My Boy Bruno, The Sami Sisters & Wagamama

The only downside to the previous weekend was that it was also my mom’s birthday. So, for the first time in 24 years, I was not around to celebrate it with her and take her out for a day of pampering like I normally would—gutting. I did the second best thing that I could and mailed her a nice card and birthday package, but I hated to not be there with her. I know we’ll make up for lost time tenfold after I get back though! On a brighter note, the following Monday was July 25th and I had a much-anticipated visit from my Bruno Mars lookalike Ricky! He had flown back into Auckland after being in Indonesia for four weeks and was staying in Auckland for the night before heading back to Wellington the next day for work. So, after I got off of work that day, I excitedly met him in front of his hotel.

From there, we walked toward Vulcan Lane/Lorne Avenue/High Street area, my favorite part of the city, to find somewhere to eat. We stopped for dinner at a Japanese restaurant on Lorne Avenue where neither of us had dined before. The food and atmosphere were really good, and we were practically the only ones in there. We ended up staying for hours, talking, telling stories, and catching up. He told me all about his trip back to Indonesia to see all of his family, and how his mom kept trying to put ‘skin whitening cream’ on him to make his skin lighter haha. I had no idea such a thing existed! He had a great time though, camping, going to the islands, Bali, surfing, etc. We didn’t leave the restaurant until somewhat late, then walked back to the hotel where Ricky showed me all the pictures of his trip on his laptop.

As soon as I walked into his room, I was hit by a massive heat wave. The room was small, and he’d purposely left his heater up full blast, along with another mini portable heater running at full power. Apparently, he was having a hard time adjusting to being back in New Zealand’s winter weather after living in the heat of the islands for the past month. So, as a result, he turned his room into a full-on sauna haha. The pictures of Indonesia were brilliant though. We also watched a video he recorded when him and his friend were riding a scooter through the busy roads of Jakarta. It was pretty crazy since virtually no one obeys the road rules, and repercussions for such behavior are basically nonexistent. So, everyone just does whatever they want to do. Pretty wild, eh?

A little later, we went back out for a second dinner…I think Ricky’s appetite had increased while he was away after being fed so much food by his mom haha. We walked to another Japanese restaurant close to my flat, and Ricky ate some duck soup while I just warmed up with some hot green tea. I love the fact that many of the Asian restaurants around here automatically serve hot green tea for no charge…does the body good. My evening with Ricky was once again absolutely wonderful. I hated saying goodbye to him the next day before he flew back to Wellington. I’ll be making a visit to see him before I leave for Thailand though. Plus, I will get to see Bryce and Brian at the same time since they will be in Wellington too!

On Wednesday, I had lunch with Sandra again, which was fun as usual. After work, I did some laundry while Emma was out and about. However, when I went to hang my clothes out on the clothes rack that we keep out on the balcony, I was surprised to see that the rack was folded up. I proceeded to make a very, very sad attempt to put it back together and was miserably unsuccessful haha. I tried and tried for what seemed like ages; I knew it couldn’t be that hard, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t figure it out! So, in the end, the rack ended up being flat on the ground with legs out, except for one small area in the middle, which I hung my towel over haha. I put the rest of my clothes on hangers and placed them strategically around the rest of the balcony on the chairs, etc. When Emma got home and saw what I had done, she began laughing hysterically and took pictures of my sad excuse of a laundry rack. Hahaha. Then, after she was done laughing, she said, “Okay, come here. We’re going to have a wee little lesson.” After said lesson, I can now properly put that stupid rack together (and yes, it was ridiculously easy). =)

That night, Emma and I went to a concert at a bar called Kings Arms to see the Sami Sisters play. Emma actually works there as a bartender sometimes when the bar gets extra busy, so she obviously has some connections. Therefore, her boss let us into the concert for free—very nice! The concert was pretty fun and Emma even helped out a bit behind the bar while we were there. Emma left for Hamilton the next day to meet up with her parents, as they would then all be heading to Taupo for a family reunion. Emma invited me to the family reunion as well, so I planned to meet up with her in Taupo over the weekend. Until then, it was only Thursday. So, I met up with Mary at Starbucks after work that day, and we stayed there for hours laughing and catching up.

After Starbucks, we decided to grab some dinner. We walked down Vulcan
Lane toward High Street, and ended up at a restaurant called Wagamama up some stairs off of High Street. Great dinner! The next day at work was good, especially because Chhaya surprised me with a gift. For at least a month prior to then, there had been advertisements all over the office for a work “Bollywood” event that was to take place on August 12th. It was to involve everyone dressing up in traditional Indian attire and such. I had already decided that I wouldn’t attend since it would be a bit unreasonable for me to spend a lot of money on such an outfit for one night.

Well, I never said anything to anyone about not going. However, Chhaya came to my desk that Friday afternoon carrying a bag, and asked in her sweet voice, “Aaaash, you’re going to the Bollywood event, right?” I told her I wasn’t, to which she immediately responded, “Of course you are! I brought this for you to wear.” Sure enough, in the bag was an absolutely breathtaking Indian ensemble that she had specifically picked out for me to borrow for the event! SUCH a sweetheart!! =) It made me feel very special. After work, I just chilled at the flat, watched TV, and blogged—had the place to myself too! That doesn’t happen too often when you have two flatmates.

