Non-stop Saturdays

You know, it's nice to be busy, but I am looking forward to a Saturday with nothing on. Today was another non-stop one. It's been a good one though.

It started with England v Tonga and England playing a lot better than they have done. They looked a long way from the team that got hammered by South Africa, but I still fear for them against (probably) Australia next week. There's a couple of Aussies in the office but I think they'll be gentle with me. I'm just glad Clayton's still 12,000 miles away in London.

After the rugby match it was time for what Joanne described as the best breakfast she'd ever eaten, even surpassing our favourite diner in New York. She was so excited by what I told her about Drexels after I went with the marketing team on Tuesday that she insisted we go as soon as possible. Who am I to refuse another great breakfast, eh? Heuvos rancheros for me, eggs, sausages, hashbrowns and pancakes for Joanne. Be warned - anyone who intends to visit us in Chch, expect a breakfast in Drexels scheduled in.

The next part of the day was spent shopping for house stuff, checking out some furniture, looking for coat racks, buying towels, checking out 'garage organising solutions'. Our usual weekend stuff. But at least it was only part of the day. I can't get over how the Kiwi equivalent of B&Q has a drive-through bit, and every DIY store has someone selling sausages outside of it. Very peculiar.

In the afternoon we headed off to the Botanic Gardens to meet Monika and Barry and their family. Mon is the sister of Marvin and Melanie, friends of ours from London (although Mel is living in Hong Kong at the moment). It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. They're a great couple and have lovely kids. Mon assured us they were on their best behaviour, but we were impressed. The Botanic Gardens is a really great site actually, in the centre of the city, but really well cared for and looked after, well-tended but with stuff for the kids to do too. It reminded me of Pukekura Park in New Plymouth that we had a wander around with Shirley on my first visit to NZ. Kiwis do do outside well, you know.

And then this evening, after an eat-all-you-want buffet at the Cabbage Tree, we headed off to AMI stadium, ex-Jade Stadium, ex-Lancaster Park (the joy of the age of corporate sponsorship of sport, eh?) for Canterbury v Auckland. Both teams, as I mentioned were unbeaten going into the game and had been playing well all season. Well tonight that changed. Canterbury just didn't real turn up and lacked Auckland's intensity. Having said that, had Stephen Brett, who has had an impressive season so far, kicked all the penalties and conversions he missed the scores would have been tied.

There was a strange subdued atmosphere at the game. Someone told me that it was nothing out of the ordinary. It was very different from a football game in the UK, I can tell you. It took 70 minutes before there was even any chanting of any sort, and that was only because the Tui the crowd had been downing began to take effect.

Leaving after the match was a little strange too. I've decided, because we live here, to support Canterbury in the Air NZ Cup and the Crusaders in the Super 14. It wouldn't make any sense to do otherwise really. So I have an intellectual attachment to Canterbury, if you like, and to the result tonight. But it's not like watching Grimsby Town and Man United. It's not a team that is part of me yet, not part of my history, of what makes me me. I have no emotional attachment. And so watching the game I wanted them to win, sure, but leaving after the game I was a little disappointed but the feeling wasn't nearly the same as leaving Blundell Park after seeing Town getting beaten. It wasn't personal. I wonder how long that takes.

A sea of boxes and exploding mountains

So we're surrounded by boxes. Full boxes, empty boxes, and some in between. We got the kitchen sorted last night, and Jo's working on clothes at the moment, but other than that, it's difficult to do anything more for now. Because we don't have units yet, or shelves, or cupboards, or sideboards, there's nowhere to put anything. I foresee more furniture shopping ahead. And weeks of box-laden living. But it is good news that our stuff's here. I can't be too downcast. It is a relief to have all our stuff back, even if there is nowhere to put it. The weather's meant to be good this weekend. I will hopefully get some time out on my bike.

