Life is not measured ....

Spring is here

Yesterday we moved house. We knew when we moved into Dave and Erin’s house that they were planning to sell it at some point so the move has been on the cards for a while and six months on we know the area and have plenty of contacts – in a small community, a lot is done by word of mouth. It’s hard to get too excited about moving from one rented place to another but we are pleased to be staying in Lyttelton, apart from the sea views and the port hills, the kids are settled into school and we have made good friends here. We decided to save on the cost of a removal company, Ben hired a furniture trailer and loads of friends pitched up to help us. Leigh and Graham, two guys that Ben works with lugged all of the heavy furniture. Kim, Sue and Arthur, Liza and Rosie, all friends who we have met through the school helped with car loads and unpacking. Anne, our neighbour had the kids for a couple of hours and then made us a cake for afternoon tea. Kids were everywhere and it was fun. We spent our first evening having fish and chips and bubbly with Anne and Malcolm, Maddy and Alex. We are still in amongst boxes.

The house we have moved to is further down the hill and very close to the school. It is one of the older houses in Lyttelton. Liza Rossie who is Louise’s teacher has researched the history and it is interesting to have the story behind the house. I have never really be into history before but for some reason since moving here, I have found myself quite interested by it all, maybe it is the fact that Christchurch is the oldest city in NZ at 150 years and hearing stories of the first settlers is almost tangible.

The house has loads of character, it’s a bit basic but there is loads of space for visitors. Ben discovered unused beer taps in the kitchen - how long will it be before these are back in service?! Louise and Daniel are very happy too, there isn’t much of a garden but they have discovered a piece of chain which now has an imaginary collar and Lucy the dragon attached to it. They are even enjoying washing up (no dishwasher) – long may this novelty last.

Moving has also reignited the discussions about how long we might stay here. Not surprisingly we’ve decided that renting long term isn’t a great option either financially or for feeling settled. We’ve been through plenty of highs and some lows since we arrived, six months ago we threw everything up in the air just because we had the opportunity. We’ve enjoyed the travelling and been really lucky to land ourselves in Lyttelton. We’ll never look back and wonder “what if?”. We’ll enjoy the summer and put off the tricky decisions until early next year!! This evening we’ve been remembering Terry and Heather.

The kids have hit a couple of milestones in the last few weeks. After two months of perseverance, Daniel has given up sucking his thumb and is now the proud owner of a skateboard. Louise turned 7 in August and enjoyed her first birthday in the winter and during school term time. We opened presents in the morning with grandparents at the other end of the webcam, it doesn’t beat the real thing but it was nice to share it with them. At school they had balloons in her classroom, a popcorn party and sang happy birthday in assembly. Louise is mad about horses and it is one of the new things she has been able to do since moving here, we bought her some lilac jodphurs and after school that day she went horse riding. At the weekend we went out to have a picnic in the snow. We went with two other families, the Rossies: Liza (Louise's teacher), Colin, Hamish and Lucy (one of Louise's friends form school) and the Carnes who live just above us: Anne, Malcolm, Maddy and Alex. We went to Castle Hill out towards the mountains and where they filmed some of Narnia. There wasn't much snow at that level but the kids loved it as there were plenty of Boulders to climb on. After our picnic we climbed the hill and found a patch of snow, enough to have quick snowball fight and to be able to skid down on snow boots.

The school term rolls on here, at the end of this month we have another two week break (our long summer holiday is over Christmas). In Louise’s birthday week, we went to see the Cultural Festival at the town hall – Lyttelton Main School took part in the Kapa Haka, a celebration of the diversity of cultures here.

I have been busy as part of the board of trustees. I was at an ICT conference last week with the head teacher. I'm trying to help them get a 5 year plan together as computers at the school are all a bit hap hazard. It is quite tricky as there is no central government funding and the links into the curriculum are quite loose from what I can gather! My main role on the board is organising funding applications from various charitable trusts. We’ve got a big project on the go to revamp and relaunch the library and lots of smaller funding requests including things like a giant chess set for the playground.

We had some great news this week, computer related but not New Zealand linked: many of you will know that last year we went to South Africa and visited a local school in a place called Kenton (two hours from Port Elizabeth). We met three amazing people: Erica, Marijke and Mike all trying to help locals improve their way of life. We were very touched by our few days with them and when we got back to the UK we set about organising some computers to be sent out to the secondary school. RM donated the PCs and more than a year on and some hitches with shipping along the way, the last 2 bits of kit have finally all arrived. It will make a huge difference to their community. Our thanks to James McIntyre who has kept pestering the right people in our absence to make sure that the computers got to their destination. We hope to receive some photos to share with you, once they get them all up and running.

During the first week of the holidays I am taking the kids to Brisbane to see our friends Joyce and Noel and have also booked four days to go up to Cairns. Ben is staying here to save his holiday for when we have family here later in the year – anyway someone has to earn whilst I spend!!

One last piece of news, my brother Craig has got engaged to Leanne. They will be getting married next year in Canada ….

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 10:56 am