Saw my first Premiership football last night: missing seeing football in the papers and on TV every day, even if Arsenal are doing crap at the moment. Was at the Cavalier, our nearest pub which is a ten minute walk away. We’re bang in the middle of cafe and restaurant land but in the arse end of nowhere as far as bars and pubs are concerned. Can’t really complain, though, because Ponsonby’s quite a funky place to live and there’s an off licence at the bottom of the road.
Might be going canyoning...
Had my first full week at Executive Taskforce and it’s going well. The work’s starting to build up and I’ve been given a few mini projects to complete which suggests they want me to stay longer. I’m still hoping to get some sort of website work after Christmas, but this’ll pay the rent in the mean time.
Had another fantastic weekend: Sue took me to Rangitoto Island on Saturday for my birthday “outing”. It’s a dormant volcano on the other side of the harbour and the island’s made entirely of lava...
Had an excellent weekend without even stepping into (and out of) a plane. Because of the weather we had to abandon any hope of skydiving, nevertheless, we instead went jet-boating up the rapids on a river at Taupo, went paddling in hot springs and saw the exploding mud pools and geysers of Rotorua and then went on to go lugeing. The last was by far the best: a gondola takes you to the top of a big hill onto which has been carved little roads on which you ride a buggy which freewheels all the way...
Sorry I haven’t written in a while but, since I left you, the job situation’s sorted. I start at “Tempforce” tomorrow doing databases. It’s not the web work I was looking for but they’ve promised to find something more exciting when my mini-project’s up. Also encouraging is a few design companies emailing me to say that they’d like to look at me in the new year. Sue’s muscled her way in to a receptionist job working for Kiwi Dairies, I think. Money at last!
We went to Waiheke Island on Sunday, a...
Things are starting to take shape. Completed my first week of Telesales hell, found 0800 CURRIES whose curries are quite clearly worth living for, adopted a tortoise-shell kitten who is a blatant attention whore and have bought funky new trousers. The NZ Dollar is seriously crap at the moment: the national average wage is about £10,000 and because the pound is so strong, we’re like virtual kings out here. Kiwis seem to get very excited when we walk into shops and even over-priced jeans are no...
We’re now settling into the new house. It’s a bit sparse - just mattresses and the innards of rucksacs everwhere - but it’s starting to feel like home. NZ rented houses seem to be pretty much all non-furnished and, because we’re off backpacking next year, there’s not too much point in buying things we can’t take with us. Nevertheless, we’re renting a TV and sampled our first night of kiwi TV last night. Sadly, this consisted of Ainsley Harriot, Emmerdale, Corrie and Eastenders. Oh dear.
In the...
After even more wrangling with reluctant landlords, we’ve at last found a house. It’s actually a big house converted into two flats in “fashionable” Ponsonby. I’m upstairs with Sue, Helen and Joanna; downstairs is Stu, Daniel and Rich: somehow I’ve been relegated to the girly floor. It’s unfurnished so we’re going to spend this afternoon trawling the second-hand furniture shops, renting TVs and things.
Stu and Daniel have now bought a car. It’s this big silver brick with acid smiley faces on the...
