Where it all started.

I was looking at a previous blog I used to keep while I was at uni. And I found this post from January 2010, which is obviously where the whole travelling thing started.

Dear Marianne,
Thank you for your application for Fundraising, Marketing & Communications Graduate Scheme 2010 at Cancer Research UK.
The Graduate Team have had an opportunity to consider your application against the selection criteria for this position.
We are writing to let you know that regrettably your application has been unsuccessful. As part of the application, you completed a Situational Judgement Test. Unfortunately you did not pass and have not been shortlisted for the next stage of assessment on this occasion. Due to the high volume of applications that we receive for the Graduate Scheme, we are unable to provide you with detailed feedback on your application. 
In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the interest you have shown at a career in Cancer Research UK and wish you good luck in your future job search. 
With Kind Regards,
This is an automated email, please do not reply.

Gutted. 
I knew there was a very, very large possibility that I wouldn't get the job. But not to even get to the assessment centre. My situational judgement must have been really bad.
This has made me think a lot about what to do when I finish university. I've decided I want to go travelling. But go somewhere and work. I've narrowed it down to Norway or New Zealand. Random I know.
At least now I can stop getting nervous every time my phone beeps with a new e-mail.
I never wanted to move to London anyway.

LOVE.

This week we lost an amazing woman.

I'm grateful for the things I know which provide me with much comfort during this time.

I may be far away but I'm thinking of you all :)

What I love about Auckland.

• You can see the sun rise and set. It's one of the first things I noticed here and it's beautiful. 
• Mountain Dew and Nerdz are available in pretty much every convenience store.
• Velvet Burger. Homegrown Hero is the best. And it's right next door to the hostel (which I no longer live in)
• Crossing the road. When your at a crossroads you can cross diagonally. They also give you a countdown to tell you how long you have to cross the road. And after a month in Asia, green men that are respected is just a delight.
• The volcanic hills. Yes, we have a love-hate relationship me and these hills. They aren't fun to climb but I'm hoping they are gonna do wonders for my thunder thighs.
• The attractive men. Sorry England, but NZ on average has better looking men than you.

This post is about a cat.

Please excuse the lack of make-up in the photo, it's  been a long day.

This is Lucy, the barmy Burmese kitten. More about her later.

I'm 3 days into my stint as an au pair and on a whole it's going quite well. All three children are still alive and have not had any major injuries that have involved a trip to a&e. (Just for the record there have been no injuries at all.) Before I began I did begin to get a little bit nervous about looking after 3 kids all under 4 but it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, it ain't easy. Trying to understand what a 2 year old (who can't talk) is saying and changing nappies is not fun. Challenging to say the least, especially at 8am. It also doesn't help that the eldest, Harrison, is trying to push boundaries to see what he can get away with. I had a moment today where I actually thought "I'm three days in and I've managed to lose a kid already! I'm so fired."

As I was getting 'afternoon tea' ready, Harrison was out playing rugby (by himself) on the drive.  I look up and couldn't see him anywhere. I go out and call his name and there's no answer. I went through the house, no where to be seen. I looked round the back of the house and there was no sign of him.  I begin to assume he's wandered up the road. I'm panicking because I can't leave the other two on there own while I run up the drive to find him. Suddenly I hear Harrison giggling in the garage. He was hiding under a table. The biggest sigh of relief. I survived another day.

Thankfully though, they are really good kids and most of the time do behave themselves. Also the parents (my bosses) are lovely too and are really making an effort to make me feel at home and part of the family. Dinner cooked for me? Yes please! 

Now most of you know, I'm prefer dogs. I'm kind of indifferent to cats and the only cats I really like are Penny's. But I have the pleasure of living with the wonder that is Lucy. Lucy loves my bed. Or should I say under my bed. This morning I got the shock of her grabbing my leg as I got out of bed. She can do pretty impressive jumps, for example onto my arm. Today I was trying to get a picture of a grasshopper that was on the patio doors. I was really struggling to get the focus on the bug (even on manual focus, grrrr) so I'm hunch over, trying at different angles when suddenly Lucy jumps on my back. After a little while I tried to stand up because she was not moving, and she just sits on my shoulder. She has also taken to chewing on my hand. Crazy cat.

