Slightly overcast - that would be an apt description of the weather here today in Wellington. However it is still bright and warm but the freshly raked beaches below my apartment are empty of people this afternoon. I guess the bikini clad clientele of yesterday are elsewhere for now (not that I was looking ;) Caroline is settling in well and has adopted a regular pose of 'reading by the window' whilst her jet lag progresses. My lag has finished now, but I am not helping my sense of tiredness by having some very late nights of drinking and whatever naturally follows that.
Last night for example, one of the first that Caroline could experience without instant tiredness around 7pm, was a bit of a post interview drinking session for both Charlotte and me, combined with a 'Yay! I am actually here' for Caroline, who had wandered into town around 2pm and was delighted to find a bookshop selling her favourite book 'The Vintners Luck' by Elizabeth Knox, who explained that the author was a regular customer of theirs and would be over the moon to sign a copy for her.
I, on the other hand, had been in contact with Charlotte by late morning as her interview for an intranet content manager position within a government ministry was at 11 o'clock and I was keen to hear how it went. But my interview was due in a few hours, so I had to restrain contact until later in the evening and continue to swat up on my examples for, as yet, unknown questions.
So after a 15ish min stroll along the harbour front I was in the middle of the city and ready for my interview. About an hour or so later I was back in the same spot and wondering how it all went. I think overall it went well, as it was a very relaxed affair with a fair bit of banter between the three of us, intermixed with the standard structured questions. They explained that there are a couple more people being interviewed early next week, but I should hear pretty quickly once they are done, so fingers crossed I guess. I am looking forward to being able to walk to work, especially with guaranteed views along the harbour front and a route which takes me past one of the better supermarkets in Wellington. But I cannot count my chickens or routes yet, not until an offer is on the table.
I have still not heard anymore from the other ministry job I was interviewed for earlier, and if this is still the case tomorrow then I will contact them for an update.
Anyway, that is enough about work, or potential work. I am sure you are interested to know how the first meeting between Charlotte and Caroline went, and as I was waiting in a coffee bar with Caroline at 5pm, I eager to find out too. The coffee and company was nice, and standard NZ atmosphere was induced by the muted tones of Crowded House coming from some speakers - something which happens a fair bit outside pubs and bars around Wellington, but you can never have enough of the Finn brothers in my opinion.
It was during their 'Into Temptation' track that I arrived back at the coffee bar with Charlotte, who I had gone to meet a few mins earlier, and after a few mins more we were all chatting and drinking - I say 'all', but in actual fact it was mainly Charlotte and Caroline chatting and predictably mostly about me and New Zealand - This continued into the night and across a couple more bars, including cocktails off of Cuba Street and a cheap but very nice Chinese curried meal. The only difference between earlier nights and this was the gradual increase in coffee orders being intermixed between the alcohol, which was the only weapon against the oncoming waves of jet lag being experienced by Caroline.
We were joined at the cocktail bar by three other friends, but after a particularly dodgy looking drink with floating bits and a bubbly head, I have decided that I am not really a fan of the Nobel cocktail! Another distasteful topic which arose during the evening was the apparent NZ obsession with the song smith of James Blunt! This is something I have not mentioned before, but if you switch on pretty much any radio station here, then within 30 mins you will hear a wailing statement of 'you're beautiful' or other such sentiment assaulting your ears. Yes, I am not a fan, which for once is something I feel have in common with many, many others and an interesting dynamic arose around our booth table - where the two Kiwi chaps planted flags in the Blunt fan camp, with the remaining four NZ 
based poms busy chopping down their flag poles with expert commentary along the lines of 'he is crap' and 'should he have been shot by now?'
based poms busy chopping down their flag poles with expert commentary along the lines of 'he is crap' and 'should he have been shot by now?'A quick search of the net shows that Blunt has been banned from Essex FM for being '.... an annoying, whiny, cloying, girl-haired, soppy-faced, useless-voiced git', mmm, could this be a little bit of homesickness creeping in? Nope, as I have taken the advice of Blunt's very own award acceptance speech, and simply switched my radio off!
We continued our international relations well into the night and then wandered back to the apartment for some late night bank phone calls and rest. Tonight is comedy night again, and I am waiting with baited breath to hear the laughs of NZ's top female comics, and I even have a voucher for a free pizza!
So I guess NZ does actually have a B-Side to it's charms, in fact a couple of them, namely Blunt and Barrymore (yes we think he is over here somewhere!), but that is not enough to tempt me away. However a quick check of my bank account the other morning has reminded me that the cost of heaven is not cheap...I can manage another 30 days or so without an income, but after that I guess I will be busking my way around Cuba Street with a newly learnt 'You're beautiful' top hit!