We're in a Magazine

Back in November when we celebrated our one year anniversary of moving to NZ I posted an update to a forum I used to frequent.  Before the move I read lots of blogs and forum posts and I loved reading peoples experiences, good and bad.  I think that really helped us get a balanced idea of what life might be like for us when we moved.  I thought it might help others thinking about making the move to post about my own experiences.  Here is my post on the British Expats forum.

After that I was contacted and asked if I could be interviewed for an emigration magazine.  I agreed and submitted my answers to the questions along with a few pictures.  It proved too much of a challenge to find pictures of the two of us together as usually one of us is taking the picture so we ran about taking pictures of us in the garden!

I didn't hear any more from the interviewer and had forgotten about it when I got a facebook message from my friend Claire who had been to an Emigrate expo and picked up a copy of the magazine to find me and Kane in it!

Claire kindly scanned a copy for me and you can view the article here > Emigrate article

In the article I mention my Sci-Fi peeps so I wonder if we will be seeing any new expats soon (assuming anyone has read the article!)

It's neither myself nor Kane's first time in print but it still felt kinda weird and a bit silly.

Home Auction

During the Auckland Anniversary weekend we had visited a few open homes and saw one that we had we liked.  Over the following Waitangi weekend (yes! two long weekends in a row – it doesn’t happen often) we decided that we liked it enough to try to buy it.
Kane worked hard in those 4 days to get mortgage approval, valuations, builders reports and insurance all sorted out before the auction day that Saturday.  We knew what the house was worth and how much we willing to pay for it and we nervously headed out.
There was a lot of people there, some were the sellers family and some were neighbours curious what the house would sell for and I think some others were just there to see what happens.  There were about 5 bidding parties in the end.

The auction took place on the driveway of the property and we noted that it was just like those old episodes of Neighbours.  Kane bravely and confidently started the bidding off and another couple similar to us bid against us.  We reached the value of the house and the other couple paused to look at each other, I thought we were in with a chance but they bid again.  We bid again.  The couple shook their heads and for a second the house was almost ours, but then came a bid from the back and we had reached our max and had to bow out gracefully.  A new bidder put their hand up then another new bidder put their hand up and the bidding wars continued with fresh players.  In the end the house sold for $47,000 more than the valuation which surprised everyone involved in the sale and I’m sure the sellers were delighted.

We immediately went to the pub for a stiff drink after all that excitement, and disappointment.

It was quite the experience though.  I’m not sure my heart could cope with too many auctions because it’s such an adrenaline rush!  Poor Kane had worked so hard to get everything together and it was quite disappointing to not have anything to show for his efforts but at least most of the ground work has been done now and we know what to expect if we attend another auction – I just hope next time we win!

What I ate yesterday

To answer the question "what do you eat?" :-

Breakfast: grapes, nectarine, plum

Elevenses: fruit smoothie made from mixed berries, banana, soya milk and water

Lunch: macaroni, capsicum and sweetcorn tossed in vinaigrette served with salad leaves and home made coleslaw (cabbage, carrot, Plamil vegan mayo and black pepper)

Afternoon tea: tea and home made carrot cake (from the student’s vegetarian cookbook I’ve lived by since 1995)

Pre-dinner cocktail: Cointreau blush

Dinner: Frys schnitzel with steamed kumara and broccoli

Dessert: So Good soya ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate sauce

Snacks: Bluebird ready salted chips