Home and Living

Value Place

Room 208

From another angle

View out Window

Cooking Dinner - note that spuds were done first, then corn in same pot.
Actually the handle on the lid is metal, and I have to use a towel to lift it and check on my work.

Ready to eat

Knuckling Down

Our work has begun! Finally we are not just in Texas, but we are working too. I'm not really allowed to talk much about what we are working on, but I can say we are doing an audit.

With all the new systems I will soon be learning about there come also the manuals to use them properly. This is very important because we are operating and maintaining aircraft and if we don't follow the rules the plane could crash, and we all know crash=death. So we have lots of publications and manuals which we have to use whenever we operate or try to fix the equipment. Because the equipment and the systems are brand new, the publications are still being written.

So... here we are, making sure that what the contractors are writing is not just in line with the way the systems work, but also in line with the way we like our manuals to be written. Because some of the people working on the pubs are not engineers, but technical writers or editors this can be a very frustrating process. Fortunately for me I am coming into the end of it - after about two years the publications are over 70% complete, and all I have to do at this stage is make sure that requested changes have actually been incorporated.
Have I bored you all to death? Well the work I'm doing is even drier!!!

On the upside, they have allocated us two weeks to get the work done. We've been at it for two days and we reckon we'll be done by the end of tomorrow. That's the Maintenance Team anyway (my team). I'm not sure how the Operators are going.

After we finish auditing the publications we are going to audit the training package. This is the funny part, because after we audit the training package we will then go on the courses we have just audited! We will be checking everything about the training except for the tests. It doesn't stop there. Once we are on the course, we will then be doing more than an audit. We'll be doing full-on verification of both the pubs and the training. We'll be looking for mistakes, inconsistencies and discrepancies between the two, and from manual to manual.
Did I mention we have to pass the tests too? By the end of it each one of us will be the authority in our respective area. And that's a scary notion.

It's only been two days at work but I think I'm settling into a routine. There's little to do here and the books I ordered haven't turned up, so I enjoy cooking dinner (for once) because it actually gives me something to do. I have two hotplates, a microwave, one pot and a tiny fry pan. I don't have any microwave bowls but I have crockery. This has made cooking an interesting adventure as I have to think very carefully about what foods are going to go in which pot/pan and when. It's worked out so far, but the first night I cooked the spuds, then needed the same pot for the mince. Lucky you can eat potatoes cold eh?

Okay well I won't bore you anymore, I just wanted to brag about how fast we've been on this audit. No doubt I will have more to add at the end of the week about how wrong I was. Karma might yet be mentioned.




Till We Meet Again,
JLS

Ju's Little Sister Has Been A Bit Naughty

Hmmm, yes - just a little bit naughty.

You see, in my last post I told you that our units weren't very well stocked when we arrived and so we all went shopping at the supermarket.
Then we went shopping somewhere else. We tried an electronics shop.

Special 'SDHC' card for storing photos from my camera and putting them onto my computer.

Special 'headset' for talking to people over the internet.Cable for connecting to the internet in our rooms.

We next day we went back to the supermarket. We went back to walmart.

Tracfone cellphone and airtime.

And for a long time (three days tops) this was enough to keep me happy.

On Friday we had our induction at the air base. We got to see the plane for the first time since she left New Zealand and all the cool new things on board. We had a look about the facility and located the cafeteria (very important) and our desks (slightly important). We met the other's who have been there for a few years now and we learnt what to expect and what would be expected of us. Suddenly twelve months of waiting for some surreal and unknown goal became quite real. This was the warm-up on the field, and Monday will be Game On, Kick-Off. First play. Just as well we already know where the cafe is.

Though the whole group were all going to go have a few drinks Friday after work I was toast. A week of headcold and no sleep was catching up with me and I went home to hit the sack. I was out for twelve hours, and dozed fairly deeply for another five or so.

Up and about today (Saturday) I realised I wouldn't be able to cope any longer (end of my three days) without music in my room. So I grabbed a couple of friends and we went to the largest electronics place I have ever been to - called Frys. We were in heaven. Really. We were. I wanted to buy the whole shop.

They had so much in the computer speaker range, and I really really really wanted the Bose Companion 5 system.

