A month has passed again and I was lazy with regard to  updating the news page.

At least I was a little bit more active around the house.

The garage is finished as well as the guestroom. Have to make sure now that I don't mix up guests and car . The greenhouse is knocked down and the garden shed moved to its new location. The new heater will be installed on Friday. And I can tell. It's time. Freezing 4 degree Celsius this morning and a wet south wind. That's the reason I sit in front of the computer now. I decided that there is a temperature limit.

The new family member should be known by now. If you skipped the entry page you missed out this gorgeous puppy. Johnson will stay at the breeders place for another 4 weeks until we come back from the rugby tour. We will travel with Jon through the country and decided that a motor home is not the best for a new dog. Or rather, the dog is not the best for a rented motor home. The Rhodesian Ridgebacks are known for their destructive behaviour during puppy stage.

New Zealand is in sports fever. And this since I arrived here in February. Seems that this is the main interest of the nation. Even more than international politics.

There was first the Americas Cup. A mourning nation after they lost against the sailing nation Switzerland. A few weeks later the first heads were decapitated. And now they try to find somewhere 150 million Kiwidollar to finance a campaign in 4 years.

Then there was the Cricket World Cup. Because of some more competitors in comparison to the sailing event, the chances were rather small to bring the title home. And what should I say. The friends from the other side of the Tasman sea got it.

Rugby Super 12 is on since months. For the ones who don't know what this is here a explanation from a German who knows not even the rules. The three strongest countries in the Southern hemisphere (Australia, South Africa and NZ) bring 4 teams each to a small rugby league. 3 times 4 equals 12. Super 12. The final was last weekend and two NZ teams clashed in Auckland. And for the ordinary Kiwi it is not enough that they managed to bring 2 teams into the final. No. Now the  rival between North and South Island starts. After several consecutive years (I reckon there were 4) the Canterbury Crusaders lost against the Auckland Blues. Bugger.

The celebrations didn't even start and the public was looking already for the next event. The nomination for the All Blacks test matches. Important as an election for parliament. Disappointment on my behalf. Tana Umaga did not make it as captain.

And not to forget. There was a national final of this odd game, which is called netball. Very important here. I got told that this is one of the  fastest games on mans earth. Not played by man. I still didn't get the purpose of the game.

Rally sport was in the media for 2 weeks in a row. More the fact that New Zealand's most successful rally driver, was fatally injured during a car accident.

Hunting season started and one of the first victims were hunting colleagues. 2 hunters died in the last weeks, as they were identified as deer by their maids.  For the children of the killed hunters no education trust will be founded, as 'Holmes' suggested would happen for the children of Possum Bourne the rally driver. I think a sad story.

Cars. There are people in the world, who are really ..... you can choose of any swearword you know.

Somebody crashed into our car and left without leaving a note. Luckily we are insured with a small excess.

That's for today. Some new pictures of the house will follow soon and I am working on placing a polling system on the page.

So much to the news from our trip to Europe. And I thought I would have all the time in the world to get this page at least updated weekly.

Our daily routine changed a bit in the last few weeks. I am alone in the house during the day. Kylie works for the Ministry of Social Developement (Work&Income) as a case manager and tries to get jobless people a new employment. After two interviews and driving me nuts, she got the job in an office just outside of Christchurch. The studies for the master continue in parallel, but with some reduction.

I received my Work Permit and be now legally allowed to get a paid job whatsoever until April next year. A  relief one can say. I don't have to get my Visitor Visa extended. The application for residency is still in process and will need some months.

Summer said good bye and chilly autumn night are now regular. The days are mainly sunny and I can still work in the garden. As we don't have a decent heating system in place we spend the evening in front of the electrical heater. I have to hurry up, because a power crisis is to be expected in NZ. All electricity is produced by hydropower plants. Due to the very dry summer all lakes are nearly empty and electric power might become rare. The government  asked to save 10% power and during the night a lot of advertisements along the roads are switched off. A remarkable exclusion was the big sign of the Environment Department of Canterbury. After making it into the news also this sign should by now be switched off.

We are still searching for a dog. As I cannot getting convinced that a beagle is the right puppy for us the search will most probably take still a while. I am keen to get a Rhodesian Ridgeback, but at the moment  the breeders are not too busy. Especially as the so called "fighting dogs" will have a tough time in New Zealand. After some attacks of dogs same discussion started as years ago in Europe. Should certain breeds be banned, muzzle the dogs, get them register, and so on and on. Finally 4 breeds have to be muzzled in public and in the coming year all dogs have to receive a microchip. The joke part of the whole story is that as from 2006 owners of dogs have to provide a safe, dog free access to the front door. This helps to undermine the purpose of watchdogs  and makes life of burglars a bit more easier. In the end of the whole discussion, which kept NZ for at least 4 weeks busy, the statistics showed the most of the registered bites are caused by some of the friendliest dogs. There are just too many Labradors on this island.

