Too late now

I wanted to catch up on here with everything we'd been doing since Christmas day tonight but now it's too late. And with all the organising and stuff we need to do tomorrow before 'The Holts' Relocated Annual New Year's Eve Bash' ("Karaoke not compulsory") it's probably going to be New Year's Day before I finally get to write about the past week. In the meantime have a look at some photos here and here for a taster.

It is good to be home. Driving back from the airport tonight I asked Joanne if she felt "home". It's strange, as it's the first time, but we both did. We knew we'd have that "aaaah" sigh-thing when we walked through the door and crashed on the sofa, and so it proved. Apart from the earwig infestation in the postbox it was good to be home. After a week in a couple of 'finished' homes though, our house does feel a bit bare. I cannot wait to get pictures up and a rug or two and a cd rack and some shelves for my cookery books and some sort of storage solution in the garage. I'm so impatient...

Merry Christmas

May God's perfect gift, Jesus Christ, bring you peace and hope throughout the New Year. (If you're reading this, Anita, I hope you don't mind me quoting you here - it's just that it summed things up perfectly.)

So, Christmas in Nuzziland, eh? It's warm but there's not so much of the sun to be seen. I was fed a lie ;)

This morning Joanne, Shirley and I went down to the little church in Leigh with Leon, Nigel, Claire and Cleo and Georgie. Tom and Jennifer stayed at home. It was nice to be able to go down for the Christmas morning service together. The church was full though. Standing room only for the late-comers. It was good to be reminded on the real meaning behind Christmas, and why we really celebrate it. It's a great time for families to get together and all that peace and love at Christmas stuff is good, but there is more to it than that. Much more. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of that (he says moving right on to talk about his presents...)

After church we came back and opened our pressies together. I got a nice shiny new camera from Joanne. I'm really rather excited about getting to take lots of photos of the New Zealand landscape now. She also bought me some Acqua di Gio aftershave. Shirley and Tom had one of my photos printed on a canvas for us, a long panorama shot of the Thames that we took on our day up Tower Bridge. That'll look great near the dining table at home. Jennifer got me an awesome recipe book that mixes NZ recipes with beautiful landscape photos while Leon got me a very useful electrified fly-swat. Given the number of mosquitos that were feasting on my sweet English blood last night I could have done with it a day early. My sister got us two ticket-vouchers for a theatre in Christchurch - I really want to see Under Milkwood seeing that we studied it at GCSE, while we didn't have space for the present from my mum and James in our suitcase so we'll have something to open when we get home.

Right, it's nearly 1pm now so I had better head up to see how lunch is doing. Yum!

Snags

There must have been 20 or so of us at the barbecue in the end. Maybe more. Even the mayor of Leigh turned up. I've never eaten sausages with a mayor before. It was a really nice idea getting everyone together like that though. A lot of the people up here are parents and grandparents with family to stay for Christmas and it was nice for everyone who lives up here to meet their friends' families.

It was a bit strange though, for me at least, to be standing outside in shorts on the evening of Christmas eve at a barbecue. At least Dennis brought HP sauce though. Always rely on the Englishman.

Ducks at the beach

This morning the weather was a lot clearer and the sea a lot bluer so after breakfast we headed down to Goat Island. Nigel, Claire and Georgie did a bit of snorkelling around the marine reserve while Joanne and Cleo caught some rays. Leon and I headed out around the island on kayaks. I really did enjoy the kayaking. It was a bit daunting round the far side of the island with the waves getting up to a metre or so but once I had confidence that the kayak wasn't going to capsize it was fine. It would have been even better had the sea been calmer so that we could have gone closer to the island and even explored the caves. Maybe next time, eh? Despite that it was still great fun. I really am tempted to invest in a sea kayak. It is definitely something I could see myself getting into.

A rather bizarre scene at the beach involved first one, and then a whole load of ducks waddling through the sand and then heading into the surf and paddling away. I always thought ducks were fresh water birds only. Maybe these ones were just on holiday or something.

Tonight we're meant to be having a big barbecue with all the people from the surrounding houses joining us. If the weather holds it'll be good.

Joanne is in her element. For her, this is Christmas. For me, if I wasn't sat next to a tree and a big pile of presents right now, I would easily forget tomorrow is Christmas day.

