Love and Sewage.

It rained all day today, which meant that everyone was in their cars and I had to apply myself to remembering the 'unique rule of the road'. You are driving along the road and going to make a left turn. A car coming in the opposite direction is going to make a right turn. In Britain, I would just turn left. In NZ, I have to wait and let the car on the other side of the road cross over in front of me. I don't know how many times I have forgotten to do that. The other rule is 'see a gap - go for it'. I drive around waiting for people to launch themselves out of junctions just as I am nearly upon them. With big wide roads and not lot's of people, it's funny how they don't just wait until I am past!
It is the Autumn Festival of Colours this week - like a mini Edinburgh Festival. There is a lot of good things going on, but they sell out quick and many of them cost too much. I was going to listen to a Scottish musician from the Highlands for $5 (this is a fringe event - Frank Burkitt), at 12.30pm and then join Maggie for coffee instead of the lunch she had invited me for. However, Spook required a package from town to be delivered to the poo works as a matter of urgency. He wooed me with the promise of a nice coffee. Unfortunately there was no milk and then he realised he'd run out of beans. I watched him eat his lunch which made him hiccup twice and finish off with a burp. This amused him. I munched on a packet of Girl Guide biscuits which claim to be NZ's favourite but had gone a bit soft, because no-one likes them very much. It was very romantic, with the waft of sewage and the gentle drizzle of rain.
So I missed lunch and the music, but Maggie had coffee beans so things picked up.
I met the children at school and we went to buy the regulation winter school trousers. Meg is meant to wear a kilt but the girls can get away with the boys trousers, so that's what she is going with. Then we bought their ski passes. It was $180 for the 2 passes together. This is approximately £66. It is amazing that life in Wanaka is so expensive, and the children can get a full season pass - for £33 each. (It was $55 each for the trousers!!!)
Spook is off tomorrow so it would be nice if the weather cleared up. Not expected to, I don't think. We could always go to the swimming pool and I could teach him how to do the crawl. Or we could go and listen to a man who bought some cheap underpants in NZ and then traced them back to their source in China. (part of the festival!!). It's hard to decide.