Gail Dickson .. my blog from Down Under

Another extremely busy week at work … between handovers, normal work and lunches out to say goodbyes … it was completely hectic!   Monday was the only day that I didn’t go out at lunchtime … Tuesday I went for some “Fresh Asian” with a friend, Wednesday my team plus Leanne went to a local restaurant where all the BPs (beautiful people) hang out, Thursday my larger team (ie with business owner, architect etc) went to the local pub and on Friday I went out with some of the people who were leaving that day.

Friday night there was a night out for all the contractors who were leaving that day (45 of them!) … decided to go for an hour or so since Bobby had given me a late pass.   It was kinda fun (even although I was driving) so ended up staying a bit later … then one of the girls got extremely drunk and missed her last bus so ended up staying even later as I couldn’t leave her there in that state.   In the end, I drove two extremely drunk people home to the North Shore so it was after midnight by the time I reached home.   It was a good night though and I’m going to miss some of them when Monday comes …

Weather has been great since Tuesday and the weekend was absolutely gorgeous.   We went to a barbeque last night … Kyle ended up falling off (well actually he was pushed!) a slide and now has a bruise on his leg the size of a football!   Reggie was hanging on to a tree swing while Bobby pushed her …. Again, freaked me out.

This was the last weekend where we’ve got any spare time before we go on holiday .. Next weekend we’ve got Browns Bay Santa Parade (Kyle and I are in it!) and a wedding in the afternoon then on Sunday we’re off to the zoo again with nursery.   Weekend after, Kyle has a party at ten pin bowling and on Sunday, Reggie and I are going to meet up with three friends from work with children all around the same age.   Weekend after that we’re off on holiday!   Time flies …

All Christmas presents and cards are now posted … I find it really difficult to get into Christmas mode when it’s so hot.   When it’s cold and dark, it’s so much easier to go shopping and buy presents.   Over here, it really doesn’t feel like Christmas!   I love it though … as anyone who knows me is aware … I really dislike the cold and especially hate the snow

Last week passed quickly as work was extremely busy with handover stuff.   Next week is the last week before all the contractors head off so I expect it to be even worse!   Between work and lunches out to say goodbye to everyone who is leaving .. I’m going to be extremely busy and probably exhausted by the time next Friday comes.

Other than that, Kyle was at his school disco on Thursday night.   The school had organised a parents update type meeting at the same time so I went to that and Bobby, Kyle and Regan all went to the disco.   It  was quite an interesting meeting as it turns out … found out about new building plans, third language choices, the international programme they are starting next year and finally got to have a say in whether they continue with bible class …. Hmm now there’s an interesting topic!   One which I’m not even going to try and talk about here … bit too emotive me thinks.

Managed to get some more stuff organised for the holidays … now have a tent, camp kitchen, air bed (well you don’t expect me to sleep on the ground do you?), table and some other stuff.   I have also now booked the cruise in Milford Sound for New Years Eve, penguin watching in Oamaru and a train journey near Dunedin.   Tried to book whale watching in Kaikoura but unfortunately they don’t let under 3s on the boats …   :o(   we have a choice of a helicopter or plane too but they’re a bit more expensive.   It will be Reggie’s birthday though so we’ll wait and see ….

Forgot to mention the important bit in the post from last night …. the cicadas and crickets are back!!!   :o)   Summer is here and Gail is happy!   I love the sound of the cicadas chirping outside ….

Work has been busy this week as I’m getting the handovers for my new programme management role and the project that I’m taking over.   By Friday, needed a rest :o)   so my friend Leanne and I took the afternoon off and went for a manicure/pedicure and then out for a nice lunch by the water.   It was a lovely day … really hot …. So it was lovely sitting outside in the sun watching the harbour.   I did think of all those people back in Scotland while I was sitting there … made me feel very lucky to be here!

