December 2013: Moving Out & Moving In

The first day of the month saw me moving out of the hostel into my very own room in my new flat share. I was packed and out of the hostel by 10am and a taxi soon had me at my new front door. I collected my key and dumped everything in my almost empty room. My manger was kind enough to offer me the use of her airbed so my first trip was a visit to my work to pick it up then a trip to a local store to buy bedding. Soon I had a room with an airbed and bedding and a chest of drawers. I didn’t have much stuff but what I had I could finally unpack which took all of 15 minutes and when I was finished I found myself at a bit of a loss. I had the whole day off work and whilst I now technically lived in the flat I felt very timid about being there and it was so quiet. There was no noise, no people, just me and an empty flat. So after being in Wellington for over 5 months I finally made the trip up to the top of Mt Victoria lookout. I must say it was spectacular and it was good to get my camera out again as it had been sorely neglected during most of my time in New Zealand. It was a beautiful day and a good start to my life in my latest new home.

The rest of the month turned out to be as eventful as the beginning. I managed to find a cheap bed at the local Salvation Army store and my family managed to be more organised than me and send me Christmas presents which helped to take up some space in my rather large and empty room. Work was going well but was I found it hectic as I ended up working between two different cafes. The manager of our newest cafe had the month off to go to Europe so their supervisor took over as acting manger and I was split between the two stores as supervisor on the quiet days. It was interesting to see how the two different stores worked but I did miss my work friends, especially in the week before Christmas which I spent completely at the other store.

As expected in hospitality the run up to Christmas was crazy busy but I didn’t mind as I was counting down to Christmas. That’s right I was looking forward to Christmas! Not because it was Christmas but because it marked the start of a whole week long holiday!! The day itself I spent in my pj’s on the couch watching cheesy films on the TV. I did skype home and in the evening I went back to my old hostel to have a drink with a friend who was due to leave the next day but mostly I just relaxed and it was awesome. I especially enjoyed my Christmas dinner of microwave mac’n’cheese and complete lack of any Christmas decorations in our flat. To most people it probably sounds incredibly depressing but for me it was exactly what I needed. After years of ‘doing’ Christmas because I was supposed to / it’s what Josh’s would have wanted / it’d make everyone else feel better and all the other reasons I had made the effort in the previous years I finally got to ignore it and just relax. Don’t get me wrong I love my friends and family and I know they only ever want what is best for me and I really appreciate the fact that friends have previously taken me into their homes to share the day with me. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed Christmas in the past, I have, it was just nice not to have to be ‘on’ for the day. It was nice to curl up and ignore the world. In fact it was so nice I thought I might just have discovered my very own Christmas tradition and looked forward to continuing it the following year.