Back in the Uk

Hi folks

Well I've now been back in the UK for just over two weeks (I think!) and am back in Devon, currently staying with my parents in Teignmouth.

I STILL! haven't fully got my hearing back after my flights (don't ever fly long haul with a cold!!) which is really annoying, but it's better than it was so that's something.

Spent the first few days a bit zonked out, saw my sister and brother in law as they were staying at mum & dads for a few days.

Met up with a few good friends in Teignmouth that I haven't seen for ages, so that was really nice. Been to Teignmouth carnival (sad I know but I haven't seen it for about 15 years) and it's got rubbish in the years I've been away!

Done the boring stuff of registering that I exist in the UK, updated address details, registered with doctors etc etc.

I went to an SK muster this weeekend which was great as I met lots of new additions that have appeared since I've been away, and saw loads of great folks that I haven't seen for a very long time.

Very strange being away on my own, but generally it was a fab weekend and the sun shined for all of it - a little too enthusiastically as I got sunburnt despite using factor 30 suncream!

Weston super Mare had the biggest sandcastle it has ever seen and a good scrap was had by all. Looking forward to catching up with the people I missed this weekend at the August bank holiday muster in York.

All change

Well things have changed an awful lot since I last wrote so I'll have to do a bit of a catch up.

Having tried unsuccessfully for six months to get work in Gisborne, and Dave having tried unsuccessfully to get transfers to somewhere larger, we have made the decision to come "home".

New Zealand does have it's advantages, and I'm sure we will be moaning about the crappy summers in Britain in no time at all, but living in NZ long term just isn't the right fit for us. There are plenty of good beaches in the UK, and I managed to brave the UK sea for about 26 years without a wetsuit (although I got soft in 2006 and bought a "shortie" wetsuit). But there's no point having great weather if you're not happy and settled where you are.

I can say I did something that very few people have the guts to do - I upped sticks and tried out a completely different lifestyle on the other side of the world. So whilst I am sad that it's not the perfect place for me to live, I'm glad that I took the opportunity to do something different. We didn't get to see as many places as we would have liked, but we've definitely got a flavour of new zealand "culture" and as I said, done something completely different.

I'm in Christchurch on the east coast of the south island, I flew here last friday to stay with a friend of mine. I was going to try and get work until Dave's contract finishes at the end of October but decided that it would be better to get back to the UK sooner rather than later. I fly back to the UK on tuesday evening NZ time. Dave will stay in Gisborne until his contract finishes and then come back to the UK as well.

Pictures of skiing at porters, christchurch July 09

Update

Well I haven't written for a while as there's not a whole lot to say.

It has certainly been a month for pretty rubbish news.

Mum, get better soon, I hope you get your plaster cast removed sooner rather than later, and the bruising heals soon (she fell off her bike. Keep taking the arnica tablets!

Joan, a friend of ours from the SK took a really bad tumble down her stairs and has broken her neck. She is in Sheffield spinal unit currently with very little movement, but has feeling in her arms and toes I believe, so that is a big thing to be thankful for. She is determined to be walking for the October re-enactors traders fair - our thoughts and prayers and with her & husband Gary.

Scooter - honey I don't know what to say but we're thinking of you and rooting for you and hopefully will find lots of silly stuff to keep you amused.

To Claire J - we love you and we're thinking of you.

And Dave's paternal grandad has cancer, which is awful news and very sad to hear.

Our love and prayers go out to all of the above - you may be out of sight, but you're not out of mind.


On a slightly lighter note Dave has applied for transfers in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton through his existing company but has not heard anything back yet so is also looking elsewhere as we can't continue to exist on one wage.

I haven't worked now for six months, not through want of applying for things, I'm just applying for pretty much everything. A big company called Bunnings (like B&Q) is opening a large store in gisborne and are recruiting for staff. So far I have had a phone interview (540 people had applied when I spoke to them), a group interview (230 got through to this stage) and tomorrow I have a "proper" interview, which I think is the last hoop to jump through. They want people for admin as well as working in the shop, but to be honest as long as I get a job I'll be happy - beggars can't be choosers!

