Dan loves Kat very much

A photo of Dan with a drawing of Kat that he spent ages on the other night. He misses Kat a lot but is hoping that either she will be able to fly over to visit us this summer, or that he might be able to do any small jobs around the neighbourhood during the summer to earn some cash for another ticket back to the UK in June, once Kat has finished her GCSE's.

New House at 17 Matija Place, Orewa, Auckland

We have spent the last week unpacking boxes and making our new house feel more like our home. The boys are settling in well and enjoying having their own rooms again, at last.

The top photo is the front of our house, taken from further up the driveway (Manda's new car parked outside the garage which is currently housing loads of boxes and Dan's car). The next photo is Manda and Dave's bedroom, which also has an ensuite shower room (ooh luxury!). Dan's bedroom is next - couldn't fit it all in the photo but there's room for a chest of drawers and a desk for him to sit at. Ben in his new room, he'd only just got up - bless! Josh has spent hours cutting out favourite pictures from magazines to decorate one of his walls, mind you he's still got several boxes to sort out, but he says that he can do those later (sound familiar?).

It is lovely to have a 'nearly new' home which doesn't need any work doing to it. We've got so many boxes to sort through it's going to take months before we are completely straight, but here are some photos to show you where we are living. Soon we may even venture out and about with the camera and take some photos of the neighbourhood and our new town! Hope you enjoy the photos.

New Garden at 17 Matija Place

This is the patio area where we dine outside under the shade of a custom built transparent arch and a parasol when the sun becomes hotter! The hot tub was included and this weekend we managed to follow the confusing instructions as to measuring the right quantities of various chemicals to add to the water so that it is safe to use... Josh was the first one in and he enjoyed his 'spa' experience very much.

Monday 29th January 2007

Well, we've finally moved into our new home, contracts became legal and binding on Settlement Day, Friday 19th January 2007. The first photo is of our lounge, at the front of the house, it is an open plan arrangement leading through to a dining area. The dark wood dining table was one of the chattels included in the sale along with 8 dining chairs. The next photo is of the family room, which is approximately 30 ft long, it has a wood burning stove at one end plus the previous owners left us 3 years supply of fire wood. The kitchen has plenty of cupboards and is the hub of the home, overlooking the patio area. We were lucky that they also left us the three breakfast bar stools; one each for Dan, Ben & Josh. Plus they left a stainless steel dishwasher and a Fisher & Paykel oven and hob.

Manda's New Year Message

Hello all you dedicated people, reading these blog spot updates! We've had a bit of a problem with technology and haven't been able to upload the funny photos of us all wearing the blonde wig on New Year's Eve! Shame, but I'm sure that we'll be able to sort it out over the next few days or so.

We've been spending quite a bit of time indoors over the past few days, as it has been cloudy, windy and raining a lot!! But today is very warm and sunny again, so we've headed up north to Orewa to use the internet cafe, so that I could add a bit more to this blogspot. If any of you fancy adding any comments or feel like sending an email, any communication would be gratefully received!! Thank you to everyone who has sent text messages or emails, it's lovely to keep in touch and find out what's happening in your lives over there in the UK. Bye for now and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2007.

More Party photos and Happy New Year's Day

Manda nicked a blonde wig from Josh, after he sneaked it away from Madonna! We laughed and posed for photos, until a dvd of 80's music was put on the TV, then we sang loudly along with Freddie Mercury to Queen songs and danced the night away! It was great fun! We made lots of new friends, a couple of Pauline and Jason's neighbours called Anne and Bill invited us to their house on New Year's Day for a lunch party/afternoon get together, which nearly everyone in the street had been invited to! We had baked some fresh banana and chocolate chip muffins which we took along with us. We had loads to eat and drink sitting outside on their deck under a large awning which protected us all from the occasional downpour and the hot sun. We staggered home at the end of a very enjoyable afternoon.

Sunday 31st December

On sunday we were all invited to our friends New year's eve party. It was 80's night ! We arrived at 8:40 and we stayed till 1:30 am. This is a photo of our friends Jason dressed as John Travolta and his wife Pauline dressed as Cyndi Lauper. It was so much fun, we danced and sang to old 80's songs! This is also a picture of Josh Dressed as a punk rocker after he had alot of coke !!!

Saturday 30th January

We went to the beach today, it was sunny when we set off but was decidedly cloudy when we arrived! Josh and Ben built a sandcastle, with a moat and drawbridge. Josh filled the moat with sea water and they decorated the sandcastle with shells. The sun came out and it was time to splash around in the sea. We had a great time and this is a photo of their sandcastle. We went into town in the morning to find some accessories to complete our outfits for the New Year's Eve Party, Dave will be going as Shakin' Stevens, Manda will be going as Pamela Ewing from Dallas, Ben will be going as Roy Orbison and Josh will be going as a punk rocker!

Friday 29th January 2006

Manda and Josh standing by Dave's new car on the driveway of our rental property in Torbay. We had been to the beach to throw a Christmas ball/toy with a long tail. We spent a few hours spinning it around and launching it into the sky for each other to try and catch...great fun!

We've been invited to a New Year's Eve party by Pauline, a nice person we met at BB's which is a coffee shop in the centre of Browns Bay. She emigrated to NZ from Scotland a few years ago and is full of lots of advice and information! We'll post up photos of us at the party, which is themed 1980's famous people. Only 2 days to think up a costume arrgh!