Economic Illiteracy by Robert Mugabe

This morning I was skimming the paper when I noticed an article stating that Zimbabwe's rate of inflation has hit 3700% on an annual basis, which is up there with Weimar Germany. I nearly choked on my egg when I read the following sentence:

President Robert Mugabe, who holds an economics degree from London University and maintains that printing money keeps prices down...

This is complete economic lunacy, up there with supply-side economics. How can you make it through an entire economics degree believing that printing money would somehow lower inflation.

A couple of years back I saw a VSA vacancy advertised for a financial advisor in Harare- that would be quite interesting right about now....

At first I thought this was a good thing

We went on a tour of greater wellington's second hand stores yesterday, including the Paraparaumu Statue Bargain Barn. Not that I could buy any retro finds which I uncovered due to impending travel, but it is still fun to troll through other people's discards.
Anyway, when we were at the Statue Bargain Barn I was having a casual flick through the CDs for sale, and I found a couple of National Youth Choir recordings which I was involved in: Gaude and Choir of the World.

At first I thought this was a good thing, as I hadn't purchased these CDs when they originally came out and these were only $2 each. Then I noticed that there were multiple copies of the Choir of the World CD for sale. 22 to be exact.

How did all of these copies (all still in their individual shrink wrapping) end up in the same second hand store, nestled up against an assortment of musical mediocrity?

That is all

UK Visas

hmmm so to go to the UK Marie is applying for the HSMP. About a month ago she was ready to submit her application, having thought that she had all the information that was needed. A good friend mentioned a NARIC certification of your qualifications - http://naric.org.uk/ take note, this is not required in the official checklist but is required. Opting for the "standard service" (10-15 days) was clearly a mistake because it has now taken 15 days!!! and this doesn't include the postage back to New Zealand! This now puts significant pressure on the HSMP visa application...
NB plan the timing better next time - watch this space for the visa dramas!

Hi there the first post of Marie and Simon's blog. We are about 3 months from leaving New Zealand for a long over due OE. Three months of course depends on the work visa coming through and the money going into that savings account. But the flights are booked, though they are fully transferable, so we have the date to aim for. Basically this is going to be a record of our time before we go, our travel and then our settling in a new country, Maybe someone else will find it interesting, maybe not, at the very least some of our friends and family may find it comforting to know what we are up to!!