A Heating Pad?

At times New Zealand is really old school and sometimes it drives me nuts. Michael has been having trouble with his neck and shoulders lately and I really thought he would benefit from a heating pad. Well, their idea of a heating pad and mine are pretty far apart on the spectrum. When we first arrived I had notices that we had a hot water bottle on the shelf. Given I thought it would be a good idea to have some heat sooner than later I would fill the kettle (an electric one that boils water in less than two minutes) bring it to a boil and fill the hot water bottle. It made an acceptable alternative, sort of.

It is smooth on one side and the other side has ridges all over it I guess to help it stay on whatever part of the body it was on. It is very heavy rubber and stays warm for a good 20 minutes or so.

Well, the new building across the parking lot from our apartments that used to be a bowling alley turned medical building has a chemist (pharmacy) so I went over there to see about getting a proper heating pad. Again I was amazed at the alternative. It is called an electric hot water pad!

It is filled with some sort of gel that heats up and stays hot for about 6 hours. The biggest problem is that it take about 6 hours to heat up and then it is not very hot at all. Oh, what I would do to have a nice, flat, plug-in heating pad like the one I have at home on my shelf.