Catch-Up

The last 5 days have been spent mostly working and sleeping so no really exciting news - and thus the lack of a blog post. Let me recap shortly.

Wednesday:

I worked out in the morning and then went on a day date with Brooke (the receptionist at my gym and a 24 yr. old girl from Auckland) and her friend Sarah. We went out for lunch in Mission Bay, a nice little beach area here in Auckland, and then went for frozen yogurt after and a walk along the beach. I had so much fun with theses ladies. I was laughing the entire lunch. It was so great to be out with some ladies my own age having such a blast. Hopefully we can all go out for lunch again this week! After that I went to work, nothing too exciting for the rest of Wednesday.

Thursday:

Slept/napped most of the morning than worked in the afternoon.

Friday;

I had the day off! Yay! I was very tired from working the last two days so I had a slow morning but went rock climbing in the afternoon with my friend, Tom. We went to an indoor gym out in West Auckland and I had a blast. After climbing a few walls I played one game of Cruisin' USA on the video game machine. Brings back such wonderful memories from being a kid. It was funny how much better I am at the game now that I've actually been driving. I didn't have such drastic reactions to the curves in the road like I did as a kid. Friday night Phoebe and I went out for a dinner date to Selera, a Malaysian restaurant in Newmarket, about one block from where I live. It was a really nice night, warm, felt like summer. We ate outside and just soaked in the city summer atmosphere. Then we walked around a bit to check out the other restaurants in Newmarket as I was looking for places to apply for a new job. Oh yes, Friday I spent some time doing my CV and Cover Letter for job applications.

Saturday:

In the morning I went to the gym then probably took a nap. I can't really remember. Oh yes, I sent off CVs and Cover Letters to three restaurants that had ads for waitstaff on TradeMe (the NZ equivalent of Craigslist). I am much more inclined to drop off applications in person but two of the three restaurants are opening soon and thus don't have a location to actually go to to meet a manager. After taking care of that I went off to work for the evening. I had one table give me a $20 tip for my travel expenses. How sweet! :) When I got home from work I saw I had received a reply from one of the restaurants all ready thanking me "very, very much" for applying and asking me to come in for a meet and greet this week. This was the place I most wanted to work at out of the three I applied to so I was very happy. For those of you in MN, the group opening the restaurant is probably very similar to the Parasole Restaurant chain - up-market, hip, unique restaurants around the city. I'm very happy to have a chance to possibly work there.

Sunday:

This morning I lounged around on the couch as I was tired again and then took another nap. See now why I don't have anything to write on my blog? Worked this afternoon/evening. Had lots of nice tables and got a few more tips. I think for this week I'm up to about $60 in tips which is pretty good for this city! I got my work schedule for next week this evening so I was able to confirm a time for a meet and greet for tomorrow at 3pm. Wish me luck!

In more general news, I've obviously been working a lot, napping a lot, and watching a lot of E! - mostly the Kardashians. It's been so nice to have Phoebe around this week as well. A friend! Today we were chatting about how we feel like we're old friends but in reality we only met three months ago. How being away from home and totally friendless can move new friendships along so much faster.

For tomorrow:

Personal Trainer at 11:00am
Buy shoes for interview in early afternoon
Interview/Meet & Greet with possible new employed 3:00 pm
Movie and maybe dinner with Tom 6:00ish?

"Sounds Good!"

So as a more general reflection, most people here in Auckland (by that I mean the people I work with who are most of the people I see) have been commenting on how I say "sounds good" all the time. They actually make fun of me at work for it - I don't think it's funny - and generally say it back to me. Is this a MN thing or an Annabelle thing? I'm going to ask you guys to listen for this phrase for the next couple of days and see if you hear it regularly. If so, it must be a MN thing. If not, it must be a me thing. Let me know what you come up with!

Okay, that's all for now. Gotta get to bed so I'm well rested for my trainer appointment in the morning. Expect a post tomorrow with the results of my meet & greet.

Best!

