what and stuff.

wow, much life is happening for friends.

my friends in Portland have just closed down their knitting cafe (transforming soon into something new) and are struggling with the issues involved with having a new child and a dog in your life. many decisions, and not easy ones, for two of my favoritest peoples in the whole wide world.

another of my bestest mates who currently lives in Colorado (or is it Wyoming at this mo'?) is preparing to move to Scotland in September to live with his partner and her child. This is a big change for a man who spent many many moons as a single man.

as i've already mentioned multiple times, my co-worker is about to start a new job and have a child of his own.

transitions are afoot.

celeste and i are struggling with what we are to do about a place to live. the owners of our current house bought it to refurb and sell. they only guaranteed we could stay for 6 months. we would very much like to stay there for a few years I think, but we have to roll with the punches. we need to decide whether it is worth sticking it out as long as possible with some uncertainty in this house or whether to really start looking for another place that we will be able to stay as long as we want before having our own baby to take care of.

personal training is going well and my back is behaving itself. i go to another session of training in about half an hour.

Back in the DJ booth so it must be time for an update.

Listening to a song off the new Stars album. I love them. The song is called Personal which you would be hearing if you were listening to my radio show right now! Why aren't you?

The past couple of weeks have been very busy work-wise. Mellower outside of that.

My back is still being problematic. Very frustrating because this past week I have begun working with a personal trainer twice a week in the hopes of getting into better shape, but it is going to be hard to keep up with workouts if my back keeps spasming and causing me misery. Gggrrr.

Hey, thanks for the comments from Kurty and Cait! My readership is double what I thought :-)

Oh, I have a couple bits of fame to report. I was asked by Schmap.com to allow them to use a photo of mine on their online travel guide for Wellington. If you want to see the photo it is in the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary portion of the Wellington travel guide. My other shot at fame is upcoming. The government is updating their immigration website and want stories of immigrants and I have been asked to share mine. We will see what develops from that.

On the work front, my co-worker Guy (we started at the same time and have very much created our office in our image) is leaving at the end of the month. I am having a hard time with that. Not only do I not know when (if) his position will be refilled, but I have really come to enjoy the way we work together and like him a lot as a person. I am a bit nervous to have full responsibility for the running of our office. Well, it will be time for me to get my ass organised and do some hard work for awhile.

I look forward to hearing more about the trip Midge and Mom had to the Kingdom and hearing more about Mabel's transition!!!

Kiwisms: everything is sweet as... or good as... not sure what they are sweet as or good as, that is left to the imagination.

Enjoy the week all!

Hi, just to make clear, thought it will start out as a complaint entry, it will move on and become more pleasant. OK?

So, yeah, a couple of days after turning 40 (ouch) I woke up and started getting ready for work. As I bent over to pick up something (a shirt?) I felt a big crunchy pop sorta thing in my back and spent the rest of the week in quite a bit of pain. Not only that, after a couple of days of the back pain I started having big time digestive issues (that's the nicest way I can think to say it). I had three days of non-stop (well, not quite literally) diarrhea. NOT FUN!!! So, that was my welcome to being 40.

Another thing to complain about is my co-worker. And I am not complaining because he isn't good at his job, quite the contrary. I'm complaining because we began the job at the same time and have worked quite well as a team (i think) putting the office together and creating quite a good atmosphere in which we work. Well, he's leaving at the end of this month and it is causing me anxiety. First of all I worry if our friendship will last his leaving. I think he's a great guy, but I don't know if we've developed a relationship that will last past his leaving. Second, this will leave me all alone with full responsibility for the running of our office. We had already lost our administrative assistant and there is no guarantee how soon Guy will be replaced. It will certainly increase my workload but it will also focus the spotlight on my performance whereas before it was shared between the two of us.

Mostly I think it will be fine, but I would rather he was not going. It is an exciting opportunity for him and I am happy for his future.

