Christmas 2013 in New Zealand

It had been four years since we'd been back to New Zealand so December 2013 was designated the time to go. Christmas holidays aren't ideal - in the UK the schools are only shut for 2 weeks (vs 6 or so in New Zealand) and we didn't want to spend £5,800 on flights for a two week stint. In the end we went for 3 weeks and got fined for taking the girls out of school for the extra time. The fine was £120 per child but in my view, that last week of school is spent cleaning up the classroom and watching DVDs, so the benefit from seeing friends and family and experiencing a new culture is worth the grief.

It's also a lot cheaper to pay the fine than amend the flights. In hindsight I wish we'd played the health card (as one of the grandparents had suffered a heart attack earlier this year) as a friend did this with her kids who were out for an entire month an didn't get fined (our kids go to different schools, but are run by the same council which is the body that issues the fines). 

I'd grown up in Christchurch which was unrecognisable after the massive earthquake of 2011. It was quite disorientating being in the centre of town and not seeing the skyline I was used to. Almost three years on and the place still looked empty and desolate. There were empty lots & carparks where huge buildings used to be, and scaffolding and boarded up windows everywhere. I can't say I was ever affectionate for this town but I felt emotional walking around it. 

Christmas day was spent picnicking next to this river and the girls and their cousins braved the cold water to swim in here. Quite a contrast from our UK Christmases. 

Here we are with Rob's parents and his brother's family. Gwen wasn't very happy about having to sit on Opa's knee so this photo will haunt her forever.

At least she enjoyed sitting on her Poppa's knee (below). And hanging with a variety of small animals on his farm, which is called Mini Haven as most of the animals are miniature or teeny. 

Meanwhile back in London, our house sitters emailed to say that alas, the temporary fix on the glass roof hadn't worked as there were some new leaks in the house. Joy.

Temporary fix apparently

Sunfold Systems came around this week and we had a different engineer this time. This chap decided that the only place the water could get in was via a couple of screw holes in the vents, so his plan was to cover them with a rubber skirt and see if that kept the water out.

This was a temporary measure with the outcome being that no leaks means it works, so he'd know what to remedy to make it a permanent fix. As we're off for three weeks over Christmas we're keeping everything crossed (again) that the rubber skirt keeps the rain out, otherwise we're back to square one.

(Photo above of Marlo, December 2013)

Sunfold leaks continue...

The wet splodge on the sofa is from the leak. We seem to go for weeks with no sign of a leak then out of the blue, drip drip drip. It doesn't even have to be raining, I imagine the insides of the metal frames are slowly filling up and then spilling when they eventually get full. I have no idea if this is why but then neither do Sunfold by the looks of it.

On the upside, at least we're here and can put down towels/saucepans etc and attempt to contain the water. Hate to think how much damage would have been caused if we'd gone on holiday without leaving out our collection of drip trays. 

In other news - we were very excited about the Alexandra Palace 'Back with a Bang' fireworks display. A group of us met in the afternoon with the intention of hanging out in the beer hall for a couple of hours before the fireworks started. The old saying about not being able to organise a piss up in a brewery springs to mind - the queues to get in to the beer hall, then wait to get served were an hour each time. We gave up which is just as well as the beer ran out. And yet there was still hours before the fireworks kicked off.

After huddling around outside and drinking (surprisingly not cold) beer from another vendor, and queuing for some mediocre food, we gave up. I watched the fireworks display on YouTube and thought 'Meh'. Was far happier in front of my pal's open fire while the kids drank hot chocolate in the next room. The security team had a difficult time controlling the large (and annoyed) crowd and the whole event was farcical. Hopefully Victoria Park will resurrect the fireworks display in 2014.

Leaky loo

The top floor bathroom knows I hate it. I'm just letting it hang on until we get the funds together to rip it out and start again. It's not doing itself any favours by developing a leaking cistern. Rob noticed the floor around the loo was wet and after a couple of days of strategically placed kitchen roll to soak up the moisture, he called up our ever reliable Polish builders.

The only way they could look at the cistern was to smash open the tiles which had boxed it in. (On what planet does someone think that's a good idea? Who on earth would imagine they'd never want to access their cistern at some point?). Sure enough, the inspection revealed corrosion and after repeated trips to the plumbing supply shop around the corner, we had a new cistern fitted, the tiles temporarily stuck back, and the toilet resealed.

Everything in our house that goes wrong (the leaky ceiling, the blocked sinks, the temperamental dishwasher...) all seem to be related to water. Is there an exorcism for such matters?


Vodafone HTC S update

Five days after submitting my HTC S for 'repair' I hadn't heard from Vodafone so tweeted about it. Which got their social media support team involved. Whether it was a co-incidence or not, the phone showed up at the Vodafone shop the very next day. I left work a little early to collect it, thinking it would be a good idea to get the Micro SIM installed and migrate the contents of my current HTC phone over.

This would have been a good plan had the phone arrived in one piece. Actually, it wasn't the phone I'd sent away at all. This one was a newer, less battered version in a nice shade of silver, so I guess all that poking really did screw it up (take note SIM-removal amateurs!). Anyway, they'd sent it without the back.

Apparently I should have been given the back in the first place. My back was a different colour but whatever, they hadn't given it to me. They've ordered me a replacement so I'm waiting for that to show up, so I can then take the phone to a Vodafone store and get a Micro SIM fitted... let's see if this happens any time soon...

Hello winter

SO. Sunfold came back last week with the engineer and spent over an hour lifting out the windows (vents) from their frames, cleaning out quite a bit of gunge and resealing with what looked like Polyfilla. Then it didn't rain for more than 15 minutes for an entire week. I waited and waited. We had a bit of snow apparently (didn't see it, must've melted by the time I got up). I've never wanted it to rain so much before. Finally, it rained. Last night it rained solidly for hours. And guess what? IT STILL LEAKS.

The good news is, it definitely doesn't leak as much. As far as I can tell the six leaks are now down to one though this might be a case of speaking too soon. The vents tend to fill up with water and drip hours after the rain's stopped, so it's possible they're still filling up.

The one leak is a nice bold drip which falls intermittently. The bucket has a very small pool of liquid at the bottom which is a nice improvement on the three inches of water it was accumulating in 24 hours.

The next step in our mission to not have leaks is to replace the windows/vents. And if that doesn't work we need to adjust the pitch of the roof to force the water to run off better. I'm not convinced by the pitch argument as surely the roof should be water tight? If water can't run off, shouldn't it puddle instead of coming inside? Or maybe that's just me being old fashioned.

To add to the seasonal change, the leaves have dropped so the light in the extension is a watery winter harshness. Instead of looking at lushness we can see the neighbour's house again. (Pictured at top)