Day Trip to Hamner Springs, Jo's Visit

Ch..ch...changes

Yup, got bored with the old layout so I changed it again. LOL I have layout A.D.D or something, I get bored with them really quickly and therefore have to change them. Maybe one of these days I'll have a go at making one myself, maybe.

Work...is well...work, i'm on my "weekend" at the moment. Its not as much fun as it should be because i'm trying to get over a nasty cold.

old friends, fond memories

I can't believe I forgot about this darn thing again. Though I have to admit I've hardly been on the computer over the past week. I've been house-sitting for a few days now, and before that I had long hours at work which left me feeling a bit drained.

Today's been great though, spent a few hours catching up with a lady I went to school with. We had a blast, and it made me realise how much I miss our friendship. We caught up with the events in each others lives, had lunch together and smiled over memories then ended our afternoon with fond farewells and promises to catch up again soon. All in all it was a wonderful way to spend the day.

This weekend will be interesting. Our work is holding a conference weekend for employees and that means those of us not going (and there's not many of us at that), who will be holding down the fort while the others are away. So while things at work have been pretty hectic the past few weeks - this weekend will probably be the craziest! oh well, we'll get through it.

Tomorrow is apparently loud shirt day, and I've no idea what I'll wear - I'll probably just wear my uniform anyway. Saturday is mufti day, and Sunday is another loud shirt day. I think its a way for those of us left behind to have some fun.

Hubby is doing well, he's been getting more hours which is awesome. They've been using him for other area's besides what they originally hired him for so that's fabulous.

Well I'd better go, I need to figure out what I'm having for dinner tonight lol... its 2pm now so its going to make it interesting to try and have something defrosted in time.

Reconnecting to oneself

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. About whats making my unhappy with how life currently is, and how I can turn that all around. I've come to a few realisations and made a few decisions for myself about how things will be changing from here on out...

First of all, I'll stop neglecting this place for starters! I miss writing, and I definitely miss having that creative outlet. Even if no one reads this but myself, it will be a place where I can express myself and be creative.

Secondly, I'm doing a lot more cooking, baking etc. Ever since I left the states, my cooking outlet has been neglecting. I used to cook dinner so much, and i miss that... I even miss baking. Though I have decided to do the whole baking thing the proper way now - I'm baking from scratch. I made some yummy melt in your mouth chocolate chip muffins today and feeling pretty darn proud I must admit.

Lastly, I'm going to be getting out there and doing more photography. I've been seriously neglecting my urges to be out in the world, capturing moments in time on camera. Mostly due to giving work every ounce of energy and focus and having nothing left when it comes to having a day or two off. Then there's the whole thing that i'm worried to go too far in case they want to call me in.

Daffodils, they always make me feel happy.
September 1st 2009

Hubby and I went on a bit of a date yesterday. We went to the movies and saw "District 9" and followed it up with dinner at Denny's. I gotta say I wasn't overly impressed with the movie - when I'm sitting there wondering if i could get away with reading a book using the led lights on the side of the chairs (and later found out hubby wanted to walk out and get his money back about half way through). I can see social parallels with the movie and life, and the graphics were pretty good - It just, it just didn't have it for me. We had a choice - district 9 or GI Joe, and we both agreed afterwards we should have gone to the GI Joe showing.

Dinner was good, once we finally got our orders taken (the waitress wasn't particularly efficient). I had a chicken burger, with ranch sauce on it - pretty darn good.

Today's been pretty productive as well.. Walked to the shops, pick up some measuring cups, and spoons, and got some beer battered fish for dinner tomorrow night. Got home and cleaned the kitchen and lounge and bathroom, did some baking, played world of warcraft for about an hour and just generally relaxed. Next up its catching up on the laundry and get dinner going - and hopefully finish "Kushiel's Dart" tonight (hey these 900 page books take a wee bit longer to read lol).

life, the universe and chocolate chip cookies

Not sure how many people are still reading this thing but here's a wee update..

