What would you do/not do as a job?

When the recession kicked in a few years ago and people started losing their jobs left, right and centre it got me thinking about my work and career.

I love what I do and given that I used to tidy up product on shelves in the supermarket when I was about 5 years old; my job certainly makes a lot of sense. I also ‘merchandise’ my books by author and by the number in the series. Actually, this possibly speaks more to my OCD than anything else!

What jobs would I consider if there was not a similar role (to the one that I am doing now) available? Honestly, I think that I would do almost anything. If it meant having to work 2-3 different jobs then I would do it. When looking for jobs there are some definite factors that I would take into account.

Location - I would not work further than Mt Wellington as I spent 5.5 years driving from West Auckland out to Manukau and I would never do that again. I do not particularly want to move out of West Auckland.

Type of job/company – I could never be a Butcher, a telemarketer or work for a freezing works. I would never work for a company in direct competition to my current or previous company. I love the children of my friends and family however I do not think I could work with children; ironic given that I wanted to be a teacher.

Otherwise, I am pretty flexible:

• I would love to work for a New Zealand owned company
• I am happy to do cleaning; commercial and/or domestic
• Happy to pick up rubbish in public areas
• I would love to work with the road crews; I am obsessed with holding the stop/go sign!
• I would happily work in hospitality, customer service, administration, retail or for a supermarket
• Working in a video or book store would be my ultimate job

With the current job climate in NZ and the world….what would you do/not do?

Round the Bays etc.

Okay, so last week was a bit of a write-off in terms of exercise. Food was marginally better but still not 100% there.

I still managed to exercise 4 out of 7 days but I definitely was a bit slack. Mind you I wonder if walking around the zoo for 4-5 hours kind of counts?

For the first time in my life I did Round the Bays in an hour and 37 minutes; which is better than I thought I would do. If I compare this to the Sculpt 6K in November 2011 then I think I am definitely fitter. I did the Sculpt in an hour and 15 minutes. So to do 8.4km for RTB’s in the time above is good. We probably walked about 10-11km yesterday as we parked by Stanley street and also had to walk back to catch a bus along Tamaki Drive.

Mark did it with me and he was amazing and so supportive. I was a bit grumpy and moaned as I HATE people in my personal space and with 70,000 people either running or walking I knew that it was going to be hard work. I was blown away by all the different people doing RTB; all ages, sizes, nationalities etc. Very cool!

I felt shattered yesterday and spent a lot of time in the afternoon on our bed just resting. I suppose this shows that I should have done more walking beforehand. I could not manage more than 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer at the gym this morning; my legs were tired!

I have 10km walk (The Dual) this Saturday on Motutapu Island and I am freaking out a little. It is not all flat…actually perhaps none of it is flat. I am also doing it on my own so it means that I can just listen to music and walk. 10km hill profile... *cries*  (source: http://www.thedual.co.nz/pdfs/maps/DUAL_10km_course_profile.pdf)

2012 Project 52 – Week 11

11^th – 17^th March

On Saturday we went to the zoo. For most people this is probably quite normal especially if you have children. However, personally I have a huge problem with zoos; over the years I have stayed away. The last time I went was when I was about 11/12 which was almost 25 years ago. Crazy right?

Our friend came up from Wellington with her beautiful little girl Niamh and decided to catch up with friends at the zoo. So I thought that 25 years was long enough and also I love her daughter to bits; so I said “we are in”.

So Mark, Lou, Niamh, Wendy, Rebecca, Ashley and I spent about 5 hours at Auckland zoo.

It was fantastic.

Highlights:

I got to see flamingo’s which was pretty cool; as if I would ever get to see them in their natural habitat

Inadvertently activating the sleepy Meerkat’s “startle” reflex

The big cats; they are just bigger version of our babies

I love that the cheetahs can run in the elephant enclosure

The red panda’s…I want one!!

Do I still have an issue with animals in captivity? Yes, absolutely. But perhaps zoos are a safe place for animals that are endangered.

Weekend Carnage

I am just starting week 3 of regular exercise. I have adjusted my exercise plan slightly; revised one above. I can honestly say that I am really enjoying walking at night. I NEVER thought I would ever say that. It is a nice hour or so of time-out listening to music and winding down from my day at work.

I missed a couple of evening exercise blocks on Tuesday and Wednesday. I also did not do any exercise between my walk on Friday night and the gym on Monday.

My weekends are often carnage! I think it is something to do with being out of a routine; so that just means that I need to develop a weekend routine that works for me (and Mark). Coincidently I just read a great blog by Susie Burrell ‘Are Weekends Making You Fat?’ which I thought was quite timely.

Also the eating was shit!! Waiting for payday is the worst! You eat what you have in the cupboards/fridge etc. and unfortunately we had a lot of bread in the freezer. Ugh. Total bloat fest!

I have realised that I am going to have to cut out pasta, rice and bread for a while until I can learn portion control. Will I miss them? Probably not! Will it kill me? Definitely not! I have a friend who is doing low carb and she is constantly finding amazing alternatives; think “pimped” cauliflower mash!

I had an epiphany at the gym this morning. What if I stock up the freezer with lots of good things so that we have healthy options if we are struggling to get through to payday? *ding* total light bulb moment. There are a lot of blog posts that I have read over the past year that talk about stocking your freezer. We are a bit limited as we only have the freezer under the fridge; however we are definitely considering getting a standalone freezer to stock with frozen vegetables, fruit, chicken etc.

I can definitely understand why our parents and grandparents generations bottled, canned and preserved fruit/vegetables when they were growing in abundance. I really should start bottling and preserving as I know a few people online that are definitely doing it; makes sense.

These were some of the ideas I had for stocking the cupboard/freezer:

• Cannellini Beans
• Chick Peas
• Canned Tomatoes
• Frozen Vegetables/Fruit
• Chicken
• Lentils
• Rolled Oats

What are your suggestions for food to have on hand when things are a bit tight?

2012 Project 52 – Week 10

4^th – 10^th March

This week was always going to be rough as it has been a year since the wedding (not ours). I have found myself teary the whole week.

Mark and I distracted ourselves somewhat by embarking on a cleaning mission on Saturday morning. I did the inside of the house while Mark focussed on outside.

There is still more that I need to do, but I am going to break it up each night this week. This includes cleaning the fridge/freezer, cleaning the windows and the window sills, finally sorting out the study and cleaning the shower. Then doing another vacuum and mop on Thursday. Can you tell that we have people coming to stay this weekend?

Mark did an amazing amount outside including mowing the lawns and pulling the bulk of our summer garden out so that we can plant our winter garden in the next few weeks. This is a huge milestone as we have NEVER managed to get our A into G to get a winter garden in. Fingers crossed.

The sad thing was pulling the sunflowers out; they had pretty much finished flowering.

My favourite thing after cleaning is having a shower and relaxing. We had pancakes for lunch as well which were amazing!

We also managed to watch 3 movies:

The Taking of Pelham 123 – so average

Law Abiding Citizen – pretty graphic and horrendous, and predictable/average

13^th Warrior – I have watched this so many times and I love it. I cannot explain why, but it is a definite favourite. The ironic thing is that I had been thinking about it and then it came on Sky. Crazy!