WTF!!

I don't believe it, not only do I forget my password repeatedly but I've also managed to delete around 3 posts, goodness knows what I'm up to!!  I don't know.  I swear as well that everytime I log in they have changed the ways things work and I can't find anything, either that or everytime I log in I forgot what I'm doing.

I did have a little spurt with posts back in May when I was on holiday, maybe I can keep that up again come September as I'm on holiday again.....yeah!!

I have to admit that since being out here in New Zealand - this is the longest period of time ever when I have not done any sport or horse riding - shocking I now and I'm beginning to miss it big time.  Funnily enough I'm not missing the pond hoping to the US and Europe as much as I thought I would so that is cool - and well I think I realise that anytime I fancy making a trip like that it won't be a problem.

I need to purchase a wetsuit soon for my surfing, snorkelling and for the Marine Mammal Medic course I'm due to do in October - I'm looking for that.  Once I've passed the course I'll be put on to the New Zealand national database and will be called up for any whale strandings.

Art/photography - I've been really slow here, I've seen some absoluately fabulous window displays - proper art ones and not your crap fashion type....I took some photos, some I accidently deleted and others I hope to get up here at some point.  I've really been quite busy at work so I haven't had much time for doing anything or catching up with things.

Travelling links - I really should put some links up for places that I would highly recommend from Native American Reservations in the US, North Idaho and Montana to the farm/stables in Portugal.  Man I miss the horses, I don't think there is any smell I love more than horses!

Crafts, knitting and art....

I have to admit there are two things I miss while I'm in New Zealand - my knitting needles/yarn and my sew on patch blanket - both are in storage and I can't get to them anytime soon!  And what is in storage are not things that I can buy out here and start again.  I don't fancy re-buying knitting needles I already own and neither do I want to buy loads more yarn when the yarn I have in the UK is breeding like nobody's business! 

But most of all I miss my sew on patch blanket, this is a blanket I "acquired" from a popular well known airline and started to iron/sew on patches from places I have been all over the world, the blanket in storage is almost full and has patches from all the countries, cities and towns I've visited to all the musuems, zoos, galleries, Native American Tribes, Botanical gardens etc I been to around the world.  I love it and while I've been out here I've collected more patches so I'd love to add them but can't and I don't find starting a fresh blanket until the original blanket is complete. 

But it did get me thinking about some things that I made for some people last year, they were little notice boards which I just thought were a little quirky.  Very simple to make and you can do them in any style you fancy, with any patterns you like or even draw or paint a pattern or picture.  Sadly I can't draw or paint so I tend to find things and styles to do.  But I have some pictures of the boards I made.

This one was I think the third of fourth I may so it was getting easier to decide what to do and how to do it.  I found a wonderful craft store in York, England were I got the bits and pieces from, I hightly recommend the place.



I actually didn't realise there were so many different gingham colours, my friend got me int them because she loves the country farmhouse red/white gingham look.  I can understand why, they are beautiful.

With my knitting I'm on a mission to make a blanket.  The idea is to knit lots of squares in different yarns not just textures but different colours, then when I have a large collection of squares I'll stitch them together into a blanket.  It'll be a crude looking blanket I'm sure but It'll be made by me and will be quite an individual item.  Here are some squares that I have done already.

There are so many different colours and textures, I think it'll be interesting so see the finished product.  Maybe one day I can pop a photo of the blanket on here.

Along with the blanket I hope to one day pop up a photo of my iron/sew on patch too.

I would love to get into more arts and crafts here in New Zealand, get inspired by the Maori arts.  I would like to return to pottery which I haven't done for years.  To would make for a good challenge and certainly an enjoyable one.



Update on life in New Zealand

Having looked back at what I have previouly written, I thought I had better update some things.  Once I arrived in New Zealand I was originally staying in a hostel, but took to trying to find somewhere straight away for me to live by myself.  I found staying in the hostel quite hard, as I can be very shy and I really don't like crowds at all, I'm just not so good with large numbers of people.  I also tend to do my own thing and go my own way, I tend not to follow a crowd or any person and though, like anyone I'm happy in company, I am also happy enjoying my own company - just writing, reading, art/crafts etc - so the hostel was a bit much for me.  House sharing it appears would have put me in pretty much a similiar situation, parties and such stuff, I just don't cope with well.  I'm the last to arrive and the first to leave.

