Tag Archives: vote

Part 8 – Work, Work, Work

Well, how the turntables. All of a sudden, the “holiday” vibe was gone, and it was almost a settled life for almost all of us. The general arrangement for this week was: Nina goes to town and does basically a full workday either at the National Libary of New Zealand (Turnbull Libary) or at Te Papa Tongarewa. Maybe a brief meetup for lunch, if I am in town, but that was it.

Number 3 got the chance to go to school. Which is mind-blowing to us, coming from Germany. He could not have hit it better, though. He got assigned to Mr. Cross` classroom of year 3 kids. First day kicked off with swim class. He was in love. Just the logistics were a bit of a challenge.

That left me and the Agent of Entropy, finding our ways. Most of the time, that meant going to Wellington as well, either to get stuff sorted (like, voting as #1 and #2 voter in NZ in that incredibly unneccessary snap election Germany had) or just to hang out.

Then, in the evening, with the kids in bed and the house settled in, I would go and get to work, usually 8pm to midnight. Sometimes, a bit longer. We knew, this whole trip could only work if we both put in serious time to work. But still, ouch. Those first few days hit me hard. Especially before I managed to make a mid-day nap a non-negociable. Working late is weird. Somehow, not helped by the 12 hour time difference, it feels like “the morning” in my mind.

Anyway – we got through this mostly alive – probably the hardest week of our entire trip in terms of work commitments. Time for some weekend fun …

The kids really warmed to Lupin and Loki, the two Golden Retrievers
Showing off the moves
Trying to lower the nervousness of going to school in a different country
She’s a cuddly monkey, isn’t she?
quite the hike down the hill
Joining in to our hosts tradition of “first day snapshots”
It’s a first but just being in the coolest little capital again made me happy
Wellington Railway Station
Out and about, she loved it
The sculpture caught her imagination
Plimmer Steps – walk down memory lane …
We managed to link up with Nina and her old friend Aaron. Shoutout! Great guy!
Even though Plimmerton is quite far out, the train connection makes up for it
no photos in the embassy, so lets take a selfy with the odd scuplture in the yard
No.3 warming up to the dogs
The benefit of having the last house before the sheep
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we tried to just have a peak, could not pass the colering table
This time, it’s all about free tours and information. Last time (over a decade ago), it was all spears and barbs on the outside
From the best chippery in Plimmerton!
linking up with mama, waiting for friends
The AoE listening to an audio book
One of the drawers kept sliding open and then something broke. It was quite rusty so we got a replacement for Timmy.
custom toping, gentle touch
and done

Day 0.2 – Hard to get going …

Since this is a relatively short trip for us, only two month for what will roughly be around 10,000 km, we had initially planned to make the most of our time and start on the first real day off. That would be today.

To cut right to the chase though, we will not start today. We could, if we really wanted to, but there are a few threads left hanging that we want to finish up before heading off. It proves true once more that anything takes just that bit longer when you add a child into the mix. So what are we waiting for?

Go Vote!

First of all, given the political climate at the moment, we really want to make sure to be able to vote in the European parliamentary elections. Few things count as much as casting your vote when you are as worried about some current trends as we are. Unfortunately, ballot papers for early mail-in voting are only made available 6 weeks ahead of time, which will be on Monday, 8 am, in our case.

Health

We timed it just right for Number 3 to get his final round of vaccination shots before we had to leave, but it seems he might have developed a mild reaction. Nothing to worry yet, but better to have an eye on it at home with our family doctor close by, just in case.

It is probably a good idea as well to take a minute or two to take a breather at home and see how the two of us are holding up. In all the hustle and bustle of everyday madness, certain things get overlooked. Now is a good time to get checked out and just relax a day or two more.

Loose ends

As any traveler would know, there is always another thing that you could do before getting off. A few audio books to decide upon, fine tuning the sleeping and blogging arragements and the like.

Finally, we might take the time to take care of some long neglected little bits. Seeing that exibition that we wanted to go to for months now, sorting some stuff in the house and so on.

So Monday seems like the day now. One cannot leave these things for too long, there will alway be reasons. Time to get moving …