Sunday, October 29, 2006
Still no photos... I'm struggling with a dial-up connection until we move into our new place later this week. If all goes well we might actually have a broadband connection again this coming weekend and then I will post pictures of sunny beaches and palm trees and you will all hate me.
We're moving into a townhouse about a five minute walk from the beach in St Heliers, which is about a twenty minute drive from downtown Auckland. St Heliers has a small village with a butcher, some bakers and LOTS of real estate agents because who wouldn't want to live so close to the beach? There's a waterfront trail directly downtown so we should be able to cycle to work on days when it isn't completely soaking wet and windy. The townhouse owners are relocating to England for a few years and they've done some nice renovations - a big contrast from the first rental I saw where I stepped in a puddle in the carpet because the dishwasher was leaking. Another rental looked lovely from the outside but had an internal 'window' with a low sill just waiting for some visiting child to climb up, fall out and dash their brains on the floor below.
This weekend we hosted some of my relatives in our temporary digs before we move out. They were fascinated by the gigantic entertainment system cabinet. We have to keep the cabinet door open because otherwise it gets really hot in there which is a bit worrying. I tried turning off all the stuff but the programming is finicky and then nothing would work. I'll be very happy to go back to the minimalism of our no TV/DVD/VCR/CD/Sky Box/ big ass Tuner / built in speaker system lifestyle. I'll miss the appliances in this place though 'cause we have to buy our own for our rental place and fridges in particular are astronomically expensive (think $2,000 for a simple white fridge).
I'm sure we'll be living in chaos for at least the next month while we figure out where to put all our stuff in the new place. I was happy to finally wear my surf shorts on Saturday and feel warm walking around outside but on Sunday the stormy weather returned. I'm sure this carping about rain isn't appreciated by anyone living in Toronto where the high was 7 over the weekend. I'll shut up now.
We're moving into a townhouse about a five minute walk from the beach in St Heliers, which is about a twenty minute drive from downtown Auckland. St Heliers has a small village with a butcher, some bakers and LOTS of real estate agents because who wouldn't want to live so close to the beach? There's a waterfront trail directly downtown so we should be able to cycle to work on days when it isn't completely soaking wet and windy. The townhouse owners are relocating to England for a few years and they've done some nice renovations - a big contrast from the first rental I saw where I stepped in a puddle in the carpet because the dishwasher was leaking. Another rental looked lovely from the outside but had an internal 'window' with a low sill just waiting for some visiting child to climb up, fall out and dash their brains on the floor below.
This weekend we hosted some of my relatives in our temporary digs before we move out. They were fascinated by the gigantic entertainment system cabinet. We have to keep the cabinet door open because otherwise it gets really hot in there which is a bit worrying. I tried turning off all the stuff but the programming is finicky and then nothing would work. I'll be very happy to go back to the minimalism of our no TV/DVD/VCR/CD/Sky Box/ big ass Tuner / built in speaker system lifestyle. I'll miss the appliances in this place though 'cause we have to buy our own for our rental place and fridges in particular are astronomically expensive (think $2,000 for a simple white fridge).
I'm sure we'll be living in chaos for at least the next month while we figure out where to put all our stuff in the new place. I was happy to finally wear my surf shorts on Saturday and feel warm walking around outside but on Sunday the stormy weather returned. I'm sure this carping about rain isn't appreciated by anyone living in Toronto where the high was 7 over the weekend. I'll shut up now.
# posted by Margaret @ 7:03 PM 
