Must be a good time to write some more about our lives.
The new year got off to a good start with Kent buying me a most beautiful ring which I love. The rest of the year has to be fantastic after that good start don't you think? On Valentines Day he made me an ice bowl and frozen into it were flowers from our garden. Yes, I definitely could get used to this :)
In December we bought fairy lights and strung them up across our deck, which is almost internal. White ones crossing it and coloured ones around the outside. They are on a timer and come on at 7.30pm so we can enjoy them every night all year, who says they are christmas lights! We also have hanging baskets of beautiful colourful impatiens hanging on the deck and pot plants on the floor so it looks absolutely lovely out there. The very sad thing is that we haven't really had a summer, we have had mostly cloudy days and rain with the temperatures being very cool so we haven't really been able to sit out on our lovely deck, daytime or evening. We have a lovely big barbeque that has only been in use a couple of times and a picnic table in need of a repaint but it never gets dry enough. A couple of Magpies moved into our bush (woods) and consequently all the other larger birds moved out which was really annoying. We tried to think of ways to get these horrid birds but they have remained here for a couple of months now. Actually we haven't seen them in the last week and this morning we hear for the first time in ages some lovely birdsong and not the usual chortle so we are hopeful they have moved on.
Muppet has settled into our home and grown more confident with passing time. He no longer growls and barks at Kent but thinks he's his playmate and he is much less frightened of men and children (he has always been timid but ok with women). He is still cautious of people which is a good thing, no-one could just pick him up and run of with him. He's a real cutey and a character, he and Molly play chasings around the house and one day managed to break a glass terrarium with their shenanigans. But it's fun and we love them both.
Sarah & Braden are still with us although they plan to fly home at the end of May. Considering when they arrived last July they were only planning on staying until the end of August we have been privileged to have them stay so long and will really miss them when they go. They have managed to get some camping done on our rare fine days and Braden's parents came to stay for a few weeks in February, so it was great to meet them and they got to see a bit of the top of the North Island.
Prashant is still with us living downstairs. Lewei had a good time back at home in China and came back with a bit of weight on from his Mums good home cooking (I really can not compete...). He has been very good since being back and not even touched beer, before he used to enjoy one each evening. He too is planning on moving on at the end of April so our home will be quiet for a while until a new adventure begins with new flatmates/boarders. We have so enjoyed living with this current household.
Pic = Mike, Prashant, me, Kent, Lewei, Braden, Sarah, last year.
Now to us - Kent, with the help of my nephew Isaac, sold his old shovel (1979 Harley Davidson 1000 Sport) and bought a 2005 HD Dynaglide Super 1450. All black, what else?, and quite a different ride, he is loving it. He rides it to work any fine day and often comes home the long way around the lake. We bought it just in time to go on a club ride a couple of weeks ago and it was great to be back on the road. If we get a summer next year I may have to look at one for me again, it's nice to be on the back but it's good to ride too. I will miss the old shovel as it had such character and was so loud and really cool but Kent is enjoying having something he doesn't have to constantly fix. It has gone to a guy who has already pulled it down and is doing it all up from scratch so it will have a new life which is great. Kent is loving his new job and his boss is buying him new toys which guarantees happiness, software and hardware to play with and yesterday the latest Galaxy SII touchscreen phone, due is a grunty laptop. Yes this boss knows the way to my man's heart lol.
I am very well, I decided against having radiation treatment for several reasons despite a small scare earlier this year and time will tell as to whether or not I have made the right decision. I feel it is the right one. My hair has started to grow and surprisingly looks quite cool short. It is dark with grey ends and I have been told by a few women that it's look that women go to the hairdressers to achieve, I wouldn't advise taking the route I took to achieve the look but am happy with just having hair again. Work is good, our new owners have bought into a Ray White franchise and so everything in the office has changed, difficult at first with operating two systems at once but now much simpler although there are still rough bits that need smoothing out as with any new venture.
I am sitting here in our dining room looking out over Rotorua. It's cloudy tho we woke initially to a clear blue sky. The lake is calm and blue, I can see steam rising from Whakarewarewa (thermal valley). It's peaceful with hardly any wind. Just to mar the picture I just heard the chortle of the dreaded Magpies - where's my gun!...
