Christmas in the Park

Today, Anisha and I went into the city centre to do some shopping. In particular, I was looking for a Christmas present for Anisha. It started out that I was going to get her a couple of Jamie Oliver DVD's, then it was an MP3 player, then switching to something from the Body Shop.

Finally, we settled on contributing to a new cellphone (I contributed NZ$60). Anisha and I went to Vodafone/DSWireless, where she purchased a new Sony Ericson K800i cellphone (Assistant Manager at Vodafone was Farah Dale). It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, video-conferencing, and a good audio capability, hence negating the need to have a separate Mp3 player. This was my suggestion.

After Vodafone, Anisha and I went to Dunkin donuts where she bought a small box of "Munchkin" Donuts in a variety of flavours.

Later on tonight, we went to Christmas in the Park in the Auckland Domain. This was Anisha's idea. We got there by 7.30 and had brought a blanket to sit on. I initially tried to get some video from my Digital Camera, however we were too far away to get decent video. Later on in the night I moved closer to the stage in an attempt to get some better video. There was an element of rain tonight but nothing too serious.

The concert was hosted by Jeremy Corbett and Jeanette Thomas. The concert starred Opshop, Ben Lummis, Coca-Cola Kids crew, DIVA, Elizabeth Marvelly, The Funky Moneys, Jonathan Heaps, Lyndon Keenan, Sela Mahe, Shavaughn Ruakere, and Stig Eldrid.


Video: Christmas in the Park - Fireworks Display


Watch on MSN Soapbox

Useless Information: "Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. "Hot cockles" was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era.

TelstraClear third player in mobile market

After years of false starts and empty promises that it will enter the mobile network business in New Zealand, it looks like TelstraClear is actually going to do it this time. TelstraClear has cemented an agreement with Telecom to make use of its network while it builds its own. This will enable TelstraClear to be the third mobile network in New Zealand. TelstraClear will launch its mobile service later this year.

The deal allows TelstraClear to sell branded handsets, with bundles and pricing plans that are different to Telecom's. The agreement allows TelstraClear to make use of Telecoms CDMA phone network. TelstraClear previously has a mobile agency agreement with Vodafone, although it was far more restrictive. That agreement expired on 30th June this year.

A Telstra spokewoman said that under the Vodafone agreement, TelstraClear has little ability to differentiate. Vodafone has made several attempts to sign a new deal with TelstaClear, however this has ultimately failed.

TelstraClear is currently New Zealands second largest provider of fixed line phone and Internet services. The agreement will allow TelstraClear to offer a single bill for all voice, data, and mobile services.

Source: New Zealand Herald, TelstraClear, Stuff

Useless Information: Daytime dramas are called soap operas because they were originally used to advertise soap powder. In America in the early days of TV, advertisers would write stories around the use of their soap powder.