Old feelings

It's a little strange waking up here now. Back here at the start of August everything was new and exciting, there was lots of uncertainty and we really didn't know what to expect. Now we have a house, jobs and are beginning to make friends at church and at work. But being back here all those old thoughts and feelings come flooding back, even though they're not still valid. As I say, a little strange.

More of that view

So, we're up north. The Christmas trip. We eventually got to Jo's mum's at about 5-ish. It's been a long da but it has been good to see both sets of parents. The weather's not so hot here so I'm not sure Jo is going to get her warm summer Christmas but the forecast is uncertain for Tuesday. It's nice to be away for a few days, to forget about work and stuff but sometimes it's tiring meeting all these new family members. I am looking forward to a nice big family Christmas though.

I'm looking forward to getting the camera out tomorrow. I always manage to get some awesome shots up here. Tonight while we were having dinner we saw a whole flock of gannets bombing into the sea afer what must have been a huge shoal of fish. It was amazing the way they flew in formation, queued up for their turn, and then peeled off like World War II spitfires before folding their wings back and dropping like stones. Unfortunately there weren't close enough to get a decent photo. If only I had a camera with a decent zoom.

I've just been watching clips of The Mighty Boosh on you-tube. I miss English surreality. I'm not sure it translates into Kiwi. The sense of humour can be quite different.

Shaky stuff

Another earthquake hit Nuzziland last night. 6.8 on the Richter scale. The strongest since 1987 supposedly. The cloest town was Gisborne up on the north island but according to some people at work it was even felt down here. Not sure what I was doing at half past nine last night but it wasn't feeling earthquakes, that's for sure.

It seems I misjudged the ability of my boss to get everything resolved regarding my department in view of his imminent departure to western Australia. We were told today what the score will be in the new year. Most of the marketing department will be reporting to a new woman coming in as the Senior Communications Manager. Me and one other in the marketing department will be effectively moving into the sales department, I think. But as the GM Sales has loads of reports already, and way more than is recommended in the company, the other person will be now reporting to him but I will be reporting to her. At first I didn't think anything of this but when I was told the news a big deal was made about the fact that I was reporting to a member of the Executive Committee (Ecom) before and now I won't be. I wouldn't have worried about it that much if they hadn't made such a big deal out of it. I'm not sure what to make of it really. At first I was reporting to an Ecom member, the same as she was, so effectively we were on the same level of a company organogram. But now she is reporting to an Ecom member still (albeit a different one) while I am reporting to her. Has she been promoted or have I been demoted? I'm not really sure. Supposedly the job won't change and I will appreciate having a manager who actually has time in the office to spend with their staff so should I really be getting that bothered about it all? As I say, I wouldn't have had a second thought had it not been brought up by someone else. Let's just see what happens, eh?

The other thing no-one quite seemed certain of is whether there is still a marketing department or whether there is a communications department and we just become part of the sales department.

One thing I hope doesn't happen is that my direct contact with the GM Sales is effectively filtered. I do a lot of work at present directly for him. That's good having that contact and exposure. I hope that doesn't change with my new boss having that contact and just passing work down to me. Again, we'll see, eh?

We got all packed tonight for the trip up north tomorrow. It's going to be nice to have a change of scenery. Just hope the weather is as nice as the forecast predicts.

Almost feeling festive

I had a mince pie at morning tea today. It was the first time I've felt remotely festive. I suppose tomorrow lunchtime, when we have some sort of office Christmas lunch thing (they had a spit roast a couple of years ago I was told) that I might begin to feel Christmassy. Especially at the end of the lunch when I can come home and not think about work until 3rd January. Other than a couple of public holidays I've had half a day off since I started at the end of August. I am definitely in need of a break. How do people survive in this country with only 20 days holiday a year? It's a big drop after I had 28 in the UK.

Last night my department (plus partners) all went out to dinner. I was unsure beforehand, with Thai food not being my most fave (due to the heavy use of noth lemongrass and coriander), but in the end the food was fantastic. Hardly a whiff of lemongrass or coriander to be found.

I guess last night will the last time we all go out together like that. In the New Year things are going to be very different. Lisa is leaving to set up her own creative design company and my boss is heading off to Perth to manage our new venture out there. There are all sorts of plans afoot to restructure the marketing department once he leaves at the beginning of Jan, but we're not privy to them at the moment. In theory we'll be told tomorrow before we all head home, but I'm not holding my breath. There are sorts of rumours about who will be reporting to you and the department being split up between different managers and stuff. I guess we'll find out at some point, eh? The uncertainty has definitely caused some unrest recently in the department though. For various reasons there are people with a lot to lose or gain depending on the outcome of senior level decisions being made.