She seems quite amused by my laptop. When she came and sat infront of me, I just had to take a picture. She was just watching what was going on on the screen. I left it on the webcam and began recording. It was so funny because she was just so curious about her own reflection but the video won't play or upload. Sad face.

In other news, I have a long weekend coming up. These Kiwis get a day off for the Queen's Birthday. Nice one Lizzy! Also, I got to boggle my Grandad's mind today by calling his house on Skype. I do miss him. 

Postscript.

Mr Chessman won round one and made 10 bucks.

As I left they had begun round two.

Day in Devonport

As I write this I'm sat in Skycity Metro, taking advantage of the free wifi. I'm here with my netbook. The guy opposite me is here with his chessboard. With all the pieces set up, he is challenging every passerby, in his heavy Russian accent, to a game of chess. He was one of the first regulars I noticed in Auckland as he used to sit in the window of Burger King on Queen Street, motioning for passersby to join him. I've even seen him having a few matches. I guess Burger King has kicked him out as I usually see him in here now.

Today I've had a full day of being a tourist in Devonport. My pictures would suggest that I went there to do a bit of bird watching, but I promise I didn't. It was purely coincidental, the birds were just everywhere. I decided to go to Devonport instead of Waiheke as it was cheaper and I want to save Waiheke for when I have a full weekend to spend there. Devonport is a beautifully quaint suburb of Auckland and it's just a 12 minute ferry ride away. As you approach the place looks so green and there is two volcano cones. You see all the houses looking out over the harbour. It's so picturesque and just looks so peaceful.  As you look back you get a full view of Auckland's skyline and harbor.

I got off the ferry and had no idea what I should do. I knew I wanted to go up Mount Victoria but had no idea how to get there. Luckily, I happened to stumble across the tourist information office and managed to pick up a map and including a pamphlet for 'The Old Davenport Walk'. I decided to start off with the walk and finish off with the trek up Mount Victoria. The walk took me along the beaches of Torpedo Bay, through the old centre of Devonport and back to the current centre of Devonport. The guide told me more about the houses, churches and old buildings I passed. It was quite cool to have a little history lesson while taking in the beauty of the place and just listening to what my iPod had to offer.

I can't pick the best word out to describe the houses. But I want one of them. (Breaking news: someone just accepted Chessman's challenge.) They were these small wooden houses which were all painted white. The Old Devonport Walk guide described the houses as 'villas' and 'cottages'. I can't remember whether I got a picture or not but I remember thinking that it would be a bit weird to take a photo of someone else's home.

When I got to the end of the tour I began the ascent up Mount Victoria. It's not that long of a walk, it's just so steep! But the views from the top were worth it in the end. I must have looked like an idiot because I was there balancing my camera on a book so I could set the self timer and take a photo of myself with the view. There were some interesting outcomes to say the least. As I mentioned before, there are were loads of birds. I was sat on a bench really close to this seagull, so i begin taking pictures of it. I turn and there's all these small birds by my feet. When I look back to the seagull he's been joined by some friends. I swear, I feel like Snow White surrounded by animals. I already have the short friends...

When I made it back into the center of Devonport, I found a "Best of British" shop where I got myself a can of Vimto. I miss Vimto. And as I was at the seaside, I got some fish and chips! No Cod though, just Hoki. It was just like being back home with my fish, chips and Vimto. Only one thing was missing - vinegar.

Queen Street and K'Road at night.

When my employers were dropping me off the other night they warned me that I shouldn't really walk down Queen Street on my own at night. They warned me that you get some unsavoury characters. I thought about telling them that I was from Wythenshawe and that walking down Queen Street probably wouldn't be that big of a deal. I also got told that K'Rd was a bit dubious.

