NZ Holiday Photos

Check out the NZ Holiday photos on the left

Pohara Beach

Today we arrived at Pohara Beach in Abel Tasman National Park. The beach is very quiet and is in a small bay - its just what we needed ! We will be here for 2 days before heading to Picton for the ferry to Wellington. The weather is very hot too !

tata for now - D, J&J

Franz Josef Glacier

We are currently in Haast en route to the Franz Josef Glacier - we expect to get there today and do the glacier this aft.

We have had a great time in Wanaka and Queenstown - esp Wanaka - its a cool place.

This place is amazing - not sure we are coming back !

We've arrived !

We are in Aotearoa. Christchurch to be precise. Today we go to Lake Tekapo en route to Lake Wanaka.



We all slept pretty well last night after a plane journey from hell (SF - Auckland). We did not have a spare seat next to us so it was pretty difficult as Jack doesn't keep still on your lap. He slept for maybe 4 hours on our laps - we didn't sleep at all really. Anyway having said that we are pretty good. The views on the flight from Auckland to Christchurch are stunning.



San Francisco was pretty cool - its really hilly though - I didn't realise it was that hilly !

Speak soon !

Dom, Julie and Jack

Julians 40th

We went to my bro's 40th this weekend - here are ome drunken photos for you to laugh at. ...

Football and Food

Jack has started dribbling a ball now - all by himself !

I was so impressed I decided to film him - and threw in a bit of his eating habits too.

Enjoy !

New Zealand Videos

Found a cool website with loads of NZ videos on ...

check it out here

ITA NZ

We got our Invitation To Apply for residency to New Zealand today. This comprises of a 50 page application form to fill out (which will be nice).

I have had to send off for a duplicate degree certificate as I have lost mine - this costs 50 quid (which is nice).

Then we need to get my qualification "verified" by NZQA as I am claiming bonus points as its on their Long Term Skills Shortage list. This costs another 450 dollars (which is nice).

Then we will need medicals - which will be a few hundred quid (which is nice).

Then finally we need to pay for the application itself and the "migrant levy". Which will be a few hundred dollars. (which will be nice).

Sun Certification

I am now officially a Sun Certified Java Programmer. I've been meaning to do this cert for ages but only got round to it recently. I spent about a month revising each day and night - it was a nightmare and I don't want to do it again !

Norfolk Holiday

We have just got back from Norfolk where we had extremes of weather from torrential rain to hot sunny blue skies. Have uploaded some pics. Check em out.

Manchester

This weekend we went to Manchester to see Jacks Great Auntie and Uncle. Jack was poorly in the night as he woke at 3am and refused to go back to sleep :-(

Mummy and Daddy had to stop at a service station and have a sleep on the journey home as they were so tired !

There are some pics of Jack at Auntie Joans in the Web Album.

Added a few party pics

I've added a few pictures from his birthday party.
Check em out.

Jacks 1st birthday Party

Have uploaded a vid of Jacks birthday rave on YouTube.

Check it out on the left.

What is WRONG with these companies ????

OK I have had months of billing nightmares with my ISP Pipex. I switched from a 2MB package to a 8mb one in September last year - I had already paid upfront for a year on my 2MB one and it took until February this year to get a refund for the difference - I won't go into the numerous amounts of emails and telephone calls it took to sort that one out.

So last week I realised they have not taken any money from my card since December (they should have been taking 19.99 per month). So I ring them and arranged to pay the outstanding balance and cancelled my credit card with them and set up a new Direct Debit with them (as you are protected under the DD guarantee that way if they mess up).

Then yesterday I get 2 letters from them each saying they are setting me up with a DD both giving different reference numbers.
Then today I get a letter saying I owe them money from December and they will be taking it out on the 15th May (even though I had already paid it).
So I ring them yet again today and speak to one of their minions and they acknowledge the payment letter "was a mistake" and the 2 direct debit letters were "a mistake", but when I asked if their billing system was in order now she said "yes". I said if its in order why have I been sent these erroneous letters and have to waste my time ringing you up. She just came back with some robotic apologetic sentence and didn't answer the question.

OK next - British Gas and NPower ....
I switched to British Gas as NPower claimed that they needed to put up my gas bill from 30 pounds per month to 59 pounds per month (it must be the family of 10 we have hiding in the loft). So I immediately went to uswitch.com and left them.

