Hello, Sorry it has been a while since you have heard from us! We have been busy setting up home and living a slightly less adventurous lifestyle. You will see from the photos that we have found a fab place to rent which we are so happy about, but we forgot one minor detail - we have to furnish it! Anyway, with Steph working in a school there has been no end of very generous offers and we are now the proud 'caretakers' of a flatscreen TV, a queen bed, a fab leather sofa, some lights and a full professional drum kit (don't ask!) We have also bought the entire contents of our friend's kitchen and dining room (plus bikes and a sofa) as they are moving back to the UK this week so we thought it would be good to help them out while getting some essentials for our place. Its funny, back home I was of the opinion that everything had to be brand new and matching, but I have quickly dropped that attitude as NZ is very much about recycling!! I haven't found any diamonds in the rough of the Salvation Army yet (just fleas and mould), but I hear the Mary Potter Hospice charity shop is THE place to be - we will be taking a trip there soon. Don't worry we won't be getting beds or anything from there so it will be safe if you come to stay!
This week I hope to hear about a possible job opportunity. I have been looking but not applied for anything yet. We felt that it was a great chance for me to take some time to crack on with the masters while we were living rent free, but now that the house sitting is drawing to an end I will have to get out there and earn a crust. Quite looking forward to the challenge actually and prepared to look at something a bit different - as long as it earns a decent wage and not too stressful!
Our reputation as NZ's top house sitters has hit the press! We have been contacted by some past 'clients' for repeat business in April but we have definitely moved on from house sitting for the time being. Its quite funny though, we've been housesitting since December and I have been notified by so many people from the website wondering if we were available that if we had continued to do it we could have lived until August in Wellington just going from house sit to house sit. However, it does have its downsides, like cats, and killing plants (?!) and taping Prison Break for Margaret every Wed evening so we are very much looking forward to our free-time and our surroundings being completely our own!
We are really looking forward to seeing lots of friends and family over the next month. We've got Paul coming in 9 days, Sam and Emma arrive at the beginning of April for a few days as a stop over on their honeymoon, My friends Doug and Pat are on a trip with a stopover in Wellington on the 11th April so we will meet them for dinner and then we fly to Christchurch to meet Steph's mum and Auntie on the 12th April for 2 weeks. And last but not least, our bestest buddies Lorna and Iain will be hopefully joining us for a life down-under soon! So now that we have a place to call our own, if anyone else fancies a wee holiday or something more permanent in NZ you are more than welcome to come stay with us!
Well, we will write some more when we have done something a bit more worthy of telling you!
Byee,
Katie xx
