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Browsing category: Uncategorized

  • June 22, 2009

    Just to add to my list of niggling worries…

    …BF’s family is having troubles.

    His mother is looking to move sometime soon, to somewhere smaller and cheaper.

    BF, understandably, wants to help her out, as he was telling me.

    Thankfully he had the sense to add “But I know we have our own troubles to worry about.”

    Yeah, you’re telling me! Not that I like to whine (well, I guess this blog bears the brunt of my gripes). But it’s tough enough getting by as a student on a student income, without having to essentially support a second person on said income. And sometimes I feel BF doesn’t appreciate that enough. I mean, we think of all our money as “our money”, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. But he’s the happy-go-lucky kind anyway. I’m a born stressor.

    Anyway. Our helping could come in the form of moving in with her (she’s apparently found a few nice places, with sleepout/separate downstairs flat, etc). She only has her and BF’s youngest brother now, and I guess BF’s oldest brother also will be living there. If we lived with them, it would ease the pressure of rent and bills, and she knows we would always pay on time.

    Qualms? Well, sooo many: the place itself, and housekeeping (previously they’ve lived in rather dumpy, messy places, although I don’t know how much of that to attribute to the fact that there would have been five kids in and out, not to mention their friends); BF’s oldest brother (not someone I’d actually want to reside with); the likely frequency of BF’s sister and kids coming to stay during her and her partner’s domestics; being close to the bus; being close to campus for BF next year; flexibility of moving, because presumably that would leave his mum in quite a fix. Sigh.

    See, my plan was for us to take our time looking for our next place. (Plus, not many people are keen to take in couples, especially if they’re both studying). I wanted to live in Mt Eden/Epsom, or maybe 3 Kings/Greenlane/Royal Oak. Reason: better, more frequent buses, and reduced travel time to the city. Have I mentioned how sick I am of spending 10 hours a week commuting? Doesn’t even count the time spent walking to/from the bus stop, and waiting for the bus. Those specific areas: because if he goes into teaching he will have classes at the Mt Eden Rd campus. It’s best if we live close to it, so if the car craps out he can still get there without too much fuss. BF seemed to understand and agree with that.

    But not today. He’s all gung ho about helping out his mum (which is totally fair enough). I reiterated how important it is for both of us to be able to get to uni/work WITHOUT relying on a car. His answer? “Oh, but you can’t keep living life in fear of something that MIGHT happen”. Well, like I explained, it’s perfectly sensible to live somewhere where I can cut down on travel time, and ensure that our old car breaking down wouldn’t strand us. And frankly, I am sick of West Auckland. Plus, he just doesn’t want to move away from his friends and family. He’s that kind of person. Me, I don’t care. I want to live somewhere decent, closer to town, and in an environment where he can do the best he can to prepare for starting uni next year. I’m not sure living with his mum would achieve that. She has to stay in this area because of BF’s brother’s school. And she currently has no car herself…so, see where I’m going? But I don’t want to come off as the cold hard bitch here.

    It’s just hard to make plans at this stage when we don’t know exactly what will be happening next year. BF could be studying at the Epsom campus on the other side of Auckland, or at the city campus. I could be working in town, or maybe at a small community paper. Ya know? Not to mention our lease goes until August. Oh please, kill me now.

  • June 21, 2009

    On work, internship and money

    It’s been pretty quiet at work these past few months. Looks like that’s about to change though, with some new projects happening and me being assigned a couple of new tasks. They aren’t strictly within my area, so to speak – it’s a bit of a crossover between departments. At first I just thought it was a bit of a pain, but on second thoughts, the more I take on, the more it shows I’m being entrusted with more important things, and I’m going to take them seriously.

    One of my coworkers is going on maternity leave this week and I don’t know if she’s going to be replaced…they may just reshuffle her workload and redistribute it. I’d be glad to take on a few of her responsibilities, but I just wouldn’t have the time to do it all! I’ll be working three half days a week next semester, but they really need at least one of us there the rest of the week too. I was considering putting BF’s name forward, IF they ask any of us if we can recommend anyone who might be interested, but I don’t know how well that would go down. We would most likely be working opposite days, but company policy might still frown upon something like that.

    On the upside, I will be working a full week on the week starting 29 June to ease the shock of losing her! The money (MUCH needed) will go towards our water bill, and getting the CV boots done on the car. Then the two weeks after that, I’ll also be at work full time – but as an intern. Fingers crossed that goes well!

