Everything you ever wanted to know about ride on mowers…….

So with 150 of 283 boxes unpacked we are pretty pooped but the house is sort of coming together. Both girls' rooms are decorated but due to vital bits of desks and beds still being in transit neither is completely finished. I've been out early on Saturday mornings at Garage sales around Cambridge picking up garden tools, a BBQ, jerry cans and odd bits and pieces for the house. It is quite a competitive sport over here with people arriving before 7am to make sure they bag the bargains. One guy (a Kiwi with a Black County accent) was telling some of his fellow garage sale regulars how he brought 15 Catherine Cookson novels for only $1 each rather the £5.99 on the cover. Now I'm not much of a reader but $1 each would strike me as being about 95 cents more than I'd pay for them.

Chris did one better by touring around the better residential areas on the annual 'bulky items rubbish collection day' and coming home with a wooden wheeled frame that fits the BBQ I bought perfectly.

We've been desk shopping for Lana (in a real shop this time) who has seen a really smart L shaped black desk with built in shelves – the only problem is that the shelves are on the wrong bit of the L. I could free stand them on the other bit but apparently they do need to be screwed down just in case she's working there and we get an earthquake…….

Kirsty's still on crutches but seems loads better and Lana is off on her Year 10 camp – there are 40+ of them camping on the Coromandel Peninsula and doing loads of outdoorsy type stuff. No doubt we'll know more when she returns.

Now – lawn mowers – well Husquavana 22 HP 46 inch side dishcharge / mulching ride on lawn tractors actually! I've had a second 'go' today at cutting the plot and managed to get it down from 90 minutes to 80.

Most importantly I've set the first timed lap for the 'Top Gear' style 'star on a reasonably priced lawn tractor challenge'. There is a big chunk of lawn out the front with a few large-ish trees but apart from that you are pretty much mowing easy grass. A couple of clockwise trips around the perimeter to keep the grass cuttings on the grass (it throws them out on the right) and then up and back I went. To make sure it was an 'offcial' time I started and ended on the drive way in a Le Mans style start up…… The figures were 21 mins 24.7 seconds with a 'lap' distance of 2.19km at an average speed of 5.8kilometers per hour and thanks to my trusty GPS I even got a record of the route I took (sad I know!). So every guest we have will have their turn on the tractor and be placed onto the leader board…

The tractor also came with a trailer – well it actually came with a huge Meccano set and I spent an evening putting it together .... Kirsty enjoyed her ride in it...

Now just in case there is any confusion about who can use the tractor it came with very explicit instructions on the key fob…..

NO Children to be nearby and more importantly…..

All mummys and children are only allowed to watch from inside as daddy drives by and waves…… having said that….

...it didn't stop Lana having a go…….

Meanwhile in the NZ Herald this week was a classic photo taken in Cambridge of a lawn-tractor being used in a more unorthodox manner – to trim the top of a hedge……..

The BBC also carried a report on ride-on mowers - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8362373.stm What a week its been for grass cutting!

Almost as exciting as the ride-on mower was the fact that we FINALLY got a broadband line on Friday so we are really in the 21^st century now.

I promise that the'll be no more mention of lawn mowers for a few weeks.

It's not exactly summer here but warm enough to cycle and from work in a T-shirt now, the record is covering the 16.4km in 36 minutes - a lot faster now I've got my own bike. Having said that it's now had a new chain and most of the gears replaced!

I'll get Chris to write the next installment...

Richard

Our container arriving

Last Tuesday was C-Day – Container Day and we were delighted to be see the container that we had waved off from Kineton in August arrive on our driveway in Cambridge 11,000 miles away. The three guys spent several hours unloading the container and started unpacking the 280 boxes it contained. We had a master plan for the removal gang, every box had a number and the guys was given a room to take each box to – and we used the lounge as a ‘store’ to keep less urgent boxes so we didn’t overfill the other rooms – as Chris said to the impressed lorry driver ‘you don’t have to live with it!’

It was a relief to see that almost everything arrived intact and nothing missing. Over the next few days Chris opened, unpacked, sorted so many boxes, Kirsty unwrapped her china horses and I unpacked the bikes and garden stuff. It was a real pleasure cycling my trusty Trek bike into work – even if the chain did snap on the first 10 mile trip to the office.