Hubby's work permit was approved! so yay he's been applying for jobs left, right and centre so fingers crossed for him.

Things with my work are going well, though i'm having some bad issues with my feet. I've got to get an appointment at a regular dr's, to get referred to a foot specialist (yay?). So that will be done sometime next week unless I can get into the dr's first thing tomorrow morning.

We're off to see transformers 2 at the movies tomorrow night, can't wait! i've heard some great things.

I'm actually thinking about applying for a print media internship here, my only concern is that i feel like i've lost my writing style, i've lost my voice.. i need to find it again, and i kinda need to do that fast. Applications close on august 5.

Anyways better go xoxoxox

Reconnected

Well, I'm back online again - and (hopefully) in a way that means i'll be able to regularly update (providing I remember!).

Things are going well, work has been very busy - but i'm happy about that. The extra work has been coming in handy. Unfortunately it means i've been a bit tired to do much else besides read, text and watch the odd dvd/tv.

Still having immigration issues but thats not something we expected to change overnight despite getting a local member of parliment involved in our situation. It did however get them to send the hubby's passport back (they just forgot to stamp it/put the visa in it) - so they emailed me (why not him?) requesting it back. They've had it back for a few days now and still no word from them about what's going on - trying to get his caseworker to talk to us is like trying to find a four leaf clover in a field the size of new zealand! Positive energy though, they WILL get this sorted, and in a timely manner.. i hope.

I've been playing a bit of pogo today since its my day off work, we got offered a 14 day free trial of the club section (which i didn't think it would give it to me since i'd been a paid member in the past - but it did!). So for the next fortnight i'll be pottering around on there when i'm bored. We got the badges for last week done so that was amusing for today.

Well i'd better get going, thats a general update on whats been going on. I miss you guys and hope to catch up very soon xoxoxox

Rainy Tuesday

I love rain! I really do. I'm sitting here, on my day off from work, watching the rain fall. Granted not the best day for doing washing, but I can put the stuff on a clothes horse to dry inside so its all good.

I'm feeling great today after getting a proper night's sleep. I think the lack of heat last night contributed to me being able to sleep most of the night through. I woke up once but that was about 7am, and i decided to go back to sleep until 8:30am. A sleep in has been well deserved after the past couple of weeks.

Work has me scheduled for wednesday, thursday, friday, sunday at this stage!! I'm over the moon with the extra hours :) so, happy kiwi. It will mean I wont be around on the net all that much over the next few days, so if i take awhile to reply to emails or comments - please don't worry.

To be honest, not much has been happening lately. We're waiting on patrick's passport to come back from the consulate with his new passport, so we can go to the immigration centre and get either the work visa sorted, or the residency started (we've been told to talk to an immigration officer and get them to decide which would be the better option for us). That should arrive sometime between wednesday and friday, so we'll get the rest of it sorted next week (when i find out what days i'm working). Will let ya know when we do!

well i'd better go, my stomach's rumbling so its time for breakfast (mmmm vegemite on toast!)
see ya!

When life sweeps you away

.. yeah its been very busy lately. Hence why I haven't updated in a couple of weeks.

Work's going well, they've been giving me some shifts so i'm over the moon. I'm enjoying the job, learning things on a daily basis. Only had 2 customer's yell at me (both were for things I couldn't control), so i'm pleased about that. So all in all thats going great.

I'm reading some of mum's books, since i've got no library membership (and i can't get one for the city council in "town" until i move into town), and I have no "book buying" budget to speak of! Its driving me batty lol though on the other hand, I havent really had a heck of a lot of spare time to read. Nevermind though, I'm sure it wont be too long until I'm back to using Goodreads on a daily basis because of the fabulous books im reading, and have heard about and want to read!

I've been working on my 101 things in 1001 days lately, or at least trying to. A few of them are reliant on finances. But i'm planning on sitting down and writing some more after i'm done here. Who knows maybe i'll start writing some more entries to go on my book blog? we'll see.

