Leaving my work

First off, let me apologise for not writing sooner - its been a crazy week! We have had more injections, and lots of people to 'catch up with' before we leave. For the record, we are leaving Wellington on June 11th. We are heading up to Mums in Otaki for a day, then on to Napier for Princess' mum, then on to Auckland.

Last Friday was my final day at work. Spent most of the day finalising the clear up of my stuff - 6 years at one place and boy do you accumulate lots of fluff! I also did the technical handover and made sure the new Tim (Named Tim - Hi!). Oh, and made sure my timesheet was complete - probably for the first time ever.

Work put on drinks at 4.30pm, and as Princess had the day off, she came up for the goodbye drinks and the inevitable large-card and speeches that I have seen all the other leave-ees get.
I hope that didn't sound cynical - it was a really good affair (free booze is always a good start) and I appreciated the speeches and pressie and card. Thanks for all the kind comments, a small card just wouldn't have fit that much *love* :)

It was really flattering to hear all the management speak so highly of me - I felt quite embarrased! But after 6 years, these people are like family... Thanks guys for all your support and guidance throughout my time there. NowI have seen presents of widely varing utility given at leaving parties at my old job; so I was very happily surprised when they managed to find me a gift that is truly useful - a speaking translator! (Brook played a guiding hand I think, after seeing me getting Chinese cheat sheets off Gerome - thanks both of you guys!)


(click for more pics)

It is truly awesome - OK it doesn't listen to voice and interpret, but it has some 10,000 phrases in 11 languages, so i just gotta look up the right phrase in English, then pick a target language. Also comes with cheat sheets to quickly find the right phrase. You can read onscreen in any language, or make the device speak out! The English sounds pretty good, so I expect the other languages to be good too. Charlie and Gerome promise me that its Chinese is OK, not saying something like "ooh don't help this guy, he doesn't even know your language!!". Monty Python comes to mind..

So after the free booze dried up, and the family oriented staff* had headed off home, we went to Bodega, the local public bar for a few rounds and some snacks. Intentionally had a good chat with all the Ei lads/lasses (yep you, Tracey) before I got too blurry to articulate smoothly.

urg.. we rocked over to the Bristol to have a few more drinks, and also to see Katie, the mother of Boswell, who is also leaving the country soon and was out having fun. Met a bunch of her mates and then we rocked down to CellBar (under Zibibo at the bottom of Taranaki st.). Things got hazy in there and after being given a 'rusty nail' (whiskey and tequila mixed neat - or something equally nasty) I decided that I'd had enough... Granddad mode!

So thanks to everyone at work for making my time there enjoyable, and for sending me off in style! Please keep in touch. So.. I have got past that hangover, and spent the week trying to get us visas for China and The Netherlands, and arranging insurance. The consulates are open for a couple of hours each morning - (9-12/10-12) and so I have had to dash to them to get info, then wait a whole day before going back.. frustrating!

And weighing insurance options up is a job suited only for an Actuary, the sneaky so-and-sos who make the schemes up in the first place! What is an extra $100k on medical worth versus a $5k drop in bag coverage down to $10k ? I think I might have to resort to the cheapest one that doesnt look to shonky technique.

Plus the Chinese Embassy have our passports for a week! what a pain, but I think I can squeeze it all in OK - Im on if full time! We have final blood tests tomorrow, and I am also orgainsing where to store all our junk. The mini didn't sell so I'm going to store it at my good friends house - thanks Ryan!

So much more to do, once we are on the road I promise more writing!


Love you all.

Colin

Hello peoples,

Well I thought it was high time that I contributed some words of wisdom to this blog seeing as my name is on it!

Well here we are with just over a month until we leave. I can hardly believe how quickly time is passing. There is a lot to organise during our remaining time in NZ, but we are getting there slowly. As you all know by reading Tim's previous posts we are in the process of getting vaccinated against every disease under the sun. And I mean every disease! The list includes, tetanus, rabies, hep A and B, polio, typhoid and I'm sure there are more that have slipped my mind. Needles are my worst nightmare, but I must say I have been very brave and have been enduring 3 jabs per doctor's session. Only 4 more plus a blood test to go. I can SO handle it! : )

I've also been booking some accommodation. I am most excited about our hostel in Singapore. We are Staying at a place called Hostel One66, owned by a lovely man named Yang. It's really funky and crazy, in some ways it looks like a pre-schooler has been let loose with paint and interesting objects. Toilet seats have been used for chairs, there are millions of clocks on the wall - all sorts of quirky things! The most exciting thing though is the resident dragon Colin (refer to the picture below) who is tame enough for pats. I can't wait to meet him!

So yay, roll on holidays! I can't wait!

Love Princess

Your advice time:

Heya everyone;

So every time I mention that I'm traveling thru Asia, I get a barrage of suggestions. This post is for you to add your comments to so I have a written summary of suggestions.

So if you have suggestions for:

• Accommodation
  
• Transit: buses, flights, trains, boats ?
  
• activities: ruins / geography / swimming / snorkeling / anything
• General advice

The current plan for travelling thru countries (in rough travel order below):

• Singapore
• Malaysia
• Thailand
• Laos
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• China
• Nepal
• India

And then:

• UK
• Netherlands

So sign up and add some comments ya'll - if you have a google account (eg gmail) then you can sign in with that. Get to commenting please!

The goods:

So finally I have some piccies!

These are the expensive microfibre mini-towels that katmandu sell - supposed to be good, and a really small when folded up!


We also found a sale on fairydown sleepers. Princess got the puffer, warmer bag and I opted for the thinner one - how cold can it get? I figure I can carry her larger sleeping bag, and she can have my smaller one to carry to compensate for her smaller backpack, smaller size and larger need for space for clothes etc!



Once they are put into the bottom of our packs, they make the packs look a bit more shapely...

So; next round of injections tomorrow - I have been contacting all my past doctors etc to figure out if I have had tetanus shots etc. ever/recently... I don't know! I think princess is doing realyl well, and is almost excited (rather then nervous) about tomorrow.

We have firmed up a few plans too: We are staying in Brisbane for a couple of days, then travel to the Gold coast for a few more - I'm hoping to take princess to White Water World !

From there we get a rental campervan and slowly make our way up Queenslands coast to Cairns for a family reunion with Princessseseses family. After a week looking around Cairns, we'll fly down to Sydney to stay with my Auntie Jan for a couple of days before flying over to Singapore.

Maybe Princess will tell you about Colin in the next post...