Product in NZ

 As you know, New Zealand is this beautiful little country at the bottom of the world. We have a small population of just under 5 million people. We have a lot of green space, and most people live in the main cities, meaning we have some vast open space that you can wander in and find no one.

Unfortunately, because of our size, we don't manufacture a lot of products and most of what we have, comes from another country. It is not that we haven't made things in the past, just that when production has become too expensive (with obtaining the materials to start with) then they have inevitably moved the production to another country (Australia & Asia) where it can be completed in bulk size which is faster and more cost effective for all. Then, obviously, it is shipped back to NZ for us to buy.

When it comes to variety, then no, NZ does not do this well, but that is due to the lack of population to have sufficient turnover of stock. Inevitably the smaller company just can't make enough sales to stay viable and so they end up closing.

I found this quite difficult when I first moved to NZ in 1998. I was used to the UK and having so much variety to choose from and then suddenly, I was in a country that gave you the choice of A or B. A lot of popular brands do not make it here as there just isn't the population to sustain them, even if they are big brand names in other countries. The cost of getting the products to NZ and then making it a price that we can afford is half the problem, people just aren't prepared to spend heaps on a product that they know is so cheap in another country and astronomically expensive here, due to shipping.

IKEA is one such company. Everyone raves about the simplicity of the company, their flat pack furniture, their cost efficiency. I know, I have been to IKEA and spent many a Sunday afternoon wandering the store like everyone else and having meatballs for lunch, because you just have to. And yes, I always walked away with some odd little gadget that you just had to have!

They are still aiming to open a store here in NZ soon (that soon has been on the cards for the past 5 years!) But, I know, when it does finally arrive, it won't be as cheap as everyone is hoping due to the cost of shipping the products to us in the first place.

So why am I writing about this today?

Jigsaw puzzles, yes, this all has to do with jigsaw puzzles.

We didn't have the variety of product or design. We had one main company Holdson.

Yes, they are a New Zealand brand and yes, they are manufactured here in NZ. As they say, they have been since 1939. They do great puzzles with some reasonable variety. Ok, not so much when they do a series of 4 and the picture becomes boringly the same, but they try, and it gives us something to do. However, they don't do large. They do 1000 pieces well and that is about it, unless you want to go smaller. After a while, 1000 pieces is boring, you want a challenge and something different and that is not them.

Obviously, we do have Ravensburger

They offer size and variety, but man were they expensive and it was difficult to justify the cost of the puzzle. They do great quality pieces too, but when you looked at their catalog of products and then saw what was available here in NZ, then you could only dream that someone, someday would bring more variety down here.

And suddenly, that has happened.

Jigsaws are definitely making a comeback. I think Covid may have had a lot to do with it, people are suddenly all into jigsaw puzzles, they are not for the reclusive person, the older generation who stay home on a Saturday night with no social life. It is almost like this secret little life that people are afraid to admit to as they are scared of what people will think, but they have cupboards filled with variety, colour, size and they are eagerly completing puzzles into the night.

This has also been shown in the variety of puzzle available in New Zealand, the different companies that we can get, the different sizes to tempt us. No longer want 1000 pieces, then fine, how about 2000, 3000 or even 6000. At one point, I did even see the large Ravensburger Disney puzzle in the shop window, a box holding all 40320 pieces (my dream puzzle) although I have also noticed that it is no longer about $600 to obtain, more like half a mortgage!! I think I saw it online for about $2300, yikes, just keep dreaming, just keep dreaming!

Suddenly we have variety of company to choose from & sizes and I for one, am loving it.

Every company makes their jigsaws slightly differently, the pieces fit well or sometimes, not so well. The colours are vibrant, bright and shiny and the cost is reasonable. Suddenly Ravensburger is not out of reach of the average person. We are getting lots of eeBoo, Cobble Hill, Clemontoni, Gibsons and some little brands that are smaller companies and they are selling well and fast.

We have a local party/cake product store here in town that decided to create a small jigsaw section, they sell online too, and they are selling fast and furiously across NZ. Their shipping costs are reasonable and their prices competitive. Luckily for me, they are local so I can order online and pick up close to work, but that also makes it dangerous lol, as checking their sales and seeing something I want gets expensive on the credit card, especially when it is going in the cupboard to join the other 30 waiting to be completed!!

Just 1 pile of many!

So, long live the jigsaw puzzle, the variety, colour and shape. The excitement of completing one, that sense of achievement.

2 years ago, at work, we had a few spare desks and so I set up a green felt and started a jigsaw puzzle on it, it took a few weeks to get completed but it was lovely to see people slowly stop and fit in a piece here and there. It was never distracting but a great mental wellbeing area for someone to take 5 mins away from their desk and focus on something else, whilst they calmed their brain or thoughts, or just needed time out from the difficult moment they had just had in a classroom.

If you haven't completed a jigsaw since you were younger and at school, then maybe consider getting one and giving it a go.

You won't regret it, I promise

Jigsaw 14 - Christmas Baking

 We have just passed the halfway mark of 2025 a couple of weeks ago and I am already on jigsaw 14. At this rate I will definitely crush my number of completions compared to 2024. I did 19 last year.

My jigsaws sit on a card table (wrote about it last January here) and since being back in the family house it is still located in the main family area. No one else in the house seems interested in doing the jigsaws (they did use to help when we would have them on the go at the caravan but not at home?) and so, not that I would mind if they helped, they are easy to access and complete whilst watching tv in the evenings.

