10: New House Rantings etc - 5 Dec 2007

HANDY MEN
It's been a building maintenance couple of weeks. We have moved into our new home which is very nice, new, spacious. But the little niggly things such as the burst pipe flooding our roof into a swimming pool & trying to do the same to our courtyard where the overflow was directed, pipes bouncing & hammering in the dark night, sounding like monsters, drains flooding into our rooms, water leaking from the plumbing, toilets constantly flushing, machine-gun sound washing machine, no gate key, & still no curtains.

Furniture received that wasn't ordered, furniture ordered & never received. Satellite TV half installed & then left in no mans land. The phone connection that was in everyone's too hard basket. Tradespeople who never come. Every day is an interesting adventure.

A neighbour obviously also given the wrong key to get into her house but persistently trying to open our gate to our house on a fairly regular basis in hopes of what...hoping the gate will magically open & we, our 3 noisy children & personal effects will disappear miraculously?

The building issues explanation - perhaps due to being Egyptian built, so suggested a tradesman? Good at enormous pyramids that can stand the test of time, but not plumbing & drainage. I guess pyramids don't have plumbing.

I discovered through word of mouth the housing department is notorious for not being quick, losing requests & paperwork, never getting around to some tasks, & sometimes getting it wrong. I feel so ridiculous constantly calling the something-is-wrong-with-our-house hotline because as soon as they come & sometimes just after we make a call, we discover another thing has gone wrong. Or they come & fix something, only for it to become a different & worse problem. I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped answering our calls. We must be very annonying.

If we had access to a good placemakers or mitre 10 mega we could probably fix most stuff ourselves with a bit of professional advice. Haven't seen any hardware or plumbing stores. And it did take 5 weeks of sharp looking about & asking to find sink plugs so baths & basins could be filled. No one could help, we ended up striking plug gold on our own.

I don't think it's a very do-it-yourself country. Although there is the temptation, just not the infrastructure. Some husbands think that they can connect private phone line wiring into the main telephone wiring system just because the phone rep hangs up due to him being on break when a phone call is received. He did give us his personal mobile number though. Or husbands try to nut out pressure pipe problems on their lone cowboy selves 4 stories up on the roof in the dark at 11pm at night. They can be good at fixing dented washing machines however.

In our temp home, a plumber we called out told us that the leaking & flooding from our sink drains were nothing to worry about - just normal for plumbing in Oman. Thankfully we've not been given that explanation for this new house. Still the fix-ups can be just as awkward. The electrical & phone sockets taken apart & put back together only to have no change.

Communication is a little of a problem. A lot of the trades & domestic workers can speak English - but their version. If you listen hard, to the full message, let it sink in & try & decipher it, you think you might know what they are trying to say, but not too exactly on the details. When we speak grammatically correct, pronounced-correctly English they don't hear it. We could just as well have spoken Japanese. If you repeat it enough, with emphasis, slowly & try actions, suddenly they realise that you are in fact talking out loud & to them. But the message is a bit fuzzy. Oh we've had some laughs & some frustrations. But luckily it doesn't really matter if things aren't attended to in a big hurry. Usually we get there in the end. Well I'm hoping so.

We finally got our land line connected. Different men. Gone was our personal mobile buddy & in his place 2 of the wise old men. And wise they were, they came just in time to knock off at 1pm so instead of making all our phone sockets work they hooked up only one. Only 1 of about 8 in a 3 level house. I think we'll persevere with bugging them until we get the others working. It's interesting to see when the phone rings how often we'll get around to answering it before the caller hangs up. Especially if we remember the company rules that we must not run on the tile floors & walk slowly, sensibly down stairwells holding the railings. It's like the OSH rules. One of our visitors caught me doing all of this & more the other day and helped inform me pretty quick. I thought he was joking at first. But no, turns out he was for real. It's like with driving on camp or even on public roads. If I have to answer or use my mobile or "GSM" as its called here. I pretend I am scratching my head a lot to disguise my secret talking. You're not even allowed to use hands-free in cars.

