So I'm alive guys, I've just been busy living a normal(ish) life over here with no time for writing unfortunately as this means I have a LOT to catch up on… whoops.

So yep, I'm living in Christchurch in my huge party mansion with all of the boys, currently there is a new American who has moved in, she seems nice but perhaps quite naïve, she seems a lot younger than she is anyways. Sophie our resident French lady has moved out down to Invercargill rather randomly but she is actually trying to sort a job out in Dubai at the moment which will be awesome if she gets that all sorted! Gives me food for though, I never thought about working there but she's gonna get an apartment and food (from work) as part of her jobs package which is quite sweet let's be honest and nowhere else in the world can you really live the Champagne Lifestyle better - in a country full of non drinkers haha! I find that hilarious. But yeah so the house is cool as ever although currently 3 of the boys are back in the UK visiting for Christmas etc. shame on them. But never mind it's certainly quiet without them!! I can't wait for them to get to be honest. I love the madness of our house.

To live in a city that basically doesn't exist, with all of the rubble, everywhere being a building site, shipping containers holding random walls up, cranes everywhere and so many tradies walking round in their hard hats and orange and yellow t shirts, is most certainly interesting. For one thing the tradies are hot! That is a happy bonus of living here there is like 9 men to every 1 girl here. Which is good sometimes but also terrible some other times as the men are constantly on the lookout for a girl so it's a bit much sometimes, but at least now I know how Britney Spears feels. haha not. But seriously despite the issues Christchurch has - if you can call a whole city collapsing due to earthquakes an issue... but I do love the people here so much despite everything they have been through, they have lost family and friends, some have lost their homes or had them so badly damaged they're not able to live in them and 4 years on some people's homes are still not repaired, their jobs have been affected and they essentially now live somewhere that looks like the set from the walking dead. But the people of Christchurch are absolutely amazing people and they are all so positive despite all of these facts. They are nice, genuine people, always smiling at everyone in the street. I can honestly say this is friendliest place I have ever lived - Marg's was super nice too but it's so small I don't think it's fair to compare it to a major city.

We often go to the Sunday market at Riccarton Racecourse (it's the biggest Sunday market in NZ so it's safe to say this is a huge market) the store holders are always asking you two questions when they hear you aren't a kiwi 'where are you from' and 'are you here to help with the rebuild' and you chat to them for ages, they have actual genuine interest in your story of why and where and it's not a sales ploy. When you walk away having purchased nothing you still leave feeling like you've made a friend for life, sounds cheesy but it's very true. They have amazing spirit. Alot of people are amazed I left Queenstown known for its amazing beautiful views to live here in Christchurch but I couldn't be happier here. Queenstown is a 'perfect' town but life isn't perfect and I don't intend to have a pretend perfect life. This is about as real as you can get. The people of Christchurch need people to stop being so judgmental of their town (as I was when I first got here) they need people to work, live and spend here to keep their economy up so ensure the rebuild has the funding it needs. This won't be fixed in 2 years or ever 5 years time it will take at least 10 years to get it all sorted again in my not so expert opinion. I just hope people get over the fear and step up to it.

But anyways quite serious there not like me, although it might be my age... as if I will be 30 this year! How on earth did that happen?!

So yes anyway from last time, I met a young chap on the bus. He was a typical Irish charmer; he entertained me on the bus all the way to work every day until we eventually started meeting up at the pub a few times. He was a plasterer and also worked in the local bar. Of course just as I was about to tell me mam to buy a hat he tells me he has a girlfriend and kid back in Ireland. What a lovely guy... not. Standard! So of course I am now off the Irish for life. And then a girl Sarah from work (yep another bloody Sarah - Jesus I now know about 80 Sarah's I swear) told me her rules with boys, never trust the barman or the doorman. So I will now also be adopting that policy haha. What a genius as if I have learnt nothing from travelling the world!

So yeah one day it's a nice day - wahey!! Must have been the start of spring perhaps? But me Andy, Skell and Dan - he is our token kiwi friend who lives round the corner. We decide to head to Akaroa for the day to make the most of it. So off we go, it's a lovely country drive, we stop enroute at little river which is a gorgeous little place and the views are so amazing. It's a beautiful place!! We get to Akaroa and go for a little walk along the sea front and down the harbour, we see a Mr Whippy van - double wahey!! I have no cash on me - standard. This means Skell shouts me an ice cream though - triple score!!! I get a sherbet dip with a flake, which in case you're daft is an amazing ice cream dipped in pink sherbet! What a genius idea that is!! It's amazing!! Skell is a 40 year old bloke from Brummie he's in a league of his own, refuses to wear shoes apart from at work as he's a builder, absolutely louder than an elephant when he walks, has some mad stories from his youth he is basically bez from the happy Mondays! He goes for the.... titanic ice cream. haha what a girl!! It's an ice cream sundae shaped like a boat in case you can't figure that. It's so funny. And since then he has stuck to his titanic ice creams from all Mr Whippy vans I just love him!!

