It's -14 today, down from a balmy -4 yesterday and I've taken to wearing thermal underwear under my sweaters (practice the lingo Hazel - Jersey is a place in NY, not a garment) as my office gets quite cold.
It's the last day at work(love those short weeks) and pretty much deserted. The car is holding up well though already has a scratch...Which we think happened when M took it to the supermarket to get a plunger for the garbage disposal...The scratch looks suspiciously trolley height - I shall have to remember who scratched MY car....Hopefully we'll pick up his today and I can scratch it in return :>)
The garbage disposal suffers from that well known kids disease 'I don't wanna eat my veges' and requires everything to be chopped up into little pieces, well I know this now after the unfortunate stirfry remains incident.
Well, better get cracking at work...think the document has finally loaded up for me. Have a wonderful warm Christmas where ever you are.
December 22, 2004
December 20, 2004
Walking in a winter freezerland
Today is a balmy -10 degrees, an improvement on yesterday when it was -16 when we first looked at the thermometer. I'm not sure I can cope with weather this cold, and it's only December. Apparently it gets much colder, but S says that after a while it all feels the same temp, and you don't notice the 5 to 10 +ve or -ve. I'll have to harden up a lot before then, and stop thinking about kiwi Christmas at the beach as well. The in-laws went to the Packers game on Sunday and that's in an outdoor stadium, they had ski suits on and were about 3 sizes larger due to excessive amount of Thermal layers...I'm surprised they could bend enough to get into the car. Gotta admire that for hardcore fanaticism, specially when the Packers lost...to a team from FLORIDA. Still only a light dusting of snow on Saturday though, just as everyone headed of to the hardware store.
We had the Weaver whanau down helping this weekend and they did a smashing job...Literally when B moved the wardrobe door into the light shade! We had a long list of tasks and they had accomplished 1/2 of them by Friday night. Finally got all the wedding presents into the house (they've been stored up in Merrill) and boxes moved to storage and the tree decorated (thanks J) and new doorhandles, wardrobe doors and they even put a new fan up in the lounge while we went out for work drinks at the bosses. Not sure we'll need the fan for a while, but it looks great. We've now booked them for 'electrical weekend' and 'plumbing weekend' in which the lighting gets changed and we put in new bathroom units. Think we might be doing some extended dog sitting in return.
Get to pick up my car tonight, looking forward to 2 bits of it the most. Heated seats and sat nav. In NZ, heated seats are what you get when you forget to put a towel on the vinyl seats of your old ford falcon after a day at the beach (ouch - just remembered how it hurt when you leap off the hot seat, and your skin stayed behind). Our rental at the moment take about 10 mins to warm up, by which time we're usually just getting to work, or I've frozen in the hunched shape of the seat. I shall probabley spend the first five minutes in the new car making embarrassingly orgasmic noises of pleasure as the seat heats around my back and bottom.
Satellite navigation will also be great as I'm still getting lost. This is someone who's driven in most European countries, sometimes in the dark and up (and almost off) steep hillsides looking for hotels, with completely unintelligible signs...Ross and I never did work out what 'farten' in Norway meant, but we still laughed everytime we saw it on a sign. Here it's flat and the roads are usually cross over in neat squares with some running north/south etc...and I still get lost getting from the house to the supermarket...all of 5 minutes away.
I worked out why the other day. I navigate by landmarks...'go down to the Shell station, turn right and then the supermarket is on the left after Target' etc. This worked fine in the UK with a pub on every corner and a roundabout on every other. You missed where you were going, just turn around at the next round about and come back. Everything looks the same here and there is an indentical Walgreens (pharmacy chain) on every corner (apparently this is actually their mission statement and they are pretty close to achieving it)...all the corners look the same, all the housing looks similar and I'm still concentrating on driving on the right side of the road. Bring on the sat nav now please...I'm hoping I can push a button and it will just get me there with no pain or detours...Funny how I hate M giving me directions inthe car but I'm happy for an anonymous voice to do the same at an extra $1,500...I wonder if you can chose the voice...I think I'd like Shawn Connery to be telling me' turn right at the next lights onto Cobbler lane'....now that would be good.
