the chimney tops, skylights and slates
Looking into all your lives
And wondering why
Happiness is so hard to find.

- The Divine Comedy, Tonight We Fly

Stress level: 3/10.
Paracetamols taken today: 1 (not too bad)

Thankfully, today came together a bit. The missing V5C turned up; the paperwork was prodded along; some pragmatic decisions were made[*]; my collection of opened whisky was found a new home for (I'm not allowed to import unsealed bottles, sob) but in return I now have a home for one of my backup discs [#]; and the second preliminary packing run has been completed successfully, modulo us needing to redistribute weight around our baggage allowances.

[*] we're going to buy new duvets when we get to NZ, because we don't have the space; besides, we'll be setting up a guest room...
[#] off-site? pah! mine's off-continent.

Tonight, the shoe-cleaning; and tomorrow, the removers!

We set up a redirection with the Royal Mail the other day, to take effect on the day we move.

We haven't had any post here for a couple of days. Today I happened to look out the redirection confirmation letter, and it seems they started the redirection last week. The redirection is to a forwarding service, which costs us actual money to receive mail as we have to pay for forwarding (or scanning, as we choose).

I don't think I dare complain in case Murphy visits again...