You know you are in the 21st century when ...

You are upset that you can only have a phone call between New Zealand and Chicago because your personal video conference system (this case google video) is not working!

Lazy Thursday Morning

It is a quiet gray morning no sign of blue sky at all; nor is there any wind this morning.  Dennis and I are sitting down on the sofa chatting away this morning.  Chris is out running around Otari Wilton Bush in her last push in preparation for Outward Bound.  (she leaves tomorrow morning about this time.)

Time to make my second cup of coffee and get some grub before I start the work of the day.

Cheers!

The Weekend

We had a great three day weekend. (Thanks to that old lady living in Windsor castle whose birthday NZ celebrates the first Monday in June.)

The weekend started Saturday with a Birthday party for Dennis. Dennis had five boys from the neighborhood come over for the standard kids party. Lots of running around, games. Kid food consisting of some sausage rolls (kiwi equivalent of bagel dogs,) chips. And of course a cake, well in our case a dozen cup-cakes. (No worries Grand parents we will get pictures up soon.)

There was a pretty big lead up to the party so we had a down day on Sunday where everyone recuperated. I used that day to update the blog. You can see the new layout and a few new gadgets on the left.

Monday we had friends, Jeremy and Faye, over for afternoon Tea. Things did not go as well as we had hopped as the oven choose Monday to quit working. So instead of baked brie and an apple tart to go with our bottle of wine we had some cheese and crackers. You can learn more about our friends from their blog: Wellington Daily Photo (Link below.)

Then we took Dennis to Soccer practice where Chris and I went out for a cup of coffee. While we were out my buddy Andrew called and invited us over to watch the second game of the Stanley cup. We couldn't resist. So after practice we high tailed it over to Lower Hutt where Andrew lives and watched the Red Wings tromp the Penguins. What fun! We made it home by 10:00pm which worked out well as Dennis did get the sleep he needed.

Wadestown from the inside

A house is so much more than a bunch of pictures. However if you happen to live a continent or two away pictures will have to do. As we all know the hearth is the heart of the home so we will start with the kitchen. You our house is quite well layed out as the kitchen sits between the dining room and a sun room.

Now we will move onto the lounge which is to the left of the dining room (first picture above)

And for the bedrooms. First is Dennis' bedroom. Mom yes you can revel in the justice that my son has the tendencies towards messiness which I exhibited as a child. However you will have to have pity on my wife who takes the brunt of it, as a guy I really don't give a ...

Here is the guess bedroom. We have added a guest bed (futon actually) so please don't let the price of hotels stand in the way of you coming to visit Wellington!

And here is the master bedroom. Notice how nicely I made the bed.

Ouch Chris that hurt!

I will spare you the pictures of the bathroom, laundry room and the two hallways. Suffice it to say that they are both functional and small.

Wadestown from the outside

This is the outside of our Wadestown house.

South side of the house walking towards the front door. Which is right before the green recycling container.


Here is the back yard of the house. The picture is taken from the deck which is right by the back doors.

This is the side yard (north side.) That would be lounge with the chimney and the sun room is on our guest bedroom.

Here is the back yard. It is terraced and quite overgrown.

Thorndon House - May to July

Okay I am quite remiss at not giving you a view of our homes here in New Zealand. First we will start with our first house on Patanga Crescent. And as most things New Zealand it is a function of the views. Patanga Crescent had great views!



This is the master bedroom. Not too much to write home about but it was home for a while.

And here is Dennis with Lacey. Now that we have been gone for three months he does not talk about Lacey nearly as much as he use to do so. However the dog was an amazingly good member of the family for the three months we were there.

And this is the lounge. Many an evening were spent here reading to Dennis or to ourselves. The fireplace was a delight. We miss it greatly.

Our thanks to Pete and Tasha for letting us use their home while they were away.

Moving Day!

Today we move to our new digs in Wadestown. I am about to disconnect the computer and the phone so thought I would let you know we are offline for a while.

This house here in Thorndon has been great. In addition to the daily workouts of walking up that hill, or if lazy just the 40 steps from the car park; we have loved the place. The dog, Lacey, which came with the house has been a great companion forcing us to get out and explore Wellington. The views are breathtaking (see the banner ... that is our view.) It has been warm (has a heatpump!) Mostly living here has allowed us the luxury of finding a home and furnishing it.

And today we move into that home to start the next chapter of our great adventure in New Zealand. What an Exciting chapter it will be!

CarpeZealand!

Out of the Old

We moved from a small two bedroom apartment on Lampton Quay (pronounced KEY on this side of the world) the apartment served us well for a few weeks, but I must admit we were glad to get going.

in this picture than the whole three weeks we were there. It is only because we cleaned everything out and packed it up to move to the new house.

And of course he is all smiles in this picture. For the house we are moving to will have a dog which you will certainly read all about shortly.

Of course no writeup of a move would be complete without a few bags to show you that we really moved. The bags were more numerous this time than last. And we doubled up a few. This is only a small sampling of the bags and boxes we moved. This is actually pertinent; for the house we are renting has 40 steps from the car park to the front door. And when you are moving quite the number of suitcases and boxes up 40 steps it becomes real work.

For those of you who cannot do math quickly in your head let me help you. 13 trips @ 40 steps each = 520 steps traversed. The average building in Chicago has 15 steps between floors. 520 / 15 = 35. Yes I walked up a 35 story building with a 50 pound suitcase!

House and Car

We purchased a vehicle and have it insured! We can now be seen driving around Wellington in a green 1995 Toyota Rav4. I drove for the first time in about 30 days. It is much easier taking Dennis to swimming and soccer with a car. I have studied the map and we've been on the bus and train so I've got a good general sense of direction. However, I do have to review a few rules of the road--the roundabouts and giving way.

We moved into a house last Friday. In the photo it is the one on the top with a green roof. We are also dog sitting. The dog is a chocolate Labrador named Lacey. She is well trained and a pleasure to have around. She is happy as long as she is fed, walked and given some attention. Dennis enjoys playing fetch with her. Out in the wooded parks she likes to fetch pine cones which we either throw or kick for her. It is especially fun when we are walking downhill and she slides to get the cones.

I am adjusting to the dampness combined with cool weather. The laundry is dried out on a clothesline. This takes lots longer than using a dryer. It also takes longer to dry when the clothes get caught out in the rain which happened last weekend. We do have a covered porch where we can dry some things; however, the rain does not come down straight in Wellington.

The house does have a wonderful view both daytime and night. Actually the photo is not panoramic enough. We do pay a price though--we have to walk up steps. When Tom walks home from work he has to walk up the hill and then walk up the steps. Then to walk the dog, we can go up the hill even more!

Home Sweet Home

Home is an interesting concept. We lived in the Keeler house for seven years. I don't remember when it turned into our home, at first it was our house. I think it took the better part of a year before I considered it our home. When we sold it I agonized over the transaction for it was MY home!

Now we live on Harding in Evanston by the graciousness of some friends of ours. When we first moved into the house it was a house. It wasn't our house nor was it our home. Here four months later it has become our home. Not in ownership but in familiarity, caring for it (for I have done some painting with the owners blessing,) and memories. There have been many sad partings within the walls of this house, our home.

Now we are moving to another country and another home. We will be living

http://www.centurycity.co.nz/inner_city/332TheQuay.html

Go ahead and Google " 332 Lambton Quay, Wellington " to find out where it is.

This will be our home for a month. We are talking to a owner of a house very near here to let us rent it for three months while they are out of the country.