2008-04-22 Errand Part 1

You live, you learn. Every day. Today's lesson included reading. Reading of simple words and numbers in general, and reading of signs on buses in particular. Here's the story.

In the morning I had an appointment for yet another immigration health checkup. What a waste of time and money. Oh, they were nice and polite, but they wanted money nevertheless. Well, not their fault.
When all was done, the journey started. Instead of walking back to the bus exchange to go to work, I decided to walk along the road the bus takes and wait at the next bus stop. I got lucky, because I had just arrived there when a bus with an Airport sign came my way. Perfect. Or so I thought. Jade is right next to the airport, so I sometimes use line 10 that goes to the airport. Their sign says 10 Airport. Obviously, the 10 is very important. A bus that doesn't have it doesn't take the crucial turn to Sheffield Crescent. Now I know!
Also, "right next to" doesn't necessarily mean "easy to find from". In fact it's terribly easy to walk in the wrong direction for at least a mile. How I know that? Guess...

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Another thing I learned today: My German driver's license suffices to rent a car here in New Zealand. And I don't even have a card version. I have an old school pink piece of paper. If you're in need of a giggle (and the story above wasn't enough for you), ask me to show you the picture on it one of these days. There was a time I had hair, you know.

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After work I dropped by at the Ehrenkonsul der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Christchurch (Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Christchurch). Nice chap. Paperwork has never been easier. He told me he has been in New Zealand for 27 years. Before that he lived in Neustadt. That's like 30 kilometers away from my parent's place. Man, the world is a small place!