Working out and not working

Let's look back at the last two days:

Monday:

Yesterday morning I had my first session with my personal trainer, Amos. Throughout the workout he kept showing me the easier alternative to the exercises but I insisted I was not going to do those. I am totally capable of "cheating" or taking the easy way out when I'm working out on my own, no need to do that when I'm with my trainer! By the end of the workout I'm pretty sure he realized I didn't want any of the easy options when I'm with him so hopefully he'll step up his game for next week. I did get some good ideas for exercises to do on my own, when I'm not with him, so I'm happy about that. All in all I think Amos will be a good trainer, so long as we both bring out A-game to the table.

After my morning workout Phoebe and I must've run a few errands around town, but to be honest I can't for the life of me remember what we did during the middle of the day. And it was only yesterday, yikes! I really am getting old!

Last night I went out for dinner with Kelsey, Terry and Mimi's son. We went to a Japanese restaurant in Ponsonby, Renkon. It was a tiny little restaurant with only a few tables but the food was tasty. I had the Misodare Tofu. I'd go back again but maybe not out of my way to go there.

Today, Tuesday:

I started my day off again today with some time at the gym. I've really got nothing else to do and since it's kinda like free for me to go it's a good activity for me. Well, it's not technically free but since it's a fixed cost per week once I've paid it it's pretty much free after that. Did some biking and a few resistance training exercises. Read my book and listened to my music. Good morning. I also set a lunch date for tomorrow with one of the trainers, Brooke, who also works at the front desk. She's 24 and seems really nice. We're gonna do lunch tomorrow.

After the gym Phoebe and I went to the beach for maybe 1.5 hours around lunch time. Nice to go for a quick swim and get some sun! Phoebe was also practicing her sand art, see here:

(I'm having trouble with the photo. I'll share at a later date)

In the afternoon I did almost nothing productive - I read my book (which isn't necessarily unproductive) and watched E! for like 3 hours - totally unproductive! I have just been feeling a bit down the last couple days about my job but have been hesitant to do anything about it because I don't want to work on my resume. (Mom - I emailed you a copy, will you please look over and send back to me with comments? Thanks!) I am not getting anywhere near the amount of hours I was lead to believe I would be getting and am thus having a cash flow problem. It's not that I can't afford to be here, I can, but I don't want to keep spending money out of my American bank account because it's not easy to replenish. Anyways, I need a new job.

Which is what I really need to work on now! I have done an initial draft of a resume and once finalized I will spend Thursday and Friday afternoon handing out at bars and restaurants in some trendy neighborhoods, hoping someone will hire me for a full time or more job so I can make some cash both to spend and to save. I just really want to be able to eat out, do activities, pay for petrol without worrying so much, buy clothes, etc... I want to be able to live a little while I'm in Auckland. So that's my plan for the next three days.

Tonight I was supposed to go out with a friend from work but it didn't work out so instead I took myself out for Indian food for dinner. I went to a place down the street from my house, Namaste Express, which was quite good. They had cheap meals for lunch so that's good to keep in mind for the future since I'm usually around during lunch but not always during dinner since I work the occasional evening shift.

Anyways, tomorrow I've the gym in the morning, lunch with Brooke in the afternoon, work for a few hours over dinner, and then probably out with Phoebe and her other friend who's living here in Auckland. Fun day! Oh yeah, and working on my resume! Please, everyone, keep you fingers crossed that I am able to get another job here in Auckland so I can meet more people, make more money, and have more financial freedom while I'm here in the big city of NZ.

Best!

A busy day - Pasifika, parties, reunions

I had a very busy day today!

Let's start at the beginning. I slept in today since I was up so late yesterday writing my blog post. Woke up around 10 am. Sooo nice! Had breakfast, went to the gym, etc...

