END OF WEEK SIX!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD has been the word for this week me thinks!
Seriously, I have eaten some of the nummiest foods ever this week! (apart from that Thai, which we had that one time... twice.... we've already had it twice... AHEM).

Firstly, we went to an amazing place called Corianders where 99.9% of everything on the menu is spicy, so naturally I WAS IN HEAVEN AND GOBBLED MY THREE ENCHILADAS DOWN LIKE NO ONES BUSINESS  >:D We went there to celebrate Tasha's grandma's birthday. Going to a restaurant and munching in her honour is the least I can do to celebrate her birth am I right? UwU
Tasha and I couldn't behave ourselves for too long, but who didn't see that coming?

Secondly, on Saturday we went to the only sushi place within 592942 miles of where we live AND GOODNESS.
MY GOODNESS.
They make it to order, so you do have to wait a good 20 minutes for the dude to make it for you but man is it worth the wait! They don't have the huge variety of flavours like they do with the sushi in NZ (and I hate fish so that cuts 97% of the menu down for me here) but what they did have I loved!

And just to destroy the bowels after that, we dropped into a neat little place called Sprinkles and ruined all the hard work we put into this mornings walk with one blasters sundae which is pictured somewhere on today's blog. We have decided that we couldn't eat for the next 5 days because of this, so don't envy us too much.We are basically already dead.
I'm sorry Ryan. That promised hug will never be fulfilled.

I also got my new computer!! It's nothing amazing special to brag about but it does exactly what I need it to do for my comic work and such, so I am a happy Shane. Tash and I must have looked pretty scruffy when we went it to buy it, the first guy who assisted us looked very unhappy about us not buying his highly recommended anti-virus software. I was very tempted to let him know I worked on an IT Helpdesk for the last 6 years of my life and so feel pretty confident with computers, but ah well, it's kinda funny none-the-less.  XD  Well, nearly every other shop assistant from the store avoided us, one person even went straight past us to go help the people behind us. It was the first time I actually considered complaining about it to someone further up the food chain there but we decided it wasn't worth it because WE HAVE PLACES TO DRAW AND COMICS TO WALK TO! :D

We have also be watching the show "Flight of the Conchords" which is about two Kiwis living in New York trying to make it big in their band Flight of the Conchords, and I can recommend it to the moon and back! This is actually the second time we have watched through both seasons because it's that good, and if fully takes the mickey out of NZ in so many ways. Just look at this poster. It's all you really need to see to understand the humour of the show.

Other than that, we've just been trying to plan a trip to Ireland, which we've now moved to September due to how quickly the weeks are going already, and we kinda ran out of time to book things!! Tasha has also been researching into other places she'd to take me which are close by, such as Stourhead which she has highly recommended to visit! So hopefully when the weather is good, we'll get some awesome photos from there :D and maybe Longleat Safari Park!! 

See you guys next week!! :D

END OF WEEK FIVE!

Whups! I was meant to update this two days ago but life took over and stopped me. I'm currently writing this at 3:45am in the morning on my phone as I couldn't sleep tonight for the first time since getting over jet-lag while listening to the LittleBigPlanet soundtrack from the PS3 game which is truly crazy yet super fun sounding considering I haven’t played it in so long. Ahhhh, nostalgia! I LOVES IT! Go look up the LittleBigPlanet song called Atlas you will have an idea of what I am talking about *DANCES ALONG IN BED A LITTLE WHILE TRYING NOT TO WAKE UP TASH* >U<

The main reason I haven’t updated this blog is because my laptop is starting to pack up and I don’t think another reinstall of Windows will fix it this time, so a new UK one is in the books for this afternoon which will be super duper good! Though some of the keys on the UK keyboard being placed oddly compared to NZ keyboards, so don’t be surprised if you see some odd words with the @ symbol randomly placed into them now and again, or something XD

Last week involved looking for jobs! I'm still really trying to find a job which wasn't available in NZ because opportunities lack there slightly in comparison. I recently asked a comic shop if they had anything available (they didn't unfortunately BUT MAN THAT WOULD BE AN AWESOME THING TO HAPPEN LATER ON) but I'm gonna keep on looking! I just don’t want to settle for a job I don’t particularly enjoy straight away because “that’s what people have to do”. If there is one thing I have learned from life over the last two years it is that anything can friggin’ happen and any small move taken can change your life forever. 