You will all be glad to know that it's wet and cold here and has been for at least a couple of weeks - I will never take brick built houses with thick insulation, double glazing and central heating for granted again. Last count we have one winter duvet, three summer duvets and one quilted throw on our bed as it's so damp & cold at night!

Not got a whole lot more to say, we're both finding it very difficult at the moment but you don't want to be bored with that, so I will sign off.

Proof that the NZ Navy have a sense of humour

Mess Room

On the senior officers mess room door

On the first aid room door

Worlds smallest gym!

RNZN Resolution

RNZN Resolution

RNZN Resolution

RNZN Resolution

Congratulations to Kylie & Darren on the birth of their little boy Oliver - big kudos to Kj for managing without pain relief and well done to Ollie for not putting his mum in major pain for a too long before putting in an appearance (although I'm sure it felt like forever for Kj!).

Also, big congratulations to Belle on her completion of her swimming badges!! Currently top of her class - atta girl!

The recession is obviously taking it's toll on people's social lives as I know of four friends that have given birth so far this year and there are another four between now and October! Staying in is obviously the new going out!

Nothing to report on the job front, I keep applying and hearing nothing back, and haven't had any more sewing work so no extra pennies to help out this month. After several months of asking, there are now transfers in some of the major cities through Dave's work available so I think he is going to apply for them as obviously if we are in a more central and "metropolitan" town/city then there is more likelihood of me finding a job, and there will be more of a social life, things to do etc.

Gisborne is a lovely place to be in the summer, a bit like a lot of seaside towns in the UK, but can you imagine Teignmouth if it was three and a half hours one way to a Torquay sized town and two and a half hours the other way to an Exeter sized city? Well, to be fair, at least Teignmouth has got a nightclub - it may be the size of a postage stamp, but it's still a club!

It's difficult not to get completely frustrated with the lack of things to do here. Nineteen months is more than long enough here I think, so I hope that something comes through with a transfer for Dave so that we can both start feeling a little more positive about being here and get out and about and see more of New Zealand. Being in/near one of the major cities makes travelling a lot more of an option as you can fly from Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton to loads of other places where as from Gisborne you can only get to Auckland and Wellington. It would be really nice to catch up with a school friend of mine who is living on the south island, and being more central would make that a lot easier to do.

So keep your fingers crossed folks - we need to get jobs in one of the major cities. And if so, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later that we will be visiting an English county near you!

Random assortment of Kiwisms

* Afghan - type of biscuit

* Backblocks - out in the sticks - also referred to as out in the wop wops, up the boohai

* Docket - receipt

* Bludge - scrounge

* P.M.S - Pest management strategy - wouldn't be safe to use that in front of hormonal women!!

* Billy - billy can as in camping pot, but also refers to peoples kettles "put the billy on"

* Jug - also means kettle

* Jafa - j.a.f.a = just another f***ing aucklander - dereogatory term for a city person i.e "you're just anonymous face" they don't know anything about country ways

* Tukus - slang for mens underwear originating from a financial scandal where the director of a company allegedly bought very expensive underwear with company funds! Also used to denote dubious use of funds

* To have "tickets on" someone - to fancy someone

*Stonkered - knackered, to be beaten (in a game)

*Curly - difficult, or very good (both apply to Dave depending on what mood he's in!)

*Toss your lollies - be sick

Blue, blue, my world is blue

Well it has been for the last few weeks. One of Dave's colleagues asked if I would make him some covers for traffic signs, I made a few, he liked them and asked me to do a shed load more. So our front room has been covered with blue polyester for the last couple of weeks, and my sewing machine has never been so busy since I inherited it!

Yes, I know, pick yourselves up off the floor, I have been sewing. And have made a few pennies out of it, which is good, as I STILL do not have a job and am going slowly out of my mind. Gisborne is not the place to be unemployed in the autumn. I'm applying for the few jobs that come up in the paper, but as yet, no interviews.

Very homesick at the moment, missing friends and family and just generally the familiarity of being in "my" country. I would give anything to go into tescos and buy my favourite foods! I really want to come home, better to be unemployed and be able to see friends and family than be miles away from them......

Not really a lot to report at the moment. I'm still not working so that is making life very difficult.

