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The Grind.
Oh hey
there! Sorry I’ve been gone for a hot minute. Just been doing the grind of
trying to get some cash back into my bank account. Ok, let’s go back into my
notes and see what I have to tell you guys about.
I have come
to conclusion that there are 10 blondes to 1 brunette here. I’m at a coffee
shop, naturally, and there appears to be 5 blondes, 1 brunette and 1 woman with
red hair. I think she might be the owner and the blondes are her little minions.
So if you like blondes, man or woman, then New Zealand is the place for you.
When you ask
for a Lemonade here, you get a Sprite. *Scratches head* Huh? I’m not sure if
they know what lemonade is, but that is probably because lemons here are very
scarce and thus, are very expensive.
Half the
town closes at 5pm, and the other half opens at 5pm. Much like all small towns,
the trick is figuring out what is open at which 5. Speaking of Wich Wich, they
don’t have those here. Sad face, but they do have a Subway. Which does, in fact,
still smell the same. Still shitty sCrubway food. Sad face. I did go in there
for some cookies though. (Yep, they taste the same as back in the states.)
Michael
Jackson’s “Beat It” is blaring at the climbing gym. Oh, the 80’s and 90’s are
still alive here. Pearl Jam follows me everywhere. Oh, and did I mention “
Welcome to New Zealand, the only place in the world that will play Creed and Nickleback
songs back to back on the radio.” Oh gawddd my ears can’t take it!
I did,
however, successfully introduce my co-workers to gangster Fridays! Bumping some
Biggie and Pac with some old school Dre.
I met the
neighbors Goldie, Alex and their little boy Caleb. Super cute kid. Long blonde
hair, looking like he is already surfing bigger waves than I ever could. Goldie
is tattooed from head to toe, a rare sight here. Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot
of inked up people here. Goldie automatically gives me a huge hug and warm
welcome. I later find out that she does the traditional “poke” tattoos! So
needless to say I’ll be getting one before I leave Wanaka. (Sorry mom, yes
another tattoo.) I also learn that Goldie and her husband are the owners of the
one tattoo shop that is here in Wanaka! Yay!
Netflix is
not allowed in New Zealand and actually it’s not allowed in many countries. So
that was a big blow to us, at first. But luckily there is ways around it, and
for $4 a month, we can bypass it and configure our computers to be able to
watch it again. New Zealand is epic and there is a ton of things to do, but
until we get money and a car, our options to do epic things are a bit limited,
for now. I guess I’ll watch some docs and mindless shows on the laptop.
Ghost!! So
Lonestar ,the bar and grill I briefly worked at, has a Ghost! Every couple of
days when they first turn everything on and open up, the POS system has a glass
of brandy ordered on the screen! It’s very rare that anyone drinks brandy here.
I thought “well maybe it’s just the one register fucking up,” but no, one day
it’ll be ordered at the bar register and the other day it’ll be ordered on the
waitress staff register. Then it’ll come up on the one upstairs. At least the
Ghost is attempting to pay for it?
Whoooo, I
found a pinball machine. It’s a sweet AC/DC pinball, but it cost $2NZ to play.
Boo!
I found
myself a proper job as an electrician, aka ‘Sparky’. I’ve decided that I’m not
going to go into the depths of the job, but know that I’m making just a little
bit under what I made in the states and in a lot of ways it’s tons or “heaps”
easier. They don’t even use metal conduit it’s all PVC plastic pipes. The
outlets are all super simple to install. There are 7 employees and I make 8.
Super chill, super laid back. My boss’s only question during my interview was...if
you even want to call it that, where my hobbies were at on my resume?
Dumbfounded, I told him that I don’t usually list my hobbies and he said “well
on Mondays we all gather around and talk about the adventure we did on the
weekend, so you best have something good
to say on Monday.”
Day 3, and
I’m in the workshop with Jonny fixing appliances and whatever else people are
having problems with. On the wall of the workshop is about 8 posters of naked
girls from what looks like photography from Playboy, circa 1995. I didn’t know
if I was in my uncle’s garage or at work. My day was spent fixing coffee and
espresso machines, 3 vacuums, rewired a storefront’s open sign, fixed some
other tools and a bakery’s industrial mixer. Here they don’t throw things away
when it breaks, they take it apart and fix it. I can’t help to remember my
Uncle Richard, one of my many uncles that were in WW2. Richard was the
neighborhood handy man and always had a garage full of lawn mowers that he was
fixing. There is something satisfying about taking something broken, taking it
all apart, figuring out what is wrong with it, and then remembering how it all
goes back together again. I can see myself being 60+ and being like my uncle
Richard, fixing the neighborhood appliances or helping with electrical issues.
I’m pretty
stoked that my schooling for construction/electrical is something that is in
high demand in other countries as well as the U.S…now if I can only find a way
to own a company and still be my own boss.
Switch
lanes.
The UK
version of Cards Against Humanity is hard! There is so many cards that I have
no clue what it’s supposed to be or who it’s supposed to be. But… I managed to
beat everyone still. J
Here is a
new game for ya’ll, Giant Jenga with a fucking hammer! Rules goes as follows: You must first use the hammer for
the first hit or tap. Once you touch any block that is the block you have to
get out, there is no tapping to see which one is loose. Best tip: Just swing
hard. “it’s kinda like the same concept of pulling a table cloth off the table,
without spilling all of the glassware onto the floor.” Do ya follow me? So just
pick a block, hit it really hard, and hope the rest don’t all fall down!
I have to
take a moment to talk about car doors. 6 out 7 lonely car doors are left open.
These sad car doors are left open and forgotten about, sometimes for hours,
sometimes for days. It’s sad. These doors never know if they will ever be shut
again. They might just be open forever! “Shut the damn door!” is what I can
hear my parents telling everyone here. I guess a lot of cars here don’t have
“dope scopes” or dome lights, because people everywhere around here just leave
their car doors wide open. It kinda drives me crazy, but meh, it’s not my car,
so not my worries. It’s just an odd thing to me.
Oh, I know
what would drive my dad crazy…. the potato salad here. We bought a package at
“New World” (the most expensive grocery store in all of New Zealand.) The
package said, “American Style Potato Salad.” Well, I opened it up and it was
more like a potato salad soup…It had potential for taste, but it had a gallon
of water in it. Oh man, I can’t wait til’ Teryn and I get our food blog done up
for ya.
New words
and phrases for your pleasure:
Cruzie – Super
Chill. “Oh dude, today was super cruzie, I just laid at the beach all day.”
Dodgy –
Sketchy. “That is a dodgy job they did on that repair.”
Yarn- Chat.
“Let’s meet up at the cafe and have a yarn.”
“I was doing
a proper boogie wiggle.”- I was getting down on the dance floor.
“I am so
wrecked.”- I am super tired.
“Oh man you
fucking smashed it!”-You did a great job man!
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