Unpacking

Well, Saturday was relatively productive in terms of unpacking. The boxes are all unpacked, and other than getting rid of some rubbish, pretty much everything is put away somewhere. There are a pile of pictures/photos, etc that need to be hung somewhere. I'm not sure where they should go, and since I can only be wrong on this, I decided to wait till Sonia gets here.

The bedroom is clean and tidy, with the mattress on the floor, mattress protector washed and dried, and clean sheets on. The thin duvet we bought in Ikea in HK is on it, with a blanket over the top. That way I don't need the air-con switched on all night.

I've hooked up the TV and DVD player, and a guy came yesterday afternoon to connect up the cable TV. A few channels in English, but most of them are in Japanese.

Still need to get a piece of furniture for the kitchen so that the oven can be taken off the cardboard box it is sitting on. I haven't used it yet, for fear of making the cardboard box so hot it either catches fire or collapses.

Work seems to be going well. HR, as always, is useless. They seem more interested in deciding and enforcing idiotic/stupid/senseless policies than looking after the "human resources". What is it about these people? It's not just this company - they generally always seem to act the same. I wonder what goes on in their minds?

Oh - forgot to answer the quiz about wattages. It's the sandwich maker - draws 2400 watts. Closely followed by the iron at 2000. Then it's down to the coffee machine (1200), before dropping steeply to the remaining appliances: rice cooker (780), bread maker & blender (500 each), kitchen aid mixer (300), and coffee grinder (250). By comparison, the TV draws 150 and the DVD player all of 9w. The Stereo amplifier and CD player don't state their wattages, so I guessed by taking the amplifier output of 80w per channel, doubling it, and adding a bit.

So far I have an 1100w transformer in the lounge to run the stereo, CD player, TV and DVD player. That might be overdoing it - I think the total watts being drawn if everything is on it probably around 450w (TV 152 + DVD 9 + amplifier 180 + CD 100), so the transformer is probably more than enough. Problem is not knowing how much the amplifier and CD do actually draw. I am thinking I am probably ok to get a 600w one, and move the 1100w transformer into the kitchen for the appliances? I have a 3300w one on order to be used in the living area - enough to power the sandwich maker, iron, coffee machine and grinder (not all at once). Bit of a bummer that the sandwich maker will be used on the bench where the coffee machine is, but it's not worth getting two big transformers. FYI, the 3300w transformer is worth about USD500. The transformers do work both ways, so we can use them when we (eventually) move back to NZ and need to run the fridge, washing machine, or oven on NZ power. Japan is 100v - not even the same as US at 110. Trust them to find a way to be different from everyone else.

Enough - that is probably more than most of you ever wanted to know about power wattages and transformers!