So we thought about going for a hike... not me to be honest this was the boys thoughts. I was more into sitting down. So we went and got fish and chips instead thank god, they were awesome eating them by the waterfront, what a treat!! We were all very quiet during feeding time haha. We then figured we should go for a drive so went looking for some little beach coves. We found an amazing spot called Le Bons Bay. It is sooo beautiful. Proper like a little Caribbean beach. Most of the beaches over our way are all dark sandy beaches, this was not quite white sand but way more light than ours. And there was no one there!! ahh so pretty!! The sea is an amazing colour here it's beautiful. We definitely want to head back here again for some bbqs unfortunately no camping allowed here as that would have been an amazing camp spot for the night! When we're driving round the country roads some teeny little lamb follows us - like proper chases the car it's so funny! as it follows us for ages!! I desperately want to keep him as a pet, but the boys disagree...

So meanwhile while we're off exploring Akaroa, Jordan is out climbing as he's some kind of adrenalin junkie he is supposed to meeting people to climb with for the weekend, he calls me to say he was late meeting them so they've went without him and he's on some random cragg lost and with no water obviously. Jordan is amazing with the stories he has about his narrow escapes from things. Skell is convinced his guardian angel saves his 3 times daily haha. So I and Skell are worried as it's really hot and he has nothing and his phone is dying and no one has a clue where he is, himself included. Andy and Dan are less than worried it is just standard Jordan. And the next day he rocks up totally fine as though nothing had happened!! The little s*** haha!

This spring/summer has been awesome and my standard weekend consists of Andy saying 'were having a bbq' so me and Jordan go to the bottle shop and stock up and then we all sit in the blazing sunshine in our lovely garden drinking beer/cider/sangria while Andy makes us a bbq. It's a very happy life, we often go to the pub on the night but more often than not we're too far gone to attempt to get ready to go out in public. One Saturday we had Sangria Saturday where I spent the day making Champagne Sangria for everyone, now I get quite hungover these days from beer and cider but sangria has so much fruit in its almost good for you so I'm always grand the next day but when I did it this one day I remember going to bed pretty drunk but in the morning I was up early and feeling good and poor Dan hadn't made the 80 metres it is to his house he was on one of our mattresses in the games room haha. He laid there all day pretty much moving only to lie in the garden where I happily jumped on him. We then all had a Jurassic Park Sunday and Dan slept in front of the TV and missed 2 movies! He is a tough man to break so I take some pride in this, he also didn't go to work until Wednesday that week haha how funny!! That's up there with making Buntha the barman vomit in Cambodia hahaha!

Dan introduced us to Crate day too which is a major kiwi tradition, on the first Saturday of summer everyone in the whole of NZ buys a crate of beer, like an actual wooden crate full of long neck beers like bigger than a pint size. The crate holds 12 and the idea is you sit in the sunshine with your crate and drink it all in one day. It's basically impossible! Only Andy did it out of about 10 of us! I got to 9 but I don't know how, I was a mess I couldn't even finish them off on the Sunday night I managed 2 then quit again! I still tried though to be true to my Geordie roots! It was definitely my favorite kiwi celebration to date!!

Of course my sister was pregnant so gave birth to my gorgeous little Nephew Zack Alfie Potts in November! I so wish I could have been there, even though I couldn't do anything. I would love to have been there afterwards though, it's sad when you miss events like that. Especially with it being my mam n dads first Grandchild - they are obviously buzzing. But it's tough when you are just at the end of the phone waiting for news! But I will be home mid-June to meet the little and I cannot wait to give him a big squeeze! He's soo gorgeous! I can definitely see some spoiling to be done!! So of course I demanded all the boys come out with me to wet the babies head which all worked out well as it was Thursday night and Friday was Bank Holiday - wahey! So we all got suitable smashed in Smash Palace on the bus drinking harsh stong IPA! So of course I and Jordan were a mess by 9 so were both home by 10 haha we are so rock n roll! Jordan insisted on buying everyone an amaretto shot too... how random is that? You can tell he's from the south haha wouldn't catch a northerner buying a shot that wasn't tequila/Sambuca or Jager! It was a nice shot however I definitely didn't need one and he definitely didn't need to spend like $120 on shots!!

