NEW CAR:
We took our car in to get its bi-annual shaken check-up recently - it's like a warrent of fitness and costs NZ$1000 JUST TO TAKE THE TEST. Anything that is deemed wrong during the test must then be fixed. Ever wonder why there are so many used Japanese cars in NZ?? They are, by and large, ones that have been traded in after these damnable tests became too expensive.
Anyway, we had bought the car 3 years ago for 400,000 yen (and, admittedly put 50,000kms on it in that time) so when the car-chap came back from doing the pre-test lookover shaking his head and laughing, we knew we were in trouble.
Long story short: 400,000 yen to fix the car
And so it was that we decided to dump it and get a new one (keep an eye out for it in NZ). After asking around hither and yon, it was actually a car dealer friend of a friend in Gifu, where we used to live, that sorted us out a replacement for our 1995 Black Mitsubishi RVR Sports Gear.....a 1996 Black Mitsubishi RVR Sports Gear...(although the new one is a turbo - woohoo!)
So it was that, briefly, we owned tw
o cars that were essentially exactly the same. Arch suggested we take them head-to-head, but my Gran Turismo skills(z) far outweigh Nics and so it just wasn't worth it.All excited we were, traipsing back up to Gifu on the Bullet train to get our new car....filled out the endless paperwork....jumped in.....
...and it was just the same as the old one....
...bugger. Really did want some new buttons and dials and the like but alas. It was identical. Still, goes like a cut cat and is in good nick, so we remain happy.
FIRST FLOOR (DAMMIT):
So every year everyone in the City Hall were I work starts to get nervous around the end of March. This is because, in the interests of broadening everyones abilities and avoiding (shudder) s-p-e-c-i-a-l-i-s-a-t-i-o-n, people are, more or less randomly, flung hither and yon about the place. That is, someone who used to be working in a Community Center is suddenly working in the Statistics Division, the Tax guy finds himself in the Sewerage and Wastewater Office and the poor woman that ran the Library now works in the Municipal Housing Section.
As such, the first 3 months or so involve an awful lot of:
"...what's my extension number again..."
"...ummmm...don't know, I'll call my predecessor..."
"...who are you?"
"...woops, predecessor's busy talking with their predecessor..."
"...where the hell is the coffee machine..."
"...which is the best toilet to use around here..."
"...no really, who the hell are you?"
...and the like. I think it's funny as hell. Luckily my job just ticks over, although this year I have been moved from the Planning and Coordination Division, to the Civic Activities Division.
HOWEVER:
I have been moved from the comfortable confines of the 4th floor to the 1st floor, where every Tom, Dick and Suzuki-san comes to sort out whatever needs sorting. So, yeah, just imagine rows upon endless rows of desks bathed in flourescent lighting....and there I am....
It's actually working out OK, have been called on to do heaps more translation stuff for random foreigners at the Tax desk and the like, so thats super.
Righto.
Dashing back to work.
Tata.
B.
