move in

It has been quiet on the blog, but less so in real life.

Mid-October we had a long weekend and went to South Canterbury/North Otago to see some rainy geological features.

The next week my father's cousin and husband arrived in Christchurch for their 30+ day tour of New Zealand and we roamed Christchurch together.

I volunteered at the NZ Bike Expo, and also tested electric bikes on the old runway of the Airforce museum, and that was simply amazing. 

This is what New Zealand calls "MASSIVE bike parking", but to be true, for New Zealand conditions there were a lot of people on their bikes for this event (as you would expect...)

 I was once again not selected for a dream job and decided to give up on job applications for a while. Instead I was installed as a casual worker at my old workplace, meaning that they ask me to work whenever there is work and I get paid by the hour. Immediately I worked 3 very long and busy days in the lab with a large team of lab technicians and scientists (many of whom I still knew from before).

We moved into our house, with help of 3 friends, and we all agreed “this was the easiest move ever” (not counting the transcontinental blah). We acquired some furniture quickly from second-hand sources and unpacked parts of some boxes and felt quite at home quickly.

We could use the trailer of our landlords at the cottage, very handy!

The second week in our house we picked up Murdoch and started the trial of having a dog. Within a few hours I realized it was probably not such a great idea after all… We had him the whole weekend and we had a great time together, but he looked sad and lonely whenever I wasn't outside playing with him, and we decided that we should bring him back on Sunday to his fellow dogs and the much larger area to play. We're both away on fieldtrips the coming weeks, and I realized he would be alone too much without any distraction (other than the chickens… ). Well, it is one thing to have a crazy and naive plan, it is another to give up on it, but it is always good to learn from your mistakes. 

Murdoch looking happy because I am outside playing with him

Murdoch looking sad because I am inside

The past week I proceeded to make the house more colourful. The dark brown walls were the first to go, as well as the mud colour in our bathroom and the toilet. On moving day, one of our friends went to the toilet and came back asking “were the previous owners into caving?” We didn't understand this question, and he explained that the toilet felt like a dark cave. Indeed, I experienced the same. After painting with a warm yellow ("salomie"), Thomas was trying to turn off the light, when in fact, it wasn't on at all, so it definitely doesn't feel like a dark cave anymore.

"the cave"

The cave after 2 coats of primer and yellow, with the still-to-do bathroom for contrast

The dark brown walls had to give way to “berry red” which took 3 coats of white primer and then 3 coats of berry red, and still I feel as if the dark brown is coming through, but it does look quite spectacular. Our red sofa also arrived, and it may sound as if we have a red overload in the house, but we think it is all very well balanced and moderated. And that is the magic of owning a house finally, no more restrictions to the colours of the walls, and no more hideous lamps.

During painting berry red we also had an inaugural 4.2 earthquake at the house, so it stood that test. 

Berry red coat 1 of 3

Before and after

We've been really happy in the house, it is very pleasant and we keep being happily surprised. 

We gave the scruffy looking chickens some more space underneath the rhododendrons, the rationale being that both rhododendrons and chickens originate from Asia, so we call this the Asian corner of the garden now.

Thomas lounging in the "funky room"

Kitchen and dining