A Few Exciting Things

This week has gone more or less routinely, which usually means that Emily's and my work schedules barely cross over at all, and as such we've got to make use of the time that actually coordinates. The last few days would be a good example; Emily's two days off for this week were Wednesday and Thursday, so after I finished work on Wednesday we took another trip down to our local Reading Cinema (we thought about how many films we've been to see together, and the number is surprisingly high) to see 500 Days of Summer. We both really enjoyed it, and although I won't try to review it, I'll mention that Emily said she 'didn't want it to end'.

The following day was my day off for the week as well, and so we took advantage of the slightly improved weather to play tennis for the first time in a while. Playing on outside courts in what is known as the second windiest city in the world has its downsides, but we've been adjusting to it. Then we rested up for seeing The Ataris that night, who were on their NZ Tour. We both really enjoyed the gig, and it was nice for me to see some live music that wasn't blues at the Hotel Bristol for once.

We got our electricity bill for September-October, and were shocked to find that it's no more reasonable than last month's, which was only our 'estimated power usage'. This news is particularly unwelcome as we've been doing our very best to turn things off and keep it down to a minimum, on top of which we were hardly at the apartment very much. Yet we barely managed to shave anything off the bill. Oh well, we can keep trying.

I'm off to work soon, and for the next meanwhile I'm working a 6 day week. Work at Kirkcaldie's is going well, and I'm getting on well with everyone who works there. The HR department have managed to pick a team this year of mostly 22-year-olds, and so we all have plenty in common. We went to the Bristol (I seem to be there more than home, and the same can definitely be said for Emily) for the weekly pub quiz on Tuesday, and it was a great night out. Looking forward to doing the same again.

Apologies for not updating the photos just yet, but it's on my to-do list...

A Promise of Things to Come

I'll really try hard to give a more thorough update on my next day off, as this blog thing really took a nose dive throughout the entire month of September. We'll try to correct this soon, promise! In the meantime, I've uploaded a few more photos of us settling in to Wellington on Flickr, with captions to follow soon. There are plenty more photos to come, which I'll also upload when I get an evening by myself (Emily is working late tomorrow, so outlook is good for then.)

Sweet As !

Well folks, we did promise you a New Zealand blog, so I'm terribly sorry about our recent lack of posts (plus Jamie said I had to apologize). There is some exciting news though which involves two sets of visitors from the outside world. This Saturday Caroline's brother and sister-in-law, David and Janet, are due to drop into Wellington en route to the South Island in their campervan. Hopefully they can regale us with tales from the road, though it will be hard to match Leland's wild night of being pulled over by NZ police. If I am able to get the night off work, we're planning to take our visitors to Southern Cross-a bar/restaurant with an amazing outdoor garden where they cook on open grilles. Our other visitors come a bit later- my parents and brothers were planning to arrive in December during the Christmas holiday but because of astronomical airline costs, NZ can expect the Besens in early March. By then, hopefully, we'll either have renewed our contract at 3A/163 The Terrace, have found a new, less expensive place in Wellington, or have fled the big city for greener pastures (or kiwi farms?) Jamie's job at the Christmas shop ends in January after "The Big Sale" and I've committed to 6 months at Bristol, though I have yet to sign a formal contract. In other words, we'll be free as Tui birds come February.

Speaking of work, all seems to be running smoothly. Jamie's shop has opened as of last thursday-apparently it was quite the event. Hundreds of tickets were sold so the christmas fanatics of Wellington could get their fix one night before the public. The ten shop workers had only one day of training on the till in completely random departments of Kirkcaldie & Staines. Jamie worked in the linen department after which he only wanted to talk about Egyptian cotton. Now that the shop is officially open, Jamie has 2 random days off a week, like me. This week we both have tuesday off and next week its thursday. Also I haven't been working many late nights which means we get home at the same time in the evening. I think I speak for both of us when I say we have been learing a lot about the country by working with New Zealanders. Unlike many Americans, they seem to be well informed about current affairs and posess a strong pride for Wellington and their country.

We got tickets to see a few concerts here in Wellington. Next week Jamie chose the Ataris and on Nov 1st we'll see my choice, Ladyhawke, return to her NZ roots after a long stint abroad. Jamie is also planning to catch an All Whites (NZ national soccer team) game with some friends from work. The stadium will likely be pretty empty- firstly because NZ is playing Bahrain- a teeny country in the middle east and secondly because New Zealanders don't seem to like soccer much. They do however, love boxing. At work on Saturday all anyone seemed to be talking about was the boxing match scheduled for that night. It was the legendary David Tua, who has never lost a match and came out of retirement specifically to fight Shane Cameron in the "fight of the century." I figured we better witness history in the making so Jamie and I returned to a packed to the rafters Hotel Bristol to catch the three-minute, two-round fight in which the retiree took down the new kid quite easily.

This past week I wandered down to the Botanic gardens again hoping to see the flowers in bloom and was thrilled to find an entire garden of tulips, next time I'll bring my camera. But for now you can feast your eyes on pictures of Jamie and I on our various rentals -roller blades and bike respectively- against the backdrop of the Wellington Harbour.