You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
…For somewhere around the $300 mark. I got a nice dark grey and black skirt and jacket with a light grey singlet that I’m adding colour to with a turquoise cardigan and paua shell necklace. I’m hoping it says I’m professional, a little bit fresh and fashionable… or whatever. Actually I’m just hoping it says ‘look at the effort I’ve made – give me the job’. Wish me luck! I know it’s only a pre-interview with a recruitment agent, but they’re the ones with the power to get you in the door, or not…
…Apparently another one opens. I hope that’s true, because today I received yet another rejection letter from a (not so) prospective employer, and in the same hour I applied for another position somewhere else and got a call within an hour to ask me to come in for a chat. It’s through a recruitment agency, so I’m having a pre-interview on Thursday with the recruitment agent, so she can decide if I’m a suitable candidate. I’m off out to buy a suit tomorrow, I don’t own anything officey/professional looking. I really need this job, not only for my daily sanity but because the money I’m using to buy a suit are the last cents in my current account. I’ll keep y’all posted.
It’s been a month since my last post. I knew it had been a while, but once you get out the habit of posting it gets harder to open up. I’ve been in a funk all that time, feeling blue about all sorts – when you’re down, everything in life feels problematic. I need a job, I miss home, I’ve lost my sense of purpose so I can’t seem to motivate myself to get out the house and I haven’t felt like talking to anyone – not my family or friends. I think I’m coming out of it now. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a rut before. I’ve always been lucky in life – I’ve got the exam results/job/whatever without really trying. If I’ve wanted something, I’ve believed I will get it and I always have; as though just by believing I can make it happen. It’s not happening for me like that at the moment. I’ve been in New Zealand for 6 months now and it’s taken that long to realise that it’s not going to work out like I’d want it to right now.
Firstly, I’m not going to work for myself; not in the next few years anyhow, if ever, I don’t know. I might take a couple of projects in my spare time but it’s becoming increasingly evident that being out of work and out of a routine is getting me down. I need a Monday to Friday, 9-5 life. I need to feel I have a full time purpose. The sooner I get a permanent job, the sooner Kiwi and I can move into the city and make ourselves at home – make friends, become regulars at cafes and bars, fall into life together the way that it’s going to be.
For now though, I can’t get a ‘proper’ job. I can’t take a full time position without achieving permanent residency. That could take 3 months or more. So we’re staying where we are for the foreseeable future. This has been at the bottom of me feeling down. I haven’t been able to see it as a positive, I’ve been too engrossed in life not being the way I imagined it would be after living here for 6 months. But if I turn it around, I guess it could be a good thing. I’ve been working since I was 16 – I’d work every hour I could when I was younger, full time in school holidays, evenings and weekends during term. I worked full time through University on top of studying, and I jumped straight into a job after I graduated. So now I’m having some time off, and since it’s not out of choice I may as well get used to the idea and make the most of the spare time I have.
So today I got out of bed and went for a run with Kiwi, in the sun – something we haven’t done in months. We stopped off at Maidstone Park and played on the flying fox, slide and swinging see-saw things. After I was showered and dressed, I walked to the cinema and watched an Arabic movie called Lemon Tree with a coffee and a cake. I browsed some second hand stores and dawdled home in the sun. Not very exciting but more enjoyable than slumming at home feeling sorry for myself.
So, now to catch up on what’s new downunder, I have back dated a couple of posts (they’re below), to fill in the gaps.
1 month after my last post about my residency application, and 6 months into my time in New Zealand, I have finally handed it in. In five or six folders, enclosed in one box, are all my deepest darkest secrets. Well, not quite, but Immigration NZ have my in depth medical history, personal letters, cards and emails between me and Kiwi and photos of time we’ve spent together. They can’t possibly deny me residency, (can they?) I’ve held up my side of the deal by proving I am of good character, good health, in a genuine and stable relationship with a Kiwi and have lived with him for more than the minimum 12 month period. So Immigration NZ better hold up their side of the deal and grant me permanent residence.
I feel a weight has been lifted – it’s been a time consuming process and I’ve spent most of it stressing about finding old tenancy agreements from a landlord who’s hard to get hold of, taking my medicals and having to go back for second urine tests because the first showed signs of a problem, and generally cringing over some of the emails between Kiwi and me and picking out the ones which aren’t too personal. If I’ve missed anything I’ll be gutted and it could end up costing me $700 to re-apply with the missing information.