It was so good to be able to play football again tonight. It's the first time for ages. It's just happened that the past few Thursdays I've had something on. I've certainly missed it. We won again tonight, 14-4. We're really playing some nice football at times.

I've just been reading Ruth and Keith's blog about their trip around the south island. It's great to find out what they've been doing and seeing so far. Although it sounds like they've had a bit of vehicle trouble.

So, one more day or work and then we fly up north for 8 days. It'll be good to catch up with all of Jo's folks. Gabi has offered to give Joanne and I a lift to the airport on Saturday morning. How lovely is that, eh?

Shorts or mac?

To say the weather here is changeable at the moment would be an understatement. It was 30 degrees at the weekend and yesterday morning. It dropped down to 16 degrees in an hour yesterday. And it's been raining now for the last 12 hours.

Summer Christmas? Pah!

Rugby and salad

Melanie came over for dinner tonight. It's nice having guests, being able to have people round. I know Jo enjoyed being able to catch up with her too. We've not seen Mel since Marvin and Tianhao's wedding in April, I guess.

I had the best game of touch ever tonight. I was like a spritely Inga the Winger. I actually began to feel like it made a bit more sense. It helped that we played five a side and had a bit more space than usual but it did feel good to be doing something right for a change. Much credit must go to my team-mates though. I couldn't have done it without them ;)

We've started inviting people to the New Year's Eve bash we're planning on having. It's not likely to be as big as the three we've had in London in past years, but you have to start somewhere, eh? People don't know about the tradition yet. We're bringing New Year's karaoke to the Kiwis. I'm not sure the Kiwis are ready for it but I guess we'll find out, eh?

Shepherds in shorts

Today I got to see my first summer nativity. It was carol service day today at church and the kids of the Sunday school performed the traditional nativity play. Bless. How cute. Nativity plays, singing carols and the usual passages from the Bible about Jesus' birth do seem a little out of place when the sun's shining though. I wonder if I'll manage to feel Christmassy once we're up north.

Melanie is over from Hong Kong at the moment, visiting her family. She just spend a week in Wellington with her mum and is now down in Chch visiting Mon and Barry and the kids so came along to church this morning. Afterwards we headed to Northlands for a bit of lunch. It got me thinking how nice it is that we're friends with Monika as a result of knowing Mel and Marvin back in London. Mel's over here for dinner tomorrow night so it will be good to catch up a bit. I know Jo's looking forward to spending some time with her bridesmaid.

Joanne and I stopped by Animates on the way home. They had two gorgeous little schnauzer-shih tzu cross puppies, one biscuit coloured and one black with brown 'detailing'. Getting a dog is a big commitment though, eh? And which particular variety is the rightr flavour for us? I think we'll revisit the issue in the new year.

Daylight

We moved one step closer to having everything done in the house today. We had our curtains fitted. Still no blinds, but at least we have curtains. It's so nice to have daylight streaming into our bedroom instead of daylight filtered through old real estate magazines. On the down side, it does mean we can now see just how filthy the windows are.

On Thursday evening, Keith and Ruth and Zack came over for dinner. It was so great to see them and spend time just chatting and stuff. It is kind of weird to see friends from London over here though, as I mentioned before. Just so out of place, I guess. It was a lovely evening though. We could have chatted for hours, and would have done if it were not for work the next for us and the start of their trip around the south island.

Zack did have time to christen our bath though (unless Shirley took a bath the other week) and to fall asleep on the running machine. It was where he chose to lie down. We did offer him more comfortable options.

Last night I got to play poker for the first time ever, with people with real intelligence rather than the artificial kind at least. Al was having a few guys round for a game and invited me when I saw him at touch on Monday. In the end there were only four of us, me, Al, Rick (another guy from church who plays footy with us) and a guy called Brendan. It was a great evening. A bit of banter and some cards. Can't go wrong, eh? And I didn't lose either, which was great for my first ever game. I came second in fact. I was winning until the final hand too.

