Whew. Too many forum posts to catch up on since I've been gone. This is the first time I've managed to get online since my job ended, so to all the people here who have emailed me - sorry it's taking me so long to reply, but I'm working on it. :-) It's awesome that you all say how much you miss me, and it makes me feel all poinging-Kiki-like, not to mention deeply touched. Here's an update on what I've been doing.

At the moment my life is revolving around job interviews. Tomorrow I have the Big Interview, the Real One, the One I've Been Waiting For. So keep your fingers crossed. I won't tell you what it actually *is*, except that it is possibly the most ruling job in the entire known universe, and I would be doing it online from home. *poing*

Jobs I'm applying for range from writing work, to advertising agency stuff, to graphic design, to web design (OK, something else I know nothing about, but I've had a number of interviews that lead me to believe half the *qualified* people don't either), to cartography, to research work. The cartography one might be interesting. They want someone with a background in research, editing, writing and navigation-type map work. Once again I am amazed that my weird combination of interests and work experience actually leads somewhere. :-)

Yesterday I was out of town all day for an interview in another city. This was for a writer's position and it would require me to move to a city I don't particularly want to move to, but it's just one more option I'm keeping open. It was a perfect day for driving through the country -- just me, Cat Stevens, the Eagles, and Bob Marley the whole way, with all the windows down and nothing on the road the whole way except sunshine and the occasional squashed possum. Halfway there, I got a phone call from *another* possible employer, the hanging-around-for-six-months one. I have ruled out taking this job unless I get desperate, as the pay is crap, but told him I would be happy to do freelance writing work for him instead. So he was calling to ask whether, since I was on my way to Hamilton anyway, would I mind continuing south to Te Kuiti after my interview, to track down a guy there who had invented an infra-red beam thingy for weighing sheep, and write a story about it? Cooool.

So, after the interview, which went extremely well apart from the having-to-move-to-Hamilton aspect, I continued south for the purpose of knowledgeably interviewing a guy I'd never heard of, about something I knew nothing about, and writing an informative article thereupon. I love driving around rural NZ. The day's trip took me through wonderful places such as Kihikihi (which my RinkWorks-deprived mind read as Kikikiki on at least two different signs), Ohaupo, that glorious metropolis Te Awamutu, Ohinemutu, and numerous other towns where, when someone says they are thinking about upgrading their RAM, they are talking about livestock.

I was in Kihikihi for rush hour, which consists of the woman who runs the shop crossing the road to go home. Even in its heyday this was probably a one-horse town, but by the look of it, the one horse died in about 1956 and they haven't got around to replacing it yet.

And all I can say about Ohaupo is that, if I lived there, my sole ambition would be to move away to the bright lights and bustling action of downtown Kihikihi.

By the way, I added another name to the list of "places to take RinkWorks regulars if they ever visit me." Turn off as you go through Ngaruawahia, and five minutes down the road to Gordonton is....CANDYLAND. Yes. In the middle of nowhere, there it is. Heaven. A candy factory which not only sells every kind of candy there is, but offers enough free samples to explode twenty people. Not to mention at least fifteen different kinds of fudge. Oooooggg...

The trip took a lot longer than it normally would, due to the almost continual roadworks. Following what seem to be the national roadworks regulations, the construction gangs were made up in the usual ratio of seven Rastafarians to two very old men with huge potbellies. By international law, of course, only one of these would be actually working at any given time while the rest stand around watching him with interest.

On arrival in Te Kuiti, I located the guy, and as a result I am now trying to write a story aimed at the international electronics industry, about a spectacular new advance in livestock weighing technology. Woo hoo! I'll let you know when it's published, as I'm sure you are all extremely interested. ;-) It's lucky I'm a fast learner.

Anyway, back to Auckland after a REALLY long day but a fun one, to find a whole bunch more requests for interviews waiting on my answerphone. So, things are looking good. I don't know when I'll be back here on a more regular basis, or where I'll be living or what I'll be doing when I am, but I hope to sort something out soon. :-)

Brunnen-"so! it weighs up to 1250 lambs an hour, huh? That's *fascinating*...no, really...."G