With being in Auckland on Monday this has felt like a short week. The good news is that we now have a home phone line (I’m not going to publish the number here so email me if you want it) and we had our cable TV installed.

On Thursday morning I had a meeting with the Director of the Law and Justice Foundation – I spent the first 30 minutes thinking that he looked familiar and, of the opinion that there was no way we would have met previously, I was trying to work out who he looked like. It turned out we were at the same conference in Belfast last year. It was very interesting hearing about the civil legal system over here, and useful too, as someone working in the sector approached ARTD this week for us to do some consultancy work for them and I’ll be leading that project as it is an entirely new sector for ARTD. There isn’t much of a legal aid system here, if you commit a crime you are only entitled to legal representation if it is likely that you’ll go to prison for the offence. Here they spend roughly 3 pounds per head of population on legal aid, in the UK it is about 37 pounds.

On Saturday John and I headed over to Auckland. We were staying with his Dad, Rob, and his step-mother, Judi, and his brother, Larry, for the weekend. On Saturday evening we headed over to Eden Park to watch the final game of the Tri-Nations tournament (that’s the Southern Hemisphere equivilant of the Six Nations, but, as the title indicates it involves just three nations – Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). The game was New Zealand V Australia, and thankfully New Zealand won, otherwise it could have turned out to be a dismal and low key weekend. We got totally drenched on our way to the game, but John’s Dad had organised tickets in a box so we stayed nice and dry during the game whilst watching everyone in the stands get very wet.

After the game we went out for drinks with John’s friends, Ryan and Sharon, who were up from Wellington to watch the game with us. John’s friend Nige also joined us later in the evening.

After just a small amount of sleep, we had to get up on Sunday and go out early to join John’s Mum, Kate, and step-dad, Al over at John’s sister’s place to watch a short documentary about Kate which was being aired that morning. John’s sister, Katie, gave birth to her first child on Thursday which was great timing – John is now an uncle. After the documentary we went out for brunch with Kate and Al.

On Sunday afternoon John, Rob and I went over to John’s brother, Jack’s, place. It was the first time I had met him. After that we joined some of John’s Auckland based friends for dinner.

On Monday we went to check that John’s place is being well looked after by his tennants and met up with some of John’s friends and his Dad at their workplaces before flying back to Sydney in the afternoon. The customs guy at Sydney airport was clearly taking his job very seriously – he made me take my glasses off and stared at me for ages to check I was the same person in the picture in my passport – he then gave me a lecture on how useless British passport photographs are and let me in.

Mange tout are snowpeas – I thought ‘mange tout’ was a silly name, but ’snowpeas’? … they’re green!

In the local department store I can find manchester on the 4th floor – imagine my confusion! … Manchester is bed linen.

Galaxy chocolate is called Dove here – I haven’t checked to see whether Dove is also a brand of soap and shower gel.

If you pay for something in a shop, or you need to get money out of an ATM, you get asked whether you want to access your ‘cheque’, ’savings’ or ‘credit’ accounts. If John want to access his current account he selects ’savings’ or ‘credit’, if I want to access my current account I must select ‘cheque’. I select savings or credit to access our joint account (that turns out to not be a joint account – very long story) and John has a totally seperate card. To add further confusion, there is no credit involved in ‘credit’ .. all of them just debit. 

I’m embracing it all – just expect some funny turns of phrase when I get back.

This story seems to be hitting the headlines all over the world. I’m currently looking for an emergency buddy… Australians seem to like the  impression that they are under threat and the media are just loving the fact that they have a relative of the would-be UK bombers on their soil. I think they think that it if they are seen to be a target they are one of the western world’s big players.

This article came from the BBC website:

Residents of Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, have been urged to pack a survival kit to prepare for a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

The local authority wants people to put together an emergency “Go-Bag”, including maps, food and a radio.

Officials have denied the campaign is a government attempt to create fear and enhance national security credentials ahead of elections due later this year.

Senior ministers said planning for the initiative began two years ago.

Emergency buddy

Sydney’s city council said residents need to think about what they would do in the event of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster or an outbreak of a contagious disease.

WHAT TO PACK IN A GO-BAG? Maps, phone numbers, insurance details Radio, first aid kit, spare keys Running shoes, spare change, energy bars, toilet paper

Officials have suggested they pack a special bag with items such as a first aid kit, running shoes and a baseball cap.

The list also includes toilet paper and sticky tape.

It is all part of a new advertising campaign called “Let’s Get Ready Sydney”.

Posters, leaflets and a website will advise people what to do if the worst happens.

They would be encouraged to team up with an emergency buddy and head to one of three designated safe sites in the city centre.

There is also a helpful suggestion for cat owners, who have been told that if disaster does strike they can carry their pet in a cotton pillowcase.

Scheme lampooned

Critics are not impressed.

A member of the Greens in Sydney said the campaign was a conspiracy by the federal government to whip up fear ahead of national elections due in the next few months.

That accusation is denied by the government of Prime Minister John Howard, who is seen by many Australian voters as a leader with strong national security credentials.

