One Hundred and Thirty (roughly) hours of solitude, or Gwenlli's Week

Good evening. I return to the land of blog, bearing more news of Auckland life. Last week, the wonderful C was away on a University field trip, uncontactable and untraceable, and I was left to my own devices. Being an amazing girlfriend, I awoke with her at 6am on Sunday, walked her to the ferry terminal and waved goodbye, got completely lost on the way home, and finally returned to bed. I got up a couple of hours later as I had arranged to go to the beach with Tingting. This occurred, and we had a most pleasant time at Mission Bay, the closest beach to Auckland. Mostly we sunbathed and chatted whilst drinking iced coffee, until T kindly let slip that I had moved to live in a hotbed of volcanic activity.

Yes, I know. I really should have looked up where I was going to live before making the decision. Alternatively I should have taken Geography past year nine. Turns out Auckland is just one big volcanic catastrophe waiting to happen, and the fun part is, they don't even know where it might erupt! Although I love to be kept on my toes, this was taking it a bit far, and I had a mini freak-out. Very quickly I realised that this was futile, and I can't exactly do much about it now I'm here, so I will just say: if I get erupted I LOVE YOU ALL. Drama aside, volcanoes have made the landscape here pretty stunning, and T took me up Mount Eden later in the day, a dead volcano just outside of town. The ascent is pretty steep, but once at the top there are stunning views of the Auckland area for miles around- mountains, sea, more volcanoes...

On Monday, I received a job offer and three interviews. This was a welcome change from the soul-destroying job-search, and I decided to go with the offer. I will be working for Inland Revenue in a customer service capacity, which is pretty different from everything I have ever done. Although my passion in life is working in healthcare, I really wanted to do something different whilst in NZ, and this job fits the bill. One of the most enjoyable aspects is that it is Monday to Friday. That's right. No weekends/nights/stupid hours. I can be a normal person for a few months, for the first time in my life. Yes, yes... I know what you're thinking.

Throughout the week, I was stressing out about my medical applications. The deadline for offers was fast approaching, and from desperately stalking chatrooms I gathered that most people had heard back. Every morning I would go to my laptop, heart rate would increase, then annoyance at lack of messages would settle in. Also, I was waiting to hear when we were to be booted out of the flat into our intended place. A couple of times I got told I would be moving the next day, only to be told later that it wasn't happening. I was happy staying put for the time being, so the complete lack of organisation/communication between landlord and his missus was forgiven.

During the week, I did some reading, went to a few ballet classes, had a friend over to watch a film, and went to a meeting of Auckland Uni's campus feminists. I also cooked a lot, including a delicious tofu, coconut and kumara curry, and loads of spinach. On Friday, I was invited by a psych prof at Auckland Uni (who I met for coffee the previous week) to attend a meeting of students that he supervises, as we share some research interests. The meeting was full of lovely people with some fascinating research projects ranging from disability technologies, to blood-spatter analysis, to wellbeing, to S&M.  There was also an impressive spread of vegan food, and at the pub afterwards the prof invited me and C to go rock climbing the day after. Let's do it!

I returned from Glenn Innes, where the psych campus is situated, and arrived at the ferry terminal just in time. I was walking along not recognising where I was when C ran up to me out of nowhere. There may have been some joyous squealing involved, then we walked back to the hotel to get ready for a burlesque show with Mel and Kate which was starting in an hour's time. Before I go on any longer, I will give C a chance to write her version of last week's events, but there is much more to tell since our reunion!

The Chop-It

Hello dear people, and apologies for not having written all week with an update on C's head! Mostly we've just been settling into life, and haven't had much out of the ordinary to talk about. C's head is fine - G taped a sock to the headboard to prevent that pesky thing from striking again.

This week C has been focusing on her first essay in over seven years - it's been taking a lot to get back into the flow of things! On Sunday we had some friends over for a movie night, and finished watching "Milk" - a really beautiful film about the first gay man to be elected into public office in the US (and shortly thereafter assassinated).