Went for a bit of a walk this morning to the local "post office" (read: gas station/petrol station with post boxes, since there's no mail delivery to the actual houses around here). Took us about 45minutes - 1hr to get there, post what i needed to post, and then walk back. Not a bad way to spend the morning I must admit.

Well I can't think of anything even slightly interesting to post, the past couple of weeks, sorry! will try to write again soon! Hope you're all well and happy.. i miss you guys! xoxox

Hello February

I really cannot believe its February already.



I've completed training for both jobs and both of them have assigned me my first shift on Tuesday! So from 10am - 4pm at one job, then 4:30pm - 8:30pm at the other one. Its going to be a very busy day thats for sure.



Other than that life's been pretty cruisy. I'm getting reaquainted with the city, and having a good time seeing familar things, while being shocked and amazed at whats changed and grown over the years. In some respects its very much the same city, yet there's some new stuff hiding around the place.



The weather's been pretty good, we had one rainy day there last week and rumor has it its meant to be raining this afternoon, but we'll see. The day before yesterday was pretty darn hot (though nowhere near as bad as its been in melbourne this week), I got sunburn on my nose just from hanging out washing and taking it off the line when it was dry. It only took about 20 minutes to dry a load of sheets and then the load of towels!!! the wind helped a lot too though.



Its breakfast time here, so i'd better go get something to eat. I'll write again soon!

Update Ahoy

Yup its Updating time, so here's the news:

Last week I had 3 interviews in one day, got hired by 2 of the 3. They're both part time, and casual BUT they're better than nothing and i'm very happy with them while i'm hunting for a full time job. One is retail (with my old company but at a different store), the other is market research over the phone - I know you can roll your eyes, but its not selling anything, simply asking people's opinions on things, or their favourite brand of ice cream, whatever the current campaign might be about.

I've got a very interesting job on the line with an insurance company, its full time and i'm about 1/2 way through the process, fingers crossed I get through the rest of it. I had a phone interview, an online assessment, a typing test and now i'm waiting for a call about whether I was accepted on an assessment workshop. Fingers crossed for me please. It wont be an easy job, but I think I'll do well with it.

I'm slowly getting through the list of places I need to change my name to my married name. I got IRD sorted (also with my student loan etc), I got the bank sorted, got my resume/cv updated, Its a matter of getting $150 to get my passport changed over, and my new 18+ card will cost $20 to be changed.

Today's gorgeous, its overcast and rainy. It feels wonderful compared to all the heat. Took some photos the other day but i'll have to post them another day because i've got to resize them.

Better go, i'm going to curl up on the couch and read for a little bit. I'll write again soon xoxox

Talk about a curve ball from left field....

To update you on whats happening, i'm back in new zealand. Things are going well.

If you'd asked me this time last week what my chances are/were that i'd be back in new zealand by today, i wouldn't have thought it very likely. But we were made an offer by my uncle to help us out because things are only going to get worse over there, and being back here opens up a lot of options for us. Most importantly It should be easier to to find a job, get patrick's immigration stuff sorted and all that fun stuff. Oh and yeah its damn awesome to be able to see my mum and family, friends again.

So that kinda explains why i've been a bit quiet. We were given the offer on Thursday, and the tickets were booked on saturday for sunday (yesterday), and well - here we are!

Random amusement for me at the moment, I just called telebanking for my bank account here in nz, one I haven't touched in awhile and turns out i've got an amazing interest rate lol i've got about $70 in there that i didn't know I had! that made me giggle. Of course I can't use the account until i a)get a new eftpos card and b) change the account type, cos the fees are astronomical while its on the super save & win program.

We had a good flight, it was funny watching a hari krishna guy getting told off by the airhostess for trying to tell people the good word, and I spent my time between doing wordsearches and well thats about it lol. They had storms here in christchurch yesterday, apparently really crazy bad storms but we missed it all muahaha.

