Spatula Forum

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

So I haven't been posting a lot lately and some may have noticed I haven't been posting much at all about "real life" the last several weeks. That's because there's been a lot of changes going on, and I haven't wanted to write about it until it's all a little clearer -- and not jinx myself. Long story short, I've lined up a very spiffy new job and we've enrolled Peter in day care starting in a couple weeks, which is a big transition for us from the routine we've established the last 10 months or so.

Ever since we got back from Sydney, we've been thinking hard about where we are on our so-called "plan" and how we'd like to eventually own our own house here. That meant I'd need to return to the work force. Amazingly, I had an incredibly quick job search due to a combination of luck and timing and lined up a very promising job in less than a week! I'll be working as a "regional deputy senior sub-editor" (that's a long title, ain't it?) for a company owned by the Australian Associated Press that is taking on the editing, layout and design for APN Media, which owns the New Zealand Herald, Listener magazine and a host of other smaller papers. It looks like I'll be starting toward the end of July – a few details remain to be worked out. I'm pretty psyched as this is a huge company I'll be joining and it offers some real challenges. It's been just shy of a year since I worked, and while it's been a fantastic experience both as a Dad and traveling around, that itch to get back in the trenches has been pretty strong too.

And so we're putting P in day care which is something we've managed to avoid his first 3 1/2 years. I've been really lucky to spend my days with him this past year and being a stay-at-home dad has changed my whole view of parenting, but it wasn't feasible to do it forever and I really knew I wasn't going to feel like I "lived" in New Zealand unless I was working here too. It's going to be tough giving our little man up to strangers for 8 hours a day or so but he's ready for it... if anything it's going to be a lot harder on Mom and Dad than it will him, I imagine. We've found a really good center in a good location.

Anyway, that's what's up with us right now. I have a feeling my blogging will get even less frequent once I start work, but I'll try to keep a presence up on here. And right now I need to bone up on my NZ journalism style!