Spider webs...

Dear SG,

I finally found my camera! I guess I was so worried that I might lose it so I put it away in a tight and safe place. It's so safe I don't even remember where I put it!!! :p

Anyway, below are the pictures I took of the spider webs. It's all out in the yard. Surprisingly, there isn't much inside the house. (Thank goodness)

This is one of the prettiest one. That black dot is the owner itself. kekeke.... Look at that muscle!

Below are their handiwork...

Luckily they left the tomatoes alone. These are planted a month after we came. Already they are bearing fruits.

with love from NZ,

J

PS. the little boy across the street sometimes came out in his spiderman PJ, if I can get a picture of that I will post it up. That will complete my series of Spider related posts. "Spiders!!!, Spider webs... and SPIDERMAN!" hee....

Spiders!!!

Dear SG,

It's summer in Auckland... ok ok, correction... summer's nearly over in Auckland. One thing I notice about here is that during summer time, there's plenty of spiders to go around. We don't usually see that in Singapore except in really dark places or corners. The spiders here are really active, I could clean away the beautiful web in the morning and 2 days later, it's back again in its formal glory. (or, even prettier than before!) It's like the spiders are mocking at us for the useless effort.

Some comparison:
Number 1:
- Spider webs in Auckland are very very very very sticky..... insects get stuck in the web pretty often.

- Singapore spiders should put more glue into their web.

Number 2:
- Kiwi Spiders are very hardworking. They rebuilt their web very quickly, probably becuase they only have couple of months to feed themselves before they go into hiding again.

- SG Spiders are out all year round, i guess that's why they can afford to take their time?

Number 3:
- Kiwi spiders are like rugby players, they are mostly big and strong (and scary)... :p

- SG spiders are like ladies' man, only good for scaring girls. (they are too small to frighten big, strong guys.)
PS. I have to write this sentence because I have a very impressionable little boy beside me right now watching every sentences I am typing.... :p


I wish I can take a photo of the spider web i've seen here, but at this moment, i couldn't find my camera. :p I'm not too sure if I could take a really good shot of the web, it's pretty tricky because the webs are really fine. Hopefully I could get one and post it up there next time.

with love,
J

Cars, compare and contrast

Remember, it's my own personal opinion and they are not backed by any statistic or proofs. :)

New Zealand	Singapore
High percentage of adults owns at least one car	Usually one family to one car
So long as it can run safely, it can go on the road	Cars are only allow on the road for up to 20 years max
Small cars (below 2000cc) are not as common	Big cars (above 3000cc) are not as common
More Automatic cars	More Manual cars
Car’s suspension are pretty abused, lots more uneven ground	Car’s suspension are in better condition because all the roads are so even
It’s ok to mount kerb when needed to	SG kerb are pretty high
Most cars has some dents or scratches on them	No dent or scratches unless owner are careless or not deserving.
A car is a necessity	A car is a luxury
Head in parking	Reverse parking

Cars

In Singapore, cars are a luxury and are often treated like precious babies. It could be because cars are really expensive to own in our tiny island. In some case, car owners can go into the extreme at the way they handle and care for their cars. Below is an aggregated description of extreme car ownership.

Extreme Singaporean car:
Cars are cleaned up, filled up, polished up and regularly tuned. Owners will make effort to park in the safest car lot, doesn't matter if the lot is really far away from where they want to go.

There will be no eating or drinking in the car, no smoking and definitely no pets. Cars have to be parked exactly in the center of the parking space and straight! No crooked parking to embarrass the precious car. If the owner mounts a kerb, they are abusing the poor car. To compensate, they have to send the car back to the mechanic immediately for wheels alignment. It’s a disgrace to have scratches or dents in a car. Owners and passengers should always open the car door carefully to avoid hitting the car parked next to them.

If one could afford, they should dress up their car with beautiful sports rim and body kit, it won’t hurt to have the best surround sound stereo in the car, or the latest GPS and LCD screen to complete that luxury.

Hee….

