Up again!!! This is ridiculous!

picture from www.raymond.cc

I have not filled up my tank but driving by a petrol station just now, I cannot believe my eyes!  Up again in the same week!!!

It now costs $2.13 per litre for 91 Octane!!!  How are we going to survive this?!!!

Our fortnightly paycheck is getting smaller with the ever increasing fuel costs!  I think soon we will be seeing restaurants closing as if they raise their prices, they will get less customers and the domino effect will be they have to close down if they do not get enough business.

Petrol Price Up AGAIN!!

Just one day after we got back from Christchurch, price of petrol went UP AGAIN!!!

91 Octane is now $2.07, up 6 cents!  Analysts blamed it on the rise of oil price worldwide as well as the Kiwi dollar dropping in value!  But the weakening dollar is always good for exporters as they have been suffering for a while with the strong Kiwi dollar.

Industries depending on petrol prices are calling for the government to drop some tax on the petrol.  Apparently there are 5 different taxes on petrol plus the GST of 12.5%!

We the consumers are just suffering the consequences as it has a domino effect on the price of everything else!!!

Disney Ice show in Christchurch

Jo-Ann and Winnie in front of the ice rink stage in Westpac Stadium, Christchurch

'Gabriella and Troy'

Troy and his mates after his winning goal!

We just had a busy weekend with a long drive to Christchurch and back to Dunedin. Normally it takes me about 4 1/2 hours to get to Christchurch but Saturday's trip took about 5 hours due to the sudden snow storm along the way about 2 hours away from Christchurch. It was quite a journey driving from a cloudy sky through to heavy snow in Timaru where everything was literally white as in postcard picturesque scene and then out of the snow when we were about an hour's drive to Christchurch. It also snowed in Christchurch but not enough to stick overnight.

After 24 hours in Christchurch, we drove back and all the snow was gone except for some small patches here and there outside Christchurch. But Boy! I had a hard time holding on to my steering as we had gale force winds along most of the drive back and I could feel the wind trying to push our Rav 4 off the highway! Today, my shoulders are aching from all that stressful holding on to my steering! Jo-Ann did take a picture of the snowstorm but unfortunately she deleted the picture by mistake!

Well, our trip to Christchurch was to watch the Disney on Ice -High School Musical show. The show was well choreographed and the lip sync was impressive, too. As for the skating, my daughter and her skater friend were analysing the jumps after the show and concluded that the male skaters were more impressive with their triple jumps. There were some spins but nothing really outstanding from a skater's point of view. But to them, watching triple jumps was thrilling as there are not many skaters in NZ able to land triples!

Finally! She landed a double salchow!

This month has been a milestone for my daughter, Jo-Ann. She finally landed a double salchow without the use of a harness. She actually landed one at the beginning of the month, 'lost' it for about 2 weeks, got sick and then landed another one again!!! I was not around to see the first one but did see the second one but did not video tape it so I downloaded one of Nancy Kerrigan's with step to step instruction of a double salchow. It always amazes me how the ice skaters defy gravity and twist their bodies in the air two, three and even quadruple times during their jumps! And if they make a little mistake, it will surely end up with a fall and hopefully not a bad one. Some days skaters can land their jumps with no problems while some days, they keep falling so much so that they had to give up and stop jumping for the day.

How to maximise filling your vehicle with petrol

I received this in my email today so I thought I will share it with all of you in this day of high petrol/gasoline price!

Tips for filling your vehicles:

1. Only buy or fill up your car in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.  Reason:  All service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground.  The colder the ground, the denser the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening  .... your litre is not exactly a litre
2. When you're filling up, do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a Fast Mode.  Reason:  In slow mode, you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created, while you are pumping.  All hoses at the pump have a vapour return.  If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour.  Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less for your money.
3. One of the most important tips is to fill up when your tank is half full.  Reason:  The more fuel you have in the tank, the less air occupying the empty space. Petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine.  Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof.  This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
4. If there is a fuel tanker pumping into the storage tanks, when you stop to buy, do not fill up.  Reason:  Most likely the petrol/diesel is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Compiled by Ramesh Patel and edited by yours truly.

Price of Gasoline is UP AGAIN!!!

This is getting ridiculous!!!  I had to put petrol in my car today and had a chat with the station attendant and she said she thought her customers were going to lynch her yesterday when the price went up to $2.01 per litre!  Apparently some of her customers knew the price was going up before she knew it was going up!

To top it that, the New Zealand Labour government came up with the annual budget presentation informing the public that there will be a personal tax cut for us this coming October.  However, the media is calling it 'a family block of cheese' for us!  Why?!  Because it ranges from NZ$16 - NZ$22 per week.  So guess which one am I getting? Yeah the lower one of course!  Sigh.......   Critics say it is just a last ditch effort to gain some votes with the upcoming election where the National party has been predicted to win in these times of high inflation and high interest rates! To me, the $16 will just cover the price of petrol increase in the past year!

Price of Oil is up again!!!

picture courtesy of www.cartoonstock.com

With the price of oil constantly going up, nowadays, even the radio stations are into it!  How you may ask?  Well, listeners who spot a sudden increase in price will call in and everyone will be rushing around to hopefully find a station that has not up its price yet!

It is now $1.97 for 91 unleaded on Monday 19 May 2008!  

I think people are now just waiting for the price to hit $2 as the price of everything else is steadily increasing as the price of oil increases!  And the current Labour government says they are not reducing personal taxes.  Whatever increase in salary or wages one gets will be eaten up by inflation caused by the ever increasing oil price!

Also, a few more big companies are closing plants or factories creating redundancies!  Crime rate is also on the increase with more jobs lost and less money to go around!  New Zealand is definitely in depression right now>......