Aren't we the socialites?

Posted on Sunday 24 June 2007 at 09:48 - Post Comment

So, time for a bit of a catch up.  Last week, T managed 4 and a half days of supply in all which is great news.  She's built the contacts as well through some avid networking and this can only be a good thing.  2 days already booked in for the coming week, so all in all it's good news on that front.

My work?  Well that's gone well too, with a big placement on my part putting the office over their budget targets and resulting in a meal out for us all with the boss - and all on the company.  Can't be bad.   Also got an email sent out around the entire Australasia office network about our achievements which felt pretty good.  The 2 bottles of bubbly at the team meeting also helped on the feeling good front! T and I had a celebratory sherbert in the Tap Room on Thursday to celebrate.   The bad news, however, is that Steve - one of the team I work with and the guy I ran the City to Surf with - handed in his notice as he is off to Wellington.  Bit gutted about that as he';s a right laugh in the office, a good biller, and all in all a pleasure to work with.  Wonder who the boss'll find to take his place....?  In a team of 3 people, the personality fit has got to be good otherwise all hell breaks loose.

This weekend has also been a busy one, with Friday night seeing us head up to Rangiora to have dinner and drinks with TeamEmbo from the britishexpats.com forum.   They were returning the favour from when we had them over a few weeks ago.  We had a great night, and the house they've got is brillient.  Loads of space, and a fantastic log-burner in the tennis courtsized lounge.  Mark, being a builder, has loads of plans for the place and it is going to be absolutely beautiful once he's seen all the plans through.  Can't wait for a look-see at the finished article.  Mandie cooked a fantastic meal and we absolutely munched it all up - can't wait for a bit more of that on a revisit too - YUM! 

Saturday started clear and cold, as we are having regular frosts at the moment.  Still didn't put us off doing the washing though, and 3 loads later we were up to our eyes in wet clothing.  The sun came out and did its duty, and even though we are right in the middle of winter we hung it all out on the line and by evening everything was dry.  Seriously!  Try that in the UK on Boxing Day.

After washing, we did the shopping which is when I got the lucky lotto ticket (see earlier post) and then just chilled at the flat for a bit.  Around 7pm our friends Gary and Justine came over as we were heading out for a drink and something to eat.  Earlier in the week I had got hold of some free tickets to a restaurant opening and we had invited Gary and Justine along to say thanks for such a great time last Sunday,  Getting to the restaurant we saw it was really formal, and we were all in jeans (apart from T who was lookin' FOXY in short skirt and black top.... dribble) so decided to give it a miss.  Instead, we headed to His Lordships Lane and went to Fat Eddies, a great music bar in this funky area of ChCh.  After a few drinks and a great bit of grub we went our seperate ways as Gary was on earlies the next day.  Seeing as it was still pretty early T and I headed back to the restaurant - called Strombolis -  and on arrival we got the red carpet treatment!  With free champers, food and drinks, a great evening was had as we spent the next couple of hours chatting to the owners of the restaurant and the ZM Radio sales folk.  Even better, it was just a short walk home, which was just as well as we were not too steady on our feet following the free booze. 

So, that brings us to today - Sunday.  After a lazy morning getting over slight hangovers (moreso on my part I must admit) we jumped on our bikes and headed down to the Home Show at the Westpac Centre, an arena type place where exhibitions are held,  There were loads of displays there for all sorts of house related stuff, but the most interesting to us were the solar heating and the central heating systems.  We are really leaning towards these systems, as the cost of energy here is only going to go up over the coming years.  There's no North Sea gas here to give us relatively cheap heating fuel, and so anything that can help cut hot water costs is of major interest.  The 2 systems we are looking at will cost nearly $20k to install in total , but the solar will pay for itself in 5 years, and even less than that if we plumb it into the central heating.  Bolier wise we have a choice of gas (shipped in from Aussie), diesel, or wood pellet.  We will be weighing up these choices nearer the time as all have their pro's and con's but at least we finally have some decent leads into the main players in installing ChCh's central heating systems.

Then on our return home, we found out we'd won the lottery!  All in all a good few days, and we are really starting to feel a lot more settled here.   A bit of a social life makes all the difference I can tell you.  Even better - there is a remote possibility that my good mate back in Southend might be making a move with his family out here to NZ in a couple of years.  Very much a wait and see thing, but it would be absolutely brilliant if it did happen.

Ah well, back to work tomorrow - onwards and upwards!