I awoke this morning to news of an eruption on the north island. I knew there are volcanoes around the place in New Zealand but news of one erupting is a little disturbing. It's a ski area too. Imagine having your ski holiday cut short or cancelled due to ash and volcanous debris. Scary stuff. We were talking about it at morning tea at work today. This was when the girls decided to tell me that it's not unknown for Chch to experience earth quakes. Hang on just a moment. No-one told me about that sort of thing!

I'll be glad when I can get away from a PC at the moment. After staring at a screen at work, trying to figure out ways to extract data from databases not set up to work the way I need them to, I have come home to try and get Jo's desktop working. The internet is working fine, the printer is working fine, the wireless network is working fine. All I have to do now is copy across all her files from my laptop and make sure her email contacts and home finance data is all up to date. Oh, and download the 413 emails she's received since being disconnected.

On Friday Joanne and I are going with out some people from work for a drink and maybe some food. One lass in the my department, Gabrielle, who has only been around about five or six weeks longer than me, has decided we need to do more socially as a team. We had afternoon tea out for Lisa's birthday last week, a team breakfast on Tuesday to (belatedly) welcome me and bid farewell to Erin (who's going on maternity leave), and now these plans for Friday. Gabrielle's definitely doing well.

On Saturday Jo and I are going to watch Canterbury v Auckland in the egg-chasing Air Nuzziland Cup. It should be a good game, I think. Both teams are unbeaten going into this, the final game of the regular season, standing as 1 and 2 in the table. With both guaranteed a play-off spot already you might think there'd be nothing to play for other than top place bragging rights and that the players might take it easy heading into the play-offs. I'd agree this would be the case, were the Ranfurly Shield not added to mix to spice things up a little. Ask any Kiwi, there's something about Shield matches.

Half day tomorrow

I'm taking tomorrow afternoon off work. We're finally getting all our stuff delivered. Not sure where it's going to go, mind, but at least it'll be here. Bring on the bread machine!

Our first house-guests

Today we noticed a bird nest made of mud had been built on top of our burglar alarm above the garage door. It's nice to think that our house is inviting but we're not so happy with the little fellas dive-bombing guests as they approach our front door. What is it with Canterbury and Hitchcock-esque ornithological attacks, eh? My research leads me to believe that our tetchy nesting friends are welcome swallows. Only they're not very welcoming.

This morning I attended a men's breakfast at St Stephen's church in Shirley, held jointly between St Stephen's and St John's. It was a good opportunity to go along and meet a few more guys from church. That definitely happened. People were very welcoming. After breakfast there was a talk on 'spiritual warfare' based loosely around Revelation 12:7-8 given by a touring English theologian by the name of Gerald Bray. I've not heard of him myself but I'm sure others back in the UK have. He used to lecture at Oak Hill after all. It was an interesting talk with the main point to take away from it being that we as Christians have been washed clean by Jesus' blood so Satan has no power over us any longer, we able to testify to that fact, but we need to question ourselves and ask if we really are living in light of that. Very challenging.

Then this afternoon I had my third in the set of three golf lessons I'd arranged. My form, according to the instructor and the video evidence, is much better now, but I hit the ball further and more consistently when I had no idea what I was doing. Go figure.

Hammered

We were beaten at 5-a-side tonight. Badly. The team we played were either first or second in the table, had obviously been playing together for a while, and when they figured out they were better than us played with an arrogant swagger. I think the score ended up 11-6 or 11-7 or something. It wasn't as bad as it sounds though. At least four of their goals came from penalties awarded when one of our team trod one inch into our keeper's area. The ref was a bit of a stickler. I think one of the hardest things about being a Christian and how we're called to live is responding well in defeat. I guess we have to respond well in victory too, but when the other team are taking the mickey and aren't being gracious it's hard to lose graciously. I guess it's a real witness when we manage it. If it's right for you, please pray that I manage it and resist the temptation to boot someone up in the air.

Terri, the interior designer came round tonight with curtain samples. We've probably almost maybe chosen fabric for the lounge and our bedroom now. Only another six or so weeks to make them and fit them and we'll be able to take down the property magazine pages cellotaped to our windows. Our, and New Zealand, they're curtains, not drapes. You are an English colony, not an American one.