The SARS fever is also here the topic. The first case was released yesterday from the hospital after the woman got infected during a trip to China. As sad as the whole story is, but I couldn't fight the smile in my face, seeing today the pictures from Taiwan, were a woman tried to jump out of a window while quarantined.  From all countries fighting with the virus, only Taiwan managed to get into the international press, showing suicide attempts.

We had the fire fighters at the house. We got a new wok and I was stupid enough to burn the butter. The smoke developed a bit to fast. After the smoke detector went of we opened the windows. Unfortunately (only in this particular case) we are connected via telephone to a security company. The company couldn't reach us, as the telephone was occupied. To be on the safe side the company informed the fire department. It took them only 10 minutes to embarrass us. Luckily they didn't show up with sirens and the guys on the truck were quite relaxed.

To squeeze 3 month into a few sentences is not possible unless you have spend the time in a sleeping clinic.
We arrived safely and exhausted in New Zealand last month. A few days later our stuff from Taiwan arrived too and it seems that nothing is missing or broken (we have not opened all of the boxes). With the exception of one pair of mountainbike tires, which were too dirty in the eyes of NZ hygiene department. A new pair is cheaper than the whole operation with disinfection.
We organised ourself somehow in our new house, knowing that all of the rooms have to be renovated or even relocated. The computer is in the bedroom, the TV in the kitchen, tools are next to the fridge and the washing machine somewhere in the chaos.

One of the first things to organise was the car. I know so much about mens preferred toy, as a cow from dropping eggs. And then the issue with the stearing wheel. The blimmen thing is on the wrong side of the car. And most of the cars here have automatic transmission and they are in most of the cases registered for the first time in Japan. All the models have different names than the ones I'm used to. Anyhow, we decided quickly. I have to admit that the Playstation game 'Gran Tourismo 3' had a significant influence on the decision. Am I right Jon that I was nearly unbeatable in the Subaru Impreza? It's not the flashy rally type but a very good deal. So far!

The paperwork for the residency took me a bit longer. The medical check was done already in January and some documents I brought with me from Germany that I only had to get one document translated. Finally the application went to the immigration center last week.

Organising insurances, filling the fridge and the storage cabinets, checking building materials and kitchen suppliers and working on the house filled our days.

A week ago we went sailing in Akoroa. The first time for me on a yacht. Was an experience as the sea was so rough that we had to go back with the small auxiliary motor.  Eating in advance wasn't a good idea for 25% percent of the crew (we were 4). We call the effect of a big lunch in combination with an unstable stomach during sea travel 'feeding the fish'. I leave it open as far as the name of the person is concerned.

I will try to recap some other news from our first visit to NZ and our travel to Germany in the next updates. I finish today with news, which was for us the most important in the last weeks.

We got engaged

The last entry until we will pack the computer into the old paper boxes, which have then to be exchanged by the forwarder into brand new boxes. New Zealand customs regulations. Could be that a nasty bug has made himself comfortable in the last 2 years. Our place looks at the moment a bit like a training ground for hand granate throwing. We are convinced that we just a small step away from controlled chaos.

Time is running fast in these days. Everyday some other things on the programme.

Last week Friday we had the rooftop barbeque. Luckily one can hardly look over the railing, otherwise we would have had some casualties. The Gluehwein (mulled wine) was served. This drink is quite famous during the winter months in Europe and is the cause for a number of ski accidents. Guests and artistic Taiwan sky are added on the photo page.

Saturday we went to the dentist. My favorite doctor. Plan was to get rid of Kylies wisdom teeth, check and cleaning. Kylie was the lucky one this day. She could keep her teeth and I haven't seen such a big smile after she was told. A new feature is available with Taiwanese dentists. The camera. These guys are taking picture before they start and show you the comparison after they completed their art of work. I will as from now definately go every 6 months. The whole sculpturing session in my mouth lastet 20 minutes.

Wednesday we went for a farewell drink with Andy, who left to good old England and last night we invited some friends to our farewell drink. And tonight again time for party. Nigel is playing in Napoli and I will fill the gaps with music from the CDplayer.

We have to manage to be at least 6 hours on our feet tomorrow. Final packing and preparing the lists for the insurance and the customs. After last night this will be a task.

