Upside down, boy you turn me... (group email)

The teenagers downstairs are staging their loudest sing and boogie-along Saturday night party yet, so it's a good opportunity to get you up to date with the latest in the life of Jo.

I have been replaced, albeit temporarily, as 'most adventurous Odds family explorer' by my parents who are having (I hope) the trip of a lifetime to Macchu Picchu and the Galapagos. However, it would be highly inaccurate to assume that that means my life has become less exciting as a result. But we'll come to that.

The unemployment and jobhunting was interrupted by a brief but brilliant stint working in the Wellington Film Festival. I got to run the busiest and biggest cinema, which is notably the first venue I've ever managed with numbered seats. N.B. This seemingly minor matter makes a HUGE difference when seating a 750+ capacity venue 7 times a day.
It was a great experience with some fab people (the angry evil mum and the drunk spitting guy being obvious exceptions to that). My pick of the festival: 'Waltz with Bashir'. Check it out if you find it on DVD.

In the past week or so a lot of things have changed. This is mainly due to the new man in my life. No, let's get this right, he is not new to my life, but he has now started fulfilling a new role in it. My new boyfriend has swept me off my feet, turned my world upside down and made life just so much more exciting (although if I'm honest, he did all the above a wee while ago). Suffice to say, this is one very happy lady, and I'm damn sure he's pretty happy too!

On the job front it's been a wee rollercoaster of its own. I will resist from boring you with details, but there were some rather unexpected disappointments recently that left me a bit dumbstruck. But it's all come together and I've just got a job working for World of Wearable Art - a unique event at the end of September www.worldofwearableart.com - and another potential exciing job following on from that (tbc). Funny how these things go.

Other bits and pieces I've been up to:
- visiting White Island (volcanic) and getting locked out of the backpackers
- mountainbiking and falling off into the gorse
- commissioning a beautiful drum to be made by a samba-mate then falling out of her car into the agapanthas
- a primo day skiing with the lovely Bex, a worthy follow-on from falling in the pond whilst playing mini-golf together

Hang on, that's a lot of falling incidents... Anyway:
- attending the filming of the first round of 'New Zealand's Got Talent' and questioning the wisdom of the title
- getting a shiny new MP3 player and needing to replace my car speakers as a result
- fixing several tricky things on my car, all by myself, but of course with the assistance of my ever-patient advisory team; you know who you are ;o)

Life is good.

New Zealand's Got Talent (?)

I agree. New Zealand does have talent and lots of of it. Sadly most of that talent decided to give the first round of the TV show by that name a miss tonight. Actually, that's not quite fair. There was the most amazing beatboxer, a very impressive if unpolished juggling and diabolo trio, and a 15-year-old girl with an incredible singing voice.

Otherwise the best bits were the audience warm-up guy and giggling at the young, screaming, humourless girls surrounding us. An interesting 4 hours of my life, nevertheless, punctuated by crap karaoke singers, gang members and an utterly unfunny comedy duo (called 'Trio', hardehar... groan).

Photos: Wellington, Film Festival and Ruapehu

I've just uploaded 3 sets of photos to my flickr page:

Life in Wellington http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606662302927/

Wellington Film Festival http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606663161929/

Ruapehu and White Island http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606660106328/

Mending Charlie

It was a pain in the arse when my car failed its WOF (MOT) earlier this month, but it turned out a lot of it I could do myself. So I have. With the help of my advisory team – the friendly chaps at Repco and my ever-patient and supportive mechanic friend – along with my Subaru handbook, common sense and a fair whack of trial and error, I’ve successfully completed a series of fiddly repairs and today she passed her WOF. The best thing of all is that I took so much more pleasure in working on my car than I ever expected.

Never mind that I stabbed myself several times with the electric probe, flattened the car battery, broke and mended parts unrelated to the original problem, and almost burned my flat down.

Samaritans in the storm

We’re being hit by a pretty serious storm front this weekend. To be fair, it’s further north where they’re bearing the brunt of it with floods, power cuts and, in some areas, into civil defense mode. But we’re taking a pretty heavy beating here in Wellington too

I was a wee way into my steep uphill half hour trudge home through this storm just now when 3 ladies picked me up and drove me home. I live in the opposite direction from them but they couldn’t stand to see me walk through that. After having dealt with a particularly difficult and abusive customer last night (and eventually calling the cops on him), those three lovely women in their little red micra have restored my faith in humanity.

