Wellington fun

I know that I've been absolutely naughty in not writing in two weeks. The truth is the weeks weren't exciting enough to warrant a whole blog. Truth be told, Gordon and I are starting to get into a routine so everyday can be the same...sometimes.

The Air Force rocked the cricket tournament and Gordon was on top of the world for being on the winning team. I got an unexpected surprise half way through that week. Trust bad things to happen while Gordon is away on Cricket. I was going to go and get Dax's present for his birthday. My little Godson is going to be 2! I go out to the car and find it has a flat tire and proceed to try and change it. I guess I was feeling frustrated because I couldn't change it at first. I went back out at dusk and was able to get the spare on. Now I had to wait for Gordon to get home so we could go and get a new tire.

Other than having to spend $120 bucks on a new tire, the week was pretty quiet. I went to a Women's Fellowship, spare and all, on Thursday to see what it was all about. It looks like I'll get to talk about what life is like in New Mexico. The ladies were very nice and accommodating and took a bit of interest in someone young coming to their fellowship. It felt nice to get out of the house for a little bit because I couldn't go anywhere far due to the flat tire. Gordon was able to get home without any scratches but it turns out that he forgot his charger in his room at Blenheim. Now, we have to look at getting a new charger for him at a cell store. It was the week for mishaps for the both of us.

We haven't been able to take anymore trips to the beach because the weather has been absolutely awful during the weekends. All the sunshine seemed to come on the weekdays for us rather than Saturday and Sunday. Right now, the weather has been very temperamental. The past couple of days has been full of wind and rain so the sunshine has gone away for awhile. Apparently, we are at the precipice for fall. We've had a pretty mild summer but I've been inside for most of it. Oh, we just had a heat pump/air conditioner installed in our married quarter. I haven't been using it too much because I'm afraid it will use too much energy. I think the only time that I'll really use it is when it gets really cold in the house during winter and I have to go around the house bundled up. Someone did tell me though that it was cheaper to just keep it running at one temperature then turning it on and off. We'll see what the energy bill says this month. The fireplace will stay unblocked, probably due to Transfield not wanting to take the time to do it, which I don't have a problem with. It also means that we can use the rest of our firewood during the cold evenings, when they come.

The most exciting thing that happened to me was that I got to go on a day trip to Wellington on a Wednesday! It was so thrilling and I wish that I could stayed there for a couple of days. I had given my friend, Kay, a ring about joining her small group study for church and we got to taking. It turns out that there was a Monet exhibit going at Te Papa, the museum in Wellington, and she was going to see it on Wednesday because her husband has some meetings to attend to in Wellington that day. I mentioned that I absolutely adored Monet, he is one of my favorite artists and I love Impressionism, and she suggested that I come with her. Gordon was going to golf that day and wouldn't be home at the normal time so I decided to join her.

Wellington is about 2 hours away from where we live. I've been begging Gordon to take me to see Wellington. It reminded me of San Francisco with its hilly roads and we had to drive through a "gorge" to get to the city. It was definitely smaller than San Fran though, I would say half the size of Albuquerque with two-thirds of the population of Albuquerque. We got to go to the water-front because that was where Te Papa was and I saw the "cake tin". That's Wellington's sports complex where they play footy (rugby), cricket and soccer. It actually looks like a huge round cake tin. We decided to make a day of Te Papa and give the whole museum a look through

The Monet exhibit was absolutely fantastic though! Its on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, I guess they are doing a world tour of Monet's paintings. I could have spent all day there just looking at all of his magnificent paintings. They also had some sketches, sculptures and painting from other artists. I instantly recognized a sketch by Degas and some painting by Renoir. I never thought I would be able to distinguish one artist from another but I could definitely see the difference between the various artists. I also finally realized what "Impressionism" meant. The painting has more to do with perception and impression that the artist gets from the settings rather than trying to creat a still life. You could see that he created a new niche of painting from the dark, nature and realistic painting that his mentor and predecessors had done before him. My favorite painting was "Cap Martin, Near Menton", it somehow captivated me along with a beautiful painting of a garden that he captured. I think because it used so many colors, dark greens for the trees, light blues for the clouds and hillside, red and orange for the dirt road, a beautiful blue for the water. His waterlily painting are always beautiful to look at but it was so much better to see all of his other paintings, besides the haystacks. I felt so alive looking at them and just enjoying that I was out and about.

It was a wonderful day and Kay and Dudley took me on a Tiki tour around Wellington afterwards. We went down Courtenay Place and Lambton Quay and then past the "Beehive" which is part of the parliament buildings. I saw that there was a Terracotta warriors exhibit at the St. James theatre, maybe I'll go and see that next week on my day into Wellington that I'm planning. It was really nice to go somewhere with a good friend and enjoy the company. I confess that I don't get to do a lot of that because I'm at home most of the day.

