Week 2 in Wanaka - I got a room!

Yippee! Ok so week two into my two months in Wanaka and I've secured a room in a shared house, although I don't move in till Wednesday in still super chuffed and quite relieved. As much as I love camping and staying on the floor in the Minaret Ridge boys house, I am quite looking forward to having my own room, and a mattress, and somewhere to hang my clothes!! Haha small simple pleasures.

Anyway on Monday I signed my contract at work so I have secure work, 10-6, Monday till Friday, (and I get paid weekly!) so that's cool! 

Steve the owner is a cool guy and has been very accommodating in my settling into a new routine and has also been teaching me a lot too, such as how to work the wet print lab, and the scanning machines, and the film developer (maybe just cool things for a photography nerd to enjoy?) haha anyway it's cool! 

I have mostly been working with the manager, Jess, who is only a bit older than myself. She's a lovely cheerful girl from Chicago that's been living in Wanaka for about a year now, and I think she hopes to stay here longer if she can. She has a very relaxed and easy going nature, and we keep each other company and entertained three days a week. We also like the same music so that's an added wee bonus. :P 

Monday and Tuesday were still incredibly hot, reaching 28^c so Monday I stayed at the Albert town camp ground (and wow was that an experience, hot tents are not awesome!!) it was a night of tossing and turning trying to escape the heat of my sleeping bag, only to find my tent was too hot with the doors closed and too cold with them open (after midnight!) I found a happy medium with the outer door closed and the fly mesh closed....one leg out of the sleeping bag, as much as that was possible. 

 

Tuesday, after work, I was over at Minaret to make dinner and Tom invited me to join him and for a bbq with his pals who were visiting from Scotland. It was a lovely evening with venison on a roll, sausages that were a bit too crispy, a couple too many beers, followed by a round of frisbee golf (and I have improved from last week! Kind of?! Hahahaha) Lots of laughs, and it was still 18+ and getting windy (plus too many beers to drive, oops) so I stayed at Minaret for once last night.

 

Wednesday it was significantly colder (thank goodness!) and it's also supposed to be worse tomorrow as they're expecting 600ml of rain, like proper cyclone weather, but it just felt a bit more like home haha and I was just happy to be in a more manageable temperature. Work was super quiet in the morning and so nothing much was happening, we tidied and checked in some new stock...we had a few passport photos to do. We both had time to enjoy a wee lunch before it got a bit busier with  print sales in the afternoon.

after work I went to go move into my new room!! Yippeee!!!! I now live with 5 Czechs and an English man, and they're all lovely! I met them all and some of their pals later that evening as it was someone's birthday and so i wasn't initially sure who it was that actually lived here... Especially since they all had the same names, 2 Caterinas and 2 Petras and the boys were called John, Evo and Tom. I also don't see them all at once so it might take a wee while... I do know that one of the Caterinas is leaving this week as its her room that I've moved into. 

The house is also really nice and apart from mornings and dinner time it's hard to tell that 7 folk live here. Below is some photos of the house, 

         

Thursday and Friday the cyclone really hit and I was super glad to have moved into the house! I would NOT have liked to have been in the tent with all that rain. Although I was in work dor the majority of both these days it was nice to have cozy dry house to go home to...one that I didn't have to pitch in the rain/sandflies...and a mattress not a floor. :) I'm probably repeating myself but surely that emphasises my point ;) 

Friday I after work I FINALLY went to go see The Greatest Showman in Paradiso cinema with my friend Ian!! It was SPECTACULAR!!! We both had high expectations and this film totally outdid those expectations, and some!! I came out of the film on a total high and wanting to go see it again! We both agreed how fabulous it was on the big screen! PLus the extra treat of Paradiso is the icecream, cookies (and drinks if you want them) at the interval,  yes there is an interval especially for this reason!!! Lol I feel that this will be a regular treat for me...it is on my way home from work...! :P 

Saturday, I HAD A LIE IN!! ❤️❤️❤️ I turned off my alarm and I sleep till 11:30. My longest lie in for months! And I LOVED it! I haven't been unusually busy this week but I think that after having five months off having a real 9-5 job my body and my mind is pretty knackered. The work I was doing with my wwoofing hosts was hard manual work but this new work as mentally exhausting...learning how this new shop works, what th customers want, and what my boss expects. I had a good base to start from with my photo degree and my 4 years working for Cranachan & Crowdie in Edinburgh, so it was surprisingly easy to apply those skills to this job. There was still a lot to learn and take in though, but at the end of week two I feel quite confident with the majority of the day to day workings in the shop. 

I took a wee run into town as there is a nice wee running route through the golf course from my place to town, and did some errands, picked up my car and came home to read in the sun for a bit (where I fell asleep!) haha lots of catch up on sleeping today! I woke up and had some lunch by which time wee Petra was home (as opposed to tall Petra) and I chatted with her for a bit before deciding to work on my blog a bit and here I am. I had a relaxing early night where I went to bed after my shower and watched a movie. I also accidentally fell asleep when I was supposed to phone Erin...but I caught up with her on Sunday morning which was really nice. Sunday was another slow and chilled out day. I'd hoped to go out in the kayak with Ross but e wind picked up and we decided against it. 

This is probably the first weekend in a while at I've decided to do so little...even at Frances' house I'd have been out in the garden or doing something but I thought that I'd give myself these few days to rest up and catch my breath, now that I have a house that I can do that in. :) A very nice second week settling in to both the one job and the new house.