Cheers,

Ash

Quiz Night & Hillbilly Hoedown

The next day, I had the pleasure of eating lunch with my British friend Sandra who used to work with me at AMP. We tried to get away with eating our home-packed meals at Crema Café, the coffee shop at the bottom of the AMP building. However, it wasn’t long before we were kicked out for not being customers haha. So, I snuck her up to the cafeteria on the 20th floor and we had our lunch there. It was really great to catch up with her—miss seeing her every day at work! That evening, I went to a quiz night with Emma and Hemi to Caluzzi bar on K Road. I usually don’t like to attend quiz nights because they just make me feel dumb, but I thought I’d at least give it a try. Hemi’s friend Steven actually worked at Caluzzi and was the one in charge of the quizzing. Steven was hilarious—quite a character!

After everyone got into their teams and came up with team names (I sadly can’t remember ours), the quizzing began. Consisting of four rounds, the first was general knowledge. To my surprise, I knew almost all of the answers, as did Emma and Hemi. Although, I will admit that Steven didn’t really make the questions particularly difficult. =) For Round 2, we were given a handout with pictures from different 80s cartoons and had to label each one. Emma saved the day on that one. Round 3 involved listening to and correctly identifying 80s TV show theme songs! Haha..that was a fun one, listening to all those old classic intros. The last round was umm…interesting. It was a whole round devoted to questions about apples. Yes, apples. For the last few questions though, we were served slices of different apples and had to identify them by sight and taste, so that was kind of fun.

Near the end of the evening, Emma and Hemi’s friend Lawrence came to join us as well. Originally from England, he looked exactly like a Canadian guy I went to Florida State University with in Tallahassee…craziness. Maybe everyone really does have a twin somewhere in the world…hmm. Anyway, our team didn’t end up winning the quiz, but it was pretty fun nonetheless. It was Friday the next day, and my work was having a sort of Health and Wellbeing Day. They handed out these free, really heavy-duty duffle bags in the cafeteria, each having a nice jersey inside, along with a sports bottle and trail mix packages. Score! Once again, free stuff ALL the time at AMP.

Plus, they gave you the opportunity to sign up for a few other things, such as a free massage and/or a mini afternoon bootcamp to get whipped into shape! They were all to be done during working hours too, so you’d be getting paid at the same time! I actually didn’t sign up for either one though (stupid in regards to the massage, I know). Not really sure what I was thinking. After work, the weekend was here yet again. I just chilled out at the flat Friday night, but Saturday was full-on. Emma and I drove over to the suburb of Northcote to a huge op-shop called Save Mart. The goal: find hillbilly attire for Bryce and Brian’s birthday party! After and many try-ons and sifting through endless racks, we successfully found our outfits.

Emma purchased an old school jean jacket, some countrified jeans, and two trucker hats that couldn’t have been more perfect: one said “Trucks Rock” and the other said “Westie.” In Auckland, the term Westie refers to low status people that usually live in the western suburbs of Auckland. As for me, I found the perfect plaid flannel shirt with splotches of red, black, gray, and white. Sensationally ugly! I wanted to find some overalls to go with it, but Save Mart didn’t carry any (the one time I could say I was actually disappointed by that fact haha). Instead, I decided to just save some money and wear a pair of tight jeans that I already owned. After we got back into town, we stopped by Look Sharp and purchased our wigs for the evening—a fabulous afro for Emma and a long blonde wig for myself.

We played dress-up after we got back to the flat and took some fun pre-party pictures. Emma, for some unknown reason, owns a collection of cowboy hats, so I wore a red one that matched my hillbilly shirt perfectly. With the addition of my tight jeans and some purposely over-done makeup, I was ready to go. Emma commented by saying, “You look like a Texas housewife.” Haha. As for her, she ROCKED that afro. Classssic! We of course had to exit the flat wearing these lovely outfits, which included an awkward elevator ride down with other people from our complex haha. The party was held at this place associated with Bryce’s work, although I can’t remember exactly how it was associated…since Bryce is a physio and this place had a bar attached to it…

Regardless, before entering the building, we immediately made the unfortunate realization that in order to get to the big room Bryce and Brian had rented out for the party, we’d have to walk through this bar that was FILLED with rugby guys. It was a short…but brutal…walk haha. The evening was soo much fun though! Bryce and Brian had gone all out for their hillbilly outfits, even bringing out the mullets! Plus, Bryce had a fake tattoo on his arm saying “I love mom” and Brian was sporting a very large, fake beer belly haha. The boys had also rented out a mechanical bull for the evening, which Bryce took full advantage of and apparently had bruises the next day! No, I did not ride the bull =) The party had a high turnout of probably between 60-100 people, with almost everyone strutting some type of hillbilly attire. I spent most of the evening with Emma, Brian’s mom Deborah, his brother Kevin, Carol, Hemi, and of course Bryce and Brian.