Land of a thousand beds

I’ve moved around a fair bit the past couple of years. Stating the obvious, right? Over the course of 5 months in Asia I spent the night in 68 different places, slightly more if you count individual beds. Since arriving in New Zealand I’ve already clocked 45 and still counting.

It’s certainly made me really appreciate it when I do get a chance to stick somewhere for a wee while (although it’s always safe in the knowledge that I’ll move on at some point – proper settling is still a long way off for me). I’ve been lucky to have three such ‘homes’ already – Borneo river lodge, Roz & Frank’s in the Bombay Hills, and Ruapehu farmhouse with Bex & Basil. I’m now onto a fourth here in Wellington. I’ve covered the chest of drawers with photos, I’ve got vegetables going furry in the fridge, I own a pair of slippers. The opportunity to create a home, to unpack, to make your mark on a place, learn you way around, form your unique dent in a bed, it’s become something very special.

Photos: Random Mt Ruapehu Trip, 30 June - 2 July 08

Photos to be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157606069023225/

Random acts of spontaneity

* Monday, 8.00pm: Just finished induction for my new job and faced with another fairly empty week to fill. I've already arranged to meet up with Lyle tomorrow, a fellow ex-RAL'er in Welly but we haven't decided yet what to do. I've got an idea, I text Lyle.

* Monday, 10.30pm: We leave Wellington, petrol and fluids topped up, Big Mac in the tummy, ZM on the radio.

* Monday, 2.30am: We arrive in National Park and drive the last 15 mins to Bex' farmhouse. I've let Bex know I'm coming, but she has no idea Lyle is with me (they're close friends who don't see anywhere near enough of each other).

* Tuesday, 6.30am: You should see Bex' face when she sees Lyle.

* Tuesday, afternoon: I'm knackered, but we've had an incredible day of skiing and catching up with people. Lyle quit earlier in the day and has been drinking all afternoon waiting for me. Makes for fun playing and sliding in the snow in the car parks.

* Tuesday, 10.30pm: We're in the snow again. We won the pub quiz, so back up the mountain to check it out at night.

* Wednesday, 11.00am: I've had breakfast with G and now Lyle and I are back in the car, heading south. This particular random act of spontaneity is over.

I love it.

Photos: Between Kathy and Wellington, 11 April - 13 June 08

To be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddballproductions/sets/72157605785295004/

Back to 'normal'? (group email)

I’ve finally made it to Wellington. It was much much harder to leave Mt Ruapehu than I expected (although I really should have known…). It was so good to be back there, catch up with people, meet new people and mooch around the mountain for a bit. Bex welcomed me back into her home with open arms and a much slimmer Basil-the-cat, and it was like I’d never been away. I got a dead good send-off - a dinner party with selected and random mates - and before I realised it, I was in my car driving south. I’ll be visiting a fair bit though.

It feels like I’ve been away from the mountain for yonks, but it’s actually only been about a week and a half.
Although I’ve secured a great job in the International Film Festival (running their main venue), arts-related work and festival work is thin on the ground. I stopped trying to plan in advance very early on in my travels. However, in the same way that that led to my accidentally following the rainy season around Asia, it also prevented me from considering the fact that the busy time for performing arts work is likely to be the warmer months of the year. However, there is one thing that picks up during winter (apart from skiing, of course): RUGBY! No, I’m not donning a skull-cap and mouthguard and hurling myself around a field (much as that would probably have been useful in my lamb encounter last October), but there is plenty of work around events such as the Tri-Nations. I’ve decided to take a dip in the hospitality world and will very soon be a casual ‘Corporate Box Host’ at the big Wellington Stadium. Schmooze-central - I’ll see how I get on.
I’m pretty happy with casual, temporary and short-term work as it leaves me free to be spontaneous and indulge in my beloved extra-curriculars. I’ve rejoined Wellington Batucada and am cooking up projects with them already. I’m finding my inner geek and attending Wellington Astronomical Society lectures (gravitational lensing, anyone?). The flat comes with mountain bikes and a kayak, so I’m going to try a bit of that to toughen up my bum muscles. I also extremely randomly popped up to Rotorua and Tauranga with a mountain-friend for a fabulous weekend exploring hot pools and coffee shops. There’ll be more of that.

All in all, life is cold but good. Having finally drawn a line under the Borneo experience, I’m starting to properly enjoy and appreciate my time in New Zealand instead of half-wishing I was somewhere else.