Just thought I'd check in and let you know I'm still alive.

Congratulations to Claire and Richard on the birth of Annaleeza, and to Rich and Jodie on the birth of Alice, I'm sure that both of them will create as much mischief as their parents do!

Missing friends and family very much, and knowing that it will be a long time until we get to see everyone again in the current situation.

And wondering whether it is better to unemployed in New Zealand, or in the UK? At least in the UK we'd have friends to see and share a consolidatory bottle of wine or two with.

It's very hard not to be melancholy having all this time to myself, I'm reading a lot, revising my very rusty french, and spending far too much time on Youtube.com and watching E! on sky (sometimes you just need a hour or so of pure trash tv). Oh and I'm now really good at spider solitaire and hearts (God I'm bored!).

I've applied for everything that I can do in Gisborne, and have only had a rejection letter back from three of them, so I guess the rest of them are working on "east coast time" and I probably will never get an acknowledgement of my application.

In a lot of ways here, businesses are very "cruisy" (i.e. laid back), but some just take it to extremes and in a lot of instances quite unprofessional. The problem with people running franchises or small businesses here, is that their personal life seems comes before their work life - don't even bother trying to get hold of people in the east coast on a Friday afternoon - they will be playing tennis, or golf, or gone to their "bach" (beach house) for the weekend, or gone to watch the rugby, or to buy a new boat, gone fishing, or some other similar thing. But yet they expect everyone else to be there when they want something. Very strange. I think this is more of a Gisborne/small town thing than a New Zealand thing, having spoken to other kiwis who were not Gisborne born and bred, but it's really annoying!

I managed to get to see a neurologist about my back pain and pins and needles and he told me that as my reflexes are fine, I should just keep taking the painkillers. Which was really helpful - and when I tried to question him about what causes the pain, he said that he didn't have time to discuss it further as he had a plane to catch! Just goes to show there are idiots everywhere, although he wasn't as bad as the psychologist who reviewed my meds who told me that coming off my tablets and having kids would sort things out, as I'm not working anyway I might as well start popping kids out!!!!!!! I must go back to hospital soon, I do so love being patronised!

We had a bit of a scare last week as Dave had a fever, and had spots of his legs that wouldn't blanche on touch, so he had to go to hospital to get checked for Meningitis. Whilst on the other side of the world, poor little Belle was also very poorly and was in hospital getting checked for meningitis as well. Spooky! Thank God, they are both fine

Rotorua pics - government gardens and museum

Videos from Te Puia Geothermal Park, Rotorua

Bare in mind these were only taken on our dinky digital camera, but it gives you the idea of the heat!

Pictures from Te Puia Geothermal Park, Rotorua

The good, the bad and the ugly

So, we have had sixteen months of living in a foreign country. Which sounds a bit strange as they speak the same language and have the same queen as us, but actually it’s a lot more foreign than we gave it credit for before coming over here.

By which I mean the customs are different, the social life is different, the climate is different, the seasons are the wrong way round, the shops are different, they work in kilometres instead of miles, their computer keyboards are laid out in the American way, but their spelling is the same as English so you have to keep changing the spellings and the telly is pants!

New Zealand isn’t the promised land, it does have crime, it does have illness and is hit by financial crashes, but in a lot of ways it is kind of isolated from the rest of the world (and not just geographically).

Kiwis are kind of breed of their own. From what I can gather, they are mostly hard working, very outdoorsy sort of people that tend to socialise a lot more at people’s houses than pubs (there aren’t really “British” style pubs out here), believe that if you’re not dead you’re “bludging” time off work, and are generally quite friendly and welcoming, but quite hard to get to know “properly” and become real friends with. The New Zealand way seems to be work hard, play harder.

There is a wealth of history even though New Zealand as we know it now is a baby in terms of established countries. But it's quite a historic country in a lot of ways. It was the first country to give women the vote; it was the first country in the British Empire to have a female mayor; it was the first country in the world to introduce the 8 hour working day; it was the first country to become nuclear free. There are many other firsts, and many of them were positive.