  • June 21, 2009

    Dirty cheaters

    What do you do when you know someone is cheating on their significant other? ehowkiss1-main_Full

    Luckily I’ve never had to deal with a situation like that, at least not with anyone close to me.

    I do know a couple who consistently cheated on each other (both parties, I mean) but neither of them wanted to know, and they kept taking each other back. I wanted nothing to do with them, and still don’t – especially now that they have a child together, poor tot.

    But one of our flatmates had a girl stay over last night. In his room. In his bed.

    We all know and like his GF; she’s really nice.

    Do we do or say anything to her?

    Is it our business?

    Is it somehow more forgivable if it’s a one-off as opposed to an ongoing thing?

  • June 20, 2009

    Being the unpaid chauffeur

    I was afraid this would happen – CORRECTION – I knew it would happen.

    We have a car again, which puts us at the mercy of the many, many people we know WITHOUT one, who then want BF to take them places and drive them all around.

    Let’s put it this way. BF has two main categories of friends. The ones who work/are doing apprenticeships, have steady jobs and cars. And the losers who have lost their licences for speeding/drink driving etc.

    Unfortunately, the latter kind are the one he sees more often. One of them lives with us, so …. yeah.

    Sigh.

    And with him not having work, it just means they have all the more opportunity to rope him into chauffeuring them around.

    Even if they pay for gas, it’s still unnecessary wear and tear on our car, and until he gets his full, I’m the only other person he can legally drive around. It’s completely unfair to put him at risk of losing HIS licence too just so they can get a ride somewhere.

    He’s just left the house after getting a hysterical call from his sister. She needed a lift from her house WAY out west, to their mum’s. Her and her partner were having a huge fight and she was leaving and going to stay at their mum’s overnight…or possibly longer, in fact.

    FFS! They are both WAYYY too old for this! He’s 30plus, she’s 25, they have a fourth kid on the way. Every few months they do this – have a huge domestic, live apart, then somehow reconciliate. But they NEED to get past this. Not only should they have outgrown that stage, it’s really not on given there are kids involved. Sigh.

  • June 20, 2009

    You gotta earn it first…

    From my conversation the other week with the New Start peeps at Auckland Uni, I don’t think its a bad thing for applicants to have to earn their entrance into uni. But I think it sucks that they introduced an open policy like that, and are now retracting it. I can only assume it’s to do with costcutting and a lack of funding for universities. They’re not even going to have enough to pay for the influx of students trying to weather the recession, so why make it easier for anyone to get in? Just like they cut the few scholarships Studylink provide, which were good because they were pretty open to anyone. There are very few scholarships out there with broad criteria. Most are very narrowly tailored and targeted only at specific kinds of people.

    But it seems short sighted to me. As pointed out in this week’s Debate, young people who can’t get jobs and can’t go to uni will just end up on the dole, which is government funded anyway. I don’t claim to know much about this stuff, but if it’s at all feasible to help universities accommodate students, that seems smarter than, well, NOT. I’d rather see investment in a more educated/skilled workforce.

    And on the heels of this – Pita Sharples calling for Maori to have free entry into uni. JUST as they axe special admission for adults. Could the timing be any worse? At least there is zero chance of that happening at this point in time. Race based policies may have their place, but this is not the time!  From now, everyone will have to sit foundation courses to gain university entry, so let’s apply that across the board.

  • June 20, 2009

    Icing over

    It’s cold enough that in the mornings, if your car is parked outside, you’ll find it frosted over. Ice on the windscreen, windows, maybe even the body.

    Apparently spraying a 50/50 water-vinegar mix over the windows in the evening can prevent ice forming overnight, and also breaks it down in the morning. Definitely going to try that!

  • June 19, 2009

    I’m pretty excited for BF to start his course. It won’t be easy with both of us studying, but his workload will be pretty light in comparison with mine because his course is a part time one designed to fit in with work/family commitments.

    The programme manager said if he did well she would be happy to write him a character recommendation for his application next year! Which is just fabulous – and she hasn’t even met him! We went to the info evening on Tuesday to find out more. At the mo it’s a bit up in the air because WINZ have confirmed they will pay his course fee for him. He’s been in to see his case worker, filled out the course participation application form, and received back a slip of paper confirming fees will be paid in five weeks (a few days before course starts, because “you never know what could happen in five weeks…” Yeah, okay.) Except the uni peeps say he needs to bring in a form to THEM, get their bank account number and get that to WINZ so they know where to pay it to. WINZ don’t seem too onto it. And I know they don’t care – no one is there to look out for his best interests – so we have to chase whoever needs chasing to ensure he gets everything sorted in time.

