Hello Everyone!

I can't believe its christmas eve already. Its weird to not go
shopping for christmas, and even wierder to sit here wondering what i
am going to do on christmas day. One of my coworkers has mentioned
that we could probably do dinner with her friends.... maybe i'll be
one of those people that go to the movie theatres on christmas day.

Life in New Zealand is excellent. Its getting a bit windier and wetter
these days, just the way i like it. =)

I am moving flat/apt next week. I've had my fill of crazy, rude,
ignorant and flat out moronic flatmates. So i'm off to the other side
of town, to move in with a 28yr old guy, and his 21yr old partner.
Partner of course being the term for long-term girlfriend.

I'm still having a hard time with this whole partner thing. There
seems to be a lot of gay people in Wellington, and of course working
at starbucks you get to work with a good number of them. But how do
you figure out if someone is gay? you can't just ask them if who they
live with or if they are dating someone, because just about everyone
refers to thier significant other as a "partner" unless they have only
been dating for a couple of weeks. So i've just given up, and i ask
the girls to figure it out for me.

Work is going extremely well. The store that i have taken complete
responsibility for running while we have an absentee manager is
running smoothly, and everyone is getting along great. Don't get me
wrong, starbucks wouldn't be complete with the one mis-hire, and we do
have her. But i like to look on the bright side of things. =)

The store its self isn't doing that great sales wise. As i may have
mentioned before, New Zealand already had a coffee culture long before
starbucks showed up. So starbucks is nothing more than a confusing
mess of options. Our competition, well the mall is just across the
street, and they have five coffee shops in the mall, and on the
opposite corner of us, there is yet another coffee shop, not to
mention the other countless ones spread through out the town. I have
yet to figure out why anyone would seriously put this store where it
is at, but a lot of people seem very happy to have it in thier tiny
little town.

I opened my first christmas gift yesterday!... well before i make
myself sound like a miserable alocholic, let me explain the situation.
I have just trained a new shift, she only got a week's worth of
training, and has only been with the company for three weeks. She's
got what it takes, but anyone would find this too much responsibility
and since our manager doesn't seem to care about her development, i've
taken to coming in on my days off, and coming in early on other days.
So its been a constant mess of 12+hr days, with crazy christmas
customers, and store problems that just boggle my mind somedays.

At the end of her shift yesterday a customer came up and told us how
nice it would be to have some Baileys in her coffee. Which got us
talking about how nice it would be to have some alcohol in the store
for days like this. And i mentioned how i've always wanted a hip
flask... its something i've wanted ever since i moved to flagstaff.
Not that i would ever use it(often), but its just one of those "cool"
things that i've always wanted. So at the end of my shift, my new
trainie came in with a gift for me... my very own stainless steel hip
flask! - note: i do not plan on filling it up with whiskey and
caring it around with me... however i might put redbull in it, and
take it to work to get a reaction out of the manager :)

speaking of managers, the CEO of Starbucks in New Zealand came in for
a visit a couple days ago... it appears that he was very impressed
with me, and that he wants me to consider staying with them past my
nine month term.

I'm loving it hear and looking forward to a quiet christmas without
the flatmates. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season and
thank you for all the christmas cards!

Marcus