International finances

Skype makes it far less frustrating to be on the phone to a foreign bank (waves to AU). ~10 min, between the finding the right department and the closing the credit card adds up to a grand total of 20 cents (max) which is far less frustrating than if if had been on a standard land line.

2 accounts down, 1 to go after it has payed the tax bill.

It has been a little while...

What have I been up to?

Last week I was at the ATRF (Tues - Thurs). I presented a paper on alcohol consumption (first one at a conference oddly). For the last talk in the last session on the second day, everyone managed to stay awake and ask ok questions afterwards, so I think it went well.

Auckland definitely more humid than I am used to. Very nice thunderstorm on the first night though.

Weekend was spent failing to find any more rental properties (the one Z looked at on Weds was dank and smokey, the one we looked at on Fri was well below student hovel levels (it was due to be demolished, but still)) and looking at places for sale. One very nice cottage (very nicely restored), with a good garage/workshop, but unfortunately right on State Highway 2 (busy busy busy) and no sign of insulation. One nice place in Pinehaven (sun, bush, woodburner, not too old, interesting corners, well perched), but let down by the unusable (for Z purposes) garage and some odd slumping below the balcony. Rest were soulless suburban boxes in a sea of soulless suburban boxes. Nuff said really. Interesting to find out what is out there and at what rates and to see what various suburbs are like. Oddly the real estate people with the most useless places in their glossy advert set had chocolate and balloons and we think soap (or a bath bomb) in with the glossy booklet.

So, still trying to find a rental place, but have expanded options to check out the Hutt as well as the current area. Have 5 more weekends, but one of those is Labour weekend and I am off to the Folk Festival (booked ages ago).

In the mean time, I have started the packing by decanting the book collection catalogue to a (open office version of) access and am updating with the stuff we had in storage in NZ and what we have acquired since getting back. Current count 807 books, and I am part way through 1 book case of the 2 with mainly uncatalogued stuff. And the piles sorted by size rather than shelf space are growing under the industrial sewing machine.

Going to need good book boxes. The fine art of making sure that the book boxes are easily managed by someone of my lifting abilities and not overloaded (cause there will be a lot of them). Computer tower boxes were best for standard paperbacks based on the Canberra-Adelaide move, but don't quite have the same sources. We shall see.