Bose Companion 5 - $360 (US)

Given this was well out of my price range, and having a perfectly decent and more expensive Hi Fi system at home this was not something I could justify. Boy did they sound Oh So Sweet though. !sigh!

My next choice was always going to be speakers by a brand called Creative. They really are a remarkable producer of impressive sound quality for a reasonable price. In fact their prices for mp3 players and other such equipment is competitive with the likes of such rip-offs as iPod and the 'getting-better' Sony, yet their performance blows both better known brands out of the water. They're nothing like the high-end Hi Fi such as Bose, B&W or the like, but in portable audio I believe they are almost unbeatable. So this was the collection I began to peruse (occasionally returning to Crampy who was standing in front of the Bose demo speakers attempting to temp me!)

The pair I picked were a little more than I intended to spend; they are Creative GigaWorks T20's and they are beautiful.

Creative GigaWorks T20 - $not-telling

While I wasn't drooling over them the way I was over the Bose set, they are a lovely set of speakers - well beyond what is really necessary for a computer - but simply wonderful all the same. Now I am going to finish my dinner then set up my laptop and new speakers in the common room so we can all have Saturday Night Movies.

Bye Then!
JLS

PS - Having run them for a day now there are no regrets, I love them!!!

My 1st Couple of Days

To be honest folks, I haven't had a very pleasant couple of days. I do want to make it clear that this is not because I have discovered any great dislike for the people or places of Rockwall, TX. It is in fact because I have a horrid headcold. I have no idea how I would have coped with the jet lag, but my body is pretty worn out trying to cope with the loogey as well.

As I said the first night here we went to the next-door burger joint, and I see I got the spelling wrong - it's Whataburger. I ordered a #5 (bacon and cheese) and was served a #4 (chicken). I didn't complain as it seemed a combination of my kiwi accent and the poor guy's lack of understanding of the system. I guess he was new.

The next day we met at 11am to go to Walmart. There seems to have been a big deal made about this store in the past but I can't say I was particularly impressed. Perhaps our local Walmart is relatively small, but it just seemed like a large-scale 'The Warehouse.' Other Kiwis will understand what I mean I guess. We quickly scurried about buying fruit and veg, meat and salt, laundry powder and whatever else we could think of without first making a list. We gave ourselves half an hour before we had to meet up again, but (cats again) we left about 45-50 minutes later.

Our next stop was "Best Buys" and again for the Kiwi's this is like a Noel Leeming or Bond & Bond. And here might be a good place for a diverting little story.

Greg is one of our group who was actually born an Australian. We like to tease Greg and say he comes from Tasmania. It's kind of like teasing a South Islander that they come from Gore. No offence Gore ;-)
Greg's main priority as soon as he knew we were going shopping was to buy an electric jug for his instant coffee. In the appliance section of Walmart he was unable to find an electric jug. He found a perculator, but this wasn't good enough - he wanted boiling water for his instant coffee!!

After much discussion across accents and lingo, it was established by the lovely people at Walmart that what Greg wanted was a kettle! But alas, such a contraption as an electric kettle has never been heard of! He was to buy one which would go on the hot-plate of his stove, that was all he needed. Not good enough for our loveable Tasmanian, electric it must be!

Now we arrive at Best Buys and guess what? You know it! He went through the entire rigamarole again with the staff there. Again it was established that Greg must be out of his mind to want something which doesn't exist. Finally by the end of the day he caved in to the pressure and bought a stove-top kettle from Walmart when we went back for some cheap cell phones.

Right, now I've gone on about this in quite a drawn out fashion so I won't sport with you for much longer because the long and the short of it is - we went to another store today, and.... there were electric kettles for sale. But Greg's already made his purchase. Ha ha ha ha ah ha ha ha oh oh oh oh ho hoho. Bloody Tasmanians!

Right, sorry about that. I just wanted to share. Poor ol' Greg. He's a harmless soul and he just wanted his coffee.

Back to the post though. There's no point going over all our actions step by step because I imagine that's just boring so here are some impressions from my point of view.

