We bought a place

It’s official – and I got a job

They say that everything happens in threes, or that everything happens at once.

We will have to go with the last one because I am sure there were just two things. Before our trip to New Zealand, maybe as early in the year as January, we had started to consider jumping into the property market. But the whole concept was a bit foreign and daunting.

Still, we went to several open homes and surfed real estate sites online. We had a vague idea where we thought we would like to be but were open to all options. A couple tempted us but we chickened out and bided our time. We weren’t in any big rush really as we still had a few months to run on our rental lease. (although the screaming and shouting from one of our neighbours was taking the shine off staying there too long).

Anyway, one rainy day (we do get rain here sometimes) we arranged to meet an agent to view a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom unit. We were instantly impressed. So much so that we decided to bite the bullet and make an offer.

BINGO !!

Then of course there was the building & pest inspection to wait on, breaking our lease, finding solicitors and navigating the finance maze.

All the while this was happening I was still applying for a new role since the last one had ended as we went to New Zealand. On the Thursday before Easter I met with a new recruitment agency, this was also the date which our contract would become unconditional – so a lot going on to keep on top of. The last thing the consultant asked me was whether I was okay to get a call on the day, to start a role immediately.

“We don’t get many of them,” she said, “but we have had a couple in the last few weeks.” I assured her that I was fine with that and off I went.

More about what we got up to over Easter in another post. On Tuesday morning though, I was messing about, checking online job boards and having a second coffee when the phone rang.

You guessed it ! A temp assignment, 2 weeks and could I start today ?

That made me get my skates on – and abandon a couple of plans I had had for later in the day ! But great timing.

#52Ancestors, Week 36, Work

I don’t think I have anyone in my tree with an occupation which would be considered out of the ordinary.

Farmers, ag labs, railway employees, tailors, builders, engineers, teachers, nurses, domestics, grooms, coachmen, taxi drivers, truck drivers, mechanics, publicans, gardeners, sailcloth weavers, glovers, fitters, bakers, millers, labourers, clerks, cordial manufacturers and nurserymen can all be found scattered through my tree.

When my Cooper ancestors came to New Zealand in 1841 Samuel the head of the family was a tailor. A trade he had worked at in Montacute, Somerset before emigration. I don’t know where he learnt this trade, perhaps from his father although he died when Samuel was quite young; so maybe not.

Samuel and Elizabeth bought with them seven children. John the eldest was my great great grandfather. He was about twenty when they left England and followed his father and became a tailor. Two other sons began ginger beer and cordial manufacture businesses. Thomas was reputed to be the first to do so in New Zealand. Frederick who was just fourteen months old when they emigrated went on to establish a firm which operated for over 100 years.

F. Cooper Ltd.

It was recognized as a world leader in the production of seed peas for freezing and canning as well as a well established reputation as a producer of other quality seeds.

Fred married Ellen Carpenter in 1863. She was born in Wellington in 1842 shortly after her parents had arrived. Together they set up shop in Manners Street, near Herbert Street. Herbert Street no longer exists, but their shop was on the site, or very close to, where McDonalds now operate on the corner of Manners and Victoria Streets. They sold groceries, fruit and other needs of early settlers as well as seeds and plants from a nursery which Fred had already established between Taranaki and Hooper Streets. In 1866 they placed a half page advertisement in the Wellington Almanac. Their business prospered and four years later in the same publication they advertised that they had been able to erect a large building adjoining the shop where they intended to conduct all of their business.

By 1880, they had outgrown the space between Taranaki and Hopper Streets and extended their interests to Alicetown, south of the present Ewen bridge on the western side of the Hutt Valley. Here they established the Bijou Nurseries. In spite of economic fluctuations they were able to build on their early steady solid growth and in 1890 were obliged to find a larger building. This time on the east of Manners Street near the junction of St Hill St (today this is the laneway running between ASB Bank and Subway on Manners Street through to Bond Street).

Ellen and Fred had a family of eight children. Their two sons and three of their daughters joined the family business. In 1899 their son George aged twenty was sent to England to investigate prospects and returned with a contract to export seeds to the United Kingdom.

Fred died in 1908 but the business continued to grow in the hands of the two sons. In 1909 they erected a five storey building on the corner of Mercer and Willis Street; in 1913 they needed another building, this time in Dixon Street, near Willis Street. They operated from this site until at least the 1960s. The business passed to another Fred Cooper, grandson of the founder in the 1950s.

Coopers were at one time the largest seed house in New Zealand. In 1974 F Cooper Ltd was sold to Arthur Yates & Co Ltd. Yates had begun a similar business in Auckland in 1883, expanding to Australia in 1887. The Yates Seed Division was sold to South Pacific Seeds in 2003. The brand name  for commercial growers was changed to Terranova Seeds. Today Terranova Seeds are still the largest vegetable seed supplier in New Zealand.

References:

https://newspaperarchives.uhcc.govt.nz/?a=d&d=UpperHuttLeader19600317.2.3&

https://www.grassland.org.nz/publications/nzgrassland_publication_2494.pdf

#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.