The boys had even paid for an open bar! I must say, they certainly know how to throw a party! After lots of dancing, a slideshow for the boys, and a couple of speeches from friends and family, Emma, Hemi and I said goodbye and headed out. The three of us then went to Family bar on K Road, where we were joined by Lawrence. Luckily, I had a tank top on underneath my hillbilly shirt, so I de-wigged and de-shirted and was ready to go. After hours of dancing, I finally headed home at 3:30 am for some much-needed sleep. Emma was a trooper and apparently didn’t come home until 6:00 am! Carol was supposed to host a BBQ at her house the next day, but it got cancelled due to massive hangovers haha. Luckily, I didn’t drink very much, so I was feeling fine. Our Sunday was very low-key though. I think the only thing Emma and I did was get some yummy takeaway from the Indian restaurant Raviz a couple of blocks down from the flat. Great weekend if I do say so myself!

Cheers,
Ash

When Work Really Does Equal Fun

The following week was quite an eventful one, especially at work. Jess went part-time, as she began classes at uni. I could have kept eating lunch with Phil and Simon in the cafeteria, but without Jess there to balance the conversation away from rugby and such, I decided to start having lunch at my desk instead haha. Plus, by just quickly eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at my desk, it gave me extra time to be able to call mom on my lunch breaks. So, that was quite nice. That Monday night, I Skyped with Katerz again, which was great. Man, I love Skype. I even got up extra early on Tuesday morning and Skyped with mom before I went to work at 7:15 am. Since she was at work at the time, she walked me around the office a bit on her laptop and I got to talk to Becki and Suzie as well. Great to see them all!

After work that day, a few of the teams from AMP, including my team, met up for a big dinner and movie outing. About 15-20 of us ate dinner at La Porchetta, an Italian restaurant just two blocks down from my flat. In Australia and New Zealand, many establishments have a “BYO” (Bring Your Own) policy, which allows customers to bring their own wine for a small corkage fee. La Porchetta was one such establishment, so many of my coworkers took advantage. It was really nice to be in a casual setting with people from work though. I sat beside my friend Jess and another woman Donna who runs the phone team. I had never really had the opportunity to speak with her previously, but she was really sweet.

Dinner had some comical moments too, including when a few of the phone team members told stories about amusing calls they’d received. One guy, Scott, had us laughing quite a bit when he described one particular call from a client: Scott- “Welcome to AMP, this is Scott. How may I help you?” Client- “Umm..yes..what was your name?” Scott- “My name is Scott.” Client- “I’m sorry..what?” Scott- “Scott.” Pause….no answer from client. Scott- “My name is Scott.” Client finally answering, in a confused manner- “God???” Hahaha. Anyway, the New Zealand International Film Festival was going on in Auckland at the time, so some people from our group had planned to see one of the films after dinner and had already pre-bought tickets. I wasn’t too keen on seeing a film that was a complete wildcard when I could instead save my money to see something in theatres that I knew I’d enjoy.

However, someone from the group backed out of going to the film after pre-paying for the ticket, so I took advantage of a free movie opportunity. The movie was a Japanese drama called Norwegian Wood, and it was playing at The Civic theatre. The Civic itself was INCREDIBLE—upon walking inside the theatre, I felt like I was walking into an opera house in Europe or something. The architecture was absolutely gorgeous, and the “ceiling” was not a ceiling at all. Instead, it literally looked like a brilliant night sky, with stars, and even wispy, moving clouds. Very impressive! The movie, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. Although its description mentioned unrequited love, I had no idea what I was in for. Two suicide stories later and a lot of mental breakdowns in-between, the film was 133 minutes too long.

At one point, the main character (who didn’t end up killing himself) was mourning over the loss of a girl, sitting on some rocks at the ocean’s edge. There was no joke a 5-10 minute scene of JUST him sobbing on these rocks, including a lovely time in which he had a large string of drool hanging out of his mouth AND flapping around in the wind. Uh huh…that’s right…FLAPPING around in the wind…long, extended scene. I’m sorry, call me shallow but in my opinion, you just can’t put something like that in a serious drama and expect people not to laugh. Am I right or am I right? Haha. Wow! So, needless to say, I was verrrrry glad that I got that ticket for free.

The next day at work, July 20th, was extra special, as it was SURVIVOR DAY! Haha. Yes, it was just as cheesy as you might think. Each team was assigned a color, so we all had to make banners to represent our teams, plus dress up in our assigned colors. Our color was blue and we had a pretty kick@$$ banner if I do say so myself (many thanks to Ervin and a few of the other girls). Our team supervisor told us to wear all black to work that day, then we were given bright blue bandanas with our team name Maroro. Besides the competitions for best banner and best outfit, the other competitions throughout the day included a gummy worm-eating contest, a hula-hooping contest, and a baking contest (with anything made with coconut cream earning extra points).

Phil represented our team in the gummy worm-eating contest—only fitting since he’s a rugby player and eats an insane amount of food every day, all while staying thin and probably 95% muscle. I think he ate around 20 gummy worms in the 30-second time limit, without the use of his hands. Sadly, 20 wasn’t quite enough to win. Hamish from one of the other departments beat him by a few gummy worms, which wasn’t entirely surprising since Hamish is the other one known around the office for eating an astounding amount of food while still staying thin. =) In fact, at our La Porchetta dinner, every single plate of food that wasn’t finished by any one of our group of 15-20 was passed down to Hamish to polish off haha.

