What I am up to now: Reel Jen Films

Hi there, whoever may be out there. Years have passed since the adventure to the other side. Things have changed. I've trained in massage and now I am working for the premiership rugby club.

Please check out Reel Jen to see the web videos I have been producing.

The After...

Well, that's me. Back home in flood torn Cumbria and just loving the fact that I am home. This past (almost) week I have enjoyed the delights that is England and I have no regrets what so ever with coming home early. Merry Christmas everyone and have a brrrrrrilliant New Year! 

The highlights! Just so you can have a ‘in a nutshell’ look at what I considered to be the best bits of my four months away. Its not in order of when I did it…

 

• My slow walk round Sydney on my 1^st day. Looking at the architecture, still feeling groggy from the landing and finding the road crossings very humorous.
• The long chats I had with Miriam.
• The walk with Miriam in Sydney’s Hyde Park and St Mary’s Cathedral. We talked about war and religion.
• The ferry trip from Circular Quay to the Aquarium and Wildlife World with Annie. The day in general with Annie.
• Watching movies with Miriam
• Brisbanes City Cat boat ride with my ipod in.
• Hanging out with Tara.
• Whale watching
• The feeling I had when I landed in Auckland.
• My walk round the Domain
• The Auckland and Wellington rugby matches.
• Seeing Dolphins in the Bay of Islands
• 90 Mile Beach.
• Star Gazing in remote places (The Farm and at Shona’s)
• The walk to Cathedral Cove with Zoe, and Cathedral Cove itself (which was featured in the Narian film)
• Watching rugby matches in the pubs
• My pool match with a Kiwi in Franz Josef
• General geothermal activity in Rotorua
• Rotorua Maori concert and Hangi (food cooked in a earth oven)
• Learning to play poker in Taupo (although I think I have forgotten now :/ )
• The Taupo to Wellington bus group
• Horse riding in River Valley on Buster
• Card games at River Valley
• Free Music at Te Papa Museum
• Friday night chatting to the Kiwi Builders, Luke and Rollie
• Seeing two kiwi plays ‘Where are you my only one?’ and ‘A biography of my skin’
• The Cambridge gang, playing cards and generally getting drunk
• Kayaking and glacier walk at Franz Josef
• Chilling out in the outdoor hot tub in Franz Josef
•  Skydive 12,000ft in Wanaka. I am a comedy genius on my video.
• 2 day chill in Wanaka with Creena
• Cinema Paradiso in Wanaka and that Cookie!
• All the random little walks
• Taking all my photos
• Updating my blog
• Waitamo glow worm caves
• Embassy Theatre and my chat with the manager
• Wellington Harbour walks
• Dorothy Brown cinema, Arrowtown where I watched the brilliant ‘Coco, Avent Chanel’
• My birthday week in Queenstown. Booze, men and friends, happy days!
• Cooking, gardening and being made welcome at Alan and Kerry’s at their Mosegil Farm near Dunedin
• Milking the cows. Not sure if it was a ‘highlight’, it was certainly interesting!
• Discovering me
• Coming out of a forest road on the bus just at the height of a Sigur Ros song and seeing a vast landscape of snow capped mountains, which ultimately made me want to do a skydive.
• The beach walk to see seal lions on the Bottom Bus.
• The drive to, and Milford Sounds
• Meeting loads of really nice people; Creena, Claire, Rachel, Kate, Jim, Eric, Ian, Joseline, Josephine, German Jen, Alonzo, Doreen, ‘Papa Ron’, American Andrea, Irish Greg, That Oz Couple on the Milford Bus, Scottish Zoe, Nadia and Zina, Alan, Kerry, Shona, Ishten, Dave, Kym, Chris and everyone else.
• Fishing fro muscles and then trying one raw (not nice, don’t try unless you have water and chocolate on standby!)
• The BBQ/ Concert with Shona
• The concert in the CHCH Cathedral.
• Experiencing a Church service for the first time in probably 10 years. The sermon at the CHCH Cathedral on hell was very interesting.
• Going to the casino in Queenstown with Creena and Claire and helping Claire win some money which she then later spent it on drinks for everyone.

 

Another highlight was actually the act of coming home. The flight was shockingly long and my bum at the end and during most of it was really sore. However the feeling when I landed in Manchester was worth all of it. I had a hard time not to cry because I was so happy to be back in England and most of all, Manchester.

 

The past couple of days I have seen a majority of my friends. It was cool that I hadn’t told everyone that I was coming back because their reactions when they seen me made me have a gooey wanted feeling inside. Everyone was happy to see me. Emma even screamed in delight at me! Twas very funny.

 

Now the hard work beings. I have now got New Zealand out of my system. Life and a career is now on the agenda. Over the past 4 months I have thought long and hard as to what I want to do with me. One thought is constant, I want to work in the film industry. I used to think that meant on a film set, which it still sort of (and I will be working on a feature film later on in 2010), but now I think from all my lovely quirky cinema visits in New Zealand, what I want to do with myself now is to open a cinema of my own. Two problems with that is 1) I haven’t the foggiest as to how to run a cinema, and

2) I have NO money what so ever.