Around 12:30 I headed out for Pasifika, a festival held annually in Auckland celebrating the island nations of the pacific. I walk through many of the island nation exhibits - Tonga, Fiji, Cook Island, Niue, Hawaii, a few others. It was a really hot day - I guess it is still summer here! - and I was trying mostly not to get sun burnt. I had one meal what I was at Pasifika, Chop Suey, but wasn't overly impressed. Maybe because it was cooked at a festival and not in a restaurant kitchen served fresh. I will definitely try again somewhere else. Overall, I wasn't super impressed by the festival. It may be because I was there on the afternoon of the second and final day so many of the vendors were winding down. I bet if I'd have gone yesterday I would've been more impressed. There were lots of cool things going on the stages in each island nation's area - dancing, singing, performances - but I was hoping I would've learned more about each island and how they're different from each other. It was not as educational/informative as I would've hoped. If I ever go again it'll be on the Saturday.

After Pasifika I headed out to my NZ family's house to pick up a few things I'd forgotten there and caught up with my NZ sister, Rosie. We chit-chatted for a bit but I had to run to my afternoon house party that I was invited to by my new friends I made last night, Tom and Oscar. I got to the party about 4:45 and stayed for like 2 hours. Almost everyone at the party works at one of a few restaurants in Ponsonby, a somewhat up-market but still hip neighborhood here in Auckland. They were all pretty cool people and it was fun to have a social activity on my calendar. While I was at the party I finally got a call from Alanna saying she was in Auckland. I'd been expecting the call much earlier in the morning so I was beginning to worry that something had happened so I was quite relieved to find out that she was all well and good and here in the city. I picked her up about 7pm and we went out for a drink and then dinner. Before getting Alanna, however, I got a surprising call from Phoebe (England) saying she was also going to be in Auckland tonight and wondering if she could stay with me. Of course she could! Alanna and I went and picked up Phoebe about 10pm and then we all went out for a drink. Now I'm just sitting in bed here with Phoebe having one last sleep over, just like back at the cafe.

Oh, the good old days back in Coromandel.

Anyways, my blog post is surprisingly short for how busy my day was (or felt). I haven't been home almost at  all today! Crazy! Anyways, it was a great day. I met some new people, got to see my good friends from my WWOOFing in Coro and spent lots of time outside enjoying the final days of Summer! How nice to have a good day here in Auckland.

For tomorrow:

I have a session with my Personal Trainer in the morning. I figure if I'm going to be in Auckland for a bit I might as well use my time wisely!
Dinner tomorrow night with Terry and Mimi's son, Kelsey in Ponsonby.
And I might spend the afternoon looking for a second job.

That's all for today, folks.

Best!

Annabelle

A Night out in Ponsonby

So it's been hard this last week here in Auckland getting settled in, having lots of free time, and no friends. Last night I was very tempted to go out by myself but I chickened out at the last minute and didn't. Tonight, however, had to be different. I couldn't spend another weekend night home sleeping when I'm in a new city that deserves a bit of exploring. Work was good today but a bit short and I needed some more social time. On my walk to the bus after work I walked past this store selling cute clothes and saw a sign on a rack saying $9.99. That's like $8.50 USD! So I decided to take a peak in and 30 minutes later I walked out with 6 items - a cute black skirt for the club, a cute black top of going out, a cream crochet sweater, 2 tank tops, and a black sweater - all for less than $70 NZD. Crazy amazing! So with my new clothes in hand I decided I was going out tonight and I was going to make a fun night of it. I did my hair, did my nails, got all dressed up, found a great restaurant to go to and went out on a date with myself.

I went to a restaurant, Moo Chow Chow, in Ponsonby. I got this place as a recommendation from a woman who worked at the clothing store I was at earlier today and at first I thought maybe a burger joint but it was asian tapas food. I had fried pig tail - yes, real pig tail! - and caramelized pork and prawns for dinner. I can confidently say I didn't know what I was getting into with the pig tail when I saw it on the menu but who can pass up pig tail? You never know when you're going to get another chance to eat it! It was a struggle though, and I didn't finish it. I am a meat eater, and have no problem eating meat, but when you are eating meat off of a vertebrate it's a whole other ball game. In the end I ate about half the order and took the other half home. I have no intention of ever finishing it but maybe tomorrow I'll feel differently....?

