March - where did that month go?

This month's update comes as a blog entry and focuses on a few topics:

Chat - Lillia continues to chatter away, her most common phrase of 'what you doing?' kicks off lots of conversations and when no one is there to answer she can be seen chatting away to herself. Singing and dancing are also taking a notable part of her life - and are delivered as a performance while standing/bouncing on her trampoline. New music, playgroups and toddler groups punctuate her week and are evidently good fun.

Moves - Nina decided that March was all about moving. She is now rolling and commando crawling all over the place, and sitting up all by herself! Just like her Dad she is surprisingly fast and also seems to have an eye for mischief. In Nina's case this is making a beeline for and then eating newspapers and cables. All this moving has given her a rapidly increased appetite so 3 meals a day is the new norm.

Work - Matt's lost count (or doesn't want to count) the number of job apps that much time and effort has been poured into. Last week saw a positive up turn with agents phoning him and a resultant telephone interview, but alas nothing more. April see's the start of the Kiwi fruit season - which while not 'choice' would be a good fall back plan to get some dollars coming in. To aid his chances Matt is taking his forklift license test and hopes to get some good new experiences through the season.

Travel - as you may have seen from other blog entries we have travelled a few times this month with a great trip to Gisborne to see Derek (Fi's brother) and also to Hamilton to visit friends from Oak Hall and a couple of airport runs to aid Fi's parents holiday plans. Also had a great day out in Karangahake Gorge, tramping with some friends :-)


Here's a few photos and a composed video for you too. Keep in touch, we're only 12 hours ahead now and that reduces to 11 hours this weekend as NZ time falls back into autumn.

No sign of James Herriot

So here's the gig, Fi's parents are away for the week and we're left in charge of a number of animals. My record with animals isn't good; a few dead fish, one v grumpy hamster and my grandparents dog, Lexi, who was v good - but always seemed to throw up when it stayed at our house...

For the record (body count) there's 4 cows, 4 goats (susceptible to getting stuck in ponds), 38 sheep - oh and the neighbours pet dog and cat thrown in for good measure.

To add just a little bit of zest I'll need to manage and move the electric fences, another first.

Hopefully more blogging to come...

....where are all the jobs?

Back to earth with a bump today, 6 job apps all closed off while we had our extended weekend away. (Six, that prompted a fresh brew of coffee.)

So back to the looking again, have opportunity to complete fork lift truck driving qualification next week - would make for some interesting skills acquisition for the CV. But as late Grandpa Varley always said,

Matthew, never stop learning new things.

Where are all the cars?

We drove back from Gisborne yesterday (15/3) on State Highway 2. Firstly it was a beautiful drive; farmland and hills, a good drivers road and a bluebird sky day. What was even more amazing is that we drove for nearly an hour without either catching up with a car or having anyone in our rear view mirror. I could get used to driving like that!

For the record we drove through the Waioeka gorge, stopping off at a bridge crossing along the way. Another beautiful place, this was where some early settlers made a go of living off the land up the valley on the other side of the river. It didn't work for them but the bridge has been maintained and it is a gorgeous spot for lunch :-)