One more complaint, but with a happy ending (hopefully they all have happy endings really). Last Sunday Celeste and Samson came with me to the station for the show and about 40 minutes into the show Samson disappeared. Off we went wandering the campus looking for the pup. We spend around 45 minutes including looking around the streets to see if he had become roadkill. Thankfully he wasn't found in that state, unfortunately we didn't find him at all. So, very upset we went home not knowing what more we could do. I pretty much went comatose and decided to sleep. Celeste was a little more active and put up a lost notice on petsonthenet. An hour or so later the phone rang and it was the Animal Control. Had they found us from the microchip we were required to have inserted under his skin? NO. Had they found us from the registration tag he was wearing around his collar that we are also required to pay for? NO, in fact, they tried entering the number into the database and it did not show up at all. How did they find us? They used petsonthenet. So thankful that Celeste put that on immediately! Such a good girl.

So, they told us he was found around College St. and Cambridge Terrace when he ran into a bakery. That's my dog, always looking for something to eat. It is a little amazing to me that he made his way that far without becoming roadkill. Admittedly it was earlyish on a Sunday morning, but he had to cross a few busyish streets. I am just glad that he was safe. We had to pay $100 to get him out of puppy jail.

Okay, enough complaints perhaps?

How about the good stuff? I feel it is safe to announce that Celeste is pregnant again, now about 14.5 weeks along. Of course, my only blog readers (penguindevil and celeste) already know this. It is very exciting though! Also, Celeste just had her 30th birthday. it was a low key affair. My stomach was still quite fragile so I vetoed going out for dinner. We did get some incredibly good Italian takeaway and she got gifts and cake and ice cream. Not so bad, eh?

Otherwise, life is just humming along. Work is quite busy which has made for multiple 12 hour days lately, but I took a day and a half off when my back and intestines were complaining. This coming week will also be quite busy and much more planning needs doing for the future.

Enough for now...

Just passed/past another holiday, yes, the 40th anniversary of the day of my birth. Kept it mellow with just letlet, the puppy and movies to keep me company. Quite an enjoyable combination really. We watched Hot Fuzz, that was quite good. We had dinner at Floriditas, that was incredibly good. I had the rib-eye steak and it was amazingly tasty. I'm not usually much of a red meat person, but since living in NZ I have been eating a bit more.

Otherwise, work is keeping me quite busy. Planning events, visiting schools...the usual. I am still enjoying it quite a bit.

Sorry to be so brief, but there are other things to do.

Wednesday. The 4th of July. Independence Day. Though it isn't yet the fourth in USA. I have nothing more to say about that, just noting.

I have now been working for Massey for one year, have been in Wellington almost exactly 14 months, Celeste has been here almost exactly 8 months. Yups, fascinating details.

I still feel new in NZ, Wellington, Massey. Still learning. Still figuring things out. I enjoy the process. It slows things down a bit that I'm a lazy hermit...

Oh, after my radio show where I last wrote in here Malcolm, who I work with at Massey, appeared on my doorstep. It was a beautiful day outside and he decided it would be good to force me to go for a mountain bike ride with him. I am relatively certain that he now regrets my willingness to go. We went riding, but I found my fat old 39 year old body unable to keep up with his 50 year old body. I was often to be found walking my bike up the hills. Nonetheless I enjoyed myself, but am assuming it was not as much fun for Malcolm.

Coming down started off much more promising. I'm fairly good at going down hill, but as it was my first time really doing mountain biking I was a bit shaky with how narrow the trail was with some big dropoffs to the sides and tree branches often times in my way. Still though, I was riding quite quickly and enjoying it immensely with the added fear adrenaline making it that much more fun. Then one of the branches swiped across my face and into my eye. That was not enjoyable at all. I soldiered on with my eye in pain, watering, squinting...

The next event was when I steered (or didn't steer???) my front wheel a bit closer to the edge of the trail than I ought have and it caught some damp, loose soil and slid into the ditch. I came off of the bike, all of my weight being caught on my left knee before my hands began assisting by scraping along the rocky trail. That really did not help my appreciation of the bike ride. I crawled around on the ground squealing in pain for a bit while Malcolm made his way to me and wisely convinced me to get off of the trail and lie down for a couple of minutes. I took his advice and lay there cursing repeatedly and testing my knee to be sure it was still operating. Luckily it seemed to be in semi-working order and I managed to ride my way to the bottom of the track.

