Rob and Melanie's Big Adventure

We're parents!

2010-09-25T15:56:00.001+12:00

Elizabeth Marie was born at 3:16am on New Zealand Fathers Day September 5th. 6lb 3oz.

First Feed

We've been rubbish at updating the blog!

2010-08-02T20:50:00.000+12:00

Posted by Rob :o)
We've neglected the blog somewhat and become Facebook addicts (well, I have) but I think it's time I brought this up to date and flooded it with some photos again.

So for those of you who don't know, Melanie and I are expecting a baby!
She's due mid September and we've been happily buying many baby things over the last few months and we are gradually starting to comprehend what's happening!

I don't think either of us have fully accepted that in a few weeks we will be coming home with an actual baby girl that we will be looking after for, well, ever. Despite the evidence and having finished and ante-natal class last week.

Other news...

Sam is doing well and is waiting until he gets big enough to eat us I think.

Noodle had another series of seizures, but she seems fine now that they've doubled her medication.

Meg and Mog are well but still refuse to come into the house because of Noodle. They're being a bit braver in the cold winter weather but they still bolt at the sight of her. After three years you'd think they might have started to realise that she just wants to be friends!

Other than that, um, I've been tinkering with the car again.

Red Rocks

2010-08-02T20:49:00.000+12:00

A couple of months ago we visited Red Rocks for a walk with Katie and Noodle!

We didn't realise when we set off that it was a 10km round trip! It's an interesting walk as it's a public road where people seem to go to test how fast they can drive their four wheel drives!

Full set of photos here:
Red Rocks Flickr Set

More wildlife

2010-08-02T20:00:00.006+12:00

This was somewhat unexpected.

I found Sam on our bed looking for something. When I pulled up the covers a great big rat leapt out!! I chased it around the newly decorated bedroom for about ten minutes with Sam and Noodle helping and Melanie standing on the bed!!
I eventually caught it after it ran up the vacuum pole, up the curtain and along the rail.

It was kinda cute, but a big bugger! Its tail was about 20cm long!

Only in New Zealand...

2010-08-02T19:01:00.009+12:00

...could you reach out for a spare loo roll and find...

It's a Wellington Tree Weta They're harmless and feed on rotting vegetation so I don't know what it was doing in the loo! Maybe looking for somewhere to lay its eggs - this is a female. The big spike at the back is an ovipositor. Males have bigger heads too.

Zealandia

2010-08-02T19:00:00.035+12:00

We went to Zealandia - formerly Karori Wildlife Sanctuary to check out the new visitor centre.
It's pretty good and worth a visit. Interesting displays and a nice cafe.

We wandered around the sanctuary too, had a ride in the electric boat.

And I went up for a look at the cave weta in the old gold mine

Full set of photos

Wellington Zoo

2010-08-02T18:59:00.000+12:00

Pics from Wellington Zoo on my birthday in March!!

Full Set of photos

Rob Vs. the Jungle

2010-03-08T17:45:00.002+13:00

Posted by Rob

Over the last few weeks I've been gradually attacking the front garden trying to de-junglify it and make it lower maintenance. This is my progress so far :)

Before I started:

After:

I had a bit of a surprise when I dug up a rock and found a big hole!

It's the old septic tank from before the house had mains water!

There's a lot more to do but this is how it looks now

AC/DC Wellington

2010-02-10T10:52:00.002+13:00

I went to see AC/DC last month! Melanie stayed at home as she can't stand them :o)

As always I took a couple of photos (with Melanie's camera)

This was one of the fans - he borrowed the busker's guitar and started playing Highway to Hell

Queues to get in

Shihad - the support band

Whole lotta Rosie!

Longest guitar solo ever!

Weta

2010-02-09T17:32:00.002+13:00

I found this when I was gardening the other day. I find them fascinating!
This is a female Wellington Weta - the big spike is an ovipositor.

Christmas in Taupo - Sunsets

2010-01-23T10:18:00.002+13:00

I love sunsets :)

Christmas in Taupo - Wildlife

2010-01-23T10:14:00.002+13:00

Pukeko

Black Swans

Tui

Moorhens and their chicks

Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNq-b97vEWE

This was sitting on my towel one morning

Christmas in Taupo - Travels

2010-01-23T09:50:00.003+13:00

Lunch stop :)

Red hot pokers and sunburnt sheep!

My kind of artwork - it's tea related!

Awesome views through the car windscreen

A photo stop on the Desert Road looking towards Mount Ruapehu

Catalogue pose :)

Panorama:

At the honey place near Taupo:

Serious driving face

Sculptures in Tokoroa

A random hydro power station somewhere

Looking North towards Lake Taupo on the way home

Panorama

On the road to Whakapapa ski village - the other side of Mount Ruapehu.

We drove up to the top - about 1600m higher than the road we started one! We both had a headache when we drove back down. When we got to the top the car smelled a bit like burning clutch!

