Well we still haven't bought a house but things are definitely a lot cheerier. Not least because it's summer again and Napier is so much a summer town. The weather is about 20-25 degrees with blue skies as far as you can see. It has been far wetter this spring than last year but that seems to have settled now and it is just lovely.
Our friend Polly from Bristol has come to stay with us for the summer months and it is so nice having a such a good friend here. She has come on a working holiday visa and has found some waitressing work in a local restaurant which she is enjoying. It's strange but sometimes it takes having someone to show around to make you realise what a fantastic place you live in.
Polly decided to take the far more complicated, but far more exciting route of travelling to NZ overland (so that's europe, russia, mongolia, asia on a train). It was quite an adventure and she wrote wrote a blog on the way which is well worth a read; http://www.wherepollygone.blogspot.com/. We have also had a few other guests to stay recently - Helen, the daughter of mum and dad's next door neighbour who was having a tour around NZ after finishing uni and Pete and Rachel, two friends of ours from Bristol who have taken a couple years out of life in the UK to travel. They came to us for a couple weeks over my birthday at the end of November and have just arrived back with us today (Dec 23rd) to spend Christmas with us as well.
Talking of my big 30 bithday- it was awesome. I did have a bit of a 'death of my twenties' meltdown, but it turns out it is still very acceptable to be a birthday princess at 30 so all was good. We rented a bach (NZ beach house, think beach hut but bigger!) at Mahia Penninsular, which is about 2hrs north of Napier. It's a beautiful, unspoilt marine paradise. There were seven of us in total - me, AJ, polly, Rach, pete and Charles and Lyndsey some NZ friends.
The big news with AJ is that he has started his own business - we are now Red Stag Gates & Fences Hawkes Bay Ltd. He was given a very good opportunity by his old schoool friend Charles to set up a kind of franchise of Charles own very successful top end gates and fences business Red Stag which he runs up in Hamilton http://www.redstaggates.co.nz/ . Essentially, AJ is now an authorised seller and installer of Red Stag products but we own the business outright and are allowed to use the Red Stag name and brand as long as we are only using their products (which are the best in the country so we are fine with that!). There is an excellent market in Hawkes bay for the products- (fancy fencing and automated gates) and Charles has wanted to have a franchise down here for a while - he just didn't have a contact here until AJ came back!
Our advert came out in the yellow pages just two weeks ago and AJ has already had numerous phonecalls and done 4 quotes so he is hopeful that he is on to a good thing. Until it really kicks off down here he has been working up in Whangamata (on the coromandal coast) for Red Stag Hamilton helping them with a huge job doing all the gates and fencing for the new marina there, so that's been great experience.
My work is still going very well - despite the recession (or maybe because of it) people still want to buy lots of wine from us and we are currently having our best ever trading month which is brilliant in the current climate. My role in buying the wine is increasing as i get to know the market here better which i am really enjoying. I'm also loving all the lovely gifts I've received this Christmas from wine reps desperate for me to say 'yes' to their brand. Of course my decision is based entirely on quality to price ratio.....
Rusty is very well. he has grown into a fine, but kinda funny looking, young dog. He has boundless energy still but is actually pretty well behaved these days - so far he hasn't eaten any of the pressies under the xmas tree.
Talking of Christmas, it still seems uber weird doing Christmas stuff in the sunshine and heat. What's most bizarre is that all the imagery is still about it being cold and snowy - in the TV adverts, it's always snowing. It's the little things which strike you - like how there are no real Christmas lights because it's not dark until 10pm so no-one see them!
Anyway, we are having a non-traditional Christmas feast befitting the climate: local leg of lamb which we will roast on the bbq rotisserie, served with a variety of salads - sugar snap peas and rocket, and roast beetroot, all from the thriving veggie patch, followed by good ol' Kiwi fruit Pavlova (Polly is taking charge of this, it's too much pressure for me to make AJ's all time favourite dessert!). We have Pete and Rach here with us and also Rach's dad, confusingly also called Pete who is visiting them in NZ on holiday. After presents and all that we will be heading down the beach for the traditional (as of last year) xmas day dip in the sea and then home. Sounds good to me. I get 4 stat days off over Christmas which is pretty good so I will enjoy the rest as well.
We are planning a quietish New year in Napier with friends and then all off to the Hastings New Years Day Races which is quiet an event apparently- hats required and everything. After that it will only be 6 weeks until Mum and dad arrive so we are looking for to that.
So, Merry Christmas to all of you - i hear it's a cold one in the UK and despite the perfect climate here i have to say i will be incredibly jealous if you get a white crimbo.
xxx
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