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Published: April 19th 2005
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Finally Happened
You see all the pictures. You hear all the tales...! Well folks, I know it's been a while. You miss me, I miss you, and there is nothing all that exciting to write home about! I returned to Nelson a week ago Saturday and promptly started looking for work. There is a newish cafe here called Stingray that serves food, coffees, drinks, etc. They have a lovely courtyard and a DJ some evenings. The owners are these two laid back guys. Early 40s, I get the impression they earned a bit of money and thought it would be cool to open a restaurant. Actually, one of the owners, a guy named Nick, use to work at the first CPK on Rodeo and says he opened the Topanga Canyon store. He thinks he remembers Uncle Jon but I wasn't convinced. Anyway, they are slighty crazy - just the way I like it!
In New Zealand, and I think Australia, when you get hired in a restaurant or bar, the practice is to try it out before they hire you outright. So these guys asked me to come and work Friday and Saturday night (of last week). Those are the only shifts they have available which I'm not too keen on. There
Mt. Cook
From the other side now. is no tipping here in New Zealand. At home, you could walk with $200 cash on a Friday or Saturday night. Here you get a measly $12.50 per hour, some free food, and sore feet. But I agreed to try it out anyway.
A few days later, I was walking down the street not too far from Stingray and saw there was a wine bar called In Vino Fides (In Wine We Trust) hiring staff. I popped in there to inquire. Last year they won an award for Outstanding Wine list of the year. Plus they have a very nice food menu. I don't know if you were one of them, but I did mention to a bunch of people how I thought it might cool to work some place where I could learn about the local wines. Plus, this place has live jazz a few nights a week.
So in I went. I first spoke with an Italian girl who works there. Turns out a bunch of staff are leaving in the next couple of weeks so several new people are needed and it sounded like I could have my pick of shifts. The owner asked me
Easy to Move Them
Just try not to drive too fast to try out there Saturday night. I told the owners of Stingray about it and they were fine with me only working Friday night there. Wow. Only a few days in and I already had work for the weekend.
It may have been the same day, or one before or after, but I also went and had an interview at a temp agency. They called me the next day for a one month assignment to start on the 26th. Shit, all of a sudden, I had more work than I wanted!
Last weekend, I worked at both places. The people at Stingray are nice and friendly, of course. The patrons are young and relatively hip, mostly locals. But I wasn't totally stoked working there. In Vino Fides, I enjoyed. It's a bit more up-market, as they say around here. But real mellow and the food is great. I got to eat during my shift and had the fish of the day which was Taraki. Taraki seemed to be the NZ version of Talapia. Yummy! Since it's getting into winter here, everything in Nelson slows way down. Accordingly, the owners of Stingray are going to be putting in a
lot of time themselves so as to not need to hire staff. And In Vino, is going to be closed for lunch so the shifts will be real short. From 6 to 10pm, something like that. I am working there tonight from 7-10pm and Friday night at Stingray. For now, I think I may try one or two weeknight shifts there in addition to the full time temp job. Maybe one weekend brunch shift. My goal is to work hard for the next month and then take off traveling again for a little while. But I think I'm going to avoid working Friday and Saturday nights. It just doesn't seem worth it to kill myself.
So there you have it folks. Not real exciting. Now the weather report: It's been very warm and sunny during the days. I continue to tan despite my SPF 30+ sunscreen. The evenings are quite cool and I've had to buy a warm, fleece number. Nothing fancy. I plan on getting my other suitcase sometime next week either via courier or a friend who will be flying down from Auckland. My laptop is with a friend in Wellingtong who will be passing through next month so I will hold out until then. You might find this shocking, but I have indeed come to peace with not being near my child night and day. I've kept internet access to a minimum and survived to tell about it!
I'm putting a few last pictures up from my travels. Enjoy!
Morganne
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