Sarah was working and I needed something to do. So against my employers' advice I decided to take me a walk up Queen St and K'Rd to try and get some pictures of Auckland at night. I get half way up Queen Street and realise that I've got my new netbook, my dslr, my blackberry and iPod in my bag. A lot of money worth of stuff to have stolen and I begin to wonder if its worth taking all the stuff with me. I reminded myself that I live in Wythenshawe and that I'm only paranoid because of the words of warning I received.

I make it up K'Rd which offers a lovely view over the harbor, sky tower and what not as it's on top of the massive hill the Queen Street is. I can't find a spot that offers a good spot for a photo. I see this bridge that goes over the motorway and decide I need to get on it and then I'd be able to get a decent picture. So I turn down this road that should take me to this bridge and realise I have just walked into a red light district. All these women are eyeing me up. I don't think they saw me as competition, at least I hope not, I was pretty clothed.

So I get my pictures and I'm pretty pleased with myself. I'm walking along and see this impressive church-like building with the moon looking all eerie so I decide to get a picture. As soon as I get my camera out this drunk homeless looking man starts shouting stuff at me.  I have no idea what he is saying but he's laughing and smiling. I decide I better make a move as he's approaching me.

When I finally make it back onto Queen Street, the heavens opened so I've got my hood up and I'm walking pretty fast with my iPod on full blast, listening to some song I've not listened to in a long time no doubt. Suddenly I'm surrounded by these three women trying to talk to me. I stop walking and stop the iPod. They tell me that they are theology students and just wanted to ask me some questions for some research they're doing. As I'm stood on the edge of the university campus, I don't think anything of it but thought it's a bit odd that they are doing research at this time of night.

They show me this cheesy video about nature with a load of scriptures used out of context. They ask me a couple of questions about what I thought of the video. After a bit of discussion, they proceed to tell me that the second coming has already happened and begin to give me a lot of warnings. When I dispute what they're saying and tell them what I believe, they begin to argue with me. I ask them whether they are students. They tell me again they're theology students from Elohim Academy and they are World Christian missionaries. And they told me they are the only people who use the Bible correctly. I think when they realised that I wasn't going to be swayed by what they were saying they finally let me go and I left them with their New International Version of the Bible.

It was a good walk I think I got some good photos - I won't really know until I get them on the computer, but they look good on the display! -  and I discovered a few of Auckland's treasures.

Better late than never, right?

Firstly, I need to apologise for not updating this blog in like forever. I do realise it's been nearly a month since I last wrote and I reached the 6 week mark this week and I'm now in New Zealand. It's crazy to think I'm 6 weeks in. I remember when it was 6 weeks before I was leaving.  I know you have been on tenterhooks for the next update - I know you haven't but lets just pretend you have.  I know I have a lot to update you on but the truth is, I don't know if I can be bothered to write it all so this will probably be a quick summary.

So after Hoi An we headed back up to Hue. The first night I managed to get myself a huge plate of delicious, hot food for just 30,000 dong (less than £1) and got an early night only to wake to Sarah being sick. Poor Sarah :( In Hue we met the lovely Steph and Kerry who did not manage to convince us to go out on a bike on Hue's trecherous roads. I promise you, Hanoi is crazy but at least it's pedestrian friendly, in that the scooters go around you. But Hue, the roads are wider and these mega busy bridges and the green man doesn't mean it's safe to cross. We spent one day in the Citadel and were pleasantly surprised to see elephants! We spent our nights at Brown Eyes where the Wham and other 80s tunes just kept coming. 

After Hue we went back to Hanoi on that lovely bus journey I wrote about. We only stayed the night and got the bus to Nanning, China the next day. The bus was a much more relaxing journey than the overnight train and it's always nice to see all the countryside which you don't see overnight.  The border crossing was a bit crazy with a severe lack of queues. Passport control in Vietnam seems to be a bit of a joke and the guards never fail to bring a smile to my face with their comments.

We couldn't face to prospect of a 30 hour train to Shanghai. Also as it was the first weekend in May, it was a public holiday China so it actually worked out about the same price to get a flight to Shanghai. So that's what we did and I do not regret it. It also meant we got an extra day in Nanning. Which meant another night to experience the wonder that is techno line dancing in the park. I tried to start my own little dance going but only one man joined in. Then he was trying to teach me some ballroom dancing but my two left feet and no common language made it a bit difficult. I guess pointing language doesn't work well when learning to dance.

