Tag Archives: New Zealand

Tax – boring but worth it

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For those of you heading to Italy – or the rest of Europe, tax is an important subject. Sales tax specifically. Anything you buy which is coming home with you, and which you paid more than 70 Euro for, you can claim the sales tax back. This averages around 12% of the sale price. On a 600 Euro purchase that can be around 75 Euro back.

This can mount up and become a welcome refund at the end of your trip.

The place you purchase the item from does the paper work (which is mostly automated anyway) and all you need to do is visit the relevant tax refund kiosk at the airport you are departing from to claim the refund. Simple.

Good Morning Positano

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Get up. Put the kettle on. Open the front door. Not a bad way to start the day.

Arriving in Positano

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After a half days travel from Rome we arrived in Positano yesterday afternoon. We had a quiet night – the jet lag was still there so it was early to bed.

We watched the sun go down through a humid haze as the sky slowly changed colour.

Upgrade!

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We are Premium Economy flyers. The added legroom we get is worth the additional cost over economy. But the leap to business class is just too much for us to handle.

Unless, of course, Emirates email us and offer an upgrade at a great price – and that’s what happened yesterday. We had the chance to upgrade our Dubai to Rome leg. Clearly there were some seats upstairs that were unsold – now there are two less.

Lie flat beds and a bar – what more could you want?

Walking to Positano

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On our regular walk from Casetta Arienzo to Positano we see some spectacular views. This one is a bit different – it’s the Positano cemetery which you can see at the top of the picture – located on a hill high above the village.

Walking home

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Casetta Arienzo is about 800m from Eden Roc hotel and the intersection where the road through Positano village meets the main road to Amalfi. From here we can walk down to the village or stop at the hotel for breakfast, a day by the pool or dinner – or all three.

We do this walk pretty much every day so we forget how spectacular it is – with cliffs on both sides, the ones above us reaching skyward and the ones on the other side falling down to the sea. This afternoon I grabbed a shot of the cliff above the road as we walked back to Casetta Arienzo. Behind Jean the view to the ocean is equally spectacular.

Walking home this evening
The view behind Jean

And now Positano

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Until the end of August we are in Positano. We have, once again, rented Casetta Arienzo for our stay. It is owned by the Casola family who also own Eden Roc hotel – so we have a small villa to ourselves while also having all the benefits of the hotel which we can use. This includes the restaurant, pool and, of course, the bar.

All these have been enjoyed in the few days we have been here as the temperature has been in the the low/mid thirties – when hydration and keeping cool is important.

The casetta has been renovated since our last visit which has made the stay even more enjoyable.

Life is slowing down and we are starting to merge into the background.

The view from the hotel pool

Arriving in Venice

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After a 4 hour train trip from Rome, we arrived in Venice. The only train station I’m aware of with a canal running past its front. There to greet us was Alaria. She had organised a water taxi which took us and our bags through the canals of Venice, eventually reaching the Londra Palace. Our home for the next 4 days.

It’s a lovely hotel which has, in one guise or another, been receiving guests since 1857. It has both a bar and restaurant with terraces that look over the water.

If you are planning a trip to Venice then this could well be the relaxing retreat from the summer madness you are looking for.

Arriving at the hotel and our room with a view

The sound of silence

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View from our verandah – Wellington Airport, Kilbirne, Evans Bay and Hataitai.

One thing that I’ve noticed over the last few weeks is the silence. Outside at night you can hear – nothing.

With virtually no cars on the roads and even fewer planes coming and going, the constant background city buzz has gone. To be replaced by silence, and at night, the call of our local Ruru.

 

Sentinel at the Gate

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Bella loves to bark at people passing our front gate. She sits and waits to hear someone approaching – then when they are level with the gate she lets loose – barking, barking barking.

Every morning and evening people on the way to and from work give her a “target rich environment” but in lockdown it’s different.

Here she is siting patiently, waiting for someone to walk past on Wednesday evening. But no one came.