I was the appointed person to represent our team in the hula-hooping competition. Yeahhh…let’s just say my hula-hooping skills have greatly diminished since my championship days in the 3rd grade haha. The guys in the office were actually a LOT better than us women though. I think Pierce took first place—he hula-hooped for ages! To find out who had won all the competitions, etc. throughout the day, we received “tree mail” in these designated green “tree” buckets in each department haha. Our team won three different types of delicious Cadbury chocolate. To end our Survivor day, the drink trolley came around and we were served alcoholic tropical punch, complete with umbrellas and all. Man, I love my job. =)

Cheers,
Ash

Skype Dates, Mid-Winter Sunbathing & Roller Derby

The following week was pretty low-key. Jess, Phil, Simon and I delighted in some unexpected free lunch at work during our lunch break on Monday, so that was a pleasant surprise. Emma and I met Bryce for dinner that night at Ponsonby Food Court. Brian had flown out for Wellington that same day, July 11th, but Emma and I still wanted to keep the Monday night dinner routine going until the time came for Bryce to move down there as well. It was a good evening, as would be expected. After dinner, Emma and I made a pitstop at McDonalds to feed our McFlurry cravings before going back home. =) Mmm mmm good. After we got home, I researched digital cameras online that I had previously looked at in the stores, and finally purchased one! I bought a Canon Ixus that was on special ($100.00 off) and it even included a nice leather case and 2G memory card. Sweet as! I picked it up about a week later from the local Bond and Bond store and have barely put it down ever since. Verrrry nice indeed!

Everyone in my team at work got even more spoiled during the week too, with two more morning teas back to back on Thursday and Friday (one for my co-worker Ian's birthday and one to thank all of us for our hard work--again) haha...love it. Tons of yummy food and desserts. The rumor around AMP is that you will gain at least 5 kilos while working there, which is equivalent to 11 pounds. I believe this rumor is quite credible, and I am pretty certain that I have successfully gained back all the weight I lost while backpacking. I'm not completely convinced this is a good thing, but hey, I'll be backpacking again soon enough! I spent the rest of the week staying in every evening after work. I started to get a bit of a cold (again), so I devoured a ton of Vitamin C for a few days and went to sleep around 8:00 pm each night. I am very happy to report that my tactic seemed to work, as I felt completely fine by the end of the week.

I even managed to get a phone call in on Wedneday to my girl Kate back home, so that was really good. It has been really difficult to keep in touch with everyone back in The States because of the time difference--by the time I get off of work at 3:30 pm here for instance, it is 10:30 pm on the previous day for people in the central time zone in Florida. A couple of my friends back home work night shifts at the hospitals though, including Kate and Courtney, so they are usually still awake when everyone else is asleep. Makes keeping in touch a little bit easier =) Before talking to Kate on Wednesday though, I experienced the pleasure of watching my flatmate Emma drinking her infamous 'green smoothie,' which consisted of pure blended up lettuce, with an apple slice and water. Bleh! It might be healthy, but the smell was enough for me to never want to try it haha. I spent Thursday evening chatting with Dai at the flat, which involved in-depth conversations about religion and the paranormal. Good stuff. I hung out with Emma a bit at the flat too, plus did some ever-backdated blogging. Oh, blogging...so time-consuming! I'm glad I'm doing it though because my memory is shite (as all my friends know).

If I didn't have this blog to refer to later, I probably wouldn't remember half the stuff that I've experienced in New Zealand. Plus, just an FYI to all my readers, I know that I put wayyyyyy too much detail in every blog. I promise my goal is not to bore you to death; I simply do it because I personally want to remember every single little detail of my experience here. =) Understandable, right? Anyway, moving on to the weekend... My mid-July weekend was fantastic! On Saturday, Emma and I grabbed lunch at Mexicali down by the harbour, then went to an op shop (second-hand store) to try to find some "hillbilly" outfits for Bryce and Brian's upcoming hillbilly-themed birthday party. Luckily, even though Brian had already moved to Wellington, he was still coming back to Auckland for a few weekends up until mid-August when Bryce was scheduled to move down as well. So, the boys were doing a joint birthday party the following weekend since Bryce's birthday was on July 22nd and Brian's was on July 23rd.

Emma and I didn't find any outfits quite worthy enough while we were at the op shop; next stop was Look Sharp to check out the wigs! Look Sharp is this crazzzy store in central Auckland that literally has everything, and I do mean everything. After a short browse, we left with an idea of which wigs we would potentially go back and purchase for the party. That afternoon, I Skyped a bit with my Dad, then Emma and I were off again to go see a ROLLER DERBY GAME!! If you don't know, Roller Derby is an international contact sport that usually involves some seriously tough women on skates trying to score points by bypassing the opposing team's players. In the process, they knock each other down and don't hesitate on getting vicious. It is sooo much fun to watch though (as horrible as that may sound) haha. I've only ever been to one other Roller Derby game well over a year ago with Kate and my friends Jared and Chris, back when I was finishing school in Tallahassee, Florida. I loved it then, and I loved it the second time around too. Good times!!

