Well, We did another trip up to Auckland. This is becoming to be a habit.

This time it was to help Mum and Dad out for a few days so they could rest and relax while recovering from their mishap on the motor bike.

We left Palmy on Friday morning at around 10am. Over all it was a pretty good drive up. Stopped in Taupo for lunch by the lake. It was a really hot day. We went the normal way through Hamilton (Never again) we normally bypass Cambridge and Hamilton as it’s a bitch of a place to get through.

We did have a snarl up of Traffic on the southern motorway just past Manakau City. We came to a complete stop on a 4 lane motorway no less. Traffic crawled until around Fanshaw street and eased off as we got over the bridge.

We arrived at Mum and Dad’s and had Pizza Hut for dinner. Didn’t really do anything too exciting, just helped out with housework, washing etc..  Both mum and dad are well on the mend which was nice to see. Still in a lot of pain, but being hit by a car while on a motor bike will do that. Dads broken ribs and collar bone seem to be on the mend.

We decided we had to come home on Wednesday 26th November as we had work and other things to do at home.

Leaving Auckland at about 10am I decided to take the Tauranga turn off which brought us out at Tirau. Well, we must have hit 10 sets of road works where they had men on stop/go signs and the road was down to one lane. Fortunately it didn’t have too much of an impact on the total travel time. We bought lunch in Matamta but the rest area just out of town was blocked off so we had to wait ’till we got to Tirau before we could eat.

Once we hit Taupo we were cruising behind a Freight Lines truck which was good. He made good time even on the hills and winding roads (must have been empty) We played cat and mouse with him for a while due to us stopping for toilet breaks We passed him in the desert road and again just out of Mangaweka (stopped at the cookie time plane to get ice blocks (but they didn’t have any)

All in all, the trip up to Auckland and Home again was a good drive, we had the usual moron on the road who passed on blind corners, Unsurprisingly they were either young males or middle aged men who were obviously trying to make up for a lack of something down stairs

Got home at about 5pm and learnt my lesson not to leave the swimming pool unattended for too long   We cheated and got KFC for dinner. Don’t know if it was just the fact I was hungry but it actually tasted nice.

Well, I had a bit of a scare this morning. I got a phone call from my brother informing me that mum and dad were involved in an accident while out on their motor bike this morning.

Fortunately they are both ok, bruises, black eye, shaken and in a neck brace but other wise ok.

Turns out some moron in a “cage” (aka: a car) pulled out directly in front of them and dad had no way of avoiding the idiot. Oh If I could get my hand on the driver of that car.

I spoke to mum at the hospital which eased my mind a little. Still a heck of a shell shock when things like this happen to people so close to you.

Ride safe out there everyone. And for all those idiots in cars. Open your bloody eyes. There have been way to many motor cyclist taken out by your stupid actions.

As the title states. An Air Filtration unit is NOT a vacuum cleaner.

We had an interesting couple of hours on this afternoon. I participated in a survey regarding air quality in Palmerston North a week or so ago. That was fine.

Got rung by the company wanting to show us an Air Filtration System (aka: or so I thought, An Air Conditioning Unit which we are currently looking at purchasing.)

No, It wasn’t an Air Con / Heat pump.. it’s a fucking vacuum cleaner. Had they said we want to show you a vacuum cleaner I would have told them not to bother. We are not looking for a new vacuum cleaner at this point in time.

Our current budget is for an Air Con unit which we can run while in the room and not have to listen to a 200db (ok give or take but this bloody vacuum cleaner was loud) noise maker which we have to yell over to have a conversation.

We did think as a vacuum cleaner it was an efficient unit, but we don’t want a bloody vacuum cleaner. So we asked the sales guy (who by the way was dropping the price something chronic to try and get us to buy this bloody thing) for contact details for the company..

So if you’re in Palmy North and get “Envirotect” wanting to show you an “Air Filtration System” it is indeed a Vacuum Cleaner and going to set you back around $3750 minus the desperate discounts to make a sale.

Ok, I couldn’t resist when I saw this on sale at EziBuy down from $109.95 to $50.00

I initially looked at it a few months ago but couldn’t justify the $109.95 but at $50.00 I knew I couldn’t pass the opportunity up to have this in my wardrobe

I also purchased a couple of pairs of jeans so all in all I had a good retail therapy morning this morning.

We decided to head over to Feilding to go to the A&P show at Manfield. Over all I guess it was nice to see and get up close to some of the animals. Although I have a problem with the cost of the side shows. Biggest waste of money around. Good way to blow $50.00 in an afternoon though. Mind you I did spend more than that in the space of an hour this morning

The weather here in Palmy has been brilliant all day so I also managed to get the Pool pump and sand filter setup on the pool. Unfortunately there was no pump/filter with the pool when we moved in, but we managed to pickup a bargain off trademe for a pump and 2x sand filters.

I feel absolutely shattered and think I’m going to sit down with a nice bourbon and coke after dinner. We are having BBQ pork chops and it smells so nice. So without boring you any more I’m going to go and eat.