The old addage that good music lasts the test of time is never more illustrated than hearing Josh walking around the house singing "You say goodbye, and I say hello - hello, hello, I don't know why you say goodbye..." and "Come together, right now, over me" among others. Even if he sometimes gets the lyrics wrong it's interesting, and pleasing, to hear him sing Beatles songs. This new fad has come about because of the movie Across The Universe. Well worth seeing, and great to see Bono playing a wonderful cameo in it. Wanting to encourage this we bought him the Beatles Greatest Hits 19something to 19somethingelse. Long may it continue as I dispair at the new garbage he still does listen to from time to time - "Baby, baby, baby etc" - give me strength! And with that I hereby acknowledge and confirm my membership of the 'Old Fuddy Duddy's Club'
Janine recieved her first pay yesterday - and what a very pleasent suprise! As much as I don't like it, money is an issue as I took a significant pay cut to come here and the cost of living can be, if you are unwise, more than NZ. Certainly the utilities are more costly. The minimum wage here is $5 an hour and they don't tip so there's no supplement. We were expecting the worst, hoping to obviously cover the resultant daycare required and perhaps have enough to step up to the next Broadband level of 3gb per month for $99 rather than the $59 a month for 1.5gb which we are currently on. We blew that within half a month with a couple of Skype video calls and Janine uploading photos to the interweb! I've since taught her how to reduce the size of the photos! But it was actualy much more than expected so we're delighted that we'll now be able to afford food!
Just been part of a three day Principals conference where I facilitated 3 presentations, 2 of which were in three rotations each (6 in total) so I was hoarse by the end of Thursday, added to the fact I wasn't feeling too well anyway - still aren't. Bali Hague, the deputy CEO of NZQA was the key note speaker. He was excellent. The conference was held at the Crown Resort in Rarotonga so it was nice to work in an air conditioned environment for three days!
I've noticed that my Westpac debit card has my name spelt as Bredon and my Cook Island drivers license has my date of birth as 1965. Some things get lost in translation I guess. You just accept those things here. I've been told that when dealing with service staff who are typing our personal details ask to see the screen as they type as things do actually get lost in translation - like Chinese whispers...or Rarotongan whispers!
I have to say that with all the drama that is going on in the world it is comforting to be so far away and isolated! All we have to be wary of is tornado's, typhon's, floods etc. Certainly not radiation poisoning...that we know of. Although I'm just watching the coverage on TV and seeing the devastation 10km inland in Japan. We aren't even 1 km from the beach but I have been told that the land formation of Rarotonga is such that a tsunami wouldn't build up pressure through the gradual rise of the sea bed to land. Rather, Rarotonga has a huge drop off all around the island, as well as the reef that circulates the island. Fingers crossed that's sufficient. We did have the harbour drain out noticably though.
My thoughts and prayers are with all those in Japan and of course Christchurch.
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