It's your birthday man??? I'm sorry you're having a rough time but I want you to know that you're absolutely awesome and even though we don't talk a lot I think you're a really great dude and I hope your day gets better, and happy birthday 🎂

Thanks, that's nice of you to say.

🇳🇱NL to NZ🇳🇿

15-12-2022

Soooooo, here we are. The very first post of AoNoExpat with some background information is ready for consumption! It's been a long time coming, and a lot has happened since I first started entertaining the idea of traveling to Aotearoa, also (colonialism-ally) known as New Zealand. The option was offered to me by a couple of great friends, who have emigrated there a while ago. I have been unhappily searching for my place in the Dutch job market for a while now, and haven't been able to find it. Combine that with an increasingly unstable and unpleasant political climate, and you'll surely see why I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since that conversation.

The deciding moment happened on June 21st, when I declined a job offer in The Netherlands in favour of taking the leap. I'd wanted to travel again ever since my gap years after high school, and would have done so again after getting my bachelor's degree in AI, had it not been for Covid-19 making it virtually impossible. Now I'm getting a new opportunity, and I couldn't be more grateful for it.

As soon as I'd cast the proverbial die, my friend gave me a to-do list:

Get your driver's license; public transport in Aotearoa is not the same as in Europe;

Get your Working Holiday visa.

The driver's license would be a challenge, but luckily the application process for a WHV was quick and painless. I applied July 6th, and got approval on July 13th. A WHV allows me to stay in the country for up to 12 months from my arrival date onward, and while I'm there I'll be legally allowed to work to support myself. I've traveled with a WHV before in Australia (lmk if anyone knows a non-colonial name), and my reviews are tremendously positive. I'm very happy Aotearoa offers the same opportunities.

After some summer holiday activities, it was time to start with driving lessons. Turns out I have both a fear of driving and a fear of failure, and my verbally violent right-wing self-opinionated neurotypical cis-het male driving instructor didn't seem too bothered by that. After a gruelling total of 58 lessons and many an afternoon spent crying out of pure stress, I took the final exam on December 6th and PASSED. December 14th saw me picking up my license and driving home all by myself for the first time! I just need to convert it to an international license and then I'll be good to go.

Apart from the driving lessons, I haven't been sitting still these past few months. I consider myself an avid climate activist, so the thought of taking a plane to travel to Aotearoa didn't sit well with me. So, I promised myself I would try anything and everything in my power to get there some other way. Let me take you on the journey that was figuring this out:

My first thought was: FINALLY, a great excuse to take the trans-Siberian express! I'd heard about this 6-day train journey from Moscow to Beijing for the first time in 2014, and had been dying to take it ever since. However, then it hit me: the vast majority of this journey takes place in Russia. Russia, a country that The Netherlands currently aren't the best of friends with. But, who knows, perhaps it's still fine to travel there? I consulted the website of the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs, which quickly and aptly crushed that dream for me: "Are you currently in Russia? Leave. Are you living in Russia? Move out. Still want to go there? You're on your own, pal. We can't help you."

OKAY, so, not the trans-Siberian express, I suppose. Maybe I can duck underneath Russia, then? Take some trains, buses, hitchhike for a bit? I'd always prided myself on having a good sense of geography, but had not realised this would force me to travel through a selection of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria. Seeing as I'm a solo female traveler, my friends and family weren't too thrilled about this.

Very well, traveling over land didn't seem like it was going to work out, and I hadn't even gotten into the mess of getting tourist visas for all of the countries I would have to pass through.