I forgot to mention the great news that is Contender Series 3 showing over here. Episode 2 aired last night. And it's not even started in the UK yet. Sorry, Clayton and Andy. It's going to be another good series. For those that don't know (and can't be bothered following the wiki-link above to find out) it's a kind of reality TV boxing comp with boxers competing to win a bit of a wad of cash, a bit of fame and, more importantly, a chance at the big time. I've been an avid fan of series 1 and 2. I'm still trying to balance how it fits for me as a Christian to enjoy watching the boxing bit of it though. Andy and Clayton, as big fans too, do you have any thoughts on the subject? How do you feel about it?

Oh, and someone in London send me pictures of the Burble. Someone over there must have gone and had a camera with them. Does anyone other than Anna know what on earth I'm on about?

Doh!

Why couldn't I keep my gob shut, eh?

Howzat!

It's still early but England are doing well against New Zealand in the Twenty20 World Cup. The Black Caps are 95-5 after 13.2 overs. At this rate I might be able to go into work tomorrow as an England sports fan with my head held high for a change. To be honest, people have been very well behaved regarding the rugby. The worst of it actually came from someone other than a colleague. Two of the guys from the furniture shop came round tonight to bring us our dining table chairs, our barstools, and more importantly, our bed. (Yes, we finally have a bed!) One of them started on about the rugby. I told him I'm a football fan. Two wins in a week for England. It's been a while since that's happened. And the women's team have reached the quarter finals of the World Cup in China too, following a 6-1 win aganst Argentina. Impressive. Well done, the lasses.

Hmm, NZ are knocking the ball around a bit now. They're back into it at 134-5 off 16.

The curtains and blinds guy came round tonight to measure up. I'm looking forward to being able to take down the magazine pages from our bedroom windows, I can tell you. Although I guess it means we have something to read.

140-7 off 17. They must be looking for 170 now.

We heard today that our container hasn't been released yet, which is a pain. The shipping company haven't been paid by the company we dealt with in the UK so they won't give us our stuff. Someone over there should be expecting a call from Joanne in a bit. She's going to growl at them, let me tell you.

152-8 with 1 over left.

Last night was the company's AGM out in the country, in a place called Darfield. Given the company is a cooperative the customers are also the shareholders and so the majority of the people there were farmers. I quite enjoyed meeting some of them. There was one guy there, a dairy-farming Coaster (someone from the West coast of the south island) who I had quite a chat too. He was very understanding about my lack of knowledge and told me loads about how his farm worked. The meeting was also a great opportunity to get more background info about the company too. The CEO and the chairman both gave presentations talking about the fertiliser industry worldwide, in NZ and the company in the past year and going forward. Useful stuff for me to hear.

164-9 after all 20 overs for the Black Caps. It's not enough, mark my words, but they'd have taken that at 31-4.

Working is going well at the moment, three and a bit weeks in, but there's certainly a lot on. They weren't wrong when they told me in the interview there would be no problem finding enough to do. I was given a big project late this afternoon, to generate a grid of typical farmers by farm size and farm type looking at our market penetration and what it would mean for both revenue and customer service levels should we increase our market share. An interesting exercise in modelling and it'll be a good way for me to learn more about the industry.

Joanne's still enjoying work too, which is great news. The pain though, is with her still doing the consultancy thing for her old job in the evenings. We'll both be glad when that's over. And when she gets paid for it.

OK, time for England to bat now.

Sprung

Driving alongside the park yesterday morning on the way to church and walking by the river during my lunch break just now it was very apparent that spring has arrived. Daffodils and blossom everywhere. Ducklings on the river. And lambs in the field on the way to work too. It's all very lovely and stuff, but it's September. My seasonal body-clock is in a right mess. I'm dreading a summer Christmas. I guess I should just enjoy the sunshine, but I do wonder how long it will take me to get used to having Spring in September.

Bad decision

I shouldn't have bothered waking up early. That was quite demoralising. And then I go on the beeb website and see we lost in the cricket too. Not the best start to the day, eh?

