A Ship Out of Its Harbor: "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." -Harriet Beecher Stowe

See this seagull? This here is the illusive New Zealand Charm Seagull. Named so (by me) for its good luck powers. As soon as I took this picture, the seagull winked at me and I waltzed into an interview and... got a JOB!!! As promised, here is my job victory dance:

I am the newest waitress at The Starfish Cafe and I start tomorrow. The owner was so sweet and told me to show up Wednesday and we'll "give it a go." Let's hope my next blog doesn't start out "10 Things Not to Do Your First Day Waitressing." It's a medium-size cafe on the beach with an awesome view. Score.

Over the last few days the sun has finally come out as spring starts. It's amazing what a little vitamin D will do to your mood, as well as make Brad and I want to creep a little further out from the CBD and explore some new areas around Dunedin. For example, it turns out that 15 minutes walk up the hill is a village called Roslyn that is totally adorable and has a sweet view of the harbor and ocean.

Also, we checked out The Dunedin Chinese Garden. It was built for a cool $14 mill in Shanghai and brought to Dunedin in pieces. Sadly the fish were hibernating (my childhood goldfish Dina never hibernated, lazy kiwi fish...) so you couldn't see them, but it was still a cool stop.

Meanwhile in "The Octagon" they still want to trick us into thinking it's winter. This past Saturday they trucked in loads of snow and built a temporary ramp for skiers and snowboarders for the Rail Jam. The grand prize was worth $20,000 so there was some decent talent that showed up to do some tricks. On the other hand, there were some terrible, terrible contestants which led to hilarious spills. Check out Brad's blog to see his latest video which includes some of the best wipe outs.

"This tree has teeth!"


Me: "I hope this poor kid is getting paid well." Brad: "You know he volunteered." And here come the snowballs...

Needless to say, I'm super pumped about starting work tomorrow. While unemployment has been, well, glorious, I'm glad to once again be contributing something to society. That something is food and coffee. Plus, money in my pocket means that instead of going home broke, tail between my legs, I get to stick around for stuff like this: