The End is near (and for once, it's a good thing)

For those of you who have not seen me lately, there is a bit of a bounce in my step, a glint in my eyes, a Milk-bone in my pocket (regardless of whether or not I am happy to see you). Why is this the case? Well, the grand dame herself, Orli, arrives here in Christchurch next Friday, 1-August, after an absence of more than five months. In that time, she has been lazing about with her grandparents and Aunt Hana, going on walks, runs, and romps through the stormwater detention basin next to their home in the endless DC suburbs. All this while, she has been going through tests and getting vaccinations to prove that she is not a menace to New Zealand society.

She is scheduled to land at Christchurch International Airport Friday morning on the 8am flight out of Auckland. She will be transported by veterinary personnel straight from the flight to a secure quarantine facility about 40 km west of the city, where she will remain for 30 days while she continues to show that she does not represent any kind of threat to national security. I intend to foil this transaction. Well, okay, I am not going to risk deportation or anything but I will be at the airport trying everything I can to get down to see her - I did mention it has been more than five months since I saw her last, right? I will post up the results of whatever I can achieve at the airport as soon as the police let me out of jail Saturday morning...

This week's little bit of New Zealand trivia: In my (limited) experience here, apathy reigns supreme - Kiwis don't really seem to care about much of anything. A couple examples:
There is a national election for parliament and the prime minister coming up in November. However, the only election that seems remotely newsworthy is the one on the other side of the Pacific. No one discusses politics here or the latest political screw-ups in Wellington (and trust me, there are plenty). This is a far cry from the frothing-at-the-mouth politics I am used to in the States - just ask anyone about Obama or McCain and they have something to say!
Another example: there is a national retirement scheme here called KiwiSaver, where you invest part of your salary, your employer kicks in some and the government adds some too. You can pick between a good 50 different companies and mutual funds in which to invest. I started asking around to see how people invested theirs, and have universally found that people just leave their money in whatever fund the government chose for them. Can you imagine what the hordes of self-investors that waltz around with the Wall St Journal or their Blackberries tuned to MSNBC would do if their investing was defined by some bureaucrat in DC?!?!
Finally, I am looking for a good doctor. I guess it takes up to 3 months to get in with a doctor and I am covering my bases in case I do something unusually stupid while skiing this winter (or maybe get tear gassed charging the airport tarmac next Friday!). Asking around again at work, I find that no one really has anything to say about doctors - good or bad - other than just to look one up in the phone book. I suppose maybe they're all the same, but I find that awfully hard to believe. It does make it tough for me to strike up an argument if no one is willing to take a stand on anything!

The Canterbury Young Professionals

In true Shane form, I have sought out fellow fun-makers and joined up with two professional groups - the Canterbury Young Professionals (well, at least we are mostly young!) and Engenerate (ASCE YMF, but for all engineers here). Well, I actually was dragged out by coworkers to both organisations, but I wasn't kicking or screaming. Anything that may involve socialising with other young people, and could eventually result in shenanigans and tomfoolery, earns top marks in my book, and these two groups fit this to a tee! Just to give you a sense of the potential, here is a shot from the CYP 80s party that occurred shortly after my arrival - I am one side of a limbo rope, attempting and not really pulling off Marty McFly:


Tomorrow night is the CYP birthday bash - $10 gets you $2 drinks all night long (I presume) and in a country that doesn't believe in happy hours or cheap beer, that is a good deal. So I will be spending my Friday evening hobnobbing with Christchurch's best lawyers, accountants, marketers, consultants and even the occasional buttermilk production engineer. Well, "best" might be a slight exaggeration but I will take what I can get!

A Gentle Push for Skype

Since I do have the internet back, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity to make a quick plug for Skype - sometimes I do actually want to see your smiling (or if the Hawkeyes lost again, perhaps frowning) faces instead of just text on the screen.

So...http://www.skype.com/download/
There it is. Just press the 'download' button.

Interesting New Zealand Fact: according to one of the annoying public service ads, half of all house fires are started under the influence. So if you are throwing back a couple beers, don't turn on the stove - go get takeaway. Or else move to another country where they have managed to figure out how to avoid this serious problem.

Happy Fourth of July, America!

Well, I am back in the 20th century; the internet has finally made it to Chez Binder, so I can continue with my blogging adventures.

While you were all enjoying your boating, hot dogs, fireworks, democratic market-driven freedom, and ice cream in beautiful weather, we Kiwis were slogging through sub-zero temps, sleet, snow, slush, rain, and gale-force winds. Well, it felt like a gale, at least, and was quite treacherous walking across Christchurch's main square between the wind and the slippery footing. The Christchurch American Club was supposed to have a Fourth of July celebration on Saturday, complete with bonfires, hot dogs, real pickles, real ketchup, s'mores (these four are remarkably hard to come by!), and of course fireworks (left over from Guy Fawkes Day) but the shindig has been postponed until next weekend on account of the very unfriendly weather. (I am working on getting a photo to put in here to show you how un-summery it was). Well, no one said it would be easy going where the seasons are upside-down. The bright side? Skiing, or so I am told - I will report as soon as I am able to get out on the slopes.