Like many other "empire" countries, the invaders or colonisers as they would have preferred to be called made a lot of mistakes. And that still causes issues now. There are many arguments that will probably go on for many decades to come, about the abuse of the established Maori population's rights as they see it. And there are wrongs on both sides of the story, but for such a young country I think that it has come a long way in resolving things, but still has a long way to go.

The green message is in some ways extremely evident, but in other ways sadly lacking. Recycling (I believe) is mandatory in most of new zealand, with recycling being free and landfill waste being paid for. You get X amount of rubbish stickers when you make your rates payment each quarter and any other you require after that are $2.50 each per 5kg bag. The idea being that the more you recycle the less likely it is that you will need to be excess rubbish stickers. There are also subsidies available for composting or mulching systems.

A major paint manufacturer out here has some serious green credentials, so it's not just dinky out of the way one man band job that no one's ever heard of; there are big campaigns to "buy kiwi" to support NZ businesses as well as reducing the carbon footprint.

But the insulation regulations are way lower that we would expect, double glazing is almost non existant on the North Island and top of the South Island (when you get further down the South Island it starts to get very nippy) so you can find it there.

The use of solar, hydro, wind and geothermal power is much lower than I would have thought it would be considering that New Zealand is in the "ring of fire", is surrounded on all sides by sea as well as having many many lakes and rivers, and gets way more sunshine that many other countries (even in the winter it's not 'cold' here - here meaning the east coast), there are bits of nz that get very cold in winter!

When I win the lotto I will put some money into developing these things!!

The deputy manager of our house

Well folks, I completely neglected to tell you about the newest addition to our household, our new kitten Mia. A friends cat had an unplanned pregnancy and as we have been looking for a new mog for Billy to be friends with since next door moved out taking their cat Tiger (Billy's best mate) with them, as he has been a right clingy sod.

So we said that we would take one of the little balls of fluff from Sulle (our friend). So Christmas Eve, Mia arrived with a little gift tag on her collar and she has been impossibly cute ever since. And she knows it. I don't think she is necessarily the brightest candle in the box, but she's so endearing you can't help but love her on sight.

Having done his "I'm boss cat, don't mess with me" bit, Billy has now accepted her as his slightly eccentric surrogate sister and she loves using him as her own personal climbing frame. She has absolutely no fear, is an intrepid explorer, jumps from heights with no safety net and has a fascination with chewing feet. And her own tail. It follows her. It's a conspiracy don't cha know?

Hatches, matches and dispatches

2008 was a strange year. A first year of settling in, missing home, going through all the special dates - birthdays, weddings, engagements, anniversary, funerals. They say that when you are grieving you have to go through a year - all the special dates, before things start to get easier, and I think it's kind of the same when you move to the other side of the world!


It's a strange thing, moving so far away, because you can still keep in touch via email and messenger, so you're kind of "in on the joke", but you're not there, at silly o clock in the morning contemplating the merits of self cleaning portaloos, or listen to rants about the Weimar Republic (Ray!), or who to make up a good rumour about ("never let the truth get in the way of a good rumour" - can't remember what rule number that is in Blews constitution - anyone??).

So last year was kind of busy on the hatches, matches and dispatches front: Maggie & Neil got engaged, then maggie got pregnant; Lee & Nicky got married; Kylie & Darren got engaged and Kylie is pregnant; Claire & Rich got engaged, then Claire got pregnant (sensing a theme here?) and then they got married; Jodie & Richard are having their second baby in March time; Lorraine is having her second baby in March time; Andy & Tamar got engaged; Jane & Mark got engaged and are getting married this year; Katherine and Marc are having their first baby in July (I think). I don't think I've missed anyone out. Maggie and Neil welcomed a baby boy into the world last week.

And sadly we said goodbye to some good friends, Malcolm and Colin, who both put up the bravest of fights over a long period of time. And other friends lost relatives as well so although we didn't know them personally, it is always hard as we want to be there for our friends in the sad times. We may not be able to provide hugs in person, but there is always lots of love and best wishes travelling down the phone and modem lines.

I also know that a few of our friends are doing battle health wise, so our thoughts are with you too.

However great phone, email and messenger are, there's nothing quite like celebrating or commiserating with your friends in person, but we think of you all regularly and you are very much in our hearts.