Today Joanne and I had our usual Saturday morning gym trip before we had to rush home for the curtain guy. Early afternoon was spent at the unfortunate-sounding Groynes. It's a reserve up past the airport somewhere, for those too lazy to click. The reason we were there was for Joanne's work's Christmas picnic. Although it was more a catered barbeque than a picnic, to be honest. Lovely food too. The highlight for me was definitely when Santa arrived on the back of a ute and started giving out pressies to the kids. One little lad told me that Santa lives in Liverpool, although I'm not sure how widely held a view among little Kiwis that is.

Being at the work family party thing reminded me of the Christmas parties that Sartah and I used to go every year at the bus depot in Grimsby. I can't remember if it had been my nan or my grandad that had worked there, but either way, it was a party for the families of employees (and ex-employees too, I think). There would be cheese and sausages on sticks, ham sandwiches, some crisps, jelly and icecream, a few party games and then Father Christmas would turn up and give everyone a present. I still remember the curly-wurly straw I got one year.

I have to say that today was definitely the best weather I've ever enjoyed on my birthday. It's going to be weird having a summer birthday from now on. I'm used to my birthday being grey and miserable. It's been a good birthday so far though. The sun is shining, I got some cool pressies (a Transformers t-shirt and a DVD of the movie from Joanne, a barbecue implements set from my mum, a little golf ball and accessory holder thing from my sis and Ellie, and a Mr Bump t-shirt from Shirley and Tom), Joanne bought me a really delicious banana cake. Tonight we're off out for a meal. Probably a curry I think. We've not had one since we've been here.

Aural memory

Walking to work today the air was full of the scent of hops from the brewery just down the road from the office. I closed my eyes and was whisked back to Grimsby, maybe twenty years ago, to the kitchen of our house on St Nicholas Drive, to a vision of my dad straining his home-brew through my mum's tights.

The butcher of Halswell

Much of this evening has been spent attacking a 8kg ham with an electric carving knife. My company gives each of its employees a ham each Christmas and I got mine today. We decided it made sense to portion it up, cut some into useable chunks and generally freeze most of it in varying size lumps. I can't believe how long it took though. Getting on for two hours in all, I'd say, including cleaning the skin and fat off and stuff.

At half-time in the great butchery extravanganza Joanne and I nipped out to the airport. Ruth, Keith and Zack were due to arrive just after ten and we thought it would be a nice surprise to meet them off the plane. I'm so glad we did. It was so good to see them. It's going to be great to have them over tomorrow evening for dinner for some food and a bit of a catch-up and to hear all the news from our friends on the Barge. They're in Nuzziland for about a month I think with Christchurch at the beginning and end for a few days. It'd be great if they were around on a Sunday to come to St John's with us. I think Joanne's got their itinerary somewhere. Otherwise we can just ask them tomorrow night, of course.

It is strange to have people from our London life over here though. Sort of out of place. London is like a different world now, in some ways it seems like such a long time ago, and it's strange to have an overlap of worlds. Does that make any sense at all?

Let's get it on

Joanne and I went to a boxing fitness class at the gym tonight. I did some boxing-focussed circuits classes back in London and Joanne, of course, has her karate, so it was something we figured we'd both enjoy. And enjoy it we did. Although I'm not sure either of us will be able to move our arms tomorrow. It was kind of full on. The guy taking the class has both boxed and trained at international level it seems, but he does have a rather disconcerting way of persitently referring to himself in the third person.

I got my Christmas presents posted to the UK tonight. Finally. In theory the last cut-off date for pre-Christmas delivery is tomorrow so I just made it. Hopefully. Postage is expensive though, eh? Some of the postage cost more than the presents! Next year people get light pressies ;)

Ooh, and I forgot to mention, Jack Johnson is playing here at the end of March. Bon Jovi and Jack Johnson within two months. I'm not sure I can take the excitement.

Ruth and Keith and Zack arrive in NZ tomorrow evening. It'll be great to catch up with some friends from London. Sometimes it feels like that life was just a dream. The internet is a great way to remind myself it wasn't. I love email and Facebook. A great way to see what people are up to.

Blinded

Don't you just hate it when you know you had something with you and then you don't have it with you and you can't quite remember when the something's with you/not with you status changed? I lost my sunnies today. My favourite Bloc sunnies. We were Christmas present shopping up at Northlands and I had them when we sat down for lunch and then I didn't have them when we were coming out of Amazon. Somewhere in between they ran off. Most frustrating. I did get my dad am awesomely cool Christmas present though, so I guess it's a trade-off.

