Everybody's gone surfin'

I woke up this morning to another blue pair of sky and sea. 15 degrees or so, sun shining, and this is winter here? I decided to go and get some fresh air and as it had been a bit windy last night there was a decent swell. Shirley and Joanne had been for a walk earlier and seen loads of surfers down at the beach so I thought I'd go and check it out. It really is quite impressive to see these guys riding the waves. They make it look so simple. I remember standing and watching them all at Surfers' Paradise in Oz when we were there in 2005. I wonder if I'm too old to take it up.

One thing I'm not too old to take up is golf. Joanne had some work to do today and Shirley had some stuff to do around the house so this afternoon I took myself off to the driving range just outside Warkworth. I don't know if the air is thinner here or something but I was definitely hitting the ball further than I have done consistently before. Maybe I'm getting better. I think there's still a way to go before I'm ready for a course though. Maybe I'll get some lessons and make use of this unemployed period once we get down to Chch and Jo's working.

And speaking of work, I've still heard nothing from my ex-boss regarding that little spreadsheet project he had lined up for me. Last contact I had was when I emailed him with my weekly rate and an estimate of how long the project would take. Maybe he's busy. Or else I was too expensive. But I would have thought I would have heard something.

Tomorrow we travel back down to Auckland, to stay with Joanne's dad for a week. Tom is driving us on his way to the airport to fly down and see his son Tomo who unfortunately had an accident a week or two back. Sounded quite bad, but hopefully he's on the road to recovery. By all accounts it could take a while though.

Big trees

Today Joanne, Shirley and I headed up north a little to the Kauri Museum at Matakohe. It was really interesting. Kauris, in case you don't know, are an indigenous tree that can grow really quite big and can live to over a thousand years old. It was interesting learning about the trees, but the really interesting bit about the museum was learning about the early pioneers who logged these trees and how they lived and survived. It was good to learn a bit of history, at least regarding the European settlers, of the nation I now call home.

Speaking of which, I've been feeling really weird in the last couple of days. Not sure why, but I kind of feel cheated or something. To me, this move was huge, bold, pioneering even. And yet, everywhere I go I hear English accents. It's not a brave new frontier I'm exploring at all. Loads of people have already done what I'm doing. I feel like my emotions are a fraud.

This evening I cooked dinner, ably-assisted in the kitchen by the lovely Joanne. We cooked for Shirley and Tom, and Grant and Trina came over too. I decided I wanted to do something English so cooked toad in the hole, as I mentioned I was going to, with mash, beans and gravy. Totally northern. I followed up with banana, rum and walnut spiced crumble, my own invention. I think everyone enjoyed the grub. They certainly all put enough away and then moaned they were completely stuffed enough to suggest they enjoyed it. It does make me happy to cook for people and then have them not be able to move for an hour. It makes the effort so worthwhile.

And speaking of food, our trip to the supermarket for a few things with Shirley today surpassed all expectations. I discovered they sell English Marmite (although the call it 'Our Mate') and HP Brown Sauce. I could not be happier!

Oh, and the flat sale completed to top off a rather good day.

Reassuring

It is immensely reassuring to know that wherever we go in the world we can find brother and sisters in Christ. It is great to have physical family close, but it's also important to have spiritual family too, even if we only cross paths for a short time. Our trip to the local church in Leigh this morning brought us across warm and welcoming fellow Christians, and just like my time in New York, the world seems a little smaller when you meet Christian family thousands of miles away from home. I might have given a higher proportion of a talk on the John 9 passage we looked a today to the spiritual significance of the physical sign and a little less to physical healing in today's world but we got there eventually, and anyhow, that's not the main thing I'll remember about this morning.

Last night a big storm rolled in. It was pretty impressive - 12 hours of gales and driving rain (although the sun's trying to come out again now and the sea and sky have mostly returned to sapphire blue). I am told last night's storm doesn't compare to the three day storm that hit here a couple of weeks back. To be honest, I'm quite glad I missed it. I didn't sign up for rain. I can get that back in the UK!

The one that got away

Today I went fishing with Tom and Grant, Tom's mate, on Tom's boat. I caught my first fish, a trevally, after about 30 seconds and thought it was going to be a day with a bumper catch. Sadly, it wasn't, and after that I caught nothing else. We didn't quite get near the 14 snapper we caught last time we were here, back in 2005. The day's highlight, for me at least, was the octopus I snagged and nearly got up. Sadly it got free just as it neared the surface and shot off back to the depths. Not sure what we would have done with it had I landed it, mind.

Joanne and Shirley went to a farmers' market while we were off fishing and came back with lots of lovely food. I've volunteered to cook dinner one night while we're here, toad in the hole, a real taste of England, so they were on the hunt for sausages. Jo couldn't find any Lincolnshire sausages though so we'll have to make do with lamb and mint.

What a country!

Chocolate fudge brownie Dairy Milk! Why didn't I move here years ago?

Busy morning

Three jobs applications submitted and it's only just 11:30. One with the University of Canterbury (Student Data and Reporting Analyst), one with an electricity company called Orion (Commerical Analyst), and one with the Inland Revenue (Analyst within the Risk and Intelligence Group). Fingers crossed, eh?

The first day of the rest of our lives

Joanne and I are having a bit of a slob-around-the-house day today. Which is nice. Especially after such a tiring last few weeks. Not that we've got nothing to do, mind. I've got a few job applications I need to submit, and Joanne has to do her daily time checking over CS emails and the like. Maybe later.

We've just got back from a walk around Leigh with Shirley. Enjoying the blue skies. It's winter here. And the weather's better than the UK summer we just left. The walk took us along the cliffs overlooking the bay. Round every corner was another beautiful view. It brings Romans 1:20 to mind.