Rosemary and Andrew came to visit for Easter weekend. They were our first ever overnight visitors. Thank goodness for the futon couch! We had a blast. It was really great to see them.
Megan came the next weekend and spent a week with us! Poor girl spent over 24 hours in flight, and was completely exhausted upon arrival, but we still could barely stop chatting. I really missed her. We went three years without seeing each other, except for a run-in at Chevy's on the River. We had a really nice, but tame week. Colin and I are so granny-ish it's scary. We took Mego to the rugby and wine-tasting in the Wairarapa. Mego and I explored Wellington a bit, and went to parliament, Te Papa, shopping on Thorndon Quay, on a scenic drive to Scorch-O-Rama cafe, to the zoo, and to Somes Island in the middle of the harbor. We tried to find some penguins. We failed. Colin and I also took her to Staglands so she could hand-feed deer and kune kune pigs. That was SOOO FUUUN. I love the big fat kune kunes (the ginger one likes to catch pellets in her mouth) and the fat deer that follow you around. This sheep with giant horns kept knocking into me when I played with the other animals. That made me nervous. He didn't seem to know he had lethal weapons on his head. We also took Megan to burgerfuel for the best burgers on the planet, and we got TONS of NZ junk food. Megan brought me cheetos! Yum. Megan and I had a harrowing drive to the airport, thanks to my lack of time management and a lack of motorway offramps. I got Megan through security in one piece, and I was very sad to see her go. Now she's spending a month in Oz with a college friend of hers.
The weather got really cold after Megan left. Our flat is often 45 or 50 deg F when we wake up. It costs about $200 a month to keep the front room and the bedroom at about 65 deg F whenever we are at home, and we can't afford it. We wear down jackets, drink tea, and do the dishes to stay warm. Our house has no insulation, single-paned windows, and no central heating. This is standard for modern NZ homes. Aaaand this country calls itself green. Yeah, right.
Cold weather is horrible when you have no place to get warm.
And no bathroom fans! Or any way to keep the bathroom warm (no fan= leave window open 24/7, and no central heating)! Ugh! I had to mop the bathroom ceiling TWICE last night! And I still had giant water drops falling off the mildewy ceiling and hitting me while I was brushing my teeth! ICK!!! It's so cold... our towels never dry (we use quick dry travel towels) and I swear my ass is going to freeze to the toilet seat some day. Can we move to Connecticut (aka civilization and central heating) now?
Okay, now I'm REALLY whining... the moisture and the single paned windows result in massive amounts of condensation. Every morning, I wake up and squeegee the windows. I think I get about a quarter of a liter of water off the windows that open out, and I have to wipe another quarter off the lower windows that don't open. It's weird, and actually results in a lot of mold and health issues in this country. Again, IT'S CALLED DOUBLE PANED WINDOWS AND CENTRAL HEATING, PEOPLE!
Work has taken a turn for the worse. The boys are being pretty obnoxious and rude these days, which is driving me a bit bonkers. I'd really like to tell them off, but they could retaliate and make my raise disappear, so I keep my mouth shut. Our part-timer has been a total jerk to me lately, but he'll be gone soon. He's quitting this month. Labor laws in NZ make it extremely difficult to fire people, so if you have an incompetent staff member, you're stuck with him/her. My bosses lack the ability to hire competent staff, or any staff for that matter, so my schedule sucks, as does my clean-the-store workload. I hate my job again. But I'm stuck with it for a few more months. Oh well.
I got my ticket home a while back. I arrive in SF on July 29th. Colin got my ticket on his Qantas points, so I have a stop in Sydney for 7 hours. If I can leave the airport (need to see if they have a visa waiver program or not), I can go to the opera house and the bridge. Colin won't be able to follow until his visa comes through. It might take a month or two after I go before he can follow. He'll fly straight out to Boston with his remaining points. Sissy is going to get me across the country in one piece. I think family housing is going to work out, so that's one less thing to worry about.
I can't wait until Colin and I are settled in Connecticut and I'm back in school!!!
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