The world famous Taihape gumboot

And the equally famous Ohakune carrot

And some sheep :)

Christmas in Taupo - Noodle's Adventures

2010-01-23T09:27:00.003+13:00

Noodle had the best time ever! Here are some of her adventures:

A lunch stop on the way up - not interested in the locals!

Bit breezy on the Desert Road

Can I go in the car now please?

Swimming in the lake was great fun!

So was drying off

Ducks must be chased into the water

Pumice stones are great for playing fetch

Special Christmas dinner? yes please!

AND a new toy?

Wags

Dogs are not allowed on the furniture

Holidays are so exhausting!

In the car on the way home

Christmas in Taupo - Rotovegas

2010-01-23T09:19:00.004+13:00

We had a drive up to Rotorua and a wander around. I got kicked out of the iSite because I had Noodle with me. "We don't allow animals in here" he said!

Rotorua Museum

The Government Gardens

Steamy hot sulphurous pool!

The pohutakawa - New Zealand's Christmas tree:

Christmas in Taupo - Taupo

2010-01-23T09:11:00.002+13:00

It's weird seeing Christmas trees in the sun

We kept stopping to take photos with the other tourists at the Taupo scenic lookout

A very clear view of Mount Ruapehu

Christmas in Taupo - Huka Falls

2010-01-23T09:08:00.002+13:00

You can't visit Taupo without going to Huka Falls!

Christmas in Taupo - Kinloch

2010-01-23T08:55:00.002+13:00

Some photos from near the bach

This is the street we were on - just near the lake

Swimming on Christmas Eve!

Clear water!

And a few panoramas

Christmas in Taupo

2010-01-23T08:44:00.002+13:00

We decided to go away for Christmas for the first time ever. We rented a bach (kiwi for holiday cottage) in Kinloch near Taupo.

View Larger Map

We had a great week. No internets, no phones, and we didn't turn on the TV.
Very relaxing, great weather, lovely place, and Noodle had the time of her life with loads of walks and at least one swim a day.

As usual here come the hundreds of pictures:

The Bach

Christmas day barbecue

Melanie's Full Teacher Registration

2009-12-14T22:21:00.003+13:00

Melanie is officially a fully registered teacher now she has the two years teaching experience required after her qualification.

The graduation was at Mana Cruising Club

Before - not nervous at all about being first up!

The rest of the school staff all sang a song!

Speeches!

Everyone from Corinna School who graduated this year

Outside wearing a lolly lei!

When Kiwis move house...

2009-12-14T10:50:00.000+13:00

A few snaps from our garden this week

2009-11-22T18:58:00.002+13:00

Blackbirds:

The tuis are feeding on the flax flowers:

And the goldfinches appreciate the weeds in our garden!

Gisborne Trip with Pete

2009-11-20T12:38:00.001+13:00

My mate Pete bought a ute, and I volunteered to drive up with him to collect it a couple of weekends ago.
It was a 1050km round trip. On the way up we wanted to get there as early as possible, so no photos. We set off at 5:30am and got there at 12 - On NZ roads that's not a bad time.

As always I took a couple of photos:

Lunch stop in Gisborne

Statues to the boy who spotted NZ land from Captain Cook's ship, and Cook himself

Then it was off back towards Napier

After 750km of driving, the cars safely parked at the motel in Napier

When we checked in the bloke said "Two queens okay?" I said "what are you trying to say?" :)

Around Napier

The traffic in Napier was murder!

After brekky Sunday morning we went to the National Aquarium

My car collected many bugs, two windscreen chips (they were boulders I tell you!) and one bonnet chip down to the metal! Oh, and a coating of sheep pee from a dribbly truck that we were following!!

The worst traffic jam we encountered

Home!

Noodle at the beach

2009-11-20T01:12:00.002+13:00

UK Trip - the journey home

2009-11-14T09:14:00.004+13:00

Posted by Rob

So Tuesday came along - our last day in the UK - and we sorted out all of our stuff and Melanie's dad dropped us at the airport hotel.

We stayed at the Premier Inn at Manchester Airport - never again! The power kept going off in our room so we were given a new room. The new room had no pillowcases and it took ages to get the heating/aircon to work.
Then we ordered a mixed starter platter in the bar as a quick snack, and it took over an hour to arrive and wasn't all that nice.

Anyway the next morning it was across to the airport. No way were we going to risk breakfast at the hotel!
We had an excellent brekky:

Then it was separate flights to Singapore!
If you remember, most of our flights were booked on Singapore points. Well we didn't have enough points for one flight from Manchester to Singapore, and it turned out that Qatar Air was half the price of Singapore Airlines, so I decided to go via Qatar.
So off I trotted to join my flight, leaving Melanie to find hers.

Melanie flew directly Singapore, checked into the transit hotel so had a nice quiet room, shower etc. She had a facial at the spa and chilled out.

