The NZIS couriered my passport back to me this morning. In it were two new stickers. I was expecting the work permit, but the work visa was a bit of a surprise.

My best guess is that my case worker saw that there were both stickers in my passport already, and since they had told me that my application grant would be extended upon submission of my police clearance, both were extended. This is, of course, contrary to what my original approval letter stated.

I will not complain, however. I am legal to work, and also legal to leave and return to New Zealand. This is a relief given that I am travelling to New Caledonia in a month.

My only remaining concern is that I remember to renew my passport within the next year. It would probably be easiest to have that done around the same time as my residency is granted.

I have let myself get severely behind on things that I wanted to comment on. With a bit of luck, I can start sneaking out a few quick summaries of events. There might be less detail, but with memory fade, that was guaranteed anyway.

While I was at the chiropractor, I was asked why my neck was so much more tense than normal. I couldn't give any sort of definitive answer, but I think I have got it figured out now.

After volleyball last night, I was driving home and a pedestrian stepped off the footpath against the light. He was about 10-15 meters in front of me, and I was travelling around 50 km/h. I am sure my stopping distance is longer than 15 meters at that speed, but the brakes went on and the ABS started rumbling, trying hard to not have to wash a faceprint off my windscreen, or die trying. He must have heard or seen enough to make him jump back on the curb, and no actual damage occured.

I am willing to bet that my head went forward during braking, stressing the muscles in my neck. Effectively whiplash, but not something that I was overly conscious of at the time.

I ran across a few things that I want to try to play with. The first is something that has already started to evolve into my normal repetoire. It is a simple cheese sauce that works wonderfully with any flat pasta.

   200g mascarpone cheese
   1 tbsp honey
   1 tbsp garum masala
   1/4 cup fresh basil leaves

   Mix cheese, honey and masala.  Melt directly over cooked
   pasta.  Garnish with basil.

The other idea happened today when I was messing around with dinner. I haven't tried to make anything yet. I was only caught with the taste combination at dinner. It's a simple combination of basil and black olives. I think there is potential for a nice mezze-style dish.