It's snowing!!!!

Happy happy happy joy joy joy - it's snowing, well it was snowing now it's just a beautiful cold crisp day! Continueing to keep myself busy (been working in the "big house" helping clean etc etc). Have expanded my CV hugely - general ranch hand (painting, raking leaves) and house maid (dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing) - I have become very "general list" while here.
Also am most happy as I have actually started to get rejection emails for jobs (this is good as it means that people are actually receiving/reading my resume). Have also given myself a chat about making sure I actually apply for jobs I am qualified for rather than just any job.............well we all have our moments. Also discovered several new job sources so feeling very optimistic.

Don Brash

........is an embarassment to every long standing, dedicated public servant.

In the interests of not being too serious

Some things you might not know about me (I stole this whole idea from someone else’s blog)
- My first hero was Peter Pan
- When I dream I always make myself fly
- I know when I am unhappy in my life because I can’t fly
- My most favourite thing (okay a big favourite thing) is to take myself off with a newspaper early in the morning, drink coffee and eat bacon and eggs………alone
- I came second in the trampoline competition at the rural school I attended when I was 11, I never got over second ‘cos I knew why I didn’t get first
- My favourite musical is Les Miserable….full of heroes, guns and revolutionary spirit
- My biggest fear in life is to not have lived it to the fullest – the secret source of my regular “I am giving up corporate life”
- The book that probably influenced me the most in life was “The silver sword” – which is all about children surviving war and was read to me when I was 9
- The book that taught me it’s okay to be obsessive was “James the Policeman” - I was probably 8 when I read it (go find it if you dare)
- The biggest love of my life was………..nah, now you are just being nosey

Getting focused

It's been a busy few weeks. Still enjoying the great outdoors and working with Peter. Weather here is largely rain free, with clear crisp (and getting crisper) days. I am now getting pretty obsessed with finding work. If I don't get any traction soon I am going to re.locate to San Fran. Have gone off the East coast a bit having heard from some of K&Bs friends about the lifestyle. West coasters would seem to be way friendlier and much more easy going.
Figure I am more likely to get an interview if I am living in the city I apply for jobs in. I'll keep looking all over but have really started to focus on San Fran.
Having quite a blast from the past too as the Officer Cadet Class I was in had a class reunion (20yrs) last week. Got everyone's bios and it was amazing to see what people have been doing. Hope to get to see some photos too. Certainly made me reflect on how pivotal that year was in my life..............
Still having nice times with K&B and very grateful for all the support and advice they give (not to mention good food and wine). It's made the whole transition much easier and I feel very lucky to have family right here.
On a different note, best line yet from Peter: "Well what do you think, they going to toss a cheque into the casket, what goods that going to do you?". It wasn't in direct response to anything I had actually said but came on the end of one of his very well told stories - I should be taping them. This also from the man who is a model for how we should all plan for retirement.

More adventures

It's been a while. Momentarily I almost thought no one was reading this at all (not that I am sensitive or anything and think that everyone should be wildly interested in me......) but that was really just feeling a little "on the other side of the world". Now that I have had some affirming emails and generally got over myself I am back.
The ranch had a visit last week so I headed off to Santa Fe for a few days (in the interests of keeping a low profile in advance of Thanks Giving when I will, hopefully, get to meet the owner). Santa Fe was just lovely and I have included some pictures on my newly created Flickr site (if you click on the link on the right you can have a look).
At least three real points of interest:
a. Santa Fe boasts the oldest church and the oldest house in the USA
b. The first Amercian Indian to be sainted was a women from New Mexico.
c. Everyone is very very friendly and chats away......I think it's the accent.
Given I was by myself I got over sitting in restaurants alone and happily sat at the bar drinking Margaritas and chatting with the odd person. During the day I wandered the streets and, predicatably, got a bit lost as I wandered into the 'burbs. Didn't matter as there is so much building going on there were dozens of people to ask if I really couldn't figure how to get back to the area I was staying in!
I stayed in an historic hotel that was very close to the tourist area so generally felt safe wandering the streets at night. I was in, what appeared to be, the Rugby (maybe gridiron?) Room, as it had old rugby photos and the wardrobe featured two players. All and all a very pleasant few days where I got to wear my new cowgirl boots (which I love very much) and pondered buying a cowgirl hat. Decided all shopping for clothes could wait for a. K to be with me, she is the style queen and b. getting a job!
On a different note the election is over and Bush (while taking the brunt of criticism for the massive defeat) has been remarkably articulate and "collegial" about the whole thing. Maybe he just gets that his presidency is all but over and he is unlikely to get anything significant done between now and the presidential election. Next big question is who will run for president? Is America ready for a female president (Hillary Clinton) or a black American man? Or, quite possibly neither......

