31 December 2017

December 2017 - the end of another year

Well here we are, it's new years eve. To us it seems like this year has gone so quickly. This time last year we had been in our new house for about three weeks, and it was far more bare than it is now. There is so much to do, so many things on my list, so many visions of how things will be, but we've actually done a lot already. We have a bit of lawn now, fruit trees and veggie gardens, the chooks are all grown up and laying a lot of eggs, I learnt how to make curtains and Nathan learnt how to make tile splashbacks.

As for an update from December - what has this month brought me? Well, work is finished for awhile and that's a relief. I have another nine days off. Work finished with three urgent briefings and completely over-the-top christmas decorating in the office. I didn't win or even get commended but I have to say, there was no criteria, and no time put into the judging to take in the crazy amount of detail that a couple of the pods (the science team pods) had put into their decorating. Not that it matters, the prize was only chocolate and the ideas can be pulled out again next year. Not sure what to list on my time recording for all that decorating though. We were fully encouraged by our director so I am in no way responsible for that waste of time. And it's surprising how many people got really into it - I can't help but feel that it was an outlet for how frustrated people are feeling with mid-level management right now (a.k.a. the aforementioned director). Anyways...




So December is a bit light on the news front. Other than work we have been just doing the usual. Working around the house mostly. I went to a neighbour's secret santa party, it was a ladies thing. It was fine and it was cool to see in her house but these things are always a bit awkward. We've been here a year and that was only the second time I have talked to our furthest-away neighbour. As usual, said we should get together sometime. Will we actually do it this time? On Christmas eve our car broke down. It started making a noise on our way down Wainui hill, and by the time we got home it was really noisy and the battery light was coming on. So we didn't go boxing day shopping as planned, we stayed home for two days watching movies and eating way too much (my tummy is still unhappy about how much I ate). Then we got really lucky, a local mechanic opened on the Wednesday, and he managed to get a part a fix the car right away, and it could have been way worse. Some sort of tensioner-pulley that holds the drive belt and makes the alternator and power steering work and fallen to pieces. He put in a new one, it wasn't cheap but wasn't super expensive. And it was done within a few hours. I was stoked to have the car back, and the battery was empty so I had to go for a long drive, during which I noticed that the car was driving so nicely! Obviously it had been going downhill for ages without me really noticing, and now it's really smooth and responsive.

As for Christmas, well that was pretty good but really quiet. It was just the two of us, and like I said we watched movies for two days straight. I got a jigsaw puzzle and two books - they are all finished already but of course that is why I wanted them. And I got a super expensive set of fancy Le Crueset saucepans. We ate way too much, and had a seemingly endless supply of candy and chocolate. I'm really glad that's gone. The cat got a toy but was more interested in our boxes and Cher got a bone because she has stinky breath by she was more interested in begging for scraps of ham. The chickens didn't get anything but they've still been laying well - I have 6 hens but got 7 eggs yesterday! We watched Christmas movies exclusively on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (both Die Hard movies count). Then Christmas was over and Nathan went back to work. I've spent my days reading and now I'm trying to get productive and do sewing. I just finished a hoodie out of this navy jersey fabric that is covered in sequins. Probably the most awful fabric I've ever tried to sew.

Right so it's nearly 2018 and it's time to go drink bubbly and listen to good music. Like last year, we are home in our house for New Years. We'll keep an eye out for fireworks and try not to stay up too late (the dog is already whining that it's bed-time). I'll update this with photos tomorrow (update on the photos - I got some in, and now my touchpad clicker won't work. Need to buy a mouse...).

01 December 2017

November 2017

This month seems to have flown by. It's nearly Christmas and it already feels like the height of summer. I actually can't remember when it last rained here, and we've already gone from water restrictions to an absolute ban on sprinklers. And that happened just three days after I bought a sprinkler! It was going to be great, I was going to multi-task and water the garden while also being free to get other stuff done, plus it would save me from all the mozzy bites I get when I'm outside watering in the evening. But now it's right back to using the hose. Only it is very dry here, the grass is all getting brown, and it's forecast to be a pretty hot dry summer so I'm going to do my bit to save water and only use hose water for my veggie-beds and herbs - I'm setting up a laundry drum this weekend to catch my laundry water to use in the garden. Which is coming along very nicely by the way - my broccoli plants finally have little broccoli heads growing in them. They take up a lot of space though and grow very slowly, considering how much broccoli I like to eat I don't think it's worth growing it next year. I could fit so many more other veggies in that garden bed and broccoli isn't overly expensive. My flowers are doing well too, all my lillies are starting to flower. They are protected from the wind because last year when we moved here (which will be exactly a year in 8 days) the summer was cold and windy and all my flowers got destroyed as soon as they opened. They're pretty safe from that this year.


So what else has been going on? Well I had my birthday at the start of the month so I'm 30 now. It's not so different. There were fireworks in the Wellington Harbour, the last time they'll be doing that for Guy Fawkes because apparently they're spending their fireworks money on matariki in the future. A great idea but riskier in terms of weather. And we went up the Kapiti Coast - weather wasn't so hot yet, there was a cold wind and piles of blue jellyfish washed up on the beach. It's still nice to get away and just be somewhere different though. And Cher came - she certainly didn't mind the presence of lots of smelly dead sea creatures on the beach!



Then I went down south for a conference, which went very well and also had a couple of really amazing speakers. There was my favourite fabric pop-up sale and I bought yet more fabric - I am actually getting into sewing and finishing some stuff though, I recently finished a blouse and a dress (I started both quite a long time ago though). Work has been fine - pretty busy. Things are getting quieter now so I can catch up on all the things that got put aside when everything got busy. And we're having a Christmas decorating competition - I'm going overboard of course.

Now it's the first day of summer and if it gets hotter I'm going to have a tough time of it. Work gets pretty stuffy and all this insulation and double glazing at home means I come home to a hot house in the afternoon. I think I need a paddling pool. We are having a very quiet Christmas this year, just the two of us - I'm feeling ready to get decorating so we'll look for a tree this weekend. I'll probably have to tie the decorations to the branches because my ridiculous cat will definitely think the whole set up is a toy for him to play in. I'll be taking a whole two weeks off over Christmas and I can't wait. Three weeks to go. I'm so tired of work, I need a rest. No plans yet, but if summer is going to be so nice as the last weeks of spring were, then we definitely need to get a BBQ.

Looking back through my photos, in November almost all of them are of the animals. With a couple of pretty skies thrown in and one where you can see some of our house. I'll make a point of taking better photos of other stuff for the next time - after all it is our house-anniversary in December.