You can't argue with numbers...

...they tell me I am a total slacker.

What the hell. I'm bumping it up to 17 before it becomes 2009.

I may have actually been a 'blogger' in 2006. How bizarre.

The Big News

I had hesitated to make any sort of announcement about this until it was at least a little bit confirmed, but my big news is that I've accepted my first permanent role (ever), and will be moving to Shanghai in less than three weeks!

That's right, this little commitmentphobe is finally taking the plunge, and the signing of an employment contract for an indefinite period of time is imminent. Add to that the fact that I will probably have to sign a lease on an apartment of my very own, and you will be very surprised to hear that I haven't yet had heart palpitations or resorted to hyperventilation. I am actually quite excited.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a friend of a friend, saying that they needed someone if I was looking for a position in Shanghai. The job itself is doing scriptwriting and editing for English language learning podcasts, as well as some research, meeting clients, and conducting in-house training. As I eventually wanted to get into the publishing side of education, I jumped at the chance to fast-track this plan (not that I'm not enjoying the teaching, but more about that in a minute). A couple of emails, (what ended up being) eight pages of writing samples and methodologies, a phone interview, and some reference checks later, and I had a verbal offer. After a few clarifications about my future employment package, I happily accepted the job on Friday (just a few hours before the Olympics opened, and on that [hopefully] auspicious day 08/08/08). I won't go into the details about the benefits, but suffice to say I'm pretty happy (AND I get a lunch allowance!). I'll also finally get around to learning some Mandarin. Hooray for languages.

So I have not all that many days (or classes) left in Hong Kong. Around about now is usually when I start to appreciate a place, and do all those things that I'd meant to do for ages. Also it seems that now is about when I've just met some quite cool people, and am started to get more work offers. Oh well! They're balanced out by the fact that a couple of my male students (who are about 8 or 9) do not seem to know what is appropriate when touching teachers (probably they shouldn't do it at all, but they definitely shouldn't be doing what they did yesterday!).

And now the important part: What does this all mean for you? As of the end of August, I will no longer be available on my current mobile number or at my current postal address. It's probably best not to send me anything from now on (boo!) as I would hate to miss it during the move. I will update as soon as I know my new contact details. Of course I will still be contactable via all electronic means (and my Melbourne number).

The other important change that I will have to make is in my ridiculous sleeping pattern (it probably looks either like a Magic Eye or an Escher painting). No longer will I be able to stay up all night (or sleep all afternoon), and you will (probably) notice a significant drop in my online presence. I hope I will be too busy to be sad (in more ways than one) about this.

All in all, quite a satisfactory result (I am trying to forget about the fact that I only get two weeks of annual leave a year).

I will make sure I have at least a futon for all my future visitors. Come to see me!

A few reasons to be happy about today

• It was my sister's birthday today and I got to have Mexican for dinner with her.
• I got to see some wicked short films as part of the 48 Hour filmmaking challenge.
• I'm only at day 3 of my new job and already they can't bear for me to leave.  They also think I'm a database guru cause I've used their software before (and know more than their supposed specialist).
  
• I got the results from my course in the post today.  I got the elusive A that hardly anyone gets!
  
• I booked my flight to London for July!  I will be at the ceilidh in Aberdeen!  I will get to be in Edinburgh for the Festival!

All in all, I'm pretty stoked.  Feel free to siphon off some of my elation.  I'm too tired to use it anyway.

Nearly there!

I finished my last assessment today!

Over four weeks I've had to be in classes 9-5 every day, do four written assignments and plan and deliver 9 classes (with a combined time of 6 hours and 10 minutes). I somehow managed to volunteer myself for an extra 80 minutes of unassessed classes too (what a sucker).

In general, I've done pretty damn well (asides from a small glitch in one assignment where I focussed on the wrong thing and had to resubmit some of it - you can imagine how well I took that!), so I've only got to show up for the next two days and hopefully receive my A after Cambridge okays it. It's been just as much stress and work as they promised/forewarned us, and there has been one person drop out (hence my extra lessons) and more than a few tears shed by several of my peers. As always, with such a concentrated time frame and intense experience, we've all gotten to know each other quite well. I'm happy to say that I genuinely like everyone on the course (instead of that fake kind of like), and have really enjoyed doing it. It's so nice to feel like I'm learning something again, and applying myself academically. It's been interesting trying to translate the input into practice in the classroom. It helps that I've really liked most of my students as well.

I've had very little time for the other important things in my life though (family, friends, sleeping, Heroes, Guitar Hero, crochet, laundry, planning my life, booking flights, getting a job, general communication and Crackbook), so I apologise if this has inadvertently or directly affected you. I am much more available now!

In other moments of genius, I created a fabulous new (to me) cocktail upon my return home today. It consists of frozen raspberries muddled with Morgan's Spiced Rum, topped up with Sprite. I've called it 'See You In HELTA' (my course is called CELTA, see what I did there?). It is delicious, and I bet you're jealous.

