Birthday Weekend...
… and I have realised that I have been very remiss. I haven't taken any photos of the birthday events this weekend at all, so you will have to use your imaginations.
Yesterday, being Saturday the 11th, was Claire's birthday. She was at work as annual leave is not allowed at Whitcoulls during December. She had been scheduled to finish an hour later than usual but managed to get it changed back to her usual finish time. So Ryan picked her up and brought her home while Nicky and I organised dinner (linguini with roast vegetable sauce served with ciabatta and focaccia (made by Ryan) and salsa dip, followed Kentucky Derby Pie and ice cream) and wine.
Nicky and I had dropped Claire off at work in the morning and then gone straight onto a Housing NZ course in Henderson which Nicky had booked us on some time ago. We were not sure what to expect; all we knew was that the course was to help people buy their first home. It tuned out to be very good, and very informative. The process of buying a house here is somewhat different from in the UK. The same sort of people are involved, real estate agent, lawyer, financier, but their roles are different and the legal procedures are not the same. I had heard a range of terms used by people when discussing buying a house, but I didn't understand them. The course covered all these so we now know about "going unconditional" and "cross leasing". One fascinating nugget which amused us was the situation where you build a house on Maori family land. This is a bit like having a house on leasehold land but you don't pay any lease fee to the family because they have given you permission to build a house. The only stipulation is that the house has to be built on piles - so that if you default on your mortgage repayments the house can be picked up and transported off the land! The help the government will provide with financing for first time buyers was also covered and may be of some help to us. In addition, the course was free and included a free lunch, so we felt we had a very good day overall.
Today, being Sunday the 12th, was Nicky's birthday. We were up early because she was being collected by her Church outreach group at 8am, and I was making a birthday cake with a recipe which we haven't done before - pistachio and lemon syrup cake. The most time consuming part was the shelling on the nuts to get 125gms of kernels. I then prepared a picnic lunch of bagel crisps and sun dried tomato dip, smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, and strawberries with thick cream and apricot and manuka honey shortbread. I picked up Nicky and we drove over to the Botanic Gardens. We enjoyed the music provided by a male voice choir on arrival, but were hungry so went off to find a shady spot for lunch. We enjoyed wandering round parts of the garden we had not seen before, but it was very warm so we made our way home for a quick cup of tea. The temperature in the roof was 44°C, the hall 27°C and the lounge 29°C. It has been a hot and sunny day (on Friday the forecast was for cloud and drizzle today).
On our return journey we were able to use a new road which has opened connecting SH20 to SH1. This has reduced our journey time to the Botanic Gardens from 40-45 mins to 20-25 mins.
After our quick tea beak we went off to the cinema at St Lukes to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which we both enjoyed. We had tea and birthday cake on our return and were then joined by Claire and Ryan for more tea and cake. Nicky and I rounded off the evening doing a delivery of Church calendars in the streets around us.
The rest of the week has been pretty routine. Nicky busy at work, Claire just did one extra day at Whitcoulls, and I did one Mac job. I spent all Friday doing laundry, shopping for the weekend, and preparing birthday grub. I also bought a real Christmas tree this week, our first one since coming to NZ.
On Wednesday evening Nicky and I went to her Church life group pre-Christmas social which was the usual mixture of good company and excellent food. We have also had phone chats with Gill, my mum and Felicity (though Nicky was out she she rang) over the weekend.
I think that's it for now.
Rick
Yesterday, being Saturday the 11th, was Claire's birthday. She was at work as annual leave is not allowed at Whitcoulls during December. She had been scheduled to finish an hour later than usual but managed to get it changed back to her usual finish time. So Ryan picked her up and brought her home while Nicky and I organised dinner (linguini with roast vegetable sauce served with ciabatta and focaccia (made by Ryan) and salsa dip, followed Kentucky Derby Pie and ice cream) and wine.
Nicky and I had dropped Claire off at work in the morning and then gone straight onto a Housing NZ course in Henderson which Nicky had booked us on some time ago. We were not sure what to expect; all we knew was that the course was to help people buy their first home. It tuned out to be very good, and very informative. The process of buying a house here is somewhat different from in the UK. The same sort of people are involved, real estate agent, lawyer, financier, but their roles are different and the legal procedures are not the same. I had heard a range of terms used by people when discussing buying a house, but I didn't understand them. The course covered all these so we now know about "going unconditional" and "cross leasing". One fascinating nugget which amused us was the situation where you build a house on Maori family land. This is a bit like having a house on leasehold land but you don't pay any lease fee to the family because they have given you permission to build a house. The only stipulation is that the house has to be built on piles - so that if you default on your mortgage repayments the house can be picked up and transported off the land! The help the government will provide with financing for first time buyers was also covered and may be of some help to us. In addition, the course was free and included a free lunch, so we felt we had a very good day overall.
Today, being Sunday the 12th, was Nicky's birthday. We were up early because she was being collected by her Church outreach group at 8am, and I was making a birthday cake with a recipe which we haven't done before - pistachio and lemon syrup cake. The most time consuming part was the shelling on the nuts to get 125gms of kernels. I then prepared a picnic lunch of bagel crisps and sun dried tomato dip, smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, and strawberries with thick cream and apricot and manuka honey shortbread. I picked up Nicky and we drove over to the Botanic Gardens. We enjoyed the music provided by a male voice choir on arrival, but were hungry so went off to find a shady spot for lunch. We enjoyed wandering round parts of the garden we had not seen before, but it was very warm so we made our way home for a quick cup of tea. The temperature in the roof was 44°C, the hall 27°C and the lounge 29°C. It has been a hot and sunny day (on Friday the forecast was for cloud and drizzle today).
On our return journey we were able to use a new road which has opened connecting SH20 to SH1. This has reduced our journey time to the Botanic Gardens from 40-45 mins to 20-25 mins.
After our quick tea beak we went off to the cinema at St Lukes to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which we both enjoyed. We had tea and birthday cake on our return and were then joined by Claire and Ryan for more tea and cake. Nicky and I rounded off the evening doing a delivery of Church calendars in the streets around us.
The rest of the week has been pretty routine. Nicky busy at work, Claire just did one extra day at Whitcoulls, and I did one Mac job. I spent all Friday doing laundry, shopping for the weekend, and preparing birthday grub. I also bought a real Christmas tree this week, our first one since coming to NZ.
On Wednesday evening Nicky and I went to her Church life group pre-Christmas social which was the usual mixture of good company and excellent food. We have also had phone chats with Gill, my mum and Felicity (though Nicky was out she she rang) over the weekend.
I think that's it for now.
Rick
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