Shanghai is pretty big and pretty different from anywhere else we'd been on the trip. I guess it was quite like Hong Kong but just much bigger. Everywhere we went we were followed by the soundtrack of "Bag, Watch, DVD..." and if that didn't get our attention they'd say "Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton...". Thanks to the Norwegian girl in our dorm who taught us to say something like "Boo yao", which meant we didn't want anything. Whatever it meant, it worked as whenever we said it they left us alone. 

One evening we went to The Bund to take in the skyline and get our tourist snaps. What we didn't anticipate was that we were going to be the tourist attraction in a load of random people's photos. We were sat having a drink when a girl came over and asked if she could have her picture with us. We chuckled and said yes. Then when we were walking down the Bund we kept getting stopped by giggling tourists all who wanted a picture with us. It got a bit crazy when a group of about 15-20 adult tourists all got a bit excited and all kept pulling us around to get pictures with us. We could not stop laughing. 

Our time in Shanghai was spent doing a lot of shopping and I got plenty of knock off products. My favourite being my Marc Facobs handbag. I swear by the end of our month in Asia, both me and Sarah had become masters at bartering and angered a couple of stall owners at our suggestions for prices. I'm still disappointed I didn't manage to get a Mao watch but at 280RMB the guy was having a joke. There was no way I would get him down to reasonable price for a novelty watch. 

We met some girls off Couchsurfer for a night out in Shanghai and like most things in Asia, it was crazy but good fun! We also went to the Science and Technology museum one day and I was amazed by this room that made it feel as if you were falling to one side of the room. It's worth going there just for that room. 

So we arrived in Auckland just over a week ago. We both managed to get jobs within a couple of days of being here. Sarah got a job at Ticketmaster and at a bar. I got a job as an au pair. On Monday I will be the au pair to three children aged 4, 3 and 20 months. I do realise I'm crazy but I'm sure it'll be worth it. I taught Sunbeams and they can be pretty crazy. 

So far I like Auckland. There's loads of hills, it gives Sheffield a run for it's money. And as for the weather, it gives Manchester a run for it's money. They didn't lie when they said it was 4 seasons in a day. Brilliant sunshine one minute, torrential rain the next. I've had plenty of time to explore the city. I made myself a packed lunch and went up to Albert Park to chill and read my book. As I sat there enjoying the sunshine and taking in my surroundings I had this moment where it finally sunk in that I was in New Zealand. After speaking about it for well over a year and working hard to afford it, i'd finally made it. And there I was eating Ham sandwiches and reading The Last Song  in a park in Auckland. In New Zealand. 

I'm hoping for good weather this weekend so that I can hopefully get a trip out to Waiheke Island and get some sightseeing in before I start working. Hopefully next time I won't wait too long before another post. And I might bother with putting some photos up. I did add some to facebook but I got through about a weeks worth of photos and then got bored. And then left my memory card in the computer. I'm thankful that it didn't get stolen. I left my straighteners in the bathroom and they got stolen. Mine and Sarah's cheese got stolen from the kitchen and someone took my jam. Outrage I say. Peanut butter and jam on toast doesn't work so well when there is no jam!!!

As we have been staying in the same dorm for a week now we have seen some characters come and go. We've had our fair share of gap yah girls who are out travelling on daddy's money. We currently have some guy who has turned the dorm into his office. His office hours seem to be 11pm to 8am. Yes, just as you're nodding off you'll hear him typing away. He'll go to sleep with his laptop wide open, illuminating the whole room. This morning I was woken up by him on the phone. I love sharing a dorm with such considerate people. 

That's all for now, I would like to apologise for all typos as I can not be bothered to proof read. Part of the fun of reading my blog is that you have to decipher what I mean. I'm sure I'll have more to write about soon and I won't leave it as long until next time!

Coming soon...

I've had several people remind that I'm slacking in the blogging department. There will be a new post soon, I promise. I'm on it.