Monthly Archives: March 2025

Week Of 1st March – 7th March

Sat 1st:

Sun 2nd:

Mon 3rd:

Dog park for lunch as usual. The strange aquatic tractor was cutting the water weed in the Raupare Drain – or stream as it appears when it gets to the dog park. The RaupareDrain is a big roadside ditch along Raupare road which runs parallel to Ormond Road and to the north so we at 133 Ormond Road have another big drain along Ormond road and one along Karola’s orchard back boundary. We are about half way between Raupare road and the Expressway which also runs parallel to Ormond road.

At the dog park the Raupare stream runs parallel to the much much bigger Ngaruroro river, in the shade of its southern stop bank, and merges with the Karamu stream just beyond, east of, the dog park.

Modified Tractor Chugging Upstream Cutting The Thick CLumps Of Oxygen Weed

Park Maintenance Worker Trying To Clear The Pool The Dogs Like To Swim In (Not Bangle)

Tue 4th:

Rosie’s mum, Chrissie, took me shopping as Rosie had other child-minding commitments today.

There was, for the second time recently, a large wet patch, a puddle, by the cottage back door. Now in the past Bangle does soft barks when she wants to be let out but maybe I just didn’t hear her in time. I hope this doesn’t become a habit. I washed the kitchen floor with hot water and lots of dettol to avoid there being any odour to encourage repeat performances. I cannot think what else the puddles could be, there’s no rain blowing in, the fridge isn’t defrosting, so I reluctantly suppose it’s Bangle.

Wed 5th:

After a careful reading of reviews of the new Apple iPhone 16E – the model replacing the one I have now, an iPhone SE 3rd generation – I noted that it was only a bit bigger than my existing and temperamental iPhone. The iPhone 16E has many but not all of the features of the current iPhone model 16, 16 Pro, 16 Plus etc. As several reviewers noted, if you want the latest innards of the iPhone then the iPhone 16 was a bit more expensive, had all the basic model 16 features (obviously), was almost identical dimensions. Of course I’ll need to buy a new case whether I go for the 16E or the 16. The 16 has one feature which might be useful, it can find airtags – the tags you can put on your keyring or camera strap or purse etc and find from your iPhone. Unlike the 16E the 16 family have a high-precision detection of an airtag’s location which makes finding things nearby very much easier. Usually if I mislay something it somewhere in the house but 16E won’t tell me where. Allegedly the 16 will tell me.

So I’ve splashed out on an iPhone 16 which should arrive next week.

I am well behind on submitting Karola’s GST to the taxman. However it was the same last time and last time included quarterly orchard lease so qhite a lot to pay. To avoid too much penalty last time I just submitted tje lease payment and deferred the outgoings until this time. I doubt that they’ll charge me for being late with a return where they owe us money but even so it took until 1:00am to get ther eturn in – they arise once every two months so we expect to get back a few hundred dollars. Since Marcus took over the farmlet I have very few outgoings that are GST deductable. Why do I continue with Karola as a sole trader registered for GST. Well the tractors and equipment and the orchard are considered part of Karola’s business. Were I to convert them to become personal property I’d have to pay 15% GST on their current worth. OK for machinery etc but Karola’s orchard would mean paying $100,000s so that’s why I persevere.

Thu 6th:

Off to see Karola who was in better humour this week and I took the booklet of photos and text snippets that Bridget created. I talked a lot about Karola’s childhood and our early married life and Karola mostly just smile seraphically with the occasional comment.

Afterwards Rosie drove me over to Patrick and Lis Coonie’s in Hamoana for afternoon tea and a natter. The waves lashing the beach, product of cyclone Hector on its way to Queensland, were gigantic. Rosie and I hadn’t seen anything like it and indeed there were pictures and articles in the local paper it was so remarkable. Lis and Patrick’s NZ house – they live in Perth, Australia most of the time. is across the road from the beach so the waves were not that far away.

Rosie picked up my MYLK meals for the week. Patrick drove me home to save Rosie the trip.

Fri 7th:

Tried to pump up MG tyres at BP and then Caltex garages but I had no confidence it was working, that I’d managed to pump them upto 41psl. Rosie will have to do it for me.

Off to dog park with a pie, a coffee, and Bangle.

Whilst there I rang NZTA, the transport department which now has an unpronouncable Māori name, to see if we could unravel the mystery of a repeat transaction showing on my bank account. While doing Karola’s GST return I noticed that on 24th December I hade two transactions for $107.09 each, one for plate number QHB596 (my MG) and one for QHB595. Even at my level of decrepitness I doubt that I’d actually submit a payment for the wrong plate. Anyway, after 20 mins or so we’d established that there was no vehicle with the plate QHB596 so I next have to submit scanned evidence and they’ll consider it.

With that long help-line call under my belt I tried again with Audible where I seem to have at least two accounts with the same email address. Yesterday I had 131 titles on my active account and, somehow, one title on my expired account. What triggered my action today was that the book I’d been listening to, a collection of P D James stories, had disappeared. When I searched for it Audible just offered that I should buy it afresh. In addition that Audible account now had only 31 titles.

Ater almost an hour of slow slow chatting with Audible USA help desk we were not much further on except to say that I should get in toich with an AU Australian agent and surely they’d be able to sort things out for me. Meanwhile the P D James missing collection reappeared.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]