I had the Qatar Experience!
On the first flight I was sitting in the aisle seat next to a girl who wanted to get up every hour for ten minutes, and who spilled a whole cup of cold water down my legs about halfway through the 8 hour flight. Fortunately I had another pair of jeans in my bag.
Then we landed - in Qatar they don't dock the planes to the terminal, you walk down the stairs, across the tarmac in the desert heat, then onto a freezing cold air conditioned bus - mostly standing - and get driven to the terminal, which took about 10 minutes. Then you queue to get security checked and bags scanned on the way into the airport.

You go into a nice duty free shop

And that's the best bit of the airport by far!

It's basically a transit lounge, so there are a couple of cafes and two food places. One smelled of aeroplane food and the other smelled of grease, and both had constant queues of about 50 people. So I stuck to Costa Coffee which had no queues!
And don't ask about the toilets - not pleasant at all.
So after seven hours there I was feeling somewhat frazzled.

Onto the next flight - about 10 hours I think - and I was on the back row which was nice, but surrounded by a large group of teenaged girls heading to Jakarta. They were all constantly chattting at top volume and seemed to be saying everything three times (they weren't speaking English, obviously!)
The two next to me kept turning their phones on and having to be told off by the airline staff. The lass next to me kept asking me how to work the entertainment system or recline her seat but spoke no English so we didn't understand each other! When I finally dozed off (thank goodness for the free earplugs!) after a while she dug me in the ribs with her elbow to wake me up because they were coming round with the hot towels!!
One time when I went back to the loo one of the attendants came over and said "Are they pissing you off yet? Because they are me!"

So when I arrived at Singapore I wasn't feeling too bright and breezy!
I had to check through customs into Singapore then back in to collect my luggage and check in with Singapore Airlines - so I got my passport stamped and was officially in Singapore for ten minutes!

Once that was sorted I could meet Melanie, have some food and chill in Singapore Airport, which is a wonderful place!

After a great night's sleep in the transit hotel we were refreshed and ready for the next long-haul flight!!

Leg massagers

Singapore Post

The Butterfly Garden in the airport

An A380 taxiing

Our plane!

After an overnight stay in Auckland on Friday night there was one final flight to take back to Wellington.
This is more the scale of plane we're used to!

Auckland

Random coast and clouds

Nearly home - Keneperu Drive and we're about to pass over our house

Petone seafront

When it's been raining a lot the water from the Hutt river pushes out silt into the harbour

UK Trip - Meeting Rob's family in York

2009-11-14T09:00:00.002+13:00

Posted by Rob

Because we only had six days in the UK we decided to meet my mum, dad and sister in York and have a bit of a day out :)

It was far too short, but wonderful to see them and spend some time with them.

A pub

The Shambles

We went in all the posh shops

York Minster

Of course I had to climb the tower

Nether Hornpot Lane?!?

Geese in the park

Even more photos are here

UK Trip - Sunday at the pub

2009-11-14T08:56:00.002+13:00

Posted by Rob

On Sunday we parked ourselves at the Angel carvery pub and met as many friends as we could.
It was great to see you all and your babies! Thanks for coming :)

UK Trip - James and Jenny's Wedding

2009-11-14T08:37:00.004+13:00

Posted by Rob

James and Jenny's wedding was the reason for the trip - it was a great day.

We were worried about the weather as it was rather windy and wet in the morning, but the sun came out just before the wedding and all was well! Still a bit breezy as you'll see when I overload you with photos in a second.

Saltaire church is a lovely building - built by the legendary Titus Salt

Salts Mill over the road!

The ceremony

Back the the hotel for the reception

Speeches

And a song!

A proper Yorkshire wedding breakfast!

And finally the following morning - the throwing of the bouquet

UK Trip Part 2

2009-11-14T08:08:00.003+13:00

Posted by Rob

We spent the next couple of days in Birmingham seeing Melanie's mum's family, then driving up to Leeds and meeting up with her dad and brothers. Here's a selection of photos:

Melanie's mum's

Raiding the cupboards for stuff they don't sell in NZ

Mmm, pies, and a pint of Lump Hammer!

Up to Leeds - we stayed with Melanie's dad and he very kindly hired a car for us which was great and helped us to see more people :)

Out for a meal in Leeds

Richard and Anne

Melanie, dad and Pam

Geraldine and Rob

Not sure what's going on here!

UK Trip - travelling!

2009-11-14T07:50:00.004+13:00

Posted by Rob

Well it's five weeks since we got back from the UK so I should stop being a slacker and post something about it!

We had a great trip. Much much too short for that amount of travelling but sometimes you have to do these daft things!

We booked the flights out using our Qantas points that we've been hoarding, and most of the flights back using our Singapore points from last year's trip, so we couldn't be too picky with the flight times.

So, off we set at the nice reasonable time of lunchtime on Tuesday to fly to Melbourne. We were somewhat disappointed to find that Wellington Airport has doubled its long term parking prices!

