I’ve been back to Napier for three weekends in a row now. That’s right, since moving to Wellington I’ve spent a grand total of one weekend actually in Wellington.

I managed to get a few days work thanks to Jo so worked from Wednesday to Friday last week before heading up to Napier with the lil bros. So here are my last few days in pictures…

A to do list at work:

My foot all work-shoed up:

A pic of my work laptop while I was waiting for it to work again:

And a photo of my work notebook:

Me, mum, dad, Rhys and Jay all went to Deano’s for lunch on Saturday and on our way out I spied this feather. Great contrast with the dark, wooden floor:

Here’s the melting soft serve cone me and Jay got for Rhys when we did a lunch run on Sunday:

And this is me mucking around by the computer:

And again with books in the background that I used to read when I was a kid:

Pikachu lazing in the sun in his new favourite spot (on top of dad’s sweatshirt, on top of the BBQ):

Mudi waiting for food:

Mudi working for her food:

And a flower outside Gon Gon’s resthome:

It was nice having someone else in the car to chat to this time. When we nearly reached Wellington Jay decided to try some old CDs in the car stereo and we pissed ourselves laughing at the songs on there. They included the Cantonese version of “Lemon Tree”, Get Low by Lil Jon, Toxic by Britney Spears… you can’t make this stuff up!

Thanks to Jo I’ve managed to pick up a few days of work which has been great for the bank account. Also, I get to dress like this:

I bought the skirt from Primark last year and it still had the tags on this morning – shows how often I dress up for work!

I nicked this idea from Elsie over at A Beautiful Mess. I didn’t do my annual goals this year… or last year… so I figured I’d write some stuff down to give me a reminder that I really need to do these things.

1. Take more photos of every day things – I love the mundane things in life. Especially through the eyes of a faux retro camera (like Retro Camera and Hipstamatic.
2. Get out of the house and do more lowlight photography – there must be some dark, dingy pubs in Wellington. London can’t have monopolised them all.
3. Eat a buttload of fruit and veges.
4. Volunteer somewhere. Often.

Can I add on there: blog more?!

I’ve just done the dishes and put a lovely new duvet cover on the bed. Such is the life of the unemployed.

Unemployment

Finally, after two weeks of unemployment I went into the Work & Income NZ office and asked about the unemployment benefit. Turns out the form I half filled in online was no point. I should’ve just gone in and set up an appointment. Fingers crossed I actually get a job before my benefit gets set up.

On a side note, I’m sure it’s the same the world over but benefits offices are a depressing place. A guy ahead of me in the queue was asking for money for shoes and a bed. When asked for ID he provided a crumpled up print out which in no way constituted ID. He wasn’t wearing shoes so at least the request for shoes was believable.

Earthquakes

Two days ago we had a 4.5 earthquake at around 10pm. Then this morning at 2:19am there was another quake. Both were short and sharp as opposed to slow and rolling. There were also at least two aftershocks in the night which were enough to wake me.

Dad called after the first one advising that the “Moon Man” had predicted a big one on the 20th. Hmmm. I’ve put together a tote bag with the essentials (hard drives with photos on them, passport, cash, car keys) and put it next to the bed in case we need to make a quick escape.

After 14 years of living in Napier and another six and a half in Wellington (both on faultlines) I must say it’s the most prepared I’ve ever been for a natural disaster.

When we were hanging out at Por Por’s the other day she was feeding us up as usual and remarked to Jay he had better eat some more or else he’d be a “naughty boy”.

But the funniest thing came just before we left. She said to Rhys and Jay: “So funny. One of you is fee-fee-bahk-bahk and the other is hahk-hahk-sohw-sohw.”
Basically meaning that one of them is fat-fat-white-white and the other is dark-dark-skinny-skinny. Talk about piss myself laughing!!