10 Things I miss from New Zealand

(Not including friends and family)

1. Wellington café’s and coffee – As with the U.S. it’s near impossible to find a good espresso coffee, like the flat whites I learnt to expect in Wellington. I can’t find a café that serves healthy tasty food, that’s not part of a chain either. Then there are the ‘greasy spoon’ cafes where you struggle to find anything not fried.
2. Good beef (and lamb) – I guess I knew to expect that. Maybe it’s that there’s not as many hills for the livestock to graze on and produce that tasty lean meat I’m used to.
3. Having a car – Not that I want one here as they’re damn expensive to run, but I just miss the feeling.
4. My stereo – It’s simple: music sounds better loud through a good stereo and I like music (I’ve got tickets for Tool, Live, Def Leppard, Collective Soul and The Cult concerts)
5. Wide open spaces, clean air etc. – It’s not that these things don’t exist in the UK, it’s just that in my everyday life I don’t come across them very often.
6. Smoke free bars and restaurants – I can’t believe the amount of people that smoke here. After getting used to NZ’s smoke-free laws, it’s been a shock to have to go back to this again.
7. Shopping trolleys with 2 fixed wheels at the back. – Here all four wheels swivel making it a nightmare to control them. I can’t understand it!
8. Wearing casual clothes to work – I got my first suit the other day thinking I’m going to feel much smarter and more important than before. It turns out that I’m not and miss the days at Windsor where jeans and a t-shirt were the dress code.
9. Talking to someone in the same country when ringing the bank – When ringing HSBC here I always get some Indian on a bad line I can’t understand or hear. It’s so frustrating!
10. Kiwi Marmite – the stuff here is far milder than our near black extract-of-yeast feast. I need the strong sharp stuff!!

Dad's not going to be very happy about this

My flatmate and I went to Ikea this morning to buy some kitset furniture for my room. It was my first visit to the mega size store where you can buy everything you’d ever need for your house. It ranges from cheap to medium priced and the reason it's so popular is that it's all relatively styley (personal preferences aside). You walk around and take note of the 4 digit serial number of what you want to buy then go through to the stores area and pick the 'flat packed' version up and pay.

Dad, being a craftsman of fine solid wooden furniture, is not a fan of kitset furniture funnily enough. I'm sorry Dad, but my flatmate bought it for me - I had no choice in the matter.

I assembled the little bedside cabinet this afternoon. As much as I like making furniture, this experience wasn't fulfilling in the least. It is crap quality, highlighted by the fact that when taking the Sellotape off a bundled set of components, it actually pulled off a small area of paper-thin veneer. Luckily it's not too noticeable. Also, a piece of thin board for the back was missing from the pack. Typical. Luckily it’s a non-required part, but it will compromise the rigidity somewhat.

I wonder what’s in store when I assemble the chest of drawers….

New Digs

I've moved on from Jase and Sonya's, to make room for our pal Bert, to a new flat. Before I go on, I'd like to thank J&S for being great mates and putting up with me for over 2 months! They made my move to the UK a lot easier and couldn't have been more helpful in helping me on my way to 'naturalisation'.

Last Saturday I moved into a 3 bedroom flat in East Croydon - not too far north of where I was staying in Purley. It's a great little place and is complete with furniture and everything plus broadband. I'm living with the owner of the house, Corina and we get on pretty well. She loves her American comedies, so we don't have to argue about what's on the TV.

It's about a 13min walk to the train station, which is a fair hike in the mornings when I've left the house late and need to catch a train. It's good exercise though and I have resisted catching the bus so far. Luckily my work in Riegate is right next to the station.

Work is ok generally, punctuated with a couple of trips to site about an hour and a quarter south. Last week my boss and I went to sites near Dover and Brighton to check up on the progress of the housing developments we are managing. It makes me feel important walking around building sites with hardhats and hi-vis vests! So much so I actually put my hard hat on at my desk today. Got some laughs and weird looks.

All in all, I'm enjoying myself here and am feeling a lot more happy with my progress now I've got a new pad and a half decent job. Now I'll start planning more trips...