21 Months of Good Life (Part 2: Four Seasons in One Day)

We are leaving Wellington this month. This is the second installment of the high points during our 21 month tenure here...

Wellington weather is not exactly the high point of living here, but hey, you will only treasure happiness through suffering.

I had never really bothered about weather forecast when I was still in Indonesia or Singapore. That changed when we got here, life was pretty much controlled by the weather. When it's bad we stayed at home and when it's good we tried to get out and enjoy the day (or doing our laundry and hanging the clothes outside :-p). The only problem was that the forecast was quite often inaccurate. Can't blame those people in weather forecast as a day in Wellington can start with sunny morning which turns to heavy rain and gale by noon.

Winter was pretty depressing here (I guess also there and everywhere...). It's probably the only thing we disliked about Wellington. We always fell sick at least twice in the winter period. Electricity bill also went through the roof as our house was not very well insulated (as most houses here), and we needed to use space heater all day. Last year it was like 600 bucks in a month when Joanna was just born and we determined to keep the whole house warm 24/7.

So what kept us going then?

The hope of good summer days of course!

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21 Months of Good Life (Part 1: First Impression)

We are leaving Wellington this month. This is the first installment of the high points during our 21 month tenure here...

I still remember the date, 10 January 2007, when we landed in Wellington Airport from Changi Airport, Singapore. It was raining and windy when we arrived. Excited, as we realized it would be a different ball game altogether.

I liked this place right off the bat. I'd never been very comfortable with crowds, and here they only have 400,000 people, just a tenth of Singapore population, and a err.. tiny percentage of Jakarta population. People are generally polite and friendly. It was refreshing when the first time I took a bus and passengers were thanking the bus driver when they got off. I must have spent too much time in Singapore, when people were confused when you said 'please' or 'thanks' :-p.

We went out to buy groceries. Heck, food stuffs seemed to be very expensive (apparently we went to the 'wrong' supermarket though). Eating out could also break you wallet. In Singapore, 4 bucks could get you far, while buying Chinese food here would cost at least 7 dollars at that time.

First day at work, it was 5 o'clock, I looked around... Hey, where's every body??? The lax kiwi lifestyle was definitely NOT a myth. I packed my bag and headed back home. Well, when in Rome we do what the Romans do, don't we?

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Walk On...

It's been long overdue...

Liverpool 2 - Manc U 1

Have a great Sunday

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Lame Excuse

Have you ever heard or read people who declared this:

Science rules, God doesn't exist, it's not logical! (while quoting Charles Darwin and his evolution theory)

I'll give these people two names: Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal

Newton and Pascal have contributed more to the world of logical thinking, they have explained how life works (think of Newton's laws of motion and how it explains huge range of physical phenomena!), yet Newton and Pascal believed in the existence of God.

Do these people think they are smarter than Newton or Pascal?

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When music was still good (II)...

One of Sting's gem. This one is the live version, which I think is better than the recording version. Beware, you're about to see real musicians here! Too bad he didn't have it in his set list when I saw him live in Singapore in 2005...

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How rich are you?

Found this interesting site: Global Rich List.

Out of curiosity, I put my first salary in 1998, and amazingly I'm still in the top 15% of the world rich list, and I thought I was underpaid BACK THEN!!!

You should try this. It's a good therapy when you're stuck in rat race.

When I met a friend who was living in Australia, I asked him whether he enjoyed living there compared with living in Indonesia. And his answer was...

"Yeah, I like it here because there's no pressure to earn more money just to live a decent life"

Class!!!

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Get Ready to be Snapped (your wallet that is!)

Finally, NZ version of contact less smart card: Snapper. Commuters who ride on Go Wellington bus will only need to tap the card on the reader when they board the bus, and tap again when they alight. Snapper is owned by Infratil which also owns Go Wellington bus (self explanatory?).

Using Snapper will cost commuters 25% less than using cash, which is a good thing. Current 10-trip card only gives 20% discount of cash price.
Sounds good?
When I still lived in Singapore, EZ Link card, the Singapore version of Snapper, is very widely used. Its website said they have issued 8 million cards since its introduction in 2002. I admit it is more convenient and efficient; however I have some reservations on implementation of Snapper in Wellington:

• The introduction doesn’t seem to be very well planned. It’s funny that currently not all buses are equipped by Snapper reader. It means that even though you have the card with you, you still have to bring money or the good old 10-trip ticket in your wallet.
  
  
• Snapper (currently) only serves Wellington with only 400,000 people. It just doesn’t make any economic sense to me.
  
  
• What will happen to Newlands bus Smart Card? They’re actually the first one who implements contact less smart card in Wellington area.
  
  
• What’s with the $15 to buy a card? That’s so not world class. You don’t have to pay to get Oyster card in London (with GBP 3 ($8) refundable deposit). EZ Link Singapore used to be the same as Oyster (with SGD 7 refundable deposit); until a couple of years back they started to charge SGD 5 ($5) refundable deposit to get the card. Hong Kong’s Octopus has the On Loan card for HKD50 ($9) refundable deposit. Snapper starts its business by charging customers $15, that’s a rip off.
  
  
• Another rip off: Snapper will charge 25c for top up and 2% for credit card payment. Let’s calculate how much they make from it: if you top up $20 (hence paying $20.25). In a month if you top up four times, that makes $1 extra out of your pocket. It’s worse with Credit card. You will have to fork out $20.4 to get $20 top up. If you travel 3 Zone every day, that’s at least $15 a year (or $25 by credit card) just from you, multiply by the number of commuters, that’s a pretty handsome amount of money isn’t it? I don’t think any other ‘world class’ companies do that. I know EZ-Link doesn’t charge if you top up in their ticketing offices or train stations.
  
  
• I can see the end of monthly pass. It won’t be compatible with Snapper.
  
  
• I don’t care about buying coffee using Snapper. It’s too risky to put too much money in it. When you lose it, anyone can use it straight away. Also remember you have to pay 25c to top up the card, plus all the trouble to find the merchants who provide top up service.
  
  
• Most importantly, I’m gonna miss the small talks with bus drivers (or train conductors) when handing off money or tickets. I hope Wellington will not turn into new Singapore with bus drivers only concentrating at the card reader to make sure you tap your card when you board the bus.
  

This blog has got some interesting posts on Snapper.

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