My knee is still rather black and blue and hurts somewhat regularly. When the weather agrees, I would like to ride again. Not sure I'll find anyone at work willing to go with me however. I might need to be a solo rider...

Other than that...just been working and watching DVDs while trying (with mixed success) to take care of my lovely letlet.

back in the booth. brought samson with me today. he is finally starting to lose his baby teeth, can't wait for those little razor sharp things to be gone!!! would love to keep more of my blood on the inside. he's been rambunctious as usual but has finally mellowed out and is lying down at my feet. He just got a haircut yesterday so is a pretty boy. His face is almost all...well, if not white, at least a rather light colour whereas when we got him it was pretty much black. wacky ;-)

life has not been too exciting lately (hence no updates). A few things have been going on though...Celeste has been quite busy with work and quite tired and icky feeling at home. Me, being 100% lazy have been a bit of an ass about this, but am trying to be better and to take care of my partner like a good boy. Still can't help being a brat sometimes. She beat me up last night cuz I wanted her to get me ice cream and wouldn't give her a blanket until she did (she never did, she just beat me until I gave up). So, of course I ended up getting me ice cream and her too :-P

Also, I have been having a few dreams about a girl I worked with 20+ years ago so had to do the internet stalker thing and find her information and contacted her. Her name is Margot. I've always thought she was great, we dated briefly (a couple of times if i remember correctly). So, I have a lot of questions I would like to ask her, but I am afraid I would seem a little crazy if I did.

Funny though, she shared current pix of herself and in some I could swear she was exactly the same as 20 years ago and in others it's obvious the woman she's become. Life is weird...

Just about another month and Celeste can get her PR, that will be very nice indeed!!! Then we will be able to travel outside of the country (if ever the opportunity presents itself).

Winter has been interesting so far. We've had a couple of mornings of frost on the cars and grass. Some torrential rains but also still getting a fair amount of sunshine.

How about all of you? anything to share?

hey, i'm playing dj right now. right now i'm broadcasting 'architecture in helsinki' i love them. and since i can't be bothered to make real playlists for my show we're going in alphabetical order. so far we're just in the 'a's but will be moving into the 'b's relatively soon i think. i don't believe today's two hours get us past 'c'.

so, yeah, sunday morning in wellington. we had a little rain last night but really it's not been too bad around here considering we are rapidly approaching winter.

i'm drinking Milo which has become my radio show ritual. yumyum.

still loving the new house. we finally slept our first night in our bed in the bedroom last night. that was more comfortable than the living room (lounge)in my opinion. haven't yet used the fireplace cuz we are waiting for the chimney sweep to ok the usage.

ouch, just looked at weather report and the high today is 12 celsius and low tonight is 4...bbrrrr! a quick shot of winter!

anyway...back to the show

Hey, we've moved. House is big. Central heating is a wonderful thing. I hope it is efficient. We are quite happy there so far but are barely using half the space! one room has sat completely empty while two others are pretty much just storage for the moment. We really love our kitchen and new fridge.

Samson loves running around the house and the back yard. Of course he has already found the weaknesses in the fencing and is no longer confined to the property if he does not want to be.

We have had to do much shopping for the place. We got some great bargains from our friends Ange and Daniel who are moving back to Australia. We bought a bunch of stuff from them for only $65, and that's NZ dollars to even less US. That includes a nice set of dishes, iron and ironing board, toaster, welcome mat and many other items.

We also bought a nice new set of silverware. It was on big discount so we've really been doing well, spending a lot but only on needs and usually with significant discounts. We are still waiting for our lounge set to arrive (sofa and loveseat). Hopefully get it before June is over.

The transfer of phone and power/gas went smoothly, but apparently our broadband will take another week to catch up to us. Yet another example of why the internet is having some troubles really penetrating the market in NZ, sometimes they do not make things simple. Not such a big deal for me, but a little frustrating not to be able to just call and have service transferred within a day or so.

Oh, instead of moving house, here it is called shifting house. I like that.