I rang British Gas yesterday and gave them gas and elec readings. Then I reang NPower to cancel my DD's. They claimed that the gas was still with them and hadn't heard anything from British Gas - I rang British Gas back and they said its definitely with them - great eh ? This painless switch really works !

Then I get a phone call from British Gas today in India saying they would like me to give them my gas and elec readings ! I told her that I gave them that over the phone to an advisor yesterday.

WHY ARE THESE COMPANIES SO INCOMPETENT ? Is it so hard to do these simple tasks ?

Jack meets Noddy and Big Ears

We went to Harewood House today and Jack met Noddy and Big Ears.

I think Noddy scared him though !

Check out the pictures.

Jack's Walking

Jack is walking now. Or rather he is toddling and falling over a lot !
Check out the video.

The great insurance Rip Off ....

Imagine you are in your car indicating to turn right into a road and someone runs into the back of you. No problem - they ran into the back of you, your insurance will pay for it all and claim off their insurers .....

Or rather, that's what you *think*.

It seems unless you have this "legal expenses" option on your insurance this is not so and you will lose your compulsory excess.

This is exactly what is happening to us. Julie was the driver and some taxi driver ran into the back of her. Her insurance are sorting it all out BUT they say we have to pay 300 quid excess !

The damage to her car probably isn't even worth that !

However a scour of the net and it seems they can do this.

There is a silver lining in that she has some "accident aftercare" card from her Mazda garage which claims to help recover your policy excess. Quite how all this works in tandem with her insurance company I don't know but hopefully she can get it back via them.

What is the point of car insurers ?

Its yet another skank ...

My rowing machine has FINALLY arrived

I ordered a rowing machine on 13th MARCH from simplyfitness.co.uk - at the time it said 1-2 days delivery. I ordered on a Friday. However on the Monday I noticed it then said 18 days delivery ! Of course they took my money anyway. So I waited a month and still it hadn't arrived - I phoned them (and had to go through the usual phone call misery of engaged tones, being on hold for ages and ages) and told them I wanted to change it for one in stock. So they put me through to a sales guy who happily took the money difference and told me it would be delivered on Monday. I confirmed this about 3 times with him.

OK so I waited in on Monday for it and it didn't show up. So I went through phone misery again to ask them where it was. They claimed the courier "lost it". So the nice supervisor woman said she would arrange for another one to be sent out and it would be with me on Wednesday.

So I'm waiting for it on Wednesday and it STILL didn't turn up. However an email came on Wednesday to say it had been despatched and would be with me today (Friday).

No apologies from them during any of my conversations or emails. In fact yesterday their phones were down all day.

Their website claims they give "outstanding customer satisfaction". Well if this is outstanding then Tony Blair aint George's puppet.

Moral of story - the web deals you see aren't always what they claim to be. Sometimes its best to pick things up in store for the sake of a few quid ....

Photos

I'm going to be using a new photo software from now on I think ...
It's slightly less hassle for me to use than JAlbum although I'm still torn between the two.

Anyway I'll give it a go for a bit ... its called Picasa and its free - its owned by Google.

I have created an initial album of our latest pics and its the thumbnail of Jack on the left.

Nutter taxi drivers

Julie got run into the back of her car today by a taxi driver.
She gave him our phone number and our address !
So he rang us up trying to make out that big dent in the back of our car was already there as he had just T-Cut his car and couldn't see anything on it ! He wanted to come round to show us.
She shouted down the phone at him that she would ring the Police if he turned up at our house !
So if we get attacked by an axe murderer you can put 2 and 2 together (and get 5) ...

:-)

Under Construction

I'm in the process of moving my blog from my website to Blogger. Bear with me.

Beach

We took Jack to Southport today - it was the first time he had been on the beach and he liked it a lot - he liked throwing his beach ball around and rubbing sand in his face. Southport is a bit of a dump - think Bridlington but larger !

New Photo skin

Wacka wacka wacka ...

Found a cool Pacman game and Space Invaders too ... Check it out on the links on the left. Made a film for Jack's Great Aunt amd Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary - check it out in films section.

Pizza n Ducks

I've dug out a load of photos from when we went to Pizza Express with jacks mates Archie and Henry. Also added a pic from when his Great Aunt Joan and Uncle Bo visited last weekend and we fed the ducks. I'm starting to put the new photos in a folder of their own at the end of the current set of photos so you can navigate to them easier.

Happy New Year !

Added loads of new pictures.