Another thing that I have realised is that your life choices are in your own hands, despite what a lot of people make the world out to be. You are responsible for where you are in your life most of the time, and most of the time, you are the only one who can change it. I personally just don’t want to be  another name in human history who just existed, I want to leave something behind that isn't simply genetic or that can inherited, which is another reason why I am doing Beefpaper! I don’t ever plan to stop it so hopefully it will be a record of my life from when I was 23 all the way up until I can no longer draw/breathe, but we will see what happens! SO YES ANYWAY I GOT SLIGHTLY DISTRACTED THERE I AM JOB HUNTING AT THE MOMENT  XD

I also saw some of the legendary bluebells that Tasha has been telling me I needed to see since we basically met roughly two years ago AND THEY ARE VERY PRETTY! Odds are we are going to go back and have a look at them again shortly as they were not all out, so expect some pictures next week too! We went there with Tasha’s uncle Neil and her Grandma Jill, who has been working on my family tree for me over the last few months now which I really can’t thank her enough for!! It really is amazing to see where you actually come from and to actually some faces next to those names! If you don’t know much about your ancestry then MAN GO HAVE A NOSEY! Odds are we are probably somehow related, everyone seems to be by the freakin’ looks of it if my tree is anything to go off! 

I've also been gaming a heck of a lot with many different pals which has frankly been awesome toos, including our comicing pals Red and Flynn (playing Don’t Starve Together), the super mega awesome TK (playing Borderlands 2 as pictured above) and even one of my super old friends from way back on Star Wars Battlefront which was a big surprise but an awesome one at that! I do feel like my comic work has suffered a bit because of it all so this week is gonna be all about getting back on track, hopefully…… I feel like I have just jinxed it terribly by saying that….. *GLARES AT DYING LAPTOP IN CORNER OF ROOM* >____>’ 

END OF WEEK FOUR/ONE MONTH!

GEOCACHING GEOCACHING AND MORE GEOCACHING!! 

And comics, of course!

Most of this week has been taken up with a large amount of comic work as my comic 'buffer' had gotten down a little since all this moving and adventuring guff started happening, but it's mostly all back up to date! My comic is also about to become fully freehand (for the characters anyway) as I have always drawn my characters off a template of sorts to help me draw them accurately, but no more! The first comic is this style is going up next Thursday UK time and I am super happy that I have finally gotten to the stage where I can draw like this as I am no longer restricted to preparing comics on the computer. I can do it on paper like they used to do it back in the day so comic production should go up a little bit hopefully! YAY FOR GOOD STUFFS!

We geocached LOADS this weekend and we walked about 9-10 hours this just exploring around the place and caching it up! I know I have said it before but if you can go Geocaching freakin' DO IT, especially if you have a buddy to do it with! IT'S SO MUCH FUNS AND IT'S EXERCISE THAT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE EXERCISE AND IT MAKES YOU THINK! In the second image above, for example, the little pink capsule was suspended up in a tree, held up there by a little log that Tasha can be seen holding and you can see a few more images below of some peoples handiwork of hiding their caches around. And also, if you are a clumsy muppet like me, you could even fall over and tear your hands and knees to pieces! :D Tasha, being the big caring dork she is, patched me all up super good so I'm all better now. I was super lucky to not wreck my DSLR camera that I was carrying with me at the time as it had it's lens cap off and I fell pretty badly, but it only came out with a little scratch on its case which is cosmetic so it's all super good!

We also came across a house that had a couple of really grumpy alpaca's in their back garden munching on their trees...I think we should perhaps phone Peru in the morning to let them know D:

I also had my first ever hot dog ever this week which was a thing! They were Quorn hot dogs which are meat-free (I can't even tell the difference with Quorn products, honest to glob) and I can say is NOM NOM NOM! They are a thing in my life now which is not going away any time soon. It's just another thing that Tasha has made me addicted too, as well as tiger bread which is probably the yummiest bread I have ever eaten.... CURSE YOU TASHA! CURSE YOOOOOOOOU!! She had also told me off a couple of times because I may or may not have eaten half of it before we even made it home <_<;

Other than that it's pretty much been life as normal (as normal as life is here) and soldiering on with day to day things! Boring stuff like playing Star Wars Battlefront on the PS4 and destroying rebel scum dramatically. Y'know, day to day stuff! (SERIOUSLY THOUGH THAT GAME IS SUPER MEGA FUN I MAY BE ADDICTED AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH). OH! We are also up-to-date now with the Walking Dead :D We watched the last episode of season 6 last Tuesday and GHFJDKGHSDKLJGHJFKSD DANG THOSE CLIFF HANGERS!

I now leave you with these lovely images from using the app FaceSwap <3

WEEK, THE THIRD!!

I'm officially all set to go for being a working joe here in the UK! My National Insurance Number came through which means I can officially work now, so the great job hunt can really begin! I am not really rushing out to get an office job straight away considering there are so many opportunities for all kinds of different work here so I am keeping my eyes open for anything that may catch my fancy, but I am really unsure as to what my fancy is at the moment.... WE SHALL SEE!

