Happy Christmas

As I write, we are about half-way through Christmas Day. Skry, Rok, and my brother Stephen are in the kitchen making Christmas dinner, and I am at my laptop in front of the telly. This arrangement suits me just fine!

We were all up relatively early today and exchanged presents before going for a quick walk on New Brighton pier. This is the same place that Skry and I went to this time last year, with Phil and Lou. The weather was a bit different this year - very overcast with rain on the way - but it was still nice to get out.


After our walk it was time to come home and Skype the family in Ireland. It was still Christmas Eve for them but it was lovely to be able to see each other. Skype is just great for keeping in touch with people.

Anyway, happy Christmas everyone - I hope you all have a lovely time. Now I'd better go and at least pretend that I am helping in the kitchen!

A chicken update

On Christmas Eve the chickens got a holiday feast of bacon scraps left over from a meal earlier in the week. I'm not sure of the correct approach to feeding chickens meat - is it the done thing? I know they eat insects anyway and they are definitely not vegetarians by choice, but I don't want to recreate the whole Mad Cow problem by giving them something unnatural. (Not that chickens eating pork is ever going to be natural, really. How many chickens would have to band together to take down a pig?)



They have a new extended run which is almost complete apart from some minor work to the original henhouse layout, and seem fairly content in there. It has some bushes and a tree, and did have grass as well up to about a week ago. They made short work of that, so the ground is looking a bit bare, but if it rained more often I'm sure a few things would grow back.

I do feel a bit guilty about leaving them locked up all the time, but I know they've got more space than most of their kind and are very well treated generally. We are getting three eggs a day at the moment, including some with soft shells and some with double yolks. The eggs taste great and have really yellow yolks, so my egg mayo sandwiches for work have become very colourful recently. It's all good.

Perfume

I love perfume, and have done so for as long as I can remember. But I used to content myself with a couple of different bottles and the occasional scent strip from Boots. Not any more!

Over the last couple of days I have ordered several new bottles on the internet, and it occurred to me that I didn't know how many I owned already. My guess was about 30. Oops - it is over 50, and that's not counting samples and decants. They don't all get worn on a regular basis (in fact there are a couple there that I don't even like) but I keep everything because it will get its turn to shine sometime in the future even if I don't wear it right now. My taste has evolved over the years, and some perfumes just work better in warm weather or in cold weather.

Boudoir is the one that I would choose to keep if I could only have one. It is as close to a "signature scent" as I can imagine having. But it's nice to have a selection to choose from every day :-)

A day of ups and downs

What a day yesterday was. I can't remember the last time I had so many ups and downs in such a short period!

UP: Sold a lot of my handcrafted goodies to people at work -cute stocking stuffers for them and extra pocket money for me.

UP: got paid for a two-hour freelance technical writing job that I had done the previous night - job well done and super-fast payment

DOWN: discovered that the tyres on my bike were very soft, meaning it would be even more of a battle than usual to cycle home from work into the wind

UP: complete stranger outside the bike shed complimented my bike and then hauled a foot pump out of the boot of his car and pumped up my tyres for me, meaning I practically glided home

DOWN: came out of the shower to discover that the converter on the tumble dryer plug had melted and fused into the plastic of the extension cord, leaving all the electrics black and smoking. (It is obviously past time to replace the UK plugs on our appliances rather than relying on dodgy converter plugs.) That came scarily close to a house fire.

DOWN: belatedly realised that I had picked up a melted extension cord without switching it off at the power point first. What kind of moron am I?

UP: found our first ever eggs in the henhouse, one small egg and one large egg that is surely a double-yolker.

UP: Skry arrived home at a respectable hour from a work-related evening do. I always worry about him when he cycles home after dark, because drivers here are so selfish when it comes to cyclists, so it's always a relief when he eventually turns up.

DOWN: Although Skry had arrived home, he was in shock and had a broken arm. Not the safe arrival I had expected when I heard his key in the lock.

What a day!

Drunk driver 1, Skry 0

Skry and his bicycle were in a surprise battle with a car last night, most likely controlled by a drunk driver. Skry came off worse, and now has two breaks in his arm along the left shoulder. He's in a lot of pain but is otherwise okay with no other injuries - although I would not wish a broken arm on him, it's a huge relief that he didn't end up even more badly hurt.

We spent most of last night and again this morning at the hospital. I took a snap of the x-ray screen while the doctor was away from his desk. You don't need to know much about biology to know that something isn't right here!

Apparently there is no treatment for this kind of break. The hospital sent us away with a prescription for painkillers and a prescription for a shoulder restraint thingy (after we both kicked up a huge fuss about Skry being sent home with nothing but a sling, and his broken arm just hanging loose). Now that the shoulder restraint thingy - sorry, I don't know the proper term! - is in place and the painkillers are taking effect, he is a bit happier, but he has a long and unpleasant few weeks ahead of him still.

We got our first eggs!

When I went to let the chickens out after work today, I found these in their coop. Our first eggs! I don't know which of the three are responsible for these two eggs, but hopefully they will all be laying regularly soon.


They're getting a new, extended run tomorrow as well. We are being driven mad by chicken poo all over the path and front step, and it's impossible to keep them away from that area without a fence. After much extended and vigorous debate between myself and Skry, we have hired a man with a van to come and enhance our borders. The chickens will no longer be free-range, which saddens me, but they'll have lots of space to run about in and our doorstep will stay clean. Hopefully the trade-off will be worth it.

A global epidemic

For the last week or so, half my friends on Facebook have been complaining about having colds, having sore throats, coughing, being bunged up, etc. Now Skry and I are both sick with it as well. Is it possible for the cold to be transmitted like a global epidemic across the internet?

Although not the end of the world, I have not slept properly for two nights now as I cannot breathe through my nose, and I missed most of a friend's party yesterday because I slept through the afternoon. This had better pass quickly or I will be most annoyed!

A full year in New Zealand

Yes folks, we have now been here for a full calendar year. It has been an amazing year - saying goodbye to friends and family, travelling, new jobs, new house, making friends on this side of the world - and we have loved nearly every minute of it. (The jetboat crash we could have done without!)

It would be impossible to describe all the memorable things that happened to us over the last 12 months, but I would like to share just one photo that helps summarise it in my head.

This was taken in Bluff, at the very far south of the South Island. Look how far away from everywhere we are! But look how happy I am!
Actually I am squinting a bit as the sun was in my eyes - but trust me, I was happy. Moving here has been one of the best decisions I ever made. Our quality of life has gone up, our surroundings and lifestyle are generally better, and this country has some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen or imagined. No country is perfect, and New Zealand has its problems just like everywhere else, but Skry and I absolutely love it here.

Here's to a great year, and to many more great years in the future!

The most offensive bouncy slide I've ever seen

At the school fair last Sunday (my craft stall did fine, thanks for asking!), Skry snapped a photo of this offensive article:

That's right, it is a bouncy kids' slide in the shape of a sinking Titanic. I can't believe anybody thought this was appropriate to create, let alone hire out. I can't decide if it is offensive or just extremely tasteless - maybe both.