I found I was intimidated by the idea of talking to Texans. We've been told so often that we speak too fast for them. I almost don't want to open my mouth and give it a go! I think I've done pretty well so far as I'm concious of speed and the fact that Kiwi's are very lazy speakers. (We tend to slur our words to get them out faster.)
For the most part the people here have been really friendly. I'm still undecided as to whether this is a superficial thing or genuine across the board.

We concentrate so hard when driving to keep right, and for the most part it works. I only drifted to the left after a 3-point turn on a deserted street and got distracted by conversation. However there are so many little things right/left that we don't think about.
In the supermarket car park we automatically walk down the left thinking it's out of the way but forcing oncoming traffic to drive around us. *IN* the supermarket we push our trolleys to the left to pass others instinctively - just as they go to their right which really doesn't work as we end up on the same side!!

We expect tax to be included in the price.

I might not lose my Kiwi accent as fast as I thought I would, as we are very much a group of Kiwis. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Okay I can't think of much more to tell you for the moment. I passed the theory for my drivers licence but I'm not ready to sit the practical, a few of us are doing that tomorrow. Please feel free to ask me lots of questions - I'm not too sure what to write about just now. I have some photos of the little unit I'm living in - perhaps I'll post them up next.

Love, JLS.

JLS lands in Texas

It took us a little over 24 hours of flying and waiting in airports, but finally I am in another country!

There were about ten of us checking in at the QANTAS terminal at Auckland International Airport. We were too independent to bother with a group booking (honestly it was like trying to organise cats) and by the time we looked at our seats three of us decided to go back and have our seats changed so we were sitting next to each other. This proved to be a fatal mistake, as I was in the middle and I kept needing to get my bag down for my passport, or my books; or I needed to use the toilet or just go for a walk. Tools (who was in the isle) was not impressed.
Though I had blocked ears and a headache my sore throat had gone and I had some good books to read courtesy of my friend Blair. When my eyes were too sore to take any more in they turned out the lights and I managed to slip into a fitful doze.

Waiting at Auckland International for flight QF25 to Los Angeles

Disembarking at LAX was quicker than I thought - we were off the plane rather promptly and because we were there through work our visa's had a (low) diplomatic level. This meant we popped through border control without too much hassle. Luggage went through customs without our presence and were transferred onto our next flight for us. We'd been told there is only a 50-50 chance your bags will turn up with you so everyone was talking about what 'line' they dropped their luggage off at and wondered which group would receive their bags at the other end and which group would be without. Thinking about it now we should have laid bets on the outcome. If my friend Kolky had been there he would have organised a "two bucks in."

After a fascinating security screening experience (my attention was captured by the colour x-ray of my bag) we made through to the domestic terminals at LAX. Here we had four hours to learn that tax isn't included in the sticker price on goods, a dime is 10c, a nickel is 5c and burger king tastes the same in LA as Auckland. We also learned that Americans can be amusing if you're a foreigner but foreigners aren't so amusing if you're American.

The passengers to DFW were called to board in the groups indicated on their boarding passes. But our passes were issued in Auckland and didn't have a group on them! OH NO!! We decided we were all going to board anyway (cats again) until the man announced passes issued elsewhere were going to be in group 5. So 'till group five we waited.
Finally after an hours delay we were on the plane. And after THAT my little group of independents looked like well behaved robots in formation compared to the pear-shaped cluster that made up the other passengers on board our 737.

People decided to swap sweats left right and, well everywhere. The air hostess just called out orders from the back of the plane. There was an extra passenger who had to leave. Then the weight and balance had to be recalculated, but instead of the pilot reading it off a graph (X-many passengers = W&B of Y) the maintainers on the ground had to work it out and run it out to the plane.
So another hour after boarding we were in position to take off.

It was a pretty boring flight. About 3 hours long, but with my ears it wasn't very pleasant. After landing I was in a bit of pain and being tired and grumpy I wasn't the best of company - just ask Kiwi Mother what I'm like to deal with when I'm like that!
Fortunately we all picked up our luggage, every article came through so congratulations American Airlines!

We were met by personnel who are already in the states on this project. They took us the 40 or so minutes to our accommodation and helped us check in. Then we went for food at the nearby 'Wattaburger' which is open 24 hours. Yay.

I've got to go out for dinner with the team now - so more on my initial experiences next blog.

Love JLS.