If land wasn't an option, how about sea? Traveling by boat? For example, maybe I could travel to the Americas, travel across to the other side, and try to get another boat to Aotearoa. Right? Sounded pretty easy at first, but that too turned out to be a lot harder. For traveling by sea, I had three options:

Sailing: I signed myself up at findacrew.net, a place where people who want to work on a boat and people who have a boat that need people to work on said boat can connect. Seemed like a great opportunity at first, but I quickly lost hope this would help me get there. Most people who have a boat do not casually travel from Europe to Oceania, and the website has some unfortunate restrictions that make it difficult to find the right people. For example, a lot of boat owners only want to be messaged by verified members. Very understandable, but to become a verified member you need to pay a monthly fee (not the biggest problem) and upload a scan of your ID (YES A BIG PROBLEM). I appreciate what they want to do, but I'm very big on (online) privacy and my ID is way too sensitive a document to share with some website that says nothing about how they will protect it. Besides all of that, these trips are long, and many boat owners are retired men that are looking for 1 person to help. I like to think I see the best in people but the thought of being alone at sea for 60 days with Philip the middle aged stranger didn't strike me as super safe. I've had my share of bad experiences with travel companions that turned out to be a lot different than they seemed at first glance. So, unfortunately, I chose to abandon this option.

Cargo ships: I heard that these huge sea monsters often make some extra cash by transporting a handful of passengers. I didn't think this option would be pleasant, but after watching some videos from people who have done it I was HOOKED. This seemed like a dream, the views from the ship looked fantastic and the rooms were very decent. Yes, cargo ships are also big polluters, but they don't make significant money off of passengers, like planes and cruise ships. The argument 'it'll go without me anyway' actually works for these. Sure, it's expensive (about €100-€150 per day), but it would be worth it, right? Right, but here's the catch: ever since Covid happened, cargo ships no longer take passengers. Because these trips can take a long time, there's too much risk that the destination country changes its Covid regulations while the ship is at sea. This can leave these ships stuck with passengers that are no longer allowed to disembark. I've emailed with Hamish from freightertravel.co.nz, and he told me cargo ship companies might start taking passengers again around 2024. Not an option at the current time, unfortunately.

Cruise ships: my last resort was trying to get a job on one of these. I didn't want to pay for a cruise because pollution-wise they're not much better than flying, but how cool would it be to be a lounge singer B99's Doug Judy style and earn my way across an ocean that way? I talked to a former Holland-America cruise ship musician, who put me in touch with two USA-based talent agents. I contacted both of them, but neither got back to me. After that I sent emails to 14 different cruise ship companies, offering my services as a musician or cleaning staff. I was willing to do any menial job, I told them I was not interesting in getting paid or gaining access to any facilities other than some food, a bed and a bathroom every now and again. Only 6 responded, out of which 1 was interested in having me audition. However, their first ship would go on its maiden journey from Belgium to Norway in July-August. Not the right journey for me, and any later ones would be too late. Sadly I had to write this off too.

As a final attempt, I made a post on LinkedIn asking my network for tips on how to get there, but this too yielded no results. Since I had officially run out of options and I knew that planes would get more and more expensive closer to departure, I finally admitted defeat and booked a plane ticket. It hurt my soul, but I have to draw the unfortunate conclusion that at this point in time, my destination does not lend itself well for any other modes of travel. I'm hopeful that by the time I will head back, some of the above options will be available again!

The plan is now as follows: early February 2023, I will fly from Paris and arrive in Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara (Wellington) 29 hours and 35 minutes later, which is relatively short for this journey. The flights cost me a total of €1.287,90. I'll still have to get to Paris so the price and duration will both increase a little in the end.

WELL, that's about all I can share right now! I'm hoping to update this blog whenever I can, so feel free to follow me to keep track of my journey :) Just a fair warning: I'm not making any promises that I'll keep this up as time goes on, if I no longer enjoy this I won't hesitate to stop.

I'd love to answer any asks you might have, I'll be honest and open about my experiences, but I will strictly not share any personal information.

I'm very open to feedback, please tell me if anything on this blog strikes you as offensive in any way, I'm continuously learning and my ego is not easily bruised.

