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!