    She also recommended he do one or two “learning workshops”. Apparently a lot of students haven’t been writing essays and stuff at university level and have been struggling. Which is understandable. But the workshops are pretty pricey – from $100, what’s up with that? At AUT they’re free. I did have a look around the Auckland Uni site and they do have other learning workshops which appear to be free or nearly free, but they’re not so in depth and they’re very specific. IE, instead of “essay writing intensive” there are workshops on referencing, paragraphing, writing to marking criteria, etc.

    I figure I’ll be able to help him out quite a bit. We’ll take a stab and if together we can’t get him up to scratch then he can enrol in one of those. I mean, I’m a comms major, I did English a year ahead all through school, have generally always kicked ass at essay writing and tutored English for a bit. BF is pretty confident too, as always. Even when I told him that they’re phasing out special admission entry for over 20s, and he definitely needs a solid B+ to guarantee entry to a degree next year.

  • June 18, 2009

    Day off

    I think today is the first day all week it hasn’t rained! Loving it.

    I slept in till 10.30, then cleaned up the house, did some laundry, caught up on blogs and news, and took photos of the old car to post online.

    It’s $39 (!!!) to post an ad in motoring on TM, so I’m listing it first on trade and exchange and gumtree (free) before shelling out that much. Thing is, with TM you get what you pay for – it’s what everyone uses and you get heaps of exposure on there.

    If anyone in Auckland’s looking for Levin/Corolla parts (1989) drop me a line!

    P6170287

  • June 18, 2009

    Feeling pretty good – I think I did pretty well on the exam, and OH MY LORD does it feel good to know I’ll never sit another one again!

    Out of the three topics I wrote about, I had already written essays on two during the semester. And then there was the NZ section. I toyed with writing about the 1987 stockmarket crash, or the privatisation of Telecom, but in the end I chose privacy and surveillance. Privacy was my topic of choice for a couple of reasons: there wasn’t a lot of theory to learn, and it genuinely interested me. And the more relevant a subject is for me, the better I’m going to do. Simple.

    I suppose on the face of it, NZ isn’t all that bad. We don’t have extensive CCTV on the streets like in London. Our credit files are pretty sparse in comparison to the States, where it’s reported to credit bureaus every month whether you pay your bills on time, and health insurance companies know every minutiae of your medical history.

    There was apparently a huge ruckus in the 90s when they introduced photographs onto driver’s licences. Honestly, I never even knew there was a time when licences didn’t bear photos and were merely printed on paper. Photos? We don’t even bat an eye. Where would most of us young’uns be without them? Our licences are our primary forms of ID. If you don’t have one, you can’t get into bars/clubs/pubs unless you want to buy a HANZ 18plus card, and in that case you might as well pay to sit your learner’s.

    How much do you value anonymity? I can’t put an amount to it. I’m definitely becoming more aware of what details I dispense, and to who. I’m becoming more discerning of what I post online and how I conduct myself IRL, especially anything that might be recorded. if I’m going to be working in the media industry, it’s only wise.

    But at the same time, anonymity seems to be a concept that’s becoming more and more antiquated. Nowadays you have to market yourself. Selling yourself might mean establishing a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (how sick am I of seeing those three names bandied around together???) and more. Off the top of my head, a really good example is Julia Allison. She basically lives her whole life in the social media spotlight. It’s not something I’d like for myself, but she strove for this and she’s achieved it.

    The older you get, the more you have to reveal about yourself. Applying for loans. Applying for jobs. Applying to university. Even applying for a place to live! I remember looking at places last year. One agency in particular had a heinously long application form which required income, source of income, and even bank account number (and that was a big firm too!!) – can you say dodgy? I’m not sure what, if anything, they could do with your bank account number, but I certainly was not comfortable disclosing that. There are some things I’m comfortable giving out, but that was out of line.

  • June 17, 2009

    Car hunt is over!

    We are no longer carless, but the proud owners of a 1990 (limited edition) Familia. It’s a dinky little hatch, but it’s extremely roomy (like, far more spacious than the Levin) both in front, back and the boot. BF was pleased, because it’s a manual, and it’s a 1.6L so has enough power to haul our asses around.

    No, it’s not our dream car, but like I told BF, that’s not what we’re looking for. What we’re after is something solid and reliable – not pretty, not fast, just functional.