I'll also be using this blog as a place for people from home and people I meet along the way to leave little messages or pictures for me. I look forward to building a lovely collection of wonderful memories! <3

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (734): Thu 21st Mar 2024

I'm going to have to take Lucy to the vets because she's making this weird clicking noise with her mouth and I suspect she may have another infection in her teeth or gums. Last time this happened she had to have a bunch of her teeth removed and now I'm worried that she might need to have the rest of them taken out. I know the idea sounds absolutely horrible but at the end of the day it's better for her to have no teeth than infected teeth but it does mean all she'll be able to eat will be her regular dog food. I don't know what the vet will even suggest given that Lucy has to be at least fifteen years old at this point so I don't know if they would even bother going through with an operation but I have to at least book an appointment to get an opinion from a professional. This afternoon I went to the town to do a bank transfer to the automatic car driving lesson company. On the bus ride there I read more of Gather Yourself Together. As Philip K Dick's first novel there's not a science fiction element as this wouldn't become his area of expertise until a few novels in but there's still some good stuff to be found in this book and there is still his trademark sense of fear and trepidation in the face of advancing technology and changing landscapes / cultures. There's a cool moment where Carl, Verne and Barbara leave the empty construction site and go check out an abandoned bungalow where they bemoan the rare books and antiques will now likely just be destroyed. This strikes a chord with me because I always get this feeling whenever I see that a longstanding business or building or TV series is about to end because to me it's like all the memories of all those associated with them also disappear which seems like such a shame. I made the deposit and got my appointment and time slot organised while I was still in the town. £70 sounds awfully expensive for a two hour driving lesson but hopefully it will prove to be straight-forward and afterwards the guy will say I don't need anymore. I can't see how I would possibly struggle at this because I imagine all my anxiety related to driving will melt away once I realise that I don't have to worry about that constant urge to look down at the gearstick when I'm changing gears. Plus I won't have to worry about finding the biting point or holding the clutch in for too long when approaching bends or roundabouts and thundering out into the road. When I got home I checked out last night's Dynamite which culminated in a terrific I Quit match between Adam Copeland and Christian Cage. At one point Tazz accidentally called Copeland Edge which was inevitably going to happen since we all still thin of the guy as Edge after all. Could Tony Khan not have filled a trademark for the name “Edjj”? and called him that instead. Anywho Edge I mean Adam Copeland eventually won after whacking Cage in the balls with his board with nails in it thus bringing an end to their feud. Cage has been great in this cowardly, heartless heel role but I've grown tired of seeing him as the secondary champion in the company and would much rather him or Copeland would put over one of the younger guys. there are rumours that Sheamus might be on his way to AEW soon which I have mixed feeling on. I'm a big Sheamus fan but also it's not like AEW are lacking in terms of stars and I just feel they should be focusing their efforts into pushing the guys and girls they already have because they've definitely got enough great athletes it's just the screative that needs a kick up the arse to take them to the next level.

August 11, 2022

I went ahead and adjusted my schedule. It now has something like A-days and B-days; Monday and Thursday are A-days, and Tuesday and Friday are B-days, and I have a third set of activities for Friday afternoon and Sunday morning that I can do with just my tablet/phone. I frequently go to my girlfriend's on Sunday so I might be too distracted to do anything on Sunday morning, but it's there if I have the focus. Same with Friday afternoon.

I also went ahead and put Drawabox on there for my drawing, along with finishing up some Udemy courses that I had already paid for and were just sitting on my account.

Today I did some Python for Everybody, drawing, and Khan Academy. Nothing really stands out today. In Python for Everybody I'm pushing myself to redo the functions from scratch every time rather than modifying what I've got, just so I can remember the functions. File read and mofidy functions are really basic, but I always forget them, so I'm just sort of drilling them. In Drawabox I finished up the ellipses section in lesson 1.

It's not particularly interesting to look at. I found out about Kim Jung Gi and I fee really inspired watching his drawings, which is part of why I wanted to change my drawing regimine. I frequently get frustrated with how fast I can draw; usually I lose interest in what I'm drawing long before it's complete, so I end up with a lot of incomplete drawings. Also I like the idea of not being able to undo, which sort of complements just having a drawing pad and a pen. I'll try it out, focusing with this, for a bit and see how I feel about it.

