Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold! Its always flashing in my mind because that's how I feel 90% of the time. Our gas bill was 100 dollars extra so I've reverted back to the old days of just getting by with a blanket wrapped around me. I've also lowered the heat pump temperature to make it work less and save us money. The cold is a factor towards this late blog entry and due to the fact that I'm just plain lazy right now. I really have to be motivated to do a blog entry because I don't want to blab on about mundane things. I did start yesterday trying to update my blog but my fingers weren't cooperating because they were too cold. It was like working outside on a freezing day and not having any gloves to protect you, that's how my fingers felt sore and stiff. I've never been a sissy about the cold until this winter in New Zealand. Its a damp cold, water seems to seep into the walls and makes the whole place cold. I wake up to condensation on the windows every morning. The answer is quite simple, there is no insulation in Air Force housing and, according to locals, this is one of the coldest winters that the Marton area has ever had. Lucky me. Even Mojo is cold, he stays curled into a perpetual ball all day trying to sleep the cold away. He likes to sleep on our bed now, thanks to the electric blanket, he won't move until all the heat has dissapated from that bed. I guess the next thing I need to invest in is a low-energy cost heater for the living room to save us some money.
Besides the frigid weather, life has been normal. Gordon and I are seriously talking about houses now. It wouldn't be bad for us because the chances of him moving somewhere else is extremely unlikely. The only move he'll be looking at is maybe going to the accessory bays one of these days. We've decided to look at Marton because that is where we have started to go to church and there are Air Force people in the area. The New Zealand Air Force is nothing like the US Air Force, a lot of Air Force families have homes in the towns around base. The houses are reasonably priced and we're looking for a home that we can live in until the kids are out of the house.
We did find a great house that was owned by a fellow parishioner at our church. We were very interested in buying it but we did the math and we wouldn't be able to start the process until November. As luck would have it, the house was sold this week. Gordon loved the house and he could really see us having a family there and everything. I felt bad for him so I've arranged to go look at some other houses for sale in the area. I don't want to get my hopes up because I don't know how long these houses will be on the market either. The real estate game can be quite tricky but predictions are that things are going to get worse before they get better so we may be in for a good surprise.
Since the baby aspect of our family hasn't happened yet, I've decided to focus on getting a house to make into a home. I don't know what the plan is for me but I feel like looking into a home is a step in the right direction for now. Plus, lets face it, it will look good on my residency and work applications if we listed that we met with a mortgage broker and were looking into houses. It will be months until we are able to purchase anything. I'm still thinking with a level head though, not being my usual self. I've had fun thinking of ways to make my house into a home. Such as painting, easy kitchen fixes and, the most important, storage! We are going to be staying at Ohakea for awhile so it seems like the right move. Gordon found out that he was on the wrong level for payment with the Air Force so we get an extra 48 dollars a fortnight and he is owed back pay as well! It seems like things are falling into place. They could be falling into place for a baby but I don't know. We also found out that, due to the recession, there will be no unnecessary promotions for the next year so Gordon will be a Corporal for awhile still. I think he likes it though because being a Sergeant means more paperwork and less time with the helicopters.
When Gordon came back from his exercise in Dip Flat he got a couple of afternoons off so we got to spend a little bit more time together than usual. It was due to the Air Force budget for the month of June. It was totally blown and there were to be no unscheduled flights so Gordon and the rest of the 3 squadron didn't have much to do. They encouraged people to take some time off using toil hours, aka overtime hours, so Gordon decided to spend some afternoons with me. We went for a date at The Grapevine cafe since we saw that it was finally open when we were hungry! I had corn fritters and Gordon had a bowl of wedges, chunky potato wedges.
The biggest thing that happened over the weekend was the St. Andrews Mid-Winter, Christmas dinner. Since the camp was canceled it was decided to have a mid-Winter dinner in place of it. I signed up to bring two cheesecakes. I was so nervous about whether they would like my cheesecakes or not because I was using some of my canned pumpkin to make pumpkin cheesecake. What's a dinner of thanks and celebration without some pumpkin put into the mix? It turns out that my cheesecakes were a favorite of the dessert table! It made me feel really good to know that I had made something delicious for everyone to enjoy. Most of the time when I take baking goods to functions, no one seems to eat it and I have a tons of leftovers. It plays tricks on my mind when that happens. Gordon says my cooking is great but he is my husband and human garbage disposal. Still, if Gordon won't eat it then no one will.
The past couple of weeks have been very mundane so I'm thinking of researching into areas around the Zealand to talk about. What's a New Zealand/American blog without talking about the places I've been? I know that I've been to a good chunk of the North Island so I guess that I'll start there this week in my next blog entry. If there is anything interesting happening in our lives then I will let you know as well. Have a good week and I'm trying my best to update weekly but it looks like I'm slowing down to one entry every two weeks. Have a great week you people in the Northern Hemisphere. Enjoy the sun because I wish we had some more of it right now over here!
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