Day 44, Level 1: Passports, Taste Test, white bread, and long bridges

What a wild windy day it was today! And freezing, especially with the wind chill factor.

Spent the morning in my office working away on one thing and another. There is a never-ending "to do" list that is purely work-related in some capacity - a project, a job, a role that I'm involved with. Just when I think I'm getting on top of things, another ten "to-dos" come along! At times it feels overwhelming - but a steady ship and unflustered captain should reach its destination.

Then of course there are the housework and messages to-dos ...

Mid-afternoon I headed up to Remuera to pick up some shoes I'd had repaired. They looked as good as new, excellent.

It's kind of weird and ironic that the carpark above the shoe repair shop has some of the most expansive views of Auckland city and its volcanoes!

Auckland city over yonder, from Remuera

I also whipped into the photo shop to get a Passport photo taken as my passport expires on 13th August this year. Whilst travelling anywhere overseas right now is no-go, I want to be ready to go if/when we can. Please let it be soon ...

My current passport was issued 13th August 2015, which was when our NZ passports were only valid for five years (stupid policy that one!) The new - and much more sensible - 10-year passport policy came into effect shortly afterwards, in November 2015 - alas just a bit too late for me back then.

So my new one will be a 10-year one - so much better. Thankfully the passport photo the guy took is reasonable and if I still look vaguely like that in ten years, I'll be happy enough!

I'm sure those ten years will fly by. And I hope I do get to fly again soon and get to use it!

I love flying. Don't mind airports. Not keen on all the processes and procedures. Loathe packing and unpacking.

But the aircraft experience is all good in my eyes - I have time to do nothing much in particular, I'm going somewhere nice, visiting friends/family, or I'm coming home. Let's hope I can get flying again soon ... and hopefully with new clients who want to take up my Travel Companion Services.

Next, I headed over to the Shore to do a Taste Test, which I do occasionally for various research organisations. This one was for white bread. While I usually buy rye or grain style bread these days, I still like a good old-fashioned white bread loaf for sandwiches, fresh (esp egg) or toasted (cheese & onion). And I'm partial to a nice piece of toasted white bread with jam. Or peanut butter. Actually, I have to say, even though it's not very PC these days, I do like good old-fashioned white bread - if it is soft, fresh and robust.

I remember when I was pregnant with Sam, I went ballistic on toasted white bread with jam. I couldn't get enough of it. I'd have about ten - yes 10 - slices every morning. Lightly toasted white bread with lashings of butter and jam. Yum.

Hey, I was pregnant. I craved it. Sam popped out perfect and has turned out okay!

I didn't have quite the same craving when pregnant with Michael - more enamoured with doughnuts I recall. Michael also popped out perfect and has turned out okay!

During the Taste Test I tasted 6 slices of bread/toast. Most white bread I've had in a while! Plus I was given a loaf to take away, taste test and make comment on over the next few days. I think there could be some toast and jam coming on, to remind me of my pregnancy days, haha!

Afterwards, I called into Pym's in Milford, my sister's bar. It was reasonably busy and the atmosphere was good. Had a nice catch-up, in between her serving drinks and food. It's non-stop.

Next, I called in to see Vicki (Brett's sister) & Lyle who live in Milford. Pate, wine, chat, laughs, warmth ... perfect!

Then to The Alex at Alexandra Park for ... yes, yet another round of Quiz! We'd won last week, and you have to spend the winning voucher the following week, so we HAD to go! Tonight we came fourth - did a bit of dithering and could have done better - but did pretty well nevertheless. You can't win all the time. The food is great, booze prices good. 100% enjoyable.

SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:

Airports and bridges ...

I read today about the new "Starfish" Airport in Qingdao, China - situated half way between Beijing and Shanghai in China's north-east, it's a coastal city famous for Tsingtao Brewery (not a beer I'm familiar with).

Taking five years and costing approx. NZ$11 billion to build, this new Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport is twice the size of London's Heathrow! It is set to become a new transport hub in Northeast Asia and apparently the area is poised for a major tourism boost thanks to this new airport.

The airport building features an ultra-thin stainless-steel roof that is just 0.5mm thin - the thickness of a piece of A4 paper. It covers 223,000sq.m. and is the largest of its kind in the world.

The stats in general are staggering and, in time, it will be able to cope with 60m passengers a year, with four runways.

It seems astounding that a place like this will become operational in post-Covid days. Just who will this airport be serving? Chinese nationals, I guess. I'm not hearing confidence of anyone wanting to travel to China much, unless they must, on business or whatever. And while enforced quarantine is still a thing, even those people will be thinking thrice.

The general feeling I get is that the world doesn't want a bar of China in any shape or form.

While other countries are working to cut ties with China, little old New Zealand, in its naivety, still seems to be hanging off its coat-tails. Carrots dangle and NZ can't help itself but go have a chomp. Greed never reaps enduring benefits.

There is something almost Alienesque about this new airport. Who? What? How?

It's kind of frightening.

In NZ, $10m was given to upgrade Masterton's airport and runway. There are precisely no commercial aircraft coming and going, with flights ceasing in 2014. Hopefully flights might resume again once the upgrade is complete. Otherwise this is a very frightening waste of resources. Or is it something to do with Peter Jackson living in the vicinity?

Anyway, let's put this building stuff in perspective a little ...

• In NZ there are decades of fiddling to constantly extend current inadequate airports
• In China it takes five years to build the largest airport in the world.

• In NZ it takes 30+ years to discuss the prospect of a second harbour crossing and get virtually nowhere.
• In China, it takes just four years to build the world's longest bridge - the Danyang Kunshan Grand Bridge which serves the Beijing to Shanghai High-Speed Railway. Opened June 2011, it spans 165km. (The longest expressway (road) bridge in the world is the Bang Na Bridge in Thailand (6 lanes, 54km, completed in 2000).

Come on NZ - we must do better.

To put this bridge thing into some perspective - NZ has 15,000km of coastline and stretches 1,600km north to south. Consider this - it would only require 10 Danyang Kunshan Grand Bridges to cover NZ top to bottom!

Perhaps they'll come to us and suggest they'll build our second harbour crossing, a huge rail network, and other stuff. Uh-oh, then there's no turning back ...