I Skyped with Kate that night after the game, as she needed someone to talk to. Even though circumstances weren't the best for why we were talking so much, it was sooo nice to hear her voice and see her face after so long. I can't believe it was the first time we had Skyped during my entire time in New Zealand! It was so great though; we Skyped for hours until the wee hours of the morning her time, and laughed A LOT. =) At one point, I secretly put some gloves on while sitting in my room because my hands were really cold (if you know me well, you know that my hands are always freezing). Well, a few minutes later, Kate looked at me with a puzzled face and asked, "Ashhley...are you wearing gloves??" Hahaha...caught! I apparently need to learn how to talk without using hand gestures =). Sunday was another fabulous French Market day, but this time with beautiful, warm weather. You have to remember that it is the middle of winter here, so having a day like that was more than just rare. Every other day of winter in New Zealand consists of low temperatures with ever-present cloudiness and rain, with the addition of snow in the south island. Still, the crappy weather only lasts for about 3 months, then the rest of the 9 months of the year are gorgeous!

For some reason though, this particular winter Sunday brought clear skies and sunshine with it. So, after walking around the market, Emma and I just sat on the curb for a while and soaked up the sun in the spring-like weather while people-watching. Our sun-soaking was transferred back to the flat, where I put on a bathing suit and we both sat out on our balcony basking in the sun for a couple of hours. Talk about living the life! It was absolute perfection. After the sunshine subsided and the winter chill set back in, Emma and I put on some appropriate clothing and drove to the grocery store. She had been talking about these delicous chicken sandwiches she used to make, so we decided to give them a whirl for dinner. Breaded chicken breast fillets on fresh baguette bread, with capsicum (bell peppers), slices of fresh avacado, mayonaisse, and fresh lettuce. So simple, yet sooooo good!

I finished the Sunday with a long-awaited Skype date with Sontsa and Mia. As far as Sontsa knew, it was only to be a Skype session between the two of us, but Mia and I had pre-planned to surprise her with a 3-way Skype =). It was just as fun as I had expected haha. Oh my, I love those gals. Sontsa and I got to Skype with Mia's boyfriend Greg too, who we had also gotten close to while they were running the hostel in Napier when Sontsa and I stayed there. So, overall, a great ending to a really nice weekend. The only crazy, random event of the weekend was that Dai told Emma and I on Saturday that she would be leaving for Argentina the next day for a total of at least 3 weeks. She had gotten a call on Friday from one of her sisters back home, saying that her neice was in critical condition in a hospital in Argentina and the family wanted Dai there for support. So, Dai dropped everything and made the long journey back home to Argentina that Sunday. Very commendable.

Cheers,
Ash

More Than a Passing Travel Venture

After work on the following Friday (almost 6 weeks ago now), I stayed in and spent the evening at the flat with my flatmate Daiana and her friend Luciana. We just chilled out, chatted, exchanged stories, etc. Luciana kept us particularly entertained with her stories—oh wow, that girl cracks me up. At about 9:30 pm, Luciana and Daiana decided they wanted ‘dinner.’ Yes, Argentinians do ‘dinner’ at a ridiculously late hour. So, down the road they went to get some Pizza Hut takeaway. After coming back, they forced some of their delicious pizza, garlic bread, and fries on me until I caved in. That brings me to another learning point in the Argentinian culture: they do not like to take no for an answer, as they will happily admit. =) We spent the rest of the evening watching bloopers and all sorts of random, hilarious videos that we could find online. It was a great night in—many, many laughs!

I even received a surprise text at one point during the evening from a number I didn’t recognize. I knew it wasn’t a New Zealand number since the country code was different, so after a quick search on Google (can’t live without it), I learned the country code belonged to Indonesia. Yes, it was no other than my Bruno Mars lookalike Ricky, checking in from afar. Nice surprise =) The next day, I started my day out right by taking advantage of the downstairs gym and working out on some of the machines. If you live at our apartment complex, you get free access to a pool, a sauna, and a gym. I had actually previously worked out a few times with Emma as well, but not nearly as much as I should. I mean…I have no excuse; all I have to do is walk out the door, go down an elevator, and the gym, pool, and sauna are all right there.

After my morning workout, I walked around town and went into about five different electronics shops in central Auckland, checking out the digital cameras. I was still in dire need of a new camera since mine had stopped working months before when Sontsa & I were traveling the south island. After taking down some model numbers, prices, and helpful tips from some of the electronics people, I went back to the flat and hung out with Emma for a while. Then, later in the evening, I walked down to Chris’s and chilled with him and his flatmates Jennie and Kurt until fairly late. Chris and I also fit in a couple games of pool at the Slate Room, which is conveniently located just down the road from both of us as well. I LOVE being able to walk everywhere….cafes, cinemas, pool halls, theatres, grocery marts, restaurants, shops, bars, clubs, everything. Even though I do miss driving (I haven’t driven in over 6 months now), I will sooo miss the convenience of having anything and everything within walking distance.

That Sunday, Emma and I went to the French Market again, this time joined by Emma’s friend James (affectionately known as Hemi) and his friend Nathan. Very enjoyable company! Then, Emma and I rented movies and had a lazy movie-watching and nap-taking afternoon. The movies were The Romantics (don’t do it) and Love & Other Drugs (loved it)—favorite quote from the movie: “You meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you, and then you meet one person and your life is changed forever.” Not sure I actually buy it, but I suppose it’s a nice thought anyway. To end the weekend, Emma and I spent the evening with our boys Bryce and Brian at Brian’s mom’s house in one of the suburbs outside the city. Brian had just recently accepted a really fantastic job opportunity in Wellington, so his mom threw a small congratulatory/going-away dinner for him.