Here is a picture of my beloved Samson who has been badly neglected lately. I was out of town for a couple of days for work and now that Celeste is working he is spending many many too many hours alone each days. I intend to take him for a nice long walk when I get home today. He deserves some good exercise! He is a lot bigger now than he was in this photo, he just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

366 Days, but who's counting?

I'm in the booth DJing at lovely MUNTfm (streaming from www.muntfm.co.nz) right now. Playing all kiwi music cuz this is NZ Music MUNTh :-) I do not know most of the music, i just piled it on my ipod and told it to shuffle. Playing a song by Odessa right now which I think is pretty good actually.

To celebrate our one year/six month anniversaries in NZ yesterday was pretty fun. Nothing was really planned as celebration, but it turns out it was my perfect kind of day. We even fit a little argument in, that's always fun.

The day started with us just hanging out for a bit, then we went to see a house that we had already checked out from the outside. It is in Karori, I had been wanting to move closer to work (and to flatter land), but this place is in our price range and once we saw the inside we were both pretty well sold on it. Sold being figurative as we will still just be renting. It is quite good sized which we wanted. There is tons of built in storage, that was very important for me. Allows us to keep the place looking sparse while also having places for all of our crap...nice. It also makes it much easier to puppy proof and later, child proof. Seems to have a lot of power outlets as well, I hate having to run cords all over the place because there is only one outlet in a room. Three sources of heat, gas duct heating, a few electric baseboards and a fireplace. One full bathroom and a half. A good sized backyard for the dog. So, tons of good things. Drawbacks are rather few and mild, still in hilly Karori too far from work; a bit dated and a little rough paintwise; tacky light fixtures; will take a lot of work to make yard really nice; no fridge or washer/dryer so we'll have to purchase those. Honestly though, those are pretty minor. After looking at a place in Khandallah later we decided that we were going to get the place in Karori. I do like Karori, this will be my third place in Karori in my time here. Hopefully this will be it for a few years.

While in Khandallah we had a very nice lunch at a cafe called Taste. After that we went home and had our little argument about choosing a place to live and decided on the Karori place.

The big event for the day was seeing Herbie Hancock in concert last night. I never thought I would see him live, though I've followed his career a little since Rockit was a big hit in the 80s. It was an awesome show. Really really good, just so much talent in the four people on the stage. An awesome combo of styles.

That was about it for the day, not bad not bad.

One year in NZ, Wellington, Karori. Today is the day.

So, what has this year been like? Mostly just comfortable. Things have gone quite well. I got a great job, found a great apartment and have settled in quite well. Six months ago when Celeste arrived a new chapter began. From two years of long distance relationship to living together in one day. Quite a change.

It was also frustrating for us that she had received a Work-to-Residency visa not permanent residency so her staying in NZ was predicated on her finding a job. We soon learned that would be complicated by the time that she arrived in country. Turns out I had arrived at a very good time whereas she seemed to arrive at the worst time. November is too close to the x-mas holidays and everyone pretty much puts hiring on hold until sometime in January. So, nothing much happened on the job front. Then just as she was getting more interviews and things the Easter holiday arrived and things stopped again! So, it ended up with her not having a job offer before her visa was set to expire. We then spend some hectic times figuring out what new visa to apply for. This was complicated by the fact that the situation for WTR visa holders was in flex because it was not just Celeste having difficulty finding a job in the time allotted. After we finally tossed the application in the immigration drop box she was at last offered a great job. Of course when we contacted immigration to update them we found that they had lost her application (and passport that was with it). Very last minute it all came together and Celeste started her job Monday and in three months she should have her Permanent Residency taken care of! PHEW!!! It's been a hard time for her but it all works out.

Compared to that everything else has been pretty easy. The hardest adjustments are for her because she's having a difficult time dealing with what a lazy bastard I am. Now that she is working I am really trying to get better though!

And then on March 21 we brought home a little puppy who was born on January 22. He was named Samson by Celeste after a Regina Spektor song we both like a lot. He is a very cute little Australian Terrier/Maltese cross. He has grown from about 1.5kg to 3.3kg in the 6 weeks we have had him. Celeste is very committed to teaching him tricks. He will now sit/lie down/shake/jump up/roll over for treats. He is still learning to "stay" and "drop it." Unfortunately he does not like being left alone and our neighbours have complained to the authorities about his barking when we are away during the day. We are now looking for a house where he can bark his little brains out. Hopefully we will also be able to train him not to be quite so upset while we are away. Unfortunately I think that will be some work.