The TV is gone and we have to watch the movies again using binoculars. The old TV is just a bit larger than the laptop.

We changed our flight arrangements  between NZ and Germany. We will avoid the States as the passport controls must be a bitch during these days. Mark experienced that during his journey back to Canada. So we will take the route via Hongkong and back from Germany via Tokyo. I was a little bit shocked with the travel time of 36 hours. But what to expect if you want to go from one end of the world to the other.

The table for X'mas day is booked. I will spend this year an English X'mas. Which means from my point of view, no presents on the 24th and lots of food and drinks on 25th.

So, that's it for  some weeks. The next update will be huge. First impressions from NZ, travel experiences in freezing Europe and photos, photos, photos.

See you next year.

Pottermania. No worries. This will not be a review of a movie. We went to the movies 2 weeks ago and gave us 160 minutes of really good entertainment. A very lucky person was in the audience. The one with the laser pointer, who could not be spotted by Kylie. She was close to screening the whole room for the person.

I never read one of the books. But I'm very impressed about the story of J.K.Rowling. Unemployed teacher with child, writing a book while sitting in a cafe and the daughter has a nap. Now, one of the wealthiest woman on the island.

Is there maybe a change for me?
The Playstation was finally for repair. We had again to use the 'sales assistant - mobile phone-secretary-mobile phone-customer-mobile phone-secretary-sales assistant' way of communication. Finally, after a few handsigns and 5 minutes of telecom usage, the verdict for the PS2 was clear: 'back to the specialist for repair'. Took only 4 days. The laser had to be exchanged. Now we finished already the latest Harry Potter game and couldn't win the house cup. Disappointment.

The past weeks have been quite successful with regard to our moving preparations. Consent for overseas investment not required, appointment for medical check done, backup financing secured, health insurance concluded and police record Greece in preparation. Police records. This is an issue. The NZ immigration regulation requires police records of all countries in which the permit seeking person lived in the last 10 years. This are only 4 countries in my case, but already an adventure. I knew from the beginning that the Chinese one will be the hardest to obtain. These guys do not even answer to the emails. I'm now stuck at the Ministry for Public Security after I did my first attempts via the German Embassy. Even a former employee in China got contacted, but also there no response. Might be that they just block any messages from Taiwan.

The Taiwanese one is already seized. Greece is to follow. Thanks to my former colleagues in Athens. I will apply for the German record once I'm in Europe. I could also apply from here. Would take only some hours. Application form, copy of passport and 13 EURO. Problem is that the copy has to be certified, can only be done at a Taiwanese court, personal appearance required, and the fee has to be transferred via a bank, no cash. Through this torture we went yesterday. Certified copies are also required by customs to clear the personal effects. What is in other countries a procedure of 10minutes (waiting time in Germany not included) took us 1,5 hours. They even wanted to send us to Taipei to the Culture Centre. Finally and 1.500 NTD (45 EURO, 90 NZD) less in the wallet we had the certified copies in hand.

What else is in our minds?

Were some good rugby games in the last weeks. Roses against wallabies. Rage again in our house. Kiwis against roosters wasn't broadcasted.

Packing boxes has started.

A nasty virus forced me to format one of the hard drives. Two other viruses forced us to buy tissues.

Two new health plans are on trial. Number 1 is called 'try to drink 5 liter water per day and visit the toilet as often as possible' and number 2 'try to eat 5 kilo grapes per day and catch the times the toilet is not occupied'.

Nigel shot at the companies golf tournament a hole into the window screen of a caddy car.

The first batch of Christmas truffles had to be evacuated from our place as Kylie was her best customer with regard to consumption.

Situation at the 'designer of ugly handbags' challenge:
Semi-finals during 9th and 16th December
Alinghi v Oracle BMW
Prada v OneWorld

I admit, I was lazy the last days. Oops. Already 2 weeks since the last entry. But I have to defend myself. In case you have visited the site in the last days and looked up the photopage (everybody is only interested in that), you have most probably recognised, that some new pictures have been added.
Quite a number of friends were knocked out after the 'disaster' Saturday in the 'Tropics', on the ocassion of Sabine's birthday and Halloween.  We had a lot of fun, even undressed.
Correction !!!
We were dressed, but not dressed up.

As the walk through Taichung has now been twice skipped, no new photos with weird things in Taiwan are available. I think that the ones from the 'Tropics' make up for this deficit.

