#52Stories, Week 47, In what ways do you sacrifice your time to volunteer in your community ? Do you serve at church, at a local school, at charitable or civic organisations, one-on-one in your neighbourhood ?

Right now, I don’t.

I did have good intentions when I moved that I would get involved with things while I was looking for work. But really, looking for work seems a tad more important right now – tricky as it appears to be.

In the past though there have been a few occasions where I have been a volunteer.

Collecting for charities; Red Cross, SPCA, Plunket…

Brownie leader, Pippin leader, Division/District Commissioner/Coordinator with GirlGuidingNZ and all my “other” daughters.

Wellington City Ambassador – greeting cruise passengers and welcoming them to Wellington, answering questions, making suggestions for activites and giving directions

All of them lots of fun – and soon I am sure I will find something else to do as well.

A time for reflection and planning

Remember when I was in Cardiff and I had an interview "try-out" to become a volunteer for the Rugby World Cup 2015 ? 

Well it is nearly time to learn whether I've made it to the next level. 10,000 people from 20 different countries have been interviewed and are all waiting, just like me to see what happens next. The successful 6,000 applicants will find out between January and March 2015. Exciting !

I wonder what adventures 2015 will bring. Will Christchurch really be my new permanent home ? Should I buy an investment property ? And if I do, where ? 

I so want to return to the UK and give it another shot. Will it be this year for the World Cup or just because, or will it take longer to get everything sorted again ? We've been looking at cruises with the idea of travelling through the States and Canada enroute. Sounds like a more relaxing way to do it, but more time consuming.  Would I go nuts stuck on a ship for that long, compared to being squeezed on a plane for 36 hours ?

Winning Lotto would solve all these dilemmas. Wouldn't it be great to have the freedom to be able to make decisions without risking our old age security ? I knew I should have gone back to the shops and bought a ticket today. How can I win if I don't participate ?

We're both still a bit grumpy because we are here and not there; because it is hot and not cold; because we didn't take the opportunities when we almost had things in our grasp; because we spent too much time in the UK and none in Europe; because we took too long to decide where we wanted to be and frittered away money.

But, there hasn't been much snow where we wanted to live, it's just been cold so maybe this wasn't the winter we were meant to be there after all.

In the meantime, I'm plotting and planning. Trying to find potential income earners that could help boost the coffers and researching how to set up a hobby business which could come into it's own on the other side of the world. 

I've just been and stood out on the front steps and watched the firework display in the centre of the city, ushering the old year out and the new one in. A year filled with promise and undiscovered potential.

Hope you all have a great year to come.