So after 2 weeks in a hostel on Queen Street, in Auckland's CBD, I found an apartment to rent by myself.  I'm still there now and this is going great.  It is still in the CBD and I'm so central to everything, it couldn't be better.  Next I had to find work, I had already decided not to travel around as I want to stay in New Zealand long term, so showing the Kiwi Government that I'm up for earning and paying taxes would look better to them than the travellers/tourists move of fruit picking - again I would have been sleeping in a bunkbarn and I wouldn't have coped to well.  So about two weeks after I got myself my apartment I started going round the temp agencies for work, signing up with as many of them as possible.  In the meantime, I took to voluntary work down at The Auckland City Mission in helping them prepare for Christmas and everything that they would be undertaking in order to help those that collect benefits and don't have much.  By mid December I had myself a job with a Government agency and thankfully I'm still working for them now.  So all is going very well :) I still continued at the Auckland Mission and spent Christmas Day helping out as promised.

During Bank Holidays/long weekends and weekends I try to take off around the North Island for my road trips and exploring the island in the usual way a wandering spirit does.  I've already eyed up places to learn to surf, Muay Thai Kickboxing (not to fight), deep sea fishing and I'm on the lookout for the best places to spot Orca, oh and I do need to find places to return to horse riding and hockey (field).  There is nothing like a fantastic road trip driving around and exploring the open road and the back tracks that make up New Zealand's North Island.  No drive is the same, no view is the same and all of it is absoluately stunning.  My camera is working overtime.

To compliment the wonderful people, views, drives etc there are also so many small musuems and art galleries dotted around that where ever you go, you will find one and they have some stunning stuff in them, mostly from local artists and people you wouldn't have heard of outside of New Zealand.  I'm not an artist myself (neither pencil nor paint are my friends!) but I do go in for other arty/crafty things and I love photography and I certainly love looking and admiring other people's works.

Which brings me to following blog's, which I've never done before - It appears you can't search by subject, or indeed search at all - so I simply use the "next blog" button and add the ones that I like, ones that are new (like me) and any others that take my fancy - may they be art, traveling, animals, books or anything....maybe I can encourage others and others can encourage me and maybe I can make a few friends along the way :)

Happy blogging to all!

Really should get to grips with this blogging stuff!

Wow, I've totally forgotten to add anything to my blog since I last year.  I really should gather myself together and get some stuff in here with photos.  But boy am I having a fabulous time, New Zealand is beautiful and I'm already liking the North Island more than the South, as beautiful as the South Island is (and they are quite different).  I'm presently living on the North Island in Auckland CBD, a city of 1.4 million but it is so spread out it doesn't feel like a city at all, unike say somewhere like Birmingham or London, of which both are very built up places (especially Birmingham), with everyone living on top of each other.

I've been surfing and searching for other people's blogs covering my different interests and it made me realise I should keep this blog going.  But I do forget!  I tend to keep a written diary at times and certainly a photographic one - so I really should try with this one.

Starting from today.....I shall try and update every week or there about.....see if I can manage that and keep up with my road trips. 

IEP One Year Working Visa from BUNAC

I've got it! My IEP one year work visa from BUNAC. So now I must plan my one year working trip to New Zealand, I have in the past visited the South Island but I have never been to the North Island before. I've already decided that due to the earthquakes in the South Island is t wouldn't be the best thing to head down that way. From what I have read and heard from various sources some people who own multiple properties in and around Christchurch that haven't been damaged by the earthquakes are renting their places out to people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed. But sadly, they appear to be renting them out at very high prices, same with B&Bs, Guest Houses, Hostels and anyone else who feel they can make more money because accommodation is becoming hard to come by. Add this to the number of tourists who are still travelling to Christchurch and some people must be making a far bit of money.

In September the Rugby World Cup arrives in New Zealand (9th Sep - 23rd Oct 2011), this will mean big business for the country and for all kinds of businesses, accommodation, restaurants, cafes, shops there is going to be money to be made and so many will benefit from the huge event. It does mean that as teh games are played around the country, accommodation will be become even more limited (especially in the South Island around Christchurch) and prices will go sky high. The money is clearly going to be sorely needed for Christchurch as the council will need to earn back the money spent on repairing and re-building the city and its building before the big event.

