Where has the time gone?

I can't believe its been 4.5 months since i wrote on here. A few things have happened since then....


July - went to my first theatre show (Dirty Dancing) with some of my Hutt friends
       - went to see some free iTunes gigs at the Roundhouse; Faithless, Underworld and         Phoenix
       - Ben & Jerrys Sundae on the Common where the Doves performed


August  - had a little day trip to Oxford with my friend Lara
             - had our first flat party woop woop
            -  a few random drunken nights here and there...
            - fun night down in Wimbledon watching the NZ vs South Africa game
           - finished my three months working at Gray & Osbourn, great little company and great to get           some more catalogue experience
           - off to America for three awesome weeks!! Went to New York where i spent 4 amazing days walking (through Soho, Greenwich Village, Littly Italy China Town), house party in Brooklyn, great ramen at Ippudo, trip up Empire State Building, Rockefeller Centre, to Times Square, Statue of Liberty, over the Brooklyn Bridge, walking through Central Park and through Strawberry Fields listening to The Beatles, also catching up with a few friends there. After that went to Thousand Oaks (in California, Ventura Country) for my cousin Cathys wedding which was awesome. Caught up with my a lot of my family who came over from NZ and made lots of friends too. Had a blast. Then off to Las Vegas for a week, stayed at the Tropicana and did lots of venturing up and down the Strip! Met some awesome Aussies who we hung with a bit and went to see the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show which was AMAZING!!! Also went down to Fremont St for the Fremont St Experience:  http://www.vegasexperience.com/ , which very iconic casino fronts which have been in many movies. After that went to the Grand Canyon which was really amazing, its kinda hard to get your head around how massive it is! I really want to go back and fly over it and land inside the canyon if possible.  After that went back to Thousand Oaks to see my family and then spent my last day in California with my good friend Lauren and Mat who i met in Vegas. I had such an amazing time and wish i could go back!


September -  Got back to London mid Sept and spent a bit of time recovering from jetlag and once again looking for a job!!




October  - Got a job at a company called Signet who run two jewellery chain stores called H.Samuel & Ernest Jones. Was supposed to be a 2 month contract but it didn't quite turn out that way. I basically walked into a team that was extremely low in morale. No one bothered to tell me what i was supposed to be doing, i had to constantly ask people for work and ended up doing boring admin stuff. The manager that hired me went on "sick leave" for two weeks for personal reasons, he had basically screwed up since he started in Jan and was doing a crap job and had to take some time off. They didn't know if he was coming back so hired a lady a week after i started to take over his job for a while. He ends up coming back after two weeks (awkward) so they're like...oh crap whats this new lady going to do. So they give the H.Samuel brand to my manager and give the Ernest Jones brand to the new lady to look after.....including my job. So i found out at the end of my third week that i no longer have a job. I thought things were a bit sus when the new lady started doing jobs that i was supposed to be doing and went to visit our design agency who i should have been visiting. To top it off, the whole team knew that i was leaving before i did. Pissed off? Yes. Plus this place took me over an hour to get to on two tubes, a train and a 15 min walk so i was not sad about leaving at all. Just pissed that i passed up on other opportunities and was treated like crap. Onwards and upwards yeah?

- Anyhoo, other than that October was a bit of a quiet month with not much money. Our wonderful flatmate Greta had to go back to NZ which was sad and we miss her very much!!
- Saw Yaesayer play at the Roundhouse, they were great
- Saw Shapeshifter at Shepherds Bush Empire, good old time...too many kiwis tho! haha




November - This month started off being unemployed which is always a fun way to start a month
                 - Caught Midlake at the Roundhouse...another fine gig!
                -  Had a few interviews which didn't quite eventuate into anything
               - November was the big rugby month. Every Saturday from the 6th Nov there was an All Blacks game in the afternoon. The first one was between us and England and a few of us went down to the Temple Walkabout (Walkie) which of course got pretty messy! The next saturday we went back for more to watch the Scotland game. The weekend after was Ireland which i watched at home to prepare for the Cardiff weekend
             - On the 8th Nov i started a temping job at the Imperial Institute of Teachers of Dancing, doing a bit of data entry/admin stuff. It is a bit boring but im glad im not on reception and don't have to deal with anyone! The team i work with are really lovely which is great! Its a really easy route to get to work so thats very handy. Ive been there four weeks now and have another week next week, really hoping they can keep me on till the end of Dec. We shall see.
               - At the end of Nov i went to this thing called Secret Cinema, to find a bit more about it click on this link, this is what we saw: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/9230437.stm ...you basically turn up at a tube station and get taken somewhere and given clues on what to wear and what movie you may be watching, lots of fun!! We saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. If you're friends with me on facebook i have a few photos up on there of it. 
            - In the last week of November i travelled up to Cardiff with some friends and went to see the All Blacks vs Wales game at Millenium Stadium. Great to see a rugby game with so many passionate Welshies! They sang up a storm during the game! We won, but it wasn't very convincing. Loved the Welsh, really awesome hearing them randomly singing in pubs! Had a great night out, was feeling pretty rubbish the next day. Would love to go back in Spring/Summer. I met up with my friend Lisa who i met when in Thailand last year...was so lovely to catch up with her again. 


