Well, you can tell people/companies are getting ready for Christmas – the job front has slowed down quite a bit. I think I’ll take a few days off for the holiday and do some more travelling with Louise! It would be a shame to waste the sunshine we’ve been having……….. We might even have to get down South Island too and maybe have a look at the snow on the Southern Alps. Won’t be the same in a car though!

I did get one reply from one of the agencies through which I applied for a job – there seems to be a standard answer of “”However, on this occasion we have received applications from candidates more closely matching our client’s requirements”” as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this from another agency in the past too………….

Yesterday I did have a look at registering for Open University and sent off for a Personal Identifier (PI) so that I could get my previous studies assessed for any credit points I may get. This was mainly because that was the first thing the OU suggested when I started looking. I got an e-mail back this morning saying that they couldn’t support me academically or administratively at a New Zealand address. Fine, but that’s not actually what I asked. They also suggested I look at some courses I could do directly with them online, not sure whether any of them would help towards an IT degree yet. However, I did also e-mail back, because I was not impressed at the reply, and point out that surely I’d need a PI to register for one of these courses too – so think again! I sent my first draft too – Chris, you’d be impressed, I was quite careful not to be too rude considering I was tamping!

Spent a couple of hours looking through the Open University site trying to work out what courses would be a good idea – what a HASSLE! They must make it difficult on purpose, perhaps they give points for just working out what courses you are allowed to put towards any one degree. It certainly makes some business/network analysis I’ve done in the past look absolutely simple in comparison!!

No answer yet, perhaps I’ll pick it up in the morning.

We decided to take a “”flexi”” day today – more by default, the weather was absolutely gorgeous!!

Louise was happy sunbathing, as always. We both took notice of the Kiwi warnings about staying in the sun too long for any stretch though and were liberally covered with 30+ suntan lotion – a first for me! I’ve used 6+ or 15+, but I don’t think I’ve ever used anything more – Mum might have covered me in something stronger when I was little and couldn’t read the label, but I doubt even then.

We were both in and out of the cottage or under the shade of the deck umbrella, it still gets some getting used to in December though!

I did trawl the job websites though, on one of my breaks from the sun – nothing new, so just as well I wasn’t rushing into anything today ………..

Did have a chat with Keith this morning on MSN though. I took the webcam & my laptop outside and the webcam had a heart-attack and experienced a whiteout! Hmmm, will have to have a look at that sometime……….Great to chat though! Caught up on stuff from Saints too – sorry if you’re suffering from being one person down again guys, I really am!

Ha ha……………..fooled the bin men this morning! I took the bins out last night about 10.30pm. I did have a quick look up and down the street, but it seems the Kiwis would prefer to put theirs bins and recycling out first thing in the morning. To be honest, if I was working I might do the same, but while I’m not they can go out the night before and run the risk of the local possums ripping them apart…….

Found a couple of new job opemings this morning, even if one of them is Fujitsu! Spent a lot of the day filling out application forms and writing cover letters – amazing how many you build up!

I was surfing around whilst looking for jobs and noticed that Keith from Saints had appeared on Facebook – accepted his facebook friendy thing and ended up having a lovely facebook chat. I do miss the office, and more so the people in it, sometimes…………..

Gave up with jobs about 2pm and went out on the deck again to read – alcohol free this time, which is obviously more than I say about Louise!!

We were soaking up the rays in the quiet afternoon when we heard a knock at the front door. Apart from nearly falling off my chair, I walked around the side of the cttage to find a woman with a floral display in her arms……………..for us! Thanks very much indeed Margaret, John, Steve, Chrissie, Jack and Sam xx

I was going to go shopping for some “”much-needed victuals”” but decided that alcohol and sunshine was a far better idea!

Day in for me today, doing cover letters and application forms. Mind you, for breaks and lunch I was out on the deck on the sunshine!!

An early morning call from Louise’s Mum and Dad – well not that early, it was only 8am and we were awake anyway………. it was just a bit of a surprise!

Louise was reading on the deck in the sun in the early-mid morning. She decided to go for a little shop. I’ve learned the signs of “”window shopping”” and don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind shopping for something in particular, but “”window shopping””…….Nope! Anyway, I had work stuff to do!

