So we have started working for Mike (O.G.) refurbishing VW vans and it’s pretty cool! There is more oil and grease on our jeans than there is blue and our hands are full of oil, cuts, fiberglass, and covered in plasters (what they call bandaids here) but we have never been happier. Everything we use apparently is poisonous, we haven’t touched a jug that hasn’t said poison on it, so who knows what we are inhaling, but we are going strong regardless. We do a lot of car washing but we have also upgraded to power tools and refurbishing! See Mary Carpenter I am learning new skills! New Zealand is weird and great in that they no one gives you really any instructions, they are like here is this massive tool don’t cut a limb off! We have never had more hands on training in anything, they are just so trusting in people’s abilities even when they are like us and have no abilities. And you know what we haven’t cut off a limb or broken anything yet!

The before of the van Mags and I are renovating!

One night Kate and Charlotte’s school had a Christmas festival so we had to go check it out! It was so cute; each classroom decorated their room with a different theme and all in Christmas lights. The girls also wanted us to come see them ice skate. It’s summer here at the moment so the ice was more of a plastic surface but the kids loved it just the same!

The next day was a big day for me!! All of Mike’s vans and really all cars in NZ are manual. That’s all fine and dandy because we don’t have one we have an automatic, perfect. Except that Mike at the moment can’t drive his vans because of a license incident. I have had little practice driving stick and the practice I have had comes from Pop’s defender an apparently notorious hard manual car to drive. However my experience with manual trumps Mags’ 0 experience so I was tapped to drive. By drive I mean I controlled the clutch and steering while Mike changed gears, this is pathetic but a little less pathetic because their gearbox is different because they drive in the left so the higher gear is closer to you. Good news I didn’t do too bad, I didn’t hit anything or stall out, go me! It is a hell of a lot easier to drive a VW than it is the Landrover.

Saturday day we were headed out to be food truck workers at the Coldplay concert. We came across this job through a lime farmer we met. His wife runs a catering service out of food trucks and he said she is usually looking for help and he would give her our numbers. Again no training of any sort and Christine (the wife who runs the business) was like yep show up at Mt. Smart at 1:30. We were like sure no problem we got there a little early even however it wouldn’t be a Paggie adventure if everything went to plan. So apparently in New Zealand you don’t park at the venue, step one of screwing up. You have to go find street parking, easy right?…wrong. We ended up parking about a 35 min walk away from the stadium and it took us about 30 minutes to even find a spot or figure out street parking!! So instead of being 10 minutes early we were about and hour late. This however didn’t even phase Christine, she was just don’t worry about it.

Fist off Maggie and I love the uniform for catering in a food truck, it’s essentially a chef’s outfit. The only bad part about the food truck deal is there were 9 different trucks and Mags and I were not assigned to the same truck!!! It ended being fine we both made so many friends! It was the most exciting rush we have ever had!! So many people so many orders and getting it done so fast! Mags and I were both put on as the till position in our respective trucks. This was the one position we did not want!! We are still a little disoriented with the whole coin can be a dollar or 2 dollars and we don’t even know the cent coins look like. On top of all this you have to do math wicked fast to give the customer change back! And on top of the money situation you have to learn to work the freaking till with no guidance or instructions. I eventually got pretty good at it and was a food ordering machine. At one point I was doing the till at 2 trucks at once running between the two when I saw people coming!

We showed up 2pm and started working at 2:15pm and people started coming in the venue at 4pm and Coldplay finally came on at 8pm. At 9pm Maggie's truck ran out of Chips (fries) and she was sent to come get more from my truck we saw each other and literally ran to hug one another…we had been separated for 7 hours; the 1st time we have been separated at all for a month! The commotion started to die down and we finally got to enjoy the concert! It was pretty cool; they even gave us the light up bands you get at Coldplay (Click here for video). We essentially got paid to see Coldplay! We apparently didn’t do too badly at our jobs because Christine asked if we could work later in the week as well! We might also try to make it back for the Adele or Bruce Springsteen concert.

We got home at about 2:30am and were up the next morning working on vans. Mike had somehow gotten his hands on an ambulance that he is going to turn into a campervan. This meant that Maggie and I were in charge of getting all the stickers off the side of the car so it no longer looked or had the markings of an ambulance. This is much more difficult than it sounds. We had to take razor blades and scrape off the sticky stuff and man was it hard to get off. Our fingers were so cut up and peeling from all the pressure of the blade and our fingers were so sore, we could feel the arthritis coming on. On the plus side all this outdoor work we are tanning quite nicely, even though we are wearing loads of sunscreen.

