Post No 112 - Look what we made....

....tattie scones! And they are lovely - just like the one's you buy in Asda!

Next weekends new recipe: Lorne (Square) Sausage
We will be a Scottish food catering business before you know it!

Anyone got a recipe for Haggis?

Post No 111 - My, what long legs you have

I will try harder not to make this too much of a dog blog! But at the moment, he's the only thing we seem to be taking photo's of! Plus he is just too cute. Every day he has us in hysterics, he gets up to so much mischief and it's hard to remember what it was like with him not around (although I fondly remember NOT being woken up at 5.30am to let him out!)

We had our second dog obedience class on Tuesday - this was the first one we actually took the dog to! He did well, didn't get too fussed about the other dogs and seems to be picking things up fast. The only problem we have is getting him in the car - he is terrified! But he seemed alot better in the car coming home from the class and we now have some tips to help him realise the car is a good place!

So what else is new?
Graeme is playing soccer today so look out for the match report on his site later. The weather here has been extremely wet and the grounds he trains on were closed this Thursday and last. The game last Saturday was called off also due to the pitches being flooded.

This worked out quite well actually because he came with me on a wine trail with the social club from where I work. It was a good day, we bought a few bottles of wine (one a Boysenberry wine which I am looking forward to sharing with Mum as Graeme hates it!) and the weather was good to us. I was chief photographer with the work camera and managed to get some good shots of the floor and fields (there was supposed to be NZ birds there but the bus was going too fast!)

I've taken up scrapbooking and went to a class with some friends last night. It was an introduction where the teacher talked through the lingo and how to lay things out as well as showing us how to use the cutting tools. Then we got to go mad and make our own pages! This is all part of the masterplan for "Our First Year in NZ" scrapbook. We all thoroughly enjoyed it and will be going back in about a month to learn some more techniques. Then we might try and meet up once a month and share equipment and ideas to get lots of pages made!

Winter has definetly got milder. There were a few really cold days in June and even a few frosts but July hasn't been nearly as bad. The only problem has been the constant rain which has left the garden saturated and it keeps flooding. So we end up with a very muddy dog and very muddy floors!

Post No 110 - True Kiwi's Now?

To celebrate our first anniversary of being in New Zealand, we treated ourselves...not to mention all the people that are going to come and visit.

We bought what epitomises (and yes, I did look that one in the dictionary to check I had the right word!) the true New Zealander, the best thing to ever happen to burgers and steaks...yes, you're on the right track - we purchased a Bar-be-que!

And here it is....what a beast!


So hopefully we have whetted a few appetites out there and may get a few more bookings into Chateaux Stalham-McCrae! We even bought BBQ utensils and a gas bottle to go with it...of course, we both had a daft hour trying to work out why the BBQ wouldn't light when the gas bottle was connected up - d'oh! You buy them empty then have to get them filled at the petrol station.

Once we have out first cook-up on there, we will get some pictures for you!

Also, I didn't realise how many people were still visiting the blog...and now feel extremely bad for the lack of posts over the last 6 months - I will definetly try harder! Thanks for all the comments and emails our faithful readers....and you'll all get an extra burger when you come to stay!

Post 109 - One year on...

...on the 24th June 2005 we boarded a plan at London Heathrow headed for Auckland New Zealand via LA. We had no idea what was ahead of us, we were extremely excited and sad that we were leaving everyone behind.

And here we are, 1 year later...the time has flown by! I can't quite believe its been a full year since we left. We have managed to do so much this last year and we have seen some lovely sights here in New Zealand.




And we haven't even been to South Island yet!...thats the plan for the coming year and also to have lots of people come visit and stay with us and also to plan a wedding and trip back to the UK in July 2008! So book that month out in your diary everyone - it'll be a ball!

And here's a link to a cool blog - all about NZ mailboxes! Enjoy!

Post 108 - In Hibernation

So it's been a while and I really have no excuse. The weather here is cold and wet and I find myself sleeping a lot. And walking the dog in the rain. And watching re-runs of Friends to get some laughs.

I have been hugely neglectant on all fronts and would like to apologise. Homesickness has kicked in over the last couple of weeks, its almost a year to the day when we left the UK (24 June) and I have had a rotten flu bug and can't get rid of the cough that came with it.
So now you all feel sorry for me and hopefully forget I have been lax with phone calls, emails and being online to chat!

Seriously though, I miss you all very much and hope you are all taking good care of yourselves. I hear that summer finally arrived in the UK and hope you are all enjoying the long, warm days.

Its very strange with a reverse in seasons. Its Graeme's birthday on Tuesday (the 20th) and since he has been born his birthday has fallen on the day before the longest day of the year. Now we are in reverse and Wednesday is the shortest day. We are coming home in the dark and its dark when we get up. And its still hard to believe that there will never be snow at Christmas (while we stay here!). Methinks it will take a good few years until it all starts to make sense!

And here's a photo for you:

Post 107 - Rhett

Meet Rhett, our new dog. In fact, he is the best dog in the world!

Here he is:



He was part of a litter abandoned when they were only 6 weeks old. They went to an animal shelter in the district they were found (not Palmerston North) and most of the litter were re-homed. Unfortunately, Rhett and his brother Raffles were not homed and ended up with foster parents. The foster parents have given him some basic training - he sits when told, seems to understand 'no' when told and so far no 'accidents' in the house (although its early days yet!).
Rhett and his brother were brought to Palmerston North SPCA about a week ago as there are more people looking for dogs. We loved him and his brother and after a week of ooming and ahhing decided it was about time we got a dog! Raffles had been homed earlier this week but we were lucky Rhett was ready to come home with us! Apparently he has been around a 2 year old child and livestock without problems but had a scary encounter with a horse so is now afraid of them.

More photos later...if you're lucky!

Post 106 - No monkeys allowed

Turtles - it seemed appropriate!

I went down to Wellington this week for a work thing. It was a talk by the Immigration Service on how recruiters can use people from overseas and how they can get them here. It was fairly interesting and I feel I learnt a few things.

Being an 'imported pom' myself (which my boss decided to declare to the room of 40 or so people, cue Kate's rosy red cheeks!) I knew a fair bit about the visa process. I was fascinated by a booklet we got in our info packs - aimed at those wanting to immigrate to New Zealand, lots of useful facts and interesting statistics. And a booklet I hadn't yet seen. (Hard to believe with the moutain of literature I had on NZ prior to coming...it must be new!)

The one thing that has fascinated me the most is that if you immigrate to New Zealand you cannot bring your monkey with you. Or your turtles or birds come to that. What a tough decision that must be - the monkey or the new life in New Zealand....what would you choose?

It was an early morning...in my opinion - I got up in the middle of the night! We had to leave Palmy at 6.30am to ensure we got through the traffic to Wellington in time. The drive to Wellington (and back) is a gorgeous one though. For part of the journey you drive right alongside the sea. And we could see South Island as it was quite a clear day.

We stopped in Otaki on the way for a Hot Chocolate (lovely and comforting at 7.30am) and I got my lunch in a nice cafe place before we headed back so all-in-all not a bad day. I have no idea how people travel with work on a regular basis though. I was a zombie on Friday!

Luckily they have monkeys at Wellington Zoo so if you did have to give yours up, all is not lost

Post 105 - a couple of pictures for you

For those of you who have been eagerly awating more pics here are a couple for you:

This is the front of the house


And here is one of the back garden


We will get some more up on the Kodak galleries once the broadband connection is back on (hopefully tomorrow). For now we are using slow and expensive dial up so 2 will need to do!