After an uneventful flight we arrived at Melbourne and spent about six hours in the transit lounge (those pesky reward flights!)

If you've been there you'll know there isn't a lot to do there! Most of the time it looked like this - empty:

Us just before getting on the flight to Hong Kong:

Our plane was sitting next to the terminal the whole time - just to torment us I think!

Whilst at Melbourne we had a chat with Qantas because they'd allocated seats on separate rows on the 13 hour Hong Kong to London flight.
They swapped us to two adjacent seats - in premium economy - result!!

Ten hours later - a very brief stop in Hong Kong. Just time to freshen up, order and drink a coffee and we were boarding again!

The premium economy seats were great - about 10cm more bum-room, loads more leg room (Melanie couldn't reach the seat in front to put her shoes under!) Nice big touch-screen entertainment screens. Great stuff and if/when we do this again I think it will be worth the extra cost.

We touched down in Heathrow and met up with Paul, a friend from NZ who's working in London. We wanted to meet some other Kiwis too but failed to bring their phone numbers!

So after a coffee and a chat it was off on the tube to Euston Station. We had a meal in the pub there and chilled until it was time for our train. And it costs 20p to have a pee there - which wouldn't have been quite so bad if the loos were clean.

We were impressed with the Virgin train - very clean, very smooth and altogether pleasant.

Eventually we arrived in Wolverhampton to be met by Melanie's mum. 47 hours from start to finish!

Quick Update

2009-09-18T11:35:00.002+12:00

I can't believe it's only a week and a half until we fly to the UK for James' wedding!
It's going to be madness. Six days on the ground out of 12 days' trip. We're landing in London, visiting Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford, York, then out of Manchester.

If you want to meet up, email me for details about the Sunday - we're going to chill in the pub for the afternoon as it's the only time we will get to meet up with any friends.

Other than that, um, well normal stuff really. Melanie's been poorly again! Coughing up all sorts of colours of stuff which turned out to be a lung infection. The third round of broad spectrum antibiotics seems to have shifted it!

New Camera

2009-08-23T09:17:00.002+12:00

After the Pink Ferrari episode at Te Papa and a lot of to-ing and fro-ing I got a refund for my camera and swapped it for a new shiny Canon 1000D!

There's a new Flickr gadget to the right of this page where you can see some of my photos.

Here are a few samples :D

What have we been up to?

2009-07-20T20:34:00.004+12:00

It's about time I did an update that's not all photos - so here we go.
What have we been up to? Not a lot really.

It's the middle of winter here and it's been cold! Definitely the coldest since we arrived in New Zealand. We've gone through nearly six cubic metres of firewood, which is as much as we used last year. Hopefully the third lot will see us through. The wood burner is wonderful - it gets the house so much warmer than the old gas fire we had.

It's been a bit shaky recently with a 7.8 Earthquake the other week down in Fjordland on the South Island - the biggest one in 70 years - but fortunately it was centred in a very low population area so not too much damage was done. I felt it up here in Wellington. There have been lots of aftershocks of magnitudes of 5-6. Not to worry though eh!

Things at my work have been interesting - we're currently going through our second round of "consultation" which may or may not end up in redundancies within our team. Fingers crossed - we find out next Monday. The last round two months ago was centred around the team I work in on a specific account. Five of the six roles were "best cost resourced" by moving them to Bangalore, leaving me as the remaining one. Most of the others have new jobs now, which is great. This time it's the wider team across several accounts.

Melanie is coping well despite her school being in one of the hot spots for swine flu! One of the other teachers was confirmed with the virus. For the last week of term she only had eight to ten of her class twenty-two!
Things seem to be better after a two-week break.

Noodle has been a lot better - looking back I never gave an update. After the initial week of being really sick she was a lot better, but then after a week she had another grand mal seizure. She recovered well and was fine for a few weeks, then had several fits very close together. The vet decided to put her on an anti-epilepsy drug called Epiphen, which she has been taking daily since. She loves it because her pill comes wrapped in something tasty like cheese or meat. It seems to be working very well - we haven't observed any more ill effects but think she might have had the odd small fit in the night. For ages we let her sleep in our room because she refused to settle in her crate any more but now she's sleeping in the kitchen because we need to sleep sometimes!

It's only about ten weeks until we come over to the UK for James and Jenny's wedding! The travelling is going to be interesting out via Melbourne to London, train to Birmingham to see Melanie's mum and family, drive up to Leeds - wedding and visits over the weekend, fly back out on Wednesday from Manchester. I go to Qatar then Singapore and meet Melanie there as she's flying directly. Then we fly out to Auckland the next day, stay overnight and fly back to Wellington, finally arriving on Saturday afternoon!
Six full days in the UK plus almost six days of travelling!
It's going to be an endurance test I think.

There's not much else to tell that I haven't covered in my photo posting :)

Formula One Exhibition at Te Papa

2009-07-19T19:50:00.002+12:00

Not the best photos - all the red cars came out pink!
Good exhibition - definitely worth a visit.