We had the Weaver whanau down helping this weekend and they did a smashing job...Literally when B moved the wardrobe door into the light shade! We had a long list of tasks and they had accomplished 1/2 of them by Friday night. Finally got all the wedding presents into the house (they've been stored up in Merrill) and boxes moved to storage and the tree decorated (thanks J) and new doorhandles, wardrobe doors and they even put a new fan up in the lounge while we went out for work drinks at the bosses. Not sure we'll need the fan for a while, but it looks great. We've now booked them for 'electrical weekend' and 'plumbing weekend' in which the lighting gets changed and we put in new bathroom units. Think we might be doing some extended dog sitting in return.
Get to pick up my car tonight, looking forward to 2 bits of it the most. Heated seats and sat nav. In NZ, heated seats are what you get when you forget to put a towel on the vinyl seats of your old ford falcon after a day at the beach (ouch - just remembered how it hurt when you leap off the hot seat, and your skin stayed behind). Our rental at the moment take about 10 mins to warm up, by which time we're usually just getting to work, or I've frozen in the hunched shape of the seat. I shall probabley spend the first five minutes in the new car making embarrassingly orgasmic noises of pleasure as the seat heats around my back and bottom.
Satellite navigation will also be great as I'm still getting lost. This is someone who's driven in most European countries, sometimes in the dark and up (and almost off) steep hillsides looking for hotels, with completely unintelligible signs...Ross and I never did work out what 'farten' in Norway meant, but we still laughed everytime we saw it on a sign. Here it's flat and the roads are usually cross over in neat squares with some running north/south etc...and I still get lost getting from the house to the supermarket...all of 5 minutes away.
I worked out why the other day. I navigate by landmarks...'go down to the Shell station, turn right and then the supermarket is on the left after Target' etc. This worked fine in the UK with a pub on every corner and a roundabout on every other. You missed where you were going, just turn around at the next round about and come back. Everything looks the same here and there is an indentical Walgreens (pharmacy chain) on every corner (apparently this is actually their mission statement and they are pretty close to achieving it)...all the corners look the same, all the housing looks similar and I'm still concentrating on driving on the right side of the road. Bring on the sat nav now please...I'm hoping I can push a button and it will just get me there with no pain or detours...Funny how I hate M giving me directions inthe car but I'm happy for an anonymous voice to do the same at an extra $1,500...I wonder if you can chose the voice...I think I'd like Shawn Connery to be telling me' turn right at the next lights onto Cobbler lane'....now that would be good.
December 10, 2004
Interesting things I have noticed since moving to the US
- If it snows and then freezes and then you whack the snow off your car (to stop it falling into the boot on the groceries - tip 1) it also takes the dirt of and cleans the car...though this is negated by the runny brown slush that splashes when you drive through puddles
- we learnt fractions at school for a reason...you have to use them if you're stuck with imperial measurements, so you don't sound stupid in front of the carpet salesmen...duh-oh 12 inches and 14 sixteenth would be 12 and 7/8ths...I really miss metric!
- In the middle of the fruit section you can buy caramel dip for your apples...gotta be good for you cos it's in the fruit section right?
- you can buy postage stamps on the internet, and print out your shipping labels
- a 'red hot' is a hot dog as in 'Michaels Red Hots' is a hot dog shop, not a stripper joint named after my husband
- Drive through banking and pharmacies and drive up post boxes are a really really great idea when it starts to snow
- The bigger the car, the less need to use your indicators ( I think this might actually be an international fact)
- Most houses don't have overhead lighting, but do have overhead fans...must be good business for the lamp sellers
- Fanny Mae is a brand of chocolates...some with creamy centres ;>)
- All light bulbs are screw in (very sensible after having to buy both bayonet and screw in UK)
- The US is at least 2 generations behind in mobile technology and it's cool to wear your flip phone on your belt (In Russia its cool to wear it hanging down your front)
- Most people drink tea iced (if they drink tea at all) and don't put milk in it if it's hot
- Red sweets are usually cinnamon (bleeeeeeech -icky yucky-poo) and not raspberry or peppermint.
