We were in our local second hand book shop today, having a bit of a yarn with the owner, and he asked us how long we had been in New Zealand. A quick look at the date, and I was blindsided by the fact that we have now been here for over a month (a month yesterday, in fact...)
Time has absolutely flown by; it doesn't seem two minutes since we were in the UK, but on the other hand, it feels like we have been here forever. The idea that Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand is "home" now is really settling in, and, more importantly, feels *right*.
We know our way around now, we know the train and bus timetables pretty well, and know where the best shops are (though we are still discovering new ones (I found a print shop that will do scanning for less than $10 today!)). We know how much to budget for food, and where to go for the cheapest veg in the market (different stalls have different prices for the different types of veg, so it isn't a case of just going to one stall; we get our onions from one, potatoes from another, kumera and chinese radish from a third etc....), and we know how much we spend each week on veg, meat and other sundries.
I've been so heartened by the friendliness of everyone around; so many people are happy to stop for a chat, whether it is the driver on the bus, the owner of the shop, or the person serving us coffee (and we have found a *fantastic* coffee shop called Butlers - in fact, it is a choclatier that has a coffee part to it; every coffee you buy comes with a free chocolate (and it is an amazing chocolate!)); they are genuinely interested in us, but are also so proud of where they are (the bookshop owner has been in Lower Hutt for 60 years, the lady serving us coffee was telling us the best places to live when we were first looking round the area); it helps us realise that we have made the right choice!
I'm still waiting to find out when I'm starting work, which is a little bit frustrating, but as the reason behind the delay is that they are sorting out a contract for me, and I will be the first person in the company to *have* a contract, I can't complain too loudly! (also, the later I start work, the less time I have to spend on the Calendar Club stand - whilst I don't mind doing it, it is mindnumbingly boring!)
Showing posts with label Lower Hutt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lower Hutt. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Lord of the Rings Locations
Our leaving present from the orchestra was a Movies-Trip, a guided tour of some of the film locations around Wellington, mainly, of course, Lord of the Rings, but we did get a bit of Kong as well...
It was a really fun trip; most of the location spotting was done up in Mount Victoria, and included Dunharrow and Weathertop:
(just imagine Aragorn surveying his army, or the Nazgul slinking through the mists towards the hobbits)
the tree where Frodo and Sam cooked the first night:
with maybe a couple of hobbits?
There was also the shortcut to the mushrooms, which was the first scene filmed of anything (just over 10 years ago...), and where one of the stunt men dislocated his shoulder falling down the hill (good job they weren't letting the stars do their own stunts at this point! They only did the last tumble down the bank)
This was also half of the "Get off the Road" location (the other half was another point in the woods)
Unfortunately, the tree they hid under was actually a fake one (as they needed the flat road for the horse to be able to walk on), but the hollow was still there:
We also went to the hill that the Nazgul looked down on before the race to the Ferry:
Looks more like a donkey to me!
A couple that weren't actually Hobbiton woods, but are still nice shots of the woods (and did feel vaguely familiar - possible setting up shots?)
We then headed over to the Mirimar area of Wellington (also known as Wellywood due to the number of studios there) to have a drive round the various factory sheds that are hidden studios (due to the secrecy around a lot of the projects, they don't advertise that they are filming studios etc to avoid having too many people trying to nose in!). We did pass the ship that was used in King Kong, but didn't stop for a picture (it was starting to rain at that point); we will have to try to get out there at some point. Once the ship had been used for filming, it was no longer sea-worthy, and so the studios sold it to a businessman for $1. He had planned to sink it outside of Wellington harbour to make an artificial reef, but has been held up with various issues (Ted didn't say what they were...), and so he is stuck with a non-seaworthy boat on his hands in the meanwhile!
We then went to the Weta cave, parking round the corner from the studios
We saw Peter Lyon's car; the chief swordsmith for Weta drives a baby blue tiny Nissan with Swordz as his numberplate - some of the swords that he makes would not fit in that car!
All in all, a good fun afternoon - well worth doing!
In other updates, I'm now not going to hear about the Heat 'n' Click job until Thursday, as they now want me to meet the new sales manager (which I see as positive as if they were going to reject me, they wouldn't go to all that trouble). I've also got an 'informal meeting' tomorrow (Weds) with the directors of a GIS company; I sent them my CV on spec, and, whilst they don't have any vacancies now, they would still like to meet me. Not bad for a bit of networking, but I'm not going to bank anything on it. It's also a bit of a yomp out - I've got to get two trains. Fortunately, the office manager is going to pick me up from the station, otherwise it would be a bus ride as well!