And a few other random pics:

Walk in the Gardens

2009-07-19T17:02:00.002+12:00

Last week Noodle and I went for a walk in the Wellington Botanic Gardens. I Here are a few snaps.

The Lady Norwood Rose Garden

The Sound Shell

The Peace Flame

Various sculptures

Views over Wellington

Melanie's Office

2009-07-19T16:50:00.002+12:00

Melanie has accumulated an enormous amount of teacher stuff which was beginning to take over the house. We have a room underneath the deck which we haven't really had a use for until now, so it's just been full of junk, ladders, that kind of thing.

After a few evenings of sprucing up, some new lights and a bit of new carpet it makes a cosy office for Melanie.

It even comes with a ready made cat flap so Meg, Mog and Sam can come and visit.

Sam Update

2009-07-19T16:48:00.002+12:00

Here's a couple of pictures of Sam to show how big he's getting! He's nearly 10 months old now.
He also has a new trick - stealing fridge magnets!

New cooker

2009-06-13T10:44:00.002+12:00

We finally found a cooker to fill the big gap in the kitchen and replace the 1970s one that came with the house (complete with a hole in the floor of the oven).

As usual we weren't planning to get one yet, but how could we resist $1000 discount and no payments for 15 months interest free? :)

Old cooker:

New cooker!

Graduation

2009-05-18T20:52:00.002+12:00

We graduated from the Mauri Ora course this weekend at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua.

It was a good experience - we were called in in the traditional Maori way and confronted by the staff from Te Wananga o Aotearoa doing a haka. We were on the front row so it was rather loud and impressive.
It was quite an informal ceremony with several of the graduates doing performances, and people jumping up in the crowd and doing haka or waita when their relatives walked up. Great stuff!

Our next door neighbour was there graduating from a different course, and we also met a couple of the people from the British Expats forum, one of whom did the course on my suggestion!

They walked up to me and said "You're Rob!" which was a bit strange but kinda cool :)

Me, and a couple of Buck Nin originals

More art from around the arena

We went to the rugby last Friday

2009-05-05T19:12:00.001+12:00

Watched the Hurricanes thrash the Blues :)

The Westpac helicopter delivered the ball!

Hamilton V8 Street Race

2009-05-03T09:44:00.007+12:00

We went up to the V8 street race in Hamilton, the weekend after Easter.

As usual - here are a couple of photos :)

On the way up. Hamilton is a 500km drive North from Wellington. We got as far as Lake Taupo and were running low on petrol. I'd decided to go up the West side of the lake for a change, but there are hardly any towns that way! We even turned off the aircon to save fuel when the gauge got down to 35km left. We eventually got to a small town with a petrol station. I started filling up the tank and realised after 18 litres that I had pick up the 91RON pump! The car is supposed to run on 98RON! I stopped pumping and filled the rest of the tank with 95RON - the best they have in most petrol stations, then spent another $28 on some octane booster. An expensive fill-up but the car was fine - phew!

Mana Island

Mount Ruapehu and the Desert Road

I didn't know Hamilton was where the Rocky Horror Show was created!

We arrived late evening and just got the tent up before it got dark!

We were defiitely in the Holden section of the campsite - the V8s are all about the rivalry between Ford and Holden - all of the race cars are Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores.

I love these - Holden Maloo V8 Ute - 307kw (417bhp), rear wheel drive, 20" wheels. The quad exhausts sounded amazing!

There were lots of cars on show around the circuit:

Around the circuit:

NZRAF Parachute team

The queue to get over the bridge after the first day's racing

TV presenters!

Some of the locals got an excellent view! The policeman was having a chat with them, making sure they weren't too drunk to be sitting on the roof!! They were offering him coffee and snacks.

Yoda enjoyed himself immensely!

The racing was great - very close, very tight circuit with a vicious chicane made out of two mini roundabouts - cars kept bouncing up on two wheels and breaking driveshafts and suspension when they dropped back down. I wish we'd had grandstand seats but the ticket prices were a bit steep!

One of the supporting races - the NZV8s

The Porsche Cup

The Holden Parade

The safety cars were Nissan GTRs

Toyota Racing Series

And finally the V8 Supercars themselves - the main event was two 200km races over the two days.

The only disappointing thing was that the cars were running on biofuel to reduce carbons or some rubbish. This meant that the didn't spit flames on the overrun. They did still make excellent pops and bangs though!

Here's a video of some nice V8 noises:

The Kitchen project of Doom

2009-03-08T12:29:00.006+13:00

As you can see from these pictures our kitchen was very old-fashioned and painted in interesting colours - I suspect the previous owners had some leftover paint from a couple of other jobs and decided to spruce up the kitchen doors with it!
There was no work surface when we moved in - apart from a pull-out chopping board under the sink. We bought a free-standing marble topped thingy to give some working space but half of it was underneath a wall unit so it didn't help that much.
Also the biggest cupboard had the old disconnected water cylinder inside taking up half of the space.
So after many attempts to persuade Melanie to let me remove the big cupboard I finally wore her down and she consented to the removal and replacement of two cupboards to give us some work surface.