And...relax

Phew, what a hectic week. Or at least it seemed that way. I'm sure we've had worse, and will have worse, but it definitely felt a bit hectic. It started with dinner on the Monday night with the sales managers. The Belgian place did serve more than beer and mussels, so that was good. The lamb shank is highly recommended.

Tuesday saw Joanne and I out to dinner at a couple from church's place. They're a couple we sort of knew before we came here and Jo's been running with Renee in the hills once or twice. Once, I think. It was a great evening. Lovely food, great company and some real laughs playing Boggle and Scattergories. They're an Aussie couple but you can't have everything ;)

You know, one of the hardest things about being here so far has been the lack of friends. We're meeting some people at church and it was great to have dinner with Mark and Renee and to get to know them a bit better, but friends take time to grow, don't they? I think I'd forgotten that. I'm getting to know the guys I play football with a bit, but again, it takes time for acquaintances to become friends.

And speaking of football, we lost yesterday. It finished 9-8, but a lot of that was just due to the fact that we had six players to their nine or so. It meant they could all rotate a lot more and finished the game fresher. I scored 3 though, so the match was a personal victory if not a team one. Hehe.

I think work this week has added to the hectic feeling. It's felt non-stop all week. No time to catch my breath. Everything seems like a rush and top priority, especially with it all taking a while with me learning the database and reporting tools. But I think that may actually just be my self-imposed impression, as a few times this week people have expressed surprise at the short time it's taken to generate the report results they've requested. I'm slowly feeling I'm doing more and more useful work, which is good. And it seems I'm the only one in the company who knows how to use pivot tables too so I've something to add there.

The scope of the job still feels a bit daunting though. There is just so much scope and the job description is so broad and fluid. And no-one has really pinned it down in concrete terms. They've not had an analyst before, they knew that they needed one, and that's as far as it has gone really. No-one seems very sure what my exact responsibilities and jobs are or will be. Which makes it incredibly hard for me to know what they are. I guess it will take shape in time. I do feel they have high expectations though, that somehow I'm going to be part of revolutionising the company. It's good to be part of, but scary too. I'm finding I'm having trouble unwinding when I get home from work. It's never been a problem of mine before, apart from the first couple of months after I was promoted to running the department in my last job, so it's all a little strange. I'm lying awake with work issues going over in my head. I guess it's because it's all new. It'll pass with time. I hope.

Also it'll be good when I get to know the team a bit better. I was kind of spoilt with my colleagues in London. Lovely, the whole lot of 'em. You know who you are ;)

And speaking of passing with time, in some ways I really can't wait until the rugby world cup is over. It's great to see how a whole nation is taken up with it. It kind of reminds me of England during Euro 96. But I will be glad when every other advert on TV no longer features one or more of the All Blacks. I can see why so many of them have signed post-world cup contracts with European clubs. If they don't bring the trophy back home, they won't want be welcome back home.

Back home. Mmmm, that reminds me, I could murder a decent sausage right about now. You just can't get one here, for love nor money. There's just nothing to satisfy the Lincolnshire sausage craving I've been having. A real taste of home I miss. And I'm sure no butcher around here will ever have heard of haslet. I wonder if Boston Sausage deliver to Nuzziland.

And talking of delivering, in another smooth paragraph link, the ship carrying our container finally arrived in Lyttleton. Our belongings are finally on Kiwi soil. They still have to clear customs, and then get past MAF, but the shipping company seems to think we can expect delivery sometime next week.

This weekend is another housey weekend. Tomorrow we've got the Sky technician coming, and then a wardrobe guy, and then a garden bloke. Then Sunday is church followed by a trip to NZ's B&Q equivalent. I feel kind of bad getting a bloke in to discuss wardrobes interiors and another to discuss garden plans, but DIY, up to now, has not been a strong point of mine (ask Joanne sometime about the shelves I put up in our place in London), and Joanne and I have lived in flats for the past however many years so are out of practice with gardens. The only time I have lived in a house since I left Grimsby in 1993, when I lived in Camberwell, the garden turned into a bit of a jungle. And it was only small. We need something manageable designed.