Next stages could include an interview with us both and/or talking to the people who have written letters vouching for our relationship. Or they could just pass my application without any further enquiries and grant me residency based on the evidence I have already supplied. Fingers crossed it’s the latter! And hopefully it’ll only take a few weeks rather than the 3 months or so that other people have experienced. I NEED this residency so I can be in with a chance of getting the jobs I apply for. 90% of job adverts state ‘Applicants must be New Zealand Residents or Citizens’ which is understandable from their point of view (why employ someone who might leave the country in 6 months), but doesn’t help my current situation. What with the ‘recession’ preventing employers from hiring and causing redunduncies, meaning there are hundreds of applicants for every position in the job market so the chances are higher there will be lots of people who are more suitably qualified than me, I don’t need another reason why I don’t get asked to interview stage! Rant over.
If I don’t get my residency then I’ll appeal… Maybe I’ll even start a petition signed by Kiwi’s who want me in their country, so any Kiwi readers of my blog or twitter followers get ready to sign up – just in case…
Once my residency has been accepted there’s only one more thing to sort out to cut my UK ties (so to speak) – moving my pension over to a Kiwisaver scheme. Kiwi and I worked out that I should have quite a bit of money in there (pound to NZ dollar conversion working in my favour) and we’ll be able to use it as a deposit on our first home (which the Kiwisaver pension scheme lets you withdraw funds for). So I’m rich (well, kind of) and I didn’t even realise.
I’ve been feeling blue. As much as I’ve been made to feel at home at the not-in-laws (Kiwi’s parents) house, it’s just not the same as being in our own place. And so today Kiwi and I did something we’ve been thinking about for a while… We bought some guinea pigs.
I’ve wanted another pet for a long time, since I had to give my hamster to my cousin a couple of years back because my housemates wouldn’t let me keep him. I’ve had hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and fish throughout my life. They’re great for entertainment, you can cuddle them when you’re sad (well, except for the fish), and for some reason I felt that having a pet would make me more at home.
And it’s worked (remember this is back dated so although this says 1st July, it’s now the 20th and we’ve had 20 days of fun and games with them.) We bought two girl guinea pigs – one for me and one for Kiwi; plus they need a friend to play with so you can’t just get one. We called them Nala and Kiara. And they’re hilarious. Right now they’re having some ‘free-range’ time; I’m sat on the floor in the hallway and they’re jumping and running around next to me. They live indoors, in our bedroom, and Kiwi (because he’s the best) built them a cage out of wire grids and Corflute (corrugated plastic). It’s less a cage and more a mansion with a penthouse (photo below).
If you picture the coloured piece of wood in the photo above, the pigs are about half the size of it. That’ll give you an idea of how big the ‘Pig Mansion’ is. They love it – they scamper up and down the ramp and do laps around the ground floor, when they’re not hidden in the pink towel tent at the top or sat in the hammock at the bottom, munching hay.
So yep, my time is taken up supervising them while they’re out for a few hours in the hallway (this will probably turn into my blogging space), or finding new things to feed them in new ways (I’ve been pegging parsley at the top of the cage for them to find, giving them apples whole which they bat around trying to get a bite of and I have a teeny tree trunk with holes in which I poke food out of (see top photo).
I’ve had guinea pigs before but we kept them in a hutch in the shed and they played in a run in our garden so I’ve never thought they were particularly entertaining or intelligent. It’s in their nature to run away at the smallest sound or movement – regardless of how long you have them for they always run away from you. But since having them indoors and spending time with them every day, I’ve learnt that they are intelligent enough to let you know when they need the loo, and to go to the toilet in one place when they’re out in the hallway. They’re really loud and make loads of funny noises, and they do this thing called ‘popcorning’ where they jump in sudden movements as though having fits (like popcorn kernels popping) as they run around. They do it when they’re really happy, and our pigs do it a lot, yay! Even Kiwi, who wasn’t really bothered about getting the pigs and did it for my sake, LOVES them cause they’re so cool. In fact as I type this he’s sat in the hall with me and they are running circles around him, popcorning 
And just for good measure, here’s some more photos:
(Nala in Brandon’s pocket)
(Kiara in my dressing gown)
Woot woot for gwinny pigs!
He said, then she said...