Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

So here's the thing with international moves -- no matter how impeccably you plan, you're always going to run out of time. You'll leave something out of the shipping boxes, or forget to finish a bit of paperwork, or bury your passport and flight confirmation in your suitcase, or pack every single perfume sample you own in the safest place possible, which in this case was swaddled in a set of curtains in the centre of Box 2 (of three) destined for the slow boat out of London. A box which only reentered my life YESTERDAY.

So hurrah! All of my belongings from London have rejoined me at the family manse, where my parents view them with a growing sense of trepidation ("...and where do you intend to leave all this stuff?"). Tomorrow I'll be able to unearth my collection of scents and we'll be back on track -- at least until the next move, which is only about a month away.

And here's where I need your help, dear readers: Do you know anything about Wellington, NZ? I'm all set up to move there at the beginning of March, and I'm going in relatively blind. Any stories or tips would be greatly appreciated, or if you know anyone who wants to hire a writer-ish person? Feel free to give a heads-up.

And tomorrow? Perfume review! Seriously! For real! It's been so long since the last one, my iBook doesn't even smell like J-Lo anymore.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to hear from you again, Miss Eliza. I've forwarded the link to your blog to my ex who lives in Yuma, Arizona. He's got some friends there, Hamish and Leslynne, who hail from New Zealand and may have some comments for you. We'll see. Meanwhile, I'm glad you're back! Cheers!

Eliza said...

How lovely are you two?!? Brilliant! Thanks for the connect, Lydia, and Leslynne, I would love to pepper you with questions. I'm after all of it, frankly -- accommodation, job listings, what areas to stay the hell away from, what areas are great, where I might find other ex-pats or friendly Kiwis. I'm talking about a one to two year entrenchment here (though I've been forbidden to marry by Mrs Bennet, who is deeply suspicious of the entire plan).

I'm pretty settled on Wellington, for reasons even I don't understand, and day-to-day living stuff there is absolutely vital to me at this point. Or the blogs of other Wellington-based Kiwis -- I'm kicking myself for not hitting the Outback more in London, when I could've hit up real live NZers for info, but hindsight is always 20:20. Bah.

Thanks!

Eliza said...

Leslynne, I ended up finding something utterly perfect via seek.co.nz, thanks so much for your recommendations! And you're right, Kiwis are absolutely lovely -- I never thought I'd find a group of coworkers I liked as much as my UK group, but I am quickly discovering that my Kiwis are absolutely hysterical and helpful and mischevious. Which, excellently, is just as I like them.

And I've had one proposal of marriage already, but I suspect he was after a green card. Heh.

I've managed to snooker a high school friend into coming down for the month of July (I keep telling her it's winter, I'm not sure she believes me). Any suggestions on where to go and what to see?

Anonymous said...

You'll be fine so long as you like wind. A couple of months back a car was BLOWN into the harbour by the wind. Pack a windmill! :-)

Eliza said...

No way!!! Where? I can't think of anywhere other than Oriental Bay where the wind could get up that much steam.

I did enjoy leaving the house sometimes without drying my hair. Ten minute walk to work, and my hair would be absolutely straight and dry. Bizarre. I also enjoyed orienting myself via the turbine on the hill -- something I miss now that I'm permanently disoriented by New York's grid.