WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ ETC :PART 6!!!

[AngryBeaver]

Wow! Part 6...got to be a record.

MN Towers, where's our prize?!

Thanks so much everyone, Cornwall park it is! Although I'm not sure what sort of state I am going to be in because today is my best friends memorial. I had previously told the family and everyone that I didn't want to write anything for it and they were fine with it. But got an email this morning saying, please can I. So have spent the whole trip so far sobbing and trying to type without throwing up. My life is so wonderful and so terrible all at the same time. It's very hard to reconcile.

Just say something simple Frik. Is there a favourite memory? How did you meet?

frik hoping that your day turned out alright....thinking of you

Hope today went okay Frik. Thought you might like this:

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879321

Thanks everyone. Went disastrously for me, the event itself was really good although it feels strange to say that about a memorial. But, at least half the town turned out so they had to expand the venue and some musician friends played music and people spent hours just talking and reminiscing about her. It was perfect. This was all happening at 4am our time, so I am now shattered. Was up on Skype and whatsapp for hours. I think for everyone else it all feels less immediate, because they are all going through it together, wheras for me, I kind of white knuckle it alone and then when I do get to speak to anyone about her, I am inconsolable. I don't know. Maybe being here is actually making things easier and I just don't know it.

Anyway, thanks everyone for yesterday. Went to Cornwall park which was LOVELY but only for like 10 minutes because old university friends of DHs rang (we were going to see them in the pm) and suggested we come to them straight off and then DD and I could stay there while DH went and did his thing. So that was lovely actually, they live near you lolly, in st heliers, the have a beautiful house, I was like, hhhmmmm Auckland wouldn't be so bad....lol.

So mad I missed the orcas! Will have to be more vigilant!

Our friends paid just under a million for theirs in 2007 and completely refurbished..............Shudder to think how much it would cost now!!!

There are four seagulls sitting on the streetlight outside the house and they are staring at me. And haven't moved for like 20 minutes. I am creeped out.

Come live in St Heliers Frik!

The Orca are likely to hang around. We get them here in winter as they like hunting the stingray in the bay.

dh has a job! very exciting and a huge relief because I heard yesterday that our last bid for funding had been turned down for the next project I was lined up for at work....a few more in the pipeline but if funding is not forthcoming I will be looking for a new job in a few months! So the pressure is off slightly. Based in Penrose so the right side of town.

We had decided that if we didn't hear anything by the end of this week we were going to rent our house and go back to the UK for a year. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be.

Wonderful news Sibble. Congratulations to your dh.

Congrats sibble! Great news :-)

Great news Sibble. It must be a huge relief. A large is in order tonight!

Congrats Sibble :)

Brilliant news Sibble.

Big relief Sibble. Is it a permanent job?

I'm in Hanmer today seeing friends then heading back to theirs which is half way between here and ChCh. Ds1 commented on how they have Scottish grass down here.

House saga continues. We agreed price then building report came in. Alot of work immediately. We have dropped our offer and I don't think they'll accept now. Find out Friday.

It is a permanent job, so that's great too. Start date still to be negotiated and a few minor things in the package but it's all go. Will probably involve more travel than recent jobs but that doesn't worry us. Might be able to tag along and get a few long weekends in Oz

hi all, congrats sibble what a relief.
Hope you're doing ok frick

To answer the question, yes we are loving Waiheke making friends and enjoying meals out. Tis lovely.

But here comes the restrive bit.
Ds2 has a foreign body in his foot. Went to drs as has formed a huge lump and is intermittently painful to walk on.
He said he would need an ultra sound and minor surgery.

Soo had to leave kids with someone I ahev known 4 weeks (big ask, for her AND them) get ferry to auckland then bus to starship...in the pouring rain.

DS nil by mouth, spent ages there, prepped for surgery, then ortho decide he has a cough and they cant do it and we must come back when he is well.

Peg it to catch the next bus and ferry

And have to do it all again next week.

Such a pain.

Anyway, off out training now, last sesh before my race on sun. Ooh and our house sale nearly finalised...and we're going to see a house on sun after race...and before dinner at friends! And I want it....it has STAIRS! :)

Lolly, maybe they won't turn you down on the price if they know that everyone will do the same thing once they see the builders report? Crossing fingers for you!

Sibble, long weekends in oz sounds good, if for no other reason than they have ikea!!! God I miss ikea.....Fantastic that its permanent, you must be feeling so relieved.

