DIY

I have just finished the first little DIY job on our new house. We now have towel rails in our bathroom and the toilet. And Joanne said I am useless round the house. Pah! ;)

Yesterday we went to the Canterbury Homeshow. It wasn't quite the Ideal Homeshow. It turned out it was more for people redeveloping or building a house, rather than for people in our position, but we did buy some lovely stone-coated saucepans. German technology, supposedly.

After that we headed to Payless Plastics and spent a bomb on 'storage solutions' crates and boxes and drawers and wireframe-cubes and underbed storage galore. We might nearly have enough storage to empty all of our boxes now. That's the plan for next weekend when we have a bank holiday on the Monday.

Oh yes, I guess I should mention the rugby at some point. England reaching the World Cup Final, eh? Better than most Englanders could have hoped for before the tournament and following the South Africa game. They look a completely different team, but I still worry that they've done nothing all tournament past No.10.

I spoke to my Dad last night, once we got his mic and speakers both working. Which was tricky from 12,000 miles away. Skype rules though. Free calls. What a brilliant idea. It was good to talk to him. We're looking forward to having him out here in Feb.

Joanne and I have been chatting about how we're both settling in and how it feels and stuff, two months or so in. It still doesn't feel quite like home yet. As Joanne said, after hanging up some washing yesterday morning, it feels like we're playing "house". It's quite different living in a house after ten years in a flat, having a garden and a garage and drying clothes outside and stuff. It's a lot of responsibility, you know.

Monika made it along to St John's this morning, which was good. She said she was going to come along and check it out sometime. Wally's sermon again was very challenging, looking at Deuteronomy 4 and what God has to say about idolatry. The six of us (Barry was working so it was just Mon and her three kids and me and Jo) then headed to a cafe called Scrummy Mummies. Rather a bizarre name, but a lovely place. It used to be Papanui train station before it was converted and it has been designed to be very welcoming to parents with kids. They have stuff on during the week for "mums and bubs". A really cool idea having somewhere for mothers to meet and hang out that is kid-friendly.

Joanne's working at the moment. I can't wait until the end of October when she eventually finishes with her old company in London. It'll be nice when they eventually pay her too.