Colourful Interim Report

Aug 6, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Thoughts, Trips, Updates

Blog post number 70!

I can relax a little, as the kids are taken to their activities by the host mum. The scores for my meatpie with noodles stretched from 98/100 to 1000000/1000000 and there was enough for everybody… 🙂

Directly after the Winterreise I faced the most demanding weeks to that day: The school holidays.
On the one hand the new kind of routine (making breakfast for the kids, no returns from school, etc.) and on the other hand the fact that the kids are at home for the whole day made for an exciting 2 weeks.

For the girls have more classes per school day at their school than the boy’s, they get an extra week off. Due to that I dropped off and picked up the boy together with the girls in the last week… I also tried to make good use of the holidays, taking the kids to the museum, the park for a picnic or an indoor playhouse…
A few days they spent at their grandparents’, which made for some welcome breaks for me. 🙂

We crumb the chicken nuggets ourselves…

Now that the school holidays have long passed, I am more than happy about the old routine: Being with the boy in the morning and drop him off at school then. And only at 3pm I tend to the kids again.
To whom thinking about becoming an au pair: There is a groundbreaking difference between the kids staying home or having kids who are in school/ kindergarten already…

Meanwhile I have found an amazing group of friends, and we all regularly come together to enjoy the life beyond being an au pair. 🙂 Next to that, it is always the sweetest thing to meet travel companions of the past…

Last Sunday we celebrated Celine’s birthday with a walk along the Skyline Walkway in Wellington.
It was a rather cloudy day, but luckily the sky held back the gift of rain. 🙂 Instead it was insanely windy! Partially you couldn’t walk straight up and the hood of my jacket rattled like mad. 😀

View of Wellington from Mount Kaukau.

View on a wind farm west of Wellington.

I had to reissue the WOF (Warrant of Fitness) for my car the other day and my darling actually needed some reconditioning… At least for another 6 months I don’t need to worry about that now. 🙂 With cars made before 2000 you get the WOF for 6 months, newer cars get 12 months and brand-new ones 3 whole years from the day you buy them…

In our town new houses get built and even though I didn’t see the building sites at home up close as often, I think there are some differences to spot:

Life is taking shape

May 19, 2015 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

So what’s he doing, now that he’s ‘there’? 🙂

One sweet as thing about the au pair life is that you practically pay for nothing.
You eat wth the family, you share their internet connection, you sleep under their roof, you are invited to every family do like sporting events, visits and many more. Additionally, you receive a small allowance and come to enjoy living that way, especially from the background of a self-supporting working life…
But this weekend I funded my own way of entertainment. And it was definitely worth it! 😀
I met up with an au pair from anther suburb of Wellington and we had a fine day in Wellington.

And what do you do on a sunday in Wellington?

  • You go for a walk. Wellington is beautiful and has many sights to offer. And whilst walking, you can think about hiding from the ever-present cold gusts.
  • You visit Te Papa. This museum has it all and the advantage of being completely free. You can just wander and gather information about New Zealand at will, you can leech off the free WiFi or (that’s what we did) you can just sit down in a corner spot, look down on Wellington and talk. And the conversation between two au pairs ‘in office’ is most interesting. 🙂
  • You buy something on impulse. At the market with fresh fruit and vegetables you can trust and follow the intel of an experienced apple picker for the most exquisit apple.
  • You visit the Embassy. Have I ever rhapsodized this movie theatre? Never? Then this is the time: It is old, it is cosy, it has character, a humongous screen in the main auditorium, it is the only theatre in New Zealand featuring Dolby Atmos (ceiling speakers for the perfect surround sound) and holds the utmost brutal sound I have EVER encountered. By saying brutal, I mean that I am deeply impressed each and every time. My Mivoc Sidekicks at home used to shake the room at home so I was almost worried, but this relentless pressure in any frequency just has to have unbelievable tech supporting it. We went to see a pure and well-made action movie and you are just dazed as the movie proceeds to a quieter moment. Awesome!
  • You go out eating. There’s a restaurant or takeaway at every corner and of every cuisine, it makes coosing hard. Inside the Capital Market the choice falls easier. There even is table service in the centre area as food stalls of all colours gather around. You purchase your meal, sit down at a table, eat and you’re happy. I chose Indian. It was yummy. 🙂
  • You can go for another walk. Especially at nightfall you are well off walking through the botanic gardens or up Mount Victoria. But it was rather chilly out and we went for the last big point.
  • You can have some coffee. It is an integral part of the culture, there’s lots of cafés, inside a huge offer of hot beverages and always a laid back atmosphere. Just what you need on a sunday night… 🙂

Besides that the everyday life solidifies with each day. The fact that English is the language we speak doesn’t get any second thought… I hope to live up to the family’s expectation, teaching them some German in a consistent way.

