Hey everyone!
We've now been here in Welly for nearly a month - arrived 25th Jan and today is the 21st February - and as usual, it feels as if we just arrived AND as if we've been here forever ... well, not really, but there is a familiarity to things we didn't have two or three weeks ago.
I'm doing this update from a marvellous place called Network Newtown, which is a free community internet access point. No fees, only a time limit of an hour. And I'm online here because we still don't have telephone or our PDQ broadband line installed at home ... which is annoying in the extreme. Seems like it's not only SA where things take forever to be achieved.
We are doing well. Livi has settled into school and is enjoying the freedom of not wearing a uniform and of starting classes at 10.20 am instead of the usual 8am back in SA. (I consciously have to think about it when I write 'back in SA' - do I mean 'back home in SA' ...??? ) Work is going well for me. I am settling in, finding my feet and the people I work with are great - warm and friendly and helpful. More on this later ...
House wise, our little flat is proving fairly small and dark, so we're going to be looking around for something lighter, brighter and airier .. possibly more central to both school and work, although I have to say the bus system here is fantastic!
Today is the Cuba Street Carnival here in Welly and we're both going off soon to meet up with new friends to enjoy the day with ... so hopefully the next update will have more pix of today and us and life here in Welly. Speaking of which, life in Welly is GOOD, on the whole!
More to follow soon!
Linda
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
A Moving Experience
It's been a long week. School. Work. Hot weather. New things all over the place ...
But now its the Waitangi Day long weekend and Welly is buzzing! The Rugby Sevens, the Waitangi Day sales, the weather is hot and humid ... and we're moving into our new house!
Friday we went shopping and came home laden down with New Stuff for our new house - pots, pans, linen, cleaning stuff ... our little room at the apartment hotel was bulging at the seams.
So we hired a car for a day, collected two chairs we'd also bought, and carted it all over to the new apartment ....
But now its the Waitangi Day long weekend and Welly is buzzing! The Rugby Sevens, the Waitangi Day sales, the weather is hot and humid ... and we're moving into our new house!
Friday we went shopping and came home laden down with New Stuff for our new house - pots, pans, linen, cleaning stuff ... our little room at the apartment hotel was bulging at the seams.
So we hired a car for a day, collected two chairs we'd also bought, and carted it all over to the new apartment ....
Looking towards the kitchen ...
Standing in the kitchen looking out towards the balcony ...
And Livi in the marvellously funky retro multi-coloured kitchenette itself ...
And Livi in the marvellously funky retro multi-coloured kitchenette itself ...Sunday, February 1, 2009
We Found A New Home!
After only a few days of house hunting, we found the rental property that we're going to call home - for the next six months at least.
Saturday was a blazing hot day here in Welly and we set out around 2pm to go to three separate viewings - according to the map, they were within walking distance of each other. Well, the first one was at the top of a very, very, very tall hill .... when we got up there, panting and sweating, we were told sorry, it's been taken already! Duh! Couldn't they have put a notice at the bottom of the path? But we didn't mind too much as we'd decided about half way up that there was no way we'd take this place, no matter how cute it was .. imagine doing that slog with your weekly grocery shopping!
The second place had potential except for one very strange thing: the floor in the lounge was concave! It curved gently up towards the fireplace, leveled off for about a foot, then curved back down again ... very odd! There was also an odd smell in one room, as if someone had kept an animal in there for a while - so we decided to give it a miss and went off hurry-scurry to the last viewing. It was a two-level apartment within a complex at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac - lovely views out over the hills, warm and sunny, french doors out onto a private balcony, wooden staircase up to the two beds and bathroom (which has a bath - about four out of every five places we considered had only a shower!) and lots of trees and greenery. We both liked it immediately and had a good chat with the owner/landlord - he called us later that evening to offer it to us, we went back today at lunchtime and signed the tenancy agreement!
Here it is - and we move in next Friday, at which time there'll no doubt be a lot more pictures to show.
Saturday was a blazing hot day here in Welly and we set out around 2pm to go to three separate viewings - according to the map, they were within walking distance of each other. Well, the first one was at the top of a very, very, very tall hill .... when we got up there, panting and sweating, we were told sorry, it's been taken already! Duh! Couldn't they have put a notice at the bottom of the path? But we didn't mind too much as we'd decided about half way up that there was no way we'd take this place, no matter how cute it was .. imagine doing that slog with your weekly grocery shopping!
The second place had potential except for one very strange thing: the floor in the lounge was concave! It curved gently up towards the fireplace, leveled off for about a foot, then curved back down again ... very odd! There was also an odd smell in one room, as if someone had kept an animal in there for a while - so we decided to give it a miss and went off hurry-scurry to the last viewing. It was a two-level apartment within a complex at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac - lovely views out over the hills, warm and sunny, french doors out onto a private balcony, wooden staircase up to the two beds and bathroom (which has a bath - about four out of every five places we considered had only a shower!) and lots of trees and greenery. We both liked it immediately and had a good chat with the owner/landlord - he called us later that evening to offer it to us, we went back today at lunchtime and signed the tenancy agreement!
Here it is - and we move in next Friday, at which time there'll no doubt be a lot more pictures to show.
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