This week has been rather quiet adventure wise as THE Tasha has gone back to work and stuffs, and it wasn't even a full week because of Easter! DX Still, we are still making the most of the time we have together! We have both wrecked our feet a little (AGAIN) after a walk we did yesterday to the beach. My little toes were like little cherries and Tasha's shoes just EXPLODED, so we will need to go buy her some new ones, WON'T WE EGG?? HMM?? >__>

My bank account for the UK is finally all sorted too! For some reason they failed to fill it with money. I will call them on Monday to sort that out...

To reward ourselves for maiming our feet on Saturday we spontaneously went to a Thai restaurant for lunch (I actually had the brochure for it up on my bedroom wall back in NZ for the past 5 months, it was just by chance we decided to go there). And, well.... IT WAS SOME OF THE YUMMIEST THAI FOODS WE HAVE EVER HAD EVERNGJEHOIHGKEHHGRWJKN!!!! It was only a small portion, being lunch, but HOLY MOLY IT WAS SO SUPER YUMMY!! It was called Sakuna Khrua Thai and DANG GO THERE IF YOU CAN! I can recommend it to the moon and back, because it will send you there with it's yumminess...  >U>

My mums fish tanking business all the way over there in NZ is all in full swing too and Tash recently designed this super freakin' amazing logo for it!

Not too shabby if I don't say so... UwU

If you click on this link it will take you to her Facebook page, so if you know of any places in Whangarei that need an amazing fish tank or if you have an existing tank that needs a darn good spruce up, then you know what to do!

We have also acquired two new additions to our little family just today! Two tiny little hiss cockroaches named Red and Flynn (based off our super mega awesome webcomic pals who do the equally amazing webcomic Liar's Dice). Tasha's sister TK owns the two hissing cockroaches shown in the photo on this post and we don't think they are old enough to start hissing yet... but we are waiting patiently like two strange, proud parents for the day Red and Flynn hiss their first hiss!  >w<

SPEAKING OF WHICH, THEY ACTUALLY MADE A COMIC ABOUT IT! They also demand that you listen to this song as you read the comic, which is indeed very fitting! :D

Tash and I have just finished our monthly gaming hangout with our Patron's who support our work on Patreon and I am completely knackered for some reason so I am going to it the hay. All I can hope is that Red and Flynn don't crawl into our brains as we sleep.

GEOCACHING! COMICS! ALMOST NORMALITY!

We have been staying very busy over the last week. I've found something similar to normality, for now! Tash and I have both gotten back into the swing of doing our comics and making a presence online once again, and we have both been making an effort to go for a decent walk on a daily basis. Despite eating quite a lot of chocolate, I'm actually loosing weight! I do really think that it is because I am no longer eating sushi (SUSHI IS ALMOST NON EXISTENT OVER HERE) but that's not really a bad thing... my tummy was getting a little bit podgy XD

Tash and I have also been doing a thing called Geocaching while over here quite a bit. Geocaching is basically a global treasure hunt which is all entirely set up and maintained by it's community. It really is such a good excuse to make walks a lot more fun but also look like a complete weirdo in public! :D Tasha and I spend about 40 minutes nearby a cattle grid and gate looking for a cache that was basically RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR NOSES THE WHOLE TIME!!
....

But hey, it's a mega fun challenge and I would totally recommend to anyone who wants to get outside and look like a complete weirdo! All we use is the app on our phones and a little bit of luck! DO IT!

We have also been planning out some fun things to do in the future including going to a comic convention over here called Thought Bubble with an awesome friend of ours in early November this year. One of the people who originally made me want to get into comics is going to be there (which I only just learned this morning) and there are also a few other amazing comic peoples there who we are wanting to meet, so I can't freakin' wait for it!!

We are also planning to go to Ireland this year as well! My family tree links me back to Ireland and I am wanting to fulfil a promise I made to someone back in New Zealand while I am there.
I am learning that it is great to always have something there to look forward to and work towards, so I am going to make sure that there is always something there to work towards every day!

Other than that, life has been chugging away as mentioned below in my previous posts. I know where mostly everything is around the area I am in, I'm just not entirely sure how to get to most of it from our place though, but good things take time! :D I am making my mark on this place I now call a home and have already ripped up all the curtains and buried them in the backyard but I don't think Tasha has noticed yet. It is also sinking in now that everything is so very close when before it was on the other side of the planet, especially with the recent Brussels bombing which was just over the channel...

ANYWHO, I'm going to go eat a sandwich and draw this Easter Monday away until my arms get rigamortis! BYE! :D

ALMOST AT THE END OF WEEK ONE!

