beautiful bookshelves

beautiful bookshelves

finally we got some bookshelves this week, I got quite excited to actually have our stuff out and not in boxes for the first time in a long time. our house is getting less chaotic and more peaceful. we're just waiting to have the mouldy carpet in our main bedroom replaced and we'll be able to move in fully. it's quite a hassle going back & forth between rental agents and landlords but I think we're just about there on having a well-ventilated non-mildewed home! the last tenants did not take care of this place.

so I have a job! the real deal, mon-fri 8.30-5 office job. it's at a propety agents as reception & admin and looks pretty friendly. it's on a long-term temping basis but if they like me it may turn permanent... office colours are black, white & red which I can cope with and amusingly are the same as NZONE colours so fran and I will be a cute matching couple when we're both working!



you may be getting a lot of balcony pics now that we're not travelling round much! I'll get some pics of inside our place up as soon as we're moved in fully. hopefully soon I'll have a weeny little camera I can carry around and snap anything that takes my fancy.

hmm, that wasn't very exciting was it? I have some art & musings to post soon... cheerybye!

working girl...

aaah, just had such a funny letter come through the door that my cheeks actually hurt I was so amused. my energy bill came addressed to Mrs Lickelborough! ...which means that when I spelt my name starting with 'M for mother' they must have thought I said 'L for lover'. strange. and amusing. let's hope that mistake doesn't happen too often, or publically!

I finally have some temp work - house keeping. man, my appreciation of the service professions is going way up. all I can say is, people, leave your hotel rooms tidy. don't vomit in sinks, make confetti out of your leaflets or pee all over the floor. it is interesting to see life from a pretty different viewpoint. hopefully I'm going to get an on-going temp job in an office mon-fri 9-5 stylee starting next week, which has potential to become a permanent job or if not really aid my applications by having current clerical work on my cv.

so I'm pooped. earning money, although not a lot. and meeting some nice people. and developing my skills of understanding heavily accented english. oh, and I get free cooked lunch and free part-used toilet rolls and left over groceries from self-catered units. we had pancakes last night with maple syrup...

happy and sad news



so, my great news is that I've just become an aunty for the first time. my eldest brother dave and his wife win had a gorgeous little girl on thurday, 2 weeks earlier than expected. she's called talia josephine. I'm so excited for them, and so gutted to be on the other side of the world. it's likely to be a year before we see them, but we'll definately be getting ourselves sorted with skype and a camera so we can do video calling!



my parents were away in wales out of reception when win went into labour and didn't find out talia was born til they drove up a hill and got a text message! how many newborns have such a cool hairstyle as my little niece, eh?



and here's the other view to the west and the remarkables as promised. I love sitting on my balcony and taking in the stillness and calm. I'm also becoming a crazy bird lady as I'm trying to get birds to feed on my balcony. a neighbours' cat likes sitting on our balcony for some reason, so I go and collect it and eject it through the front door to try to encourage it to find a different spot to hang out at. there are some sweet birds called silvereye which are about the same size as a robin but feed in groups and they have gorgeous colouring that I particularly like. here's one chirpy little chappy...



the sad news is that one of the instructors I worked with at FMA, damien, died last week ice climbing in the french alps. we worked together really regularly most of the time, but when I left the UK we had some unresolved issues, and it makes me a little more sad we didn't manage to sort them out. at times like this it's not so cool being on the other side of the world.

refreshing view



here's the view west from our balcony at sunrise towards cecil peak and queenstown. to the east we look at the remarkables which is a range of very craggy, jagged mountains, but I don't have a pic doing them justice yet. we're getting sorted in our place and it's quite a haven to me. great to have our own space back again after living in a shared house for a while. so, our address and contact details now are:

address: unit 2, 507 frankton road, queenstown, 9300
home tel: +64 (0) 3 441 3291



flukey timing on this pic, taken at the top of the gondola station above queenstown, captured a tandem paraglider on it's way past - something I'd really love to do but it's a tad expensive at the moment. we spent a short day walking up the gondola hill via a stream that was used for the first hydro-electric power in queenstown in the 1920's (I think). the old water pipes ran beside the path all the way up through pines and deciduous forest, it was a gorgeous walk. this pic was taken at the old dam that supplied the hydro pipes with bent and broken bits of pipes sticking out of the ground at strange angles.



so I'm looking for work, and finding the application process of seeing an ad, applying, waiting to hear about an interview, interview, to hopefully job offer a little slow and frustrating so I'd really appreciate your prayers on that front, and also on selling our lovely rose as she doesn't really fit in our teeny parking space and our drive is incredibly steep and not rose-friendly on frosty/snowy days!

anyone feeling in the mood, I'd love some snail mail at my new address!!
jen xxx