Righto well here it is, a blog to end all blogs, great literary musings, earth-shaking revelations etc etc yaaaa Gen just get on with it would ya!

Having just read through an amazing blog by a lovely UK couple who settled in Christchurch 3 or so years ago, it has dawned on me that this could be a great way of staying in touch with loved ones, and giving them a birdie-eye view of what we are up to on the other side of the world! I love writing, have started and aborted a couple of blogs before but finally, finally I may have something useful and slightly interesting to write about! Sooooo.....

In a nutshell: met Darryl (Kiwi by birth and very much by nature, but also happy in his adopted country) 7 years ago in Southfields, London, fell in love instantly (well I did anyway ), lived in and around London together for many many long  years, moved to Brighton 18 months ago, married oooh nearly 3 months ago and in between all that shifting around he got made redundant and literally the next day woke up thinking life is far too short, we've talked about going back to NZ, he's got his British passport, we're married now....

sorry, couldn't resist putting a pic in - my  handsome husband

.....let's just get on and do it! I applied for partnership visa at the end of May, thought it would take forever, in the meantime speculatively sent my CV off to an agency over there and as everyone knows, the rest is kind of history so to speak! Visa approved in 3 weeks job offer 2 days after visa arrived. Ok so Auckland wasn't in the plan but what the heck, it's a cool city, we can explore the Northland from there and at least it is in the right part of the world AT LAST.

Handed notice in at work (very emotional, sad to be leaving team and secure big UK charity), one way flight booked 27 August, stopover in Singapore 4 nights planned, will be eating lots of ice kachang and char siu (oh yea!) and new job starts 20 September. And probably the MOST important thing, doggie is booked to fly with Air New Zealand 16 September arriving 18 September. For those who haven't already guessed who she is, nor the level of importance she has in our lives (!) here is a pic or two awwww

Dog  just getting a round in....sooo well trained honest.....

Going for a ride on a steam train......not many of those where we are off to!

ANYWAY enough pics of our family! You now know what we look like blah blah, on with the story

so where are we up to? Well it has been 2 weeks since I handed my notice in, 1 week since we booked our flights and also 1 week since someone totalled our car - sorry, I have to put another pic in but imagine waking up on a Monday morning and going outside your house to see this!

So we had to sell it anyway and it wasn't much of a car (but it was OUR car) but really this was such a shock! Insurance write-off! Made £550 from insurance so wasn't a total disaster as good workhorse of a car was near its end anyway but the principle of the thing!

And onto principles, we received a rude letter from Lambeth council yesterday informing us that the works we had done to the flat (sorry backpedalling a bit, we own and used to live in, a little 2 bed ex council flat in Streatham which I can assure you will be sold as soon as the tenant's notice period comes around) was due to be paid immediately, no negotiation despite the fact it took 4 years for them to invoice us and we'd already offered to pay in instalments (which had been agreed)! So where do they propose we magic up 2 grand from? along with needing to pay for the dog to be flown over, this has come as a major blow to us financially. I will fight them tooth and nail simply because they were so blinkin' rude! If they had said to me 'oh we are so sorry but our rules say this is that ok' we would have gone ok fair play, but nooooo legal action the works. Bring it on I say!

 BUT such is life, and with a bit of luck and hard work we will contrive.....I was having a near meltdown about it this morning but it's amzing what a cup of tea and a day off work does for your outlook!

Packing is our next big thing - we are surrounded by boxes and Darryl is having an ebay/Gumtree frenzy getting everything sold over the next few weeks. I am not holding out much hope for the few boxes we do ship over arriving at all as Anglo Pacific seemed inable to find our address in Brighton to drop said boxes off in the first place (don't get me started on that - err yes Gen we won't!).....so how they expect to get them across the other side of the world I dunno! So valuables ie my shoe collection are coming with me and my 40k luggage allowance - thanks SIA!

You know, that's probably enough for one blog, and there will be more to say as we go through the horrid process of saying our goodbyes  to friends and family (makes it sound like we are going to our graves but of course planes fly and so on it just isn't the same as being in the same country innit). I will finish on a high note in that WE MAY JUST HAVE A HOUSE IN AUCKLAND TO MOVE TO! How exciting is that and huge thanks to our good friend for scouting round it - Mission Bay Sept 2010 here we come!

Love and hugs, Gen xxoo