NZ Road Code

Some of my favourite unwritten parts of the New Zealand road code:

• What mirror? Maneuvre at the last minute, signal if you can be bothered
• Have your mist lamps on at all times, especially if it is not misty. This allows you full opportunity to show off to those without mist lamps, and to blind oncoming traffic.
• A U-turn must always be completed in one go, even if there is another vehicle coming up the arse of the second part of your maneuvre at 100km an hour.
• For tourists: The most acceptable place to perform an emergency stop for photos is in the middle of a State Highway, just after bends, on double yellows or both.

A fellow Brit commented quite correctly that they find NZ drivers some of the least courteous they've come across. Maybe that's why the real road code includes their crazy 'give way to oncoming traffic turning right if you're turning left but not if you or anyone immediately behind you is going straight on' rule. An attempt at forced courtesy?

Sucked in

This week saw a major turning point in the Odds-Histen household. We acquired (drum roll please...) a Broadband Internet Connection! Hello 21st century! It's timed wonderfully with 2 weeks of home rest for me, but in turn that has opened up a whole new minefield: the world of Facebook applications, especially the mindless, quick-click satisfaction of Farmville and SimCity wannabe, Social City. My bed-confined world now centres on filling the 4 hour gaps between painkiller doses with building enough leisure facilities to keep Oddsville (!) residents happy and then hoping I make it back to the farm in time to harvest my eggplant crop.
At least I'm not sat in front of the TV all day, right?!

Less than impressed

As I sit her in a hospital bed recovering from a good helping of sinus surgery and looking rather like General Melchitt with his moustache net on, I feel a whinge coming on. We'll ignore the newer grumble that my medical insurance decided to ditch me at the last minute because there was one too many zeros on the quote.

I am currently not the least impressed with the service I am getting from a major global mobile phone manufacturer to whom I have been a loyal customer for many years. Over the past 2 months I have spent around 9 hours on the phone to over 10 different 'customer service' representatives who are all clearly nowhere near New Zealand. They have only once forwarded me to their promised customer satisfaction survey (when they thought they might have resolved the issue). Almost every time they say they'll call me back they don't, so I have to call their infernal 0800 number and listen to their horrendous hold music before going through the whole story again. Twice. Because they don't understand the first time. Even when they do call me back, they don't know the background and I have to go over the story with them AGAIN.
Honestly... And I'm still no closer to resolving my warranty and repair matter than I was this time in January. Harumph!