February 12, 2004

Later that same day

OK! I have had a nice long afternoon nap (3 hours) and feel refreshed. I just noticed that the "posted time" for these entries is in Ottawa time. So it is worth noting that I am 6 time zones west and 18 time zones east of Ottawa. So I am 18 hours ahead of the time posted. So if you are reading this with your Friday morning coffee at 8am, I am sound asleep at 2am on Saturday morning.

It is now 8:45pm. I have not had my supper but am not yet hungry because I had a large lunch at 2:30. Getting my body rhythm in synch will take time. But I'll get some food soon.

Tomorrow will check out new accommodation and look for a room to let for a few weeks here while I job hunt. Today I made a lot of phone calls to Marinas, crewing employment agencies and boat charter companies. Spent last night and this morning checking the career section of the paper. There are hundreds of ads for real jobs (as opposed to telemarketing and 'spam' work) and lots of good high end positions. Everyone here has been saying that the Kiwi economy is in a boom and the job listings prove it. Lots of jobs in Engineering and Technology, IT, Medical-Dental professions, building trades and site management, Architectural disciplines, manufacturing trades, and on and on.

So there are lots of alternatives for me. Of course my focus is that stewardess job on a yacht. On a large sailing yacht preferably. Even the tourist info had a list of places that I can go looking for work on boats.

It will be a very busy week for me. After I get settled I can start doing some touristy stuff. But first I need to get my luggage and a cheap place to live.

Tomorrow I will do a South Africa update. I did have a good time there despite the many set-backs. It is not my nature to let all that bad stuff interfere with my fun. So through it all I went off having a bit of fun here and there and met lots of good folks along the way. So more tomorrow.

Posted by gailene at February 12, 2004 07:55 PM