Brian’s family was so welcoming and instantly made me feel like part of the family. I met Brian’s mom Debbie, his brothers Craig and Kevin, Craig’s fiance Shareen, and a close family friend Carol (who owned the house we went to with the light-up jacuzzi when the boys were house-sitting). Debbie is so full of heart and generosity, even giving me her card and telling me to call her if I need a job once mine ends with AMP. Kevin is a sweetheart as well, and Carol is just blunt and hilarious—reminds me a lot of a family friend back home, Sandy (who we lovingly refer to as Crazy Sandy) =) . So, between a delightful spaghetti meal, good wine, and wonderful company, it was yet another fantastic night in New Zealand! It was just sad that it coincided with the fact that Brian and Bryce would soon be moving to Wellington.

On mine and Emma’s drive home after dinner, it started to hit me that I may not see some of these amazing people again after I go back to The States. It is such a gutting feeling. I know it sounds strange, but I honestly feel like I have two lives: one in The States and one in New Zealand, with each one pulling me in a different direction. This hasn’t been just a passing travel experience for me; I have now made a home and life for myself in New Zealand and will be desperately sad to leave it. If only I could pack up my family and friends from The States and bring them over here, life would be good! I have a feeling I will come back one day though, a bit later in life. For now, I still have so much traveling I want to do while I’m still young and unattached, and New Zealand is just too far away from everywhere to allow me to accomplish that goal. So, back to The States it is (until my next destination anyway)! =).


Cheers,

Ash

I'll Come Home Eventually, America

The next week was the first week of July, and I started it out by once again re-planning my trip back to The States…or in other words, postponing. My friend Arash, one of the Canadians who Sontsa and I traveled with, left New Zealand a couple of months ago and has since traveled all over Asia. Well, he posted a picture on his Facebook of him resting his forehead on the trunk of an elephant in Thailand, and I don’t know why but it just stole my heart. From that moment, I knew I had to go. The new plan was to stay in Auckland a bit longer, work, save up some extra money, and go to Asia the beginning of October. Well, after posting such on my Facebook, I found out my favorite Irish couple from Napier, Rach and Vinny, were going to Thailand the beginning of October too!!!! Perfection!! Plus, my flatmate Daiana will be there at the same time as well, traveling with one of her friends.

I could hardly contain my excitement and immediately got in touch with Arash for some pointers. He had traveled to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China while in Asia. After gaining some helpful tips from Arash and doing some of my own research, I decided to travel around for approximately 6 weeks, incorporating Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. The only drawback would be the fact that I would be doing Laos and Vietnam on my own, as Rach and Vinny would be flying out of Thailand the end of October, going back to Ireland. I wasn’t too concerned about going by myself though since a lot of backpackers travel around Asia and, according to Arash, many of them take that same route around Asia—Thailand to Laos, and Laos to Vietnam. I figured I’d find someone to travel with along the way…no worries.

Well, a certain lovely woman I know back home wasn’t too thrilled with this idea. I received a call from my mom a few days later, and in a concerned voice, she told me that I was not to go outside of Thailand if I didn’t want her to have a heart attack. =) She had been my absolute biggest supporter for my trip to New Zealand, had been okay with the idea of Australia, and was somewhat okay with the idea of Thailand. When it came to possibly traveling to Laos and Vietnam by myself, however, she was far from okay with it haha. It was quite cute though. I could obviously see her point, and in order to prevent her from experiencing any further unnecessary distress, I promised to just do Thailand after all. I’m still young—I have my whole life to go back to Asia and do some more exploring if I want to, so it’s all good. The new plan is to stay in Thailand for the month of October, then depending on my finances at the time, I may still go to Australia for a few weeks before returning to The States. Accordingly, my apologies to friends and family back home, but as plans stand at the moment, I won’t be returning to the other side of the world until sometime in December.

Besides once again extending my travel plans, I spent the rest of the week basically settling into my new job at AMP. Jessica was an awesome person to train under, so it made the job just that much better. We started a daily routine of having lunch together every day in the cafeteria, joined by Phil and Simon (who was from another department of AMP). It was nice to have a regular lunch buddy since my previous lunch buddy Sandra wasn’t there anymore =( On Thursday of that week though, I did get to see my sassy Sandra for a few minutes. She was in the area, so she came by AMP during my morning break and we caught up for a bit in the downstairs coffee shop, chatting while delighting on a yummy slice of carrot cake. That same day, I actually went out to lunch with Melissa from Kiwisaver, so that was quite nice as well. However, it did involve me making a bit of fool of myself…as usual. =)

We walked to the Westfield Mall across the street from work and ordered wraps from Ensalada. I watched as the woman behind the counter wrapped my food in some foil, then handed it to me in a small brown paper bag. Well, I wrongly presumed that the food was tightly wrapped up in the foil, so as to prevent any spillages. Yeahhh…it wasn’t. I had been holding my bag of food upside down not really paying any attention to it when Melissa pointed out that it was dripping. As it turned out, dripping was quite an understatement haha; I had splotches of orange tandoori sauce ALL over my shirt, my kakhi blazer, my coat, and my skirt. Smooth…real smooth. After our lunch break, I had to go back to work and explain why I smelled funny =) On the way home from work, I stopped by a couple of Asian food marts that I hadn’t been to before. One of them had actually just opened up less than a block from our flat, so that was pretty sweet. Then, Emma and I spent the evening watching the classic 10 Things I Hate About You. Great end to a week, and the weekend was even better!