Elections USA style

Today is voting day in the US of A...............everyone will be, I think, relieved to have the electioneering end. The whole process has been remarkably scandal ridden with every second republican having some dirty secret revealed (corruption is hot, sexual impropriety rife and not much talk about the issues). Democrats look set to regain Congress and its fair to say that I am not surrounded by people who universally agree who should be in power and this isn't even a presidential election.
Iraq remains a hot topic and opinion is divided among voters over whether or not the US should be there at all. With over 100 US soldiers killed last month tolerance is waning. No one is actually offering up a plan for getting out so its hard to know what the Democrats would do either.
Off the election my "favourite" story of the week is this guy - Haggard. A very prominant church spokesperson who founded his own church (New Church with 14,000 members), preached antigay and then, ta da, gets outed for having hired a male sex worker (over a 3 year period) and buying methamphetamine (which he said he threw away and didn't use - having gay sex is clearly the greater sin). He actually went on television denying the whole "sex for hire" thing..............24 hrs later he's toast, "confessed his sins" and no longer head of his own church.

Road trips and celebrations

On the 28th of October I officially became a Master of Diplomacy and Trade. I was/am quietly (and not so quietly) chuffed. One of my goals in moving back to Wellington was to complete my Masters - I really enjoyed everything about this course (which took me three years part time). For those that don't know I set up my consulting company to fund my Masters and was (in theory) supposed to work part time and study the rest of the time. Of course not all of my "clients" saw it that way and, as a consequence, mostly I worked full time and studied in the weekends and at night. It is a good feeling to have completed the course and..........well I just can't help myself...........I would like to be able to, eventually, complete a PHD (we shall see we shall see - perhaps I will grow out of the idea).
Anyway in the interests of celebrating K&B took me on a three day road trip to Colorado. Wow this was just fantastic and saw us winding through some of the most spectacular mountain country and inspired in me a secret ambition to learn to cross country ski, snow shoe and get myself a little cabin in bear country (we shall see we shall see). On our way to Telluride we stopped off at the most amazing historical site - Mesa Verde. The park was established in 1906 to preserve sites built by "Pre-Columbian Indians" on mesa tops and in canyon alcoves. Apparently there are over 4,000 known archeological sites in Mesa Verde National Park, 600 of which are cliff dwellings. It is really spectacular and, at times seems sureal.

Travelling on to Telluride we went over some truely spectacular mountain passes. Colorado isn't really like NZ (although the pictures might not have you think that!). At one of the highest points we crossed we were higher than Mount Cook. Alot of the rock/soil is also quite red, much like Aussie. Telluride itself is this very beautiful ski village that has some truely amazing homes. They have kept true to form (Queenstown are you listening) and have strict building requirements. All the homes in the main town are made of wood and look very "english". K&B bought me my fav bubbles and we had started the evening with bubbles and nibbles in my room (see the view!) then headed out for a very nice meal and a wander around the town.
Next day we headed up to the mountain village - very quiet but able to accommodate thousands of people when the snow is right. We then headed off to Durango . But not before we had a very memorable moment in a little bar in a little town where we walked in and everyone at the bar turned to "look at the strangers in town". I really knew it was time to go when two women at the bar ordered a half yard of beer and looked like this was just the beginning.............
Durango Is another “pretty town” – although very different from Telluride. We started out in the local “saloon” where the waitresses dress accordingly. Then we headed out for another very lovely meal. Ended up having after dinner drinks in a stylie little bar, and given it was the night before Halloween, we were much entertained that by the costumes that came in.
Following day we headed back to New Mexico but not before we had (according to our resident tour guide) driven through the largest alpine valley in the world and passed through Montrose, which is where the high altitude marathon runners come to train………..it didn’t look much like a training ground for anything I have to say!