On Tuesday we went to Whitcoulls to buy a Rubik's cube because C had tried previously to solve the cube in the local cafe, and had failed miserably at remembering how to solve them. To that end, she has re-remembered and has now spent a good few hours teaching G how to solve the cube. G's not quite there, but we assure you she will be come next week!

Tuesday also happens to be one of the vegan lunch days at uni - $5 for a buffet of really, really delicious food, so we headed into uni for a change of scenery and a nice meal. On Wednesday G had a meeting with a psychology professor at the university. They went for coffee, the first cup G had on campus which vaguely resembled coffee at all. They discussed all things psych, and he was most impressed so has emailed her some readings, and hopefully she will be able to attend some meetings that he has with his postgraduate and PhD students, which is really cool!

Later in the evening, we had Tingting over, and G made pakoras from Alex's delicious recipe, and C made a Thai curry (both of which were most tasty). We then watched Velvet Goldmine - a film loosely based on the life of David Bowie which has one of the most epic soundtracks. The story is not so great, but the music is fantastic!

Thursdays are the only days that C has uni, so she went in for nine, and attended lectures until three. The day was broken up by heading to the vegan lunch with some new-found friends. In the meantime, G had a job interview which was incredibly strange and pointless--the woman asked questions from a questionnaire, and then filled it in online... Seems like they could have, y'know, just emailed it over! G then headed to meet Mel for coffee, and then ballet, whilst C went to a talk by Generation Zero - a group of like-minded individuals committed to reducing NZ's carbon footprint to zero by the year 2050.

Today (Friday), C went to uni to pay for the field trip on Sunday, and then off to the outdoors shop where she spent a good long time chatting to the sales assistant as to the best bag to buy. He was a most condescending individual, but put up with half an hour of barragement, so kudos to him! Back at the hotel, the essay was driving C rather up the wall, so she went to have a bath and chopped all her hair off. By all accounts, it's not terrible.

Here's a picture.

C's off to Great Barrier Island for a week on Sunday, so there will be a special blog post. Hopefully there will be pictures if she remembers to take 'em...

The Fire, the Twit, and the Headboard

Let us take you on a journey, weaving through 2/3rds of the emergency services, culminating in a resolution to never sleep with our heads to the wall again...

G had a job interview on Friday morning, leaving C at home, unattended. As C got up, she managed to hit her head pretty hard on a corner of the bed's metal headboard, but thought no more of it and got on with her uni work. G's interview lasted the morning, and on her way back, she took her first NZ train journey, which was a far less exciting prospect after a 45 minute wait.

At around 4:30 in the afternoon, our noses picked up on a smoky, plastic-y aroma. It became gradually stronger, until we could no longer ignore it. Around this time, just as C was about to get into the bath, the fire alarm in the apartment went off. We were reassured by our other flatmates that this was a normal occurrence, and that we did not need to vacate, so we uneasily stood around as the smell of smoke became stronger. Peering our over our balcony, we could see some smoke coming from the far side of the apartment building next to us, so we decided that it didn't seem serious enough to leave the building. 

A couple of minutes later, the alarm changed to a louder, more urgent sound, involving a man's voice on repeat saying "Please leave the building now, follow the fire wardens to the nearest exit". This was becoming a little scary, so we grabbed our bags and left (even had we wanted to stay, the alarm was way too annoying for our ears to bear). The corridor stank of smoke, and we made our way to the fire exit. Being on the 13th floor, we had many fights of stairs to make our way down. Eventually we emerged into the open, into a crowd of people standing outside the hotel. There were fire engines and ambulances going past, and there seemed to be a lot of activity on Hobson Street, the street parallel to ours. 

We tramped over to Hobson street, where around ten fire engines were parked. Firefighters were emerging from a smoky building, and some were in a cherry-picker hovering above. As the smell of smoke subsided, we made our way back to the flat, where the fire alarm had thankfully stopped. C finally had her bath, but afterwards started feeling unwell. At around 8pm she started complaining about feeling sick and dizzy, experiencing a painful headache, and pain around her left eye. She was very unsteady on her feet, so G gave the hospital a quick call, and was told to bring C in.

