Week 7: Feeling so comfortable in a shared house

Greetings from Christchurch, yep I’m still here after almost 2 months.

I’m currently writing this on a Sunday (9pm) as everyone is pretty much chilling in their room, preparing to sleep early as tomorrow is a work day. As for me, I have yet to bathe (what’s new) and I’ll probably hope to sleep before 12 midnight, waking up at 6:12am.

I had a somewhat easier week at my workplace as I only had to do standing jobs, doing a lot of hand-eye coordination, instead of the bending and squatting jobs. Not really complaining about work this week though my heel still hurts a bit from the long standing. ^^ Not sure how long these shiok days can last but.. let’s hope for the best!

So today, my colleague at work told me that she was spacing out and thinking about life’s existence while doing err. repetitive stuff with our hands. To be honest, I also think about life a lot while I work cause some jobs are pretty brain-dead and you just repeat the same actions over and over again. We’re just doing the jobs that machines can’t do. There have been many thoughts that run through my mind while I work. Sometimes, I think about whether I can do such jobs forever – low in stress, getting minimum wage, leading a higher quality of living but giving up on chasing riches, luxuries and perhaps owning a house. People can lead a happy life here in New Zealand by just living off the minimum wage. However, can I be satisfied with not being able to climb the corporate ladder and wish for a higher pay? I guess I am able to survive here but I have to say goodbye to my more than once a year holidays and above average treats like massages and manicures. As of today, I am still not ready and may never ever be, to stay in New Zealand for a long term basis. Not at least for my age now.

Other spacing out thoughts include – what am I going to do when I get back home? Do I want to remain in the same industry or should I take a leap of faith? I have wanted to grow my blog/website but now that I am err. not in a proper full-time job, my website stats and revenue has not been improving at all. Doubt I’ll ever get to make it profitable in the long run with a long term plan?

One random thought – The content of blogging for Working Holiday New Zealand is not very advantageous for me. Firstly, there’s only 200 slots available for Singaporeans each year. Next, this program have already been around for many years and pretty much everything you want to know can be googled. My posts on New Zealand is not doing well at all (well, thank you for reading this) and I’m still persevering as this writeup would be a lovely memory for myself in the future.

The future

As of now, I do have an intention to extend my Working Holiday Visa as I would love to try working in a cherry farm – be it as a picker or packer. As lame as it gets, this thought only came to me cause it seems like a popular wish/ bucket list/job opportunity for everyone. As someone who had no bucket list to clear before coming to New Zealand, it’s easy to leech on other people’s wishes to figure out what I really want cause there’s still nothing in my list.

Right now, my plan (which hasn’t went my way for a long while) is to leave Christchurch in Oct, to find another city/town to stay or work or helpx in. Then, proceed with the cherry season and figure out if I want to be back in time for Chinese New Year. My house mates say that it could get really lonely if you’re not living in a fun place but.. we shall see. I’m still pretty much alone in my adventures as of now.

Will I even have the time to explore north island or will I just laze around and satisfy my desire of living independently like a local? Only time will tell..

Feels like I’m living in a university hostel

I’ve been living in a shared house for the past 8 nights and things have been pretty awesome with this bunch of girls. To be honest, I wouldn’t say that all shared houses would be as fun, cause it depends on the people living in it but my current one is probably one of the highest sought-after locations that I’ve heard about.

The people here are mostly friendly, talkative and spontaneous. I simply suggested a casual malaxiangguo dinner on thursday night and 7 of us went for dinner on friday at this really awesome chinese restaurant called Shanghai Bistro. The people here tend to cook larger portions (especially on weekends) and we all get to eat a wide variety of food – ranging from soups to desserts to pancakes. This is also really awesome for me as I’m very bad at estimating food portions and in the past, I would have to eat the same food over many days to finish it. Now, I can just invite my other housemates to eat the leftovers which means that I get to buy more and cook more. Yay.

This place is so comfortable that it has even de-railed people’s plans because.. you just don’t feel like moving out. I hope it doesn’t happen to me and I find somewhere else in October? Who knows though, I might.. just remain here.

Random but.. this house has the warmest toilets in comparison to all my previous accommodation. It has some heated light in the bathroom which I thought was really interesting. At the same time, I’m thankful that I belong in a room with an ensuite toilet. SIghs, it’s so comfortable.

Random fun fact: I bought groceries 4 times this week again! To date, I’ve spent about $600-700 on groceries.

Job searching is super tough

I don’t know if people who are coming for this working holiday visa know that the job search would be tough. I’m not sure if it’s cause it’s the winter season or perhaps there are too many people wanting to stay in Christchurch.

One tip that I learned was that.. you need to be really super duper aggressive in looking for jobs. You need to be persistent and just keep your hopes up high every time you do a resume drop. I’ve seen good stories and bad stories as well.

I just hope that if you’re planning to come over, please be mentally prepared for hard work and be accepting to whatever changes that come along your way. Over here, change is the only constant.

Weekend weather blues

The weather screwed up our plans and we couldn’t go for snowboarding due to heavy snow. Our plans to visit castle hill also couldn’t work out cause the roads were closed. We ended up in the casino (I lost money this time) and ate buffet at their cafe. It was followed by mall shopping (I visited Riccarton Westfield 3 days in a row). There was nothing to do once again on Sunday and I went to a pretty empty Riccarton Sunday Market and then watched Lion King in the cinema.

Hoping for a better weekend this week!

I think that’s all for now; see me on IG please. Thanks~