Time for another list

Turns out the email i got back from the bursary place yesterday was an automated message and although i don't expect the actual people that work there to tell me anything different; i did have have to laugh out loud at how English the reply was, ie ....."please allow 30 working days for a reply". I must say that's one of the things that i DON'T miss about home, and it got me thinking that despite my moaning about New Zealand, if we did leave there are some things that i would really really miss. So i have been compiling a list of things that i love about good ol' NZ and would very much miss.

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT NZ

• The way kiwis think a place is 'packed' if there are more than 5 people there - this especially applies to beaches. If you don't have the beach all to yourself it's a complete bummer to them; more often than not you DO have a beach all to yourself

• The weather, especially Auckland weather. It's either skin-fryingly hot and blindingly sunny, or like yesterday where the heavens open all at once and you fear your roof might collapse with all the rain. You never have a grey day here :)

• The way all the houses look like Lego houses.......

• ......and the letterboxes look like bird houses

• The way people say hello to you in the street ( on the whole )

• The way you can phone up the doctor and get an appointment within the hour if you really want to ( granted you have to pay but i'm trying to think of positives!!)

• The Maori culture - it's absolutely unique; not without it's fair share of problems but absolutely fascinating to an outsider. And without which, we would not have the delights of .....

• .....The haka - especially performed by Carlos Spencer (yes, i'm a perve and i only watch rugby for all the thigh-slapping and delicious legs on show - i'm a girl)
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• The way you can rent a detached house with a garden and a garage for not very much money and without even having to prove you have a job.

• The way they give all the bridges here ( even teeny tiny ones) a name and a little sign saying what it's name is. And if they haven't thought of a name, they put a little sign up anyway to say that they haven't named the bridge.
  

• The way it's considered perfectly acceptable to drink lots at lunchtime as long as there are some "sausies" on the barbie.

• The way you can guarantee someone will always bring a plate of something yummy to morning tea

• Similarly, how there is always an occasion to have chips (crisps) and dip

• John Campbell :) awwww.

• Burger Rings (nz crisps - taste nothing like burgers like they claim to but, hey)
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• I'd even go so far as to say that i might miss Shortland Street - you've never seen acting like it, but they try, bless them, and it does have an odd way of sucking you in and making you watch it even when you KNOW you don't want to. Bit like Hollyoaks.

• I love it when people say "She'll be right" - it makes me laugh, and can be applied to anything. Broken car? She'll be right. Lost your keys? She'll be right. House swept off a cliff by a landslide? She'll be right, mate ........ Anything.

• The parks, the lakes, the mountains, the ocean, the volcanoes, even, dare i say it, the bubbling mud....it really is a beautiful place to live
  

I can't think of anything else at present; i'm sure there are more and i shall edit this post if i remember anything else i like. Of course it as always goes without saying that this list doesn't include family and friends; they are clearly the best bits about living here and without them it would be a very miserable place.

However, i'm not sure that even Carlos and John and some burger-flavoured crisps can keep me here. Now, if Carlos himself came and begged me to stay then that would be another story altogether, but the parents are reading you know, so better not go into that one he he he!!!

Right, i'm off. Bit unsure reading back over what i've just wrote, if 'fryingly' and 'blindingly' are actual words - you get the gist! Lots of love xxx

(ps. as a disclaimer, this is not saying that i definitely AM coming home right now, only that it's looking like a distinct possibility within the next year - so nobody's to get their hopes up, ok??!)