C was seen by a lovely nurse in A&E. We explained that C had hit her head earlier in the day, and about her symptoms in the evening. C was very unsteady on her feet, but wasn't too unwell to cheekily ask the nurse for room service (she took it well and brought us some juice!). Three hours later, after being thoroughly checked by the lovely nurse and doctor in A&E, C was discharged with a diagnosis of concussion. G was given some info on what to look out for, and we were home just after midnight. C was forbidden from sleeping with her head to the wall to avoid the horrible headboard, and we both went to sleep, safe and sound in the knowledge that a typhoon is supposedly headed our way tomorrow. 

The Great Flatsby

So, yay, we're here, writing this from our thirteenth-floor suite. We appear to have acquired more stuff since our last move two weeks ago, which makes absolutely no sense because we have, in fact, acquired nothing. C's theory is that gravity is particularly strong in London, due to the sheer density of the city, which means that squishing clothes into a rucksack is easier.

Anywho, with our excessive amount of luggage, we met Tingting at 8am outside the hostel, and she drove us over the new (temporary) residence, where we were kindly helped in keeping the lift open by a bemused hotelier and up to the thirteenth floor! Upon arrival, it seemed that the room in which we were to live was currently being slept in, so we dumped the stuff in the living room, and headed out again: back to the hostel (for the last time), playing a variation on that "I went to the supermarket and I bought..." to keep our tired minds awake.

We checked out, grabbed a mushroom and walnut burger from "Revel", a really nice biker-run-esque café, and back to the thirteenth floor. The lovely French lady moved her stuff out of the room, and into the room of the partner, we sorted out beds and sheets, etc. C sat down to do a bit of work before heading to uni, and G job hunted.

C met her "lab" partner at uni, and they spent several hours reading literature on the Maori's effect on New Zealand's forest ecology. It turns out there's a huge debate in NZ literature over when humans first settled the islands, and scientists have attempted to answer those questions with pollen, charcoal, and other methods for measuring observed vegetation changes. However, at the same time as all of this, there were disturbances in the climate - becoming cooler due to atmospheric effects (along with volcanic eruptions) and so the question is now: were humans or climate change responsible for the changes in vegetation? Seems rather poignant and fitting in with today's current debate.

They then discussed Japan (his origins), the UK, and NZ, and the debate around cats wearing collars: turns out, if you change the bell on your cat's collar every month, the cats can't learn how to move so the bell doesn't jingle, so the birds can get away from those evil predators.

When C got home, G headed to Rainbow Youth to meet Mel and pick up some DVDs. Turns out Linda's been having words and we're all going to Family again this weekend! At least we have a few days to brace ourselves this time. In the meantime, C had a bath (!) and headed to Countdown supermarket to get some food, and came back and made some pita. We curled up and watched "The Worst Witch" with Tim Curry. It is so 80s! Halfway through, we removed the base of the bed and put the mattress on the floor - the bed was so worn we felt as if we were beginning to sink through it. Then, to sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream.

A Room of Two's Own

To fully experience a new city, it is important to ensure that one attends a local, established establishment on a Saturday night. With that in mind, we agreed when asked by some Generation Zero-ers to go to Family, a notorious gay bar. There are three separate rooms at Family: two upstairs (separated by a pinball arcade), and one downstairs through a narrow, UV-lit corridor. The entire evening was incredibly surreal. From the karaoke room, you go next door to hardcore electro with suspect middle-aged dancers on stage, and even more suspect loner middle-aged man in baseball hat and polo-shirt, and wander downstairs to a sticky-floored room with the tempo changing every 30 seconds, so attempts at dancing turn into a confused melee of unsynchronised bopping and hopping.

Although between us we only had three G&Ts, the next day we awoke extremely groggy, finally emerging at lunchtime to head to a Hawaiian-themed "Gentle Stretch" class (apparently the previous week's theme was Lord of the Rings) at G's dance studios. The class was very stretchy but not always so gentle, the first half dedicated to gentle hip-swaying and arm-waving to traditional Hawaiian music, followed by some "OK, now do the splits" exercises. This was deservedly followed by a corn fritter/avocado combo for G (here they put avocado with everything- it's amazing), and a tomato-y pasta for C, with a side-order of books.

C spent the afternoon reading papers for her course, occasionally complaining about badly-drawn tables and getting excited when actual maths was featured. G read and got confused about flat viewing times. So. Many. Viewings. It was then time to go and meet Jimmi, to discuss the room that we hoped to move in to. This turned out to be a very strange encounter.

We met J at his other apartment, which is situated in a hotel in Auckland Central. He began by hurriedly sitting us down in the lobby to inform us that we would have to live in his hotel apartment until the room we were originally interested in became free. Once his friend could move out (in approximately 1-2 weeks' time), we would be able to move in. He would let us have the room in his hotel apartment for the same price in the meantime, as he needed someone for the room and would be out of the country for a few months from Monday. Additionally, the two current flatmates in our newly-proposed room would move temporarily as well: the male would go and live with the Thai chef who rents the second room in our original flat, and the female would share a room with his partner. We both looked at each other- was this for real?

J began by showing us around the hotel. It's a very pleasant building, with two gyms, a sauna, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, outdoor giant chess board and tennis courts. We then went to the apartment, which was lovely- plenty of light, with our own separate double room and bathroom. There were four burners in the kitchen, a comfortable living area with huge TV, small dining table and balcony. We met J's partner, who would continue to live in the flat while J was away, their adorable 20-month-old daughter who is going with J to Thailand, and another flatmate. We spoke about contracts and questioned everything thoroughly. He seemed very genuine, and just quite desperate to get someone to rent his room before he left the country.

We went and pondered things over some Indian food. It was a very decent flat; by all accounts we would be getting a reasonable deal with no additional letting costs, and J didn't seem to have anything to hide, despite the complexity of the situation. He was also happy for us to pay a bond when we moved into our intended flat, once his friend had moved out, and seemed fairly lax about signing any binding contracts (he said that it was up to us whether or not we wanted a contract). If he is a scammer he's definitely doing it wrong! We decided to say yes to both- what's the worst that could happen? Still slightly baffled, we found some dairy-free sorbet and walked back to the hostel, hopefully for one of the last times.

This morning, we met J again, and signed an open-ended, flexible contract (yes mothers, before you ask we read the small print), and received one key. We will receive the other key tomorrow from Parny (J's partner who seems very lovely), pay our first week's rent, and move in! Here's to our last night in a hostel for as long as we can help it!

The Portrait of a Lad(y)

Breaking news: we *probably* have a place to live! Neither of us are getting our hopes up until our bums are firmly planted inside the flat, clutching the bit of paper that says that we're allowed to plant our bums inside the flat, but all things considered, this can only be good news.

The potential property is in the centre of town and a couple of minutes' walk from C's campus. It has four burners, a bathtub, is fully furnished and has plenty of space. There is one other flatmate- a Thai chef who is out at work from early 'till late, and a balcony overlooking the city. We are to meet up tomorrow evening with "Jimmi", who we will be renting from, and sort out some paperwork. Fingers crossed, toes crossed, arms crossed, legs crossed... If everything looks legit, we should have somewhere by Tuesday!

We're both becoming a bit madder with each day spent in the hostel. Last night C was rudely awoken by shouting drunk man next door (G slept soundly through- silicone earplugs are a miracle), and we're both very eager to leave the less pleasant aspects of hostel living- corridors smelling of BO, people smelling of BO, in fact, just mostly a lot of things to do with BO and annoying shouty people at 3am.

