Another few weeks gone by…

The last few weeks continued to fly by, and I am now writing this post as we are sitting on our long (11 hour) flight headed to LAX from Auckland.

Since our last post, we have continued to keep busy. We went to see our friend Kim’s art displayed at the annual NZ Art Show. Her pieces are amazing, it was a shame they were not more prominently placed. It was also not a good time as the economic climate does not make for loose wallets. All of the artists at the show felt the lack of spending.

We also dropped by Wellycon- the local tabletop game convention in Wellington. It has grown quite significantly since we last attended in 2014/2015. Fun to catch up with several friends.

We also celebrated the Weta Cave’s 16th anniversary of operation. The Cave is the unique retail space attached to Weta Workshop. Richard and Tania annually greet fans, share stories and cut cake to commemorate the occasion.

We have been trying to clean up the house messes from the various projects so that it is tidy before we go and when we get back. We didn’t want to start any more long projects and have to stop midway through. 

We finished setting up our office, unpacked the 40 boxes of books and made some lighting upgrades in the dining room and lounge. Eric is enjoying the new Phillips Hue light bulbs. He can control them from his phone, allowing him to dim them remotely when lounging in his chair, and they turn a myriad of colors. It’s a bit silly, but fun.

That is the old “basket” light fixture. Now gone and replaced with very basic but nice whit fixtures that also match the ones in the hall. 

Side note- Bunnings is the local hardware store. Similar to HomeDepot or Lowe’s in the US.  We frequent it often and at move-in we did a major shopping. We actually maxed out their register system and had to make our purchase in two transactions. Friends asked what the maximum was. For the record, Bunnings can only ring up a maximum of 58 unique items per transaction. That was a first for the sales clerk too. lol!

We have been enjoying more TV with friends. Managed to get 16 people to fit on our lounge to watch the first two episodes of Star Wars Acolyte. We watched the new Dr. Who episodes. Fun but a bit hit or miss. Episodes 3-6 were good. Also really enjoyed the final season of Star Trek Discovery. Still so many more shows to catch up on…

Overall we are both doing well. Winter is settling in here and with it colds and flu. We have gotten the latest Covid booster and our flu jabs. 

Been taking some extra precautions as we really didn’t want to get sick just before our travels. 🤞 Several of our plans got canceled here, as friend fell ill or were exposed to others. 

We are arriving in good health and hopeful we will remain so throughout the visit. It will be a very quick pass through this time and we are sorry if we miss some of you. Looking forward to seeing family and friends, as well as some warm sunshine (apparently just missing a bit of the heat wave). Of course we can’t wait for some In n Out burgers and good Mexican food too!

Where did the month go?

Wow I can’t believe it has been over four weeks since our last post. I guess we have been busy. This is King’s birthday weekend (holiday Monday) so we are coming up for a bit of air. 

Looking back at the calendar, we certainly packed a lot in. Most importantly, we have carpet throughout the house now!!! So happy to have that done.

Eric has finished the build-out of the linen closet, and the painting and closet build-out in the second room that is our office. It took 6 coats of paint to cover the old purple wall! 

See previous blog for work in progress. This is where the original hit water cylinder was. 

    

We are enjoying moving into the space and continuing to get rid of boxes. The room is smaller than the one we shared in Seattle but we are making it work. 

We have been socially busy too…

We hosted our first dinner in our house with dear friends and had a few movie nights at the house as well. We watched the new Ghostbusters movie and in anticipation of Furiosa, watched Mad Max Fury Road - could not believe it was released 9 years ago. We also saw The Fall Guy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Furiosa. I personally loved The Fall Guy. 

May 10th/May 11th here, it was possible to see an Aurora from many places in the world. Wellington (much like Seattle) is often covered in clouds. We did manage to get a brief peak before the cloud cover obscured it. We also went down to the beach the following night as it was clear, but only saw a stunning sunset. 😁

We checked out “Light Cycles” at the Botanical Gardens. We managed to get a nice dry evening with minimal wind. The lights music and effects were great. I was only sorry it was not longer. I would have liked a bit more. 

I attended the opening night of the new Dr. Who exhibit. This is the first time this exhibit has been shown outside of the UK. It was a fun evening with friends and there was lots of great props and displays from all eras of the show. If I’m being critical, I was disappointed that there was not a display featuring all the Doctors in their outfits. They only had the original costume of the first doctor. I also wish there was more with the companions, River Song and Captain Jack. Without the more recent companions and River Song it felt very male-centric. Small showing of Jodie Whitaker and just a photo of the newest Doctor Ncuti Gatwa. Definite missed opportunities. 

Eric and I also enjoyed a Chocolate Masterclass at the Wellington Chocolate Factory curtesy of my brother, Erika and niece Casey as a holiday gift. We both made 70% dark chocolate bars. That is 70% pure cacao and 30% sugar. I made plain, salty caramel, and one with pretzel bits and Eric made one each of, coffee, ginger and apricot. We also got to taste many other flavors of chocolate and learned more about where it comes from and how it is processed. Quite impressive. And delicious!

I guess in hindsight - that certainly explains where May went - poof!

Work is going well and I am enjoying it. Eric got another couple of days at Scale Studios and is still happy working on the house. 

June is going to be another fun-filled month - stay tuned!