The other week I was working until 3 then came home and had a lovely nap, the boys were at the pub as they had been since 1, I went for a run after my nap and then I and Kitchen went to meet them as he had also been working. We decided they would be drunk so we had vodka, a cider and a rum and coke before we went! Then drank a can of rum and coke each on route to the pub... we got there and it was carnage they were all hilariously drunk. So I had a few jagerbombs with Ash and Jordan to catch up with them. The bar staff were being a bit weird with us probably because everyone was an absolute mess and being extremely loud... so by 8.30 they brought us water over and that was the end of our night haha another night of us being in bed by 10, the only benefit to this was that we caught burger king before it shut as it shuts at 10 we usually miss it haha. Good times. Nothing like fixing your hangover with a cheese whooper before bedtime!!

My job with Earthquake Recovery is going well, just a nice little office job where I am contracted to until my visa expires which is perfect. We get a lot of nice extra bonuses there such as free tea, coffee, hot chocolate and fruit which is awesome but over Christmas we totally got spoiled! They got us a hogget roast which is like between a lamb and a sheep. One of the men dressed up as Santa and we all sat on his knee for a photo even the boy's haha. I told you in was 80s here I'm sure sitting on Santa's was banned along time ago back home due to Jimmy Saville and similar dirty old men. Another day one of our contractors or someone similar sent us a Mr Whippy van so we could all have free ice cream. My Mr Whippy of choice is a sherbet dip with a flake but since this was a freebie I went all out and got my sherbet dip, dipped in chocolate too mmm. Although that may sound nice it was actually crap and the chocolate went all hard and I wish I'd got sprinkles instead. But nevermind, that was the happiest I've ever saw an office in my life!! We had previously had an ice cream party at work a few week earlier for race day where all the teams had to make their own 'horse' to do the race round the outside haha, we all ate ice cream happily watching everyone competing make fools of themselves. They are all about the moral I love it. We also had some people called 'Scared Scriptless' in one day they were amazing! They just took the piss out of everyone randomly, made some people take part in an action movie with them. It was hilarious what they were coming up with, I well enjoyed it. We were all a bit scared about going to it as we didn't wanna get picked but they were brilliant! This is definitely one of the nicest things of working over this side of the world - every job I've had since leaving home has always had a strong social element to it which really makes a difference I think.

For my Christmas work party we were all taken to the Christmas Races in Riccarton Racecourse it was amazing, I had to buy a new fancy dress and new shoes with a heel! OMG this was such an exciting time getting a new outfit, as I haven't bought myself anything that nice in a looong time!! Definitely not since I left home, I have no clue when I'll get the chance to wear the outfit again but nevermind you never know! And I do have a wedding to go when I get home next summer! The races were amazing though we got some free champers at the start; I bet on tons of horses and won a fair bit. I also managed to trick one of the pissed up lads from work that he had stolen my winning slip and swapped it with his losing betting slip so he bought me a bottle of champers so it was fair haha sweeeeeeeet. I and Irish Sarah then proceeded to drink this out of the bottle like the classy birds that we are. It ended up being a very messy works night out absolute standard. But it's so lovely having your Xmas work do in nice weather!!

So since Andy, Skell and Jordan were going for xmas me, Andy, Dan and Jordan went for a lovely meal at Lone Star one day it was the day we got the drinks stopped in the pub, we were meant to be going that night instead but obviously we all got a teeny bit tipsy so we didn't make it. But Lone Star was such a treat! The boys got ribs and I got steak it was soo good but the portions were insanely big! I basically ate my steak and hardly any of the roasties and salad that came with it. It's good to have a good feed when you're hungover though I must admit it sorts you right out and its tough cooking so well when you aren't feeling the best. Then just before Jordan left as he went last me and him went for another meal to a Latin American tapas place Tequila Mockingbird. It was amazing. We ordered so much food and got Sangria too it was so nice, but since it was almost Christmas it was packed and had a wicked party vibe going on it was well good. I love going out for food as I am a huge greedy mare obviously! I really fancy going for Japanese tepanyaki soon so I'm eager for everyone to be home again so we can go!

When I first got to Christchurch I decided enough was enough and I demanded J9 came over to dye my hair blonde again as my hair was s***ty dark blonde with bad roots again so I got an amazingly good value (aka cheap as) hair dye from Warehouse, and over she came and dyed my hair, I was of course prepared for the ginger hair that would follow, I was not however prepared for the orange hair that appeared instead haha. I literally had bright orange hair pretty much. Although to be fair that night it was actually not so bad and more gingery and we then went out and met Peter who I met in Queenstown from Slovakia for a few drinks and tried to make J9 stay out but she was having none of it! Shame on her, so me and Pete went and met the boys in Smash Palace which is of course our local. But the next day I had to go to work on a Saturday for overtime and my hair was basically orange... oh dear. One of the guys at work was like 'er what's happened to your hair pet, don't come back to work on Monday if it still looks like that' haha cheeky Scottish b*****. Lucky there was no one in hardly so not many people saw it, on the way home I went back to Warehouse to buy purple toner. I put tons on my hair and left it for a wee bit more than the recommended 3 minutes... and I ended up with white hair with purple rinse streaks. Haha fml! It was def an improvement to the orange though so I got over it and then by the time it had faded I was loving the lilac hair.

