Well, here I am sat in my living room with J.Lo on C4 waiting for my chicken to cook, so thought I'd take this opportunity to say hello as I know it's been a while. I figured now would be a good time to fill u in with what I've been up to in this fabulous city. As u may, or may not, have read Wellington was a slight blip in the map when it came to finding a job, so apprehension set in when we decided to cut our losses and move to Christchurch. But thankfully someone wanted me, so the day after landing in Christchurch I was in Kelly's agency taking those little tests that they make you do to prove you're not a big fat liar. I managed to pass, with flying colours I might add, and they were soon calling me letting me know how many people were knocking down the door to get me into their workplace. And so the hunt for the perfect flat began.... And can I say what a hunt it turned out to be. Tilly and I must have walked the city 5 times over and my feet still remember those couple of days!! So flat after flat, agency after agency, scum hole after scum hole we finally gave in - we went to this letting thing where you pay $90 to get a list of flats etc etc. We had just handed over the money when the only good landlord we saw calls to let us know a flat she has has come available. We then walk to the other end of town, yet again, to find this perfect flat. I suppose in some kind of way it was meant to be, but did they have to rob us of $90 first!!! Hello?!?! I'm a skint traveller!! Sooooooo... I can't complain as the flat is lovely, 2 bedrooms, 2 sofas and a nice outside bit, what more could you ask for when in the "garden city" in the height of summer! In fact lets start with the weather, it has been fantastic!! Every day has been gorgeous, blue skies, breathless winds and the prickly heat on your skin that lets you know summer has arrived. To compliment this has been my job, and the view from my office. Yes, that's right, my office, not the office, not our office, but my office. I managed to land a job where I got my own office, yay!! So a lil background on the job, I am working for the Christchurch College of Education, in their International department. My official title is - international project coordinator, not bad for a temp post. So my main role is to work with the international deans and my office manager to help manage the work load. So I help with student inductions, file important documents etc etc. but my main role has been working with the visiting delegates. Every year the college has hundreds of people visiting from loads of countries, i.e. china, Japan, Bangladesh, and Korea and so on. They come for anything from one day to a couple of months. To my delight I was informed that during my watch there was to be a visit from 26 Chinese principals for a 3 week training programme. So I've been liaising with the academic programme writer and ensuring everything is ready for their arrival etc etc. and as I write this they are here and I'm looking after them and making sure everything is good for them. Its been a great experience where no day has been the same and the department is full of some fantastic people. Although break time is defo one of my favourite times as the staff room has a pool room, which is just wicked. Basically it's a guy place, but me and a couple girls have now fully infiltrated the room and I know they love it. The guys are great, a real mixed crew who have me laughing until I cry each and every day. I know at least my stomach muscles are being worked!! But I think the funniest time has been when we had 7 delegates from a Chinese education bureau visit. They came really late in the day so we all had to stay late to give them a presentation and then out to dinner, o no, free food, what a shame!! So we got to the restaurant and there is the associate principle, the two international deans, my office manager and me.... Myself, the associate principle and Lisa (office manager) find ourselves on a corner of the table where the wine is flowing (for them) and the food flowing faster on one of those spinning tables. The delegates are miserable to say the least and so no one is really talking, so we talk about them, especially the one they called princess! The night wears on and the more miserable they are the more fun we have. One thing you will notice about these events is that the Chinese love toasting each other so every 5 mins were standing up, but we end up laughing so hard we keep missing the toasts. I figure its ok though, if the associate principal can get away with it so can I! We had such a great time they even offered to get rid of one of the international deans so I could stay on board! So, I'm still having a great time there, they like what I'm doing so much they're even keeping me on until Easter, not bad for what was meant to be a few weeks temping! So, what else have I been up to other than that?? Erm... well as I've been working so hard my weekends have been returned to that state where you actually enjoy them more. But I have to admit a slight laziness when its come to it. Tilly has also been working, she has been a hit waitress in a local Indian restaurant which means we don't really see each other too much nights so the weekends its nice to catch up, beyond a quick hello/;goodbye or I'm tired, see you tomorrow night! We have become top members of the video store around the corner and can I say screw blockbuster, this place is so cheap!! Every country, city and town needs a video ezy!! But beyond that we've been out and seen some of the sites. We managed to go to the gondola for a trip up the hill, which was lovely. The weather was gorgeous so the view from the top was amazing, see photo album for more of this! Erm... also there is this other English woman at work who has been out here for 8 years and she took pity on us one Sunday so dragged us out to see some of the sites that we wouldn't normally get to see. She drove us up to the hills, again see photos, to show us the different areas of Christchurch, took us to the nearby beaches and then into town for the Sunday food market, damn it was good. Cheap, tasty food, what more could you want! Oh, talking of Tilly she managed to hook us with some people she met at the restaurant and got us invited to a fancy-dress party. You can imagine our wardrobe really didn't cater for this so dropped into a second hand store to grab some overalls, god knows what we were meant to be, but it worked and we were in. It was quite a cool night, especially as we were actually socialising with other people for a change! I don't know if we will see them again, but hey, I can now tick going to a fancy dress party in another country off my to-do list!! Ooooooh... but then, there was the Chinese lantern festival the night after the party. This was a great night. There were hundreds of lanterns and hundreds of people enjoying the sights. The atmosphere was chilled and everyone just enjoyed seeing something a lil different to the norm. We stayed for a while, walking around, attempting to take photos and just enjoying the warm air. It was a truly magical night *sigh*. Well, I'm gonna end part one of Christchurch here as I've kinda said all I needed to. But there will be a part two as there's a few more weeks to go before heading out to Oz.