Yes, just for a change (lol) I’m posting some more Sophie pics for you to enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »
OK, so I know we didn’t post anything while we were over in the UK, so here is a quick summary of the rest of our time over there…
We left Wellington on Thursday evening and flew to Heathrow via Auckland and then L.A. It’s never what you could call a pleasant experience, I can think of much better ways to spend 30 hours than jammed into an uncomfortable Economy class seat in a 747, but I have to say that this time it wasn’t as bad as we anticipated. Sophie is now 18 months old, which means she is mobile and gets pretty bored if she is forced to stay in one place for too long. However, the timing of the flight meant she was really tired by the time we took off from Auckland and had a good sleep, much to our relief. In fact, she only really started to give us problems about 2 1/2 hours from landing at Heathrow, but by then we had all had enough.
We’re currently staying with Norman and Shirley in Epping and getting used to being in the UK again. I managed to sneak off with Norman for a quick pint yesterday, we went to a traditional English pub in Epping High Street (open fire, oak beamed ceiling and everything) and I had a great pint of the guest ale, Sussex Gold. It’s surprising how busy everywhere is, even Epping High Street is a bustling metropolis compared to Whitby! The roads are so much busier here, driving isn’t much fun at all and we’re not used to how unfriendly everyone seems. I suppose it’s what you are used to, but even in Wellington CBD you normally have a bit of smalltalk when ordering coffee, going into a shop or whatever. Here it’s very much “all business”, nobody really makes eye contact or says hello unless they have to. That’s probably a bit harsh, but that’s how it seems sometimes.
Still, it’s nice to be among family again and Cindi has made a surprise appearance not once but twice so far! Today we allwent to a local place called Kids Korner, where local parents take their kids to shout at them. Just kidding, but you would be forgiven for thinking that was the case. Sophie and Kei had a nice time and Sophie surprised us all by staying awake and alert for 11 hours straight (3am to 2pm - yes you read that right!) We aren’t too badly affected by the jet lag this time, Sophie’s still a bit topsy-turvy but hopefully she’ll come right soon enough.
Lots more UK adventures to come, stay tuned!
Did you notice that the image at the top of this blog has changed? We went for a walk around the inlet a couple of weeks ago and I took that picture, looking back towards Whitby from the coastal walkway near Camborne. It’s actually a panoramic photo made up of several shots. You can’t see our house as it’s behind a hill, but the picture is taken facing in the right general direction.
Some of you will have seen the view from our house, looking out over the inlet (either in person, or from us taking the laptop out on the deck during a Skype video call!), but for those of you that haven’t, here is the view we have in the morning:
And here’s the same view in the evening sun:
Sometimes when it is really still, the water is smooth like a mirror and the hills get reflected in its surface. I keep meaning to grab the camera when it’s like that but haven’t managed it yet 
In case you aren’t aware, it’s summer here in NZ and we’ve been having some lovely hot weather. Candi is a keen gardener (well, keener than me) and every evening she is out in the garden with Sophie, watering the plants. I took this video the other day and you can see how Sophie’s technique is progressing
I am still getting used to the fact it is Xmas next week. Yes, there are Christmas decorations up all over the place, but I am thrown off a bit by the warm weather - it’s supposed to be cold at Xmas, dammit! I’m not complaining, it just feels strange and I know I will get used to it.
Candi and I are really looking forward to Sophie’s second Christmas - last year she was too young to comprehend what was going on but this year she should get a lot more out of it. Just watch this video of her wearing her Xmas Elf hat and you’ll see what I mean:
We’re going to miss seeing our friends and family over the Xmas period, but it’s not long until we’ll be in the UK so we’re looking forward to a mini-Xmas then!
Last weekend we took the 3 hour ferry ride to Picton and spent a long weekend on the South Island. We stayed in a great bach in Belvue Bay and our friend Graham travelled up from Christchurch and spent the weekend with us.
We were in a great spot, just off Queen Charlotte Drive and within easy reach of Havelock, the Marlborough wine region and Anakiwa. It’s also pretty scenic round there…
Today Soph and I hosted coffee group. It was loads of fun! We decided to have a halloween party - any excuse to dress up really 
We had all sorts of costumes: a ballerina, a worm, a magician, a vampire, a butterfly, a bunny, a Minnie Mouse a hula girl and of course a lot of yummy mummies!
The children all seem to enjoy themselves and so did we.
Click on the picture below to see all the photos. I made the pumpkins and photo frames you see on the table. Not bad for a stay at home Mummy hey!
Love and kisses to everyone I miss you all like mad.
Mrs BrownXXXXXXXXXX
Since we had a return flight to the UK that needed to be used within 12 months, it was a case of ‘use it or lose it’ and we decided to come back to visit friends and family for a couple of weeks early next year. Here are the dates for your diaries:
Arriving in UK - Fri 25 Jan
Leaving UK for NZ - Sun 10 Feb
We don’t have a proper itinerary yet, but hope to see as many of you as possible. (Hint: expect us to be busy at weekends, so arrange to see us midweek if you can!)
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The weather here has been hit and miss, we’ve had a few days of good weather followed by a week or so of awful weather - high winds and nasty rain. The weekend was pretty good and sunny, even if we did have high winds yesterday. I guess we’re not quite out of winter yet, maybe in a few more weeks… (hopefully!) We must love bad weather though, we seem to be always following it around the globe.
Just recently, it seemed like summer was right around the corner, the clocks went forward so the evenings were lighter and we had temperatures of 18 degrees - it was great to see a bit of sunshine. I even came home from work a few times to find Candi and Sophie standing outside by our new gas BBQ, dinner prepped and ready to go. But then, just as we were getting into the swing of summery things, bang, we seem to have found ourselves right back in the middle of winter. Our overnight temperature has dropped as low as 3 this past week and we’ve had really strong winds, which has meant us having to turn those oil heaters back on and postponing all BBQ cooking for a while.
On Wednesday morning I was in work quite early and managed to keep my cool when we felt the effects of a 5.6 earthquake passing through from its origin near Hamner Springs (South Island). There are more details on the Geonet and NZ news websites:
New Zealand Earthquake Report (Geonet)
Quake felt in Wellington, Christchurch (NZ Herald)
South Island shaken by 5.6 quake (Stuff)
It was only the second quake I have actually felt since we arrived, but this one seemed to go on for quite a long time (I was on the third floor at the time so that may have had something to do with it). It felt like a kind of slow, rolling motion rather than violent shaking. Certainly an experience, I’m just glad it was minor and there were no serious effects.