Cheers,
Ash

Dinner Crasher & Record Skyper

My first day working in the new department of AMP was also my first experience with the Friday afternoon drink trolley. =) I gladly accepted a beer from the trolley girls and reveled in its consumption before leaving work. Then, Chris, Jess and I went to Chris’s to hang out for a while, chatting and enjoying some wine while sitting out on his balcony. The Kiwisaver department was doing a ‘team dinner’ that night at this nice Brazilian restaurant on the harbour called Wildfire, which Sandra and I had previously heard about in passing but were never formally invited to attend (rightly so since we had only been temps and our contract with Kiwisaver technically ended the day before the dinner). However, when it came time for Chris to go to the dinner, he tried to convince Jess and I to come with him. Jess stayed strong and declined the offer, which is what I normally would have done. My decision-making abilities after a few glasses of wine, however, were slightly less than superb and I agreed to go.

I thought the dinner may consist of 15 or so people and I could maybe join in unnoticed (still fully paying my own way though). Well, it was more like half that number…and my presence was very noticeable haha. Besides Chris and I, the group consisted of Melissa, Alishia, Ivy, Campbell, Smita, Sea, Julieta, and Winnie. I awkwardly apologized to everyone, but they all assured me it was fine. Since Melissa was the one who had set up everything for the dinner, I made sure to tell her I was fully planning on paying for myself. She said no worries and that it was just $40.00 per person. @#$*!!! Ouch! I had heard Wildfire was a little on the expensive side, but expensive for me is more like $20.00….not twice that much! I couldn’t just leave at that point though and be like “Oh…sorry guys…something came up…enjoy your dinner though..” Haha. So, a $40.00 meal it was.

I had never been to a Brazilian restaurant before (that I can remember), so the setup was new to me. It basically consisted of waiters constantly coming around with skewers of lamb, beef, chicken, and pork, asking if you wanted some, then carving it off of the skewer and onto your plate. They kept coming around and around, again and again, until you flipped this little piece of wood over on your table to show red instead of green. It is a good thing I recently incorporated lamb, beef, and pork back into my diet after 9 years without it because I ate an absurd amount of meat that night. It was soo delicious though! At one point, one of the waiters carved a piece of beef onto my plate that was quite rare, to the point that even my prior boss Campbell verbally noted it. Normal Ashley would find such a thing completely disgusting, but Ashley with a little wine in her and who was thinking about getting absolutely all of her money’s worth, gladly gulped it up haha. Ridiculous.

After dinner, most of us walked to one of the nicest restaurants on the harbour, Cin Cin on Quay, as Campbell was treating for dessert. Campbell, Sea, Julieta, Melissa, Chris and I enjoyed some delectable desserts, chatted for a while, then said goodnight. It was sooo nice to go out with them all; a very good evening indeed! Afterward, Chris and I went back to his flat and hung out with his flatmate Jennie, her rocker boyfriend Kurt, and their friends Lauren, Sasha, Rob, and Jack—highly amusing. I stayed there for a few hours before making the short walk back to my flat. Apparently while we were at Chris’s though, Auckland had a small 2.9 earthquake. We didn’t feel it, but I know of a few people around the city who did. Daiana said she felt it at our flat too. I’m hoping it was the only earthquake I’ll have the joy of experiencing—I much prefer ones that I don’t even know have happened!

The rest of the weekend was fairly relaxed. I cleaned around the flat on Saturday, then had the pleasure of Skyping with my marvelous Mia. What began as a casual afternoon Skype session turned into an all-day affair, for we Skyped for a full FIVE hours!! Haha. It was fantastic though—many stories and laughs =) I also got to Skype with Rory (one of the guys I knew from the Napier hostel) for about 30 minutes too, so that was really great! Talking to them made me miss Napier…more than usual that is. I look back on those lazy days in Napier with Sontsa, hanging out with the Frenchies, joking around with Mia and Greg, watching movies, taking afternoon naps in the lounge, playing pool, and working for crazy Chris at The County, and I can honestly say that those were some of the best days of my life. I never knew it at the time, but I know it now =)

On Sunday, I just chilled out at the flat with Emma. We were talking about school uniforms at one point, which spurred her to go dig one out from underneath her bed. In the process, she found heaps of clothes that she no longer wore, and told me to just go through the pile and take whatever I wanted. Brilliant! I got 12 shirts, a skirt, a dress, a warm Paul Frank pajama top, and a Fijian sulu! So awesome! The rest of the day was spent making phone calls to some family members back home, including my aunt in Colorado. I purposely called when I knew she would be at the hospital with my cousin, so I was able to speak with my cousin as well. I was absolutely thrilled to talk to her and hear her voice!! Think about her every day.

