Checking in

Posted on Wednesday 18 February 2009 at 08:34 - Post Comment

Believe it or not, I have yet to kill myself with the spear gun!  The long absence from a blog entry has simply been busy-ness, absence and laziness - in that order, and not Christmas present calamity.

Wow - so much has gone on since I last stuck something on here!  So, it was just before Christmas when we were about to head off to Kaikoura.  Well, you'll be pleased to hear that we all had a great time.  In the end it was my parents, T and I who headed up there.  I got well stuck into the spearfishing, and speared my first ever fish - a blue moki.  It went very well with the paua and crayfish that I also caught - and the parents loved it.

What a beautiful sight!

We also did some horse-riding which was a complete first for both mum and dad.  They had a great time, as did we all, and overall the trip was a fantastic success.

Christmas itself was brilliant - we all had a wonderful time together as T's mum was here with us.  The day itself was held at Kel & Carls, and we had the good old Kiwi BBQ for Christmas dinner.  It was pretty good too - and the day itself flew by.

After all of the flat-out business of having family with us, we felt that it was time to do one and head off on a bit of a holiday.  In Jan we jumped on board a flight a winged our way to South East Asia for a 3 week tour of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  I could write forever about the it, as it was an amazing experience.  However they say a picture can paint a thousand words, so here's us at one of the Ankhor Watt temples in Cambodia:

Oh, and I ate a spider - yummy!

We got back to NZ just as the great summer weather came to an end (yay - erm, not!) and have been back about a month now.  My birthday was a pleasant and quiet affair.  T got me Thai cooking lessons and I did the first last Saturday.  They are wicked, and I am now a dab hand a Tom Yum (my number one fave!), fried rice, and spring rolls.  This coming Sat is Pad Thai, Green Curry and Coconut Cake - shuld be good!

The house has been brilliant.  A good friend of ours house sat whilstwe were away, and we returned to an overflowing veggie garden, a healthy cat, and a house in one piece - so thanks Sophie!  Littletoe - at long last here's a pic of the house just for you:

All those windows make it great in summer, but now that the cold weather is due we are starting to realise a few of the pitfalls.  T has spent all day today getting advice and assistance on heating and energy efficiency.  A chap came over and had a butchers, and was impressed by the house, but confirmed our fears that it has absolutely zero insulation anywhere.  None under the floor, none in the ceilings, none in the walls.  All this = brrrrrrr!  Mum and dad - expect a call soon for that loan you mentioned.....

Following our move here, it meant that the house in the city was empty and was up for rent.  The bad news right up to Christmas Eve was that it remained un-tennanted and we were looking at paying a hefty mortgage on it come mid-Jan.  However it was A1 Property Managers to the rescue, and we got the call right at the last on Christmas Eve that they had leased it for a 12 month period.  What a Christmas present!  So, for the first time here in NZ we are land-lords.  Fingers crossed that we can keep it tennanted for the next few years and that it just ticks over nicely.

Work continues for me - it's all a bit doom and gloom within our business as there have been a couple of redundacies recently, however our office is fighting hard and we are working to keep the beady eye of job cuts well and truly away from the Christchurch branch.  Generally speaking manufacturing has taken the biggest hit here in ChCh, with a number of high profile companies - some of them clients of ours - cutting staff numbers due to a drop in demand for their products.  Cheers credit crunch!

I mentioned the veggie patch before.  Dad helped me clear it of weeds and plant it out before Christmas.  We are now enjoying runner beans, green beans, corgettes (or zucchinis if you're Kiwi - whichever way it's a bugger to spell!) radish and baby carrotts.  Soon we'll have spuds, leeks and beetroot too - and we love it!  We've been so motivated by the success that we are now thinking of adding a couple of chickens into the mix, so are meeting with friends Teamembo over the weekend who have chooks of their own.  We're hoping to pick up some tips, check out the stuff we'll need and the cost of it all, ad then we can go from there.  Chickens!  How River Cottage is that?!

T's business is picking up steam - www.atmosphereplanning.com is getting plenty of attention and now looks a lot more professional.  Thanks Kodie!  No actual weddings as yet, but some advertising and a forthcoming wedding fair should bring some enquiries.  In between times, T is getting to know the local schools in the hope of getting some relieving work whilst the wedding planning business grows - so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Oh, and do you realise that we have now been here over 2 years?!  It slipped by prety unnoticed by both T and I.   Whether that's a good or bad thing, we've yet to decide, but two whole years?!  Where did that go then? 

I reckon I'll leave it there.

 Happy anniversary to us