Saturday 23 May 2009

House in Tauranga

Here's the long awaited video of the house. :)

Sunday 10 May 2009

New Zealand - Autumnal Trees

Ben:
Heathers been nagging me to take some photos of the local area. So I took my camera to a local park to capture some of the amazing autumnal colours. You can see some of the results here.

Thursday 7 May 2009

New Zealand - Settling in

I've had nearly two weeks in work now. I'm working as an Occupational Therapist - Case Manager in a Community Mental Health Team. The office base is in the grounds of Tauranga Hsopital but we mostly visit clients out in the community. We cover a massive area, about an hour north and an hour south of Tauranaga city. My patch is no longer the Mount (a long and not particularly interesting story) but instead is the city and up the north coast. It's early days but I think I'm going to like it, the people are really friendly, which is the main thing and it seems like a pretty supportive work environment. The client group is more varied than I'm used to and the role seems pretty flexible so hopefully I'm going to enjoy the post.

There was more than a little action on Monday though when a client turned up at the office with a gun! We were evacuated from the building and the Armed Offender Unit came out. They had all the gear, full-on black outfits with balaclavas, bullet-proof vests and the biggest guns I've ever seen! They shut down all the roads and we were made to wait for hours out in the cold behind one of the nearby shops. No one seemed very traumatised by the incident, we were mostly just pissed off with being kept late and not being able to go home! Fortunately no one was hurt and of course it made front page news as it's the most interesting thing to happen here for years!!

During my first week of work we were still living in Marge but last weekend we finally moved into our house. There's so much SPACE! We were literally dancing around the day we moved in :0) After living in a small van we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves, we don't have anything to put on the shelves or in the cupboards. In fact one room has absolutely nothing in it!! It doesn't quite feel like home yet but I'm sure it won't be long until we're settled in. We've been eating lots of food that needs to be cooked in the oven, as we haven't had one for so long, and are going to do a big shop on Saturday to fill up the enormous fridge! I'm pretty happy that it's just around the corner from work too. I can wander over in five minutes. It's bliss after my last OT job where I had nearly an hour commute each way every day.

Ben's been a bit of a house slave seeing as I've been going out to work and he hasn't. Each day I've left him with a list of jobs to be completed that day! He's been doing all the cooking and washing too - bless. It's kept him busy for most of the week but he's getting a bit bored now. I dare say it won't be long until he's driven into employment :0) He's started organising things so that he can make a go of his photography but is pretty frustrated about the fact that out phone line and Internet connection haven't been sorted yet. He must check the phone about fifty times a day! I'm sure once he has full access to his geek technology he'll be able to entertain himself a bit better!

Obviously we don't know anyone here, so our social lives aren't the most happening that they have ever been, but we're starting to make friends. We've latched on to a few people to go for dinner and drinks with. I've even joined a book club! It seems to involve lots of women sitting around chatting and drinking wine, so I think I'll fit in OK :0) Ben's gone off to photography club this evening and next week we start our scuba diving classes. I've also joined the gym and have been doing lots of running in anticipation of a 10km run around the Mount at the end of the month. Whilst Ben's finally bought himself a guitar and is meeting some potential music buddies next week (we have a suspicion that they may turn out to be fifteen though!) So we're definitely keeping busy.

It's pretty strange that it's May and we're heading into Winter. I think that's going to take lot of getting used to. After all that torrential rain we had when we went for our little jaunt up the Coromandel the weather has been pretty good. It's cold in the evenings and early morning but during the day it's sunny and clear, although not particularly warm. It's certainly a lot nicer than October in the UK, which is the equivalent time of year. It starting to get dark earlier and earlier though, which is a bit sad when I know that Summer is on the way at home. Still you can't have it all and I'm sure next Summer will more than make up for it :0)

So that's kind of it for now. We're back to the 'real world' as it were. It's a bit different from our old lives and we're excited to see how it all works out. But it's a bit sad too now that the holiday is finally over and of course we miss everyone more than ever now that we're developing something of a routine. It's been a really long time since I had a proper girls night out or we all went to a music gig or everyone came over for wine and a take away :0( But we are very excited that some of you are coming over to see us next Summer (Yey for Bethan and Ceri!!!!!) and are really happy to be here. I keep nagging Ben to take some photos of the place and we're going to do a little video of the house so look out for those. In the mean time... remember we love you x.