We're enjoying doing things for the house each and every weekend, but it will be nice when we have a weekend off. We've agreed to do something in a few weeks, something touristy, for a change. We both really fancy the TranzAlpine train ride. I think I mentioned it before. No date planned a yet, but hopefully we'll nail it down this weekend and see about booking tickets and an overnight stay in Greymouth. I'm sure I sold a CodAlmighty t-shirt to some who lived in Greymouth, you know.

Joanne and I went out to dinner tonight (mainly because we've not had chance to do a shop for a bit), to try a recommended restaurant in Halswell, just across the domain from us - The Old Vicarage. A lovely place, and the nicest, friendliest, helpfulest waiter in the world ever, but they did insist of everything on the menu being cooked in or served with garlic. It kind of narrowed down my choices. The chicken burger was very good though.

Time for bed now, I reckon. Up early tomorrow morning, you see, to watch England take on the Saffas.

We're in

After a hectic weekend we're in our house. I've never hoovered so much in my life, what with new carpet fluff here and cleaning at the apartment. It was such a nice feeling to wake up in our own house this morning. On a mattress on the floor. Really nice. Apart from it being a little cold though. I think we need a heat pump in our room too. We couldn't quite see our own breath but it was close. The rest of the house is warm, just not our bedroom. But it will be, we'll make sure of that. Joanne will not leave in a cold house. We were spolit with the underfloor heating in our flat in London, I think.

The PC is set up and the internet works, so the essentials are sorted. And we can get a fuzzy picture on most channels on the TV. I really should have checked if I need a male-female aerial cable, or a male/male one.

I've got a dinner out with the sales managers and general manager of sales tonight. At the Belgian Beer Cafe. I hope they serve more than just beer and mussels. Otherwise I'm stuffed. Well, more likely I won't be. I wonder if there's a KFC on the way home...

Half done

We now have a fridge. And a TV. A vacuum cleaner. A microwave. And a washing machine. Jo bought two beanbags. And the furniture shop we're getting our bedroom suite from has provided a mattress for us to use until our bed arrives next week. It's beginning to come together now. At least when we move in tomorrow the place won't be totally empty now.

We spent the afternoon cleaning the house and tonight we need to pack our stuff. Then we can take it all round there tomorrow after church.

The Telecom engineer came round this afternoon to set up our line. It kind of worked. We have a landline now, at least in the back half of the house. The front two phone sockets, the one in the family room and the one in the kitchen, don't appear to want to work. We need to get hold of the electrician who wired the house to get him to check it out, I think. In theory this means we should have broadband all sorted for when we move in tomorrow too. Life without the internet - intolerable, eh? How did we ever survive without a constant link to email and websites?

Sudden movement

Yesterday the people managing the apartment block we're renting in told us that they've found someone to effectively buy us out of our contract here. Such good news. It would be a shame to keep paying for this place until early November. There's one condition though - that we move out this weekend. The new tenants need the place early next week. As such today, after work, we've had to rush around trying to get the essentials we need for the house. We've got stuff arriving, when our container finally gets here of course, but we needed a kettle, toaster, basic cooking equipment, ironing board, duvet etc anyhow. And temporary curtains for our bedroom. And some bedding for the bed that doesn't arrive until Tuesday. It was an amazing successful evening in the end. We got exactly what we needed, and Briscoes had a sale on (it was meant to start tomorrow but they gave us the benefit, which was nice) which meant we saved about 25-30% on everything we bought.

So, over the weekend, we're moving into our new house. It's very exciting, but the house is going to feel a little empty until our furniture arrives. People at work have been lovely, offering us all sorts of stuff to see us through. It's really touching. We're probably not going to need much more than an airbed for a couple of nights, but for that we've got three offers to choose from. And that's just from people in my team at work.

My boss was telling me I should take a day off next week to go skiing. He thinks that I should be making the most of the lifestyle change the move to NZ has led to. I couldn't imagine my old MD in London saying something similar.