My work Christmas party last night was pretty cool. It was at a surprise venue so everyone got on the bus picking them up not really knowing where we were headed. The theme was "White Christmas" (just to mess with my head some more - this whole summer Christmas thing is so weird) and I kind of had an inkling where we might be headed but wasn't sure that held events there or not. It turns out that I was right. The Antarctic Centre does indeed cater for functions. It was pretty cool too. They even had a urea silo ice sculpture. We got to go in the antarctic storm room where there was a 30mph wind and a -40 wind chill or something and also to see the penguins, which was pretty cool. I like penguins. They're definitely quite a cool little bird really. I definitely want to check out the penguin colonies further down south at some point.

This week is going to be a bit quieter, I think, which is nice. Joanne's out tomorrow night at a practice for the choir for the carol service next Sunday (her and Naomi were trying to persuade me to go along but I pointed out that enthusiasm is not necessarily a beneficial attribute for a choir unless it is matched by talent) but other than that it's fairly quiet, especially since last week was the last bible study group of the year. I really can't believe it's nearly Christmas. The time since we arrived in Nuzziland back in July has simply flown by.

Oh, while I remember, a sausage update - they were not what I'd hoped, despite being assured by the woman in the butcher that were an authentic English pork sausage. Authentic southern pork sausage maybe. Not a herb to be seen. I'm going to have to make my own at this rate.

Right, that's enough. It's time for Burn Notice.

A small world

We've just got back from Joanne's office chrimbo party. I got to meet all of her workmates in the finance team finally. But then there was no room on their table so we had to sit with some other people who weren't in her team. But that turned out ok in the end as both couples either side of us happened to be Christians so we had a good chat about that and why we moved to Christchurch and stuff. The couple who were to our right used to go to church in Wellington with a couple who were in our team for the quiz at the St. John's parish camp last month.

And then we met a couple from Scunthorpe who have been here about two years and had their kids going to St James school in Grimsby. And then we met a couple from Hull who have been here about five years. Despite the Scunny bloke calling me a "cod 'ead", it was still nice to meet people from the little corner of the country in little corner of the world that is forever "home". I think the Hull fella invited us to go tramping with them (that is "walking in the countryside" rather than "hunting for hobos") sometime too.

The party was a very different thing from the ones I'm used to in London. For one thing partners were invited. That, in my experience, never happens in London. I've actually had people tell me that if the work party was "partners included" they would not be attending. That is quite worrying. What are they intending to get up to that they wouldn't do if their wife or whatever was there? Also there didn't seem to be the hard drinking sort of feel to the party that I'm used to from London. Perhaps those two differences are connected?

The team activity at Adrenalin Forest yesterday was awesome. And everyone had a go, which surprised me. There were four 'paths', each getting successively more difficult and, more tellingly, higher. One person could only manage one and a half paths. A few finished two paths, a few more the third path, but only three of us finished path four. At its highest we were 17m off the ground. That's about 55 feet. Or, if you know Christchurch, just short of the height of the Chalice. So quite high. I am so proud of myself for finishing the course. I was determined not to let it beat me. Despite not being a huge fan of heights. To be honest, while you're doing it, you don't actually realise how high you are. I was so focussed on each particular crossing activity, whether it be monkey bars or a a tarzan rope or a nepalese bridge or a monkey bridge or death slide (called a 'flying fox' here) or some weird rope bridge or moving logs or whatever that I had no time to focus on how far off the ground I was. Which was a good thing. I was very relieved to be sliding down the final commando slide though, I can tell you.

Moving on up

Every October at work there is an appraisal for each and every person and that feeds into the pay review system. Yesterday I found out about the results of my appraisal. The variation of employment agreement mentioned my "developing competence and performance in [my] role" and my "rapid and successful integration" into the company and the team. Sounds good, eh? It's nice to hear my work is going well and even nicer when it's rewarded. A payrise is always nice. Also, as it was only for a part year, I have been promised a further formal performance and salary review before June next year. Nice, eh?

More good news is that I have found a butcher in Chch that sells pork sausages. They're not called Lincolnshire sausages but they've "a pepper and sage taste." They have to be worth a blast, eh? Hopefully they'll satisfy my craving. Watch this space.

We got out flights up to Auckland for Christmas booked this weekend. Not cheap at all but at least they're booked now.