4-WHEEL-DRIVE
Little tip for shoppers. If you are planning on shopping at the Sultan Centre (a supermarket/hypermarket) "the warehouse" kind of place don't try without a 4-wheel drive. I think the road & car park were affected by Cyclone Gonu & it kind of isn't there. Even in a 4-wheel drive it is a very slow, bumpy, concentrated wee drive. Goodness me, who needs off-roading in the desert when you've got the Sultan Centre drive. The kids love it. But it probably won't be long before its a levelled, graded, even tarsealed & curbed road. New roads, motorway on/off ramps & intersections seem to appear magically overnight whilst we sleep. It's like a road construction Santa Claus has been to visit. It's actually the Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan road workers hard at work 24 hrs a day. I hope there are different shifts. They also work right through the night. I hope they make themselves a lot of money and get to do something great with it.

I think Auckland's harbour bridge plans would be chicken feed for these crews. There'd probably be 3 crossings up & running within 6 months. Of course cheap, imported labour & difficult working conditions are involved. I heard that in summer they stop announcing the temperatures because once it hits 50C outside, outdoor work has to stop, so to avoid that happening they keep it quiet. Don't know if that is across the whole country or just for the company. But even over 35C! My goodness! Surely I misheard, maybe it was over 40C and they stop work.

FURNITURE
Yay! NZ freight, furniture & personal effects due to arrive tomorrow. Inshallah! Its better than Christmas for us. To get all our bits n pieces & home comforts, shoes, clothes, toys & life re-organised.

SOUTH AMERICAN FLAVOUR
Seth met a Venezuelan family during our Resident Visa process who are very lovely. They invited us to their 30th birthday celebration. Excellent singing! They didn't start dancing unfortunately. Wow their culture is very festive. There are about 30 families from Venezuela with the company & there were a few at the party. They sang a really great, long version of their birthday song which ends with the tune we know as the birthday song. It was pumping, I thought there was going to be dancing on the tables any moment. It was great, we took our kids & stayed quite late. All the kids were great playing together making their own fun. Ours conked out in a bedroom before long.

I also started a salsa aerobics class this week. I had intended to all along but the festive evening prompted me. Its gentle, slow pace & introduction of moves means I might eventually learn it. I have to work on the hip & shoulder wiggles though. There must be a secret to the techniques. It wasn't overly aerobic a workout so perfect but certainly made me feel my legs & tummy the next day. It was like what wearing high heels does to me.

CHRISTMAS
This month is huge with things going on. Every culture has its own celebrations. This week we had a Sinterklaas who left gingerbread biscuit men in our childrens smelly shoes left out at school in their classrooms. They also left black handprints & completely messed up the classroom like vandals. This carry on was fully embraced by the school. A camping tent was pitched at the front of the school with a loudspeaker of snoring coming out of it all day yesterday. This is the Dutch event & although I've no idea what its about it is really fun! The kids were jumping out of their skin with excitement right from kindy through to the 11/12 yr olds.

Then this morning 2 people dressed almost like jokers or clowns ran around with huge sacks. They had painted their hands, feet & faces completely black. Apparently they are Sinterklass' helpers. One is naughty & one nice. They were a lot of fun & handed out heaps of little ginger button cookies & sweets. The whole school was out in the carpark with a speaker of dutch children singing something at full volume - concert level volume. Suddenly, a little surreally, a fully dressed Santa Claus appeared on a beautiful horse who loved to eat the little ginger biscuits. It really was so amazing that the school went to so much effort. I think the Dutch & their celebrations are also going to be quite fun.

SCHOOL
School is so much fun. It was Cole's teacher, Miss Ellie's 30th birthday today & the kids had a big party & balloons & masks & pizza & cake. A few weeks ago it was the teacher Helpers birthday Also a class party, cards, presents etc... As you can imagine It really helps the kids to love going to school. Every parent of every nationality I speak to say their kids absolutely love school. You can feel the vibe from all the kids, even the older ones.

We had our very first parent-teacher meetings ever. It felt it was all a little overly serious considering we're talking 3 & 4 year olds but good to do all the same. I think there is a focus on having a high academic level especially within the British system which is great. I'm fairly relaxed though as I'm more worried that they love going, & learn confidence, sociability, try all sorts of exciting things. I'll worry about the academic side later, give them a bit extra help out of school if we need & even do a bit of homeschooling to learn about NZ things. Plenty of NZers from all backgrounds do well when they travel abroad or do their OE's so I'm not going to fret about jumping through hoops yet. It's an exciting curriculum here but a vacuum of NZ/Maori awareness of course.

