You are currently browsing Candi's articles.
Would you believe it – our little girl is 2 years old today?!
Yesterday I asked her what cake she wanted. She said she wanted Pepa pig jumping in muddy muddles. I tried but she will get her ‘proper’ Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake at her Birthday party on 9 August – we decided to postpone it until her Nanna and Grandad are here.
We asked Sophie over dinner last night how old she would be on her Birthday and she said “four!” Bless her, Sophie loves counting and colours. She often counts things like toys or stairs she has to climb. She also has a go at colours and will look at things and say “red”, “purpo”, “geen”, “yello” or whichever colour she fancies! Everything used to be “colour red”, we were at a friend of mine one day and I was asking her what colour random things were, she kept on answering ‘red’ even when they weren’t. Later my friend had something that actually was red and asked Sophie was colour it was, Soph said “blue”!
We got up around 6am today and started opening the presents. Sophie just loved all of her lovely gifts.
…apparently they don’t want it!
Can I donate blood if I have lived in the UK?
If you lived in the UK, France or the Republic of Ireland for a total of six months or more between 1980 and 1996 then unfortunately you will be permanently deferred from donating blood in New Zealand.
Permanently banned! What, are we all mad cows or something?
We have arrived safe and sound, no problems at all so far. We are the well travelled Brownz don’t you know . . . 
We have just completed the first 2hr55mins of our journey and have a flight to Dubai ahead of us (about 14 hours). Then it’s Dubai to LHR so not long now until we are home. We wont be able to check mails our post a blog so I am afraid this is the last one.
Again, a huge thank you to our hosts in the South island and the North island. You have been terrific to us. Let’s hope we can repay the favour one day.
To everyone at home, thank you so much for all the comments and for actually reading this blog.
Ross and Sophie are off exploring Sydney airport and I am using a free internet service to write my blog. Shopping ? How motherhood has changed me
Lots of love kisses and hugs
CandiXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS A huge thank you to Auntie Lou for looking after Tiggerwinkstinkery too. You’re the best!!!! Can’t wait to catch up and see your new pad
We woke up around 07:30 again with guess who right inbetween us. Yes, this seems to be the new routine. . .
As Joe had booked today off as holiday he kindly took us to the other side of Wellington to the Chocolate Fish Cafe in the Karaka Bay area for some breakfast (I could get used to this a bit tooo easily ).
The Chocolate Fish Cafe is in Scorching Bay (pretty apt name as today was boiling) which is on the other side of Wellington to Lower Hutt (and Korokoro where we are staying with the Schaff-Edes).
It is a beautiful area which reminds me Read the rest of this entry »
We woke up to the sound of rain coming down which to be honest, sounded rather lovely. We looked out the window only to find our beautiful mountains covered in mist. How beautiful . . . ?
Ross had an interview at 10.00 so Sophie, Susanne and I started to get all the bits ready for our road trip to the bach on the coast….aaah the coast
We finally left around 13:00 and drove for a while before stopping off in Raumati Beach for a lovely brunch. After a few scratch cards bought (with the pokie winnings) we ate, drank and then set off on the road again. We went on a scenic trip along the Kapiti coast that took us through a lovely town called Paraparaumu, which is still commutable to Wellington. What a wonderful 60 minute commute that would be hey ?!?
Anyhow, this is putting the Read the rest of this entry »
SKIVING….
Well, Ross and I were supposed to go to baby club today but Sophie fell asleep so we didn’t go. It will more than likely be the same as the one in Cholsey, except it is run by parents not the Parish.
When Sophie eventually woke up we went for a walk into Petone. It was about a 25 minute walk downhill and if you saw the gradient of the hill you will realise why it takes 25 minutes. The weather is still lovely here. It isn’t scorching hot, but around 20 degreees and sunny. We are still in jeans in the evening but it’s far from freezing.
I am starting to miss home now, it’s really lovely here but I can’t wait to see everyone and I am missing Cindi and Kei loads. I can’t quite start thinking about how I would feel should this be permanent.
I haven’t quite gotten around to seeing stuff about schools or anything but Joe works for the Ministry of Education so he is going to get me a paper from work tomorrow to take home (or at least the name of the TES equivalent).
Otherwise, we are all well. Sophie has started waving her right arm around and also splashes loads in the bath. She smiles even more when her face gets soaked.
She still doesn’t take too well to strangers and prefers to be in either her Mom or Dads arms although she has warmed to both Joe and Susanne and also Graham really well.
Well not much to report really just a quick note to say hi and that we are all well. Hope all is well with all of you.
Lots of love
CandiXXXXXXXX
We all got up around 8am this morning. Sophie slept well in our bed, Mum didn’t sleep so good – in a little ball in the left hand corner of the bed. Kids hey?!
After having breakfast together looking out over the hillside we went for a lovely walk up the hills in Korokoro (where we met some donkeys along the way). I must admit having Sophie asleep in her new sling didn’t help. I was wheezing all the better the whole way up. When we got to the top there was a 360 degree view of Lower Hutt, Petone, over to Upper Hutt and even Wellington. The views were breathtaking… or was that just from carrying dear princess Sophie? The weather here is pretty overcast now. I am sat here in Read the rest of this entry »
Today we set off around 10:30 and drove to Eastbourne which is about 30 minutes drive along the coast from Lower Hutt. We had a lovely breakfast of eggs benedict and a flat white before highlighting a few houses in the property pages to view today. In NZ, some homes become open to the public to view at pre-arranged times, usually at the weekend. So, we set about choosing which ones we could see, then Joe and Susanne very kindly drove us around to the different ones, stopping in between to get an ice-cream and drink from a local dairy (corner shop).
So, for around $330,000 – $350,000 you can get a 2/3 bedroom house on quite a small section (a plot of land, a “plot” here means burial plot so the word isn’t used in the same way as it is in the UK). The ones that were really lovely and had annexes or granny flats were about $400,000 and basically just about perfect and you could move in with no real need to do much. But, we could never afford $400,000 unless we earned loads of money and could get a huge mortgage. The way open houses work is that people go around to these houses, sign in on a piece of paper and then have a look around. The estate agent is there to answer any questions and we did see quite a few faces we had seen at other houses so I am sure Read the rest of this entry »
Picture taken during a walk we had this morning
Well today it wasn’t as warm as it has been (about 22 degrees) so Ross, Sophie and I all put our jeans on and headed out with Joe and Susanne for a lovely brunch at Denny’s (very reasonable place for breakfast, about $12 for the works : eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown and toast). The verdict, yummo!!! We then went for a lovely walk along the coast which was Read the rest of this entry »
Hi All
Well today Ross had a 10am interview with one of the biggest recruitment agencies in NZ and the feedback is very positive. They have about 4 jobs which Ross seems perfect for and they will be sending his CV off to these companies. One of which had about 100 holiday houses you can rent out for $30 a week if you are an employee and the guy said this would be a fab way of seeing NZ. Too jolly right! All the feedback so far seems positive. They are all very interested in Ross and it seems that it’s been the best move for him to see them face 2 face rather than just be an anonymous CV on a piece of paper.
While all that was going on, Susanne, Sophie and I went shopping instead. We drove from Wellington city centre to Read the rest of this entry »
