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Another invention involved several swanee whistles controlled by a sort of multiple pantograph . Then from Belfast to Glasgow for a weekend playing jazz with Gary , an ex-member of the Ian Witten trio who deserted New Zealand a year ago for the grey skies of Scotland . Half an hour ago a bird banged into the low glass half-wall that surrounds our patio and swimming pool , which we erected a few years ago ( at great expense , and at the Council 's insistence ) to fence out possible , and mythical , stray children . The future of computing is being determined by cappuccino-drinking white males between 25 and 30 - - as culturally homogenous a group as you 'll ever meet . Far from simply maintaining the status quo as Pam had anticipated , there was real decision-making to be done , and the Government did n't make things any easier by rescaling the aides ' grading and salaries and also restructuring the children 's financial support , all of which meant long and difficult consultations and discussion , and huge amounts of extra paperwork . The first day we did n't get far , anchoring at Rakino in the same bay mentioned above . She came home at Christmas ( 1999 ) , and managed to transfer from the Christchurch to the Hamilton branch of the clothing store where she works . A few years ago we started to put our letters on the World-Wide Web , and have occasionally corresponded with strangers who notice them , but to come up on The Guardian 's radar - - we were flabbergasted . Never one to miss the chance of honing his racing skills , Ian kept upwind of them , tacking when they tacked to blanket them ( this is all nautical talk too ) . And the Waikato Sympathy Orchestra ( they hate it when Ian calls it that ) has been going from strength to strength , with gigs at the local winery ( Sunday lunch and opera songs ) , and the local Christmas festival ( Hallelujah chorus with a choir of 1500 ) , as well as some very challenging concerts of " serious " music ( Dvorak 's non-New-World symphonies , listen out for them , they're fantastic ) . After one of those trips from hell where you find yourself stranded in the US , wearing only shorts , T-shirt and sandals , carrying only a computer ( no toothbrush , sweater , or clean undies ) , at an airport thousands of miles from anywhere on your itinerary , getting to a hotel at 1 AM ( after a long argy-bargy with airline officials ) and being collected from it at 4 AM , with a dinner voucher and a breakfast voucher ( only to be used on that day , at that hotel ) , he eventually arrived at Calgary and set off in search of Anna . Overseas for fifteen months , she had a great time in Calgary ( we had left her there at the beginning of her trip on returning to New Zealand ourselves ) , London , where she lived in a house in Ealing with fifteen Kiwis , visited Ian 's family in Northern Ireland and Pam 's brother near Toulouse , and then returned to Calgary - - where ( as we reported last year ) she got her old job back , working in a health club , and seemed to be very happy . Judy ( a long time ago Saul was Ian 's graduate student , now he 's a professor too ) and their two kids in their gorgeous house looking up to the Three Sisters . ( And , late in realizing the problem , we had to steal it from a friend 's backyard at dead of night , a kind of first footing in reverse - - but that 's another story . At this point Pam turned off the lights and sat in the dark , with the so-called guard dog , listening to the eerie silence . Then she visited Christchurch for a couple of weeks , fell in love with it , found a job ( though it was n't confirmed until she had returned to Hamilton ) , and conceived of the idea of registering for a degree programme at Canterbury University . - - that word again ) live performance of Carnatic music , for Chennai hosts a music and dance festival every December . The job involved liaising with parents , outside workers such as physio , speech , and occupational therapists , and class teachers , to set up an individual programme for every child and to oversee its implementation and monitor its success . We marvelled at massive blowholes , walked to the celebrated " Wineglass Bay " on the Freycinet peninsula ( we think Matai Bay , described above , is even nicer ) , strolled around Salamanca market in Hobart , ate and drank well , and generally had a great time .