Wolfie just wants it to be known that it is not only Simba that goes out there!

This was our trip out to Blueskin Bay yesterday, and Wolfie and Simba did lots of stick chasing.

And then there was hail stones!

Well well well, after a lovely sunny day we get hail stones the size of marbles, so I ask you where they come from and who ordered them!?!

The one thing i am struggling to understand is the weather here. If you think ole blighty is bad, then 'hello' wake up here!

No word of a lie one day i woke up to a beautiful summers day and 24 degrees, cool, pukka stuff i thought, so dressed to impress for a days retail therapy off i trot! big mistake, huge!!

2 hours later it was 8 degrees, biting wind and sleet. 'Hello here! where did that come from? I ask!' And so I have learnt now to take a suitcase shopping so I can change attire accordingly. (believe me this is not a joke) My car has clothes for all weathers kept in it!

Even the dogs are struggling, 'should we shed our coats or should we keep them?' I hear them discussing it every morning!

Anyway a few piccies of hte hail stones, if you look at our path you can just about see the monsters!

And a few more antics at Otakou

Sundays Escapades at Otakou

Todays escapades out at Otakou

As you can see the boys are having fun.

Simbas Creek

Simba viewing his very own creek, but has issues that it isnt big enough to wallow in. However we would prefer that it stays small and trickling as a torrent could be an issue.



Simba being the master of all he surveys!

And in case you thought that was all!

And theres more!!!

The garden stretches as far as the eye can see in these pictures, look over the fence and yep thats ours as well. A couple of sheep are called for to mow that lot i can tell you! As i dont think Paul is too keen on attacking that lot too!

More Piccies of the garden this time

View from the back of the house in the garden


Having a short Gin and Tonic break


Simba!


And Yes he does do the chores after all!! 4 hours to cut the garden!!

Books oh how i hate books!!!!!!!!

Ok I promised an explanation for my dislike at the present time of books and all things related to books!

Paul loves books, in fact he has enough to fill the British Library..

So let's set the scene first

The house we were renting was up an very steep and dodgy set of steps

Paul had to go to a work appointment on Wednesday leaving me to pack up his books in the office

Listen carefully - now this bit is critical to the story!

This is about 1 third of his collection that i know about!!!!! (again this is a key statement!!)

Part 1 of the story

Anyway 2 hours and 12 boxes later one bookcase is empty. I stand back and look at my achievements, even pick up the odd book and have a look. At this time my mood is mellow......

I go make myself a cup of tea

I go have a shower..

I read the paper for 10 mins while drinking my tea...

So all fresh and clean and full of good spirits I start the process of relocating the boxes to the halfway point of the basement (this is only 14 stairs out of the whole 35 or so)

Part 2 of the story

And from there on the mood starts to blacken in conjunction with the pain in my back and butt cheeks from hoiking these poxy bleeding books!

Paul rings and asks with the usual optimism 'Hi love, how are things?'


(Not the best question to ask a pyschotic english female (wingeing POM for any antipodeans reading) at that point)

I cannot publish my reply! Needless to say i was not a little ray of sunshine at this point. And where books were likely to be strategically placed is up to your own imagination, but i am sure you get the picture.

I happened to mention to Paul on his arrival back that he is lucky i was not outside ceremoniously burning these poxy books as it was so tempting..

Part 3 of the story

We get over this event by the following:

An understanding of the situation (Paul, in that he has a lot of books)

A lot of cursing swearing and stamping of feet (me - to get point across)

The promise of fish and chips (both).

And so we seperate amicably with me coming home to rescue the dogs (don't tell the RSPCA but home alone for 9 hours!!)

I have to say the mood improved dramatically with a spot of tidying up, putting stuff away collected from old house, a glass of wine and the sport of fire fighter watching for half an hour.

And very important too, by Paul packing up other remaining books etc in the basement, dropping stuff off at the charity shop and coming back with the fish and chips

Part 4 of the story

Yesterday we are still on the issue of books!

As we will need bookcases, upon bookcases upon bookcases, and we might not have a spare room after all.

In my defence i have all along said that one wall of the spare room could be bookcases, but they had to be 'in keeping' with the decor of the rest of the house especially as it would be a) our office and b) the guest bedroom too, so needs to be tidy etc. Fair i feel!

So we tramped around furniture shops looking for bookcases and none were big enough to accomodate the quantity of books, however we found some MDF monstrosities that potentially could be made to look half decent, so bearing those in mind.

However, and this is ground breaking news - Over a Chai Latte in Mega Mitre 10 (like Homebase) we also reached a point in our negotiations about the bookcases, on how many and once they were full it was one book in and one book goes out! oh and it was his zone and i wasnt allow near them, ('suits me fine' i said!) we actually shook hands on this one!


Part 5 of the story

We were still discussing books and bookcases when we woke up this morning!

Last night i dreamt that i came home one evening and books had taken over the house literally !!!! It is a realistic fear!!!

Dogs on the Prowl

As you can see the dogs have decided travelling in the Ute is a great idea, gives them much better vision and status. However Wolfie finds his old bones struggling with the stick shift!!

Simba has issues however with not having the blacked out windows of the Terrano as they are much better for terrifying the hell out of innocent pedestrians, who can't see him. (It is a new sport and catching on fast with the boys, Wolfie started it and Simba has perfected it!!) 'See how high they can jump'!! they have notched up a fair few now. A bunch of college female students outside the supermarket was the best, needless to say one girly dropped her shopping!! LOL

So as you can see they are having a whale of a time, and especially also like the high terraces of the garden where they can sit watching the boats coming and going and other activities over the water. I shall take some photos of them today to post later. Simba mentioned that he would write a piece for the blog himself, except he is sleeping at the moment so he will try later if he can be bothered!

More Piccies

So first as promised are the finished photos of the living room and the bedroom. I am quite proud of my achievements so far!! Just the spare room, kitchen and sun room to go and i am building up to those mentally! and struggling to find the will power, and yes i still hate glossing!!

This is the living room






The Bedroom






And the view from the bed - not bad hey!!



Ok and onto the UK Womens National Sport

The Sport of Fire fighter watching!!

And guess what - They train right opposite our house every Wednesday night!!

So there i was watching the view with a glass of wine on my little perch last night, as it is always interesting to watch

This was my perch, sorry though no fire fighters tonight, but i will take a piccy next week!



Ok thats it folkes for now!

Sarah xxxx