Best,
Ash

A Dancing Diva & AMP Job Offer #2

That Wednesday after work, I received a phone call from one of the temp agencies I had signed up with. They were calling to offer me a one-month temp assignment as a customer service representative at 2 Degrees (one of the mobile phone providers in New Zealand). The job was to start that Friday on July 1st, which was absolutely perfect since my job with AMP was supposed to end on Thursday, June 31st. Hell yeah; I’ll take it! After the good news, Emma and I got some takeaway from one of the big food courts in the central city (Albert Street Food Alley). Yum! Then, I had promised to meet up with my friend Sandra from work. She has been taking professional dance lessons for years, and had invited me on multiple occasions to go with her to her dance studio. I finally took her up on the offer that night, intrigued to see some professionals do their thing. Before going to the studio, I met Sandra and a couple of her dance friends (Theresa from Canada and Victoria from New Zealand) at Mentatz first.

Sandra bought a bottle of wine and some edamame for us all to share. The four of us stayed there chatting for about an hour, then we went next door and upstairs, where the dance studio was conveniently located. Sandra had previously told me she and one of her dance partners had won first place in a recent dancing competition. However, she was always so modest when talking about her dancing. So, when it came time to watch Sandra actually dive into some of her freestyle modern jive, I was not at all prepared for how spectacular it would be! Wow! That girl can DANCE! It was quite fun to watch her and the other 40 or so dancers just busting out their moves. One of the guys, Anthony, tried to get me to go out on the dance floor with him at one point. I kindly declined his offer, as I was not about to make a massive fool of myself by dancing amongst all those professionals haha. It was a fun night though. I think I met around 15-20 new people, including a couple of Sandra’s dance partners, and everyone was really friendly.

The next day was supposed to be the last day of work for all the temps at AMP. Earlier in the week, our department had even thrown a ‘morning tea’ for all of us as a thank you for our hard work (and might I add that I had one of the best brownies of my life). However, we had previously been told that there would be a potential opportunity for one temp to stay on a bit longer, but working in another department. Well, we never heard anything else about it, so we just assumed it had fallen through. Then, at the very end of my last day right before I was scheduled to leave, a woman came up to my desk and in a whisper, asked me if I would be interested in staying longer. Let’s see…would I be interested in continuing to work at a company where I’m spoiled with tons of free stuff, I get paid well, and I can walk to from my flat? I’m going to have to say yes, yes I would.

The only problem then was the fact I’d already accepted the 2 Degrees job through the other temp agency, scheduled to start the next morning. Eek! As one would expect, my phone call to that temp agency that afternoon was not particularly pleasant, but at least I know I made the right choice by staying at AMP instead =) That night, I went out with one of my backpacker friends Stuart from England. He and I had been in contact since before I ever arrived in New Zealand, having met on the same New Zealand backpacker board that Sontsa and I originally met on. He too lives in Auckland and was a big support when I was trying to find a job, texting me job leads every week. Before that night though, we had never met in person. So, it was good to actually meet up. We went to Cassette to grab a beer and stayed there for a couple of hours chatting before calling it a night.

The next day on July 1st, I officially started my new job in the Life and Legacy department of AMP. I was kind of sad to leave the Kiwisaver department; my two weeks with them had been great, and I had made some new friends—Sandra, Melissa, and Chris. Luckily, however, the Life department is literally just around the corner on the same floor, so I can still see my buddies every day (except for Sandra sadly because she found temp work elsewhere). My new temp assignment was scheduled to last at least a month, so that was sweet. I met a ridiculous number of new people in the new department, including Chhaya, Denise, Kavita, Kezia, and Hajra from India, as well as locals Karlene, Debbie, Jessica, Vik, Donna, Fiona, Amy, Lyn, Chelsea, Ervin, Ian, Linda, Izanne, Sian, Brent, and Hamish. Plus, I already knew a couple of the others, Phillip and Pierce, just from randomly talking to them while working for the Kiwisaver department.

Three of the women I work closest with are Chhaya, Denise, and Debbie. Chhaya is the sweetest little Indian woman ever & just love her to death; Denise is super adorable, with a laugh that always brings a smile to my face; Debbie is wonderful, very much into Astrology and Zodiac signs, always gives me dating advice, and just generally cracks me up. My first day working for the Life team, Brent (a Maori who I later learned is the office clown)did some verbal training with me, basically just introducing me to the different life insurance and investment policies that the Life department covers. While in serious training mode, we suddenly heard some commotion outside of the meeting room and subsequently saw a man walking through the office wearing a dress haha. It wasn't anyone I knew, but it was apparently his last day of work and he lost a bet. =) Good stuff.

Since my computer access hadn’t been set up yet, I just shadowed a few people for the day after training with Brent. I watched Chhaya sort through some pending policies to make sure they had all the necessary requirements to process, then I sat with Phillip as he processed and paid out some life insurance policies that had matured. Shortly thereafter, I trained with Jessica for the rest of the day. My training time with Jessica was of particular importance because I was ultimately hired in order to take over her main job task, in preparation for when she started back at Uni two weeks later and went part-time.

My new job duties were similar to those at Kiwisaver: I sorted the mail first thing in the morning, then registered all of the items from the mail, as well as from email. However, unlike the Kiwisaver department , which was virtually paperless and had really nice software, the Life department was far from paperless and even used an ancient DOS system for its processing! I felt as though I had traveled backward in time a good twenty years by going from one department to the next haha. Besides doing the mail and registering, I also helped process life insurance policies as well. It’s funny—if anyone had ever told me a year ago that I’d one day be working in the insurance business, I would have just laughed. As it turns out though, I quite enjoy it.

Cheers,
Ash