I've started work in the greenhouse; cleared out the top layer of the soil (which was covered in a leafy-mossy plant) and dug up a load of mini-bulbs (a plant with clover-like leaves, but grown from bulbs - unchecked, they have spread throughout the soil in the greenhouse!). I've also planted some seedlings in starter-pots (not put them in the soil yet; I'll wait for them to sprout first as I want them to have a bit of size before putting them up against whatever weeds are left in the greenhouse soil!), so, fingers crossed, I'll have chillis, capsicum peppers, broccoli, spinach and basil over the coming months.
I also had a long walk this afternoon (felt I needed some air), and went back down to the river (trying to find my way into one of two reserves which are marked on the map, but I am beginning to suspect that they are only reserves because there is no way a house could be built on the steep sides of the hills!). There I discovered that the duck mafia has produced the next generation, and spent about ten minutes watching the ducklings.
It was a really fun trip; most of the location spotting was done up in Mount Victoria, and included Dunharrow and Weathertop:
(just imagine Aragorn surveying his army, or the Nazgul slinking through the mists towards the hobbits)
the tree where Frodo and Sam cooked the first night:
with maybe a couple of hobbits?
There was also the shortcut to the mushrooms, which was the first scene filmed of anything (just over 10 years ago...), and where one of the stunt men dislocated his shoulder falling down the hill (good job they weren't letting the stars do their own stunts at this point! They only did the last tumble down the bank)
This was also half of the "Get off the Road" location (the other half was another point in the woods)
Unfortunately, the tree they hid under was actually a fake one (as they needed the flat road for the horse to be able to walk on), but the hollow was still there:
We also went to the hill that the Nazgul looked down on before the race to the Ferry:
Looks more like a donkey to me!
A couple that weren't actually Hobbiton woods, but are still nice shots of the woods (and did feel vaguely familiar - possible setting up shots?)
We then headed over to the Mirimar area of Wellington (also known as Wellywood due to the number of studios there) to have a drive round the various factory sheds that are hidden studios (due to the secrecy around a lot of the projects, they don't advertise that they are filming studios etc to avoid having too many people trying to nose in!). We did pass the ship that was used in King Kong, but didn't stop for a picture (it was starting to rain at that point); we will have to try to get out there at some point. Once the ship had been used for filming, it was no longer sea-worthy, and so the studios sold it to a businessman for $1. He had planned to sink it outside of Wellington harbour to make an artificial reef, but has been held up with various issues (Ted didn't say what they were...), and so he is stuck with a non-seaworthy boat on his hands in the meanwhile!
We then went to the Weta cave, parking round the corner from the studios
We saw Peter Lyon's car; the chief swordsmith for Weta drives a baby blue tiny Nissan with Swordz as his numberplate - some of the swords that he makes would not fit in that car!
All in all, a good fun afternoon - well worth doing!
In other updates, I'm now not going to hear about the Heat 'n' Click job until Thursday, as they now want me to meet the new sales manager (which I see as positive as if they were going to reject me, they wouldn't go to all that trouble). I've also got an 'informal meeting' tomorrow (Weds) with the directors of a GIS company; I sent them my CV on spec, and, whilst they don't have any vacancies now, they would still like to meet me. Not bad for a bit of networking, but I'm not going to bank anything on it. It's also a bit of a yomp out - I've got to get two trains. Fortunately, the office manager is going to pick me up from the station, otherwise it would be a bus ride as well!
I've started work in the greenhouse; cleared out the top layer of the soil (which was covered in a leafy-mossy plant) and dug up a load of mini-bulbs (a plant with clover-like leaves, but grown from bulbs - unchecked, they have spread throughout the soil in the greenhouse!). I've also planted some seedlings in starter-pots (not put them in the soil yet; I'll wait for them to sprout first as I want them to have a bit of size before putting them up against whatever weeds are left in the greenhouse soil!), so, fingers crossed, I'll have chillis, capsicum peppers, broccoli, spinach and basil over the coming months.
