Tina, Amber & Scott

Since the last entry? . We were so conscious of this blog when we first got here, trying to update friends and family about what we were doing, and trying to impart a little of the flavour of life down under to those at home. Three years on, we’ll we have friends here, and family and friends fro the UK and Germany have come over to see us and experience the NZ way, to see that we don’t live off vegemite and have tropical beaches.  I guess the imperative to write has left us, so we grudgingly jot down as a chore what has been happening of late. Especially when not much at all has been occurring. Weekly routines of work, rest, and play merge into one, with nothing to raise its head over the parapet of life to be taken a shot at by the blogosphere. Sigh, Oh well, then, what have we been up to of late,. Week days is spend trying to care for a 17 month old little girl and her demands. Not that we begrudge her, but when her highness has been put to bed we generally collapse in a heap and have to be prodded to move and prepare for the next day.  Weekends is routine also, I Skype my father Saturdays, and raise early giving Tina a change for a lay in bed, and she returns the favour on Sundays. Saturday afternoon is swimming lessons and perhaps a trip to the park if the weather holds out, and considering its winter now we’ve had some pissy cold weather of late.   Sunday morning, DR WHO !  but just for one more week, and we’ll be at a loss . I try to fit in some home improvement and DIY if I can, recently the bathroom has been finished, although I am eying the floor in there wondering if I can replace a floorboard with something from 60 years ago I found under the house, and with Brian’s help, managed to sort out the coving in the washroom. Just need to strip some skirting boards, sand the walls undercoat it, strip the window, clean the windows, paint it, and put on the skirts and door frames and be done. I hope to finish by Xmas this year, or at least by the spring time, when the garden explodes and needs a twice a month napalming to keep back the onslaught of the grass.  Tina is out at the moment at the TSB arena for a parenting expo, aimed I think at mothers, and I have a couple of hours to myself, a rare opportunity indeed. With 35 minutes left before I to have an appointment to attend, so I’m dashing this piece off hoping it will sate the need for blogging for the next few weeks. If there is any news we will of course impart it, but most is done these days via twitter and facebook.  Is the day of the blog dead ?  Enjoy the video, This is of little Amber and her visit yesterday to the Botanic Gardens, and her insistence of walking the dog, I hope she stays away from the edge though…..

Days 3: It turned out to be another beautiful sunny morning, so took the opportunity to go to the top of Bluff hill, and look out over Napier, very nice view and very clean, from there we Silver Oaks chocolate factory and I had the best chocolate muffin with real cream and chocolate sauce yum, spent some time going round the shop and watching the factory works through the window, Amber was fascinated by a chocolate bunny that was as tall as she was. From there a drive to Ocean Beach as recommended. Lovely beach gorgeous golden sand but the weather wasn’t really up to much so we could sit and play, I should imagine that it gets really packed in summer though. Then a trip to Hastings to have a look around their town centre, and discovered that the fright trains go straight through a lovely garden in the town centre very weird. Then I had the experience of my food shopping life I went to Pak N Save Napier and what a wonderful place to shop much better than ours, I could have stayed longer but I needed to get back and as I had the dinner

Day 4:  Thursday was cloudier but still warm, she we decided to go to the aquarium, Amber wasn’t too impressed with the large tanks, but she loved the underground water walkway thing and we went round it 4 times, still only took us 1 1/2 hours to see the lot though, so from there after we ate lunch we headed off for cape kidnappers and clear view winery. We soon found out that it was actually a 5 hours return walk to cape kidnappers from where you had to dump your car, so we didn’t do it, the winery was nice though  did a little bit of tasting and  then moved on. I wanted to go and see the honey factory but we didn’t have a leaflet or know where it was only roughly in Havelock North, but as it turns out you really don’t need a map, just head for the general area and then its signposted. Amber and Scott both loved this place, getting to taste all the different honeys and watching live bees do their thing, very cool and we are glad that we went. We finished the day off by having the most delicious steak and a  restaurant called steak out yum,.

Day 1: So what a start to our holiday rain rain go away… Monday was horrid weather wise, we set off from very damp Wellington at 9:50am and after a very long nearly 5 hour car journey with Amber awake and not enjoying, being strapped into the car seat, we arrived in Napier at about 3 ish. It was pouring down and so we couldn’t see anything. We checked in to our motel room nice clean and tidy, just a shame our ocean view was obscured by the heavy rain. We decided to make the most of it, and took a drive around Napier starting with Bluff Hill, and then around town, Amber was protesting very loudly so we stopped at a burger king just to let her play on the playground and burn off some energy, then back to the room, to gather ideas for the week. Later out for dinner at Breakers restaurant, as they had an indoor play park and vegetables on the menu, so all were happy.

