next few months…

It’s not long now but somehow it hasn’t sunk in that we’ve got less than three weeks left in Christchurch!! We’ve now sorted out what will happen immediately after leaving here – we’re heading to Taranaki (in the North Island) for just under three weeks for  J to do some locum work and then heading down to Dunedin to catch up with friends there before flying up to Auckland and then over to the Bay of Islands for a holiday. Once we leave Auckland we’re heading to London for 5 days of sibling time and then NYC for general joy and merriment before Christmas in Stanley and then New Year in Aberdeen. It’s quite an exciting three months we have ahead of us!! But still no jobs in Scotland for either of us!

things I love…

1. my sweet husband! Who’s chocked up with a cold but soldiering on thanks to Lemsip!
2. daylight saving – I love these light evenings!
3. catching up with old friends on skype especially old friends who’ve just had a baby!!
4. free sermons
5. cabbage and kale soup – who knew this would work? We had them left over from our veggie box and experimented – it’s tasty but that may be due to the wine we added!!

fun day!

We’ve had a lovely day today!

First, we had the dads and toddlers round this morning for brunch – Dr G and girls and Dr T and boy and girl. The kids ages were almost 4,3,2 and 1 and they got on a treat – playing nicely and having fun. It was great to all hang out!

(the kids weren’t the only ones who played!)

the two oldest girls did a great job of bringing me beautiful flowers!

And then this evening J took me out to a fancy French restaurant for dinner which was d e l i c i o u s!! Just so much fun to get all dressed up and be taken out and seriously the food was fab!! What a treat!!

admin day

Jonathan had an extremely productive admin day. You know the kind of days where you make a list at the start of the day and hope to cross off a couple of things by the end and then you get to lunchtime and realise you’ve done 3/4 of the list and then by tea-time have pretty much finished it! And they were big things too – new tyres for the car, WOF, transferring money from here to the UK, making a baked cheesecake for dinner. You can’t help but feel good at the end of one of these days. And then we went round to some friends for dinner tonight and had a very pleasant evening which the boys ended by having a nightcap so I reckon J will sleep well tonight even if I get up and talk in my sleep!

Two special birthdays today – Kate and Henry – hope you both have an ace day!!

Happy Birthday!

Maureen (my gran) turns 88 today! Happy birthday! (Not that she has a computer or reads this but the message will be passed on!)

I’ve had a prouductive day – both long and short term (e.g. long term: I decided what kind of heating we’d have if we ever built/renovated a house and short term: I shredded various documents from Australia that we no longer need and started thinking about packing)

And now J is off work for 3.5 days – love it!!!

lunching lady

I am now literally a lady who lunches! I was picked up at 10am today and along with four other ladies (who were lunching today but most do have part-time jobs and all are mothers) we headed out to Oxford and went to Jo Seager’s cafe and cookshop. We ordered the tea plates and enjoyed nibbles and small sandwich triangles finishing with tasty wee bites and cups of tea/coffee. It was a great place and tasty food but who have I become?!?!

settlers tribute

We received a most excellent email yesterday – it made us laugh a lot and (with permission) we share it with you – genius!! (They even got the window in the right place!)

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Hope this is not disturbing for you but we were at a loose end last night and spontaneously decided to try & recreate an ‘iconic’ image  from your blog – THE GAME OF SETTLERS. We think you might find the attention to detail quite impressive – even down to the accurate representation of Jonathan’s facial hair – and before you suggest some minor flaws look back at your blog – there is almost always a bottle of good wine & beer or 2(0) close by. Photo attached.

sunday happenings

We had a good day today (which is not unusual!)

First, we booked a wee holiday for ourselves at the end of our time in NZ – we’re heading up to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands for five days of rest and summer holiday before heading back to the NYC/Scottish winter.

Second, we had a lovely walk through the park and then went to the Sunday market for a wander before heading to the international food market for a delicious international lunch – I had Thai, J went for Korean – great food, cooked by genuine natives of whatever country and all at a good price!

And then this evening after church we headed to the Geddes’ and got to babysit for those sweet girls while Dr and Dr G had an anniversary dinner out. Both girls were on great form for the short time we saw them before bed. And then once they went to bed out came the Wii – love it! I am pleased to report I’m now officially a bowling pro!! 218 was my best score. (I got a turkey and four strikes in a row in one game!)

wordle

I do love a bit of wordle – great for checking what my sermon is actually about! Mum sent me this link today which is fab!

Flying men, ghosts and carrots; guest blog

Let’s start with the most disappointing of the three shall we – the carrots. Not disappointing due the subject matter (who cannot be amazed at such a blend of  fine colour, nutrients and cheapness) but with the size. At this rate our carrot crop will be ready about a month after we move out.

I spent a fair bit of the morning in the garden weeding and getting a bit depressed about how much the next people who live here are going to enjoy our veges when they finally get out of the ground.

We set off in the afteroon for a walk in the Banks Peninsula area, about 30 mins drive away. This was good apart from the apparition I saw while going through the old tunnels under the cliffs at Godley Head. We went for a walk to see the old howitzer gun emplacements which (during WW2 i think) they built to protect the entrance of Lyttleton harbour from potential attack.  The tunnel leads down through the cliff, which is where I met this…

Spooky.

Fortunately Morv was there to fend her off.

Would have been a fairly pleasant job I would have thought, manning one of those guns with a view like that. They were never fired as it turns out.

On the way to the cliffs we went along the Summit Road, and at one point came round a corner to see this…

They were just taking off and landing right there by the roadside.

We were amazed but the sheep had obviously seen it a hundred times before.

In the evening we went to Duncan and Bryony’s for tea which was great. Morv has made friends with their 4 year old daughter and spent about an hour pretending to fly between NZ and the US in a tent in the lounge. Apparently they crossed the Pacific several times during that hour – it was Morv’s dream come true!