Right well I’ve been meaning to do this post for like a month cos I’ve been noticing a lot of little things that are different in the UK compared with NZ… obviously there was gonna be differences but sometimes they are things that are surprising (well to me anyways haha) so I’m gonna note a few down now and then add to it as new things crop up…

1. They use liquid twink here… when I posed the question of correction tape I got a blank look!
2. The traffic lights flash from red, to red + orange before changing to green. I think you can drive when it’s flashing but I’m not sure.
3. They have massive roundabouts with traffic lights around them which are bloody confusing if you have no clue where you are going – you HAVE to be in the right lane at the start or you’re f**ked basically. (I found this out last night when out driving my Aunties car)
4. People in the North-East are way more conversational compared with the South of England – people smile at you up here and in the shops they make conversation (espeically if you have a Kiwi accent!)
5. They don’t use clippies in the offices… this is outrageous.
6. McDonalds don’t sell Frozen Cokes… to be honest I don’t know how I’ve survived! Oh and in my opinion the fast food here is not as nice as NZ – KFC/McDonalds/BK etc. But they do have McFlurrys!!
7. In Newcastle instead of suburbs they can have kind of like wee villages that are connected by a windy road with foliage/grass right up to the roadside so it feels like you’re in the middle of the countryside but you’re not cos you’re back in the thick of things 2 secs later – this is really weird to get used to!
8. The money! Geeeez this is the thing that irks me the most – NZ is way better in this regard as here you end up having so much useless change of copper it’s ridiculous! They have 1,2,5,10,20 & 50pence coins as well as £1 and £2 then the notes start at £5. 
9. They don’t call them ’EFTPOS cards’ here - it’s called a Debit card and you don’t swipe it on the machine. It’s got a micro-chip on one end that you stick in the machine and put in your pin then wait for it to tell you to take it out. (I’m constantly forgetting to take it back out haha.)  
10. Supermarkets and chemists are more specialised than NZ – places like Boots and Superdrug are chemists but are more like mini-supermarkets minus the food. Supermarkets are MASSIVE but as in NZ there is differing levels of budgetness haha. Oh and most supermarkets sell clothes and books etc so they end up being like a supermarket/Warehouse.
11. Marks & Spencers is brilliant and only sells it’s own brand of food (hence why it’s the most expensive) you can pretty much buy anything and everything in ‘Marksies’ – clothes, furniture, electrical items then go to the supermarket and get your groceries and pay for it in the one place. They sometimes also have a restaurant or cafe. They have the yummiest food – low cal chocolate mousse is my absolute FAV as are the grapes. Expensive but the food lasts longer.
12. Dinner = lunchtime and Tea = Dinner which has confused me many a time.
13. 90% of people drive a manual car which means an automatic car is a damn sight more expensive.
14. There are heaps heaps heaps more European cars compared with NZ (obviously, cos we’re closer to Europe!) but this does take some getting used to! Specially when a Japanese car is mentioned in high regard haha!  That would never happen back home…

Well yes this is true! My 6 weeks or so of being an unemployed bum will come to an end this Thursday at 10am as this is when I’m due to report for training at my new job at Northumbria University! I’ll be an Admin Assistant in the Research, Regional and European Affairs Dept. Here’s a link of the location if ya wanna go have a squiz haha move the camera round to find the blue door and that’s where I’m working….

I’m kinda being thrown in the deep end cos I’ll have Thursday to have some training and then it’s Easter Weekend and then the next week the two ladies who I’m working with are away for two days! so I’ll be the only office lady there! haha I think I got the job because when they told me this I was like “That’s not a problem, I would be able to manage”…. me and my big mouth!!! haha but it’s going to be good hopefully.

Bought myself a bus pass today for a month so I’m gonna be a daily bus chick for the next two months which is the duration of the temp contract.

Well tomorrow is my last day of freedom for two months and I’m spending it with my 3 angelic young cousins, two older cousins and my auntie at Alnwick Castle & Gardens…. (pronounced Anneck... bloody Brits!) which should be brilliant – providing the weather plays ball and it isn’t pouring down like it was on Sunday night!

Anyways…. that’s another update out – and the next one will probably be tomorrow night if I get some lovely sun-filled photos of the castle and gardens….. or it’ll be a photo of a frazzled Rossco after dealing with all the kids stuck inside cos of the rain!!! Time will tell haha.

Laters,

Manda xxxxx

Man this update is well overdue that’s for sure!

For the first time since I left 54 days ago I had a massive bout of homesickness yesterday (Sunday). It was gonna happen sooner or later but the fact that Saturday had been a helluva shit day did not help – my three cousins stayed on Fri night and ALL day Saturday and were playing up quite a bit… right from 5am when they started to wake up! Now I had come back from the Club at midnight and had had a few bourbons so was not in the mood to be woken up at that hour that’s for sure! Yeah so Saturday was exhausting and Sunday was recovery day where I just think my sugar levels and mood was really low so I was in a POOR ME state. Mum rang at 8pm and it as all I could do to hold back the tears as I just wanted to be back home, but I managed to control myself til I got off the phone (soz Mum for the shit phone call haha!) and then I went and had a bit of a cry to get it out of my system. Sometimes that’s all it takes I find and I woke up this morning (Monday) feeling better about things.

Today I had my first proper job interview at Northumbria Uni in the Finance Dept being an assistant to the PA to the Directors. I was referred by the temp agency but didn’t end up getting it as someone internal ended up getting it. I’m not too bothered about that one because it wasn’t the one that I wanted… last week I had three jobs put to me by Sarah at NRG (todays failure being one of them). Two of them were the same pay and similar roles but there was a third job in the HR dept of the Uni which really got me interested. 1-Because it was more money and 2-Because it sounded interesting and something I had never done before, being admin support to a hiring and firing dept. Alas I just had a call from Sarah@NRG to say that the Uni had put a freeze on the job as they may have someone internal who could cover. Now this pissed me off because I really want the job and I can see it being offered AFTER I’ve already taken another position but I guess thems the breaks and I’ll just have to deal. So as it stands I have an interview for the 2nd of the first two jobs tomorrow so I’ll wow them in that interview and hopefully get some money coming in.

Wednesday is to be spent at Alnwick Castle & Gardens with the 3 young cousins as well as my auntie and cousin. School holidays = lots of kids running round being irritating haha.  Will be sure to take my camera tho to catch the kids running through the water fountains.

Right so an update on what I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks… the answer is a big fat nothing really. Well nothing springs to mind apart from the usual – going to the Club on a Friday night, going shopping with Auntie Marcia, going to one of the youngsters school show… High School Musical (The Primary School Version) – there’s two hours of my life I will never get back! God on the kids for giving it a go tho.

Well I have not a lot more to say other than…. well that’s it really!

Laters Dudes and Dudettes xx