This post, in theory, shouldn't have been written.
Not through a lack of desire or passion or motivation - more that I shouldn't be in the office today.
But putting in extra hours on days off is almost becoming a specialty of mine. Things like understanding projects here in the islands and getting a few quick fillers in the can early mean every hour at work is time well spent, in my opinion.
Before I decide to check-in to Overworkers Anonymous, I thought I'd give you a little update since my last post.
When we last spoke I was at the Central Motel in downtown Avarua accompanied by a few wasps and a couple of geckos. Well, I have since moved to an A-frame 'chalet' as part of a village of budget accomadation called Tiare Village. Feel free to Google Image them :P It's the A-Frame one.
We'll get to the use of the word 'chalet' in a minute, but first onto more improtant matters.
I now have a scooter to zip me around town! This place is filled with them so finding one wasn't necessarily the issue. The main problem was ensuring I didn't get as raw a deal as my workmate, Calida. While they paid approx $250 less than I did, their bike chain has since snapped, making the bike about as useful as the world's largest paperweight.
Thankfully I haven't encountered any bike-breaking scenarios yet and here's to a long future with the bike.
I'd love to send photos and videos through, but my camera is still unable to be used because of a lack of the right SD card here in the Cook Islands. Still waiting for the card to be shipped here so at the moment there are no photos to speak of :/
Back to the chalet. It's pretty awesome but is almost made for shorter people than myself (and I'm no giant). Two of the three rooms are rather small but one manages to fit two single foam mattresses. The master bedroom is pretty cool and gets a good view of the airport and neighbouring houses :)
There was one issue that gave me a minor heart attack. AFter Googling Cook Islands centipedes I woke up this morning to go to town and at my front door was a massive spider. This wasn't a 2mm one or a 2cm one - this was almost the size of my palm. Google Huntsman Spider. Yuck. Anyway he gapped it and I don't know where he went. There'll be a health update in the next post for sure.
As for work, there are still days where there are struggles and mental questioning, but they're a lot less frequent than at the start of my time here. I'm slowly getting into the swing of things (rather slowly to be fair - island time) and am working on getting to know the island well enough to be your tiki tour guide if needed!
Missing all family and friends back home. One thing I've found a bit hard is making new friends. While I did sort of expect this to happen (it's your classic new school syndrome) it's just a bit annoying and a bit demoralising haha - if you have Raro friends, help me out!
Finally, I've signed up to my first sports team, the Titikaveka Titans! They're the defending cricket champs here on the island and I was rapt for them to be keen on having a hit with them, so if anyone's keen to ship over my cricket gear I'd be mega happy! Ha.
From here it's getting into a proper routine with groceries and signing up to the gym. From there, I'll be moving onwards and upwards!
Talk soon guys, would love to hear any feedback or ideas for future posts haha!
Kia manuia,
Matiu Workman
Good to hear your doing well Matiu. Enjoying your updates
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