Louise got back mid-afternoon and we spent the rest of the day sunning out on the deck, sipping a lovely bottle of Sauvignon Blanc wine and reading books………..

We now understand why the prices for some stuff are so high in the supermarkets. Everyone waits for sales which are different every day. PaknSave had a really good deal on the wine today, so Louise took advantage and stocked up. At only $8-9 a bottle (that’s about £3.80-£4.30) it was a bargain for the New Zealand wines!

During the evening, we had a break from reading and managed to finish the puzzle we had going!! Yippee!! It was really not a quick one this one!!

Quiet day in the sun today. We both had breakfast out on the deck again and read a chapter or two before I settled down to do some more job searching. After experiencing the sun effects a couple of days ago, even I had to put on some sun lotion today – the lack of ozone over NZ is certainly a drawback if you like lying out in the sun and getting some rays for hours on end!!

Not many new jobs posted today, it must be Christmas or something! As it’s coming up to the Xmas school holidays – 6 weeks for the kids here – not too surprising really. Everyone seems to be winding down. It is hard to tell though, as the Kiwis are pretty laid back in the first place!

For those of you that know Louise, and her penchant for christmas decs, the idea of her coming out to stay for 6-9 months in New Zealand over the christmas period with just a USB Xmas tree and a string of lights must have been hard to believe. Well, that is all we came out with. HOWEVER, we also now have a Christmas tree (albeit a medium sized fake one!) bedecked with NZ style baubles and decorations – evidently she couldn’t stand it anymore and just HAD to get it!

We started the day with a Skype call from Louise’s parents and Sam, her nephew. Louise had a cunning plan for the call, so when it came through, we sat out on the deck in the sun with our morning tea and turned the laptop upside down (and therefore the camera) – after all, we had to prove to Sam that we were on the other side of the world, and therefore should be upside down too! He looked a liitle confused, and from the squeal from Margaret I think she may have been a tad surprised/confused too!!

Catch up day today. Louise went off on a shopping trip while I caught up with the blog, prepped some more of the webpages I should have done early in the year for our last trip out here and tried to help with our jigsaw – it’s a doozy!

We pottered about a bit this morning, although we did confirm that the money from Louise’s house sale went through to her account – Hurrah! Another worry gone……….

We thought we’d pop out to Levin (pronounced Ler-vin) for a looksee this afternoon and a coffee maybe! If I remember, it was the first place we stopped for a coffee on our trek up to Taupo (strangely pronounced Tor-po) two years ago and we had some crepes – well, Louise did, I couldn’t face anything that sweet that early.

We were right, found the cafe, but had passed it by the time we saw it, so went on to the northern outskirts of Levin and stopped at a wine-bar/cafe.

I got caught here sampling some of Louise’s apricot and orange cake while I thought she was taking a picture of the cafe………….doh! Louise thought the cafe grounds looked like an English garden…..until you look at the HUGE palm tree in the background!

Across the road from the cafe was the Route 66 Cafe on SH1 – Fitz, we’ll take a picture next time! While we were coming out of Levin, Louise remembered that we had also passed a Christmas shop on our way up to Taupo two years ago too. So we decided to carry on up the SH1 and see if we could find it.

Passed through Bulls and Foxton on the SH1, but didn’t find the Christmas shop. When we got to Vinegar Hill, we decided that we’d better start back home rather than head for Taihape and Taupo otherwise tea would be a late one………..

Stopped at a lovely picnic spot on the way down the SH54 at the bottom of the first hill. We’ll have to come back with a picnic! There was even a public toilet c/w shower! There were Didymo signs on the way down, NZ are trying to be real careful about spreading it around.

Carried on along the SH54 – note to selves, gorgeous biking road! – and came across the Stormy Point lookout. Some lovely views, the Kiwis certainly know where to put their lookouts!

We headed back down the SH54 through Cheltenham and Feilding (has won competitions for prettiest town – looks suspiciously like Stepford! All manicured borders and well mown grass. We were trying to spot a weed anywhere, but I guess they’ve been removed years ago along with any owner daft enough to let them grow)) and decided to give Palmerston North a miss this time – it took us about an hour to get out of there last time we rode through! We bypassed it to the North and got to Ashhurst where we had to decide whether or not to cross through the Manawatu Gorge and go down the Wairarapa again to the south or travel south directly to Levin and home.

