OK, we’re in!

It has been a very busy week or two but nothing exciting until the weekend, so no point in blogging really.

I’ve been doing a piece of work, writing a Post Implementation Review report for a project – when not boating I do short  term part time consultancy for IQANZ (Independent Quality Assurance NZ), a firm of lovely people who are kind enough to be happy making use of some of my time for our mutual benefit, along with that of their clients. So the reading and interviewing prior to the report writing took a few days, getting into the groove of business writing for the report was a struggle after the narrative writing of the blog which is all I have done, apart from emails, for the last several months. Still, the report was drafted, reviewed and edited with help from the lovely Nicky at IQANZ, and sent off to the client before the deadline. Invoice is prepared …

David of course has been flat out on the Weaving Memories work, and the work keeps flowing in. As people biff out their video players and as they find that they don’t know how to operate their dad’s old film projector, they want to be able to see the old footage of themselves, of their parents, of their children. That is the cue for Weaving Memories Man.

On Saturday we celebrated our 40^th wedding anniversary – a fairly significant milestone, and one that, when you marry as young things seems so far in the distance as to be unreal, mythical even. Even though the promise made on the day is to love each other till death, the concept of death isn’t generally one that we look in the eye at that point in our lives.

Anyway, we had a party on Saturday afternoon and evening – BYO finger food and drink. Such a good arrangement! Our lovely daughter Kirsty came over from Sydney, she spoke for her and for the lovely Tim from Scotland, she didn’t take the michael, although as she said, there was lots of material available. David and I spoke – my speech was much shorter than David’s, which some will find surprising, but others will not. I did take the michael, of course. As I noted, it is in my wifely job description, and I always take my JDs seriously.

It was lovely being with such good friends and with our girl on a special day.

The purchase of our new-to-us home completed on Wednesday and we started bringing stuff into the house from Derek’s place in Otaki Beach and from Bruce and Gary’s place where some of it had been stored; (i.e. the bits that were left over when the truck had gone and that we thought we’d be able to fit in the car – wrong! Fortunately Gary had suggested to Derek that he bring his trailer when he came to visit the day we were leaving. It was fully laden, along with his car being stacked to well past its gunnels when he set off back to Otaki Beach.) But we didn’t actually move in till Sunday as that was the day that Reuben and Phil could truck up all of our stuff from the storage unit. And we would never have been ready to have our anniversary party even if we had moved in on Wednesday!

So on Sunday we did the move. Reuben and Phil arrived before noon, and we got stuck in to unloading the truck and filling the place up with boxes and furniture. Even though we had divested ourselves of a lot of stuff before we left Cherswud, it was soon apparent that we still have far too much stuff! Too many armchairs for the floor space, too many paintings and prints for the wall-space. Not enough windowsill space in the bathroom for my chickens. Fortunately, there’s plenty of space on the kitchen conservatory-type windowsill for the cow parade and all of the china cabinets have a space. The dressing table went back in the truck with the boys (one of them will keep it or they will take it to Vinnie’s Op Shop where their mum works), we gave the hall table to Bruce and Gary. We’ve stacked some of the chairs and boxes of china, ornaments, glasses etc in the shed, the pictures are in the dining room ready to be sorted, the kitchen was full of boxes waiting to be unpacked. The washing machine is in and working, the fridge and freezer are connected and working, the lounge is arranged (and has been re-arranged by Gary and David), the TV is working, the rugs are down, the bedroom is very habitable although our clothing is still in the boxes apart from the stuff we’ve had at Bruce and Gary’s over the last month – but most importantly the bed was constructed, made and ready for me to collapse into at 8.30 on Sunday night and again last night after another full day of unpacking. And there is still more to do – those pesky chickens, cows and cups and saucers are still lurking in boxes …

The guys delivered and fitted the fold down bed yesterday - that was a hoot. There are three pieces - the actual bed, and two side bookcases, one of which has a desk extension. Getting them all in and installed in a room that is, in truth, a bit small for them esp when there is another desk to go in there along with all of David's gear, is a bit of a tall order. (The shed or the garage are starting to look more likely sites for the world headquarters of Weaving Memories but we'll wait and see ... 

Evan the electrician sorted the power to the shed, fitted LED lights in the kitchen, put back the light fitting the bed boys had removed but couldn't re-fit, moved the powerpoint in the second bedroom/office, diagnosed the fault with the stove and ordered a new part (a little black box behind the dial for selecting oven functions) so I can use all functions of the oven.

This area is beautifully quiet, there is no traffic noise, and currently I am in bed looking out of the window at our backyard, watching the birds flying in and out. The sky is clear blue, the sun is coming in to the hallway and the lounge dining.

We made a good choice, methinks.

PS Photos later - need to get up now and go to Palmerston North to see my sister and look for fabric for blinds for the bedrooms and lounge/dining.