Wow 2015 already! I still remember the hype for Y2K... doesn't seem that long ago. A lot has changed in my life in these last 15 years and I have done a lot of things. This year I have my 59th birthday so will be starting into my 60th year. That is also amazing, I'm not sure how being 60 is supposed to feel but inside my mind I am in my 40's I would say, my body is lagging a little behind that tho lol. I remember thinking at 45 that I was about half way through my life which felt pretty good and there was lots of time to go and lots more to look forward to experiencing. Now I'm thinking - mmm 20 - 30 years, is it enough time???
It's also a big year for Kent, he turns 50 in September so the big one for him - I'll have to try and think of a suitable celebration for him, anyone got any ideas?
Our kitchen is almost but not quite finished, finally! We are using it and it works well. We had thought it was to be finished in October but only finally was able to use in December. So remember my warnings about renovations - work out your $$ & time budgets and double them! We have still to sort our splashback (unsure whether to go with tile or glass) and still have to find a piece of untreated pine to top the removed wall at the end of the bench.
Our new thing/adventure (in-house) is having Helpx'ers in our home and doing our gardens. We have stopped using Couchsurfing as we found less and less reward from having them stay, especially the younger ones. So we have joined www.helpx.net and so far have had 3 couples come and stay for about a week each. They trade 2 - 4 hours work per day for accommodation and food. Our gardens have gotten away on us and they are now being brought back under control. Our first Helpxers, a young German couple, really helped the most, they cleaned all the surfaces in our home after all the plastering which had left a fine film of dust everywhere. They moved our wood and cleared out the back garden. It is great for us to have this help.
We have a new flatmate (had to wait until we had a kitchen again) in our back room we are enjoying the company of. He's into every type of physical activity there is and coming from Auckland is looking forward to getting onto the lakes and into the forests here.
Summer finally seems to be arriving, we have had quite cold weather up until the end of December unlike Oz where they are having the opposite.
