see you on the other side ☾⋆｡ 𖦹 °✩

i guess this is it?

Ok before you all freak out, let me just add a little pre-warning to this story to let you all know that everything has worked out, and I’m boarding flight number one to Auckland today, and then flying out to Lisbon tomorrow! But now…. storytime!

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Friday

Holy shit. For those of you who aren’t on Close Friends and missed my vlogger moment (lol yes I actually had to sit down and explain this to the camera), Friday was SO INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL! As we know I’ve been in purgatory for a while waiting my visa to come through (and then having to move flights etc because it took longer than expected.) BUT, on Tuesday last week, when I got issued said visa (as you all know) I had to get my passport sent from Australia to NZ, and I used the same courier that Bel did because it she got hers THE NEXT DAY. I was told I’d be getting it in 1-2 days, and it was picked up on Wednesday, so I booked my flights for the next Tuesday. Optimistic? Yes. Expensive? Double yes. But did I feel confident that it would get to me? At the time… yes.

So on Friday, I assume it’s been 2-3 working days, and I’m waiting at home all day thinking that it could arrive at any minute and I need to be there to sign for it (keep in mind my flight to Auckland was on Monday so I was getting nervy).

Then I checked the tracking and it said the estimated delivery is end of day Tuesday. Guess when my internationalflight is? END OF DAY TUESDAY! And I had planned to fly up to Auckland to say goodbye to all my friends on MONDAY.

I started freaking out, video-called Ruby for HOURS and together we rang the courier company to look at my options. There weren’t many because the passport had already started the journey from Auckland to Blenheim, and was now with a ‘third party’ delivery company. I asked for the name of the company and they told me it was likely to be NZ Post, so I decided I would go into their branch here in Blenheim and basically see if there was ANY WAY I could swoop in and intercept the passport somewhere. At that point, Normy walked in (I’d asked him that morning to come home to wait for the passport while I ran a few errands) and saw me FREAKING OUT, but said he knew Grant from the NZ Post Blenheim branch and we had to go and see them RIGHT NOW!

Cut to us panic-driving there, getting inside, word vomiting my life story and what had happened to everyone who would listen and then being met with the MOST helpful people in the WORLD. The team immediately rallied around (at one stage there were four of them helping) and figured out that my passport had been accidentally sent to NELSON which is an hour and a half away. We told them that we’d drive to pick it up but they said there’s no one there to meet in Nelson, it’s kinda just a processing area.

Cue me FREAKING OUT AGAIN and then the team telling me they’ll sort it out, emailing and ringing anyone they could, and getting the boss to ‘pull rank’ to make sure we get it in time. I left them my phone number to call me with any updates, and walked out of the office feeling relieved that someone knew where it was (and that everyone was so invested) but still stressed because until it was in my hands I was NOT resting.

I went home on Friday night and refreshed and refreshed and refreshed the tracking number with no change, BUT the estimated delivery date had been moved forward to Saturday, so I assumed some magic had been worked.

Saturday

Now cut to us getting up at 7am and going to our next-door neighbours to watch the first match of the rugby world cup (on another note, we lost.) I hadn’t slept that night, I had my phone on LOUD in case they called, and left a note on the door for any potential delivery person:

And then at 7:40am I got the phone call of all phone calls letting me know that my PASSPORT HAD BEEN DELIVERED TO THE BLENHEIM BRANCH and that I could come and pick it up (after the rugby.)

I had the coffee order of the lovely lady at the front desk, so as soon as the match was over I was in the car (Normy was driving, of course), bottle of wine to giver her in one hand, her flat white with one sugar in the other, and then finally, MY PASSPORT!

bag secured

Morals of the story:

• small towns are the BEST places to live because I really don’t believe this kind of hustle to find my passport would have happened anywhere else in the world

• it pays to get to know your local postal people

• don’t impatiently book your flights before you have a passport or you will not be able to eat or sleep for days until it comes

• if something like this DOES happen to you, make sure you document it for all your besties (maybe that’s just a luce thing?)

Biggest thank you to the besties at NZ Post Blenheim, I hope this newsletter is somehow delivered to you in a less stressful way than how my passport was delivered to me 𓆩♡𓆪

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NOW IS THE TIME TO BECOME A CLOSE FRIEND IF THERE EVER WAS A TIME! My whole life is about to turn upside down, we can hopefully announce the most exciting project of our life soon, and honestly, if it’s anything like this weekend, the chaos is only going to ensue (and I might even do you some more vlogs.)

