Time to job-hunt again

In April my youngest daughter turns 18, and although she won’t be earning, I’ll lose the income of the family benefit which boosts my pay.  I guess they figure she’s no longer a child but she’ll still be dependent on me as she struggles to study and find a part-time job.

My current job, while enjoyable enough, does not pay enough to make up for the drop.  Working in a miserly private institution, I cannot expect a raise in pay now or in the near future.

So time to move again.  The only trouble is, all the jobs are in Wellington (as I’m sure I’ve said before – do I repeat myself?), but I don’t want to live in Wellington.  I can only hope that a decent job comes up in this town or at least a nearby town.  I might be in for a lean year.

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Sydney

I love Sydney (Australia).  It feels like a second home to me.  This is due to my Australian parents going back to Sydney and Melbourne over the years as I grew up so I’ve been there many times.  We used the train mostly, travelling out to Croydon and Parramatta where my great aunt and grandmother lived.  Sadly they’re both dead now so there’s no-one left to visit.  I have fond memories of the whole place.  Others who don’t like Sydney probably just see it as a tourist for a couple of days in the city itself, without experiencing life as a local.  I can’t see what there is to dislike anyway.  It’s a beautiful city – much nicer than anything in New Zealand.  Yes, it’s a “rat race” but what do you expect from a large city.  Auckland is far worse.

Why am I reminiscing about Sydney?  My older daughter and I, unaware of each other’s thoughts, had both been thinking about a trip to Australia.  I haven’t been overseas for over two years now and I get itchy feet after a while.  My youngest had just come back from Melbourne and I thought it was time for me to take a break.  So older daughter and I are off to Sydney together for a few days in June/July.  It’ll be winter, but it’ll be warmer than here and I don’t really care what the weather is like when I’m travelling overseas.  As long as it’s not a storm or hurricane, I’m happy.

In the meantime, there’s another trip to WOMAD to look forward to next month.  Rather than camping, we’re doing the civilised thing and staying in a motel not far from the venue.  I hope the weather IS nice then because it’s an outdoor event.  Last year was not too pleasant when it poured and blew for several hours (hence the little mud sculpture I took a photo of on the last day when the sun came out).

I didn’t actually come online to update here – so off I go to do what I had originally intentioned before I forget!

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Done

I’ve transferred all posts from Blogigo and deleted my blog and account there.  It’s sad that the owner(s) don’t actually care if someone leaves.

Transferring didn’t take as long as I imagined as I had fewer and fewer posts as time went on.  I hope to update more frequently.

But for now, it’s lunchtime.

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Moving from Blogigo

As you’ll notice, bit by bit I’m transferring my Blogigo archives to here and then I’ll delete my Blogigo blog.  I held off for as long as possible, but, sad to say, Blogigo has been taken over by spam blogs and the owners care not a fig.  I might feel more inclined to post more regularly too with the quicker loading times here and the reassurance that I will be able to log on when I want to (and if not, there’ll be a message somewhere indicating why!).  Blogigo had a nice feel to it when I started there.  You could browse updated blogs easily because of the small numbers.  It was easy to keep up with blogs you were interested in.  After the new owners took over it’s just gone downhill.  No counter, no RSS, and now there are no charts of the most popular or the most regularly updated.  Just blog after blog of spam spam spam.

Today is one of those days for staying in and reading a book or watching a movie.  It’s been pouring with rain on and off for hours now.  Not that we don’t need it – it’s been very dry so far this summer, but summer seems like it’s over now.  It’s much cooler (and now wet) and it will only get worse.  I just hope the weather will be decent for WOMAD (World of Music, Art and Dance) held in New Plymouth next month.

Some bikers are zooming past – quite a few of them by the sound of the constant roaring.  They seem to use the valley to the north for the occasional get-together – there’s a campsite up there.

Anyway, back to transferring archives.

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The desire to move

I’ve had enough of Blogigo I’ve decided.  I’m sick of the sight of spam blogs and most of the blogs I used to read are no more – they’ve all moved on as well, fed up as I am.  I’ve complained several times to no avail.  If need be I’ll delete everything, but I’d like to keep some posts and export them if possible.  I don’t think I’ll bother keeping my other blog on here.  The ramblings of a lovesick no-hoper belong in the bin.

My current job served its purpose in the short term but now it’s time to move on again – to something better paid.  I’ve enjoyed it so far but, as always, budget cuts mean no increase in salary and everything – absolutely everything, is rising in price.  I can’t afford anything.  I can’t believe how the price of cheese has nearly doubled in the past two months, for example.  I refuse to pay that price.  No more bingeing on cheese.

Unfortunately the best jobs are in Wellington.  I don’t want to live in Wellington.  I can’t even afford to – renting or buying a house is prohibitive.  But I’ve lived there before and hated it – couldn’t wait to escape the place.  It feels claustrophobic to me – surrounded by hills with a fault line running underneath and right on the sea – disaster strikes and there’s little hope.  It’s a gloomy place and I had no friends there.  It’s also where the ex lives and bad memories still reside there.  But, I thought, perhaps I could live outside of Wellington and commute.  I like the Wairarapa and could perhaps afford to live there.  Thoughts are jumbling around.  I really don’t know what to do, but I need a better paid job and they’re just not in this town.

My elderly dog is showing her age and is starting to be affected by senility.  I have little hope of her outliving the year’s end.  It might be a pessimistic viewpoint, but she’s now 16 and has had a good long life – I have to prepare myself for the end of it.  I can feel it anyway.   I think it will be this year.  (I’ve similar feelings before with previous pets and been right, unfortunately.)

I’m as lonely as ever.  Online friends are not friends at all in the end.   How can you keep such friendships alive anyway when I barely come online.  They have their real lives and I have mine, lonely though it is and an occasional chat with a keyboard is not going to alter anything. 

It’s time to move on in more ways than one.

I never did post those pics from the last post.  It doesn’t seem important now.

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