Hmmm...those are the things that jump out at me to write about for now. All in all, I am very happy about my first year as a NZ resident. I am working out and taking long walks regularly. Really trying to get healthier. Celeste and I want to have a child within the next year or so and I would like to be an active healthy parent!

If anyone manages to fine their way back here, please feel free to let me know!

One year ago I flew out of NYC on my way to NZ. Leaving New York was always a mixed bag for me. One year later I still feel the same way. There are a lot of things I really liked about being there. Maybe the thing I liked most was just that, Being THERE! 6.5 years in the Big Apple. Being the hermit that I am, I never took advantage of it like I could/should have, but still...the energy of that city is different than anything I have experienced and I enjoyed many aspects of that. I liked the diversity most of all. Really every type of person you could ever expect to see you would see in NY on a daily basis. Walking down the street hearing the kaleidoscope of accents and languages was so great.

I never got over the intensity of feeling when I would see the skyline of Manhattan when driving in Queens. All of the different neighbourhoods with such distinct personalities. The unmatched variety of food. All of the little and not so little dogs.

Of course, beyond that were my friends I left behind. Not that I had so many, but I had a few that it is hard to be away from. Carrie was my best friend for 6 years and very difficult to walk away from that support and love. Paul was a great buddy and was almost enough to motivate me into being a healthier person. I think New Zealand itself has taken over for him, I'm really trying to stop being a couch potato. Nina, my friend that I would never see, but we always meant to spend more time together. Also, all of my other friends all over the states, it just feels that much less likely we'll see each other now that I am on the bottom of the world.

Honestly though, this was a move I still feel I had to make. Not just because I needed to be with Letlet (though that is more than reason enough), but because I needed to get away from it all. I have always wanted to really live somewhere else in the world and though in some ways Wellington New Zealand feels a lot like home (home being Portland and the pacific northwest), it is also a very different experience. I have not yet made close friends after a year here, but I do feel connected to people. I think I can belong here, that I can happily spend my life here.

I am returning to semi-regular posting. Will I still have any viewers?

The past six months have been quite full, so of course I did not blog any of it. Now that things seem to be mellowing I will return to the world of blogging. It is so much more fun to write when you have nothing to say.

The short version of the past half year is this, letlet arrives, looks and looks and looks for work, began work this very Monday with assorted wackiness in between. There is a new addition to our happy home name of Samson, I will put in pictures soon. I am still working in same place, we are all still living in same place but the home situation is likely to change before too much longer.

This is enough to get me started back. I will expand on all of these areas and more in the near future.

we're almost a week into the letlet and jon show. so far things are very very good. celeste has seen more of wellington in her first week than i did in my first month. we've been doing a lot of running around and she has been going to a lot of job interviews. the weather hasn't been great, but she's surviving, just wearing a lot of layers.

we've been shopping a bit for the apartment. getting the place more personalised by rearranging also.

today is a beautiful sunny day so we'll go to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and check out the wildlife (mostly consisting of birds). then tonight we're going to go see the Allah Made Me Funny show.

that's the story for now...

The day has arrived! In about 8 hours letlet will arrive in Wellington and one and a half years of planning will come to fruition. It is very exciting. I am taking the week off of work and renting a car so that we can have the freedom to do whatever appeals. The weather isn't quite what I hoped, but I suppose she better get used to some grey and rainy weather.

I was also on a jury a couple of weeks ago. We found a man not guilty of assault with a machete. That was an interesting introduction to the New Zealand justice system. Just a few days after that, I was driving up the motorway and this guy was really tailgating me closely. Finally he was able to get past me and then all of a sudden this truck seemed to be tailgating me too. I thought, what the hell is going on!!! Then lights started flashing and I realised that the truck was driven by a cop. So, long story short, the original tailgater and I were pulled over. I was a little confused as to why I was pulled over. Turns out that the cop wanted me to demonstrate how close the guy had been tailgating me. Another interesting introduction to NZ legal.