Occasionally Mike and Svetlana ask us to watch Logan, their 6 month old baby who is just a doll. Maggie had to drive Svet to grocery store and Mike had to of course build a van so I was left with Logan all on my own. This is usually not a problem, he’s a pretty happy baby, however Patrick also asked if I could look after Pia, his 1 year old. Pia is another happy little kid, but she has also started her crawling phase and has just leaned to go up and down the stairs and loves doing so. Logan on the other had is a chunky monkey and is actually bigger than Pia but obviously can’t crawl and he is just starting to get the hang of holding up his head. Logan is heavy, like I mean my arms are sore after 20 minutes of holding him, Svetlana has a serious arm work out all the time. So my day was spent chasing after Pia while holding Logan and making sure Pia didn’t fall on her head going down the stair while I simultaneously didn’t drop or fumble Logan. At points in time I had Pia under one arm and Logan under the other!! It was both some of the most physically and mentally draining thing I did. I was so stressed, I don’t know who thought putting a life in my hands, and a child’s life, nonetheless, in my hands was a good idea. I’m barely keeping it together as it is. I’m lucky if I can remember where I put my shoes! But both children are still alive and kicking and have no brain damage! On the plus side Other Mike loves us! He went out to pick up some parts for vans and came back with 3 tubs of ice cream, Pavlova, chocolate mousse, whip cream, and Christmas bread pudding. Pavlova is amazing; it’s like eating a cloud and it just melts in your mouth!!

Today Maggie drove the ambulance to pick up Other Mike at the train station, so that’s cool! I drove another manual van to get inspected and this time around it was much more difficult. For one Mike O.G. had to hold the roof on as we drove because he is in the middle of making it a pop top. Getting to the inspection place was not so hard, leaving was a different story. While starting the van I stalled out 5 times, Mike had a good laugh at me, then I was so flustered I pulled out on to the wrong side of the road (it’s totally fine because there are no people in NZ so there were 0 people on the road). Then I stalled out at a cross section and panicked because someone was behind me but I finally made it back!

A butt load of side notes, maybe these are end note, either way:

Svetlana is Russian and the oldest daughter, Kate, lived her first 2 year in Russia so she used to be bilingual but is starting to forget so she is speaking the bits of Russian she knows around the garage. This means Mags and I also get to learn a little bit of Russian.

Hello – Zdravstvuj (zdrah-stvooy)
Goodbye – Proshchay (pro-shi-i)
I don't want to - Ya ne khochu, chtoby (ye na chu stro-bo)

In the states we play rock paper scissors here they play paper rock scissors and in Russia they play pencil water fire.

Patrick, Steph, and Pia (the German friends we picked up from the airport) are quickly becoming our good friends too! They have shown us some really great German artists that will be added to our Spotify playlist! We have also been learning a little German from them.

Blowing Bubbles- Seifenblasen blasen

We went to Carl’s Jr. Yes, we are trash we still go to fast-food, but you know what they have a different menu and the food is better here. We had the best white chocolate pineapple coconut milkshake from Carl’s Jr. and we regret nothing.

We have yet to see the new Gilmore Girls, we are waiting for prime wifi so it doesn’t have to buffer or stop. We do, however, have the junk food necessary to watch Gilmore Girls.

We are covered in bug bites and they itch like crazy and there is nothing we can do about it but complain, our favorite thing.

The hose attachments in NZ are genius. There is no twisting or screwing in nozzles and no leaky joint! It’s all based on a clicking and popping in and out mechanism and it’s 1000 times easier. I’m for sure bringing one of these connections back home, it’s a game changer!

They use the word sausage like how we use the word biddy. It can be a term of endearment or a way of calling someone a rude name it’s all about the context!

The grocery stores here never have the same thing. There is a chain called Pak N’ Save but the Pak N’ Save in Botany has a different set up and products than the Pak N’ Save down the street, its infuriating.

No one gives addresses here. They will either give broad general directions or say its just up the road a bit...a bit is not a unit of measurement!!! We have google maps just give us a darn address we can take it from there, but no they don’t even know addresses here!!

Anna Kendrick’s new book Scrappy Little Nobody is hilarious and I have to read it when no one is around because I can’t keep from laughing out loud when reading it!

Instead of saying “All good?” like asking if you need anything or if it’s going well, when Mike checks on us when we are doing a job, he says “All Happy” and I just love it.