Oh my what a time....

30/08/11 The flat or the house…

3am and James wakes me up as he can’t stop thinking about the flat. Have we made the right decision? 30miniutes later we decide we have and James goes to sleep. Then ensues my nightmare of not being able to sleep. I hate it but by 5 I had dropped off.

The next morning we rape our bank accounts getting cash from credit cards, any current account we own and by converting any foreign currency into cash. Inevitably this takes longer then we expect and we are late to sign up for the flat. The rudest ever letting agent greets us, begrudgingly shows us the flat one more time and then we sit down ready to hand over a sizable lump of cash. We are informed the sofa could not be moved but fortunately we had decided we wanted it but the final nail in the coffin was the tenancy tenure. The landlord would not budge. This was one too many compromise on our part and we rang the letting agent we had been dealing with to give her an ultimatum. Either the landlord agreed to the tenancy type we wanted or we would walk away. We had cash in our hand, were ready to move in that day and would wait 1 hour before signing up for another property.

An hour came and went and there was no call. Walking back to Napier we stopped off at the car ladies house paid a deposit and bemoaned our situation. Theresa said we could always move into her son’s old room for a few weeks for a very small rent. We were taken aback with her kindness. Yes she’s quite mad and drinks too much but she has a heart of gold and whatever the outcome we will certainly be having a night out with her.

By midday we were at the letting agents to sign up for the house with two bedrooms that we also liked. That would be no problem normally but the landlord was in Canada and she needed his approval before we signed up. Of course he had no phone so we were at the mercy of him replying to email. Stress levels begin to rise as tomorrow is our last night of booked accommodation and James starts work the day after.

There was not much time to dwell on this as James had emails to tend to and I had a job interview with a labouring/ factory agency. I arrived whizzed through the paper work, had a chat with the chap and ended up pumping him for information about the locality. One hour later I was on the books. That said there is not too much work as Napier is still emerging from winter (ha it’s not winter it’s a British summer) but hopefully things will improve shortly.

Next up was an appointment yes an appointment at the bank to sign up for an account. New Zealand does customer service very well. There was no tapping at the computer with a monosyllabic grunt but instead we had Kim who was pleasant, engaging and very helpful. One hour later we had our joint back account numbers (no shock at a gay couple here which is not what we were expecting) had been registered on internet banking and had been shown how to do it. Our bank cards would be with us in a few days. WOW

Following this we literally ran to the post office to submit our tax forms to get a tax number. Squeezing in 5 minutes before close we were again greeted by pleasant people as opposed to some grumpy cow from the didsbury officer who is tutting and muttering about being open all day not just 5 to 5.

With these tasks done and everything registed to 8 Burns road the property we want but have not signed up for we head back to the hostel to sit with our fingers crossed. Please landlord replies to your emails otherwise we will have nowhere to live and won’t be able to go to the furniture action to buy stuff tomorrow.

31/08/11 oh god no house….

After a surprisingly restful night’s sleep I rise early and go to the letting agents to ask if the landlord has been in touch. He hasn’t. Despite my hangdog look and our desperate housing situation there is nothing she can do until he does. Even the offer of more deposit does not sway her. Feeling dejected and worried about where we are going to live I head back to break the news to James. A collective depression then forms only interrupted by the phone ringing 20 minutes later. It’s the letting agent. The end of the world is not nigh. The landlord has been in touch and we can have the flat at the slight reduced rent we wanted and we can have the tenancy type we requested.

After much whooping and professing our love to the letting agent we agree to sign up for the property at 1pm. We race to the furniture action and spend 4 hours buying stuff and ludicrously low prices. For 500 quid we furnished a half a house from plates to sofas. All we need from next week’s auction is two beds, and a fridge. Half way through the auction James slips out to sign the tenancy agreement and he retunes with keys in hand.

Never liking to make things easy we had agreed to pay for the car so we walked to the owner’s house. Now Napier is costal with a huge hill in the middle. We will live on the hill but at this point we were on one side of it and the car on the other. We could walk around the hill but this is quite a long walk. We opt for the shorter but almost mountainous walk over the hill. Some of the roads at a 70% gradient and its hot but the views from the top are fab.

30 minutes later we are at Theresa house. She is obviously well into the wine and offers us a glass. We accept and she begins to tell us lots of interesting stories. Her kids have moved out and it feels like she has adopted us and by the time we have left she has given us some kitchen ware. As I said mad as a box of frogs but lovely with it!

