20th September to 3rd October – Two weeks of exciting updates!

Why does it always rain on me?  Or not…

Something that I have noticed is the lack of rain that we had been getting.  We have over the past week or two been getting some much needed rain.  For instance last month we didn’t see rain until the middle of the month. 

(Picture:  Graph explaining my last sentence or two) 

Spring is here though.  We have been getting daily highs of 19/20 degrees C up to 23 degrees C.

Working for a Living

What else?  Oh yeah.  Got a job.  So how has that been going?  Well, not too bad really.  Seems like a decent enough bunch of folks to work with.  First Day at Work – Met some old bat coming towards me on wrong side of road.  Two lanes going one way, two lanes going the other way.  She had to choose one of the lanes that wasn’t going her way didn’t she!!!

Anyway, managed to avoid her and made it into work on time.  Was glad to see that free tea & coffee was in abundance at the new work.  Not only that but also freshly ground coffee,  Cappuccino, Latte,  Mochaccino, Hot Chocolate as well as soup and a selection of things I can’t pronounce.  All for Free!

Work Day 2 – First of many tests.  Which I apparently did well at.  I also found out that 50 CV’s were considered out of which they employed two people (including me).

Work Day 3 – More tests

Work Day 4 – One of the blokes at work organised a Hangi for lunch.  No, this didn’t involve rope and less desirable members of staff.  A Hangi is a traditional Maori method of cooking.  Basically a big hole is dug in the ground, a bunch of rocks are thrown in and a large fire is lit.  Once the rocks are sufficiently heated the grub is thrown in and covered with soil.  This is then left for a few hours to cook.  We had chicken, lamb, kumara and veg.  It was bloody good.

Work Day 5 – First day on the phones.  It is also Mufti day.  The last Friday of each month is a jeans and ganzie day.  No shirt or dress breeks required. Day 5 also means that it is Friday.  Friday means it is the weekend!  Woohoo.  I have never really had a reason to say, “Thank christ it’s the weekend”, before now as all previous employment has involved at least an element of weekend work.  Working Monday to Friday and getting the weekends off is a novelty in itself.

It’s the weekend!

This weekend also brought with it Nan & Grampa who were down to help gut the garden and take the boy back up to the Bay of Islands when they left. 

This is always a joyous time for me as I can have intriguing in-depth conversations with Nan about such exciting things as provisioning Stena Stair Lifts and suchlike.  This conversation came about after Tania and Nan were deciding whether a bed or a sofa-bed would be more suitable in the spare room along with some bookshelves.  Nan proclaimed that we might have a decrepit old grandmother staying at some point who wouldn’t be able to climb over the end of the bed.  I pointed out that if the decrepit old grandmother wasn’t able to get over the end of the bed then they wouldn’t be able to make it up the stairs either so the garage would have to suffice.  Needless to say this comment went down incredibly well.  Hence the stair-lift suggestion.

(Picture: Nan-mobile)

Morrinsville

On Saturday we took a hurl up/across to Morrinsville to meet a couple of Shetlander-types that Nan knows. 

(Picture: On the road back from Morrinsville)

Emma & Davie were fine folk and even donated a few fresh eggs to us.  A much needed beer was most appreciatively necked along with some scones before we headed back to Tauranga.

Save the trees!

Like I mentioned earlier some major gardening works have been taking place.  I am considering employing Greenpeace to form a picket line around what is left of the foliage in the garden.  A mix of Shetlander with no trees and lumberjack Kiwis results in perfectly fine foliage being cutback or even killed off entirely!  Every day I returned from work the garden had taken a different shape.  Stewart did a brilliant job of building a raised vegetable garden for Aidan though.  I am currently campaigning to save one of the trees in the garden that is under threat of being chopped down as we speak.

Code Red!!

Yep, New Zealand went Code Red the other day as a result of the earthquake off Samoa.  A Tsunami warning was issued for all coastal areas along with an element of confusion.  The Rescue Helicopter was deployed along the Bay of Plenty coastline with a megaphone to tell people to get off the beaches and head for high ground.  The local paper had huge black headlines warning of the impending doom that was about to strike.  Buildings were evacuated, roads were closed.  The 1m Tsunami when it hit was like a fairly calm day on da Wast Voe Sands.  Still, it has prompted the various regions and official bods to speed up the current draft plan of what should happen when a real Tsunami strikes.  The few Geordies living in NZ were left confused when the Toon Army didn’t materialise as hoped.

Nowt else to report

That is all for now.  We had Heather, Stu, Carol & Graham over for grub one night this past week which was good.  Aidan is having a great time up in Russell, my second week of work was fairly uneventful, they haven’t sacked me yet.

Be sure to tune in again for another exciting episode!