I've pretty much decided then to go out after the event and hope that not only the hype will have died down but also the prices for accommodation, both short and long term. I've also finally decided that I will head towards the Auckland area and maybe higher into KeriKeri and/or Northland. But since it will be my first time visiting the North Island I just don't know where to start and where to stay. I have repeated many a time to people that I feel finding a job will be the easy part, while deciding where to stay and live for the year (or do I move around) will be the hard part. One year = 12 months = really isn't so longer time as people will have you believe.

I'm certainly looking forward to some work outdoors such as fruit picking or farming, I've done a little of this in the past and have always enjoyed it. I shall be going out during New Zealand's summer months so it will be the perfect season to start picking up work. Quite a few hostels will actually help you find work on a farm and/or fruit picking and set you up a deal to stay with them for the duration of your work period. Some places will just have you camp or lodge in their fields, this doesn't appeal to me so much. But if needs must I vow to try it for a while. However, as part of the fee I have part to BUNAC, and in association with the IEP office in Auckland, they also offer help in finding you work and accommodation. They will also help with the basics of opening a bank account, getting your social security number and anything else that needs to be in order fr you to start working.

My first couple of nights are 100% going to be in Auckland at a backpackers, I certainly perfer single sex dorms, but I'd rather not be in dorms at all. I do love my sleep so usually try and grab a single room and pay the extra if I can. The hostel itself does happily and proudly declare itself a party hostel for those travelling around, this doesn't sell it to me, but again, if needs must I will find that party spirit and join in, even if only for a few nights before I find somewhere else to pop my head down quietly for some good nights sleep.

I am actually really happy that I got this visa and I'm so looking forward to the year it is beyond words, but I am also hugely and greatly nervous about what the year will hold for me. I've so many things going through my head and I'm saving so many links and websites into my favourites that I'm not entirely sure any of it is going in, I'm just hoarding website addresses. However, somewhere in the back of my mind is a little voice that says buy a bike and spend some months cycling New Zealand. Now this appeals to me greatly, but it wouldn't earn me any money to support myself. Oh what to do when such a wonderful opportunity is given to you.....

Getting old before you know it....

It appears to be a bit of a repetitive theme at present for me to discover that I am 'too old' for something, not often but sometimes I am ' too young' for something to, but it isn't often that I am discovering I am the 'right' age for something.

When I finished University aged 27 I discovered that the railcard I had was for 'Under 25s' and those in full time education, as my degree had just finished I was no longer able to apply for another 'Young Person's Railcard'. I asked what the next discount railcard was only to be informed it was the 'Old Age Pensioner' one. With nothing in-between for us aged 25 - 65, would you call us 'middle aged' I asked, 'no' was the answer she gave. So life continued as it does today with me paying the full adult rate for all train transport around the UK.

On a London Tube recently I discovered that up to the age of 35 (not over) I am eligible for IVF treatment - this is fantastic news if I wanted a baby and considering the fact that few Countries will allow me any kidn of working/holiday visa due to my age. Dispite the fact I've worked since I was 15 years old, I hold a 2:1 degree and have no criminal record once you past that age of 25 (or for some) 30 you are refused any visa of any kind and doomed to sit in your own Country for the rest of your life, unless of corse, you are one of the lucky ones with a professional/career and some amazing skills to go with it. I didn't discover Overseas Work Visas until I was already over the age of 25, it just wasn't something that was put my way or offered to me, or as silly as it sounds, we didn't have the internet to go and search something up and take up an overseas offer. If you weren't told about it, you simply never got to hear of it.

Three years ago then I was looking at BUNAC and discovered that they offered a special IEP Working Visa for New Zealand (ONLY) for those up to the age of 35 years. Thrilled as I was I looked into this, but never took it up as I felt leaving a flat behind in the UK that I couldn't sell (because of the economy) but needed to pay for wouldn't help my cause. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a month ago that I am STILL eligible for this visa - oh yes, you can apply and be accepted for the visa at 35yrs old and you can go at 36, you just can't TURN 36 yrs before being accepted for the visa. Needless to say, I have around applied and paid for the visa and am awaiting the very beautiful, wonderful IEP working Visa. I hope to start working in New Zealand in October 2011. I am as you might say 'over the moon' and looking forward to it all.