I am also glad that I now have a legitimate scapegoat for my pedantry regarding the English language. I'm not perfect, but I am judgmental.

I've decided that I definitely can't take my June 6 flight to Hong Kong. I have no money to travel with, and it will be too hot there. I'm going to work for a few more weeks, go to the McDragovic wedding in Melbourne, and then I'm going over to the UK in late July (I haven't booked my flight, but that is my aim) for another summer in Scotland. Hopefully I will be able to find a full-time teaching job starting in September. Wish me luck! Maybe I'll see you soon, if I'm lucky!

Some random notes ...

• JB HiFi has just opened in Auckland!  How much do I want to go in there and drop a few hundred dollars on some cheap CDs?!
• My first assessed teaching class went really well.  Of course I impressed the tutors, but I'm probably irritating my classmates with my incessant questions and general knowing-it-all.  A few little things to work on, but I'm feeling really positive.  Learning is making me tired (as is staying up really late doing lesson plans), but it's only for a few weeks.  The people in my class are cool, as are the students, so ... yay.
  
• I get to see Mickey on Friday!
• I am being semi-successful at trying to keep away from Crackbook and email.  This means I'm crap at the communication, but it's probably better for my health. 
  
• Auckland's public transport system still pretty much sucks.
• Crappy uni cafeteria food still tastes exactly as bad as it did 7 years ago.
• I still haven't changed my flights.  Somebody nominate some Scotland dates for me?!
  

Official Notice

Congratulations are in order:

Maury (my beloved Corona) and I have recently produced a healthy baby speeding ticket, weighing in at $80.00 and 14km over the limit.

It is my first, after 10 years of trying, so I guess my time had come. The only annoying thing is that now I have to get off my high horse. I really enjoyed harassing my family about their infringements!

Hangovers, hot pools and humiliation

Well after writing the rather verbose last post (just to make Carol feel better, honest), hopefully this one will be a bit shorter ...

 

I left work at 3.45 on Monday to pick Colleen up at the airport.  I was a bit worried that she had gotten her 24 hour time wrong again (those who know her know this happens with alarming frequency for someone who travels as much as she does).  I was also worried that she was repeating the whole drug scandal of Dunedin 2005, but it turned out that due to some unforeseen accident (not to do with the plane), Coll's whole plane was late. 

 

Luckily we still had enough time to drive through the suburbs and make it to Rick's for a couple of deadly mojitos with him and Bjorn.  Lior started in The Famous Spiegeltent at 7pm, and Ben wasn't really that late.  Unfortunately Lior only played for about an hour, but Rick and Coll met him afterwards and probably scared him into playing longer sets in the future.

 

Cue some random wandering and drinking around downtown Auckland, hassling some poor one man covers band, playing some pool and taking lots of photos on Coll's miraculously returned camera (Rick posted a couple, I'm sure more will follow).

 

Enticed by promises of fun times with Rick and Coll the next day, I decided to pull a sickie.  Funnily enough, I woke up at 5am feeling really nauseous and I totally blame Rick and Bjorn.  May also have something to do with not eating or drinking any water.  Anyway ...

 

The next day was chock full of an awesome breakfast, a drive up Mt Eden, a cruise along the waterfront, a visit to the artisan patisserie in Matakana, an astounded look at the beautiful fish at Goat Island (almost teeming, right by the shoreline), a stroll along the desolate beach at Pakiri, a drink at the pub in Kaukapakapa, a swim at the thermal pools at Parakai (swimming pools this time, not streams), fish and chips from our local chippy and complete and utter humiliation at the trivia night at the local.  This was especially bad after I had promised Ben that I was smarter than Paul (which I stand by).  I will give that Paul probably would have done slightly better at this quiz, it seemed like everything was pretty much aimed at middle aged beer drinking men ... not my forte!  We didn't come last, but got something like 48 points when the winners got nearly 100.  And in a round where there was a 50/50 chance of getting it right, we got 2 out of 10!  Ouch.  Anyone who did quizzes with me at The Globe should be rightfully shocked and appalled ...

 

I got to work the next day and realised that nobody had been in my office at all the previous day, and I totally could have pulled off a giant scam and pretended I was there the whole time ... oh well ... damn conscience ...

The Waikato and Bay of Plenty Highlight Tour

I'm not sure why but I had a desperate need to get out of Auckland for the last weekend of the summer (last Wednesday was the Autumn Equinox and we finished Daylight Savings on the Sunday morning).   So despite the dodgy weather (correctly) predicted, Michelle and I decided to head down to Rotorua in search of natural hot springs and general out-of-Auckland entertainment.