So much music everywhere

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Thank you gentle readers for the additions to the lockdown playlist. Happy lockdown day 9. And the extended playlist is:

Alone Again, Naturally – Gilbert O’Sullivan

The Chain – Fleetwood Mac

Need You Now – Lady Antebellum

Don’t Stand So Close To Me – The Police

It’s Oh So Quiet – Bjork

I Think We’re Alone Now – Tiffany

Staying Alive – Bee Gees

Is There Anybody Out There – Pink Floyd

 

 

A funny thing happened this morning

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So it’s day 7 of the Covid-19 lockdown. Our medical community is braced for an influx of virus sufferers and I’m ensconced in the safety of my home. What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a bit it seems.

It only took 7 days but I’ve done it – produced a sequel to the “nail through the foot” incident of last year.  All it took was a blown lightbulb and a step ladder – well a kitchen step ladder to be honest.

Yes, another foot injury. This time it’s torn ligaments along the side of my left foot, swelling, pain and embarrassment – in equal measures.

I fell from the bottom step of the ladder and managed to sprain my foot to such an extent the doctor was impressed. “The bottom step? Really? The bottom step, are you sure?”, were his words while examining my swollen and rapidly blackening foot.

One x-ray later and I’m in a moon-boot with enough pain killers and steroids to treat a horse. Easy.

I’ll be spending the next week with my foot elevated, garnering as much sympathy and as many cups of tea as I can.

Top Tip: If you do something silly like this, now is an oddly good time to do it. When Jean called my doctor as I lay groaning on the ground she advised me to visit the after hours clinic (in Newtown for me) as they are “very quiet”. Apparently all the usual maladies that fill the clinic’s waiting room have mysteriously been cured. At 1pm I was the only person in the waiting room and when I had my x-ray I was the radiographers second customer – that day. 

Day 6 and puppy boredom has set in

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After 6 days of having us at home, Ellie has run out of things to keep her occupied. There’s only the office chair left.

Let there be music everywhere

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Day two of the lockdown and it’s quiet out there – too quiet. Time for some music, and what could be better than a curated playlist to suit these odd times.

  • We Gotta Get Out Of This Place – The Animals
  • Dancing With Myself – Billy Idol
  • Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley of course
  • All By Myself – Eric Carmen
  • I’m In Chains – Tina Arena
  • The Walls Are Closing In/Hangman – The Pretty Reckless

 

  • I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free – Nina Simone

 

  • Me & You Together Song – The 1975
  • Mad World – Tears for Fears
  • I will survive – Gloria Gaynor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARt9HV9T0w8

  • All Revved Up And No Place To Go

 

And, of course, anything by Small Spaces. All suggestions for additional songs are welcome.

 

 

It’s 24 hours from lockdown

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We live in extraordinary times. In the next 24 hours we will give up our freedom willingly (for at least 4 weeks and possibly longer) and retreat to the relative safety of our homes, isolated, socially impotent and very likely bored out of our minds.

Today and tomorrow are the days to tidy things up – to sort all that life admin that needs to be done for a month in isolation. Not wanting to appear shallow, but top of my list was to purchase some of the delicious SmokeHouse Salmon Pate that New World stock. Ok, not earth shattering but just something that seemed important at the time.

Of course if I’d thought for another moment I’d have realised that it was possibly the least important thing I could have done in the day. But my brain ended up fixated on this damn pate.

So off I went to Chaffers New World to buy my limit of 2 pots. A llimit we can blame on all those who panic bought toilet paper, hand sanitiser, coffee, chocolate, baked beans and whatever else was panic buy of the day over the last few weeks.

I was expecting the supermarket to be chaos, queues out the door, police in attendance, possibly some tear gas being fired around but – no. It was quieter than any time I’ve been there recently – from a certain angle the store almost seemed empty.

Never one to miss an opportunity, I went in for some good old fashioned panic buying – well as much as you can do with a two item limit. When Jean saw my purchases she said I’d missed the point.

Poor women, she’s now stuck with me for 4 weeks – alone, together.