Life resembles Normal

It has been quite a while since we last updated the Blog. Where has the time gone??

As most of you know, Judy stayed here in New Zealand after the residency came through in March, to begin her job and Jim returned to Canada to tie up a few loose ends and to make a quick trip to Nicaragua. He had the company of Allan Earle, Judy's cousin, on the trip south and they had a great time ..... great scenery, good old friends and the fishing was fantastic! Jim had a brief visit with the Kirkland family (no longer of Kirkland as they have moved by now to their new home), had a wonderful Easter with new and very dear friends on the island and a whirlwind visit in Vancouver before returning to NZ to put an end to his experience as a "kept man" as he has been fond of saying!

We are settled, to an extent and life has begun to take on the resemblance of normal. We are still in a rented flat and it will probably be a while yet before we change that. Property here is dear and the dollar is still quite weak against the Kiwi dollar, so no rush to change our funds and jump into the home market. But, although we don't have much furniture, we now live out of closets rather than suitcases and yes ........ Jim is employed! He started work a week ago and has returned to working with kids at risk ... kids who don't fit the normal education system ..... and although the adjustment to working hours has been a bit difficult (first few days he couldn't keep his eyes open past 8:00 pm ) he is enjoying it. The nice thing is that he works 3 1/2 days a week (leaving time for us to still spend together ..... after all , 6 years of 24/7 is not an easy habit to break) .. and he has all the school holidays off which will still give us some time to move about. Probably one of the hardest parts of settling in has been facing a long length of time without moving about. That may sound strange to some of you but even though we were ready to land for a while, with some roots once again, it has been a major adjustment not to have the suitcases on standby! His first school break is in early July and we have decided to postpone Judy's trip back to Canada until after that so that we can visit friends on the North Island and spend the time off together. It will be easier to be apart during the time that he is working.

Jim has also returned to coaching basketball and is really enjoying it. After a slow start, he has gone on to coaching three teams! A rural school team, a group of u14 girls who are new to the game (he can never figure out how they seem to be amused at everything and giggle all the time ????) and a very young and small under 16 boys team that he recently took to a tournament in Christchurch. They got beat quite soundly, as expected, but the attitude of the boys and their keenness and willingness to learn, made the whole weekend fun. Imagine 14 year old boys coming up after a practice and saying thank you to Jim for being there to coach. Makes it all worth while!

Our first winter in a long time! Can't say as that has been a highlight of our new life ..... bit of softies we are! .. but as winters go I guess it isn't all that bad! Nights can be pretty cool ( -2 to 4 or 5 degrees Celsius) but daytimes can still be up to 16 (the other day) and mostly sunny so could be worse I guess ???? Have to admit that one of our first purchases was a bed warmer (electric blanket that goes on the mattress) and I bless it nightly! The fall was quite beautiful and some of the new photos that I will post on the webshots later today will show you the wonderful colors of the vineyards and valleys near here. It's just too bad that winter has to follow fall ..... 3 seasons a year is really all anyone needs!

We have just passed our 3 month anniversary as residents and having met the only condition of being granted residency, (3 months of working for the employer who we named on our application), we are off this weekend to Christchurch to have the conditional visas in our passports changed! Yeah! We can't say enough about the terrific people who have helped us land here in New Zealand .... can't say alot either as you never know who reads this stuff ..... but hopefully they know how much their help and friendship mean to us! Thanks guys!

We will let everyone know once we have set some plans for Judy's trip north and in the meantime .... keep us in your thoughts and stay in touch. check out the photos http://community.webshots.com/user/travellinglifestyle in a day or so.

luv to all

Cheers!