    But to be honest, it ticks almost all the boxes! Electric windows, good cupholder..and working seatbelts were also a plus. And although a four door would have been nice, it’s not a must-have at this stage of our lives, especially given that this car isn’t uncomfortably cramped inside. It only has 115,000 km on the clock, and prior to this guy (apparently a private dealer, only owned it since April, according to the report we ordered from carjam.co.nz) a woman owned it for 11 years and kept a folder with all receipts and meticulous records. She had lots of little things done, the kind of maintenance you’d expect, and I’m going to continue doing that with the car. She has brand new tyres from her warrant, which was done in April, and a brand new rego through until September.

    The not so good

    The seller was pretty honest on the listing. The things he didn’t mention were the passenger window only opened/closed from the master control on the driver’s side, and the extent of the rust. He said there was a little bit of rust along one side of the driver’s door. There was also a little bit more along the boot edge and under the lid. However, he and BF agreed it wasn’t structural. It shouldn’t be an issue for warrants for some time; BF and our panelbeater friend can work on it themselves; and at worst, we would just replace the entire tailgate in the future. It shouldn’t be hard to find a Mazda tailgate, or an equivalent Ford one. The slight clicking he mentioned and which we heard on the test drive is either the CV boots (not the joints) or steering rack, which we will get done fairly soon – as BF says, to get the car “immaculate”. He’s really wanting to look after it; I’m glad he understands how important it is for us to keep this car as long as possible and to baby it as much as we can.

    Show me the money

    The asking price was (oddly enough) $1733. Like I said earlier, my budget was up to $1500 for the right car, MAX. So we went with $1500 cash in hand.

    But he said he had already received an offer for $1500, and turned it down.

    In the end, we took it for $1600. I was a little bit reluctant. The rust scared me quite a bit. But mechanically the car was fine; it drove beautifully, felt solid underneath (I don’t know how to describe it, but BF’s Levin didn’t feel solid like that), had low k’s and had obviously been quite well cared for over the last decade. There was nothing else comparable in our price range, and spending an extra $100 I think was worth it. We could have spent $1000 and bought something with 200,000km on it, or something 25 years old. No thanks.

    We then spent $109 on oil and new air/fuel/oil filters. BF did all the work himself. Then I duly noted down in the folder: serviced with all filters changed and new oil 😛

    Plus $12 for the Carjam report (more on that below) and $9.20 for the change of ownership. Youch!

    The process

    Just for anyone who’s interested!

    • Found a fresh listing on TradeMe which looked interesting; showed BF when he came into the room
      BF got excited, gave me a little speech about what a find this was and how disappointed he’d be if we missed out on cars like this due to my reluctance to act
    • Got in touch with the guy to discuss seeing the car
    • After a lot of back and forth texting, arranged to view it the following morning (handily enough, he lived three roads away)
    • Ordered a Carjam report for $12, which told us about the ownership history, whether it had ever been reported stolen, damaged or had money owing on it, when it had gone for warrant inspections, whether the speedo was reliable, and when it was first registered.
    • Went for a test drive. We looked over the car like hawks. BF did a really thorough check (so proud of him! He knows so much more now) checking the body for rust, dents and faults in the paint/bodywork; the exhaust for smoke or black soot; and all the bits under the hood. Asked a SHITLOAD of questions.
    • Completed the change of ownership form ($9.20), paid for the car and drove away!

    I’m definitely glad BF was able to service the car himself and change out all the filters, despite them being really fiddle and difficult to remove. It was a little nervy when he changed the fuel filter; he also adjusted the revs in accord with the recommended settings for the new filter. But we later found that they just didn’t gel with the car… it was revving too high and would over-rev after every gear change. Not nice. I told him it would just have to wait until the weekend, because he had work lined up for the rest of the week. But he insisted on doing it immediately…no way was he going to let the car stay that way! So when we got home at about 8,  he popped the bonnet, turned on the outside lights (dim as they are) and fiddled with the revs til they balanced out.

    Overall, I’m feeling a little tentative. I’m nervous to see how this will pan out. With luck, it will last us a good few years, but then again, luck has never been on our side with cars. On the plus side, our car knowledge has increased tenfold in the last couple of years, and we’re both dedicated to taking care of it and extending its life. According to the Dog and Lemon Guide, this is a good, reliable car that should last for many years, and being a Mazda, parts should be easy to get for it.

    And now, I get to start saving supermarket fuel vouchers again, and watching gas prices fluctuate with a hawkeye!

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