Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

The last couple of days have been a bit hectic with interviews but have just had a phone call from Vodafone to say that I start on Tuesday! So it was all worth it. It’s a six month contract to start but they say that most contractors are there for years or join permanently so I may be there for longer. NZ working hours are a bit longer and don’t really fit in with nursery times so Bobby and I are going to have to juggle start and end times to suit … have to wait and see how that goes. For next week though, it’ll be okay as Bobby isn’t working yet.

The Vodafone office is situated right beside the harbour and the view from the front door is lovely … have taken a picture and will put link in blog soon. The boats from the Americas Cup dock right outside the office too so it’ll be quite a sight coming in to work when that’s on.

As I’m contracting, I have to become GST (VAT) registered etc so now trying to work out the NZ tax system.

Kyle and Regan are now on their second nursery visit … First visit didn’t go exactly as planned, Regan screamed and Kyle just wanted to play with the baby toys in Regan’s room - hopefully, today will go better. They were both smiling when I left them … Kyle outside in the sandpit and Regan sitting on one of the auntie’s knees. Hopefully, it will be similar when I get back.

Now trying to work out what to do over the Queen’s birthday weekend … Need to do something exciting if I have to start work on Tuesday!

One Response to “I have a job!!!”
1. Pamela Butler Says:
Congratulations on the new job! That’s great news…
Pam
x

Kyle’s birthday went well … We went to Kelly Tarltons as per previous post - it’s a bit like Deep Sea World in South Queensferry but with penguins. Seemingly this was the first one of its kind and it’s a kind of sad story …. the guy who started it all off (strangely enough called Kelly Tarlton) welcomed his 100,000th visitor on the 2nd month anniversary of it opening and then died of a heart attack that night. The family kept the centre going as it was his dream to start it up.

Kyle got lots of Thomas stuff for his birthday which will fit with the stuff that’s arriving soon on the boat. He’s a much happier boy now that the living room floor is covered in toys/train track …. and we also gave in and bought a TV/DVD player so he’s now a member of the local video shop! Think we’ve watched Hoodwinked about ten times already this weekend.

Regan is doing very well …. tooth number one completely through now and tooth number two on its way! Tried her again with some real food and this time she loved it!

Have arranged visits for Kyle and Regan to new nursery next week … they won’t officially start until a week on Tuesday but will have a full day on Friday of this week. It appears that next Monday is a public holiday … it’s the Queen’s birthday and NZ all have a day off to celebrate. This just appears very weird to me …. I’ve just come from the UK and I don’t even know when her birthday is (and let’s be honest, I don’t really care either).

Bobby and I have been looking for jobs … I have interviews set up for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week … two with Vodafone (one contract, one permanent) and one with a company called The Hyperfactory who are into mobile media. The only worrying thing at the moment (other than the fact that I haven’t been to an interview in a LONG time) is that I’ve lost my voice! Now I know there are a few of you out there who will be smiling at this … especially if some of the Convergys crowd are reading this …. but it’s really not good news for interviews! Although project teams may think that the best type of PM is one with no voice, don’t think the management will feel the same. Bit worried that Bobby is going to have to call them all up tomorrow and tell them I can’t come! Bobby is busy typing out the last of his CV for a job that he called up about on Friday … sounds ideal.

Point of interest for Convergys - seemingly Vodafone NZ, Australia and Fiji have just upgraded their billing package (can’t find any reference to whose though … although it does say that UK overrode their decision on which package to go with). Project didn’t go well … is late and way over budget. Went live last week with some services being unavailable till the end of June!!!

During our time here, we’ve had to get used to the different shopping experience that NZ holds. Obviously, all the usual shops in the UK have no presence down here so we’ve had to try and work out where to buy what. One strange shop (Plastic Box) had always confused me until recently. It is as it says above the door … it’s a shop that sells plastic boxes and I always wondered how it could make enough money to have that many shops. Have now found out! Ants!!! I’ve come across the problem in Spain, France etc before while we’ve been on holiday but never thought about Auckland having a similar problem. You need to keep all food in plastic boxes, clean up immediately after using dishes and keep the floors free of crumbs etc otherwise the place gets overrun with ants! The last place was really bad … they had a little run through a hole in the kitchen window frame … this place isn’t so bad but I have seen some. So plastic boxes from Plastic Box are a necessity …. excellent money maker.

One Response to “Kyle’s birthday and other stuff …..”
1. Liz Says:
Found you at last! Good to read your news, brought back memories, I celebrated my 55th birthday at Takapuna beach! Hope the job interviews bear fruit. Regan obviously coming on by leaps and bounds as is my wee Boyd. I’ll be able to keep up to date and pass on news to the rest of the gang.

Have now moved into the new house … will take some photos and post soon. It feels much more like a home than the last place so we are all feeling a bit more at ease now and have even starting unpacking which I never really did in the other house. Once we have some furniture it will be even better! Talking of which, phoned Allied Pickfords the other day and he told me that the boat arrives on the 5th June (yeah!!) so we should get our furniture a few days after. Kyle is really looking forward to getting his model railway back and has a room picked out downstairs for it already. Anyone who will listen (including the guys who moved the furniture this morning) is being told all about his trains etc. He told us today that he’s a little bit bored with no toys … how to make your mum and dad feel bad in one sentence!!!