I’ve had the Wellington vs. Auckland conversation with people at my work quite often but it’s more relevant at the moment because of the lack of work in Auckland vs. availability of work in Wellington.   Personally, I’ve decided that although Wellington is a nice city …. Auckland makes you feel like you’re always on holiday so it wins every time.   The fact that there is water everywhere, it’s much warmer up here and the abundance of lovely beaches minutes from the house, work etc makes it a great place to live.   Two of my three PMs in the marketing programme are contractors so will be either leaving or standing down for two months in a couple of weeks.   We’ve agreed to meet up some lunchtimes over the summer and go to the local (to work) beach for lunch … it’s a five minute drive and is lovely.   (Lynne … talking about the one we went to when you were here).   Not sure that would be possible in Wellington!

Anyhoo … back to Auckland …. Vodafone Technology had a family day out at the zoo today so the four of us went along.   Again, it was a lovely day … so had a picnic and wandered around looking at the animals.   We were lucky enough to walk right into the elephants as they were having a wander around the zoo …. Unfortunately, Reggie was sleeping but Kyle thought it was great as he’d obviously never seen an elephant up that close.   It was a fun day and lots of people turned up from work which was good.   Didn’t get around everything before they were both tired out but it didn’t really matter as we’re going again in three weeks with nursery.

As expected, the Nationals won the election yesterday … will have to wait and see how this one goes.   Helen Clark (like her or loathe her) was the face of New Zealand for a long time so it’s going to be a big change no matter what.

John Key is very much the “Conservative” of New Zealand so I think there will be many changes over the coming months/years … we’ll have to wait and see the impact ….

As Bobby put it earlier today … Election Day is a lot more civilised down here … it’s on a Saturday!   We were allowed to vote since we’ve now been here a year so had to work out which parties stood for what, how to vote etc.   It’s actually not easy … been brought up with Labour, Conservative, Liberal and SNP and suddenly you have to try and work out what the Kiwi Party is all about!   Unlike the UK, where you get bombarded with political junk mail for weeks before any election and also get them coming to the door … we had only got mail from the local National candidate and no-one had come near.   Made our minds up this morning and went to vote … we’ll see what happens later!   Feeling down here is that Helen Clark is going to lose this time and the Nationals will get in.   Not overly happy with that concept for loads of reasons … a couple of which are that the Nationals are pro-nuclear and that as their name suggests, we’d never have got in had they been in power when we were going through the visa process.

Now that I’ve decided to stay at VF for a while (due to lack of jobs out there and the fact that all the contractors are out there just now ..), I’ve become resigned to the fact that I’m staying and although it’s not any easier or more enjoyable … I’m coping a bit better.   I’ve been asked to take on one of the high priority projects once the contractor leaves at the end of the month and also to take on the programme management (short term) for web & online.   My current programme (marketing/campaigning) will be changing a bit too as two of my three project managers are leaving at the end of November (because they are contractors) so it’ll be a sad time as we’ve become quite a close little team … will miss them a lot actually.

Bobby bought our new tent today for the summer holidays so we’re getting a bit more organised for that too.   Our itinerary is as below:

Couple of days to get down to ferry in Wellington
Kaiteriteri in Abel Tasman National Park over Christmas
Down the west coast … via glaciers and Queenstown
Milford Sound over New Year
Dunedin and then up the east coast
Kaikoura for Reggie’s birthday
Then back up to Auckland over a couple of days

Still got to book the activities eg we’ll go whale watching in Kaikoura, on the boat trip down the fiord on New Years Eve in Milford Sound and see the penguins in Oamaru.   Will do that over the next week or so.

Both kids have been ill over the last couple of weeks.   Got a call from school last week for Kyle and this week had Reggie off for a couple of days.   Neither had anything too bad … just bad colds so recovering now.

Have now got both of them in a new swimming class … Reggie really enjoyed hers and slept for hours afterwards!   :o)   Kyle started his on Wednesday and this one has a rule about no flotation devices so they learn to swim properly at the start.   Wasn’t sure how Kyle would like that but he did really really well.   By the end of the first session, he was able to swim a little bit on his own with no float.   We were super impressed!