So anyways about 3 days before Christmas I demand we all go to Kaikoura for our holidays, by all of us I mean Daly, Kitchen and Buff (our token Irish friend) as everyone else we know has gone to England, Oz basically everyone has escaped Christchurch. So I amazingly managed to get xmas eve off work with 2 days' notice and got us 4 beds in a hostel with a swimming pool, lucky us! So we all finished work on the Tuesday 23rd and then headed off to Kaikoura wahey!! I was pretty much drunk by the time we got there as I drank a bit of cider on the way up there in the car. Our hostel was wicked I was so impressed by it, absolutely massive, loadsa outdoor space and the pool was heated!! Amazing!! The night we got there we went to the Indians for a curry obviously, it was bloody lovely and then we continued drinking into the wee hours. Buff kept us all awake in the dorm as he was talking in his sleep about someone getting out of his head and he kept saying 'Jesus' in that funny Irish accent. I thought it was quite funny as I was pretty drunk, but the other 2 in our room that were part of our group weren't so impressed haha! bad times!

The next day me and Daly were up bright and early eating curry with a beer for breakfast - that is what I call living the dream. It's also probably the most Geordie breakfast I have ever had and I was all the way in New Zealand in the Sunshine haha! I may make this my new Christmas Eve tradition... We then hung around the pool all day long it was amazing, so chilled out until two Maori girls came and abused us for a few hours haha they were legends and they were estimating our ages. Me at 42?! Chris at 24?! Daly about 45 and poor Buff really got it at 65!! They were sooo funny and they spent a lot of time having races with Kitchen in the pool until they had to go home. How mint having an outdoor heated pool on your doorstep that you can use any time! Nice way to live! We met this mental Swedish girl and German lass too they were sweet, quite entertaining but also very young in an annoying way. We ended up spending Christmas day with them and they came to our beach BBQ, we started Christmas day with croissants and champagne which was lovely and then about 5 hours and 100 bottles of beer/cider/Woodstock later we went to the beach. I can barely remember eating anything but I do remember me and Kitchen having the greatest stone fight of all time! haha! I am absolutely covered in bruises from this fight but it was worth it, it was hilarious us chucking stones at each other for a good 10 minutes!! I then decided to have a little swim in the sea - a Christmas day dip and it wasn't the best idea I've ever had as I was a teeny bit drunken and the waves were quite strong so I did spend a few minutes practically drowning and not being able to breathe or get out of the sea all the while the German girl was there laughing saying 'you're so funny' as if it was a joke! Jesus! Shame on her. Luckily I'm a strong lass from up north and I managed to save my own life like a true beach bunny. Good work pet! I well deserved a pat on the back for that one.

I then was exhausted after drinking so much champers and almost drowning and fighting that I went back to the hostel for a nana nap that went on for quite some time (about 3 hours maybe?) But then I got up again and continued the party with a bottle of rum like a sailor and we played Daly's card game which I forget the name but it's very politically incorrect and it's hilarious!! I want to buy them myself! Maybe cards against humanity? Anyway they mention all the greats such as Mr Saville himself and Madeline McCann and basically everything famous that is wrong with the world. And then it was bed time I think?

The next day we had to check out super early at 10am we made it about 10.30 haha, we all then argued who was gonna drive as everyone wasn't in the best way! Daly lost and we all settled happily in the car, we had also picked up a Spanish guy to come back to Chch with us as he was going that way and we had a seat. Worst idea ever as it was soooo hot I made him sit in the middle as I couldn't deal with the middle when I needed to sleep and just cos I was the only girl shouldn't mean I have to sit in the middle - I'm the oldest haha. So me and buff had him in the middle we were just sticking to him it was disgusting!! I wasn't too impressed, I slept for a lot of the journey home which was nice and then we also got to the see the baby seals!! aawwww they are so god damn cute!! They struggle to move so much it is amazingly gorgeous! The big ones are scary ass mofos but the little ones are absolutely gorgeous!! I was over the moon with them!!

So yeah that has been me up until Christmas the rest can wait for another day!! Peace out b****es xxxx