Week three and a half in Christchurch

Hello everyone,

I know, I know, it's been quite a while since I last checked in, sorry about that. But not much has been happening lately.

On Monday, April 10th, I took advantage of the good weather and went for a hike. I walked through the Bottle Lake Forest. Based on the description online, I have to say that I expected more, but it was still a nice walk. Especially when I got out of the forest and spent some time by the sea. It was slightly confusing that they estimated a 2-hour hike for an 11 km loop.. Let's just say it took me a little longer, possibly because I got off track along the way, but oh well. :D

On Wednesday, April 12th, I tried making pumpkin soup for the first time in my life, and I think it turned out pretty well. I experimented a bit and now I have several meals in my freezer.

On Thursday, April 13th, I worked at the bar again and got my official bar t-shirt. Now I really belong to the staff. With a t-shirt and on the weekly schedule. Yay. The shift was also a lot of fun because there was a great band playing, and what I particularly liked was that I got holiday pay for the hour I worked on Good Friday. Wuhu.

The rest of Good Friday, like apparently all of my roommates, I spent in my room watching series. It's necessary sometimes. But on Saturday, April 15th, the good weather tempted me again. I drove up my street to a church that I had seen a few times before. I actually got out just to take photos and then accidentally discovered a great viewpoint from where you can see the whole city. From here, you could also reach the hiking trail that I had chosen for this day. The Harry Ell Walk, which leads with a gentle but steady ascent along Dyers Pass Road and offers beautiful views of the city. The goal was the Sign of Kiwi, a restaurant from where you can look down on the other side of the mountain. A very pleasant hiking trail that brought me back to my car after two hours. Later that day, I went back to work and it was really busy. The bar where I work is located near a stadium where the Christchurch rugby team plays and concerts take place. On this day, Blondie and Cyndi Lauper performed, and after the concert, it felt like all the guests came to our bar. It was really busy from 11 pm to 1 am. But my boss said I did well, which made me very happy.

Sunday (April 16th) morning at 9 o'clock, my phone suddenly rang and it was my boss from the temp agency. He asked if I could come to work spontaneously, right away. I didn't expect that at all. Especially because on Saturday, he had asked me if I could work on Sunday and when I agreed 15 minutes later because I was hiking at the time, he told me that the job had already been assigned to someone else. I was pretty annoyed about that. But oh well, after going to bed at 3 o'clock in the morning, you can be woken up at 9 to go to work. At 10 o'clock, I was nicely dressed and standing in front of the Ilex Cafe in the Botanic Gardens where I was supposed to work as a kitchen assistant. Kitchen assistant is a euphemism for dishwasher. I spent 8 hours washing, drying, and putting away dishes. But at least there was a delicious lunch and 8 ½ hours of pay. After work, I skyped with my family, who were on an Easter egg hunt and put me in a festive mood.

Monday, April 17th, was my birthday. I woke up quite early and first talked to Max and then again with my family. It was nice to sit virtually at the table and for the first time, my brother and I didn't have our birthdays on the same day. Then I had a relaxed day. In the evening, I took three of my roommates and we went to the bar where I work to celebrate my birthday with beer and card games.

On Tuesday, I once again tried my hand at cooking and made french fries for the first time in my life. I used regular and sweet potatoes and had a chicken schnitzel with them. It was really tasty and I'll definitely make it again soon. Now I just need to figure out how to make the fries crispy. Any tips?

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 19th, I went to work again. Wednesdays are karaoke nights at our bar, and I have to admit that some people sang really well. Others, unfortunately, not so well, but the atmosphere was always great. Since it wasn't very busy at the beginning, I took on the task of emptying and cleaning our bar fridge and sorted the bottles back in by expiration date. When there's a lot of stress, you just put the bottles in the front to keep going quickly. I actually found some bottles that had expired and we can't sell them anymore. It was nice that I was allowed to take some home. I now own Smirnoff Ice that only expired last week and is probably still drinkable. Win J

And that brings us to today. If I can motivate myself, I'll do the Bridal Walk today, a two-hour hike up a mountain, but supposedly with a great view. Otherwise, I'll be back at the bar tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. It will probably be busy again because one day there's a concert by Six 60 and the other day a home game of the local rugby team.

I wish you all a great week and see you soon.

Jessi