New Beginnings

Hello Everyone. I write to you tonight from our breezy back garden on Brougham st, Mt. Victoria. The move was a very overwhelming ordeal involving a lot of frustration and for a while we were convinced we needed to settle on another tiny apartment or a spacious place way out of the city. With time and help from our new kiwi flatmate, we managed to find a gorgeous, spacious, self-contained house not far from the city at all. The place has three bedrooms, the biggest of which Jamie and I have claimed (there are two of us after all), a separate kitchen and combined living/dining room. The best part of the house is undoubtedly the back garden where I am sitting now. Nick (flatmate #1) purchased a lovely outdoor dining setup which we've put on the deck that opens up into a small yard complete with shed and large clothesline (I've never hung clothes on a clothesline before, I have to admit I felt quite the domestic goddess). We are sandwiched snugly between two houses which from the sound of things have families complete with crying babies, but the house is its own unit, which is nice.

Since our Terrace lease doesn't actually run out until tomorrow, we've been shuttling things over all week- but today was the last of it. I kicked up quite the fuss on a bus ride cross-town where I almost missed my stop and probably took out a few eyes with the fake christmas tree and ornaments I was carrying. Tomorrow Jamie and I will hand in our keys to the property managers and hopefully get our bond back in full.

I'm still hard at work at the Bristol which is about the same distance from here as was the Terrace. The morning commute is a bit longer for Jamie, who has been working a few days at Kirckaldie's. Today he and a friend from the Christmas shop were hard at work painting shelves and he's done a few days at the wine and cheese shop. They don't seem to want to let him go and have tentatively offered him a permanent weekend position in the shop.

March brings the long-awaited visit of my family and I can't wait. We're planning a roadtrip starting from Auckland where they arrive, but I've tried to make our route a bit different from Jamie and I's so I can see more of NZ. We'll finish in Wellington where hopefully they'll treat us at the nicer restaurants our budget doesn't quite allow. Melbourne did afterall, pull at the old pursestrings.

Speaking of, the trip was fantastic. Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon, but you can expect some snaps of the Australian Open, an Australia Day picnic, and various other city sights. We'd heard Melbourne was a lot like Wellington, only bigger, and I did definitely see the similarities- same cafe/coffee culture, centered around a harbour, totally walkable, and very safe. We were lucky to meet up with some friends of Jamie's from Amsterdam who took us to the best shops and rooftop bars the city and our budget had to offer. Melbourne was definitely abuzz with the Australian Open and we spent a few evenings watching the matches on a bigscreen in Federation Square along with other (mostly foreign) tennis enthusiasts. The match we ended up seeing inside the arena from waaaay high up was Tsonga and Djokovic, a well-played 3 hour+ affair. We also saw the Williams sisters in action and Jamie's favorite Brit, Laura Robson. It was a very fun week.

It getting quite chilly out here and the baby next door has been screaming for a while now, so I think I'll go inside. Hope this update finds you all well. Oh and here's our new address:

67 Brougham st
Mt. Victoria
Wellington, 6011
New Zealand
The other side of the world.