AB sorry to hear about DS, hope it gets sorted soon and how exciting on the house! Linky?

I am so jealoouuuuuuus of everyone with houses. I realise that's quite mad, but our friends here in tauranga have a lovely home (not fancy, just a perfect family home) with the most beautiful garden and then we went up to Auckland and DHs friend there have a beautiful home in such a pretty place and then, to add insult to injury took DD for first play date yesterday with her new best friend (I love him mommy, I really really do) and THEY have an awesome house with a stunning garden and a flippen pool!!! I am so desperate to just settle it's a really fierce longing feeling. DH said I better POAS because it's like I am crazy pregnant lady nesting! Lol. I'm not obvs though. Pregnant I mean. Crazy though......that I just might be.....

Seriously Frik?! Can we have a POAS thread?

My OH is planning a trip to Sydney and wants us all to go. Can anyone give me any advice on travelling with a toddler- what do you normally do about rooms/beds? It seems very expensive to get a two bed place so do you normally just put a roll away bed in your room?

Frik- I'd love a POAS thread too! House envy is pretty normal though. I had it for about three years.......

Littlest - when we travelled in Europe with DD1 as a toddler, we had various tricks.

Usual was 2 connecting rooms (Novotel were brilliant for this - 2nd room was usually half price). When she was small we all slept in one room (either cot, rollaway bed or sometime had a single + double in room), and we used second room as "living space", so DH and I could stay up past 7pm and also so that early waking child could be taken to the other room in the morning to give one parent a bit of a lie in. As she got older we'd let her sleep in one room, we'd sleep in the other. Connecting doors were usually propped open with shoes

Other option was a "suite" (surprisingly common & cheap in some places), again living space + bedroom.

Least favourite option, but one that has worked with nice weather, was room with extra bed, but with good sized balcony. (We had a lovely evening on the second half of our honeymoon when DD was asleep in the room & we had dinner on our balcony - no official room service, but the waiters passed the food up to us from the restaurant terrace )

It's a lot easier here with motels as an option. If it was just DD1 & us, we'd probably use 1 bedroom places all the time. (DD2 and her frequent waking complicates matters so we need extra space).

I hate hate hate having one hotel room when travelling with young children (or at least mine who have never been good at the "sleep in a buggy so you can have a late dinner" idea. We end up having McDonalds in the room and having to sit in darkness & silence after 7pm )

Did that help at all or am I just rambling?

Just lost long and detailled post - grr! In summary -

HELLO girls!

sibble am delighted for you re DH job sitch - hurray!

AB I cannot believe how quickly you have been assimilated into the Waiheke scene - fantastic! Though I am a little unnerved by your fitness freak persona, unnerved and also deeply impressed good luck with the race and with DS hospital trip next week, what a pain.

xMinerva not in a trillion years could I home school my two - hats off to you, and to justa too.

vvviola our strategy has also been hanging out in starkly-lit bathrooms with our books at 7pm while our kids slept in the darkened hotel bedroom, have always wondered what the hell other families did!

littlest good luck with the wonderful Sydney trip, I would just get one room for all of you, I would think, as anything else in Sydney will cost you an arm and a leg surely?

lolly good luck with the house sitch, every time I check Auckland house prices I weep!

frik house envy I fully understand. I can't bear to leave our new place if/when we come over and will be in mourning for a time. Garden looking fab now spring is here at last. But when I check Tauranga sites I see amazing places - and the prices are not as bad as Auckland are they - you will see the right thing soon, I am sure!

Love to you all, girls xxx

LOOOOLLLLL! Sorry guys, I really am not pregnant, fo shizz. What i was trying to type is that I just might be crazy. But i see thats not what I actually wrote!! Sorry

Littlest, vvvv has laid out all the best scenarios. We do pretty much exactly the same as she suggests. The only time we have ever tried to share one room, it's ended in disaster! But it also depends on your kids. I have a friend who's DS was so bomb proof she could put him to sleep on a trundle with all the lights on and the tv going etc etc with no problems. I will admit to hating her just a little bit.

Thanks for being kind guys about my unbecoming house jealousy, I am trying to rein it in, our time will come etc etc etc. in an effort to distract myself I am signing up for an art class. I already go to a sewing one. What I am most desperate for though is a mahjong group. Sadly all my Internet searching for a group has come to nothing :-(

AB, you honestly have inspired me to make more of an effort with the exercising thing. I have been doing 7km walks twice a week and skipping. Lets see of I can stick to it!

Meerkate! Hello