So off I went with the first task - removing the offending cupboard and the cylinder.

One of the half dozen wallpapers I uncovered:

The plan was to move the washer to the back wall, leaving the old sink in the corner, then but a worktop over the top. But when I took the cover off the old sink it was all 'orrible and mouldy - so that changed the plans a little and it had to come out.

After removal of the big cupboard there was a capped-off pipe sticking out of the wall. I carefully traced the pipe and concluded it was definitely dead, so I started to saw the end off, only to get very very wet! Water was spraying all over the kitchen, I was soaked, I ran out to the front garden to the toby (stop-cock) and discovered the cover was stuck, so I had to run back to the house and grab a screwdriver then run back again to prise open the cover and turn off the water!
Fortunately there was the hole in the floor from the cylinder so there was only a centimetre or so of water in the kitchen!!
The local plumbers came out and sorted it for us - leaving a large hole in the wall.

Here's the wall after I patched up the hole and slapped on a couple of coats of paint.

And finally, the new wall cupboards

The new light - before I painted the ceiling

I got on with painting the existing cupboards and walls. The wallpaper was very well stuck and we had to buy a steam stripper to remove it.

We got the plumbers back to remove the two mystery taps sticking out of the wall and the four seemingly dead pipes. They also put in the new washer connections.

Once the walls were done I started to install the new base units. By this time the plan had changed again and we were moving the washer to the other side of the room in order to be able to add a set of drawers and more worktop.

More painting and stripping:

At this point we had a freezer disaster - the freezer had a habit of icing up to the point where it pushed its door open then defrosted itself. This was the fourth time we'd let it happen, so we decided to get rid of the fridge and freezer and get a nice frost free fridge freezer. So I had to remove part of the cupboard I'd just painted so it would fit:

I also decided to remove the corner cupboard as we couldn't get to it anyway!

The new fridge freezer - lovely!

We planned a second phase to replace the sink unit and also move it along a bit to make room for the cooker we really want - if we can ever afford it! I realised that the sink unit had to be done before I could get the flooring down, so we left things alone for a few weeks.

Buying the last couple of units inspired me to get the back cupboards finished.

Then it was time to do the sink! I'd planned it carefully so that we wouldn't need to move the existing wall-mounted tap, just replace it with one that didn't drip or have creaky plastic knobs!

A good weekend's work I think! I did the plumbing myself this time and even put in a tap for the dishwasher! We were going to wait a while before getting one but it was on special :)

Then the final job was to do the laminate flooring. Noodle helped a lot with this - mainly by dropping her toy in the middle of any sawdust that was present - or in the dustpan. It was so nice to finally get rid of that lino!

And here is the finished kitchen at last!

Big Update

2009-03-02T23:09:00.005+13:00

Hi, sorry for being rather lazy with the updates this year.
We've been up to a few things and here they are.
(sorry, I've gone picture mad as usual)

Firstly, Noodle has been ill :(

A few weeks ago she woke us up a few times in the night and she was all agitated. At 5am she woke me up and was frothing at the mouth.

Melanie called me when I was on the train to work to say Noodle was having a full-on fit - she fell over and was twitching and unable to move. She then got all vicious and tried to bite Melanie. (she's never so much as growled at anyone). Noodle couldn't get up or move her back legs for a few minutes.

I rushed home and we took her to the vet where she had another frothing incident.
They took blood for tests and we took Noodle home and she still wouldn't stop pacing. She started frothing again so Melanie took her back in for observation.

Noodle had another grand mal seizure at the vets and they put her in a drip. She came home that night and had more seizures in the night.
She was on the drip for another two days and at one point she was so bad they were planning to put her into a coma to help her recover.

Fortunately she started to get better on the drip and gradually came out of it.

It was horrible to see her so completely out of control and not being able to do anything for her (except administer medicine up the bum - not very nice!).

For a few days she was not herself and very grumpy and subdued - she even growled at Sam when he wanted to play. She gradually came back to her normal happy self and now seems to have forgotten all about it.

It could be epilepsy that might return or it could be something poisonous that she'd eaten. The vet says we need to wait a year before we can assume it was poison.

Once she was feeling better I gave her a haircut!

Sam's growing up quickly and is getting much bigger!

He's allowed out now (but not in the dark yet) and has discovered cicadas. He likes to bring them in alive, torment them in the house and leave them dead on the carpet.

Trying to make friends with Meg and Mog

He likes to climb on your shoulders and lick your head - ew!

He's done this trick a few times!

He's tried to kill both of us!

Greedy cat!!

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Billy Connolly in Wellington. A very funny man but it was a little disappointing that we'd heard a fair bit of his material before.