A little glimpse of the weekend’s Close Friend antics:

everything from my old life, in the closet at normy’s

weighing the essentials

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AND A LITTLE ADMIN NOTE 𓆩♡𓆪

There aren’t going to be any newsy’s for at least a week (I’m sure you understand considering I’m moving my entire life to the other side of the world) so the only updates you’ll be getting from me will be on the Close Friends story!!!!

• Tech Support: The art of the accidental upload

• More than 2,000 dead following an earthquake in Morocco

• Olivia Rodrigo released GUTS

• Other things I’d write about if I wasn’t about to move across the world and too excited and nervous to continue typing

Tech Support: The art of the accidental upload 

This section was brought to you by our mates at One New Zealand, who are helping New Zealanders stay safe online!!

One of my favourite celebrity moments was when Hozier accidentally uploaded a video of himself with a ‘Handsome Squidward filter on his face to his PUBLIC Instagram story. By the time he noticed and went to delete it, his phone died, and the video stayed up long enough for hundreds of thousands of people to see it (this incident lives on on TikTok and Youtube, and I rewatch it often.) But Hozier isn’t the only one who’s accidentally uploaded something VERY publicly: Harry Styles accidentally uploaded himself wearing a One Direction t-shirt to his public story rather than his ‘Close Friends’ story, Charlie Sheen accidentally tweeted his phone number, hell, I’ve accidentally uploaded a photo of me and my friends at the beach to SYSCA before realising it wasn’t my personal account.

Obviously, as iconic as these mishaps can be, they show us that the accidental upload is VERY real, and you’ve got a few stories of your own for us…

Facebook, facepalm

“I was stalking a middle school crush on Facebook and accidentally shared his profile picture without realising”

“ I was trying to find my high school crush's Facebook profile so tapped his name in the search bar. Or so I thought. Turns out I accidentally created an EVENT with his full name as the event name. I did not realize it for hours. Until this day I don't know if anyone saw it before I deleted it.”

Identity theft is not a joke Jim!

“When I got my driver's license, I posted a pic of it on Instagram, as this was the thing to do in ye olde 2016. My dad immediately called me and told me to take it down because Identity Theft Is Not A Joke, Jim. I deleted the post but to this day I am haunted by the possibility someone out there has a screenshot of my 16-year-old license.”

Shared screen, shared scream

“I was at a fairly new job and thought I was writing in a small work-friend chat about how lame the new marketing plan was, while in fact, I was writing it IN THE MEETING CHAT WHERE THE MARKETING TEAM WERE PRESENTING SAID PLAN. I only realised because a member of the marketing team replied 😂 to my message.”

An accidental attachment

“I had a period of really enjoying Paint, the Microsoft drawing program. I had made a very elaborate picture of a goat that I accidentally attached in communication with a VIP customer.”

Tech Support with One NZ:

1. Ok, just as one of these stories suggests, identity theft is NOT a joke. Never share pictures of your ID (passports, licences, work ID) online!!

2. An easy one - make sure you control your privacy settings on social media of who can see your profiles

3. ALWAYS make sure you’re sending information to the right receiver – check the email address or chat participants. If something has gone to the wrong person at work, One NZ says to get in touch with your IT or Security team to let them know - they may be able to recall or help!

4. AND, make sure you’re sending the right ATTACHMENTS (not a picture you’d done of a goat.)

5. If you have a work device, try to use it for work only to avoid getting caught out with screen-sharing incidents

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More than 2,000 dead following an earthquake in Morocco

Absolutely terrifying scenes out of Morocco at the moment after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the country, making it their strongest earthquake in over a century.

The United Nations has estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night's quake, and the rescue efforts right now are proving difficult as emergency services are struggling to reach affected areas. There have been reports that people are trying to dig out survivors by hand and with shovels in places that machinery is struggling to reach.

More on this story here.

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Olivia Rodrigo released GUTS

And my current faves are all american bitch, making the bed, and ballad of a homeschooled girl (especially the second verse):

AND DON’T FORGET WE’RE GIVING AWAY 2X GUTS RECORDS!!! Come enter our comp here xxx

@shityoushouldcareaboutolivia rodrigo singing “everything I do is tragic, every guy I like is gay” in ballad of a homeschooled girl giving us the 2023 better than revenge we deserve

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Other things I’d write about if I wasn’t about to move across the world and too excited and nervous to continue typing

• Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis apologize for ‘pain’ their letters on behalf of Danny Masterson caused (AP News)

• The Southern Hemisphere, where it’s winter, has been really hot too (Vox)

• Book Publishing Has a Toys ‘R’ Us Problem (The Atlantic)

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