HELLO From New Zealand

ampersand

As a francophile kiwi ex-pat, I hope some of you may enjoy this, found after I'd watched the rather special haka from the Japan match again.
But this is glorious and so off-wall other:
http://www.itv.com/rugbyworldcup/2011/news/marching-band-entertains-the-crowd-in-nelson/

How are you settling in my fair countree, chevalier?

chevalier

Hi all thanks for all the good wishes ref the job. Sadly I didn't make it through, at least not yet. What has happened was I got a call. The person I talked too seemed to be a bit confused that I had put down working hours of 10am to 2.00pm and 8pm and midnight. I tried to explain it was to work around the kids but she didn't seem to get it :think:?

Anyway the next day I got an email through saying that they weren't going to take my application further. I was going to be cheeky and go into the store and act confused about it in the hope that they would give me a try, but on Wednesday I came over all ill!

Luckily it was only a waterworks infection but, it has really knocked me for 6. Didn't go and do my volunteer work on Thursday or Friday, so that I had enough reserves of energy to go to the rugby on thursday. Had to go otherwise one of the kids couldn't go... so.

In other news the oil tank saga has taken a turn for the worse. Will write about that tomorrow though as it is all too annoying at the moment.
chev

And the game is on now:D

Butti

I'm struggling to get a job Chev. Keep going, you will get there. I was thinking of moving to NZ or Aus (once I've planted a money tree!) but am beginning to think I've missed my opportunity, and you are putting me off

B

chevalier

Butti if you want a great quality of life but no money then come to new zealand. if you want a great but different quality of life AND money then go to Australia. I also think that my shyness isn't helping with regards to integrating over here. But if I had a job then I would at least be meeting people who don't judge me on how my DS;s behave...

Right the basis of the oil tank saga

We have been waiting to see if some reinsurers would give us after event insurance. This basically is insurance such that if we lose the court case, they would pay out the OTHER persons legal costs (though sadly not the total amount they are sueing us for). Now our solicitor has come back to say that the reinsurers WON'T give us this insurance, because they don't believe we have a better than 50% chance of winning it. !!!!!! it never rains but it pours. So now if we lose not only will be have circa 50k of damages to pay, plus our costs of say 5k but also the other sides costs which will be god knows but say another 5k as well. So let's say we would owe at least 60k. Now the solicitor is even saying maybe we should consider settling on terms (which I guess means paying a bit back each month).

The problem is (and the solicitor doesn't know this) is that we are already in an arrangment with HMRC to repay income tax we got refunded in error. We are JUST making the repayments on this debts as it is and only because the difference between the rent we are getting and the mortgage we are repaying, has some wiggle room at the moment. But after that payment, the mortgage and the ongoing maintenance costs, there is no more monthly money.

So they put a charge on the house. Which is ok up to a point. The problem with that is the 8% interest they charge on that. This hasn't come down even though every other sort of interest has decreased over the last 4 years due to the recession. So ok we sell the house. We aren't in negative equity the house is worth about 400k, and our tenants have expressed an interest in buying it, the mortgage is about 109k, so the money would be there to pay these damages. BUT it would totally eat into the money we would bring over the buy a house over here. Affecting us for years to come in terms of the size of house and area we would be able to buy now..

New Zealand is one of the most expensive places to buy housing now compared to incomes, so we need every penny to be able to afford our forever home....

Part of me wants to be all relaxed about it and go if we lose then we lose. But another part of me is so p!ssed off that we have been put in this position by bl00dy A$a insurance!

And I guess if other things were going ok, ie getting a job, completing my courses to get into my dream area of work, making friends out here, not worrying about money all the time, cos we are stlll paying out more than is coming over here. And then not being able to find another rental etc etc. The list is neverending.

I am feeling so overwhelmed. I would love the Matrixettes to help me out, by I can never keep up with the threads. I think I am on page 34 so far.

In some respects I feel that if we lose this court case we should come home. We have a house that is bought there, ok it is not (now) in a place I would really want to live, but it is doable for a few years. We have paid for 3/4 of the house there. If we had to draw down on the mortgage then we could do that too and meet the repayments. I am convinced that I could get some sort of work over there, even if only temp and casual. We would have a better support network. Even if it was only sponging off relatives for sunday lunches LOL.

So why am I here still. Oh yes OH......sigh.

You know a while ago I got all fired up with getting my environmental qualifications sorted out, and basically transferring my credits to over here, and then doing New Zealand specific environmental courses to finish my qualifications. But each course costs $650. Now my other half and I discussed this and what I took away from the discussion was that we couldn't afford it, and anyway even if i did get the degree how do I know there would be any jobs at the end of it. So I didn't start any courses. Now when we have had another 'chat' about this, he says that this isn't what he meant at all about us not affording it. And I have misunderstood him, erm what part of 'we can't afford it' is there to misunderstand?

I have TRIED to get a job. And I don't understand what I am damn well doing wrong. I can't even get a christmas job in the equivalent of the co op department store. I guess there are LOTS of mums like me that want to work in school hours. But it isn't as if I don't want to work school holidays, as I can put them into a club they enjoy anyway. I did put on my application for the xmas job, about doing 8pm to midnight, and got BIG sighs from OH because of this. !!!!!! I am TRYING to help out and get a job. Earn some money and YES guess what I may have to work unsocial hours to do that. But he just sees it eating into his independant time or something, as he would have to actually get home on time rather than just doing one more computer program build, or follow down one more problem, cos wifey is there and she will cope. AAAAAAAAGGGHGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Really don't feel like I am winning at g0d damn anything at the moment.
chev

moo2moo

Oh Chev,

Even if you hand over 60K to sort the court case, pay off HMRC and sell the house you end up with something in the region of 200K in your pocket thats almost double what the average house sells for in the area I live in. It would also give you 400,000 or so Kiwi dollars towards your forever home. Thats a heck of a deposit. You're already finding rent every month so you'd also be able to pay mortgage payments. Things really aren't that bleak at all.