Damn, I just realised i'll have to change the title of my blog again since i'm no longer in the OZ. Nevermind I'll think of something.

I applied for 6 jobs this morning, so i think its been a bit of productive day :) anyways better go, talk to you again soon guys xoxox

Headaches

Yup i've had a headache for a couple of days now, and a bit of a fever so i'm not feeling overly great today - so this will be a short blog.

Hmm whats new, Had a good day yesterday despite my headache and fever kicking in. I cleaned a friend's place for a couple of hours (and a few $$$) and went to a birthday thing for a cousin since he was turning 15. After that I came home and tried to nap but i remembered that a friend asked me to take some shots of the moon, so that kinda woke me a bit. I was awake again about 3am, and it took me a good couple of hours to get tired enough to go back to sleep.

Today was well, blah. I watched some tv, played on the computer for a wee bit, and tried not to move around too much. In fact after dinner i'm very seriously thinking of having a bath and going to bed. Completely uneventful.

But I wanted to share one of my shots from last night, i'm pretty proud of it if i do say so myself!

Cool huh? anyways I'm going to go have some dinner type stuff and relax. Take care all xoxox

Update Continued

So where was I, oh yes - the whole cooking dinner thing. It was really yummy, turns out we didn't have as much rice as I thought we did so I ended up cooking some noodles and dad and patrick both loved it so YAY :) Its been awhile since i cooked something interesting - I missed it, so i've decided to make an effort to cook/bake more often.

Job hunting: still going with that. I haven't had any work from my current employer in about 3months now which is frustrating, its not really their fault, its just how things are at the moment. I've been continuing my efforts to find something with more hours. I'm more than happy to keep going with my current job if my second job's hours fit its just a case of getting that other job. I've been touching base with places i applied at when i first got here but unfotrunately nothing's come up. I'll keep it up though - something will come along I know it will. I just need to hang in there and stay positive.

Oh I mentioned the challenge for this year huh? well there's a wee thing called "101 things in 1001 days" that I decided to do. I'll post my list here in a few days, I still have 1 more thing to add to the list and to triple check I haven't got multiple's again heh. Its actually a lot more fun than doing new years resolutions. I'll talk more about it next time though k?

The weather has been insanely hot for my tastes. There are days when I have to force myself to eat even the smallest thing cos the heat has supressed my appetite. Then there are the days when its so hot you'll break a sweat just walking from the lounge to the kitchen for a drink lol those are probably my least favourite days. But they do say the first couple of summer's are the worst for people who didn't grow up here. Though I know a few people who grew up here who still struggle to make it through summer.

Well i'd better finish this up, i've got some emails to send :) I'll try to remember to update tomorrow!

Heerrrrrrrrrrrrrre's.... KIWI!

Thats right folks i'm back to using blogger and back to my old blog. I was thinking about starting a new one for my life in australia but thats just too much hassle!

Anyways Welcome to 2009! I hope everyone had a great holiday season (no matter what holidays you observed), and are having a prosperous and happy new year!

Christmas/yule for us was great, we spent it with family and went away with them for a few days. I got spoilted rotten! and feel very blessed by the generosity and love my australia side of the family showed us. Because money was a little tight for us this year, we decided on something creative and personal, I printed some of my photos and had them framed for various family members. I was a bit nervous how it would all go over but they really enjoyed it and appreciated the effort.

We spent a few days up at my aunt and uncle's farm and had an absolutely blast. I rode the quad bikes on my own, learnt how to shoot a bow, went 4 wheel driving, lots of bush hikes and spent plenty of time relaxing. All in all it was an amazing time and I can't wait to go back.

Unfortunately its 4:30pm and I need to finish this so I can go cook dinner, I'm making chicken caccitore! just part of my little challenge for this year (which i'll explain when i finish my update later - providing I can kick hubby off the computer later to finish it otherwise it will be tomorrow).