 

 

While going down Highway 1 towards the city centre, you have a great view over Wellington Harbour.

Today was rather stressful. I had to save the laundry from the rain and put it up in the living room. It hasn’t dried yet, but at least all the pegs (which fell to the ground while collecting the laundry) are on the line now, sorted by colour. 😀
The chicken nuggets came out nice and the crumbing process has been improved. I got the kids to taekwondo on time and taught the German word ‘Schabernack’ (meaning mischief) to the youngest.
The family’s vacuum cleaner is GENIUS, by the way! 🙂 You just strap that thing to your back and only have to take care of the cable. I transform into Vacuuminator for that time. 8/
Once a week I bake and that is tomorrow. I’ll see, what sugar bombs I will let loose this time. 🙂

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies, just before visiting the oven. They were addictive… 🙂

Medium Sized Interim Report

Apr 12, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

Finally, the Granny Smith Apples are done being picked. After a rainy day off, we continued with the variety called Fuji.

Those are quite different from Granny Smiths. They are red, so you find them at first glance without having to search first. Their trees are much smaller than the Grannys’ trees, which translates to the count of fruit (so, 30 ripe apples and not 3000). But most importantly: Fujis are HUGE!!

On the first day I filled double as many bins as usual! 😀 That actually was the first day picking was actually fun…

Even otherwise the last days held some (little) successes. 😊

My first haircut on New Zealand soil was carried out, which was somewhat exciting for me. Mind you, this was only the 3rd Hairdresser I entrusted my graceful scalp to. 😀 I am quite pleased with the result…

Kiwis don’t know the wonderful and delicious concept of cheese soup!! So, I stepped forward and took my chance (for the first time as so often) on the recipe. When shopping, I had to realise that there was nothing like the German ‘melting cheese’. Cream cheese did the trick perfectly in the end.

I couldn’t believe it when I was back home as I finally tried it. My roommates loved it as well, which multiplied the achievement. 😊

It is only two days, until I will swap the rather dull (you notice in the count of posts) everyday life here in Hastings for the first week in the host family. As said, I will come back for a week after (cause visa extension) and then turning my back on Hastings for good in May. I grow more and more excited and am aware, how much my life will change.

I have spent the last three months only in Hastings and didn’t do much apart from work… Right now, I am looking forward to nine months in my beloved Wellington. And it is going to be unbelievable! All new tasks, many new people, not having to pay for everything you eat, having full weekends off…

Well, more on that in a few days. 😉

Olivia, one of our four chickens.

Praying Mantis with a broken wing.

Cheese soup like at home. (or at Auntie Anna E.’s 😊)

Another Small Interim Report

Mar 31, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

Too much green cabbage. Unfortunately, I only realise when there’s already a massive amount inside the colorful frying pan. The rest, thinking in advance as a good chef does, already lies finely chopped…

Now you must be strong and find alternatives and compromise. Right, a salad. But I only have chives, onions, garlic and cabbage. A little plain in terms of color… I submit (young and inexperienced as I am) to the online advice and let the leftover cabbage mingle amongst a mixture of garlic, oil, salt and pepper and some slightly expired lime juice.

Thus, I have completed the second salad of my life and the 24th warm meal (Ha! As if I still count 😀 ).

And it is delicious. I’m still mum’s son, in the end. 😛

The calculation around the time change gets much more complicated. From the 5th of April, I am only 10 hours ahead of you… I don’t know who invented this. At mine, we go FORWARDS and at yours you go BACKWARDS. 😀

These days I am picking apples again and from tomorrow we will harvest the world-famous variety ‘Granny Smith’. These apples won’t get to Germany, but the look of the trees is overwhelming. Not the least in the eyes of the picker. 😊

The mornings grow increasingly ‘crisp’, but it always ends in baking heat. 😀 Did your sweat ever go INTO your ears? 😀

4 arms would be the only logical answer.

Monstrous compared to other trees and as full as it ever gets.

The days until my (temporary at first) arrival at the family grow less and less and the anticipation rises on both sides, as I have heard…

By then there would be quite different things and all new impressions to report. Now the working life only flows by itself as it is… 😊