Jobs, lets see, they aren't exactly banging on my door to hire me. I heard from a member of church that they were hiring at his food plant in Marton. I immediately filled out an application with my resume and cover letter. Things may be in the works and it gives me hope. I heard from him a week after and he said that it looked good. I just hope that it comes through. The job that I applied for was quality assurance with their food products that they make but I may just be stuck with a factory job. Its better than nothing and I won't gripe if it means we get some extra income. I just don't know how much more rejection I can take it. My lack of a job isn't affecting our marriage but it is affecting my confidence. Speaking of jobs, I got my W-2 from my previous job. Luckily, I lived in NM for most of 2008 so I get to file my taxes like a normal person. Now all I have to do is mail it and hope they get there without a scratch on them. The hard part comes next year when I have to file my federal taxes, if I get a job, and being abroad. Marrying international sure does have its downers. My Dad still wants to claim me as a dependent which I told him he couldn't because I'm way past the age limit which must be met in order to claim me and I did have a job last year before I got married. I also get more of a refund which we need in order to pay off the bills.

I did get a care package the other week from my family so that felt really nice. My Dad was kind enough to send me some acrylic paints which I've put to good use painting letters and things. I'll take some pictures of them and see what y'all think. I think they came out pretty well. I also got my swiffer sweeper for easy dusting and Crytal light packets for my water. If its gonna help me get this weight off then I'm all for it. Mom also sent me more wafer ginger snaps, yummy! It was nice to get something from home. Hopefully Ainsley and Sierra will draw me some more pictures that I can put on the fridge soon.

I also started the paperwork to change my name. I just sent out my SS form back to New Mexico. It wasn't until after I had sent it that I learned you could actually send it to the US Embassy here and they would change it for you. Now I feel stupid and scared that someone is going to open my mail and take my drivers licensce and birth certificate because I wasn't able to track it. They wanted me to pay $59 dollars to track it internationally and we just didn't have the money. It should be a bit easier with my passport though. I have to send it to the US embassy, along with $150 dollars, and it will take a week to change it. Then I have to go back to immigration and pay $80 dollars to have my visas from my old passport transferred to my new one. Being abroad sure does stink at times.

My garden has started to die now. We weren't able to use the broccolis in time so they started to flower. We did have a massive amount of carrots though and potatoes. I've now mashed, cut and shredded all of the carrots and they are sitting in the freezer ready to be used during the winter. We used most of the potatoes in a potato bake the other night. My gladiolas have bloomed so the side of the house has orange and purple blooms along with old discarded blooms. The poppies have decided to bloom as well. I've been thinking about finally transplanting the alstromeria and roses to the side garden but it seems to be doing fine for now. I've potted my carnations and rubdeckias to have them bloom and put a fiesta mix in another pot. That way I can get some late summer color hopefully. The few remaining zucchinis that we have on the vine are huge! I'd say at least 1-2 feet in length and the width is pretty huge. I'll have to have Gordon pick one and take a picture with it. The pumpkins and watermelons are coming into their own and getting ready to produce in fall. Gordon's taken the seeds from the bean plants and put them in a container to use for next year. We have a cauliflower that needs to be picked and used tonight for our fast and easy Alfredo dinner using Campbells soup.

Gordon has been on night shift the last week so I didn't have to do much cooking at all. He's back on night shift next week as well. That should save us some money on groceries next week and I'll be able to buy some meat for the next week to freeze and keep. Meat is still dear over here as well as seafood. New Zealand likes to export a lot of its meat and seafood because they get more profit for it which makes it more expensive for those of us who live here. You would think it would be cheaper but its not. We're doing okay though. Surviving from week to week, living on a prayer basically. The tax refund should come in handy though. I've learned to make lots of things from scratch though. I made a cheese sauce one night for our veggies. I made brownies from scratch! I then proceeded to eat too many of them and they were gone by the end of the weekend but they were delicioso! I also can make Mac'n'cheese from scratch as well as cheddar and pumpkin scones. I haven't tried to make any cakes from scratch, I'm still a box girl when it comes to cakes because I can never get them right. This week I'll be making Gordon some peanut butter and chocolate cookies. That's an awesome combination, yummy! Gordon says that I'll make a great mom someday with my baking. I was afraid the brownies wouldn't come out right but I guess I proved myself wrong.

Okay, I think thats all the major things that have been happening in my life so far. I have been doing some reading from the library. I joked with Gordon the other day that I should have been an editor of books or something since I read so much. I wouldn't know the first thing about plot and character development though so I probably wouldn't be good. I'm trying to stay positive though, as hard as it is at times, but there are days when I just can't be happy. Everyone has those kinds of days and Gordon understands. What a lucky girl I was to find him! Despite all of the little roadblocks that come along I think that we're going to be married for a very long time. We were made for each other and it feels so nice to be with him. Hope everything is going well in the States! I'll make an effort to post weekly again.

Oh, I forgot. I learned that Gordon got picked for the Interbase golf team. So he's leaving me for a week to go and play golf in Auckland. I'm proud that he got picked but not pleased that he gets to go and play golf for a week while I'm stuck here. That's why I'm planning a day into Wellington for when he is gone. If he gets to have fun for the whole week then I get to have fun for at least one day.