My year in lists

I am reluctantly awake (it was 5am when I started this), but back in adventure mode, and back on the interwebs! Let’s call my lapse in attention towards the blog as a ‘mid-season hiatus’. Essentially, I have been so caught up in life that I’ve been too busy (or too unsure about that my future plans are) to narrate it. But now I’m on a flight to Queenstown, and I suddenly feel the urge to tell you what I’ve been doing. I’m going to have to list it out again, which feels a bit lazy, but if I really go into detail then I think I’ll lose you after the second paragraph. In chronological order:

Had Christmas and New Year in Mauritius, which was lovely. A lot of family dinners with the SO and even a big ‘British’ Christmas with all the MWF gang. As I remember saying whilst rushing around the kitchen, “It’s not Christmas if you’re not in a flap about dinner”.

Finished working at Casela. Said a sad “goodbye” to my gang of fruit bats.

Left Mauritius. Said a much more sad “au revoir” to my SO.

Hung around Kuala Lumpur for a day, making a special trip to the market to buy all the knock off gear I’ve been dreaming about and to get some street food.

Had my first experience of hospital after getting kidney infection as I arrived in Sydney. All recovered now and have finally finished my antibiotics. I could write a whole blog post about this mishap, but the moral of the story is that if Helen Wright tells you to do something, you do it.

Got a hit of culture in Sydney with Sarah Vella. Didn’t really get a chance to do all the things I’d wanted to (Those Damn Kidneys!), but I might be able to have another run at that soon (cliffhanger...).

Applied for a lot of jobs. Well it felt like a lot, but shout out to my favourite potato (Carlota) who suggested that I put it on a spreadsheet to keep track of what I’d done. This was helpful, because what felt like a lot of applications, was really a total of five. Mostly though, I was excited that she was using more spreadsheets.

Finally got to New Zealand to see two of the most wonderful people in the world. Kia Ora! Have been hanging out with Rhys and Angharad for about two weeks whilst getting to know Christchurch (Chch). I’ve been staying at a HelpX place, a small motel just on the edge of the city, which was a very positive experience. I really like Chch, there’s loads of street art and interesting city development projects that sprung up after the earthquake. Initially I wasn’t taken with it because the centre can seem a bit derelict, but it has really grown on me. I’m now heading south to do some sightseeing (Flight update: the weather is far too bad in QT for the plane to land, so now in Invercargill, on the bus north!), then back to Chch on Friday night for the weekend with Rhys-y B.