Feestpaleis/Wellington blog

Great News for Peter Jackson Fans!

Quote from the article:

In Bad Taste 2 the heroes of the first film would travel to an alien planet to save zombie hunter Derek – played by Jackson. In Bad Taste 3 the aliens enact revenge on Wellington with “a spectacular aerial battle over the city with dozens of flying houses, buzzy bees and Santa Claus”.

“If we set it up like a normal, professional film it wouldn’t have the same kind of spirit. I have always been fascinated by how I would pull that off – how I’d make an amateur home movie again. I don’t think it’s impossible.”

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Last June, we called our phone company (KPN Telecom), to ask for termination of our phone line subscription as per 7 September and for the last bills to be sent to Willemijn’s parents. And then, on 7 September, our phone went dead. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

Surprisingly enough, KPN sent us a bill (our last? I won’t hold my breath) to our old address, asking us kindly to pay our subscription fee for October to November. Some googling presented me with a customer service number that was accessible from New Zealand, which I promptly dialed:

kpn: [mind-numbingly bad muzak, interspersed with “our call is very important to you” messages, for about five minutes]
kpn: Good afternoon KPN customer service, how may I help you?
me: Hi there, how are you? I’m Gert from New Zealand and I have a question about my phone bill.
kpn: Sure, please state your 10-digit mobile number?
me: eh, mobile number? It’s about my former landline.
kpn: Ah, well I’m afraid you have to call the other line sir, this is just for mobile customers
me: Ok, but I’m calling from New Zealand and this is the only accessible phone number I could find on the Internet.
kpn: I see sir. I’m afraid you really have to call the 0900 number.
me: Well, how is that possible, I’m in New Zealand after all, I can’t connect to that 0900 number from here
kpn: You’re right sir, it’s only possible to call the 0900 number from within the Netherlands.
me: … That’s hardly fair is it? You can send me erroneous bills, but I can’t call you to set it straight?
kpn: You wouldn’t happen to be in the Netherlands anytime soon, would you?
me: Well, this situation isn’t really making me want to go back, is it? What do you think? I’m 19.000km away.
kpn: Very well sir, I’m afraid I have to conclude it’s not possible for you to contact us about the bill we sent you.
me: ?????
kpn: I have an idea sir: Ask a friend or relative in the Netherlands to call on your behalf.
kpn: Well, actually, since you have to enquire about phone bills in person, ask your friend to pretend he is you. They won’t help him, erm, you, otherwise.
me: [rolling on the floor laughing]
me:Are you serious? Are you really suggesting that I ask a friend to call and lie about his identity, all because KPN - who sent me this stupid bill - doesn’t have a contact number accessible from other countries?
kpn: Well, errm… I don’t see any other way….
me: Right. Thanks anyway for this nice conversation, I’m blogging this!
kpn: Have a nice day sir… [click]

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A big rugby night yesterday, as Wellington played Waikato in the Air NZ Cup finals. While Willemijn was away on training camp - preparing for the world championships in Perth, I watched the game with a couple of non-Perth-going frisbee people at The Southern Cross bar. Unfortunately, it didn’t end particulary well for Wellington.

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One month before we left Holland, I started sending out letters notifying various companies and organisations of our new address. Back in the old days, the state-owned Post office (PTT) offered a service to redirect your mail to another address in Holland free of charge.

However, in these modern times, the company that handles the mail charges for this service. Not per address, but per person moving! We decided not to sponsor these crooks, and asked the new tenants of our house to redirect the few missed letters to Willemijn’s parents. They probably don’t know that you can simply scribble a new address on the envelope and mail it for free. So, they’ve reluctantly saved up everything they received that didn’t have their name on it (including junk mail and mail for several previous tenants), and now have a stack of one and a half kilos of mail waiting for us, and they want us to come and pick it up!

After calling our good old Rrrrrotbuurman who was dealing with the matter, we found out that the big stack of mail contains only two important pieces, the rest is marketing junk, mail that’s not even addressed to us, mail from companies that were slow in updating their address database.

Then there’s the Dutch Railways, who refuse to terminate our kortingskaart (reduction pass) before the end of the year, even though we’re living in New Zealand. And the ANWB (Triple A, AA, whatever it’s called in your country - it’s the Dutch motorists’ association) still sends us their appalling monthly “family oriented” magazine because our ANWB membership simply didn’t end yet. So, we can still travel cheaply by train and have our car fixed when it breaks down. In Holland…

One of the important letters is from NWO, the organisation that gave me the grant to do research in New Zealand!! You’d think that they, of all people, would know that we have moved.

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Last Friday was sunny and about 20 degrees here in Wellington, even with the gale force northerly that was blowing. I walked along the coast south west of Wellington. Sandblasted and soaked from salt water sprays I arrived at Sinclair Head, the southern most point on this road. This is the location of a seal colony, although I didn’t see any seals at the time. They’ve probably gone for the summer and will be back in May. Anyways, I shot some nice pictures.

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Our friend Dan was in Wellington! Dan grew up in Wellington, but he has seen more of our planet than anyone we know. Currently, he lives in Canberra, Australia, but we first met him in the Netherlands where he lived for several years while he was researching Antarctica’s geological history. Usually in summer (dutch winter) he’d travel to Antarctica to do field research and came back with the most wonderful stories and photos. He also told us a lot about New Zealand (and we kept on asking about it). He always said that we would really love NZ, that we were just the kind of people that would like it there…

That was about five years ago, and here we are, in Dan’s home town, having dinner with his sister Kate, having fun with his family on Paekakariki Beach, enjoying the beautiful city and the immense natural playground that surrounds it, and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

One of the first things he said when we met him here in Wellington about a week ago was “told you so”… Pictures.

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Gale force southerlies hit Wellington last week. These strong antarctic winds caused waves of up to 6m in Cook straight, waves crashing over roads and railroad tracks, heavy rain and even hail showers. Buses replaced trains, Air NZ cancelled flights, the Interislander ferry service was halted and everyone was cold. Quite spectacular, really, even though last night temperatures dropped to less than 10 degrees, indoors. Today, southerlies are easing and every now and then the sun will shine.

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