A Belated Happy Thanksgiving

Our friends from Ottawa, Jenny and Ross, came over for our NZ version of a Thanksgiving dinner last week. There is no Thanksgiving holiday here, and I think turkeys are only available if you order ahead from a butcher. We weren't planning ahead that much, so had to make do with a little chicken instead. Thankfully, Jenny has much more culinary wisdom and experience than me, and everything turned out to be delicious!

The flowers in the middle are Columbines, which are growing next to the driveway, along with some Calla lilies and red geraniums. The colours are welcome amidst all the gray days we've had lately. October has definitely been the worst month for weather - rain, wind, hail, and cold temperatures. We are looking forward to summer!

Next week we move out of this house as the owner will return from the UK, and after spending a week in temporary accommodation, we will move into our new house on 14 Mawson St. We have signed a one-year lease there, so hopefully it will feel more like home. It comes unfurnished though, so we will be scouring "TradeMe" and second-hand shops for everything we need. The first item on our list will be a fridge!

Spring?!?

We recently changed our clocks for daylight savings, and we had to remind ourselves to "spring forward" even though it was September. Not only does the name of the month make us think it should be fall, but the weather lately has been grey, rainy, windy, and incredibly chilly. There have been enough sunny days for the flowers and trees to bloom, but I think it will still be awhile before we put the electric blanket away.

We haven't had much time for adventures lately, as we've been settling into work routines and are busy searching for our next home. I continue to learn a lot on the paediatric ward, and am finding the variety of cases quite interesting. Unfortunately though, I've had to work most weekends. Steve is still enjoying his PhD project and spent a day in Christchurch last week meeting with one of his supervisors.

Our second stint of housesitting will finish at the end of October, so we've been busy looking into our options. Although it hasn't exactly been our style of place, we've been thankful to have an affordable place to stay while we search for a more permanent home.

Most of our time has been spent looking at the listings on trademe.co.nz, the NZ equivalent of eBay. It's an incredibly popular site, and is definitely the best place for people to advertise anything they want to sell. Kiwis sell everything on trademe - in fact, it's so popular that the hospital has blocked access to it from every hospital computer.

We finally had our first Canadian guests! Jenny and Ross are friends from Ottawa - I worked with Jenny on the oncology unit and she and her husband have just finished a year of working and traveling around Australia. Now they plan to do the same here in NZ and are kicking off the adventure with a few months in Wellington. It's been fun to have them around and hear their stories from Australia.

And one last picture - although it's not exactly from New Zealand. Steve's birthday was a couple weeks ago, so I can't resist posting this picture of him when he was just a wee boy already tinkering with bikes and tools...