Even if you came home you'd struggle to find work. Morrissons are opening a supermarket near here v. soon. They've had almost a thousand applications per position. Companies are going under daily. Fuel bills are increasing exponentially and the weather is pants. Permanently.

If you can't find full time employment perhaps you could try working for yourself. The kiwis must have something like Avon or Phoenix Trading that are minimal outlay low risk ventures. It would at least give you pocket money if nothing else. Can you ask at the kids school to see if there are any dinner lady jobs going? The hours you're prepared to work would be perfect for lunchtime cafes or restaurants... I'm sure something will turn up.

Chin up chuck. It will get better!

lucielle

Chev, why don't you post your skills on the matrix thread? I mainly read and only post now and then but they are really helpful.
L

chevalier

Hi Lucielle not a bad suggestion. I do know what I want to do it is really the training that is holding me back. Ie I want to work in the environmental science field. I would LOVE to be able to go an monitor an eco system or something like that. I would even quite like doing environmental health work (sad or what). But for now I just need a job!

On that note I applied for a part time role yesterday 3 days 10am til 2pm. Probably half the mums in the area have applied for it! lol. After having a bit of a winge about the other christmas job, I realised that i hadn't included my New Zealand referees phone number on my CV:o:o.Oops no wonder they didn't take it any further!

I have also sent my cv to an agency. I don't hold out much hope though as they all seem to only deal with full time permanent or contract work, and I just can't do full time hours with the boys sport! Not for at least another 5 years. When the youngest one is at secondary school, then they can get to sport on their own....:D

I have decided to not search for a house at the moment very often. It was actually getting me down, as every house I suggested, OH pooh poohed it and said something about was no good. SIGH.

MOO2MOO by the way you are so right about the UK house legal saga. I will just have to forget about that too for now. Though OH and I have to decide whether we spend £300 on the barrister to send a letter to the reinsurers asking them to reverse their decision. SIGH.
Right off to the shop
chev

GreyhoundAngel

Hi Chev,

Sorry to read you lost out on the job, but fingers crossed you have better luck with the new application. Agencies are funny - there's no rhyme or reason as to what type of jobs they have on and when.

I know when I was looking (albiet UK), they did have quite a few p/t jobs - and not many F/T ones in the locations I preferred. Yet, now when you think they'd have more ... they're all F/T ones :cool: just plain odd.

I prefer direct applications anyway unless its for temp work - I seem to have better luck with interviews and jobs that way. It took me a while to find the one I've got now, but it turned up at the oddest time and I almost didnt bother applying :eek:, one will turn up for you, just frustrating waiting & looking for it I know :A

House hunting can be hard at the best of times hun, I know what it's like having someone constantly disagreeing with the ones you view. I had more than a few visions of baseball bats & heads when we were looking for the old house :eek:

Keep your chin up, and try to hang on to the thought that both job & home are waiting to welcome you soon :A

G'Angel xxx

chevalier

moo2moo wrote: »

Oh Chev,

Even if you hand over 60K to sort the court case, pay off HMRC and sell the house you end up with something in the region of 200K in your pocket thats almost double what the average house sells for in the area I live in. It would also give you 400,000 or so Kiwi dollars towards your forever home. Thats a heck of a deposit. You're already finding rent every month so you'd also be able to pay mortgage payments. Things really aren't that bleak at all. It is a valid point. I am just not sure if I even want to stay....

Even if you came home you'd struggle to find work. Morrissons are opening a supermarket near here v. soon. They've had almost a thousand applications per position. Companies are going under daily. Fuel bills are increasing exponentially and the weather is pants. Permanently. Yes I know things are hard but at least over there I am pretty confident I would at least get manpower type jobs. And I could probably get back into Royal Mail somewhere based on previous service.

If you can't find full time employment perhaps you could try working for yourself. The kiwis must have something like Avon or Phoenix Trading that are minimal outlay low risk ventures. It would at least give you pocket money if nothing else. I don't mean to be defeatist but the market already is saturated with avon reps in this area. And to be honest I am not really a very sales oriented person. I want to be able to do something that makes my heart at least not cringe.

Can you ask at the kids school to see if there are any dinner lady jobs going? No school dinners over here and I am not good round large amounts of kids even in a voluntary capacity

The hours you're prepared to work would be perfect for lunchtime cafes or restaurants... I'm sure something will turn up. Most restaurants in our area are ethnically run, and tend to be run by families.



Chin up chuck. It will get better!

I am not being difficult on purpose, but I don't think I will be able to get anything anytime soon. I can't even find somewhere like Manpower to ask about temporary work. They all seem to be about finding people for permanent jobs and full times ones too.

chevalier

I was wondering why I felt so flat today. I think I know why now. We have now been to all the world cup matches we were going to. It has been great fun. And for a little while it lifted my mood and allowed me to forget about all the stressors in my life at the moment.

Now though I have come back down with a crash and CBA syndrome is with me in spades today. And today is oh birthday and I have JUST managed to get something sorted but it has been a struggle SIGH