The mistake you obviously made, Liv, is one of ommission. The number 6 handshake has to be accompanied by a casual slap on the thigh with the other hand, followed by a short, sharp snort through both nostrils.

“The wretched King Minos has decided your fate. His tale wraps around his body 4 times.
The sweet light no longer strikes against your eyes. Your shade has been banished to… the Fourth Level of Hell!“

“Just before the river Styx is the Fourth Level of Hell. Here, the prodigal and the avaricious suffer their punishment, as they roll weights back and forth against one another. You will share eternal damnation with others who either wasted and lived greedily and insatiably, or who stockpiled their fortunes, hoarding everything and sharing nothing. Plutus, the wolf-like demon of wealth, dwells here.”

Doom!

Take the Dante’s Inferno Test

money grasping fiends indeed.

just got back from a hellishly busy few days. went home on monday, arriving at about 11.30pm. and got up at five the next morn for the two hour train trip to bournemouth for a “assessment centre” with jpmorgan. Two interviews (one friendly one and another with a guy with no expression and lots of awkward pauses…), a “role-play” (ie. some sort of hell), and a “group discussion” (essentially, a “role-play” in a group). There were six of us in the group thing, with 6 beady-eyed assessors assigned to each candidate, watching every move. I was obviously fairly good, making several salient points and suchlike). after the last interview, shaking hands, I felt the tell-tale signs of a freemasons handshake. Naturally i responded in accordance with charter 34 of the freemason handbook, with a No. 6 handshake. unfortunately this does not seem to have worked, as they haven’t got back to me yet. most distressing.

It all sounds a bit classy in nz and hope that Thailand is better than Vietnam!

Right, i’m going to construct myself some burgers. must remember to get some ketchup.

Money grasping fiends! It looks like you need to get an IRD number, quickly! When you do, remember to ask about a refund, for after you’ve done with working.
This is what it says here:
www.ird.govt.nz/individuals/receivingtaxableincome/taxobligations.html
When you receive income from your job or other taxable income:
ï give your IRD number to your boss or other payer so that you are paying the correct amount of tax. If you don’t have an IRD number, fill in an IRD number application – individual form
ï fill in a tax code declaration form. (Without a tax code declaration, tax is deducted at the non-declaration rate of 45 cents in the dollar.)
The tax deducted from your income may range from 15 cents to 39 cents in the dollar.
If you are in employment for part of the year only, you could be entitled to a tax refund. Please contact us at Inland Revenue to request a personal tax summary, which will show whether you are entitled to this refund.
Somewhere else it says:
IRD Number
To work in New Zealand you will also need an IRD number from New Zealand Inland Revenue. This can be applied for once you arrive in New Zealand. Simply go to the nearest Inland Revenue office and take along your passport and visa. Ask at your hostel for directions. For more info see
www.ird.govt.nz/library/publications/irdnumber.html

haha! epic pictures dod.
yo tan, hows about i meet you in three weeks time, as i am having a lot of fun here. my friends here are so amazingly nice i cant bare to part with them for the momant. tell geoff to start throwing his wieght about. dirk struin wouldn’t take such insolence from the natives lying down, nor would tyler brock for that matter. if he had said in a commanding voice “take us to town, or by god i will break you in half!” all the while fixing them with a balefull “godzilla” like stare, it would have had the desired result. reading shogun. rather good. what price gai jin?

mama i will send the negertives when i finnish my third camera.(a new one i bourt here that had panaramic options) shall i also send my cd’s? they have been hanging around in my badger bag for yonks. perhaps dod can manipulate them onto the computer and post some. the second batch of pictures looks quite good if i say so my self.
the work is pretty hellbane, yesterday it was nasty- 8.30-7.45. the going rate was we thought $9.50, but we don’t know for sure. someone said it might be $8.50. we will find out. turns out that tax is 20%, but of course if you don’t have a speacial IRD number than tax is 41%, nasty. am trying to get the number as we speak. there is some talk of getting the tax back at some point, but i don’t have a clue how this is done. i presume i need a bank account so i will go to westpacktrust(a bank) and get one soon.
i think i will continure to work for a while, though it crushes my spirit. the only thing making it bairable is that i am working with friends.

then mayhap i will go aroung northland for a bit. can i change my flights that i don’t have to fly back from kerikeri to auckland, as it seems a bit pointles?

verily

julio

hi all, just showed your pictures to an american grafic art student, and he said that they were great!!!!! He’d never seen anything like them before!!!! Good egg i say!
I like the bicicling one, how about horse riding???? or bouncing on clouds, thats always one of my dreams. WE are going to get some more doxicycline for the north of thailand and laos, It is not that bed i don;t think, and julio could easilt get some if he wanted to join in, but if he doesn’t, and is having fun in nz, then he should probably make the most of it. Sounds like you have met some groovy peole jul. What are your plans, how long are you going to work for???

Mama, don’t encourage him to take it easy!!!! He has been taking it too easy recently!

Chanthaburi : not a tourist in sight. No other westerners at all. no one speaks english, and the only other tourist here is derk the american. Nice easu going bloke, and not at all loud! WE had a mini cook your own bbq for supper, with soup and cook your own veg as well. It came with a mini clay pot with a fire inside, and a grill at the top. you put the meat on a grill, and the soup and veg round the outside of the clay pot in a sort of rim for it to cook as well. lot of fun, and most tasy!! Tried to bargain for some pomeloes, but they don’t seem to bargain here, so maybe they are giving us a fair price to begin with because there are not many tourist around.

WE got through the borger, and as the local bus station was way out of town, we decided to take the tourist bus here, but after that travel properly. we were tired and hot and had had as mush as we could take after the six hour (meant to be three) journet to the border, and just wanted to get here. we bargained the price down to 200 barth each, which is epensive, but not overly for the lack of hassle. We should have knw better. the bus took a lot longer than they said, and then it stopped on the side of a huge main road, and the driver said ‘this chandaburi’ and signaled for us to get out. we spent ages asking him to drop us in the centre, but he didn’t speak a work of english, and looked lost anyway. geoff was all for asserting his authority and demanding to be droped of in town, but the other people in the bus, a surly looking english coule and some moody germany began to grumble. The english about how they had to catch the ferry, and the germany said ;were the hell you want to go, this is chandaburi! I’m sure if it had benn them they would not have liked to be dropped of on the main road. bloody rude and inconsiderate, and i hope they missed their ferry. anyway, we got out for a quiet life, and took a jeep to the centre (4km away, the cheating toad, so much for a cheerful and happy wencome to thailand!!)

Oh well, the people seem nive here appart from that.

Best be of as it’s late.

Love tanya