- Our office has a tiny inhouse StarBucks, Ramadan prayer room, and each meal on the lunch menu has calories and carbs listed (doesn't stop me eating chips...I think I might be pro-carbs)
- Everyone is real friendly and 1/20 will see through my 'English' accent and ask me if I'm from Australia!
December 09, 2004
On the train again...ah jest can't wait to get on that train again...
Day X plus 1 - Ulan Bataar to Chinese Border: expore the joys of stripmining, get to see wild camels, half a dog and the wheels come off the wagon.
It's a cold and frosty morning and after we've said goodbye to the boys (Goomba and Ita) we get onto the nice warm train. The carriage is much cleaner than the last one, but the decor is older than the Russian train and very floral. We tie the curtains back and use our patented cheese cooler (use the curtain tabs to hold the bag of cheese to the colder train wall!) spread our belongings around and we're off. Some of the faces in the first class carriage are starting to look very familiar. Mark and Julie finally board (we thought they were ahead of us and it turns out they slept through 2 wakeup calls and 1 alarm clock and only just made the train). They find out they are sharing a four berth carriage with a family of 3! General mayhem ensues but but no other option, they wedge themselves in for the ride.
Our first sight out of the station and 'ger-burbs is a man pooing in a field next to the rails...niiiice! I'm more amazed by the fact he's doing this over 2 inches of snow...not that it's in front of a 15 carriage train. It's the start of a day of peculiar sights.
We're retracing some of our steps through the national park, and this gives a perspective of just how vast the land is, and how small and lonely the settlements look at we trundle through. Even though we don't stop at most of them, each one has a railway guard waving a flag to let us through. People either go about their everyday business, hauling water, sweeping or tinkering with engines of some variety, usually the kids will wave back.
There are some good curves so you can really see the train and the first stop is a dusty station with pink and blue buildings and a silver painted statue of the cosmonaut.
The day becomes a constant drift of looking at the view, talking to our new train friends, reading and trying to spot wild camels...which we do, and they are wearing their special hairy winter coats.
We plan the toilet breaks carefully as at the end of the day we'll be going through the border. The usual amount of running around and hiding stuff takes effect and we stash the cash again.
The Mongolian guards are through fairly quickly and then we sit in no mans land, waiting to get though to the other side. Our german neighbours tell us the've used the half a puppy left on the rails as a cautionary tale to their 7 year old, who is prone to wandering off. We're all quite excited (well those of us with an inner rail geek) as they're going to be taking the wheels off on the Mongolian side and putting the smaller ones on for the Chinese side...You'd think it would be more sensible to have the same size...But I think this is one of those Russian/Chinese things that Mongolia got stuck with.
Customs on the Chinese side takes ages, everything is inspected, though they are not bothering so much with the foreigners, so we amuse ourselves by looking for guards with machine guns hiding in the bushes and the darkness (we spot 3) and trying to work out what they are signaling each out about (given what happens when they flash the lights I think the answer is 'time for a ciggie break')
Eventually we get through and after a bit of shunting we end up in the railway shed. It's all quite efficient and fast and similar to going to Jiffy Lube for a tire change. They put you on the lifters, unclip your underneath bits, raise you up, slide out all the wheels and slide in the new one. The funny part is the provinistia's putting on their grubby clothes and having to work with the rail guards to do the job. The more dainty (or lazy ones) obviously don't want to get their nails broken(despite the white gloves) so they flirt with the workshop guys to get more done. Lots more shunting later and the train is hooked back up with the Chinese dining car and we trundle through to the station...it's 1:00am and 3.5 hours later! There's lots of leg crossing going on at this stage and no-one is drinking anything.
We have about 15 minutes in the station then the sellers pack up and leave...but we don't move. Seems like something has broken down as guards and the fat conductor keep walking through the train. Another 1/2 hour and the provinesta takes pity on us and opens the toilet, at this point I don't care that I can see the station underneath. M has crashed out by now and I give up at 2:00 and go to bed...nice to be stationary in some ways, I wonder where we'll wake up in China.
