Wahey!

Thanks Katie that's v. nice of you to say ;o)

It is all pending approval from immigration however - although that's pretty much in the bag apparently.

Two days ago we were planning on eating dog food (or just the dog) for Christmas dinner, sleeping rough for three months and coming home in March due to lack of money but this job has appeared out of nowhere and it will give us extra credit to continue our adventure and see out the rest of the year - which we always planned to do - teach and live abroad for a year and come back next Christmas.

It is such a strange feeling because we just had no idea how easy or difficult this was going to be but we are pleased to have it sorted out before Christmas. The circumstances are a wee bit strange to be honest so let me fill you in -

1st of Dec - Arrive in Christchurch, spend day after day in the library sending off applications for jobs and requesting application packs for other ones. feeling like we are getting nowhere but realise only three days have passed and we shouldn't panic

7th of Dec - or should we? Schools close soon, do they recruit during summer, why haven;t I had any interviews, what's wrong with this country!!!

14th of December - get back in touch with an agency contact from a while ago who invites me to go and meet her.

18th of December - Meet Vicky from Education Personnel in Wellington and after chatting to me for a bit brings in a colleague who has a job description that has just landed on her desk for a school they know well. Mel then thinks phoning the Principal is a good idea. After speaking to him Vicky suggests she take me to the school. The principal is really nice and suggests I come back the next day for a formal interview.

19th of December - Have my interview and I am offered the job - which I accept pending work permit approval. Nuts!

So here's the deal - the job is Head of PE and Sport in Private Primary school. They were looking for someone to stay a while and I have agreed that I would consider longer than one year depnding on how things work out. Katie and I are open minded although we still have a firm eye on coming home - in case anyone is worried about us being away forever- we have a wedding to plan don't forget!!

That;s about it - I feel a bit torn about the job thing - it's great, a fantastic opportunity but at the same time the reality of spending so long away from home is starting to kick in. A bit scary but nothing we weren't hoping for all along so we are looking forward to making the most of it.

The good news is also that anyone who was planning to come out to see us can start looking into making their plans - I wouldn't buy the ticket yet until it is all 100% confirmed but see how much you can get a ticket to Wellington for - it's not cheap but you should be greatly impressed when you get here.

Exciting stuff - never a dull moment just now which is great although I think there may be a few dull moments tonight however when I persuade Katie to go along and watch Wellington Pheonix in their A-League soccer tie tonight against Godknowswho F.C.. Entertaining it may well not be - hopefully they will sell beer though which might make it bearable. ;o)

Another thing we didn't mention is that the other day we visited some more friends of a friend - Shona Schumacher and her fiancee Steve. Shona is a friend of Ewen C's sister and he dubbed her Schumacher after her amazing efforts in getting from Glasgow's South side to Milngavie in about 8 minutes. Shona is from Scotland and they are planning their wedding for July (?) in NZ, which is great - they are a really cool couple with an amazing house with a fantastic view. Hopefully we will catch up with them again soon - for some live music or something perhaps (more about that later)

All the best,

SB