We visited the colossal squid at Te Papa

We went into Wellington on Waitangi Day

We went to a free concert in the Botanic Gardens

We found little crabs in our mussels!!

Some random photos from my office window

Two cruise ships in at once. There's been two or three cruise ships a week in Wellington for the last few weeks. Lots of lost looking tourists wandering around clutching maps.

Window cleaners next door

Wellington CBD and The Terrace

We went to Martinborough Fair

We were excited to find the first jacket spud place we've seen in NZ!

It was a bit hot!

I polished the car

Added more blue pipes

and fitted some lovely bling 18s (well I needed 4 tyres so it was rude not to!)

And of course the car sailed through its warrant of fitness with no issues.

Oh yeah and I had it dyno tested to find out how many horsepowers and torques it has

We've got worms !!!

2009-01-07T12:11:00.008+13:00

OK. Well firstly, Happy New Year and all the best for 2009 to anyone taking the time to read our blog and secondly, Surprise! I am still alive and am finally getting around to doing a post (after much nagging from Rob over the past year). Sorry, nothing personal. I've become a bit of an Internet hermit whilst I've been getting my head around teaching. I think I'm getting there although next year will no doubt throw up lots more challenges.

Can't complain - much - I am loving it and it certainly beats sitting in an office or staring at a photocopier all day, but as with all new things it takes some adjusting to and the rest of my life has been put on hold for a while. I have high expectations of myself which has probably meant I have done much more than is actually required of me in my first year and so it has been time consuming. However, I am sure all the time and effort has not gone to waste and I will reap the benefits in the coming years.

One of the things which has fallen by the wayside over the past year is our garden. We have plans to make large areas of it much lower maintenance this year with the cunning use of weed mat and gravel. As with all things there is a cost involved in this though so we are taking small steps. OK, let's be honest - I'm making plans and Rob has made a start on the hard labour :-)

I have managed to get on with starting growing herbs and veggies again and have several things happily flourishing on the deck at the moment as well as some pumpkins and peas growing around the back.

Hopefully the veggie patch will be dug over in the next few days (by the two of us) and I can set about planting more things to give us a nice supply of healthy food over the coming months. The challenge will of course be keeping on top of it this year but we'll see how it goes.

I'm not a big fan of chemicals - especially with all the animals running around and licking and chewing things - but I concede that veggies do need a bit of help to grow. So, I've invested in a worm farm to start producing fertiliser. The bins for it were purchased a few weeks ago but I only got the worms today. It's a bit weird having a courier turning up with a can of worms, inviting jokes about opening it, but it was strangely exciting (I'm turning in to a weirdo).

We put the worms in to their new home this morning and gave them some yummy scraps from the kitchen.

They seem happy enough so far - do worms feel happy?? They need to be fed every couple of days from now on - which is a further incentive to eat more fruit and veggies - and we should start getting good quality fertiliser from them in about 6 weeks and then every couple of weeks after that. Will have to see how it goes!

Sam update

2009-01-06T08:03:00.002+13:00

Happy New Year!!

Sam's growing very quickly! I reckon he's at least doubled in size. Still best mates with Noodle but sometimes they get a bit too rough and have to be separated to calm down!
He's desperate to explore outside and keeps trying to work the cat flap.

Expanding the Menagerie

2008-12-22T15:25:00.001+13:00

We went to the SPCA open day thingy at Tawa school and I decided picking up a little silver tabby kitten would be a good idea. He has the world’s loudest purr and loves cuddles! So we took him home – doh!

He’s not scared of anything – Noodle included. His first reaction is to run up to things and bash them with his paw. He even tries to steal Noodle’s food while she’s eating it and bops her on the nose!!

He’s really good though – not destroyed anything yet and always uses his litter tray. Though his aim isn’t always the best!!

He and Noodle are having a great time playing together. Meg and Mog hiss at him and run away.

Big trip part 10 - Singapore Zoo and Night Safari

2008-10-20T23:46:00.005+13:00

I dragged Melanie around the zoo and night safari for about eleven hours in the Singapore humidity and 35-degree heat. As always we took many photos so here's a selection

Pygmy Hippos

Crocs.

Yay! Heffalumps!

In the butterfly house

Mouse deer. These fascinate me for some reason - only about 20cm long, The baby was teeny!

Sleepy fruitbats. And the sloth was staying well out of the way.

Big pussy cats

The white tigers at feeding time. Way too many pics :)

Orang utans

I was pushing my belly out to look like an orang utan. Honest. It's not the beer and cooked brekkies.

Polar bears

And the rest!

The Night Safari

After all of the wandering around Melanie had sore feet and decided to try fish reflexology. The fist nibble at your feet, remove dead skin cells and massage your feet with their mouths at the same time!

The best of the photos from the creatures of the night show

It was a bit dark so I gave up trying to get decent photos!

On the tour trams.

