Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Roxy By Proxy

The move last weekend went well. Richard from work turned up right on time and we loaded the big stuff on his borrowed truck and travelled in convoy - Claire in her car, me in the work van, and Richard in the truck - around to the new place. It was all done in an hour and a quarter - record time!
While on one of the many treks from house to car to unload I heard my name being called out which I thought a little odd. I looked next door and a little girl maybe 4 years old and her Mum were hanging out the window welcoming me to the neighbourhood. They had been speaking to Belinda (new flattie) and she had told them that I was moving in. Very nice and friendly I thought.
Lance came around in the afternoon and helped set up my tv while I found homes for everything. It is safe to say that unpacking is NOT my favourite pastime.
The following morning I went to have a shower. Now, Belinda had warned me that the taps were a little temperamental and required tweaking and patience to get the right temperature. I was unclothed, standing for about 10 minutes with one arm in the shower box trying to figure out which tap was actually hot and which was cold when I turned around and noticed the door to the toilet/laundry was wide open with a clear view into the neighbours kitchen! I've never shut a door so quickly in my life!! I haven't seen the neighbours since and am not sure if they saw me standing there in all my glory! They could possibly be still rolling around the kitchen floor laughing. Oh the embarrassment!
I made the mistake of telling my work mates about it on Monday and received this little picture via email with the caption 'Oops I better shut the door before I take this off'. Ha! I can't help but laugh about it.... and neither can my work mates.

Aunty Paula turned another year older last week. Claire and I joined her and Kazio for dinner at Sampan Chinese Restaurant on Friday night. It was yummy! Claire and I shared the set menu even though we ate enough to sink a ship there was still enough for Paula to take a doggie bag home for lunch on Saturday. We left there feeling very rotund.

I see that my bullying tactics on the last blog regarding followers has worked! Welcome to all new followers - it's a pleasure to have you all on board!! A suggestion was made by a long time follower (Apes) that other followers post a photo of themselves. I have since learnt that a few people are finding it too difficult to do so. I remember the troubles Claire had when she first tried to post a comment so completely understand.
Claire has been very busy doing her very last assignment for the past few weeks (months) and will be no doubt very relieved when she posts it off tomorrow afternoon. One year of very hard work and she has done so well getting all passes with either Merit or Distinction. Well done Claire.

I am off on holiday from tomorrow lunchtime. I am zipping up to Picton for two days as it is Lance's birthday on Friday. Then back to Chch on Saturday to pick up my dear Scottish friend Jenni from the airport. She is on the last leg of her NZ trip and will be in Chch for 5 days.

Saturday night has a girls night arranged to paint the town tartan! Claire said she is VERY ready to go out and let her hair down after a rough and busy few months. We are also taking our wee 18 year old friend Ashleigh Hampton out on the town for her debut. I am looking forward to it! Sunday may very well be a quiet one.

Friday, January 22, 2010

End Of An Era

It is with a heavy heart that I have made the decision to sell my share of the house and move out. Claire and Averil are buying me out and I move tomorrow into an already established house in Hoon Hay with the woman owner, Belinda, and her cat Christmas Dinner. (Apparently she used to live in a student flat in Dunedin and her male flatmates named him that and it just stuck. She calls him Dinny for short).
My friend Richard from work is borrowing a small truck from his friend and has very kindly offered to help me move. I am also borrowing the van from work (which is exactly like Timmy - memory lane here I come!!) and will load that up tonight so it's all ready to go in one trip tomorrow.
Min is staying at Roxburgh Street for the time being although it breaks my heart to leave her but I feel it is best for her to stay there for now until I decide what I will do next. I would hate to separate her and Toby now that they are besties! I KNOW Aunty Claire will take good care of her and I am allowed back to visit (I hope!!). And of course there are the cat support payments.


Freelance reporter Claire was down in Queenstown last weekend to help celebrate Annabelle's first birthday with Mum, Kathryn, and Anne, and said it was a great time. They picniced at Lake Hayes on the Saturday and again Annabelle was suitably spoilt!

Weight loss has been a little slooooooow of late. I seemed to plateau a little over the festive season going up and down a tiny bit but not really making any progress BUT this week I lost 1.1 kgs AND got awarded a keyring for my 10% loss. I had to go up the front of the meeting to claim my prize. Shame! Weight loss to date is 9.1 kgs. Only 14.9 kilos to go. Easy.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Happy Blog-A-Versary!

