Saturday, March 1, 2014

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!


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