Enough with poking fun at my country men. The next post is a list of comparison I made of SG and NZ. They are all in my own personal opinion and are not backed by any statistic or proofs. :)

Photos from our first few months

Dear SG,

Below is the link to some photos I took during our first few months in Auckland.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2098636578

Enjoy!

With love from NZ,

A & J

What we have been doing since...

Time line:

3th Oct 2006 - depart from singapore

4th Oct 2006 - arrive in auckland

5th Oct 2006 – Open a bank account in Auckland (to start earning interest! They require an IRD number because the interest earn is taxable)

16th Oct 2006 - fax a copy of our passport to IRD (Inland Revenue) because our copy of the birth certificate in our application was not clear enough.

24th Oct 2006 - Got our IRD Number for future tax purpose

6th Nov 2006 – Andrew got a job offer with Auckland District Health Board

8th Nov 2006 – Send in application for Singapore Police Certificates (Had to get a bank draft for SG$100, and go to the local police station to get a set of 10 finger prints for this application)

9th Nov 2006 - Do medical checkup for work permit (we had to see a doctor, get a chest x-ray, and do a blood test. And all these is only valid for 3 months)

14th Nov 2006 – Singapore Police sent a letter saying we need a documentary proof to establish a need for a police clearance. But the letter only reaches us on 21st Nov.

16th Nov 2006 – Apply online for Expression of Interest (to get pick from the selection pool for an invitation to apply for PR, our chances increase greatly once Andrew has a job offer)

21st Nov 2006 – Department of Labour send us a letter to support our application for Singapore Police certificate. Luckily we can fax it back instead of mailing.

28th Nov 2006 – Got a letter that says we are selected for consideration for PR but need to wait while they verify some information in our applications.

5th Dec 2006 – Finally got the invitation to start applying for PR, unfortunately, we also just found out that we need Taiwan’s police clearance for Andrew. He was in Taiwan for over a year during national service.

5th Dec 2006 – Singapore Police posted our Police clearance over

12th Dec 2006 – Send in our work permit application after Singapore Police Certification came through into our hands

13th Dec 2006 – Get letter from Auckland District Health Board to state the urgency for Andrew’s work permit

22nd Dec 2006 – Andrew got his work permit

22nd Dec 2006 – Taiwan has Andrew’s police clearance ready but it will take around 2 weeks to reach us

20th Dec 2006 – was sent a reminder to renew visitor visa (Singapore passport has a vistor visa valid for only 3 months) but fortunately, we can skip that because we have already apply for work permit

3rd Jan 2007 – Andrew’s first day at work in Auckland City Hospital

10th Jan 2007 - Send full set of materials to support our PR application. (Even had to prove our marriage is real by providing evidence like joint bank account, wedding photos etc. Marriage certificate is not enough as a proof!!!)

12th Jan 2007 – Joan got her work permit base on spouse's work permit

26th Jan 2007 - Immigration wants Andrew's Australia Police Clearance because they thought he did his degree there. Had to get SIM to write a letter to prove that he did his degree via distance study in Singapore.

9th Feb 2007 - Letter arrive from SIM to prove that Andrew did a distance study with them.

14th Feb 2007 – Got a valentine letter from immigration to send in our passport. Our application status is now "Approval in Principle". That’s because we still have one more criteria to meet, Andrew has to remain in employment for 3 months.

19th Feb 2007 – Send in our passports to immigration for Residence Permit :) Now we wait for it to come back to us…

To SG, with love from NZ

Dear SG,

Andrew and I flew off from singapore on Oct 3th 2006. We received a warm welcome on New Zealand soil by Andrew's sister and her family. We intend for this trip to be our honeymoon, but unlike the many honeymoon that singaporean likes to take, we plan this trip to be a really long one. We came to Auckland to start a new adventure, a new life. Marriage life itself is already a big challenge but a new environment can either make or break us. So far, it seems to bring us closer together. I guess it's a good thing after all, what more can we expect from a honeymoon, right? :D

with love from NZ Auckland,
Andrew and Joan


PS. we are told that Auckland just had an earthquake, 4.5 on the richter scale at around 9pm. Funny to say, both of us didn't feel any thing. Anyway, there was no damage to the city. Thank goodness.