New House

Our little family has now shifted into a new house in Johnsonville.

Our previous house on Ironside Rd was proving to be a right royal pain in the buttocks because it received little sunshine and was up a steep path. We apologise to everyone who had to endure such an atrocious and inhospitable environment.

However, we can now leave the wretched dark past behind us. Instead, you are cordially invited to bask in the glory and comfort that emanates from our new blue home.

Our new blue home.

We have a spare room all made up especially for (your name here), and a bigger, more inviting lounge in which a vibrant array of festivites commence after 6pm, culminating in designer culinary delights and entertainment beyond your wildest dreams... well perhaps on Wednesdays anyway. Most other nights we sit around picking fluff off the couches.

Upstairs bathroom

Sophie's room

Courtyard

Kitchen and lounge

Lounge

Out back heading towards clothes line

Our room

Spare room

Over the past few weeks the usual business of life has entangled our minds and spent our energy with great enthusiasm. The house was unpacked, Denali had a great trip to Christchurch, I watched too many DVDs to sustain consciousness and worked too many long hours again, and finally Sophie must have blown over a thousand spit-filled rasberries and gooed the syllables to over 50 nursery rhymes.

Moving house always brings on a closet consolidation event, where we trundle and sort through piles of once loved clothing and junk and put them all on Trade Me. We have... or did have 28 items (clothes, dining table and computer stuff) for sale. Of those, 9 sold... the ones that we hoped would sell. All the others have been relisted for one last attempt. Otherwise we will open our hearts to the wider community and put the unsold items into the local clothing bin at the back of the supermarket. We have already done a clothing bin dash, but felt that we had a few extra items that were worth a few bucks.

After feeling dazed and confused, empty inside and utterly depressed, I have decided to restart the Biggus TOP 10 list and the Internet Space Captain competitions on this blog. I know you have all missed them, and I thank you for all the kind requests, both nationally and internationally (Pakistan especially) for their return. As a special treat, here is this weeks TOP 10 List...

TOP 10 Things to do with longer daylight hours.

10. Get caught up on my refrigerator-repair correspondence course.
9. Write another cranky letter to TVNZ complaining about (former news reader) Judy Bailey's salary.
8. Add to my belly button lint collection.
7. Answer mail from pen pals, Lyle and Erik.
6. Straighten my armpit hair.
5. Re-arrange all the keys on the keyboard into alphabetical order.
4. Knock back a few dozen espressos and chase small birds around the yard.
3. Convince Peter Jackson to make an alternate ending to King Kong where the monkey lives, becoming one of New York's leading Wall St traders.
2. Two words: step aerobics.
1. Patent my new Teach-A-Baby-What-Not-To-Touch toy (see image below).


In other news, I am still trying to work out a good weekend to visit Christchurch and catch up with friends. Late October/early November is looking likely. Also, I have been using a skateboard for the last two months to get to work once I get off the train. Christchurch's esteemed goods importer Tim Chesney hooked me up with a friggin sweet Comet longboard. It took me about four 20min sessions to re-learn how to skate as I hadn't done it since age 12. Now it's great fun, and it only takes me 8mins to get from the train station to my work on the other side of the Wellington waterfront.

I haven't figured out how to stop going down hills yet though. I just jump off when the speed gets up too high. My biggest run so far was down a short steep side street that leads down to the Johnsonville train station. I left it too late to jump and had to stay on until the board reached the bottom. Scared the crap out of me because I started wobbling like a mad thing. Stayed on though.

Just received this e-mail (Monday Oct 2 4:32pm) from Scott Heslip in Canada (Denali's cousin). This is his advice for stopping a skateboard...

He also says: "A warning though - I usually wear through 1 shoe a summer... not the pair, just 1 shoe."

Hello from Denali;

Well it has been a while since I have written anything on this - I haven't even written in Sophie's journal since the end of August (something that needs to be done right after I finish up here), so I guess I have been pretty busy! Sorting out the house continues and slowly and reluctantly I get rid of (only a little) of my vast collections of stuff.

Sophie and I had a great time in Chch. Some people have said that we missed my flight home on purpose, but really we didin't!!! I just hadn't read the e-ticket clearly - opps - resulting in an extra 4 days with family and friends. It was fun going for walks with Mom, taking photos of Sophie with Carys at The Chch Press studio, and going for numerous coffee and lunch dates - I even had two nights to hang out with friends while Mom and Dad babysat Sophie (not too much convincing was required to get them to do that).

Sophie hasn't quite mastered the art of rolling over yet, but with no nappies (the cloth ones that we are using are bulky) on she rolls up onto her side and plays quite happily. She has really discovered her feet and they often find their way into her mouth and get chewed - mmmm yummy!!!

I am starting to help run a Mainly Music group with some people from the church around the corner from ours in town. It will be good to have something that I am involved in organising. I will start out this coming term just helping but will assisit Julie next year in the actual running of it.

Other than that the days are filled in by going for walks (when it is fine or not too wet - Spring is so changeable), playing, singing, dancing, changing, and feeding Sophie along with the usual running of the house.

We have decided to keep our house in Chch while it isn't too much trouble - long term it is a great little investment. We will continue to rent and possibly save a deposit for a house up here.

Well that is all for now - just going to relax and enjoy the last of the evening on the first day of daylight savings! - yeah!!! I love summer.

Spring smiles and love
Denali x0x

Well that's it from us this week.

-Rich

p.s. Internet Space Captain competition coming TUESDAY with NEW EXCITING PRIZES!!