PARENT/TEACHER MEETS
Its always a curiosity to find how your child comes across out of home. Cole has settled in really well. Apparently it's as if he was always there, part of the class. Never instigates the mischief but wholeheartedly embraces it when others get up to no good. Friendly, bright, smiley, tries all the different activities. Can sit down & focus on an activity with a teacher alone & get on with it in a group. He had a few issues with the one difficult child who I've seen in action, and oh my goodness! a bit difficult with everyone. When you meet the parents you can see why. It's like pets & their owners. You can match the children with their parents through personality.

Kaija was another story. Apparently she is mute. Doesn't talk to teachers or other children. Loves doing the arts n crafts & playing cooking in the kitchen. Quite different from at home. They didn't even know if she likes going. At home she's all puzzles & books, talking & tantrums. She absolutely loves going to school. I think she is doing all the stuff she hasn't got at home.

We currently keep away from doing messy stuff as it's all in freight & can get wildly out of control very quickly due to the 3 of them. This brings to mind what we all did with the tomato sauce tonight. We lapsed & left the bottle on the table as we had a kitchen chat & all of a sudden a fully red messy child or messy pete (the sinterklass helper) appeared showing off plate, table, self. All 3 were hooting of course & then the usual chant "CC made a mess, CC made a mess." She does get the majority of the blame, even when it's not her but I can see why. She is easy prey. After I cleaned that one up, she delighted in doing the same with the soap. She snuck back to the bathroom & lathered the hand soap all over her body cackling away, thinking herself hilarious. I now have found why keys for every single door in the house is useful. (They even put locks on the fridge to keep out unwanted hands) Good for dieting I suppose. Now, as the kids have learnt to open them, even if they stand on chairs they can not unlock them. I don't care about keeping domestic help out but will be handy to keep out children.

NATIVITY PLAY
Cole & Kaija are involved in a nativity concert. A few songs around the nativity scene. We've been, or should I say mummy has been singing her heart out like billy-i-o. The kids are ok, depending on their mood. But whenever we get to practice they just stare at all the other kids or start getting up to mischief. IT is sOOO cute though. We are in the right country too because this is the land of gold, frankincense & myrrh - for real. And it is the land of dishdashas that make great angel outfits & perfect shepherd & wise men costumes. I'm getting quite excited. It is so adorable seeing all the kids at practice even though they're all over the place. The mums will have to sit at the front so we can help with the singing. A lot of the kids get very sidetracked. They are only 3-5 years old. SO cute. Hope my video camera arrives, found & sorted out before then.

NZ BIT
Have come across another new NZer, well NZ born from Oamaru way but lived in Oz for 20 years. It has been a breath of fresh air. Sometimes is good to talk to someone who knows what "noggin" is amongst other colloquialisms & doesn't wear her class patch on her shoulder. The English seem somewhat weighed down by their class. It's a bit schizophrenic being around some as they can be very hot & cold. It's all very formal like you're meeting for the very first time, each time you meet. The Australians & NZers usually start yelling out as they approach & pick up in the middle of a conversation from a previous encounter. It's quite a giggle starting to notice the differences. Some of the Easties are a bit focused too on trying to place you in their hierarchy, directly trying to find out what job the husband does & then often that gives them no idea so I get asked if Im on or off camp, & if I'm in transit or permanent housing. It feels a bit like where did you grow up or what school did you go to leading questions. As I'm terribly opposed to such class structures I do my best to subtly break the rules & put people off track. I also talk to various ethnicities & have a giggle if I can. I think you naturally gravitate to your ilk but it can get a little pigeon holed sticking to your group.

Seth met another NZer yesterday. I think the husband of a relieving teacher we met early on. He was very chatty & has done a lot of the big explores into the desert & beyond. Hopefully they can be helpful when we get around to camping trips in the desert etc. I think I bumped into his kiwi wife at the gym. And in typical NZ style she was the one who had befriended a local fully dressed in the garb at the gym, chattin away. If we get a little bit of longing for the NZ accent we just need to turn the TV on to Al Jazeera. Very nice channel, stolen a lot of BBC news readers & also got a couple of kiwi accents on there. It must be the International English speaking version of AL Jazeera. They don't show any horrific footage either....Anyway, enough of my musings. Hope none of it gets us in hot water.