Here we are again another year has gone by. Things are definitely ticking along for us here and 2017 has definitely had its ups and downs. I really enjoy having a reason to sit back and reflect on the year. And having you along as well for the ride to listen is lovely.
We filled up on delicious fish and crayfish for Christmas Eve dinner last night:
And the dogs enjoyed their gifts this morning (we're dog-sitting and they sent along those to keep the pups happy):
But, back to reviewing the year...
So January saw us come home from Canada. We got lots of snow and packed in as much visiting as we could. As much as those of you in Canada don't want to hear, it really made us appreciate where we live now. We both hit the ground running as my client list was growing quickly and Dustin was straight back into the bushes to work in the park.
Through the next couple of months I was having great fun networking and building my business. We went up to Auckland with friends to see Bruce Springsteen again which was incredible. And I was still zumba-ing on a Monday night. I started attending a leadership development program that would run through the full year meeting every couple of months.
I kept busy with more and more clients and working on a few different events locally. I got a dance dance party party up and running and we met every month in 2017 except January. There were lots of different activities for Dustin at work too and his contract initially concluded at the end of June.
Socially we were keeping in the mix, we went to the Beerfest and generally just hung around at friends houses for catch ups. It's been a year of changes for friends too - with new babies born or on the way and unfortunately some relationships ending.
I was involved with a tech girls competition where I mentored two Elementary School teams. There were about 10 or 11 years old and I was astounded at how much more resourceful they were than my clients. Neither team won the competition but it was really cool to encourage them to learn.
One of my clients was sold off by their head office this year so that meant all sorts of new tasks that I could get involved with. It also meant a lot more time with them which was becoming challenging given the number of people I was working with. Ultimately this meant by the time we got to June I was already feeling pretty exhausted.
I was really finding the Leadership Program to be a great place for reflection and learning. It was awesome to dedicate some time to this officially because as much as it's on the list it doesn't always get done. Part of the program is a passionate project. This is something that is good for ourselves our community and our development and it could be anything that we are passionate about it. I had lots of ideas but had been struggling to settle on one until a conversation in July.
There has been a television feature about a non profit group in Wellington who were rescuing food from cafes and distributing it to people in need. I saw it and immediately wanted to do it but given my energy state at the time, I had parked it. So after dance dance party party one night I got to talking to the woman who runs the yoga studio where we dance. And this lead to the possibility of creating a similar organisation in New Plymouth. We started our research and met with people who are already doing this in the country. It took a lot of research and planning but we decided to give it a go, launching in November. Follow our progress in 2018 via our Facebook page if you want!
Alongside all of this, Dustin's contract had wrapped up and he was busy building a deck for someone he had done work for before. It turns out one of his past workmates took a new role in a different city which left a permanent position open on the team he had been working with. And thus he had his first introduction to competency-based job interviews. He got the job so he clearly did alright.
Also at this time we had some Canadian visitors in town. Dustin's mom, sister, and her friend Michelle came to stay with us for a week. They explored the South Island before they got here and Dustin met them in Queenstown for a few days. He has said that it's definitely the last time he wants to go to Queenstown - it's a very busy place these days. The weather was only sort of on our side so we did get out a little bit but a typical winter visit had us indoors a lot of the time.
I had decided the stress and long hours were not what I wanted to create in my self employment. So in August, I cut about 80% of the clients from my list. And I continued assessing the work I was doing through the rest of the year. I had taken on a lot of things I could do but didn't necessarily want to be doing. In the background, the client I had been increasing my hours with after their sale had somebody retiring so I began to learn her job with the view of taking it on when she did leave.
In September I went to Wellington for an unconference. It was called Women Who Get Shit Done. It was a pretty cool experience as I hadn't been to an event with that format before. From about September onward, they had a lot more work that required overnight stays at huts for Dustin. He was getting to camp for work and I was holding down the fort with Porter.
I took part in another Startup Weekend in November and had an awesome time. The event is so energizing and it's such a neat experience to focus on one idea for 54 hours straight. My team got runner up this year which I was more than happy with because I don't know if I had space for another project anyways!
Now with the Christmas parties mostly wrapped up we are we looking forward to a good 10 days off. Sadly one of Dustin's coworkers passed away last week. So he will be missed when they get back to work.
2018 holds a little bit of travel for us as we're going to Vietnam in March! I'll be shifting my work life a bit to take on this new role, 3 days a week and Dustin will continue enjoying hiking and maintaining the parks and huts.