Khan Academy is getting on my nerves. I don't really enjoy doing it, so I'm not spending my time on it, therefore I'm making a lot of mistakes. I keep redoing the same things trying to get 100% on stuff. I'm going to pass now on doing 100% on the mastery quiz at the end of each chapter, because it's driving me crazy getting everything correct. I want to still go through it so I can go through the calculus bits, but I'm just not engaged at all. It's funny to me because I loved math as a kid, and I was really good at it. But now, as an adult, it's just tedious. I should find a different way to engage in the material instead of just trying to power through it.

Highs and Lows.

Monday (yesterday…I think?) Kristen and I explored the local airfield in the morning and while the small museum was closed we did stumble upon a Vulcan Bomber on display which was pretty cool. I also had my first pasty of the trip at Greggs a bakery chain in the north and it was pretty solid. I mean I've yet to go to wrong when it comes to pastys so. In the afternoon we headed over to the famous Hadrian's wall and I hiked up enjoy the views assuming every stonewall was "the wall" and it wasn't until later on that stumbled upon the actual 1900 year old Hadrian's wall itself and it was somewhat hidden. We considered a stop at another museum but decided not to head in as it was getting late in the day and the helpful gentlemen at the entrance indicated it was a 3 hour minimum excursion. 😳

As we were walking out of the museum my phone rang and I didn't have a great feeling. I answered it to the news that on the first full day of the two week trip the kennel had decided that Luna couldn't stay. She apparently wasn't eating for them and was presenting some other symptoms that were new at least from when I dropped her off and the felt the combination of all factors she should be seen by a vet and had to go by 6:30pm that night. Due to prior commitments my mom who was one of the emergency contacts was unable to pick Luna up. Needless to say we were scrambling (full on panicking?!) to come up with anything workable. Long story short, one of Kristen's closest New England friends came through in an absolutely herculean way and agreed to go pick Luna up and keep her for the night. I'm incredibly grateful and also totally at a loss of how we can make good on that debt. Luna being Luna was ready to go for the latest adventure. It's only been one day so we'll see but I wonder if the lesson learned is that there was a very short turnaround time for her between trips to the kennel and she just kinda gave up. Time will tell I suppose.

That crisis having been averted we resumed our plans with a tinge of guilt and headed for the night's intended destination, Twice Brewed Pub/Inn/Brewery/Observatory. Yup. The whole complex is located in an area with some of the darkest skies in the UK. They have nightly programs for observing with a ton of telescopes each group in our session got their own scope. Will who leads the program was great, knowledgeable, passionate and engaging, a powerful combination. While we were using scopes, I appreciated his talks focusing on what can be seen with the naked eye. The reality is most people don't have a telescope and probably aren't going to buy one just from one talk. But they might leave with a little more of an inclination to look up and a little more knowledge about what they're seeing once they do. Oh and if you like proper Real Ale well you can't go wrong. Pints pouring from 6 casks. I actually enjoyed the table beer which was 2.67% but still has a good taste to it so I was able to have a few while looking at stars and seeing if I could get my Pixel 6 to do its whole Astrophotography thing. The time passed pretty quickly and when it was time to roll back to the Airbnb I was shocked it was as late as it was.

Then we have Tuesday. We rolled out mid-morning intending to head for another part of Hadrian's Wall we hadn't made it to yesterday. Which as it turns out was relatively close to the brewery. As we headed up some of the hills Kristen's friend who was driving that morning noticed the car revving and not engaging the way it should be. We made a quick backtrack to the brewery and rolled in with a dead car. The rental company's minimally helpful solution to this was to dispatch the BAA (essentially Britain's AAA). A nice guy rolled up and declared what we were all already fairly confident of the clutch was toast. Both Kristen and her friend are long time drivers or manual transmissions and it was certainly not anything that has been done in a relatively short period of having the car. It turns out that rental companies in the UK don't actually care about any of that and basically have a rule that of you're sitting in the car when it goes it is your problem and you get the privilege of being on the hook for replacing said clutch. Also of note is that neither the rental insurance nor travel insurance are likely to cover "mechanical breakdowns." It all seems like a pretty convenient little operation to me and the winner is for sure not the customer. I'll leave the tale there primarily as a cautionary one to any who might consider hoping in a rental, particularly a manual, in the UK and just going.