Anyway, new house has 3 bedrooms upstairs which means that I don’t have to worry about Kyle being too far away anymore. Master bedroom is not as big as in the last house but has a dressing area/walk in wardrobe and a large ensuite. Main living area is a bit bigger but feels more like a home as it’s carpeted/real wood floors and the kitchen is much nicer. Downstairs there are two more bedrooms (one will be Kyle’s toy room and one Bobby’s toy room!) and a rumpus. Utility area, bathroom no3 and a large double garage. Also have a carport outside and a garden full of trees with apples, oranges and lemons growing on them (remember it’s the equivalent of November over here now)! Upstairs has decking around two sides of the house so it’ll be nice to sit out there during the spring/summer. Our view from upstairs includes the top of the Sky Tower and the sea/Rangitoto Island ….. there is a tree blocking some of the sea view but it’s much better than we had before.

Browns Bay itself is quite nice … although it does seem to be the area that most Brits come to. It has lots of shops and cafes etc and to Bobby’s delight, there is also a Starbucks! For Kyle, there is a playpark right next to the beach which has a skateboard ramp next to it …. he’s now decided that’s what he wants for his birthday.

Jobwise … have started sending my CV out to any suitable jobs on the web. Have an interview with the agency tomorrow re the Vodafone job and have chatted to another agency about a different job at Vodafone. Don’t think I’ll get any further with the second one though as they want someone who’s actually worked for the telco which I haven’t.

What else have we been up to? Sunday, we went up the Sky Tower (http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz/skycity/index.cfm?5FB84201-50BA-1DC3-6503-2FD86214423F) which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Have to admit, I felt a bit strange looking down when we first got out the lift … passed after a while though so managed to take some photos. Kyle kept leaning against the glass which freaked me out a bit!

Also bought my first purchase from TradeMe …. NZs equivalent of Ebay! Have bought a big dining table and chairs for the living area made out of a local wood (rimu). It’s a bit tatty but will do until we can afford what we really want.

One Response to “New House”
1. Lynne Says:
I can definately come to visit now I’ve found out the town has a Starbucks!!

Back in Auckland …. a bit earlier than expected as Kyle had a bit of a tummy bug the night we arrived in Wellington and wasn’t very well. He’s okay now though and started eating again this morning.

Wellington turned out to be really nice (although still prefer Auckland). We spent the day wandering around the Botanic Gardens, going up in the cable car and going round and round in circles in the CBD trying to find our way out. Decided that the CBD is a bit ugly due to the power lines hanging in every street for the trolley buses - they really make the place look untidy which spoils the look of the place.

Since Kyle was unwell … he kept falling off everything in the playpark because he was feeling so weak … we decided not to stay another night in Wellington, so headed up the road and stayed in Wanganui last night. Have any of you been keeping up with Kiwi news recently? Wanganui is getting some bad press at the moment so was a bit concerned about staying there …. but it was really nice and looks lovely as it has a river running through the middle of it.

Anyway, after a late breakfast this morning, we headed north through some of the twistiest (is that a word?) roads I’ve ever seen! (George - if you think the north of Scotland is good for your Elise/Evo .. you should try this place!). The countryside was lovely, with some weird shaped hills/mountains that I’m going to have to find out why they are the way they are …. book shop in Auckland CBD I think.

Anyway … we’re home (or home at least for the next couple of days). Moving on Tuesday then it’s Kyle’s birthday on Friday … told him we’d take him to Kelly Tarltons for his birthday (http://www.kellytarltons.co.nz/home/) so he’ll get to see the penguins at last.

One Response to “Home Again”
1. George Douglas Says:
Gail,
Replace the Legacy Estate for a proper car i.e. an Evo and I will be down there in a flash
George

We have now reached Wellington …. after getting very lost within their one way system in the CBD (agh!). Came down the Desert Road so that Kyle could see Mt Ruahepu (active volcano south of Taupo) … but he was asleep and Ruahepu was covered in cloud. Oh well …. plenty time to see it again. Road down was pretty boring for Kyle but had some interesting geomorphology for mum.

One of the points of coming here was to make sure that we’d picked the right city to live in. So far I think we have …. although admittedly we haven’t seen too much of the city but it doesn’t feel “right” like Auckland does …. which is a good thing. Spending 2 nights here so will check out the CBD tomorrow.

Phoned the recruitment agency re the Vodafone job today and she seemed quite kean to see my CV … so will have to tweak it a bit and send it out. Job is in the CBD so would find out about the dreaded North Shore commute first hand!

Talking of which …. came in to the motel just as news was finishing story re budget. Looks like Auckland may be about to introduce a fuel tax on petrol! Since the new car takes Super Unleaded (what’s new … all our cars took it in the UK), it’ll make a bit of difference to our costs. I need to go and check NZ Herald for details.

