This month, our “Blogger of the Month” award (and $100 petrol voucher!) goes to someone who is new to blogging – at least in the world of Voices anyway! In just over two weeks, this person has written almost twenty blog posts so you’ll be used to seeing his face on the Voices homepage at this stage!
And the award goes to…David Leggott! Congratulations David. We’ve been very impressed with the development of your blog over the last few weeks.
David has added regular and interesting content, using plenty of photographs, graphs and diagrams to illustrate and support his observations. He has even offered his (free) services as a photographer to anyone in the area who is contemplating selling their home.
Well done David and long may your enthusiasm last!
October 31 2008 | Blogger of the Month | 3 Comments »
When I got up this morning, I had a text from a friend of mine back in Ireland. The little snippet you can see before you actually go into the text read: “Could you do me a big favour…” For a moment I was wondering what I could possibly help with from the other side of the world, till I saw the full text: “Could you do me a big favour? I know everyone is probably asking you, but could you lend me your face for Halloween?”.
Yes, in Ireland we never grow up – it’s part of our charm! As a kid in Ireland, Halloween is second only to Christmas and in fact it’s often better. After six years in New Zealand I’ve become used to the fact that Halloween is not really a big deal, but in Ireland it’s a different story.
For one thing, you’re lucky if you don’t lose your garden fence in the run up to Halloween! For weeks beforehand, every teenager in the country is out scavenging for bits of wood (or anything else they can get!) to try and create the biggest bonfire of the year. Huge piles of wood are gathered in every large open space available.
As a kid, you also spend weeks trying to decide on your costume. I used to change my mind every couple of days so in the end nothing was organised and I usually wandered around the streets in some rubbish last minute costume – usually consisting of my pyjamas and a bandage on my face, head or arm (it alternated each year so it wasn’t exactly the same costume)!
When you are all dressed and have gobbled down your dinner of colcannon, you hit the road with your 
pals. It’s important to get out early before all the good stuff is gone! Your first job is to interrogate other trick-or-treaters to find out the prime collections spots! So you go to the houses with the toffee apples, chocolates, lollies (sweets to us!), money (the lazy option for people who couldn’t be bothered shopping – fine by us!) and then work your way down the fruit and nuts!
When your little feet can’t take any more, you head home and begin the sorting and swapping process. That is much fun! Apples and nuts to one side, goodies in your stomach. Then swap all the goodies you don’t like with your friends (I should point out that this usually takes place before you’ve put them in your stomach!) till everyone’s happy! After that it’s time to dunk for apples (you have to use them up somehow), watch scary movies and then head out for the bonfires and fireworks.
It’s not surprising that Halloween is so popular in Ireland, given that we came up with the idea! See Wikipedia for more on that. It doesn’t mean we’re the best at celebrating it though. No, we took the idea to America and Canada and they had to go one better than us! Check out these photo that a Canadian friend sent to me following Halloween in Toronto last year:
So, why not dress your house up this Halloween and give the kids in your neighbourhood a bit of treat?! There’s plenty of time to nip down to The Warehouse and grab a bargain! However, if you’re trying to sell your home at the moment and you’re holding Open Homes this weekend, it might not be such a good idea!
And if you need $50 to kick off your Halloween fund, then click here and take a guess at Alistair’s finishing time for the half-marathon this Sunday! If you’re not in, you can’t win!
Happy Halloween everyone 
October 31 2008 | General | No Comments »
As some of you may know, the Auckland Marathon takes place this coming Sunday, 2nd Nov. Alistair’s taking one for the team and will be tearing through the streets of Auckland as he competes in the Half Marathon event!
Have a guess at how long it will take him to complete the 21km run and you could be in with a chance to win $50!* And if the winning guess is within two mins of Alistair’s actual finish time, we’ll also donate $50 to the National Heart Foundation of New Zealand.
So start guessing and no, you can’t phone Alistair to ask him how his training is going!
* one guess per person. Competition open to NZ real estate professionals only.
October 29 2008 | General | 24 Comments »
We keep hearing that there are great bargains to be had in real estate at the moment and ‘mortgagee’ is still the top search term on our site. But I imagine it will be hard to beat the recent bargain snapped up by Chicago woman Joanne Smith, following an eBay auction. She picked up a house in Saginaw, Michigan for US$1.75! Ok, it’s not exactly a dream house and she does have to fork out US$850 in back taxes and yard cleanup costs, but I reckon she got a pretty good deal!! Click here for pics.
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Visitors to Germany are in for a treat. Forget Disneyland, visitors to Trassenheide, northeastern Germany can now visit the latest tourist attraction – an upside down house! Named “The World Stands on its Head”, the attraction was designed to give visitors an alternative view on everyday life. Can’t afford the flights? Fear not, just stock up on sauerkraut and keep practising your handstands at home. It’ll be just like the real thing!
October 17 2008 | General | 1 Comment »