Big trip part 9 - Sentosa Island Singapore

2008-10-20T23:31:00.004+13:00

We let the hotel travel rep talk us into going on an organised tour of Sentosa Island. It was a good tour but a bit rushed with no time in between things to chill (or take bathroom stops!!)

In the cablecar on the way to Sentosa. We wanted a glass-bottomed car but didn't get one!

The building site is enormous. It's going to be a casino and theme park in 18 months' time.

Turtles, peacocks and sideways fish.

The dolphin show was good, although we nearly had to have words with a rude child who moved his chair right in front of us just before it started. Fortunately his parents moved him over a bit.

The merlion - symbol of Singapore. You can go up and walk about on its head - which of course we did!

Views from the top

On the way down to the beach for a light show!

The show was really cheesy until the lights, lasers and fireworks started, then it was pretty cool!
Using water as a projection screen is a very novel idea.

I think Melanie must have been suffering from heat exhaustion when she took this :)
(Yes it was deliberate - she did several)

Big trip part 8 - Singapore

2008-10-20T23:14:00.004+13:00

Our hotel - the Royal on Newton Road

Breakfast! And a morning thunderstorm

On the MRT (underground system). I was fascinated by the open junctions between carriages - it looked weird when the train went up and down and around corners.

The MRT is brilliant. Efficient, on-time, regular, spotlessly clean ($1000 fine for eating, drinking, chewing gum and many other things).

Random shots around Singapore:

All of the bus stops on Orchard Road had big 3D ads on top (left-hand pic)

Tourists on Orchard Road!!

The War Memorial. Post shops, the Marriott Hotel, a fire station, and a random building!

Here you can see the lights and stuff left over from the F1 Grand Prix the week before.

The same scene a few minutes later after the heavens opened. We got a little bit damp.

Views of the city as we walked to the Flyer

The concert hall, docks and the merlion

Huge stands for the floating platform where events are held, with the Singapore Flyer in the background.

The lights in Little India celebrating Deepvali

We took rather a lot of photos in Chinatown. But it was cool :)

Chinatown MRT station, signposts overtaken by the markets, improvised tools, me with spicy noodles in the food market.

Busy market streets full of tat - and some good stuff too.

Sri Mariamman Temple - Singapore's oldest Hindu temple.

The Buddha tooth relic temple

Guarded by these lads

Inside was rather impressive - and not a little bit bling!

The rooftop garden was very quiet and peaceful. With the world's biggest prayer wheel.

The last photo shows some of the ten thousand Buddhas lining the walls.

One of the many artefacts in the museum but this one particularly fascinated me.

We decided to go to the Singapore Flyer at dusk and see the city by night.

It's the world's biggest big wheel - at least until the one in Beijing is completed.

And finally some random things that amused us

Big trip part 7 - Leeds

2008-10-19T09:40:00.000+13:00

We spent a few days visiting friends and family in Leeds. It was great to see everyone and we just didn't have enough time to do everything we wanted or see everyone.

I missed this one before - this was at Morley Asda when we were waking ourselves up after the flight and about to buy clothes and toiletries - as we had no luggage!

Not used to this - three lanes of almost standing traffic!

The only photo I dared take in Leeds with my proper camera in case I got accused of being a terrorist or something!

A few phone camera shots around Leeds Centre. It seemed very busy to us. Lots more crowds and people than we're used to. Lots of shop security guards everywhere as well.

Talking of which - we were impressed that Gregg's the bakers is open until 4am Saturday nights. A pastie after the pub/club is a great idea! Even if it did have armoured glass like a bank and two security guards!!

And the new Leeds museum - we were impressed to see a couple of stuffed New Zealand endangered animals :o)

Me about to tackle the famous special naan kebab from Posh Nosh of Beeston!
Lovely!

Us with baby Katie

The view from our hotel in Leeds centre. We got to bed around four a.m. and the roadworks outside started at about five thirty. Ah well!

We went out for the day with our nephew Christopher and had a great time at Roundhay and Tropical World. And we had ice cream :)

Random sunset - at Mark and Ellen's who put on a barbie for us and a few friends. Thanks guys!

Playing Guitar hero at Chris and Claire's

Some shots of South Leeds where we used to live

And finally how about this for a naan!!

We stayed at James' for the last two nights in the UK (thanks James) and had a curry at Akbar's the first night and a lovely meal at a local pub the following night. James took us to the airport in his nice shiny beemer, and suddenly it was all over. It seemed like we'd only been there a minute and it was time to leave.

Big trip part 6 - Bridlington

2008-10-19T09:23:00.003+13:00

We spent three days in Bridlington with my mum, dad and sister Jan just chilling and doing seaside stuff.

The log cabins where my family live.

Birds on the bird feeder. Nice pair of tits! (sorry)

British seaside weather at its best :o)

Cockles and whelks, mmmm.

Mr. Moo's ice cream was rather nice!

All of us on the beach!

And finally - triple yellow lines??!