On the family front, Regan has got her first tooth!! Still on its way out so photos won’t show anything yet but it’s definitely there. Explains the fist in the mouth …. bit early but Kyle’s teeth came in really early so shouldn’t have expected anything else.

2 Responses to “Wellington”

1. Pamela Butler Says:
Oh my goodness, haven’t been on here for a while and now there’s millions of news!! Your to blame for the fact I have just been sitting on the internet for the past half hour when i’m supposed to be working!!!

Sounds like your getting things sorted, although the house stuff isn’t what you needed!! Must be good to get out and about to see a bit of the country though, especially if it’s confirming your decision on the city to live in.

Think I need to look at a map to understand your commute comments…

Anyway, not much news from over here, oh and I don’t have your email address so drop me an email just incase I get any good gossip for you that can’t be posted!!

Pam
x

2. admin Says:
Try google maps on hybrid option. Type in Orchard Road Browns Bay Auckland ….. will show you new road …. then zoom out a few times till you see Auckland which is where the CBD is.

Haven’t had access to the internet recently so haven’t been posting … A lot has been happening though.

As I mentioned in my last post we had found the car we wanted to buy so thought that it would be fairly easy to transfer the money from Scotland to here to pay for it (we haven’t moved the house money yet as the exchange rate is fairly low). Bank of Scotland thought otherwise! At one point during the various conversations Bobby was having with the BoS (in the early hours of the morning in NZ), I actually thought that he was going to have to fly back to Scotland to move the money but thankfully we finally managed to get someone to listen and send the money over. New car is now paid for and ours.

On the house front … things have not being going well. On the night before we were due to move in, I got a text from the landlord saying that he had sold the house, the new buyer wanted to move in immediately and that he wanted us to move out!! We knew the house was on the market as the rental agency had told us but this shouldn’t have made any difference to us as we had signed a six month lease which in NZ means that the landlord can only change this if you’ve damaged the house or something. As we are nice people, we decided that we’d look around and see if there were any properties up for rental which were suitable (especially since the landlord said that he’d pay the removals etc). We went to view a number of houses … some were okay but in the wrong location, some were just horrible! Anyway, finally found one in Browns Bay that we like - it’s actually bigger (5 bedrooms plus rumpus) with a real sea view. We move in on the 22nd May. Told the landlord about finding the house and he then started harrassing us to move into a motel as the 22nd wasn’t soon enough …. told him very politely (but very firmly) that there was no way on earth we were moving the kids out of a house into a motel. He’s now in a huff!

Even although he’s sold the house, we are still getting people coming around to view it … one woman came during last week and we ended up telling her the whole story of what the landlord was up to. Her and her partner had come across to NZ from the UK in January so she was horrified when we told her what he was up to. Anyway, two days later we got a letter in the post from her asking us to dinner at her place in Torbay. I thought that was lovely … she said that she wanted us to see the real NZ and kiwi hospitality. So we went there Friday evening … she has two children both older than Kyle, but he was really glad to have someone to play with other than us. He’s really missing his friends.

On that subject, we took Kyle and Regan to visit a nursery today as we think Kyle needs to get back into pre-school as he’s getting stir crazy. Nursery was lovely and the carers were really nice. Managed to find a veggie nursery without even realising it though now that I’m not veggie! How weird is that! Kyle still prefers veggie food anyway so we didn’t think it would be an issue. Anyway, he seemed to like it … pre-school is not as big as Careshare but that may mean he finds it easier to settle in. They even have a van kitted out with laptops which comes around once a week to teach them computing .. it came in while we were there so he had a little shot before we left. Regan got on okay .. smiled at everyone as usual. I think she’ll be fine …. it’ll be me who isn’t! Not looking forward to leaving her but I guess it’s around the time I’d have been going back to work in the UK …. Nursery say that they can take both of them from 1st June onwards so we’re going to take them in the week before to get used to it. Can’t believe how cheap childcare in NZ is though … we are getting both of them into this nursery for the price that I used to pay for Kyle in EP. And it’s not that this nursery is cheap .. it’s just the normal price for childcare in NZ.

Other than that we’ve been buying furniture and bits n bobs for the house … but not too much since we’re moving again! Decided that we needed to buy a hoover since the Dyson doesn’t arrive for a few more weeks so went into a specialist hoover shop (yes, there is such a thing!) for a look. The guy brings out the fake cat fur, dust etc and starts stomping it all into the carpet to show how good these hoovers were … it was really weird! You go into Comet or something in the UK and they tell you minimum information and the price then leave you to it … here you get the whole demo on everything you look at! Have to say his ploy worked though as I would have felt really bad not buying anything after all his effort.

Have been to the West Coast which I like a lot and have been getting used to the North Shore. There are some more photos on Flickr so links below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fikkabix/sets/72157600213079777/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fikkabix/sets/72157600213543258/

Haven’t done much about finding jobs yet as we have been searching for the new house but will probably start that this week. Not really in much hurry to do that …. but I guess I have to.