While I was sitting there in the bar eating dinner I got to chatting with the waiter and bar tender. They offered me suggestions on places to go for an after dinner drink by myself but while I was paying one of them got off work and so I went for a drink with him. His name is Tom and he's very funny. We went to a little bar down the road, Mea Culpa. I had a great time hanging out with Tom - I finally made a friend!!! Highlight of my time in Auckland so far, for sure! They are apparently having a party tomorrow at one of their co-workers and they invited me to that as well so maybe I'll make a few more friends! Yay!

Okay, I'm getting very tired now. I started this blog post whenI got home, about 12:30am on Sunday morning, then mid-way through had an hour long Skype with a friend from home and am now trying to finish this up at 2:00am. I'm sure it's not making much sense - at least it isn't making much sense to me anymore. Tired! That's all for today.

For tomorrow:
- Pasifika festival
- Party with my new friends
- Alanna (Canada) and Patricia (Canada) will be in town for the night - yay again!

Best!

Work, Work, More Work, and Lighthouses

Sorry for the delay in posting - I've been working the past two nights and have been very tired upon my return home and thus have not had the energy to post. Let's look back now to Wednesday - nothing too exciting in the morning. I signed up for a gym near my new house so I've got that all sorted. Worked out at the gym as well so that took up a few hours in the morning. In the afternoon I drove to the Manukau Heads Lighthouse, a beautiful lighthouse on the West Coast of New Zealand overlooking the Tasman Sea on one side and the Manukau Harbour on the other with views of Auckland. It's an amazing little place - great for a picnic - and you can even go up inside the lighthouse. When I went there I was the only person there. I did see one dog but it completely ignored me. Anyway, here are a few of my photos from the top of the lighthouse:

Ok, I lied. This first photo is from the drive to lighthouse. Look at those colors!

The lighthouse.

The light part of the lighthouse.

Looking out over the Tasman Sea from the top of the lighthouse.

Now looking over towards Auckland and the Manukau Harbor.

Selfie.

I noticed this picture when I was leaving the lighthouse. Creepy, isn't it?!

On my way out to the lighthouse my boss texted to see if I could work at night because one of my coworkers was ill. I said I could since I can really use the money and thus I wasn't able to spend very much time at the lighthouse. Another day I'll likely so back with a picnic lunch and a full day off work. A very nice place and a nice drive there as well.

Work on Wednesday night was slow but I got 5 hours in so that was good. Money in the bank! Well, not really but money to pay my bills, just as exciting!

Thursday I went to the gym in the morning and then ran some errands in the early afternoon. Bought a hair dryer, nail polish, shampoo - really exciting life I'm leading now that I've got a job and need to pay rent, car insurance, gas, food, etc... After all this morning excitement I went to work in the evening. A bit busier and some nice table - a few Americans in the house which is always a nice treat.

Onto today. I worked from 10 - 5. Nice busy lunch hour and working a mid shift I got to hang out with some of my coworkers I don't see in the evening. I'm still learning how everything works at the bar, and the learning curve is quite steep, but it's going okay.

In more general reflections on my situation, I'm not sure yet if staying in Auckland was such a good idea. It's very hard to make friends in a big city and I'm not quite sure where to start. It's also a bit stressful being here with so many bills to pay but I'm going to stick it out for at least a bit longer. I haven't been getting full time hours and I really need the social benefits of being at work right now. Since I don't have any friends to hang out with it would be really great to be working more and do my socializing there. I'm either going to need more hours at work at a second job to make Auckland a happier place for me. Don't worry, no changes immediately, but something I desperately need to take care of ASAP.

Okay, I've got to get to bed now. It's 10:40pm here and I've got to be back at work at 8:30am. Time for some rest and then some work.

Best!

