Goodbye Nelson, Hello Wellington

We have to apologize for not blogging in nearly a month! For the rest of June, we were both putting in a lot of hours at work - I picked up a lot of shifts at the hospital and Steve put in full days to wrap up the projects he had on-the-go with his Ottawa boss. The last week in Nelson, we celebrated Canada Day with our recently-found fellow Canadian friends - Alex and Andrea. Andrea is a nurse as well and it was fun getting to know them a bit before we left Nelson. They are getting settled in Nelson for the forseeable future, so hopefully we will cross paths again. I also spent some more time with the refugee family I've gotten to know and the eldest daughter taught me how to make some delicious Nepali dishes. Needless to say, it was a bit sad saying goodbye to all these new friends, and to our cozy cottage.

The ferry ride to Wellington was rocky as usual, and Steve slept beautifully through all of it while I caught the seabreeze on the decks. We had a week in Wellington before we could move into our new flat, so we lived at a hostel downtown - one of the few with parking available. We did some back-to-school shopping for Steve, since he can no longer wear his pajama pants to work every day. We also spent a day at the Victoria University library, where Steve immersed himself in optics books (not all catalogues at the library look like this!).

We also stopped by the National War Memorial on our way home.

On Wednesday, Steve went out to IRL (Industrial Research Limited) where he will be working on the PhD project. The first few days were mostly housekeeping and getting set up, and of course, getting used to the morning and afternoon tea breaks where everyone floods to the cafeteria to chat over tea.

I spent two days meeting with various nursing managers at both of the main hospitals in the area, and have to admit that I am overwhelmed with job options. There is such a demand for nurses here, especially since it is winter and the regular flus and swine flus are putting added pressures on the hospitals and staff. I am following up with a few managers this week, and will try to make some decisions by the end of this week so that I can get started soon.

Our new flat is lovely and so are the couple that we are housesitting for. We met them the day we arrived in Wellington, and they showed us around the flat. It is across the street from the ocean, looks out across the bay at Wellington, and is about 5km from Steve's work. We will be here for 7 weeks, and hopefully by then we will have found something just as lovely for longer term.

Our new flat, after sunset. Steve gets to use their guitar, and note the TV in the window reflection! It has been over 6 years since either of us has had a TV - hopefully we don't get addicted.

Here is the view from the living room this morning - a typical grey and cloudy day, but still nice to see the ocean.

This is the kitchen, and the bedroom and bathroom is around the corner - too cluttered with all our bags and bikes and boxes to be blog-worthy.

This is Falafel. She came from the SPCA and belongs to the couple who live here, and we agreed to catsit while they are away. The couple offered to take her to a "cattery" (very popular here, although we hardly ever see kennels), but caring for her gave us a slight discount on the rent, so we agreed, although neither of us are cat-people.