Day 2: How different was Tuesday, we had a terrible night sleep with Amber, resulting in both of us being up half the night and Scott sleeping in the other room with Amber from about 4am onwards. Still when we got up at 7am there was a beautiful sunrise and blue skies ahead. We took Amber to the park opposite and let her run wild, I have never seen a park like it no graffiti, no rubbish, what a clean place and so well kept. We also made most of the beach, and Amber loved playing with the pebbles between her fingers. Then Amber slept while we walked along the sea front and up to the Centennial Gardens Waterfall, via the Spa, War Memorial and sunken gardens. I loved the waterfall it was simply beautiful. From there on to town and a walk around the art deco shop fronts popping into the art deco shop and train land home to NZ’s largest model railway and a little ride on track that Amber had great fun on. It turned out the owner was from Somerset . Time to walk back to the apartment via the park and skate park and a afternoon nap for all before a late dinner at a different Breakers Restaurant.

Morning all, here’s a quick update on what we’ve been up to,  Amber has started her swimming lessons once more. She hates getting here head wet but we are trying to overcome that by dunking her as often as we can mothers day was last weekend, so I let Tina have a lay in bed and made pancakes, which Amber loves to munch on. She is eating well and never seems to refuse anything. We even tried her with a curry last week which she scoffed gleefully.  Al is across at the moment looking for a local job, hopefully we can get him in at work. And we have a week off at the end of the month. Travelling up to Napier for a holiday and see the country. Sam is being looked after by a friend of a friend, and should get a good run around and love for the week freeing us up which is a plus. Looking forward to Napier, and we hope the weather will hold. We might even be able to get out to the beach while were there.  We really need a break as we havnt been anywhere or had time off since last October.

Not a lot to report since the last update. Amber had a really bad ear infection and was a very grumpy girl over the Easter break, but she is back to her old self now. 

Easter was fun, first taste of chocolate for Amber  and she loved it (Surprise surprise). We also moved her from the bedroom closest to the lounge to the back extension bedroom, and now we can be noisy  with action movies etc and not have to worry. so that went well even though we did it on the weekend she was poorly she still settled into her new room very well.

Coffee group took all bubs on the train on Wednesday for our weekly meet up, and the kids loved it Amber just kept running up and down the carriage, it was very funny and tiring. Scott and I are both well, work is actually going ok for both of us, with Scott successfully completing his big move downstairs, and I am finally playing catch up before payroll kicks off again next week. At least it means money is coming into the house.

Scott is after a Google phone or something like it, and is trying to sell some of his discworld figurines to raise the funds, so if your interested look here http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=283484883

Clocks have just sprung forward  in the UK, and were now 12 hours distant, just for the week though, 11 next week as ours go back an hour as we fall into Autumn.  On the good side we have a four day weekend to look forward to this week, and two four day working weeks, yum.   Ok then news, work is getting harder and a pain in the neck, but it pays the mortgage and I’m lucky to have one in the current climate.  Last week I managed to get a couple of days leave and painted the bathroom.  We were going to have the whole week off and go up North for a relax, but after Amber smashed my front tooth, and Tina had an unexpected Dental appointment, well that blew the holiday reserve money,  I can’t wait to win the lottery, must be my turn soon.   As I said, the bathroom is finished painting, I just need to fit the window trims and the skirts, then onto the Washroom, sand, paint, and trim,  then fix the loose brick over the garage, then lay the path,  it never ends.  Oh, and we managed to get a heat pump installed into the back room the other week, so we’ll use the four day weekend to move Amber’s nursery into the back. Hopefully she won’t mind the move much, and the temperature is controlled, I just hope I can fit the office desk and a double bed from the back room, into the front room.  Thank goodness we didn’t decorate with children’s wallpaper when we did the nursery first time round!

Saturday was nice weather, Tina and her mummy pals organised an outing to the Blueberry farm, near Stag lands in the upper hut.  Lovely weather, but we didn’t spend too much time picking blueberries, or at least I didn’t, I think Tina was in her element.  Amber had fun running around and exploring with all the other toddlers.  She charmed the pants off everyone with that smile of hers and those blue eyes    The two girls in the shop at the farm were from Germany and Newry. Small world indeed. Sunday was a vege day, Amber had a long nap and we both vegged out on the couch. Amber woke us both at 5am this morning, teething bless her, her molars are coming through, and she hasn’t been happy all day.  Time for bed now though, and do it all over again tomorrow   Oh, and nearly forgot, Tina won a competition at work for dressing up as a Nerd   $20 for wearing a T-Shirt, with the title of the blog on it. I don’t think many people non tech would have got it though,  As they say, "There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don’t"