It's a cold and frosty morning and after we've said goodbye to the boys (Goomba and Ita) we get onto the nice warm train. The carriage is much cleaner than the last one, but the decor is older than the Russian train and very floral. We tie the curtains back and use our patented cheese cooler (use the curtain tabs to hold the bag of cheese to the colder train wall!) spread our belongings around and we're off. Some of the faces in the first class carriage are starting to look very familiar. Mark and Julie finally board (we thought they were ahead of us and it turns out they slept through 2 wakeup calls and 1 alarm clock and only just made the train). They find out they are sharing a four berth carriage with a family of 3! General mayhem ensues but but no other option, they wedge themselves in for the ride.
Our first sight out of the station and 'ger-burbs is a man pooing in a field next to the rails...niiiice! I'm more amazed by the fact he's doing this over 2 inches of snow...not that it's in front of a 15 carriage train. It's the start of a day of peculiar sights.
We're retracing some of our steps through the national park, and this gives a perspective of just how vast the land is, and how small and lonely the settlements look at we trundle through. Even though we don't stop at most of them, each one has a railway guard waving a flag to let us through. People either go about their everyday business, hauling water, sweeping or tinkering with engines of some variety, usually the kids will wave back.
There are some good curves so you can really see the train and the first stop is a dusty station with pink and blue buildings and a silver painted statue of the cosmonaut.
The day becomes a constant drift of looking at the view, talking to our new train friends, reading and trying to spot wild camels...which we do, and they are wearing their special hairy winter coats.
We plan the toilet breaks carefully as at the end of the day we'll be going through the border. The usual amount of running around and hiding stuff takes effect and we stash the cash again.
The Mongolian guards are through fairly quickly and then we sit in no mans land, waiting to get though to the other side. Our german neighbours tell us the've used the half a puppy left on the rails as a cautionary tale to their 7 year old, who is prone to wandering off. We're all quite excited (well those of us with an inner rail geek) as they're going to be taking the wheels off on the Mongolian side and putting the smaller ones on for the Chinese side...You'd think it would be more sensible to have the same size...But I think this is one of those Russian/Chinese things that Mongolia got stuck with.
Customs on the Chinese side takes ages, everything is inspected, though they are not bothering so much with the foreigners, so we amuse ourselves by looking for guards with machine guns hiding in the bushes and the darkness (we spot 3) and trying to work out what they are signaling each out about (given what happens when they flash the lights I think the answer is 'time for a ciggie break')
Eventually we get through and after a bit of shunting we end up in the railway shed. It's all quite efficient and fast and similar to going to Jiffy Lube for a tire change. They put you on the lifters, unclip your underneath bits, raise you up, slide out all the wheels and slide in the new one. The funny part is the provinistia's putting on their grubby clothes and having to work with the rail guards to do the job. The more dainty (or lazy ones) obviously don't want to get their nails broken(despite the white gloves) so they flirt with the workshop guys to get more done. Lots more shunting later and the train is hooked back up with the Chinese dining car and we trundle through to the station...it's 1:00am and 3.5 hours later! There's lots of leg crossing going on at this stage and no-one is drinking anything.
We have about 15 minutes in the station then the sellers pack up and leave...but we don't move. Seems like something has broken down as guards and the fat conductor keep walking through the train. Another 1/2 hour and the provinesta takes pity on us and opens the toilet, at this point I don't care that I can see the station underneath. M has crashed out by now and I give up at 2:00 and go to bed...nice to be stationary in some ways, I wonder where we'll wake up in China.
December 08, 2004
made it to the US
In case you're wondering why it all stopped...just been a bit busy settling in. I'm back at work and will try and squeeze a little time out of the evening (when we're not doing car buying stuff or house settling stuff) to finish off...then let you know all the fun stuff I've learnt since I've been in the windy city...ps had snow, got rained away, might be getting some just before the movers turn up(hopefully on Saturday - keep your fingers crossed for now)...gotta run, my email at work should just about be firing up, I'm still connected to the UK server so it's sloooooooow!
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