The scheme has drawn scorn from some Australian newspapers.

One cartoonist depicted a frantic woman worrying which of her designer bags to pack.

Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, has brushed aside the criticism.

She said that cities had to be aware of the threats posed by militant groups and climate change.

The mayor has admitted, however, that she is yet to pack her own emergency survival kit.

I think we can now claim that we have finally fully settled in, as we had no tasks to do this weekend. We made the most of it by opting for a very lazy casual weekend. On Friday night we hired a DVD and got a take-away pizza in and vegged out on the sofa all evening. On Saturday I headed in to town to do so shopping – there’s a few birthdays coming up and now I have to be more prepared than usual. In the evening John and I joined two friends to watch the NZ v SA rugby game in a bar, and then went on to a trendier haunt in Surry Hills where we met up with some of John’s kiwi work colleagues. Later in the evening we grabbed a take-away and headed over to Steve and Nicola’s for a game of Buzz – a PS2 quiz game complete with buzzers and ’fastest finger first’ quizes all compered by Jason Donovan.

Sunday we had a lie in and a late brunch in one of our favourite cafes, followed by a trip to the supermarket. In the afternoon John went the gym and I baked chocolate bownies – which are pretty delicious if I do say so myself.

We will be far from lazy next weekend – we fly out to Auckland early on Saturday morning and come back to Sydney on Monday. We’re meeting up with lots of John’s family and going to the NZ v Australia game at Eden Park. It’s bound to be daunting and exhausting.

It’s probably only my Mother wondering what I’m eating and whether I’m eating well out here, but I thought I’d let you all know that I’ve rediscovered my cullinary skills.

The fact that I’m cooking for two, making it worth cooking the dishes I never used to bother with otherwise I’d be eating left-overs all week, and that the Aussies are yet to embrace microwave meals in any way that is remotely edible or healthy, means that I’ve happily been forced into conjuring up some decent meals. However, John did reflect the other day that living with me had effectively made him vegetarian – but he wasn’t complaining about it (he probably didn’t dare complain at that point given he had just arrived home to discover I’d cooked a butternut squash and spinach lasagne and a lemon cake that afternoon thanks to Matrix not giving me the work they booked me for and effectively giving me the afternoon off). The only thing I seem to be regularly failing on is steaming broccoli so that it is still a little crunchy, so I’ve put John in charge of cooking all broccoli from now on.

The last 5 days have flown by – there has been so much going on. At the end of last week I received my new lap top, although I haven’t even had a chance to turn it on yet. On Friday morning I left the apartment early to queue for Crowded House tickets for a one off concert in Sydney in November on my way to work – I was really lucky to get tickets, they all sold out within half an hour. On top of that, John’s dad, Rob,  managed to score me a ticket to the All Blacks v Australia in Auckland later this month.

The weekend was also very busy – we started it with a comdey gig with friends Steve and Nicola, which was very good. On Saturday we had brunch and then walked in to the City to drop John’s bike off for a service, and then we caught a bus out to Coogee for a walk along the coast. On Sunday we went and watched a free Iranian film at the Gallery of NSW and then we had Steve and Nicola over for dinner in the evening. Sunday night was a late one again because I had the British GP to watch.

Just thought I’d tell you all that the weather has dramatically improved over here – we are having wintery (that’ll be 21 degrees) sunny days. They start and end pretty cold, but they warm up pretty quick. On Tuesday the office went out for a picnic in the Botannical Gardens. How’s the weather doing in the UK?

Friday night saw us heading to Darling Harbour to meet John’s friends, Steve and Nicola, for a drink. However our plans were initially scuppered by the venue’s rejection of John’s shoes – they weren’t smart enough for the bar apparently, so we were told to drink elsewhere. John’s friends, outraged by the ridiculous policy and the many policy infringements on view in the bar they were in, decided to smuggle out Steve’s shoes in Nicola’s handbag, which John put on. We were then let into the bar and John put his trainers back on.

Saturday saw us planning our costumes for the ‘B’ party in the evening – John went as a bear and I went as Bridget Jones. The party was good, although the Kiwi spirits were dampened by the All Blacks loosing to the Australians.

On Sunday we had brunch in cafe near our apartment and John and I collecting my new desk. We also ordered broadband, a home phone line (hurrah I hear some of you cheer!) and Foxtel. The home phone should be in existence in the next few days, so watch this space for another new phone number.

I got to watch the French GP – although I was most disappointed to discover it wasn’t exactly live - we were about an hour out. The coverage over here pales in comparison to ITV’s coverage, but we get Martin Brundle and James Allen’s ITV commentary for most of the race - I think over here, despite having advertising breaks, we get to see the whole race, but that means that the laps that happen whilst the British get their ad breaks are uncommentated, so the Australians commentators put their two pennies worth in for a couple of minutes after every ad break. Well I think that’s what happens – to be honest the race was on so late, just staying awake took up my energy, so I wasn’t really doing any really sensible thinking.