01/09/11 The wrong shoes

We woke nice an early ready to take James to work but disaster struck when he came to put his shoes on. He had sent one of each of our shoes to our new house and thus had odd shoes. In a state of panic he dispatched me to the house and of course I got lost. Not to worry though as Napier is small so before long I was back and we were on the way to the hospital. Disaster averted.

Our 20km journey took 20 minutes. What a refreshing change to the U.K. This coupled with beautiful views over the sea and countryside meant that we arrived in a state of calm. After a quick bogy check by James he was off and into work for his first day as a manager.

Next up our furniture was delivered to our lovely little cottage. The delivery men huffed and puffed lifting our furniture up the hill and stairs into our house but after 20 minutes all was sorted. Then came the realisation that I was not cut out for the life of a house wife. Everything had to be unpacked and washed. So boring but by the time I had finished everything looked spiffing.

Never one to sit on my bum I then filled in a job application for a role in the petrol station before heading off to collect James. His first day was judged to be a success, his team was nice and he liked the unit. That said after 6 months of not working, combined with a new role and a different system he was somewhat tired. Of for a life of leisure thought James!

02/09/11 Oh to be living somewhere nice!

After depositing James at work I headed back to the cottage to potter round and tidy some more. It’s so nice to have somewhere to live with no bag packing required. The cottage has gardens, a veranda, two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and dining room. All for $280 per week (half it to get UK money). It survived the 1920’s earth quake so has period features and solid wood floors. That said it has no heating so is pissing cold. The electric heater we got from the auction is running 24/7 but failing to keep the chill out of the air!
The afternoon was spent exploring Napier and trying to get an internet connection. In the U.K. this would be both cheap and easy. Here not so. First up its $100 per month and voderphone appears to think they are extending a massive amount of credit to us for they want copies of passports, work visa, immigration stamps etc. This we would soon discover would take a week of calls and emails to get approved but approved it would be!

03/09/11 Manly Lu
Leaving an exhausted James in bed I headed down to the auction again. We needed beds, bedding, a fridge and freezer and luckily a hotel was just being liquidated. At the auction I met Steve who had just moved over from England with his wife and 3 children. We agreed that unlike the last auction we would not bid against each other and formed a buying pact. If there was a lot that contained lots of items we would share them out and if you had the option on other beds etc. we would exercise this and sort it out later. In effect we became the English mafia spending $4000 between us.

Once we had our wares we had the problem of getting them home. The auction house could not deliver for a week and would charge us storage. Steve’s relative had a trailer but he could not tow it as he was at work. I had a car with a tow bar. In effect we were a match made in heaven. The only problem being that I had not towed a trailer before and we lived up a 75% hill with a slalom type turn on it. Not to be detailed we loaded up and spent the four hours transporting stuff to both Steve’s and our house. As we needed to empty the auction house we enlisted James support and had him sit in the sun on one of the sofas guarding our stuff whilst we delivered it.

Now Napier being a friendly place we returned after some loads to find James with a cold beer in hand and some chips to much on. The auction house had ordered food and beer in and had taken pitty on James. At the last load we were invited to Steve's relative’s house for a beer. We planned to have one but like all good plans ended up staying most of the evening. Bruce and Marian (Steve’s relatives) provided cool beer; we ate pizza and drank until it past dark. What’s more we were given a life home by Marian complete with a set of sheets, a jumper, coat and hat. Now that’s what we call hospitality!

04/09/11 Sunday in the house.

Waking up late we pottered around but found we still needed stuff so headed into Napier to hit the discount shops. After flying around for a few house we returned to our cottage for dinner and our first night on the sofa. Bliss squared!

05/09/11 Board Now

After taking James to work, checking out the gyms and trying to register with a GP I decided that I was board of having no job. Not liking to be bored I whisked up a CV relating to my student days working in a shop, bar and café and hit the streets of Napier. After passing out 50 CV’s to local businesses I received a call from Zig Zag café. Was I free to pop in and have an interview that afternoon? Was I ever? After a brief chat it was agreed that I would come the next day for a try out. Minimum wage but an income never the less and more importantly something to do.

I picked James up and told him the good news. This was received well but the enormity of being a manger was playing on his mind so it was time for a quite night in and some plotting. James will in time update the blog as to his views of work, management and New Zealand Health.

06/09/11 Try out at the café

At 11 am I duly reported to work and was thrown in at the deep end. Within a matter of minutes the café was full and I was taking food orders to tables, washing pots and having a ball. The 3 hours passed by in a blur but I was invited back the next day. Good news for me and the bank balance.