JLS says 'Bon Voyage'

Monday 11 August I'll be on a plane to LAX, then changing planes to arrive in Fort Worth Airport, Dallas, Texas.
I'll be in Dallas for about three months and am posted there to take some courses on Communications and Radio-Navigation Systems. These systems (and many more) are being upgraded on many of our aircraft and the courses I am on are specific to the upgrade of our Maritime Surveillance planes.

I'll try to make regular posts as to what I've been up to in our spare time - my first long weekend in the states may well be spent in New Orleans and any suggestions of what to get up to while over there are encouraged!

My weeks will be long and dry as far as the workload is concerned, so I'm not sure what I'll have the energy to get up to on the weekends, but when I have something interesting I'll be sure to share it with you all.

Once my training is over my friend Geoff and I are planning to take three weeks to travel round the 'states, San Diego, San Fran, Seattle, Penn/Niagra Falls, Washington DC, NY, and back to Dallas for our flight home. Again - if anyone has any suggestions, or Must Sees, please let me know!

In the meantime, stay cool!

JLS

Waitomo Caves

Of the small group of us travelling from New Zealand to Texas mid-August (tickets now booked) an even smaller section decided to travel half way down the North Island for a bit of an adventure jaunt. We were to stop partway down on Monday to go "Blackwater Rafting" through some caves then stay in Taupo and go skiing on Tuesday. Three of us would travel back to Auckland on the Wednesday and the rest took annual leave and remained for the week.

I clambered out of my bed around 0515 Monday morning and stumbled out of my room towards the bathroom. Plumpy was already waiting outside my bedroom door as he always does (evidently he does this for at least an hour as I don't usually get up until 0610) so I gave him his measure of diet food for breakfast and proceeded to cleanse myself of a less-than-decent night's sleep. Plumpy is wonderfully obedient. His biscuits live in an open bag on top of the dryer which he could jump onto very easily but he prefers to wait for me. I can leave meat on the bench and go to work and he won't eat it either (our love is built on trust).

Showered, dressed and packed I headed out the door with my cup of tea in a thermal mug and drove on to the Air Force base where I work. I left the car in a park and jumped in a worn-out Nissan Nivara (ute) with the others to head off south. Fortunately the motorways weren't too jammed. With a hiss and a roar we were off to Waitomo!


Waitomo is an area in the North Island which is filled (or emptied...) with a vast system of caves. Many of these beautiful caves are the home of glow worms and there are many different types of tours exploring them. We had booked ourselves in for "Haggis Honking Holes." Although I discovered I would not be rafting as I had thought I was assured we would still be getting wet - this was a proper Caving trip! Our guides introduced themselves at the headquarters as Luke - a tall skinny Australian - and Paerau, a charming Maori fella who was all charm and grins. For some reason Paerau also answered to "Eddy." At the end of the trip I had a group photo taken with Luke and Eddy, but it was on someone elses camera, someone who is still in Taupo 'till the end of the week so I will not be able to insert the picture until next week sometime.

Luke drove us all in a van onto a farm owned by a woman by the name of Haggis, hence the first part of the tour's name. Eddy explained 'Honking Holes' comes from a Dr Seuss poem. We were squeezed into wetsuits, gumboots and helmets and shown how to use our harness attachments to abseil down a little slope before we entered the caves. Luke was impressed with our amazing ability to follow instructions, do as we were told, and understand his explanations. No confused foreigners were we!

Finally after an equipment safety check by our guides we descended into the darkness. The water flowing through the cave was just above our ankles and rushing quite ferociously. As there were eight of us there was a bit of waiting in the cavern for each person to make the first 23 metre abseil one by one. I was third-to-last.
I locked off the rope as instructed, turned around, sat in my harness and pushed off the edge. I was swinging in the dark, only able to see my hands on the rope in front of me and the light from Luke's helmet.
"Take off the lock now Sarah, and away you go."
I carefully placed my hands on the rope as instructed and pulled it away from the 'rack' which locked it in place. I knew as soon as I unwound it from the top of the rack it would be imperative I kept the rope tight. If not - I might drop. I had little faith in my own ability to hold my weight. I eased the rope around. I didn't drop. Waves of relief swept through me as I placed my hands and let the rope start to feed through the rack. I was abseiling!!! I bounced down the side of the cave go - stop - go - go - go - stop! go.... hee hee, this is fun!
Argh!
The water and I crossed paths! Here I was looking about me (and my light not really reaching anything much) and the bloody waterfall decides to spray me with freezing cold winter water! There was nothing I could do but continue down. A the bottom Eddy had been my safety man and he turned on his much more powerful helmet-lamp
to help me unclip from the rope and back out of the way. I bumped into the others and was ordered to turn my light off. aha! This was to stop the next person from guessing how far they had to go! I looked up to see where I had come from and could not spot the top of the decent. We really were in the caves. Once everyone was down we squeezed between the walls to the next abseil. It wasn't as far down as the first (no others were) but it was a bit of a tighter chimney and we were told to stop partway down to smile for the camera.