Drop us a line with your 2017/2018 updates! We hope you are all doing well!
We filled up on delicious fish and crayfish for Christmas Eve dinner last night:
And the dogs enjoyed their gifts this morning (we're dog-sitting and they sent along those to keep the pups happy):
But, back to reviewing the year...
So January saw us come home from Canada. We got lots of snow and packed in as much visiting as we could. As much as those of you in Canada don't want to hear, it really made us appreciate where we live now. We both hit the ground running as my client list was growing quickly and Dustin was straight back into the bushes to work in the park.
Through the next couple of months I was having great fun networking and building my business. We went up to Auckland with friends to see Bruce Springsteen again which was incredible. And I was still zumba-ing on a Monday night. I started attending a leadership development program that would run through the full year meeting every couple of months.
I kept busy with more and more clients and working on a few different events locally. I got a dance dance party party up and running and we met every month in 2017 except January. There were lots of different activities for Dustin at work too and his contract initially concluded at the end of June.
Socially we were keeping in the mix, we went to the Beerfest and generally just hung around at friends houses for catch ups. It's been a year of changes for friends too - with new babies born or on the way and unfortunately some relationships ending.
I was involved with a tech girls competition where I mentored two Elementary School teams. There were about 10 or 11 years old and I was astounded at how much more resourceful they were than my clients. Neither team won the competition but it was really cool to encourage them to learn.
One of my clients was sold off by their head office this year so that meant all sorts of new tasks that I could get involved with. It also meant a lot more time with them which was becoming challenging given the number of people I was working with. Ultimately this meant by the time we got to June I was already feeling pretty exhausted.
I was really finding the Leadership Program to be a great place for reflection and learning. It was awesome to dedicate some time to this officially because as much as it's on the list it doesn't always get done. Part of the program is a passionate project. This is something that is good for ourselves our community and our development and it could be anything that we are passionate about it. I had lots of ideas but had been struggling to settle on one until a conversation in July.
There has been a television feature about a non profit group in Wellington who were rescuing food from cafes and distributing it to people in need. I saw it and immediately wanted to do it but given my energy state at the time, I had parked it. So after dance dance party party one night I got to talking to the woman who runs the yoga studio where we dance. And this lead to the possibility of creating a similar organisation in New Plymouth. We started our research and met with people who are already doing this in the country. It took a lot of research and planning but we decided to give it a go, launching in November. Follow our progress in 2018 via our Facebook page if you want!
Alongside all of this, Dustin's contract had wrapped up and he was busy building a deck for someone he had done work for before. It turns out one of his past workmates took a new role in a different city which left a permanent position open on the team he had been working with. And thus he had his first introduction to competency-based job interviews. He got the job so he clearly did alright.
Also at this time we had some Canadian visitors in town. Dustin's mom, sister, and her friend Michelle came to stay with us for a week. They explored the South Island before they got here and Dustin met them in Queenstown for a few days. He has said that it's definitely the last time he wants to go to Queenstown - it's a very busy place these days. The weather was only sort of on our side so we did get out a little bit but a typical winter visit had us indoors a lot of the time.
I had decided the stress and long hours were not what I wanted to create in my self employment. So in August, I cut about 80% of the clients from my list. And I continued assessing the work I was doing through the rest of the year. I had taken on a lot of things I could do but didn't necessarily want to be doing. In the background, the client I had been increasing my hours with after their sale had somebody retiring so I began to learn her job with the view of taking it on when she did leave.
In September I went to Wellington for an unconference. It was called Women Who Get Shit Done. It was a pretty cool experience as I hadn't been to an event with that format before. From about September onward, they had a lot more work that required overnight stays at huts for Dustin. He was getting to camp for work and I was holding down the fort with Porter.
I took part in another Startup Weekend in November and had an awesome time. The event is so energizing and it's such a neat experience to focus on one idea for 54 hours straight. My team got runner up this year which I was more than happy with because I don't know if I had space for another project anyways!
Now with the Christmas parties mostly wrapped up we are we looking forward to a good 10 days off. Sadly one of Dustin's coworkers passed away last week. So he will be missed when they get back to work.
2018 holds a little bit of travel for us as we're going to Vietnam in March! I'll be shifting my work life a bit to take on this new role, 3 days a week and Dustin will continue enjoying hiking and maintaining the parks and huts.
Drop us a line with your 2017/2018 updates! We hope you are all doing well!
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| Just one of many amazing photos Dustin takes at work. |
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