X’mas can not be avoided. The first decorations have been purchased. You have to be quick in Taiwan otherwise the best, i.e. non-kitsch items, are gone. Kylie bought stuff to make a wreath. It’s looking very x’massie and will be fixed to our entrance door on 1^st December. The tree will be another issue. I still don’t know where to get a non-plastic pine. The absolute shocker was the tree we found in the new shop in our office building. A golden specimen of the type ‘we produce ugly plastic trash, but we can even do worse’. The marvel can be admired on the photo page.

By the way, golden. I found the ultimate scooter on our last Sunday walk through Taichung.  A picture is not available as the batteries of the camera went flat at the same moment I tried to capture this golden piece of art on to the chip. But I will hunt this scooter down, with 3 emergency power packs this time.

The first exchange attempt went very good. I got a brand new PDA. I didn’t expect that in the first place. Took them only 2 days, but with lots of telephone calls between one of our secretaries and CASIO in Taipei. I’m now looking forward to the Playstation story.

The Japanese department store has widened their offer of entertainment shops with the opening of Tower Records. We still couldn’t figure out why the Taiwanese record retailers sorting according to the first name of the artist. Robbie Williams is under R and Erykah Badu in the E category. But what shall be expected from a shop, which is sorting New Zealand Maori songs in the Australian section and Italian schmaltzy songs in the Spanish tango section.

Weird things happen in this world. Men’s toilets are a hotbed. Especially if they are public. I still remember the guy at the Hong Kong 7’s who was dressed up like Spiderman and had to strip completely in between the other fans, seeking for urgent relief during half-time.

If you think that this is funny, what would you say if you enter into a public washroom and somebody is fiddling with his unemployed hand at the joint between the wall tiles. Happened to me last week (I was the one entering into the toilet).

How close life and death are, we experienced this weekend. Some friends from the Taichung Rugby Club went to Bali to play a tournament. We had a few hours of uncertainty after the bombing, as we couldn't reach them. Luckily all of them are healthy back in town.

I have to take some stuff back to the shops. My PDA is without light since Sunday. Checking the Internet, this is a known problem. For those who want to buy a PDA in the near future, I got a Cassiopeia E-200. Despite this small (?) problem, it's a really fancy toy. Will be some fun, going to Nova and explain to the shop assistant that I want a new one. The next one will be the Playstation. Something is wrong with the laser, which does reduce my daily shoot out with aliens to zero. This exchange or repair will be even more exciting, as the owner of the shop does not speak any word of English, with the exception of 'hello'.

We added some more photos after we explored the town on Sunday. I am wondering, whether I should create a special page with pictures of odd things in this world. The Taiwanese anti-theft device for the car and the 'howmanypeopleyoucangetontoascooter' could be a start-up.

For those of you, who follow the Louis Vuitton Cup (warm up for the Americas cup), here the latest standings :

OneWorld Challenge 8*
Alinghi Challenge 7
Oracle BMW Racing 5
Team Dennis Conner 4
GBR Challenge 4
Victory Challenge 3
Prada Challenge ** 3
Mascalzone Latino ** 1
Le Défi ARÉVA 0

* OneWorld will have one point deducted at the conclusion of Round Robin Two.
** Prada and Mascalzone Latino have one match against each other left to sail

I don't get the point being excited about watching sailing. But seems to be a big issue for a lot of people. And associating ugly handbags with a sporting event is even more difficult for me to understand.

I decided to take the camera now more often with me. It's a bit embarrassing to have after nearly two years in Taiwan just a few photos to present. My first shooting day took place yesterday during lunch break. I think that I took 20 photos, of which 18 show eating Taiwanese. There is not so much more going on at this time of the day around the office. I need definitely a flexible lunchtime.

Kylie takes the German lessons now very serious. We left behind already the everyday greetings. Counting is a different matter. I guess that we Germans are one of the few nations, which put the decimal place after the unit. And this is valid only after the number 21. This makes life (actually only the speaking) of non-Germans a bit difficult. In addition to the muddle in digits, we have a weakness for the usage of these very important letters like S, Z, AE, UE, OE. For those, who don't know any German, the last three letters look like u, o or a with two dots on top. The pronunciation of these letters creates funny faces for beginners and big smiles for listeners. Like me. Our proverbial sense of order must have been the reason to group the difficult letters. We have schw's, zw's, schwue's and zwoe's. To listen to the spoken number 12 (zwoelf) is for me at present absolutely rocking. Anyhow the progress is amazing. I will not go into too much detail about my English lessons in school. We still had the possibility to drop certain classes, which were not too much beneficial. This is what I did with English. By the way, same applied to maths.

p.