So, I don't have to sit in the dining room or another room to complete them and I am sure this assists with getting them completed quicker as you can do a few pieces, or 10, most evenings. Sometimes I set myself the challenge of trying to get at least 10-20 pieces picked from the box and they have to be set on the table/connected in the right place. This definitely helps with getting it moving and finished.

Another Christmas one, as mentioned before, several of them to complete and seeing as it is freezing cold and ark like UK Christmas here in NZ at present, then it feels like it should almost be Christmas time.

Yes, even after 27 years of being in NZ and having Christmas in the sunshine, I still miss the cold and dark and bright lights that my head associates with Christmas. Christmas definitely creeps up on me every year here as there are no dark nights going home after work, seeing all the lights and window displays lit up. There are no carols playing in the shopping centers with the freezing air outside reminding you that it might just snow before or on Christmas.

It is warm and sunny; day light savings has well and truly kicked in, the evenings are light and bright and if you do want to go and see Christmas lights anywhere, well, you have to wait until 9-10pm before it is dark enough!

We always have a Christmas tree with lights, and the lights come on in the house at about 6pm but it is at least 8pm before they start to emulate that gorgeous glow of holiday spirit. My snowman ornaments definitely look out of place in NZ lol, any talk of snow is unheard of at that time of year.

One day, I will go back to England for a holiday to enjoy the lights and darkness of December as we lead into Christmas. Just one small problem.....I do love the heat of summer and not sure I could give it up just to see Christmas lights!

On to the jigsaw that I have just finished. I wish I had more time in December, as the year comes to a stressful close to get baking done to share with friends and work colleagues but alas, it is always so busy that I never get anything completed. Doesn't stop me thinking of what I could make, if I had the day to spend in the kitchen.

All the Time I Can Get

 When your oldest child lives 600 kms away, you don't get to see them much. Therefore, when they do come up, you spend every second with them.

In this case, he was driving his own car back down (he flew up to get said car), about an 8-hour drive and I wanted to make sure he had a good breakfast, so a 7.30am cafe run was ordered and we had a last meal together 💗

We Have a Winner

 Thanks to the power of modern technology, I knew my results of the HIDA scan and what they meant before I saw the surgeon again.

Here in New Zealand, we have medical apps that allow us to link into our GP and see all medications we are taking, all test results, all letters of referral and all appointment notes. We can also message the surgery on the app and book appointments with our named doctor (although good luck with that one since covid, takes about 10 days for an appointment) and request repeat prescriptions without having to go to the surgery.

So of course, when I got the message that a new result had been uploaded then I took a quick look and bingo, found the issue:

I have an inactive gallbladder.

Your gallbladder is an organ that sits underneath your liver and assists the liver with the excretion of bile into the digestive system when you eat. The bile helps to break down fat. You can live without it; your liver and cystic duct just have to learn to divert the bile into the digestive system a slightly different route. Most people have a gallbladder that fills with bile when you eat and then excretes it out as required, usually with an ejection fraction of about 50%.

Mine is at 16%, so a little slow and useless really

Therefore, when I eat, bile is accumulating in the gallbladder as normal and then it is not emptying properly, this leads to a full gallbladder that can then go into spasm or cramp. Thus, the colicky pain I was getting as it was full of bile and not able to empty it all out.

The solution (according to Dr Google, true nurse here!) is a Cholecystectomy, which in simple terms = let's take that gallbladder out.

Guess my appointment with the surgeon in the next few weeks will be to confirm what I have already established, unless the expert has a different solution (I do trust his knowledge) and that will be some future surgery.

HIDA Scan

 Today I got my nuclear medical scan of my gallbladder.

It involved a 90-minute scan, laid on my back the whole time, with no moving (although I could hold my kindle and read) and at the 45-minute mark, I had to eat a Mars bar and drink a glass of milk, all while lying flat on the bed with a scanning machine above my abdomen.

Firstly, I am not a fan of milk. I will have it with breakfast cereal, but I am not that person that will grab a glass of milk with dinner or because I am thirsty. My baby son, well that is a different story. he will gulp it down out of the bottle stood in front of the open fridge!

Secondly, a whole Mars bar! We are not talking about a mini snack size either, we are talking the whole 50g bar, at 9.30am.

I like chocolate but am not a person who will eat a chocolate bar because I find the feeling of just chocolate in my mouth a horrible feeling and texture. So don't ever buy me a bar of chocolate or Easter egg as it will last forever and bug those around me because it is sitting there and torturing them!

I do however, like Twix and things that are a little bit of chocolate, but nowadays, I seem to manage a snack size bar and don't need a large one, plus I would rather have a jelly candy instead.

So, eating this bar was going to be a struggle. But apparently that was the point, to feed my gallbladder a whole heap of fat all in one go (full fat milk as well) and see how it coped. It was amusing having this nice gentleman stand beside me feeding me a bite of chocolate bar and then offering me the straw to drink milk through.

A HIDA scan is apparently a hepatobiliary iminodiacetic acid scan, where a radioactive tracer is injected and then you overload the digestive system with fat, and it evaluates the function of the liver, gallbladder and bile ducts by tracking the flow of bile.

Let's see what these results show, if anything, but not holding out much hope!

Doughnuts

 Some days, to get through Friday you need something special.

Today, my car had a mind of its own and drove to the best little doughnut shop in town, at 7am, and I took a large box of treats to share at work.

Whilst my appetite is still not great, I did manage at least half of a doughnut and everyone else appreciated breakfast on this cold winter Friday