Tonight our bible study group had a Christmas social. Part of the evening was a present-giving game. We had all bought something for around five dollars and wrapped it. All the presents sat in the middle of the floor. Then the first person picked a present and opened it. The next person in the ring could then choose whether to claim the first present opened or pick another one to open. And so it goes, with each person in turn choosing to claim an open gift from someone else or open a new one. If someone had a present taken off them they could then nick someone else's present (although not the one that had just been taken from them) or open a new present. And so it went one until finally the last present was opened. At various times I had a quacking duck keyring torch a black and silver Santa Claus Christmas tree decoration and a 400g bar of Dairy Milk, before ending up with a Mr Bump floating soap. It was a fun game and much better than just picking presents out of the middle and keeping what you first get.

We've got another busy week this week. Tomorrow the garden designer woman is finally coming round to see us and discuss the plan she's drawn up for us. On Thursday and Friday I have a Crystal Reports training course. It's a database querying tool some people use at work. Thursday evening the Sales and Marketing teams have a social event at Adrenalin Forest, a team-building up in the trees rope bridge and commando slide type place, before heading out for dinner. Friday evening is Joanne's work Christmas do at the AMI stadium and then on Saturday is our work Christmas function at some yet-to-be-disclosed venue. Somewhere in there we have to fit in some Christmas shopping, and buying some sausages.

Christmas in the summer. Pfff! What's that all about then, eh?

Choo-choo

Burgers in buns followed by jelly and icecream followed by riding on trains. The kids were happy. I think the adults were too, to be honest.

After church today Mon and Barry and the kids came back to ours for lunch. Xavier likes trains and we'd promised a few weeks back that we'd get together one Sunday for lunch at our house before nipping across the road to the trains. Today was the day.

I thought it was just going to be a little circuit round and round, but it wasn't. In and out of the trees, over a bridge, round the duck pond, underneath the the bridge, back through the trees and back to the station. I can see why it's always heaving over there when the weather's favourable. Trains are always a winner.

Brain-dead

My head hurts. After two days at the start of the week listening to presentations about the company on the staff induction, a busy day on Wednesday trying to do a week's work in one day, and two days at the end of the week in Pukekohe listening to all sorts of stuff on soil science, arable farming and aspects of animal health products such of supplements and anthelmintics my brain is dead. It was nice to have a non-mentally taxing day yesterday. Really what I needed.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the week. It was great to meet some of the other new staff and spend time with the new group of account managers, it's just that it was kind of full on. Plus there was the eating out every night with no time to unwind really.

The last two days, the course up north, were really interesting though. For me it was just interesting context and background while the rest of them on the course actually have to know the stuff as they're the ones who will be face to face to the farmer trying to advise them what's best for their farm, trying to balance an economic optimum scheme with a biological optimum one, and all the while trying to persuade the farmer that they know what they're on about despite only being in the job five minutes. I don't envy them, but they are all keen and excited about the prospect, which is good. Half of the group were just out of uni after completing agricultural degrees or commerce and agriculture degrees, a few had experience working on or owning farms while a couple had worked for other companies in the mrarket. As such they all had a deeper initial knowledge of the content than me. As I said on the first day, I last studied biology when I was 14 and where I grew up I could see a field. I was definitely the benchmark for the tests we had to do. If anyone finished below me there would have been questions asked. But, as it was, they didn't. Maybe that shows our recruitment policy works, eh? I passed though, which I was pleased about. Not bad for a beginner.

On Thursday I got an email from Joanne to say that Shirley, her mum, would be flying down to stay with us for a few days, which was a nice surprise. We certainly didn't get surprise visits from my mother-in-law when we were in London. So we currently have our first house guest (other than the birds), which is nice. The first person to stay in the guest bedroom. I think we approves of the house. She had only seen it empty before.

Ooh, and speaking of the house, we have some blinds up now. The lounge/kitchen/dining room bit (I never know what to call that room - the family room maybe?) has all the windows done, which is nice. It means that we aren't being watched whenever we eat at the dining table or sit down to watch some TV now. The rest of the blinds and curtains should hopefully be here in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait to get the newspaper down off the windows!

I've been messing around with graphics packages, trying to turn photos into interesting stuff we can stick on our walls recently. We have an awful lot of wall space and not enough pictures to go round, I think. This is one I'm quite pleased with. What do you think?

We've got Monika and Barry and the kids coming round for lunch after church today. There is a ride-on model train thing that goes on opposite our house either every Sunday or every other Sunday and we'll head over there for a look after we've eaten. Ariana and Xavier will love it.