Angela snippets

We went to the movies on Tuesday and saw Pirates of the Caribbean, very good movie, TERRIBLE movie theatre seats. The largest theatre was boasted about by the attendant, we walked in and it is smaller than the smallest in Westminster--so "large" is relative we know :) BUT, the screen is three times as large, so no matter where you sit, you have to recline in a fixed chair and look up. Can you say pain in the neck? But great movie.

Who would have figured, herbs here cost a freaking fortune. I can only buy like 1 oz at a time and it costs $2, they come in the smallest bottles and if I have to make my Italian sauce, I'm throwing down twenty bucks or something just on spices. Then there's the kitty litter--we've used pine pellets for years (Feline Pine at Petsmart) and spent US $10 per bag and it would last probably a month. HERE, unexpectedly enough, we bought a 25 lb bag at the local wood burning stove place because they use it for fuel here, and it cost $10 NZ, or $6 US. Gonna last 6 months probably. Some things cost so much here, and then the oddest things cost so little. Rose's lime juice, DIRT cheap. Good thing, cuz tequila supplies here suck, so we'll be drinking a lot of that Rose's in our mix!

Biggest bummer: as we expected, tequila availability is awful. There's a choice between two, and you can hardly consider it a choice: Jose Cuervo and Pepe Lopez. PEPE LOPEZ?? WHAA? Plus it's not cheap either (boy, that phrase is getting old I bet!). We are awaiting with bated breath the arrival of our shipping container with some 10 bottles of awesome tequila. We are going to have to pay taxes and fees to bring in those bottles to the country (we are 8 bottles over our allowable max) and it is going to be worth every cent!!!

But, it's the differences that make it the adventure, right? We are having a great time finding new things here, walking 5 minutes to town where you can do everything you need to, and meeting all sorts of people along the way. Walking instead of driving is amazing, we are both loving it--Don especially--just leaving the car in the garage and heading to town over the bridge to bank, shop, go to the movies, pick up our mail, buy a paper, everything! It's all a 5 minute walk away. More on this later, with photos of our trek.