Otherwise it's just been work and laziness mixed in with trying to get the apartment presentable for letlet's arrival. Hard to imagine how completely different life will be starting today. I welcome the change. Though it is easy for me to become a hermit, I do not think it is the best lifestyle for me. At least now we can hermit together.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Just received the new Wellington region telephone books today. I am in the phonebook! Makes me feel like I really do live here. Also noticed there are only three people with my last name in the phonebook, even more interesting is that two of those three people work at Massey University.

That's about all I have for now...

Here I am! Didja miss me?

Okay, here's the news! In less than a month, if all goes as planned (and doesn't it always?), Let will be here to live out the remainder of her days in hellish cohabitation with me! I'm lazy, i'm a slob, i'm irritable and smelly. I don't like to leave the apartment for any reason and I snore! She is SOOOOOOO excited to be on her way to this!

I, on the other hand, am getting a great deal out of this. Not only am I going to be cohabiting with an incredibly hot, smart, motivated, successful woman, she also wants to cook for me! It's almost like i'm stuck in some crazy dreamworld.

The scary part for the future of New Zealand and the World is that she also wants to have a baby with me! What will come of this tri-cultural abomination? Born in kiwiland of an ami and a flip? I don't think it bodes well for the future of civilisation.

Other than that, working and enjoying it, scooting and enjoying it, watching movies and enjoying it. Waiting for the 6th season of the Sopranos to make its way to me somehow so I can enjoy it. I've been watching a lot of Colbert Nation and The Daily Show over the last few days to catch up on the fake news situation back in the states. I've also been listening to and watching Flight of the Conchords to see how two guys from Wellington are preparing to take over the USofA.

Today is probably the nicest day we've had in a few weeks. This just means that it's not raining, the temperature might be in the double digits, the wind isn't blowing my recycling bin down the walkway and the sun is making brief appearances from behind the clouds. It's progress! Spring will be here in no time. Proof of that is from my little mutant potted apple tree i have on our patio. It is growing many a leaf now, it makes me happy. Kinda wish it were inside though!

Wow, what a pile of...typing this is.

Thank you for your support.

jdr

My favourite NZ Bookmarks

feed://wellurban.blogspot.com/atom.xml

http://zoomin.co.nz/wellington/

http://www.wellingtonspca.org.nz/

http://home.nzcity.co.nz/tvnow/tvguide.asp

http://www.trademe.co.nz/category_index.htm

http://wellingtonista.com/

http://www.stuff.co.nz/

http://www.pricespy.co.nz/

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,0a15a33,00.html

http://www.turners.co.nz/Branches/National/tabid/285/Default.aspx

http://www.solarhouseday.com/index01.shtml

http://www.move2nz.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fmember%2fmymove2nz.aspx

http://firstin.co.nz/splash/index.php

http://www.ferrit.co.nz/home.asp

http://apple.co.nz/

Coming Soon!

A list of my favourite NZ links.

Also, today I get my scooter back. I visited it yesterday and it seemed happy. Now I will see if I can go more than 9 days without hurting the poor thing again. I believe it needs a name, if anyone has suggestions, please share!

Cheers,

JDR

has it been another month already? 4 months in NZ 2 months on job and all is well.

the biggest recent news is that letlet has heard from her visa officer and was offered a work-to-residency visa. she now needs to send in passport, a few docs and fees. then it will be processed and her visa will be sent back to her. she has booked a ticket for Nov. 4th which would get her here exactly 6 months after my arrival. quite exciting! i have to see if i can get that week off from work!

the other news is that i bought a little 50cc scooter. it's cute. of course not much power but it gets me around. well, it got me around. the other night it was dark and rainy night and i got all the way home no problem. then there is a steep driveway to my apt. and i kinda gunned it up the driveway and me and scooter kinda fell over :-P the scooter got the worst of it and is now in the shop being repaired. i banged up my knee a bit and tweaked my back somewhat.

i was stupid, it was really just a dumb thing to do. that's what i get for playing with new toys :-P

otherwise, still enjoying work. i've been going out to schools to tell students how to go about enrolling in university and things.

still nothing going on socially. i'm sure that will change once letlet is here.

oh, i have fallen in love with chocolate caramel slices here though. definitely my favourite sugar item right now.

also have plenty of family drama but i don't really feel like broadcasting all that.

cheers all,

jdr