I also had a long walk this afternoon (felt I needed some air), and went back down to the river (trying to find my way into one of two reserves which are marked on the map, but I am beginning to suspect that they are only reserves because there is no way a house could be built on the steep sides of the hills!). There I discovered that the duck mafia has produced the next generation, and spent about ten minutes watching the ducklings.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Home Wireless...
Yup - we has it! We've signed our life away for a two year contract with Telecom, and they gave us a wireless modem for free (Telstra, the other home network company, had no contract length, but also wanted $200 for the modem...). As I can easily see us staying here for two years (I am falling more and more in love with the house and the area every day), I think it isn't a great hardship! It is brilliant being able to get online and to access everything on the computer at the same time, rather than having to remember (or anticipate) the documents that I need and then get them onto a memory stick ready to take up to the library.
This week has been good - fairly light on blogging because all of our internet time has been at the library, which has been at times evilly slow (spending ages waiting for a white page to turn into something interesting is not my favourite way of spending time or money!).
However, I have had a third interview with the Heat 'n' Click company - this time with the other of the two directors. Sean is going to have responsibility for the back office things; i.e. whilst James sells, he makes sure that everything else runs! At the moment, he is juggling a lot of things (the interview was actually done on the move, including me helping him bank the previous day's takings, and getting some coloured paper for him to print signs on...), and needs someone who can take a lot of the administrative paperwork off of his hands (particularly as he said that he is useless with a computer; I rather enjoyed being able to say "I can do that" to pretty much everything he was talking about - the only thing I'd need to do a bit of learning about is building their website - whilst I know html and can use it, I'd need to learn a bit more about making it look good before I could be confident of actually getting something working!) This role was a lot more exciting than the sales role that we had originally discussed, and I think that it would suit me a lot better. The pay isn't brilliant (right at the bottom end of what I'd like to be earning, although there would be a performance related bonus which would bring it to the top end of what I think I could get), but there is so much of a chance to make the role my own, and to step in right at the start of what could possibly be a huge company in a few years' time (at the moment, they have 8 people, with one more starting the week after next...). However, I can't get too excited about it, as I still might not get the job (they have someone else that they are also interviewing).
We have also done a lot of exploring of the library - it is a good 20 minute yomp away, but is very well stocked (and, now that we have an address and have library cards, we can order in books from all over NZ if we want to!), and we have already tallied up a number of issues and returns over the last week. We do also have an amazing little second hand bookshop in the local area - books at a sane price (and I managed to pick up an early, coverless Giles for less than I'd have paid for it in the UK, so I'm incredibly happy about that!), and the owner has a fantastic sense of humour. I'm sure that we will become regular faces in there!
This week has been good - fairly light on blogging because all of our internet time has been at the library, which has been at times evilly slow (spending ages waiting for a white page to turn into something interesting is not my favourite way of spending time or money!).
However, I have had a third interview with the Heat 'n' Click company - this time with the other of the two directors. Sean is going to have responsibility for the back office things; i.e. whilst James sells, he makes sure that everything else runs! At the moment, he is juggling a lot of things (the interview was actually done on the move, including me helping him bank the previous day's takings, and getting some coloured paper for him to print signs on...), and needs someone who can take a lot of the administrative paperwork off of his hands (particularly as he said that he is useless with a computer; I rather enjoyed being able to say "I can do that" to pretty much everything he was talking about - the only thing I'd need to do a bit of learning about is building their website - whilst I know html and can use it, I'd need to learn a bit more about making it look good before I could be confident of actually getting something working!) This role was a lot more exciting than the sales role that we had originally discussed, and I think that it would suit me a lot better. The pay isn't brilliant (right at the bottom end of what I'd like to be earning, although there would be a performance related bonus which would bring it to the top end of what I think I could get), but there is so much of a chance to make the role my own, and to step in right at the start of what could possibly be a huge company in a few years' time (at the moment, they have 8 people, with one more starting the week after next...). However, I can't get too excited about it, as I still might not get the job (they have someone else that they are also interviewing).
We have also done a lot of exploring of the library - it is a good 20 minute yomp away, but is very well stocked (and, now that we have an address and have library cards, we can order in books from all over NZ if we want to!), and we have already tallied up a number of issues and returns over the last week. We do also have an amazing little second hand bookshop in the local area - books at a sane price (and I managed to pick up an early, coverless Giles for less than I'd have paid for it in the UK, so I'm incredibly happy about that!), and the owner has a fantastic sense of humour. I'm sure that we will become regular faces in there!
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