A transplantation took place in our flat last weekend. The computer received a new brain (processor), nervous system (motherboard) and skin (case). Furthermore the specialist diagnosed a bad eyesight and therefore the lenses got changed too (graphic card). It took only 5 days until our patient could again communicate and follow the orders. In between I was close to kicking the weakling out the window, because of Windows. Hope that it will not, in the near future be involved in a crash.

Kylie was busy with travel arrangements. Our round-the-world trip, overshooting luckily the place of departure, is as follows.
"Zai Jian" Taiwan on the 2nd January 03 (WE CAN'T WAIT !!!), in between some Thai, because we spend 2 nights in Bangkok, "Kia ora" NZ on 5th January, "Haere re" NZ on 14th January, "Hallo" Germany on 15th January, in between some "Happy Birthday, mum", "Tschuess" Germany on 11th February, "Hi" USA on 11th February, "Bye" Los Angeles on 13th February and "we again" NZ on 15th February.
We hope to see as many friends as possible while being in Europe. We plan to travel a lot, despite ugly European winter weather. So, don't be afraid, we will not stay for too long at your place.

Some new quotes are added and changes to the layout of the page are in progress. At least mental. And of course we (?) will start with the German translation soon. Will be Inge's birthday present. (Die Uebersetzung ins Deutsche wird Inge's Geburtstagsgeschenk). Photos are still not available. We have to refer for the time being to "The Krimpmanns". Some companies would pay huge amounts for such an advertisement.

Its getting darker minute by minute, but somehow this time the Japanese will get wet feet. Hopefully this monster of cloud will not create such big losses than the last in Korea.

Anyhow our barbecue on Saturday, on the occasion of Marks departure, will most probably not take place. But there are still a few hours to come up with an alternative location to get drunk.

Just watched CNN and realised that Germany has more unemployed people than New Zealand has citizens. Exactly more than 4.000.000. Imagine to swap these people, you would end up with an unemployed country. Not a good idea.

We decided that the homepage has to be changed.

The overall layout sucks. So, don't wonder the next months, you are still on our page. But it will change quickly.
I am very demanding about the artistic impression. The target has been set high. Good that I am tall and will have lot of time in the upcoming months. The first major step towards this, is the elimination of the counter. Who is interested to see, that he or she is visitor number 432. Especially when search engines send their robots automatically through the pages and increasing the hits. And these brainless chip conglomerates are definitely not so much interested in the information of the page. Furthermore I would like to avoid moments of tears, every time I open the page and the number has not changed from the one the day before. So, get rid of it. Basically, it should be a reduction of schickimicki (the dictionary says: chiceria). So, no flashing graphics, moving comics and scrolling banners. By the way, this has been also removed already. We will keep some stuff on hidden pages, but just for training purpose. About THE COLOUR (or my architectural friends would call it: THE CONCEPT) we are still discussing. My former Latin teacher would say, that we have not achieved THE CONSENSUS. I like the grey. A former trainee on the site in Greece said, that he studies civil engineering, because he loves the smell of THE CONCRETE. Maybe he liked also this particular colour. On the other hand we would like to dye the page a bit. You recognised the orange and the blue? THE COACTING of both and THE COAGULATION of bloodstream in brain cells they produce?

I have to admit, the new dictionary is excellent.

We will see. Let us know, if you don't like one or the other. But with sound reasons, like you can't read the light grey letters on the grey background, or that choosing a font size of 72 was not a good idea. At least the guestbook is working for this purpose.

Peter

Inspired by the marvellous Armin 'the Computer freak' and Sabine ´the patient Story writer´, we decided to give it a go and create our own homepage.

I am still, during the time I am working on the page, searching for the best host for our site. Once you can see it in the net, I have made up my mind.

We are still sitting in Taiwan and can´t wait until we will move. Before we will head towards NZ, 2 weeks Germany are on the programme. The theme of the ´vacation´ will be be -meet the parents- or buying the most ugliest cuckoo clock available.

Some things are already packed. Kylie was very quick and got rid of most of her stuff and 2 boxes and a big, and I mean big, suitcase are left over. Kylie´s opinion is, that the suitcase is good, not only big. I started a bit more moderately and cleaned up my papers. Four months of bills, bank statements, milage accounts etc. were to be filed. I was quite proud after I could biff one plastic bag of paper. Mainly 7/11 receipts, which I kept to win the million NT Dollars of the yearly lottery. did not work, because I never checked the numbers.

By the way, this is not a x´mas letter. Regards to Syd.

(I mentioned to Peter that this page sounded like my fathers Xmas letters!).