The last couple of weeks have been action packed as I’ve
tried to fit in as much as possible before I finish my time in Wellington
After the excitement of the Sevens,
a quiet next weekend would have made a lot of sense. A group of us decided to
meet up and watch a fireworks display for the end of Chinese New Year and go
for a karaoke session. I never have a desperate desire for karaoke, but was
happy to go with the flow. The venue was a booth in the upstairs of a Korean restaurant
that felt a lot like someone’s sitting room. Safely out of the public gave and
after quite a few beers it was a great laugh. We carried on to a few bars
afterwards and I didn’t make it home until five am. Sunday was spent moving
very slowly and enjoying a bit of all too rare sunshine on the beach.
The next weekend was another busy one. After work on Friday
evening we went to watch the first Twenty20 game in the South Africa tour of New Zealand
In between all of this we were searching for a new flatmate
to take over my room and I was selling off the bulky things I’d bought on
Trademe, the local ebay. In a reversal of the process I went through to find a flat last year, we spent several weekends
interviewing prospective flatties. It all got a bit disheartening when we had a
procession of people who couldn’t read the add (‘no students’ apparently wasn’t
clear enough), couldn’t string a sentence together or didn’t know when to stop
talking! Eventually we found a laid back Scottish guide called Alisdair who’s
now settling in to what was my room.
I was also wrapping things up at work, trying to tie up at
least some of the loose ends on things I’d been working on and hand things
over. A big new project has started up in the last few months and so rather
than gradually winding down, I found myself rushing around with urgent meetings
and briefings. It’s strange to look back on a whole year of working in a role
that was both similar and different to what I was used to back in England
During my final week I had something on almost every
evening. Not long after I arrived, I was told about how John, who was here on
secondment the year before me, had jumped into the harbour with a few other
people shortly before he left. Not to be outdone, I was keen to do the same and
on Tuesday evening got the chance.
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| Getting ready to jump |
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| Here goes nothing |
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| This one didn't end quite so well! |
On Wednesday evening we went to watch Back Benchers being filmed. Then on Thursday a whole
group of us went along with Helen to see what the Zumba class she has been
raving about was really like, it was much more exercise than I expected.
My final weekend came round all too soon. Friday was my last
day at work and so we had some farewell drinks at the end of the day. I’ve been
immensely lucky to have landed in such a friendly and supportive team (and I’m
not just writing that because some of them may read this post!). It made a huge
difference, particularly when I first arrived, to enjoy going in to work and
getting to know my colleagues. My manager put together the most incredible
leaving present, an apple photobook with all the pictures off this blog along
with others from trips and nights out through the whole year. It’s going to be
a treasured memento of my year out here.
Saturday was mostly spent sorting through all the stuff I’ve
accumulated and trying to pack my bags for travelling. In the evening, Harry
and I went to see Hugo, which is great, and grabbed some dinner. Then it was back to more packing.
This morning (Sunday) I was entered into the Round the Bays
Half Marathon. I was running with Carina (of cupcake and
previous half marathon fame) and the goal was to
help her get her first sub-2 hour time. We had good conditions, without too
much wind and ran a great pace finishing in about 1:56 (the results are published in the paper tomorrow so they haven't yet loaded them online...grr).
Angela and a couple of friends all ran the seven km course and so we got to
meet up at the finish line. I would have loved to spend the afternoon relaxing
and having a few well earned beers with everyone, but had to dash off to load
my car up and make a start on my trip.
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| All of this needs to fit into two 23kg suitcases (except the furniture) |