Luke made me do a thumbs-up which is not my usual style so I felt a bit cheesy. And yup - I descended straight into the roaring rage of a waterfall. Not only was it cold, but it was pretty powerful too! We continued in a similar vein (pun intended ho ho ho) round corners and down waterfalls till we came to a longish sort of cavern and stopped to turn off our lights. There were the glow worms! Little green lights dotted about the ceiling of the cave. While Luke went ahead to see how close we were getting to the group in front (apparently we were catching up) Eddy taught us somethings about glow worms.

Glow worms do not have the usual method of excretement as the rest of us. Instead the mix their waste product with an enzyme and burn it off as light. This light in turn attracts the moths and mosquitoes which are found around water. The glow worms drop lots of little silk threads - up to a dozen or more each and these capture the insects.

When they change into their winged form there is no more eating - they live purely to mate. Then they are captured in the silk threads of other worms and eaten.

Their Latin name is Arachnocampa luminosa - arachno because of the silk threads used to capture prey, (campa is possibly to do with the caves? I can't remember) and luminosa because they're scared of the sun. There's a good site which tells you plenty about them here.

After the interesting intro to the 'worms we followed the water along the cave until it opened out. Luke was sitting at the other end with camera in hand and told us all we had to come through a tiny little space on our stomachs. The water was pretty high and not warm at all, but I enjoyed the sensation of seeing if I could squeeze through. Because I'm only little it really wasn't an issue - I wonder how I would have coped if I'd had to breath out and wiggle? I was more worried about getting water up my nose!!


The rest of the caving experience was more waterfalls and caverns, not really worth typing about and I can't remember them all in order anyway - but it was all definitely worth experiencing! I frequently wandered along behind the rest, searching the formations and shapes on the walls or turning my light off and looking at the green glow of the worms. I liked to imagine I was an explorer trying to make my way under the mountain. It was fun!
I wish my Dad had been there with me. He's the one who really got me interested in geology, who taught me about how limestone caves are formed and how water can shape the world around us. I wanted to experience with him they way the stalagmites and stalactites were growing, to share with him the fact it can take 800 years for them to grow a centimetre (and some of them were metres and metres long). Some of the formations were tiny little cylindrical 'straws' and they were hollow too. Some of them were coated on the outside and looked like coral growing down from the ceiling. Other's even looked like pristine curtains of white crystal shimmering out from the walls. It was just so amazing. And the other's weren't so interested in that side of it - not the way I was. I needed my geeks with me, my Ju's Little Sister's Best Friend, or my Ju, or Ju's Dad.

We finished going down waterfalls and started climbing up walls. Even though we were in gumboots (and if it wasn't for them, where would we be?) it was easier than it looked. The walls were easy to grip on and not slippery at all, and there were lots of little footholds. The hardest part was bending my knee with a rubbery wetsuit on! Halfway up we stopped for a cuppa and some biccies (cordial and chocolate fish) and there Luke took a group photo at my request.


He told us all to turn our lamps off. It was very dark. There were no glow worms. Just darkness. We all waved our hands in front of our faces and couldn't see them. I was disappointed when I caught sight of JC's watch glowing. Eddy told us to wait for our eyes to adjust, then admitted they already were - it would get no easier to see. We were told it was about 95-99% dark.
Eddy then went on the describe a group he'd taken through a year before. Upon hearing the percentage darkness a Texan proudly boasted "the caves at home are twice as dark as this!" Ha! Well I guess I'll find out how likely the story is while I'm living in Texas for three months starting this August.