By this time the weather over to the east was looking a bit cloudy, dark and foreboding (learned to stay away from clouds like these while on the bike) and as we hadn’t been down the SH57 to Levin, we decided to head for home.

Not a lot to say about this road really. Glad we weren’t on the bike, weather-wise, as the winds off the Ruahine Range were a bit wild – shame really, as it certainly would be a nice biking road.

When we got home, we decided to get some take-away chips from Raumati Beach. We both had a plated meal, mine was a steak and Louise had a Dory fish (trying very hard not to think of it as Dory from “”Finding Nemo””). The chips were GORGEOUS, we both agreed that they were probably the best chips and fish batter (we did a little tasting session of each others) we had tasted in a while.

To give you an idea, for those who have partaken the odd chip or two in South Devon, the fish and chips were at least on a par with the cod and chips from the Start Bay Inn at Slapton Sands (even if the fish portion wasn’t quite so big/ample/ridiculously lots as the Start Bay portions)! And that IS both a surprise and saying something of their quality…………….. I wonder if the chip shop do curries??

We had a bit of rain last night, if the rivulets of water running down the veranda bench are anything to go by……………. must have been helped along by the wind, because that bench is normally a lovely dry place to sit.

Louise patiently oven cleaning again while I search for jobs. That lovely beef casserole the other night had dripped over the oven tray. Shame Lakeland doesn’t operate here in NZ!

All job hunting done. Fixed a strange Facebook issue with Louise’s netbook – the help bar was too big for the screen………….. So, off to Microsoft Technet Virtual Labs to do some “”learning”” – Sweet! Must learn how to set up a virtual server and workstations – Chris, I might even catch up wth your home network……

Louise spotted some alcholic bargains (in full “”lush”” mode with alcoholic radar in receive mode!) in one of the local newspapers, so as we needed milk we decided to check the Mill liquorstore in Paraparam and came back with some Jim Beam and a cheap Irish Liqueur…………….and to be fair, some milk and chocolate! We also tried to pop into Mitre10 – a sort of B&Q we think – but it closed at 5pm. There’s always another day………..

Just watched a tv program called the “”Politically Incorrect Parenting Show””. If you ever get a chance to watch it, do – it takes you back to values of a previous age, wonderful!

Up and on Skype this morning to look in on the RPG club playing at Mitch’s house. Not quite the same as being there, but all the same a great idea to be able to. Have found a dice generator that I can share with the group, so you never know, might even be able to play too! Novel or what?

Think we’ll pop out somewhere for coffee this afternoon. Not sure where yet. Must get a “”Congrats on the Grandparents bit”” card for the landlords though – they’re turning out to be a lovely couple.

We went for a drive this afternoon, and blow some of the cobwebs away. We headed over to the Hutt Valley, North of Wellington, for a looksee.

We sort of followed our noses and drove through Lower Hutt and Petone, then drove over to Seaview and Eastbourne on the other side of the bay from Wellington. Hmm, gorgeous cup of coffee at a picnic/cafe area by the ferry landing, but we’re not altogether sure we’d go visit again! 

Lower Hutt/Petone was HUGE, much bigger than we had imagined and all sorts of large shops and department stores to go back and visit sometime.

We had a chinese when we got back – LARGE portions served here – mainly because we got back too late to be thinking about cooking a large dinner that we’d planned! However, you got your 5 a day portions of veggies in the food which is fine in most dishes but not in a weak curry – I’m sorry, but curried broccoli just can’t be right or natural 

Got turned down for a job with Telecom, but received a notice about an online banking job with the Bank of New Zealand    Just finished off the cover letter for that one!!

More job hunting this afternoon. Did get a notification that my application for a school IT Administrator had been received – you never know………….

The landlord popped around later in the afternoon to say that he had just become a Grandad – beaming he was!

Picked up the recycling bin – they removed the plastic bag overflow too – phew…….. we did hear them around this morning though, so at least they hadn’t got a lie-in either. I take it all back!!

We had a lovely braised steak meal tonight, beautiful! It’s strange though, we were expecting the lamb to be cheaper, but it’s actually cheaper here (it seems to be on offer a lot) to eat steak!! What a shame I say, what was a treat in the UK seems to becoming a regular weekly thing here……….