So we've been in Chch for about six weeks now, working and chilling, getting ready for the last three months of our trip. It's been good to have a bit of a break from traveling, earning a couple bucks, exploring Chch and whatnot, but we're about ready to get back on the road and get traveling again. Luckily Becky's mom Linda arrives next Thursday for a tour around the north part of the South Island, and we're psyched for her visit. As the title indicates we've been counting down the days until we're able to put Chch in the rear-view mirror.
As far as our working is concerned, Becky's been putting in major hours at the Convention Centre, sometimes working hard, sometimes not. She's learned that just like plants, people at conventions apparently need watering, and that if a package can be misplaced between the time the courier drops it off and it gets to the convention floor, it almost certainly will be. She's also feeling a bit like Gunther in The Life Aquatic as she's been entrenched on the B Team there, though it sounds like the package-receiving department will fall apart when she leaves.
As for me, there wasn't as much work at Three Boys as I'd hoped, so I've been doing a bit of temping as well, mostly casual industrial work. I was a runner on a garbage truck for a week, which I suppose I'll have to file under "Interesting Life Experiences". It wasn't that bad actually, as half the time I just rode around in the front of the truck, trying not to slow down the driver on his run. In nice weather riding on the back isn't terrible work and you will get fit doing it, though the smell does have something to be desired. I've also been doing some work at a powder-coating factory, which has been OK but awfully strenuous when it hasn't been tedious. I have learned that entropy doesn't favor the guy trying to vacuum up powder in such a facility, however. On the other hand, I now know how to spot-weld.
Our living situation has been a bit odd here in Chch. At first, we thought Phil was an alright guy, though the experience over the past few weeks has changed that, and we now would describe him as a cheap, opportunistic hermit. Cheap because he refused to buy more propane to heat the living room, even though the temperature has often hit freezing at night, making the living room pretty unhospitable in the evenings. It's also not a pleasant experience being able to see your breath indoors at the breakfast table in the morning. As a result we've spent more than a few evenings watching DVDs in bed on my computer. Phil didn't mind the lack of heat in the living room since he's spent the majority of his time at home in his room. Watching TV, sleeping, eating, you name it, he does it in his bedroom alone. It's more than a little odd, thus the hermit part.
Our major gripe with Phil is that when we moved in he promised he'd reduce the rent if he took on another tenant. Unfortunately, after a few weeks he rented the spare room to a Korean English-language student, and then refused to lower the rent as he had earlier promised. It wasn't so much the monetary aspect of his reneging on the deal that really bothered us (a token amount off the weekly rent would certainly have sufficed) as it was the fact that he was bent on taking advantage of us once he had us in a compromised position. In a hilarious example of Phil's anti-social and somewhat greedy nature, he wrote us a memo informing us that if we wanted to stay another day at the end of our stay (Linda arrives on a Thursday and the final day of our rent cycle is a Wednesday), we'd need to pay for two days, even though we'd be staying just one extra night. It would seem that hotel management is not in the cards for him. In any event we've chosen to ignore his fuzzy math and will find alternate accomodations for that night.
As a result of Phil's shenanigans we think little of his character and have endeavored to use as much internet and electricity as possible in our time here. We're doing our best not to think badly of all male flight attendants now, but I guess we'll have to be wary in the future...
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