Eeek!!

Start work today!! Well, not really work, have to go in for my computer training which is only 1-5 (and possibly not even that if rumours are right) On sorientation for 3 weeks so I predicet a lot of mandatory (in general useless) training in my future.
Just hope I remember how all this midwifery lark goes after not working for 6 months..

One week done...

Well I've been here an week and what a week its been!

So I have a house, nice modern one in a wee complex so nice and safe for little old me on my lonesome! It has 3 bedrooms so bring on the visitors, although I only have one bed so a little but of notice would be good unless your bringing a bed with you! Get my keys tomorrow and 'the bed' plus my new sofas and TV get delivered (hopefully!) Had a trauma trying to get ID faxed to the phone company to get my phone and broadband sorted out. Tried to fax it from 3 different places and each time the end result was too blurry to be of any use, in the end I gave in and bought a $60 scanned/printer and did it myself, what I should have done in the first place probably! Because of that I probably wont have my phone or broadband connected till next week sometime, luckily I have my motel room all paid up till Wednesday so the free broadband here will be fully exercised till then!

I also have a car. Had a struggle to find something in my price range as I wanted to buy one outright and $3000 doesnt get you much car in NZ! But after being shown some right old rust buckets the lovely Ed at Cars and More (yes this is an ad for them as he really is lovely!) had a fairly decent '97 Honda Civic for just $2990 so its now sitting here outside my window! This of course allowed me to take my hired Micra back a day early, never been so glad to see the back of a car in my life...stinky, dirty, teeny wee box on wheels that it was!

Going to spend the next 3 days moving stuff into my house and getting ready to start work on Monday. Still dont know when I've to be there or what I'm actually doing but hey..Im sure I'll find out soon enough!!

2 days down...

Cant believe its only been 2 days since I touched down in kiwi land...seems like I've been here for ages already!

So in 2 days I've manage to;
- Sort out my bank account
- Apply for my IRD (tax) number
- Rent a car, was supposed to be borrowing a car from my boss but looks like it needs a bit of work before she can get it back on the road so I'm renting instead...a Micra of all things although here its a Nissan March!
- Visit my new hospital and sort out ID, uniforms (although they dont wear them) and a bit of a tour
- Do my first NZ food shop at Countdown..same brands different names is pretty much the way it goes I think
- Trail round rental agents to find that nice furnished rentals are pretty rare..ok, very rare! Off to look at one tomorrow thats about 25 mins from town but looks nice so we'll see how it goes (if I can find it that is!)

Other than that, well, its still raining but at least I'm not getting soaked so much now that I have a car, luckily its not cold although the locals keep telling me it is...they'd never survive a winter in Scotland!

I'm here!!!!

Well, arrived in Rotorua yesterday. Had a wee blip with accommodation as the first one pre-booked for me by the hospital was, well, minging..but now Im in a nice wee Motel so everythings fine.
Yesterday was wet and rainy but as I went to bed at 3pm and only just got up a few hours ago it didnt really matter, so far so good today as I've woken up to bright sunshine.

Todays plan is to wander into town and sort out my bank and tax stuff, and take some pics of course! Going to register with the real estate people and see what they have on offer that might be suitable. This motel is booked for 2 weeks but the sooner I can get my own place the better as I cant really unpack here so living out of suitcases which isnt all that much fun...

36 hours to go...

So in 36 hours I should be checking in for my first flight....eeekkkkk!!

Still to finish packing, thought I'd gotten pretty much all of it done to discover I had way too much stuff left over to fit into my final packing box and case so some unpacking of boxes and re-arranging of stuff had to be done today so that hopefully everything thats left will fit in my final case.
Just hope my cases are all under the weight limit, my bathroom scales say they are but as everyone knows those things aren't to be trusted!!

I can't believe how many boxes i've filled with, well, basically shit. This is what my life in boxes looks like...


Tommorow the last few bits and pieces get done and then hopefully I'll be ready to go...

8 days to go...

So, I've been very very bad at updating this blog, I would apologise but hey, Ive been busy!!

Well its 8 days till D Day. I'm kind of getting organised, most of the list is done although I now have an other list of last minute things that couldn't be done till this week. Two out of three suitcases are packed along with 6 packing boxes.
I have absolutely no idea how anyone manages with the meagre 1 case your allowed when traveling economy, I'm really struggling for space with 3 but then I have discovered that I own enough clothes to clothe a small village for several years!

So, this weeks plans;
- Finish packing the boxes and hopefully find out who'll be here for the collection guys so I can get that arranged.
- Call BMI to double confirm that they'll honour my NZ Air baggage allowance on my flight to London. I've already called them but I'm not entirely convince that the guy I spoke to actually knew his own name never mind the answer to my question so best to double check I think, not much I can do about it if they say no!
- Speak to the estate agents as my flat is still on the market with no sign of any interest, which pretty much sucks but again, nothing I can do about that either.

There's also LOADS of other stuff but really it s not that exciting, even to me so I'm sure no on else needs to read about it.

But, for today I've done all I'm doing (still recovering from my late night alst night!)
The packing etc starts in earnest tomorrow....