Well, I am still waiting for our proper Internet to be connected. I jacked it all up last week, and still no sign of... well, anything. It will be interesting to see what arrives first, the bill, or the service.
However, I am making do, even if it is stupidly expensive at $10 for 100 Megs. Pretty glad I bought that N97 phone, it has been worth it's weight in gold this trip. A lot of phone here are still not "3G" compatible, and everywhere I go I am told "oh you have to make sure your phone does technology x" and I can just say "Yup", cos the N97 does everything thrown at it.
Spent today going to a cellular site, and performing some maintenance. You certainly cover some KMs here, you basically jump in the truck, drive to Kaikoura (From Timaru of course) swap a few things over, call a few people, then drive back again. And that's the days work. Done. Just like that. On a regular basis.
Met my first 110 KM an hour zone today, quite strange getting used to legally driving at over 100. Apparently out in the outback they have "unlimited speed zones" where basically you drive as fast as you like. Looooonnng straight roads with no traffic here though remember. There's storeys of cops passing people at 160 clicks, but I'm not certain how true that is. Over here you have 12 "points" similar to our demerits. They remove a point if you are caught speeding, 10KM over is 1 point, anything over 10KM is 3 points. 30KM over the signed limit is instant loss of license for 3 months. When you have your license taken off you when you run out of points you can choose to either surrender your license for 3 months, or else continue driving with only 1 point for the next three years, and if you get caught for anything you lose licence for 3 months. Once you lose a point it takes a year for it to return.
Or something like that. It was explained to me all in a rush so I can't vouch 100% for its accuracy I'm afraid.
I did learn one useful thing today. It is not recommended that one purchases a crunchie bar and then leaves it inside a vehicle in the Australian sun for a few hours. And then, whatever you do, do not try to consume said chocolate bar.
What did yours truly do? Attempted to consume the chocolate of course. Not the smartest call I have ever made.
Thought process went something like this:
"Mmmmm that chocolate bar looks nice... I think I'll have that"
*Opens bar, spraying chocolate around*
"Hmmm that wasn't very smart... this is going to be a problem, I really regret opening it now, but now that I have, I can't really do much with it other than eat it. Oh well, here goes"
*slides the remaining hokey pokey centre from the bar out of the chocolate covered wrapper, and takes a bite*
"This really wasn't worth the effort Carl you silly person. Now you have totally melted chocolate all over your face too. Righto. Stay Calm. Finish the solid center then we can deal with the rest"
*Finishes bar center, causing face and hands and front and wrapper to be covered in melted chocolate*
"Hmmmm... I don't think the driver has quite realised the mistake I have made... carry on like it's deliberate and say nothing! Hmmmm... what to do with this pool of liquid chocolate in the wrapper... I know! I'll eat it!"
2nd major bad call of the day.
*Sprays more chocolate everywhere*
"Hmmm that wasn't smart you idiot. Should have left well enough alone. Too late now I suppose. Right. What can I do with this wrapper, I don't have a plastic bag or anything... hmmm there's my drink bottle. That will do!"
*attempts to feed chocolate wrapper into top of drink bottle, which is considerably smaller than said wrapper*
"This isn't fitting very well... never mind, can't give up now, I have run out of options, and I'm surprised the driver hasn't wondered why I'm covered in chocolate yet. I'll just feed this a bit more...."
Third major bad call of the day. I had fed the wrapper in open end up. Which, as the opening of the bottle was smaller than the wrapper, did an excellent job of feeding all the melted chocolate up to the top (open) end of the chocolate wrapper, creating an aesthetically pleasing chocolate fountain. Not the first object I would have requested had a genie in a lamp been available and granting wishes, but you do have to work with what you have been given right?
"Oh bother. This can't be good. You should have seen that one coming you idiot. Now there's even more chocolate everywhere!"
You get the picture anyhow. Longer story short I managed to get the wrapper in the bottle, covering myself and the bottle in the process.
So, consider lesson learned. And please, learn from my experiment, no matter how good that chocolate looks, it really really isn't worth the hassle. Trust me on that one.
Righto, that's probably enough for tonight... we have a BBQ after work at work for Australia day (thought that was over by now), so that should be interesting.
Enjoy your nice NZ weather.
Ciao.
Oh I must comment on the picture too... This is of a pedestrian crossing. Over here they all have big pictures of legs. Was a laugh every time we saw them for a start, now it's just becoming standard.
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