WOOOO!! So we are coming up to the end of the first week here in good ol' Blighty and I have enjoyed it a lot! Just seeing all the different places, people, and tasting all sorts of kind of  strange yet yummy food has been amazing! To sum up the past three days, here's some bullet points!:

• Chameleons
• Playstation 4's
• Pastries
• Forests
• Tiny deceased geckos named Merry 
• Super energetic three legged dogs named Marley
• Burritos
• Jet streams
• Re-setting up of computers from scratch
• Freezing cold bus stops
• More silly kitties
• Skyping families
• Heathlands
• DELICIOUS YOGHURT!!! @W@

It hasn't all been exploring pastries and tasting new forests though. We've been making our way through the last of the visa guff, and heading towards getting that pesky National Insurance Number sorted. I have just filled out a form that was sent to me to keep the ball rolling (they said form was meant to get to me within 7-10 working days, but it pretty much arrived a day after calling up the Job Centre, HOORAY!) Now we are back to just waiting and cleaning up a bed full of burrito crumbs after last nights gaming and 'Walking Dead' session!

Yesterday we tested out the bus system here to give me some independence while Tasha is at work, and it seems pretty straight forward to get around. My only concern is that 90% of the buses sound like they are on the brink of snapping in half and before flying a mile into the air and exploding, but I'm sure they are safe enough...

I have also recently learned that it can get FREAKIN' COLD here in the UK. Yesterday it was a high of 7 degrees Celsius with a nasty wind chill, and even my almighty jacket, single glove (Tash and I had to have one glove on each because we only have one pair!) and my slightly feminine Tasha-pre owned scarf was not enough to stop me from dying.

That's right. I'm dead.
I'm actually physically dead.
I'm actually totally joking.
I am not dead.

Despite the grey skies and bitter cold, I am still having a complete blast! Knowing that I have made it this far, from that little skinny kid hiding from the world in his bed in small town in New Zealand, to the other side of the freakin' world is something I would have never have predicted, and it is all finally sinking in. It just makes you fully realise that life can really just take you pretty much everywhere if you just take some risks and keep a look for those opportunities.

Also, being with your ultimate bestie is by far the most amazing way to spend your life and I wouldn't change it for anything, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Tasha really had just made this transition of my life so easy and smooth and I cannot thank her and her amazing family for making this that it is right now. <3

We are now going to get ready to head off to get some food for the cupboards as they are growling, and then zip to watch Deadpool together! Odds are we will come back and either snuggle up and watch something or play a game or something (SHANE IS A LITTLE ADDICTED TO STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT ON THE PS4 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!)  It's another cold day out there so I can't think any other amazing way to spend the beginning of the weekend. <3

SO THEN-

As I type this, it is 9:49pm on Wednesday the 16th of March using Tasha's absolutely horrible keyboard which was no doubt made in the 1800s. We both woke up at 2am this morning we presume because of jet-lag from the flight two days ago, or maybe because we are just amazingly synced up together. We also accidentally slept 6 hours together at lunchtime because of this so now both our clocks are messed uP HORRIBLY AND I'VE ACCIDENTALLY HIT CAPS LOCK AGAIN FOR THE 5TH TIME IN TWO MINUTES BECAUSE THE KEYBOARDS HERE ARE DIFFERENT FROM NEW ZEALAND ONES. Tasha also just walked by with a bucket of water from her pet Axolotl tank while grunting 'WWWHYYYYYYY'.

I am fairly happy with how the move has gone from NZ to the UK, it's pretty much what I expected. The weather is a lot colder than New Zealand (NZ is just coming out of an amazing hot summer!), there are pigeons, and I keep waking up in a web of Tasha's hair every morning so far, so YA!

Today we went down to a tiny little miniature post shop to pick up my Biometric Resident Permit which is the very last step of the whole visa process, so it's finally all done and dusted and I can now focus on making a life here! It's super nice knowing that thAT'S IS ALL DONE AND I HAVE HIT CAPS LOCK AGAIN HAVEN'T I.

I also called up the Job Centre to get my National Insurance Number (NIN) application started! It will take about 6-8 weeks in total to complete because the David Cameron has to hand write every application form, or something like that.

Tasha also called up the Council to get me onto the Council tax bill, WHICH TOOK AGES BECAUSE THEY ACCIDENTALLY HUNG UP ON HER FIRST TIME ROUND!

Word of warning to anyone who want's to move to the UK...YOU NEED PROOF OF ADDRESS FOR EVERYTHING! Such as registering for the NHS, opening up a bank account etc. So having your name on a Council Tax bill is super handy. Get that done ASAP if you can!

The next big thing to start focusing on is a job for me! I have a feeling that I am going to end up on a IT helpdesk like I was previously but I think I might end up dabbling in some random jobs first just to test the water a little while I can. Here are list of jobs I would like to try:

• Book shop worm
• Finger food collector
• Food storAGE UNIT CAPS LOOOOOOOCK
• Light shade mechanic
• The newest member of Moulin Rouge
• Tasha tamer

If anyone has any of these positions open then please message me ASAP.

Photo credit to Tasha Dancy 2016