So it is now the first weekend of December! ONLY 20 shopping days left til Xmas.
Where did November go?
It was a whirlwind of a month. And packed with fun and adventure indeed.
We got to see a special Weta screening of the movie Tin Tin which we thoroughly enjoyed and recommend. Guy Fawkes Day came and went but with nice weather and fun fireworks.
Then things got interesting. The company I came here to work for has had to "restructure" and I have been told that I am likely to be made redundant (laid off). -What?!!! And as I am trying to wrap my head around this AnimFX was looming. This is the conference that I attended and spoke at last November and was attending again this year. An industry conference bringing together a lot of local and overseas talent for 3 days of presentations and networking. Needless to say I now had a lot of "networking" to do.
The conference was a lot of fun, met a lot of great people and caught up with some existing friends from last year. I came away tired, but feeling good and optimistic that I would be able to find another job so I could continue to stay here in New Zealand.
The conference finished on a Thursday night and Saturday morning we left for Rotorua to meet up with some good friends that had flown in from Seattle to visit for a few weeks. - no rest for me.... Eric and I spent Saturday exploring the Thermal "wonderland" taking some great photos and enjoying the sunny weather. (and enduring the lovely aroma - it bothered me much more than Eric). On Sunday we all went Zorbing! well not all, 3 of the 5 of us, Eric's back was bothering him and Nyssa thought she'd get motion sick from it. It is an absolutely silly activity that I absolutely LOVE! Rolling down a hill in a giant rubber beach ball with water in it. The ultimate in water sliding/tumbling.
I then found a nice internet store where I was able to watch my niece Casey's Bat Mitzpha. I felt horrible for not being there in person, but was glad I could watch and hear the whole thing. What a beautiful ceremony it was and she did amazing. I even got to read a poem via cell phone connection that my mother wrote, so everyone knew I was there in spirit.
We then drove back to Wellington and had a mixture of work days and days off to spend with our friends before they moved on to the South island. And I continued to follow up with the job leads I had gotten from AnimFX.
So that where November went....
Now it's early December and I am looking forward to getting into the holiday spirit and enjoying some down time and trying not to worry too much about the job front until January.
Eric is still working at Weta and that is showing no signs of ending anytime soon so we are thankful for that. We are trying to figure out our holiday card for the year and hope to be sending those out in another few weeks. And if we feel really brave we may even take a few days over the break to travel up north and explore some more of this country we still have yet to see. I suspect December too will fly by and 2012 will be here before we blink!
Cheers for now,
Stacy & Eric