It's been a year since I started this blog initially to keep Averil up to date with the happenings around these here parts while she is travelling the world. During the year The Roxy Review has gained a couple of 'followers' which is VERY exciting. And I have learnt that others do read the blog but are too lazy- I mean shy to join up as followers. It's always great to get any comments.



Another reason to celebrate today is there is a wee girl in Queenstown having her 1st birthday. Happy birthday Annabelle!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

And A Happy New Year!

Apologies again for the delay in getting another post uploaded. I have been slightly unmotivated due to the heat - yesterday at 11am the temperature outside was 33 degrees Celcius! It was like walking out to a sauna. And my exclusive man friend Lance came down to Christchurch on New Years Eve to spend a few days which was nice. He drove down in his new Jeep Wrangler which makes him look tres cool and a little bit of a cross between McGyver and Daisy Duke. Ha!

Christmas in Queenstown was fab! Annabelle was very spoilt but seemed far more interested in the boxes and wrapping paper than the actual presents. Although there were a couple of toys she stuck straight in her mouth - a sure sign of appreciation! She also recieved some beautiful clothes so Catkin had fun dressing her up. So cute!!
Cute alert: Annabelle has learnt to wave so all aeroplanes and helicopters flying overhead get the cutest little girl in the world waving at them. Bless. I had a little movie of it but can't seem to upload it on to here. Sorry. You'll have to settle for another adorable photo instead.

The food was tasty and the company was awesome. Everyone had a wonderful day. Dad had to be prompted to say his customary line "Well, that's Christmas over with for another year" after dinner. He is currently working his timing for this Christmas.

We had beautiful weather in Queenstown with rain only one of the days which allowed us to go walking a wee bit which was good.


On Boxing Day the ladies (Trish, Catkin, Anne, Annabelle, Claire & Danielle) went out to Lake Hayes and walked around part of the lake which was really nice while the boys (Gavin & Pete) went for a look at the $10m holiday home Gavin is working on currrently in his job. It's not my cup of tea - too much glass and all I can wonder is how on earth one would clean the windows! It's appropriately named The Jagged Edge and hangs out over the cliff with wonderful views of the lake and mountains. The following photos include an artists impression of the finished design and the site as it currently appears. There's a bit of a way to go.


On the 28th we took a day trip over to Balclutha to visit cousin Patrice, her husband Vawn, and their two kids Dylan and Chrystal on their farm. It really is in the middle of nowhere with long loose metal roads to get there. The farm is massive with both sheep and cattle. They also have goats, 10 farm dogs, one guard dog, and a cat. Both kids have their own mini motorbikes too which makes getting around the 1000 odd hectares a lot easier.

After a yummy lunch they took us up to a pond on the farm to go yabbie fishing. Yabbies are freshwater crayfish but are a lot smaller than their salt water relatives. Still as prehistoric looking though and their nippers are still as dangerous. Dad caught the biggest one and after a few hours we took them back to the house and Patrice boiled them up for us to eat accompanied with garlic butter.

Claire and I left Queenstown on the 29th and headed to Omakau which is 27 kms from Alexandra, to stay with a friend of mine from work and his family who were camping for two weeks. It was a fun night and we had a few wines and loads of laughs. We were woken at around 4am by a gale force wind ripping through the camping ground. Luckily the tent we were in stood up to the strong winds but someone over the other side wasn't so lucky and had to drop their tent when it started ripping. The only other casulty was the gazebo our crowd had put up as a communal dining tent.

We left Omakau at about 9am to head home and after stopping in Naseby (which we have renamed Snoozby due to the fact that no one seems to be in much of a hurry) for some breakfast and then took off to travel through Danseys Pass. What an experience! NZ at it's most rugged. The road was loose metal the whole way and some parts were more like a goat track than a road. I don't think I travelled over 40kph! It also started hailing and sleeting up the top which slowed me right down. But coming to the Danseys Pass Hotel right on the road side was so quaint. We stopped for a hot chocolate and a good old nosey! It was just gorgeous.
Getting back on to tar sealed roads was a strange feeling and when we got up to 100kph I felt like a race car driver!
Claire drove from Highway 83 all the rest of the way home and we made it home in good time both feeling a little jaded from the long slow drive.

For new years eve Claire went with friends out to Duvauchelles, over by Akaroa for the night.
I stayed home with Lance and a friend of his came over and we had nice quiet drinks to see in the new year. We had thought about going into town but never quite got around to it. It would have been a mission to get a taxi anyway I am sure. It was a nice night.
And now it's day three of the new year. Only 362 days and we can do it all again!