Now call me traditional and old fashioned but I do prefer good old maps or even Google prints out to such such modern things as Sat Navs and GPS. Maybe it is the love of most things paper that I have, perhaps it is the smoothing out of the folded sheets and its crackle that I love. Or maybe it is the dislike of someone telling me what to do - repeatedly if I don't listen the first time. I like to study maps, I like to see where I've been, where I am and where I am going. I like to look at the places I am passing by, I like to see the place names, the streams, the lakes and the rivers that I pass. I like to see the roads bypass each other and inter-twine as they go from one place to another through each other, over each other and into each other. I like to trail my finger along the paper, following the route of one particular road that I am travelling on, following its beginning in one place through to its end in another part of the country. I enjoy that. I like to see the highways/motorways, the B roads and lanes as they trail off to various locations whether it be a City, a Town or a Village. I like to look at the road colours, the symbols used for railroads, churchs, museums and other places of interest. I simply find maps interesting, fascinating and can study them for hours, I like to have that structure and map in my head of where I'm travelling from and to. I like to be able to see the roads in my head and know when to turn off or where I'm turning into, I want to be able to see my journey ahead of me, miles ahead of me before I undertake it - to know and see what is surrounding me at all times and then I can see all my options laid out before me of which way to travel and what to see.

With GPS and Sat Navs you simply don't get this. You put up the gadget, you tell it where you want to go, which can take time in its own right as you have to trawl through all the options of what the Sat Nav has to offer you only to find the options they have are none of the ones you want. The Sat Nav either doesn't understand the address you gave it, doesn't recognise the zipcode or postcode that you put in or it simply trys to tell you that the address/zipcode/postcode doesn't exist when you know it does. In America it appears that the GPS system will offer you ever Main Street in every State in the US with the exception of the one you want. Or it simply doesn't recognise the airport or it trys to take you on the highway for 30 minutes in order for you to turn back on yourself on smaller roads for 10 minutes in order for yu to get somewhere that is 20 minutes away from where you start in walking distance. Now to a British person you might just walk this, but as an American you won't. You drive. This is what I learnt from my American friends. So you spend 5 to 10 minutes swearing and fiddling with your GPS before starting your drive, only to swear at and then ignore the GPS because you don't like the way it tells you to go, so you then take your frustration out on fellow drivers and all this slowly leads to what is commonly known as 'Road Rage'.

But enough of that. This is about maps. In particular Toronto maps, I recently went o Toronto for the first time. I was looking forward to it, I know people who have been and have very much enjoyed the City. It is world famous for its Film Festival every September and its CN Tower. So I checked into the HI Toronto and naturally picked up a map. The very kind

Receptionist marked off a few places on the map for me, like where the hostel was located, where there were good eating houses and, of course the CN Tower. As I took to the streets what I wanted though was a Tourist Information Centre as the leaflets in the hostel related to nothing in the local area, they did however, offer me information on hostels located in Finland or (if I am a Canadian National) internships in Belgium and Germany. With these offered leaflets being completely useless to me I began my search following the map. Now Tourist Informations are easy to see on maps because of the clever way they do symbols that everyone understands. On these maps they are marked by a blue question mark and I could that there were a few of them. Sadly, as I arrived at various locations having followed the map for the nearest Information Centre I found nothing. I walked around several times under the Metro bridge and around the Bus Terminal, up and down the road and even asked a few people, including a hot dog vendor but he answered to the negative, shaking his head and confirming what I thought, that there was indeed no Tourist Information around these parts. however, it appears he was wrong too, because there is one and it is in the Metro Station itself underground. Now without opening another can of worms I couldn't help but notice that this was hardly a Tourist Information Centre but more of a 'Tourist Information stand' with a few leaflets dotted around the stand then repeated as you followed it round to where you begun. So not only did it take way to long to find, it was useless .

I don't know if anyone else has ever had this problem but a few days later it took me an hour to get to the Zoo when it should have taken me around 20 minutes. So to Toronto City Council - get someone on those streets and get your maps sorted. But if they don't at least next time I know not to trust their maps and to use my own - from within the memories of my mind.