#52Stories, Week 53, Woohoo !!

This is the 53^rd Sunday of the year. Since I started on the first Sunday (January 1, 2017), it seems right to close out the challenge on the last one.

So, not much revisiting of the goals, because I don’t think I’ve made much more progress with them than I had in June/July.

There have certainly been some thought provoking topics through the year, some that I have really struggled to find something to write about. But I’ve finished.

Maybe I will print them all out and have them bound into a book, maybe I wont.

A lot of other things have gone by the by because of the challenge though. I haven’t posted as much general stuff this year, so I will have to do a couple of catch-ups I think before the end of the day.

It has been a pretty action-packed year, lots of change – and stress – but lots of learning too.

The winds of change and smiles of good fortune had better start going my way though, because I am starting to go a bit crazy with not enough to do. I have lots of plans for my life – I just need to be able to execute them, and a job would be a great help in that regard.

#52Stories, Week 48, Let the planning begin !

In 1978 I got my first passport.

That September I went to Fiji with my friend Jo. We had both been working for a year or so since leaving school. Jo’s parents had been to Fiji before and had a network of friends there.

I travelled up to Hamilton from Wellington (did I fly ? I cant remember) and stayed at Jo’s. Next morning her sister in law Jane took us to Auckland to catch our plane. Our first night we stayed with the sisters at a convent. Interesting people – nuns.

The next morning we waited at the convent gate with our baggage for a bus and made our way from Nadi to Suva. We stayed in Suva for a few days – maybe a week ? with friends of Jo’s parents.

While we were there we met some other people and when it came time for us to head back to Nadi they gave us a ride – instead of bussing again. We spent a couple of nights on the Coral Coast and then about 3 or 4 more in Nadi. Lots of lazing about the pool, a day trip to Beachcomber and Treasure Islands, cruising the waters in a glass bottomed boat looking at the coral and brightly coloured fish.

It was loads of fun !

When I saw Jo just before we moved from Auckland this year, we were talking about that holiday and decided we are going back. For our next big milestone birthdays.

Rather than 40 years since the first time, it will 41 years instead.

Let the planning begin.

#52Stories, Week 12, Did you stumble into your career or deliberately work and plan to get where you are ? Are you happy in your current role ? or would you like to make a change ?

I stumbled....and I am still stumbling.

When I was little I thought I might be a nurse, or a teacher. That's what girls did. When I started college I wondered about law - I studied Latin. Toward the end of my college years I very seriously considered studying Home Science at Otago University to become a dietician.

To do this I needed to hot-house Chemistry. Great. With my other classes I couldn't make it work at school, so needed to enrol with the Correspondence School and do it that way. Chemistry was never a favourite thing of mine, and what did it have to do with food for heaven's sake. Anyway, I tried. I also applied for a bursary - just in case I didn't pass exams at the end of the year. 

Halfway through the year, feeling very much less academic than my classmates, and spending a lot of the time in the common room in study periods, I didn't have great results in mid year exams. So I decided to leave. I had an interview at State Insurance and maybe (foggy memory now) was offered the job. However the principal at college had different ideas. If I stuck at it she was sure I'd get better results and have a brighter future than working in an office. So I hung in for another term.

I applied for another job, this time at Bank of New Zealand I got that, and started in September. I still thought I might go to uni, but by the time I got the letter telling me I had been awarded/granted a bursary to go, I was earning more than the $32 a week that they were going to give me to study. So I kissed that idea goodbye.

Banking was a great industry to be in, computers were just starting to get introduced, credit cards were a whole new thing and they spoke of strange things to come in the future (boxes in the wall where you could put in a "banking card" and get money from your account) ! It was a very social work environment too.

When I left the bank and moved to Australia my first role was with a Health Fund where computers had never been heard of, where everything was done by hand, people sat at little desks like in school in rows set out as if you were at an exam. No talking to each other there unless you were on a break. You had to "bundy" on and off, and pay came hand delivered by the girls from payroll in a great big box, accompanied by security staff. Pay itself was in a small brown packet envelope in CASH, actual dollars and cents. So last century !

So mostly my jobs over the past 40 years have been admin/office based. Some in the financial sector, some in government. Some in sales (which I never thought was my thing, but hey) and others just process work which was always busy and mostly fun. 

Then there is this job which was full of promise but has turned out to be pretty blah. Slow one day and slower the next. To be fair it is a bit busier right now, but I can only see that lasting a few more weeks until it is back to nothing.

I've never had any great career aspirations, maybe I should have gone to uni and studied while I could and when it was free - I sure can't afford to do it now.

So I guess I will keep stumbling along. Remembering the fun times at BNZ and Yellow and Hawkins and wondering where I might find that again.

Searching and Planning

I have a plan.

But, I'm not whispering a word just yet in case I jinx it, and anyway I cant put it into action until I find a blinking source of steady income.

I seem to spend my days trawling through listings on seek, applying for jobs, fielding calls from recruitment agencies, giving phone interviews and thinking that maybe this one will lead to the end goal.

There have been a few interviews, and to be honest to have got that far has been great for confidence - but brutal when of two candidates in a holding pattern at the point of final decision, I am not THE one.

Everything happens for a reason I believe (even when I might sound grumpy and despondent to my friends) so it will all fall into place when the RIGHT opportunity is offered. I just wish it would happen soon - this side of Christmas would be beneficial :o)

I've also been making a nuisance of myself highlighting "issues" with our rental property to the property manager, with mixed results. So we still have an oven that has two temperatures; stone cold and searingly fiery (is that too much superlative ?) and now we appear to have little bugs which live in timber. Oh yay. But we do have clear drains and smoke alarms fitted - although with the state of the oven, I'm always anxious I will set them off while cooking dinner each night. 

For a couple of baking fanatics like us, the unsatisfactory kitchen facilities have been a real gripe. We feel grumpy that we felt slightly pressured to take this place when offered as we had seen others (better) but people kept telling us how terrible the rental market was, and how competitive etc. Then the property manager wasn't as upfront as she could have been either. Grrr. And to top it off we have a stupid fixed term tenancy...at the moment.

Never mind though, I've become quite adept with "managing" the stove and haven't killed us yet with uncooked dinners, or set the place on fire. I even baked yesterday - and was quite successful.

I've started planning and making for Christmas too, since it is my favourite time of year.

And I have been spending an untoward amount of time contacting potential DNA matches since receiving our test results and updating and expanding my family tree database.

Aside from all this, I'm finding my way around - sometimes without the help of my TomTom, the traffic is just traffic, I'm enjoying the rain - such a novelty after 12 months in Christchurch !