Rainbows and New Rooms

This morning while I was preparing my breakfast in the kitchen I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful rainbow. Have a look:

Quite nice, isn’t it?

Anyways, that’s all on that.

In bigger news, I moved into my new home today.  I have procrastinating on packing these last few days because I have enjoyed staying with Terry and Mimi so much but I finally had to get everything together. It appeared that I had lots more stuff then when I arrived in Auckland only 2 weeks ago but really I just didn’t pack it all that well this time around. Either way, I think I had my suitcase, backpack, and purse that I left the states with. I also had the beach bag that I acquired in Coromandel Town. In addition to all this I think I had 2 more bags that I didn’t usually have just because I didn’t pack all that well. Enough about my luggage…

I moved in today at 2:30pm to my new place. Here’s a photo of my new bedroom:

The house is really cute and so homey. I knew from the moment I first walked in here that this would be a great place for me to stay – relaxing, comfortable, quite, nice.  My roommate, Kate, is likely in her early 60s and lives here alone – well not anymore, but she did. It is likely a 3-bedroom house – one of the bedrooms is an office – and has one extremely large bathroom. (I’ll take some more photos tomorrow so y’all can see where I’m living.) It has a nice large family/living room, a dining room, large kitchen, a very nice backyard with good outdoor furniture and a driveway where I can leave my truck.

Tonight Kate cooked a dinner for me a welcome and we had champagne. That’s the second time I’ve had champagne in two days. Champagne is not my favorite but you can’t pass it up when there’s something to celebrate.

In moving news, I got myself signed up at the library today and started looking at gyms. Now that I’m going to stay here for a few months I might as well get my life sorted. I also went to the grocery store today do my first real grocery shop in NZ and it went pretty well. Not everything is organized the same as it is in the states but I eventually found my way around. And I signed up for the grocery store discount card. It really feels like I’m settling here in Auckland. Yikes! Gotta keep moving!

Okay, I think that’s all for today… gonna read my book, lie down in my new bed, and make plans for tomorrow.

Best!

Karekare Beach

After Rosie and I finished watching Pocahontas I decided to head to one of the western beaches. As back story for those of you who don't know, I was not allowed to watch Disney movies as a child. My parents did not like them because all of the main characters in Disney movies come from broken homes - the parents are dead, or missing, or otherwise absent. Think about, they're all the same! Anyways, I have a lot of catching up to do in this regard and so Rosie and I decided to make some headway today we got through 2 of the Disney classics that I've never seen: Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. I thought Beauty and the Beast was quite scary but a good movie. I was happy to finally see Pocahontas because I saw the trailer so many times as a kid before my Lion King video started. Yes, I understand that Lion King is Disney movie. Technically I owned 2 Disney movies as a kid, The Lion King and Lady and the Tramp. Of all the rest, I haven't seen many. But after today I'm closer than before to seeing all of the classics. Anyways, back to the real point of this post - Karekare beach - after finishing Pocahontas I decided to drive over to Karekare beach to check it out. It's supposed to be very beautiful! It's a bit of a drive over there - about 45 minutes on steep, curving, hilly roads through the Waitakere Range. When I eventually made it it was cloudy and very windy and starting to sprinkle but I hiked out to the beach anyways. When I got there it was way too windy to do anything, even walk all the way to the water, but I took a few photos. Here they are:

They photos aren't all that great - sorry. That's all I've got from that little beach adventure. The wind was blowing the sand so fast at my legs that it actually hurt so I didn't have a bunch of time to take lots of photos.

Anyways, tonight we had a little celebratory family dinner. My last night at with the Lewell's and Kelsey and Rosie's first night back. Tomorrow I'm moving to my new place in the city.

That's all for now.

Best! 

Photos With Alanna

As you all know, Alanna and I hung out a few times this last week when she was in Auckland. Here's a few photos I never posted from those days:

Enjoying a drink in Mission Bay. While we were sitting there chatting Alanna told me "I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Little did she know we are going to see each other many more times in our lives!