A lot of phone calls and research has yielded fewer answers than it should. Eventually efforts for a resolution kind of timed out as the close of business came. Which leaves me here on the couch of the Airbnb with my attention focused back on Luna dog at home and hoping that things go well when my mom picks her up from Kristen's friend and that she is inclined to eat and behave. 🤞

So yeah highs and lows and a reminder that no plan even the best laid one survives contact with the proverbial enemy.

Heey, can you write something with Rodrick and a Tomboy Girl??? I've never seen someone doing an imagine/one shot with "Tomboy"

— (sorry about my English, its not my first language) 💕💕

sorry about the delay! work has got me drained! but i hope you enjoy, never written for a tomboy so yeah!

Fixer Upper - 【Rodrick Heffley x GN!Reader】- One-Shot

word count: 1061

rating: pg-13 [strong language used like once]

“Hey, Heffley, you’re in fuckin’ my seat.”

“Didn’t know a lunch table had names on them.”

“Well now they do, so move before I push you off it.”

This was often how the two of you greeted each other, no matter the time of day or what was happening around you two. There was little to no formality or politeness to the content of the words uttered, but there were no tones of harshness or aggression in your voices. It was just the banter that kept you two going with whatever you would call your relationship. It was, at its baseline, a friendship. But to the eyes of others, something was not entirely right about your relationship because it seemed you two were also a little more than just friends. It was just something you or Rodrick ever brought up.

You two were close, sure, but the moment too long staring at the other when they turned away, the slight tingle whenever your hands touched when passing a drumstick or something along, or the times either of you just fell asleep on the other was just how you two operated. And, at least for you, if anyone ever did bring it up, you would shoot them down instantly. Telling them that they were stupid or telling them to mind their own buisness, that it did not concern them in the slightest.

You had met during shop class--a class that you had excelled at simply because you had fallen in love with woodworking at a young age, watching your father work away in his workshop. And wanting to be like him, that led you to sports and cars, too. Music was something your mother had wished for you to be interested in, but she did not expect the heavy metal and punk rock music that came later on. While you did not play an instrument, that simply just meant Rodrick could teach you if he so desired.

“I heard the van makin’ weird noises when it came in this morning.” You had pointed out as you idly picked at whatever the public school district decided to constitute as food to feed the students on the tray in front of you, “Which isn’t out of place, sure, but it was a different weird noise so want me to check it out after school?”

“Why?” Rodrick questioned, mouth full of whatever it was Susan managed to sneak into his backpack before he left for school, “Care about my safety?”

“More so I care about others safety, and considering how you drive, Heffley,” You began with a matter-of-fact tone, “I should already be concerned for others safety. But if something breaks down on that van, it’s over for more than just you and the guys.”

“Fine, I guess you can look it over.”

“Awesome,” You said standing up with the tray of questionable food, “Bring it by my house later.”

“Will do, chief.”

:~+~:

It was around four in the afternoon when Rodrick pulled the barely there van Rodrick owned into the drive-way of your home. You had already done what homework you could breeze through without much thought simply because you knew your mother would want it done before you did anything else, especially if that thing was basically hanging out with Rodrick. Besides, you also had to wait for a time closer to when your father got home in case you needed a second opinion and as one of the many local mechanics, it was valuable insight.

“You're early, Heffley.”

“My brothers were already getting on my nerves after I woke up from my after school nap and had to escape.”

“Right…” You trailed off briefly before popping the hood of the van up, already met with a puff of smoke that came from somewhere inside, “Was that from your driving or…”

“Let’s just say driving.”

And once the engine was cooled enough where you could touch near it and the engine itself without hurting yourself, you got to work. There was some idle chatter with Rodrick as he started to pace about the driveway, kicking rocks and the like as you worked through checking over his van. While he knew you often demanded silence whenever you worked on any of your hobbies and interests, he wasn’t one to keep quiet for long, especially around people he liked.

“I think one of the pipes or something must be loose,” You finally concluded, “But my dad’s an expert at those, so we might have to wait for him to double check.”

“How much is that gonna cost to fix?”

“I’ll see if I can get a friends and family discount for ya, Heffley.”