Culture shock

I can't get used to this leaving work at 5pm lark. I keep getting chastised for being there at a quarter past. Thing is, if there's something I'm working on, sometimes it's best to do an extra few minutes rather than drop it and forget where I'm up by to the next morning. But that doesn't seem to be the culture in the office. It's true people work totally full on while they're there, but come 4 or 4:30 and people begin to drift off, even management. It's very different to London. I'm not quite sure what to do with all this new found evening stuff.

Settling down

I'm learning. It's all slowly but surely making a bit more sense at work, which is good. I'm beginning to understand more about the extensive databases that I'm going to be using for most of my work, but the inconsistency and lack of integrity of the data in there does worry me. And then there's the intricacies. The job is going to be challenge, not least because it's a new role and nobody is quite sure of the scope of it and what my particular areas of responsibility will eventually be and where the role will lead. But that has a good side too. It's definitely going to be something to get my teeth into.

Jo's enjoying her job too, it seems. She's learning more and more every day, and having a month-end to deal with is certainly ensuring she's getting stuck right in.

In terms of news, there isn't much. But I guess this is the way it will be going forward. It's not just a long holiday after all. We live here and work here and even though it's somewhere different, day to day will still involve getting up, going to the office, working, coming home, and then going to bed. We need to slowly start building friends and other things into the framework. And weekends. I'm looking to weekends that don't involve furniture shopping. Or curtain shopping.

Meeting the staff

After church today there was a newcomers' lunch. Every six months or so these are organised for the newcomers to St John's to meet each other, to meet the St John's staff and also to hear a bit more about what goes on at the church from week to week. It's such a good idea. It really did what it said on the tin. We also signed up for the church family weekend away today, which is in November, I think. Given how many newcomers to the Barge we've explained the value of weekends away to in the past, we couldn't really not sign up. It really be a great way to meet people and get to know them better.

Joanne and I are currently having discussions about when we should move from the flat into our house. She's keen to do it next weekend. I'm more willing to wait for our container to arrive. No decision has been reached as yet.

Ordering furniture

Another busy Saturday. We met the guy from Danske Mobler at 9:30 at the house. He was bringing out a lounge suite we liked to see how it fitted. There were options on various sizes so we wanted to see how it looked before going for 3-seaters or 2-seaters or the whole chaise setup. It helped. Also he brought a sample of the material we were thinking of getting it covered in to see how it looked against the walls and carpet and stuff. It helped too. We decided on two 2-seaters and changed the colour of the material we wanted. In case you're interested, we've gone for raisen. And it's all ordered. And the dining room suite. And coffee table. And lounge suite for the other room. We got a decent discount in the end, which was a nice bonus for buying so much stuff from the one shop.

After that we nipped to the place where we getting our desks from and placed a quote request. And then drove to the furniture shop where we're getting our spare room bedroom stuff to order it and get a quote on a corner TV unit thing.

One downside about Chch is the relative lack of public transport. As a result of that, and mine and Joanne's different office hours, we need two cars. This one will do mountains too.

Keys...

We settled on the house today! We got the keys. We own it. It's ours. How exciting! After work we drove down there so that we could run up and down the hallway and round the living room and in and out of all the doors. We're definitely looking forward to getting moved in. We also nipped to the local chippy for some grub. Our first meal in our new house.

I actually produced a useful piece of work today at the office. I managed to generate a report all on my own, neaten it up and email it out. I did it so well that a colleague's asked that I do it each and every week. It's good to, in some small way, feel a tiny bit more useful than I did yesterday.

Today has been a better day.

The last Friday of each month after work is a time for a social drinks and nibbles thing. It is sometimes themed. Today's theme was the All-Blacks, as the New Zealand rugby team left for France yesterday. All week emails have been sent out reminding people to wear black to work today as some sort of tribute thing. I'll support the Kiwis when they play other teams, but I won't support them over England. I wore no black to make the point. It's fair to say I stood out.