I had some bad news on the job front - having been told just before Christmas that I would get taken on after christmas (I was temping). I then had my hours halved in January, found out that they were looking for someone minimum wage and were interviewing people without telling me. Then had a morning off due to a migrane and got phoned and told not to come in the next day as they had found someone they could pay less. So needless to say, having worked my arse of for them for nearly two months and got them out of the poo, I am somewhat pissed off!

So I'm at home at the moment, trying to keep myself amused and not feel like a failure. It wouldn't bug me so much if it was because of the recession, but it's not, they're just being tight. Grr.

Well, the snow back home looks lovely - well, if you don't have to get anywhere that is. When we were living in Kirkby we often got snow in the winter and at the first flake of snow the entire transport network grinds to a halt! Aah Kirkby - I NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK THERE AGAIN!!!!!! (sorry, just needed to get that off my chest!)

I know you're all envious of the heat, but don't be too jealous, because with the heat, come severe fire warnings - this is a country that massively relies on it's forestry industry, and prides itself on having lots of lush wooded areas and lots of scrub in between - perfect fire transportation. Two weeks ago a fire started on the Mahia Peninsula (about an hour and a half from Gisborne), and the fire service (mainly volunteers I hasten to add) are still working their bums off to try and stop it flaring up again.

Having said that, no one has been hurt as a result of the fire at Mahia and only two houses (I believe) were destroyed, so that was a blessing. Sadly, Australia has a massive bush fire at the moment and they are really struggling, so we can be very grateful that it is a relatively enclosed area at Mahia (they are pretty strict about putting lots of fire breaks in).

I think that oz is maybe a better place to live if you're going to live somewhere hot, as they all have air conditioning, where as relatively few homes here do. 30+ degrees is not so great when you're trying to get to sleep!

Speaking of sun, the attitude of a lot of people here to the sun never ceases to amaze me, consider that there is a bloody great big hole in the ozone layer above New Zealand. Having had applying suncream drummed in to me from a young age (living in Britain, which less face it gets about two hot days a year these days), it's crazy to me to not wear suncream and cover up when it's that hot. But plenty of locals (who are more than old enough to know better) still sun worship or don't take care in the sun. One of the traffic controllers at Dave's work got third degree burns as he was out in the sun all day and didn't apply suncream or use a hat, or cover up or stand under the shade provided (all of which the company pays for). And they wonder why New Zealand has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world??? Crazy

New year, new blog entry

Ok. the problem with not writing for a while is that I've got to think about what the hell we've done since the last written entry four months ago!



End of September, beginning of October, I was poorly and had to have some time off work, and as a result lost my job. But apart from the fact that my bosses were complete arseholes about it, it's a good thing as working there was making me ill, hence the time off!!!



So I had a couple of weeks off work, and got some temping work at an estate agents (for the third time in my life!) doing admin and advertising (doing the actual formatting and layout of it, which is something I've never done before). So I was dumped straight in the deep end with quite a big backlog to tackle. So in the run up to Christmas I was working ten hour days to try and tackle the backlog, and finally the hard work paid off as I can now see my desk! I'm there long term and it is likely that they will take me on permanantly (fingers crossed).



Christmas was a complete non-starter, we didn't bother with any decorations or special food. We went to our favourite restaurant, The Fettuccine Brothers on Christmas Eve, and before eating I was violently ill and had to take my dinner home in a doggy bag to eat later. Spent most of Christmas day curled up on the sofa, although we did go out for a short walk in the after noon. Boxing day was very much the same.



In between christmas and new year we spent escaping the heat and the zillions of people that were here for the annual Rythm And Vines music festival by hitting the beach. We also went to watch the annual Kapa Haka competition (the adult competition this time) - which was pretty cool. I don't speak Maori, but the singing and traditional dances are absolutely brilliant - well worth watching if you are visiting the land of the long white cloud.



We also went on one of the few remaining steam trains in New Zealand - sadly it is only able to run a short way, about half an hour in each direction, as very few railway tracks are in use in New Zealand, especially not in the more "provincial" areas. But quite frankly half an hour each way was more than enough as we were stuck in a carriage with two families from hillbilly hell!