Still no broadband :-(

Our first week in our new house....

The neighbours from heaven!

We moved out of our cosy furnished rented house last weekend and into our own house at last. But, of course, with only the suitcases we left England with. Dear Nola came by with a crate of camping stuff – sleeping bags, saucepans, cutlery, deckchairs… Enough to see us through until our container of belongings finally arrives. I understand it is still somewhere around Sydney, caught up in the Christmas rush!

Within about half an hour, our new neighbours, Peter and Delwyn, hopped over the fence to introduce themselves, and shortly after realising our predicament, started ferrying over beds, mattresses, armchairs, kitchen utensils, even a TV!

They’ve 4 children from 18 down to 5. The 18 year old is heavily into BMX-ing and has built himself a course of jumps in the garden. These are serious jumps, and to see him and his mates flying through the air is an awesome sight! Apparently there are often up to 30 of his mates here at the weekend. Great – just what we need with teenage girls!!

We are missing our chickens and Gimmick the cat, but seem to have a few rabbits living in the garden and also have had several visits this weekend from a flock of ducks – about 16 we think – they won’t stay still enough to count!

It’s definitely spring here – the radio adverts are full of the best insemination offers for your cows and sheep – lovely! And when they’re not advertising this it’s the latest in heated clothes airers for your wife’s Christmas present. If I get one there’ll be trouble!

Bonfire night in the spring takes some getting used to. It doesn’t help that it doesn’t get dark till well after 8pm, and it doesn’t feel at all right not to be huddled over a slightly soggy jacket potato, juggling a plastic cup of mulled wine, shivering gently! Kirsty has been asked at school and, more worryingly, Richard at work, whether we have bonfire night in England!! I guess this goes along with the oft-heard phrase, “world famous in New Zealand” !!

It’s been a busy and eventful weekend. We have finished decorating the girls’ bedrooms and ours, in Lana’s second choice of wallpaper – she loved it so much and couldn’t bear never to see it again so persuaded us to have it in our room! Lana rode her borrowed pony in a little gymkhana at school – everything from gate opening to clear round jumping to potato and spoon race. She aquitted herself very well and came away with a handful of second, third and fourth places. Richard has continued to look at ride on lawnmowers – to mulch or not to mulch; to collect or not to collect, these are the decisions he must make! He has arranged for a test mow later in the week.


I’m still on the search for a choir, meanwhile, I managed to get myself invited to support a small group in Hamilton. I went along to just a couple of rehearsals and the concert was on Saturday afternoon. Not one I’ll be staying with I think. But it is nice to be singing again.

They don’t do Remembrance Sunday here in a big way – the main remembrance event is ANZAC day in April. However Cambridge has a close link with a French town that the Kiwis liberated in early November 1918 and there is a regular exchange of mayors and students between the two places. Richard went to the civic service which was very well supported – six national anthems, ambassadors (no Ferrero Rocher), pipers, brass bands, wreath laying and soldiers firing salutes. Also there is a huge (for NZ) re-enactment culture with everything from Romans to two Vietnam camps (one US one Kiwi) and a rather worryingly large number of SS troopers driving around and letting off machine guns in mock-battles…… Highlight was a flying display by a Tiger Moth biplane – we missed the tank car crushing. It all happens here in Cambridge.

As I write, the tranquillity of my evening is being disturbed by the thunk, click of Kirsty going down the corridor on her crutches. She managed to get herself kicked by the horse, and although nothing is broken, her foot is very swollen, so it has been plastered to keep it still and she needs to keep her weight off it for a week or so. Oh the lengths some people will go to not to do PE!!

Our new address is
308a Hautapu Road
RD1
Cambridge
3493

We’re still waiting for a landline and, more importantly an internet connection. Richard is sometimes able to bring a laptop home from work, which somehow works here ( I don’t get all the techie stuff), but it’s frustrating to once again be out of comms with the outside world.

More in a few days.

Our new house!!!!!

Well there it is - I'd like to say we've moved in but as our container is still on the high seas we've moved in our suitcases and some camping beds for our new neighbours and friends.

I also need to take the PC to bits and move it down to the new home, but I'm not sure how long it wil take to get the broadband up and running. This may be the last blog for a couple of days - or couple of hours - we'll see.

Richard