Who's in the house?

We are - huzzah!!

Despite there being a few bits still for the builder to finish off, we moved in just before Christmas.

It's lovely to finally have our own house again after renting for over a year in three different houses. Here are two or three pics of the house shortly before we moved in, and before the builder sent in his cleaners (so ignore the somewhat dirty 'n' dusty look).

Friends and family

Well it was great to see everyone but the time seemed to flash by!
Singapore, Ringwood, Cambridge, Norfolk, Barcelona - all seem a bit of blur now.
Here's just a few pics we took along the way.

Raffles Hotel in Singapore

Baby Elouise and Dad

The folly at Wimpole Hall, Cambridge

The cart that John's nearly built, Norfolk

Crazy architecture in Barcelona, thanks to Gaudi

and then there were two :(

Unfortunately our guardianship of Smoke, our grey and white (and very vocal) cat, has come to an end. Aged 16+, he was suffering from a number of ailments including kidney problems, serious weight loss, senile dementia and, most recently, cat flu.
So he is now buried near to Tasha in our garden, although not too close as Smoke always thought he was 'top dog'!

Around Australia in 18 days

Well, almost. In the last 2 1/2 weeks I've worked in Darwin, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, taken 10 flights, flown for 26 hours, travelled over 23,000 kilometers and worked in 4 different time zones! I've had a fab time, taken some great photos, but quite frankly I'm shattered and glad to be home! In fact, I'm thinking about leaving work early today:)

Take cover!

House building report #294

Well the outer cover of the house is nearing completion with a combination of the ubiquitous Colorbond (the wobbly steel stuff) and Cedar overlap boards. You won't see from the pictures that the decking is also 95% done and all the internal walls/ceilings have been plaster-boarded ready for painting.
We think the fit out of the internal cupboards and walk-in 'robe will start this week.
Carpet has been ordered - pure NZ wool of course!
All very exciting.

PS - we're planning on putting down some slabs in front of the main entrance door and then a bed to the right of that with grasses, ferns and sculptural blue/grey/green plants. This will 'soften' the colorbond side.

A long lost friend

On my travels around Australia I've been to Adelaide in South Australia. So what you say. Well, Adelaide is where my best friend used to live. I met Laurene in 1987 at the pub I worked in a couple of nights a week. (Incidentally, I met J there. It was a great pub!!!)Laurene was a Kiwi travelling in the UK and we hit it off immediately. She moved to Oz not long after I arrived here in 1988 and we shared a flat for a while before Laurene moved to Adelaide to be near her family. We saw each other on weekends - I still remember the overnight 12 hour bus trips!! Anyway, Laurene and I lost touch, last exchanging emails in 2002. As my trip approached I found my old address book and couldn't believe it when I realised that Laurene still lived in the same house! I gave her a call not knowing what kind of reaction I'd get. After all, it had been 13 years since we'd last seen each other. I needn't have worried. It was as if we'd never been apart. I can't believe we talked so much in the 2 evenings we spent together. What an extraordinary friendship we have. I can't wait to see her again.

The long journey

On Thursday I had a long drive to a meeting. I left home in Kingston, drove through Brighton and Bagdad before bypassing Kempton and the turn off to Richmond. I drove through Melton Mowbray, Epping Forest and within 30 kms of the Nile before driving through Perth to reach my destination. And in the afternoon I drove back!