So all in all London is lots of fun, met some really awesome people since I've been back and have a great  crew over here. Love the fact that theres so many people from Wellington!!! I have a great flat with great flatmates (one is South African who really didn't work out but is moving out tomorrow YAY and we will be getting a Wellingtonian guy moving in, in a weeks time). So thats pretty cool. Just need to get a job so that I'm not constantly worrying about how I'm going to pay rent and can start fully enjoying myself. I think that I may just have to get any job and give marketing a miss for now. I have a few trips planned: Going to Budapest at the end of Jan for four days and going to Barcelona at the end of April for about four days...will miss the Royal wedding sadly! Got Glastonbury in June and hopefully going to Rock en Seine in August which is near Paris. And possibly going to Brighton for New Years. 


Really looking forward to our Orphans Christmas party at my friend Hannah's place. We are having a bit of an 80's theme and bringing along our favourite 80s Xmas jumper to wear! Will be great to be amongst good friends on that day.


So that brings me up to December. I think I'll wait to comment on this month till its over! Stay tuned peeps...i promise I won't be so slack in the future!!


much love.


       

I miss my Grandad

Seems like everything reminds me of him at the moment....i pass a community garden everyday by my house and think of how much Grandad loved and cared for his garden, even little things like how he grew beans which he was so proud of (which weren't always that great but we had the anyway) and i bought some today...silly i know. Its almost a year since we found out he had terminal cancer...how fast last 12 months have gone, but in another way, oh so slowly.  Below is a photo of my mum and Grandad around 1958.

Leaving NZ

Had a bit of a busy time before i left NZ. I finished work on the 26th March and had 2 weeks off before i flew away to LA/London.

Had a week in Auckland sorting out my life, caught up with a few people. On Easter friday i drove down with my mum to wellington. For a few days stayed at my friends parents place on Waikanae beach which was so amazing, had the best weather and the best girls to hang out with. Caught up with family, friends, had my 27th Birthday, went to the zoo for lunch with fam and dinner that night with friends. The next night was my best friend Pennys 30th birthday, had an awesome time!! The next day had to get up early to drive back to auckland....not the best road trip!

Here are a few photos:
1) Jared, Ash and I....Ash came up for Lady Gaga, it was awesome!!

2) My local beach: Kohimarama (oh i miss you)

3) Ash, me and Penny at Pennys 30th

4) Sonn, Soph, me, Penz and Ash at Waikanae

5) Kelly and I walked up Rangitoto Island, an old volcano

6) Kellys 27th birthday

7) Joseph, Amy, me, Char, Jeremy, friend & Kels...catching up with Char & Jere on their holiday to NZ

8) Massive Attack at Vector, amazing gig!!

few pics of the last few months

View from the top of Mt Kaukau, WellingtonFlorence and the Machine, Sydney

Me holding baby Sage
Amirtha, Mel and me in Mt Eden, Auckland

Wrist band from The Pearl Jam/Ben Harper/Liam Finn concert - Nov 09

Duns and I before the show, Mission Bay
A toast to my Grandad, on his 87th and last birthday

Heading back to London

Well I've been back in New Zealand for 7 months now and the time has gone by incredibly fast. From Sept - December i worked at Labtests and from the first week of Jan till now i have been working in marketing at Noel Leemings and have met lots of lovely people along the way. I have been really lucky with the contract jobs that I've had over the past few years as I have gained a lot of valuable experience but great friends in each role...every cloud has a silver lining!

It's been a bit of a weird time being back, kinda felt that i never left in a way...and wonder how those 5 months that I was in Thailand/London went by so fast..and how the hell i survived job hunting every damn day for 4 months straight without going crazy...well i think i did go a bit loco! Despite all the stress/anxiety of that time I still managed to have a really fun time and met some really great people, of which i am thankful.

My Grandfather passed away just over a month ago. He put up a good fight and was pretty stoic till the end. He had a great farewell and i miss him greatly, we all do. He much admired by family, friends and his peers. A reporter who worked with Grandad wrote about the funeral: http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2010/02/rip_jack_mcfaull.html

I am really looking forward to heading back to London. My only hope is that i have an easier time finding a job. I have heard that the job market is a lot better than it was last year so hopefully i wont have too many problems. Time will tell! Keep your fingers crossed for me people!

So am leaving NZ on the 14th April, have a week in LA staying in Santa Monica and with family in Thousand Oaks, then arrive in London on the 23rd April.