May I start by announcing my sincere apologies at my total and utter failure to keep up my blog recently. The reason for this makes my failure even more significant as I have been doing so much and have therefore not had the time...hmmm...I think I have just realised that this blog writing thing can occasionally put you in a bit of a Catch-22 type situation...I am going to attempt to bring you up to speed on everything I have done over the past few months in as much detail as I can without sending any of you into total information overload or on the other end of the scale boring you so much that you just give up and stop reading! So, here goes!!
Job-wise I will keep this very short and sweet because it is definitely the least note worthy aspect of the last two months. In a nut-shell, very soon after I wrote my last entry I stopped seeing my private student, we just never seemed to have coinciding free time to see each other and to be honest, I was starting to burn out a bit not having a single day when I was free all day to just relax, so I was fairly pleased about that. I continued working at the school and continued to love it for the whole time I was in Auckland. I literally worked up until the last minute and have been given a lovely reference from the Principal of the school who told me that if I am ever back in Auckland and looking for a job then he should be the first person I call! I was very flattered.
So, now the good stuff. Also very shortly after my last entry I became friends with a big group of girls when I was out on a night. Initially I thought that this was just going to be one of those, meet on a night out, have a good time, never see each other again type situations...it turns out I was wrong. At the end of the night we all exchanged numbers and the next weekend there was a big party happening that as a result of this number exchanging I got myself an invite to. Long story short, this was the start of a lot of socialising and hanging out as a group and having some seriously amazing and memorable times together...they are a seriously fabulous group of girls.
In the two months that we had together while I was in NZ we went on two group roadtrips, one to Hamilton to see the 'Balloons over Hamilton' festival, which was beautiful and was possibly the most fun that 6 people have ever had in Hamilton...it is not a very 'happening' place, but we soon discovered that when we were all together as a group, it didn't really matter what we were doing, or where we were, there would be a lot of smiling and laughing...and indeed singing involved! It was during our weekend in Hamilton that we formally established the ALC (Auckland Lesbian Choir). This group was formed out of our occasional...regular...constant desire to randomly sing in public when we are in each others company. We decided that there were only 3 criteria that you had to meet in order to qualify for membership to the ALC...1) fairly obviously, you need to be a girl that likes girls 2) you need to have absolutely NO shame 3) you cannot under any circumstances have any singing ability...AT ALL!
The second roadtrip that we went on was to Rotorua (or Rotovegas as it is affectionately known). This was an equally fabulous adventure which involved continued random public displays of musical genius, luging in the pouring rain...always fun, amazing amazing polynesian natural hot spas...mmmmm and lots and lots and lots of yummy food!
The final roadtrip that I embarked on was just me and Rivka (one of the girls in the ALC) and was to the Northland, which is basically everything north of Auckland and is where most of the real Maori heritage of NZ lies. This trip was planned for Bank Holiday weekend and so was 4 days long and going with Rivka meant that I was going with someone who was part Maori, knew a lot about her Maori heritage and had a huge amount of knowledge about the area and it's significance in general. It was an amazing amazing trip. I honestly can't even begin to describe how beautiful this area of NZ is and how fascinating some of the stories and the history behind it are. The landscapes, the sunsets, the stars...the whole feel of the area, it was like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before...it was truly truly mind-blowing!
When I wasn't going on roadtrips or working, most of the time I was hanging out with the girls...either going out for dinner or going for drinks somewhere...nothing massively exciting most of the time but like I said before, you put us together in a group and it often results in lots of loud laughter and singing, not always in that order and not always just us laughing (but I refer you to stipulation 2 to membership of the ALC).
And that was my last two months in NZ. Having had no luck on the job front to begin with and very little joy finding a hostel I liked or people I wanted to be friends with, I left having found a great job, a lovely hostel and some of the best friends I have ever made...I can tell you this for free right now...leaving was not easy! But, the travels had to continue, my visa was expiring and I had plans elsewhere, so it was time to move on...next stop, back to Sydney!
And that is where I find myself now. Before I go on, I would like you to either look back on, or simply recall the stresses and troubles I went through trying to settle myself in NZ when I first got there...do we remember...yes...OK, then I will continue.
I arrived in Sydney at 2pm on Sunday (22nd May), I had not slept for nearly 40 hours so I went straight back to the hostel from the airport stared into space for a couple of hours, said hello to one of my friends and then went to bed at 6pm. Next morning I woke up at 8.30 feeling much more human and ready to attempt a restart on the life sorting game. Aims for the day...go to bank and sort out money, sort out phone, start looking for short term/part time jobs, start looking for somewhere to live and research amateur dramatics societies in Sydney. Roll on to 12pm...bank - done, phone - done, job - done (start working the night shift at the hostel that I lived at last year), flat - already seen one that I liked and was seeing another at 5pm, amateur dramatics society - emailed. Roll onto 7pm: all of the aforementioned 'done' tasks are obviously still completed, add to that, flat - done, 3 month contract signed, moving in the following day, amateur dramatics society - done, invited to new members meeting on Wednesday and auditions on the weekend.
How's that for hitting the ground running. In less than 24 conscious hours back in Sydney I had settled myself in and was ready to start this leg of my adventure. I have now moved into my flat, I have the new members meeting tonight and my training shift at the hostel will be at some point this week!! Hell yeah! I can do this being a grown-up thing, it's not so hard once you've got the knowledge!
Right, so that brings you up to date I believe...I am sorry again for the lack of updating, I will try my absolute hardest to not let this happen again. I also hope that having to read this all at once hasn't sent you into a total tail-spin...if it is any consolation it has been a fairly epic mission getting this all down. Tis a good thing that I am super efficient and therefore have the spare time now to sit down properly and make up for my seriously lacks blog keeping ability!
Much much love to you all from my world of incredible organisation and efficiency...if you need anything doing, just let me know...I've probably already done it! :)
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