At the Jordanian Restaurant, Petra Shawarma.

Our Shawarma's that we had for lunch. I had lamb and Alanna had chicken. They were delicious :)

That's all for now. Currently mid-way through our Disney movie marathon. We watched Beauty and the Beast this morning and now watching Pocahontas. Later, the Oscars!

Gannet Colony at Muriwai Beach

Today I rode with Terry over to Muriwai beach to see the Gannet Colony. A gannet is a bird. See their Wikipedia page here. Apparently Terry had sent his oldest son Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Flo to see the Gannet Colony once and there were no gannets at it that day. We, however, were lucky enough to see them. Here are some pics:

There's Gannets on top of that rock in the foreground.

Check out them Gannets!

Momma and Baby. See a video of these two here.

I also took a few photos of the beach while we were there:

Some starfish waiting for the tide to come back in.

That's all for today. I spent the early part of the day recovering from my late night last night and watching Teen Mom with Rosie. 

For tomorrow, Rosie and I plan to watch Disney movies all day. Rosie hasn't been feeling well the last few days and so has been hanging around the house sick. It's fun to have a friend around!

Best!

First 2 Days at the New Job and a Place to Live

Sorry for the absence of posts the last two days. I have been working like crazy at my new job while trying to find a place to live.

For starters, the job. I worked Thursday and Friday at the job so far. Thursday was a weird day. I was scheduled to work 12 - 8 but ended up staying until 11. There was almost nothing to do for the first 5 hours, then we had a fairly busy dinner from like 5 - 9 and then just clean up and shut down after that. I didn't find the work to be that hard. I haven't ever served before but I think I did alright. My co-workers seemed to agree as well. It got a bit awkward towards the end of the night as I was getting one message from my boss and a different one from my co-workers but it all got sorted on Friday and we're all cool now. Friday at work was a better day. I worked the 12 - 8 shift that I was scheduled and then went home. It was  good slow/steady pass all day so not too much sitting around waiting for something to happen. Just before I left I had a table of three women in their early sixties. I mentioned to them in conversation that I was looking for a place to stay and one of the women, Anne, gave me the number for her across the street neighbor, Kate, who sometimes has people rent her spare room. It seemed a bit awkward to call Kate being that Anne gave me her number without telling her but I figured I had nothing to lose.

So, this morning I called Kate and left a message explaining the situation. She called me back this afternoon and I spoke to her on the phone, then went over there, and have decided to live there. Another decision that I made in about 10 minutes but I think it's going to work out well. I've been to look at 4 places now and this was the only one where I walked in and it felt like a home. It's an old house and very beautiful, it has off street parking for my car, and is very close to my job where I can now ride the bus and no longer have to be concerned with parking my car in the city. Including utilities it's $250/week - they pay for rent by the week here in NZ and Australia. It's towards the top of my budget but I'm going to save lots on petrol living in the city now so it'll likely work out all right in the end. I'm just very happy now that I've got this all sorted and will be moving in Tuesday. Yay!

In non-job and non-room renting news, I went to a great little Sri Lankan restaurant for lunch today, 7 Siri Taste of Sri Lanka. They have won tons of awards for top dish, top restaurant, they had write ups in lots of local magazines and newspapers, and the food was delicious. The owners were there and were very friendly. I had the lump rice, a dish of rice served with small portions of 6 types of curry. The presentation is fantastic wrapped up like a present in a banana leaf.

Earlier today I went to a Brazilian Carnival festival in Remuera, a neighborhood in Auckland. I was immensely disappointed. It was nothing like a festival in the states where they shut the street down or hold it at a park and have tons of stalls selling different foods and booths selling festival related goods. There were a few "stages" where they had dancing and one small grill set up with meat shish-kabobs and that was all. I stayed maybe 30 minutes and then left. I spent the next hour or so driving around the city getting a feel for the neighborhoods and the roads and such.

That's really it. Besides work, the last two days I haven't done anything. Back to living a boring working life.

Best!