Where on earth is Waddington....

Good question! Even some of the Kiwi's I work with don't know where we are moving to. Here's a map that gives you a better idea of where we will be in relation to Christchurch.

Whew, what a scorcher...

This week really was a scorcher in our house!! We were high on the news from last Wednesday that we'd sold the house and our purchase was complete, the next day we heard that Woz had secured a three year contract from the UK and can now work from home, then on Friday he received a nice payrise from his NZ employer and an equally nice Xmas bonus! We were on fire......

.... literally... last Friday night we had to call out the fire brigade as our chimney caught fire. The smoke alarm in the upstairs bedroom went off (halfway through South Park movie - how inconsiderate!) and we cursed and Woz rushed upstairs to rip out the battery... only to find the bedroom full of smoke! I dialled 111 and within 5 mins the fire brigade was rushing up the drive (ok, sauntering up the drive ). After standing in our gardyen with "oooh's" and "aaaah's" as they watched the orange glow emanating from our chimney, they finally decided that they ought to get a ladder and a hose....

The chimney was soaked (washed the windows too, yay!), and they proceeded to have a look at the house and decor . Have to say, one of them was quite hunky so I immediately delayed their departure with a house and garden tour .

So, all in all, a week to remember!! And this weekend we were finally able to relax, in a house that we've left nice and messy after being sick and tired of keeping it spick and span for house viewings, and on the deck in the hot, hot sun.

House Update....

It's official - the house is ours! Contracts have been signed, deposits paid and we move in on 3rd December - 2 days before my brother and his family arrive in NZ!!

We're (read that as I'M) avidly reading up on chooks (that's Kiwi for chickens) as the owners are leaving their three hens (Penelope, Priscilla and Prudence!). They are Plymouth Barr Rocks (sp?)(see, I'm learning!!!). Time will tell..... it's eggs or roasted chook!!

More ramblings on my day off...

I finished the previous blog entry thinking "whew, we HAVE been busy", and then realised I had missed out MORE goings on in the Leggatt household!

We went to see the Black Eyed Peas in October!! They were in concert at the Westpac centre. We really enjoyed it, but the acoustics could have been better! At one stage I had to lean over and ask the (rather young) girls next to me if I was deaf or if the sound was a bit muffled - thank god they agreed it was muffled!!

We have now booked to see Coldplay (Twisted Logic tour) in Brisbane (Oz!) next June - can't wait!! A long weekend in Brisbane...

And finally... we have put in an offer on another house!! I think I take after my grandparents and will be challenging their house-moving world record! The house is inland, near the mountains. Our house is currently on the market. Strangely we are not too fussed whether we move or not. Both houses are great. The one we are currently trying to buy does have more land, which is what we wanted, so fingers crossed that we may be in for Xmas!

Here's a photo of it:



Separate from the house is this tower! Great mountain views from up there, we'll fight over who gets that for their hobby room!!

It's November already.....

Where did the last couple of months go? We haven't had a fire lit for a few days now and the temps are climbing back into the 20's (was 27 degs on Saturday). Spring has definitely arrived. And with the arrival of Spring comes the imminent arrival of my brother Mike and his family. Three weeks to go!!

Today is Sunday November 6th. The winter has ended and we've all crawled out of hibernation into a glorious Spring. We have been in New Zealand for over a year, surprisingly it feels like a matter of months. We still love it here, although we are more grounded about New Zealand in general. More on that in another post.

On Saturday 5th November, New Brighton pier hosted the annual Christchurch fireworks display, but this year we didn't venture out as we stayed indoors to look after a scared Summer. Fireworks night here is so different from those back in the UK. Not only does the display have to start later (9.30pm)to ensure it's dark, but it's also not cold and/or wet and it just doesn't "feel" right not hugging a hot chocolate or watching sparkler dust land on your knitted mittens and wondering if they're going to burn through.... Instead we had our friends Tanya and Richard around for a bbq before packing them off with their 1metre sparklers down to the seafront... we watched the display from a first floor bedroom with the dog under the bed!

So what's been happening in our lives. Initially I thought I'd be struggling to come up with anything remotely interesting to enter into this blog. But on reflection we've been very busy!

I started a new job in September. I am now a Network Library Assistant across the 16 libraries dotted around Christchurch! Yep - me a librarian! But no twinset and pearls here - no hair scraped back into a bun and half moon glasses.. ohhh no. Libraries here are far removed from the musty, dusty memories of UK museums, sorry, libraries. Here the libraries humm to the sound of the inhouse cafe's cappucino machine, of headphone-wearing children playing Xbox and Playstation games whilst sunk into comfy beanbags and of after school children running up and down the aisles of the homework zone. I love the job. I was in training for 4 weeks and they let me loose on the network around 4 weeks ago.

Ok, time for some "not so good" news. We had a car accident in September and wrote off the Rav4! Thankfully we were both relatively unharmed - the usual neck / back soreness and cuts but we're fully recovered. We had the accident on a Saturday, the car was assessed and written off on the Tuesday and by Friday we had the $$ in the bank - how's that for good service from our insurers (State Insurance - had to plug them!). By Saturday afternoon we had purchased our Subaru Grand Wagon - and we love it - even though it is automatic (I'm a convert!!).

On the home front we've been REALLY busy! We have had the back room (Mike's bedroom) totally renovated. We ripped out all the walls and Greg, our builder neighbour, insulated and replaced all the walls and re-aligned the ceiling! We then turned our attention to the bathroom and study/sun room and these too have been totally redecorated! And as if that wasn't enough on our plates, we have ripped out the bottom of the garden and put in another lawn!! Phew - even typing all that makes me tired! I had better insert some photo's as proof of our toil....

The back room is almost finished...


No more horrid dark blue rooms in THIS house! The bathroom is transformed in green...


And finally, a new lawn. This area was originally a vegetable patch, we kept the feijoa tree and the black boy peach tree but removed a small nut tree, a small feijoa, one of the avocados (re-homed at Pete and Veronica's!) and a few currant bushes... we still have more than enough fruit-bearing plants in the garden.