11 November, 2009 in Holidays, Home by Aonghas

Mitre 10 Mega, Carters, Bunnings

This morning I went out to the front of our house to measure around the conservatory with my dad. Underneath our conservatory we’ve got this cement board-like stuff that’s been cracking over the years so we thought it was about time that we replaced/repaired it. After we got the measurements, I went out with my mum and dad to have a look at some different materials we could use to fix our conservatory.

The first place we went to was Mitre 10 Mega. The guy we approached there didn’t really know much about what we were talking about, but he did show us some of the wood outside (it was slightly raining at the time). Before we left Mitre 10, we passed by the garden department because my mum brought a couple of plant clippings from the back yard to find out what type of plant it was before digging it out. We saw one of the garden guys and when we showed him the plant clipping, he immediately dismissed the possibility of it being a fruit plant, but couldn’t decipher what it was. He asked two of his colleagues if they could tell what it was, but they didn’t have and idea either. Finally he showed the clipping to one of the young ladies (her name was Jessica (I read her name badge!)) working on the other side of the gardening section.

The mapou plant

She identified the plant as being a mapou, a New Zealand native apparently. She even took out her New Zealand Natives book to double check, and sure enough she was right. The red stem on the plant was a “dead giveaway”, she said.

Next stop was Carters, down the road. The guy we met there was driving on a forklift. At the time he was moving a pallet, but when he came back he directed us over to the plywood (while still driving the forklift). Seeing him riding on that forklift made me a tad jealous because it looked like so much fun, what with the multiple joysticks and rear-wheels that steer! We weren’t too sure if plywood was the best way to go either, so we decided we’d give it some thought and moved on.

The last destination on our home depot store round-trip was Bunnings Warehouse on Lincoln Road. It’s much smaller than the Bunnings in Pakuranga, but nevertheless we thought we’d just pop in to see if there was anything we hadn’t seen earlier. The older-looking guy we met there was quite a character. I missed his name, but he took us over to the corrugated plastics and suggested we cover our conservatory with this stuff. When my dad mentioned that our conservatory roof might need replacing after the birds had picked holes in the top layer of our Twinwall plastic roofing over the years, the guy joked with a solution to keep the birds off the roof. He said,

“Just put the f**king cat up there, that’ll keep the birds off it! The only thing is how to keep the cat up there… might need a cage!”

His seemingly ingenious idea was followed with a loud roar of laughter, I chuckled just to play along.

In the end though, we didn’t buy anything today. At least we’ve got some ideas now – hopefully they’ll be put into action before long!

10 November, 2009 in Holidays by Aonghas

Let Summer Begin!

I had my last exam for the year this afternoon! I was so relieved when I finally put my pen down at the end of the exam, knowing that it was the beginning of my four-month holiday! Today’s exam was my general education paper, Economics (Understanding the Global Economy). The exam itself wasn’t actually too bad because half of the questions were multi-choice so I knew I had some chance of getting them right! Now, as always, comes the daunting wait for exam results to come back. But for now I just want to free my mind of anything study-related! I think I’ve had enough of that for a while.

The thing about holidays starting is that I always find myself having too much time on my hands and nothing to do! During the semester things always popped into my mind that I thought I’d definitely have to do when the holidays arrived, but now that they have finally come I can’t remember any of them. Hopefully I’ll find something to keep me busy over the next four months, or else I’m going to get bored pretty fast. If you’ve got any suggestions for me, please let me know!