C started uni on Thursday. She attended two lectures on environmental policy and governance, and research methodology. She was given assignments and papers to read, and spent most of the day familiarising herself with the literature. G went to ballet and applied for some more jobs. The following day, G had an interview with an agency, and spent an hour being grilled on her past, present and future occupations. She decided to walk back over the Auckland Domain, a huge park featuring a hill with some oak trees scattered about. It was a beautiful sunny day, which took away some of the stress of flat/job-hunting.

As C was immersed in her papers, G went to view another flat to keep our options open. This was above Whitcoulls, so couldn't be any more central. It was nice enough, but the viewers were told they may have to vacate at any time as the owners were trying to sell the flat. No thanks! G got some lunch in town (hummus, avocado, salad, mango chutney and cashew nut sandwich and a CRONUT just because).

Later on in the day, we went to the first gathering of Generation Zero, a collective of young people dedicated to campaigning for a zero-carbon New Zealand. We spent the first part of the evening pasting posters to whatever we could find (excluding the more obvious no-nos, still not sure if what we were doing was strictly legal). The posters featured a large portrait of Kim Dotcom's face (C-"who??" G-"the guy from Megavideo, etc") with someone asking him "Why are you so sweaty?" in reference to global warming. We're not really sure why they chose this particular individual for their poster campaign, but we think that Kim Dotcom must be a popular cultural icon in NZ as everyone seemed very enthusiastic about him.

All postered out, we headed to "Bungalow8", a bar that does free food platters for groups of 5 or more. Giving the deep fat fried meat options a miss, this sadly translated to bland nacho chips with salsa for the two of us. The ale was nothing special- our quest to find decent ale is so far unfulfilled. This aside, we had a truly enjoyable evening getting to know the other Generation Zero-ers. C made another Jewish friend and G had a fascinating chat with a PhD student about his research analysing brain signals in neonates. On the way back we picked up some tasty vegan wraps from the Kati Grill on K-Road, and enthused about things to come.

The Night Before Coursemas

(... continued from the last post ...)

Amidst all the rain, C received an email from the really nice flat we applied for that our application had been declined, and we couldn't find out why. This had been expected, so we shrugged, told Nat, and hurried to the university shop to buy an umbrella. We've decided to try again for flatmates, in parallel with finding a 2-bed with Nat. The law of large numbers and all that.

We headed through Albert Park (very pretty, with lots of big, old trees), and onto Queen Street, where we split: G to go to ballet, and C to carry onto Ponsonby for another house viewing. For most of the way to Ponsonby, it rained heavily, then all of a sudden, it was brilliant sunshine, and the brolly dried off almost instantly. It was about 1km up a fairly steep hill, and then down an un-sign-posted street (Google Maps, thank you), and C was ten whole minutes *early*.

... long pause to let that sink in ...

The house was lovely: very minimalist, with big open spaces, and the bedroom would be unfurnished, save for a wooden rack type thing that would only really be suitable for hanging clothes. Of course, the huge suitcase stuffed with hangers got lost en route, so it would be quite impractical. Having said that, we are getting desperate, and the house was nice, and well located, so we expressed an interest. There is also a vegan cafe on the same road the house is on, so C popped in to get some cake.

We met back in the hostel, and tried the cake. Truly, it was vile. A quick google later revealed it's a raw vegan cafe. Still, at least there might be a job there for G: teaching people how to bake properly... C got engrossed in finishing "Requiem for a Dream" (the book), and G job hunted. We arranged two viewings for the evening, which were conveniently in opposite directions. The first was *completely* unfurnished, so we turned around and walked out. The second was right downtown, we'd be sharing with a chef who is out from 11:00 - 00:00, and we had a good long chat with the person we'd be sub-letting from. He was a really nice guy, and very helpful and chatty, and we didn't feel like we'd be murdered in our sleep, so we put in an offer.

Then, finally, to retire to the hostel for some well-earned food (C walked 9 miles!) and the first half of "Almost Famous", and to sleep for the first day of uni tomorrow... only to be awoken at half two in the morning by a really loud, drunk couple... thank goodness for G's earplugs.