A wizard is never late

JB and his bizarre fruit eating habits

Well better late than never . . . my new job fiiiinally starts on Monday, having moved into my new home expecting to be off to work a matter of days later, I have now been here over a week and only just received the paper work that will make me an fully fledged employee. In the grand scheme of things its not that long to wait but it's felt like an eternity as with every dollar I spend, I know I'm not currently earning it. However my wonderful parents kindly sent out some Christmas money for me early, so thank you very much to the bank of mum and dad. The whole process has really ground on my gears though. If I'd known that it would take this long to get started with the job I would have gotten temporary work with an agency. The management were very vague about when I could potentially start as it was in their head offices hands, so it left me in a position where I wasn't sure temping would be such a great idea. Acquiring two references from a country 11 hours behind us proved to be the main slowing factor. My room mate JB (Jean Baptiste) had work for the past week at the Hilton hotel through an agency, having also had an interview at a French restaurant in town, he starts a waiting job there on Monday. So we'll both be happily employed in places that suit us.

So all this spare time has had me rolling into bed at silly hours of the morning and sleeping away half the day as without money coming in I don't want to go throwing my dollars at days out. A couple of weeks ago I went up to the luge with a friend from the hostel, it's a killer way to spend time especially with 6 rides including the gondola ride up cost less than $50. That's pretty much the cheapest activity you can do around here apart from Frisbee Golf. So the Queenstown night life never ceases to keep me entertained and once again I took to the open mic stage the other night to sing for a beer. I've been to this open mic three weeks on the trot now and have been learning new songs, although the same staple tunes I usually play always sneak on to the set list. But earlier yesterday I met up with a guy, Dave, who was looking for a singer for a band he plays in. We got on like a house on fire, it was actually scary to meet someone who has such a similar taste and direction in music. So I'll be jamming with him and his band sometime soon to see how I gel with the rest of the band. They do covers of mainly reggae/funk/soul/blues so its not something I'm massively versed in, however if I don't gel with the band, me and Dave will definitely still play some music together.

So in all this spare time I found the ultimate place to just hang out in Qtown. Yesterday was THE day to hang by the lake shore, and everyone was out. Locals and backpackers buy a crate of beers and hang at the shore drinking, eating ice cream and soaking up the rays as the summer gets warmer. I took my guitar down with a couple of friends, a perfect little hang out and a great way to meet new people too. After hours of soaking the sun I had a yearn for a Fergburger again and got myself the Tropical Swine burger . . . once again it floored me, no sooner had I eaten it I was in bed passed out!

So I can't wait to start work and start earning, thankfully I will be getting paid fortnightly and so I can start properly saving for a decent mountain bike.