apteryx wa: February 2007

interior

and these are some of our decorations.

the first shot is of della's mantle, created and curated exclusively by her.

the second shot is of my cave painting.

exterior

this is the house we live in.

took a hike

last weekend we went to the hills and took these photos. the stuff that looks like a city--that's christchurch. the stuff that looks like distant mountains--those are the southern alps. the stuff that looks like water--that's governors bay, and beyond that is the south pacific ocean. the stuff that looks like a tree--that's a tree.

success story

tyson got another promotion at work; he is now a giant.

eagle bait

click the title. the last paragraph is the best part.

monkey with a shopping cart

i've been promoted to the warehouse across the street. well, i shouldn't say promoted, but all the other temps were cut, so i've taken the liberty of saying i've been promoted. by the way, della isn't temping anymore. she's working as a waitress, and last sunday she brought home some much needed bread. and by bread i mean money.

anyway, now i'm "order picking". which can be compared to going to a hardware store with a complete stranger's shopping list - about 40 times a day. think of me pushing a shopping cart around a huge warehouse (about the size of a standard home depot, loews, etc.) and you've got the picture. it's all fun and games until the particular light bulbs i'm after happen to be 6 meters up on the racks. then i get to play "circus circus" and see if i can scramble up the racks, verify the light bulb in question and then balance the box of 100 light bulbs on my shoulder as a climb down a ladder - which is only 2 meters tall. light bulbs are the easiest because they are "light" - it's a whole different story when you have to climb the racks to fetch a roll of fiberoptic cable. sometimes i find myself taking very circuitous routes up and down the racks just to avoid the ladder. and by now i've discovered i'm the only picker who does this; every other picker has a forklift license.

but still, i like the job. and i'm going to keep sticking it out until something better comes along.

The Warehouse

well, we got our first temp assignment. which happened to be under the industrial arm of our temp agency. but lucky for us they needed two temps so we were able to work together.

we will be working for a department store distributor for at least 5 days, possibly more. apparently there is a big sale coming up for Waitangi Day weekend (the NZ equivalent of the 4th of July) so a huge shipment needs to be processed through the distributor before the product is sent to the department store. by processed, i mean counted and priced. and we as temps get to do the pricing. which means we:

1. go to our assigned pallet
2. pull-, cut-, rip-off all the saran wrap keeping the boxes of product on the pallet
3. take a box off the pallet and open it
4. take an item out of the box
5. identify the item using the appropriate inventory list
6. determine the correct pricing for the item, as noted on appropriate inventory list
7. find the appropriate original price tag for the item
8. find the appropriate sale price tag for the item
9. place the original price sticker on the item
10. cross off the original price in blue or black pen
11. place the sale price sticker next to, but by no means over, the original price (now crossed-out)
12. repackage the item
13. set item aside
14. repeat steps 4-13 for every item in the box
15. place all items back in the box
16. place the box on a new pallet
17. repeat steps 3-16 for every box on the original pallet
18. saran wrap the new pallet
19. repeat steps 1-18 until break, lunch or end of day

yesterday we tackled china and bakeware, men's dress shirts, men's cosmetics and suitcases.

above the warehouse is the "home-office" where all the administration and management takes place. so the whole situation reminds me of The Office, whereby della and i are warehouse workers. also, there are two other employees there named gareth and lee (leigh). seriously. we share the break-room with the "home-office" employees, or as i like to call them, the pencil pushers in the monkey suits who don't give a crap about us hard-workers down in the warehouse.

i think it is a pretty good assignment.

friendly neighborhood chemists

let's start with the sound that woke and disturbed us two nights ago.

chainsaws?

we feared the creepy people in the creepy house next door were disposing of a body in traditional mobster style. and when our new friends from flat 1 reported an unusual encounter with automatic gun toting (nz cops are usually unarmed) police officers, we felt certain of our morbid conclusions. by the next afternoon however, we were greeted by a scene from the movie ET-- a white tent had been constructed in front of the creepy house, attended by a swarm of hazmat clad officers. i got the dirt from one of the space suits: we needn't worry, the "bad guys" had been jailed, and the officers were taking all precautions necessary to ensure an explosion free future for the neighborhood. yeah, so it turns out that the creepy house next door was actually a creepy meth lab.

on the bright side, the event was somewhat of a bonding experience for the inhabitants of our own (non-creepy) house. we spent friday night getting to know the folks in flats 1 & 4, who are quite friendly and cool and nondangerous. so fear not, for we have banded together--a small group of motley misfits united against meth-labs and murder-by-chainsaw.

in case you want to send anything...

...here is the address at our house:

2 / 15 Salisbury Street
Christchurch 8013
New Zealand

you can still post items (perhaps larger items) through to the old address too, if you want.

apteryx wa

interior

exterior

took a hike

success story

eagle bait

monkey with a shopping cart

The Warehouse

friendly neighborhood chemists

in case you want to send anything...

trekkers

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