Bring on 2024

This is what the streets look like a few weeks after the Pahutukawa trees bloom. It is quite a mess and yet kinda fun in a holiday spirit kinda way. Nature’s confetti. Happy New Year!

We let too many weeks go by. -sorry this will be a little long…

2024 is already moving along quickly. The holidays have come and mostly gone. And we were able to enjoy lots of good times with many friends. We did manage to get a few things done as well. 

Most importantly, we found a place to “hole-up” until we can move into our new home. … yes - it looks like we have found a house! It is not a done deal yet. And as I am writing this we are eagerly awaiting the word from the bank that we can get approved for a mortgage. I may have to update this post shortly. We should hear in the next day or two. (read holding breath)

Meanwhile, I get ahead of myself… our pet sitting gig wrapped up on the 13th of Jan., so we have been looking for another place to stay. We are guessing it is still at least 6-8 weeks before we can take possession of the house and we did not want to wear out our welcome with friends. And to be honest we are getting a bit tired of the repetitive moving. We found a nice room in a small two bedroom apartment. We are sharing the place with a friendly middle-aged woman. 

Finding short-term housing is challenging especially a furnished option as we don’t have anything- it is all in storage (not accessible). We found this room but then had to run out and purchase a bed. The apartment is furnished but not the room. We got a great deal on the mattress - end of year Boxing Day sales! And a bed frame, a set of sheets and then found a desk and some cube shelves -used online, to create our make-shift room for now. Borrowed a chair(not pictured) and towels and a blanket from friends.

At the same time, we have been helping some friend move from their flat of 7 years to a new place. Cleaning, boxing, prepping, moving, garage sale, etc., the usual routine. 

New Years was nice and casual. We spent New Year’s eve with friends -potluck dinner, pumpkin pie (Eric made) and played an entertaining game of Root. We spent the next day relaxing. 

Mother Nature was certainly set on starting the new year fresh. We had an evening of incredible wind, ~ 60 mph followed the next day by a sudden down pour that woke many of us up out of dead sleep with the fear of the roof collapsing in. 

When the sun was shining we spent some time walking and hanging at the Chocolate Fish Cafe. And another stroll through Zealandia.

For Eric’s bday he wanted sushi so we tried a recommended place in town called Arashi - and had a delicious meal. There is much less variety than sushi back in the states, but it will be okay.  We also got to finally reconnect with our 13th Age (D&D like RPG) campaign and played for over 5 hours. It had been Aug. of 2022 since we last played. Way too long. We did all manage to survive the battle - barely, and we live to fight another day. The campaign is not yet over! (Had to improvise the monsters as our supply is still in storage- yes the plant was a monster!)

Eric did a small photo shoot for our friend Kim. She has collaborated with another local artist to create an amazing sculpture of Earth Mother that they hope to get backing for. The sculpture would potentially be about 3 stories tall. I have been asked not to share photos just yet. 

Kim also restored an old cat sculpture that sits in front of the Miramar library. We attended a very nice blessing ceremony welcoming the cat. The piece was created many years ago and the original sculptor had passed away. It took awhile but they were able to locate and contact the sculptors son and he helped Kim with the restoration. It was restored using Pal Tiya  - a material Kim and her husband Warren developed for the use of lasting out door sculptures. It’s really cool stuff. Check it out.

https://www.paltiya.com/

 

https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=156661

We started to moved into our new temporary place on the 11th and spent our first night there on the 12th. It is quite comfy. This should be our last place until we move into the house. 

Two more games that I helped create at SimplyFun have launched - My Mine and Prickly Path. Also, Team Digger (Jan 2023 launch) has won another award -Good Housekeeping 2023 Best Toy. Yay!

This brings us up to date. People are going back to work and businesses are starting back up. We are both actively looking for work while starting to get things in order to hopefully move into a new house by the end of February - early March -if all goes well. 

Stay tuned!