Just an update...

Its Saturday afternoon here and I thought I would finally put in a new update. Everyday I think "oh, I should add that to the blog" but of course as I get here, I can't remember anything.

So I will start with some fun family and friends updates. All our families are doing well. We have spoken with almost everyone over the past few weeks and its been nice to be back in touch. This past week was Bob's b-day, Alan & Ange's anniversary, Randy's b-day and Myra's b-day (which is technically tomorrow in the US and today in NZ) in chronological order. So it was a big family week to say the least. A big shout out of congrats and happy birthday to all. On other family news, Myra' and Erik got a super cute puppy a few weeks back and named her Paisley. And finally (but not least) on Oct 10th Josh and Barri celebrate their 10th anniversary WOW!  Oh and I almost forgot, Josh got a new job and started a few weeks ago!!!

With regards to my friends, I finally got pictures of Sibel's growing belly, I found out Michelle is actually on normal schedule (going to bed early and rising soon after the sun comes up - OMG), Kimi and her boys are loving life in CA and Amy will be moving to Hawaii in Dec.  DJ had a baby girl this week (CONGRATS) and Jon Poynter went skydiving today.  I think thats all the exciting news I have heard recently. Though I highly encourage all to send me updates.

So now for a NZ update. Last weekend we went 4 wheel driving and I took some cool photos of Paul doing some extreme driving and I got growled at by some Sea Lions for getting to close (got a picture of that too). We also went for a great hike along a beautiful creek. We were going to head for a hike today, but the weather prevented us from doing much more than sitting on the couch surfing the internet and playing video games.

I learned a few new New Zealand phrases I thought I would share. The first is "starter for 10" this is the equivalent of "draft". You can use this when sending along a first draft of a document and say "here is a good starter for 10". It comes from a university quiz show were you were answering a question as a 'starter' for ten points. I also heard a story about a somewhat famous NZ boxer who went on wheel of fortune and asked for an "O" for awesome!

I think most people have heard my deer story at this point, but for those who haven't I will type up the revised version here. Basically I met our neighbors who have a beautiful stained glass window in their house. When I commented on how pretty it was they explained to me that it was new because their old window had just been broken by some boys who they figured were "just boys on a deer". Well it took us two days and a discussion with a local to learn that "boy on a deer" was really "boy on a dare" (just a pronunciation difference). Needless to say it was hysterically funny when we finally figured it out because we just couldn't figure out what a boy would be doing on a deer and why that would break a window!?

We also learned that W & H together make an "F" sound. So there is a town near here spelled Kaiwharawhara and its pronounced 'ki-fara-fara'. 

We are planning a big vacation for when Marilee, Mark, Myra and Erik arrive. We will be touring the South Island and then Paul and I may head to Australia for week since I have another week of work off after they leave. Pretty much all of NZ has a forced shutdown over the holiday period. I of course keep calling it the winter break which confuses all the locals since Dec/Jan is our summer!

I went to a work function last night. It was an indoor go-karting grand prix. It was super fun and the first time any women have raced (this is an annual event). I joined the all women's team and I had the fastest lap of all my teammates, but unfortunately we came in dead last - oh well! 

My mom asked me to post a brief update on work, so here it is... Pretty much all of my clients are in the public sector. In just the 4 weeks I have been working I have either had a project or responded to a proposal for the Department of Corrections, the Department of Labour, Housing NZ, the Internal Revenue Department, and the Ministry of Health. All of my work is pretty interesting and very busy. We are in a recession similar to the US, but on a much smaller scale. Fortunately, since most of our clients are government, they aren't as affected as the private sector and so business hasn't really slowed.  

There are some major difference between the US and NZ practice but mostly around how we are reviewed. Its neat because there are only a handful of partners and 100 or so practitioners so its a totally different review process. Instead of 100's of random people in a room talking about someone hardly anyone knows and fighting for how well they did or not do, its incredibly personal. Utilization is important but not the end-all be all and what you do is lot more important than who you know (and everyone knows everybody). 

I've also noticed that people are not nearly as particular about things like grammar, formatting and PowerPoints. This is not to say that deliverables aren't of the same quality just that feedback from partners and senior managers is more about content and less on whether or not your boxes are aligned. What a nice change! (no commenting on my terrible grammar in this post, this is fun and no one is paying me for this!) Deloitte NZ bases your utilization on a 32 hour work week, but in the same respect they assume that for every 10 hours you are at the client you probably only worked 8, so my work weeks are just as long!

Paul is doing well and getting ready for his big vacation in Asia. I'm not particularly psyched at being alone, but I can handle 12 days and I have a long weekend in there so it will be nice to relax.

Ok, I've probably caught most people up with enough boring stuff. As Marilee said, most blog posts are just stuff people could have posted in an email, but I hope/think this will reach more people than I could remember to email.

Miss you all!