So I have two solutions:

1)    Find work in a cinema and learn from the bottom up

2)    Save money/ play the lottery

 

Other things that I would like to do with my time is possibly train up and do the coast-to-coast bike ride. Need a bike for that, so will have to wait until I can afford one. Also while I was at Shona’s I played the piano for the first time in years and I was chuffed to find out that I can still read music and that I could play a tune pretty quickly with some degree of confidence. That’s why I think I may find a cheap keyboard and get playing again, for my own personal enjoyment.

 

Other things that I have to look forward to and goals for 2010:

·      Jenny and Greg’s Wedding

·      Jamie Cullum concert with Anne-Marie

·      Moving in to a flat with a friend, not my sister.

·      Working on a feature film that will hopefully be in cinema’s by November 2010

·      Coast to coast

·      Speed dating (doing it for a laugh, but you never know…)

·      Playing the keyboard

·      Getting some more of my short films made, maybe even direct one myself!

·      Hopefully do a couple more Chorlton Player Plays .

·      HAVE FUN AND ENJOY LIFE!

 

So there you have it. My four months on the other side and a hint as to my adventures to come. Thank you for reading my blog. Remember, Life is short, if you want to try, see something, DO IT! CARPE DIEM! 

Why I'm coming home early...

I have had a brilliant time! Let's make that clear from the start. However one thing that I haven't been able to get over has been home sickness.

I have met a lot of great people along the way but with anyone travelling, everyone has their own agendas. So for a lot of the time I was travelling alone. Most people may think this is brilliant but really it's much nicer to share experience with someone. That's why I loved my time spent with Creena, Claire, Kate, Rachel and German Jen and at the Cambridge Hotel and on the farms. So when it comes to Christmas, I wanted nothing more than to spend it at home, regardless of the weather!

Merry Christmas! (Best Christmas Duet ever!)



On another note, I have had such a lot of time to just think. Think about what I want to do and accomplish. I think I have decided what I want to do and achieve. I'll keep that under my hat for now...
Earlier this year I went to Greece with Katrina and she said something with me that I only understand now about how when you have a lot of time to think the more you realise what you want/need to do and you want to start straight away to keep your motivation up.

I have spent four months travelling which is enough for me. I have seen and done all that I wanted to do. I have kept a list of all of my highlights from my trip...I'll post them soon.

I have had highs and lows but I think I have got a lot from travelling.

Songs :)

Hot sun, rain and Antarctic winds (a.k.a my last couple of days in CHCH)

Well I have spent my last couple of days in Christchurch. Tomorrow at 1pm I leave.
Saturday was nice, the sun was out in full summer glory as I went round the art markets.
Saturday night I went to see 'In the Loop ' at the Metro cinema. It was so small and quirky. The screen I was in had the capacity of 15! The film was dead good as well. Dad, I think you would enjoy it.

On Sunday and Monday I spent the day on the Trams, punting and gondola. On Sunday I did something I haven't done for donkeys years, I went to a Church service. Two in fact! Holy Communion where there was a really interesting sermon on hell (I am interested due to my A-level in ethics and philosophy) and then in the afternoon I went to Evening Choir Song where everything was sung. Found that a tad bizarre. The sermon for that service was boring.

Today I went to the Antarctic Centre opposite the Airport. It was bbbbbbrrrrrrrrilliant! You got to experience a Antarctic storm which was amazing. Got cold so quickly. Good practice for when I get back to the UK! I paid a little extra and got to get a guided tour of the little blue penguins (penguin comes for a welsh word for white head!). Got really close to a poor little fellow who was blind in one eye. So cute! There was a huge theatre where they showed images of Antarctica with music. It looks to be such a stunning, barren and vast landscape, after the storm simulator I would not want to work there! Also! I went on a...shoot I have forgotten its name but its link a tank kind of vehicle that they use over there. They can go really fast, float and at 45 degree angles. It was a fun and very very very bumpy ride. My stomach could only handle one, but you could have any number of rides with the ticket. Dead good day out!

Shona's Place

Today was my last day at Shona's. The Gardening Group was here this morning. We planted some maze and weeded the tiny sprouts of carrots.

Been thinking about what I want my garden (its OK to dream Mum!) to look like in the future, when I possess one!

It will mostly be a lawn but it will have a creeper plant at the bottom of the garden, probably Sweet Peas. I will have two beds, one for flowers and one for veg/ herbs.

Flowers I want:

• Sunflowers
• Tulips (my favourite flower)
• Poppies (the small dainty ones)
• Snow Drops
• Daffs
• Lavender
• And maybe a rose bush.

Herbs/ Veg:

• Garlic
• Leeks
• Cabbage
• Tomatoes
• Basil
• Sage

So basically I can make a mean spag bog or winter lentil soup!

We also picked some Black currant pie... still to have a taste... slightly burnt round the edges :/

Tomorrow, I am off to Christchurch to spend 4 days there. I am going to do the Tram/ Gondola/ Punting ride, go to the Antarctic Experience where you can experience a blizzard and get up close to the tiniest penguin in the world. Also there are art markets and there is a new Kiwi film with Sam Neil in it that looks really good. Its called 'Under the Mountain'.  

Jen is...

... shattered. 

Manual labour + a warm North Westerly = Knackered Jenny!