 

We somehow managed to get on the road by about 8.30 on Saturday morning (w00t), and our first stop was Cambridge at about 10am .  Intrigued by the sign advertising the "Leamington School Duck Plunge", we pulled in to the tourist information centre to ask for directions.   The Duck Plunge was on the events blackboard, but when asked where the school was, the woman behind the desk replied "which school?".  Firstly, how many schools can such a small town have?   Secondly, why would we want to go to any other school when there was a Duck Plunge on?  During breakfast we pondered several scenarios that could be termed Duck Plunges, but still had no clue what it would involve.   Even better, the poster used inverted commas perfectly when it advertised a "Celebrity" Duck Plunge and entertainment from a top ten finalist in some series of New Zealand Idol (heh).  

 

When we got to the school, we found out that the Duck Plunge wasn't happening until 1.45.   Since there was no way we'd miss it, we decided to wander around and look at the entertainment – karaoke, mini jeeps, whatever you call hitting golf balls into upturned umbrellas, bouncy castle and wobbly train.   We also visited a local garage sale (nothing much there but I got an awesome old school teal leather suitcase for a dollar, and Michelle was very tempted by a $12 electric typewriter) and went shopping at the few clothes shops in town.   

 

When we got back to the school after ogling a really shiny really red Ford, there was a mob of people surrounding the fenced swimming pools.   One large pool, one small pool, some PTA women, an old man with a pool skimmer, a rather hot (looking) rugby player and a LOT of ducks.  Rubber ducks.   Actually, plastic ducks. 

 

For the grand purpose of a raffle drawing, poor (but beautiful) Liam Messam was forced to Plunge into the pools of Ducks (get it now?), drawing one from each pool to make up the winning ticket number.  There were several draws, each with a longwinded prize description, leaving Liam freezing in the pool with nothing but ducks to protect him from the gaze of a hundred primary school kids' mums.

 

We didn't win anything.

 

Fast forward (sigh of relief) to us driving down the road to the hot springs recommended by my sister.  Prior to that we had not been able to find the key to my friend's empty house (it wasn't "in the shed" as he'd said), looked at some very bubbling mud pools, gone to some garage sales and found a little cabin at a campground in Rotorua.  It wasn't until we were half an hour down the wrong State Highway that we realised that my sister had given us perfect directions asides from the correct highway number.  We decided to go to Taupo for dinner instead of driving all the way back, then all the way down another road to flounder around in the darkness.

 

After trying to find the least St Patricksy place in town, the highlight of the lakeside dinner ended up being (drumroll please) - a bearded midget, dressed as a leprechaun, running.  That's right.  Midget.  Beard.  Leprechaun.  Running.  He ran past several times, then got into a car and drove away.  It was awesome.  Michelle also went to the supermarket wearing her dressing gown as a coat.  Also awesome.

 

The next day we managed to make it to the swimming hole, a perfect little spot where a steaming hot stream and a colder river meet.  Such an amazing feeling and so nice to be able to move around and find the perfect temperature.  There was an old woman so ancient that she looked like a female ET in a matching mint green bikini and swim cap, complete with full mud mask.  I was a little startled when I turned around and she was just floating in the water behind me.  I became increasingly fascinated with her though, especially when she started doing t'ai chi in the river, and when she scolded and muttered at an obnoxious English woman who somehow thought it would be okay to use shampoo in the stream and that it would be okay for her husband to swim in white underwear (I won't get started or I will get angry all over again)!

 

The final highlight was totally beating a very frustrated Michelle at the 3D Maze (34 minutes, winner!) and meeting the grumpy old man that runs it.  We were having a chat and he completely berated this kid for cheating, it was great.  I don't think the kid really got the point, but the fact that Grumpy's response to "My granddad told me to crawl under the walls," was "Bollocks!" made it possibly the best $6 I think I spent that weekend.

Random thoughts of the day

• Facebook is starting to scare me, for real.
• "Are you on, like, crystal meth or something?  Cause this is really cracky behaviour."  I love Zach from Heroes and think "cracky behaviour" should be used more as a turn of phrase.
• I don't know if I should, but I think Simon Pegg is hott.  And I am really excited about Hot Fuzz!
• I don't get anything productive done when I know I'm unsupervised.
• It hurts my back less when I know there's not going to be anyone looking over my shoulder.
• There are a lot of movies coming up that I want to see (and before anyone comments, these are coming up in NZ, even though they have maybe been out forever in the rest of the civilised world): Ghostrider (haha, seriously?), Black Sheep, 300 (IMAX!), Shooter, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (as long as it's not longer than the second one!), Shrek 3, Spiderman 3, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Transformers movie!  What's up with all the trilogies and comic book movies?  Do I not want to see anything serious?  Or are there no serious movies coming out this year?
• Wild Hogs.  What the hell?!
• I really should have remembered that my whole department was out of the office yesterday before I called in sick.