Here's the real group photo by the way:


From this cave we were told to find our own way out (I was the only one who seemed interested in wandering off, so I'm the one who found the passage he he) and along the next tunnel we came across some lovely fossilised seashells. Then we clambered up a long and powerful but stepped waterfall to the last cavern in which there was a ladder to the surface. I waited till last and as the second-to-last guy climbed the ladder I turned my lamp off one last time and stood in the beautiful darkness with Eddy. He suggested I come back one day and go on the Ultimate Lost World Tour which takes seven hours and they feed you lunch and dinner. I will definitely be keen!

After all that excitement we trundled off to Taupo and drank the night away, then didn't go skiing at all because the weather closed in. But the caving was worth it.

Beautification

What medium do you think the image below has been painted on? Canvas? Card?

I think you'll be surprised:








Guessed yet?












!!!

I am not joking! The distribution boxes around my area are being painted, and now there are a few that really look quite lovely. Here's the one which is just at the end of my street:

This one is painted with native birds of New Zealand. I hope Maalie will enjoy naming them all for you as a reminder of what he's missing out on by insisting on living in a lesser country. ;-)




This next box is down near the local shopping park.



And the third box I visited is not yet finished, and I'm not sure when it will be as it has been in this state for quite some time!



And just to satisfy your curiosity, here's a zoom-out of the original image:

Auckland Youth Orchestra (Updated)

Now, I don't have any photos unfortunately but this Saturday just gone I went to the Auckland Youth Orchestra who were playing at the Town Hall for free.

The AYO have just this year begun a mentor program in conjunction with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra where some members of the APO agree to practice with and mentor the members of the AYO. My friend works behind the scenes as a liaison between the two - she organises the meetings, the practices and notices between the two to ensure they function well together without getting in the way of each other and without her message to me on Facebook I wouldn't have even known the event was on. Apparently this is the first year they have combined like this and it is all proving to be beneficial for the young guns and the seniors as well who claim to feel new life and excitement being surrounded by all this young blood!!

The evening was split into two parts and in the first half there was the Roman Carnival Overture by Hector Berloiz followed by "Trumpet Concerto in A Flat Major." It contained an amazing trumpet solo by a young man originally from England - he was quite talented but I found his mannerisms a little distracting to the music for me. I was in the stalls - fairly close - and a little to the left. I had a great view of the violins and past the conductor to the violas. There was an energetic fella on the cello and the percussion were up high and easy to see. Unfortunately I couldn't see any of the brass or woodwind, this was disappointing but then I did chose my own seat!


After the interval was Beethoven's Symphony No7 in A Major Op.92 and I was taken away. I don't go to the opera at all, and rarely have I been to an orchestral evening but there was no way I could tell this was not a professional team - they really were amazing.

According to the little programme the orchestra had plenty of violins 1 & 2, Viola, Cellos and Double Basses (4 of them!). Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, French Horns, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, one Timpani and the perscussion. Was anything missed out?

Jet Pilot Music Video

Here's a little taste of what it might be like to be deployed with the RNZAF...

Wedding photos

Sorry for my recent silence. I offer no excuse except lack of inspiration.
And comics.

Anyway, here are a few photos of Ju's wedding. I'm not sure if I'm really allowed to share them with the world, or if you'll get bored of them so I just chose a few good ones and we'll leave it at that.

Wedding Cars
A "Bold-as-Brass" Leyland p76, and behind it the same in "Country Cream."

Ju and Ju's Dad
Shortly before entering the Chapel

Ju's husband
As Ju enters the chapel

Ju and Ju's twin
At the reception

Ju's Twin, Ju's Little Brother, Ju's Husband, Ju and Ju's Little Sister
Outside the Chapel after the ceremony

Ju and Ju's husband about to drive off into the sunset.
Actually, just to the photo shoot, then on to the reception (but don't tell anyone I told you).

Ju's Hen's Night

Ju's Twin, Ju's Cousin, Ju and Ju's Little Sister

Ju ditches AD, and agrees to marry a young man who promises to build her a bouncy castle

There's plenty of dancing

No one is left out of the party