Counting Down

Well it is now only seven sleeps til santa, very exciting which also means 2009 soon after that and then my departure from NZ to switzerland on the 5th. Haven't quite decided if I'm more excited or nervous yet!! I'm excited until I think about trying to navigate my way from the airport to the train to a taxi to a my accomodation. Throw yourself in the deep end why don't you, I could have chosen an english speaking country.

November

Well it’s nearly the end of November and there is only five weeks till Christmas. Yes I have been a good girl this year and have completed most of my Christmas shopping, gift wrapped and labelled too!!

I have recently taken up playing squash, what a fantastic game!! I don’t know why I haven’t discovered it before now. It’s hopefully going to help me fit back into my trousers!!

Had the work Christmas function last night, we had a fancy dress (gangsters and mobsters) BBQ at the boss’s house. Was a pretty good night for having nine people in attendance, the wine was going down fairly well however the night wound up pretty early (bout half ten). Fortunately when I arrived home the flatmates BBQ was still going strong and was able to down another couple of vodka’s before the nights end.


This was not such a wise decision when I arose Sunday morning to be out the house by 0800hrs. Off to marshal a 100k cycle race with nine other Rotaractors. However clad with our bright yellow fluro vests it turned out not a bad day and the expected rain held off till now 1827hrs. With our water proof skirts (see photo) and trousers we were prepared for the worst.

Haven’t been home for a few weeks and missing all my TGA friends terribly!! No one to have a quiet drink in town with, or have brunch on Sunday morning topped with a walk around the mount and a Copenhagen cone. The small things you take for granted, now there isn’t even a MT to walk around. (It isn’t all doom and gloom just having a moment).

Going to be working all the Saturday’s till Christmas but I’m sure I can squeeze in lots of fun activities as it is very light till late now with the longest day only a month away so will do my best to make next months blog interesting.

Hamilton

Well a couple of months ago I moved to Hamilton in the mighty Waikato. What a fantastic move it has been. I have a fantastic new job which I’m thoroughly enjoying, I thought I was going to miss serving in the front shop but infact that is the thing I enjoy the most about it, just being able to sit at my bench and concentrate on my repairs. I never knew how much stress the constant interruptions created until this week, we have been short staffed in the shop so Geoff (the other boss and fellow watchmaker) and I have been helping out, I haven’t enjoyed it at all.

Along with the shift in city also came a new home. Fantastic house I’m living in with a brilliant couple, Rachel and Pete. Found it on trade me and liked the house and the people straight away!! Rachel and Pete have just got themselves a new rabbit, he is very cute. His name is Benjamin Bunny and is a big rabbit breed crossed with a floppy eared rabbit (I think) so will grow to a reasonable size. Pete is a handyman and has been busy building the wonderful hutch extension to give Benjamin more room to play in. After a couple of escapes we think it is now a rabbit safe home.

Of course I miss my family and my very cute little munchkins but it is probably good to get a little bit of distance now before the big move in January. I have booked my flights to Switzerland leave NZ on the 5th Jan arriving in London to stay a couple of nights with Tim and Louisa before heading off to my final destination, Switzerland on the 9th. What an adventure it will be, alot of hard work but when I graduate top of the class and get a fantastic job it will be very worth while.

Fiji

Wow! Who knew holidaying with such a large family group could be so much fun. Dad, Judy (step mum), Lee-Anne (sister) and Jade (her partner), Katrina (step sister) and Mitchel (her son 13), Wendy (step sister) and Ashley (her daughter 10 months) and I, all went on a great holiday to fiji at the begining of August. We had a fantastic time in the sun, hot hot sun. When we flew into fiji it was like walking into a wall of heat.

We spent the first two nights at the Novetel in Nadi. The serious holidaying started with a fiji bitter (one of many) by the pool. At night the amount of gecko's on the ceilings and on the walls is amazing, but it is comforting to have lots of them around because the eat the mosquitos! Yah! But lucky for me my blood is sour and they don't like me much anyway. It rained the first night but that was a bit of fun because it brought all the toads out.

We then caught a wonderful large catamaran out to plantation island, this is where all the fun started. The weather was alot hotter and more settled on the island. When we arrived at the island we discovered we had been upgraded to far nicer and far more expensive rooms, score! On the island alot of time was spent in the sea and drinking cocktails by the pool. We took a boat trip out to the reef and it was fantastic snorkeling experience. Saw alot of nemo's even the larger ones with two white stripes living in their anenamies.

It was both Katrina's and Mitchel's birthdays while we were over there and on those nights the fijians came to our dinner table and sang happy birthday, which is an experience as the fijians are so musical and wonderful singers. For Mitchel's birthday Wendy had organised a list of activities for him to complete throughout the day in exchange for money. This was a great idea because it made the day special for him.

Every night at the resort they had some sort of entertainment. The night of the 11th the entertainment was a Mr Plantation competition, which Jade won. The comentator gathered all the men out of the crowd and they then had to take their shirts off and do a dance and stike some poses. It was a load of laughs. The following night Jade the tin bum won the auction for a crab that came third place and won him $26.

After five nights on the island we caught the cat back to the mainland for one more night and a bit of wind down before the flight home. Upon arrival at the Novotel we discovered we had another free room upgrade, well done Judy for all the hard work organising!

Could definately get used to a mid winter holiday, even came back a slightly off white colour, and it was a pleasure to find out it had rained back home the whole time we were away. All and all a wonderful holiday and a great break before the new job started.