07/09/11 Promotion at the café and the gay mafia

After another manic day I got talking to the owners, a couple in their 20’s about my love of cooking and my travels. This lead onto a discussion about my ability to bake. They were looking for someone to make each of the 10 lines of cakes and savouries each day and wondered if I would like to do it. Of course I accepted as it was more hours and I got to cook. Never one to miss a trick I negated an extra $1 an hour pay rise and agreed to start the next day.

James succeeded in finishing his 2nd week and was exhausted. That said he appeared to be both loving it and hating it but time will no doubt make things become more clear. Big up the Hastings newest Clinical Nurse Manager. Brap Brap Brap.
Despite tiredness we were keen to make friends so when we were invited out by my café colleagues we jumped at the chance. Rayners and Samara, Jay, his girlfriend and son took us to the pub. We all got on like a house on fire. We are certainly being made to feel welcome in Napier.

As we mentioned previously the jungle drums had sounded our arrival before we had even got here. That’s small town living for you! This had led to a dinner invitation from a couple of gay guys. One of which was a colleague of James and the other a vineyard manager. So with some trepidation we headed up the hill to have dinner with a couple who we had only talked to on the phone. We needn’t have worried as both roger and Ross were lovely 50 something men who prepared a fabulous dinner and plied us with wine. It turned out that they were in fact part of what can loosely be described as Napier’s gay mafia. They knew all the gays, where to go and who was who. Again another lovely welcome.

08/09/11 Baking, putting myself about and food porn

With James tucked up in bead I headed to the café for my first day as baker. I was like the preverbal pig in shit. The cakes were all home-made, delicious and huge. Samara was an excellent teacher and before long I was turning out carrot cake, scones, brownies and alike.

As you know I am not shy so having met the ex-chair of the chamber of commerce in the post office I took his advice and headed to a business expo that was happening just down the road. Two hours later, lots of talking and smiling and explaining what I did I left with a fistful of business cards the owners of which had agreed to me sending them my CV. Only time will tell if anything comes of this but never the less it was fun

After work I indulged in some more food porn. I went to the shop and bought everything you can’t have when you’re living out of a bag. Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, soya sauce, fish sauce, salt pepper, baking products and alike. The experience far exceeded watching normal porn by far

09/09/11 It has started

The rugby world cup has started. Oh my god likes oh my god. What’s more we were invited to Marians and Bruse's house to watch it. Could we get any more of a New Zeeland experience? BBQ, beer and watching the rugby whilst sitting outside surrounded by lemon and orange trees. Oh yeh!

10/09/11 Domesticity and the gays

Loving our new home James decided that we should clean it and tidy up. James is not a lover of general cleaning and to be fair I hate it but when James cleans he cleans properly. After our domestic bliss we sat in our garden in the sun, read a book and relaxed. What’s more we discovered that we too have lemon and orange trees with fruit on ready to be picked.

Later in the afternoon we received a call from roger saying he had a gift for us. We suggested that he and his partner come found for dinner. The idea was accepted with slight modifications. We would make it but serve it at their house as A) they had the internet and we were due to skype carol B) they had sky and I wanted to watch the England match.
Roger popped round with our gifts… Our own little slice of home. This included English sweets, black sheep beer, bisto and a yorkie. WOW it’s like being at home. Arriving at rogers house we discovered more gay men some of home had their children. We decided that our lesanigia was not going to be big enough to feed everyone so I set about raiding our host fridge and cupboards in order to cook more food. Again bliss as they had nice plate, food and condiments allowing me to rusell up a lovely selection.

After dinner James skyped his mum whilst we got ready to watch the rugby. Now we are not overly patriotic but being so far away from home it felt important that England should win so we got behind the boys and cheered. Now this was quite a surreal experience… I have never watched the rugby with 7 gay men mainly ogling the nice men in shorts and to add the the verity show there was a little dog japing every time I cheered. Still had a fab time though!

11/09/11 Planning and reflecting

We had a Sunday morning in bed. Oh how nice. Not shared showers, no noise, coffee and food just in the fridge. Bliss. After a lazy morning we began to assess James work situation. He had lots of information, lots of questions and lots to do. We set about getting things from his head and onto paper. Whilst he was doing this I spent a delightful (yes I am sad) four hours trying to map his staffing, room and visiting doctor’s schedule and capacity.

Later that afternoon after a dinner of steak, BISTO and chips we sat reflecting on the last two weeks. We realised the we had come to a new country, found and furnished a flat, bought a car, started a job, found a job, applied for a bank account, tax number and the internet, made 15 friends, being invited out 5 times and settled into life quite nicely. Well done us!