Whanau visit!

My lovely family came up to stay with us last weekend (well, my Mum, Dad, and Grandad did).
One of the first things we decided to do was to tackle the back garden - as it was in desperate need of a makeover. So on Sunday morning, we all headed out there, clad in our gardening gear and proceeded to tackle the embankment that runs under the bridge at the back of our house. You have no idea how difficult it was to clear that bank - I think every plant under the sun (well, almost) was growing under there - including honeysuckle vines and Raspberry bushes. Not to mention various trees that had to be dug out. But Mum, Dad, and I made good progress on it throughout the day, with Grandad and Tim supervising (and taking photos of the whole endeavour) and before long the bank was cleared and in a workable state. Now instead of a bank which is choked full of old weeds and dying plants, we have a clear bank which is slowly going to be planted with hebes and other native New Zealand shrubs! Its time like these that I'm so happy we now have our own house and garden and its so exciting knowing that you can do anything you like to it. I'm so grateful for my family for helping me out like they did. I'm hoping I can return the favour for them when I travel down to Christchurch next week.

Go home grown food!

Yay! one of our chickens has finally laid an egg for us! I was sure we wouldn't get anything until the spring, given they're moulting at the moment, so finding the egg today was a pleasant surprise.

Along the lines of home grown food, I would like to add that I've planted Carrots, Leeks, and Broccoli in the garden. Of course, given I planted them right at the end of Autumn, I don't know how well they'll grow...... however, a few seedlings have popped up, so I live in hope.

I really enjoy being able to eat home-grown food. Not the crap you get from fast food stores..... Tomorrow night my parents and Grandad are coming to stay, and we're going to cook up a big tasty winter solstice meal! I can hardly wait, and I just love cooking nice food and sharing it with my family. Tim's parents will be coming down from the Wairarapa too, so it'll be great to have a big catch up.

Oh, and before I go, I will leave you with this to think about (found it on an Adbusters website):

A windy day at Shelly Bay

What do you do on a blisteringly cold, windy day in Wellington? why, go to Shelly bay of course!

Today I took my class to Shelly bay for some outdoor fun...... sure was cold though!

But refreshing :D

Time for some honesty!

Do you ever wake up, look at yourself, and wonder where all the years have gone? will time always move this fast? I woke up a while back, maybe a couple of weeks or so ago, with just a complete feeling of panic. I felt as though life was passing me by, and that I hadn't even begun doing what I wanted to do. Its like you have this mental image in your mind of the future, and then you realise that you are living the future - that its not something that is just going to happen 'one day' - but that it is something happening right now. I have so many things I want to do in my life - and am I doing them? no, not all of them. I want to write, I want to spend time in solitude, I want to see other countries, meet people that stimulate me......... who encourage me, and allow me to be myself. So much of what I do feels like an act - as though I'm playing a role or a part in some greater production - that I am an actor struggling to remember my lines and show the appropriate emotions that is required of her. I guess I'm afraid to be myself around other people because I've got this fear of being turned away - of being shot down. And to be honest, I find it hard to trust people, I find it hard to believe that they're not going to try and harm me in some way. Some of this stems from experiences I've had in my life where I've been hurt badly by those I've loved, and so I get afraid to open up, afraid to try. I often wonder if perhaps everyone feels like this? or maybe its just me and my lack of confidence?

Well, I suppose you just have to keep trying. You have to, otherwise you might as well go and live in a cave and stop interacting with other people altogether. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to try harder to break down the barriers between myself and others, but at the same time, I think that if I get hurt one more time I won't have the strength to try again, not for a long time, anyway. I'm so grateful for the people in my life that I trust completely and can open up to completely, and I'm going to try to do this more, and extend my group of confidantes.

God, this is making barely any sense! maybe I need another drink?

I'm probably going to look at this and cringe, at some later stage. But it does feel refreshing to just be honest for a change. I think I'll continue this post at some later stage, but for now, I'll leave you with this to think about:

Our study rocks!

Here is the new layout of our 'study'.

It was Tim's idea to put down the red rug. I think it's really made the study seem more homely and warm.

What do you think?

My new glasses have arrived!

Well, they finally arrived today - the two pairs of prescription glasses I purchased from the internet! here are a couple of pictures of them. I really like them, and as an added bonus, it's nice to be able to see properly again!

For those of you that don't know, you can buy prescription lenses and frames from a company called '39 dollar glasses', for, you guessed it, $39 US. If you want to look it up, its http://www.39dollarglasses.com. It costs only $39 for the frames and the lenses! all you need to do is send your prescription in (which you can get for free from your optometrist). Stuff paying over $500 per pair!!

Apart from buying glasses on the net, I haven't been up to much recently. Just enjoying the new house, and trying not to get myself killed at work (I kid, I kid!). Nah, just the usual stuff to pass the time. Oh, and Tim and I have finally got our study the way we want it, so I'll post up a couple of pictures of that for you!

Ciao!

Our lounge!

Here it is, in all it's glory! what do you think of our leather sofa's? we got them from Nicki Brindle, Tim's lovely Aunty, when she was recently having a clean-out of her garage.

BTW, We brought a bean bag today (dark blue) and have placed it where that little coffee table is in the photo. I love bean bags!

Dinner at Debs and Nicks

Last night we caught up with our friends Debbie and Nick - who have recently got engaged! congratulations guys! they are also, like us, new home owners.

They cooked us a spectacular dinner (which is what you get when you have dinner with Deb's cooking, as she loves to try out really exotic recipes). She made tomato and onion tartlets, these scrumptious pear and blue cheese things, topped with beaten egg white, and the most tender steak, cooked for us on their bbq outside the door of their lounge! so we were looked after rather well. Their house is really cool, some of the decor is really retro, which I love. I wanted to make off with their lampshades in their lounge, and Tim even suggested swapping them for the ones we have in our bedroom, but unfortunately for us, they didn't buy into it! oh well! you can't blame us for trying, though!

Today we are busy with the house - trying to get the rest of the boxes unpacked, etc etc. It's proving to take more time than I thought, but slowly the house is feeling more like ours, which is a good thing :D we woke up early today and I went outside and discovered that the weekend paper had been delivered again (mistakenly), but it was lovely having it, and reading in bed with a cup of tea (assam tea......mmmm), with the sun streaming in through out window. So things are great up here. Very relaxing, and we're planning on having a night in by ourselves and cooking up a lovely big roast dinner. We're married and can afford to let ourselves go, just a little!