“You sure you can’t do it?”

“Not confidently.”

“Wanna put a bet on it?”

“You wanna bet your van’s already lacking quality on a theoretical thing I may or may not fix correctly?”

“What’s life without a little danger.”

You looked at Rodrick with a very confused expression plastered over your face before you went to open the garage, “What's the wager?”

“...a free drum lesson from yours truly if you fix it and it works.”

You tried to not focus on the first part, and tried to counter it with, “And if I don’t?”

“I believe you can do it.”

“...Deal.”

And with that, you got to work after getting everything you needed. The repair did not take too long and you wondered if that was telling or not. But you tried to not think about it, because you were trying to be confident in the amount of times you had watched your dad do it before. Which was not many times, but still.

“Okay, go for a bit of a drive--the long way home, whatever and if that noise is happening tomorrow morning, I didn’t fix it right.”

“And if there are no not-common noises from her, remember the drum lesson.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

:~+~:

The next morning, you stood in the parking lot beside your own car, waiting for the tell-tale noises of Rodrick’s van to echo over the quiet parking lot. And as soon as you heard it, you tried to pick out the noise you had heard yesterday morning but couldn’t hear it.

And luckily Rodrick did not let you forget as he pulled right next to your car, window already down.

“You free tonight for that lesson?”

AGILITY SUMMARY

I've had 2 lessons i didn't put on here and one in 2 hours so I figured I should do a quick lil blurb for my own self. First lesson was okay. The weather was warm and it was Roasting time of day so Pip was a little less motivated than she can be. I frankly don't remember much about that session, but I didn't leave feeling frustrated or like I set her up for failure, so loving that!

Our last lesson was AMAZING. better weather and afternoon was a great combo. Pip was joyful, motivated, and we got so much done. We started with a figure 8 warmup and it was cool to see our improvement just in those 2 minutes or so. I had to work on giving my cues quickly enough so she could keep a tight formation instead of letting her swing wide. Other warm up was a table to table jump grid with 2 jumps in between. She did great on that, took the jumps with enthusiasm without me having to lead out the whole time. She is not dodging around jumps as much anymore, and seeing her drive ahead on her own RULES.

We also did our first full height A frame AND she nailed her 2o2o the first time. Subsequent times were a hit and miss. I am fairly certain it is not a criteria issue, but rather a controlling momentum issue. I think that will resolve with practice. We turned that A-frame into a SIX OBSTACLE sequence (our longest ever!). Jump > A-frame > jump > tunnel > jump > jump.

We did some more teeter practice. She is getting more confident on it but definitely tentative in her crossing rather than blasting through to ride it down. Hopefully with more practice we will get there. I got in trouble for enabling her slow crossing--I'm just sympathetic to it.

Weaves were our only sticking point of the day. I tried using the new tug for reward and she got it once, but then kept popping out so I would have to withhold, which she finds frustrating and I feel guilty about. This is something we will need to take a step back on--I just expected a little less angst because at the prior lesson she had done very well even with the channel starting to close up. I will do better on this, I don't want her to hate the weaves because she keeps losing out when we practice them.

Ended with the dog walk, NAILED her 2o2o there. She still crosses at a leisurely trot but it doesn't bug me. We did a little sequence of jump > dog walk > jump > tunnel > jump > jump. The most incredible moment of the session for me came between those last two jumps. We were having an issue with her skipping the second to last and then taking the final one. Instructor finally had me step into the path from the tunnel with a Get cue, and Pip changed course took that jump easily. It was incredible to see that response from her with just that one motion from me--how keyed in she is! It was an epiphany. I'm still riding that high days later. The other lesson I learned there is that dogs will naturally turn toward you upon coming out of the tunnel, it’s not like they come zooming out straight. That incorrect assumption was why I hadn't been able to understand why she was skipping that next jump.

Her attitude was fabulous the entire lesson. Good weather makes a big difference to her. She also took a 20 inch jump just for fun when I recalled her across the field, blew my mind. I love her and I'm so proud of her always. That day was the first moment I really felt like we might be competitors someday. Felt really good.