Purchase of car went ok. Was a bit embarassed when we went to pick it up though and I was trying to drive away, but the car wasn't moving, and the guy tapped on the window to say I needed to let the handbrake off. Anyway, car is good. Am enjoying driving.

Got another mosquito bite. On my thigh this time. It was a bit of a nasty one. It turned kind of purpley/yellowy/greeny and covered practically my entire upper thigh. More antibiotics, a 7 day course of very large pills which kill my stomach. Almost done now.

The weather yesterday was horrendous. Heavy, heavy rain and hailstones. Today the sun is splitting the trees! We took the dog to the beach and en route went to the UK food shop. I got irn-bru, pop tarts, chocolate and crisps. Yum! We also had a look in the pet shop. They had all these little black and white puppies in the window, dressed up in little black and red outfits to symbolise the Lions and the All Blacks. They even had a little pitch with little goal posts (or whatever they're called in rugby. They were so cute!

Talking of the rugby, we watched the first match last night between the Lions and the All Blacks. The All Blacks won, but deservedly so. Even I could see they were a class above the Lions. The weather was terrible though.....hailstones.

I had a work night out on Friday night as we went to laser stike. You wear a vest thing and have a laser gun and you run around a pitch black maze shooting members of the other team. In the first game I wasn't very good as I came last. In the second game I did better, coming 8th out of 12 players. It was great fun though, I loved it.

Went to the Ellerslie car fair yesterday and got a car! It's a Nissan March (micra). It was an Indian guy who owned it and he didn't seem to have a great command of the english language. Anyway, I gave him a deposit and have to go tomorrow to pick it up and give him the balance. I'm paranoid now though as we didn't think to get any checks done. I'm worried it's got money owing on it or something. Either that or I'll get there tomorrow and he'll deny he agreed to sell me the car and deny I gave him $200 deposit. I just noticed he didn't sign the receipt I wrote out. Sigh.

Also, my joy at getting a car has been wiped out by the frustration of trying to get insurance. NZ is so bloody small, and there's only about 4 insurance companies to choose from. They don't do on-line quotes which is making me mad. I don't have time to wait 4 days for them to get round to calling me with a quote etc. You don't realise how much you take for granted when you live somewhere like the UK. You come here and it's so backwards it's unreal.